THE BOARD OF VETERINARY EXAMINERS.

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HE law creating the State Board of Veterinary Examiners was passed by the General Assembly May 21, 1894. The Board consists of five members; the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture and the Secretary of of the State Board of Health are made ex officio members by the law, while the governor has the appointment of the other members. A list of the officers, from the organization of the board to date, is given below:

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OMMISSIONER of Labor Statistics Michael D. Ratchford, the subject of this sketch, was born in Clare, Ireland, in 1860.. Migrating with his parents to Stark county, Ohio, some ten years later, he attended the public schools there until he reached his twelfth year, at which age he entered the mines where he labored for more than twenty consecutive years. His education, however, was principally acquired by attending evening school, and by careful home study during the earlier years of his occupation in mining.

Mr. Ratchford being an active trade unionist, who, while mainly conservative in his views, realized the growing needs of a thorough organization of mine workers, and labored aggressively and unceasingly to this end. He was elected to and served in the office of President of the Massillon, Ohio, miners, 1890-92; General Organizer, 1893-94; President Ohio miners, 1895-96; President of the United Mine Workers of America, 1897-98. It was while serving in the chief executive office that he established and put into practice a working-day of eight hours; instituted mutual relations and an annual wage contract between mine workers and operators through which strikes have since been averted; and made uniform the conditions of mining throughout the bituminous com-petitive coal fields.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics.

He was appointed by President McKinley September 7, 1898, as member of the National Industrial Commission created by Congress, where he served for nearly two years, resigning the same to accept the office of Commissioner of Labor Statistics of Ohio, to which he was appointed by Governor George K. Nash, April 25, 1900.

Mr. Ratchford is unswerving in his devotion to the Republican party, and as such has ably discussed the issues for which his party stands in many states of the Union during national and state campaigns.

The Commissioner of Labor Statistics is appointed by the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate for a term of two years. The Chief Clerk and office force of the Bureau are appointed by the Commissioner with the consent of the Governor. The superintendents and clerks of the five Free Public Employment Offices - Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo, which are under the direction and supervision of the Bureau, are also appointed by the Commissioner in the same manner for a term of two years.

The Bureau, under the law-Sec. 308 of the Revised Statutes-collects, arranges and systematizes all statistics relating to the various branches of labor in the state, and especially those relating to the commercial, industrial, social, educational and sanitary conditions of the laboring classes.

COMMISSIONERS OF LABOR STATISTICS.
Appointive by the Governor, and term of office for two years.

NOTE Commissioner Fassett was legislated out of office in 1890, and was succeeded by Mr. McBride, who resigned before his term expired.

25. H. Y. B.

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IN THE year 1887, Hon. Jacob A. Kohler, Attorney General, called the attention of Governor Foraker and the Board of Public Works to the valuable state property, in the city of Akron, that had been unlawfully taken possession of by individuals and corporations, and shortly thereafter, ten civil actions, against as many different defendants, were commenced to recover state property valued at one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars.

When the succeeding General Assembly convened, the governor recommended that a commission be created to ascertain what lands the State owned; thereupon Hon. J. Park Alexander, of Summit county, introduced a bill, embodying the ideas of the governor and attorney general, creating "a commission to establish the boundaries and lines of the canals, canal basins, reservoirs, etc., of the State by actual surveys by metes and bounds, together with maps and plats of the same, and to define and protect the ownership and titles in and to all lands belonging to and connected with said canals."

The Canal Commission.

Subsequently, the duties of the commission were enlarged by adding to its work the duties previously performed by the swamp land commissioner, and providing for the recording of all documents, maps, plats and records in any wise appertaining to the title of any real estate formerly belonging to or now owned by the State.

The commission is generally called a “Canal Commission," but should be called a land commission, as it has nothing to do with the navigation or management of the canals, and has no relation whatever to the old board of canal commissioners that laid out and constructed the public works of the State.

The duties of the commission are to locate and define the State's property, to recover such portions of it as are found in the unlawful possession of individuals and corporations, to lease such portions of it as are not necessary for canal purposes, to acquire title to swamp lands and to collect the cash indemnity due for such lands when they have been disposed of by the United States.

The original act was passed March 28, 1888, and shortly thereafter Governor Foraker appointed as members of said commission, General William H. Gibson of Seneca county, Col. Charles F. Baldwin of Knox county, and Judge Alexander S. Latty of Defiance county, General Gibson being made president, Judge Latty vice president and T. C. Ryan of Washington county, secretary. Col. Baldwin resigned after a few months' service, and Hon. R. M. Rownd of Franklin county, was appointed in his place.

The commissioners found that there was practically nothing with which to commence their labors. The original surveys and maps of the canals had all disappeared along with the books that showed the awards of damages paid for lands appropriated for canals and reservoir nurposes. Fortunately a half dozen of these books were found in a consignment of old paper that had been shipped to one of the paper mills on the Miami and Erie canal, and were finally restored to the State, where they have been of inestimable value in aiding the recovery of State property.

The first three or four years may be called the period of surveys and discovery. More than twelve hundred miles of transit lines have been run since the commencement of the canals and reservoir surveys, while hundreds of monuments have been planted to perpetuate the lines established for the boundaries of the State property. In addition, the title to lands owned by the State, at one time and another, aggregated one million two hundred and thirty thousand five hundred and twenty-two (1,230,522) acres, have been recorded in the records of the office.

Twenty-three large volumes of maps have been completed and bound in convenient book form, and others are in process of completion.