Collection Summary

Creator: Newman, J. Wilson
Title: The Papers of J. Wilson Newman, 1955-1978
Accession: MSS 85-12
Description: 24 boxes; 10.4 linear ft
Location: This collection is stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections before your visit to ensure your papers are available.
Photograph Collection: View 0 digitized photographs
Digitized Content: 0 objects
Use Restrictions: There are no restrictions.

Collection Description & Arrangement

J. Wilson Newman, now a resident of Charlottesville, was president of Dun and Bradstreet, Inc. from 1952 to 1960. In the late sixties and early seventies the Nixon administration appointed him to serve on the Bankruptcy Commission, the Price Commission and the President's Task Force on Improving the Prospects of Small Business. Newman donated his personal records of this work to the Law Library in the summer of 1985. The files were in good order, and the folder headings reflect the labels on original folders or notebooks. There are 24 boxes (10.4 linear ft.) arranged by commission.

Biographical & Historical Information

J. Wilson Newman graduated from Clemson College in Clemson, S.C., in 1931, and received a law degree from New York University in 1937.

He joined the R. G. Dun Company as a credit reporter in 1931. Dun merged with its major competitor, the John M. Bradstreet Company, in 1933, and the combined company began operating under the new name in 1939.

Mr. Newman was named a vice president in 1946, president in 1952, and chairman and chief executive in 1960. He joined Dun's finance committee when he retired in 1968, and remained a member for 12 years.

During Mr. Newman's tenure, Dun acquired several companies, including R. H. Donnelley, a publisher of the Yellow Pages and trade magazines, and Moody's Investors Service. Dun has since spun off both companies. Mr. Newman also oversaw the computerization of Dun's business databases in the early 1960's. In 1963, each company in the database was assigned an identifying number in Dun's Data Universal Numbering System. The nine-digit D.U.N.S. numbers are still used today.

Mr. Newman was a member of the United States Price Commission, which addressed price gouging, in 1971 and 1972 and of the Commission on Bankruptcy Laws from 1970 to 1973.

He died on July 8, 2003.

"J. Wilson Newman, Ex-Chief of Dun & Bradstreet Company, Dies at 93," New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/28/obituaries/28NEWM.html (accessed December 8, 2015)

 

Acquisition Information

Date Received 1985
Donor Information This collection was given to the Law School by J. Wilson Newman on June 24, 1985.

Content List

Price Commission Records

Boxes 1-8:

  • 1971-72, Meeting records arranged by date with a list of topics addressed  [57 folders]

Box 9:

  • 1971-72, Permanent record of meetings and actions  [2 folders]
  • 1972, Public hearings re utilities, rent and food prices  [4 folders]

Box 10:

  • 1971-72, Correspondence  [7 folders]
  • 1972, Fact sheets and staff reports re policy and goal of commission
  • 1972, Issue papers by the Price Commission and outside economists
  • 1973, Memoranda for the record re the agenda  [3 folders]

Box 11:

  • 1971-72, Miscellaneous reports, correspondence, etc.  [6 folders]
  • 1971-72, Miscellaneous printed matter  [2 folders]

Box 12:

  • 1972, Operating problems
  • 1972, Policy matrix
  • 1972, Review of commission operations  [2 folders]
  • 1972, Speeches, luncheons, etc.
  • 1971, Statements for commissioners re government employment

Price Commission Related Documents

Box 12:

  • 1972, Agricultural Economic Report No. 223: Price control programs, 1917-1971
  • 1971, American Textile Manufacturers Institute, Inc.: Proposals and recommendations for the Price Commission
  • 1972, Automobile industry

Box 13:

  • Brookings Institute conference: Wage-price policy  [3 folders]
  • 1971-72, Coal industry
  • 1972, Consumer credit
  • 1972, Consumer price index: Estimated annualized price rate of increase in the consumer price index for the fourth quarter of 1973  [preliminary]
  • 1971, Cost of Living Council: "The Wage-Price Freeze: Questions and Answers"
  • 1973, Cost of Living Council: Transcript of press conference re food prices
  • 1972, Economic indicators
  •  1971, Economic stabilization program
  • 1972, Grayson, C. Jackson, Chairman of the Price Commission: Statement before the Joint Economic Committee re Side Effects of Price Control
  • 1973, Grayson, C. Jackson: Statement before the Senate Committee on Banking
  • 1976, Grayson, C. Jackson: CBS Morning News Editorial
  • 1972, Health care
  • 1971, Independent Natural Gas Association
  • 1972, Inflation, consumer price index and wholesale price index
  • 1972, Inflation: Miscellaneous memoranda and statistics
  • n.d., IRS: Retail-wholesale price monitoring program  [proposed]

