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1908

U S D E P T . OP C O M M E R C E L A W L IB R A R Y

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SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT

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OF THE

Secretary of Commerce and Labor
1908

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1908

CONTENTS.
Introduction_______________________________________________
Immigration and Naturalization_____________________________________
Immigration in general__________________________________________
Immigration and emigration_________________________________
Rejections and deportations______________________________—
Statistics of net immigration-----------------------------------------------Emigration_________________________________________________
Japanese and Korean laborers_______________________________
Contract laborers___________________________________________
Morally unfit aliens_________________________________________
The white-slave traffic_______________________________________
Insular immigration________________________________________
Chinese Immigration____________________________________________
Division of Information________________________________________
Problem of the unemployed__________________________________
Division of Naturalization_______________________________________
Estimate of net immigration during ten-year period, 1899 to 1908----Bureau of Corporations-------------------------------------------------------------------Bureau of Labor____________________________________________________
Special investigations___________________________________________
The Erdman Act________________________________________________
Employers’ liability and industrial insurance--------------------------------Protection of life and health_____________________________________
Bureau of Statistics________________________________________________
Coordination of statistical work------------------------------------------------Bureau of Manufactures____________________________________________
Competition for world’s markets------------------Publication of trade opportunities________________________________
Annual reports of consuls_______________________________________
Daily and Monthly Consular and Trade Reports----------------------------Directory of foreign buyers--------------------------------------------------------Collating and publishing foreign tariffs----------------------------------------National Council of Commerce----------------------------------------------------Bureau of the Census_______________________________________________
Status of intercensal investigations--------------------------------------------Sales of public documents----------------------------------------------------------Official Register of the United States-------------------------------------------Work in progress---------------------------------------------------------------------Tabulation and publication of Cuban census--------------------------------Modification of census legislation________________________________
Appropriation for Thirteenth Census-------------------------------------------Housing of temporary employees_____________________________-—
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CONTENTS.

Bureau of Navigation______________________________________________
Steamboat-Inspection Service________________________________________
Light-House Board_________________________________________________
Bureau of Fisheries________________________________________________
Fish-culture ___________________________________________________
Scientific inquiry_______________________________________________
Commercial fisheries____________________________________________
Conservation of fishery resources_________________________________
Recommendations_______________________________________________
Alaskan Fur-Seal Service___________________________________________
Coast and Geodetic Survey__________________________________________
Bureau of Standards________________________________________________
Weights and measures__________________________________________
Electricity_____________________________________________________
Heat and thermometry__________________________________________
Photometry_____________________________________________________
Spectroscopy and polarimetry____________________________________
Chemistry______________________________________________________
New building___________________________________________________
Office of the Secretary______________________________________________
Appointment Division___________________________________________
Statistics of the personnel___________________________________
Removals__________________________________________________
Efficiency ratings_____ _____________________________________
Executive orders affecting the personnel_____________________
The service-record system___________________________________
Disbursing Office_______________________________________________
Appropriations and disbursements___________________________
Division of Printing____________________________________________
Building for the Department____________________________________
Conclusion _____________________________________________________

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SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF T H E

SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.
D epa r tm en t of C omm erce and L abor ,
O ffic e of t h e S ecretary ,

Washington December 1,1908.

To the P r esid en t :
I have the honor to submit herewith for transmission to Congress,
in accordance with the provisions of the organic act, the sixth annual
report of this Department.
Organized during your first administration, under the act approved
February 14, 1903, the Department, as was naturally to be expected,
has continually grown, both in extent and importance. Its functions
are administered through twelve different bureaus, and it, comes per
haps in closer touch with the human, as well as the economic, inter
ests of the country than any other Department of the Government.
Our age has been very properly called an era of commercial de
velopment and expansion, and the United States, by reason of its
many exceptional advantages, its boundless natural resources, and
possessing a growing, intelligent, energetic, enterprising, and selfreliant population, is reaping a greater share of industrial and com
mercial prosperity than any of the other nations of the world.
As the head of the Department, it has been my constant-aim to so
administer its various branches as to afford the greatest amount of
assistance, information, and guidance to the various industrial and
commercial activities that come under its administrative scope.
For the purpose of coordinating the work of the various bureaus
which is more or less closely allied, I have continued the plan, adopted
when I took charge of the Department two years ago, of periodically
calling together in conference the chiefs of the bureaus, so that each
might be informed as to the work that the other bureaus are doing,
and render such cooperation as might be’ found desirable and ad
vantageous. This I regard especially necessary for the Department,
not only because of its varied activities, but also by reason of the fact
that it has no building of its own, its several bureaus being housed in
different parts of the city, most of them in rented quarters.
The question has frequently been mooted, and doubtless will con
tinue to be, that there should be a separate department for labor as

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,

distinguished from commerce. While this is a subject which is purely
legislative, I deem it not out of place to briefly state why I would
regard, at any rate for some years to come, such a separation unwise
and not advantageous for labor.
Labor and the industries and commerce are closely allied and inter
dependent. The head of a department charged with the adminis
tration of the commercial and industrial activities from which labor
derives its chief employment and wages is in a better position to
guard and promote the best interests of labor, especially in connection
with the direction to be given for the development and expansion of
commerce, domestic and foreign, than if his administration were con
fined to the interests of only one of these two great industrial forces,
which are generally classified under the designation of capital and
labor. That commerce which is developed and expanded to the detri
ment, either of the health or of the wage standard, of the laborers
engaged therein, however profitable it might be in the material sense,
is harmful to a nation’s welfare, and should be discouraged. The
head of a department who is charged with the administration of both
of these interests would, in my judgment, be better qualified to direct
commerce out of channels which lead to such serious consequences
than if these interests were intrusted to separate administrations.
I refer, for instance, to that class of industries which are deleterious
to health or in which the labor of women and children, because it is
much cheaper, largely enters; a subject which is now under investi
gation by the Department, and which will be more specifically re
ferred to under the subdivision of this report entitled “ Bureau of
Labor.”

IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION.
The work of the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization is
divided for administrative purposes into four divisions—first, immi
gration in general; second, Chinese immigration; third, the Division
of Information; and fourth, the Division of Naturalization. These
subjects will be considered in their order.
The Bureau suffered a great loss by the death of the CommissionerGeneral, Frank P. Sargent, which occurred September 4, 1908, and
was preceded by months of illness. Mr. Sargent was a competent,
capable, and conscientious official, and his long experience at the head
of this Bureau, beginning with June 25, 1902, when it was yet under
the Treasury Department, and his faithful devotion to duty, empha
size the loss that the Bureau and the Department have sustained.
IMMIGRATION IN GENERAL.

In my last annual report I referred to the fact that up to the close
of the civil war all our laws upon the subject of immigration were
framed to encourage it, and that since then our legislation, while in
no way hostile to immigration as such, has been directed toward the
elimination of undesirable classes, such as those afflicted with danger
ous contagious diseases, persons likely to become public charges,
criminals, paupers, and those who do not come to us of their own voli
tion but because their municipalities or governments desire to be rid
of them.
President Lincoln, during our civil war, in his third annual mes
sage (1863), referring to the subject of immigration, said:

I again submit to your consideration the expediency of establishing a system
for the encouragement of immigration. Although this source of national
wealth and strength is again flowing with greater freedom than for several
years before the insurrection occurred, there is still a greater deficiency of
laborers in every field of industry, especially in agriculture and in our mines,
as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals. While the demand for
labor is much increased here, tens of thousands of persons destitute of re
munerative occupation are thronging our foreign consulates and offering to
emigrate to the United States if essential, but very cheap, assistance can be
afforded them. * » * This noble offer demands the aid, and ought to re
ceive the attention and support, of the Government.

Again, in his fourth annual message (1864), he said:

I regard our immigrants as one of the principal replenishing streams which
are appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of internal war and its waste
of national strength and health. All that is necessary is to secure the flow of
that stream in its present fullness, and to that end the Government must in
7

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

every way make it manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose invol
untary military service upon those who come from other lands to cast their
lot in our country.

The following table, showing the population of the United States
at each decennial census from 18G0 to 1900, inclusive, with the number
and per cent of native and foreign born, will be found of interest in
connection with the subject of immigration. It will be observed that
the per cent of foreign born during the forty years has remained prac
tically stationary.
Census year.
I860............................................................................
1870............................................................................
1880............................................................................
1890............................................................................
1900............................................................................

Native born.
Foreign born.
Total popu
lation
considered. Number. Per cent Number. Per cent
of total.
of total.
31,443,321
38,558,371
50,155,783
63,069,756
76,303,387

27,304,624
32,991,142
43,475,840
53,761,662
65,843,302

86.8 4,138,697
85.6 5,567,229
86.7 6,679,943
85.2 9,308,104
86.3 10,460,085

13.2
14.4
13.3
14.8
13.7

In my last annual report I discussed the general subject of immigra
tion with special reference to its modern phases, and as it has mani
fested itself in this country, referring to the well-known fact that
the rapidity of communication and the cheapness of passenger traffic
in recent years has facilitated the migration, especially of the laboring
classes, from one country to another where the opportunities for ad
vancement and improving their condition were most favorable. The
same physical causes above referred to which facilitate immigration
to this country also facilitate emigration therefrom when, by reason
of industrial depression or other causes, the opportunities for employ
ment grow less or are even temporarily impeded.
IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION.

During a portion of the past fiscal year, and extending into the
present, this country has suffered an industrial depression due to a
number of causes, among others to overproduction, which were world
wide, but perhaps for the time being more accentuated in this than
in the other commercial countries.
The effect upon immigration to this country and emigration there
from was almost immediate. While the immigration to this country
for ten years and more had in each year increased considerably over
the preceding year, the fiscal year 1908, as compared with the fiscal
year 1907, shows a falling off of about 39 per cent, and as compared
with the fiscal years 1906 and 1905 there were approximate decreases
of 29 and 24 per cent, respectively. The total number of immigrant
aliens who entered the country in the last fiscal year was 782,870,
being 502,479 less than in the fiscal year 1907.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

For the past fiscal year for the first time it has been possible, by
virtue of the provisions of section 12 of the immigration act of
February 20, 1907, to ascertain definitely the number of alien de
partures, and accordingly the net increase to our population by
immigration. The new statistical table given in the report of the
Commissioner-General of Immigration shows that in addition to
782,870 immigrant aliens admitted to this country there were admit
ted 141,825 classed as nonimmigrants, making a total of 924,095;
and also that^there departed from the United States 395,073 emigrant
aliens, together with 319,755 nonemigrant aliens, making a total of
714,828. Deducting these total departures of aliens from the total
arrivals during the fiscal year, the net increase of alien population
has been 209,807.“ Even this net increase is further reduced by the
departure from the United States of naturalized American citizens,
concerning which latter class no method is provided by law for col
lecting data. While the number perhaps is not large, it is still
appreciable.
It is worthy of note that of the 782,870 aliens admitted, 030,071
were between the ages of 14 and 44, and 112,148 were under the age
of 14; only 40,051 had reached or passed the age of 45. Of those ad
mitted, exclusive of aliens under 14 years of age, 172,293 could neither
read nor write, and 2,310 could read but not write. About 20 per cent
of those admitted, 14 years of age and over, were illiterate, as com
pared with 30 per cent for the year 1907. The total amount of money
actually shown to immigration officers by arriving aliens was $17,794,220, an average of almost $23 per capita. But it is well known
that the amount actually brought over was considerably larger, as
under the law aliens are not asked the amount of money in their pos
session in excess of $50, and there is a natural fear and timidity on
the part of most aliens to exhibit a larger amount of money than is
regarded by them as necessary for the purpose of reaching their des
tinations or to show that they have sufficient, in connection with their
ability to work, to prevent them from becoming public charges. I
have known instances, when I have been present at Ellis Island, when,
upon questioning the immigrant, who had shown a nominal sum, as
to whether that was all the money he had brought, he exhibited
amounts five to ten times greater than he had originally shown.
“Arriving aliens whose permanent residence has been outside the United
States, who Intend to reside permanently in the United States, are classed us
immigrant aliens. Departing aliens whose permanent residence lias been in
the United States, who intend to reside permanently outside, are classed as
emigrant aliens. Ail alien residents of the United States making a temporary
trip abroad and all aliens residing abroad making a temporary trip to the
United States are classed as nonimmigrant aliens on the inward journey and
nonemigrant on the outward. The great preponderance of nonemigrant over
nonimmigrant aliens is due largely to the fact that many who on arrival intend
to reside permanently change their minds and return after a temporary
residence.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.
REJECTIONS AND DEPORTATIONS.

There has been a considerable increase in the number of aliens
rejected on account of mental defects, namely, from 218 in 1907 to
370 in 1908. There has also been in the past year a large increase in
the number of contract laborers rejected, from 1,434 in 1907 to 1,932
in 1908, an increase of about 34 per cent. These increases are all the
more significant when it is remembered that there has been a decrease
of about 39 per cent in the total immigration.
Warrants of deportation have been executed, after proper hearings,
in the cases of 1,955 aliens arrested on the charge of unlawful resi
dence, and 114 aliens have been deported with their own consent, they
having become charges on the public from causes arising subsequent
to their landing. Adding 2,069 deportations to the 10,902 rejected
at the ports shows a total of rejections and deportations of 12,971, a
decrease from last year of nearly 8 per cent, but an increase of 50
per cent in the ratio the deportations bear to the admissions in the
respective years.
Of course these figures give but an inadequate idea of the much
greater number of undesirable aliens who but for the stringency of
our laws would emigrate to this country, and of the large number that
were rejected by the steamship companies because of the penalty they
would incur upon the rejection of such aliens upon their arrival.
STATISTICS OF NET IMMIGRATION.

The immigration figures published by the Department in past
years, while as nearly correct as possible, either have not been fully
understood by the general public or their real significance has misled
it. After all, the main consideration is, not how many immigrants
come to this country, but rather how many remain, and to what ex
tent the population is augmented from year to year by this alien
migration.
Based upon the alien departures for those months of the past year
which preceded and were not affected by the industrial depression,
the statistical expert of the Bureau has made a calculation of the net
immigration for each year from 1899 to 1908, inclusive, giving the
total alien arrivals, the total alien departures (in part estimated),
and the ratio that the net immigration bears to the immigration
figures heretofore published during that period. This calculation
will be found as an appendix to this division of the report (p. 29).
The statement shows that the net immigration for the period is only 68
per cent of the accepted figures of immigration as heretofore pub
lished ; in other words, the accepted figures of immigration are 48 per
cent in excess of the net immigration.

BEPOBT OF THE SECBETABY OF COMMEBCE AND LABOE.

EMIGRATION.

The facility and cheapness of communication, especially in ocean
travel, during the last two decades, which has contributed so mate
rially to immigration to this country, has, as the figures I have re
ferred to indicate, likewise contributed to emigration from this
country to other lands. It has influenced also, in a much lesser
degree, the migration from this country of native-born citizens.
There are some who regard this large emigration of aliens and
naturalized citizens as an additional objection to immigration in gen
eral, inasmuch as many of this class who come to this country, and by
industry and economy accumulate what will give them, in the country
of their origin, a reasonable competency, return thereto, either for
temporal'}7 sojourn or to spend their remaining years.
This subject has other important aspects which should not be lost
sight of. Notwithstanding the large increase in immigration during
the past decade, the wage standard of this country has not been
lessened; on the contrary, it has continued to increase. The immi
grants have also in more recent years contributed quite materially
toward transplanting new industries from the different countries
from which they emigrated, and toward expanding, among other
industries, those that had already been transplanted and established.
I think it can also be stated as a fact that the immigrant laborer as a
class usually finds employment at the bottom of the scale of indus
tries, thereby leaving the higher grades, where work is more remu
nerative, to the native workman.
In a commercial sense, this emigration is not without significance.
The immigrant who comes to this country, lives here for a number of
years, and returns either to his own country or to some other natu
rally takes with him, not only the money that he has, through thrift
and industry, accumulated, but also, to a greater or less extent, Amer
ican ideals, American tastes, and American requirements. These he
consciously or unconsciously transplants. The influence of this emi
gration upon our foreign trade, especially upon our exports, is not
inappreciable. The emigrant is a commercial missionary. His de
sire for many of our manufactures, with the need of which he has
become accustomed, has doubtless, to some extent, contributed to the
export of such products, both directly and indirectly, to the country
to which he has emigrated.
There is still a larger view which may properly be taken, and
should not be disregarded. This migration, when normal and not
induced by oppression or persecution, has a far-reaching influence in
interpreting one nation to another, in establishing closer relations,
and in promoting the peace of the world. Charles Sumner, in his
“ Prophetic Voices Concerning America,” no doubt had this phase

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

of the subject in view, together with other causes, when he stated
that “ the national example will be more puissant than army and
navy for the conquest of the world.”
JAPANESE AND KOREAN LABORERS.

By the last proviso to section 1 of the new immigration act the
President was authorized to refuse admission to any aliens making use
of passports limited to the insular possessions or to foreign territory
contiguous to continental United States to gain admission to such
continental territory of the United States to the detriment of labor
conditions therein. The President, by his proclamation of March 14,
1907, availed himself of this law to direct the exclusion from the main
land of Japanese and Korean laborers holding such passports. This
was followed by a general understanding between the Governments
of the United States and Japan, in accordance with which the latter
Government is continuing its policj' of discouraging the migration of
its laborers to this country.
The statistics show that in June, 1907, a total of 2,208 Japanese
were admitted (1,134 to the continent and 1,074 to Hawaii), and
that in June, 1908, only 781 Japanese were admitted (446 to the
mainland and 335 to Hawaii). Of the 446 admitted to the mainland,
263 were engaged in nonlaboring pursuits and only 183 in laboring
occupations. As a further illustration of the gradual but sure re
duction accomplished, it might be noted that in the first month of
the past fiscal year 1,158 Japanese were admitted to continental
United States; in January, 1908, only 495 were admitted, and in
June, as already stated, only 446. During the entire year, 9,544
Japanese were admitted to continental United States, of whom 5,503,
or over half, were nonlaborers; during the same period, 5,718 Japa
nese departed from continental United States; so that the net increase
in (he Japanese population was only 3,826.
The understanding with Japan, in accordance with which the two
Governments are cooperating to enforce the law and the President’s
proclamation, contemplates that the Japanese Government shall issue
passports to continental United States only to such of its subjects as
are nonlaborers or are laborers who, in coming to the continent, seek
to resume a formerly acquired domicile, to join a parent, wife, or chil
dren residing there, or to assume active control of an already possessed
interest in a farming enterprise in this country. How well this
understanding is already working is illustrated by the figures for the
last month of the fiscal year 1908. During said month, 485 Japanese
applied for admission to the continent, of whom 446 were admitted
and 39 debarred. Of this total, 462 were, and 23 were not, in posses
sion of proper passports. Of the 462 holding proper passports, 406

KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

were found on examination to belong to the classes entitled thereto.
These 400 consisted of 140 former residents, 179 parents, wives, or
children of residents, and 81 new arrivals who were nonlaborers.
The remaining 5(5 in possession of passports were found on examina
tion to be neither former-resident laborers, nor parents, wives, or
children of former residents, nor settled agriculturists.
CONTRACT LABORERS.

This subject has engaged my personal attention extensively during
the past year; for I feel that the laboring men of the country have
a right to demand that the Department of Commerce and Labor
shall exercise its utmost vigilance and care to detect violations and
to enforce the laws regarding alien contract labor, which were passed
especially for their protection. The act which became operative on
the first of the year is a great improvement over previous legislation
upon this subject. It has codified and made much more definite the
provisions of prior laws and has removed all doubt as to the exclud
ability of aliens who are induced or solicited to migrate to this
country by offers or promises of employment or in consequence of
agreements, oral, written, or printed, express or implied, to per
form labor in this country of any kind, skilled or unskilled, and also
all doubt as to the penal culpability of individuals or corporations
that encourage such migration. Moreover, it has established a new
class of excludable persons, which class frequently includes aliens
coming to this country contrary to (he spirit of the law as it was
previously enacted, by placing upon those whose passage is paid by
others the burden of showing not only that they do not belong to one
of the excluded classes, including contract laborers, but also that
their “ passage was not paid for by any corporation, association,
society, municipality, or foreign government, either directly or
indirectly.”
Much greater success has attended the Department’s efforts to
enforce the alien contract labor law during the past year than in any
preceding year. One reason is the increased scope of the law already
mentioned; another, the fact that the last act authorized the appoint
ment of special officers to conduct investigations for this purpose;
and a third, the fact that industrial conditions have been such as to
make it less difficult to obtain evidence of violations than it was
during a period when not only all domestic labor but all labor that
could be brought to this country was steadily employed.
The greatest violators of the contract labor laws are the American
manufacturers, who, as a rule, do not act directly, but indirectly
through agents and subagents. It is very difficult to secure evidence
in such a form as will be sufficient in detail to enable suit to be

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

brought under the penal provisions of the act, though from an admin
istrative point of view the circumstances are often sufficiently con
vincing that the law lias been surreptitiously evaded. In practice it
is less difficult to secure the evidence upon which deportation pro
ceedings can be instituted against the laborers who have been
imported.
Labor unions themselves have at times been found among the vio
lators of the law. Early in February last information reached the
Department to the efleet that, as a result of a disagreement between
two rival organizations of glassworkers, an effort was being made
by the president of one of the organizations to bring into the United
States several hundred cutters and flatteners, to be furnished under
an agreement between him and the president of the Belgium Glass
Workers’ Union.
Shortly thereafter there arrived at Ellis Island a party of fifteen,
who, on being examined by a board of special inquiry, were rejected as
contract laborers. Evidence adduced at these hearings, with that
already before the Department, justified the institution of a further
investigation, with the object of determining who was responsible for
this attempted violation of the law.
The report of the officers detailed on such investigation shows that
at least three glassworker organizations, including the two already
mentioned, were connected to. some extent with the matter. It was
clearly shown that the aliens were being brought to the United States
in pursuance of some distinct understanding for employment here,
of which they had been made aware through the columns of a news
paper published in Charleroi, Belgium, by the president of the
Belgium Glass Workers’ Union, and their deportation was accord
ingly ordered.
During the year, 1,032 contract laborers were rejected at United
States ports and returned to their countries of origin, an increase of
34 per cent over the rejections for the year 1007, notwithstanding
a falling off of 39 per cent in immigration. In addition, there have
been arrested within the United States and deported therefrom 240
aliens found here in violation of the alien contract labor laws. Thus
it will be seen that a total of 2,172 contract laborers have been removed
from the country.
The enforcement of the law has not been restricted, however, to
dealing with the aliens themselves, but every effort has been made to
mete out appropriate punishment to the individuals and corporations
found violating the law. About 30 instances of this kind have arisen
during the year, and the matter is of such importance that I deem it
appropriate to mention a few of the more prominent cases and the
results attained with the assistance of the Department of Justice and
the local United States attorneys.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

The Allis-Chalmers Company, a large corporation of Chicago, hav
ing direct business connections with houses bearing similar names in
England and Canada, brought to the United States four English iron
molders. These skilled laborers were apprehended and were deported
after being used as witnesses against the company. A conviction was
obtained in the district court at Chicago and the maximum fine of
$4,000 imposed, which decision was sustained when the case was ap
pealed by the company to the circuit court of appeals.
The Duquesne Mining and Reduction Company, a mining corpora
tion of Tucson, Ariz., arranged for the importation from Mexico
of a party of miners. The aliens were apprehended and deported,
and every effort was made to obtain from them the evidence neces
sary to a conviction of the company. After carefully considering
such evidence as was secured, the case was settled by compromise,
the corporation pleading guilty to one of the counts of the complaint
and paying a fine of $1,000 and costs in the amount of $1,500.
The Arizona Copper Company case also arose on the Mexican bor
der. The corporation is a branch of an Edinburgh establishment, and
it was shown that in at least several specific instances employees had
been sent out from Edinburgh to attend to the company’s business in
Arizona. This case was also compromised, the company being re
quired to pay $2,000 on account of the two aliens against whom the
limit of the law had not run, and who were actually deported.
The Tsokas Brothers case was that of two Bulgarians who were
shown to have brought to this country a large number of Bulgarian
and Macedonian laborers under a system violating the spirit of the
contract labor laws and involving an outrageous exploitation of the
aliens themselves. The prosecution was brought in New York City
and one of the brothers, the one really x’esponsible for the violation of
law, was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to eight months’ im
prisonment. As many as 87 aliens were apprehended and deported.
The Steelton case was another of similar character, in which a
large number of aliens were apprehended and, after hearing, deported
on the ground that their migration had been induced by offers and
promises of employment. Unfortunately, however, in this case it
was not possible to secure evidence sufficiently definite in a court of
law7 to place the responsibility for the numerous violations of law,
and therefore no prosecution was brought.
Other cases in which similar action has been taken might be de
scribed, but the foregoing are sufficient to illustrate the scope of the
Department’s endeavors and the general success which has attended
them.
One respect in which even the amended law does not produce satis
factory results consists of the fact that the exception made in favor
G293&—08-----2

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

of States and Territories advertising the facilities and inducements
they offer to immigration is neither broad nor specific enough to ac
complish its apparent object. Taking the exception literally, it
does not seem to contemplate more than that States should be allowed
to place in foreign newspapers and magazines advertisements describ
ing in general terms the opportunities for settlers and wage-earners
within their limits; and the Attorney-General has held that an alien
is inadmissible if the representative of a State induces his migration
by holding out to him individually a promise of employment. As
I said on this subject in my report for 1907, the law should state
clearly, in terms incapable of misconception, and not leave to the
uncertainties of deductive reasoning, the exact intent of the legis
lature, not only as to the exception in favor of States advertising
their inducements, but also concerning the extent to which a State
may proceed and the methods which it may adopt to make its adver
tisements productive of an increase in population by securing alien
settlers. The law could be materially improved, also, by amending
section 5, which attaches a penalty of $1,000, to be recovered in an
action of debt, for the importation of a contract laborer, so as to make
it discretionary with the court whether the punishment shall be by
fine or by imprisonment. In many instances aliens are imported
under promise of employment by parties who are not so situated
financially as to make it possible to recover a penalty of $1,000; this
is particularly true in the cases of padrones, who bring in boys for
employment in bootblacking establishments, restaurants, etc.
MORALLY UNFIT ALIENS.

