The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-05-13
SHAPING THE POLICY
OF NEW DEPART NENT
Secretary COrtelyou and His
Chiefs Hard at Work.
VAST FIELD OF OPERATIONS
Enormous Amount of Statistics to Be
Gathered and Generous Appropria-
tons Required From Congress.

Secretary COrtelyou and his assistants
are rapidly shaping the policy which is
to govern the working of the new De-
partmept of Commerce and Labor With
the 1st of July the new department will
have under its control a large number
OF bureaus, some now independent and
others taken from the old departments,
and from the present outlook, the De-
partment of Commerce will soon become
one of the largest business organiza-
tiOns of the Government
1t is planned to enlarge the field. and
consequently the working force of all
the bureaus that come under the de-
partment. Appropriations from Con-
gress will be necessary to enable Sec
rotary Cortelyou TO carry out these
plans. With more than 100000 immi
grants entering this country annually
and the passage of more stringent i'm
migration laws. the work of the Immi-
grafton Bureau has increased enormous
! ~. Absolute knowledge of the condi-
items OF labor in the United States is
| becoming more imperative every day.
The department was designed especially
for such investigation and the scope of
the Bureau of Labor. hitherto an indie
pendent bureau. will be greatly enlarged
under the new department.
Bureau of Corporations.
| Another bureau that will grow rapid
! ly is the Bureau of Corporations, which
| is TO compile a great amount of sta
tistics governing the Markings of the
greatest business interests of the world
and has the power TO investigate such
| corporations whenever it is thought
| necessary
| The new department is -eminently
the department of statistics No gov
| eminent in the world collects such a
vast amount of statistics as does the
United States. The collection of these
i statistics is at once a great expense to
| the Government both Federal and
State, and a source of irritation in many
cases to business men. This last is due
| to the fact that business men are Wis
| tied by agents from several bureaus ask
! ing the same information. Secretary
Cortelyou is making every endeavor to
| save the Government money and to avoid
! irritating the business world by pre-
venting this duplication of work.
The unification and collaboration of
State and Federal statistical work was
| the subject of discussion at a recent
convention of the officials OF statisti-
cal bureaus of America. Commissioner
| of Labor Carroll D. Wright and Direc-
upon the delegates the necessity of put
country on a more practical business
basis. The movement was given II
! hearty support of the Department of
Labor and Commerce.
Commissioner Garfeld's Plans.
Commissioner Garfield, of the Bureau
of Corporations, has for many weeks past
! been engaged upon the compilation of
all the information in regard to corpora
! lions gathered by the State statistical
! bureaus. Whatever is already done sue
| cessfully along this line by the State
bureaus he will omit from his schedule
of work He will not begin the active
work of his bureau until he has gathered
! all this information. though already
! complaints have been filed with him.
asking for the investigation OF several
corporations. What the corporations
Will endeavor TO do under the strain OF
examination there is no way TO ascer-
! tain at present.
The question has been raised, what Will
| be the stand taken by the department in
regard 70 labor unions-whether there
will be some special form of recognition
or not. 1t is understood Secretary
/ Cortelyou will accord the same recogni-
ton 10 the labor unions that he does to
non union and individual workers, no
more and no less.
! EOnUITTnTO OIL TnTTD