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Prices current from consuls. R. S., 1713.

June 18,1888 (25 Stat., 186).

Measure, weight, and coin, how expressed.

Every consular officer shall furnish to the Secretary of Commerce, as often as shall be required, the prices current of all articles of merchandise usually exported to the United States from the port or place in which he is situated; and he shall also furnish to the Secretary of Commerce, at least once in twelve months, the prices current of all articles of merchandise, including those of the farm, the garden, and the orchard, that are imported through the port or place in which he is stationed. And he shall also report as to the character of agricultural implements in use, and whether they are imported to or manufactured in that country.

All terms of measure, weight, and money shall be reduced to, and expressed in, terms of the measure, weight, July 26, 1894 (28 and coin of the United States, as well as in the foreign

Stat., 150).
July 7, 1884 (23 terms.

Stat., 255).

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No part of such reports [consular and other commercial reports] discussing partisan political, religious, or moral questions shall be published.

[Statistics of the commerce and navigation between the United States and its noncontiguous territory are required by act of April 29, 1902.]

[By the act of January 12, 1895 (28 Stat., 616), Congress has specifically directed the printing of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, Annual Report on the Commerce and Navigation of the United States, Internal Commerce of the United States, and Commercial Relations of the United States, and by resolution of December 18, 1895 (29 Stat., 459), the printing of the Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance. By act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat., 821), an edition of Daily Consular and Trade Reports, not to exceed 20,000 copies, is authorized.]

BUREAU OF LIGHTHOUSES.

The first lighthouse on this continent was built in 1715-16, at the entrance to Boston Harbor, by the Province of Massachusetts, and was supported by light dues on all incoming and outgoing vessels, except coasters. Several other lighthouses were built by the colonies. Congress by the act of August 7, 1789, authorized the maintenance of lighthouses and other aids to navigation at the expense of the United States. There were at that date eight lights in operation, maintained by the colonies. These, together with others completed later, thirteen in all, were ceded to the General Government by the States.

The maintenance of lighthouses, buoys, etc., was placed under the Treasury Department, and up to 1820 was directed personally by the Secretary of the Treasury, except for two intervals, when supervision was assigned by him to the Commissioner of Revenue. In 1820 the superintendence of the lights devolved upon the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, who was popularly known as the General Superintendent of Lights, and who continued in charge thereof until 1852, when the United States Lighthouse Board, consisting of officers of the Navy and Army, and civilians, was organized, with the Secretary of the Treasury as ex officio president of the Board. The Board selected from its own number a member to act as chairman.

The Lighthouse Service was transferred to the Department of Commerce on July 1, 1903. On July 1, 1910, the Lighthouse Board was terminated, and the present Bureau of Lighthouses established. In this Bureau four officers are appointed by the President-a Commissioner of Lighthouses, a Deputy Commissioner, a Chief Constructing Engineer, and a Superintendent of Naval Construction.

The United States Lighthouse Service is charged with the establishment and maintenance of aids to navigation, and with all equipment and work incident thereto, on the sea and lake coasts of the United States, on the rivers of the United States, and on the coasts of all other territory under the jurisdiction of the United States, with the exception of the Philippine Islands and Panama. The jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service over rivers not included in tidewater navigation is restricted to such as are specifically authorized by law; these now include practically all the important navigable rivers and lakes of the country.

All the work of establishing and maintaining the aids to navigation under the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service is performed directly by that Service through the district organizations, with the exception of a few minor aids which are maintained by contract, and with the

exception of the American Samoan Islands and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the aids are maintained through the local authorities. The Lighthouse Service also has supervision over the establishment and maintenance of private aids to navigation.

There is an office in Washington, which is the executive center of the Service, under the Commissioner of Lighthouses and the Deputy Commissioner. There are in this office an engineering construction division, under the Chief Constructing Engineer; a naval construction division, under the Superintendent of Naval Construction; a hydrographic division, under an assistant engineer, and the general office force, under the chief clerk.

The Service outside of Washington is divided into nineteen lighthouse districts, each of which is under the charge of a lighthouse inspector. In each district there is a central office at a location selected on account of either its maritime importance or its geographical position, and there are also one or more lighthouse depots located conveniently for carrying on the work of the district, in the matter of storing and distributing supplies and apparatus. Each district is provided with one or more lighthouse tenders for the purpose of distributing supplies to the various stations and light vessels and for transportation of materials for construction or repair, for the placing and care of the buoyage system in the district, and for transporting the inspector and other officers of the Service on official inspections of stations and vessels and on other official duty.

In addition to the various district depots, there is in the Third lighthouse district, on Staten Island, New York Harbor, a general lighthouse depot, where many of the supplies for the whole Service are purchased and stored and sent out for distribution, and where much of the special apparatus of the Service is manufactured or repaired, and where also there is carried on various technical work in the way of testing apparatus and supplies and designing or improving apparatus.

On June 30, 1912, there were 44 regular lighthouse tenders in commission, and the Service maintained light vessels at 51 stations; having for this purpose 65 light vessels, of which 14 were relief vessels, making a total of 109 vessels. The number of employees was 5,534, and the number and classes of aids to navigation maintained by the Service were as follows:

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The number of private aids to navigation maintained was 507. The appropriations made by Congress for the general maintenance of the Lighthouse Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, amount to $5,037,410; the appropriations made for special works are $526,500. The average appropriations for special works for the ten preceding years, 1903 to 1912, inclusive, amounted to $1,028,450 per year. The special works include new lighthouses, fog signals, tenders, light vessels, and depots, and extensive improvements or rebuilding of these.

