measures used in the entire wholesale and retail trade of the United States will be placed upon a basis of uniformity and precision hitherto lacking. Furthermore, manufacturers of all kinds of measuring apparatus have visited the Bureau to consult its specialists and inspect its standards and measuring instruments, as well as to study the conditions and methods of refined testing. The frequency of such visits is evidence of their value in improving the manufacture and use of standards in measuring instruments.

The investigations of the Bureau in the directions indicated are of permanent and far-reaching value to the scientist, manufacturer, and the general public.

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

At the preliminary international conference held at Berlin in August last to consider the regulation by Government of wireless telegraphy, especially for the purpose of securing the greatest freedom in the development and use of various systems and of preventing the establishment of a monopoly in this important means of transmitting commercial intelligence, the Department was represented by Mr. John I. Waterbury, of New York. The War and Navy Departments were also represented. The report of the American delegation has been forwarded to the Secretary of State. The draft of the proposed international agreement is now under consideration.

PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AFFECTING COMMERCE.

The Department is in almost constant receipt of resolutions and other communications requesting its cooperation in public improvements, notably those of commercial importance, such as river and harbor improvements. I can not at present make recommendations in particular instances of this kind, for the duties required by the initial work of the Department have made it impossible to give these suggestions the mature deliberation on which recommendation should be based. All questions of this nature, however, including those relating to the ports of New York and Philadelphia, will be given immediate consideration by the proper bureaus, and will be decided as promptly as the Department finds itself ready for action.

FUTURE OF THE DEPARTMENT.

At the brief exercises held on July 1 in connection with the transfer of various bureaus to the Department, I referred to the following letter, written to the Marquis de Lafayette, in the year 1788, by Commodore John Paul Jones, expressing his views as to the new Federal Constitution:

Meeting General Hamilton at the house of Colonel Van Courtlandt about this time, I asked him what provision was going to be made for the Navy when Congress came C & L- -4

to enact laws for the structure of the executive branch as provided in the Constitution. The General told me it was practically agreed in Congress that when that time should arrive they would create four ministers; that of Foreign Affairs, that of Finance, that of War, and that of Justice. And he said it was agreed, for the present at least, to merge the concerns of the Navy in the Ministry of War. To this I at once ventured protest. * The situation of our country is such that the growth of its Navy can not be long deferred; * Our Navy must grow with our commerce, and it is upon the sea, rather than on the land, that we must in future meet the nations of the Old World on equal terms. * * *

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The time must soon come when the logic of events will compel the country to create a separate Ministry of Marine.

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Had I the power I would create at least seven ministers in the primary organization of government under the Constitution. In addition to the four already agreed upon, I would ordain a Ministry of Marine, a Ministry of Home Affairs, and a General Post-Office; and, as commerce must be our great reliance, it would not be amiss to create also, as the eighth, a Ministry of Commerce.

I took occasion to say at that time:

The entire Cabinet of to-day is embraced in this statement, for agriculture was for a time under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

And, gentlemen, we have now not the eighth-under which are appropriately represented our great agricultural interests-but the ninth, the Ministry of Commerce, and coupled with it the Ministry of Labor.

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On February 16 the entire personnel, strictly speaking, consisted of one official, the Secretary. A few days later another official was added, in the person of the Commissioner of Corporations. To-day in the city of Washington, owing principally to the transfers now made, the personnel consists of 1,289 persons, and in the country at large of 8,836 persons, making a total of 10,125. This latter number will be very considerably increased at certain periods each year, notably in the Light-House Service.

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In the initial days of the Department the expenditures were principally the salary accounts of two officials; to-day the expenditures for which appropriations have been made are $9,796,847, which large sum will be later augmented by such additional appropriations as Congress may see fit to make to defray necessary and legitimate expenses for which there is at present no adequate provision. * We have intrusted to our hands a great undertaking. * * planned we shall now try to advance and perfect in the larger field that to-day opens before us, and we shall confidently expect to have the loyal and devoted support of the chiefs of the various bureaus and of the entire personnel.

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What we have

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To-day the new Department moves forward, and as it takes its place by the side of the other great executive establishments, it will catch the step and the swing of their onward movement in the nation's progress and prosperity.

No other Department has a wider field, if the just expectations of the framers of the legislation are realized. None will have closer relations with the people or greater opportunities for effective work. While we can not dedicate a new and imposing structure to the uses of this Department, we can at least, and I am sure we all do, dedicate ourselves to the work which Chief Executives have recommended and Congress in its wisdom has set apart to be done. In this spirit I have thought it altogether fitting and proper that we should have these brief exercises, and that in them we should emphasize the fact that if we are to have the highest success as a nation in our commercial and industrial relations, whether among ourselves or with

other peoples, we must keep ever to the front and dominant always those sturdy elements of character and the dependence upon Divine guidance which were so signally shown by the founders of the Republic and to which we can not too often revert in these busy and prosperous times which make memorable for us the opening years of the new century.

The Department deals with the great concerns of commercial and industrial life. To be of service to these interests it must have their hearty cooperation and support. It must be a Department of business. It must be progressive, but at the same time conservative.

not deviate in its course from the pathway of justice, strict and impartial. It must be nonpartisan in the highest and broadest sense. It must recognize no distinction as between large and small interests, as between the affluent or powerful and the humblest citizen. If it attempts to occupy a field that properly belongs to private endeavor, it will inevitably fail to realize the high hopes of its present wellwishers. It must adhere rigidly to the lines marked out since the foundation of the Government for Federal agencies in executing the will of the people. If these general principles are made effective-if conservatism and impartiality, coupled with ever-increasing efficiency, mark its administration-I can not but believe that this new Department will become a mighty influence for good in our commercial and industrial affairs. GEO. B. CORTELYOU,

Secretary.