El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-09-02

International police force of the gov
eminent, has taken charge of the
Philippines and our other island pos
/ sessions; and it Is doing all sorts of
crea tive work there. It IS even build
ing the Panama canal. The treasury,
which was once only a machine for
the collection of revenues, is now the
foundation OF our national banks, and
it is also erecting public buildings
throughout the country. The depart
ment Of justice is watching your in
terests in the restriction of corpora
tions and trusts, and the department
Of the navy has many creative fea-
lures As TO the interior, that has be-
come a great conservation bureau,
which is conserving our coal lands.
retaining our deserts and draining
the swamps. 1t is also watching over
the safety of the men in the mines
And last as to the department of
agriculture, that has so largely to Go
with creative work that it is impos-
sible to describe its ramifications.
The Secretary Talks of His Job.
But how about your own depart
ment. Mr.. Secretary" I asked You,
too, are not idle. Give me an outline
of your work in a nutshell"
1T is difficult to put the department
Of commerce and labor in nutshell"
was the secretary's reply. "a year or
so ago we were employing more men
than there are soldiers in the United
States army. That was WREN the GEN.
sus was in full swing. We had last
year over 1900 enumerators and also
a temporary force of clerks numbering
5000 or 1000. In addition to the cen
sus, we have a dozen different bureaus
here at Washington. each Of which has
its own work.
This department, which was orig
inally organized to deal with commerce
and labor. and especially with the cor
porations and business interests of the
United States, has taken in many of
the bureaus OF the other departments.
The bureau of manufactures for in
stance is an offspring of the depart
ment of state 1t is devoted to the
development of our domestic and for
eign trade and it publishes Informal
ton gathered by the consuls, who are
under the state department. We have
also our own special agents who travel
over the world looking up trade and
trade openings. They are gathering
Information as to certain classes Of ex-
ports, reporting the demand for them
in each country and telling how they
should be handled and marketed. We
publish daily reports from OJner cOun-
tries as to the opportunities offered
for American manufactures. and in
time we shall have a corps of such ex-
perts going from trade center to trade
center in the United States and adj
vising the people how and where to
market their products abroad.
Our Foreign Trade.
TN the same way we have inherited
the bureau of statistics from the de-
partment Of the treasury. This has
also to do with our foreign commerce
and, together with the bureau of man
ufactures. Nit gives a vast amount Of
valuable information as to Uncle Sans
business and how it may be spread to
every part of the globe. With other
things We are now making q directory
of the names Of business houses which
handle imported merchandise in all
foreign countries. The material for
this has already been gathered, and
the book will be published some time
this year.
AS to what our foreign trade is the
bureau of statistics will give you fig
ures. Last year our exports were just
about s1.745.00 600, or almost s6,0Oo,-
eco day for every working day OF
the year. Our imports were about the
highest they have ever been in the
history of the country, and they
amounted ali told to almost $4,000, 900