THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: SErTEMHLR 3. MIT.'
Secretary Nagel Recounts Work of His Department
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(Copyright, 1U, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
A.8HINOTON. D. C. (8pecial Corrupond
ence of The Bee.) In describing the
new achemea of Uncle Sam, patriarch, It
la well to know something of the men at
their head. President Taft, If course,
bosses erery Job, but the detailed work
la under the cabinet ministers. Take, for
Instance, Secretary Charles Nagel, the chief of the
department of Commerce and Labop with
hy been talking today. He is a fit manager of a
great undertaking. Six feet in height, as straight
u an arrow and muscularly well formed, at the age
of t2, he ia one of the most energetic and efficient
of all those who are managing Uncle Sam's business.
H Is a broad-gauge man, fitted by wide training and
experience for his place in the federal machine. Born
In Texaa, which we easterners look upon as a part of
the wild and -woolly west, he was educated first In
St. Loula and then In Berlin, the progressire and ag
gressive capital of Germany. After graduating at
the unlTerslty there he came back to St. Louis, wfcere
he made a great reputation as lawyer and where he
waa practicing when be was made secretary of the
Department of Commerce and Labor by President
Taft
v
How Xagrl Came to Texas.
In my talk with the secretary I asked him how be
happened to select Texas as his birthplace. He re
plied that his father was an immigrant and that he
came from Germany to this country in 1848, settling
in Colorado county. Teaaa. The old gentleman was
a member of one of a number of colonies which were
established in our great southwest at that time by
certain wealthy dtisena ef the German nobility... The
lmmlgraata belonging to these colonies were men of
fine educaton. Many of them were university grad
uates, and they had a civilization far above that of
the hordes which Secretary Nagel ia now allowing to
enter this country. For Instance, the secretary's
father had been a physician in Germany and he was
a graduate of the University of Berlin. The secre
tary's school teacher In Texas waa a graduate of the
same university, and Mr. Nagel recently found a
printed speech of the great Prince Bismarck which
was made in reply to a paper written by hla Texas
schoolmaster.
Upon my speaking of the German revolution of
1148, during which so many prominent men left the
Fatherland, I asked Mr. Nagel if it was not then that
Carl Schurs and Joseph Pulltser came to thto country.
The secretary replied that Schurs came several
years later, and that Joseph Puliuer must have landed
along about the close of the civil war. Said be:
"I knew Mr. Pulitzer during my early day In St.
Louis and while he was still a reporter on the West
llche Post. Later on he bought the Post and united
It with the Dispatch, making the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
which he still owns. It was from the money
that he made from the Dispatch that he came to New
York and bought the World."
I Creative Features of Uncle Sam's Work.
The conversation here turned to the development
of Uncle Sam, patriarch, and Secretary Nagel referred
to some of the great creative works now under way
In various department. 8aid he:
"Every one of the administrative offices Is taking
on creative features. The postoffice, which waa for
merly a mere transmitter of letters, has just started
postal savings banks, and it Is protecting the people
from frauds through the mails. The Department of
War, which is the great national and international
police force of the government, has taken charge of
the Philippines and our other island possessions; and
it is doing all aorta of creative work there. It is
even building the Panama canal. The treasury, which
was once only a machine for the collection of reve
nues, is now the foundation of our national banks,
and it is also erecting public buildings throughout
the country. The Department of Justice is watching
your interests In the restriction of the corporations
and trusts, and the Department of the Navy has many
creative features. As to the interior, that has be
come a great conservation bureau, which is conserv
ing our eoal lands, reclaiming our deserts and drain
ing the swamps. It Is also watching over the safety
of the men in the mines. And last, aa to the Depart
ment of Agriculture, that has so largely to do with
creative work that It is impossible to describe its ram
li cations.-
The Secretary Talks of His Job.
"But how about your own department. Mr. Secre
tary?' I asked. "You, too, are not idle. Give me an
a xjiJic!:: j&kx xroas. ntnjf2jjm oar zee uzeatzaz&zs qzvz: xuzzzar ztztztorants zast.vkar. a.
outline of your work in a nutshell."
"It is difficult to put the Department of Commerce
and Labor in a nutshell," was the secretary's reply.
"A year or so ago we were employing more men than
there are soldiers la the United States army. That
waa when the census was in full swing. We had last
year over 71,000 enumerators and also a temporary
force of clerks numbering 3,000 or 4,000. In addi
tion to the census we have a doxea different bureaua
here at Washington, each of which has its own work.
"This department, which waa originally organized
to deal with commerce and labor and especially with
the corporations and the business interests of the
United States, haa taken in many of the bureaus of
the other departments. The bureau of manufactures,
for Instance, is an offspring of the Department of
State. It is devoted to the development of our do
mestic and foreign trade, and it publishes information
gathered by the consuls, who are under the State de
partment. We have also our own special agents who
travel over the world looking up trade and trade
openings. They are gathering information as to cer
tain classes of exports, reporting the demand for
them in each country and telling how they should be
handled and marketed. We publish daily reports
from other countries as to the opportunities offered
for American- manufactures, and in time we shall
have a corps of such experts going from trade center
to trade center in the United States and advising the
people how and where to market their products
abroad.
