COMPILATION OF STATISTICS. During the past year the Division was called upon to prepare the following statistical statements relative to the personnel of the Department: (1) A statement showing (a) the number of classified employees in the Office of the Secretary and in each of the twelve bureaus of the Department; (b) the number of positions in the Office of the Secretary and each bureau, classified according to grade and compensation; (c) the number of classified and unclassified positions in the Office of the Secretary and the various bureaus on January 26, 1910, and the net increase over July 1, 1909; and (d) the number of employees in the classified service of the Department not more than 45 years of age, those more than 45 and not more than 50, those more than 50 and not more than 55, those more than 55 and not more than 60, those more than 60 and not more than 65, those more than 65 and not more than 70, those more than 70 and not more than 75, and those more than 75 years of age. (2) A statement relating to presidential positions in the Department, giving the positions, names of incumbents, dates of last commissions, dates of effect, and tenure. (3) A comparative statement of the number of positions in the District of Columbia, at the various grades of compensation, on July 1, 1904, and January 1, 1910. (4) A statement of changes affecting a portion of the personnel made from March 5, 1909, to November 19, 1909, giving the names of employees, bureaus or services, designations, salaries, from whence appointed, places of employment, nature of change, and dates of separation, if separated from the service. (5) A statement concerning the status of a certain portion of the personnel on November 27, 1909, giving the names of the employees, bureaus or services, positions, salaries, from whence appointed, places of employment, dates of appointment to positions, and manner of appointment. These statements were prepared from the service-record cards, but owing to the variety of information desired and the large number of cards to be reviewed, the work necessarily involved considerable labor, each table requiring, in fact, the services of two or more clerks from two to twelve days. The first statement, which is the most comprehensive and which consumed the longest time in its preparation, was compiled in February last for the chairman of the Senate Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment, in connection with certain phases of the classified service which the committee had under consideration. The other statements were prepared for the Department's own information and use. CHANGES IN METHODS RELATING TO APPOINTMENTS. With the increasing amount of work devolving upon the Assistant Secretary, who in matters relating to appointments has acted as Secretary a greater portion of the time, it became necessary to adopt some course of procedure which would relieve that officer of the work connected with the signing of every appointment or other change in the personnel and would authorize a subordinate officer to perform the mere ministerial duty of notifying the persons affected of the changes approved or ordered by the Secretary or the officer acting in his stead. Competent authorities on the subject having uniformly held that heads of departments are without authority to delegate the discretionary power involved in appointments and other changes in the force, the Department decided upon a plan which fulfills every legal requirement and affords the relief sought. A daily "journal," containing the orders of the Secretary or Acting Secretary with respect to all changes in the personnel, now takes the place of the individual appointments and other changes, as well as the daily reports which the Chief of the Appointment Division formerly made to the Disbursing Clerk. The notifications of these changes are made up in the Appointment Division on amended forms and signed, "by direction of the Secretary," by the Chief Clerk of the Department. In this manner the journal constitutes the appointments, made en bloc, and the forms signed by the Chief Clerk constitute the certificates of evidence reciting the fact that the appointments have been made by the officer vested with that authority. The Secretary or Acting Secretary is always personally consulted in advance concerning cases in which there may possibly be an element of doubt and those involving the establishment of policy or precedent. In order to put the new method into effect, it was necessary to make radical changes in the forms used in the Appointment Division, and each bureau officer was given the opportunity to express a preference for one of three ways of preparing the notifications of the action taken by the Department. Respectfully submitted. To Hon. CHARLES NAGEL, GEO. W. LEADLEY, Chief of Appointment Division. Secretary of Commerce and Labor. REPORT OF THE CHIEF, DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS, SIR: I have the honor to present herewith my annual report as Chief of the Division of Publications for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910. Before taking up the detailed discussion of the work done under my supervision, I wish to urge upon you the fact that the Division of Publications is urgently in need of four new positions in order to keep abreast with its constantly increasing work. One new position at $1,600, one at $1,400, one at $1,200, and one at $660 per annum are asked for. The new position requested at $1,600 per annum is needed in connection with the editorial work of the Department, and the ones at $1,400, $1,200, and $660 are necessary in connection with the distribution of the Department's publications, which work is being centralized in the Division of Publications. GENERAL STATEMENT. It is a pleasure to be able to testify that the publication work of the Department continues to advance in standard and to be maintained upon a thoroughly economic basis. During the last fiscal year the Department issued 3,703 requisitions on the Public Printer, calling for the printing of over 9,600,000 blank forms, 3,100,000 reports and pamphlets, 2,000,000 letter heads, 85,000 envelopes, 350,000 circulars and decisions, and 3,800,000 memorandum sheets; the making of over 1,400,000 index and guide cards and folders, and 53,000 blank books, and the binding of over 3,000 miscellaneous volumes. Of blank forms there was an increase during the past year in the number printed of over 460,000, or 5.02 per cent; of index cards there was an increase of over 390,000, or 65.57 per cent; of guide cards and folders an increase of nearly 180,000, or 72.53 per cent; of memorandum sheets an increase of over 1,400,000, or 59.15 per cent, and of blank books made an increase of over 30,000, or 135.43 per cent. In addition, orders to the number of 504 were placed with the envelope contractors for the making and printing of over 14,000,000 penalty envelopes, an increase of nearly 7,400,000, or 110.39 per cent. Also orders were placed for the making of 185,000 sheets of special water-marked papers on which to print declarations of intention and petitions for naturalization, an increase of 95,000 sheets, or 105.55 per cent. During the year there were received from the various outside services of the Department 7,342 requisitions for blank forms and 311 |