Department to represent wage-earning interests fairly and without prejudice to any other legitimate interest.

2. Methods. Mediation does not mean arbitration of any kind. The mediation function is not judicial; it is diplomatic. The Secretary or his commissioners of conciliation may propose arbitration, but must not themselves act as arbitrators. Commissioners of conciliation are required (a) to try to bring the employers and the wage earners concerned in a dispute into direct negotiations for an amicable adjustment; (b) failing in that, they are to act as negotiators in an effort to find some mutually satisfactory basis of settlement; (c) failing also in this, they are to endeavor to secure an agreement to a basis of arbitration in which the award shall decide nothing but the points actually in dispute; (d) failing in all, they are required to report the pertinent facts to the Department for further instructions.

ARTICLE VII.-GOVERNMENT WORKMEN'S COMPENSA

TION CLAIMS.

SECTION 1. The organic act of the Department, in section 3, transferred to the Secretary of Labor jurisdiction and control over the administration of the act approved May 30, 1908, granting to certain employees of the United States the right to receive from it compensation for injuries sustained in the course of their employment. To promote the orderly and efficient conduct of official business under the last-mentioned statute, the following rules will govern, viz:

SEC. 2. The administrative duty of examining claims arising thereunder and the preparation of such memoranda as may be required concerning the facts of each claim are delegated to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and in those instances in which action is necessary in order to protect the interests of the United States in adjudicating claims arising under the statute it is the duty of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics to cause appropriate communications to be prepared for signature by the Secretary or Assistant Secretary.

SEC. 3. All the papers in each claim, together with memoranda prepared in accordance with the foregoing rule, shall be referred to and considered by the Solicitor for the Department, who will construe the law applicable to the matter in the light of the facts as disclosed by the record in each case, and when required will prepare opinions for approval and appropriate reference by the Secretary, or the Assistant Secretary acting under instructions of the Secretary.

SEC. 4. The opinion of the Solicitor, approved and referred as herein required, shall stand as the decision of the Secretary under the statutes.

III. THE BUREAUS

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

ARTICLE I.—COLLECTION AND PUBLICATION OF DATA.

In carrying out the purpose for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics was created to acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor, in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and especially in its relation to capital, the hours of labor, the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity-the data are collected from various sources, by personal visits of agents in the field and otherwise. These data are then compiled and prepared for publication in the bulletins of the bureau, which are issued at frequent intervals, each number dealing exclusively with some phase of one of the following general subjects: Wholesale prices, retail prices and cost of living, wages and hours of labor, women in industry, workmen's insurance and compensation (including laws relating thereto), industrial accidents and hygiene, conciliation and arbitration (including strikes and lockouts), labor laws of the United States (including decisions of courts relating to labor), foreign labor laws, and miscellaneous subjects.

Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics in former years published annual and special reports and bimonthly bulletins, its only forms of publication now are the bulletins to which reference is made in the preceding paragraph and the Monthly Review.

The publication of the Monthly Review began with July, 1915, and it will be issued on the 29th day of each month. This publication constitutes the medium through which the Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish the results of original investigations too brief to be presented in the form of monograph bulletins, together with notices of labor legislation by the States or by Congress and Federal court decisions affecting labor which from their importance should be given attention before they could ordinarily appear in the bulletins devoted to these subjects; information concerning current work of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the other bureaus of the Department, and any other Federal, State, and municipal agencies dealing directly with labor matters. Most of the material in the Monthly Review is entirely inaccessible in any other form to the general reader. The special purpose of the publication will be to make available, regularly

and promptly, notices and summaries of American and foreign official reports of all bureaus, offices, and commissions dealing with the various phases of the labor question. An attempt will be made to keep in touch with the more important current movements and methods for the reporting of industrial accidents and occupational or industrial diseases and for the prevention of these; for reporting. industrial and vocational surveys of better housing of workingmen; and any other activities, public or private, that have for their object the betterment of industrial conditions.

As all of the publications of the bureau are furnished gratis upon application if a supply is available for distribution, the name of any individual, institution, firm, company, etc., interested in the contents of the bulletins will upon application be placed on the mailing list for any one or more of the series of bulletins dealing with the subjects above mentioned.

The reports based on certain investigations which the bureau has been directed by the President or by Congress to undertake have been published as documents of the United States Senate or the House of Representatives, and the bureau has in nearly all such cases obtained a small number of copies of these documents for gratuitous distribution; these also are furnished to applicants as long as copies remain at the disposal of the bureau.

In order that the newer publications may be included, a list of all publications of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including reports that have been published as House or Senate documents, is issued every few months. In these lists those publications of which the bureau's supply has been exhausted are indicated by asterisks; any not so indicated, will be furnished free on application. In most cases the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, has for sale a limited number of copies of the various reports and bulletins that have been issued by the bureau, and even though the bureau's supply has been exhausted it is frequently possible to obtain copies of such publications by purchase from him. He furnishes, on application, price lists of publications by subject indexes; the prices quoted in such lists constitute the only charge, postage being prepaid. In compliance with the provisions of section 76 of "An act to provide a government for the Territory of Hawaii," as amended April 8, 1904, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics publishes quinquennial reports of labor conditions in Hawaii.

ARTICLE II.-LABOR LEGISLATION.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the representative of the United States Government in the International Association for Labour Legislation, the subvention therefor being provided in its appropriation.