boundary and delimitation work of the highest importance, and both the States and the National Government call on the Coast and Geodetic Survey for the execution of many of the more important projects of this character. The requests of the States of New York, Maryland, and Delaware for the detail of officers to supply technical direction for political and economical surveys in those States are examples of the varying demands to which the splendidly trained and equipped technical force furnish adequate response.

The Superintendent, as Commissioner on the part of the United States, is charged with surveying and marking the southeastern boundary of Alaska from Portland Canal to Mount St. Elias, and of the meridianal boundary from Mount St. Elias to the Arctic Ocean, the survey parties engaged in the field work facing hardships, privations, and dangers known only to the most intrepid of explorers. Under his direction other parties are engaged in the re-marking and additional boundary surveys required along the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, in Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. On the northeastern boundary parties under his direction are making surveys for the revision of the boundary in the St. John and St. Croix Valleys. An officer of the Survey is detailed as a member of the Mississippi River Commission.

OFFICE WORK.

While the valuable office equipment of the Bureau can not show à picturesqueness comparable with that noted in a consideration of the duties of the field section with its personnel spread from the Antilles to the China Seas and from Bering Sea to waters within 5 degrees of the Equator, the variety of its tasks are as great and its operations as interesting and instructive. In addition to the administrative divisions there are the Computing, Chart Construction, Instrument, and Tidal Divisions.

In the Computing Division are discussed with the highest mathematical refinement the observations made in the field, the results being prepared for their final publication and utilization.

The Chart Construction Division comprises the drawing, engraving, electrotype, photograph, and printing sections, all engaged in the construction, maintenance, and publication of charts. The drawing section assembles and compiles all chart information received, including the results of the topographic and hydrographic parties, harbor improvement surveys of the Army Engineers, surveys by local engineers, additions and changes in lights and buoys, and newly discovered rocks and other dangers. From this information new chart drawings are prepared for engraving or photolithography and old charts are brought up to date. The engraving section engraves the chart drawings on copper plates and makes the changes required on

the plates. The electrotype section duplicates the engraved copper plates previous to printing, so that worn plates can be replaced by new ones. The photograph section makes negatives for those charts published by photolithography, makes photographic copies of original surveys required by other departments and the courts, and etches on copper some of the new charts. The printing section prints from copper plates and by photolithography over 140,000 charts a year.

In the Instrument Division have been initiated types of instruments that are now adopted by the national European surveys, one of its late achievements being the construction of the most effective tidal predicting machine in existence. This machine takes into account 37 of the tidal influencing components, producing a year's record of predictions of all the daily high and low waters for a port in less than ten hours, an undertaking not possible by the direct computation of 100 computers.

In the Tidal Division are discussed the tidal phenomena on such a scale that the Tide Tables of the Survey, published annually in advance, furnish the mariner with the values of the high and low tides. at 3,270 ports selected from all over the world and covering every region of any value to commerce.

A study of the annual report of the Superintendent of the Survey will disclose an account of activities which are of the highest value to the mariner, the hydrographer, the surveyor, the engineer, the landowner, and the physicist, and a record which, for the practical needs of commerce and the contribution which the United States in common with other first-class powers is making to the knowledge of the dimensions and configuration of the globe we live on, is worthy of the honorably distinguished name which has so long been borne by this the oldest bureau of applied science under the Government.

A more extended description of the organization and functions of the Survey will be found in the pamphlet entitled "The Work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey," which those interested may obtain on application.

BUREAU OF CORPORATIONS.

The Bureau of Corporations was created by the organic act of the Department, approved February 14, 1903. The act authorizes the Bureau, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, to investigate the organization, conduct, and management of the business of any corporation, joint stock company, or corporate combination engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, except common carriers subject to the interstate-commerce act; to gather such information and data as will enable the President to make recommendations to Congress for legislation for the regulation of interstate and foreign commerce; to report the data so collected to the President from time to time as he may require, and to make public such part of said information as the President may direct.

It is also the duty of the Bureau, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, to gather, compile, publish, and supply useful information concerning corporations engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, including corporations engaged in insurance.