Oar Foreign Trade.
"In the same way we have inherited the bureau
of statistics from the Department of the Treasury.
This has also to do with our foreign commerce and,
together with the bureau of manufactures, it gives
a vast amount of valuable Information as to Uncle
Ssm's business and how it may be spread to every
part of the globe. With other things we are now
making a directory of the names of business houses
which handle Imported merchandise in all foreign
countries. The material for this has already been
gathered, and the book will be published some time
this year.
"As to what our foreign trade ia, the bureau of
statistics will give you figures. Last year our exports
were just about f 1,745,000.000, or almost $(,000,000
a day for every working day of the year. Our im
ports were about the highest they have ever been
In the history of the country, and they amounted,
all told, to almost $5,000,000 for every such working
day. These figures are so great as to be beyond com
prehension, but tbey give one some idea of our for
eign commerce, which is still at' Its beginning and
which is bound to increase from year to year."
The Marine Bureans.
"Tour department has much to do with naviga
tion, has it not"
"Yes, indeed, we are the friend of the mariner,
and of all those who travel by sea. We have a num
ber of marine bureaus, which have come to us from
other departments. We have a bureau of navigation,
one of steamboat Inspection, one of lighthouses, and
also the coast and geodetic survey. You might not
call the latter creative, but still It gives information
as to the exact nature of our coasts for ships all over
the world. The waters of the United States are much
more carefully surveyed even than the land. We
know the depth and character of every bit of sea
which washes our shores, and have made surveys of
the rivers to the head of tide water for ship naviga
tion. We furnish such maps to sailors. We also
give Information as to the tides, and, by a recent In
vention, the coast survey can tell you Just what the
tide la at any port of the world a,nd at any hour of
the day. For instance, if you want to know just how
high tae tide will rise this afternoon in the Bay of
Chemulpo, on the west coast ot Korea, this machine
will tell you."
"How about, your lighthouses, are you putting up
new ones?"
"Yes," replied the secretary. "We are adding
hundreds of lights snd lighthouses to the service
every year. The main lights along the Atlantic and
Pacific were erected long ago, but we are establishing
new lights and signals 'between them. We have put
up about fifty new lights, sixteen fog signals and 751
buoys. We are greatly extending the lighthouse serv
ice of Alaska and are building lighthouses there. We
are also putting lights upon the Yukon and other
rivers. We are Improving the lighthouses of Porto
Rico and Hawaii, and we have officers of the en
gineer corps of the army who are inspecting the lights
on the Mississippi river and its tributaries.
' Our Merchant Marine.
"And then as to the bureau of navigation," con
tinued the secretary. "We are doing what ws can
to make our merchant vessels better and to take care
of the sailors. We are inspecting the steamboats and
insisting that they be properly equipped with life
saving appliances.
"I should like to see measures undertaken to in
crease our merchant marine. As it Is, we have some
thing Ilka 15,000 vessels with a gross tonnsge of more
than 7.500,000, but nearly all this is devoted to our
domestic trade, a large part of our shipping being on
the great lakes.
"The most of our imports aid exports now come
and go in European bottoms. Last year we carried
less than 9 per cent of them, and was paid many
millions of dollars in freight to other nations. Our
great European competitors for the commerce of the
world find that it pays them-to aid their merchant
shipping, and I believe that we should do the same.
There, is a good daal of sentiment in commerce, not
withstanding all the proverbs to the contrary. 'Trade
does follow the flag,' and the American flag in a for
eign harbor is a great advertiser. If the United States
is to bold Its own In the trade of the world it must
have equal advantages with other nations as to that
trade."
Cheap Fish for the Nation.
Here the secretary spoke of the bureau of fish
eries, saying:
"Another feature of this department, indirectly
connected with the marine, is the raising of cheap
fish for food for the nation. A few years ago
It was almost Impossible to get fresh lobsters or shad,
but owing to the protection afforded and the plantings
of the bureau of fisheries they are now to be found
In every large market. We are propagating fish of
many kinds all over the union. We raise the spawn
and send it out to the states, and in addition do a
great deal of planting ourselves. Our total output of
fish and eggs last year waa more than 3,000,000,000,
and this will be greatly extended. The commercial
fisheries of the country are now bringing In a product
of something like $62,000,000 a year, and from oys
ters alone we are annually getting something like
$11,000,000. The salmon of Alaska bring ia $9,000,
000 or $10,000,000. and the fish which come from the
forest waters furnish a supply of food which annually
sells for something like $21,000,000. We are doing
a great deal for the salmon, both ang the Columbia
river and in Puget sound and Alaska. As to the
fur seals, they are under the department, and if we
could protect them from the robbers who, contrary
to law, try to catch them on their way to the Prlbaloff
islands we could materially increase the herd. As it
is, the sealskins now bring in something like $450,
000 a year. In the past they have been worth a great
deal."
One Million Immigrants.
The conversation here turned to immlgation, of
which the Department of Commerce and Labor has
charge, and I asked the secretary aa to the character
of the new citizens we are getting from Europe. He
replied:
"The most of them come from the southern and
eastern countries. We admitted more than 1,000,000
last year and within the last ten years we have passed
in between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000. At the present
we are admitting more Italians than any ot the others.
