ending June 30, 1917, the workmen affected directly by disputes brought to the department numbered 473,734, and those affected indirectly 334,225. The Department of Labor also has charge of the United States Employment Service, whose duties and work have grown immensely since the beginning of the war. The conditions of labor have been very much upset in this country since August, 1914, by the immense demand for labor in munition, shipbuilding, cantonment and other war work, which has paid enormous prices for labor and thereby drawn largely from ordinary employments.

The duties of the Department of Labor cover:

(a) The United States Employment Service, established in 1914, which seeks to stabilize and equalize the labor conditions throughout the country, and has become especially important in connection with the war. (b) Bureau of Labor Statistics. (c) Bureau of Immigration, which has charge of the immigrant and Chinese exclusion laws, and, after the declaration of war against Germany, of the internment of alien enemies. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, 1,197,892 immigrants and 229,335 non-immigrant aliens entered our country, while four years later the total immigrants admitted were 295,403, and non-immigrant aliens 67,474. (d) Bureau of Naturalization, which has charge of the naturalization of foreigners. (e) Children's Bureau.

Through the Bureau of Immigration the Federal Government has for many years attempted to watch over and care for its immigrants, from the time they leave their homes, upon their voyage, and after their arrival and settlement here. In this case we have extended the preamble to the United States Constitution, so that it reads to secure the blessings of liberty to our immigrants and their posterity."

"

XVI

THE PURPOSIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND OF OTHER FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS

F

ROM the very beginning it was recognized that to effect the general welfare would require a department of internal affairs, just as much as the protection of the country required a department of foreign affairs. The history of this phase of our government is covered in Chapter XV. From the beginning there was an incessant demand that there should be a department of home affairs or a Home Department, as it was usually called. Matters of this nature were constantly cropping up, but they were apportioned principally to the State and Treasury Departments.

In 1848, the Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report, spoke of the enormous amount of work devolving upon him, and the diverse nature of his duties, some of which had no connection with commerce or the public finances. Also he showed that the State Department had no proper connection with the Patent Office, and that Indian affairs and applications for pensions might be better handled elsewhere than by the War and Navy Departments; and recommended that a new cabinet department be established to take charge of all the duties above named. The House Committee on Agriculture showed the mischiefs, losses and dangers resulting from the existing irrational and ruinous distribution of ex

ecutive powers and duties, and that in the first sixty years of the government some $700,000,000 had been expended for purposes of military aggression or defense; that the annual expenditures for the War and Navy were then twelve or fourteen million dollars; while the whole amount directly expended by the Federal Government during the same period for the promotion of the arts of peace, the development of agriculture and the mechanical sciences, the support of education and the diffusion of knowledge had been only about $1,000,000.

On March 3, 1849, " An Act to establish the Home Department" was approved, creating the Department of the Interior. The new Secretary was given supervisory and appellate powers over the Commissioners of the General Land Office, Patents, Indian Affairs and Pensions; also over the census, the accounts of marshals and other officers of the United States courts, the Commissioner of Public Buildings in Washington; the lead and other mines of the United States; and the warden and inspectors of the District of Columbia penitentiary. From that time the Department of the Interior has been indeed a department of home affairs, a receptacle for any odds and ends of administrative work. The department has been well described as a sort of residuary legatee, to which was turned over any functions and duties for which no other place had been found. The following matters, chiefly purposive, have beer in its charge, either permanently or temporarily: Government Hospital for the Insane, in Washington; Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind; the construction of a wagon road from Fort Kearney, Nebraska, to California, as well as several other roads; enforcement of the laws to suppress the African slave trade; rebuilding of the Capitol at Washington, and the construction or control of many other buildings; a

Returns Office, in which should be filed all contracts executed on behalf of the War, Navy and Interior departments during the Civil War; various duties in respect to the Pacific railroads; national parks and bird reservations; auditor of railroad accounts, created in 1878, who afterward became Commissioner of Railroads; Bureau of Labor, established in 1884; control of the appropriations for agricultural colleges under the Morrill Acts; many matters in regard to Indian affairs, including the Commission of the Five Civilized Tribes; Howard University; reclamation; diversion of the Colorado River; preventing the improper appropriation or occupation of private squares, streets or reservations in the city of Washington; approval of plans and estimates for public buildings throughout the United States; approval of form of rail in a certain railroad, etc., etc.

The work of the Department of the Interior is now largely under several main bureaus, for the most part independent except as the right of appeal lies from their heads to the Secretary of the Interior. These are: the General Land Office, Patent Office, Pension Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Education, Geological Survey, and Reclamation Service. The Land Office, Bureau of Education and Patent Office and Public Printing Office have been sufficiently covered in Chapters IX, XII and XIV, respectively. The other functions of the department as described on its own behalf are as follows:

"The Commissioner of Indian Affairs has charge of the Indian tribes of the United States (exclusive of Alaska), their education, lands, monies, schools, purchase of supplies and general welfare." The Secretary is aided by the Board of Indian Commissioners, which, "created in 1869, is a body of unpaid citizens, appointed

by the President, who maintain an office in Washington, for the expenses of which and of travel Congress appropriates. The Board is not a bureau or division of any department, but is purposely kept reasonably independent and afforded opportunities for investigation in order that it may freely express an intelligent and impartial opinion concerning Indian legislation and administration. Its legal duties are to visit and inspect branches of the Indian Service, to coöperate with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the purchase and inspection of Indian supplies, and to report to the Secretary of the Interior, to whom and to the President the Board acts in an advisory capacity, with respect to plans of civilizing or dealing with the Indians."

Originally the Army and Navy had charge of their own pensions, but now

"The Commissioner of Pensions supervises the examination and adjudication of all claims arising under laws passed by Congress granting pensions on account of service in the Army or Navy rendered wholly prior to October 6, 1917; claims for reimbursement for the expenses of the last sickness and burial of deceased pensioners; and also claims for bounty-land warrants based upon military or naval service rendered prior to March 3, 1855."

"The Director of the Geological Survey is charged, under direction of the Secretary of the Interior, with classification of the public lands and the examination of the geologic structure, mineral resources and mineral products of the national domain. In conformity with this authorization, the Geological Survey has been engaged in making a geologic map of the United States, involving both topographic and geologic surveys, in collecting annually the statistics of mineral production, and in conducting investigations relating to surface and underground waters."

"The Reclamation Service, under the direction of the