Under the law aliens who have been guilty of crimes or misde
meanors, who are believers in anarchy, or who are prostitutes, pro
curers of prostitutes, or persons otherwise similarly immoral, are in
admissible to this country. This subject is one of great importance
and has received special attention during the past year. The duty
of detecting and excluding all such aliens has been constantly
impressed upon the immigration officials stationed at the seaports
and along the land boundaries, and special efforts have been directed
toward the cooperation of immigration officers with municipal officials
in apprehending and deporting aliens of this class who have entered
the country contrary to law. A large measure of success has attended
these efforts. Numerous prosecutions have been brought against pro
curers and keepers of houses of ill-fame, and convictions have been
had in 14 cases, 4 of which resulted in imprisonment for one year,
four years, four and one-half years, and five years, respectively, and
10 in imprisonment ranging in duration from six months to eighteen
months, and fines ranging from $50 to $1,000.

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

The law regarding these moral defects needs to be amended and
strengthened in several important respects. In the first place, there
is no occasion with regard to this class, as there is regarding the
classes merely physically unsound, to fix a definite limit within which
the Government can proceed for their deportation. It is obvious
that such persons can not, merely by living here for a period of time,
in any way correct their moral status at the time of entry, and the
Government ought not to be restrained from removing from this
country an anarchist, a criminal, or a moral degenerate merely
because such person has been able to avoid detection for three years.
As a further means of insuring the country against the introduction
and residence here of members of the lawless or criminal class, section
20 of the immigration act should be so amended as to add to the
deportable class of aliens therein described as persons who become
“ public charges from causes existing prior to landing,” within three
years after entry, aliens who, within such period, are convicted of or
admit having committed a felony or other crime or misdemeanor
involving moral turpitude, deportation to be effected at the expira
tion of such term of imprisonment as may be imposed. Section 3 of
the new immigration act, penalizing the importation of immoral
women, has been limited (probably by an unfortunate inadvertence)
to the cases of alien women. From prior legislation the word
“ alien ” had always been omitted, and to import immoral women gen
erally penalized. The former wording is preferable and should be
readopted.
THE WHITE-SLAVE TRAFFIC.

An international project of arrangement for the suppression of the
white-slave traffic was, on July 25, 1902, adopted for submission to
their respective governments by the delegates of the various powers
represented at the Paris conference, which arrangement was con
firmed by formal agreement signed at Paris on May 18, 1904, by the
Governments of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great
Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Norway,
and the Swiss Federal Council. This arrangement, after having
been duly submitted to the Senate, was proclaimed by the President
June 15, 1908, and is printed in full in the report of the Commis
sioner-General of Immigration. The purpose of the arrangement is
set forth in the preamble, which states that the several governments,
“ being desirous to assure to women who have attained their majority
and are subjected to deception or constraint, as well as minor women
and girls, an efficacious protection against the criminal traffic known
under the name of trade in white women (‘Traite des Blanches’),
have resolved to conclude an arrangement with a view to concert
proper measures to attain this purpose.”

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

In addition to the amendment above suggested, to penalize the
importation of women and girls for immoral purposes irrespective of
whether they are aliens or citizens, it would be highly advantageous
in the endeavor to break up the white-slave traffic to make it a felony
or misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for an alien once de
ported from the United States as a procurer of prostitutes or as a
prostitute to again return to the United States, and the alien to be
deported at the expiration of the term of imprisonment.
It is highly necessary that this diabolical traffic, which has attained
international proportions, should be dealt with in a manner adequate
to compass its suppression. No punishment is too severe to inflict
upon the procurers in this vile traffic. Under the terms of the ar
rangement, I have designated, as the authority which will be directed
to centralize all information provided for therein, the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration, with a right to correspond directly with
similar services established in each of the other contracting states.
In administering the law the Department is frequently embarrassed
by the fact that an alien woman of the immoral class refused admis
sion at a port or arrested within the country for deportation may, by
marrying an American citizen, invest herself with his status and
defeat the purpose of the law. To overcome this difficulty it will be
necessary to add to the naturalization act a provision that the mar
riage of an alien woman to an American citizen shall not be regarded
as conferring upon such woman the rights and privileges of citizen
ship in this country unless she is a person of good moral character.
INSULAR IMMIGRATION.

I am still of the opinion, expressed in my report for 1907, that it is
both practical and desirable to make exceptions to our general immi
gration laws in favor of the insular possessions. Such legislation
should be based upon a careful consideration of the special conditions
peculiar to the several insular possessions. To build up these islands
and establish therein a thoroughly reliable laboring element, it is per
haps necessary that special measures or special exceptions should be
made to encourage the immigration of foreigners. The present law
contains an exception of this kind, in that it does not require the pay
ment of head tax on account of aliens entering Hawaii and Porto
Rico, and there would seem to be no valid reason for a failure to make
further exceptions favoring immigration to those islands.
CHINESE IMMIGRATION.

As stated in my last report, my views on this subject are conceived
in the light of the principle that whatever measure a nation may
find it necessary or expedient to adopt, on grounds of public policy
and in view of the well-being of its people, the manner of its enforce-

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY ,OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

ment should be such, where the rights of other nations and other
peoples are concerned, as to cause the least offense, while securing in
the fullest degree the result desired. A year ago it was pointed out
that both the Chinese Government and the Chinese people regarded
the matter in the light of a grievance, and in various ways had mani
fested their displeasure; that for reasons of commercial self-interest,
as well as on the higher ground of international friendship and good
will, the frame of the laws should be changed, so that the policy of
excluding certain foreigners from American territory might be en
forced without needlessly offending the amour propre of a friendly
nation or unnecessarily humiliating a whole people when only a
particular class was to be reached; and that this could be done not
by making it any easier for Chinese laborers to enter, but by so fram
ing our laws and treaties as to make admission the rule and exclusion
the exception, while preserving at the same time in all its integrity
the present policy of the laws, and even strengthening where neces
sary the prohibitory features thereof through a full and explicit
definition of the excluded classes, thus complying with the wellconsidered and fai’-seeing recommendations of the President in his
annual message of December 5, 1905:
There is no serious proposal to alter the immigration law as regards the
Chinese laborer, skilled or unskilled, and there is no excuse for any man feeling
or affecting to feel the slightest alarm on the subject. But In the effort to carry
out the policy of excluding Chinese laborers, Chinese coolies, grave injustice
and wrong have been done by this nation to the people of China, and therefore
ultimately to this nation itself. Chinese students, business and professional
men of all kinds—not only merchants, but bankers, doctors, manufacturers,
professors, travelers, and the like—should be encouraged to come here and
treated on precisely the same footing that we treat students, business men,
travelers, and the like of other nations. Our laws and treaties should be framed
not so as to put these people in the excepted classes, but to state that we will
admit all Chinese, except Chinese of the coolie class, Chinese skilled or unskilled
laborers. There would not be the least danger that any such provision would
result in any relaxation of the law about laborers. These will, under all con
ditions, be kept out absolutely. But it will be more easy to see that both justice
and courtesy are shown, as they ought to be shown, to other Chinese, if the
law or treaty is framed as above suggested.

Further reflection, following added experience in the execution of
existing laws, not only serves to emphasize the justness of the fore
going views, but leads me to extend their application in an important
particular. Essentially, the entire question involved in the admission
or exclusion of Chinese is not a distinct and independent subjectmatter of legislative regulation, but in reality is merely a part of the
larger problem of immigration. Other aliens, as well as Chinese of
the coolie class, are denied admission to the United States—e. g.,
criminals, paupers, idiots, diseased persons, contract laborers. The
presence of such aliens in the country is as undesirable, economically

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

and socially, as that of prohibited Chinese; but the exclusion of the
former is accomplished under the general immigration laws very
effectively without causing either offense or embarrassment, whereas
the exclusion of the latter is a result achieved only imperfectly at
best, and is attended by no little unpleasantness. The invidious dis
tinctions, to use an apt phrase, now so apparent on comparing the
treatment of necessity meted out to Chinese with the treatment ac
corded to aliens of other nationalities, in my judgment would not
exist but for the fact that the subject of Chinese immigration is dis
tinguished from all other immigration by being dealt with in a sepa
rate code of laws, involving a wholly distinct mode of procedure—a
mode, moreover, which is at once cumbersome, exasperating, expen
sive, and relatively inefficient.
The obvious course to pursue, therefore, dictated alike by the
demands of justice and equality on the one hand and by considera
tions of good administration on the other, is to place the matter of
Chinese immigration where it essentially belongs, namely, within the
operation of the system of regulation applicable to immigration
generally; in other words, to let the methods and the machinery pro
vided with respect to the admission and exclusion of aliens generally
be applied in the case of aliens from China as well. Should this be
done, among other results which may confidently be expected are, in
the first place, an enormous gain in effectiveness of enforcement,
particularly with reference to the deportation of those who have
secured unlawful access to the country; second, a most decided gain
in economy of administration, and, third, a marked improvement in
the relations between two friendly peoples as well as a notable in
crease in commercial prestige.
The great gain in efficiency of execution which would follow the
adoption of the plan proposed will appear from a brief comparison
of the methods employed, respectively, in the deportation of alien
Chinese found unlawfully in the United States and in the deportation
of other aliens so found. Under section 21 of the immigration act,
when it appears that an alien is in the United States in violation of
law, an application is made by a local officer of the immigration
service to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for a warrant of
arrest, accompanied by the evidence on which the application is based.
If, on careful consideration, the Secretary believes that probable
cause has been shown and that a prima facie case has been made
out, a warrant of arrest is issued and the alien is taken into custody.
The alien is then given a hearing and a full opportunity to submit
evidence in his own behalf, to employ counsel, or to set up any claim
he chooses. In proper cases, pending a final decision of the case, the
alien is released under bond, or if this is impracticable, in order to
prevent undue hardship, he is paroled into the custody of responsible

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY' OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

persons. If, after a hearing, on consideration of all the facts and
circumstances adduced, the Secretary is satisfied that the alien is in
the United States in violation of law, a warrant for his deportation
is issued and he is returned to the country whence he came, at the
expense of the transportation company responsible for his presence
or at the expense of the “ immigrant fund,” as the case may be.
Under the Chinese-exclusion laws, when it appears that a Chinese
person is in the United States in violation of law, a sworn complaint
must first be made out and submitted to a United States district attor
ney, and upon his approval in writing a warrant of arrest is issued
by a United States commissioner, whom the district attorney has the
authority to designate. A warrant of arrest may also be issued by
a United States judge, but in practice a judge is rarely resorted to.
Before the decision of the commissioner the prisoner may be admitted
to bail, but if an adverse decision is rendered, and pending an appeal,
no bail is permitted. At the hearing, for reasons which will be noted
presently, the Government is at a decided disadvantage, and while the
prisoner is allowed the right of appeal no such right is accorded to the
Government. If an order of deportation is made, it is carried into
effect by a United States marshal, while the expenses incident thereto
are paid by this Department. During the fiscal year ended June 30,
1908,1,955 aliens were arrested and deported. During the same year,
912 Chinese were arrested on judicial warrants, who, with 217 others
arrested during the previous year, but whose cases were carried over,
made a total of 1,129 cases to be heard in the commissioners’ or the
district courts. Of this number, 477 were deported, 154 were dis
charged, 53 either escaped or died, and no less than 445 cases were
still pending (undetermined) at the close of the year.
Plainly, therefore, the process of arrest under the immigration act,
whether followed by deportation or discharge, is preferable to the
process used under the Chinese-exclusion laws, from the point of view
both of the Government and of the alien, by reason of the expedition
and the economy with which it is accomplished, as well as of the cer
tainty of its results. The period from the date of arrest until the
case is finally disposed of is ordinarily only a matter of days, unless
sickness or some other special feature supervenes. The Department
is not aware of a single instance in which the process has been abused
or in which injustice can fairly be charged. On the other hand,
delays almost innumerable mark the progress of the cases before the
courts. Continuations are the rule. Where the decision is adverse,
appeal after appeal is taken, pending the determination of which the
appellant is confined in jail at the expense of the United States.
The cause of this disparity is believed to lie in the fact that the
deportation of aliens forbidden by law to remain in the United States
is more properly an executive function than a function of the judi

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND TABOR.

ciary, since judicial procedure is ill adapted to adequately deal with
cases of this character. As pointed out by the United States Supreme
Court, while Congress may, if it sees fit, authorize the courts to deter
mine the facts on which depends the right of an alien to remain in
the United States, it may, on the other hand, intrust the determina
tion of those facts to executive officers (189 U. S., 98), and as the
Supreme Court has further held that a proceeding looking to the
deportation of an alien “ is in no proper sense a trial and sentence
for a crime or offense” (149 U. S., 698) the necessity of burdening
the courts with this function is not apparent.
The machinery of the courts is admirably fitted for the determina
tion of issues of fact upon the evidence adduced before them and for
the decision of questions of law arising-therefrom, but where the cor
rect determination of facts depends less upon direct testimony, pre
sented in accordance with the rules of evidence, than upon the results
of investigations carried on out of court and in various parts of the
country, the labor and the expense involved in putting such results
in the shape of admissible evidence practically precludes the use of
such material. Nor can the representative of the Government, ex
cept in rare instances, inform himself sufficiently to expose by an
adequate cross-examination any falsity in the case set up by the alien
or his witnesses. The result is that many cases believed by this De
partment to be fraudulent pass on to adjudication, with only the
story of the alien and that of his witnesses, procured for the occasion,
before the court, and with no redress on the part of the Government,
by appeal or otherwise. When it is noted that the favorite claim set
up by Chinese in such cases is that of citizenship by birth within the
territorial jurisdiction of the United States, and when it is further
recalled that the facts involved in such decisions of the courts are
res adjudicata, and can not subsequently be controverted, the serious
aspect of the situation may be better appreciated. In northern New
England a former United States commissioner, during a brief term
of less than three years, discharged about 1,100 Chinese persons
alleged to be unlawfully in the United States and furnished each
with a certificate of discharge. There is reason to believe that fully
90 per cent of these persons had been smuggled into the United
States. Practically all of them were discharged on the theory that
they were Americans by birth.
In regard to the Chinese aliens themselves, besides having to en
dure indefinite delays, running into months and sometimes into years,
coupled as often as not with confinement, before a final decision is
reached, under the present method, they and their friends at times
become the victims of extortion, practiced by attorneys and others,
who, by reason of the delays they are able to interpose, to say nothing
of more questionable devices, are in a position to win their confidence.

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OP COMMERCE AND LABOR.

DIVISION OF INFORMATION.

Section 40 of the immigration act of February 20, 1907, provided
for the establishment of a Division of Information in the Bureau of
Immigration and Naturalization. Its duties were defined as follows:
It shall be the duty of said division to promote a beneficial distribution of
aliens admitted into the United States among the several States and Territories
desiring immigration. Correspondence shall be had with the proper officials of
the States and Territories, and said division shall gather from all available
sources useful information regarding the resources, products, and physical char
acteristics of each State and Territory, find shall publish such information in
different languages and distribute the publications among all admitted aliens
who may ask for such information at the immigrant stations of the United
States and to such other persons as may desire the same.

The purpose of this law, as interpreted by me, is twofold—first, to
bring about a distribution of immigrants arriving in this country,
thus preventing, as far as possible, the congestion in our larger At
lantic seaport cities that has attended the immigration of recent
years; and second, to supply information to all of our workers,
whether native, foreign born, or alien, so that they may be con
stantly advised in respect to every part of the country as to what kind
of labor may be in demand, the conditions surrounding it, the rate of
wages, and the cost of living in the respective localities.
PROBLEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED.

It is a subject of great interest in all commercial countries how to
provide work, especially in periods of industrial depression, for the
unemployed. There are always two kinds of unemployed—those
who are too lazy and shiftless to work, which we need not take under
consideration, and those who, without fault of their own, are unable
to find work because of the depression or because the labor market is
oversupplied.
In a country so great as ours, with its multiplicity of industries,
it is not an unusual condition that when the demand for labor is
slack in one part of the country there is a demand for additional
labor in other parts of the country, and when some industries slow
down there is a demand for additional workers in others. This con
dition frequently obtains in the demand for farm laborers, and often
at seasons of the year when manufacturing industries are slack.
While these conditions apply less to skilled than to unskilled labor,
it is also true that the problem of the unemployed affects chiefly this
latter class. I regard the extension and development of the work of
this division as of the very highest importance in meeting this prob
lem, and the first requisite is to make accessible the information above
referred to, and the second is to facilitate and cheapen transporta
tion. This may be done, perhaps without legislation, by an arrange-

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

ment with the various railroad and transportation companies of the
country for a labor-exchange rate. I present the subject in the hope
that it will receive the consideration that so important a subject de
mands, and as supplying a remedy, if not a complete solution, in this
country of the problem of the unemployed.
The work of the division since its organization is described in detail
in the report of its chief, to which reference is made. I desire to
express thanks for the hearty cooperation that the Department has
received from the Postmaster-General and from the Secretary of
Agriculture.
The scope of this division could be usefully extended in another
direction, which I have embodied in the recommendation for the
amendment of the law, proposed by the division. The emigration
figures to which I have referred afford evidence that much of the
immigration to this country is stimulated by false, glowing, and mis
leading information in regard to the opportunities here, as if the
country were an Eldorado where laziness is rewarded and large
returns await even the slothful. When such immigrants come they
find that while the rewards of labor are much greater in this country
than in their own the American laborer is more industrious, energetic,
and self-reliant than elsewhere, and that while the opportunities in
this country are greater the qualities necessary to benefit thereby also
require an increase of effective energy, and that the same lack of
qualifications which spelled failure at home are writ even larger in
this country. With their delusions dispelled, they return to their
countries sadder but wiser men.
Much of this kind of immigration could be stopped at its source by
the dissemination of correct information throughout foreign coun
tries from which our immigration chiefly comes. Perhaps the best
medium through which this information could be disseminated from
time to time is through our consuls; also the various labor organiza
tions of the country could be of aid to the division, both in the col
lection and presentation of the various kinds of information referred
to. I foresee great and substantial extension that can be given to
the scope and work of this important division, and trust that Con
gress will enable the Department to carry forward this work in the
various directions I have outlined.
DIVISION OF NATURALIZATION.

