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relations to capital, the hours of labor, the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity.

It is especially charged to investigate the causes of and facts relating to all controversies and disputes between employers and employees as they may occur, and which may happen to interfere with the welfare of the people of the several States.

It is also authorized, by act of March 2, 1895, to publish a bulletin on the condition of labor in this and other countries, condensations of State and foreign labor reports, facts as to conditions of employment, and such other facts as may be deemed of value to the industrial interests of the United States. This bulletin is issued every

other month.

By section 76 of an act to provide a government for the Territory of Hawaii, approved April 30, 1900, it is made the duty of the Bureau to collect and present in annual reports statistical details relating to all departments of labor in the Territory of Hawaii, especially those statistics which relate to the commercial, industrial, social, educational, and sanitary condition of the laboring classes.

LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD.

The Light-House Board has charge, under the superintendence of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, of all administrative duties relating to the construction and maintenance of light-houses, light-vessels, light-house depots, beacons, fog-signals, buoys, and their appendages, and has charge of all records and property appertaining to the Light-House Establishment.

BUREAU OF THE CENSUS.

The Bureau of the Census is charged with the duty of taking the periodical censuses of the United States and of collecting such special statistics as are required by Congress, including the collection in 1905 of the statistics of manufacturing establishments conducted under the factory system, and the collection annually of statistics of births and deaths in registration areas, statistics of the cotton production of the country as returned by the ginners, and (by transfer from the Bureau of Labor) statistics of cities of 30,000 or more inhabitants.

Under the proclamation of the President dated September 30, 1902, the Bureau is charged with the compilation and tabulation of the returns of the Philippine census, taken as of March 2, 1903, under the direction of the Philippine Commission.

COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY.

The Coast and Geodetic Survey is charged with the survey of the coasts of the United States and coasts under the jurisdiction thereof and the publication of charts covering said coasts. This includes base measure, triangulation, topography, and hydrography along said coasts; the survey of rivers to the head of tide-water or ship navigation; deep-sea soundings, temperature, and current observations along said coasts and throughout the Gulf and Japan streams; magnetic observations and researches, and the publication of maps showing the variations of terrestrial magnetism; gravity research; determination of heights; the determination of geographic positions by astronomic observations for latitude, longitude, and azimuth, and by triangulation, to furnish reference points for State surveys.

The results obtained are published in annual reports, with professional papers and discussions of results as appendices; charts upon various scales, including sailing charts, general charts of the coast, and harbor charts; tide tables issued annually, in advance; Coast Pilots, with sailing directions covering the navigable waters; Notices to Mariners, issued monthly and containing current information necessary for safe navigation; catalogues of charts and publications, and such other special publications as may be required to carry out the organic law governing the Survey.

BUREAU OF STATISTICS.

The Bureau of Statistics collects and publishes the statistics of our foreign commerce, embracing tables showing the imports and exports, respectively, by countries and customs districts; the transit trade inward and outward by countries and by customs districts; imported commodities warehoused, withdrawn from, and remaining in warehouse; the imports of merchandise entered for consumption, showing quantity, value, rates of duty, and amounts of duty collected on each article or class of articles; the inward and outward movement of tonnage in our foreign trade and the countries whence entered and for which cleared, distinguishing the nationalities of the foreign vessels.

The Bureau also collects and publishes information in regard to the leading commercial movements in our internal commerce, among which are the commerce of the Great Lakes; the commercial movements at interior centers, at Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific seaports; shipments of coal and coke; ocean freight rates, etc.

The Bureau also publishes daily and monthly the reports received from United States consuls and special reports on various subjects supplied by consuls on special request; also, annually, the declared exports from foreign countries to the United States furnished by consuls, and the annual report laid before Congress, entitled "Commercial Relations of the United States." Prior to July 1, 1903, these reports were published by the Bureau of Foreign Commerce of the Department of State. This duty was transferred to the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor by the act of February 14, 1903, creating that Department.

STEAMBOAT-INSPECTION SERVICE.

The Steamboat-Inspection Service is charged with the duty of inspecting steam vessels, the licensing of the officers of vessels, and the administration of the laws relating to such vessels and their officers for the protection of life and property.

