And State Papers 649 



for the exercise of supervision over the great cor- 

 porations and combinations of corporations engaged 

 in interstate commerce. The Congress has created 

 the Department of Commerce and Labor, including 

 the Bureau of Corporations, with for the first time 

 authority to secure proper publicity of such proceed- 

 ings of these great corporations as the public has 

 the right to know. It has provided for the expedit- 

 ing of suits for the enforcement of the Federal anti- 

 trust law; and by another law it has secured equal 

 treatment to all producers in the transportation of 

 their goods, thus taking a long stride forward in 

 making effective the work of the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission. 



The establishment of the Department of Com- 

 merce and Labor, with the Bureau of Corporations 

 thereunder, marks a real advance in the direction of 

 doing all that is possible for the solution of the ques- 

 tions vitally affecting capitalists and wage-workers. 

 The act creating the Department was approved on 

 February 14, 1903, and two days later the head 

 of the Department was nominated and confirmed 

 by the Senate. Since then the work of organization 

 has been pushed as rapidly as the initial appropria- 

 tions permitted, and with due regard to thorough- 

 ness and the broad purposes which the Department 

 is designed to serve. After the transfer of the 

 various bureaus and branches to the Department at 

 the beginning of the current fiscal year, as provided 

 for in the act, the personnel comprised 1,289 em " 

 ployees in Washington and 8,836 in the country at 



