Government, and usually known by the name of "public documents," are supplied to any legation or consulate of the United States as are first designated by the Secretary of State by an order to be recorded in the State Department as suitable for and required by such legation and consulate. Whenever there are in the custody of the Department of the Interior any sets of the documents of any session of Congress, or other documents or odd volumes not necessary to supply deficiencies or losses that may happen in the Library of Congress, or in that of either of the executive departments or in state or territorial libraries, the Secretary of the Interior distributes the same as equally as practicable to the several senators, representatives, and delegates in Congress for distribution in public libraries and other literary institutions in their respective districts. All such books and documents, when received at the proper offices, libraries, and other depositories as provided by law, are kept there, and not removed from such places. The superintendent of public documents (appointed by the Secretary) in the Department of the Interior is charged, subject to the general direction of the Secretary, with the duty of collecting, arranging, preserving, packing, and distributing the publications received at the department for distribution, and with the duty of compiling and supervising the Biennial Register. Suitable rooms in the Department of the Interior are from time to time assigned by the Secretary for the journals, books, and documents.

As soon as practicable, after the last day of September in each year in which a new Congress is to assemble, a register is compiled and printed under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, of which 1500 copies are published, and which

contains the following lists made up to such last day of September :—

1. Correct lists of the officers, clerks, employees, and agents, civil, military, and naval, in the service of the United States, including cadets and midshipmen, which lists exhibit the amount of compensation, pay, and emoluments allowed to each, the state or country in which he was born, the state or territory from which he was appointed to office, and where employed.

2. A list of the names, force, and condition of all the ships and vessels belonging to the United States, and when and where built.

3. Lists of all printers of the laws of the United States, and of all printers employed by Congress or by any department or officer of the Government during the two years preceding the last day of September up to which such list is required to be made, with the compensation allowed to each, and designating the department or officer causing the printing to be executed.

4. A statement of all allowances made by the Postmaster - General within the same period of two years to each contractor on contracts for carrying the mail, discriminating the sum paid as stipulated by the original contract and the sums paid as additional allowance.

On the first Monday in January in each year when a new Congress is assembled, there is delivered to the President, the Vice-President, each head of a department, each member of the Senate and House of Representatives, one copy of the Biennial Register; to the secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House of Representatives ten copies each for the use of the respective Houses; to the Library of Congress twenty-five copies; and to the secretary of state of each state one copy; and the residue of the copies is disposed

of as Congress from time to time directs.

THE RETURNS OFFICE.

The Secretary of the Interior from time to time provides a proper apartment, to be called the Returns Office, in which he causes to be filed the returns of contracts made by the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Interior, and appoints a clerk of the first class to attend to the same. This clerk files all returns made to the office, so that the same may be of easy access, keeping all returns made by the same officer in the same place, and numbering them in the order in which they are made. He provides and keeps an index-book with the names of the contracting parties, and the number of each contract opposite to the names, and submits the indexbook and returns to any person desiring to inspect it. He furnishes copies of such returns to any person paying therefor at the rate of five cents for every one hundred words, to which copies certificates are appended, in every case by the clerk making the same, attesting their correctness, and that each copy so certified is a full and complete copy of the return.

THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION.

In the Department of the Interior is a bureau called the Office of Education, the purpose and duties of which are to collect statistics and facts showing the condition and progress of education in the several states and territories, and to diffuse such information respecting the organisation and management of schools and school systems and methods of teaching as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the

cause of education throughout the country. The management of the Office of Education, subject to the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, is intrusted to a Commissioner of Education, who is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. This Commissioner presents annually to Congress a report embodying the results of his investigations and labours, together with a statement of such facts and recommendations as will in his judgment subserve the purpose for which the office is established. The chief of engineers furnishes proper offices for the use of the Office of Education.

OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF
RAILROADS.

