XXVIIDEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
At the present time of writing (February, 1903) the President has nominated to the head of the new Department of Commerce and Labor his secretary, George B. Cortelyou, and to be Commissioner of Corporations in that department James R. Garfield, who is a son of President Garfield, and a member of the Civil Service Commission. Of these appointments the New YorkTimesexpresses the general opinion of the press of the country:
The former appointment is significant chiefly because the new Secretary is intimately known to the President, and his policy in the department will probably represent the President’s views very closely. It can not in any special sense be regarded as a political appointment. The selection of Mr. Garfield is also conspicuously on the merits of the appointee, who is not an active politician, is an able lawyer, has been prominent and useful in the promotion of municipal reform and of the merit system in Ohio and as a Civil Service Commissioner. He has plenty of energy, a cool head, experience in public affairs, and may be expected to do all that can be done with the powers of his new office, the value of which must depend much on the character of the Commissioner and the support and direction of the Secretary and of the President.
Mr. Cortelyou has been so long engaged in recording other people’s thoughts as a secretary that it remains to be proved whether he possesses any opinions of his own. It is only the confidence of the countryin President Roosevelt’s judgment of men whom he has been in a position to judge which prevents a general expression of surprise that our great “captains of industry” have been passed by in the selection of the first occupant of a position destined to be one of the most important in the Cabinet. Mr. Cortelyou, however, may do very well while we are playing at the department, but when we get down to business the portfolio of Commerce will have to be held by hands accustomed to weightier affairs than a stenographer’s note-book.
Mr. Garfield, having been called to deal with the great corporations, is confronted with the greatest problem of the times. He comes to his responsible place a comparatively unknown man. His name carries something of the halo which surrounds the name of his distinguished father, and for that reason he will start with the best wishes of his countrymen.
A feeling, however, prevails that if the government really meant to regulate trusts some heroic figure would have been called, like Joseph W. Folk, the brave circuit attorney, who, single-handed, is yet fighting the corruptionists of St. Louis, or Hovey C. Clark or D. Percy Jones, who sent the vile city conspirators of Minneapolis into prisons or exile, or some great corporation lawyer who has known the trusts from the inside, and now with change of heart could really work from the outside.
We hope for great things from Mr. Garfield. It may be well, like the Greeks, to keep crying, “Let us fight Philip!” whether we do much fighting or not.
FISH COMMISSION BUILDING
FISH COMMISSION BUILDING
FISH COMMISSION BUILDING
The new department has a wide scope, and under efficient administration may exert a good deal of influence. It takes over practically the scientific and statistical work of the government, especially the Coast Survey, the Bureaus of Statistics from the Treasury and State Departments, and the Fish Commission, besides the Labor Bureau, the Immigration Bureau, and the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and it has a new Bureau of Manufactures, with considerable duties. But undoubtedly the most important work it can perform is in the Bureau of Corporations, at the head of which Mr. Garfield is placed. The powers of this bureau extend to “diligent investigation into the organization, conduct, and management of any corporation, joint stock company, or corporatecombination engaged in commerce among the several States and with foreign nations, excepting common carriers.” For this work the Commissioner is to have the “right to subpœna and compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence and to administer oaths.” One of the objects of this power is to enable the Commissioner to “gather such information and data as will enable the President of the United States to make recommendations to Congress for the regulation of” interstate and foreign commerce.
The Survey, Quarantine, Immigration, and Life-Saving bureaus are next in importance. Along the coast new harbors and coast lines are constantly being surveyed. When the quarantine officer boards your ship at the entrance of New York harbor, and scares you thoroughly lest he keep you in quarantine for the sake of some poor Italian baby in the steerage, he represents the Secretary of Commerce guarding a great nation from disease. When the immigrant lands he is interviewed by an agent of this department and his money changed into United States currency. Some of these agents recognize in the poor, frightened, lonely, and travel-stained foreigner a human being who needs a friendly word and helping hand, but others would scare even an American woman, who knows her own value, out of her wits; what, then, must be the effect of such men on the feelings of these strangers? Nearly a half million of foreigners a year enter our ports, and I have seen many of them treated like cattle.
The Life-Saving Bureau has charge of the continuous line of life-saving stations which guard our coasts.No braver men have ever lived than the devoted servants of the government who patrol our shores. There are 269 life-saving stations on the coasts of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Great Lakes, and one at the Ohio Falls, at Louisville, Ky. The men of these stations were present last year at 693 disasters and saved 3,377 lives. Our government pensions soldiers and sailors who are hired to destroy lives; surely greater pensions should be awarded these heroes of the main for saving life.