compulsory, and the conditions of woman and child labor. In 1869 Congress passed a law fixing an eighthour day for all workmen in the employ of the United States.

Just as the Bureau of Labor is concerned with the economic welfare of the laborer, so the Bureau of Manufactures seeks to promote the commercial interest of manufacturers. It was provided for by the act of 1903, but was not organized until 1905. It is engaged in classifying the vast amount of commercial information relating to foreign countries supplied by our consuls. Thus the Consular Service, which belongs to the Department of State, is really an adjunct to the Bureau of Manufactures. It deals with commercial affairs in foreign lands, but has nothing to do with political matters, which is the province of the Diplomatic Service. The information supplied by the Consular Service is the means of opening new markets for American commerce and is given to the public in the form of the Consular and Trade Reports. The International Commercial Directory, containing the names of buyers of goods in foreign countries, is one of the achievements of this Bureau.

The Bureau of Fisheries represents a very interesting phase of the activity of this Department and stimulates a highly profitable form of commerce and labor. It annually distributes over 3,000,000,000 eggs and fish. The conservation of oysters, sponges,

lobsters, terrapin, clams and seaweed is being provided for.

It

An altogether uncommercial function is that of the Lighthouse Board, which has charge of the construction and maintenance of lighthouses on the coasts of the United States. was first organized in 1789, but its present establishment dates from the law of 1852. It was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to that of Commerce and Labor in 1903. Its duties include the construction and maintenance of light vessels, lighthouse depots, beacons, fog signals, buoys, and everything pertaining to the lighthouse establishment.

The Bureau of Navigation, as its name clearly indicates, has general supervision of the merchant marine and merchant seaman of the United States; yet, strangely enough, it remained as division of the Treasury Department up to 1884. It has general charge of the registration, enrolment and licensing of vessels, and reports on the operation of all laws relating to navigation.

The Steamboat Inspection Service was founded in 1839, reorganized in 1852, and transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903. Its duty, as its name implies, is to inspect all steam vessels of the United States and those clearing from American ports. It has charge of the general administration of the laws relating to vessels and their officers.

The Coast and Geodetic Survey

dates from 1870, but its methodical organization came in 1832, and its present name in 1878. It was added to the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903. It is charged with the survey of the coasts of the United States and rivers to head of tidewater, or ship navigation, deep sea soundings, researches as to ocean currents, magnetic observations, determination. of latitude, longitude and azimuth of geographical positions, and reference points for State surveys. The publications of the survey comprise charts of coast and harbors, advance tide tables, sailing directions in all navigable waters, etc.

The Act of June 1910 created a special court, known as the United States Commerce Court, which was given jurisdiction of all suits brought to enforce the orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The first session of this court was held on February 15, 1911, and since then no decision has been rendered by the various circuit courts.

The Post-Office.

The Post-Office is a most important adjunct to the commerce of the country and is the largest institution of its kind in the world. It requires 300,000 employés to handle its enormous business, consisting of 15,000,000,000 pieces of mail matter a year. Its growth has been phenomenal. In 1837 the average citizen spent 32 cents a year in postage, whereas he now spends $2.30. The receipts vary from

$5 a year at the smallest post-office to $25,000,000 a year at the largest.

The railway postal service has 18,000 employés, and its work is the most vital part of the system. The transportation of mails on railways costs $50,000,000 a year and the pay of the clerks amounts to $20,000,000 more. The rural free delivery service costs about $44,000,000 a year, yet does not produce one-fourth of this in revenue. The Government mail, which is carried free, amounts to 50,000,000 pounds annually. The dead-letter office handles yearly 12,000,000 letters and 8,000,000 postals. The most recent innovation in the postal service is the creation of a postal-savings system. Deposits were first accepted on January 3, 1911, in 48 post offices. An agitation for a parcels post recently resulted in the extension of the postal service to carry parcels of the maximum weight of 11 pounds at the rate of 12 cents per pound.

The Patent Office.

Though not such a universal necessity as the Post-Office, the patent office, by its encouragement of American ingenuity, has done as much as, if not more than, any other agency of the Government to make the United States the richest and most powerful nation in the world. Over 36,000 patents for new inventions is the present yearly record. During the last 40 years inventions in the field of electricity alone have created an industry in which the total capital invested is

$7,000,000,000, employing hundreds of thousands of workmen, with annual salaries aggregating $350,000,000. Of the 3,000,000 patents issued throughout the world since the institution of such systems, about 1,000,000 have been issued in the United States.

The Department of the Interior. This department is composed of several unrelated bureaus, chief of which is the General Land Office. With a territory to dispose of consisting in all of 1,835,000,000 acres, it has granted or sold to the people of the United States 1,135,000,000 acres. A large proportion of the public lands

has been distributed free in homesteads of 160 acres each. Congress has recently passed a law permitting farmers to settle upon coal lands, while reserving the underlying coal deposits, and in this way crops can be raised pending the exploiting of the coal itself. Thus millions of acres of fertile land have been made available for husbandry.*

The Pension Office is another bu reau of the Interior Department. The total number of pensioners on the pension roll at the beginning of 1912 was 900,000. The survivors of the Civil War number over 500,000. The names cancelled by death number 30,000 per annum. The annual payment of pensions for 1911 amounted to $158,000,000, the average pension being $171.90. The total amount paid. out for pensions up to the beginning

* See chapter on Land System, ante.

of the fiscal year in 1911 was $4,000,000,000.

