Evening star., 1934-05-23

Assistant Secreta
Fourteenth street are those which
have to do with preserving the safety
of life and property at sea. l refer to
the Lighthouse Bureau, the Coast Sur
vey and the Bureau of Navigation and
Steamboat Inspection. All of these
are engaged in activities which must
imperatively be performed by any gov
ernment which has proper care for the
safety of its people and the promotion
OF commercial intercourse along the
great highways Of nature. The Light
house Bureau is the most expensive of
all the units Of the Department OF
Commerce, absorbing practically one
fourth of the annual appropriations
for the department. Approximately
$40 900 900 annually are expended for
the maintenance and operation of the
buoys which mark our channels and
the lights and lightShipS which guard
our coasts and harb0rs. The Coast
Survey. which supplies our shipping
with reliable maps and charts disclos-
ing the reefs and shoals which menace
navigation, costs annually something
over $4,000. 900. while the Bureau of
Navigation and Steamboat Inspection,
which is charged with enforcing the
safe operation of vessels, costs less
rhan one and a half million dollars
annually. Surely sums like these for
services essential to life and safety
give no ground for any charge OF gov
ernmental extravaganza or bureau
cratic overeXpanSion.
Benefit Commerce and Industry.
The activities of the Department of
Commerce which I have thus far out
lined are all of them Of value and
Importance in specialized fields to
American commerce and industry. All
of them in one special way or another
tend to benefit commerce and indus
try. The Department of Commerce.
however, has broader and more far
reaching commission to promote and
develop commerce and industry gen.
orally, and this broader duty is i'm
posed by statute upon one particular
unit Of the department. viz. the Bu-
reau of Foreign and Domestic Com
merce. The act of August 3, 1912.
creating that bureau, as amended
March 4. 1918, provides as follows:
1T shall be the province and duty
OF the Bureau of Foreign and Domes-
tic Commerce, under the direction OF
the Secretary of Commerce. to foster,
promote and develop the various man.
ufacturing industries of the United
States and markets for the same at
home and abroad, by gathering, COM
piling. publishing and supplying all
available and useful information con-
cerning such industries and such mar
kets and by such other methods and
means as may be prescribed by the
Secretary of Commerce"
This is a very broad commission to
the Secretary of Commerce to be ex-
erciSed through the Bureau Of Foreign
and Domestic Commerce. The Secre-
tary is charged, through that bureau.
with the general task of fostering and
promoting not merely commerce but
the manufacturing industries, and the
methods prescribed for the discharge
of this task are not limited to the
gathering and supplying of informa-
ton, but includes such other methods
as the Secretary may himself pre-
scribe. The commission thus given to
the Secretary OF Commerce, through
the Bureau OF Foreign and Domestic
Commerce, Is broad enough to make
him, in effect. the cabinet officer
charged with the oversight of the in
tereStS Of commerce and industry in
the same way that the Secretary Of
Agriculture is charged with the over
sight of the interests of agriculture
and the Secretary Of Labor is charged
with the oversight of the interests of
labor. The law of the land thus rec
ognizes the Importance of American
business by providing a governmental
department specially charged with the
oversight of industry.
Must All Cooperate.
OF course, no one today can prop
erly claim that any group or interest
In the community is entitled to be rep
resented in any sense or manner an
tagoniStic to the other great groups
and interests, which must all Coop
crate together If our national indus
trial system is to function soundly
and provide full and healthy life for
the American people. The President
has brought us, as Nation, to realize
as never before that, to use his own
words, We are interdependent people.
One of the many lessons of the de-
preston Is that our national life, if 1t
is to be sound and healthy and avoid
the shocks OF periodic economic crises,
must be a balanced life in which no
element can be neglected If the others
are to prosper. Our industries cannot
operate and provide basis of value
for our credit system if our farmers
and our working men do not receive
sufficient income to enable them to
buy the products Of industry. Our
farmers cannot prosper If our indus
tries are not operating in sufficient
volume to pay for the products of the
soil. Our working men cannot make
a living If our industries are not suffi-
GENTLY profitable to attract into their
operation and development the saw
ings of our people.
1t has, therefore, become abundantly
clear that the interests of labor, agri-
culture and what we call business,
if pursued in a spirit of mutual an
tagonism, are bound to be self de-
structive. No one of these interests
can with firm and lasting benefit to
itself be emphasized without due
regard for the others. When the law,
therefore, makes the Department of
Commerce the spokesman and repre-
sentative in the Government of the
commercial and industrial interests
of the country, this must not be taken !
as implying that it is the function of
the department to promote the inter-
ests of commerce and industry without |
regard for the interests of agricul- /
ture and labor any more than it Is the |
function of the Department of Agri- |