The character of the statistical information contained in these reports is so varied that it cannot be described in detail within the limits of space here available. In general, as already suggested, the statistics deal with such subjects as production, stocks, prices, costs, investment and profits. Wherever statistics compiled by Government departments, trade bodies, or recognized private agencies are available and satisfactory they are used, but the main source of information is the books and records of the companies engaged in the respective trades and industries. THE UNITED STATES TARIFF COMMISSION. The United States Tariff Commission was organized in April. 1917, pursuant to Title VII of an Act of Congress approved September 8, 1916. Its powers and duties are set out in the following sections of the Act: SEC. 702. That it shall be the duty of said commission to investigate the administration and fiscal and industrial effects of the customs laws of this country now in force or which may be hereafter enacted, the relations between the rates of duty on raw materials and finished or partly finished products, the effects of ad valorem and specific duties and of compound specific and ad valorem duties, all questions relative to the arrangement of schedules and classification of articles in the several schedules of the customs law, and, in general, to investigate the operation of customs laws, including their relation to the Federal revenues, their effect upon the industries and labor of the country, and to submit reports of its investigations as hereafter provided. SEC. 704. That the Commission shall have power to investigate the tariff relations between the United States and foreign countries, commercial treaties, preferential provisions, economic alliances, the effect of export bounties and preferential transportation rates, the volume of importations compared with domestic production and consumption, and conditions, causes, and effects relating to competition of foreign industries with those of the United States, including dumping and cost of production. These powers and duties of the Commission are safeguarded by sweeping provisions in the Act for investigations both here and abroad, the summoning of witnesses, and the production of all requisite documentary evidence. The Commission's investigative work is conducted with the assistance of experts and specialists in such fields as chemicals and drugs, ceramics, metals, agricultural products, textiles, foreign tariffs, and cost accounting. A considerable part of the work of the Commission is devoted to commodity studies, the results of which are either published in the form of printed reports or kept in the files of the Commission for use by the Congress when considering tariff legislation. These studies cover all important phases of production and distribution, and for that reason the Com mission uses information from almost every department of the Government. In addition to assembling information from statistics already compiled, the Commission does a large amount of original research, relating to production costs, production statistics for particular industries, imports and exports of commodities of particular kinds, price data, and other competitive conditions. Other governmental establishments can and do furnish much general information, but in the nature of the case the Commission's requirements are specialized, and it therefore must give the problems special treatment. Most governmental investigations are concerned with basic industries, and usually do not relate to tariff problems. For example, a general survey of cotton textiles ordinarily tends to emphasize the coarse and medium fabrics, of which the United States is a large producer and exporter, whereas for tariff purposes such a survey must largely deal with the finer grades of these fabrics. This essential difference of approach likewise is true with reference to innumerable other articles, such as silk and wool textiles, leather goods, and iron and steel products. Published import statistics are usually not sufficiently detailed for the Commission's purpose. For example, important tariff problems may hinge upon the quantity of imports of a particular size of yarn, wound and packed in a given way, and finished by secret or peculiar processes. It should be noted further, that such investigations into and surveys of industry require not only detailed accuracy of form and method, but also the employment of experts of special training and technical equipment. In addition to the domestic phases of the Commission's work mentioned above, considerable information is gathered from foreign sources. This information for the most part relates to (1) foreign tariffs and commercial relations, and (2) specific commodity studies of foreign products. Much data on these subjects are compiled from published documents, but representatives of the Commission are temporarily or permanently in residence in some foreign countries for the purpose of obtaining tariff information that is not available in this country. The studies of the Tariff Commission which have been published or which are in process of publication are as follows: The Acids of Paragraph I and Related Materials Provided for in the Tariff Act of 1913. Agricultural Staples and the Tariff. Annual reports: First. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth. Barytes, Barium Chemical, and Lithopone Industries. British Wool Manufacturing Industry, A Survey of the. The Brush Industry. The Button Industry. Census of Dyes and Coal-Tar Chemicals, 1917. Census of Dyes and Coal-Tar Chemicals, 1919. Commercial Treaties of the World-Handbook of. Cost of Production in the Dye Industry, 1918-1919. Cost of Production of the Sugar Industry. Cotton Cloth: Import and Export Trade in Relation to the Tariff. Cotton Yarn. The Crude Botanical Drug Industry. A Dictionary of Tariff Information.1 The Domestic Potato-Products Industries. Dumping and Unfair Foreign Competition in the United States and Canada's Anti-Dumping Law. Dyes and Other Coal-Tar Chemicals. Dyes and Related Coal-Tar Chemicals, 1918. The Dyestuff Situation in the Textile Industries. Ferroalloys and the Tariff (including Cost of Production). Free Zones in Ports of the United States. The Glass Industry as Affected by the War. Graphite. The Incandescent Gas-Mantle Industry. Industrial Readjustments of Certain Mineral Industries Affected by the War. Interim Legislation. Japanese Cotton. Industry