domestic trades, and to investigate all complaints of unfair. prices or of discrimination in rates. The bureau of operation studies the relative cost of operating American and foreign ships, particularly with regard to labor costs. It investigates industrial relations with reference to marine and dock labor and in general inquiries into port, pier, and other terminal facilities. Among the duties of the bureau of construction are the study of the relative cost of shipbuilding at home and abroad, and the passing upon transfers of American vessels to foreign ownership and registry. The bureau of law examines international, foreign, and domestic laws affecting shipping and advises the Board of any instances wherein the laws are unjustly discriminatory. The bureau of research conducts studies and gathers data pertaining to any matter in which the Board is interested. It supervises the division of field information and marine insurance for the Board. The Pan-American Union.-The Pan-American Union was established in 1890 for the purpose of advancing the commerce, good understanding and friendly relations between the countries of the Western Hemisphere. It is maintained by the Government of the United States and the governments of the Central American and South American republics. The affairs of the Union are administered by a Director General and an Assistant Director. These are elected by a Governing Board which is composed of the Secretary of State of the United States and of the diplomatic representatives of the Latin-American republics in Washington. For commercial purposes, the Union is in close touch, both in North and in South America, with governmental departments and bureaus, with trade associations, chambers of commerce, transportation companies, with manufacturers, exporters and importers. The Union has become an important bureau of information for LatinAmerican republics whose municipal and state authorities, as well as private business firms, send inquiries to the Union THE INTER-AMERICAN HIGH COMMISSION 167 in ever-increasing numbers. The Union is also one of the best centers of information about Latin America in the United States. The offices of the Union are provided with a staff of statisticians, commercial experts, librarians, translators, compilers and editors who are in frequent consultation with the personnel of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. The Union receives both the official and unofficial commercial publications of Latin America and it publishes its own illustrated monthly magazine, Bulletin of the Pan-American Union, which records in an interesting manner the most important developments in the industrial and commercial life of the Pan-American republics. This Bulletin is printed in three editions—in English, in Spanish, and in Portuguese. The other publications of the Union comprise numerous handbooks and monographs on LatinAmerican countries, maps, pamphlets on customs tariffs, railways, banking and similar subjects. The Inter-American High Commission.-The InterAmerican High Commission was formed by the official representatives of the American republics at the First PanAmerican Financial Conference, which was held in Washington, in 1915. The aim of the Commission is the creation of conditions which would increase commerce among the American republics. Some of the tasks which the Commission has set for itself are: (a) introduction of uniformity in the classification of merchandise, customs regulations, consular certificates and invoices, port charges, treatment of commercial travelers; (b) obtaining of international protection of trade marks, patents, and copyrights; (c) establishment of a uniform low rate of postage and improvement of moneyorder and parcel-post facilities between the American countries; (d) extension of the process of arbitration for the adjustment of commercial disputes; (e) extension of banking facilities and of credits. The Commission consists of national sections, each comprising usually nine members, presided over by a cabinet officer, generally the minister of finance. Each section has rather wide representation of the industrial and financial elements through associations in the country it represents. REFERENCES BISHOP, A. L. The Promotion of Foreign Commerce. The Atlantic Monthly, FILSINGER, E. B. Exporting to Latin America, Chap. XXIII. Foreign Trade and Shipping, Chap. IV. JOHNSON, E. R., AND OTHERS. History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the United States, Chap. XXXVII. KIDD, H. C. Foreign Trade, Chap. XXIV. MEYER, E. H. How We Are Helping Exports. The Nation's Business, October, 1921. SAVAY, N. Principles of Foreign Trade, Chap. XV. SNOW, C. D. Factors in Trade Building. Course in Foreign Trade. Vol. XII, Chaps. I-VI. SNOW, C. D. Governmental Foreign Trade Promotion Service in the United States. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1921. Pp. 114-118. TAUSSIG, F. W. How to Economics, May, 1918. Promote Foreign Trade. Quarterly Journal of WAR FINANCE CORPORATION. Annual Reports. WOLFE, A. J. Theory and Practice of International Trade. Pp. 495-506. ZIMMERMANN, E. W. Ocean Shipping, Chap. XXIX. CHAPTER XI DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE The Department of Commerce was created in 1903 as a part of the Department of Commerce and Labor; the two departments were separated in 1913. The most important division doing foreign trade promotive work in the Department is the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Other divisions whose activities are of value to American exporters are the Bureau of Standards, the Bureau of Fisheries, the Bureau of Navigation, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Lighthouse Service, the Steamboat Inspection Service, and the Bureau of the Census. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Origin and Development. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce was formed in 1912 by the consolidation of the Bureaus of Manufactures and of Statistics; the former bureau was organized in 1904, the latter has been in existence for almost one hundred years, being originally a part of the Treasury Department. At first the Bureau was very much handicapped by being undermanned in its main office in Washington and by not having its own representatives either in the United States or abroad. For its data it had to rely largely upon information supplied by the consular officers, appointees of the Department of State, whose activities it had neither the authority to control nor the means to direct. Much of the trade information which the Department of Commerce received from the consular service was very useful, but it varied in character and was of unequal value. The instructions under which the consuls were working were rather indefinite; consuls were given much freedom to exercise their ability or the lack of it in the gathering and transmission of commercial facts. Information accumulated in the files of the Bureau without reaching the parties who could benefit by it; the small force in Washington could neither check nor adequately interpret the data nor make them available for the use of business men. However, lately conditions have changed for the better. Increased appropriations have permitted the improvement and the extension of the service. There never has been a lack of good men in the branch of governmental work which deals with foreign trade; the service has always attracted to it persons of knowledge and of ability. This may be due to the fact that there is a certain fascination attached to dealing with overseas problems which makes necessary acquaintance with strange and distant peoples, with their customs, tastes and prejudices, with their systems of government, their ethical and legal concepts, and their ways of organizing merchandising activities. The work is lifted above that of mere routine of collecting more or less uninteresting data to that of investigating problems firing imagination and creating enthusiasm. Whatever the reason may be, the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, like the divisions to which it has fallen heir, has always been able to command the services of men whose accomplishments and performances were above those of an average governmental employee and whose zeal was decidedly out of proportion to the meager pay which they were getting. Commercial Attachés.-The field workers of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce are divided into commercial attachés and trade commissioners, the latter formerly known as special or commercial agents. The post of commercial attachés was created in 1914, with the intention of providing resident commercial representatives abroad who would devote their time exclusively to the services of commerce. Freed from routine duties, which occupy so much of a consul's time, commercial attachés may devote |