Thomas Chadbourne Thomas Lincoln Chadbourne ( March 21 , 1871 - June 15 , 1938 ) was an American lawyer who played a key role in the establishment of multi - national corporations during the 1920s and undertook efforts to restore commodity prices , particularly in the sugar industry , following collapses in the Great Depression . Chadbourne was the founder of the law firm today known as Chadbourne & Parke . Established in New York City in 1902 as Chadbourne , Babbit & Wallace , the firm underwent a 1924 merger , to become Chadbourne , Stanchfield , & Levy , before taking on its current name . Chadbourne and Parke is consistently ranked among the top 100 law firms in the world . At the time of his death , Chadbourne served as board chairman of the International Mining Corporation and was a director of some 20 corporations . He had amassed a fortune , and was regarded by some contemporaries as a " radical capitalist " for his views on profit sharing and recognition of collective bargaining rights . Early life and career . Chadbourne was born March 21 , 1871 in Houghton , Michigan to Thomas Lincoln Chadbourne , Sr . , a lawyer and Harvard graduate , and Georgina Kay Chadbourne . He describes himself in his autobiography as having been a “ twelve pound baby ” . He is described as a rambunctious youth , having run away from home at age three before being expelled from a series of schools throughout his young life as a “ bad influence ” . “ By the time I was twelve , ” Chadbourne states , “ I had become a crack pool player – the infallible sign of worthlessness ” . At age six , Chadbourne witnessed the death of his sister Eliza , called “ Leila . ” She was a toddler aged three , and died after running through two panes of glass and sustaining severe cuts . He describes the event as a graphic and horrific experience . At age nineteen , Chadbourne was turned out of the house by his parents . His father left him at the train station bound for Chicago with $ 150 and the advice that he was “ not fitted for a profession or any other work in life that calls for mental effort " and should go into manual labor . Chadbourne took a series of night jobs including one as a police officer . before being hired by Judge Russell Wing at the law firm Wing and Carter . Despite never attending law school , Chadbourne ’ s training under Judge Wing left him well prepared for the state bar exam , which he passed with a ranking of two out of 35 . Chadbourne founded the law firm Eschweiler and Chadbourne with a cousin in Milwaukee before going on to found the prestigious Chadbourne , Babbit & Wallace , which survives today as Chadbourne and Parke . Family . Chadbourne married his first wife , Emily Crane Chadbourne November 1896 . The two separated in 1899 and formally divorced seven years later . Chadbourne married second wife , Grace Wassall Chadbourne in November 1906 . Chadbourne regarded Grace as the love of his life , and the two traveled extensively . Chadbourne adopted her son LeRoy . Grace suffered from cancer in 1918 and died in May 1919 . Chadbourne took a third wife , Marjorie Curtis Chadbourne on January 15 , 1921 . The couple had two daughters , Marjorie and Leila , named for Chadbourne ’ s deceased sister . Great Depression . Chadbourne represented some of the largest firms in the world in a period of globalization during the 1920s during which multi - national corporations began to be established in significant numbers . Following the 1929 crash , he summed up his own responsibility thus : “ The capitalistic system is on trial . If we think the people who are running the industries of this world can by reason of greed bring about such a depression as this and not take steps to mend it , no matter what sacrifice may be to individuals , we are mistaken . We can ’ t get away with it . ” Representing a consortium of sugar producers in an attempt to stabilize world sugar prices during the Great Depression , the Chadbourne Committee , meeting in Brussels under the leadership of Thomas Chadbourne , secured an agreement between several nations to reduce production and establish export quotas . ( Yale ) Signatories included Cuba , Java , Hungary , Poland , Czechoslovakia and an initially reluctant Germany . Production was to be curtailed by 15 % and held at that level over a five - year period . Chadbourne planned additional negotiations with countries that consumed but produced little to no sugar , in an attempt to stop them from entering the market . These included Great Britain , France , Yugoslavia , Argentina , and Japan . By the time this agreement was reached , in May 1931 , the worldwide sugar surplus had reached an estimated 3 . 