Pujo Committee

The Pujo Committee was a congressional subcommittee which was formed between May 1912 and January 1913 to investigate the so-called "money trust", a small group of Wall Street bankers that exerted powerful control over the nation's finances. After a resolution introduced by congressman Charles Lindbergh Sr. for a probe on Wall St. power, Arsène Pujo of Louisiana obtained congressional authorization to form a subcommittee of the House Committee on Banking and Currency. J. P. Morgan, George F. Baker, and other financiers testified.

After completing its investigation, lead by the Democrat lawyer Samuel Untermyer, who later also assisted in preparing the Federal Reserve Act, the committee issued a majority report that found that a cabal of financial leaders was abusing their public trust to consolidate control over many industries. Although Pujo left Congress in 1913, the findings of the committee inspired public support for ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913, passage of the Federal Reserve Act that same year, and passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914. They were also widely publicized in the Louis Brandeis book, "Others People's Money--and How the Bankers Use It".

House of Morgan partners blamed the April 1913 death of J. P. Morgan on the stress of testifying in the Pujo hearings, though other health factors were certainly involved.

References

*Chernow, Ron. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance, (2001) ISBN 0-8021-3829-2