The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-12-30
OurGoperument
How 1t Operates
By William BrxckS,5
DEPARTMENT OF
COMMERCE

industry. We apparently have become
now q additionally business people.
The growth Of our population and the
growth of our business structure has
been coincidentaL Lapses have oc-
CURED In business development, OF
course, but the people always have
found way out and always have gone
on expanding In influence among the
nations of the world, In development
of new and better things, In content
among ourselves.
In view Of this condition, then, why
should not this great factor of our
national life be recognized with some
thing Of permanency besides the print
ed record of our doings? Holding the
belief that there should be this recog-
milton, I am not among those who
complain that the congress directed
the expenditure Of a reckless amount
of money for construction Of the build
ing in Washington that is the home of
the Department of Commerce. look
upon that structure-one Of the great
est Office buildings in the world and
constructed at cost of S17.00O,O0O-
as a monument to American ingenuity
In accomplishing commercial success,
individually and as a nation.
This building of three city blocks In
length and one in width, and with its
seven stories of height, will stand "un-
til the sands of the desert grow cold"
as a sign of the nations wealth. Its
concrete and steel and its MARBLE
like to envision those who will gaze
upon 1t several hundreds years hence,
as we of this day gaze upon st. Peters,
at Rome, or the Assumption, at Mos,
COW. Moreover, they will give credit
to this nation.
But what is going on within that
structure? Thousands of workers are
busy; the very aspect Of 1t typifies
American life.
Although one of the newer Of the
executive departments, 1t is one Of
the largest. 1t was made so because
commerce and industry sought CEN
trail place to go for advice. for consul
tation about its problems, for records
of the past and Of the present.
Let US just make tour of the place
and see the manifold activities that
60 on day by day, week after week.
Because it is interested In every
phase Of commerce and industry, aside
from agriculture to which the govern
ment has dedicated a separate agency,
there are units Of the Department Of
Commerce given over to all of these
things. 1t has the great bureau Of for
eign and domestic commerce, given
over to the broad phases of domestic
and foreign business operations OF
those who produce and sell as well as Of
those who buy. It has branch given
over to aeronautics, with all Of its at
tendant interests, and has a bureau of
mines that is far reaching in the work
that it does in connection with the ma
tons great mining industry.
Besides these, there Is that vast In
stitution, the bureau of standards
whose name tells absolutely nothing
about the myriad tricks which its per-
sonnet makes science do for the COM
mon veal. That bureau, of which we
will have more later, stands alone in
the whole world as many-minded,
many-armed giant of multiple pur-
poses, and yet Of the single purpose
to make this world a better place in
which to live.
And Of the United States patent
office, there must be more than passing
mention. Commerce and industry
owes as much to that agency as 1t does
to the bureau of standards, because,
had not the fathers foreseen that per-
sons were going to invent the tele-
phone or the automobile or the mill
lions of other things used in daily life
and provided protection for them, they
would never have been able to attract
the capital necessary to produce them.
So that patent office stands as a great
nation that it shall have the fruits
Of its energies expended in the direc-
ton of invention.
Then for shipping, for the fishing in
dustry, there is provision for govern
ment help through the bureau of light
bureau of navigation, the coast and
geodetic survey, and the steamboat in
spection service. Each in its sphere Is
an aid to the commerce and industry;
each In its own way provides protec-
ton for life and property.
Imagine, If you will, what condi-
lions would be II ships were COM
PEELED to sail uncharted coast lines
and harbors and passage without
maps, without buoys or markers, with.
out lighthouses. Few persons would
care to invest money In ships that
were faced with such conditions, and
fewer persons would care to trust
their lives or their property as cargo
aboard ships. 1t becomes obvious,
therefore, the charting Of the coast
line and the constant examination Of
shipping channels serve all of US az
well as those who engage In the In
dustry directly represented. The bu-
reau of navigation, the coast and
geodetic survey and the steamboat In
spection service combine to see that
shipping Is safe.
So from the brief tour, it has become
apparent that this monument to COM
merce and industry Is hive of indus
try In itself and its operations merit
the further attention that it is to re-
ceive in succeeding articles.
Q. 1882. Western Newspaper Union.