It is shown by the report of the Division of Naturalization that
during the past year 2,244 courts have been engaged in conferring
naturalization upon aliens. This represents an increase of 3C5 over
the number reported a year ago, and still leaves between 500 and
1,000 courts which, although clothed with authority by the law, have
not yet assumed jurisdiction thereunder.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

There were filed during (he year 136,725 declarations of intention
and 43,878 petitions for naturalization, as compared with 72,684
declarations and 20,802 petitions filed during the preceding year.
The number of certificates of naturalization issued was 25,517, repre
senting an increase over the number of certificates issued during the
preceding year of 17,782.
These figures bear out the statement made a year ago that the
figures then given were not to be taken as in any sense indicative
of the amount of such business that would be annually transacted
by the courts, nor is it believed that even the figures now presented
fairly represent the average number of aliens who will seek natural
ization each year after the more complete organization of the admin
istrative force and the better acquaintance of the public with the
provisions of the new law.
Moreover, as stated last year, some of the courts to which petitioners
principally resort are unable to discharge the clerical duties imposed
by the act because of the insufficiency of the fees allowed for such
work, and by reason of the absence of any adequate provision in the
law permitting the employment by the clerks of courts of a sufficient
number of deputies to prepare the declarations and petitions of aliens
applying to them. The remedy for this situation, as heretofore
pointed out, lies in amendatory legislation. Such legislation is also
necessary for a reason other than that of removing obstacles from the
pathway of those who desire to become citizens of the United States.
It is important as well to relieve the Federal courts of the excess of
such business which is imposed upon them, because, since the assump
tion of naturalization jurisdiction by state courts is optional with
them, such courts are reluctant to undertake the jurisdiction con
ferred by the law on account of the insufficiency of the fees, thus
resulting in a congestion of the business in some of the Fedetal courts
and the consequent obstruction of other litigation, and occasioning
errors which are unavoidable in view of the haste with which such
business is necessarily discharged in order to accommodate the largest
possible number of applicants. Notwithstanding such haste, the peti
tioners in certain of the Federal courts sitting in the larger cities
frequently have to return many times in order to be accommodated.
This condition has given rise to much just criticism, and has tended
to incur popular disapproval of the naturalization act of June 29,
1906. It is therefore urged that the legislation which was presented
at the last session of Congress to obviate the embarrassment arising
from the insufficiency of fees, and the lack of authority to allow clerks
of courts to employ such deputies as may actually be necessary to
transact the naturalization business of the courts, be enacted during
the coming session of Congress.
It is also shown by the report of the Division of Naturalization
that about one-third of the entire naturalization business transacted

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

in the United States during the past year has been in the three great.
States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, a result to
be anticipated from the fact that these States receive the largest num
ber of alien arrivals.
During the year under consideration 3,330 petitions were denied
for various reasons—some formal, some substantial—as compared
with 250 during the preceding year. This increase represents the
result, first, of increasing familiarity with the provisions of the law
by the courts, and, second, of investigations made by officers in the
field by which evidence was secured showing that the petitioners were
not entitled to be naturalized.
Under section 15 of the act, largely as the result of investigations
made by examiners of the Department of Justice, there were insti
tuted during the year, in 1,303 cases, proceedings for the cancellation
of illegally and improperly granted certificates, and in 457 of such
cases the orders of the court originally admitting the aliens to citi
zenship were reversed and their certificates canceled. The remain
ing 846 cases were pending at the close of the fiscal year. It may
be observed that these cases were discovered, not as the result of
investigations for the direct purpose of detecting violations of the
law, but merely as incidental to the work of ascertaining the qualifica
tions of petitioners, in many instances the witnesses offered by the
petitioners proving to have been granted citizenship in violation of
the law. This is a most important feature of the new law, and, to
make it effective, it is necessary that the Department be authorized
to employ examiners to investigate instances of reported violations
of the law, and inquiries made of the Department by other executive
branches of the Government as to the validity of certificates of
naturalization which are presented as evidence of the right of the
holders thereof to certain privileges conferred upon naturalized citi
zens by the laws of this country.
Under the penal section of the act 39 cases have been instituted
during the year, 28 of which have been determined, leaving 11 still
pending. In 12 of the cases fines were imposed varying in amount
from $25 to $1,000, the total fines aggregating $2,975, while in 12
cases terms of imprisonment were inflicted ranging from 15 days to
one year, and in 4 cases sentence was suspended. In cases of this
nature, too, the services of examiners to collect evidence are indis
pensable.
During the year the amount collected from fees and transmitted
through the Department for deposit to the credit of the “ Miscellane
ous fund ” of the Treasury Department was $166,635, while the appro
priation for the use of the Division of Naturalization, and other
expenses connected with the administration of the law by the Depart
ment, aggregated $39,728.05. These figures indicate that, with the

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

increase in fees provided for by the legislation introduced at the last
session of Congress, the receipts by the Government from this source
should be sufficient to pay the entire cost of the administration of the
law, including the employment of examiners by the Department for
the purpose of collecting evidence for the use of the United States
attorneys in opposing petitions and in instituting proceedings, under
the provisions of section 15 of the act, for the cancellation of naturali
zation certificates illegally and improperly granted, as well as for
other necessary uses incident to an effective enforcement of all the
provisions of the law.
Upon this last-mentioned subject it does not seem necessary to reiter
ate what was said a year ago as to the necessity for the appointment
and use of examiners. This was admitted at a meeting of a subcom
mittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, but the recom
mendation of the Department that a specific appropriation for the
purpose indicated should be made was refused, apparently upon the
ground that such officers should be under the Department of Justice,
since, it was contended, they were concerned with the work of the
courts. Upon a reconsideration it is believed the error of this view
will be acknowledged, since the collection of evidence, to be used in
proceedings before the courts or not as the nature of such evidence
may warrant, is of a preliminary character and constitutes no part
of the functions of the courts or of their officers. If there were any
doubt as to the soundness of this view of a question which is merely
one of efficiency and propriety in the distribution of administrative
work, it would be set at rest by the express provision contained in
section 1 of the naturalization act of June 29, 1906, which declares
that “ all matters concerning the naturalization of aliens ” shall be
“ under the direction and control of the Secretary of Commerce and
Labor.”
The distinctive feature of the new law which broadly marks it from
all legislation upon the subject of naturalization theretofore passed is
the provision authorizing, and requiring so far as may be necessary
to prevent violations of the law, the appearance of the Government
by counsel in court to oppose the granting of naturalization in any
case where the Government is of the opinion that the petitioner has
not complied with the law, or is disqualified in any way to become a
citizen of the United States. In other respects the law is substan
tially as it has been for a hundred years, so far as it prescribes the
qualifications necessary to become naturalized. The success of the
new law therefore depends upon the extent to which the Government
can avail itself of this right to appear, and to object if necessary.
But it is useless for the Government to enter an appearance unless,
before the petition is called for hearing, it has made an investigation
and ascertained whether there is any reason for its appearance and

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

objection. Otherwise, such appearance, despite the right conferred
by the act to cross-examine a petitioner and his witnesses, and to intro
duce evidence, is merely a device which will operate to delay the
business of the courts, and in only a few cases and by mere accident
would counsel for the Government succeed in disclosing any objection
that would satisfy the court that a petitioner should be denied natu
ralization. It is therefore indispensable to an effective enforcement
of the naturalization law that authority be granted the Department
to employ the services of examiners.
The report of the Chief of the Division of Naturalization points
out the need of other amendatory legislation, such as the right of ap
peal from the decisions of courts of original jurisdiction in naturali
zation cases to the United States circuit courts of appeals, the revision
of sections 21G6 and 2174 of the Revised Statutes, and of legis
lation in regard to seamen in the Navy and the United States mer
chant marine, so as to reconcile certain apparent contradictions in
that legislation to the provisions of the act of June 29, 1906.
By section 1 of the naturalization act commissioners of immigra
tion and inspectors in charge at ports of entry are required to keep
a record of the name, age, occupation, personal description, and
various other items, with respect to each alien admitted to the country,
so that such data may be available when required by the courts to
which application may in future be made by the aliens for natural
ization. Unfortunately a number of these items are not included in
section 12 of the immigration act requiring steamship companies
to furnish detailed manifests regarding aliens brought to United
States ports, and therefore a failure to furnish such items is not
penalized by section 15 of said act. It is highly important, both to
the Government and to aliens who may desire to be naturalized, that
the data shall be recorded, and it is recommended that section 12 of
the immigration act be so amended as to include each item mentioned
in section 1 of the naturalization act.
The official force of the division, as a result of the additional
amount of work indicated by the naturalization papers filed during
the year in the various courts, has been increased by four clerks, and
will require a still further increase during the coming year.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

APPENDIX.
ESTIMATE OF NET IMMIGRATION DURING TEN-YEAR PERIOD,

1899 TO 1908.

Since July 1, 1907, a record of alien departures has been made by the Bureau
of Immigration and Naturalization. Based upon this record the following
estimate of the net immigration during the past ten years has been made.
Unusual conditions have existed since the recent financial depression. Condi
tions were normal, however, during July, August, September, and October, 1907.
For this reason the ratio of alien departures during those four months has
been used upon which to base estimates of such departures during the previous
nine years.
Ratio esti
ated net
Total alien Net im m i mimm
igra
depar gration (es tion bears
(esti tim ated). to accepted
Accepted Other
Total tures
m ated).
alien
imm igra alien
im m igra
tion ligures. arrivals. arrivals.
tion figure.
Alien arrivals.

Year.

1899...................................................
1900...................................................
1901...................................................
1902...................................................
1908...................................................
1904...................................................
1905...................................................
190G...................................................
1907...................................................
1908...................................................
T o ta l....................................

311,715 a 45,000
356,715
514,207
448,572 65,635
562,868
487,918 74,950
730,798
648,743 82,055
921,315
857,040 64,269
840,714
812,870 27,8-44
1,026,499 33,256 1,059,755
1,100,735 65,618 1,166,863
1,285,849 153,120 1,438,469
924,696
782,870 141,825
7,762,317 753,572 8,615,889

° E stim ated.

172,837
206,351
209,318
220,103
247,569
332,019
385,111
356,257
431,306
6714,828
3,275,589

183,878
307,856
353,550
510,695
673,756
508,695
674,644
810,096
1,007,163
6209,867
5,240,300

Per cent.
59
69
72
79
79
63
66
74
78
27
68

“Actual figures.

The calculations in the above table are arrived at in the following manner:
Alien arrivals.—The total number of alien arrivals of all classes is known
except in 1S99. The numbers shown under the head of “Accepted immigration ’’
are the regular immigration figures and do not represent the entire alien
arrivals; the number of other alien arrivals, except during 1S99, are known,
however, and are shown under the head of “ Other alien arrivals.” The sum
of the two make the total alien arrivals. For the year 1899 “ Other alien
arrivals ” have been estimated at 45,000.
Alien departures.—From the record of alien departures made from the out
ward manifests for July, August, September, and October, 1907, it is ascertained
that 72.9 per cent of all departures during those months were aliens. By
applying this ratio to the departures of all trans-Atlantic passengers, 1899 to
1907 (data regarding which have been taken from the records of the TransAtlantic Passenger Conference), the estimated number of aliens departing for
Europe during those years has been ascertained. As 95 per cent of all alien
arrivals come from Europe, it is fair to assume that the European departures
represent 95 per cent of the total departures. Five per cent has, therefore, been
added to the estimated trans-Atlantic alien departures to make the “ Total alien
departures ” as shown. The figures given for 1908 are the actual alien departures
shown by outward manifests.
Net immigration.—The difference between the total alien arrivals and the total
alien departures represents the estimated net immigration as appears under
that heading in the table. The estimated net immigration during the past ten
years is shown to be 5,240,300, which is 68 per cent of the accepted immigration
for the period.

BUREAU OF CORPORATIONS.

The Bureau of Corporations has continued its work of investiga
tion of industrial interstate corporations and the publication of
important facts relating thereto. It has continued to prepare, as the
result of these investigations, reports on particular industries, and
with the authority of the President has made them public, together
with the conclusions of the Commissioner upon the facts set forth.
On May 5, 1908, the Bureau, in response to a joint resolution of
Congress dated February 18, 1907, published a report giving the
results of the investigation of patents granted to officers or employees
of the United States. While this report was somewhat out of the
usual line of the Bureau’s general work, it served, as was intended,
to call the attention of Congress to the conditions under which em
ployees of the Government take out or hold patents on articles in
which the Government is interested, and brought out also the fact
that the Government is receiving the free benefit of much high inven
tive ability from its employees through patents taken out by them
and practically dedicated to government use.
On August 5, 1907, the Bureau published its third Report on the
Petroleum Industry, entitled “ Prices and profits.” This report dealt
with the results of certain methods of the Standard Oil Company.
It was the logical sequel of earlier reports, which had set forth the
business methods of that company. This last report showed the
results of such methods upon the consumers and upon the profits of
the Standard Oil Company.
In December, 1907, the Commissioner of Corporations published a
statement giving the facts in answer to certain allegations of the
Standard Oil Company concerning its conviction at Chicago for
accepting concessions over the Chicago and Alton Railroad.
On May 4, 1908, the Bureau published Part I of the Report on
Cotton Exchanges, in response to a resolution of the House of Repre
sentatives of February 4, 1907. This part dealt with “ Methods of
establishing grade differences for future contracts,” a technical ques
tion of interest chiefly to those concerned in the cotton business, but
involving matters of great importance to that business.
A few weeks later, on May 29, 1908, the Bureau published Part II
of the Report on Cotton Exchanges, which dealt with the “ Classifica
tion of cotton,” and Part III thereof, which dealt with the “ Range of
grades deliverable on contract,” these subjects being related to the
general operations on cotton exchanges.
The Bureau has now on hand and unfinished investigations of the
tobacco, steel, and lumber industries, inland waterways, the Inter30

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

national Harvester Company, and further investigations of the pe
troleum industry and the cotton exchanges. It is also engaged in
preparing special subject-matters for the use of the National Con
servation Commission, recently appointed by the President.
The live years’ experience of the Bureau since its creation in deal
ing with corporate affairs has made it clear that the greatest advance
toward corporate reform must come through some general system of
publicity. The logical conclusion from the work of the Bureau thus
far points to the imperative need of a Federal constructive system
for the positive supervision of interstate corporations, to the primary
end of securing efficient publicity in corporate affairs. Such publicity
must be of the sort that is adapted to the practical requirements of
American public opinion. It can not content itself with the mere
publication of masses of facts and figures. These alone are not fitted
to form the basis of public opinion. The Government must collect
such figures, but to make them of any use in this connection it must
also summarize and digest them and present them to the public in
the shape of brief, reliable, clear conclusions showing important cor
porate facts. The work of the Bureau of Corporations thus far has
been directed to this end, and the results have demonstrated its value.
It has been shown in many cases that the mere publication of im
proper business methods has led to the immediate abandonment of
those methods. But the scope of this work and its beneficial results
could be greatly extended by the establishment of a general Federal
system of supervision of interstate corporations.
Another fact, touched upon in my last report, has been still more
clearly demonstrated by the work of the Bureau. It is becoming
more and more obvious that the work of the Government in regu
lating corporations should not be directed at the mere existence of
combination itself, as such, but should deal rather with the way in
which the combination powers are used, so as to prevent as far as
possible the misuse of these great industrial forces. Only such com
binations as are formed for wrongful purposes, or such combinations
as use their powers for evil, should be brought under the condemna
tion of the law. It is useless to ignore the operations of the economic
law that has brought about the present concentration in business. It
is useless to ignore the fact, further, that this concentration is already
largely accomplished. Recognizing these facts and principles, we
must at least be consistent in our treatment of the subject. To
attempt to prohibit all combination and at the same time to regu
late combinations is of course inconsistent. If, then, we have
found that it is impossible, impracticable, or unwise to prevent, in
general, all industrial concentration, the obvious alternative is to
regulate it, and especially to regulate and supervise the use of the
great commercial and economic powers that it produces and to make
02936—08------3

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

a clear line of distinction between those corporations that use these
powers for good and those that use them for evil. These powers have
become governmental in their scope and size, and it is the clearest
duty of the Government to take cognizance of them by some definite,
broad system of supervision.
I deem it my duty here to point out the fact that there exists now
an opportunity for such advance in our policy which we should not
fail to grasp. There has been, largely as a result of the work of the
present administration, an advance in the attitude of the financial
leaders of the country and a recognition of the fiduciary character of
their own commercial powers, accompanied by a willingness to coop
erate with the Government in correcting corporate evils. The one
way to take advantage of this valuable factor is by a definite system
of active positive supervision and regulation through an administra
tive office. Such a system has the supreme advantage that it gets at
results by cooperation rather than opposition. It is constructive, not
destructive.
The present method of court procedure under the antitrust laws
practically negatives all cooperation by forcing men into opposition
in self-defense. It is clear that so complex a subject-matter as our
industrial machinery can not be intelligently regulated without con
ference on both sides, and it is equally clear that human nature is
such that cooperation will produce results far better than mere en
forcement of penal law. In this connection I desire to call attention
to the recent action of the board of managers of the New York Cotton
Exchange. On July 20, 1908, as a result of the recent reports of the
Commissioner of Corporations on the operations of that exchange,
the said board appointed a special committee of seven of its members,
with express instructions to confer with the Commissioner of Corpo
rations and to take up with him, with a view to improving conditions
criticised by him, the points set forth in his said reports. Such action
was wholly voluntary on the part of the exchange, and is an admira
ble illustration of what may be brought about by impartial investiga
tion. intelligent publicity, and cooperation.
It is therefore believed that some such constructive system, which
will give the widest publicity and allow of the most complete coopera
tion, must soon come. Such a system should have the following basic
features:
It should be carried on by the Federal Government, as the only
jurisdiction competent to handle a subject-matter so entirety national
in its scope and nature.
It should require a system of regular reports from all large inter
state corporations to be made to an administrative office, and should
provide that that office shall have access to the records of those
corporations.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

It should further provide that that office shall publish the im
portant facts as to corporate operations, so far as they are of public
interest, safeguarding at the same time from unnecessary publication
all proper business secrets.
So far as possible the system should be made voluntary rather than
compulsory.
In exchange for giving this publicity, corporations should be al
lowed to register under such a law so as to obtain a Federal standing
and the public benefit of their position as concerns not afraid of
scrutiny.
Finally, such a system should recognize the fact above pointed
out, that there can not be both prohibition and regulation of combi
nation at the same time, and that if the Government thus elects to
regulate combination it must at least permit a certain reasonable
degree thereof, and recognize in law what has already become an
accomplished fact.
It is believed that certain very important beneficial results will
flow from such a system. First, it will create the machinery for the
effective application of intelligent public opinion, which is the greatest
of all corrective forces, but which now is still vague and undirected;
second, it will provide for prevention of evils beforehand rather than
remedy afterwards, because the fear of publicity will act as a deter
rent; third, and most important, it will afford the necessary basis for
cooperation and conference between the Government and corporate
managers.

BUREAU OF LABOR.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS.

During the past year a force of over one hundred special agents
under the Bureau of Labor has been at work conducting the investi
gation authorized and directed by Congress into the condition of
women and children wage-earners of the United States. Cotton
textiles, silk manufacturing, men’s clothing, and glass making were
selected as four representative industries in which women and chil
dren were largely employed, and a careful study has been made of the
conditions under which the work of these industries is carried on.
In addition to these industries a large number of special topics con
nected with the employment of women and children are being studied.
The investigation is comprehensive both in the subjects studied and
the territory covered. Practically every State east of the Mississippi
has been included in the work. When the report is finished, it is
believed that a very valuable contribution will have been made to the
study of this very important subject.
The Bureau of Labor has for some time been engaged in making
a study of the general subject of workingmen’s insurance, industrial
accidents, and employers’ liability.
In conformity with a resolution of the Senate, the Bureau is con
ducting an investigation of the wages and working conditions of the
employees of telegraph and telephone companies. At the request of
the chairman of the Special Committee of the House of Representa
tives, the Bureau of Labor is also making a study of the wage cost of
paper and wood pulp in the United States.
During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, the Bureau issued its
twenty-second annual report, which contains the labor laws of the
United States and of the several States, together with the decisions
of the courts relating thereto. It contains all the labor laws enacted
by the Congress or the legislatures of the various States and Terri
tories that were in force at the close of the year 1907.
The importance of the recent Canadian act for the investigation
and report, by an official board, of strikes and lockouts in cases in
volving public utilities led the Department to have a careful study
made of the effect of that act during the first year of its operation.
A representative of the Bureau of Labor was sent to Canada to
make a careful investigation of the results of the law at all points
at which it had been actually put into operation, and a valuable
report on this subject appeared in Bulletin No. 7G of the Bureau of
Labor.
34

KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

Considerable attention has been given in a number of European
countries to the problem of the unemployed, and a study has recently
been made in Europe by a representative of the Department of the
experience of these different countries in dealing with this important
question. The report of this investigation also appears in Bulletin
No. 76 of the Bureau of Labor.
The British Government in the past year has published elaborate
reports of extensive investigations carried on by it of the wages and
cost of living of wage-earners in Great Britain and in Europe. As
the British reports are voluminous and inaccessible to most American
readers, the principal data concerning wages and cost of living have
been condensed into summaries, and the results for Great Britain
were published in Bulletin No. 77 of the Bureau of Labor. The
corresponding figures for Germany will appear in Bulletin No. 78.
The act of Congress granting compensation for injuries to certain
classes of artisans and laborers employed by the Government of the
United States, which was approved May 30, 1908, and which became
effective August 1, charged the Department with the preparation of
the forms and regulations for carrying out the act and with the ex
amination and approval of claims arising under it. A method of pro
cedure and a series of forms and regulations for making reports and
filing claims have been adopted and are now in operation. In the car
rying out of this law the Department is simplifying the procedure as
much as possible with the view to facilitating the payment of such
claims with as little trouble to the claimant as is compatible with
effectually safeguarding the interests of the Government.
In order that full data may be available in regard to accidents to
all classes of employees, should question arise in future as to the ex
tension or modification of the principle of the act, regulations have
been issued requiring a report to the Department of all injuries to
government employees occurring in the course of their employment
whenever such injuries disable them from work for a period of one
day or longer. It is believed that in a comparatively short time the
statistics of such accidents will be of considerable general value aside
from their importance in connection with any further legislation
which Congress may consider on this subject.
THE ERDMAN ACT.

During the past year the provisions of the Erdman Act have con
tinued to be invoked for the settlement of industrial disputes on
interstate railways, and the Commissioner of Labor and the Chair
man of the Interstate Commerce Commission have acted as a board of
mediation and succeeded in effecting settlements in several important
controversies which threatened serious results.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

During January and February, 1908, wage controversies arose on
various railways in the southeastern portion of the country, and be
fore the 1st of March the disputes involved nearly every system of
importance south of the Chesapeake and Ohio and east of the Illinois
Central railroads. The mediation provided for in the Erdman Act
was invoked, and after considerable negotiation an amicable settle
ment was reached in every case without any interruption in the
relations between the railroad companies and their employees.
One of the best evidences of the satisfactory working of the pro
visions of this Federal statute is found in the fact that during the
past year some applications for mediation have come from the rail
road companies, other applications have come from the side of the em
ployees, and in one instance there was a joint application signed alike
by representatives of both the railroad company and its employees.
EMPLOYERS’ LIABILITY AND INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE.

