THE JUDICIARY AND LEGISLATIVE AGENCIES. The agencies thus far considered in discussing government aid and regulation of commerce were those within the executive branch of the Government. A survey of the Federal Judicial system indicates that there have been two courts established for the handling of commercial matters-the United States Court of Customs Appeals and the United States Commerce Court, both of recent creation. The Court of Customs Appeals was created August 5, 1909, to hear all appeals from the decision of any board of United States General Appraisers in customs cases, relating to the classification of merchandise, the rate of duty assessed, fees and charges connected therewith, and any other appealable questions as to the laws and regulations governing the collection of the customs revenues. The Commerce Court, in existence from 1910 to 1913, was designed to effect a speedy, uniform, and systematic enforcement of the interstate commerce law. Congress established the court upon the recommendation of President Taft, for the purpose of creating a tribunal which should eventually be a body of experts qualified to undertake the consideration of technical questions in a special field. The court, for reasons stated in Volume I, Chapter XVII, was disestablished after an existence of only three years. The consideration of the legislative machinery of the Federal Government which deals with commerce has been left until the last, because, despite its importance, it is a changing mechanism and one which has little actual contact with commerce. Through its instrumentality are drafted the laws which are administered by the agencies which have already been considered. Although the legislative body is the creative body, and not the one which performs the specific acts of "aid and regulation" which have been considered in this chapter, its powers to aid and regulate commerce are none the less important. These powers are exercised largely through committees and commissions. When the National Government came into existence, the general practice was to create select committees to handle subjects as they arose, and after the completion of the work so delegated, the committees ceased to exist. Some idea of the difficulties involved in this method of procedure may be gleaned from the fact that in the Third Congress, for instance, there were at least 350 select committees. Gradually the practice grew of creating standing committees, to whom were referred bills relating to the general subjects, over which they were given jurisdiction. This process has continued, until there are a large number of standing and a very few select committees at each session. The committee chambers are not only the laboratories where the legislative work of Congress is in large measure done; they also furnish the means whereby public opinion may most effectively be brought to bear upon proposed measures, and the hearings which the committees hold do much to inform the public of the issues at stake in important national affairs upon which legislation is pending. In the period from 1902 to 1909, the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce alone issued 89 publications, including reports of public and private hearings, special investigations, etc., dealing with important commercial questions. Of the Senate committees, those particularly concerned with commerce are the following: Commerce; Expenses in the Department of Commerce; Foreign Relations; Immigration; Inter-Oceanic Canals; Interstate Commerce; Public Health and National Quarantine; Railroads; Standards, Weights, and Measures; Transportation Routes to the Seaboard; Transportation and Sale of Meat Products. House committees similarly concerned are: Alcoholic Liquor Traffic; Expenditures in the Department of Commerce; Foreign Affairs; Immigration and Naturalization; Interstate and Foreign Commerce; Merchant Marine and Fisheries; Railways and Canals; Rivers and Harbors. The Government of the United States has gradually built up many agencies for the regulation of commerce. Each of the three great branches of the Federal Government, but the executive branch in particular, is concerned with the regulation of trade. These governmental agencies have varied activities, many of which are of great importance. The United States Government, however, is the patron rather than the autocrat of commerce, its policy being to maintain commercial freedom by means of such restrictions as are demanded by the public for its own protection. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE CONSULAR SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES: ITS HISTORY, Duties performed by consuls, 1776 to 1789, 267. The pre-constitutional consular The American consular service originated in the year 1776, when the Congressional Committee of Secret Correspondence appointed Silas Deane as political and commercial agent for Europe, and Thomas Morris, a half-brother of the great financier, Robert Morris, as commercial agent. Both went to France, and there assumed consular functions only as a matter of necessity. The "commercial" functions delegated to them at the outset were of a fiscal nature, involving such matters as the purchase of supplies, but with the growth of commerce they were compelled to attend to the protection of American seamen and shipping in French ports and to other duties of a similar nature. The chief functions performed by consular officers of this and other nations, during this period, related to the protection of the persons and property of the citizens of the country in whose service the consuls were employed. While retaining their earlier duties, American consular officers, in common with those of other progressive nations, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, undertook other tasks which almost overshadow in importance the indispensable functions which formerly devolved upon them. Still solicitous for the welfare of citizens and of their property, when either or both chance to be abroad, consular officers became actively engaged in broadening the outlook of Americans so that they may more and more have occasion to