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for consumption, and other statements showing details of the trade movements with foreign countries and with the noncontiguous territories for a term of years.

The Statistical Abstract of the United States, a volume of about 800 pages, presents in condensed form statements regarding the commerce, production, industries, population, finance, currency, indebtedness, and wealth of the country, and includes in addition to the compilations made by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce the more important statistical data compiled by other branches of the Government, and with this a condensed statement of the commerce of the principal foreign countries. It is published annually.

Specific opportunities to extend trade.-Specific opportunities for the extension of American trade, transmitted by consuls, are published in the Daily Consular and Trade Reports under the title "Foreign trade opportunities." Notes relative to opportunities for the sale of American manufactures to the Federal Government are also published under the heading "Proposals for Government supplies."

Plans and specifications for public and private works in foreign countries, as well as samples of articles for which a demand has been or may be created, often accompany reports by consular officers and commerical agents. Announcement of the receipt of these is made in the Daily Consular and Trade Reports, and circulation of them is made by the Bureau, an endeavor being made to reach as soon as possible the manufacturers likely to be interested.

The Bureau cooperates with representative trade organizations by conferences with their officers, by the use of membership lists for the distribution of confidential information, and by filing with them plans and specifications for work relating to the industry or industries represented by such organizations. Numerous individual requests for information from American manufacturers and exporters receive attention and endeavor is made to supply promptly all material in possession of the Bureau on a particular subject.

All of the trade information received is carefully indexed, and the Bureau has a record of reports on most lines of trade in foreign countries, and when requests for data on any particular line are received search is made through these records and all information available is furnished. If a subject as to which information is sought is one of importance and interest to a number of concerns, such concerns are invited to submit a list of questions covering the facts desired, and these inquiries are sent to American consuls throughout the world. The results of these inquiries are subsequently published and distributed by the Bureau.

The Bureau has also issued a directory of 1,138 quarto pages containing the names of about 125,000 individuals and firms in foreign

countries engaged in the import trade, classified by countries and by industries. Supplements will be issued from time to time making corrections and additions.

The bulletins and monographs of the Bureau on special statistical and commercial subjects now number several hundred titles, and cover a wide range of trade matters.

Domestic trade development.-Although the law provides for the promotion and development of trade at home and abroad, work has thus far, in large measure, been devoted to recording and extending the foreign trade of the United States. The work of domestic commercial development is now being taken up actively, and is destined to become an extremely important branch of the service of the office.

The yearly exports of manufactures to foreign countries are now about 5 per cent of the total of 20,000 million dollars' worth produced in the United States annually. The factors of commercial promotion and development related to the domestic production, distribution, and consumption of manufactures which are of legitimate interest to the Bureau are very numerous and worthy of extensive investigation and publicity.

The Bureau has already entered this field with its commercial agents and will extend its researches and add to its publications as rapidly as practicable. Commercial and manufacturers' organizations have been studied, and a report has been published dealing with the promotive activities of 70 representative organizations. Commercial museums and expositions, commercial education, methods of distribution of manufactured products, standards of credit, quality and sources of raw materials, and similar subjects await study from the point of view of the Bureau, as outlined in the law.

Chiefs of the Bureau of Statistics, Bureau of Manufactures, and Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, with dates of service.

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LAW PERTAINING TO THE BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE.

Creation of Bu

reau.

Stat., 407).

[As modified by act of February 14, 1903, and subsequent legislation.]

The Bureau of Manufactures and the Bureau of StaAug. 25, 1912 (37 tistics, both of the Department of Commerce [and Labor], are hereby consolidated into one bureau to be known as the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, to take effect July first, nineteen hundred and twelve, and the duties required by law to be performed by the Bureau of Manufactures and the Bureau of Statistics are transferred to and shall after that date be performed by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.

Tariffs of foreign countries, etc.

Stat., 408).

[A Chief of Bureau at $4,000, two Assistant Chiefs of Bureau, Chief of Division of Consular Reports, chief clerk, and other employees are provided for by the act creating the Bureau.]

1 To enable the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to collate and publish the tariffs of foreign counAug. 23, 1912 (57 tries in the English language, with the equivalents in currency, weights, and measures of the United States of all such foreign terms used in said tariffs, and to furnish information to Congress and the Executive relative to customs laws and regulations of foreign countries, and the purchase of books and periodicals, $10,000.

Foreign and do

mestic commerce.

To further promote and develop the foreign and doAug. 23, 1912 (37 mestic commerce of the United States, $60,000, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce.2

Stat., 408).

Duties transferred from Bureau of Labor.

Aug. 23, 1912 (37 Stat., 407).

