alization examining force has spared neither time nor labor. The services of the 55 men who constitute the full force are inadequate to investigate effectively and to report upon this large number of cases to so many different courts. The force of examiners is not large enough to cope with the entire naturalization business of the country. It is impossible for them to make the preliminary examination of more than a fraction of the cases and to be prepared to satisfy the courts as to the admissibility of candidates. To cope with the large volume of work thus thrown upon the Division and its field force a further increase in the appropriations should be made to admit of the employment of additional clerks and examiners. The total expenditures on account of the Naturalization Service during the past year were $224,568.92. Of this there was expended for the administrative force in Washington $43,947.10, and for the field service $149,878.30, which includes $18,448.29 for the assistants to clerks of courts for naturalization purposes. In addition to this the service was supplied with stationery and office equipment worth $5,246.90, envelopes and special paper worth $5,929.22, and printing and binding valued at $19,567.40. The amount received on account of naturalization business during the year for deposit in the miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury was $290,551.52, so that the cost of the administration of the naturalization law was borne entirely by the alien applicants for citizenship, and was $65,982.60 less than the fees received. It is again urged that provision be made for a review by appeal or writ of error of the decisions of the courts of original jurisdiction in naturalization matters so as to attain the end contemplated by the framers of the Constitution, viz, " a uniform rule of naturalization." It is also urged that legislation be had to permit the amendment of naturalization papers which have been improperly executed by clerks of courts, so as to prevent the dismissal of petitions which fail in this particular. BUREAU OF CORPORATIONS. REPORTS PUBLISHED. During the last fiscal year the Bureau of Corporations has continued its investigation of industrial corporations and related subjects. In September, 1910, it published Part III of its Report on Transportation by Water in the United States. Parts I and II, previously issued, had dealt with the physical characteristics of waterways and their floating equipment, and with the domestic water-borne traffic. Part III treated of water terminals, and has perhaps been the part most widely cited and used. In February, 1911, the Bureau published the Summary of Part I of a Report on the Lumber Industry. This part treats of the standing timber of the country, its amount, its geographical distribution, and especially the remarkable and growing concentration in its ownership. This report on standing timber is one of the first to deal with a great natural resource. It raised questions of national importance, not only with respect to problems directly connected with our timber supply but, by close and plain analogy, in regard to similar problems involved in our other natural resources, such as coal, iron ore, etc. The task of ascertaining the amount, location, and ownership of our standing timber, distributed as it is over the entire United States, was necessarily a difficult one, but the results and the broad conclusions reached are of great value, especially as applied to our past and present publicland policy. PENDING INVESTIGATIONS. The Bureau had on hand, also, as current work at the end of the fiscal year, investigations into the International Harvester Co. and the ownership of water powers, and is also preparing further reports on the lumber, steel, and tobacco industries, on transportation by water, and on State taxation of corporations. The Bureau's reports, while embodied in full in somewhat large volumes, have also been digested in each case into very brief summaries, adapted for wide circulation. This method, presenting the important facts and tendencies of great industries directly to all citizens, is a vital point in the Bureau's publicity policy. The Bureau recognizes that to make its work of real value it must bring home the results of its investigations to the general public. To do this it must not only have broad and accurate information, but also must publish briefly and clearly the fundamental facts in the given industry. It is believed that improvements in the conditions of corporate businesses have been and are steadily being brought about by the Bureau's work. CORPORATE REGULATION. The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Standard Oil and American Tobacco Co. cases have brought forcibly to public attention a fact that has been repeatedly presented in the reports of the Department. That fact is the imperative need for the positive administrative regulation of great industrial corpora tions. The Sherman antitrust act has been demonstrated to be a thoroughly effective measure. But the mere breaking up of large combinations into a number of separate parts by no means meets the whole question. A certain degree of combination of capital is admittedly essential for the carrying on of our great business enterprises. To control properly such necessary combinations, we must have some administrative Federal office or commission which shall make this work its business. We must have a permanent authority which shall by steady and continuous supervision and publicity safeguard the public interests, and at the same time allow full scope for necessary and proper business efficiency and development. The recent decisions and the reorganizations which followed have made it clear that another imperative step remains to be taken, and that this step is the establishment by appropriate legislation of a broad system of supervision and publicity for all those industrial and commercial organizations that are engaged in interstate and international business. Whether this shall be done by means of Federal incorporation, or by a Federal office or commission exercising powers of supervision and regulation, may be a secondary question. The first consideration appears to be the establishment of permanent administrative publicity, supervision, and regulation. The time is peculiarly ripe for such action. Public opinion and the views of many corporate managers are at one. The experience and information acquired by the Bureau of Corporations through eight years of work investigating such problems will necessarily be of great importance in the development of any system which would, in a sense, be the logical expansion of the Bureau's operations and policy. The Bureau's past work, relying solely on publicity, has demonstrated beyond question what such a system of permanent supervision can do, and presents one of the strongest arguments for the broadening of that system into some such form as is here suggested. BUREAU OF LABOR. REPORTS PUBLISHED. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, the Bureau published its Twenty-fourth Annual Report, relating to Workmen's Insurance and Compensation Systems in Europe, in two volumes, and its Fourth Report on Hawaii, a report on industrial and commercial conditions in the Territory which is made regularly at intervals of five years. In addition, eight volumes of the Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States (S. Doc. No. 645, 61st Cong., 2d sess.) were issued. These volumes embody a portion of the results of an investigation of this subject made in compliance with an act of Congress and their titles are as follows: Volume I. Cotton Textile Industry. Volume II Men's Ready-Made Clothing. Volume III. Glass Industry. Volume IV. Silk Industry. Volume V. Wage-Earning Women in Stores and Factories. Volume VI. The Beginnings of Child-Labor Legislation in Certain States: A Comparative Study. Volume VII. Conditions under which Children Leave School to go to Work. Since the close of the fiscal year additional volumes have been issued as follows: Volume X. History of Women in Trade Unions. Volume XI. Employment of Women in the Metal Trades. Volume XII. Employment of Women in Laundries. The Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, which relates to industrial education in the United States, and which was transmitted early in June, 1911, has also been printed and distributed. This report is limited to trade, vocational, and other industrial education of a strictly practical character. BIMONTHLY BULLETINS. The bulletins of the Bureau issued during the year have contained, in addition to one or more special articles in each number, digests of recent reports of State bureaus of labor, digests of recent foreign official labor publications, decisions of courts affecting labor, and laws of various States and of the United States relating to labor. The special articles included in the bulletins for the past fiscal year are as follows: Bulletin 89. Child-labor legislation in Europe. Bulletin 90. Fatal accidents in coal mines; Recent action concerning accident compensation; Foreign workmen's compensation acts; Cost of industrial accident insurance. Bulletin 91. Working hours of wage-earning women in Chicago; Labor laws declared unconstitutional; Review of labor legislation of 1910; Laws of various States relating to labor enacted since January 1, 1910. Bulletin 92. Industrial accidents and loss of earning power: German experience; Workmen's compensation insurance: Laws and bills, 1911. Bulletin 93. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1910; Report of British Board of Trade on cost of living in the principal industrial towns in the United States; Reports of British Board of Trade on cost of living in England and Wales, Germany, France, Belgium, and the United States; Hours of labor of men, women, and children in factories in Austria. Bulletin 94. Fourth report of the Commissioner of Labor on Hawaii. REPORTS TRANSMITTED AND IN COURSE OF PREPARATION. In addition to the eleven volumes of the Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States which have been issued, the following four volumes are in the hands of the printer, and will appear at short intervals: Volume IX. History of Women in Industry in the United States. Four other volumes of this report, relating to various special aspects of the employment of women and children, will soon be ready for the printer. A large part of the force of the Bureau has been engaged throughout almost the entire year upon an investigation of the iron and steel industry, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate. The first volume of the report of the investigation, which is devoted to wages, hours of labor, and days worked, was transmitted to the Senate during July, 1911, and is now in press. The volume covers conditions in practically every important plant in the industry in the United States. Other volumes which are in preparation will relate to conditions of work and to accidents and accident prevention. An investigation is in progress in regard to retail prices of food and wages in the principal industries in the United States, the results to be presented as the Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Bureau. The information will cover the period 1890 to the end of 1911, in continuation of the previous studies of the Bureau on wages and prices. Work is also going on in preparation of a comprehensive study of the labor laws of all the principal industrial countries. Other lines of special investigation now being carried on will be continued through |