One position of assistant agent and those of warden and deputy warden, in the Bureau of Fisheries, were created by the sundry civil act of March 4, 1911, effective July 1. When the annual estimates were submitted to Congress, it was the intention of the Department that these positions should be treated as classified, although possibly in some instances excepted from examination, but on June 1, 1911, the Attorney General expressed the opinion that, as there was no provision of law to the contrary, appointment to the positions was vested in the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

To classify the positions referred to would require an act of Congress bestowing upon the Secretary the power of appointment, and this may be conveniently accomplished by the incorporation of suitable language in the next appropriation act.

ALLEGED POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

Under Rule I, section 1, of the Civil-Service Rules, employees are prohibited from using their official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with elections or affecting the results thereof, and from taking an active part in the management of political campaigns. They may, however, vote as they please and express privately their opinion on political subjects. Although a great deal of literature on the subject has been distributed among employees by the Department and the Civil Service Commission, it is but natural that in a great Department having thousands of employees in all sections of the country there should be some few who are unaware of the existence of this rule or perhaps unfamiliar or careless with its interpretation. During the last fiscal year only 10 cases of alleged political activity on the part of its employees were brought to the Department's attention. In 2 cases the charges were not proved; in 2 the employees were warned; while in the remaining 6 cases the employees concerned resigned from the Federal positions they were holding or from the political associations of which they were members.

DESIGNATIONS OF OFFICIALS TO ACT AS CHIEFS OF BUREAUS.

It was found during the past year that section 178 of the Revised Statutes, which designates the officer who shall act in the absence of the chief of a bureau or service whose appointment is vested in the President, could not be applied to certain bureaus in the Department. Under the terms of this statute, during the absence of the chief "the assistant or deputy of such chief or of such officer, or if there be none, then the chief clerk of such bureau," is authorized to perform his duties. Thus, no provision is made to cover bureaus where there are neither deputies nor chief clerks, such as, for instance, the Bureau of Standards and the offices of the different districts of the Steamboat-Inspection Service, and bureaus from which, although there may be a chief clerk,

the chief and his assistant are absent at the same time, as has occasionally happened.

To remedy this condition Congress, at the Department's request, incorporated a clause in the last legislative, executive, and judical appropriation act authorizing the Secretary to designate some employee to act as chief of bureau in any case where this action. was thought to be necessary.

DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS.

VOLUME AND COST OF PRINTING.

There was allotted to the Department (exclusive of the Bureau of the Census) for printing and binding for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, the sum of $375,000, and for the publication of the World Trade Directory, prepared by the Bureau of Manufactures, a further allotment of $6,500 was made, making the total amount available $381,500. Of the regular allotment, $370,030.22 was expended, leaving a balance of $4,969.78 to be covered into the Treasury. The total amount appropriated for printing the World Trade Directory ($6,500) was consumed in printing the work, the Department paying also out of its general allotment $840.45 for 100 bound copies and 50 press proofs printed on one side for office use for the Bureau of Manufactures. The increase in expenditures for the regular work of the Department, as compared with the fiscal year 1910, was $8,499.79, or 2.35 per cent.

The following table shows the quantity, and cost of each class of work ordered from the Public Printer during the fiscal years 1909, 1910, and 1911:

An examination of the above figures will show that there was an increase in the quantity ordered of each of the classes of work with the exception of memorandum sheets printed, blank books made, and miscellaneous books bound for library purposes. Of blank forms there was an increase in the number printed of nearly 2,750,000, or 28.40 per cent; of reports and pamphlets, an increase of about 2,160,000, or 69.16 per cent; of letterheads, 197,500, or 9.60 per cent; of envelopes, 12,700, or 14.81 per cent; of circulars and decisions, 19,750, or 5.63 per cent; of index cards, 650,500, or 65.44 per cent; and of guide cards and vertical folders, 197,000, or 46.18 per cent. The increase in the number of reports and pamphlets printed in 1911 over 1910 is due principally to the act of June 25, 1910, which authorized the edition of the Daily Consular and Trade Reports to be increased from 10,000 to not exceeding 20,000 copies. More than 4,000,000 copies of this publication alone were printed and distributed during the past year. The increase in the number of blank forms printed is due largely to the substitution of loose forms and cards for blank record books in the SteamboatInspection Service and to the use of card forms for reporting immigration statistics.

