Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1954 assigned to appropriate agencies certain RFC functions for liquidation as follows: foreign loans, to the Export-Import Bank of Washington; loans to victims of floods or other catastrophes, to the Small Business Administration; and mortgages held by the RFC, to the Federal National Mortgage Association, which had been transferred to the Housing and Home Finance Agency. Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1957 transferred to various agencies RFC's remaining functions: loans and contracts with States, municipalities, or other public bodies regarding drainage and irrigation projects, to the Housing and Home Finance Agency; matters of the Smaller War Plants Corporation and of the RFC Price Adjustment Board, to the General Services Administration; loans to business enterprises, to the Small Business Administration; and all other remaining functions, including loans to railroads, financial institutions, and insurance companies, and affairs of the War Damage Corporation, to the Department of the Treasury. The operation of synthetic rubber and tin smelter plants had been taken over earlier by a Rubber Producing Facilities Disposal Commission, which in turn had been succeeded by the Federal Facilities Corporation in 1954. The latter was terminated on September 30, 1961, by an act approved August 30, 1961, and its remaining functions were transferred to the GSA. The records described in this inventory total 4,159 cubic feet and are designated as Records of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Record Group 234. They comprise records of the RFC parent agency and its subsidiary and allied corporations that were maintained by their Washington headquarters. The records of the regional offices or loan agencies were retired to GSA records centers in their respective regions. The operating records of most of the RFC and subsidiary divisions are in the records center at East Point, Ga. On June 30, 1970, there were over 41,000 cubic feet of such records in all the GSA records centers, of which about 13,800 cubic feet were at East Point. The appropriate successor agencies also hold files, mostly for uncompleted business (e.g., outstanding loans) or continuing programs. The personnel files of the RFC and its subsidiaries are at the National Personnel Records Center (Civilian Personnel Records), St. Louis, Mo. Holdings of the National Archives that are closely related to RFC records are Records of the Office of Price Administration, Record Group 188, Records of the Smaller War Plants Corporation, Record Group 240, Records of the War Assets Administration, Record Group 270, Records of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Record Group 275, and Records of the Federal National Mortgage Association, Record Group 294. Access to some records of the RFC and its subsidiary and allied agencies is limited because of restrictions imposed by statute or by the agencies from which the records were received. Prospective researchers may obtain a detailed statement of the restrictions upon request to the National Archives. The entries in this inventory that describe the cartographic records, still pictures, and motion pictures were supplied by Charlotte M. Ashby, John E. Maddox, and Gerard E. Hasselwander, respectively. Acronyms are used frequently throughout this inventory, and the reader may find the following list useful for reference. Records of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY The Secretary kept the minutes of all meetings of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the RFC. He also maintained minutes of ad hoc committees established at the Washington, D.C., headquarters for the study of various problems of some committees at loan agencies. He was the official spokesman for the Directors, conveying to offices and divisions at Washington, to the loan agencies, and to other parties pertinent matters and actions of the Board or Executive Committee. He was the custodian of the RFC's seal, conducted its general correspondence, particularly in matters reflecting the views or acts of the Board and Executive Committee, had charge of its files and service units, and prepared and certified the payrolls of its Washington office. In the absence of the Secretary, these duties were performed by an Assistant Secretary. Three Assistant Secretaries and one Assistant to the Secretary exercised immediate supervision over the several sections of the Secretary's office. 1. BOUND INDEX TO MINUTES. Feb. 2, An index in bound volumes giving the number of the volume containing the minutes, page number therein, and the date of the meeting the referred matter was brought before the Board of Directors. 3. MINUTES. 1932-57. 731 vols. 218 ft. Signed original copies of minutes of meetings of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the RFC from the date of its organizational meeting on February 2, 1932, to May 4, 1951; actions of the Administrator, who replaced the Board of Directors under Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1951, from May 7, 1951, to June 30, 1954; and those of the Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, who replaced the Administrator under Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1954, from July 1, 1954, to June 28, 1957, when the RFC concluded its affairs before the effective date of its dissolution on June 30, 1957, under Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1957. They relate to deliberations, resolutions, authorizations, and decisions on policy and staff reports and include lists of Board and staff members present. modification of resolutions by the Examining Division of the RFC, Report No. 3 to cancellation of undisbursed loans, Report No. 4 to employment by the RFC of local counsel, Report No. 5 to agency personnel appointments, etc. Each volume has a table of contents at the beginning that lists the report numbers contained therein and the subjects treated. Bound volumes containing basic contractual agreements, resolutions, reports, and schedules relating to official actions taken at meetings of the Board of Directors and its successor, the Administrator. These documents, although