ORGANIZATION OF DEPARTMENT, 1915 * Secretary of Commerce Hon; WILLIAM Cox Redfield, of New York Assistant Secretary of Commerce CONTENTS. F Decennial censuses, 1790-1900.. Establishment of permanent bureau. Decennial census of population.. Decennial census of agriculture.. Decennial census of mines and quarries. Quinquennial census of manufactures.. Biennial preparation of Official Register of the United States. 301888 Ree' THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT. ORIGIN. The preamble to the Constitution lays down broadly two great aims of government-(1) the defense of the life, liberty, and property of the citizen, and (2) the promotion of his general welfare. In the year following the adoption of the Constitution, three of the executive branches of Government, with Secretaries, were established: First, the Department of Foreign Affairs, by act approved July 27, 1789 (name changed to Department of State by act approved September 15 of the same year); second, the War Department, created by the act of August 7, 1789 (then embracing naval affairs); and third, the Treasury Department, established by act of September 2, 1789. Until the Department of Commerce (and Labor) was organized, in 1903, the Treasury Department was the principal agency of government through which a limited supervision of the commercial and industrial life of the nation was administered, and the designation sought to be given its chief officer in the constitutional convention was that of "Secretary of Commerce and Finance."1 The record of events from the close of the Revolution to the constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787 shows that the desire to foster the commerce and trade of the States was the paramount and controlling argument which made the Union possible. The constitutional convention of the thirteen States was the direct outcome of the Annapolis convention of five States, and this convention, in turn, was born of the Mount Vernon convention of delegates from the States of Virginia and Maryland, assembled to adjust and promote commerce and trade between those two States. The commissioners from Virginia and Maryland met at Alexandria, 1 Documentary History of the Constitution. |