"AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE SAN DIEGO MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION"
THE OPENING PAGES OF THIS SPEECH AND OTHERS, GIVING A PERSONAL IMPRESSION OF RAY GARRETT, JR., HAVE BEEN GRACIOUSLY PROVIDED BY HARVEY L. PITT.

An Address by
Ray Garrett, Jr., Chairman
Securities and Exchange Commission

Presented before
THE SAN DIEGO MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION
The University Club
July 2, 1974
San Diego, California

It think the people who organize conferences on securities laws have discovered San Diego, and I think it's great. Not only am I very fond of this lovely city, but I also like to visit my daughter Nancy, her husband John Worcester, and our granddaughter Hadley. Ever since the U. S. Navy introduced them to San Diego, we have rarely seen them back East. So I am a doubly easy mark to accept an invitation to come here.

My visit at this particular time is occasioned by a two-week series of seminars on federal securities laws just getting under way at the del Coronado. This is an ambitious undertaking of a very worthy organization with a name that cries out for some hardy acronym -- the Joint Committee on Continuing Legal Education of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association. Only lawyers could put up with something like that.

Last year was the first year for this two-week seminar, and it was held at about this time at Haverford College, near Philadelphia. I had agreed to appear for two days as one of the faculty and the weekend I arrived at Haverford the news had leaked out that I would be the next Chairman of the SEC. That is to say, the newspapers all seemed to know it, but the President had not yet announced his decision. Until he did, I didn't want to talk to reporters, and it all got both exciting and amusing. I was sneaked out of Haverford through a back door and flown here, where a car picked me up in the dark of night and drove me to San Clemente [President Nixon's west coast "White House"]. The next morning I visited with the President and General [Alexander] Haig and the announcement was made. Then, of course, there was no escaping the media.

Most of the reporters seemed baffled that I would take the job and kept searching for reasons. I recall one telephone interview in particular where the reporter asked in menacing tones if I had contributed to the President's campaign. I said yes. He said, "May I ask how much?" I replied, "I think it was $100. He muttered an expletive which I shall delete and cut the interview short.

Actually, it was not a bad time to go to Washington, and especially not a bad time to go with the SEC. As citizens, we are, of course, not indifferent to the Constitutional crisis facing our nation. But we don't discuss the subject at the office. We go about our business to the best of our ability and wisdom. We have an unusually able and compatible group of Commissioners and a splendid staff....

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