The Congressional Record clerk has charge of the Congressional Record at the Capitol, and acts as the Public Printer's representative in furnishing information and estimates to Senators, Representatives, and Delegates.

The superintendent of work has direct charge of all the manufacturing divisions of the office.

The foreman of printing and assistant superintendent of work has immediate charge of the composing and foundry sections and branch printing offices. He also assists the superintendent of work in the supervision of the manufacturing divisions. The superintendent of documents has general supervision over the distribution of all public documents except those printed for the use of the two Houses of Congress and for the executive departments. He is required to prepare a comprehensive index of public documents and a consolidated index of congressional documents, and is authorized to sell at cost any public document in his charge the distribution of which is not specifically directed.

ALASKAN ENGINEERING COMMISSION.

The Alaskan Engineering Commission was created under the act of March 12, 1914, which empowered, authorized, and directed the President to locate, construct, operate, or lease a railroad, or railroads, to connect the interior of Alaska with one or more of the open navigable ports on the coast. Authority was also granted to purchase existing railroads, to construct, maintain, and operate telegraph and telephone lines, and to make reservations of public lands in Alaska necessary for the purposes of the railroad.

For the execution of this work a commission of three engineers was appointed by the President to make the necessary surveys. They were directed to report to the Secretary of the Interior, under whom the President has placed the general administration of the work.

UNITED STATES BOARD OF MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION.

(Created by act of Congress approved July 15, 1913.)

The purpose for which the Board of Mediation and Conciliation was established is to settle by mediation, conciliation, and arbitration controversies concerning wages, hours of labor, or conditions of employment that may arise between common carriers engaged in interstate transportation and their employees engaged in train operation or train service.

In any case where an interruption of traffic is imminent and fraught with serious detriment to the public interest, the Board of Mediation and Conciliation may, if in its judgment such action seem desirable, proffer its services to the respective parties to the controversy.

Whenever a controversy concerning wages, hours of labor, or conditions of employment arises between such railroads and such employees, interrupting or threatening to interrupt the operation of trains to the serious detriment of the public interest, upon the request of either party the Board of Mediation is required to use its best efforts, by mediation and conciliation, to bring about an agreement. If such efforts to bring about an amicable adjustment through mediation and conciliation are unsuccessful, the board endeavors to induce the parties to submit their controversy to arbitration, and, if successful, makes the necessary arrangements for such arbitration. The board is an independent office, not connected with any department.

GENERAL SUPPLY COMMITTEE.

The General Supply Committee was created by the act of June 17, 1910 (36 Stat., 531), in lieu of the Board of Awards provided for in section 3709 of the Revised Statutes as amended, and is composed of officers, one from each of the executive departments, designated by the head thereof. The Superintendent of Supplies, who is appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, is ex officio secretary of the General Supply Committee, and he conducts all correspondence, supervises the preparation of all contracts, and performs such other duties as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct. It is the duty of the General Supply Committee to make an annual schedule of required miscellaneous supplies for the use of each of the executive departments and other Government establishments in Washington, to standardize such supplies, eliminating all unnecessary grades and varieties, and to solicit bids based upon formulas and specifications drawn up by such experts in the service of the Govern

ment as the committee may see fit to call upon, who shall render whatever assistance they may require, provided that the articles intended to be purchased in this manner shall be those in common use by or suitable to the ordinary needs of two or more such departments or establishments. Every purchase or drawing of such supplies from the contractor is immediately reported to said committee. No disbursing officer may be a member of the committee.

BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

The Board of Indian Commissioners, created in 1869, is a body of unpaid citizens, appointed by the President, who maintain an office in Washington, for the expenses of which and of travel Congress appropriates. The board is not a bureau or division of any department, but is purposely kept reasonably independent and afforded opportunities for investigation in order that it may freely express an intelligent and impartial opinion concerning Indian legislation and administration. Its legal duties are to visit and inspect branches of the Indian Service, to cooperate with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the purchase and inspection of Indian supplies, and to report to the Secretary of the Interior, to whom and to the President the board acts in an advisory capacity, with respect to plans of civilizing or dealing with the Indians.

