tating the cultivation of a more extended field of inquiry. The hope is, therefore, confidently entertained that a small increase in the present number of clerks will be authorized by Congress at the ensuing session, in order that the progress of the Bureau in the direction of increased efficiency may not be retarded.

WORK OF THE BUREAU.

The work performed in the several divisions has been indicated in former reports so far as it was possible without entering into minute detail, and any statement that might now be presented would be only a repetition of former reports. It is quite impossible, either in a tabular or other brief statement, to exhibit the extent of careful, patient, and accurate labor performed in the several divisions, especially in those of examination, compilation, and of the preparation and revision of statements for publication, or of statements in response to the calls for statistical information which the Bureau is constantly receiving from members of Congress and others, and which are specially numerous during the session of Congress. In furnishing such information the resources of the library and the services of the librarian and his assistant are of great importance in enabling the Bureau to respond with promptness to inqui ries upon a great variety of subjects. A new and very minute catalogue of the books and pamphlets in the library is now in course of preparation.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU.

Monthly reports.-The law establishing the Bureau provided that the director should "prepare and publish monthly reports of the exports and imports of the United States, including the quantities and values of goods warehoused or withdrawn from warehouse, and such other statistics relative to the trade and industry of the country as the Secretary of the Treasury" might "consider expedient."

In accordance with this provision the undersigned, during the period of nearly six years in which the Bureau has been under his direction, has published monthly reports of the commerce and navigation of the United States, containing also a variety of miscellaneous statistics, of which reports from 2,500 to 3,000 copies have been distributed, monthly, among members of Congress, editors, political economists, the officers of boards of trade, and other persons to whom the information therein contained seemed likely to be useful. That they were extensively used and appreciated by those who received them, was indicated by the frequent notifications received from persons who from any cause failed to receive their numbers at the usual time and by the promptness with which the attention of the Bureau was called to any real or supposed error in the tables. Nor was their use confined to our own country, a few hundred copies having been transmitted to the United States legations and consulates and to leading statesmen and political economists in the principal foreign nations. Among those to whom the reports were furnished were some of the ablest contributors to the leading economical publications of Europe, especially those of Great Britain and France. And some of these writers have heretofore devoted much attention to the preparation of articles on the trade of the United States, for which the monthly reports supplied them with the requisite data. Since the commencement of the current fiscal year, however, the monthly reports have been discontinued in obedience to the provisions of an act passed at the last session of Congress. The information which they formerly embodied will in future be consolidated into tri-monthly statements and published in reports which will be issued quarterly.

It may seem improper for the undersigned to offer an opinion in opposition to a change so recently made, (and which may be assumed to have received the careful consideration of Congress,) and he would hesi tate to do so, did he not find his own views on the subject strongly confirmed by those of merchants, editors of leading commercial journals, and other persons whose position and experience give weight to their opinions. From many of such persons there have been received expressions of regret at the discontinuance of the monthly reports.*

The general desire for monthly data on the state of our foreign trade has been met in part by the issue to the newspaper-press of summary statements of our exports and imports, a course which will be continued unless it be disapproved. Indeed, the tendency is in the direction of still more frequent publication of the trade-statements, several applications (†) having recently been made for that purpose.

As the discontinuance of the monthly reports was probably decided upon with a view to increased economy in public expenditures, it is proper to remark that the only saving effected will be a small amount in the cost of printing, for in clerical labor there will not merely be no reduction, but a slight increase, owing to the necessity of consolidating into each quarterly statement the details of three monthly returns received from the various customs-districts.

Annual report of commerce, immigration, and navigation.-The volume for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1875, was compiled and sent to press at the usual period.

For many years prior to the adoption of the Revised Statutes, in 1875, the annual supply of 300 copies of the Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics on Commerce and Navigation was authorized by law to be" printed for the use of the Treasury Department. This provision of law was, for some cause unknown, (probably through inadvertence,) omitted from the Revised Statutes. Much difficulty has been experienced in securing copies for the use of the Department, application having to be made, for the volume for 1874, to individual Representatives and Senators for a portion of the supply to which they were each by law entitled. As the report is not stereotyped, and as it is therefore impossible to obtain additional copies after the type has been distributed, it became necessary that a requisition should be made for 200 copies of the report for the fiscal year 1875, in order to secure at least a partial supply.

Owing to the présent considerable and increasing demand, at home and abroad, for this document, it is highly desirable that Congress annually provide for a supply, for the use of the Departments of the Treasury and of State, of not less than 1,000 copies. To supply our

Extract from a letter recently received from a well-known statistician :

"I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of numbers of the monthly reports of the Bureau of Statistics, completing my files.

