tonnage, speed, owner, trade in which to be engaged, and probable date of launching, of each vessel under construction.

For comparative and historical purposes, statements are presented which show the class, number, and tonnage of all vessels built in the United States and documented each year since 1797, and the class, number, and tonnage of metal vessels built in the United States and documented each year since 1838. The number and gross tonnage (but not the class) of all vessels built in the United States and documented each year since 1857 is also shown by geographical divisions. The last of this group of comparative statements shows, for each year since 1813, the tonnage of vessels of the United States which have been built, admitted to registry by acts of Congress, purchased, etc., and the tonnage lost, abandoned, sold to aliens, etc. In an appendix to the report is a list of American documented vessels of 1,000 gross tons and over built on the Great Lakes and transferred to the sea-board since 1900.

The statistics of documentation and construction described do not include yachting tonnage. Information regarding the latter is contained in separate tables which show the number and gross tonnage of documented yachts and of documented metal yachts of the United States by classes of motive power-sail, steam, or gas-and by ports in which documented; the number and tonnage of yachts built in the United States and documented during the year of the report, by classes of motive power and by ports in which built; and the number and gross tonnage of documented yachts lost, abandoned, sold to aliens, etc., during the year of the report, by classes of motive power.

SEAMEN.

The statements relating to seamen contained in the report of the Commissioner of Navigation are based upon the annual reports of the shipping commissioners. Shipping commissioners are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce at each port of entry which is also a port of ocean navigation and for which Congress has made the necessary appropriation. At any port in which no shipping commissioner has been appointed the collector or deputy collector of customs acts as shipping commissioner.

The statements relating to seamen are divided into two groups, the first dealing with shipments, reshipments, discharges, etc., and the second with wages.

The statements in the first group show by ports, for the year of the report, the number of seamen shipped, reshipped, and discharged by the shipping commissioners; the nationality of seamen shipped and reshipped; the number of seamen who failed to join American vessels in the United States after they had made contracts to serve

thereon; the number of seamen shipped to be discharged in foreign ports; the number of allotment notes issued to relatives of seamen for wages to be earned by the latter in the foreign trade; and the number of seamen shipped and discharged by collectors of customs and deputy collectors of customs in charge, acting as shipping commissioners.

The statements relating to wages of seamen show by destination, size of vessels, and ports of departure, the average monthly wages paid to seamen of each class on sail and steam vessels of the American merchant marine during the year of the report, and the average monthly wages paid to able seamen, first mates, firemen, and first engineers on American vessels each year from 1895 to the year of the report inclusive.

MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS.

The various miscellaneous statistical statements contained in the report relate to the collection of the tonnage tax, the enforcement of the navigation laws and the Radio Communication Act, etc.

The tonnage statistics show the tonnage tax collections during the fiscal year of the report, by customs districts, by flag or nationality of the vessels from which the taxes were collected, and by countries from which the vessels entered; and the collections during each fiscal year since 1884.

The statistics relating to the enforcement of the navigation laws and the Radio Communication Act deal, respectively, with the number of violations of the navigation laws reported and with the work done by the radio service of the Bureau.

The report also contains statistics adapted from reports of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce relating to the foreign carrying trade of the United States, to American and foreign tonnage entered and cleared, and to our water-borne imports and exports.

STEAMBOAT-INSPECTION SERVICE.

The act of Congress approved August 30, 1852, known as the Steamboat Act, established the present Steamboat-Inspection Service. Prior to the passage of this Act a number of laws had been enacted bearing upon the subject of "the better security of lives of passengers on board vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam." The Steamboat-Inspection Service was originally attached to the Treasury Department, but by the Act approved February 14, 1903, it was transferred to the Department of Commerce [and Labor] on July 1, 1903.

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The Steamboat-Inspection Service is charged with the inspection of the hulls and machinery of steam vessels and with the enforcement of the laws requiring passenger vessels to be equipped with boats, rafts, water-tight bulkheads, signal lights, life-saving appliances, and fire-fighting apparatus. It is also charged with determining the number of passengers a vessel can carry with safety, and the number of officers necessary for the safe navigation of vessels, and with the licensing of such officers.

