From the archives: the Department of State on the eve of World War II.

• Author: Langbart, David A.

Even before the United States formally entered World War II, the conflict had a significant impact on the Department of State. In the 36 months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Department saw many changes both in activities and structure. To provide a convenient summary of those changes for use by officials speaking to the public, in June 1941, the Office of the Director of Personnel prepared an untitled memorandum describing the expansion of the Department's activities and the changes in organization. While the document admittedly lacks much in the way of style, it does provide a useful and valuable overview of the various changes taking place in the Department of State in the years leading up to U.S. entry into World War II, thus providing a picture of that agency and its myriad organizations and activities as participation in the war approached.

A survey of the present activities of the Department of state indicates that there has been an extraordinary increase in the volume and scope of its activities since the beginning of the unsettled international situation in July, 1938. This increase is definitely reflected in the work of every division and office, with the exception of the Division of International Conferences, the Treaty Division, the Office of the Editor of Treaties, and the Foreign Service School, and has necessitated the establishment of numerous administrative and policy machineries. The total authorized permanent and temporary staff of the Department of State in Washington has been increased from 939 at a total annual cost of $2,241,000 on July 1, 1938, to 1,503 at $3,301,540 on June 1, 1941. This represents an increase of approximately 60 percent in the total number of personnel and of 47 percent in the total annual cost of salaries.

The work of the American Foreign Service likewise has been increased in the interest of the national security and measures have been enforced to strengthen our diplomatic and consular offices and to adapt their personnel to emergency needs. Its total permanent and temporary staff has increased in number from 3,757 on July 1, 1938, to 4,500 on June 1, 1941, an increase of approximately 20 percent. The increase of 743 in personnel includes approximately 300 officers and employees transferred from the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture under the President's Reorganization Plan No. II, whereby the functions of the Foreign Commerce Service and of the Foreign Agricultural Service were consolidated with the Foreign Service of the United States for the purpose of economy, efficiency, better functional grouping, elimination of overlapping and duplication of effort, and of insuring greater service to our commercial and agricultural interests. Forty of our offices have been closed because of the conflict abroad, and 40 new offices have been opened.

The growth in the volume and variety of work handled in the Department has been accelerated greatly during the past year. There has been an intensification in all fields of activities involved in the conduct of our foreign relations: political, economic, cultural and social, and in all related administrative activities. Our normal governmental contacts have broadened out to cover associated activities of all other governmental agencies and an increasing number of private institutions and individuals, and the Department of State maintains close technical relations with the principal agencies and interdepartmental groups established during the crisis to assist in the national defense program.

It is obvious that the work of all of the geographical or strictly political divisions has increased almost immeasurably as a result of the disturbed international situation and the existence of widespread and serious hostilities in three of the four regions over which these divisions have jurisdiction in political matters; that is, in the regions for which the European Division, the Far Eastern Division and the Near Eastern Division have the responsibility for the conduct of our foreign relations. The work of the Division of the American Republics has increased manyfold as a result of many lines of cooperative activity that are being carried on with other republics of the Americas, as a part of the general program of Western Hemisphere solidarity that is so vital to our future economic welfare and the safety of the democratic form of government in this hemisphere. This work not only involves an enormous increase in reports and other communications which are received and must be evaluated and acted upon, but it places on the State Department, and particularly on the Division of the American Republics, the supervisory responsibility for a considerable number of cooperative projects being carried on by other departments and agencies of the Government under appropriations made available to the State Department by Congress for those purposes.

In order to give effect to the Department's expanded activities, numerous adjustments have been made in the organization of the Department.

The Division of Cultural Relations was established in July, 1938, for the purpose of encouraging and strengthening cultural relations and intellectual cooperation between the United States and other countries[.] [I]n carrying out these functions, it has charge of the work of the Department in relation to the exchange of professors, teachers, and students between the countries; cooperation with other countries in the fields of music, art, literature, and other intellectual and cultural fields; collection and distribution of libraries of representative works of the United States and suitable translations thereof; Government participation in international broadcasts; and, generally, the improvement and broadening of the scope of American cultural relations with other countries.

As a result of the emergency, all activities of the Division have been intensified for the promotion of Hemispheric solidarity and in this connection, the Division works in close cooperation with the Office of the Coordinator of Commercial and Cultural Relations between the American Republics.

A Division of International Communications was established in August, 1938, for the purpose of centralizing in one division, under qualified technical experts, our international relations as to aviation, shipping, and telecommunications. Since the outbreak of the war, the most important problem which has resulted in increased activities in the Aviation Section of this Division covers the plan for the extension of American air transport services in the other American republics and the cooperation of American air carriers in building up national air transport lines in these republics, all with a view to bringing about the elimination of Axis influence and control over aviation in these countries. Very substantial progress has already been made with respect to the general program in Colombia and Ecuador. Plans for the building up of a national airline in Bolivia with the technical assistance of the Pan American Grace Airways, together with the extension of the international trunk line of this company into Bolivia, are now well under way, as well as plans for eliminating Axis influence in air transportation in Brazil.

This general program has entailed a number of complexities involving detailed studies of corporate organization, and economic and political considerations. The President has approved the allocation from his Emergency Fund of the sum of $8,000,000 to be expended under the general direction of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in the acceleration of activities in this field. The administration of this fund gives rise to problems, such as the approval of estimates of expenditure for...