Box 14:

  • 1971, Manufacturing companies with sales of 100 million or over
  • 1971, Miscellaneous forms and White House press releases
  • 1972, Nader v. Grayson
  • 1971, National Retail Merchants Association Program Concerning the Implementation of Phase II Price Guidelines
  • 1972-73, Newman: Memos and correspondence re effects of price controls on various industries and individuals  [3 folders]
  • 1972, New York Stock Exchange: Reports on status of member firms
  • 1972, Pay Board news releases
  • 1972, "The Pay Board After One Year of Operation"
  • 1971, Phase I and II: Summary statements  [3 folders]

Box 15:

  • 1971-72, Phase II
  • 1973, Phase III
  • 1972, Piggly Wiggly Southern, Inc. v. Price Commission
  • 1972, Pott Industries v. Price Commission
  • 1971-72, Price control
  • 1972, Price control: Price Control, Present and Future, prepared by the Office of Price Policy
  • 1972, "A Price Control Strategy," vols. 1-3, submitted by Robert N. Anthony  [5 folders]

Box 16:

  • 1972, "A Price Control Strategy," vol. 4  [2 folders]
  • 1971, "The Productivity Factor in Phase II" by John W. Kendrick
  • 1971, Productivity
  • 1972-73, Resumes for the assistant to the chief executive officer
  • 1971, Secular inflation
  • 1971-72, Vorando, Inc.: Request for exception from executive guidelines
  • 1971-72, Wages: Background information for the Price Commission
  • 1972, Wholesale price index
  • 1972, Year-end statement on the economy by the President's Council of Economic Advisors

President's Task Force on Improving the Prospects of Small Business

Box 17:

  • 1968-69, Final report
  • 1968-70, Final report and correspondence
  • 1969, Task force bulletins and internal correspondence  [3 folders]
  • 1972, Correspondence
  • 1969-71, Correspondence: White House, government agencies, trade groups, business associations, etc.  [2 folders]

Box 18:

  • 1969, Handbook for Small Business: A Survey of Small Business Programs of the Federal Government
  • 1968, n.d., Legislation defining and affecting small business  [2 folders]
  • 1968-69, Recommendations for legislation
  • 1971, 1975, Material re Newman's appearance before the Select Committee on Small Business of the U.S. Senate  [2 folders]
  • 1970, Source material, correspondence and news releases

Box 19:

  • 1955-70, Speeches and miscellaneous papers re economic prospects facing businessmen  [5 folders]

Bankruptcy Commission

Box 20:

  • 1970-72, Material pertaining to the commission's composition, establishment and purpose  [3 folders]
  • 1972, Memoranda, background and issue papers re meetings and hearings  [4 folders]

Box 21:

  • 1972, Public hearings  [5 folders]
  • 1972, Meeting records  [2 folders]

Box 22:

  • 1971-73, Minutes of meetings  [8 folders]

Box 23:

  • 1970-74, Miscellaneous reports, correspondence, etc.  [4 folders]
  • 1971 August, Conference on the Economics of Bankruptcy, Brookings Institution
  • 1972-73, Expenses incurred by Newman while a member of the commission
  • 1977, Newman's appearance before the Subcommittee on Citizens' and Shareholders' Rights and Remedies of the Senate Judiciary Committee  [2 folders]

Box 24:

  • 1972, Report by the Rand Corporation and commission memorandum re U.S. bankruptcy laws
  • n.d., Reports submitted to the commission on the U.S. bankruptcy laws

Miscellany

Box 24:

  • 1975-77, Correspondence concerning the Price Commission, Bankruptcy Commission and the Small Business Task Force
  • 1966, Sweet Briar Institute v. Button
  • 1966-78, Correspondence re National Industrial Conference Board
  • 1972, Securities and Exchange Commission v. National Student Marketing Corp.  [2 folders]
  • 1977, Material concerning Newman's appearance before the SEC
  • 1971, Historical Working Papers on the Economic Stabilization Program

Associated People

Use Policy

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Preferred Citation

Papers of J. Wilson Newman, MSS 85-12, Special Collections, University of Virginia Law Library

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