THE INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION.

The International Joint Commission was created by treaty with Great Britain, and has jurisdiction over all cases involving the use or obstruction or diversion of waters forming the international boundary or crossing the boundary between the United States and Canada. In addition, under Article IX of the treaty, any questions or matters of difference arising between the high contracting parties involving the rights, obligations, or interests of the United States or of the Dominion of Canada, either in relation to each other or to their respective inhabitants, may be referred to the commission for report thereon, by either Government or by the joint action of the two Governments. Under Article X of the treaty similar matters of difference between the two Governments may be referred to the commission for determination by the joint action of the two Governments.

COMMISSION FOR EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF WATERS OF THE RIO GRANDE.

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This commission was authorized by the protocol of May 6, 1896, between Mexico and the United States, and their treaty of 1848, article 21 (reaffirmed in 1853, article 7; 1884, article 5, and 1889, article 8), authorizing the appointment of 'commissioners to settle "any disagreement" or differences" between the two countries. It is commonly called "Commission for the Equitable Distribution of the Waters of the Rio Grande"-the boundary for about 1,300 miles between these two nations. Its chief functions are to study the questions in connection with the distribution of the waters of the Rio Grande," for the purpose of devising the best mode of controlling and conserving the waters of the Rio Grande, and for the making of a treaty on the subject between the two Republics, and in the meantime to measure and equitably divide the waters of and in the Rio Grande between the two countries, to lessen or avoid international complications and local dissensions between Mexico and the United States and the people thereof. (See Diplomatic and Consular appropriation act approved June 30, 1914.)

INTERNATIONAL (CANADIAN) BOUNDARY COMMISSIONS.

For defining and marking boundary between United States and Canada, except on Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. For marking and surveying boundary between Alaska and Canada.

These commissions were authorized by conventions or treaties between the United States and Great Britain, as follows:

1. Southeastern Alaska, or the boundary between Alaska and British Columbia. Length, 862 miles.

Article VI of the convention between the United States and Great Britain, providing for the settlement of questions between the two countries with respect to the

boundary line between the Territory of Alaska and the British Possessions in North America, signed at Washington January 24, 1903, stipulated that when the high contracting parties shall have received the decision of the tribunal upon the questions submitted as provided in the foregoing articles, which decision shall be final and binding upon all parties, they will at once appoint, each on its own behalf, one or more scientific experts, who shall with all convenient speed proceed to lay down the boundary line in conformity with such decision.

2. The boundary between Alaska and Canada, along the one hundred and fortyfirst meridian. Length, 625 miles.

The convention between the United States and Great Britain providing for the surveying and marking out upon the ground of the one hundred and forty-first degree of west longitude where said meridian forms the boundary line between Alaska and the British Possessions in North America, signed at Washington April 21, 1906, stipulated that each Government shall appoint one commissioner, with whom may be associated such surveyors, astronomers, and other assistants as each Government may elect, who shall locate the boundary line, erect the necessary boundary marks, make the necessary surveys, and file duplicate records with their respective Governments. 3. The United States and Canada boundary from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, with the exception of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes. Length, 2,647 miles. Articles I, II, III, V, VI, VII, and VIII of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain, entitled "Canadian International Boundary," signed at Washington April 11, 1908, stipulated that each of the high contracting parties shall appoint without delay an expert geographer or surveyor as commissioner, and the commissioner so appointed shall jointly execute the necessary surveys, repair existing boundary marks, erect additional boundary marks, and lay down the boundary line in accordance with the existing treaties upon quadruplicate sets of accurate modern charts, prepared or adopted by them for that purpose, and that said charts so marked shall be filed with each Government, and said commissioners shall also prepare, in duplicate, and file with each Government a joint report or reports, describing in detail the course of the boundary so marked by them, and the character and location of the several monuments and boundary marks and ranges marking it.

UNITED STATES GEOGRAPHIC BOARD.

