CABINET.
The President's cabinet is a council of ten official advisers, appointed by him and confirmed by the Senate. They are often called heads of departments. The members of the cabinet are the secretary of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of war, secretary of the navy, postmaster-general, secretary of the interior, attorney-general, secretary of agriculture, secretary of commerce, and secretary of labor.
They may be removed by the President at pleasure, and are directly responsible to him for the conduct of their respective departments. The President holds frequent meetings of the cabinet for the purpose of conferring upon official business; but he may, if he choose, disregard their advice and act upon his own judgment.
In case of the death, resignation, removal, or disability of both President and Vice President, the presidential office would be filled by a member of the cabinet, in this order: The secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of war, the attorney-general, the postmaster-general, the secretary of the navy, the secretary of the interior.
Each of the cabinet officers receives a salary of twelve thousand dollars per year.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE.--The secretary of state is the head of the department of state, formerly called the department of foreign affairs. His office is the highest rank in the cabinet, and is next in importance to that of the President. He preserves the original draughts of all treaties, laws, public documents, and correspondence with foreign countries. He keeps the great seal of the United States, and fixes it to all commissions signed by the President. He furnishes copies of records and papers kept in his office, impressed with the seal of his department, and authenticates all proclamations and messages of the President.
He has charge of the negotiation of treaties and other foreign affairs, conducts correspondence with foreign ministers, issues instructions for the guidance of our ministers and other agents to foreign countries, and from time to time reports to Congress the relations of the United States with other governments. He is the organ of communication between the President and the governors of the States.
He issues traveling papers, called passports, to citizens wishing to travel in foreign countries. When foreign criminals take refuge in this country, he issues warrants for their delivery according to the terms of existing treaties. He presents to the President all foreign ministers, and is the only officer authorized to represent him in correspondence with foreign governments.
The secretary of state has three assistants, called respectively, first assistant secretary of state, second assistant secretary of state, and third assistant secretary of state.
The department of state conducts the foreign affairs of the government chiefly through the diplomatic service and the consular service.
THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE.--The officers of the diplomatic service are called ministers, and represent the United States in a political capacity. They negotiate treaties under the direction of the secretary of state, and maintain friendly relations between the United States and the countries to which they are accredited. They are forbidden to engage in any commercial transaction, or to exercise any control over the commercial interests of the United States.
By the laws of nations, foreign ministers in all countries enjoy many rights and privileges not accorded to other foreign persons. They are assisted by interpreters, who explain speeches made in foreign tongues; and by secretaries of legation, who keep the records, and attend to the minor duties of the ministers.
The diplomatic service consists of ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary, of envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary, and of ministers resident. These officials rank in the order named, but the duties are the same; the chief difference being in the rank and influence of the countries to which they are accredited.
The ambassadors and ministers of the higher rank receive salaries ranging from seven thousand five hundred dollars to seventeen thousand five hundred dollars each, the latter sum being paid to the ambassadors to such important countries as Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Mexico, Japan, etc.
There are very few ministers resident. They generally serve also as consuls general, and receive from four thousand dollars to seven thousand dollars each. Ministers sent to foreign countries upon special service, such as the negotiation of special treaties, are sometimes called commissioners.
CONSULAR SERVICE.--The consular service includes about sixty consuls general, some of whom are inspectors of consulates, about two hundred and fifty consuls, and many deputies and other assistants.
The chief duties of consuls are to enforce the commercial laws, and to protect the rights of American citizens. Consuls reside at the principal cities of the consular districts to which they are accredited. The interests of American shipping and American seamen are specially intrusted to their care. They keep the papers of American vessels while in port; they record the tonnage, the kind and value of the cargo, and the number and condition of the sailors. They hear the complaints of seamen, cause the arrest of mutinous sailors, send them home for trial, and care for mariners in destitute condition. They take possession of the property of American citizens dying abroad, and forward the proceeds to the lawful heirs.
They collect valuable information relating to the commerce and manufactures of foreign countries, which is distributed among our people by the department of commerce.
In Turkey and China, American citizens who are charged with crime are tried by the American consul. Consuls and consuls general receive salaries ranging from two thousand dollars to twelve thousand dollars each, according to the importance of the cities where they are located.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT.--The secretary of the treasury is the head of the treasury department. He manages the entire financial system of the national government. He suggests to Congress plans for raising revenue and maintaining the credit of the United States, and makes detailed reports on all the operations of his department.
