and Consular Bureaus. These had been formed early, the duties resting with a division of the clerks, supervised by other clerks who acted as chiefs. There were two Chiefs of the Consular Bureau and two of the Diplomatic Bureau; but they were simply clerks of class IV, until the Act of May 22, 1872, recognized them as chiefs of bureau and increased their compensation to $2,400 per annum. The Act of June 30, 1874, concentrated these offices in one Chief for the Diplomatic Bureau and one for the Consular Bureau at $2,400 per annum each. This Act also provided for the Bureau of Rolls and Library, with a Chief at the same salary. Previous to this action a clerk of class IV had acted as librarian, and had also been in charge of the rolls and historical papers. In 1870 there was instituted the Bureau of Indexes and Archives, and it was given control of the indexing of all incoming and outgoing mail, which had before been indexed by the several other divisions of the Department. The Act of March 3, 1873, authorized the appointment of a Chief of this Bureau at $2,400 per annum. What is now the Bureau of Statistics had its origin in the "Statistical Office." In 1842 Daniel Webster, as Secretary of State, recommended to Congress that the work of arranging and condensing the information received from our Consuls abroad on commercial subjects be intrusted to one person, and that he should have charge of the correspondence on these subjects. No action was taken on this recommendation until 1856, when the Committees on Commerce in both Houses of Congress took it up and the "Statistical Office of the Department of State" was authorized, the first Superintendent being appointed August 18, 1856. In anticipation of the action of Congress, the office had been organized by the Department two years previously. The salary of the "Superintendent" was fixed at $2,000, and so continued, until the Act of June 30, 1874, authorized the Bureau of Statistics, the Chief to receive $2,400 per annum. The financial business of the Department had been in the beginning intrusted to one of the clerks, and the Act of 1855 authorized a disbursing clerk, who should give bonds. By Act of March 3, 1873, the Bureau of Accounts was instituted, with the disbursing clerk as Chief, with the same salary as was allowed the other chiefs of bureau. In 1875 the Translator of the Department, who had before that been simply one of the clerks, was placed upon the same footing as the chiefs, with the same salary. The Appropriation Act of August 15, 1876, reduced all these salaries to $2,100, which rate maintains at the present time. Beside the regular bureaus described above, the Department business has necessitated the institution of two others, the heads of which are selected from the clerical force. These are the Bureau of Commissions and Pardons and that of Passports. Of the former it is sufficient to say that it was the natural outgrowth of the assignment to a certain clerk of the papers relating to appointments to office and of the duty of making out the commissions and pardons. The Passport Bureau will be described later on.* As now constituted, the Executive force of the Department comprises the Secretary of State, three Assistant Secretaries, a Chief Clerk, a Solicitor (from the Department of Justice), Chief of the Bureau of Indexes and Archives, Chief of the Diplomatic Bureau, Chief of the Consular Bureau, Chief of the Bureau of Rolls and Library, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, Chief of the Bureau of Accounts, the Translator, Clerk to the Secretary of State, eleven clerks of class IV, four clerks of class III, eight clerks of class II, fifteen clerks of class I, a telegraph operator at $1,200 per annum, five clerks at $1,000 per annum, ten at $900 per annum, a *See p. 176. |