Evening star., 1934-05-23
DICKINSON URGES
NEW LEADERSHIP
Assistant Commerce Head
Tells Relationship to
u. S. Industry.

partment Of Commerce in relation to
American industry, John Dickinson,
Assistant Secretary of Commerce and
acting director of the Bureau of For
eign and Domestic Commerce, last
night made a plea for new economic
craftsmanship on the part Of the
American business men. =
Mr.. Dickinson spoke in the National
Radio Forum which was arranged by
The Washington Star and broadcast
over a coaSt-to-coast network of the
National Broadcasting Co. The ad-
dress was heard locally from Station
wRC.
The business men Of this country
have, submit, for many years been
their own worst enemies" the Assist
ant Secretary declared. Il believe
that a recognition of this is coming
to be general among business men
themselves.
Entitled to Be Consulted"
"They are entitled, as the group i'm
mediately charged with the planning
and directing of our industrial enter
prise, to be consulted and represented
in the formulation of national policy.
The only ground which can be alleged
for minimizing their participation in
the formulation of national policy is
the charge that hitherto they have
individually and as groups been short
sighted and selfish nd unmindful of
other interests in the claims which
they have made upon the Govern
ment.
This has been particularly evident,
for example, in the mad scramble for
tariff favors which has gone on for
so long and the total effect of which
over 8 period of years has been large
ly to decrease our foreign trade with
the result among others of paralyZing
the purchasing power Of our agricul-
tural population and thereby dimin-
ishing the market for the very indus
tries which sought and obtained tariff
protection.
"Whatever may be true Of the buSi-
ness world generally, there are hum
dreds of business men today who are
awakened as they were never awakened
before to the needs and opportunities
of economic craftsmanship. We must
use those men and the Department Of
Commerce is using them"
Mr.. Dickinson also made a plea for
the cooperation of industry. agricul-
ture and labor for the common good of
the whole American people.
The text of Mr.. Dickinson's speech
follows:
To many Of our people, the Depart
ment Of Commerce means an enor-
nous building in Washington, the
vaSteSt of all our Government build
ingS, whose size has made it the sub
iect of frequent pleasantly as
supposed indication of governmental
extravaganza and the expansion Of
bureaucracy. AS q matter Of fact,
the Department Of Commerce has the
largest building in Washington not
by any means because it is the largest
department. but because practically
all its activities are housed under one
roof. This is not true of many of
the other departments. For example,
buildings occupied by various units of
the Treasury Department and the
Navy Department are scattered
throughout the city, and this is also
the case with other departments.
The size Of the Commerce Department
as working unit of the Government
Is, therefore, exaggerated and magni-
ned out of all relative proportion by
the concentration of its personnel in
single building.
As a matter of fact, the Commerce
Department is one of the smaller
departments both from the stand
point of the number of its employees
~ q h irn nd ha
standpoint of its annual cost to the
Government The Treasury, which
of all the departments employs the
largest number of persons in Wash
tngton, has more than three times
the number of employees Of the Com
merce Department. The Commerce
Department is also exceeded in num-
Der Of employees in Washington by the
Interior Department. the Department
of Agriculture, the Veterans Admins
tration, and the Government Printing
ONCE.
Annual Cost Is Less.
From the standpoint of annual cost
to the Government, the Commerce
Department occupies an even lower
place on the list. Its annual budget
for 1893 was exceeded by the Vet
erans' Administration. the War De-
partment, the Navy Department, the
Department of Agriculture, the Treas
ury Department, the Department of
the Interior and the independent COM
missions in the order named. In
1885 its budget was less than that OF
any of the other departments, except
TlanQ nf tha
Department of Labor. If its building
Is the largest in Washington, there
fore. this should not be misconstrued
as indicating that it is the most ex-
pensive unit Of the Government
The largest unit housed in the
Commerce Building is the Patent
Once, which, for many years, had an
entire building to itself and which
employs almost 1,40O workers in ex-
amining and passing upon the more
than $4,000 patents which are issued
annually. The entire northern wing
of the Commerce Building, amount
ing to approximately One-third OF
its entire space, is occupied by the
Patent Office, the importance of
which to our industrial and business
life surely needs no justification. Our
whole modern standard of living with
the comforts and conveniences which
1t entails for our people and which
makes possible the vast expansion of
our manufacturing and business activ-
tiles rests upon the progress of in
vention. If this progress, which is
stimulated and protected by our
patent system, were cut off or inter-
rupted, our modern way Of life and
the activities which create work for
our people would be paralyzed at
the roots.
Census Bureau Of Great Value.
The second largest unit housed in
the Commerce Building Is the Census
Bureau, which may be described as
a great inventory of the Nation con-
stantly taking stock and keeping a
record Of our national position, not
merely in the field of population sta
tistics, but also in the fields of busi-
ness, agriculture and finance. With