In this second special issue devoted to government-business relations, the focus is exclusively on the United States' experience, just as the Spring, 1964 issue concentrated solely on experience abroad. This approach is in keeping with the Editors' view that business history is international in scope, that there are virtues in comparative approaches to the subject, and that public authority has formed and will continue to form significant parameters for private business decision-making.

One of the aims of the States has continually been to provide a favorable legal framework for the work of responsible entrepreneurs and corporations issuing stock and to protect them both against illegitimate competition. This paper illustrates this relationship of government and business through a general survey of State administrative practices in executing corporate securities legislation and a closer study of the single State of California.

The concepts of actual and potential competition as natural checks on trusts are examined through the literature which accompanied the framing and passage of the Chyton and Federal Trade Commission acts. The contributions of professional economists to these discussions are especially significant in the evolution of the public policies ultimately adopted.

The process of mutual accommodation between government and business in the United States is well illustrated in this study of the strategy and tactics of a key twentieth-century business association.

The pragmatism and experimentation permitted policy-makers by the American antitrust statutes is well illustrated in this analysis of federal attitudes toward business concentrations in the late 1930's.

Many opportunities for fruitful research emerge from this survey of those holdings of the National Archives which are pertinent to the historical study of government-business relationships in the United States.

Historically, the partnership of business and government has been an important factor in American economic development. The problems of this relationship have become increasingly complex with the growing importance and costs of technological advances underlying major sectors of the economy.