"I have found these reports as they have been issued the most valuable source of both the special official information I have required, and also of the more general statistics needed in the consideration of the revenue questions. They are more valuable than the British monthly reports, because of the form you have given them. I hope the suspension of their preparation will be but temporary, and that Congress will authorize their renewal at an early day."

t At a meeting of the Pork-Packers' Association of the United States, recently held in Saint Louis, the following resolution was presented by the committee on business and adopted:

"Resolved, That this convention recommend that the secretary of the association make application to the Secretary of the Treasury for weekly reports of the exports and imports of provisions from and into the principal ports of this country, in detail, and give the aggregate returns promptly to the public."

customs-officers alone, which is essential, will require from 200 to 300 copies. It is also essential that chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and other commercial bodies, as well as writers on commercial and economical affairs, be provided with copies, all of which have heretofore been supplied by the Bureau so far as it had the means, and they still rely upon it for future supply.

Giving in detail, as this annual does, the statistics of our trade with each foreign country and of each of our customs-districts, it possesses great value, not merely to statesmen, legislators, and commercial men in this country, but to our ministers and consuls abroad, as well as to foreign statisticians and public officials, who are earnestly desirous of an interchange of statistical publications.

The commercial interests of the country, therefore, imperatively demand that each United States legation and consulate be furnished with a copy of this annual. For like reasons, it is also in a high degree desirable that the applications for it, made to the Department of State by foreign governments, should be promptly honored. In comparison with the large cost of the composition of 1,060 pages of rule-and-figure work, the expense of paper, press-work, and covers for the additional number now urgently requested would be inconsiderable.

List of Merchant- Vessels of the United States.-The seventh annual statement of "Vessels registered, enrolled, aud licensed under the laws of the United States, designating the class, name, and place of registry," as well as the official number and signal-letters awarded to each vessel, was prepared and 2,000 copies published for distribution to the officers of customs, the masters of vessels engaged in the foreign trade, and the principal ship-owners, as well as to the commanders of United States war-vessels. The value of this list has been enhanced by the insertion therein of a carefully prepared "code-list," giving the signal-letters assigned to all sea-going vessels, arranged in their regular alphabetical order, without regard to the initial letter of the names of the vessels. Ship-masters can, by reference to it, obtain the name, tonnage, and home-port of any vessel exhibiting her signals at sea. This volume also includes a list of the vessels belonging to the revenuemarine, giving the date and place of building and the number of the officers and men; also a list of the vessels now belonging to the United States Navy, giving their name, rate, class, guns, tonnage, means of propulsion, and station of each.

SPECIAL REPORT ON IMMIGRATION.

During the past year copies of this report in the German and French languages were forwarded to the continent of Europe for distribution in the countries where these languages are spoken. The English edition being so nearly exhausted, it has only been possible to supply copies to individuals upon application to the Bureau. It being important that a supply of this edition be kept at each United States consulate in the United Kingdom, as has been heretofore done, the recommendation is repeated that there be printed from the stereotype-plates three thousand copies of the Special Report on Immigration, which should contain also a map of the United States, for distribution in English-speaking countries to intending emigrants.

The completion of the translation of this report into the Swedish language, and its transmission through you to Congress, was mentioned in last year's report. The recommendation for its publication and distribution in Scandinavian countries is hereby renewed and its importance strongly urged.

That the report under consideration has been highly appreciated, and has proved substantially useful in aiding intending emigrants to select with intelligence future homes, has been indicated in the reports and letters of United States consuls in Europe, and attested by others who were well qualified to form correct opinions on the subject. The eminent political economist M. Chevalier, in a long article on colonization in Algeria and in the United States, published some time ago in a Paris journal, calls particular attention to this report, and earnestly suggests the preparation of a similar work by the government of Algeria for circulation in France as a means of stimulating emigration to that colony, which he characterizes as "that magnificent dependency of France in Africa."

Of the object and character of this report M. Chevalier says:

This volume is intended to serve as a guide to the waves of population which are flowing into the northern portion of the new continent from the old, to let every one know what part of the immense territory of the Union, still unoccupied, is the best suited to his tastes and needs. * It is a complete repertory, prepared with

*

scrupulous care; a valuable and safe guide.

From another source, though in the same country, a substantial recognition of the utility of the work has been recently received in the form of a medal and a diploma awarded to the undersigned by the International Geographical Congress held at Paris in August, 1875, which award was chiefly made for the report on immigration.