He superintends the collection of revenue; the coinage of money; the operation of national banks; the conduct of custom-houses, where taxes on imported foreign goods are collected. The schedule or table showing the duties levied on foreign goods is called the tariff; this is fixed by act of Congress. The management of the public health service, and the operation of the coast guard, maintained along the seacoast for the rescue of persons from drowning and for the enforcement of navigation laws, are also under the charge of the secretary of the treasury. His greatest responsibility is the management of the national debt, which still amounts to many hundred millions of dollars.
BUREAUS.--The secretary of the treasury is assisted by three assistant secretaries of the treasury, a comptroller, six auditors, a treasurer, a register of the treasury, and numerous other responsible officers in charge of the bank currency, internal revenue, the mint, the erection of public buildings, and other important bureaus and divisions of the treasury department.
The comptroller directs the work of the six auditors, and superintends the recovery of debts due the United States.
The auditor for the treasury department settles--that is, examines and passes on--all accounts in the collection of customs duties and internal revenue, the national debt, and other accounts immediately connected with the operations of the treasury department. The auditor for the war department settles the army accounts.
The auditor for the interior department settles pension accounts, accounts with the Indians, and all other accounts arising in the department of the interior.
The auditor for the navy department settles the accounts of the navy.
The auditor for the state and other departments has charge of the accounts of the secretary of state, the attorney-general, the secretary of agriculture, the secretary of commerce, and the secretary of labor, and of all the officials under their direction; the accounts of the United States courts; and those of various institutions which are not under the control of any department.
The auditor for the post-office department examines and passes on the accounts of the postal service.
The treasurer is custodian of the funds of the United States. All funds and securities are kept in vaults made for the purpose, or deposited in reliable banks for safe keeping.
The register of the treasury has charge of the account-books of United States bonds and paper money. They show the exact financial condition of the United States at all times. The register's name is upon all bonds and notes issued by the government.
The comptroller of the currency supervises the national banks. A bank is a place for the safe keeping and lending of money. A bank holding its charter--that is, its power to do business--from a State government is called a State bank. Two kinds of banks are chartered by the national government: the national banks and the federal reserve banks.
By the laws of the United States, any five or more persons with sufficient capital may organize a national bank. A national bank may issue its notes--that is, its promises to pay--as currency, to an amount not exceeding the amount of United States bonds deposited by the bank with the national government. Each federal reserve bank is a large central bank organized by the banks of a certain district. It issues notes as currency, secured by commercial notes, drafts, etc.
The commissioner of internal revenue supervises the collection of income taxes and of taxes laid upon tobacco; liquors, etc., manufactured in this country.
The director of the mint has charge of the coinage of money, and reports to Congress upon the yield of precious metals. There are mints at Philadelphia, Carson, San Francisco, Denver, and New Orleans, and assay offices also at other places.
The Constitution vests the power to coin money in the national government alone.
The director of the bureau of engraving and printing supervises the execution of designs and the engraving and printing of revenue and postage stamps, national bank notes, and the notes, bonds, and other financial paper of the United States.
The supervising architect selects plans for the erection of custom-houses, court-houses, post-offices, mints, and other public buildings of the United States.
The surgeon-general of the public health service has charge of the marine hospitals, and helps to enforce the laws which aim to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases into the country. He calls conferences of state health boards.
The solicitor of the treasury is the chief lawyer for the department. He has charge of prosecutions for violations of the customs laws, and other crimes against the financial interests of the United States. Like similar lawyers for other departments, he is included in the department of justice, under the attorney-general.
WAR DEPARTMENT.--The secretary of war is the head of the war department. He has charge of the land forces, under the direction of the President. He supervises the expenditure of money voted by Congress for the improvement of rivers and harbors, and for the United States Military Academy at West Point, as well as for the support and operations of the army. In the management of his department he is aided by an assistant secretary of war.
BUREAUS.--The war department has numerous offices and bureaus, each in the charge of a responsible officer, and all under the supervision of the Chief of Staff, who is the military adviser of the secretary of war.
The adjutant-general issues the military orders of his superiors, conducts the army correspondence, issues commissions, and keeps the army records.
The quartermaster-general provides quarters, food, clothing, and transportation for the army, and has charge of barracks and national cemeteries. He also supervises the payment of the army and the military academy.
