Government Corporations

Spruce Products Corporation

The Spruce Products Corporation (SPC) was the only of the corporations on this list mentioned in any of the speeches being analyzed ('Encroaching Control'). It is also called the Spruce Products Division. It was put under the direction of the United States Army Signal Corp's Aviation Division.

The committee further said they found little evidence that any agency, bureau or department created in answer to an emergency ever went out of existence even after the emergency had disappeared. Well, an example of this could be the Spruce Products Corporation a government corporation which Congress ordered liquidated in 1920. 30 years later, it was still in existence. This was the corporation founded in World War I to secure spruce wood for airplane fuselages.

Reagan also talks about SPC in Losing Freedom by Installments.

Congress ordered the immediate liquidation of the Spruce Products Corporation in 1920. In 1930, they tried again. In 1947, it was still in business. In 1948, they found the answer — the cut off its appropriation. This was the agency created in World War I to find spruce wood for airplane fuselages.

I can't find any definitive evidence that the SPC existed for 30 years after it was ordered liquidated. Perhaps, as Reagan noted in the written article, the funds were simply appropriated, but the company no longer existed, which certainly begs the question: Where did that money go?

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) is mentioned in Losing Freedom by Installments.

Congress abolished the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1957, but, it has spent over $1 million since then. The current budget contains an item of $65,000 for administrative expenses.

The RFC was created during the administration of Herbert Hoover to give loans to banks, railroads and other businesses as well as to help provide aid to states and municipalities. It was retained by Roosevelt (but later merged into the FDIC) and eventually used to provide wartime loans to companies working in the war effort.

Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation

The Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation (FFMC) that Reagan is speaking of in Losing Freedom by Installments was created by the Farm Mortgage Refinancing Act in January 1934.

The Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation formed in January, 1934, has made no loans since the depression. The authority of the Commissioner expired in 1947 — since 1950, running expenses have amounted to $4 million.

The FFMC was provided with $2 billion of Federal funds to refinance farmer's loans.

Virgin Islands Corporation

In [Encroaching Control] and [Business, Ballots and Bureaus], Reagan uses the same line:

...we find that the federal government owns and operates more than 19,000 businesses covering 47 different lines of activity. It ranges from the distilling of rum to the manufacture of surgical and dental equipment.

A document states:

"THE VIRGIN ISLANDS COMPANY IS A CORPORATION CREATED BY A SPECIAL ORDINANCE OF THE COLONIAL COUNCIL FOR ST. SUGAR MILLS AND A RUM DISTILLERY OWNED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ARE OPERATED BY THE COMPANY FOR ITS OWN ACCOUNT"

Further examination of the "Virgin Island Company" turns up this page stating that:

the Virgin Islands Company (VICO), was chartered by the federal government in 1934 to promote the economic revitalization and advancement of the Virgin Islands.

Source Links

Spruce Products Division (Wikipedia)

The Spruce Products Division (PDF)

Reconstruction Finance Corporation (Wikipedia)