The statement presented below gives the expenditures for printing and binding for each bureau, office, and service (except the Bureau of the Census) for the fiscal years 1909, 1910, and 1911, and the increase or decrease in 1911 as compared with 1910:

1 Of this amount, $1,337.43 was for supplies furnished to the Bureau of the Census, which reimbursed the Department's allotment to that extent.

* Cost of work for Division of Naturalization carried under the Naturalization Service account.

DISTRIBUTION OF PRINTED SUPPLIES.

During the past year there were received and filled 11,918 requisitions from the various outside services of the Department calling for 8,821,689 blank forms, as compared with 5,860,337 in 1910 (an increase of 2,961,352, or 50.53 per cent), and 343,867 books and pamphlets, as compared with 269,418 in 1910 (an increase of 74,449, or 27.67 per cent). There were also received and filled during the year 709 requisitions for printed stationery, 380 of which were from offices and bureaus of the Department in Washington and 329 from the outside services. These requisitions called for 7,166,650 envelopes, 2,254,000 letterheads, 3,299,800 memorandum sheets, 8,100 stenographers' notebooks, 5,307 blank books, 970,800 index cards, . 175,550 guide cards, 158,250 vertical folders, 131,503 blank forms, and 27,500 embossed envelopes.

PUBLICATION WORK.

During 1911 the Department, exclusive of the Bureau of the Census, issued 795 publications, against 798 in the fiscal year 1910. Twentyseven of these, against 28 in 1910, were printed in two or more editions, while a still larger number were reprints of issues of earlier years. These publications contain a total of 47,534 printed pages, as compared with 42,125 in 1910, and there were issued of them a grand total of 5,241,612 copies, against 3,363,323 in the preceding year.

The following table affords a comparative summary of the publication work of each bureau for the past two years:

The attention of the Division of Publications has, for the past two years, been directed largely toward the centralization within it of the work incident to the distribution of the publications issued by the

several bureaus and offices of the Department, as required by section 92 of the act of January 12, 1895. This has been done gradually, only one bureau at a time being considered, until there remain only the Bureau of t..e Census and the Bureau of Standards which distribute their own publications; and arrangements are now being made for commencing at an early date the distribution by this Division of the publications of the latter. During the past year the mailing lists and reserve publications of the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries have been taken over in their entirety.

Greater haste has not been made in this work of centralization because of the desire to perfect the working organization as far as possible while it is being built up, and because it is important that the distribution of the publications of any bureau be not suspended or interfered with, even for a hort time. There are many details in connection with each transfer the correct conduct of which requires the exercise of care in order that he main purposes of centralization-economy and efficiency-may best be subserved. This work falls altogether on the regular force engaged in the distribution work and must be don at times when work already in hand may not suffer.

The large increase in the number of publications issued by the Department increases of course the labor in connection with the mailing and distribution of them. For instance, a year ago only about 12,000 publications were being mailed each day from the Division, whereas at the present time the number is about 19,000. Thus the work in connection with the distribution has within a year increased nearly 60 per cent.

There has been installed in the Division of Publications a consolidated mailing list of all publications sent out by the Division. By consulting this list, or index, as it may properly be called, it can be ascertained in a moment just how many and what publications any individual receives. In compiling this index numerous duplications of names on mailing lists were detected, and a large number of inaccuracies in both names and addresses were discovered and corrected. It was also found that some of the publications were being sent in large quantities to individuals for distribution. This was believed to be a source of waste, and was brought to the attention of the heads of the bureaus involved, with the result that the practice was stopped.

This index serves a number of useful purposes, not the least of which is its use as a guide when a request for a change in address is made. The great majority of these merely request the Department to change a certain address on its mailing lists. There are 78 such lists, and it was formerly necessary to examine each of these to see if the name of the individual appeared thereon. By consulting the