66

Those certain duties of the Department of Labor, or Bureau of Labor, contained in section seven of the Act approved June thirteenth, eighteen hundred and eightyeight, that established the same, which especially charged it to ascertain, at as early a date as possible, and whenever industrial changes shall make it essential, the cost of producing articles at the time dutiable in the United States, in leading countries where such articles are produced, by fully specified units of production, and under a classification showing the different elements of cost, or

1 This is a provision of the Act making appropriations for the legislative, executive. and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913. The work of compiling and publishing_information concerning foreign tariff and customs regulations was inaugurated by the Bureau of Statistics in pursuance of an authorization contained in the act of March 18, 1904 (33 Stat., 138). On May 25, 1906, the work was transferred to the Bureau of Manufactures by Department order, which transfer received statutory recognition in the act of February 26, 1907 (34 Stat., 988).

2 This is a provision of the Act making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913. Under this provision the Secretary is authorized to appoint and pay commercial agents at home and abroad to carry out the purposes of the appropriation. Authority for the appointment of such agents for the purpose of investigating trade conditions abroad was granted first by the appropriation act of February 3, 1905 (33 Stat., 681). This authority was continued in subsequent acts. The act of March 4, 1911 (36 Stat., 1226), extended the labors of such agents to include the United States and its insular possessions. By Department order of January 23, 1911, general supervision of the work and duties of commercial agents was placed with the Chief of the Bureau of Manufactures, whose duties, by the act of August 23, 1912, were transferred to the Chief of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.

3 The Act of March 4, 1913, creating the Department of Labor, transferred the Bureau of Labor to that Department and changed its designation to Bureau of Labor Statistics.

approximate cost, of such articles of production, including the wages paid in such industries per day, week, month, or year, or by the piece; and hours employed per day; and the profits of manufacturers and producers of such articles; and the comparative cost of living, and the kind of living; what articles are controlled by trusts or other combinations of capital, business operations, or labor, and what effect said trusts, or other combinations of capital, business operations, or labor have on production and prices," are hereby transferred to and shall hereafter be discharged by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and it shall be also the duty of said Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to make such special investigation and report on particular subjects when required to do so by the President or either House of Congress.

DUTIES TRANSFERRED FROM BUREAU OF MANUFACTURES.

Stat., 825), sec. 5.

* * It shall be the province and duty of said bureau Feb. 14, 1903 (32 [of Manufactures], under the direction of the Secretary, to foster, promote, and develop the 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 consulsgeneral, 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 Act1 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 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.

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 to prepare from the dispatches of consular officers, for transmission to the Secretary of Commerce, such information as pertains to the work of the Department of Commerce; and such person shall have the rank and salary of a chief of bureau, and be furnished with such clerical assistants as may from time to time be authorized by law.

1 Section 3 defines province and duty of Department of Commerce. (See p. 21.)

Department of State to obtain

information from for Department. Ibid, sec. 11.

consular officers

Purpose of the

Bureau.
R. S., 335.

Annual report of commerce and navigation. R. S., 336.

Method of re

ports.

DUTIES TRANSFERRED FROM THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS.1

The purpose of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce is the collection, arrangement, and classification of such statistical information as may be procured, showing, or tending to show, each year the condition of the * * * [manufactures], domestic trade, [currency, and banks] of the several States and Territories. The Chief of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce shall, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, annually prepare a report on the statistics of commerce and navigation of the United States with foreign countries, to the close of the fiscal year. Such accounts shall comprehend all goods, wares, and merchandise exported from the United States to other countries; all goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the United States from other countries, and all navigation employed in the foreign trade of the United States; which facts shall be stated according to the principles and in the manner hereby directed.

First. The kinds, quantities, and values of all articles exported, and the kinds, quantities, and values of all articles imported, shall be distinctly stated in such accounts, except in cases in which it may appear to the Secretary of Commerce that separate statements of the species, quantities, or values of any particular articles would swell the annual statements without utility; and, in such cases, the kinds and total values of such articles shall be stated together, or in such classes as the Secretary of Commerce may think fit.

Second. The exports shall be so stated as to show the exports to each foreign country, and their values; and the imports shall be so stated as to show the imports from each foreign country, and their values.

Third. The exports shall be so stated as to show, separately, the exports of articles of the production or manufacture of the United States, and their values; and the exports of articles of the production or manufacture of foreign countries, and their values.

Fourth. The navigation employed in the foreign trade of the United States shall be stated in such manner as to show the amount of the tonnage of all vessels departing from the United States for foreign countries; and, separately, the amount of such tonnage of vessels of the United States, and the amount of such tonnage of foreign vessels; and also the foreign nations to which such foreign tonnage belongs, and the amount of such tonnage belonging to each foreign nation; and in such manner as also to show the amount of the tonnage of all vessels de

1 In the laws included under this head "Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce" has been substituted for "Bureau of Statistics" wherever the latter designation appeared.

2 These statistics are gathered and published by the Bureau of the Census. (See pp. 47, 56, 57.)

3 These statistics are gathered and published by the Comptroller of the Currency. (R. S., 333, and amendments.)

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