with the Commissioner with a view to improvement in the methods of the exchange. Similar action has also been taken by the New Orleans Cotton Exchange. We should take advantage promptly of this attitude among business men. To do so, we must have a system of supervision which provides a working basis for conference and cooperation and which does not rely merely on criminal procedure and opposition. There is not only a change in the attitude of business leaders. There is also an aroused and intelligent demand from the public for fair business methods and for equal commercial opportunity for all. By vigorous effort there has been created a current of opinion which will amply support a modern system of regulation when once the details thereof are properly worked out. Attempts have already been made in this direction. These were exemplified in a bill introduced in the last session of Congress, intended to amend the Sherman antitrust law. It represented an attempt to bring about some such constructive system of publicity as above outlined. It was wholly optional and did not compel any corporation to subject itself to its provisions unless that corporation so chose. It also proposed to modify the present sweeping prohibition against all combination. It recognized, as suggested above, the propriety of reasonable combination. Prominent financial and corporate leaders stated that if the bill were passed they would at once accept its provisions and bring their corporations under its operation. To be allowed to register under a uniform law, to obtain a federal standing as a corporation rendering open accounts to a federal office, was recognized by them as a commercial asset well purchased by a reasonable degree of publicity. The work of the Bureau of Corporations, depending as it does wholly upon publicity, necessarily deals, and has always dealt, with factors which are largely intangible. True it is that very important tangible results in business methods have already been accomplished, as above pointed out, results which of themselves amply justify the work. But the most important results are those which can appear only by a careful estimate of public opinion and of the change in business standards of morals that has been, and is now, taking place. This change is largely due to aroused public opinion, at last furnished with the facts of corporate operations in their proper proportion, impartially, and in such brief and intelligible shape as to be available for the average citizen. The future of the nation must depend largely upon the stability of its business machinery. That machinery can not be permanent or successful unless it operates openly and justly. It must place and keep in control of our great commercial forces men who have risen there solely by superior industrial efficiency. It must protect such men from the competition of those who get power by unfair and illegal methods and privileges-practices that rely peculiarly upon secrecy. To do this the Government must have such supervision and control of that corporate machinery as will maintain in business the fundamental American ideal of equal opportunity to all. Respectfully, To Hon. OSCAR S. STRAUS, HERBERT KNOX SMITH, Commissioner of Corporations. Secretary of Commerce and Labor. REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, BUREAU OF LABOR, Washington, January 13, 1909. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a detailed report of the work of this Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908. The report is made in two parts. The first part relates to the laws under which the Bureau was established and under which it carries on its work, while the second part relates specifically to the work of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908. I. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BUREAU. The Bureau of Labor was originally established as a bureau of the Department of the Interior by an act approved June 27, 1884. This act provided that the "Commissioner shall collect information on the subject of labor, its relation to capital, the hours of labor, and the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity." In obedience to this law, the Bureau was organized in January, 1885, and shortly thereafter, on February 4, 1885, the policy of the office was declared, in a letter addressed by the Commissioner of Labor to the honorable Secretary of the Interior, as follows: It should be remembered that a bureau of labor can not solve industrial or social problems, nor can it bring direct returns in a material way to the citizens of the country; but its work must be classed among educational efforts, and by judicious investigations and the fearless publication thereof, it may and should enable the people to comprehend more clearly and more fully many of the problems which now vex them. Four years after its organization as a bureau of the Department of the Interior, during which time it had issued four annual reports covering the information collected and collated, as required by the organic act, the Congress established a Department of Labor, independent of any of the Executive Departments. The act establishing. the Department of Labor was approved June 13, 1888, and provided That there shall be at the seat of Government a Department of Labor, the general design and duties of which shall be to acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor, in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and especially upon its relation 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. The act defined the organization of the department and the duties of the commissioner, and further provided SEC. 7. That the Commissioner of Labor, in accordance with the general design and duties referred to in section one of this act, is specially charged to ascertain, at as early a date as possible, and whenever industrial changes shall make it essential, the cost of producing articles at the time dutiable in the United States, in leading countries where such articles are produced, by fully specified units of production, and under a classification showing the different elements of cost, or approximate cost, of such articles of production, including the wages paid in such industries per day, week, month, or year, or by the piece; and hours employed per day; and the profits of the manufacturers and producers of such articles; and the comparative cost of living, and the kind of living. "It shall be the duty of the commissioner also to ascertain and report as to the effect of the customs laws, and the effect thereon of the state of the currency, in the United States, on the agricultural industry, especially as to its effect on mortgage indebtedness of farmers;" and what articles are controlled by trusts, or other combinations of capital, business operations, or labor and what effect said trusts, or other combinations of capital, business operations, or labor have on production and prices. He shall also establish a system of reports by which, at intervals of not less than two years, he can report the general conditions so far as production is concerned, of the leading industries of the country. The Commissioner of Labor is also specially 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 tend to interfere with the welfare of the people of the different States, and report thereon to Congress. The Commissioner of Labor shall also obtain such information upon the various subjects committed to him as he may deem desirable from different foreign nations, and what, if any, convict-made goods are imported into this country, and if so, from whence. SEC. 8. That the Commissioner of Labor shall annually make a report in writing to the President and Congress, of the information collected and collated by him, and containing such recommendations as he may deem calculated to promote the efficiency of the department. He is also authorized to make special reports on particular subjects whenever required to do so by the President or either House of Congress, or when he shall think the subject in his charge requires it. He shall, on or before the fifteenth day of December in each year, make a report in detail to Congress of all moneys expended under his direction during the preceding fiscal year. SEC. 9. That all laws and parts of laws relating to the Bureau of Labor created under the act of Congress approved June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, so far as the same are applicable and not in conflict with this act, and only so far, are continued in full force and effect, and the Commissioner of Labor appointed under said act, approved June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, and all clerks and employees in the Bureau of Labor authorized to be appointed by said act or subsequent acts, shall continue in office and employment as if appointed under the provisions of this act, and until a Commissioner of Labor, other officer, clerks, and employees are appointed and qualified as herein required and provided; and the Bureau of Labor, as now organized and existing, shall continue its work as the Department of Labor until the Department of Labor shall be organized in accordance with this act; and the library, records, and all property now in use by the said Bureau of Labor are hereby transferred to the custody of the Department of Labor hereby created, and on the organization of the Department of Labor on the basis of this act the functions of the Bureau of Labor shall cease. Under this act the Department of Labor issued 14 annual reports of the information collected and collated in accordance with the organic act, 9 special reports, and a number of miscellaneous reports, many of which were made in compliance with the special direction of Congress. Since November, 1895, the Bureau has also published a bimonthly bulletin, in accordance with a law approved March 2 of the same year, as follows: The Commissioner of Labor is hereby authorized to prepare and publish a bulletin of the Department of Labor, as to the condition of labor in this and other countries, condensations of State and foreign labor reports, facts as to |