By order of the Secretary of Commerce on May 26, 1941, a new Field Service was established through the consolidation of the field staffs of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce and the Bureau of the Census. It will be known as "The United States Department of Commerce Field Service."

This consolidation will effect economies in administration and operation. It will mean fuller use of these offices in the 31 communities where they have been in operation for some time. Even more important, business and Government will be thus enabled to exchange ideas and facts more readily and with a more intimate understanding of what is involved. This assuredly is a time when business and Government must be kept in touch with one another's thinking and problems.

In order to handle efficiently the increased possibilities of the field service, the 31 offices have been classified into 2 groups, consisting of 12 regional offices, one located in each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco, and 19 district offices, strategically located in other principal cities of the country.

Later this summer 12 business analysts now being trained in Washington will be assigned to the offices as Regional Business Consultants. They will be available to businessmen for any aid that they can give on current business problems. Also, they will encourage the use of business information now available, and assist in developing new statistical series needed locally.

The 19 district offices of the Department of Commerce will report to the nearest regional office and place the services of the Department of Commerce in areas where they may be

most helpful. The services now performed will be improved.

District offices are located in Birmingham, Buffalo, Charleston, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Juan, Savannah, Seattle, and Wilmington.

The new plan will make all the offices representative of the business services of the entire Department of Commerce. At present, when foreign trade is beset with difficulties, they will try to help firms largely dependent on foreign outlets.

They will also help United States firms dealing with Latin America in ascertaining the undesirable contacts in Latin America in these times of emergency. In this work the Department is greatly aided by the Coordinator of Commercial and Cultural Relations between the American Republics.

The field offices have also been used by the Government in connection with the Export Control Section of the National Defense Act, and they provide a channel through which the status of any commodity may be determined, and thus many costly mistakes in commitments may be avoided.

By far the greater part of American business, however, is done at home, and in this respect the field services will be at the disposal of all businessmen with reference to data or information which may be wanted.

Above all, the local business community will be kept informed of national defense problems and what can be done by businessmen in effectuating the defense program as rapidly as possible.

The present crisis calls for cooperation, teamwork, and high production. The reorganized field service will endeavor to do its utmost to help the business community realize these ends.

The Bureau of the Census, charged as it is by law, with periodical statistical surveys of the millions of business units throughout the United States, hopes substantially to increase its efficiency through affiliation with the field offices of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, soon to be known as the United States Department of Commerce Field Service.

Changes in the currents of business, always present even in normal times, have been vastly accelerated as a result of the defense program. This means that timeliness has taken on an increased value in business statistics. If industry is to get the benefit of knowledge of sudden changes in the business picture, it must get its information in the shortest possible time after these changes become evident.

The increased degree of direct contact which these field offices will make possible should have the effect, not only of speeding the collection of statistics, but providing additional means for the more useful interpretation of the results. Thus, more and smaller regional business groups will have better opportunities to benefit, and the Department of Commerce will have made an advance toward its goal to be of greater service to a greater number.

The great majority of business concerns in the United States are of small and middle size. This is amply demonstrated by the results of the last Census of Business which showed that the annual average dollar volume of sales of the more than 1,770,000 retail stores was less than $24,000 per year. The average annual dollar value of output of the

184,000 factories was a little over $300,000. It is of social and economic importance that small and middle-sized business shall continue to be a strong spoke in the great American industrial wheel.

Just as it is important that the healthgiving blood stream shall constantly reach all the extremities of the human body, it is important, in a healthy national economy, to maintain a wide diffusion of industrial investments, pay rolls and resultant purchasing power.

The little man in business and industry may not have been getting the same degree of benefit as the big businessman from the great volume of business statistics which the Department of Commerce has available for him. This is not because he does not appreciate their importance.

It is because, unlike the larger units of business, he is not equipped with research staffs to interpret national or even local figures in the terms of his own necessities.

The Bureau of the Census by breaking its statistics down to geographical subdivisions, has already made the benefits of these figures available to the smaller business unit. The Bureau realizes that the smaller businessman has the same relative stake in knowing his market and its trends as has the industrial giant.

The greater degree of contact with every section of the country made possible by the operation of these field offices will greatly assist the Department in vastly extending its field service and, consequently, its usefulness to all classes of industrial and business enterprises.

In this time of national peril what we all must realize is that the United States Government is you and I and all the other families next door all the way across the country and back again. It is one great partnership.

This evening we are giving thought to the financial structure of our partnership. We are engaged in an all-out effort to perpetuate democracy in the New World by aiding embattled democracy in the Old World. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, America is in full beauty of glorious Springtime. And we have eyes to see the beauty of our country this Spring as we never saw it in any Spring before.

For a great many people are appreciating our blessings the more when they realize what blessings so many other millions of people have lost this Spring and last Spring--so many millions of people who have hoped and prayed and even assumed--taking it for granted that fate would let them live on as they had always lived. In the few words which I am speaking to my fellow countrymen, I desire above all else to emphasize the thought that in just such measure as we support our government will it be strong, effective and safe.

Defenses that were adequate ten years ago are today a broken reed. New machines in the air, on the land and on the sea have created a revolution in the conduct of offensive war and defensive war.

Nations and lands safe ten years ago by virtue of the mere fact of distance away from possible aggression have today been overrun by mechanized conquerors. Distance is no longer a guarantee of safety.

Your government, therefore, is arming, factories spring up, production multipliesa country-wide unanimous effort of planning and of work.

At this time we add another call-a frank and clear appeal for financial support to pay for our arming, and to pay for the American existence of later generations.

With jobs more plentiful and wages higher, slight sacrifice here, the omission of a few luxuries there, will swell the coffers of our Federal Treasury.

The outward and visible tokens of partnership through sacrifice will be the possession of those Defense Bonds and Defense Savings Stamps which are, at the same time, a guarantee of our future security.

Your government asks that you make this sacrifice. But is it a sacrifice? Is it a sacrifice for us to give dollars when more than a million of our finest young men have been withdrawn from civilian life to accept the discipline of military life in defense of our country? No, a sacrifice is not the word.

This Defense Savings Program is rather a privilege and an opportunity--an opportunity to share in the defense of all the things we cherish against the threat that is made against them. We must fight this threat wherever it appears; and it can be found at the threshold of every home in America.

Fellow Americans, I ask you to demonstrate again your faith in America by joining me in investing in the new Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps.