Packing Company, taken from the field all of the independent concerns. Mr. Armour was wrong when he said that the reason why beef is high is that the live stock production has not kept pace with the increase in population. Mr. Swift was wrong when he said that the reason why the prices paid for cattle are low is because there has been an overproduction. The lack of competition is the true reason."

As yet there has been no judicial interpretation defining the limitation of the powers and authority conferred on the Commissioner of Corporations, and to what extent this power may be constitutionally exercised. It may be observed, however, that the power is not broad enough to compel corporations doing an interstate business to make public statements of their affairs to enable investors to be sufficiently advised before purchasing corporate stock, as to the assets and resources which would indicate the value of the stock secured by such assets.

Other Provisions of the Act Creating Bureau of Corporations. --The first part of the statute (Laws 1903, chap. 552), entitled "An Act to establish the Department of Commerce and Labor " which creates the Bureau of Corporations and a Commissioner of Corporations, and places them under the supervision and control of a Cabinet officer, namely the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, is as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That there shall be at the seat of government an executive department to be known as the Department of Commerce and Labor, and a Secretary of Commerce and Labor, who shall be the head thereof, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, who shall receive a salary of eight thousand dollars per annum, and whose term and tenure of office shall be like that of the heads of the other Executive Departments and section one hundred and fifty-eight of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended to include such Department, and the provisions of title four of the Revised Statutes, including ali amendments thereto, are hereby made applicable to said Department. The said Secretary shall cause a seal of office to be made for the said Department of such device as the President shall approve, and judicial notice shall be taken of the said seal.

SEC. 2. Assistant Secretary of Commerce. That there shall be in said Department an Assistant Secretary of Commerce and

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

315

Labor, to be appointed by the President, who shall receive a salary of five thousand dollars a year. He shall perform such duties as shall be prescribed by the Secretary or required by law. There shall also be one chief clerk and a disbursing clerk and such other clerical assistants as may from time to time be authorized by Congress; and the Auditor for the State and other Departments shall receive and examine all accounts of salaries and incidental expenses of the office of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and of all bureaus and offices under his direction, all accounts relating to the Light-House Board, Steamboat-Inspection Service, Immigration, Navigation, Alaskan fur-seal fishcries, the National Bureau of Standards, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Census, Department of Labor, Fish Commission and to all other business within the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and certify the balances arising thereon to the Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants and send forthwith a copy of each certificate to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.

SEC. 3. Duty of Department. That it shall be the province and duty of said Department to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce, the mining, manufacturing, shipping, and fishery industries, the labor interests, and the transportation facilities of the United States; and to this end it shall be vested with jurisdiction and control of the departments, bureaus, offices, and branches of the public service hereinafter specified, and with such other powers and duties as may be prescribed by law. All unexpended appropriations, which shall be available at the time when this act takes effect, in relation to the various offices, bureaus, divisions, and other branches of the public service, which shall, by this Act, be transferred to or included in the Department of Commerce and Labor, or which may hereafter, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, be so transferred, shall become available, from the time of such transfer, for expenditure in and by the Department of Commerce and Labor and shall be treated the same as though said branches of the public service had been directly named in the laws making said appropriations as parts of the Department of Commerce and Labor, under the direction of the Secretary of said Department.

SEC. 4. Officers, Bureaus, and Divisions. That the followingnamed offices, bureaus, divisions, and branches of the public service, now and heretofore under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Treasury, and all that pertains to the same, known as the Light-House Board, the Light-House Establishment, the Steamboat-Inspection Service, the Bureau of Navigation, the United States Shipping Commissioners, the National Bureau of Standards, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Commissioner

General of Immigration, the commissioners of immigration, the Bureau of Immigration, the immigration service at large, and the Bureau of Statistics, be, and the same hereby are, transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Commerce and Labor, and the same shall hereafter remain under the jurisdiction and supervision of the last-named Department; and that the Census Office, and all that pertains to the same, be, and the same hereby is, transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Commerce and Labor, to remain henceforth under the jurisdiction of the latter; that the Department of Labor, the Fish Commission, and the Office of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, and all that pertains to the same, be, and the same hereby are, placed under the juris-. diction and made a part of the Department of Commerce and Labor; that the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, now in the Department of State, be, and the same hereby is, transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor and consolidated with and made a part of the Bureau of Statistics, hereinbefore transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Commerce and Labor, and the two shall constitute one bureau, to be called the Bureau of Statistics, with a chief of the bureau; and that the Secretary of Commerce and Labor shall have control of the work of gathering and distributing statistical information naturally relating to the subjects confidend to his Department; and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor is hereby given the power and authority to rearrange the statistical work of the bureaus and offices confided to said Department, and to consolidate any of the statistical bureaus and offices transferred to said Department; and said Secretary shall also have authority to call upon other Departments of the Government for statistical data and results obtained by them; and said Secretary of Commerce and Labor may collate, arrange, and publish such statistical information so obtained in such manner as to him may stem wise.

That the official records and papers now on file in and pertaining exclusively to the business of any bureau, office, department, or branch of the public service in this Act transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor, together with the furniture now in use in such bureau, office, department, or branch of the public service, shall be. and hereby are, transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor.

SEC. 5. Bureau of Manufactures.- That there shall be in the Department of Commerce and Labor a bureau to be called the Bureau of Manufactures, and a chief of said bureau, who shall be appointed by the President, and who shall receive a salary of four thousand dollars per annum. There shall also be in said

BUREAU OF MANUFACTURES.

317

bureau, such clerical assistants as may from time to time be authorized by Congress. It shall be the province and duty of said bureau, under the direction of the Secretary, to foster, promote, and develop the various manufacturing industries of the United States, and markets for the same at home and abroad. domestic and foreign, by gathering, compiling, publishing, and supplying all available and useful information concerning such industries and such markets, and by such other methods and means as may be prescribed by the Secretary or provided by law. And all consular officers of the United States, including consulsgeneral, consuls, and commercial agents, are hereby required, and it is made a part of their duty, under the direction of the Secretary of State, to gather and compile, from time to time, useful and material information and statistics in respect to the subjects enumerated in section three of this Act in the countries and places to which such consular officers are accredited, and to send, under the direction of the Secretary of State, reports as often as required by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor of the information and statistics thus gathered and compiled, such reports to be transmitted through the State Department to the Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor.

CHAPTER V.

TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.

Act in Aid of Railroad and Telegraph Lines, entitled "An Act Supplementary to the Act of July 1, 1862, entitled 'An Act to Aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line From the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to Secure to the Government the Use of the Same for Postal, Military and Other Purposes,' and also the Act of July 2, 1864, and Other Acts Amendatory of Said First Named Act." Approved August 7, 1888.

ANALYSIS OF STATUTE.

SEC. 1. Railroad company alone must operate telegraph over its line by its own corporate officers.

2. Any telegraph company may connect with existing lines Equal facilities compulsory.

3. Interstate Commerce Commission may enforce statute May secure writ of mandamus.

4. Attorney-General shall enforce rights of governmentMay annul unlawful contracts.

5. Violation of the statute a misdemeanor

grieved may sue for damages.

Party ag

6. Contracts to be filed with Interstate Commerce Commission Annual Reports - Penalties.

7. Right to amend act reserved.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled:

§ 1. Railroad must Operate Telegraph by Its Own Officers. - That all railroad and telegraph companies to which the United States has granted any subsidy in lands or bonds or loan of credit for the construction of either railroad or telegraph lines, which, by the acts incor

[318]