Finally, the Department of Agriculture is probably more nearly free from the evils of political appointments than any other department of the government. All of the officers of the department, except the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary, the Chief of the Weather Bureau, and the Solicitor are in the classified service. The expert scientific and technical knowledge which the bureau chiefs and other important officers must have for the proper performance of their duties, in addition to the value which long and certain tenure gives to their services, has operated to remove these positions almost entirely from the domain of politics. While the Secretary of Agriculture, as a member of the Cabinet, must necessarily be in political accord with the President, it is interesting to note that Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson served from March 5, 1897, to March 5, 1913, as the head of that department. Of course, no party changes occurred during that time, but even so, his long period of service far exceeds that of any other department Secretary.

Several important reorganizations have been effected in the department. Beginning in 1901, the divisional basis of organization which had existed in the department since its creation in 1862, was gradually abandoned, giving way to the bureau system inaugurated by Secretary Wilson, with the approval of Congress. Again in 1915, a reorganization was effected at the instance of Secretary Houston, which was chiefly concerned with the regrouping and reapportionment of the activities of the department, without materially altering its existing organization. The creation of the offices of Director of Information, Director of Scientific Work, and Director of Regulatory Work, furnished supervisory and coördinating agencies for three distinct groups of activities in which each bureau of the department, to a greater or less extent, is engaged, namely, regulation, research, and education or information. Finally, the recent establishment of a Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the Office of Director of Extension has served further to centralize and unify two distinct and important groups of activities performed by the department.

CHAPTER XIX

THE DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE AND LABOR

Because of their comparatively recent origin and their establishment as a joint department in 1903, it seems advisable to treat the administrative organization of the Department of Commerce and of the Department of Labor in a single chapter. Problems of commercial regulation and the promotion of the interests of commerce and manufactures confronted the national government of the United States from the beginning, but it was not until after the Civil War that the growth of national labor organizations forced upon Congress the necessity of recognizing the interests of labor in the administration of government. The discussion of administrative organization in these two departments will be preceded by a brief historical account of the factors which resulted in their establishment. Proposals for an Executive Department to Represent the Interests of Commerce and Labor. Several proposals made during the constitutional convention of 1787 with respect to the establishment and organization of the administrative branch of the national government indicate that at least a few of the early statesmen were cognizant of the problems of commercial regulation which would follow the formation of the Federal Union. Thus Gouverneur Morris, in submitting his plan for a Council of State, proposed that one of the members of that council should be a Secretary of Commerce and Finance, a part of whose duties should be "to recommend such things as may in his judgment promote the commercial interests of the United States." This plan also provided for a Secretary of Domestic Affairs, to have supervision of agriculture, manufactures, roads, and navigation. Reference has been made in a foregoing chapter to the letter written by Commodore John Paul Jones to the Marquis de Lafayette concerning the Constitution, in which he expressed the opinion that, "as commerce must be our great reliance, it would not be amiss to create ... a Ministry of Commerce." 1

'Farrand, Records of the federal convention, II, 342; Supra, 84, 89.

As we have seen, no provision was made in the Constitution, as it was finally drawn up, for the establishment of executive or administrative departments. Congress, in creating the first departments in 1789, failed to make any definite provision concerning commerce and industry. Representative Vining's proposal for a Home Department, submitted on July 23, 1789, the duties of which should include that of reporting "to the President plans for the protection and improvement of manufactures, agriculture, and commerce," was defeated.' President Washington in his first annual message to Congress briefly referred to this subject as follows: "The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by all means will not, I trust, need recommendation. . . ." He did not offer any definite suggestions as to the action Congress might take, nor did his recommendation lead to the introduction of any positive measures in Congress, other than those concerning the promotion of agriculture, which have been noted in a preceding chapter.'

The first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, gave special consideration to the commerce and industries of the country, and in his well-known Report on Manufactures, definitely proposed the establishment of a board in the national government for the promotion of arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce.* No further consideration was given to the subject until it was broached in connection with the proposals concerning the establishment of a Home Department. A resolution was introduced in the House on March 3, 1825, which proposed that a department to be denominated "the Home Department should be established for the purpose of superintending whatever may relate to the interests of agriculture and manufactures, the promotion of the progress of science and the arts, the intercourse and trade between the several states by roads and canals." This resolution, however, was promptly defeated. Notwithstanding this and other proposals leading up to the establishment of the Department of the Interior, which gave recognition to the business interests of the country, very few of the commercial and industrial agencies were put under the control of that department, most of them remaining under the

2

3

Annals of Congress, I, 666-69; Supra, 98.