The Reclamation Service of the In

terior terior Department, which is concerned with the irrigation of desert regions in the Western States, is calculated to add enormously to the wealth and commerce of the country. An act of Congress in 1902 set apart all funds received from the sale of

public lands in certain States and Territories, which resulted in an aggregate of $68,000,000. This amount, with other funds appropriated by Congress, has been used in constructing irrigation works, each settler obtaining 40 acres as a homestead. Over 11,000 acres have been thus reclaimed from the desert. from the desert. The cost of con

struction is repaid to the Government by the settlers in small annual payments. In some cases the settlers pay for water rights in labor on ditches, flumes, and canals used in irrigation. The yield in crops on irrigated land far exceeds that of lands not irrigated.*

The Treasury Department.

The Treasury Department exercises a most potent influence on the commerce of the country. Among the duties of the Secretary of the Treasury are the preparation of the annual budget, looking after the collection of the revenues, and supervising all the fiscal operations of the Government. He is assisted by three assistant secre

* See chapter VII. (“Internal Improvements") and VIII. ("Conservation of Natural Resources"), ff.

taries; several auditors for the different executive departments; the treasurer, who has charge of the receipt and disbursement of money; a comptroller of the currency, who oversees the National banks; a comptroller of the treasury, who supervises all accounts in dispute; a director of the mint, which coins specie of gold, silver, nickel, and copper; a superintendent of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which prints paper money and postage stamps and protects people from counterfeiters; and a commissioner of internal revenue, who collects the excise taxes on distilled spirits, fermented liquors and tobacco. During the Civil War Congress issued $450,000,000 in Treasury notes known as "greenbacks." They became worth so much less than gold that they drove coin out of circulation and remained below par until Congress redeemed them in gold on January 1, 1879. The Supreme Court having decided that Congress could issue paper money in times of peace as well as of war, the Treasury notes of 1890 paid out for silver bullion purchased under the Sherman Act of that year are legal tender. The Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to purchase 4,500,000 ounces of silver monthly, paying for it in legal tender paper. The law was repealed during the panic of 1893. Gold and silver certificates are being constantly issued in place of gold and silver coins, the paper being much more convenient to handle. A good part of our business

is done by means of paper money issued by banks chartered under National law. The currency law passed in March of 1900 transformed the whole monetary system of the country. The gold dollar was made the standard of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the Government reached a parity with gold. The Treasury notes of 1890 were to be retired as soon as possible, their place in circulation being taken by new silver coins or new silver certificates. Greenbacks paid into the Treasury were not to be reissued save for gold, and for the redemption of greenbacks a gold reserve of $150,000,000 was to be maintained. New regulations regarding the denomination of the different kinds of paper money and bank notes to be issued were enacted, so that no gold certificates for less than $20 or silver certificates for more than $10 would be issued. The act included other salutary monetary reforms, reducing the monetary laws to some

order.*

Tariff Legislation.

Perhaps the most important way in which the Government regulates our commerce and industry is through tariff legislation. The excessive war tariffs necessary for raising revenues to prosecute the war had educated the people to the cause of high protection. It was necessary indeed to continue to saddle the Nation with high

* See chapters XI. and XII., ante, on Banking, Currency, and Finance, and the index under these titles.

To

taxation of both imports and domestic products to provide for a financial indebtedness of $2,800,000,000 as the aftermath of the titanic conflict. adjust a tariff to the exigencies of the situation was a serious task. Prices were 90 per cent higher than before the war, while wages were only 60 per cent higher. Though the duties on imports were supposed to balance internal taxation equitably, the greatest inequalities existed. The tariff in many cases fell below the taxes, while in others the taxes greatly exceeded the tariff. The manufacturers clamored for more protection, and Congress, following to the line of least resistance, abolished those taxes that bore most heavily on the productive resources of the country. The most important acts for reducing the internal revenue of the country were those enacted in July of 1866, March of 1867, July of 1870, and June of 1872. The reduction of the war tariff was a different kind of proposition. Many industries had been established and others greatly extended under the influence of the war tariffs, and the projectors of these industries claimed. they would be ruined by any change. Thus extreme protection, which was looked upon only as a temporary expedient during war times, came to be regarded as a permanent institution.

Mr. Wells' tariff bill of 1867, which proposed to reduce the duty on raw materials and which either maintained the duties on manufactured goods without charge or only slightly low

ered them so as to deprive them of their pernicious effect, was passed by the Senate but did not obtain the necessary two-thirds majority in the House. On the other hand, at the demand of the wool growers, Mr. Hayes in 1867 introduced a wool bill providing a duty that would prohibit imports, and, by dint of personal influence, secured a tariff of 50 cents a pound, and 35 per cent. ad valorem on wool.*

The success of the wool bill led the Lake Superior copper interests to demand protection for copper, and, by virtue of a strongly organized lobby they secured the passage of a bill in February of 1869 that put a duty of 25 cents a pound on copper ore. This, however, was vetoed by the President. The increased cost of copper put an end to the copper bottoming and repairing of wooden ships, just as the high tariff on iron and lumber was putting an end to iron shipbuilding. The act of 1870 reduced the duty on pig iron, brandy, sugar and spices, 333 per cent, and those on tea and coffee 40 per cent. The inspiration of the bill was the demand for 66 a free breakfast table." The Dawes bill of 1872 was another compromise between political and commercial pressure and allowed a reduction of 10 per cent. on articles made of cotton, wool, iron, paper, glass and leather, and a reduction on lumber, coal, salt, and several

* For the legislative history of these bills see previous pages of this History and the Index under "Tariff."