The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-12-13
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
GOING AFTER FOREIGN TRADE

name is the Bureau of Foreign an6
Domestic Commerce of the Depart
ment of Commerce. The director o.
this organization is Julius Klein
hence its nickname.
The present Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Compnerce was an outgrowtt
of the old Bureau OF Statistics. W h1ch
in turn was one of the oldest of al
governmental bureaus in Washington
The Government began to collect and
publish it's statistics of foreign trade
and navigation as early as 1880
Turnout almost the whole of the
nineteenth century this work was en-
trusted to the Bureau of Statistics
which was then an adjunct of the
Treasury Department. In 1903 the
Department of Commerce and Labor
was created, and the Bureau OF
Statistics was transferred to the new
ministry. In 1912 it was Joined to
the Bureau of Manufactures, and the
coalition was called the Bureau of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce.
The gathering of trade statistics
continued to be the chief function of
the Bureau. but gradually it has been
taking on new duties calculated to
stimulate American foreign trade.
With the outbreak of the European
war in 1914 the eyes of American pro-
ducers turned more seriously toward
foreign commerce The Government
established the office of commercial
aII3Cne at our 6Hlbd5oAtS
and legations abroad. These attaches
were appointees of the Department
of Commerce, and they were directed
from the first by the Bureau of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce.
Still, until the time Herbert Hoover
became Secretary of Commerce, now
almost two years ago, the Bureau had
contented itself with the collection of
trade information. This was useful
to the commerce of the United States,
Il 10 Of
lection, but nevertheless it was not
of much value to the small manu-
facturer. He could not afford to
maintain the export organization that
was necessary to enable him to take
advantage of the opportunities which
the Government laid before him.
What he needed was actual expert
help that not only brought him and
the foreign business together but en-
abled him to land it.
Almost a New Institution.
Mr.. Hoover saw in the original
charter of the Department of Com
merce the authority to build that de-
partment into an actual foreign-trade
getting body. The logical bureau to
handle such a task was the Bureau
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce,
and to this bureau the task was en-
trusted. The results of two years of
effort have so transformed this bureau
that it has become virtually a new
governmental institution Certainly
it is one of the most outstanding ad-
developments in Wash
ington since President Harding took
office.
For one thing. in size it is rapidly
eclipsing all other branches of the
of Commerce. Two years
ago the bureau occupied only suite
of offices in the twelve-Story Com
merce Building in Washington To-
day it fills almost the entire building.
1t is its spirit and character however
which are most changed. The old
bureau collected and published its
statistics in a scholarly. and unhurried
way, but the new one embodies pep,
go-getter-ness, and all the other quail
ties of modern American business.
To bring abut the transformation
Secretary Hoover reached out to
Buenos Aires and took therefrom the
American commercial attache, Julius
Klein, and installed him as chief of the
bureau. Altho Mr.. Klein is a Ph.D-
from Harvard, a former student in
assistant professor at Harvard, he is |
no patriarch having yet to celebrate |
his thirty-seventh birthday. He is |
an expert in Latin-American econ /
1mics. As he built up the bureau he |
mas put in men of his own type.
AT present the bureau consists of
.wo main parts: the foreign service
commercial attaches and trade COM |
nissioners in 8 principal trade centers
and domestic, with district and CO.
operative offices of the bureau in most
IF the chief American cities. These I
divisions put together form the in
formation gathering and distribution
service.
But it is one thing to gather the
necessary information and put it at
he disposal of American business, !
Ind quite another thing to get business
o take advantage of the information.
4 ~
If the present administration of the
bureau came in
War Experience Valuable
The war organization of the Gov
eminent had shown the way. The
powerful War Industries Board, which
controlled all industry during the war
md was only kept by the aFnnistice
rom extending its dictatorial power
,ver the War and Navy Departments
themselves, found out how to bring
Government in close working contact
With business The War Industries
Board created within itself the So
allied Commodity Sections, each man
.ged by experts competent to deal
With the branch of industry which
Produced particular commodity.
Then 1t fostered the organization by
business of manufacturers war service
esenting the entire American pro-
luction of a single commodity. Com
nittees and sections both worked to-
either, and in this way all of Ameri-
an industry was brought under q
ingle control.
In exactly the same way our foreign
rade is now being guided DIR. Klein
las created within his bureau COM
modify divisions, each one concerned
With the trade in one particular COM
Modify More than 20 of these d.
isions have already been created, and
lew ones are constantly being organ
zed- They work with committees
hosen to represent industries, agri-
ulture, and other business interests.
he Hafson between Government and
BUSINESS is made complete by the
aliber OF the men chosen to head the
commodity divisions. These are not
Official appointments in any sense.
ZACH industry is asked to present the
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