The creation of the Bureau was in the nature of a response to a growing public demand for some power or tribunal which should deal with the new economic problems involved in the increased tendency toward concentrated ownership of the large industries of the country. The organization of certain "trusts" from time to time. during the eighties and earlier was followed in 1890 by the so-called Sherman antitrust law, which, however, largely on account of early decisions thereunder, resulted not so much in checking the growth of consolidations as in changing their form. In the late nineties there came the phenomenal concentration of industrial capital frequently referred to as the "consolidation craze. A conference was held at Chicago, known as the Chicago Trust Conference, in 1899. The Industrial Commission, created in 1898, devoted especial attention in 1899 and 1900, among other subjects, to industrial combinations. Finally, in December, 1901, there was introduced in the United States Senate a bill "to establish a Department of Commerce. This bill, with the title amended to read Department of Commerce and Labor, was passed by the Senate in January, 1902, and referred to the House. In January, 1903, a report was submitted by the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, in which for the first time the Bureau of Corporations was provided for. The House bill was not accepted by the Senate, but in February, 1903, a compromise bill was reported from conference

and speedily agreed to in both Houses. On February 14, 1903, it received the signature of the President.

The first year of the Bureau's work was largely taken up in a close inspection of the whole field that would eventually be covered by its operations. Studies were made of action taken by the different States in the matter of corporate control and regulation, and also of statutes, constitutions, and court decisions. Preliminary investigations were made of the organization and operations of certain of the larger corporate combinations. This early work of the Bureau naturally led to the economic field rather than to the legal, as the Bureau, under the act creating it, has no power of remedial redress, nor was it created for the purpose of directly assisting individuals in their private relationships to large corporations. Its investigatory work, by the terms of the organic act, is for the purpose of acquiring and transmitting to the President of the United States information concerning combinations and consolidations and their operations which will enable him to recommend legislation, and which may also, under his direction, be made public through printed reports. The preparation and issuance of such reports has essentially constituted the work of the Bureau up to this time.

The Bureau's investigations thus far have naturally, to a great extent, been connected with the control by corporations of the natural resources of the country. In this connection, investigations have been made of the petroleum industry, the steel industry, and the lumber industry. Another important though somewhat less extensive investigation involved the control of water power. Certain other investigations have been especially concerned with conditions involved in the sale and distribution of articles of very general consumption, as, for instance, those of the beef industry and the tobacco industry. Another investigation, having a vital bearing on the entire subject of waterways, was that of transportation by water, and the element of control involved in the ownership of terminals and water carriers. Still another investigation of great public importance because of its direct relation to the agricultural interests of the country is that of the International Harvester Co. The early study of the corporation statutes of the various States developed somewhat naturally into an investigation of State taxation of corporations, in connection with which the Bureau has already submitted several parts of its report, which, when completed, will cover the entire country.

The last paragraph of the act creating the Bureau and defining its duties with respect to the investigation of corporations expressly mentions corporations "engaged in insurance." In the early years of the Bureau's existence considerable attention was paid to that subject. Later, it was definitely decided to abandon this field,

owing to doubtful Federal jurisdiction, insurance having repeatedly been held by the Supreme Court of the United States not to be com

merce.

One of the first essentials in the conduct of the work of the Bureau is the treatment of each individual investigation on its own merits with the scientific aim of ascertaining the exact facts. This results in a marked degree of discrimination and in clear definition of the particular principles involved in a given case. The vital principle involved in the Bureau's work by reason of the terms of the organic act creating it is that of publicity. The results of this publicity have been substantial. A direct and practical effect is seen in the use made of the Bureau's reports in laying the basis for constructive legislation, and again in their frequent use as the basis of judicial proceedings. A further exceedingly important result has been the corrective effect upon the interests specifically investigated. A less noticeable but perhaps even more important result of the Bureau's work has been the enlightenment of public opinion by the publication of precise and carefully verified information concerning the operations of some of the large corporations.

The organization of the Bureau is simple. Outside of those employees assigned to matters involving administration and accounts, and the stenographic division, the force consists, broadly speaking, of two classes-investigators and statisticians. The expert investigators of the Bureau, technically known as special examiners, have to a large extent either been given charge of an investigation or assigned to the most important constructive work, such as the preparation of text or direction of field investigation, these men being directly responsible to the Commissioner. They have been assisted in turn by field agents or other special examiners, and by members of the clerical force assigned to particular investigations. In the main, however, the statistical work of the Bureau instead of being distributed among the various investigations has been handled by a compact unit or division conducting the statistical work in general.

The actual work of investigation has to a large extent devolved upon the special examiners directly in charge of such investigations, subject to constant supervision by the Commissioner. As the results of this work are drafted for publication, they are submitted to the Commissioner, who reads and revises them, and epitomizes them in the form of letters of submittal for submission to the President of the United States and with a view to publication in the press. Accompanying these letters of submittal in most instances, moreover, there has been a summary digest giving in rather more extended but still condensed form the essential facts contained in the reports. It has been found that these letters of submittal and the accompanying summaries have resulted in very widespread publicity of the