This Service does not engage in the collection and dissemination of statistics other than those incident to its work in connection with the administration of the laws providing for the better security of the lives of passengers on steam vessels. Such statistics, which are published in the Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector General of Steamboats, relate to certificates of inspection issued to steam and motor vessels and to barges, by districts; to vessels inspected and officers licensed, by geographic divisions; to reinspections; to marineboiler plates tested; to new life preservers inspected; to lives lost on vessels subject to inspection, and to the number of accidents resulting in the loss of life.

OTHER BUREAUS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.

The remaining bureaus or services of the Department of Commerce, viz., the Bureau of Lighthouses, the Bureau of Standards, and the Coast and Geodetic Survey are not engaged in the collection of statistical data other than such as may be required for their own administrative purposes.

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the oldest bureau in the Department of Labor. It was established January 1, 1885, as the Bureau of Labor in the Department of the Interior. In 1888 it was made an independent establishment, and its name changed to the “Department of Labor," although its head, the Commissioner of Labor, was not of secretarial rank. The Act approved February 14, 1903, creating the Department of Commerce [and Labor], placed the "Department of Labor" in the new Department. Its old name, Bureau of Labor, was restored at the same time. Ten years later, by the Act approved March 4, 1913, the present Department of Labor was created, and the Bureau of Labor transferred to its jurisdiction under the name, "Bureau of Labor Statistics."

The work of the Bureau includes a number of statistical activities. An examination of the statutes fails to disclose any rigid delimitation of its jurisdiction; it may conduct investigations on any subjects directly or indirectly related to labor or the products of labor. Practically speaking, its field is limited only by the amounts annually appropriated by Congress for its support.

The principal statistical work of the Bureau includes the collection and compilation of statistics of wages and hours of labor, price statistics, cost of living statistics, and statistics of accidents in industry.

Wages and Hours of Labor.

In annually compiling statistics of wages and hours of labor, the Bureau has carried on two principal lines of inquiry. One relates to wages and hours of labor in selected industries; the other to the union scale of wages and hours of labor in important trade and occupational groups. The principal point of difference between the two inquiries is in the method of procuring the required data. Information concerning wages and hours of labor in selected industries is taken from representative payrolls; while the official wage scales of the unions afford the information required for the second inquiry.

Wages and hours of labor in selected industries.-The inquiry into the subject of wages and hours of labor in selected industries, develops for the various groups of workers in each industry, the following information: The average hourly wage rates; the average

scheduled hours of labor per week or other payroll period; the average hours actually worked per week or other payroll period; the average full time earnings of employees per week or other payroll period; and the average actual earnings of employees per week or other payroll period.

The averages given in the published reports are for representative weekly, monthly, or other payroll periods during the year, and comparable averages are given, when available, for corresponding periods in each year back to 1907. These reports are based on schedules returned by field agents, who visit representative plants in different parts of the country. A separate bulletin is issued for each industry studied.

This work was expanded during the war in response to a request from the War Industries Board for a general simultaneous survey of a large number of industries. In carrying out this larger undertaking, which, for the time being, supplanted the regular wages and hours inquiry, the Bureau gathered information concerning the wages and hours of labor of about 450,000 employees working in 27 industries. The data were collected for representative weekly, monthly, or other payroll periods between September, 1918, and May, 1919, inclusive. The results of this inquiry, which was known as the Industrial Survey," showed for each selected occupation, by States, the average actual hours of labor per day and the average wage rates, including bonuses.

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Union scale of wages and hours of labor.-The annual inquiry relating to union scales of wages and hours of labor considers for the selected trade and occupational groups in the great industrial cities of the country the union scale of wages per hour, per full-time week, and for over-time; and union hours, full days, Saturdays, and the full week. The results are published in bulletin form. In addition to the present wage and hour scales, these bulletins show the corresponding scales for previous years back to 1907; and they express in percentage terms for each trade or occupation, a comparison between rates of pay and hours of labor for each year back to 1907 and the present rates and hours.

These reports are based on schedules returned by field agents, who secure the requisite data from the local unions in each of the cities covered.

Annual Price Reports.

The purpose of the Bureau's work on the subject of wholesale prices is to disclose trade tendencies in a general way; its work on the subject of retail prices is designed to show the tendency of prices of those items that figure most heavily in the cost of living of all citizens. The two subjects are separately treated both in the collection of the basic data and in the publication of reports.