William G. McAdoo to Woodrow Wilson

The Correspondence with Secretary Redfield which resulted from your request that I confer with him about the differences between the two Departments over the question of instructions to Collectors of Customs, which I have submitted to you, discloses the fact that Mr. Redfield is deeply aggrieved because the Treasury Department is continuing to clear vessels under the Executive Order of August, 1914. You will recall that in my letter to you I pointed out that if you wished to restore to the Department of Commerce immediately the function of clearing vessels, I should offer no objection, although I urged that since merchant tonnage was so rapidly disappearing from the seas it was doubly important that clearances and sailings of vessels should be expedited in every possible way so that a greater efficiency and usefulness could be obtained from the available world tonnage. The fact that for the past three years the Treasury Department has been looking after clearances has facilitated the movement of vessels greatly. Ship owners have to look to one Department only as things now stand, and that of itself simplifies matters and is, I think, advantageous to the public interest.

In order that you may understand the point clearly, the function of the Department of Commerce in the matter of clearances is more technical than real. The entire service is performed by the Collectors of Customs and the employees of the Treasury Department. The intervention of the Department of Commerce is of no value in the circumstances, but as the law confers certain powers upon that Department which can be exercised only through the Collectors of Customs, I am, of course, willing that the authority of that Department shall be fully observed in all respects.

Since the Secretary of Commerce is standing so much on his technical rights, and I think making them and his personal feelings paramount to the public interest, I desire to repeat my willingness to transfer back to the Department of Commerce immediately any power this Department is now exercising under the Executive Order of August, 1914, to which the Secretary of Commerce lays claim.

I shall be very grateful if you will let me know what your wishes are in the matter.The President, The White House.