Neal, George C. Papers

Dates: 1926-1966

General Counsel, Civil Aeronautics Board, 1942-1946

The papers of George C. Neal mostly relate to his career with the Civil Aeronautics Board and his involvement in civil aviation. The papers include correspondence, reports, printed materials, legal documents, press releases, minutes of meetings, drafts of legislation, speeches, and handwritten notes.

[Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List]

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Size: 19 linear feet, 3 linear inches
Access: Open, with the exception of a few documents that are closed for reasons of national security.
Copyright: The donor gave to the United States her copyright interest in the unpublished writings of George C. Neal in this collection, and in any other collection of papers received by the United States and maintained in a U.S. government depository. Documents created by employees of the U.S. government in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Otherwise, the copyright interest in documents in this collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Randy Sowell and Sharie Simon (2012).


[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

1910 (March 9)

 

Born George Cunningham Neal, Orbisonia, Pennsylvania

1934

 

LL.B. degree, Ohio State University

1934-1935

 

Attorney in general practice

1935-1936

 

Attorney with Squires, Sanders and Dempsey, Cleveland, Ohio

1936-1938

 

Attorney, General Counsel's Office, Treasury Department, Washington, D.C.

1938-1939

 

Attorney, Civil Aeronautics Authority, Washington, D.C.

1939-1942

 

Assistant General Counsel, Civil Aeronautics Authority and Civil Aeronautics Board

1942-1946

 

General Counsel, Civil Aeronautics Board

1946-1971

 

Practiced law in Washington, D.C. with the firm of Pogue and Neal later Reavis, Pogue, Neal, and Rose)

1971 (May 11)

 

Died, Washington, D.C.

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The papers of George C. Neal mostly relate to his career with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) and his involvement in civil aviation. They include extensive information on the development of government policy toward aviation during the 1930s and 1940s, the drafting of laws and regulations affecting civil aviation, the role of the CAB in regulating the industry, and the negotiation of international agreements governing air travel and transport around the world. The collection contains correspondence, reports, printed materials, legal documents, press releases, minutes of meetings, drafts of legislation, speeches, handwritten notes, and other items.

The Neal Papers are organized into two series. The first series, the Subject File, comprises approximately two-thirds of the collection. It includes a variety of materials produced by the staff of the CAB: reports, briefs, memorandums, and statistical summaries. It also includes drafts of bills affecting aviation that were introduced in Congress, and Congressional reports on proposed legislation in this field. As a government lawyer, Neal was involved in drafting the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, a process in which Senator Harry S. Truman was also an important figure. Neal's papers document his role in the creation of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, as well as the subsequent government reorganization in which that agency was abolished and replaced by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (part of the Department of Commerce) and the Civil Aeronautics Board (an independent agency). Much of this information appears in the Subject File under "Aviation Bills," "Civil Aeronautics Bills," and "Reorganization."

The Subject File also includes information on the negotiation of international agreements in the field of aviation, a process in which Neal was involved as General Counsel of the CAB and as a delegate to the International Civil Aviation Conference, which was held in Chicago in 1944. The records of that conference, which include speeches, agendas, minutes of meetings, reports, and proposed regulations, appear in the Subject File under "Chicago Conference, 1944." These efforts led to the establishment of the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO). Neal attended the Interim Assembly of the PICAO in Montreal, Canada in 1946. The records of that conference, and related materials, appear in the Subject File under "PICAO." Neal's involvement in the negotiation of bilateral aviation agreements with other nations during and after World War II is reflected in materials that appear in the Subject File under "International Aviation" and "Material on Bilateral Agreements."

Also included in the Subject File is documentation of the federal government's role in regulating airlines and the aviation industry. This information appears under the names of individual airlines such as American, Delta, Marquette, Pan-American, and United; and under the names of particular cases that came before the agency, such as "Air Travel Card Case," "Latin American Route Case," and "Theo T. Brown v. Civil Aeronautics Authority."