The Supervising Inspector-General and the supervising inspectors constitute a board that meets annually at Washington, and establishes regulations for carrying out the provisions of the steamboat-inspection laws.

BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

The work of the Bureau of Fisheries comprises (1) the propagation of useful food fishes, including lobsters, oysters, and other shellfish, and their distribution to suitable waters; (2) the inquiry into the causes of decrease of food fishes in the lakes, rivers, and coast waters of the United States, the study of the waters of the coast and interior in the interest of fish culture, and the investigation of the fishing grounds of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts, with the view of determining their food resources and the development of the commercial fisheries; (3) the collection and compilation of the statistics of the fisheries and the study of their methods and relations.

BUREAU OF NAVIGATION.

The Bureau of Navigation is charged with general superintendence of the commercial marine and merchant seamen of the United States, except so far as supervision is lodged with other officers of the Government. It is specially charged with the decision of all questions relating to the issue of registers, enrollments, and licenses of vessels and the filing of those documents, with the supervision of laws relating to the admeasurement, letters, and numbers of vessels, and with the final decision of questions concerning the collection and refund of tonnage taxes. It is empowered to change the names of vessels, prepares annually a list of vessels of the United States, and reports annually to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor the operations of the laws relative to navigation.

BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION.

The Bureau of Immigration is charged with the administration of the laws relating to immigration and of the Chinese exclusion laws. It supervises all expenditures under the appropriations for "Expenses of regulating immigration" and the "Enforcement of the Chinese exclusion act." It causes alleged violations of the immigration, Chinese exclusion, and alien contract-labor laws to be investigated, and when prosecution is deemed advisable submits evidence for that purpose to the proper United States district attorney.

BUREAU OF STANDARDS.

The functions of the Bureau of Standards are as follows: The custody of the standards; the comparison of the standards used in scientific investigations, engineering, manufacturing, commerce, and educational institutions with the standards adopted or recognized by the Government; the construction, when necessary, of standards, their multiples and subdivisions; the testing and calibration of standard measuring apparatus; the solution of problems which arise in connection with standards; the determination of physical constants and properties of materials, when such data are of great importance to scientific or manufacturing interests and are not to be obtained of sufficient accuracy elsewhere. The Bureau is authorized to exercise its functions for the Government of the United States, for any State or municipal government within the United States, or for any scientific society, educational institution, firm, corporation, or individual within the United States engaged in manufacturing or other pursuits requiring the use of standards or standard measuring instruments. For all comparisons, calibrations, tests, or investigations, except those performed for the Government of the United States or State governments, a reasonable fee will be charged.

STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURES.

An itemized statement of the expenditures from the contingent fund of the Department of Commerce and Labor is transmitted to Congress in the usual form. The following summary statement shows the appropriations made for the support of the Department from February 18, 1903 to June 30, 1904, and the amount disbursed from each appropriation from February 18, 1903 to June 30, 1903, the end of the fiscal year:

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The disbursements for the period from July 1, 1903 to September 30, 1903, inclusive, after the appropriations for all bureaus and offices had become available, amounted to $584,951.08, and were made from 43 different items of appropriation. These disbursements are a fair

index to the increase in the business of the new Department after July 1, 1903, on account of the bureaus transferred from the Treasury and other Departments of the Government.

ESTIMATES.

The estimates for the Department represent actual needs. They were submitted after the fullest consideration and as a result of repeated conferences with those qualified to furnish information regarding the various matters to which reference is made.

It is fair to assume that Congress, in establishing the Department, contemplated not only the grouping together of certain bureaus then existing and the organization of the new bureaus and offices provided for, but also their proper consolidation and readjustment, to the end that the entire Department, when fully organized, should by expansion into the new field it was created to occupy accomplish all the purposes named in the organic act. Merely to appropriate a sufficient sum for the administration of the several bureaus transferred on July 1, and for a skeleton organization of the new bureaus, would fall far short of meeting those purposes. If the Department is to realize in any considerable degree the expectations of the framers of the legislation creating it and of the great interests it is expected to cooperate with and advance, it must have adequate appropriations. The act establishing the Department was passed late in the last regular session of Congress, and it was impossible to give full consideration to its needs. I most earnestly recommend that the Department be now equipped to do properly and effectively its important work.