In 1900 we had over 200,000 of them. Next came
the Poles, who numbered 128,000, and then the Jews,
Germans, English and Irish.
"You murt remember, however, that a great many
of these Immigrants stay only a few years and that
there is a steady flow back to the old country. I be
lieve that some of them come here with the idea of
making a fortune in a few years and then going back
home. Some send their savings back from month to
month, and this is one reason for the hundreds of
millions of dollars' worth of money orders which are
annually forwarded to Europe."
Keeping Out the Scrap.
"Do we get many bad immigrants?" I asked.
"Not if this department can help it. We have a
force of about 2,000 men who are engaged in guard
ing the ports and our boundaries to keep out those
whom the law forbids landing. These are, as you
know all those who have contagious diseases, all
who are mentally weak, all who have been criminals
in the countries from where tbey came, and all who
are paupers and unable to support themselves. We
turn about 35,000 such Immigrants back every year,
and, although at times it seems almost cruel to do
so, we are forced to protect the people at home from
such invasion from abroad."
"What causes the immigrants to come to the
United States?"
"The number increasea or decreases with good or
bad times. Just now the country Is prosperous, and
foreigners come here to get the high wages snd bet
ter conditions of living. The immigration is alsa
largely a matter of freight. It is drummed up by the
ocean steamship companies and the railroads in order
that they may receive the passage money for carry
ing the Immigrants here."
"Can you keep out the Asiatics?"
"The law forbids us to admit the Chinese, and
the same is true to some extent of the Japanese. Dur
ing the last year we have passed In 2,600 Japanese,
and during the aame time something like 1,500 came
into Hawaii. California has also had something of
sn Immigration of Hindus."
"What are you doing along labor lines?"
"We are gathering Information of all sorts, pot
only for the government and the scientist, but for the
laboring man himself and those who employ him. We
sre getting Information as to child labor and woman
labor, as to wages and strikes and as to accidents
and how the laborer may be protected from them."
Investigating the Corporations.
"I suppose that a great part cf your work is con
nected with the corporations?"
"Yes, that was one of the mala reaions for found
ing this department. It was to promote uiu, uent
buslnfes luieresu of the country auu iv give Uiionua
uou wrica wouid Itaa to iu iuaiuiu-.i..e wi iu
honesty and siaoiluy of Ue vast uac&mery of our
industry and commerce. Tae bureau of corporatiowa
t,atoers lutormation lor the use of ins aduunisuauoa
and others aa to corporations of ail kiaas. bo if
we have been uallag nieny wlta ue srwtt corpora
tions or trusts, and we have invssuaatea a number
of them, such as the oeef trust ana me steel uusu
Yve have about completed our work on the steel
trust."
"I should think such a report would be very ex
tensive?" "It is so. It would take several volumes to con
tain it."
"Will it have as many words as a big family
Bible?"
" I should say so."
"How do you go about investigating a trust of that
kind?"
"We have to begin at the bottom. We want firs
to know the purpose of the organisation, to leara
what Us charter gives it the right to do and then find
out whether it carries on ita business la accordance
with that charter. We want to know all about the
methods of the organization, 1U profits and losses,
the wages and prices, the cost of materials and every
thing concerning it. We want to know whether it
has combinations with the railroads by which it gets
unfair advantages over its competitors, and to know
whether it is In a conspiracy to control or make
prices. ' In the steel trust we.have had great aid from
the management. The books have all been thrown
open to us, and we have been aided ia many ways.
This is so with most of the corporations with which
we have had to deal. It waa not so with the tobacco
trust, but the recent decision may make that organ
Izatlon more compliant in the future."
"What investigations have you on hand at pres-
ent?"
"At the end of the last fiscal year the work waa
still pending as to the investigation ot the lumber,
steel and tobacco industries and also as to the Inter
national Harvester company, transportation by water
in the United States and the concentration of water
power Industries. 8ome of this work hss been com
pleted." Testing Our Weights and Measures.
I hero asked as to certain other bureaus of the
department and the secretary replied:
"It will be. impossible for you to give the details
of the Department ot Commerce and Labor in a single
newspaper letter. Every one of our offices teems with
crestive work. Take, for instance, the bureau of
stsndsrds, which is testing weights and measures bt
all kinds. We have made almost 50,000 tests ot such,
things during the lsst year, and these included meas
urements of tests for length, mass, capacity and den
sity. They embraced measurements of time, heat
and electricity and ot all sorts ot materials and forces
under the sun. All the thermometers in the United
States are now made after the testa of this depart
ment. Indeed, the most of them are sent in to be
tested. It is the same with all measures for photo
graphic lenses and optical glasses. We are inspecting
the ordnary weights and measures used in the various
states and they are being brought up to standard.
Two of our inspectors visited eighty-seven cities and
towns the last year. They worked chefly in the cast,
covering twenty-seven states, and they expect to go
over the western states during the coming twelve
months. I believe the dsy will come when all the
weights and measures of the country will be based
upon the work of the bureau of standards."
FRANK Q. CARPENTER.
