Coal is king — and Congress is furious about it. A "final drive" to pass emergency coal legislation dominates the front page as lawmakers fear the public is being forced to "pay for the strike" that suspended anthracite mining last September. Representative Parker of New York is pushing hearings this Tuesday, warning that coal prices have soared "much higher per ton" than a year ago despite no increase in production costs. The emergency isn't supply anymore — it's sky-high prices that refuse to come down even as summer approaches, when coal traditionally gets cheaper. Meanwhile, First Lady Grace Coolidge is planning something unprecedented: a nationwide appeal for Americans to donate genuine Colonial antiques to refurnish the White House in "early Colonial simplicity." She wants original Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Duncan Fyfe pieces with historic backgrounds — furniture that "cannot be purchased" because it's been "in families for generations." And in perhaps the day's most bizarre story, a 93-year-old Civil War veteran and physician named Dr. Edwin Oshaldeston sits in an Asbury Park jail, arrested by a 91-year-old deputy sheriff on a 45-year-old horse theft warrant from 1880.

These stories capture America in 1926 grappling with the growing pains of industrial capitalism. The coal crisis reflects the nation's dependence on a single fuel source and the power of labor disputes to hold entire cities hostage — issues that would only intensify as the country moved toward the Great Depression. Congress is essentially trying to regulate a monopolistic industry without admitting they're doing it, proposing "publicity" rather than price controls in true 1920s fashion. Mrs. Coolidge's furniture appeal represents something new: the democratization of presidential prestige. She's asking ordinary Americans to participate in creating the nation's most important home, reflecting the era's confidence and the growing sense that the presidency belonged to the people, not just the political elite.

• A rat stowaway with "three hours flying time to its credit" nearly crashed a Navy plane in Cuban waters by jumping into the pilot's lap mid-flight, then proceeded to dine on safety belts
• The 91-year-old deputy sheriff who arrested the 93-year-old doctor said he was "sure of the identity" because he "particularly remembers Oshaldeston's accent, which is decidedly English" — after 45 years
• Dr. Oshaldeston claims to be "the son of the former Earl of Onslow by morganatic marriage" and says he was "reared with tutors in London with the then Prince Edward, future king"
• The White House already completed "one breakfast room" in the Colonial style, with plans to refurnish other rooms "as the articles are received" from donors
• Coal substitute prices rose so high during the strike that "in some instances they exceeded the prices charged for the anthracite coal before the strike began"

• Secretary Kellogg is mediating the Tacna-Arica dispute between Chile and Peru — this same Frank Kellogg would win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 for the Kellogg-Briand Pact attempting to outlaw war
• Senator Borah of Idaho, mentioned as pushing coal legislation, was known as the 'Lion of Idaho' and would become one of America's most influential isolationists, helping keep the U.S. out of the League of Nations
• The airplane carrier Wright mentioned in the rat story was one of the Navy's first experimental aircraft carriers, converted from a transport ship in 1921 — aviation was still so new that rats on planes made front-page news
• Mrs. Coolidge's plan to democratize White House furnishing was revolutionary — no First Lady had ever made such a public appeal, and it helped establish the modern concept of the White House as 'the People's House'
• The coal crisis of 1925-26 helped spark the creation of modern utility regulation — within a decade, the federal government would have vastly expanded powers over energy industries