what resulted in some cases were new gentlemen s agreements in which wall street financiers such as j p morgan and his house of morgan would meet with the bureau itself to receive prior clearance on mergers and takeovers one such example was the gentlemen s agreement that had regulators and the president overlook the sherman antitrust act to allow united states steel corp to become the world s first billion dollar company 4
in 1907 a stock market panic that hit several big investment banks led to a financial crisis the panic led to president theodore roosevelt working closely with j p morgan to consolidate banks under the argument that doing so would stave off a larger crisis 5similarly in 1907 morgan again worked informally with roosevelt to create a gentlemen s agreement that would allow u s steel to acquire its largest competitor tennessee coal and iron in an unwritten and unstated rule that violated the sherman act gentlemen s agreements may also be found in trade treaties and international relations one example is the gentlemen s agreement of 1907 that saw the united states and the empire of japan address immigration from japan and the poor treatment of japanese immigrants already in america 2 the agreement never ratified by congress saw japan agree to no longer issue passports to individuals seeking to immigrate to america for work the united states in turn would no longer allow discrimination and segregation of japanese citizens residing in america 