The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-02-10
Uur Government
How It Operates
DEPARTMENT OF
COMMERCE
By William, Bruekare

4 States as nation, from the be-
ginning, has centered in commerce
and industry. We apparently have
become now a additionally business
people. The growth of our popula-
ton and the growth of our business
structure has been coincfdentaL.
Lapses have occurred in business
development, of course, but the
people always have found a way
out and always have gone on ex-
banding in influence among the ma
lions of the world, in development
of new and better things, In con-
tent among ourselves.
In view of this condition, then,
why should not this great factor
of our national life be recognized
with something of permanency be-
sides the printed record of our do
ings? Holding the belief that there
should be this recognition, j am not
among those who complain that the
congress directed the expenditure
of a reckless amount of money for
construction of the building in
Washington that Is the home of the
Department ofsC Commerce.
This building of three city
blocks In length and one in width.
and with its seven stories of height,
will stand 'until the sands Of the
desert grow cold' as sign of the
nations wealth.
But what IS going on within that
structure? Thousands of workers
are busy: the very aspect of it
typifies American life.
Although one of the newer of
the executive departments it is
one Of the largest. 1t was made
SO because commerce and industry
sought central place to go for adj
vice, for consultation about its
problems. for records of the past
and of the present.
Let us Just make q tour OF the
place and see the manifold activ-
tiles that go on day by day, week
after week.
Because it is interested in every
phase of. commerce and industry,
aside from agriculture to which the
government has dedicated separ-
ate agency, there are units of the
Department of Commerce given
over to all of these things. 1t has
the great bureau of foreign 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 a branch
given over to aeronautics. with all
OF its attendant interests. and has
q bureau Of mines that Is far reach.
ing In the work that 1t does In con-
nection with the nations great
mining industry. .
Besides these. there is Tat vast
Institution, the bureau of standards
whose name tells absolutely moth
ing about the myriad tricks which
its personnel makes science do for
the common veal That bureau,
of which we win have more later,
stands alone in the whole world as
la many-minded, many-armed giant
Of multiple purposes. and vet of
the single purpose to make this
world 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 agen-
cy as It does to the bureau Of
standards, because, had not the IA
theirs foreseen that persons were
going to invent the telephone or
the automobile or the millions of
other things used in daily life and
provided protection for them, they
would never have been able to at
tract the capital necessary to pro-
duce them. So that patent office
stands as a great bulwark assuring
the genius OF the nation that It
shall have the fruits of It's energies
expended In the direction Of inven-
fion.
Then for shipping, for the fishing
industry, there is provision for
government help through the bureau
Of lighthouses. the bureau of fish,
cries. the bureau Of navigation, the
coast and geodetic survey. and the
steamboat inspection service. Each
In its sphere is an aid to the COM
merce and industry; each in its own
way provides protection for life
and property. ,
Imagine, IL You viii, what condi-
lions would be IL ships were COM
PEELED to- sail uncharted coast
lines and harbors and passage with
cut maps, without buoys or mark
ers. without lighthouses. Few per-
sons would care TO invest money In
ships that were faced with such
conditions, and fewer persons
would care Do trust their lives or
their property as cargo aboard
ships. II becomes obvious. there
fore the .charting Of the coast.
Inc and the constant examination
OF saipping channels serve all Of
a a. wen as those who engage In
the industry directly represented.
The bureau Of navigation. the coast
ana reodetic survey and the steam.
boat inspection service combine TO
see thar shipping Is safe.
60 from the brief tour, Il has BE-
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