5 million tons ( ibid . ) and prices had fallen from a pre - Depression level of 7 cents per pound to just one and one half cents per pound . Low prices of commodities , including sugar , depressed wages within the US , and perpetuated crises in Caribbean single - commodity producing nations . The situation is cited as a key factor inciting the revolution in Cuba that would ultimately result in the ouster of the Machado regime . To alleviate misgivings from impoverished consumers in his native United States , Chadbourne stressed that the maneuver would serve to restore prices paid by refineries to sugar producers , but would not affect retail prices . Some contemporaries took exception at this claim . Among these , some observers recognized a need to restore prices even at the expense of consumers , while others condemned the practice as protecting domestic business profits while exacerbating public hardship . Concerns were expressed that farm yields were failing to cover production costs , and farm foreclosures were pervasive during this period . Yet despite successfully limiting production among signatories , Chadbourne was unable to effect a return to pre - Depression prices because US producers increased cultivation and continued to flood the market . At the same time , India doubled its sugar exports from some 3 , 000 , 000 tons in 1930 to 6 , 000 , 000 tons in 1935 . Neither the United States nor the United Kingdom participated in the Chadbourne Committee discussions . Citing inadequate means to compel other farmers to adhere to quotas , US producers had already refused to accept production caps proposed by Chadbourne . Congress and the Roosevelt administration would respond to the ongoing crisis by adopting such compulsory measures , along with subsidies for farmers leaving land uncultivated , under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 and Jones - Costigan Amendment of 1934 . Chadbourne argued for the creation of a “ silver reserve system ” wherein all countries would agree to hold a reserve stock ( a bullion ) of silver , and to produce coinage using a consistent portion of silver . The plan was conceived in response to silver devaluation , which Chadbourne attributed to countries “ dumping ” large amounts of silver on the world market , by reducing the amount of silver they used in coins . Chadbourne estimated that half the world ’ s population held its wealth in silver . Those individuals saw their wealth steadily eroded with the growing worldwide silver surplus . The proposed system would work much in the same way as the Federal Reserve uses monetary policy . To stem inflation , Chadbourne asserted , nations could release stock of silver into the market from their reserves . The concept differs from Federal Reserve tools primarily in that a “ bullion ” is a stock measured in volume , rather than monetary value . Chadbourne hoped to change the trend whereby silver had become a commodity rather than a store of value . Politics . Responding to the crisis of the Great Depression , Chadbourne asserted that the capitalist system itself was " on trial " ( see above ) , and argued for the need for intervention by industrialists to curb the downturn . Chadbourne was an early champion of both collective bargaining rights and profit sharing for workers . Thomas Chadbourne was very active in the United States Democratic Party . Chadbourne was a major supporter of Alfred E . Smith , the Governor of New York . Chadbourne donated $ 30 , 000 to Smith ' s campaign officially , and allegedly provided over $ 400 , 000 of cash and stock options to Smith secretly . Chadbourne carried on a correspondence with president Woodrow Wilson over the course of 1917 to 1921 , much of which is reprinted in Chadbourne ’ s autobiography . Chadbourne sat on the War Trade Board , from which he resigned , despite urgings from the president to stay , in order to attend his ailing wife . Chadbourne is listed as a top contributor to the “ Graphic Founders Fund , ” which gave financial support to the monthly publication Survey Graphic , an offshoot of The Survey magazine . Survey Graphic published articles on fascism and anti - Semitism , and is perhaps best known for its role in the Harlem Renaissance . Globalization . An early adherent of modern globalization , Chadbourne criticized isolationists and emphasized the necessity of world trade in establishing and sustaining American affluence : “ Only the blind can fail to see that distance has been annihilated , geographical barriers smashed down , and that it is now an interlocked and absolutely interdependent world in which we live . [ T ] he prosperity of the United States is dependent upon world trade . Our production , farm and factory , has been developed to a point where it is from ten to twenty per cent in excess of domestic demand , and any failure to find foreign markets for this surplus means the dislocation of our whole industrial establishment . ” Trade Barriers . Chadbourne railed against the Hawley - Smoot Tariff : “ How have we gone about the business of protecting and promoting the world trade so vital to our prosperity ? We pass the highest tariff bill in history … and with what result ? Already some forty - five nations have raised tariff walls of their own in direct retaliation . ” The Dangers of Financial Crisis . Calling for a moratorium of European debt repayments from World War I , Chadbourne issued a prescient warning in 19 that war would follow financial crisis . Chadbourne ' s law partner , Louis S . Levy , was disbarred in 1939 for arranging a bribe of almost $ 250 , 000 to Federal judge Martin T . Manton . Chadbourne died June 15 , 1938 in Manhattan after suffering a heart attack on his yacht .