three others, Coal Products, Methods of Packing for Domestic Shipment, and Markets for Fertilizers, are almost ready. A study of wholesale trade areas in the grocery trade is well under way. This is the first attempt to differentiate between political d visions and natural commercial trade areas, and it is therefore of 1 fundamental nature. There has been inaugurated an important investigation into the number and results of agencies engaged in commercial research; this will yield for the first time an inventory of projects completed and planned in this field. Considerable work has been done to revise and make current the bureau's directory of Cor mercial and Industrial Organizations. The chief work of the division, however, has been the completio of two exhaustive surveys of domestic regional markets, both @ which will appear in print at an early date. These studies of the Philadelphia and Atlanta marketing areas are the result of extensiv field work and intensive statistical and general research in the office Their aim is to present a complete and detailed picture of the re sources, economic background and activities, channels of marketing. purchasing power and habits, and the effects of excess or deficiency in products of the region under consideration. They have bee judged by trade interests to be of extraordinary value to domesti trade in evaluating markets and in adding to current knowledge of marketing. It is planned to conduct at least six similar surveys dur ing the coming year and to keep the data current by the establish ment of a regional reporting service. The division's staff has constantly endeavored to maintain and add to the trade contacts that have been established. Representation of the National Distribution Conference and the National Conference on Street and Highway Safety is also keeping the division in clos touch with the work of those bodies. ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS EDITORIAL DIVISION During the past fiscal year the editorial division was called upor to handle, in one way or another, nearly 45,000 reports from the foreign representatives of the Government. Commerce Reports the weekly magazine issued by the bureau for the benefit of busines men, was edited and published along much the same lines as in the previous year. The Foreign Trade Opportunities published numbered 4,909, as compared with 3,846 in the preceding year, an increas of 28 per cent. A departure in connection with the work of the division was the placing of all trade information bulletins on a sales basis at a uniform price of 10 cents each. Formerly the publications of this particular class had been issued in the form of supplements to Commerce Reports and had been distributed free to selected lists c individuals and firms. These bulletins have become an increasingl important factor in the publication work of the bureau. The Commerce Yearbook, 1924, presenting a concise and graphi picture of the world's industry and commerce, with special referen to the United States, was an outstanding publication edited during the year. It proved necessary during the present calendar year to discontinue the publication of the supplements to Commerce Reports comprising the economic and trade reviews of foreign countries contained in the annual reports of consular officers. This action was due principally to the shortage of printing funds. The insufficiency of the printing appropriations for the bureau continues to be a problem of the utmost gravity and one that is hampering the work of the organization. Much more ample appropriations are needed to enable the bureau's publication work to function normally. The total number of printed pages edited in the bureau during the fiscal year 1925 was 14,239, a slight increase over the 14,036 sent to the printer during the preceding year. The number of special circulars edited in the editorial division was about 2,900, the total number of pages in these circulars being approximately 7,500. DIVISION OF CORRESPONDENCE AND DISTRIBUTION This division comprises two distinct sections, correspondence and distribution. In the correspondence section the incoming correspondence is routed to the approximately 50 separate units in the bureau and outgoing correspondence is reviewed from the standpoint of statements of fact, adherence to bureau and departmental policy, compliance with administrative rules and regulations, typographical appearance and form, in addition to the broader factors necessarily entering into a varied correspondence of the volume carried on by this bureau. This division also carries on a large correspondence of its own in relation to a variety of subjects, having answered about 15,000 inquiri:s by mail during the fiscal year. Records kept in this division show the number of commercial services rendered by the bureau in Washington and its district and cooperative offices. These services totaled 2,091,250 in the fiscal year 1925, as compared with 1,236,326 in 1924, 972,702 in 1923, and 589,533 in 1922. The 1925 total shows an increase of 69 per cent over 1924. Requests received during the year for information reserved from Foreign Trade Opportunity announcements totaled 446,865, as compared with 345,784 in 1924, 332,131 in 1923, and 127,385 in 1922. Continued interest in trade lists issued by the bureau is evidenced by the total number of requests received for such material, 687,159 rade lists having been asked for in the fiscal year 1925, as compared with 417,195 in 1924, 181,049 in 1923, and 71,900 in 1922. The total number of trade lists distributed in 1925 was about 1,103,900, representing 1,577 separate lists. The number of copies of confidential and special circulars sent out during the year totaled 3,713,800, comprising 3,668 separate statements, as compared with approximately 3,100,000 comprising 2,227 statements in 1924, 1,000,000 involving 1,100 separate statements in 1923, and 350,000 covering 744 statements in 1922. The number of envelopes addressed or individuals served increased 280 per cent in 1924-25, as compared with the preceding year. The correspondence division maintains a group of reserve stenog raphers and typists who are available upon request for work in other units of the bureau. This service has developed into a training school from which vacancies occurring elsewhere are filled; approximatel 25 such transfers were effected during the fiscal year. As in the past, the distribution section has maintained mailing lists for the distribution of publications and circulars and has supe vised the mechanical and physical details connected with the Er porters' Index. DISTRICT AND COOPERATIVE OFFICES The bureau established, during the fiscal year just past, two new district offices, one at Detroit, Mich., and the other at Portlan Oreg., and four cooperative offices, at Jacksonville, Fla., Orange Tex., Houston, Tex., and Des Moines, Iowa. The number of services rendered by the district offices increased from 967,620 during the fiscal year 1924 to 1,826,381 in 1925. There were 440,670 Trade Opportunities distributed by the district office during 1925, as compared with 343,511 during 1924 and 68715 trade lists distributed as compared with 416,000 during the preceding year. The increase in the number of services rendered by the New York district office has been most remarkable. This office alone performe 1,191,562 services for business men during the fiscal year 1925, an increase of more than 100 per cent over the 572,997 that were recorde during the preceding fiscal year. The letters received from firm in the New York district showed an increase of over 25 per cent The total number of persons visiting all the district offices for con mercial assistance during the past fiscal year was 61.996. The Detroit district office was opened July 1, 1924, and the nee for it has been conclusively demonstrated by the extent to which it services have been utilized by the business interests of Michiga The inquiries have increased from 40 during the first week in July to approximately 700 for the last week in June. The Portland offe was opened on May 15, 1925, and is meeting with enthusiastic sup port and encouragement. The Portland Chamber of Commerce ha provided space for the bureau's office until such time as permanen quarters are available and has cooperated very closely with the dis trict manager ever since his arrival there. FOREIGN SERVICE DIVISION Nine hundred and twenty-one pouches of mail were received the foreign service division during the fiscal year and routed to the various divisions of the bureau. In addition to the pouches, whi arrive every few days, half a dozen or more packages of open ms arrive every day from those offices that do not have the pouch ser ice. Copies of all communications between the bureau and its fie offices, including weekly reports and economic and trade notes, we retained in this division for the information of other departmentof the Government. The practice was continued of arranging itineraries for field rep resentatives whom it was considered desirable to have visit th 1 various district and cooperative offices of the bureau for the purpose of conferring with local business men. The budgets of the field offices were carefully supervised and amended from time to time to meet unforeseen exigencies of the commercial-attaché and tradecommissioner service. Three hundred and seventy-four letters of introduction to the field offices were issued during the year to business men who were going abroad. During the past fiscal year 10 new offices were established abroad and 11 commercial attachés, 5 assistant commercial attachés, 15 trade commissioners, 27 assistant trade commissioners, and 4 American clerks were appointed to foreign posts. Separations from the foreign service due to resignations and transfer to Washington included 3 commercial attachés, 10 trade commissioners, 5 assistant trade commissioners, 3 special agents, and 6 American clerks. Communications of all kinds between the bureau and our foreign offices, and vice versa, passed through the reviewing section, in which a record was kept of all the reports and letters from each of the foreign offices to the bureau and