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Politics, Personalities, and the Federai Trade Commission, II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

E. Pendleton Herring
E. Pendleton Herring
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

President Coolidge's appointment of William E. Humphrey to the Federal Trade Commission in 1925 served not only to establish a Republican majority on that body, but also to inaugurate a “new era” in its activities. Humphrey entered upon his duties on February 25, and on March 17 sweeping changes in policy and procedure were announced. No longer was the Commission to be used as a “publicity bureau to spread socialistic propaganda.” The opposition from the “vocal and beatific fringe, the pink edges that border both of the old parties,” would not deter the new Commission from its determination to “help business to help itself.” In his effort to stress the fact that a new course was being pursued, Humphrey emphatically condemned the Commission of his predecessors. “Under the old policy of litigation it became an instrument of oppression and disturbance and injury instead of a help to business. It harassed and annoyed business instead of assisting it. Business soon regarded the Commission with distrust and fear and suspicion—as an enemy. There was no coöperation between the Commission and business. Business wanted the Commission abolished, and the Commission regarded business as generally dishonest.”

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 1935 , pp. 21 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1935

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References

29 Address by W. E. Humphrey at Institute of Statesmanship, Winter Park, Florida, January 6, 1931.

30 The following creed was recited by Commissioner Humphrey before the annual meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce, May 20, 1925:

“I express the faith of the majority of the Commission as it is composed today when I say:

We do not believe that success is a crime.

We do not believe that failure is a virtue.

We do not believe that wealth is presumptively wrong.

We do not believe that poverty is presumptively right.

We do not believe that industry, economy, honesty, and brains should be penalized.

We do not believe that incompetency, extravagance, idleness, and inefficiency should be glorified.

We do not believe that big business and crooked business are synonymous.

True, we will give closer scrutiny to big business than to small business because of its greater power for good or evil.

We believe that 90 per cent of American business is honest.

We believe that 90 per cent of American business is anxious to obey the law.

We want to help this 90 per cent of honest business.

We want to control or destroy the 10 per cent that is crooked.

In this endeavor we want your help. We hope to deserve it.”

The following quotation is taken from one of many similar speeches which Commissioner Humphrey was in the habit of delivering before trade associations. It serves better than any description to give his fundamentalist views toward political and economic institutions: “Today we witness a strange paradox. In the midst of plenty, many are in poverty. There is an abundance of everything that goes to make up prosperity except work. We are inclined to blame everything but ourselves, but the fact is that we alone are to blame. The foundation of this world-wide depression is speculation—gambling; the desire to get rich quick. The world has forgotten the divine truth proclaimed more than three thousand years ago, that ‘By the sweat of thy face, thou shall eat bread.’ Too many want to eat without sweating. But prosperity will come again. I sometimes feel like crying out as did the prophet of old, ‘O, ye of little faith.’ I still have faith in the men and women of my country. I still believe in the institutions of my country. I still have an abiding faith in the constitution of my country. I believe that the constitution of my country is the wisest and safest guide for free government that human wisdom has ever yet devised. I believe that it is the ‘Ark of the Covenant’ of our prosperity, our happiness, our liberty, our future greatness, and our safety. I still believe that the Stars and Stripes float over the greatest heritage of the human race. Let us not forget the foundation principles upon which our nation rests, nor depart from them in these times of adversity and distress to follow after strange gods. In this time of trouble, I would that the daily prayer of every American citizen should be: ‘Lord God of Hosts Be With Us Yet, Lest We Forget—Lest We Forget.’”

31 Boston Herald, November 28, 1920.

32 Cong. Rec., March 20, 1926, p. 5963Google Scholar.

33 The annual report of the Federal Trade Commission for 1925, pp. 112–127, contains the text of the opinions, resolutions, etc., referred to.

34 Report No. 293, 70th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 9.

35 For a discussion of this whole question, see Hearings Before the Sub-Committee of the House Committee on Appropriations, Independent Offices Appropriations Bill, 1929, 70th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 515–605Google Scholar.

36 Annual Report, 1927, pp. 1–4.

37 Congressional Record, March 20, 1926, p. 5944 ff.Google Scholar

38 Speech at Winter Park, op. cit.

39 Memorandum as of May 29, 1929, p. 1. Quoted in Public Regulation of Competitive Practices, p. 241 (National Industrial Conference Board)Google Scholar.

40 See statement of Nye, Senator G. P. in Hearing before Sub-Committee of Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 72nd Cong., 1st Sess., 1932, pp. 294–295Google Scholar.

41 Hearings, op. cit., pp. 152–153.

42 Hearings, op. cit., p. 52.

43 Ibid., p. 306.

44 Cong. Rec., March 20, 1926, p. 5962Google Scholar.

45 Hearings on Independent Offices Appropriations Bill, House Appropriation Committee, 1931, p. 134Google Scholar.

46 Cong. Rec., March 20, 1926, p. 5963Google Scholar.

47 Senator D. I. Walsh introduced bills in January, 1932, and May, 1933, providing for advance approval by the Federal Trade Commission of contracts to curtail production. Safeguards as to fair price and fair wages were included. Cong. Rec., May 1, 1933, p. 2602Google Scholar.

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