extend 'This chapter is to a large extent based upon the volume by Professor Chester Lloyd Jones, The Consular Service of the United States: Its History and Activities (1906), which has been condensed, rewritten, and brought down to date. Use has also been made of Emory R. Johnson's article on "The Early History of the United States Consular Service, 1776-1792," in Political Science Quarterly, XIII. March 1898, p. 19. their interests to foreign countries. To his duties, which formerly involved the aid and protection of fellow-citizens, settlement of disputes between masters and seamen, care of sick and disabled seamen, protection and superintendence of maritime interests generally, and, finally, protection of the customs revenue, the consul added those of an active commercial agent. The modern consul studies the needs of the population within the district where he is stationed, with a view to ascertaining opportunities for the extension of the foreign trade of his own nation. When once this trade has been established, his duties of protection are extended to it. Obviously, the present-day consular position is not one that can be filled with success by the purely political appointee. The new duties call for keen, active men, and the interests which depend upon the service to-day are better organized and prompter to complain of inefficiency than were the classes served by the consular agents of yesterday. New functions have brought with them insistent demands for reorganization to which Congress has not turned a deaf ear. What the changes have been, not only in the nature of the service performed and results achieved, but in the personnel and organization as well, it will be the purpose of this chapter to indicate. The sections immediately following will deal with the legislative history of the service, while subsequent sections will treat of its commercial functions and its influence in building up international trade. THE PRE-CONSTITUTIONAL CONSULAR SERVICE. The status of the consular service during the days of the Continental Congress and the Confederation is of interest, because the organization then effected was the one adopted by Congress in the act of April 14, 1792. Meanwhile, following the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, the preexisting service continued to represent the United States at foreign ports. Originally no distinction was made between diplomatic and consular officers. The first representatives of the revolting colonies were charged with the performance of duties of a diplomatic and fiscal nature, and it was not until later that the consular functions were added. Commissioners sent to France in 1776, and the ministers who succeeded them, performed all three functions, while commercial agents performed consular and fiscal services. At the close of the Revolutionary War, when fiscal agents became unnecessary, the office of commercial agent was continued for the exercise of strictly consular functions. The existence of different appointive agencies and the failure to define specifically the powers of early foreign representatives led to a great deal of confusion, which was not remedied until 1780. The treaty of amity and commerce concluded with France in 1778 had provided for the stationing of consular officers at the ports of the two countries. The first consul appointed by Congress under this authorization, and, strictly speaking, the first consul sent abroad from America, was Colonel William Palfrey. His authority made him in reality a consul-general, with jurisdiction over both American consular and fiscal affairs in France, and his salary was fixed at $1,500 per annum, in lieu of all commissions which he might collect. Palfrey perished when his ship was lost at sea. Congress, learning that he had not reached France, appointed Thomas Barclay vice-consul, in 1781, and when news of the disaster reached Philadelphia, Barclay was made consul. Although the division of powers between diplomatic and consular officers was not as distinct as it is at the present time, this action relieved the commissioners at Paris (in accordance with their wish) of the handling of consular matters, which had proved embarrassing for them, situated, as they were, miles from the seaboard and burdened with other onerous duties. About the same time another distinct improvement was made in the handling of foreign affairs. The correspondence with representatives abroad had been carried on by the President of Congress and the three Congressional committees on secret correspondence,' commerce, and the marine. The first of these conducted the greater part of the correspondence until, in 1781, Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs and delegated this work to the paid secretary who was placed in charge. Robert Livingston and John Jay were the only preconstitutional Secretaries for Foreign Affairs. Their authority was limited by Congress, which required that, before being forwarded, important communications to foreign representatives should be submitted to it. The establishment of international relations with countries other than France was a matter of slow development. Treaties of amity and commerce, similar to the French treaty, were concluded with the Netherlands in 1782, with Sweden in 1783, and with Prussia in 1785, all of which provided for the establishment of consulates. A similar right was obtained, with respect to Great Britain, following the final treaty of peace of September 3, 1783. However, the Congress of the Confederation did not order until 1785 "that the Secretary for foreign affairs report the number of consuls and vice-consuls necessary to be appointed by Congress and the foreign ports in which they should respectively reside." Following the report made in accordance with this order, the first provision for a consular service was made in the following resolution (October 28, 1785): "Whereas it is expedient that consuls should be appointed in the different states with which the citizens of the United States are engaged in commerce; therefore, 'Established Nov. 29, 1775; name changed in April 1777 to Committee on Foreign Affairs. |