Other topics that are documented in the Subject File include: airplane accidents; aviation liability legislation; air routes, cargo, and rates; the future of aviation; helicopters; aviation in World War II; and the relationship between air transport and surface carriers. Although there is little information in the series concerning Neal's life and career outside of his work with the Civil Aeronautics Authority and the CAB, some material of a more personal nature is filed under "Personal," and material relating to his earlier work as an attorney in the Treasury Department appears under "General Accounting Office."

The second series, the Printed Materials File, comprises approximately one-third of the collection. It includes a variety of printed materials that were maintained separately from the Subject File in Neal's papers. Almost all of these printed materials are directly or indirectly concerned with aviation. They include periodicals of various kinds: government publications (such as the Civil Aeronautics Journal) as well as privately-published magazines (such as Air World and Flying). In addition to a large number of statistical reports on the aviation industry produced by the Civil Aeronautics Authority and the CAB, the series includes a wide selection of published Congressional documents, hearings, legislation, and reports. Also included in the Printed Materials File are books, journal articles, pamphlets, brochures, airline flight schedules, training manuals, and printed legal briefs prepared for cases before the CAB, the lower federal courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Further information concerning the development and regulation of civil aviation in the United States may be found in the papers of Harry S. Truman: especially in his papers as U.S. Senator and Vice President (Correspondence File: Civil Aeronautics), and in the Official File (OF 3-I: Civil Aeronautics Board) and Confidential File (Subject File: Civil Aeronautics Board) of his Presidential papers. More information on the Civil Aeronautics Board may be found in the papers of Russell B. Adams, Irston R. Barnes, Charles S. Murphy, and George S. Robinson.

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SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Container Nos.

 

Series

1-36

  SUBJECT FILE, 1931-1966
Letters, memorandums, reports, printed materials, legal documents, minutes of meetings, drafts of legislation, speeches, handwritten notes, and other items. Arranged alphabetically.

37-44

  PRINTED MATERIALS FILE, 1926-1960
Printed materials of various types, including books, periodicals, reports, statistical summaries, flight schedules, pamphlets, brochures, Congressional publications, legal briefs, training manuals, and other items. Arranged alphabetically.
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FOLDER TITLE LIST

SUBECT FILE, 1931-1966

Box 1

  • Accident Reports and Analyses, 1939-1940 [1 of 2]
  • Accident Reports and Analyses, 1939-1940 [2 of 2]
  • Accident Reports and Analyses, 1941
  • Accident Reports and Analyses, 1942-1947
  • Air Freight Forwarding Case
  • Air Route Maps [1 of 2]
  • Air Route Maps [2 of 2]

Box 2

  • Air Travel Card Case [1 of 3]
  • Air Travel Card Case [2 of 3]
  • Air Travel Card Case [3 of 3]
  • Aircraft Pictures, Brochures, and Data
  • Airports
  • Alaska
  • American Airlines: Acquisition of American Export Lines and Mid-Continent Airlines

Box 3

  • Annual Reports: Civil Aeronautics Authority, 1939-1940
  • Annual Reports: Civil Aeronautics Board, 1941-1945
  • Annual Reports: Companies [1 of 2]
  • Annual Reports: Companies [2 of 2]
  • Applications
  • Aviation Bills: Conference Committee [1 of 2]
  • Aviation Bills: Conference Committee [2 of 2]
  • Aviation Bills: House of Representatives [1 of 3]

Box 4

  • Aviation Bills: House of Representatives [2 of 3]
  • Aviation Bills: House of Representatives [3 of 3]
  • Aviation Bills: Senate, Book 1 [1 of 2]
  • Aviation Bills: Senate, Book 1 [2 of 2]
  • Aviation Bills: Senate, Book 2 [1 of 3]

Box 5

  • Aviation Bills: Senate, Book 2 [2 of 3]
  • Aviation Bills: Senate, Book 2 [3 of 3]
  • Aviations Bills: Senate, Book 3 [1 of 3]
  • Aviations Bills: Senate, Book 3 [2 of 3]
  • Aviations Bills: Senate, Book 3 [3 of 3]

Box 6

  • Aviation Bills: Senate, Book 4 [1 of 2]
  • Aviation Bills: Senate, Book 4 [2 of 2]
  • Aviation Corporation
  • Aviation Liability Legislation
  • Bell Utility Helicopter: Agricultural Research an