In 1878 the office of auditor of railroad accounts was established as a bureau of the Interior Department, and in 1881 the said auditor became Commissioner of Railroads. This Commissioner has a salary of $4500; and in his office are one bookkeeper, salary, $2400; one railroad engineer, $2500; one assistant bookkeeper, $1800; one clerk of class three, one copyist, and one assistant messenger.

The duties of the Commissioner, under and subject to the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, are to prescribe a system of reports to be rendered to him by the railroad companies whose roads are in whole or in part west, north, or south of the Missouri river, and to which the United States have granted any loan of credit or subsidy in bonds or money; to examine the books and accounts of each of said railroad companies once in each fiscal year, and at such other times as may be deemed by him necessary to determine the correctness of any report received from them; to assist the Government directors of any of said railroad com

panies in all matters which come under their cognisance, whenever they may officially request such assistance; to see that the laws relating to said companies are enforced; to furnish such information to the several departments of the Government in regard to tariffs for freight and passengers, and in regard to the accounts of said railroad companies, as may be by them required, or, in the absence of any request therefor, as he may deem expedient for the interest of the Government; and to make an annual report to the Secretary of the Interior on the first day of November, on the condition of each of said railroad companies, their roads, accounts, and affairs for the fiscal year ending June 30th immediately preceding.

Each and every of said railroad companies which has received from the United States any bonds of the United States issued by way of loan to aid in constructing or furnishing its road, or which has received from the United States any lands granted to it for a similar purpose, shall make to the said Commissioner any and all such reports as he may require from time to time, and shall submit its books and records to the inspection of said Commissioner, or any person acting in his place or stead, at any time that the said Commissioner may request, in the office where said books and records are usually kept; and the Commissioner, or his authorised representative, make such transcripts from such books and records as he may desire.

The penalty in each case for neglect or refusal to make such reports or to submit books and records for inspection is not less than $1000 nor more than $5000.

BUREAU OF LABOUR.

By the Act of June 27, 1884, there was established in the Department of

the Interior a Bureau of Labour, under the charge of a Commissioner of Labour appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. This Commissioner holds his office for four years, and until his successor is appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed, and receives a salary of $3000 a-year. He collects information upon the subject of labour, its relation to capital, the hours of labour, and the earnings of labouring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity. By the Act of August 2, 1886, the Commissioner was directed, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to make a full investigation as to the kind and amount of work performed in the penal institutions of the several states and territories of the United States and the District of Columbia, as to the methods under which convicts were or might be employed, and as to all the facts pertaining to convict labour and the influences of the same upon the industries of the country, and to embody the results of such investigation in his second annual report to the Secretary of the Interior; provided that the investigation could be carried out under the appropriations made for the expenses of the Bureau of Labour for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887. By the Act of July 3, 1886, it was resolved that there be printed 54,000 copies, in cloth binding, of the First Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labour, 26,000 copies for the use of members of the House of Representatives, and 13,000 for the use of members of the Senate, and 15,000 copies for the use of the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Labour, the latter number to be wrapped for mailing in such manner as the Secretary of the Interior might direct. The sum of $18,808, or so much thereof as

might be necessary to defray the cost of the publication of this report, and the further sum of $275, or so much as might be necessary to defray the cost of wrapping 15,000 copies, were appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

According to the appropriations for the fiscal year 1886-87, there are employed in the Bureau of Labour the Commissioner of Labour, a chief clerk appointed by the Secretary of the Interior upon the recommendation of the Commissioner, salary, $2000; 2 clerks of class four, both statistical experts; 2 clerks of class

three, one of whom may be a stenographer; 2 clerks of class two; 4 clerks of class one, one of whom may be a translator and one a stenographer; 2 clerks at $1000 each; 2 copyists; 2 copyholders at $720 each; 1 assistant messenger at $600; 1 watchman; 1 skilled labourer, $600; 2 charwomen at $240 each; 18 special agents, at least 2 of whom shall be females, at $1400 each-in all, $52,960.

There was also appropriated a sum of $500 for books, periodicals, and newspapers for the library of the bureau.

