THE NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
wide sections of our business community, but also the great body 
of producers, consumers, and the general public. 
A proper function of Government is to render service to business 
where such service cannot adequately be provided by individual 
initiative. The obtaining of basic nation-wide and world-wide data 
on commerce and industry is an example of such service. 
The data hitherto collected has never been adequate for Amer- 
ican needs nor has it been promptly or effectively presented for 
actual business use. The duty of gathering such facts now rests 
with an almost incredible number of widely scattered bureaus. The 
facts are brought together for a variety of purposes, few of which 
have any bearing upon the practical requirements of business. 
Much information, of immeasurable value to American trade and 
industry, lies almost unused in Washington because it is in such 
form as to render difficult its practical use, or has not been made 
use of because business men have not been properly advised as to 
the kind of service which more than four score bureaus are prepared 
to render him if he will approach each one in turn and study its 
stock-in-trade and facilities. 
The Department of Commerce is now charged with the primary 
duty of rendering the fullest possible service to American commerce, 
both foreign and domestic. It has no inquisitorial or regulatory 
powers and is accordingly free from the equivocal duty of restraining 
business with one hand while it attempts to offer service with the 
other. 
This Department is in a peculiarly favorable position to obtain, 
coordinate and distribute vital commercial information, carefully 
safeguarding all confidential facts. It can render invaluable service 
through the development of commercial standards and specifications, 
the absence of which is costing the American people at the present 
time hundreds of millions of dollars needlessly expended. 
The Chamber strongly recommends that the facilities of the 
Department of Commerce be broadened to meet the actual and 
economically proper demands of the business of this great nation. 
It recommends further that those Federal bureaus and divisions, 
the duties of which upon study are found to fall within the scope 
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