1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Commerce, Department of

COMMERCE, DEPARTMENT OF, one of the executive departments of the U. S. Government. It succeeded the earlier Department of Commerce and Labor, by an Act of Congress, approved March 4 1913, which also created a separate and independent Department of Labor (see ). The Secretary of Commerce is a member of the president's Cabinet but is not in line of succession to the presidency. It is his duty to promote the commerce, domestic and foreign, of the United States. There is also an assistant secretary and a solicitor, the latter acting as legal adviser to the Secretary and to the heads of the various bureaus of the department.