One of the great needs in industrial relations in the United States
is a radical change in the law respecting employers’ liability. At the
present time, except for the recent act for government employees, the
principles of the old common law still prevail in most of our States,
with some degree of modification of the fellow-servant doctrine. But
these modifications do not at all bring our legislation on employers’
liability anywhere near the standard set by all the principal coun
tries of the world. Under our practice no compensation can be col
lected for injury or death unless such injury or death is due directly
to some negligence on the part of the employer or one of his repre
sentatives or employees. In probably the majority of cases no one
is properly to be blamed for an industrial accident. Modern industry
is becoming increasingly more dangerous, and a certain amount of
death and injury inevitably result from many of its processes. The
utmost precautions on the part of both employer and employee might
reduce the number of accidents, but it is futile to hope that they can
be entirely eliminated. We should recognize that these accidents are,
and to a certain great extent must always be, a part of the regular
cost of carrying on certain trades; that they are as much a part of
the business economicall}' as the breakage and wear and tear of
machinery: that the expense of them should be borne by that busi
ness and distributed upon the public and consumers like any other
manufacturing cost.
Justice demands that this burden of industry should not be
thrown upon those members of society least able to bear it—upon
the victims themselves and their families—as is now the case. It is
an elementary principle of fairneas that those who need or desire any
given commodity should pay a price for it that would include some
compensation to those whose capacity as breadwinners is destroyed

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

through accident or to the dependents of those whose lives are sacri
ficed in the production of such commodity.
“ The legal liability of employers for injuries to their employees
in the United States,” and a “ Summary of the workmen’s compensa
tion acts of foreign countries ” are the subjects of articles in Bulletin
No. 74.
The impossibility of adequately securing to the workman the
needed protection by a mere grant of right of action for injuries for
which the employer can rightly be charged is only too evident from
the discussion in this Bulletin of the principles of law applicable.
In striking contrast with conditions in the United States is the
position of the foreign workman who is injured by accident in the
course of his employment. Practically every foreign country of any
importance industrially has by legislation recognized the principle
that the workman is entitled to compensation for injuries from ac
cidents received in the course of his employment. Twenty-two foreign
states have enacted such legislation, namely, Austria, Belgium, Brit
ish Columbia, Cape of Good Hope, Denmark, Finland, France, Ger
many, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Nether
lands, New Zealand, Norway, Queensland, Russia, South Australia,
Spain, Sweden, and Western Australia.
While there is some variation in the provisions of the foreign laws
as to the circumstances under which workmen are entitled to compen
sation, as a rule compensation is not payable unless the injury causes
disablement for a specified number of days or weeks.
The employer may usually be relieved from the payment of com
pensation if he can prove that the injury was caused intentionally or
by willful misconduct, or, in some countries, by the gross negligence
of the injured person or during the performance of an illegal act. In
none of these twenty-two countries does ordinary negligence on the
part of the injured employee work a forfeiture of the right to com
pensation.
The industries usually covered by the laws are manufacturing,
mining and quarrying, transportation, building and engineering
work, and other employments involving more or less hazard. In
Belgium, France, and Great Britain the laws apply to practically
all employments. In a considerable number of countries only work
men engaged in actual manual work, and in some cases those exposed
to the same risks, such as overseers and technical experts, come within
the opei’ations of the law. These countries are Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands. Nor
way, Russia, Spain, and Sweden. On the other hand, in France,
Great Britain, the British colonies, and Hungary the laws apply to
salaried employees and workmen equally. Overseers and technical
experts earning more than a prescribed amount are excluded in Bel-

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

gium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxemburg, and
Russia. Employees of the state, provincial, and local administrations
usually come within the provisions of the acts.
The entire burden rests upon the employer in all but four of the
countries—Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Luxemburg—where the
employees also bear a part of the expense. The laws in every case
fix the compensation to be paid. In all the countries but Sweden the
compensation is based upon the wages of the injured person. It con
sists of medical and surgical treatment and of periodical allowances
for temporary disability, and annual pensions or lump-sum payments
for permanent disability or death.
In most countries employers may contract with state or private
insurance institutions for the transfer of the burden of payment of
compensation. In a number of countries such transfer is obligatory.
Provision is usually made for the protection of the beneficiaries in
case of insolvency of employers.
The acts of nearly all of the countries are framed with the view of
obviating the necessity for instituting legal proceedings. The laws
are so specific with regard to the compensation allowed and the
regulations for its payment that agreements are usually amicably
made between the employers and the victims of the accidents. If
disputes arise, however, the law specifies the necessary procedure for
their settlement, either by special arbitration tribunals or by the ordi
nary law courts.
The best practice in other countries fixes a definite compensation
for death or for injury, based usually upon the earning capacity of
the person injured or killed. This enables the employers to calculate
with some degree of certainty the additional item necessary to be in
cluded in the cost of production. Through an insurance system this
item of compensation for injury becomes for the individual employer
as definite and as readily calculable as is fire insurance—an item
which is everywhere recognized as a legitimate element in the cost
of production.
Various plans of industrial insurance are now in operation in other
countries, and from their experience a system can probably be worked
out which would be more advantageous alike to employer and em
ployee than our present liability system, a system which is at once
cruel to the employee and both vexatious and expensive to the em
ployer; but it will be time enough for the discussion of methods when
we have enacted laws placing upon the business itself the liability for
accidents and deaths.
In the legislation here suggested not only should compensation be
fixed and definite, but the method of securing such compensation
should be far simpler than our present methods. In order to estab
lish a claim for liability under the existing statutes, the practice is

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

cumbersome and expensive. Long drawn out contests crowd the dock
ets of the courts, entail large expense on the employer, and finally
yield only a small pittance to the injured employee or his dependents
when damages are actually awarded.
The law granting compensation to government employees, passed
at the first session of the present Congress, should be extended in
scope so as to embrace classes of employees not now included, and
should be made more liberal in its terms. The compensation at pres
ent paid—-one year’s earnings—is pitifully inadequate where total dis
ability results from an injury, or where death leaves a dependent
family.
We are probably the richest nation in the world, and in the amount
of compensation provided in this bill we are particularly niggardly
in comparison with the provisions in this regard made by the poorest
countries of Europe.
Our compensation act has only been in operation since August 1,
and the time has been too short to determine to what extent modifica
tions in its administrative provisions may be necessary, but one con
clusion has been already reached, and that is that on account of the
great distance to the Isthmus of Panama, the infrequency of the
mails, and the large number of minor accidents constantly occurring
there, the administration of the law so far as the Isthmus is con
cerned should be transferred from the Secretary of Commercé and
Labor to the Isthmian Canal Commission.
PROTECTION OF LIFE AND HEALTH.

Xo one who is in the least familiar with industrial conditions can
fail to be aware of the fact that not only is there an appalling annual
loss of life and limb in the United States through industrial accidents,
but also that there is an equally appalling sacrifice of efficiency, health,
and even life through the unfavorable environment in which the
workers in many industries must carry on their daily toil. It should
be the aim of the state, wherever possible, to force the elimination of
such conditions, but the conditions themselves are more largely due
to our want of knowledge of how to remedy them than to any other
cause. The Government can, therefore, do no better work, not alone
for the wage-earners of the United States, but for the people as a
whole, than to discover methods of eliminating unwholesome working
conditions and then compel the adoption of such means by stringent
legislation, so far as such legislation may be within the powers
granted by the Constitution.
The Department of Agriculture properly and ably carries on
scientific investigations to increase the efficiency of the labor spent
upon farms and to protect both animal and vegetable life from the

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

attacks of disease. In the same way the Department of Commerce
•and Labor should investigate carefully the sanitary problems which
concern the manufacturer and make available to him the methods by
which these problems can be solved on a commercially practicable
basis. The National Government should be as anxious and alert to
protect the wage-earners against the ravages of disease resulting from
their work as it is to protect agricultural products against pests and
farm stock against disease.
One of the most important parts of the work of this Department
relates to the condition of wage-earners, and involves the considera
tion of all the material factors that aifect that condition. It is
deemed to be one of the highest duties of the Department to aid, so
far as its statutory powers permit, in the improvement of conditions
of labor. Its work along these lines and in the investigation of labor
disputes has therefore necessarily involved a consideration of the
effect of the process of injunction in such disputes. I therefore feel
that it is my duty to call attention to this subject-matter, and to point
out the need for such legislation as shall render the issuance and use
of such injunctions uniform, well considered, impartial, and equitable
to all parties to these controversies.

BUREAU OF STATISTICS.
The Bureau of Statistics collects, records, and publishes the sta
tistics of foreign and internal commerce of the United States, and also
presents, in condensed form, data regarding the foreign commerce of
the principal countries of the world. Its reports show a falling
off of 20 million dollars in exports from, and 240 million dollars in
imports into, the United States in the fiscal year ended June 30. 1908,
as compared with the figures of the immediately preceding year.
This reduction of 20 million dollars in exports and 240 million dollars
in imports is a part of a general reduction apparent in the inter
national trade of the world, though the reduction in imports is also
due, in part, to the business depression in the United States, which
characterized a part of the fiscal year, and in part to a reduction in
prices of imported articles.
The falling off in exports occurs exclusively in manufacturers’ raw
materials, foodstuffs exported showing practically the same value as
last year, while manufactures, whether ready for consumption or
for further use in manufacturing, show a slight increase over last
year. Foodstuffs, as a whole, show an increase of 8 million dollars;
manufactures for further use in manufacturing, an increase of 2
million dollars, and manufactures ready for consumption, an in
crease of 7 million dollars, while crude materials show a decrease of
36| million dollars. Most of this decrease in manufacturers’ ma
terials exported occurs in cotton, of which the exportations during
the year amounted to 3,816.998,693 pounds, valued at $437.788,202,
against 4.518,217,220 pounds, valued at $481.277.797 in the fiscal year
1907. Corn shows also a decline of about 10 million dollars in the
value of exports, while wheat and wheat flour show an increase of
over 40 million dollars in value of exports, as compared with the im
mediately preceding year. The increases in manufactures exported
occur chiefly in cars and carriages, boots and shoes, refined mineral
oil, proprietarj' medicines, and manufactures of iron and steel.
Breadstuffs exported show higher prices per unit of quantity than
in the preceding year, and an advance during the year, the average
price of wheat in June, 1908, being 97.9 cents per bushel against 90
cents in June, 1907, and of corn 75.4 cents per bushel in June, 1908,
against 59.4 cents in June. 1907. Meats and other foodstuffs show
slight changes in values, while many of the manufactures show re
ductions in prices in the closing months of the year compared with
those at the beginning of the year.
The reduction in values of imports occurs in all the great classes;
foodstuffs show a decline of about 16 million dollars; crude materials
41

BEPOBT OF THE SECBETABY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

for use in manufacturing, 111 million dollars; manufactures for
further use in manufacturing, 77 million dollars, and finished manu
factures, 34 million dollars. The greatest falling off in importations
occurred, as already indicated, in manufacturers’ raw material. This,
while due in part to an actual reduction in quantity, is, in a consid
erable degree, due to lower prices; in fibers the fall in value of im
ports was 1G per cent, while in quantity the fall was but 3 per cent;
in india rubber the fall in value of imports was 38 per cent, while the
fall in quantity was but 20 per cent; in hides and skins the fall in value
was 35 per cent, while in quantity the fall was but 24 per cent; in pig
copper the decline in value of the imports was 40 per cent, and in
quantity but 27 per cent; in pig tin the fall in value of imports was
30 per cent, while the quantity fell but 20 per cent, and in raw wool
the decline in value was 45 per cent, and in quantity 38 per cent.
This falling off in prices of manufacturers’ materials was especially
marked in the closing part of the year. While the reduction in
actual quantity imported was doubtless due to a reduction in activity
in manufacturing which followed the financial depression of the first
half of the fiscal year, it is gratifying to note that, in most of the im
portant manufacturers’ materials, the quantity imported in the clos
ing months of the fiscal year materially increased, and in June, July,
and August, 1908, equaled, and in many cases exceeded, that of the
corresponding months of 1907.
The value of merchandise sent to the noncontiguous territories of
the United States in 1908 was G5§ million dollars and that of mer
chandise received from them 88| millions. The merchandise received
from thesp territories shows an increase of about 14 million dollars
in value over that of 1907. The value of merchandise sent to them
shows a reduction of about 1£ million dollars, due, in part, to lower
prices of manufactures, which form a large share of the merchan
dise sent.
The reports of the Bureau relating to internal commerce of the
United States cover calendar-year periods, and can not, therefore,
be at this time presented for the current year. The reports for the
late months of the present year show, however, a marked improve
ment over those of the corresponding months of 1907. It is the desire
of the Bureau and of the Department to strengthen the internal com
merce work, both by the enlargement of the field of its operations and
by more complete collections of data in the fields now covered. This
action was strongly recommended by the committee which recently
examined into the statistical work of the Department.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

COORDINATION OF STATISTICAL WORK.

Much attention has been given by the Department during the past
year to the question of coordination of statistical work, with the pur
pose of avoiding duplication of work and assuring greater accuracy
in statistical statements. A committee appointed by me to consider
this subject, to which reference was made in my report of last year,
examined carefully into the matter and presented certain recommenda
tions of a definite character. The committee consisted of the Assistant
Secretary of Commerce and Labor (Mr. Murray), four bureau chiefs
whose official duties require an intimate acquaintance with the statis
tical work of the Department and the Government (the Director of
the Census, the Commissioner of Corporations, the Commissioner of
Labor, and the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics), and three dis
tinguished economists and statisticians, connected with leading edu
cational institutions of the country—(Prof. Edwin R. A. Seligman, of
Columbia University; Prof. J. W. Jenks, of Cornell University, and
Mr. H. Parker Willis, of George Washington University, this city').
They were directed to inquire whether it would be wise to consolidate
the Bureau of Statistics with, and make it a part of, the Bureau of
the Census, and also to inquire into the whole statistical work of the
Department of Commerce and Labor, and see whether proper coordi
nation existed among the several bureaus. This committee obtained
the view's of over thirty persons—expert statisticians and economists—
the majority of whom were in the service of the Government and the
remainder persons engaged in economic studies for the press or
educational institutions. Most of them appeared in person, and after
stating their views responded to such further questions as the mem
bers of the committee desired to propound.
The result of this elaborate inquiry, which occupied several weeks,
wTas summarized by the committee in a report in wdiich its members
unanimously recommended:
1. That the Bureau of Statistics be not consolidated with the
Census Bureau.
2. That the Bureau of Manufactures and the Bureau of Statistics
be consolidated into one bureau, to be called the “ Bureau of Foreign
and Domestic Commerce," and that the division of domestic or
internal commerce be strengthened by enlarged appropriations for
(he collection and publication of more complete and adequate sta
tistics of internal commerce; a division of tariffs to be also a part
of such bureau.
3. That an interdepartmental statistical committee be formed under
the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, to be
created by executive order and to consist of one representative from
each of the executive departments and independent governmental
establishments.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

The recommendation for the appointment of an interdepartmental
statistical committee, having been brought to the attention of the
President, received his favorable consideration; and by an executive
order dated September 10, 1908, the proposed commission, subject
to the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, was cre
ated. The membership of the committee as named by the President
includes one representative for each of the departments of the Gov
ernment and one for the Interstate Commerce Commission. The
order creating this commission directs it to make recommendations
with a view to eliminating unnecessary duplication of statistical
work, the utilization of statistical material by various branches of the
Government, the establishment of uniform definitions of statistical
terms, the introduction of uniform methods, the determination
whether present methods are in harmony with each other and with
modern statistical methods, and the preparation and place of publica
tion of the Statistical Abstract of the United States. The commis
sion has held a preliminary session and forwarded to each depart
ment and to many organizations and persons a series of questions
intended to obtain views and information upon which to carry for
ward the proposed work.
The recommendation, made by the committee of this Department,
that the Bureau of Manufactures and the Bureau of Statistics be
consolidated into one Bureau, has not yet been acted upon by me.
The organic act creating the Department provides “ that the Secre
tary of Commerce and Labor shall have control of the work of gath
ering and distributing statistical information naturally relating to
the subjects confided to his-Department; and the Secretary of Com
merce and Labor is hereby given the power and authority to rear
range the statistical work of the bureaus and offices confided to said
Department, and to consolidate any of the statistical bureaus and
offices transferred to said Department.-” It was the intention of
Congress therefore to afford a means whereby the very result here
contemplated might be accomplished by executive action—whereby,
in other words, two statistical agencies, such as the Bureau of
Statistics and the Bureau of Manufactures, might, if necessary,
be combined, their work harmonized, coordinated, and intelligently
directed, unnecessary duplication and expense avoided, and greater
accuracy and usefulness assured. Before any definite action to
this end can wisely be undertaken, however, there are a number of
practical administrative details to be carefully worked out and
provided for. These matters, as well as the question how far, if at
all, further legislation is needed to effect the result, are now engaging
my earnest attention. I have been in no haste to take the action
indicated, pending the results of the further inquiries along the same
line now being' pursued by the interdepartmental committee.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

The fact that such consolidation was the unanimous recommenda
tion of the statistical committee and that many of the witnesses who
appeared before that committee voluntarily expressed the same view,
would seem to preclude the necessity of any further inquiry as to the
desirability of the action proposed. The committee in that part of
its report dealing with this subject said:

A study of the laws relating to the two bureaus indicates that Congress
intended that the latter Bureau [the Bureau of Manufactures] should discharge
important functions that had been assigned to the former [the Bureau of Sta
tistics] in earlier legislation. Your committee is convinced that the consolida
tion of these two bureaus into one would adequately accomplish the purpose of
Congress, would dispense with a superfluous bureau, and would provide an
effective means of meeting a serious problem now confronting the Department
of Commerce and Labor. * * * We desire to emphasize two points—first,
that it is impossible that iwo bureaus shall exist in one department of the
Government with duties so nearly identical without producing confusion, divi
sion of effort, and cross purposes; and, second, that by combining these two
bureaus into one, and concentrating under one control ail their closely related
functions and separate energies, the Government will gain a unified, correlated,
and homogeneous service and will lose nothing. * * * There is lmt little
that can be done by the Bureau of Manufactures which tlie Bureau of Sta
tistics is not equally authorized to do, under laws which have never been re
pealed. At the same time the Bureau of Statistics retains the most important
function that appertains to the promotion of American commerce—the handling
of the statistics of our export and import trade. * * * Only through the
study of these statistics can the points and directions lie determined where
Americnn export trade can be increased and extended. No bureau cnn properly
understand these statistics, analyze their significance, and realize their sug
gestiveness except by actually compiling them—by studying and presenting them
in connection with all the other data from domestic manufacturers, from con
sular reports, and from every other source of information which are simulta
neously in its possession. * * * The one work illumines, explains, supple
ments, and, above all else, checks and verifies the other. * * *
The occurrence of statistical errors in our consular reports has attracted
much attention and is injuring the reputation of a publication otherwise worthy
of commendation. Since the publication of the consular reports has been de
tached from the Bureau of Statistics there has been no provision for a trained
statistician in the Bureau of Manufactures to handle the extensive statistical
material which occurs in them, and which is far from being accurate, owing to
the fact that some of our consuls lack statistical training. By keeping the
statistical service and the publication of the consular reports apart the chief
advantage which this Department could have over the Department of Stnte in
the publication of such reports is lost. * * * The need for a reorganized
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce increases rapidly with the expan
sion of our trade abroad. When Congress calls for information relating to our
foreign trade, it should And concentrated in one bureau a body of trained
technical experts able to put at its disposal all the information in the possession
of the Department on every phase of foreign trade, foreign tariffs, foreign com
mercial regulations, and the whole great subject of international trade.

BUREAU OF MANUFACTURES.
COMPETITION FOR WORLD’S MARKETS.

Never before were such persistent efforts made on the part of lead
ing nations to foster and extend their foreign trade, and the results
are seen in the rapid growth of the productive industries and the
great expansion of the commerce of such of them as are engaged in
the international competition. This is particularly noticeable in the
countries of middle and western Europe. The United States, pos
sessing vast natural resources and the most extensive equipment for
mechanical construction, combined with the intelligence and enter
prise of its people, should lead in this expansion; but so far as the ex
port of manufactured products is concerned we are in many respects
far behind. Progress, however, is being made and commodities of
American manufacture are becoming better and more widely known
in foreign markets. An important step taken in this direction con
cerns the Bureau of Manufactures, which has been working persist
ently and effectively to acquaint our business people as to trade
conditions and requirements abroad, with the result that a popular
demand for information and aid has been stimulated that can not
be adequately met with the limited facilities of the Bureau.
Although the Bureau of Manufactures was organized only in 1905,
the beneficial results of its labors upon the export trade of the coun
try are evident, and manufacturers and merchants show appreciation
by a steady increase in their demands on the Bureau, replies to their
letters having increased 138 per cent in the last fiscal year over those
of the year preceding. Other nations are adopting some of our
methods of obtaining trade reports, thus showing the vigilance of
competitors in trade efforts, the persistency with which such efforts
are maintained, and the necessity for renewed endeavor in this direc
tion. While commercial attaches have long been used by the United
Kingdom and other nations, our use of special agents to report on
trade conditions has seemingly met with such favor that commercial
agents, unattached to legations, in addition to the consular service,
are now used by several foreign countries, which have taken advanced
ground in empowering such agents and consuls to report on trade
matters by cable or telegraph, when necessary, directly to the depart
ment having commercial matters in charge. The extension of this
service of commercial agents, so that they can make a more thorough
study of trade conditions, is urged by many manufacturers and is
recommended as worthy of consideration.
46

KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

PUBLICATION OF TRADE OPPORTUNITIES.

The Bureau of Manufactures makes known in the Daily Consular
and Trade Reports opportunities for the sale abroad of American
products, as reported by consuls and others, and such reports have
led to a considerable increase in exports. In many cases the lack of
time to enable manufacturers to take advantage of such opportuni
ties is a handicap which might be overcome by a limited use of cable
and telegraph lines.
The foreign “ trade opportunity ” service of the consular reports
has been greatly extended. From the time that this was inaugurated,
in February, 1906, until June 30, 1907, or about sixteen months, there
were published 1,166 announcements of special openings for Ameri
can goods abroad, the names of the inquirers being withheld and fur
nished only to such American merchants and manufacturers as are
entitled to the information. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908,
the number of “ trade opportunities ” published amounted to 1,221.
It is also noted that as this system of putting the foreign buyer and
American manufacturer or producer in communication becomes more
widely known throughout the world, more important inquiries are
received. The American consuls have for the past year been espe
cially active in sending details of railroad requirements, accompany
ing their reports with complete sets of blueprints.
ANNUAL REPORTS OF CONSULS.

The decline in the aggregate exports of all the leading nations
during the fiscal year makes the efforts to secure markets more ag
gressive, and emphasizes the need of assisting as far as possible our
own exporters. A step in that direction was taken by the Bureau of
Manufactures in the publication of the annual reports of consuls.
Heretofore they have been issued in a volume called “ Commercial Re
lations of the United States; ” but as this had to be delayed until all
of the reports were received, its publication was nearly always a year
or more later than the period covered by the reports. Under the new
method, as soon as the reports from a country are received they are
assembled and issued in a pamphlet covering that nation, and dis
tributed among manufacturers and others much earlier than under the
old way. More prompt reports from some of the consuls and an in
creased force in the Bureau of Manufactures will permit further
progress in meeting the wants of our exporters along this line.
DAILY AND MONTHLY CONSULAR AND TRADE REPORTS.

The development of Daily and Monthly Consular and Trade
Reports into consulting compendiums for practical use by manufac
turers and exporters who are seeking foreign markets has been comG293G—08----- 4

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

prehcnsivoly carried out. It has been the endeavor to compile and
present the most valuable information obtainable, stated concisely in
plain business language, and with all the reports on kindred subjects
from the various consular officers and special agents grouped together.
This systematic compilation of the contributions of consuls entails
several times as much editorial revision as in former years.
Information secured from special agents, consuls, and other sources
should be made promptly available to manufacturers and others. This
work is retarded now by lack of sufficient help to prepare the mate
rial promptly for publication. The consuls are doing better work
than formerly, and their reports show a greater knowledge of what
is needed to promote American mercantile interests. In the last
fiscal year 10,000 reports were received by the Bureau, through the
Department of State, from consuls, as compared with 8,GOO in the
preceding year, while the number of items contributed under the
heading “ Trade opportunities ” nearly doubled. There are frequent
calls for commercial information concerning other countries which
can be met only by the possession of facilities that will enable the
Department to secure and promulgate it. The exports of completed
manufactures were in the last fiscal year the largest in the history of
the country, but the total is far behind that of some other countries,
and greater results may be reached by guiding our exporters to a
realization of the possibilities of foreign markets, by improved trans
portation facilities, and by other means.
How great is the need of foreign markets for American goods may
well be illustrated by exports of cotton manufactures, which aggre
gated in the last fiscal year but $25,177,758, whereas the imports of
such goods were in value $08,379,781, although the United States
supplies 70 per cent of the raw material for the cotton products of the
world. Our exports of such goods are a mere fraction of the total
exports of even such other nations as obtain a large share of their raw
material in this country. In some countries with which we have
good trade facilities we supply the major part of the cotton products
consumed, which would seem to show what can be accomplished with
proper efforts and facilities for carrying on the trade. And the same
thing can be said of other industries.
DIRECTORY OF FOREIGN BUYERS.

