THE FTC DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (1953-61)
Robert Heller & Associates, F.T.C. Management Survey Report (1954). This study was commissioned by the FTC; it provides a snapshot of the agency’s organization and made recommendations for reorganization
JAMES LANDIS, REPORT ON REGULATORY AGENCIES TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT (1960). Landis had served as an FTC Commissioner from 1933 to 1934; as an SEC Commissioner from 1934 to 1937 and SEC Chairman from 1935 to 1937; as Dean of Harvard Law School from 1937to1946; as Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board from 1946 to 1947; and as a special assistant to John F. Kennedy from 1960 to 1961. He had long worked with John F. Kennedy (and JFK’s father, who had been SEC Chairman while Landis was a non-Chairman Commissioner.) The report was based on the status quo at the end of the Eisenhower administration and made specific recommendations for various agencies, including the FTC, several of which were implemented when JFK became President.
The Organization and Procedures of the Federal Regulatory Commissions and Agencies and Their Effect on Small Business: Hearings before Subcommittee No. 1 of the Select Committee on Small Business, Part 1. These highly contentious hearings included testimony by eight sitting and former Commissioners, a General Counsel who would become Commissioner, and other members of the FTC’s staff. The witnesses included all four Chairmen who had served since the Chair’s powers were expanded by Reorganization Plan No. 8 of 1950, and they presented their views of new directions that the FTC had taken during the Eisenhower Administration.
Oral Histories
Edward T. Tait, interview conducted by the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, 1974. Tait was a Commissioner from 1956 to1960.
Manuscript Collections
Earl W. Kintner Papers. University of Wyoming Library, Laramie, WY. Kintner served as Chairman from 1959-61. He was the first staff member elevated to that position, having most recently served as General Counsel. (finding aid).
Lowell Mason Papers. As noted above, Mason served as a Commissioner from 1945 to 1956. Collections of his papers are available in the Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO (finding aid), at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (finding aid), and at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY (description).
Roy Prewitt Papers, National Archives, College Park, MD. As noted above, Prewitt was a Commission economist, and the Archives’ description of FTC records describes his collection as “relating to international wartime materiel emergencies, and to planning postwar decartelization policy for former enemy countries . . ..”
Stephen Spingarn Papers. As noted above, Spingarn served as a Commissioner from 1950 to 1953. Collections of his papers are available in the Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO (finding aid) and the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA (finding aid).
See also materials listed under Broad Surveys.