referred to in the minutes, were maintained in a separate file as exhibits to the minutes beginning in 1946. Bound and unbound volumes containing reports, findings, and recommendations on companies applying to RFC for commercial loans; requests by borrowers for approval of certain actions, such as payment of bonuses to employees and officers and election of candidates to their boards of directors; and bids by borrowers undergoing liquidation proceedings, or by their creditors, offered in settlement of unpaid portions of their debts. Each section (“docket”) of the bound volumes is preceded by an index that shows the names of applicants, amount requested, amount recommended by the Review Board, names of companies requesting approval of disbursements, and names of companies undergoing liquidation. Copies of resolutions adopted by the RFC's Board of Directors or its Executive Committee, containing provisions authorizing certain designated officers, heads of offices, and chiefs of divisions to act on behalf of the RFC in various matters. For example, one resolution authorized the Treasurer of the RFC to execute any agreements on its behalf providing for the payment of dividends on preferred stock and interest on capital notes and debentures of banks, trust companies, and insurance companies purchased by the RFC between February 1, 1935, and January 31, 1940, at the rate of 3.5 percent per annum of the par value or principal amount thereof, and thereafter at the rate of 4 percent per annum. Another resolution authorized the Secretary of the RFC to certify all RFC documents filed in court in any suit commenced by, or filed against, the RFC. and making appointments therein, personnel changes in existing offices, legal opinions of the General Counsel as to implied powers of the RFC and its directors, and recommendations to the Administrator of the RFC with regard to reductions in force in the Washington office and reorganization of the field offices of the RFC in 1953. 11. SEAL OF THE CORPORATION AND FACILITIES. 1932-45. 1 ft. Arranged alphabetically by name of agency. Bronze dies of the official seals of the RFC and its subsidiary corporations. 12. ADMINISTRATIVE SUBJECT FILE. 1932-57. 28 ft. Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically. Correspondence with Members of Congress, other Government agencies, State officials, local financial, industrial, and agricultural organizations, and individual prospective applicants for loans, relating to the RFC Act and proposed amendments thereto, proposed bankruptcy legislation, procedures for filing business, livestock, and disaster loan applications, and proposals to alleviate the plight of the railroads; Presidential proclamations, Executive orders, regulations and interpretations with regard to the banking emergency of 1933; lists of insolvent national banks in 1932; legal opinions regarding the RFC's authority to make loans to receivers of insolvent State and national banks for the purpose of accelerating distributions to depositors, and the authority of receivers to pledge assets of those banks as security for such loans; transcripts of testimony at congressional hearings to amend the RFC Act and of proceedings. at loan agency managers' conferences; copies of bylaws adopted by the RFC under Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1951; bulletins and loan policy statements issued by the RFC's Loan Policy Board; and reports, summaries, and charts on RFC lending activities and liquidation procedures. 13. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE WITH OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. 1932-57. 27 ft. Arranged alphabetically by name of agency and thereunder chronologically. Incoming letters and memorandums, and copies of outgoing letters and memorandums, on matters of concern to Government agencies and departments. They relate to such activities as offsetting rent claims by the RFC against funds available to farmers participating in Agricultural Adjustment Administration programs who were in arrears in their rent, 1933-41; allocation of RFC funds to the Department of Agriculture for crop production loans and other aid to farmers in depressed areas; agenda for a U.N. conference on food and agriculture in 1943; allocation of rubber quotas between the United States and Great Britain for defense requirements during World War II; and recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government (Hoover Commission) regarding the lending agencies of the Government, 1948. 14. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENCE. 1932-56. 3 ft. Arranged by subject and thereunder chronologically. Correspondence between the RFC and the White House relating to the means of access to the President during his out-of-town trips; accounting of RFC's activities; requests for information about the RFC to be included in the President's state of the Union messages to Congress; special announcements by the White House to the heads of Federal departments and agencies; aid to India under the provisions of the India Emergency Food Act of 1951; relief of Palestine refugees under the provisions of the United Nations Palestine Refugee Aid Act of 1950; and invitations to White House receptions, 1932-54. Included as transmittals are texts of Presidential speeches, Executive orders, proclamations and regulations, and White House statements to the press, 1950-55. 15. CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE BUREAU OF THE BUDGET. 1932-57. 6 ft. Arranged by subject and thereunder chronologically. Correspondence relating to current and proposed future expenditures in the form of budget estimates submitted by divisions and subsidiaries of the RFC; accounting of the RFC's activities in national defense and war programs; comments on enrolled bills sent by the White House to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget for a report on the objections, if any, the heads of interested agencies may have had to their approval; utilization and disposition of Federal equipment, materials, and supplies; activities of the Interagency Committee on Standard Commodity Classification; and summaries of personnel data pertaining to the RFC staff. Also |