The compilation of a commercial directory of the world, in so far
as lists of foreign merchants and importers are apt to be of value to
the American export trade, has proceeded slowly. The consular offi
cers have supplied a large amount of material for this purpose, know
ing that its classification and distribution through a central clearing
house at Washington would relieve them of one of their most arduous
duties—that of complying with requests from the United States for

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

names of merchants and importers in their respective districts. This
work will prove highly valuable to the intending exporter if he can
procure at one central bureau at home the commercial lists for which
he now must address several hundred consulates. The new system
will also effect great economy for the Government. To make the in
formation effective and available it is essential that several competent
clerks be engaged for the work. The plan is urged by both the con
sular officers and the business public, and only awaits the action of
Congress for its fulfillment.
COLLATING AND PUBLISHING FOREIGN TARIFFS.

Attention is again called to the inadequacy of the appropriation
for the work of collating and arranging foreign tariffs, which is
rapidly expanding with the growing interest in foreign commerce
and the appreciation by the business world of this branch of the
Bureau’s service. The number of requests for information with re
gard to rates of duty in foreign countries, customs regulations, treat
ment of commercial travelers, port charges, etc., has greatly increased
during the last fiscal year, many of the requests calling for consider
able research work. While the original appropriation for this work
implied the use of the publications of the International Union for
the Publication of Customs Tariffs, of Brussels, Belgium, it has been
found in practice that these publications are unavailable for that
purpose, owing to the inaccuracy of the translations as well as to their
tardy appearance. Foreign tariffs, as well as the different decrees
modifying them, which are published in the Consular and Trade
Reports, are therefore drawn for publication almost entirely from
original sources, namely, foreign official gazettes, of which the Bureau
is now receiving a considerable number, and reports sent in by Amer
ican diplomatic and consular officers, which must be verified and
edited before publication.
The work of reading, clipping, and filing foreign publications, and
translating the various decrees, which is absolutely essential if this
important service of the Bureau is to be of any value, is much greater
than can properly be accomplished by the limited staff of three
men now employed. As a result, the publishing of foreign tariffs
lags behind the demand the Department is called upon to supply.
Since the last annual report was submitted the tariffs of France,
Germany, Italy, Brazil, New Zealand, and the islands of the British
West Indies have been published, together with a number of supple
ments to the tariffs previously issued, and reports from diplomatic
and consular officers covering tariff legislation in forty-five countries
were published in Daily Consular and Trade Reports. The tariffs
that have been published so far are inadequate to meet the numerous
inquiries received for rates of duty in foreign countries, and it

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

therefore frequently becomes necessary to compile extensive lists
of rates of duty on various articles in response to inquiries from
manufacturers and exporters, which takes more time than would be
the case if all the tariffs had been published.
An additional reason for strengthening this branch of the Bureau’s
work is afforded by the proposed revision of the tariff by Congress,
in connection with which the Bureau of Manufactures has been called
upon to furnish considerable information on foreign tariff legislation
to committees of both Houses of Congress, and will in all probability
be required to do so to a larger extent when the subject is taken up
by that body.
To enable the Department to meet the demand for information
from the business world, as well as from the legislative and executive
branches of the Government, an appropriation of at least $10,000
for the next fiscal year should be made. This amount would be
barely sufficient to provide for the increase needed in the clerical force,
which would still remain far below that employed by the governments
of the leading foreign countries, whose publications must be largely
depended upon by this Department for prompt and accurate informa
tion on the subject of foreign tariff legislation.
Attention is specially invited to the report of the Chief of the
Bureau of Manufactures, which sets forth in detail the work per
formed and the results accomplished during the year by that Bureau.
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF COMMERCE.

As an aid to the extension of commerce, closer relations should bo
established-between the Department and the commercial organizations
of the country. Steps have been taken in that direction, and unques
tionably in time the benefits of such a course will be duly recognized
ind made available. There is hardly anything that could be of more
service in extending trade relations than that the Government should
have the benefit of the counsel of the men engaged in trade, and
whose experience could best point the way for extending exports.
The United States is behind other great nations in that respect, and
no time should be lost in making use of this valuable means of extend
ing our commerce.
With a view to establishing intimate relations between the Govern
ment. and the organized business interests of the country, and with a
view to promoting foreign and domestic commerce, a circular was ad
dressed October 23, 1907, to boards of trade, chambers of commerce,
and similar organizations in the principal cities of the United States
inviting them to appoint committees to meet in this city December 5,
1907, for conference with the Department. This invitation was gen-

51
erally accepted and the conference resulted in an organization under
the name of “ The National Council of Commerce.”
The object of that organization is to supply a connecting link be
tween the government departments and the business community, for
whose benefit much of the work of these departments is directed. It
was felt that with the exception of the correspondence between the
departments in Washington and individual business firms there was
no medium by which regular interchange of opinion and active
cooperation on a comprehensive scale could take place.
It was realized that the Government in carrying out certain lines
of activity was frequently without reliable information as to the
desires and needs of those for whose special benefit this work was
intended; and, on the other hand, that a large proportion of the
business people in the United States had but a vague idea of what the
various government departments in general, and the newly created
Department of Commerce and Labor in particular, are doing in their
behalf. It was felt that a central organization composed of repre
sentatives chosen by the various commercial and industrial bodies of
the country, meeting from time to time in (lie city of Washington and
having a permanent bureau under a competent head, coming in direct
touch with the officials of the departments whose work affected their
interests, would be able to furnish the departments with valuable
information of a practical character and to advise with the officials of
the departments and aid in directing their work along channels of the
greatest practical value to the business world. At the same time the
departments, through such an organization, would be able to convey
to business people information of a character which often, on account
of its confidential nature or for other reasons, could not be handled
through the usual channel of departmental publications.
This step was taken with the expectation that through the agency
of the commercial organizations the country would have an organ
such as most of the leading commercial nations of (lie world already
possess to great advantage. Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy,
and other countries have such official or semiofficial bodies, through
which the commercial interests of the country are able to make their
needs and desires known in a proper way, and at the same time to help
the respective governments to convey such information as is found
helpful to those interests.
That this newly created council of commerce can promote the busi
ness interests of the country by bringing about a closer cooperation
between them and the Government there can be no doubt. A few
instances as to objects to which cooperation can be directed with a
reasonable assurance of beneficial results may be cited. The question
of evolving some method of organization for better representation
of American manufacturers at foreign industrial expositions is of
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

supreme importance. Many foreign countries have governmental or
semipublic organizations for the purpose of taking advantage of the
opportunities afforded by these expositions, which, being devoted to
special industries, are of greater practical value to manufacturers
than the great universal expositions. Such expositions will be held
this and the coming year in Europe, as well as in countries of South
America.
There is no permanent organization in this country to look after
the interests of American manufacturers and exporters at such for
eign expositions, yet the leading commercial countries in Europe have
every facility in this respect, and keep a sharp lookout for every
advantage offered to promote the interests of their respective coun
tries. The Department of Commerce and Labor is usually informed
in advance as to the opening of such expositions, and through a repre
sentative body like the National Council of Commerce could assist
industries in the United States in securing proper representation for
them, not only by securing adequate allotments of space, but by
taking necessary steps to secure publicity in the foreign countries in
which expositions may be held that would bring the industries in
touch with foreign buyers. The National Council will have an oppor
tunity to work out with the officials of the Department some scheme
for a permanent organization that will look after this special work
in the future.
Another instance is the appointment of special agents abroad for
the study of foreign markets. While the Bureau of Manufactures is
now doing all it can to study foreign markets for the most important
exporting industries of this country, it would welcome any additional
assistance that the representatives of the American industries could
give it by practical suggestions on the subject. In this relation it
may be stated that in the appointment of special agents the policy of
the Department has been to consult the commercial and industrial
interests to be served and to appoint the persons nominated by them,
the condition precedent being that nominees shall be approved experts.
Another important field for cooperation between the Department
and the business community is in the matter of negotiations with for
eign countries relating to commercial questions. This includes not
only negotiations of commercial treaties, but also numerous minor
yet important questions which arise in the daily transaction of busi
ness with foreign countries in which American interests find them
selves aggrieved and desire the protection of the Government. While
the Government has its officers to look after these matters in this and
in other countries, yet these officials, not being themselves engaged in
business, can not have the insight into matters that comes from an
intimate contact with foreign conditions to people whose personal
interests are directly affected thereby.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

It is important that the Government should be informed as fully
and as early as possible as to the needs of American manufacturers
and exporters in foreign markets; as to grievances which exporting
interests may have in connection with the treatment accorded their
products by foreign customs officials ; as to restrictions to which they
are subjected; as to any possible discriminations against them, and
any other matters which may properly be taken up by the Govern
ment in its negotiations with foreign countries.
The Department has taken the first steps to bring about this help
ful relation between the Government and the business community. It
now remains for the business world to grasp the proffered hand and
to do its share in making the new organization a success.

BUREAU OF THE CENSUS.
STATUS OF INTEKCENSAL INVESTIGATIONS.

During (lie year the Bureau of the Census lias completed the quin
quennial report on manufactures, the report on marriage and divorce
covering the forty-year period 1867-1906, and the decennial report
on transportation by water. The decennial reports on religious bodies
and the express business are rapidly approaching completion. The
four annual reports assigned to the Bureau—statistics of mortality
for registration areas; statistics of cities of 30,000 population and
over; and the statistics of cotton production as returned by the ginners, and of cotton distribution and consumption—were completed
this year at dates somewhat earlier than ever before. The field work
for the quinquennial report on the electrical industries was finished
in August; the compilation of the schedules is now in progress, and
the report will be ready for the printer early in the year 1909.
SALES OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

The Bureau has completed the republication of the names of the
heads of families, as returned at the First Federal Census, taken in
the year 1790, covering the twelve States of Connecticut, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts, North and South Carolina, New Hamp
shire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Vir
ginia—all the States whose First Census records were not destroyed
when the British captured Washington in 1814. The names for each
State are published in a separate pamphlet, copies of which are sold
for $1, in accordance with the act of Congress authorizing the repub
lication. The Director reports that over $7,000 has already been
turned over to the Treasury from the sale of these pamphlets, and the
demand for them promises to continue. The success of this experi
ment in the sale of a series of government documents leads me to be
lieve that the plan can be advantageously extended to other official
publications—perhaps to all Census reports, as the Director has
repeatedly recommended, as well as to the technical reports of the
scientific bureaus of the Department. It would be following the
precedent of a number of the European Governments. The waste and
extravagance which have long marked the printing for the Govern
ment can never be eradicated until the bulk of its publications are sold
at a price fixed in accordance with the actual cost of production, after
the volume is ready for the press. Under this plan the circulation
of this class of publications would be confined to the persons who
have actual need for them, and printing bills would be correspond54

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

inglv reduced. The sale of certain technical publications of other
departments is already authorized by law, and I recommend that the
Secretary of Commerce and Labor be authorized in his discretion to
affix a price to similar publications of this Department.
OFFICIAL REGISTER OF THE UNITED STATES.

The Bureau published the Official Register of the United States
prior to December 1 last, the date fixed by law, at a total cost for
printing and binding of but $25,657, as compared with $70,000, the
cost of printing the last previous issue. The radical changes effected
in the Official Register were imperative, because the publication in
its old form had become unwieldy, the weight of the two volumes
amounting to 30 pounds. In its new form it appears to command
the approval of those who make the most use of it. Following the
completion of the Register, the Bureau of the Census compiled and
published, by my direction, a useful register of the Department of
Commerce and Labor. It also compiled a second bulletin containing
the statistics of the executive civil service of the United States. At
the request of the Civil Service Committees of Congress, the Bureau
is now using the data collected for this bulletin to determine with
exactness certain details of the plan, recommended by the Committee
on Department Methods, for dealing with the troublesome question
of clerical superannuation.
WORK IN PROGRESS.

With the completion of the reports above enumerated, all the
investigations assigned by law to the Bureau of the Census during
the intercensal period will have been disposed of, except the census of
the fishery industries and the report on savings institutions. Prepar
atory work upon both these reports is now under way, and they will
occupy a portion of the clerical force during the remainder of the
current year. Most of the clerks are now engaged, however, in pre
paratory work for the Thirteenth Census of the United States or in
making special statistical compilations undertaken by the Bureau at
the order of the President or of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
Among the special compilations are a report on the utilized water
powers of the United States, for the use of the Commission for the
Conservation of National Resources; a report on the character and
value of state, county, and municipal securities, undertaken at the
request of the Secretary of the Treasury for use in the administration
of the new law for the emergency currency: and a report on the an
nual lumber cut of the United States, compiled in collaboration with
the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture.
The special work above indicated is based largely upon data and
records already in the Census Bureau, and the ability of the office

REPORT OF THE SECRETARV OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

to handle these statistics for other departments and for Congress
has avoided much duplication of statistical work. It indicates a
function of the Bureau which is likely to develop from year to year.
TABULATION AND PUBLICATION OF CUBAN CENSUS.

In December, 1907, the President directed the Bureau of the Census
to tabulate and publish the census of the population of the Republic
of Cuba, taken in that year under the supervision of the War De
partment. This order was made on the representation that no facili
ties existed in Cuba for this class of work, and all the expenses
incurred have been paid from the Cuban treasury. The schedules
reached the Census Office about May 1, and 136 temporary clerks were
appointed to punch the cards, operate the tabulating machines, and
complete the tables, under the supervision of experienced clerks de
tailed from the regular clerical force of the Bureau. The work was
substantially completed October 1, at a cost to the Cuban Govern
ment of $42,655, or about 2 cents per capita, which is less than the
per capita cost of tabulating the last census of Cuba, when the work
was done under private contract, at a cost of 3.5 cents per capita.
The work of the Bureau was entirely satisfactory to the authorities
in charge, and was a valuable experience for the Bureau in two ways.
It permitted a practical test of the proposed plan of piece-price pay
ment for mechanical work at the Thirteenth Census, the results of
which test were eminently satisfactory. It demonstrated that in the
punching of cards and the operating of tabulating machines differing
degrees of aptitude and industry may be so compensated that each
operator may be paid in accordance with product, none receiving less
than a fair day's wage while the especial!}' apt may receive a much
larger compensation than would otherwise be possible, the total cost
of the work being at the same time materially reduced.
The Cuban census also permitted a thorough testing of several of
the new designs of tabulating apparatus invented in the office for
use at the Thirteenth Census. The results exceeded the most san
guine expectations of the Bureau. The new machines did their work
perfectly, and indicated that they are adapted to handle the great
work of a decennial enumeration more quickly and more economic
ally than any mechanisms hitherto employed for this purpose. The
Annual Report of the Director gives full details regarding these ex
periments, and indicates that a large saving in the cost of the next
and subsequent censuses will result from their successful culmination.
MODIFICATION OF CENSUS LEGISLATION.

During the next fiscal year the Census Office must complete the
preparations for the thirteenth decennial enumeration of the popu
lation and resources of the United States, and actually make the

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

enumeration. While the legislation under which the Twelfth Census
was taken provides also for subsequent censuses, the experience of the
Bureau has revealed many points at which the law should be modi
fied, and these changes will greatly reduce the cost and increase the
accuracy of the Thirteenth Census. It is highly important that the
new law shall be enacted at the earliest practicable date after the
reassembling of Congress.
APPROPRIATION FOR THIRTEENTH CENSUS.

Because of the decennial census, the Bureau must pass, with the
next fiscal J'ear, from the detailed appropriations of the intercensal
years to a lump-sum appropriation, applicable to every form of ex
pense that must be incurred in connection with that great work and
in carrying on the regular intercensal work of the Bureau during the
three years in which it will be engaged upon the decennial census. It
is not possible to apportion the expenditures of the decennial period,
either by items or by years; and the appropriation must therefore, as
at all previous censuses, be made a continuing one, covering the three
years required to complete the work. The Director urges that it will
tend to economy and efficiency if the entire estimated cost of the Thir
teenth Census is appropriated for at the coming session of Congress.
This is especially desirable in view of the fact that the law now
requires the main work to be completed and published within two
years from the date of the enumeration, a requirement which can not
be met if the work has to be stopped at any stage because Congress is
not in session to renew the appropriations.
The Director estimates the cost of taking the Thirteenth Census
and of continuing at the same time the regular work of the Bureau
at $14,117,000. This estimate contemplates an expenditure, during
the three years, of $1,187,000 to carry on the four annual reports and
the two biennial reports which the Bureau is required to make, leav
ing the sum of $12,930,000 available for the Thirteenth Census proper.
The total appropriations made by Congress (in three separate acts)
for the Twelfth Census aggregated $13,510,210. Of this sum
$11,770,052 had been expended at the time when the act went into
effect making the Bureau a permanent office. The date of effective
ness of that act has generally been accepted as marking the completion
of the Twelfth Census, and the expenditures up to that date as deter
mining its cost. As a matter of fact, the Bureau was engaged for
more than a year after that in finishing the Twelfth Census work, and
four expensive Twelfth Census volumes were compiled and published
subsequent to the reorganization of the Office on a permanent basis.
It is therefore difficult, in fact impossible, to state the exact cost of
the Twelfth Census; but it was doubtless in excess of $12,500,000. It
consequently follows that the Director proposes to undertake the

JtEPORT O]'' THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

Thirteenth Census for ¡1 sum of money no greater than that actually
expended upon the Twelfth, notwithstanding that there has been an
increase of 20 per cent in the population to be enumerated, a much
greater increase in the growth of agriculture and manufactures,
while the island of Porto Rico and perhaps other insular posses
sions must now be included.
The Director bases his expectations upon several considerations, the
most important of which is the existence of the permanent Office and
the enormous saving that will result in the cost of preparation. The
other considerations are the omission of the vital statistics schedule ;
the omission of the canvass of the hand, household, and neighborhood
industries in the manufacturing census; the application of the pieceprice method in payment for machine work in connection with the
tabulation, and, finally, the fact that the Bureau will build and own
the necessary tabulating apparatus instead of x’enting it as heretofore.
Whether or not the sum of money asked will prove sufficient, the
Director should be afforded every facility to carry out his plan. If
the work can be done for the money he asks, it will be the first time in
the history of the country that the cost of a decennial census has not
greatly exceeded the cost of the prior census. It will be the direct
result of the establishment of a permanent Census Office, and only
one of many proofs that the legislation accomplishing this was not
only wise but in the interest of economy.
HOUSING OF TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES.

The Director calls especial attention in his report to the fact that if
the Bureau is to complete the census for the money asked it must be
given quarters in which to do the work. Suitable provision for
housing the temporary clerical force during the three-year decennial
census period was urged upon Congress in my last annual report.
Nothing, however, was done at the last session. The building now
temporarily occupied by the Census was only half large enough to ac
commodate the force required to compile the Twelfth Census. The
accumulation of records, the installation of the machine shop, and the
taking over from the Department of the Interior of all the accumula
tion of prior census reports have so far reduced the available space
in this building that not more than one-third of the clerical force can
now be provided for within its walls. To scatter the remainder
of the force throughout the city in such separate and unsuitable build
ings as can now be rented will add enormously to the cost and the
difficulties of the work. I again ask the attention of Congress to the
plan suggested in my last annual report for meeting this emergency
situation by the purchase of the present building and the construc
tion of a suitable annex. If prompt action is taken, it will he possible
to complete the proposed annex by the time it will be needed.

BUREAU OF NAVIGATION.
The output of our shipyards during the fiscal year ended June 30,
1908, was the largest in American history. The vessels built and
documented numbered 1,457, of 014,210 gross tons. For an annual
product approaching this we must go back to the year 1855, hitherto
the record year, when the tonnage built and documented in the United
States aggregated 583,450 gross tons. The figures, however, do not
indicate an early return to the rank we held on the ocean in the gener
ation before the outbreak of the civil war; they serve rather to sug
gest the considerable changes in the shipbuilding industry and in
navigation since that time. Then our square-rigged ships and barks
were built to sail every sea; last year, of all the vessels built, probably
not one will ever engage entirely in the foreign trade, and very few
will ever serve otherwise than as parts of our domestic transportation
system.
With the nearly complete substitution of steel for wood as the prin
cipal material of construction, the centers of the shipbuilding trade
have shifted and its industrial organization has changed. Fifty years
ago a large number of relatively small yards on the Atlantic seaboard
built most of our vessels; last year more than half of our merchant
tonnage was built by a few large corporations on the Great Lukes.
Unfortunately the record product of the past fiscal year can not be
taken as an index of conditions in the near future. On the contrary,
it is apparently the culmination of nearly a decade of exceptional
activity in shipbuilding, both at home and abroad. At home this
activity has been part of the remarkable development of all our in
dustries during that period, and in part it has been due to the antici
pation of favorable legislation which thus far has not been realized.
The domestic shipbuilding industry is as essentially a part of our
resources for national defense as are battle ships and batteries. For
reasons of national policy as well as of industrial welfare it is to bo
regretted that the outlook for shipbuilding during the current fiscal
year is less favorable than at any corresponding time in late years.
The conditions, however, may serve to impress upon the country the
desirability of legislation in the line of national policies which in
cidentally will strengthen the industry.
On July 30, 1908, the total documented merchant shipping of the
United States comprised 25,425 vessels, aggregating 7,305,445 gross
tons. This tonnage, of course, is the largest in our history, and the
increase over the previous fiscal year is the largest annual increase
recorded. Nearly three-fourths of the increase has been on the Great
50

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

Lakes, and Pacific-coast shipping, both relatively and absolutely,
has increased more than the shipping of the Atlantic and Gulf sea
boards.
I renew the recommendation of my last annual report in favor of
a measure that shall insure us superior mail communication with the
Republics of South America, with Australasia, by way of our insular
territories in the mid-Pacific, and with the Philippines, by way of
China and Japan. A bill which in its essentials accords with that
recommendation has passed the Senate and now awaits action by the
House of Representatives.
The Department of Commerce and Labor has a threefold interest
in the improvement of our ocean-mail service. It is concerned in the
development of American ocean-mail steamship lines, especially to
South America and on the Pacific, because such steamships afford the
opportunities for buyers and sellers to travel to and from this coun
try, for the speedy and regular transmission of mail orders, and for
the transportation of classes of manufactured goods for which espe
cially we seek markets. Under modern conditions of international
competition such opportunities must be made satisfactory, if our
producers, both capitalists and laboring men, are to have a fair chance
with those of other nations in the relatively new markets of the world.
That such opportunities are not now satisfactory is shown by an un
broken line of undisputed testimony of competent witnesses.
It is not now possible to travel with satisfactory speed and com
fort from the United States to many South American countries
or to Australasia unless the voyage is made by way of European
or Canadian ports. Perhaps in time foreign steamship lines may
find it to their profit to improve present conditions, but our reli
ance upon such foreign lines is already so great as to impair that
independence on the sea which ought to be the aim of a country hold
ing the present rank of the United States among nations. Since the
adjournment of Congress the American battle-ship fleet has sailed
nearly around the world on a mission of peace. The attending fleet
of foreign colliers has been evidence to all the world that this voyage
would have been well-nigh impossible in time of war, and that during
hostilities the radius of action of our battle ships will be practically
restricted to their limited coal-carrying capacity so long as our mer
chant marine on the sea remains dwarfed.
An ocean-mail act will not, of course, lead directly to the con
struction of colliers. In the development of modern shipping cor
porations, however, the cargo steamer has usually followed the faster
ocean-mail steamer. Such has been our own experience under the
ocean-mail act of 1891, in so far as its rates of compensation have
sufficed to produce results, and such doubtless will be the effect of a
satisfactory amendment to that act. The construction of such cargo

BEPOBT OF THE SECBETABY OF COMMERCE AXD EABOB.

steamers will still further increase our ocean-transportation facilities
for the benefit of the interior productive fields of the United States.
Again, the cost of construction of ships is the initial, though not
the sole, obstacle in the way of the development of the American
merchant marine in over-sea trade. Our extensive programme of
naval construction and our coastwise-trade law have created our
modern shipyards on the seaboard, but it is not to be expected that
they will always suffice to maintain them. The transportation of
ocean mails is as legitimate a function of government as the trans
portation of domestic mails. As such the ocean-mail service seems
to me to be entitled to the support of the entire Congress, regardless
of the general economic theories which may be held by individual
members. If such support shall involve indirectly the increase of
our fleet of cargo-carrying ocean steamers and the upbuilding of
domestic shipyards, then the gain to the whole country is the greater.
Congress in 1891 appreciated the importance of an American oceanmail service. The act of that year has since stood free from success
ful criticism of its principle and purpose. It has produced results in
certain directions and it has failed in other directions, where failure
was foreseen by its advocates. We stopped with that act, while other
nations have advanced. We should bring that legislation abreast of
the day. In my report last year I stated:
For many years it was entirely true that the energies of the country were so
absorbed in its Internal development that there was no surplus to devote to ex
pansion of national trade and influence outside our const lines. It Is equally
true that such is no longer the fact. The acquisition of insular territory, the
construction of a powerful navy, and the investment of American capital abroad
are all tokens of a tendency In national growth which will compel our country
to become again a sea power, as it was when the Republic was only a fringe of
States along the Atlantic seaboard.

