In September 1959, Florida lawyer and businessman Louis J. Hector resigned as a member of the Civil Aeronautics Board after nearly two years of service. Since this is about the average term of office for members of our federal regulatory commissions, Mr. Hector's action would normally have escaped public notice. But he wrote a long farewell Memorandum to the President arguing that the "independent regulatory commission is not competent in these days to regulate a vital national industry in the public interest" and should, therefore, be broken up.
Topping public disclosures which shook the prestige of the regulatory commission and subjected it to fierce attack in Congressional quarters and the press, Mr. Hector's Memorandum created a sensation. It was circulated by the President among all the regulatory commissions and, though not published officially, it soon became available in Congressional offices in Washington. It has been read widely. Because it deals with basic issues which I discussed in a previous issue of this Review,4 an addendum taking account of the Hector Memorandum may be in order.
