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Show THE VALUE OF THE NEW DEPARTMENT. For years v irlous bureaus of the Oovernment in Washington, scattered about among the various departments, all good and neceasnry and alt doing their work well as Individual bureaus, have felt the need of a closer supervision super-vision and development than nn) present pres-ent cabinet otrlcer could give them The project of the new department, christened christ-ened by President McKlnley the Department De-partment of Commerce and Industries, was no new thing, and Its utility had been repeatedl) admitted. But the commercial com-mercial Interests of our country were nxtendlng so fast that when pressure from all quartets was brought to bear during the piesent session of Congress the prospect or realizing this tlreim of manufacturer financiers and statesmen states-men seemed almost leady to be teal-Itetl. teal-Itetl. Th dream seem still almost ready I to he realised A bill creating the new department haa passod the Senate and Is now; under consideration by the House Cnmin ttee of lnletstate and Foreign I'ommeicc of which Hon William Wil-liam P Ilepbur 1 of Iowa lt Chairman There seems to he no question that the House commitfe will report the bill favorably In time, and that the Ptes- . ldent will promptly make the at at law Tve believe that the wb-h of the West as well as the East, and of the South as well as the North is unanimous!) unani-mous!) nnd strongly that these necessary neces-sary steps should be taken es promptly a might be consistent with the proper discharge of other work now before the legislative and administrative branches of our Government. As a supposed concession to the labor la-bor organisations of the country, the Senate changed the name of the proposed pro-posed new department to that of commerce com-merce and Labor It Is now found that the labor Interests do not wish the present lbor Bureau and the Commissioner Com-missioner of Labor to be Included among the Bureaus and Chiefs who will co-operate with the new cabinet officer oj hi assisting division and subordinates. The gicat West has long hoped that sn entirely new Department Depart-ment of Mlnet might sometime be created That Is still the with of the great West, nnd Indeed, of the whole country when the time comes Hut Just as the Agrlcultu al Department was created b) what might be tailed a low growth ln obedience to the wholly lustlfiable demands of the agrl-cultutal agrl-cultutal masses, so It seems to us In all fairness, that this .tow Department of Commerce 1 properly enough the net moM deserving, ns satisfying the behests of great manufacturing, commercial com-mercial and exporting Interestc and, we say It even If to believe all thla Implies n postponement of the project for a new Department of Mine Evidently Evi-dently we can have the Department ot Commerce, but cannot have, at pre-ent pre-ent at leat. a new Department of Mines, and on the old and tried prin ciple that ' htlf a loaf Is better than no bread," we believe that patriotic Westerner West-erner will agree with us In urging as strongly a possible prompt action ln the premises Thl ought to he the truer from the fact that the present geological survey is proposed, by the bill erei'.'na the new department, to be made of far greater Importance, not onlv In reference to the work which at present it has In hand, but also in regard to the particular Industry of mining, and under tho care nnd energetic ener-getic nnd logical devslopment of a new Secretary we believe that the mining Industry would receive greater and greater attention, even If no other legislation leg-islation were secured for 11 considerable time, and that ultlmitely the eltect of all this work would be to brn," about the creation of a new Deptrtmcnt of Mines much more qulckl) than otherwise other-wise could be the iae The main arguments In behalf of the new department are familiar. Consolidation Consoli-dation of Bureaus would mean economy econ-omy and efficiency of service. It would mean n fur more businesslike development develop-ment of all the work In combination, one Bureau with another. More important im-portant than all that is the fact that our country 3 now involved Irretrievably Irretriev-ably and hopefully, and even trlumph-antlj, trlumph-antlj, In a destiny of commercial as well as political expansion, which In Itself It-self makes tho work of a new department depart-ment nnd of a new Secretary nearly nn absoluto necessity. But there Is nn-other nn-other powerful reason why the creation of this Intelligent, comprehensive and aggressive central organization Is almost al-most all-Important. Two influences, tho marveloui extension of our export trade and tho concentration of cnpl-tal cnpl-tal In large combinations, have opernted to create throughout the land nn Impression Im-pression of scientific thoroughness and stepdlness In tho larger opctntlona of commerce. If, for illustration, combinations combina-tions of capital ojeiato upon a worldwide world-wide plan, as many of them nlrendy do, tint contributes to steadiness In prices, In expectations and In realities, evcr)-liody, evcr)-liody, no matter what his relation to the business fabric, know the better what to do It I the same way with Inn-ens-lug export trade. If tvvent) -seven per cent of our total business Is export, ns wo believe It It, that immense branch of what might be called our national trade must not only be conserved, con-served, but must be extended conserv-atlvely conserv-atlvely nnd without making any mistake mis-take anywhere Suffer It to fall oft nnd everybody would suffer. A new cabinet olllcer. If a man of the highest order of ability, having the fa-cllltles fa-cllltles of these Bureaus at hand, by which all obtainable facts In reference to all branches of trade, domestic and export could be obtained nnd dlstrlh-tited dlstrlh-tited with sccirtlflo thoroughness and accuracy, could contribute with an almost al-most absolute reitalnty to the prevention preven-tion of Industrial depressions. Why not' The Secretary of the Treasury and tho Comptroller of the Currency havo repeatedly prevented flnsnclnl depressions depres-sions or even psnlcs The nation has now reached a point where similarly It need the authority of law and the application ap-plication of clentlfic administration to do a much for our magnificent Inlus-trial Inlus-trial Interests |