white population, the total number of foreign born white males of voting age, and the number of such persons who have been naturalized.

UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE.

Authority for opening an employment service in the Department of Labor was contained in the act creating the Department approved March 4, 1913, which provided that "The purpose of the Department of Labor shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment."

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The Urgent Deficiency Act of October 6, 1917, appropriated $250,000 "To enable the Secretary of Labor, during the present emergency, in addition to existing facilities to furnish such information and to render such assistance in the employment of wage earners throughout the United States as may be deemed necessary in the prosecution of the war, but it was not until January 3, 1918, that the Secretary of Labor issued complete instructions for the creation of a distinct employment service. Owing, however, to the failure of Congress to enact legislation defining the status of the United States Employment Service as an established unit of the Department of Labor, the service operates as a function rather than as a bureau of the Department.

The United States Employment Service, aside from its other functions, collects current information regarding fluctuations in the supply of and demand for labor throughout the United States. The organization necessary for the collection of these data consists of nine district directors in charge of the nine geographic divisions or districts1 into which the country has been divided, and 65 voluntary agents (called special agents). These volunteer agents are located in 65 leading industrial cities and collect information at the end of each month regarding the number of workers on the payrolls of firms usually employing 500 and over. Altogether figures are obtained from 1,428 establishments, representing 14 groups of industries.2 The data so collected are telegraphed on the last day of

1 The Bureau of the Census division is used. The districts are: New England, Middle Atlantic, East North Central, West North Central, South Atlantic, East South Central, West South Central, Mountain, and Pacific.

These groups of indusries, adopted from the U. S. Census of Manufactures, are: Food and kindred products; textiles and their products; iron and steel and their products; lumber and its manufactures; leather and its finished products; paper and printing; liquors and beverages; chemicals and allied products; stone, clay, and glass products; metals and metal products other than iron and steel; tobacco manufactures; vehicles for land transportation; railroad and repair shops; and miscellaneous industries.

each month to the Washington Office, where they are used as a basis for the formation of the industrial analysis which is embodied in each issue of the Industrial Employment Information Bulletin, a monthly publication of 20 quarto pages.

This bulletin contains (1) a monthly industrial analysis of the entire country; (2) current comment on employment conditions in the United States; and (3) a chart showing the location of public employment offices throughout the country. The industrial analysis is based on information gathered by the Department's special agents in the 65 industrial centers above referred to. The information collated is taken from authoritative sources through a canvass of employment conditions of the principal industries in these industrial centers. This analysis also shows the larger cities in the country that report employment increases or decreases over the preceding month. The current comment is a brief summary of the information gathered each month from 355 principal industrial centers, collated by the nine district directors of the United States Industrial Service and relates to such topics as the efforts made by industries to stimulate business, the housing situation, contemplated projects, and the probable number of workers that they will require, and the condition of the labor market throughout the country showing where surpluses and shortages exist. The Industrial Employment Information Bulletin has a circulation of approximately 7,000 copies, and it is distributed to manufacturing plants, banks, insurance companies, chain stores, Federal Reserve banks, commercial and labor organizations, libraries, and educational institutions about 10 days after the data are received in Washington.

Summaries of the other activities or functions of the United States Employment Service-placement of adult workers, vocational guidance, placement, and follow-up of juniors-appear in the annual report of the Director General.

OTHER BUREAUS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

In addition to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Children's Bureau, the Bureau of Immigration, the Bureau of Naturalization, and the United States Employment Service, whose statistical activities have been described, the Women's Bureau and the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation have been placed by law in the Department of Labor. Neither of these agencies engages in the collection, compilation or publication of statistical data of any importance.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

Prior to the establishment of the Geological Survey, no fewer than four Federal agencies had been engaged at different times in the preparation of topographic or geologic maps of the inland regions of the United States. These were the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, the Geographical Survey West of the One Hundredth Meridian, and the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region. In 1879 the Geological Survey was established as a bureau in the Department of the Interior, superseding all these services.

Without discussing the functions of the Geological Survey as a whole, or its organization, it should be noted that its statistical inquiries are conducted almost entirely by a division known as the Division of Mineral Resources. The Division of Power Resources, however, collects monthly statistics of electric power output and fuel consumption by public utility plants.

DIVISION OF MINERAL RESOURCES.

ANNUAL CENSUS OF MINERAL PRODUCTION.

The principal statistical work of the Division of Mineral Resources is the taking of an annual census of mineral production. In every tenth year the Division has cooperated in this inquiry with the Bureau of the Census, which is required by law to take a decennial census of mines and quarries. This joint inquiry is discussed on page 45 under the account of the statistical work of the Bureau of the Census.

The independent inquiry conducted in each of the intervening nine years takes account of the 89 classes of mineral products listed below.

The inquiry made jointly by the Bureau of the Census and the Geological Survey extends to all these classes of mineral products except those indicated by an asterisk (*), which are considered by the Bureau of the Census as industrially unimportant. The Geological Survey gathers the statistics relating to those excepted classes in the decennial census year precisely as in other years.

The following account relates only to the inquiries made by the Geological Survey independently of the Bureau of the Census.

A separate schedule of inquiry is used for each mineral or class of minerals noted in the above list. The schedule data is secured mainly by correspondence with producers. Agents of the Geological Survey, however, call personally upon the largest mining companies, and upon other important producers who do not fill out and return the schedules in response to the Survey's mail requests.

Seventeen States, which would otherwise conduct independent statistical inquiries concerning mineral production within their borders, cooperate with the Geological Survey in these inquiries.

Completed reports as to the production of gold and silver are prepared in cooperation with the Bureau of the Mint of the Treasu Department. The two offices compare notes, and agree on a commc report which is published by both offices.

Statistics of mineral production are published annually by the Geological Survey in bulletins known as Advance Chapters or Separates. These are later issued together in an annual publication of two volumes, entitled Mineral Resources of the United States. Each preliminary bulletin deals with a single mineral or class of minerals, the separates being issued as fast as the material can be assembled in from two to more than twelve months after the close of the year to which it relates according to amount of work involved. Volume 1 of Mineral Resources of the United States treats of metals, and volume 2 treats of non-metals. Each volume contains about 1,000 pages. About 15 per cent of this publication consists of statistical tabulations, the remainder being devoted for the most part to reviews of industrial conditions and descriptions of newly discovered or newly developed deposits, and of recent advances in technical processes. An attempt is made to throw light upon the country's reserves of each mineral, as, according to the interpretation of the Geological Survey, the purpose of mineral production statistics is to measure capacity more than to record past performances.

The tabulations show the quantities of each mineral produced, but for certain minerals other data also are shown in tabular form. For example, in the report on coal several tables relate to labor emploved and to strikes and suspensions in coal mining during the year of the report, while the report on petroleum considers such matters as the number of wells drilled and acreage held each year. For many minerals the report shows the quantities of the finished products consumed in each of several uses. The report includes also a chapter giving a general survey of the year's mineral production. The two volume completed report for the year 1916 was not issued until late in 1919. Usually, however, the complete volumes are issued about 18 months after the close of the year to which they relate.

In August, 1919, a preliminary summary report was issued containing statistics on all minerals for the calendar year 1918. This