The early efforts of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate advertising take on new historical interest in the wake of the United States Supreme Court's landmark decision to grant limited First Amendment protection to commercial speech. An examination of the FTC's advertising regulation from its beginning in 1914 to 1938, when its authority over advertising was legislatively validated, shows that commercial speech raised no constitutional concerns except for occasional consideration as a property right subject to constitutional guarantees of due process. Decisions by the Supreme Court in "Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council" (1976) and related cases have made it clear that advertising must be regarded in some instances as a form of speech subject to the protections traditionally provided other forms of expression guarded by the First Amendment. Within the boundaries and standards set by the emerging doctrine of constitutionally protected commercial speech, it seems that the basic pattern of regulatory authority and activity that developed from 1914 to 1938 should survive largely intact. (RL)