LABOR IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.

In the last and two previous reports of the Chief of the Bureau, the fact was mentioned that he had devoted much time and money, while in Europe in 1872, to investigations in regard to the cost of labor and subsistence and the conditions of the working-classes, more especially in those countries which compete most actively with the United States. Owing to the pressure of official duties, and to consequent impaired health, the completion of his special report on this subject was considerably delayed, but this delay has enabled him to obtain, through correspondence with our consuls and others, fuller and more recent data, which will add materially to the value of the work. The report, embracing not only information in regard to European labor, but to that of the United States and British America, was finally completed during the past summer and submitted to you for transmission to Congress. The scope and object of the work are sufficiently indicated in the prefatory letter.

In regard to that portion of the report which relates to the United States, it may be proper to remark that the rates of wages and prices of provisions which are given in the tables are based upon data obtained in part through officers of internal revenue, and in part from the proprietors of industrial establishments and other employers of labor. In many cases the circular of inquiries sent out by the Bureau failed to elicit replies from those to whom it was addressed, and the returns from some of the States were consequently so meager that the mean rates of wages and the mean cost of the leading articles of subsistence deduced therefrom could not be considered as marking the true average for the State. To remedy this defect in future editions, it is desirable that means should be provided to enable the Chief of the Bureau to make investigations on those subjects in the chief centers of manufacturing industry and in the principal agricultural districts of the country, by means of personal inquiry, as was done in some European countries, especially in Great Britain, Belgium, and Germany.

Although the preparation of the report under consideration was not formally enjoined by any act or resolution of Congress, yet it was undertaken in obedience to an urgent public demand, of which not the least important indication was found in the numerous applications made by members of Congress for such information as the work contains. Since its completion a few hundred copies have been sent to the principal newspapers and to persons likely to be interested in the subjects therein discussed. In the almost unanimous voice of the press, as well as in the appreciative acknowledgments received from prominent persons among the recipients of the volume, the undersigned finds gratify ing evidence of the correctness of his convictions that the work would supply a public need which was urgently and widely felt.

The desire to obtain this book has been so general that a large number of copies, in sheets, have already been purchased by private publishers from the Congressional Printer, in accordance with the provisions of the act of June 25, 1864, and it is highly probable that the future demand for this report will equal that for the special report on immigration, of which about 8,000 copies, it is understood, were printed at the expense of private parties.

STATISTICS OF DOMESTIC COMMERCE, TRANSPORTATION, ETC.

Extract from an act approved March 3, 1875.

It shall be the duty of the officer in charge of the Bureau of Statistics to gather, collate, and annually report to the Secretary of the Treasury, for transmission to Congress, statistics and facts relating to commerce with foreign nations and among the several States, the railroad systems of this and other countries, the construction and operation of railroads, the actual cost of such construction and operation of railroads, the actual cost of transporting freights and passengers on railroads and on canals. rivers, and other navigable waters of the United States, the charges imposed for such transportation of freight and passengers and the tonnage transported.

In accordance with the provisions of law above cited, a division was formed in this Bureau at the commencement of the current fiscal year for the purpose of carrying into effect the intentions of Congress in this regard. As, however, the present report relates to the work of the Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1875, it is only necessary to say that the work above indicated has been entered upon with vigor, that the statistics already gathered are extensive, and that a comprehensive report on the subject will be made to you, for transmission to Congress, as early in the approaching session as the time necessarily required to collate so much material will permit.

In this connection, it may not be improper to state that, in the first and in nearly every subsequent report of the undersigned, attention was directed to the great importance of obtaining trustworthy informa tion, not only in regard to the various industries of the United States. but to the quantities and values of merchandise and produce transported from and to the seaboard, and the fact deplored that there was no legisla tion under which it was possible to obtain the necessary data. The following paragraph, from his report for the year 1871, is a brief presentation of more extended remarks on the subject in the reports of other years:

Transportation of Products and Merchandise.

The movement of the crops toward the seaboard and of merchandise into the interior, whether by rail or by canal, lake, or river, would, if ascertained and published, afford information of great value. The officers of some of the great lines of railway are convinced of the public utility of such statistics, but, in the absence of compulsory legislation on the subject, do not regard it as compatible with their duty to stockholders to incur the expense which the employment of clerical services for this purpose would necessarily involve. Additional legislation will probably be necessary before full and satisfactory information in regard to this subject can be obtained.