The surgeon-general superintends the army hospitals, and the distribution of medical stores for the army.
The inspector-general attends to inspection of the arms and equipments of the soldiers.
The chief of engineers supervises the construction of forts, the improvement of rivers and harbors, and the surveys relating to them.
The chief of ordnance furnishes guns and ammunition to the army and to forts, and has charge of armories and arsenals.
The judge-advocate-general, who is chief of the bureau of military justice, prosecutes crimes committed in the army, and reviews all sentences passed by military courts and military commissions.
MILITARY ACADEMY.--The military academy at West Point is maintained for the education of officers for the army. Each member of Congress appoints two cadets to the academy, and the President appoints four from the District of Columbia and eighty from the United States at large. There are also appointed two from each territory, two from Porto Rico, and a certain number of enlisted men from the army. The academy is under the charge of an army officer, appointed by the secretary of war. Each cadet receives from the government an allowance sufficient to pay all necessary expenses.
NAVY DEPARTMENT.--The secretary of the navy presides over the navy department. He has control of all affairs relating to vessels of war, the naval forces, and naval operations. He has charge of the Naval Observatory at Washington, and of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. There is an assistant secretary of the navy.
The naval department issues sailing charts, sailing directions, and other publications for the use of seamen. Among these is the nautical almanac used in navigating ships.
BUREAUS.--The naval department has a number of bureaus, which are in charge of competent officers detailed from the naval service.
The bureau of navigation gives out and enforces the secretary's orders to the officers of the navy, enlists sailors, keeps the records of the service, and has charge of the naval academy. It has charge of the training and education of line officers and enlisted men of the navy.
The bureau of yards and docks attends to the navy yards, docks, wharves, their buildings and machinery.
The bureau of ordnance superintends the forging and testing of cannon, guns, and other military equipments, and the construction of naval torpedoes.
The bureau of medicine and surgery has charge of the naval laboratory, the eight naval hospitals, and the purchase and distribution of surgical instruments and medical stores for the naval department.
The bureau of supplies and accounts purchases and distributes provisions and clothing for the navy.
The bureau of steam engineering superintends the construction and repair of engines and machinery for the vessels of war.
The bureau of construction and repair has charge of all matters relating to the construction and repair of all vessels and boats used in the naval service.
NAVAL ACADEMY.--The naval academy at Annapolis is maintained by the national government for the purpose of educating and training officers for the navy. It bears the same relation to the navy that the military academy bears to the army. At the academy there are three midshipmen for each member of Congress; the President appoints two from the District of Columbia and ten a year from the United States at large; and fifteen enlisted men of the navy are appointed each year on competitive examination. The academy is under the charge of a superintendent, appointed by the secretary of the navy. Each midshipman receives from the government an annual sum of money sufficient to pay all necessary expenses incurred at the academy.
POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.--The postmaster-general presides over the post-office department. He has control of all questions relating to the management of post-offices and the carrying of the mails, and appoints all postmasters whose annual salaries are less than a thousand dollars each. Postmasters whose salaries exceed this sum are appointed by the President of the United States.
BUREAUS.--The postmaster-general has four assistants, who, under him, are in charge of the various details of the vast establishment devoted to the postal service.
The first assistant postmaster-general has general charge of post-offices and postmasters, and makes preparations for the appointment of all postmasters. He also controls the free delivery of mail matter in cities, and the dead letter office.
The second assistant postmaster-general attends to the letting of contracts for carrying the mails, decides upon the mode of conveyance, and fixes the time for the arrival and departure of mails at each post-office. He also has charge of the foreign mail service. The United States has postal treaties with all the other civilized countries in the world, by which regular mail lines are maintained.
The third assistant postmaster-general has charge of financial matters. He provides stamps, stamped envelopes, and postal cards for post-offices, and receives the reports and settlements of postmasters. He also superintends the registered mail service, the postal savings system, and the post-office money-order business. By means of money orders people may deposit money in the post-office at which they mail their letters, and have it paid at the office to which their letters are addressed.
The fourth assistant postmaster-general has charge of the rural free delivery system,--a very important service. He also furnishes blanks and stationery to post-offices throughout the United States, and supervises the making of the various post-route maps, such as those used for rural delivery and for the parcel post.
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.--The secretary of the interior is the chief officer of the interior department. The former name, home department, suggests the character of the subjects under its control. Its duties relate to various public interests which have been transferred to it from other departments. The department of the interior has charge of pensions, public lands, Indian affairs, patents, education, and the geological survey.
