Professor and the commissions

Timing is of the essence in security transactions, and the harm done by SEC action in such cases cannot, as a prac tical matter, be undone by court review. Reversal by a re viewing court may show the Commission to have been in error, but, as Landis neatly put it, "the time that elapses be fore such relief can be procured will have permanently chilled the market for the securities."

In its structure the SEC is basically similar to the other "big six" agencies. It is made up of five commissioners ap pointed by the President for terms of five years. The usual bipartisan rule as to membership is provided for, and com missioners may be removed from office by the President only for cause. The SEC staff is composed of some eight hundred persons in its central and regional offices. It is housed in its own building, but this is a so-called "Tempo"-a temporary building constructed during the war and intended to be torn down after that conflict. In this makeshift building, said by the staff to be the hottest place in Washington in summer, the SEC exercises its life-and-death powers over the financial system.