the amount of work each foreign office and each foreign representative was doing. During the year 768 special reports, 6,259 economic and trade notes, 23,182 informational letters, and 13,085 letters to be forwarded to outside firms were sent to the bureau by its 41 foreign offices and passed through the reviewing section, a grand total of 43,294 as compared with 29.920 last year. The various divisions sent to the reviewing section to be forwarded to the foreign offices 51,065 letters and communications of all kinds. There were also 1,400 questionnaires sent out to the foreign offices, originating in the various divisions of the bureau. Of reports and letters received by the bureau from its foreign offices, the following is the average per office for the fiscal year 1924-25: Special reports, 19; economic and trade notes, 153; letters zo bureau, 565; letters to outside parties, 319; answers to questionnaires, 34; trade opportunities, 21. A total of 6,497 cablegrams were transmitted between the field offices and the bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1925, as compared with 5,754 for the previous year, 4,200 for 1923, and 3,127 For 1922. The practice of sending "charge" cablegrams on behalf of private irms and individuals has proven to be a quick and reliable means of obtaining up-to-date information. This service is constantly being made use of by American business. COOPERATION WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS The fiscal year 1924-25 has witnessed decided progress in the working out of harmonious relations between this bureau and the Department of State, chiefly as a result of the Executive order of April 5, 1924, and the work done in inaugurating a system in the iaison office whereby an accurate record is kept of all consular reports received and first-hand comments are secured from the regional, commodity, and technical divisions designated to take action on them. Detailed comments have been furnished to consular officers on the quality and disposition of each one of their reports during the past year, with most gratifying results. 66548-25-10 The percentage of consular reports on which no action was take has fallen from 27 in 1923-24 to 5.7 in 1924-25; this is indicative of a much better understanding, on the part of consular officers, of just what kind of material is useful to this bureau. The percentage of consular reports given special distribution shows an increase from 11 to 14.6. The Department of State has taken occasion to express its appre ciation of the records kept by the bureau's liaison office with regar to the action taken on consular reports and states that these recordare of great assistance in grading the work of the consular offices The Department of State has likewise expressed its gratification s the work of our liaison office in supplying consular officers wit clippings from the press and from trade journals and with speci circulars giving the texts of their reports as they are made availabl for American business men. The system of sending consular officers questionnaires carefully reviewed by the bureau's questionnaire committee continues to func tion with highly satisfactory results. During the year 948 questionnaires were sent to consular officers. The practice of sending to the liaison officers of all departments of the Government a weekly list of reports from the bureau's repre sentatives has been maintained, and reports which they request are made available to them. It is believed that this practice has great increased the usefulness of this bureau to other departments of the Government. There has been a noticeable increase of late in the number of consuls visiting this bureau. Arrangements have been made with the liaison officer of the State Department for the class of consular officers now receiving instructions at the State Department to make a personally conducted visit to the bureau in groups of four or five for the purpose of forming a clear picture of the manner in which corsular reports are handled by this bureau and gathering information regarding the activities of the commodity, technical, and regional divisions. STANDARDIZATION WORK Pursuing its joint aid with the Bureau of Standards in the prepa ration of a preliminary program for the First Pan American Confer ence on Uniformity of Specifications and in the formulation and effectuation of plans for this work, the bureau sent a delegate to this conference, which was held in Lima, Peru, December 23, 1924, te January 6, 1925. Following the conference a section was organized to provide for continuity of the work. In accordance with detailed plans formulated and approved by an advisory board composed of representatives of 14 national organiza tions, the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce cooperate with the Bureau of Standards in the publication of a Dictionary d Specifications. RECOMMENDATIONS The following are, in my opinion, the essential needs of the Burea of Foreign and Domestic Commerce: 1. Adequate legislation to place the foreign service of the depart ment on a permanent basis. |