| Agency Name: | United States Department of Commerce and Labor |
| Seal: | Seal_US_Department_Commerce_and_Labor.jpg |
| Preceding1: | none |
| Superseding: | |
| Jurisdiction: | United States of America |
| Headquarters: | Washington, D.C. |
| Employees: | 10,125 (July 1, 1903) |
| Chief1 Position: | Secretary |
| Chief2 Position: | Assistant Secretary |
| Post: | Secretary of Commerce and Labor |
| Body: | the United States of America |
| Flagsize: | 130px |
| Insigniasize: | 120px |
| Department: | United States Department of Commerce and Labor |
| Style: | Mr. Secretary |
| Member Of: | Cabinet |
| Reports To: | The President |
| Seat: | Washington, D.C. |
| Appointer: | The President |
| Appointer Qualified: | with Senate advice and consent |
| Termlength: | No fixed term |
| First: | George B. Cortelyou |
| Last: | Charles Nagel |
| Succession: | Secretary of Commerce Secretary of Labor |
The United States Department of Commerce and Labor was a short-lived Cabinet department of the United States government, which was concerned with fostering and supervising big business. It existed from 1903 to 1913. The United States Department of Commerce is its successor agency, and it also is the predecessor of the United States Department of Labor.
Calls in the United States for the creation of an executive department of the United States Government devoted to fostering and supervising business and manufacturing can be traced to least as far back as 1787.[1] [2] By the latter decades of the 19th century, the momentum behind the creation of such a department grew, its advocates pointing to the existence of various U.S. agencies to promote and regulate agriculture, fisheries, forestry, labor, mining, and transportation and noting that the United States was virtually alone among the countries of the world in lacking a government agency to perform the same function for commerce and industry.[3] [4]
In the first session of the 57th United States Congress (1901–1903), a bill was introduced in the United States Senate to address this shortcoming by establishing the Department of Commerce and Labor. It passed the Senate with little or no opposition, and during the second session of the 57th Congress passed the United States House of Representatives as well. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill into law on February 14, 1903, creating the department.[5] [6] The department was given "the province and duty to ... foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce, the mining, manufacturing, shipping, and fishing industries, the labor interests, and the transportation facilities of the United States."[7] [8]
The United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor was the head of the department and a member of the United States Cabinet, and an Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Labor served under the secretary.[7] On February 16, 1903, President Roosevelt appointed his personal secretary, George B. Cortelyou, as the first secretary of commerce and labor.[9] [6] He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate the same day and established a temporary headquarters at the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 18, 1903.[6] [9] After the department moved into another temporary headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., it began operations on March 16, 1903.[9] It opened its permanent headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1903.[9]
The department's subordinate agencies were placed under its control on July 1, 1903.[10] In remarks for the occasion, Secretary Cortelyou noted that the subordination of agencies to the Department of Commerce and Labor on that day had given the department a total workforce of 10,125 people.[10] [11]
On July 1, 1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor took control of 13 subordinate agencies, making the department one of the largest and most complicated in the U.S. Government.[6] Although the youngest executive department, it took the responsibility for the oversight of some of the oldest U.S. Government agencies and programs.[11] Nine of its subordinate agencies were transferred from other executive departments, two previously were independent agencies, and two were new agencies established as of that date:[12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
In addition, the jurisdiction, supervision, and control of the fisheries of the District of Alaska, including the harvesting of fur seals and salmon, was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Commerce and Labor as of July 1, 1903.[19]
Cortelyou served as secretary until June 1904, when he left to manage Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 reelection campaign.[8] California congressman Victor H. Metcalf succeeded him as secretary and described Cortelyou's work in setting up the department during his short tenure as having been "as thorough and complete" as possible.[20] Under Metcalf in 1905, the department established the Bureau of Manufactures, which was the component most directly related to the department's main mission of promoting industry and commerce.[18]
New York businessman and former U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire Oscar S. Straus and Missouri politician and lawyer Charles Nagel served as the final two secretaries of commerce and labor.[18] During their tenures, the department increasingly became a focal point for requests for many kinds of scientific, sociological, statistical, and commercial information.[18]
During the decade of the Department of Commerce and Labor′s existence, American manufacturing expanded and American laborers increasingly moved from farming to manufacturing jobs.[18] This trend put increasing pressure on the U.S. Government to separate labor-related functions from the department and give labor its own executive department.[18]
In response, on March 4, 1913, President William Howard Taft on his last day in office signed legislation renaming the department the United States Department of Commerce and transferring its bureaus and agencies specializing in labor to the new United States Department of Labor, which was established on the same date.[18] Corresponding with the division of the department in 1913, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor's position was divided into separate positions of United States Secretary of Commerce and United States Secretary of Labor. The Bureau of Corporations became part of the Department of Commerce in 1913, but was spun off as an independent agency, the Federal Trade Commission, in 1915.
In 2011 and 2013, in response to federal budget-cutting efforts, United States Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.), sponsored, a proposal to re-combine the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor as the "Department of Commerce and the Workforce."[21] No action on this proposal has been taken beyond referral to committee.[22]
| No. | Portrait | Name | State of residence | Took office | Left office | President | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George B. Cortelyou | New York | February 18, 1903 | June 30, 1904 | Theodore Roosevelt | ||||
| Victor H. Metcalf | California | July 1, 1904 | December 16, 1906 | |||||
| Oscar S. Straus | New York | December 17, 1906 | March 5, 1909 | |||||
| Charles Nagel | Missouri | March 6, 1909 | March 4, 1913 | William Howard Taft | ||||
See also: United States Secretary of Commerce and United States Secretary of Labor.