FTC to Host Symposium to Celebrate Agency's 90th Anniversary

The Federal Trade Commission has planned a symposium in honor of the FTC's 90th anniversary on September 22 and 23, 2004. The event will feature over 40 participants, including current Commissioners and other agency officials, as well as prominent academics and practitioners, many of whom are FTC alumni.

The 90th anniversary symposium will feature panels addressing both competition and consumer protection issues, the FTC's relations with domestic and international government agencies, and other related topics. Several panels will focus on the evolution of the FTC's mission; one will focus on the integration of competition and consumer protection and the advantages of having both missions in one agency.

Participants include Timothy J. Muris, current Chairman of the FTC; Robert Pitofsky and Calvin J. Collier, former FTC Chairmen; Kenneth G. Elzinga, economist; Caswell O. Hobbs, former ABA Antitrust Section chair; Terry Calvani, former FTC Commissioner and current Commissioner of the Irish Competition Authority; Allan Fels, former Chairman of the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission; Ernest Gellhorn, antitrust scholar; Edward Cox, former Nader's Raider; Sidney Milkis, political scientist; Stephen Calkins, former FTC General Counsel; Jodie Bernstein, former FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director; and Jesse Markham, former FTC Bureau of Economics Director and member of the 1969 ABA Commission to study the FTC.

The agenda for the event, which will be held at the FTC's Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, includes a complete list of participants and is available at www.ftc.gov/ftc/history/90thagenda.htm. Persons wishing to attend the symposium may pre-register by filling out and mailing in the form at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/history/90regform.pdf.

On Wednesday evening, September 22, the FTC Alumni Society and the ABA Section on Antitrust will sponsor a reception and dinner in the FTC's honor at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington. The Honorable Richard A. Posner, an FTC alumnus, distinguished judge, and prominent antitrust expert, will deliver the keynote address. The registration form for the dinner is available at http://www.abanet.org/antitrust/programs/ftcsymposium.html.

To commemorate its anniversary, the FTC also has launched a new section of its Web site at www.ftc.gov/ftc/history/ftchistory.htm, chronicling its history. The site features oral histories of former Commissioners, including an interview conducted by FTC staff with Mary Gardiner Jones, the first woman Commissioner, as well as a link to an interview with Leon Higgenbotham, the first African-American Commissioner, and information regarding interviews with other Commissioners dating back to George Rublee, one of the original Commissioners. The Web site also contains a recent study of the FTC's history, minutes of early Commission meetings, and annual reports going back to 1916. Further plans for the site include a library of historical photographs.

President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Trade Commission Act on September 26, 1914. The agency opened its doors for business on March 16, 1915 when the agency's first five Commissioners - Joseph E. Davies, Edward N. Harris, William J. Hurley, Will H. Parry, and George Rublee -- took the oath of office.