Even under favorable conditions at least two years and possibly
three years must elapse before American ocean-mail lines to South
America south of the Caribbean can be established and a line to Aus
tralasia reestablished. Accordingly, I earnestly recommend the pas
sage by the House of Representatives of the ocean-mail bill which has
already passed the Senate.
We ought to provide better facilities for passengers between Hawaii
and the mainland of the United States. It would be preferable to
use American steamships for the purpose, and the passage of the
ocean-mail bill recommended would bring about that result. Pending
the establishment of such American mail lines our coasting laws in
this particular could very properly be modified as proposed in a bill
which has passed the House and is now on the Senate Calendar.
Tonnage duties during the fiscal year amounted to $1,070,571.09, the
largest sum received since the method of collection was changed, in
1884. In 1884 the revenue from this source was $1,295,772, which,

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

during the year following, upon the change in the law, dropped to
$390,875. The rates of tonnage tax imposed in the United States are
substantially the same as the rates for light dues imposed in the
United Kingdom, and are materially less than corresponding charges
on shipping imposed by other countries. Barring occasional slight
technical difficulties, the tax is readily collected and at a small cost
to the Government.
Little can be said in favor of the law providing for reciprocal
tonnage-tax exemptions under sections 11 and 12 of the act of June
19, 1880. That law provides in substance that if vessels of the United
States in any' foreign port are exempt from tonnage taxes, light dues,
or corresponding charges, then foreign vessels from such port enter
ing a port of the United States shall be exempt from our tonnage
taxes. Under existing conditions there is almost no possibility of
an equal exchange of favors under these sections. The bulk of our
tonnage taxes is derived from vessels on the long voyages from
Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. Of $901,758.30 received from these sources, American vessels contributed only
$37,130.22. Were all tonnage taxes abolished in the ports of these
continents, compelling a corresponding abolition of tonnage taxes
in American ports, the direct gain to foreign vessels would be about
twenty-five times greater than to American vessels.
Congress in the near future will consider a revision of the tariff,
having in mind the principles of reciprocity and of maximum and
minimum schedules, and exemptions from tonnage taxes may be
granted in return for other trade favors. As an independent propo
sition under existing law, reciprocal tonnage-tax exemption is the
offer by the United States of an unprofitable bargain.
Shipping commissioners at 20 seaports have shipped, reshipped,
or discharged 307,299 seamen on American vessels during the past
fiscal year, an increase of 47,729 over the previous year. The prin
cipal duties of shipping commissioners are to supervise contracts for
labor at sea and to settle disputes outside of the courts. The growth
of the business, accordingly, seems to indicate the popularity of Fed
eral supervision of labor contracts of this special nature, as in most
instances the shipment before commissioners is optional. Of 103,192
men shipped or reshipped, 52,065 were native Americans and 28,713
were naturalized citizens, so that about 50 per cent of those shipped
were aliens. These figures do not include Chinese shipped for the
round voyage before American consuls at Hongkong and elsewhere
in the East on trans-Pacific steamships.
The reconstruction of the barge-office annex at New York will
render it necessary for the Department to rent quarters for the
shipping commissioner at that port, and an appropriation for that
purpose is recommended.

BEPOKT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

The President last May, at the suggestion of this Department,
designated a commission to examine the laws of the United States
for the better security of the lives of passengers and crews on board
of vessels of the United States, with a view to their revision, and to
recommend such changes as in their judgment the public interests
seem to require. The commission, consisting of the Chairman of the
Light-House Board, the Solicitor of the Department of Commerce
and Labor, the Commissioner of Navigation, the Supervising In
spector-General of the Steamboat-Inspection Service, and an engi
neer officer of the United States Navy, is serving without expense to
the Government. It has held frequent meetings at Washington and
heard expert evidence on the various questions before it. The com
mission will report to the President, and I trust that its report may
result in remedial legislation.
The navigation of the United States differs from that of England,
Germany, France, and other maritime nations in that the amount of
oversea passenger business under the American flag is very small.
The vast majority of passengers on the water in the United States are
carried on ferryboats and excursion boats, running relatively short
distances on smooth water, and comparison of casualties under the
American and under foreign flags is difficult and inconclusive. The
nature of our waters has led to a remarkable growth in the use of
motor boats during recent years, and the increasing number of casual
ties on these boats calls for further regulation of their use. Exten
sion in other directions of the system of Federal inspection of ves
sels of the United States, in my judgment, is desirable.
Even for the enforcement of existing laws (lie facilities at the dis
posal of the Department are inadequate. The violations of these laws
occur usually, of course, on the water, and unless collectors of customs
and other officers charged with the enforcement of the laws have
facilities for being on the water at times they are handicapped in
the performance of their duties. Theoretically, the vessels of the
Revenue-Cutter Service are available for the detection of such vio
lations, and to an extent they are efficient agencies. In most cases,
however, small launches or motor boats would serve the particular pur
poses referred to better and more economically.
62936—08----- 5

STEAMBOAT-INSPECTION SERVICE.
In general the work of the Service lias been earnestly and effect
ively devoted to its primary purpose of making safe the lives of
passengers on our waterways. Many improvements, both in law and
in administration, still remain to be made; but when the relatively
small loss of life reported below for water traffic is compared with
the tremendous annual loss of life in railway traffic, we get a more
just view of the value of the work of the Service in safeguarding the
lives of those who travel by water.
In considering the appalling loss of life by railway accident in the
past calendar year, and in looking for possible methods of preven
tion, one is indeed forced to feel that a great advance ought to result
therein by the extension of the work of the Service to an inspection
of locomotive boilers and equipment, a work for which the Service
is well adapted. It is believed that such an extension of its work
would immediately justify itself by a reduction in the number of
locomotive boiler accidents. It would probably also demonstrate the
need and value of a still broader and more general inspection of
interstate railway equipment and right of way with a view to the
prevention of loss of life. It is obvious that some action must soon
be taken toward this end if the United States is not to retain and
increase its present unenviable preeminence in railway accidents and
resulting loss of life.
Such work by the Government has been successfully performed as
to water traffic. The same machinery, with slight modifications, is
easily adaptable to a similar work for interstate land traffic, and
there is no good reason why the traveler by land should not have as
much and as effective protection thrown about his life and limbs as
is now enjoyed by the traveler by water.
The total expenses of the Service for the fiscal year ended June 30,
1908, were $522,181.97. Its personnel at the close of the fiscal year
consisted of 213 officers and clerks, and 1 messenger; additional
assistant inspectors and clerks, made necessary by the large increase
in the volume of work of the Service, were appointed during the
year.
The number of vessels certificated was 8,190, showing a decrease
in number of 72 but an increased tonnage of 092,121 as compared
with the previous fiscal year. Of the vessels certificated 7,403 were
domestic steamers, with a tonnage of 4,392,373, a decrease of 133
steamers but an increase in tonnage of 198,064 ; 291 were motor vessels,
with a tonnage of 15,844, a slight increase in both number and ton
nage; 44 were sail vessels and barges, with a total tonnage of 20,500,
64

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

a slight increase also in both number and tonnage, and 452 were for
eign passenger steamers, with a tonnage of 2,916,272, an increase of
33 steamers and 492,9G8 tons. These figures bear out the well-known
present tendency toward construction of larger vessels, especially on
the ocean and the Great Lakes. The increase in tonnage inspected
indicates at least a part of the increased work of the Service and its
growing importance.
There were 26,056 officers of all grades licensed during the fiscal
year, and 843 applicants were examined for color-blindqess, of whom
52 were rejected.
There were inspected at the various mills 3,691 steel plates for the
construction and repair of marine boilers (a decrease from the previ
ous year of 2,133), of which 567 were rejected. In addition to these
plates, there were inspected at the mills a large number of steel bars
for braces and stay bolts in marine boilers, and also several hundred
plates for stock and repair purposes. Many requests were received
from other branches of the Government, particularly from the
Isthmian Canal Commission, for tests of material. All requests were
immediately answered, the material was inspected as soon as the mills
were ready for the inspection, and the reports were promptly sent
to the persons making the requests.
There were examined and tested at the various manufactories dur
ing the year 181,654 life-preservers, of which 2,146 were rejected.
The total number of accidents of all kinds resulting in loss of life
during the fiscal year upon vessels subject to the steamboat-inspection
laws was 64, an increase of 9 over the previous year. The total num
ber of lives lost was 385, a decrease of 120 from the fatalities of the
previous year. Of the total number of lives lost, 165 were from
causes for which the victims were entirely responsible and which
were beyond the power of the Service to avert, such as suicide, leaving
220 lives lost that can be fairly charged to accident, collision, or
foundering.
During the calendar year ended December 31, 1907, there were
372,347,279 passengers carried on vessels which by law are required
to report the number of passengers carried, or a ratio of 967,135 pas
sengers carried for each life lost, whether of passengers or crew, and
from all causes.
A special committee of the Department has been engaged in con
sidering the entire body of statutes relating to the Service, with a
view to pointing out needed improvement and correction therein.
This committee has not yet reported its findings.

LIGHT-HOUSE BOARD.
During the fiscal year the Light-House Establishment was con
siderably enlarged by the addition of tenders, light-vessels, and other
aids to navigation, which became necessary on account of improve
ments to harbors and increase in commerce. There were newly
established during the year 33 lights, 10 fog signals, 18 submarine
signals, and 199 buoys, besides 133 daymarks and 150 post lanterns.
Nine first-class light-vessels and 8 first-class seagoing tenders
were constructed and delivered. Of these, 3 tenders and 3 lightvessels are destined for duty on the Pacific coast and started on their
journey by way of the Straits of Magellan September 21. The
tender built for service on Lake Superior sailed from Tompkinsville,
N. Y., for her station August 15, 1908.
The installation of the incandescent oil-vapor system of lighting is
being carried out as rapidly as is consistent with efficiency and econ
omy. The use of this vapor, instead of the oil itself, increases enor
mously the intensity of the light, whicli is of course the first consider
ation. It has also proved economical, except in the smaller lights;
but it is in the smaller lights that the increase in intensity is greatest.
By vaporizing the oil the following are, approximately, the results
attained: A first-order fixed light has become four times as brilliant
on one-quarter of the amount of oil consumed; a first-order flash
light, seven times as brilliant on one-quarter of the amount of oil
consumed; a second-order light, seven times as brilliant on 88 per cent
of the amount of oil, and a third-order light has increased to twelve
times its former brilliancy, but the amount of oil consumed is doubled.
The use of acetylene as an illuminant is receiving the careful con
sideration of the Board’s officers, whose investigations will be treated
at length in the Annual Report of the Board.
The installation of submarine fog signals has been continued, and
now all principal offshore light-vessels have been equipped with them.
This signal has proved to be an efficient aid to deep-water navigation
during foggy weather. To have some prominent headlands equipped
with this apparatus, the bell to be some distance offshore and struck
by electricity, is under consideration.
A special committee appointed by the Light-House Board made a
careful investigation of the rates of salaries paid to the various em
ployees of the Establishment with a view to adjusting many existing
irregularities and inconsistencies. The report of this committee was
approved by the Light-House Board and the Department, and the
recommendations made therein are now being carried into effect.
The report recommends a slight increase of salaries throughout, and
66

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

an adjustment thereof so that employees who do similar work will
receive the same compensation. This, together with the law that
was passed at the last session of Congress authorizing one ration per
day to each light-house keeper, or commutation thereof at the rate of
30 cents per day, will place the service on a much more satisfactory
basis than it has been heretofore.
There are at present on the rolls of the Light-House Establishment
1,631 keepers, assistant keepers, and laborers in charge of lights.
The number authorized by statute is 1,650. One hundred and twentyfive lights are to be established during the present fiscal year, re
quiring the services of 87 keepers. In view of these facts, it is recommended that the authorized number of keepers, assistant keepers,
and laborers be increased at once to 1,725, and after July 1, 1909,
to 1,750.
Legislation is recommended authorizing the Board to pay the
surgical and hospital expenses of seamen employed on board vessels
of the Light-House Establishment and injured in the performance
of dut}'. They are now entitled to treatment at the nearest marine
hospital, but such a hospital may be many miles from the scene
of the accident, while private medical assistance might be obtained
in the immediate vicinity. In such cases the United States, and not
the seaman, should bear the expense of treatment, but there is at
, present no law authorizing it.
The necessity for legislation creating 3 additional light-house dis
tricts still exists. Under the present law the Light-House Establish
ment of the United States is arranged into districts not to exceed 16
in number, and that number has now been attained. The Territory of
Alaska, the island of Porto Rico, and the Hawaiian Islands, together
with the other Pacific islands, are in process of being provided with
proper lights and other aids to navigation for the assistance of
the commerce which is rapidly increasing in these localities. As
the 16 districts allowed are already in existence, it has been neces
sary to place the three sections referred to under the control of other
districts by calling them subdistricts, and placing inspectors and
engineer officers in charge of them. These officers are not vested with
the necessary authority for properly handling the work which must
be done, and as a result frequent delays ensue which should be
avoided. The recommendation to increase the number of districts
to not exceeding 19 is therefore made.
The law at present requires that the Light-House Board shall be
composed of “ two officers of the -Navy of high rank, two officers of
the Corps of Engineers of the Army, and two civilians of high scien
tific attainments, whose services may be at the disposal of the Presi
dent, together with an officer of the Navy and an officer of engineers
of the Army, as secretaries,” and that the Secretary of Commerce and

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

Labor shall be ex officio president of the Board. This Board, ac
cording to law, discharges all administrative duties relating to the
Light-IIouse Establishment. Of the nine members of the Board only
four devote their whole time to its duties, the remaining members
having other duties or pursuits to follow. Regular meetings are held
once a month., and during the rest of the month the affairs of the
Establishment are carried on by three executive officers—the Chair
man, the Naval Secretary, and the Engineer Secretary—who carry
out the instructions of the Board issued at the monthly meeting and
decide upon questions which may come up during the month but
which are not of sufficient importance for the convening of the Board
in extra session. Upon all such questions the action of these three
officers is controlled by the majority.
The Light-House Board was ci’eated nearly sixty years ago, when
the Establishment was still in its infancy and when designing and
experimenting were the great consideration and little executive ad
ministration was necessary. With the large personnel which this
service now has, and the thousands of aids which have since been
created, such a board is not a proper administrative head, nor can
the office duties be properly executed by a committee of three officers
where a majority vote governs. I therefore recommend that legisla
tion be enacted so that—
First. The Light-House Board may become an advisory instead of
an administrative body.
Second. The Chairman of the Board may be named by the Presi
dent instead of being elected by the Board.
Third. The Chairman of the Board may be the executive head of
the Light-House Establishment, with the same powers as a chief of
bureau.
On several occasions I have taken the opportunity to visit light
stations in company with the Chairman, or the inspector of the dis
trict, for the purpose of acquainting myself with the methods of this
service, and have frequently accompanied these officers on their visits
of inspection. These tours have proved to be very instructive, and
have served to bring to the attention of the head of the Department
facts of which he should be cognizant. Such visits by the Secretary,
who is also President ex officio of the Board, or by any other member
of the Board, have a good effect on the employees in the service.

BUREAU OF FISHERIES.
FISH-CULTURE.

The operations of the Government in the interests of the fisheries
and the fish supply have a widely diversified character, being the out
come of many years’ growth and experience and a reliable reflex of
the popular interest shown in this important work. Beginning a
third of a century ago as a mere inquiry into the condition of certain
fisheries, this work has broadened until to-day it is addressed to
practically every important phase of the question of conserving, in
creasing, and utilizing the aquatic resources of the interior, coastal,
and offshore waters of the country. The growth in this service has
been most noteworthy in the cultivation and distribution of food and
game fishes, which has come to affect not only every State and Terri
tory but almost every community.
The fish-cultural efforts of the Bureau of Fisheries in 1908 were
directed chiefly to increasing the take of eggs and the output of young
fish. While the possibilities of expansion and development in nearly
every line are almost unlimited—depending largely on the funds
available for opening up new fields—the public need and popular
demand seemed best subserved at this time by the concentration of
efforts for immediate results in quantity in the fields already occupied.
Thus, with the same funds as during the year before, the hatchery
work in 1908 yielded 370,000,000 young fish more than in any
previous year, and produced about 458,000,000 eggs, which were de
livered to state and foreign hatcheries. The total output was nearly
3,000,000,000, of which over 2,500,000,000 were young fish.
The conspicuous increases were in Great-Lakes whitefish; silver,
blueback, and humpback salmons; rainbow and brook trouts; largemouth and small-mouth black basses; yellow perch and white perch;
cod, flatfish, and lobsters, all of which were produced in greater
quantities than ever before. There was likewise an increase in shad,
due entirely to improved conditions in the Albemarle region of
North Carolina. The output of lake trout and pike perch fell behind
the 1907 record, as did also that of chinook salmon and Atlantic
salmon. These fluctuations in the production of most of the fishes
handled are, however, inevitable, being due to weather conditions or
other adversities which can not be controlled.
The fish-cultural work in 1908 was not without new features. The
yellow bass, prized as a game and food fish in the Gulf States and
the Middle West, was added to the list of species propagated; and
in response to a growing and insistent demand there were distributed
,
69

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

in several instances a brood stock of carp, which species the Bureau
has not been distributing for many years. Some waters not suited
to any other fish are suited to carp, and the purpose of the Bureau
to supply this fish for such waters—preferably by transfer from
other waters—should not provoke the criticism justly addressed to
carp misplaced.
To increase the effectiveness of the distributions of fish and at the
same time to facilitate the office work, there has been established a
card-index system by which will be preserved all obtainable data
pertaining to plants of fish in the many thousands of ponds, lakes,
and streams that have been stocked by the Bureau. Owing to the
yearly growing interest in the utilization of private and minor
waters generally for raising fish and the consequent greater demand
for suitable fishes to plant in such waters, this information will con
stitute a history which will be an invaluable guide in the assignment
of species to the various applicants. Effort is also being made to
collect and correlate observations relating to particular characters
in the water supply at the hatching stations. Recent experience has
developed hitherto unsuspected causes of difficulty and success and
points the way to important reforms and improved procedure. The
role of aquatic plants and algal growths in breeding and rearing
ponds is becoming better understood, and certain chemical qualities
of the water are being studied in relation to the abundance of fish
food. Such problems are of obvious importance in fish-cultural
work, and it is hoped by greater knowledge on the subject to increase
the efficiency of the present hatcheries as well as insure a wise choice
of sites for hatcheries to be erected in future.
The new salmon station at Afognak, Alaska, has been nearly com
pleted, and will be ready for operation the present season. At vari
ous other stations new buildings have been erected and grounds,
water supply, and other facilities improved.
SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY.

Important work of the Bureau in scientific inquiry has been the
continued investigation of the natural history of the pearly mussels
of the Mississippi Valley, which support the pearl-button industry
of the United States. This industry has an invested capital of
$2,000,000 and produces an annual output valued at about $6,000,000,
but the supply of fresh-water mussels which constitute its raw
material is becoming rapidly exhausted. Effort is being made to
locate all possible sources of supply, to determine the extent of the
depletion, and to acquire knowledge of the habits of the mussels
which will make it feasible to recommend protective legislation.
Artificial propagation was undertaken at once, and the experiments

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

were so successful from the beginning that the work is even now
being conducted on a scale promising practical results; and Congress,
at the solicitation of the pearl-button interests, has provided for the
establishment of a station especially for mussel culture, which will
probably be ready for operation during the present fiscal year.
Cooperation with the State of Maryland in the survey of the
oyster grounds of Chesapeake Bay has continued, in conjunction
with the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and experiments and inquiries
relating to the condition of the oyster industry in other States also
have been conducted. As an instance of the way in which intelligent
and well-directed scientific effort may redound to the benefit of a
community or State, reference may be made to the remarkable results
of several years’ endeavor in behalf of the oyster industry of
Louisiana. Here the aim has been to develop unproductive grounds,
and the success of the experimental plants last year led at once to
the leasing of large areas of bottom by prospective planters; while
the Bureau’s plants in Barataria Bay, where there had previously
been no oysters at all, this year made good their promise by yielding
at the extraordinary rate of 1,500 to 2,000 bushels of marketable
oysters per acre at the end of two years from the time the cultch
was deposited on barren bottom. The fitness for oyster culture of
thousands of acres of barren bottom has been demonstrated, and
these grounds will undoubtedly be taken up, with great profit to the
State as well as to cultivators.
The experiments in sponge culture which have been in progress for
a number of years have reached a stage where the methods may be
recommended for commercial purposes, and a report upon the work
will shortly be published. Sponges 6 inches and more in diameter
have been produced in four years from cuttings planted by inex
pensive means, and it is believed that the system can be commercially
employed with profit. The experiments will be continued with a
view to the development of improved methods and the acclimatiza
tion of nonindigenous varieties of sponges.
Physical and biological studies of lakes have been undertaken in
various parts of the country. In cooperation with the Geological
Survey of Wisconsin, attention has been directed to the determination
of the gaseous content of lake waters in that State, deficiency in this
respect having been found to be responsible for the absence of fish
and the failure of efforts to stock these lakes. Devils Lake, North
Dakota, was also a field of investigation, by which were developed
facts which enabled the Bureau to make practical suggestions for the
réintroduction of food fish and to point out a source of ample supply.
The results of this work have general application to all the numerous
alkaline lakes of the West. Investigations were conducted also in
Sebago Lake, Maine, and Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana, and Lake

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

Drummond and other fresh waters of southern Virginia and North
Carolina also received attention.
The biological laboratories at Woods Hole, Mass., and Beaufort,
N. C., were open and occupied as usual by investigators from numer
ous educational institutions, and were provided with an official staff
engaged in biological experiment and faunal studies.
The steamer Albatross was sent to the Philippine Islands in Sep
tember, 1907, to undertake investigations designed to develop the
fishery resources of these insular possessions of the United States.
The work resulted in most valuable biological collections and gives
promise of great economic benefit to the islands, where fishing methods
are at present primitive and commercial possibilities not appreciated.
The Albatross will continue the work for at least another year.
COMMERCIAL FISHERIES.