A DEPARTMENT BUILDING.

Under date of February 23, 1903, I addressed a communication to the Secretary of the Treasury for transmission to Congress, submitting an estimate for an appropriation for the construction of a building for the Department. I respectfully invite attention again to that communication and reproduce it herewith:

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,
Washington, February 23, 1903.

SIR: I have the honor to request that the following estimate for the construction of a suitable building for the Department of Commerce and Labor be transmitted to Congress:

At the beginning of the coming fiscal year the Department of Commerce and Labor will consist of twelve organizations, transferred to it from other branches of the public service, two new bureaus, and the office proper of the Secretary-in all, fifteen organized offices. These offices will be housed, under present arrangements, in ten or more different buildings. The Census Office is on B street, between First and Second streets NW.; the Coast and Geodetic Survey is on New Jersey avenue, near B street SE.; the Bureau of Foreign Commerce is in the State, War, and Navy building. Between these limits of about a mile and a half east and west, and about one

third of a mile north and south, are distributed the remaining organizations of the Department.

The Light-House Board and the Bureau of Navigation are at 719-721 Thirteenth street NW.; the National Bureau of Standards on New Jersey avenue, near B street SE.; the Immigration Bureau, the Steamboat-Inspection Service, and the Alaska Seal and Salmon Fisheries in the Treasury Building; the Commission of Fish and Fisheries at Sixth and B streets SW.; the Department of Labor at Fifteenth street and New York avenue NW.; and the Bureau of Statistics at 1333 F street NW. Quarters for the office of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor and for the new Bureaus of Manufactures and Corporations have not yet been chosen. The delay, inconvenience, and expense in the transaction of daily business by so scattered an organization will be evident at once both to Congress and to the commercial and industrial interests of the country.

The annual rent during the current fiscal year for only four of these organizations (Department of Labor, Census Office, Bureau of Statistics, and Light-House Board) amounts to $44,544. Rented quarters are now provided, or soon must be provided, for nine of the remaining organizations in the Department of Commerce and Labor. On July 1, the Department of Commerce and Labor will employ in the city of Washington about 1,300 men and women. The precise number can not be stated until the new bureaus have been organized.

The present needs of the new Department have been briefly mentioned in order to show the importance of early action by Congress to supply them. In any project for the building which Congress may approve it is earnestly recommended that provision be made for the future growth of the Department, which will accompany the development of the commerce and industry of the United States.

The site to be secured should not only suffice for the structure required to house under one roof the branches of the public service to be assembled in July under the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, but should be ample for extensions of the edifice from time to time, in harmony with original plans, and with requirements of the increasing artistic sense of the people. The building for the Department of Commerce and Labor at the national capital, it is suggested, should be so planned in advance as to be not inferior in convenience or beauty to the structures which commercial and financial institutions in the great centers of American trade are erecting for the transaction of their daily business. It should be designed on a scale large enough to provide for the reasonable growth for some years to come of the various branches of the public service comprising at the outset the Department, and to supply quarters for such other branches of the service as by creation or transfer may hereafter be brought under its jurisdiction.

It should have at least one hall suitable for conferences or Congresses, international or national, which, by invitation of the Government of the United States, have met in this country in the past, and doubtless hereafter will assemble frequently at Washington. To secure light and ventilation, inner courts open to the sky are necessary. The edifice should be fireproof.

Such a department building is needed to meet the requirements of progressive business methods. It is needed to give adequate expression to the country's advance in the art of architecture. It is a proper part of any general project to render more beautiful the national capital. It is in the line, furthermore, of true economy

The Treasury building cost $7,250,540, but is already inadequate for the needs of that Department, which this year, according to the estimates, will spend $18,894 in rents for outside offices. The State, War and Navy building cost $10,071,916, but the Departments it houses will this year spend $25,260 for rented offices, and more offices must be secured for the coming fiscal year. The Patent Office cost $3,652,705, but this year the Interior Department will be required to spend $80,680 for rented buildings (including $26,680 for the Census Office, transferred to the Department of

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