Bureau of Corporations
The Bureau of Corporations, predecessor to the Federal Trade Commission, was created as an investigatory agency within the Department of Commerce and Labor in the United States. The Bureau and the Department were created by Congress on February 14, 1903, during the Progressive Era.
The main role of the Bureau was to study and report on industry, looking especially for monopolistic practices. Its 1906 report on petroleum transportation made recommendations that became part of the Hepburn Act of 1906, and was used when the Justice Department successfully prosecuted and broke up Standard Oil in 1911.
In 1912 the Bureau issued a report on the development of water power in the United States, including its ownership or control, and fundamental economic principles involved in utilization of this new and rapidly growing energy source. The report noted an increasing concentration of ownership and control of widely separated waterpower developments in the hands of a few; a substantial interrelationship among leading water-power interests, as well as a significant and increasing affiliation between water-power companies and street-railway and electric-lighting companies. The report stressed the importance of promptly adopting a definitive public policy concerning water-power development.[1] The various concerns expressed would initially be regulated by the Federal Water Power Act of 1920. The business, managerial, and financial practices of these early utility holding companies would proliferate,[2] but remain largely unregulated until the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.
The Bureau also conducted studies of tobacco, steel, lumber and other industries.
The Bureau became part of the new Federal Trade Commission in 1915. The new Commission took over both staff and ongoing investigations from the Bureau. Commissioner of Corporations, Joseph E. Davies, became the FTC's first Chairman and Davies' deputy Francis Walker became the chief economist of the FTC
Further reading
- Fishbein, Meyer Harry. "Bureau of Corporations: An Agency of the Progressive Era" American University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1954. 28595050.
- MacLean, Elizabeth Kimball. "Joseph E. Davies: The Wisconsin Idea and the Origins of the Federal Trade Commission," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2007) 6#3 pp 248–284.
- Murphey, William, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Bureau of Corporation: Executive-Corporate Cooperation and the Advancement of the Regulatory State,” American Nineteenth Century History 14 (March 2013), 73–111.
References
- ^ Herbert Knox Smith, report on Water-Power Development in the United States (1912). Available at Report of the commissioner of corporations on water-power development in the United States
- ^ James C. Bonbright, Gardiner C. Means, The Holding Company: Its Public Significance and Its Regulation, New York (1932) McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780678005026
- v
- t
- e
- 26th President of the United States (1901–1909)
- 25th Vice President of the United States (1901)
- 33rd Governor of New York (1899–1900)
- Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1897–1898)
- New York City Police Commissioner (1895–1897)
(timeline)
- First inauguration
- Second inauguration
- Foreign policy
- "Square Deal"
- Booker T. Washington dinner
- Conservation
- Northern Securities Company breakup
- Coal strike of 1902
- Pure Food and Drug Act
- Meat Inspection Act
- Expediting Act
- Elkins Act
- Hepburn Act
- Aldrich–Vreeland Act
- Tillman Act of 1907
- Federal Employers Liability Act
- Kinkaid Act
- Big stick ideology
- Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty
- Venezuelan crisis
- Occupation of Cuba
- Russo-Japanese War
- Army War College
- Roosevelt Hall
- College football meetings
- Bureau of Investigation
- Department of Commerce and Labor
- Bureau of Corporations
- Keep Commission
- Inland Waterways Commission
- Bureau of the Census
- Great White Fleet
- Perdicaris affair
- Cabinet
- White House West Wing
- State of the Union Address, 1901
- 1906
- 1908
- White House desk
- Federal judiciary appointments
events
homes
and speeches
- Theodore Roosevelt bibliography
- The Naval War of 1812 (1882 book)
- "The Strenuous Life" (1899 speech)
- League to Enforce Peace
- "Citizenship in a Republic" (1910 speech)
- "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual" (1912 post-assassination-attempt speech)
- Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (1913 book)
- The Forum magazine articles
- Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia
- Archival collections
- Bibliography
- Mount Rushmore
- Theodore Roosevelt Center and Digital Library
- White House Roosevelt Room
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park
- Theodore Roosevelt Island
- Roosevelt National Forest
- Roosevelt Park (San Antonio)
- Roosevelt Study Center
- Theodore Roosevelt Association
- Mount Rushmore Anniversary coins
- Statues
- New York City
- Portland, Oregon
- Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park
- Theodore Roosevelt Monument
- Roosevelt Memorial, Portland, Oregon
- Proposed presidential library
- Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse
- Roosevelt River
- Theodore Roosevelt Bridge
- Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge
- Theodore Roosevelt Award
- USS Theodore Roosevelt (1906, 1961, 1984)
- Roosevelt Road
- U.S. postage stamps
culture
- Teddy bear
- "Speak softly, and carry a big stick"
- Books
- Films
- Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King, 1901 film
- Roosevelt in Africa, 1910 documentary
- The Rough Riders, 1927 film
- Teddy, the Rough Rider, 1940 film
- Rough Riders, 1997 miniseries
- The Roosevelts, 2014 documentary
- Theodore Roosevelt, 2022 miniseries
- Alice Hathaway Lee (first wife)
- Edith Kermit Carow (second wife)
- Alice Lee Roosevelt (daughter)
- Theodore Roosevelt III (son)
- Kermit Roosevelt (son)
- Ethel Carow Roosevelt (daughter)
- Archibald Roosevelt (son)
- Quentin Roosevelt (son)
- Theodore Roosevelt IV (grandson)
- Cornelius V. S. Roosevelt III (grandson)
- Quentin Roosevelt II (grandson)
- Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (grandson)
- Joseph Willard Roosevelt (grandson)
- Edith Roosevelt Derby (granddaughter)
- Theodora Roosevelt (granddaughter)
- Theodore Roosevelt Sr. (father)
- Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (mother)
- Anna "Bamie" Roosevelt (sister)
- Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (brother)
- Corinne Roosevelt (sister)
- Cornelius Roosevelt (grandfather)
- James Stephens Bulloch (grandfather)
- James Alfred Roosevelt (uncle)
- Robert Barnhill Roosevelt
- Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (niece)
- Gracie Hall Roosevelt (nephew)
- Pete (dog)