One division of the Bureau has always been occupied with inquiries
designed to afford a complete census of the commercial fisheries.
During the past year, however, this work has been less statistical in
character and devoted chiefly to the accumulation of data descriptive
of apparatus and methods of fishing throughout the country, with a
view to the compilation of a complete report upon this subject. The
only strictly statistical inquiries have been the work of the agents
stationed permanently at Boston and Gloucester, the two greatest
fishing ports of the east coast, for which the monthly bulletins of fish
landed by American vessels have been issued as usual. The annual
summary of these reports, covering the calendar year 1907, shows a
total of 191,571,752 pounds of fish, valued at $5,203,103, taken on
banks off the east coast of the United States and Newfoundland and
other British provinces.
In 1908, as in the two previous years, the Bureau, at the request of
the State Department, detailed a representative to note the opera
tions of American fishing vessels in Newfoundland waters and report
as to the observance of the modus vivendi.
The Alaska salmon agents were in the field, as usual, for the work
of inspecting the conditions of the fishery and its dependent indus
tries, and enforcing the laws controlling it. Three instances of viola
tion were found, and the offenders indicted and fined. The season’s
inquiries covered also the examination of possible hatchery sites with
a view to recommendation, and the collection of fishery statistics for
the entire region. All of this information has been published in
detail in the special report of the Alaska salmon agents, issued in
May, 1908, which shows for all the fisheries of Alaska in 1907 an
investment of $9,216,028 and products amounting to 178,358,301
pounds, valued at $10,160,183.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.
CONSERVATION OF FISHERY RESOURCES.

The movement for the conservation of. our natural resources has
important relation to the fishes and other inhabitants of the interior
and coastal waters. The necessity for concerted action by the States
has long been appreciated, and this necessity has become more press
ing with the greater drains on the supply of food and game fishes
consequent on increased population. A special subject that has never
received adequate consideration and should have careful attention
at the hands of the National Conservation Commission is the rights
that should be accorded the inhabitants of the waters and the defi
nite determination of the relations that should exist between the
fisheries on the one hand and agriculture, forestry, mining, irriga
tion, and navigation on the other.
The general decline in the shad fisher}', and consequently in the
hatchery work, for which eggs are obtained from fish caught for
market, has been arrested only in North Carolina among all the
States in which the Bureau engages in shad cultivation. The imme
diate effect of adequate protective measures in this State shows the
results that may be expected to follow similar legislation affecting
the shad in the various important shad streams, such as the Potomac,
Susquehanna, and Delaware, for which it seems impossible to obtain
concerted legislative action from the States interested.
Reports of the salmon fishery of the Columbia River indicate a
decline which is cause for serious concern, and which is the graver
in portent because the States having jurisdiction fail to take action
insuring the protection of the fish. The situation demands prompt
and judicious action if this fishery is to be preserved, yet factional
considerations in Washington and Oregon have been allowed to in
terfere with the passage of the needed laws and the condition is un
relieved. The Bureau is without power to act further than to con
tinue its efforts in artificial propagation; and these are negatived by
the indifference of the States. The situation presents another illus
tration of the necessity for Federal control of interstate waters.
In the case of the international waters of the United States and
Canada, the two Governments have arisen to the necessity for uniform
protective laws, and have assumed, in the United States, at least, un
precedented jurisdiction. The International Fishery Commission,
appointed a year ago to investigate conditions from the standpoint
of law and biology, is the outcome of an international agreement to
regulate and conserve the fishery resources of the Great Lakes and
the west-coast salmon waters. Its recommendations, to be submitted
by January 1, 1900, will be the basis for legislation to be enforced by
the respective Governments, instead of under the mixed jurisdiction
of the various States and Provinces, whose contending interests have
hitherto produced such inadequate and incompetent regulations.

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OP COMMERCE AND LABOR.
RECOMMENDATIONS.

Among the matters affecting the welfare of the fisheries and the
related work of the Government to which the Commissioner of
Fisheries addresses recommendations are the following:
The extensive and rapidly growing demands of recent years have
created a genuine need for new hatcheries, especially in the vast
Mississippi Valley and southwestern regions, for the cultivation of
commercial and game fishes adapted for ponds. It is accordingly
recommended that Congress during the coming session authorize the
establishment of such hatcheries.
The abolishment of the Fish Lakes in Washington has deprived
the Bureau of the only facilities it possessed for conducting important
experimental work in fish-culture and aquatic biology under the
supervision of the executive staff. The need for this kind of work
is growing and progress in certain lines has been greatly delayed. It
is accordingly urged that provision be made for a composite fislieultural station in the vicinity of the capital, in Maryland or Vir
ginia, where many practical problems awaiting settlement may be
studied and elucidated.
In view of the growing need for better protection of the fish life
in interstate waters, in the interests of conservation, it is considered
most important that provision be made for Federal control affecting
at least the migratory fishes in such waters; and it is furthermore re
garded as of very great importance that protective measures adopted
by the States be made more effective by an application of the princi
ples of the Lacey Act to interstate trade in fish and other water
products.
The growth of the fishery service and its special requirements in
the way of laboratory and aquarium facilities, in addition to offices
and storerooms, make most urgent the need of new quarters for the
Bureau of Fisheries. The previous recommendations to this effect
are accordingly renewed and emphasized.

ALASKAN FUR-SEAL SERVICE.
The report of the government agent in charge of the fur-seal fish
eries at the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, shows that during the sealing
season ended July 31, 1908, 12,500 sealskins were taken on the island
of St. Paul and 2,500 on the island of St. George, or 15,000 in all.
Of this catch there were shipped by the lessee company 14,9G4 mer
chantable skins.
The trapjffng of foxes last winter upon St. George Island resulted
in the taking by the natives of 438 blue-fox skins and 8 white skins.
This is an increase of 72 skins over the catch of the last preceding
year. No foxes were trapped on the island of St. Paul.
The operations of the pelagic sealers still continue to affect ad
versely the sealing industry and to threaten the practical extinction
of the seal herd. Eight vessels only were sent out as the British
Columbia fleet, their cruising in Bering Sea being confined to the
waters outside of the 60-mile zone from the Pribilofs. Thirty-seven
Japanese sailing vessels were reported as cruising during the season in
the waters adjacent to the seal islands, and tvro of these, which had
penetrated within the 3-xnile territorial limit, were discovered by the
captain of the revenue-cutter Bear with their small boats down and
actually engaged in seal poaching. These vessels, known as the
Kinsei Maru and the Saikai Maru, together with their guns and small
boats, were accordingly seized by the cutter’s commander, and their
masters and crews arrested. The latter were transported to Unga
and given a preliminary hearing, and were subsequently transferred
to Valdez for trial before the United States court. The vessels were
left at Unalaska, pending action of the court.
The fleet of revenue cutters patrolling the Bering Sea for the pro
tection of the sealing interest was increased to four for the season,
and it is lai’gely due to the activity of this fleet, in cooperation writh
the island guard, that the incursions of the lawless pelagic hunters
upon the rookeries have been held in check.
In addition to the fleet of revenue vessels the United States gunboat
Yorktown cruised in Bering Sea under orders of the Secretary of the
Navy for the protection of the seal herd.
Presentation has been made in former reports of the Department
that the humane provisions of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration for
the protection of the seal life, in prescribing a 00-mile zone from the
Pribilof Islands within which seals should not be taken on the sea,
were rendered nugatory through their restriction to vessels of Great
Britain and the United States alone. The vessels of Japan, that
nation not being bound by the Paris convention, are not restrained
from pursuing sealing upon the ocean even up to the territorial waters
75

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

of the islands. Indeed, the immune zone becomes to them the most
inviting field for hunting the seal, from the very fact that the sealing
craft of certain other nationalities are forbidden to enter it.
The rookeries extend over a space of the shore line estimated at
about 10 miles on St. Paul, the larger of our seal islands, and about
half as great on St. George. It is obvious that .the Japanese fleet of
37 schooners, carrying approximately 250 small boats, form a cordon
through which the breeding females, when driven to the open sea in
search of food, can penetrate only with the slaughter of many of
their number. On St. Paul Island instances were noted the past
season of the boats from half a dozen Japanese schooners, at a time
when fog veiled their movements, advancing abreast on a rookery
until within a short distance from shore, when their occupants opened
a fusillade with shotguns, with the effect of alarming the seals and
driving many of them into the water. The fog lifting, the boats
withdrew to a safe distance from shore, and their crews proceeded to
kill the seals which they had stampeded.
Long experience and the most painstaking investigations have
demonstrated that pelagic sealing alone is responsible for the con
tinuous diminution of the herd, and that no patrol, however
great in numbers and active in duty; no measures of conserva
tion, however wise and vigorous, can adequately avail for protection
during the continuance of such destructive practice. The GO-mile
zone of exemption prescribed by the Paris convention was long ago
found an insufficient safeguard, and since that zone has been swept
aside by the intrusion of a new foe to the seal life the swift and cer
tain extermination of this valuable animal, from the commercial
standpoint, becomes a matter of near approach.
From more than 1,000,000 breeding females, estimated before
pelagic sealing became of considerable extent, the number has become
reduced to fewer than 50,000.
Of the five nations which possess seal rookeries of importance—
Russia, Japan, Chile, Uruguay, and the United States—this country
possesses by far the largest and most valuable herd. When at its
maximum the yield of merchantable skins was 100,000 yearly. The
number of people necessarily emploj^ed in the taking of the skins of
this great herd, in handling and preparing, transporting, dressing and
dyeing, in finishing and distributing to the manufacturer and finally
to the retail merchant as a completed garment, was very great. From
the economic standpoint it accordingly becomes a question of no
small moment whether this animal shall be preserved to the world
and the herd restored to its former condition.
It is evident that the time is at hand when the negotiations so long
pending for an international arrangement for the settlement of the
seal question should be brought to a conclusion. Pelagic sealing, with
out doubt, ought to be abolished, and every effort should be made
to bring about that benign result.

COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY.
The important operations of this Bureau, one of the oldest scientific
organizations in the government service, have been extended from
time to time as the country expanded, but strictly within the sphere
originally assigned it. The acquisition of territory in Florida, on the
Gulf of Mexico, on the Pacific coast, in Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands,
the Philippines, the West Indies, and on the Isthmus has increased
the coast line under its jurisdiction more than tenfold, but so farseeing was the original plan upon which the work was based that, save
for modification of details brought about by modern advances in
science, no important changes have proved necessary, and the busi
ness methods followed are as simple and economical as they were three
quarters of a century ago.
The extension of the work of the Survey from the shores of the
thirteen original States to possessions extending from the Arctic
Cii'cle to the Tropics, and nearly halfway around the globe, together
with the growing importance of commerce, the increased size and
draft of vessels, and the great values involved, have greatly increased
the technical and administrative difficulties of the home office, and
have taxed the ingenuity of its trained officers in meeting them.
The progress made in the past year in the collection of the various
classes of data required in the preparation of navigational and mag
netic charts, sailing directions, and tide tables has been very satisfac
tory, while the marking of international boundaries, under the direc
tion of the Superintendent as United States Boundary Commissioner,
is being pushed rapidly forward. The demarcation of the one hun
dred and forty-first meridian, which forms the boundary between the
territory of Alaska and Canada, now in progress, will furnish a line of
geographic positions from Mount St. Elias to the Arctic Ocean. The
Yukon, which intersects this boundary near its middle point, is one
of the great rivers of the world, and provision should be made, with
out delay, for a triangulation down its valley from the boundary to
its mouth in order to furnish a connected line of geographic positions
as a base for local surveys which Congress has already authorized and
which the economic development of the country already demands.
Interesting details of the work of the year are given in the report
of the Superintendent.
77

BUREAU OF STANDARDS.
The Bureau of Standards has continued to encourage and make
possible uniform and exact measurements, by the improvement of
standards, measuring instruments, and methods of measurement, and
to promote the intelligent use of materials in the arts and industries
by the determination of such physical properties as are of importance
in their manufacture, distribution, or use.
During the year the services of the Bureau have been utilized by
many manufacturing industries requiring standards and measure
ments of every description, by the scientific investigators of the
principal universities, colleges, and technical schools, by weights-andmeasures officials throughout the country, by public-service commis
sions, and by all departments of the Government doing scientific
or construction work.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

The Bureau has encouraged and assisted several States in the prep
aration of regulations governing the use of weights and measures
and in the establishment of efficient methods of inspection of the
weights and measures used in local trade and of the meters used in
the distribution of public utilities. In one State a new law has been
enacted, based upon a model law recommended by the Bureau. The
Territory of New Mexico procured a set of state standards, and six
sets of secondary standards for the use of as many local sealers; these
were compared with the standards of the Bureau. This example
might well be followed by many of the States.
In addition to the inquiries received from State officials, many indi
viduals have applied for information relative to the laws and prac
tices as to weights and measures in their own and other States. The
Bureau should be provided with the means for collecting and pub
lishing this information, since it would tend to promote uniformity
in such matters throughout the country. While the inspection of
commercial weights and measures should be left in the hands of the
local authorities, there is an urgent need for national laws fixing the
standard weights and sizes of packages, barrels, crates, etc., since com
modities sold in such containers frequently are packed in one State
and sold in others.
ELECTRICITY.

In view of the meeting of the International Conference on Elec
trical Units and Standards in London, October 12-21, 1908, consider
able work has been done during the year on the improvement of the
78

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

standards of electromotive force and standards of resistance, and on
the determination of electric current in absolute measure—the practical
units in terms of which all electric current and power are measured.
In order that these units shall be the same throughout the world,
international conferences or congresses have been held from time to
time to agree upon their values. The units now in use were agreed
upon at the International Electrical Congress held in Chicago in
1893, and they were enacted into law by act of Congress approved
July 12, 1894. Subsequent investigation has shown the necessity for
changes in some of the units and a revision of their definitions, and
it is for this reason that the researches mentioned above are of
especial importance. The results of this work will be reported to
the Electrical Congress and will doubtless form an important factor
in the conclusions reached.
The Bureau has done much work during the year in the testing of
electrical instruments and standards, in the development of methods
of measurement, and in the improvement of the instruments
employed.
Several important problems involved in the measurement of the
magnetic properties of iron and steel, including the iron so ex
tensively used by manufacturers of electrical machinery, have been
investigated, and the Bureau is now in position to prepare specifica
tions for and test specimens of these materials.
HEAT AND THERMOMETRY.

The demands made upon the Bureau for the testing of heatmeasuring instruments have been far in excess of its facilities; this is
especially true of precision thermometers used in scientific labora
tories, and the instruments for measuring high temperatures—known
as pyrometers—on the indications of which depend the quality of
the product of many manufacturing industries. Such instruments
are also used in determining the melting points, specific heats, con
ductivities, and radiating power of various substances, the properties
of refractory materials, and the critical temperatures of steels and
other alloys. So great lias been the demand for the Bureau’s services
in this direction that it has been unable to make the investigations
necessary for the establishment of its own standards or to do much
work toward the determination of the heat constants, many of which
are very much needed in connection with the standardization of heat
measurements and in the use of materials. One such investigation,
however, has been nearly completed, namely, the determination of the
specific heat of calcium chloride brine, a constant used by refriger
ating engineers in calculating the capacity of refrigerating plants
and in designing refrigerating machinery. The heat value of coal,
gas, and other fuels is measured by instruments known as calorim62936—08-----6

REPOBT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

eters; the Bureau is planning to carry out an intercomparison and
investigation of such instruments and to determine the heat value
of pure substances to be used in their standardization.
Since the measurement of very high temperatures depends upon a
knowledge of the laws of radiation, several investigations have been
completed with the view to determining these laws with greater
accuracy.
PHOTOMETRY.

The photometric work of the Bureau includes the study of prob
lems in the accurate measurement of light sources and standards of
candlepower, the testing and certification of such standards, and the
inspection and testing of electric lamps purchased by the Govern
ment. The Bureau maintains the standard of candlepower for the
electrical industries of the country, thereby insuring uniformity of
electric lamps. An effort is being made to secure uniformity in the
value of the standard candle in England, France, and the United
States, by a slight modification of the units employed at present, and
to induce the gas industry of this country to adopt the modified unit,
in order that a candlepower may be the same in gas and electric
lighting. The International Photometric Conference held at Zurich
in 1907 recommended that the several national laboratories undertake
a redetermination of the Violle standards of light. The national
laboratories of England and Germany are preparing to carry on their
part of this work and it is very important that the Bureau should
cooperate with them.
SPECTROSCOPY AND POLARIMETRY.

In addition to photometry, the optical work of the Bureau in
cludes such branches of spectroscopy as refer to standards of illu
mination, color, wave length, or the optical properties of materials;
and polarimetry, which deals with measurements and methods de
pendent upon polarized light, an important application of which
may be found in the analysis of imported sugars in connection with
the collection of duties. As the authority on questions relating to
polariscopic testing, the Bureau is called upon to certify as to the
accuracy of polariscopes, quartz-control plates, and other instru
ments used in sugar analysis, as well as to provide chemically pure
sugar for standardization purposes and to maintain a testing labora
tory for sugars in which a daily check is kept on the work of the
laboratories of those custom-houses where duty on sugar is collected.
CHEMISTRY.

The importance of the work of the chemical division to that of the
various other divisions of the Bureau can not be overestimated, since
scarcely any problem arises in connection with standards or the

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

properties of materials that does not involve the services of a chem
ist. This is true to such an extent that the Bureau has never been
able to assign sufficient space or assistance to chemistry to meet even
the most urgent cases of its own work. Furthermore, the work of
this division is as closely related to the industrial and scientific in
terests of the country as is that of any of the other divisions of the
Bureau.
There is also a wide field of chemical usefulness open to the Bureau
in lines of investigation relating to the purchase of government sup
plies. The requests for assistance in the preparation of specifications
and the testing of supplies purchased by the Government have been
so numerous that the Bureau has only been able to give attention to a
few of the most urgent cases. It is earnestly hoped that facilities
will soon be provided for placing this very important branch of the
Bureau’s work upon a much larger and more effective basis, since the
investigations aiming at the improvement in the quality and in the
methods of testing the materials purchased for the Government have
hardly been begun and will consume much time if results of real
value are to be attained.
At the request of the American Foundrymen’s Association and the
Association of American Steel Manufacturers, the Bureau issues sam
ples of standardized irons and steels of known composition, which
are used to check the analyses made of these materials in connection
with their manufacture and sale. The rapidly increasing demand for
these samples on the part of industrial and commercial chemists is an
indication of their great value to the iron and steel industries.
The Bureau is also cooperating with the American Chemical
Society with respect to securing uniformity in technical analyses
and improving the quality of chemical reagents.
N E W B U IL D IN G .

The new building provided for by Congress at its last session
will afford additional space for several divisions of the Bureau’s
work, and especially for the testing of engineering instruments
and the determination of the properties of materials. This build
ing will also provide quarters for the testing machines recently
transferred from the Watertown Arsenal to the Department of Com
merce and Labor. This additional space and equipment will enable
the Bureau to determine many properties of materials which are
urgently needed in connection with their use in construction. The
work of these machines in the past has been of great service to the
engineering interests, and it is hoped that their usefulness may be
increased by associating them with the Bureau’s facilities in other
branches of physical and chemical research.

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY.
APPOINTM ENT DIVISION.

The Appointment Division was organized in February, 1901. On
July 1, 1906, it became recognized by statute. The Division recently
completed the fourth year of its existence, and at the present time is
organized and equipped for the performance of any kind of work
that may properly be assigned to it.
STATISTICS OF THE PERSONNEL.

The accompanying table shows the number of regular positions
in the service of the Department on July 1, 1908. Items of actual
decrease in the personnel during the past year are the discontinuance
of some 750 special agents in the Bureau of the Census and 127
laborers and mechanics in the Light-House Service. The principal
items of increase are in the Bureau of Labor (91) and in the Bureau
of Immigration and Naturalization (170). The increase in the
Bureau first named is occasioned entirely by the investigation now
being conducted into the condition of woman and child workers.
P o s it io n s

in t h e

D epartm ent

Com m erce
Statu
tory.

Bureau.
Office of the Secretary.....................................
Bureau of Manufactures.................................
Bureau of Corporations..................................
Bureau of Labor...............................................
Light-House Establishm ent..........................
Bureau of the Census......................................
Coast and Geodetic Survey............................
Bureau of Statistics........................................
Steamboat-Inspection Service.......................
Bureau of Fisheries..........................................
Bureau of Navigation......................................
Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization
Bureau of Standards.......................................
Total.........................................................

REMOVALS.

141
25
59
80
41
626
246
55
107
322
23
74
118
1,917

and

L a b o r , J u l y 1, 1908.

Nonstatutory.
9
45
112
5,576
748
105
145
5
53
1,362
8,162

In Dis Outside
trict of District of
Colum Coiurn- Total.
bia.
bia.
, M
137
4
141
28
6
34
104
104
182
192
47
5,570 5,617
637
737 1,374
207
144
351
57
57
9
243
252
327
78
249
53
23
t 76
79
1,357 1,436
118
118
1,716
8,363 10,079

Of 69 removals made for cause during the year, there were 15 cases
in which the Department did not require that reasons be submitted
to the employees in writing, and a reasonable time allowed for reply,
82

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

before final action was taken. In 2 of these 15 cases it was not pos
sible to communicate with the employees, but the violations of duty
were so flagrant that such action was not necessary; in 1 oral notice
was given, in 1 the dereliction was investigated before action was
taken, and in 1 the employee admitted to his chief that he deserved
dismissal. So that there were actually but 10 cases of removal for
cause where opportunity to make written answer was not given the
employee when possible to do so, and in these 10 cases the culpability
was well established and well understood by the employees and by the
Department. For instance, one was removed because he had been
found with stolen property in his possession, and another (now
serving a term of imprisonment) was removed for aiding and assist
ing the escape of an alien under order of deportation. In no case
did the Department exercise the power of removal without furnish
ing a copy of charges, etc., except where the benefit to the service
by such action was unquestioned. Of the G9 removals, at least 15 were
made upon charges of intoxication.
E F F IC IE N C Y RA TIN G S.