The general design and duties of the Department of Agriculture, which is at the seat of government, are to acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture, in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and to procure, propagate, and distribute among the people new and valuable seeds and plants. It is under the charge of a Commissioner of Agriculture, who is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The department is separated into a number of divisions. The appropriations for the fiscal year 1886-87 included appropriations in connection with this department for-

1. Botanical Division.-For investigating the nature of the diseases of fruits and fruit trees, grains, and other useful plants, due to parasitic fungi, and for experiments necessary to determine suitable remedies for these diseases, and for field investigation in the south and west with respect to the discovery and introduction into cultivation of forage plants and grasses suitable to increase

the grazing capacity of the arid districts of the south and west.

2. Pomological Division. For the collection and dissemination of pomological information.

3. Microscopical Division. - For microscopical apparatus, chemicals, and purchase of food samples and filters in making necessary investigations and examinations into the adulteration of food.

4. Chemical Division. Chemicals and apparatus for the use of the chemist, and for necessary changes in and additions to the fixtures to the laboratory, and necessary expenses in conducting experiments, including purchase of samples; for purchase, erection, transportation, and operation of machinery, and necessary travelling within the United States, and other expenses in continuing and concluding experiments in the manufacture of sugar by the diffusion and saturation processes, from sorghum and sugar-cane, so much thereof as may be necessary to be immediately available. All machinery purchased was to be built in the United States wholly of domestic material, except so much of it, not

exceeding $10,000 in cost, as was then under contract, express or implied, or such parts thereof as could not be built in the United States within proper time.

5. Entomological Division. -For investigating the history and habits of insects injurious to agriculture and horticulture, experiments in ascertaining the best means of destroying them, for drawings and illustrations, and for chemicals and travelling within the United States, and other expenses on the practical work of the entomological division.

6. Division of Economy, Ornithology, and Mammalogy.-An investigation of the food, habits, distribution, and migrations of North American birds and mammals in relation to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry; for publishing reports thereon; and for drawings and travelling and other expenses in the practical work of the division.

7. Silk-Culture.--For collecting and disseminating information relating to silk-culture, for purchasing and distributing silkworm eggs, and for conducting at some point in the District of Columbia experiments with automatic machinery for reeling silk from the cocoon. The Commissioner was authorised to sell in open market any and all reeled silk and silk-waste produced in these experiments, and to apply the proceeds of such sales to the payment of the legitimate expenses incurred therein; and he should make full report to Congress of the experiments, and also of all sales and purchases. For the encouragement and development of the culture of raising raw silk $5000 were to be expended under the direction of the Woman's SilkCulture Association of the United States, located at Philadelphia, and to be paid directly to said association.

Grounds. For superintendent, labour, material, &c., "for the purchase, cultivation, propagation, and distribution of foreign medicinal plants, $2000."

9. Museum. "Collecting and modelling specimens of fruits and vegetables, and collecting and preparing specimens for the museum and herbarium, $1000."

10. Seed Division.-"For the purchase and propagation and distribution as required by law of seeds, trees, shrubs, vines, cuttings, and plants, and expenses of putting up the same, to be distributed in localities adapted to the culture, in all, $108,240. An equal proportion of two-thirds of all plants, seeds, trees, cuttings, vines, and shrubs shall, upon their request, be supplied to senators, representatives, and delegates in Congress for distribution among their constituents, or shall, by their direction, be sent to their constituents; and the persons receiving such seeds shall inform the department of the result of the experiments therewith: Provided that all seeds, plants, and cuttings herein allotted to senators, representatives, and delegates in Congress for distribution, remaining uncalled for at the end of the fiscal year, shall be distributed by the Commissioner of Agriculture; and provided also that the Commissioner shall report as provided in this Act the place, quantity, and price of seeds purchased, from whom purchased, and the date of purchase. But nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent the Commissioner of Agriculture from sending flower, garden, and other seeds to those who apply for the same. And the amount herein appropriated shall not be diverted or used for any other purpose but for the purchase, propagation, and distribution of improved and valuable seeds, plants, cuttings, and vines: