Editorial Note
On August 14, 1953, President Eisenhower appointed Clarence B. Randall, Chairman of the Board of Inland Steel Company, as Chairman of the Commission on Foreign Economic Policy. The Commission, commonly referred to as the Randall Commission, was established in pursuance of Title III of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1953 (Public Law 215), approved August 7, 1953; for text, see 67 Stat. 472.
The purpose of the Commission was to conduct a thorough review of United States foreign economic policy, to recommend appropriate policies and practices for the future, and to report its findings to both the President and Congress. The organization of the Commission was completed on September 22, 1953. It proceeded to take testimony from witnesses in the United States and for four days in Paris; its work was completed in January 1954. The Commission’s majority report was transmitted to the President and to Congress on January 23, as Report to the President and the Congress (Washington, 1954). A dissenting view, by two of the Commission’s members, Representative Daniel A. Reed (N.Y.), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Representative Richard M. Simpson (Pa.), was transmitted to the President and Congress on January 30 under the titleMinority Report (Washington, 1954). [Page 50] Papers prepared for the Commission by its research staff were published as Staff Papers Presented to the Commission on Foreign Economic Policy (Washington, February 1954).
Documentation concerning the formation and work of the Commission is contained in Department of State file 100.4 FEP for 1953 and 1954, and Eisenhower Library, U.S. Commission on Foreign Economic Policy (Randall Commission) records, 1953–1954. For pertinent press releases containing additional information, see Department of State Bulletin, August 17, 1953, page 202; August 31, 1953, pages 279–280; October 5, 1953, page 450; and November 16, 1953, page 685.