On July 1, 1907, the chiefs of bureaus and divisions were directed
to report the efficiency ratings of all persons who were shown by the
ratings of 190G to be below the required standard of ability either as
to the quantity or quality of work performed. These reports showed
that the effect of the warning given in January, 1907, that an imme
diate improvement was expected in their work, was most salutary.
A number of instances were reported in which there had been mate
rial improvement either as to quality or quantity, or both. There
were some cases, however, in which there was apparently no improve
ment. Several of these cases have been adjusted by discontinuance
without prejudice, reduction in salary, or by resignation. As a rule,
the persons rated below the required standard are employees of ad
vanced age who have given many years of service to the Government.
The obstacles in the way of the separation of such employees are real
and not fancied. The head of the Department, while not forgetful
of his responsibility, finds it a difficult task to direct removal,
although it is conceded that the persons are no longer rendering effi
cient service. This is not so much due to the sympathy of the
appointing officer—although it is possible that this may have some
weight-—as to the great pressure immediately brought to bear by
public and prominent men and women to prevent dismissal. This
is a condition and not a theory, and is perhaps the strongest reason
for the enactment of a law for the retirement of superannuated
employees.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.
EX ECU TIV E ORDERS A FFE C TIN G T H E PE R SO N N E L .

During the past year there were promulgated a number of execu
tive orders applying, both generally and individually, to the per
sonnel of the Department. Among the former class may be men
tioned the order amending the transfer rule so as to permit the re
instatement and immediate transfer of a person separated from the
service without inefficiency and because of necessary reduction of
force; the order authorizing the Civil Service Commission, in its
discretion, to waive examination in transfers and promotions and
to substitute other tests therefor; the order transferring to the ex
cepted class shipping commissioners whose compensation for the fiscal
year ended June 30, 1907, was $2,500 or over (this applied to the
shipping commissioners at the ports of New York, San Francisco,
Port Townsend, and Boston); the order in regard to the procedure
to be followed in recommendations for a particular method of ap
pointment; the order directing the departments to put into effect, as
far as possible, the schedule of salaries recommended by the Com
mittee on Grades and Salaries appointed under the executive order
of June 11, 1907, and the orders amending Civil-Service Rules VII
and V III, relating to temporary appointments. While it has always
been the policy of the Department to confine temporary appointments
to cases of actual necessity, the effect of the executive order last men
tioned has been beneficial in still further reducing the number of
temporary appointments, and also in reducing the work of the
Appointment Division to quite an appreciable extent. At first the
new rule threatened to work hardship on the service in certain cases,
but the interpretations given by the Civil Service Commission re-,
suited in a working construction which is in the main satisfactory.
T IIE SERVICE-RECORD SY STEM .

The service-record system in use in the Appointment Division con
sists of a complete card record of employees and positions in the
Department, arranged by bureaus and subdivided by grades and
classes. Changes in status are posted daily upon this record. The
system provides the means for prompt reply to almost every con
ceivable question relative to the status of employees or positions and
for the compilation of statistical reports and tables required by the
Department for its own use and in connection with replies to inquiries
frequently received from Congress, committees appointed by the
President, and many other sources. The system of keeping records
of the personnel, as now established and maintained, is believed to
be superior to any in use elsewhere in the government service, except,
possibly, in the departments and offices in which the card originally
introduced by this Department has been adopted.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

DISBURSING OFFICE.
APPROPRIATIONS AND DISBURSEMENTS.

The itemized statement of the disbursements from the contingent
fund of the Department of Commerce and Labor for the fiscal year
ended June 30,1908, will be transmitted to Congress in the usual form.
The following table shows the total amounts of all annual appro
priations for the various bureaus and services of the Department of
Commerce and Labor for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, of all
appropriations made for public works in the various services of the
Department, which, under the law, may be disbursed without regard
to any particular fiscal year, and of all permanent indefinite ap
propriations.
Annual ap Appropriations Permanent ;
propriations, for public indefinite ap Totals.
works.
propriations.
1908.
Office of the Secretary of Commerce and
L abor.................................................................. $251,559.80
Bureau of Corporations....................................... 247,720.00
Bureau of Manufactures......................................
86,500.00
Bureau of Labor.................................................... 322,570.00
Light-Ilouso Board..............................................
46,640.00
Light-House Establishment............................... 4,386,000.00
Light-houses; beacons, fog signals, etc.............
$3,111,840.00
Bureau of the Census........................................... 1,266,201.31
Bureau of Statistics..............................................
74,110.00
Office of Supervising Inspector-General.
Steamboat-Inspection Service......................
13,440.00
Steamboat-Inspection Service...........................
$556,64a 13
Bureau of Navigation..........................................
32,260.00
Shipping service....................................................
62,450. 25
9,100. 00
Refunding penalties or charges erroneously
exacted................................................................
5,951.36
Refunding moneys erroneously received and
covered into the Treasury..............................
310.00
Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization... 127,060.00
Enforcement of the Chinese-exclusion act....... 500,000.00
Expenses of regulating immigration.................
2,270.532. 75
Im m igrant stations a t Ellis Island, N. Y.,
New Orleans, La., Galveston, Tex., and ,
1,393,000.00
Bureau of Standards............................................ 189,112.63
Coast and Geodetic Survey................................. a 941,076. 55
Bureau of Fisheries.............................................. 663,660.00
Fish hatcheries......................................................
40,850.00
Salaries, agents at seal fisheries in Alaska.......
11,430.00
Supplies for native inhabitants, Alaska...........
19,500.00
Miscellaneous:
Judgments, United States courts...............
3L 15
Judgments, Court of Claims........................
3,239.28
Reliefs, refund of fines, etc..........................
1,865.63
Total............................................................. 9,193,679.35 4,545,690.00 2,895,887.49
« Of this amount $25,000 can lie expended without regard to fiscal year.

$251,559.80
247,720.00
86,500.00
322,570.00
46,640.00
4,886,000.00
3,111,840.00
1,266,204.31
74,110.00
13,440.00
556,64a 13
32,260.00
71,550. 25
5,951.36
310. 00
127,060.00
500,000.00
2,270,532.75
1,393,000. 00
189,112.03
941,67a 55
663,660. 00
40,85a 00
11,430.00
19,500. 00
31.15
3,239.28
1,865.63
16,635,256.84

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR

The disbursements by the disbursing clerk of the Department of
Commerce and Labor during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908,
are set forth in the following table, which shows the disbursements
for each quarter and the total amount disbursed during the fiscal
year for each appropriation from which disbursements were made.
Bureaus and titles of appropriations.

First
quarter.

Second
quarter.

Third
quarter.

Fourth
quarter.

Totals.

87,134.88
143,800.10

O F F IC E O F T H E S E C R E T A R Y .

Salaries, Office of Secretary of ComSalaries, Office of Secretary of ComContingent expenses, Department of
Contingent expenses. Departm ent of
Rent, Department of Commerce and
Rent, D epartm ent of Commerce and
Labor, 1908 ............................................
Salaries and traveling expenses of
agents at seal fisheries in Alaska,
1900..........................................................
Salaries, agents at seal fisheries in
Alaska, 1907 ..........................................
Salaries, agents a t seal fisheries in
Supplies for native inhabitants, Alask a. 1907...................................................
T o ta l..............................................

87,134,88
22,643.81
15,704.86
7,607.89
9,718. 33
5,703.28

$45,885.96
3,219.50
23,681.04

337,946.81

837,373.52

25,441.23

18,616.26

19,013.85
75,346.42
2,718.33

9,179.94

8,929.94

8,929.9-1

32,743.10

2, 750.75
2,858.34
973.33

2,750.75
3,093.34

240.00
1,551.24
19,4%. 95

1,368.75

2,893.45
11,070.25

20,308.37

17,062.74

7,800.42

223.79

20,560. 96

33,968.91

1,076.28
5,010.80

335.00
8,973.33

2,068.31

6.82

973.33
19,4%. 95
310,964.37

B U R E A U OK C O R P O R A T IO N S .

Salaries. Bureau of Corporations, 1907.
Salaries, Bureau of Corporations, 1908.
Salaries and expenses, special attorneys, exam iners, etc., Bureau of
Salaries and expenses, special attornews, exam iners, etc.. Bureau of
Corporations, 1908...............................
/
T o tal...............................................

17,572.67

2,893.45
66,014.03
8,024.21

30, 730.64

35,433.46

120,693.97
197,625.66

BUREA U O F M ANUFACTURES.

Salaries, Bureau of Manufactures,
1907..........................................................
Salaries, Bureau of Manufactures,
1908..........................................................
Salaries and expenses, special agents,
Department of Commerce and
Salaries and expenses, special agents.
Department of Commerce and La
bor, 190S.................................................
Collating tariffs of foreign countries,
1906..........................................................
Collating tariffs of foreign countries,
1907...........................................................
Collating tariffs of foreign countries.
1908..........................................................

7,501.34

7,350.00

1,411.28
28,835.47
2,075.13

1.00

1.16

.20

24.30
231.67
649.99

1,260.83

1,337.05

1,275.00

4,453.09
17,614.75

31,190.68

26,851.89

26,424.45

2.36
24.30
231.67
4,522.87
37,103.08

BUREA U O F LABOR.

Salaries. Bureau of Labor, 1907...........
Salaries, Bureau of Labor, 1908...........

4,453.09
102.081.77

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.
Bureaus and titles of appropriations.
BUREAU O F

labor

F irst
quarter.

Second
quarter.

81,001.17
8, -167.02
97.06
194.80
577.88

$1,475.50
15,573.07

Third
quarter.

Fourth
quarter.

87
Totals.

— C o n tin u e d .

Miscellaneous expenses, Bureau oi
Miscellaneous expenses, Bureau of
Library, Bureau of Labor, 1907...........
Investigatingthe condition of woman
T o ta l...............................................
S T E A M B O A T -IN S P E C T IO N

s e r v ic e

813,232.52

813,760.31

25.00
122.35
17,107.36 50,950.17
........... .......... i......................

215.32
60,147.09

85,476.67
51,033.52
97.06
557.47
128,782.50
292,4S2.08

Salaries, Office of Supervising Inspector - General, Steamboat - InSalaries, Office of Supervising Inspector - General, Steamboat - InSalaries, Steamboat-Inspection ServContingent expenses, Steamboat-InT o ta l...............................................

548.36

2,239.97
100,516.04
36,488.01

3,964.45
101,781.95
21,973.00

3,315.56
102,761.94
18,184.26

3,348.89
103,865.84
23,984.31

12,868.87

2,773.47
11,349.80
491.67

38.27
20,569.46

17,372.62

17,346.25

2,811.74
66,638.13

696.43

1,065.88

904.15

875.00

491.67
8,541.46
73,488.00

9,655.06
145.01
1,357.00

8,057.97

7,976.11

1.343.36
80,766.7 6
1,021.92

1,590.27

1,662.24

408,925.77
100,629.58
522,972.58

B U R E A U O F S T A T IS T IC S .

Salaries, Bureau of Statistics, 1907___
Salaries, Bureau of Statistics, 1908___
Collecting statistics relating to commerce, 1907............................................
Collecting statistics relating to comB U R E A U O F N A V IG A T IO N .

Salaries, Bureau of Navigation, 1907.
Salaries, Bureau of Navigation, 1908.
Contingent expenses, shipping service,1907...................................................
Contingent expenses, shipping service,1908...................................................
R ent of quarters for shipping com
missioner, San Francisco,Cal., 1907.

1,843.36
5,176.62
876.88
671.01
125.00

....................

5,280.52
125.00
38,686.56

82.33

2,074.60

L IG H T -H O U S E B O A R D ,

Salaries, Office of Light-House Board,
1907...........................•*..............................
Salaries, Ofltceof Light-House Board.
1908..........................................................
T o ta l...............................................

1,992.27
7,603.96

13,587.33

11,564.69

11,660.00

31,311.89

30,797.83

9,070.01

7,749.28

4,314.27

2,292.51

44,415.88
46. 490.48

B U R EA U O F STA N D A RD S.

Salaries. Bureau of Standards, 1907...
Salaries, Bureau of Standards, 1908...
Eq u i pmen t,1lureau of Stand a rd s, 1907.
Equipm ent,Bureau of Standards, 1908.
Equipm ent, Bureau of Standards,
1907-8.......................................................
General expenses, Bureau of Standards, 1907...............................................
General expenses, Bureau of Standards, 1908...............................................

4.774.02
20,794,61
5.131.76
3,486.05

75.00
35,887,18
417.77
6,949.23
-2,500.00

1,159.20
2,076.51 !

95.86
3,666.50 ,

4,849.02
118,791.51
5.552.53
27,254.57
2,500.00
1,255.06
12,349.79

REPORT OP THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR

Bureaus and titles of appropriations.

F irst
quarter.

Second
quarter.

Third
quarter.

Fourth
quarter.

Totals.

B U R E A U O F ST A N D A R D S— c o n t i n u e d .

Im provem ent and care of grounds,
Improvement and care of grounds,
Bureau of Standards, 1908................
T o ta l...............................................

$-192.63
611.01

$803.82

$164.42

$285.12

$492.63
1,897.37
174,942.48

B U R E A U O F IM M IG R A T IO N A N D
N A T U R A L IZ A T IO N .

Salaries, Bureau of Im migration and
Salaries, Bureau of Im m igration and
Naturalization, 1908............................
Enforcem ent of the Chinese-excluEriforcement of the Chinese-exclusion act, 1908..........................................

1,152.57

11,382.16
24,633.79
51,928.73
2,123.05
Expenses of regulating im m igration. 471,943.39
Im m igrant station, Ellis Island, N. Y. 137,706.46
Im m igrant station, Galveston, T ex ..
Im m igrant station, San Francisco,
C a l.......................................................... 21,381.32
Total ...

23,867.62

1,452.57
86,351.21

25,569.66
1,255.01

22,531.77

97,062.79
3.95
586,282.06
157,733.43

105,531.88

97,607.72

564,665.31
98,811.01

19,770.67

22,733.09

523,006.23
51,516.01
11.20
36,598.90

73,955.08
1,802.29
108,405.77

70,510.91

70,826.60

65,568.81

70,503.62

290,052.60
190.84

1,312.50
8,493.24
1,298.67

1,125.00
5,260.29
5,018.00

70.00

3,000.00
100.00
1,126.75
173. 40
20.29
62.35
550.00

708.34
2,220.06
969.30
250.25

3,895.83
27,067.37
7,545.78
250.25
3,070.00
100.00
5,060.04
555.88
151. 49
101.07
648.40
30.50
4,925.69
50.00
2,429.07
159.92
2, ISO. 67
4,004.69
7,430.16
679,962.70
5,537,922.77

25,888.80
355,131.12
2,427.00
2,145,846.99
445,766.91
11.20
100,483.98

B U R E A U O F F IS H E R IE S .

Salaries, Bureau of Fisheries, 1907—
Salaries. Bureau of Fisheries, 1908__
Miscellaneous expenses, Bureau of
Fisheries, 1907 ......................................
Miscellaneous expenses. Bureau of
Fisheries. 1908......................................
Salaries, agents at salmon fisheries
Salaries, agents at salmon fisheries
in Alaska. 1908 .....................................
Fish hatcheries, A laska........................
Fish hateherv, Baird, C a l....................
Fish hatchery. Battle Creek, C al........
Fish hatchery, Iowa.................................
Fish hatchery, Lake County, Colo........
Fish hatchery, Mammoth Spring, Ark.
Fish hatchery, Montana..........................
Fish hateherv, Neosho, Mo....................
Fish hatchery, South Dakota................

19,019.70
46,398.95
37,548.92
45,574.40
190.84
749.99
11,093.78
259.81
2,134.08
24.00
105.15
3.42

1,(537.65
189.70
26.05
2a 85

28.40
81.00

2.10
2,238.96

2,516.23

161.56
168.78
6.45
98.40
89.50
50.00
11.50

Fish, hatchery, Tupelo, Miss..................
17.57
2,400.0C
Fish hateherv, Vermont..........................
55.15
104.77
Fish hateherv, Woods Hole, Mass........
281.76
1,153.86
653.97
91.08
Fish hatchery, Wytheville, Va.............
1,564.80
2,439.89
Repairs to schooner Grampus...............
868.99
114.94
6,446.23
Total.................................................
Totals................................................ 1,263,612.96 1,554,495.46 1,401,021.36 1,318,792.99

19,019.70
261,691.54
39,351.21

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

The following statement shows the expenditures during the fiscal
year ended June 30, 1908, on account of all appropriations under the
control of the Department of Commerce and Labor, giving the total
amounts disbursed by the various disbursing officers of the Depart
ment, and miscellaneous receipts for the same period :

By tlie disbursing clerk, Department of Commerce and Labor, on
account of salaries and expenses of the Office of the Secretary
of Commerce and Labor, the bureaus of Corporations, Manu
factures, Labor, Statistics, Navigation, Immigration and Nat
uralization, Standards, and Fisheries, the Light-House Board,
the office of the Supervising Inspector-General, SteamboatInspection Service, expenses of regulating immigration, ex
penses of enforcing the Chinese-exclusion act, salaries and
expenses of Steamboat-Inspection Service at large, salaries and
expenses of agents at seal fisheries in Alaska, and public works
of the Immigration and Fisheries services (shown in detail
in foregoing table of disbursements)_______________________ $5,537,922.77
By the engineer and naval secretaries of the Light-IIouse Board,
engineers and inspectors detailed from the Army and Navy to
duty in the Light-House Establishment, and all other officers
who disbursed money for the Light-House Establishment____ 6,221,149. 08
By the disbursing clerk, Bureau of the Census, on account of
salaries and expenses of the Bureau of the Census_________ 1, 253, 094.14
By the special disbursing agent, Const and Geodetic Survey, on ac
count of salaries and expenses of the Coast and Geodetic Survey 922, 033. 20
By the special disbursing agents of the Immigration Service___
30,083.95
By the special agents of the Department investigating trade condi
tions abroad, as special disbursing agents___________________
31, 071.93
By customs officers on account of witnesses’ fees in steamboat in
vestigations ______________________________________________
008.40
2,172.19
By special disbursing agents, Fisheries Service________________
By special disbursing agent, Bureau of Corporations__________
3, 414.44
By warrants drawn on the Treasurer of the United States to
satisfy accounts settled by the Auditor for the State and other
Departments-------------------199,504.13
T otal------------------------------------------------------------------------14, 201, 714. 23
Miscellaneous receipts:
Naturalization fees (sec. 13, act June 29, 1900)__________
149,700.15
Proceeds of sale of government property__________________
4, 851.31
T otal------------------------------------------------------------------------ 154,011.40

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

DIVISION OF PRINTING.

The annual and special reports of the Department are the media
through which the public is made familiar with its activities, and
efforts to improve these publications engage its thoughtful considera
tion at all times. The Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Labor,
the Chief Clerk of the Bureau of Labor, and the Chief of the Division
of Printing constitute an advisory committee on printing and pub
lication, appointed in accordance with the executive order of January
26, 1900, and every item of printing is closely scrutinized either by
this committee or in the Division of Printing, with the result that
duplication and unnecessary printing of all kinds are avoided. Also
the bureaus are required to submit to the committee outlines of all
proposed new publications before actual compilation is begun, and
when these proposed publications are found undesirable the outlines
are rejected, and thus much waste of labor in their compilation is
prevented. Finally, there is careful editing and preparation of all
manuscripts before they are sent to the printer, with accuracy, con
ciseness, clearness, and economy as the aims in view.
The efforts of the committee to curtail and systematize the publi
cation work of the Department have borne much good fruit, and it
is but rarely that a bureau now makes a request for printing that
is not necessary for the proper conduct of the public business or
for imparting useful information to the public. The success of the
Department along these lines is a source of much satisfaction, and
it is gratifying to note that though its sphere of work is being con
stantly broadened the printing bills of the Department are kept
within reasonable bounds.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908, the Department was
allotted $500,000 for printing and binding, and of this sum $125,000
was for the Bureau of the Census, which renders a separate account
ing of its expenditures. Of the $375,000 remaining for printing andbinding for the other offices, bureaus, and services of the Department,
$342,972.31 was expended and $32,027.69 was covered back into the
Treasury. As compared with like expenditures for the fiscal year
1907, namely, $332,185.05, the past year’s expenditures represent an
increase of $10,787.26 in the total cost of printing for the Department.
Considering the natural growth of the Department, and the fact
that the cost of much of the printing for the fiscal year 1908 was
based upon scales of charges in excess of those for work in previous
years, this slight increase indicates that the printing bills have been
held to the lowest level.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.

BUILDING FOR THE DEPARTMENT.

The situation in regard to overcrowding of buildings occupied by
the Department has changed very little during the past year. The
last session of Congress appropriated an additional sum for rent of
buildings, and in pursuance of this appropriation quarters have been
rented in the Adams Building for the Bureau of Manufactures, and
this Bureau has been moved thereto from the quarters it formerly
occupied in the building of the Bureau of the Census. Additional
room has been procured for the Division of Naturalization, and tem
porary quarters have been rented for the large force of employees
engaged upon the compilation of the special report on woman and
child labor. The Disbursing Clerk, under the direction of the Secre
tary, has been negotiating for quarters to relieve the congestion in
other offices, and to allow of a partial concentration of bureaus, but
thus far it has been found impossible to make any suitable arrange
ments with the funds available.
The public buildings act of the last session of Congress authorized
and directed the Secretary of the Treasury to acquire the whole of
squares 220, 227, 228, 229, and 230, in the city of Washington, as a
site for buildings for the Departments of State, Justice, and Com
merce and Labor, and appropriated $2,500,000 for this purpose. This
act, however, made no appropriation for the drawing of plans or
the erection of buildings on the site mentioned. The speedy erection
of buildings on this site should receive the attention of Congress at
the coming session, in order that commodious quarters may be pro
vided at the earliest possible moment to relieve the overcrowding of
present quarters.
CONCLUSION.

In conclusion, I desire to record my high appreciation of the faith
ful and efficient services of the officials and employees of the Depart
ment, and of their conscientious devotion to the duties assigned to
them. The Department probably contains more dilfercnt branches
of work than are comprised in any other Department of the Gov
ernment, As stated in the beginning of this report, the difficulties
arising from the diversity of work under the immediate supervision
of the chiefs of the respective bureaus have been largely overcome by
the periodical meetings in my office of the several chiefs, for the pur
pose of better coordinating the work of the Department as a whole.
O scar S. S traus ,

Secretary.

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Full text of Annual Report of the Secretary of Commerce : Sixth Annual Report of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 1908 : Sixth Annual Report of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor

FRASER