By Executive order of August 10, 1906, the official title of the United States Board on Geographic Names was changed to United States Geographic Board and its duties enlarged.

The board passes on all unsettled questions concerning geographic names which arise in the departments, as well as determining, changing, and fixing place names within the United States and its insular possessions, and all names hereafter suggested by any officer of the Government shall be referred to the board before publication. The decisions of the board are to be accepted by all the departments of the Government as standard authority.

Advisory powers were granted the board concerning the preparation of maps compiled, or to be compiled, in the various offices and bureaus of the Government, with a special view to the avoidance of unnecessary duplications of work; and for the unification and improvement of the scales of maps, of the symbols and conventions used upon them, and of the methods of representing relief. Hereafter all such projects as are of importance shall be submitted to this board for advice before being undertaken.

COURT OF CLAIMS OF THE UNITED STATES.

This court was established by act of Congress February 24, 1855 (10 Stat. L., 612). It has general jurisdiction of all "claims founded upon the Constitution of the United States or any law of Congress, except for pensions, or upon any regulations of an executive department, or upon any contract, express or implied, with the Government of the United States, or for damages, liquidated or unliquidated, in cases not sounding in tort, in respect of which claims the party would be entitled to redress against the United States, either in a court of law, equity, or admiralty, if the United States were suable, except claims growing out of the late Civil War and commonly known as war claims," and certain rejected claims.

It has jurisdiction also of claims of like character which may be referred to it by any executive department, involving disputed facts or controverted questions of law, where the amount in controversy exceeds $3,000, or where the decision will affect a

class of cases or furnish a precedent for the future action of any executive department in the adjustment of a class of cases, or where any authority, right, privilege, or exemption is claimed or denied under the Constitution. In all the above-mentioned cases the court, when it finds for the claimant, may enter judgment against the United States, payable out of the Public Treasury. An appeal, only upon questions of law, lies to the Supreme Court on the part of the defendants in all cases, and on the part of the claimants when the amount in controversy exceeds $3,000. The findings of fact by the Court of Claims are final and not subject to review by the Supreme Court.

There is a statute of limitations which prevents parties from bringing actions on their own motion beyond six years after the cause of action accrued, but the departments may refer claims at any time if they were pending therein within the six years.

By section 151, Judicial Code (36 Stat. L., 1135), whenever any bill, except for a pension, is pending in either House of Congress providing for the payment of a claim against the United States, legal or equitable, or for a grant, gift, or bounty to any person, the House in which such bill is pending may, for the investigation and determination of facts, refer the same to the Court of Claims, which shall proceed with the same in accordance with such rules as it may adopt and report to such House the facts in the case and the amount, where the same can be liquidated, including any facts bearing upon the question whether there has been delay or laches in presenting such claim or applying for such grant, gift, or bounty, and any facts bearing upon the question whether the bar of any statute of limitation should be removed or which shall be claimed to excuse the claimant for not having resorted to any established legal remedy, together with such conclusions as shall be sufficient to inform Congress of the nature and character of the demand, either as a claim, legal or equitable, or as a gratuity against the United States, and the amount, if any, legally or equitably due from the United States to the claimant: Provided, however, That if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the court upon the facts established that, under existing laws or the provisions of this chapter, the subject matter of the bill is such that it has jurisdiction to render judgment or decree thereon, it shall proceed to do so, giving to either party such further opportunity for hearing as in its judgment justice shall require, and it shall report its proceedings therein to the House of Congress by which the same was referred to said court.

Section 5, act of March 4, 1915 (38 Stat., 996), provides: That from and after the passage and approval of this act the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims shall not extend to or include any claim against the United States based upon or growing out of the destruction of any property or damage done to any property by the military or naval forces of the United States during the war for the suppression of the rebellion, nor to any claim for stores and supplies taken by or furnished to or for the use of the military or naval forces of the United States, nor to any claim for the value of any use and occupation of any real estate by the military or naval forces of the United States during said war; nor shall said Court of Claims have jurisdiction of any claim which is now barred by the provisions of any law of the United States.

