Note 135 — Chapter XV · THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET

The State Department deals chiefly with foreign and diplomatic affairs as well as with relations between the nation and the states; it also promulgates the laws passed by Congress. The Department of the Treasury collects the revenues, pays the government’s bills, attends to the borrowing of money when necessary, issues the currency, and has general supervision over the national banks. The War Department has charge of the armed forces, the land fortifications, the purchase of munitions, and the whole upkeep of the army. The Department of the Interior has functions of a very miscellaneous nature, so much so that it has been jocularly called the “department of things in general”. It has charge of national parks and forests, patents, pensions, the geological survey, and various other things which have little relation to one another. The Postmaster-General assumes the oversight of the entire postal service. The Department of Justice has an Attorney-General at its head. He is the government’s chief legal advisor and represents it in all legal controversies. The Navy Department has charge of all the nation’s armed forces afloat. The Department of Agriculture has to do with the promotion of agricultural interests throughout the country (see pp. 346-348). The Department of Labor has charge of immigration, naturalization, and the execution of the federal laws relating to labor. The Department of Commerce is concerned with the development of foreign and domestic trade, the inspection of steamboats, the publication of consular reports (see pp. 373-374), and so forth.