378 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV]. No. 401. 



Mill said that industry was limited by capi- 

 tal. The modern corporation in a world 

 with surplus wealth on every side eager for 

 investment has removed this limitation. 



Prohlems and Possibilities of a Depart- 

 ment of Commerce: John Franklin 

 Ceowell, Bureau of Statistics, Treasury 

 Department, Washington. 

 Unexpected difficulties in administrative 

 ■organization, more than anything else, pre- 

 vented the enactment of the law creating a 

 Department of Commerce at the latest ses- 

 sion of Congress. Debate and hearings, 

 liowever, developed the seemingly general 

 conclusion that an efficient department 

 could not be created out of more or less in- 

 coherent and semi-commercial bureaus as 

 constituent elements, but that such a de- 

 partment would probably have to be started 

 de novo and develop its own administrative 

 machinery. The field for such a depart- 

 ment in domestic commerce is full of un- 

 solved problems, such as the railway prob- 

 lem, the trust problem, the shipping prob- 

 lem, the navigation problem and the prob- 

 lem of the development of trolley traffic 

 and highway improvement. All of these 

 are vital commercial problems which have 

 almost no representation in federal admin- 

 istration and no direct representation in 

 the cabinet. Add to these all those ques- 

 tions which are involved in the proposals 

 to extend our foreign markets through the 

 agency of the federal administration, and 

 we have a sufficient scope for a most 

 energetic executive department. These 

 considerations should put to rest the doubt 

 whether there is any place for such a di- 

 vision of administrative activity. If our 

 commerce is to be reduced to a scientific 

 business rather than to remain as a specu- 

 lative hazard, then governmental leader- 

 ship is necessary to focalize the policy 

 which, taking into aeeoiint both domestic 



and foreign trade, Avould contribute most 

 to our permanent prosperity. 



The Development of American Commerce- 

 Past, Present and Prospective (accom- 

 panied by diagrams) : O. P. Austin, 

 Chief of Bureau of Statistics, Treasury 

 Department, Washington. (Published 

 in The ^7orld's Work, August, 1902.) 

 The foreign commerce of the United 

 States divides itself into three distinct 

 periods: (1) That prior to 1870 when the 

 growth was comparatively slow and the im- 

 ports usually exceeded the exports, (2) that 

 following 1870, in which the growth was 

 more rapid and the exports usually ex- 

 ceeded the imports, and (3) that of the last 

 decade, in which manufactures form an 

 increasing share of the exports and man- 

 ufacturers' materials an increasing share 

 of the imports. Following the construction 

 of the transcontinental railway, completed 

 in 1869, came the extension of other lines 

 through the great Mississippi valley and 

 the South, and this resulted in the opening 

 of the great agricultural, forest and mineral 

 areas whose natural supplies have made 

 this the greatest producing country of the 

 world and facilitated the assembling of 

 these natural products for use in manufac- 

 turing. As a result, agricultural produc- 

 tion has more than doubled and manufac- 

 tures more than trebled. The value of 

 farm products increased from less than 

 2i billions of dollars in 1870 to 

 about 4j billions in 1900, and the value of 

 manufactures has grown from 4J billions 

 in 1870 to 13 billions in 1900 ; though in 

 each case the figures of value fail to show 

 the full growth in production, owing to the 

 fall in prices of nearly all articles mean- 

 time. The production of coal, a prime ne- 

 cessity in manufacturing, grew from 33 

 million tons in 1870 to 290 millions in 1901 ; 

 pig iron, from less than 2 million tons to 

 over 13 million tons. Meantime the rail- 



