Federal Regulatory Agencies: Fourth Branch of Government

Archive Report

Spotlighting of the Regulatory Agencies

Recent Sharp Criticism of Trade Commission

Recent criticism of the Federal Trade Commission has directed attention to the part played by federal regulatory agencies in the American economy. A 185-page report by seven law students, made public Jan. 5, 1969, attacked members and staff of the F.T.C. for “spectacular lassitude and office absenteeism, incompetence by the most modest standards, and lack of commitment to their regulatory missions.” Of Chairman Paul Rand Dixon, the report asserted that his “chief and perhaps only contribution to the commission's improvement would be to resign from the agency that he has so degraded and ossified.”

Dixon, in an angry rebuttal four days later, called the authors of the report “young zealots” who had produced “a hysterical, anti-business ...

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