Bureau of Foreign Commerce Transferred to Department of Commerce and Labor; Bureau of Trade Relations. Upon the recommendation of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, the name of that bureau was changed to the Bureau of Foreign Commerce by a departmental order issued by Secretary of State Sherman on July 1, 1897." An act of February 14, 1903, establishing a Department of Commerce and Labor, provided for the transfer to that department of the Bureau of Foreign Commerce. Section II of that act authorized the Secretary of State to appoint a suitable person "to formulate, under his direction, for the instruction of consular officers, the requests of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor; and to prepare from the dispatches of consular officers, for transmission to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, such information as pertains to the work of the Department of Commerce and Labor." Such person was to be given the rank and salary of a chief of bureau, and be furnished with such clerical assistants as might from time to time be authorized by law. Acting under the authority of this provision, and upon the recommendation of the Chief of the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, a Bureau of Trade Relations was organized in the State Department on July 1, 1903." Bureau of Citizenship. A provision in the appropriation act of February 25, 1903, for eight bureaus permitted the elevation of the Passport Bureau to a plane of equality with the other bureaus in the department. This bureau, which was first created by order of Secretary Fish in 1870, continued in charge of the passport clerk until 1898, when it was placed under the Bureau of Accounts, because the bond of the chief of that bureau was made to cover the fees for passports which the passport clerk collected. The Passport Bureau was separated from the Bureau of Accounts and

"The authority upon which the Secretary issued this order was a provision in the diplomatic and consular appropriation act of February 20, 1897, granting to the Secretary the power to change the name of the Bureau of Statistics to the Bureau of Foreign Commerce.-29 Stat. L., 579, 590. In recommending to the Secretary the exercise of this authority, the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics called especial attention to the confusion arising from the fact that there were three bureaus of statistics in the executive departments, and, furthermore, as the work of that bureau in the State Department was exclusively commercial in character, the designation as a Bureau of Statistics was misleading. Cf. Hunt, op. cit., 233-35; Consular Reports (September, 1897), No. 204, Vol. 55, I.

15

32 Stat. L., 825, 827, 830.

placed directly under the supervision of the Secretary, the Assistant Secretaries, and the Chief Clerk, by order of Secretary Hay issued on July 3, 1902." Upon the recommendation of the Chief of the Passport Bureau, and because of the increased importance of the duties of that bureau with respect to the expatriation of citizens and their protection abroad, Secretary Root issued an order on May 31, 1907, changing the name of the Passport Bureau to the Bureau of Citizenship."

An appropriation act of April 17, 1900, authorized the appointment, by the Secretary of State, of an Assistant Solicitor, and an additional Assistant Solicitor was appropriated for under the act of June 22, 1906. The act of April 17, 1900, also provided for a second translator in the State Department." The office of Law Clerk, with the duty of editing the statutes, was created by act of June 22, 1906, which authorized the appointment, by the Secretary of State, of a law clerk and an assistant."

Reorganization, 1909. A reorganization of the Department of State was effected in 1909. Prior to that time, successive Secretaries of State had repeatedly called the attention of Congress to the inadequate personnel and organization of the department to perform properly its ever-increasing volume of business. Elihu Root, who was appointed to the position of Secretary of State by President Roosevelt in 1905, is said to have remarked that " he was like a man trying to conduct the business of a large metropolitan law-firm in the office of a village squire." Secretary Root, under his general authority as head of the department, assigned to the Chief

18

'31 Stat. L., 86, 97; 34 Stat. L., 389, 402. Attention is called to the fact that, although the office of the Solicitor of the Department of State, under the act of 1870, was placed under the supervision and control of the Attorney General, as the head of the Department of Justice, the acts providing for assistant solicitors vested their appointment in the Secretary of State.

1934 Stat. L., 399, 402. This statutory provision for the Law Clerk's office was preceded by the creation of that office through a departmental order. An editor of the laws, which was the title given to the law clerk prior to 1903, was first appointed in 1874. The salary of that officer was paid out of the general appropriations for editing, printing, and distributing the laws.-Cf. Hunt, op. cit., 282-283.

20 Reorganizing the department of state, Nation, Vol. 89, 294 (September 30, 1909).

Clerk, in addition to his other duties, the direction of the Consular Service, and intrusted the supervision of Far Eastern Affairs to the Third Assistant Secretary of State."

On January 12, 1909, Senator Knox of Pennsylvania offered an amendment to the appropriation bill, at that time before the Senate, providing for an Undersecretary of State and a Fourth Assistant Secretary. This amendment was favorably reported to the Senate on January 13 by the Committee on Foreign Relations, and was adopted, but met defeat in the House of Representatives." On August 5, 1909, however, during a special session of the Sixtyfirst Congress, provision was made in a deficiency appropriation bill for defraying the necessary expenses incurred in connection with foreign trade relations which came within the jurisdiction of the Department of State, and for the maintenance of a Division. of Far Eastern Affairs in that department. The Secretary of State was directed to submit to Congress, at its next regular session, a detailed statement of expenditures, including salaries or rates of compensation paid, under this appropriation.”

In accordance with, and under authority of, this act, the offices of Counselor, Resident Diplomatic Officer, and Director of the Consular Service were created by order of Secretary Knox. Five new divisions were also organized in the department, namely, the Division of Latin-American Affairs, the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, the Division of Near Eastern Affairs, the Division of Western European Affairs, and the Division of Information. An Assistant Solicitor and a Law Clerk were added to the legal force of the department, and provision was also made for a sufficient number of additional clerks and messengers." This arrangement was reported to Congress at the next regular session, and in the appropriation act of June 17, 1910, separate provision was made for the offices thus created."

Outline of the organization and work of the department of state, 9 (1911).

60 Cong. 2 sess. (1908-09), Congressional Record, Vol. 43, Pt. 1, 792, 838, 887; Pt. 2, 1296; Pt. 3, 2571; Pt. 4, 3743.

24

25

36 Stat. L., 118, 119.

Outline of the organization and work of the department of state, 12-16.

61 Cong. 2 sess. (1909-10), Congressional Record, Vol. 45, Pt. 1, 113; 36 Stat. L., 468, 484.

Statutory Changes in Organization, 1912-1916. No immediate change was made in the arrangement of bureaus in the department by the reorganization of 1909. The appropriation act of August 23, 1912, provided for only seven chiefs of bureaus, with the result that the Bureau of Trade Relations was abolished. Two Trade Advisers, first appointed under the act of August 5, 1909, took over the duties formerly discharged by the chief of that bureau, and with the clerks of the bureau, formed the Office of Foreign Trade Advisers. This act also failed to make any provision for the salary of the Resident Diplomatic Officer, which necessitated the discontinuance of that office." A Division of Mexican Affairs was established on July 28, 1915." One of the foreign trade advisers was removed from that office on January 31, 1916, and placed at the head of the Office of the Adviser on Commercial Treaties."

Alterations in Organization during the War Period. Although the conduct of foreign relations during the period of the World War imposed additional duties of great magnitude upon the State Department, the organization of the department was not materially altered. The increased vigilance with respect to persons entering into and departing from the United States, made necessary by war conditions, added greatly to the work of the Bureau of Citizenship. That bureau was charged with the enforcement of the act of May 22, 1918, "to prevent in time of war departure from or entry into the United States contrary to the public safety." Under authority of a provision in a deficiency appropriation act of October 6, 1917, a Passport Bureau at the Port of New York, in charge of a Passport Agent, was established on December 15, 1917, as a branch of the Bureau of Citizenship. A similar bureau was established at San Francisco on July 1, 1918, for the maintenance of which an appropriation was voted in the act of July 3, 1918." The Bureau of Citizenship was abolished by departmental order of August 13, 1918, which provided for the creation of a Division of Passport Control and a Visa Office." Two other changes were made

20

27

'37 Stat. L., 360, 372-73. Cf. Hunt. op. cit., 247.

Department of state personnel and organization (hereinafter cited as Personnel and organization"), 29 (1921).

44

in the organization of the department during the war period, namely, the enlargement of the duties of the Division of Information, the title of which was changed to the Division of Foreign Intelligence on May 7, 1917, and the establishment of a Correspondence Bureau in the office of the Second Assistant Secretary of State on July 1, 1918."

Important Changes in Organization, 1919-1923. A number of important changes have been introduced in the State Department since the termination of hostilities in November, 1918. The title of the Counselor for the Department of State was changed to the Undersecretary of State by act of March 1, 1919." A Division of Russian Affairs was established by order of August 13, 1919, and a Division of Political Information by order dated February 6, 1920." The duties of the War Trade Board, and the moneys previously appropriated for that service, were transferred to the Department of State by act of July 19, 1919. A War Trade Board Section was organized in the department, provision for which was made in the deficiency appropriation act of March 1, 1921.” The Office of the Adviser on Commercial Treaties was discontinued on March 1, 1920, and the designation of Correspondence Bureau in the office of the Second Assistant Secretary was discontinued on June 15, 1920.

35

The act of March 3, 1921, making appropriations for the Department of State, omitted any provision for chiefs of bureaus in the department. The act permitted, however, the assignment of officers employed in the department on important drafting work as heads of bureaus as well as heads of divisions." A thorough re-arrangement of the department was effected following the passage of that act. The offices of Law Clerk and of Translator, as separate agencies in the department, were discontinued. The

31

33

304.

34

Register of the department of state, 1917, 25; 1918, 29.

40 Stat. L., 1213, 1224.

Personffel and organization, 30. Congressional directory (May, 1920),

41 Stat. L., 163; 1156, 1159.

Personnel and organization, 24. Secretary of State Lansing, prior to his resignation on February 13, 1920, was reported to have completed plans for the reorganization of the State Department. The nature of this proposed reorganization, however, was not disclosed.

** 41 Stat. L., 1252, 1263.