and Trade. Japan, Foreign Trade of. Japan: Trade During the War. The Magnesite Industry-Finance Committee. The Magnesite Industry-Ways and Means Committee. Manganese Ore. Optical Glass and Chemical Glassware. Paper and Books. The Potash Industry. Pyrites and Sulphur Industry. Reciprocity and Commercial Treaties. Summary of Reciprocity and Commercial Treaties. Reciprocity with Canada. Refined Sugar-Costs, Prices and Profits. Revision of the Customs Administrative Laws. Scientific Instruments. Silk and Manufactures of Silk. The Silk Industry and the Tariff' (including Cost of Production). Statistics of Imports and Duties, 1908-1918. Subject Index to Tariff Information Surveys and Reports. I Publications in progress. Summary of Tariff Information, 1920—Ways and Means Committee. Tariff Reclassification.1 Tungsten-Bearing Ores. Vegetable Floor Coverings (including Cost of Production). The commodity reports contain data on domestic and foreign production; sources of raw materials; exports and imports; the revenue, where duties are levied; domestic and foreign prices; costs of production, if available; and court and Treasury decisions on customs laws. In addition to these statistics, textual discussions bring out peculiarities of the industry and explanations of facts and figures presented. The number of commodities covered by these studies is about 2,000.2 The Commission has undertaken to survey all important products listed in the tariff schedules, and plans to supplement such surveys with current information. INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION. The Interstate Commerce Commission was established by the Act of Congress approved February 4, 1887, known as the Interstate Commerce Act, which provided for a commission consisting of five members. By various amendatory and supplementary enactments the powers of the Commission have been increased and the scope of the regulating statute materially enlarged. The number of commissioners was increased under the Act of June 29, 1906, to seven; under the Act of August 9, 1917, to nine; and under the Transportation Act, 1920, to eleven. The Interstate Commerce Commission is a regulatory body having jurisdiction over common carriers engaged in interstate commerce. These include: carriers wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water when both are used under a common control, management, or arrangement for a continuous carriage or shipment; sleeping-car companies; express companies; pipe-line companies; bridges, ferries, car floats, lighters, and all terminal and transportation facilities used in handling property transported and all instrumentalities and facilities used in connection with the trans 1 Publications in progress. A complete list of all tariff surveys completed and in progress will be found in the fourth annual report of the Commission, and in its report entitled " Subject Index to Tariff Information Surveys and Reports." The organization of the Interstate Commerce Commission includes the following bureaus Traffic; Safety; Locomotive Inspection; Finance; Law; Inquiry; Statistics; Service; Accounts; Valuation; Formal Cases; Informal Cases; and Administration. mission of intelligence by the use of electric energy. The most im portant of all the carriers coming under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission are of course the steam railways. Section 20 of the Act of February 4, 1887, provides: That the Commission is hereby authorized to require annual reports from all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act, to fix the time and prescribe the manner in which such reports shall be made, and to require from such carriers specific answers to all questions upon which the Commission may need information. Such annual reports shall show in detail the amount of capital stock issued, the amounts paid therefor, and the manner of payment for the same; the dividends paid, the surplus fund, if any, and the number of stockholders; the funded and floating debts and the interest paid thereon; the cost and value of the carrier's property, franchises, and equipment; the number of employees and the salaries paid each class; the amounts expended for improvements each year, how expended, and the character of such improvements; the earnings and receipts from each branch of business and from all sources; the operating and other expenses; the balances of profit and loss; and a complete exhibit of the financial operations of the carrier each year, including an annual balance-sheet. Such reports shall also contain such information in relation to rates or regulations concerning fares or freights, or agreements, or contracts with other common carriers, as the Commission may require; and the said Commission may, within its discretion, for the purpose of enabling it the better to carry out the purposes of this act, prescribe (if in the opinion of the Commission it is practicable to prescribe such uniformity and methods of keeping accounts) a period of time within which all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act shall have, as near as may be, a uniform system of accounts, and the manner in which such accounts shall be kept. While the Commission is thus left free to determine the form of the annual reports, it will be seen that the Act itself requires that these reports should show certain detail. In accordance with these and other statutory provisions, all carriers subject to the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission are required to file annual reports or statements. In addition, the Commission requires monthly and quarterly reports from the larger railroads, and monthly reports from telephone, telegraph, sleeping-car, and express companies. All reports are submitted on standard forms provided by the Commission. Their value is greatly enhanced by the uniform system of accounting prescribed for the several classes of carriers by various orders of the Commission. In general, the forms of the annual reports required from carriers are designed to exhibit the physical, financial, and operating statistics of the respondents. In the case of the larger steam railways and switching and terminal companies the report (schedule) is a bound volume of about 80 large quarto pages, the form containing inquiries covering the following subjects: History and organization; principal officers; corporate control; voting powers and elections; comparative general balance sheet; guarantees and suretyships; in |