By act of March 3, 1891, chapter 538 (26 Stat. L., 851, and Supplement to R. S., 2d ed., p. 913), the court is vested with jurisdiction of certain Indian depredation claims.

The act of June 25, 1910, chapter 423 (36 Stat. L., 851-852), "An act to provide additional protection for owners of patents of the United States, and for other purposes," conferred a new jurisdiction.

There are five judges, who sit together in the hearing of cases, the concurrence of three of whom is necessary for the decision of any case.

The court is located at Washington. D. C., in the old Corcoran Art Building, Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. The term begins on the first Monday in December each year and continues until the Saturday before the first Monday in December. Cases may be commenced and entered at any time, whether the court be in session or not.

JUDICIARY.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

(In Capitol Building. Phones, marshal's office, Main 1; clerk's office, Main 3476.)

EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE, Chief Justice of the United States, was born in the parish of Lafourche, La., in November, 1845; was educated at Mount St. Mary's, near Emmitsburg, Md., at the Jesuit College in New Orleans, and at Georgetown (D. C.) College; served in the Confederate Army; was licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court of Louisiana in December, 1868; elected State senator in 1874; was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana in 1878; was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat, to succeed James B. Eustis, and took his seat March 4, 1891; while serving his term as Senator from Louisiana was appointed, February 19, 1894, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and took his seat March 12, 1894. Appointed by President Taft December 12, 1910, Chief Justice of the United States, and took the oath of office December 19, 1910.

JOSEPH MCKENNA, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., August 10, 1843; attended St. Joseph's College of his native city until 1855, when he removed with his parents to Benicia, Cal., where he continued his education at the public schools and the Collegiate Institute, at which he studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1865; was twice elected district attorney for Solano County, beginning in March, 1866; served in the lower house of the legis lature in the sessions of 1875 and 1876; was elected to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, and Fifty-second Congresses; resigned from the last-named Congress to accept the position of United States circuit judge, to which he was appointed by President Harrison in 1893; resigned that office to accept the place of Attorney General of the United States in the Cabinet of President McKinley; was appointed, December 16, 1897, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed Justice Field, retired, and took his seat January 26, 1898.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, of Boston, Mass., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in Boston, Mass., March 8, 1841; graduated from Harvard College in 1861; July 10, 1861, commissioned first lieutenant of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; October 21, shot through the breast at Balls Bluff; March 23, 1862, commissioned captain; shot through the neck at Antietam, September 17; shot in the heel at Maryes Heights, Fredericksburg, on May 3, 1863; on January 29, 1864, appointed aid-de-camp to Brig. Gen. H. G. Wright and served with him until expiration of term of service; brevets as major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel; Harvard Law School LL. B., 1866; in 1873 published twelfth edition of Kent's Commentaries, and from 1870 to 1873 editor of the American Law Review, in which, then and later, he published a number of articles leading up to his book entitled, The Common Law (Little, Brown & Co., 1881), first, however, delivered in the form of lectures at the Lowell Institute. An article on "Early English equity," in the English Law Quarterly Review, April, 1885, also may be mentioned, and later ones in the Harvard Law Review. From 1873 to 1882 he practiced law in the firm of Shattuck, Holmes & Munroe; in 1882 took a professorship at the law school of Harvard College, and on December 8 of that year was commissioned a member of the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts; on August 2, 1899, he was made chief justice of the same court. He was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by President Roosevelt, confirmed by the Senate December 4, 1902, and sworn in and took his seat December 8, 1902. He has published a volume of speeches (Little, Brown & Co.). LL. D., Yale, Harvard, Williams, and Berlin; D. C. L., Oxford. Corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

WILLIAM R. DAY, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in Ravenna, Ohio, April 17, 1849, being a son of Judge Luther Day, of the supreme court of Ohio. In 1866 he entered the academic department of the University of Michigan, where he graduated in 1870; he also spent one year in the law department of that institution. In 1872 he was admitted to the Ohio bar and began the practice of law in Canton, Stark County, Ohio, where he was elected judge of the