in specific controversies, where it has been referred to by various bodies, and also by the courts, as authoritative in setting forth certain principles of transportation. On February 13, 1911, the Bureau published a summary of Part I of its Report on the Lumber Industry. This part dealt with the standing timber of the country, its amount, distribution, and ownership. The most important facts shown in the report relate to the concentration of a dominating control of our standing timber in a comparatively few vast holdings, the enormous increase in the value of this resource, and the unfortunate effect that our long-standing public land policy has had in producing such concentration. At the end of the fiscal year the Bureau issued Part I of its Report on the Steel Industry. This part dealt with the organization, investment, profits, and position of the largest corporation in the country, the United States Steel Corporation. It gave an elaborate analysis of the relation of assets to capitalization, and especially criticised the Corporation's tendency toward monopolistic control of ore, the basis of the industry, particularly as evidenced in the socalled "Hill lease." It also criticised the unduly high freight rates charged by the Steel Corporation for carrying ore over the Corporation's ore railroads. Within a few months after the issuance of the report, the Corporation announced its intention to cancel the Hill lease, and also reduced by about 25 per cent the ore rates on its northern ore railroads. At the end of the fiscal year there were still pending, as work on hand, investigations into the International Harvester Co. and concentration of water power ownership, as well as continued investigations of the steel, tobacco, and lumber industries, transportation by water, and corporate taxation. The Bureau is now allowed by law to publish only 2,500 copies of a given report in one fiscal year. This unfortunate restriction should be enlarged. The present and increasing demand for these reports is so great that the Bureau's supply is frequently exhausted in three or four months, and large numbers of requests must be denied. Considering the importance of the subject matter of these reports, the vast amount of work involved therein, and the urgency of the demand, the limitation of 2,500 copies is absurdly inadequate. Very respectfully, To Hon. CHARLES NAGE HERBERT KNOX SMITH, Secretary of Commerce and Labor. REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, BUREAU OF LABOR, Washington, January 11, 1912. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a detailed report of the work of this Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911. 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, 1911. 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 providedThat 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 especially charged to ascertain, |