Part III.-LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS

The law requires that the Secretary of Commerce shall include in his annual report "such recommendations as he shall deem necessary for the effective performance of the duties and purposes of the department." In accordance with this requirement, the following recommendations are submitted:

ADEQUATE BUILDING FOR DEPARTMENT

Past annual reports have directed attention to the pressing need of an adequate Government-owned building to house the activities of this department. The necessity of immediate action in this matter can not be too strongly urged. The department is scattered through buildings, of which one is a composite of seven old houses. The lease on the main building expires in less than four years and the owners have declined to give the department an option for further renewal at the same rental. Temporary war buildings occupied are a menace to health and the fire hazard to costly records is enormous.

Since the last annual report the Bureau of Mines and the Patent Office have been transferred from the Department of the Interior to this department. The Patent Office is housed in an antiquated building utterly unfit for its requirements, and representing a serious fire hazard to patent records which are irreplaceable. It costs several thousand dollars more to operate the office than would be required in an adequate building. Owing to the crowded condition of the main building the Bureau of Mines has been compelled to remain in its Interior Department quarters.

The scattering of the bureaus only tends to impair the efficiency of the work, and is costly and inconvenient to the public. In the interest of sound economy and good administration, all functions, exclusive of the Bureau of Standards, should be housed in one Government-owned building, large enough to provide for present activities and allow for future expansion.

FEDERAL TAXES ON AMERICANS RESIDENT ABROAD

The United States is the only important nation which imposes domestic taxation upon the earned income of its citizens resident abroad engaged in the expansion of commerce. While provision is made for deduction of foreign taxes, this has real effect only in highly taxed countries, and does not afford adequate relief in those

areas where we need expansion most, as in Latin America and the Far East. Other countries have given complete relief in this particular and our nationals are thus placed at great disadvantage.

We shall have neither a staple export in manufactured goods, nor a successful merchant marine so long as the distribution of American goods rests in the hands of other nations. The marketing of our goods abroad is a matter of ability and zeal in representation as well as of competitive prices. The effect of increased taxation from the war, which our country alone applies to earned incomes of citizens abroad, tends to drive them out of the front line of commerce. Legislation should be enacted to relieve our nationals from this burden. This suggestion is not made to include returns on foreign investments of residents or of nonresidents or to relieve expatriates, but solely to place those engaged in advancing American trade abroad upon terms of equality with their competitors.

FEES CHARGED FOR PASSPORTS

The fees now charged for passports and visas are irksome and provocative of resentment abroad. This is reflected in retaliatory measures that handicap American merchants and traveling salesmen in foreign countries. The fees should be radically reduced and formalities thoroughly revised and simplified. It is reassuring to note that progress is being made in this direction through the State Department.

REVISION OF THE NAVIGATION LAWS

As noted in my annual report a year ago, the navigation laws are badly in need of revision. Under acts of Congress providing for recommendations in this respect, a large amount of work has been done, and it had been hoped that a complete plan of revision, bringing into harmony and clarity the various provisions, would be ready for submission at the last session. The completion of this work has, however, been delayed. It is of the greatest importance to the shipping public, to the officials whose duty it is to enforce navigation laws, and to those actually engaged in the industry that the codification of these laws be no longer delayed.

The following items of legislation are recommended for the various bureaus concerned:

BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE

For the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce legislation is needed to make possible a further expansion and systematization of the field services the district offices in the United States and the foreign-service posts-in order that there may be an even more

thorough, comprehensive gathering of commercial facts abroad, and a more intimate, effective distribution of them in this country. Only in this way can our exporters be assured of a genuinely secure and permanent position in the world's markets.

Less than 10 per cent of the total funds of the bureau are supported by permanent legislation, the remaining portion having been built up year by year through appropriations devoted largely to the foreign service. This growth has been in process for more than 12 years and every stage has been subjected to careful trial and the closest scrutiny by selected congressional committees and interested trade organizations. The service has survived this period of trial. Legislation is therefore needed to provide statutory warrant for such an organization.

