Business as a Force for Good

John W. Davis and the Constitutional Order

(Garland Tucker speaks on a panel at the Calvin Coolidge conference in D.C. on January 9, 2026. | The Generals Redoubt)

On January 9, 2026, I was privileged to participate as a speaker at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation’s winter conference at the Library of Congress. Titled “Business to the Rescue,” the conference examined how — contrary to conventional wisdom — business and markets helped lead the nation to recovery during three pivotal periods of the twentieth century: the Progressive Era, the New Deal and World War II, and the Great Society of the 1960s.

Conference speakers included a distinguished mix of business leaders, policymakers, and historians, among them publisher Steve Forbes, Ambassador Robert Graber, Senator Todd Young, historians Arthur Herman and Amity Shlaes, and oil executive Harold Hamm. Throughout the conference, presenters explored the role of American business across the twentieth century, making a compelling case that business was not the problem, but rather a central part of the solution.

It was my assignment — and a genuine privilege — to present the story of John W. Davis and the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer Supreme Court case. Though largely unfamiliar to many Washington and Lee alumni, Davis, Class of 1892 and 1895L, remains the University’s most distinguished graduate: congressman, Solicitor General of the United States, Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, the Democratic Party’s 1924 presidential nominee, and senior partner of a leading Wall Street law firm. He argued 141 cases before the Supreme Court: more than any other American in modern history.

While preparing these remarks for TGR, I received an announcement from Washington and Lee’s Office of Lifelong Learning promoting an upcoming webinar series titled “Can Business Be a Force for Good?” I hope that series will answer the question with a resounding “yes,” and conclude, as the Coolidge conference did, that the generation of lawful profits in free markets is among the greatest sources of public good ever devised.

Click HERE to read Garland’s speech about John W. Davis.

https://www.thegeneralsredoubt.us/history-articles/john-w-davis-and-the-steel-seizure-case

Sincerely,

Garland S. Tucker, III, ‘69
Director
The Generals Redoubt