A report of the operations of the Lighthouse Service is submitted annually by the Commissioner of Lighthouses to the Secretary of Commerce and transmitted to Congress. The Service also publishes Weekly Notices to Mariners (jointly with the Coast and Geodetic Survey), Light Lists for the various coasts, and Buoy Lists for each lighthouse district. These publications are distributed free.

Chairmen of the Lighthouse Board and Commissioner of Lighthouses, with dates of service.

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Stephen C. Rowan, vice admiral, U. S. Navy.

Prof. Joseph Henry, LL. D. (secretary of the Smithsonian Institution).

Oct. 30, 1871

Oct. 9,1852

Feb. 7,1859

Feb. 7,1859

June 6, 1859

May 13, 1878
May
Dec.

June 6,1859
Oct. 30, 1871
June 23, 1878
June 5, 1882
Jan. 18, 1883
Feb. 27, 1889
June 1,1891
Dec.
Apr. 5, 1897

4, 1894

5,1882 2, 1882 Feb. 26, 1889 May 29, 1891

Dec.

1,1894

Mar. 23,1897

David P. Harmony, rear admiral, U. S. Navy.
James M. Greer, rear admiral, U. S. Navy.
John G. Walker, rear admiral, U. S. Navy.
Winfield S. Schley, commodore, U. S. Navy.
F. V. McNair, rear admiral, U. S. Navy.
Rush R. Wallace, commodore, U. S. Navy.
Francis J. Higginson, commodore, U. S. Navy.
Norman H. Farquhar, rear admiral, U. S. Navy
George C. Remey, rear admiral, U. S. Navy

John J. Read, rear admiral, U. S. Navy.
Robley D. Evans, rear admiral, U. S. Navy.
Benjamin P. Lamberton, rear admiral, U. S. Navy
George C. Reiter, rear admiral, U. S. Navy.
A. Marix, rear admiral, U. S. Navy....

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Mar. 25, 1898

Mar. 18, 1898

July 5, 1898

July 11,1898

Oct. 3,1898

Oct. 3,1898

Apr. 22, 1901

May 2, 1901

May 6, 1902

May 6, 1902

Aug. 8, 1903

Aug. 8,1903
June 20, 1904

June 17, 1904
Jan. 5,1905

Jan.
Feb. 25, 1906
Jan. 6, 1908

6, 1905

Feb. 25, 1906

Dec. 31, 1907

June 30, 1910

July 1,1910

LAW PERTAINING TO THE BUREAU OF LIGHTHOUSES AND THE LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE.

Lighthouses.

[As modified by acts of February 14, 1903, June 17, 1910, and March 4, 1913.]

June 17, 1910 (36

(in part).

etc.

Bureau of Hereafter there shall be in the Department of ComCommissioner. merce a bureau of light-houses and a commissioner of Stat., 534), sec. 4 light-houses, who shall be the head of said bureau, to be appointed by the President, who shall receive a salary Deputy, chief of five thousand dollars per annum. There shall also be clerk, inspectors, in the bureau a deputy commissioner, to be appointed by the President, who shall receive a salary of four thousand dollars per annum, and a chief clerk, who shall perform the duties of chief clerk and such other duties as may be assigned to him by the Secretary of Commerce or by the commissioner. There shall also be in the bureau such inspectors, clerical assistants, and other employees as may Chief construct from time to time be authorized by Congress,1 and there superintendent of shall also be employed one chief constructing engineer at a salary of four thousand dollars per annum and one superintendent of naval construction at a salary of three thousand dollars per annum, both to be appointed by the President.

ing engineer and

naval construc

tion.

Acting Com

missioner.

Stat., 239), sec. 2.

Hereafter, in case of the absence of the Commissioner July 27, 1912 (37 and Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Lighthouses, the Secretary of Commerce may designate some officer of said bureau to perform the duties of the commissioner during his absence.

Inspectors to be assigned to each district. June 17, 1910 (36

spectors.

signment of

The commissioner of light-houses, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Commerce, as soon as practiStat., 534), sec. 11. cable, shall rearrange the ocean, gulf, and lake coasts and the rivers of the United States, Porto Rico, and the naval station in Cuba into not exceeding nineteen light-house districts, and a light-house inspector shall be Salaries of in- assigned in charge of each district. The light-house inspectors shall each receive a salary of two thousand four hundred dollars per annum, except the inspector of the third district, whose salary shall be three thousand six Temporary as hundred dollars per annum. The President may, for a Army and Navy period not exceeding three years from the taking effect of this section, assign army and navy officers to act in lieu of the appointment of civilian light-house inspectors, but such army and navy officers shall not receive any salary or compensation in addition to the salary or compensation they are entitled to as such army or navy officers: ProEngineer off- vided, That in the districts which include the Mississippi pi River, etc., dis- River and its tributaries the President may designate army engineers to perform the duties of and act as inspecDetail for con- tors. The President may detail officers of the Engineer Corps of the United States Army for consultation or to superintend the construction or repair of any aid to navigation authorized by Congress.

officers.

cers for Mississip

tricts.

struction, etc.

1 The personnel of the Bureau is provided for in the annual appropriation acts.

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