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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,

Washington, D. C., November 17, 1903.

SIR: In transmitting to you for publication the Organization and Law of the Department of Commerce and Labor, prepared under your direction, it may be stated that chapter 1, Origin of the Department of Commerce and Labor, comprises facts gathered, in the main, directly from an examination of the annals of the Congresses, from the first one under the Constitution down to the present time-the only source whence much of the history here given could be drawn. The history and functions of the older offices of the Department, some of which date from the first year of the Government, are given in condensed form. The history of the enactment of the organic law of the Department, chapter 16, gives fully the proceedings of Congress from the introduction of the bill until its approval by the President, and has been edited only to the extent of eliminating repetitions and irrelevant matter. It is interesting to note the contents of the bill at different stages of its passage, as given on pages 419, 544, 625, 638, and finally on page 25.

All the law, the administration of which is vested in the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, given in this volume, is made up of what has been in the immediate past a rule of action for three of the older Executive Departments-Department of State, Department of the Treasury, and Department of the Interior-and two independent offices-the Fish Commission and the Department of Labor, now known respectively as the Bureau of Fisheries and the Bureau of Labor-taken in conjunction with the acts of February 14 and March 3, 1903. The acts last mentioned effected the transfer to the new Department of these established governmental agencies on July 1, 1903, and provided for the organization of the Bureau of Corporations and the Bureau of Manufactures.

The provisions of law relating to the various branches of the Department have been submitted to the several officers in charge for verification, and the entire work has been carefully reviewed by Hon. Herbert Knox Smith, Deputy Commissioner of Corporations, while acting as Solicitor of the Department, and by Mr. Frank H. Hitchcock, chief clerk of the Department.

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