Congress returned to session December 6th in what the Montgomery Advertiser described as resembling 'a college home-coming celebration,' with Vice-President Dawes and Speaker Longworth gaveling in both chambers at noon sharp. Among the flood of new bills was Representative Gallivan's proposal for a national referendum on prohibition, Representative Brand's plan for a $50 million federal guarantee against bank failures, and Representative Dickinson's curious suggestion to build a summer White House west of the Mississippi River. Meanwhile, Alabama Governor W.W. Brandon found himself at the center of a collapsed scandal when Jack Daniels of Birmingham claimed ownership of liquor seized in a famous Baldwin County raid where the governor had been present. Four state witnesses testified under oath that Brandon was searched, found to have no liquor, and knew nothing about the contraband. The 'great sensation of Alabama's anti-Brandon press collapsed,' according to the paper's correspondent, when it turned out Brandon was never actually arrested despite national reports claiming otherwise.

December 1926 captures America at a fascinating crossroads - prohibition was deeply unpopular (hence the referendum proposal), yet the economy was booming so much that Congress was seriously considering federal bank deposit insurance, an idea that wouldn't become reality until the Great Depression. The casual corruption scandals and political theater around Governor Brandon reflect the anything-goes atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties, when local political machines operated with brazen impunity. This was also the era when Congress still conducted business in a more genteel, ceremonial fashion - adjourning out of respect for deceased senators, with galleries filled with chattering women spectators, a far cry from today's bare-knuckle politics.

• Jack Daniels of Birmingham claimed ownership of the seized liquor - yes, apparently there was a real person named Jack Daniels involved in Alabama bootlegging in 1926
• A Pennsylvania man named John Wentzel found a 40-year-old skeleton in his cellar after having recurring dreams of a voice crying 'dig me out, dig me out' - and he found it on his first try digging
• The weather report shows it was 66 degrees in Montgomery at noon on December 7th, 1926, while Buffalo was suffering through 14-degree weather
• The state of Alabama's education, Confederate veterans, insane hospitals, and health departments cost $35.5 million - more than the entire state collected in property and license taxes ($27.9 million)
• Dr. Richard Hoffman, a neurologist, won his separation from actress wife Janet Beecher in New York Supreme Court

• That $50 million bank deposit insurance proposal was 7 years ahead of its time - the FDIC wouldn't be created until 1933 after thousands of banks failed in the Great Depression
• The missing prohibition officers mentioned in the headline reflect the deadly reality of enforcement - by 1926, over 200 federal agents had been killed in the line of duty during Prohibition
• Governor Brandon was in Jackson, Tennessee delivering an address to 'the Elks Lodge of Sorrow' while his liquor scandal played out - the Elks' memorial services were elaborate Victorian affairs that could last hours
• The proposal for a summer White House west of the Mississippi was remarkably prescient - presidents wouldn't regularly use western retreats until Reagan's ranch 60 years later
• Cotton was proposed to have a federal minimum price of 22 cents per pound - that's equivalent to about $3.70 per pound today, showing how valuable the crop was to the southern economy