The inadequacies of the $4 per diem travel expense allowance are too evident to require argument. The staff of this bureau maintains its value to the business community largely through a mobile, active service, the first prerequisite of which is a considerable amount of individual travel, especially in various trade markets. For years this has meant a severe financial penalty on every member of the staff and some corrective of such gross injustice is imperatively necessary. This is also true of the other bureaus in the department.

BUREAU OF THE CENSUS

With a view to avoiding duplication, it is recommended that the collection of statistics concerning the quantities of leaf tobacco held by certain classes of manufacturers and dealers be transferred from the Bureau of the Census to the Bureau of Internal Revenue. If this transfer be not made, it is recommended that the present law under which the Bureau of the Census collects leaf-tobacco statistics be so amended that the affidavits to the reports be accepted when made before postmasters.

That the act of August 7, 1916, concerning cotton consumed in the manufacture of guncotton and other explosives, be repealed, since this information, originally desirable on account of war conditions, is no longer important. The Navy Department requested the discontinuance of the publication of these data during the war.

That the act of March 3, 1919, providing for the collection of statistics of the products of manufacturing industries every second year, be amended so as to authorize the collection and publication of statistics of current production, consumption, stocks, shipments, orders, receipts, and sales for commodities used and produced in manufacturing.

STEAMBOAT INSPECTION SERVICE

Amendment of sections 4433 and 4418 of the Revised Statutes in regard to the working and hydrostatic pressure of boilers, so as to enable the service to modernize the rules and regulations coverng these matters.

That section 4404 of the Revised Statutes be so amended as to nclude the supervising inspectors in the classified civil service, and hat the number of supervising inspectors be decreased from 11 to 10.

BUREAU OF NAVIGATION

The transfer from the Treasury Department to the Department of Commerce of the staff of officers engaged in measuring tonnage of vessels has been approved by both departments and is essential o the uniform application of our admeasurement laws and regulaions, so as to prevent discrimination against American vessels and o bring our admeasurement system up to the standard of other mariime nations. This work should be performed by men selected because of their technical knowledge of ship architecture and adneasurement and with the training to solve the mathematical probems often involved.

It is imperative to the welfare of our merchant marine that legisation be enacted establishing load lines, substantially similar to hat of the European maritime powers. In the absence of such a aw our cargo-carrying steamers are allowed to clear from many foreign ports solely as an act of courtesy and not as a matter of ight.

LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE

Provision of medical relief for light keepers at remote stations naccessible to Public Health Service hospitals and extension of Public Health Service treatment to employees on lighthouse vessels. Authorization of the payment of claims of lighthouse employees or losses of personal property incident to their work.

Extension to lighthouse employees of privileges now accorded to imilar services respecting the purchase of commissary supplies and ransportation.

DEAR MR. SECRETARY: In response to your request I furnish the following condensed report of the work of the various divisions of the Secretary's office during the past year:

These divisions, in addition to the immediate offices of the Se retary and Assistant Secretary, consist of the office of the solicito the chief clerk and superintendent, the disbursing office, the div sion of appointments, the division of publications, the director purchases and sales, the division of supplies, the stock and shippin section, the traffic manager, the department library, the telegrap office, telephone exchange, the motor equipment, and the departmen garage.

The taking over of the Patent Office and the Bureau of Mins together with the ever-increasing work of the department, has reflection throughout the various divisions of the Secretary's office which have long been undermanned, and has added greatly to their work. As in former years, in addition to much overtime work it h been necessary to call upon several of the bureaus of the departmen for help in the way of details which they could ill afford to spar This is a very unsatisfactory arrangement and does not afford th stability which should exist among the personnel, nor does it pe mit the most efficient administration. The work of the vario divisions is largely specialized and best results can only be ob tained through the medium of a stable personnel not subject to frequent change. The remedy lies in an adequate personnel for th office of the Secretary, which for several years we have endeavored to obtain.

COOPERATION WITH FEDERAL AGENCIES

During the year the department, through the divisions of t Secretary's office, has assisted in effecting economies and improved methods of administration throughout the Government service