'Messages and papers of the presidents (ed. Richardson), I, 66.

American State Papers, Finance, I, 144.

18 Cong. 2 sess. (1824-25), Register of Debates, I, 740.

jurisdiction of the Treasury Department which, since 1789, had become the principal agency of the national government through which a limited supervision of the commercial and industrial life of the nation was administered.

Beginning in 1860, a large number of bills were introduced in Congress for the establishment of one or more additional departments. The recognition accorded to the interests of agriculture by the creation of the Department of Agriculture in 1862 gave additional impetus to such proposals.' Commercial conventions at Detroit in 1865, and at Boston in 1868, and the National Board. of Trade in 1874 memorialized the Congress for the establishment of a Department of Commerce, in order that the rapidly increasing volume of capital invested in commerce and manufactures might be the subject of governmental aid and supervision.*

Bureau of Labor in Interior Department. Meanwhile the phenomenal growth of labor organizations, especially the Knights of Labor, forced upon Congress the necessity of granting recognition to labor in the administrative branch of the national government. Beginning in 1871, several bills were introduced for the purpose of establishing a bureau of labor or of labor statistics. These measures were actively supported by the representatives of labor, and Congress finally passed a bill, which was approved by the President on June 27, 1884, establishing a Bureau of Labor in the Department of the Interior. It was the duty of this bureau, which was placed in charge of a Commissioner appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate, to "collect information upon the subject of labor, its relation to capital, the hours of labor, and the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity." The Secretary of the Interior was authorized to appoint a chief clerk for the bureau, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner."

* Supra, 152-54, 156-57, 271-72, 275.

'For a bibliography of legislative proposals anticipating the Department of Commerce and Labor, see Organization and law of the department of commerce and labor (hereinafter cited as "Organization"), 13-21 (1904). 'Ibid., II.

'Ibid., 13-16.

10

23 Stat. L., 60; Smith, The national bureau of labor, Political Science Quarterly, I, 437 et seq. (September, 1886).

Proposal for a Commission of Labor. The function of the Bureau of Labor, as defined in the act of 1884, was purely statistical. Serious industrial disputes involving important commercial and manufacturing enterprizes in the United States, among the most notable of which was the Southwestern Railroad strike in 1886, led President Cleveland to recommend in a special message to Congress dated April 22, 1886, the creation of a commission of labor, consisting of three members, who should be regular officers of the government, "charged among other duties with the consideration and settlement, when possible, of all controversies between labor and capital." "The establishment by Federal authority of such a bureau," declared the President, "would be a just and sensible recognition of the value of labor and of its right to be represented in the departments of the Government." He suggested that this commission could easily be ingrafted upon the existing Bureau of Labor "by the addition of two more commissioners and by supplementing the duties now imposed upon it by such other powers and functions as would permit the commissioners to act as arbitrators when necessary between labor and capital...." This project, in spite of executive influence, failed to meet the approval of Congress."

Department of Labor, 1888. The efforts on the part of the agricultural interests of the nation to induce Congress to establish a Department of Agriculture in charge of a Secretary of Cabinet rank, which reached their fruition in 1889, encouraged the representatives of organized labor to demand similar legislative action with respect to a department of labor. As early as December 21, 1885, a bill was introduced in the House to establish an executive department of labor, with a secretary of labor, which was referred to the Commitee of Labor, but never reported back to the House." Congress, in a partial attempt to meet the demands of labor, passed a bill to establish a separate Department of Labor, in charge of a

11

Messages and papers of the presidents, VIII, 394; 49 Cong. I sess. (1885-86), Congressional Record, Vol. 17, Pt. 4, 3728-29, 3760-65. For a brief historical account of the efforts looking toward the establishment of a department of labor, see Wright, The working of the department of labor, Monographs on Social Economics, I, 2-3 (1901); also Department of Labor, Annual reports, 1920, 13-17.

1249 Cong. I sess., Congressional Record, Vol. 17, Pt. 1, 384.