The commissioner of pensions has charge of the examination of pension claims and the granting of pensions and bounties for service in the army and the navy. There are about a million names on the pension rolls of the United States, and the annual payment of pensions amounts to about one hundred and forty million dollars.
The commissioner of the general land office superintends the surveys and sales of the lands belonging to the national government. The United States surveys divide the public lands into ranges, townships, sections, and fractions of sections. Ranges are bounded by north and south lines, six miles apart, and are numbered east and west. Ranges are divided into townships, each six miles square, numbered north and south. A township is divided into thirty-six sections, each one mile square, and containing six hundred and forty acres of land; and sections are divided into quarter sections.
The commissioner of Indian affairs has charge of questions relating to the government of the Indians. Its agents make treaties, manage lands, issue rations and clothing, and conduct trade with the Indians.
The commissioner of patents conducts all matters pertaining to the granting of patents for useful inventions, discoveries, and improvements.
A patent gives the inventor the exclusive right to manufacture, sell, and use the patented article for a period of seventeen years.
A copyright, which is somewhat similar to a patent, gives the author of a book the exclusive right to print, publish, and sell it for a period of twenty-eight years, with the privilege at the expiration of that time of renewing for twenty-eight years more.
An inventor or author may sell a patent or copyright, as well as other property.
The commissioner of education investigates the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and collects information relating to schools, school systems, and methods of teaching. The facts collected are distributed among the people in annual reports published by the office.
The director of the geological survey sends out parties of scientific men, who explore various parts of the Union, trace the sources of rivers, measure the heights of lands, and gather other facts relating to the natural resources of the country. He publishes excellent maps of the regions that have been explored.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.--The attorney-general presides over the department of justice. He is the chief law officer of the government, and the legal adviser of all the departments. He is assisted by the solicitor-general, who is the second officer in rank; by nine assistant attorney-generals, and by several solicitors for particular departments. The department of justice conducts before the supreme court all suits to which the United States is a party; conducts suits arising in any of the departments, when requested by the head thereof; exercises supervision over the district attorneys and marshals of the United States district courts; examines the titles of lands proposed to be purchased by the United States, as sites for forts, arsenals, barracks, dockyards, customhouses, post-offices, and other public purposes; examines and reports upon applications for judicial offices and other positions requiring legal ability.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.--The department of agriculture was reorganized in 1889. Previous to that time it had been a bureau of the interior department. The secretary of agriculture is the chief officer of the department of agriculture.
This department collects and diffuses among the people useful knowledge relating to agriculture and agricultural products. Experiments are conducted upon farm and garden products, and the seeds of choice varieties are distributed among the people. Similar attention is given to stock-raising and the care of forests. The bureau of chemistry assists in the enforcement of the pure food law.
The department also includes the weather bureau, which collects and publishes telegraphic reports of storms and the condition of the weather, in the interest of agriculture and commerce.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.--The department of commerce and labor was created in 1903, and ten years later was divided into two departments. The secretary of commerce presides over the department of commerce. Its duty is to promote and develop commerce, mining, manufacturing, and fisheries. It collects and publishes facts and figures on all these subjects; supplies exactly true weights and measures for any one to copy; controls stations for stocking waters with valuable fish; inspects and licenses steamships, rejecting any that are unseaworthy; surveys the seacoast of the United States, and maintains lighthouses at dangerous points.
The work of the department is divided among a number of bureaus, many of which were already in existence when the new department was formed. Among these is the census office, which takes a census of the United States every ten years, besides collecting other statistics at shorter intervals.
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.--The secretary of labor presides over the department of labor. Its duty is to promote the welfare of wage earners. It makes important investigations, and publishes statistics concerning laborers. This department includes the children's bureau, which studies problems, affecting children's welfare. It also includes the bureau of immigration and the bureau of naturalisation, which supervise the enforcement of United States laws regarding immigration and naturalization.
SEPARATE COMMISSIONS.--In addition to the civil service commission, Congress has created two other important commissions not connected with any department. The interstate commerce commission, consisting of seven members appointed by the President, supervises interstate railroads, express companies, etc., and enforces the laws which control them. The federal trade commission, consisting of five members appointed by the President, supervises the business of persons and companies engaged in interstate commerce, except those under the control of the interstate commerce commission.