Treasury Department and the Bureau of Foreign Commerce of the Department of State, into the Bureau of Statistics of the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor, by virtue of the act of February 14, 1903, the preparation and the publication of all official statistics of foreign commerce as well as consular and other foreign trade information were brought within the functions of a single government bureau for a very brief time, after July 1, 1903. The activities of the Bureau of Statistics at this time consisted of the preparation of the following publications, in addition to supplying such special information as was called for from time to time by members and committees of Congress, other government offices, and the public: Annual: Foreign commerce and navigation. Statistical abstract of the United States. Commercial relations. Monthly: Monthly summary of commerce and finance. Advance sheets from monthly summary of commerce and finance. Total value of imports and exports. Exports of domestic breadstuffs. Consular reports. Daily: Daily consular reports. In addition to these regular publications, special consular reports and other general publications covering foreign trade conditions were issued at irregular intervals. In 1905 there was organized a Division of Foreign Tariffs, which had charge of the collection and distribution of information regarding the customs tariffs of foreign countries, the purpose of this work being not to aid in tariff legislation, but to indicate the duties assessed on American goods marketed abroad. The organic act of the Department of Commerce and Labor gave the Secretary "power and authority to rearrange the statistical work of the bureaus and offices confided to said department and to consolidate any of the statistical bureaus or offices transferred to said department." The same act gave the President authority, "by order, in writing, to transfer at any time the whole or any part of any office, bureau, division or other branch of the public service engaged in statistical or scientific work," from any of the other departments, existing at that time, except the Department of Agriculture, to the Department of Commerce and Labor." While no transfers were made by the President under this authority, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor made a number of important rearrangements of the statistical work of his department. Soon after the organization of this department on May 15, 1903, the Secretary appointed a commission on statistical work consisting of the heads of the bureaus under his jurisdiction engaged in the preparation and publication of statistical information. This commission made its report on July 1, 1903, recommending certain changes in the way of readjustments and consolidations in the statistical work of the department. The first transfer under the authority granted by the organic act, in accordance with the commission's recommendations, was that of the Consular Division of the Bureau of Statistics to the Bureau of Manufactures by the order of the Secretary dated June 25, 1905, effective July 1, 1905. On March 5, 1906, the Secretary directed the transfer of the work of preparing statistics of arrival and departure of passengers from the Bureau of Statistics to the Bureau of Immigration. On May 25, 1906, he directed the transfer of the Division of Foreign Tariffs from the Bureau of Statistics to the Bureau of Manufactures. Aside from these transfers the work of the Bureau of Statistics was not materially changed during this period. In 1910 the Bureau of Statistics began the quarterly publication of statistics of imports entered for consumption and the duties collected thereon, which statistics had therefore been published only annually in the report on commerce and navigation. The first issue was for the quarter ending September 30, 1910. The act of 1903, which established the Department of Commerce and Labor, also made provision for the creation in the new department of a Bureau of Manufactures which was not organized until February, 1905. It was provided that: It shall be the province and duty of the said bureau, under the direction of the Secretary, to foster, promote, and develop the 10 This authority can still be exercised with the exception that the act of February 3, 1905 (33 Stat. L., 650), provided that the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service "shall remain under the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department until otherwise hereafter specifically provided by law." various manufacturing industries of the United States, and markets for.the same at home and abroad, domestic and foreign, by gathering, compiling, publishing, and supplying all available and useful information concerning such industries and such markets, and by such other methods and means as may be prescribed by the Secretary or provided by law. And all consular officers of the United States, including consuls-general, consuls, and commercial agents, are hereby required, and it is made a part of their duty, under the direction of the Secretary of State, to gather and compile, from time to time, useful and material information and statistics in respect to the subjects enumerated in section three of this Act in the countries and places to which such consular officers are accredited, and to send, under the direction of the Secretary of State, reports as often as required by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor of the information and statistics thus gathered and compiled, such reports to be transmitted through the State Department to the Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor. As the duties of the Bureau were stated in general terms only, the determination of its specific activities was left to the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. These activities were assigned in two ways: (1) by the transfer to the Bureau of work formerly performed by other statistical bureaus of the department, and (2) when money was available, by undertaking new lines of work under the general grant of powers contained in the act of February 14, 1903. While the act establishing the Bureau of Manufactures provided that its duties should be to develop markets both at home and abroad, its activities were confined almost entirely to the promotion of export trade. Prior to July 1, 1905, comparatively little was done beyond necessary preliminary work, but on that date there was transferred to it the Consular Division of the Bureau of Statistics, which edited and published the Consular Reports and the Annual Report on Commercial Relations. On July 1, also there became available an appropriation of $30,000 made to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for compensation and necessary traveling expenses "of special agents to investigate trade conditions abroad, with the object of promoting the foreign commerce of the United States." This appropriation was the first for the extensive work in foreign countries which has been carried on continuously since that time. Four special agents were appointed, one being assigned to Canada, Mexico, and Cuba, one to Central and South America, and two to China and Japan. Although the appropriation was made to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, these special agents were under the direction of the Bureau of Manufactures. In addition the Bureau received and published the reports of consular officers dealing with trade promotion matters. In February, 1906, the Bureau of Manufactures started a new method of distributing trade information, by publishing, in the Daily Consular and Trade Reports, brief notices entitled “Foreign Trade Opportunities," which called special attention to specific opportunities for the sale of American goods. These notices have been published continually on the same plan up to the present time (see page 53). The Bureau was further enlarged in May, 1906, by the transfer of the Division of Foreign Tariffs from the Bureau of Statistics. The appropriation act making provision for special agents or commercial agents, as they were then called, for the fiscal year 1912 (36 Stat. L., 1226), authorized the investigation of trade conditions in the United States and insular possessions, in addition to foreign countries. This change enabled the Bureau in later years to make some investigations regarding industries in the United States, although the promotion of export trade continued to be the major activity of the organization. Another important result of this authority was that the agents about to visit foreign countries were enabled to travel in the United States in order to ascertain directly what kind of information was desired, and on their return to present some of the results personally to manufacturers and commercial organizations. While the Bureau of Manufactures was developing its service for obtaining and distributing foreign trade information, the Bureau of Trade Relations of the State Department was engaged in a similar service. This bureau had been established by virtue of the act creating the Department of Commerce and Labor, in which it was provided that "a person, to be designated by the Secretary of State, shall be appointed 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; and such person shall have the rank and salary of a chief of bureau, and may be furnished with such clerical assistants as may from time to time be authorized by law." This bureau developed activities in the field of collection and dissemination of information upon subjects of foreign commerce and industry, and at times determined upon subjects of investigation without consulting with the Department of Commerce and Labor. It also, to a certain extent, acted as a distributing agent of commercial information. The work was carried on with advice of the Director of the Consular Service, the Counselor for the Department of State, the Chiefs of the Divisions of Far Eastern, LatinAmerican, Near Eastern, and European Affairs, and two commercial advisers. Fifth Period: After August 23, 1912. In the early part of 1912, there were three government organizations concerned with foreign trade promotion-the Bureau of Statistics and the Bureau of Manufactures in the Department of Commerce and Labor and the Bureau of Trade Relations in the Department of State. As early as 1908 a committee consisting of the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor and the heads of the bureaus of the department engaged in statistical work had recommended that the Bureau of Manufactures and the Bureau of Statistics be consolidated, and that the bureau thus formed be called the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. In May, 1912, the President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency made the same recommendation, with the additional recommendation that the Bureau of Trade Relations of the Department of State be merged with the two bureaus of the Department of Commerce and Labor. The act of August 23, 1912 (37 Stat. L., 407), making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the government for the fiscal year 1913, created the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce by the consolidation of the Bureau of Statistics and the Bureau of Manufactures. No affirmative action was taken in regard to the Bureau of Trade Relations in the State Department, but its discontinuance was effected by the simple expedient of not appropriating any money for its support. This act made no other change in the relations of the two departments, the consular officers still continuing to be the chief sources of information and their reports being transmitted to the Department of Commerce and Labor through the Department of State. The legis |