referred to the previous action in 1920, holding that "by the very highest authority, the action of the committee [of the whole House] itself, the proposition has been passed upon. The chair does not feel at liberty under the circumstances to overrule that decision.' At neither time was any objection made in the Senate.

99 15

On June 8, 1921, the activities of the Office of the Foreign Trade Adviser of the State Department in the field of the promotion of commerce were terminated by department order 211 of the Secretary of State, which provided in part as follows:

The section of the office of the Foreign Trade Adviser in which diplomatic and consular reports are distributed, indexed, filed, and otherwise handled, is hereby transferred to the Office of the Director of the Consular Service.

The supervision of the censoring, grading, and criticising of commercial and economic reports, the drafting of correspondence on consular trade promotion and reporting work, as well as the distributing of commercial and economic reports to the Department of Commerce, and to such other government departments and organizations and non-government organizations as may appropriately receive such reports, will be carried on hereafter in the office of the Director of the Consular Service."

The fiscal year 1922 marked a decided change in the organization of the work and an increase in the personnel of the Bureau in Washington necessary properly to handle inquiries and to utilize the increasing amount of material received from the field. Beginning with the fiscal year 1922 there were specifically provided two additional assistant directors and an expert in commercial laws. Provision was also made for assigning to duty in Washington not more than two commercial attaches and not more than four trade commissioners. An important feature of the situation in the fiscal year 1922, was the appropriation of $250,000 to enable the Bureau to "investigate and report on domestic as well as foreign problems relating to the production, distribution and marketing in so far as they relate to the important export industries of the United States."

15

Ibid. vol. 64, p. I, p. 419.

16 In 1923, the units of the State Department concerned primarily with economic questions were the Office of the Foreign Trade Adviser, to keep the officials of the Department informed on economic matters, and a new Division of Commercial Activities, established to render more efficient the trade work of the consuls.

This appropriation, together with increased money available for services in the District of Columbia, enabled the Bureau to establish the eighteen commodity divisions as well as several other technical and regional divisions. Prior to this time the regional divisions handled matters relating to commodities, as well as general economic questions. The commodity divisions were organized in order that the plan for extending foreign trade in specific classes of commodities might be made by specialists who are familiar with the industries, and who are in close touch with the producers.

When the Bureau was established in 1912 it consisted of three producing divisions: Consular Reports, Foreign Tariffs, and Statistics. There was also a general office dealing with correspondence, distribution of publications, and other routine matters. The Cost of Production Division was organized in 1913, and transferred to the Tariff Commission in 1917. During the fiscal year 1915 the Division of Consular Reports became the Editorial Division, and the Correspondence and Distribution Sections were organized. A Trade Information Section established during the fiscal year 1917 to take the place of the Correspondence Section was made a division at the beginning of the fiscal year 1918. For a short time during the fiscal year 1920 the Trade Information Division and the Distribution Section were placed under the Division of Research. In May, 1920, the Division of Trade Information was again made a separate unit, under the name of the Division of Correspondence and Distribution, the Distribution Section being made a part of it.

The Research and Latin-American Sections were organized in the fiscal year 1915, the Latin-American Section becoming the LatinAmerican Division in the fiscal year 1917 and the Research Section being made the Research Division in the fiscal year 1918. The District Office, Commercial Agents, and Commercial Attache divisions were established in the fiscal year 1916; the Commercial Agents. Division in the fiscal year 1919 became the Division of Foreign Investigations, which in the fiscal year 1920 was consolidated with the Division of Commercial Attaches to form the Foreign Service Division.

Divisions of Cost Accounting and of Export Licenses were organized late in the fiscal year 1917, but were separated from the Bureau early in the fiscal year 1918, the cost accounting work going to the Federal Trade Commission and the export license work

to the Exports Administrative Board, which later became the War Trade Board.

The Far Eastern Division and a Russian Division were organized in the fiscal year 1919, the Russian Division becoming a section of the Far Eastern Division during the following year. The Near Eastern Section and the Western European Division were organized in the fiscal year 1920, the name of the Western European Division being changed to European Division during the year, but becoming again the Western European Division during the fiscal year 1922, when the Eastern European Division was created. On its organization the Eastern European Division absorbed the Russian Section, and late in 1922 its name was changed to Eastern European and Levantine Division, when it absorbed the Near Eastern unit which had been given the status of a division during the fiscal year 1921. A Commercial Intelligence Section, organized during the fiscal year 1919, was made a division during the fiscal year 1922.

Three technical and eighteen commodity divisions were organized during the fiscal year 1922 and the early part of the fiscal year 1923 under the following names:

In the fall of 1922 the duties in connection with the administration of the China Trade Act of September 19, 1922 (42 Stat. L., 849), devolved upon the Bureau by order of the Secretary of Commerce. This act provides for Federal incorporation of American companies doing business in China and the remission of taxes on the profits realized solely in that country and distributed to American or Chinese residents in China. All powers in connection with the administration of the act are conferred on the Secretary of Commerce, who has delegated the detailed administrative duties to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.

By the act of January 5, 1923 (42 Stat. L., 1109), the Treasury Department was relieved of the duty of tabulating the statistics of imports and exports, and the Bureau of Customs Statistics in New York was transferred to the Department of Commerce. By order of the Secretary of Commerce this unit was made a section of the Division of Statistics of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. By this act one department was made responsible for the whole process of tabulating, compiling, and publishing foreign trade statistics, as had been the case prior to the creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903.

The appropriations for the fiscal year 1924 afford basis for the development of work along several lines previously not undertaken to any large extent. These are (1) a detailed study of the market situation as regards our export surplus of agricultural products, (2) investigation of the condition affecting the supply of certain essential raw materials, such as rubber, sisal, nitrate of soda, and tanning materials, and (3) some studies of the more important problems relating to domestic commerce. These are described in the chapter devoted to activities.

The activities of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce may be classified as follows: (1) Promotion of the export trade of the United States; (2) collection and publication of statistics; (3) collection and distribution of information regarding investment opportunities in foreign countries; (4) administration of the China Trade Act; (5) aid to other government departments; (6) studies of industrial and commercial methods and organization in foreign countries; and (7) supplying information regarding domestic economic conditions and trade. The administration of the China Trade Act and the distribution of information regarding investments are incidental to the promotion of foreign trade, and the supplying of information to other government departments is the result of the accumulation of data on economic conditions through the trade promotion activity. The work in the field of domestic trade has been relatively unimportant.

Promotion of Export Trade. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce has been to a large extent a unifunctional organization, as the greater part of its work has been devoted to the promotion of export trade. This major activity may be subdivided into the following classes of specialized lines of work:

1. Procuring and distributing information regarding economic conditions and markets for American goods in foreign countries.

2. Procuring and distributing names of merchants in foreign countries. 3. Procuring and distributing data on foreign tariffs and trade restrictions. 4. Protection of American trade-marks and patents.

5. Procuring and distributing information regarding commercial laws and practices in foreign countries.

6. The adjustment of disputes between American and foreign merchants. 7. Stimulation of interest in export trade.

8. Assistance to foreign buyers.

9. Distribution of information regarding American goods and industries. 10. Making studies of the technique of foreign trade.

II. Furnishing assistance and advice in connection with research work.