Monthly Catalogue

United States Public Documents

No. 154

October, 1907

ISSUED BY THE

SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1907

Common abbreviations for names of States and months are also used.

* indicates document for sale by Superintendent of Documents.

† indicates distribution by office issuing document.

When size is not given, octavo is to be understood. Size of maps is measnred from outer edge of border, excluding margin.

This number of the Monthly catalogue will be sent to several hundred libraries which are not now on our regular mailing list. If librarians can make use of the Catalogue and desire to have their libraries supplied in the future, they should notify us at once, giving plainly their address.

Unless such a request is received, future issues will not be sent This applies only to those libraries which are not now on the regular mailing list for the Monthly catalogue.

The edition is limited to 2,000 copies, and it is our desire that every copy be placed where it will be of the most service. Back numbers from July, 1907, will be furnished on application.

Several valuable suggestions have been received and incorporated in the Catalogue. It has been found impossible to comply with the requests in many instances, but the suggestions are none the less appreciated.

We are endeavoring to make the Monthly catalogue the medium for transmitting, to those interested, help in the study of United States Government publications.

For years the Library Commissions of the various States, as well as hundreds of the librarians themselves, have besought this Office to relieve them of their unused surplus of Government publications, for which they found no market, either by exchange or sale, and which they did not feel at liberty to destroy.

Limitation of storage space and lack of competent help to handle the documents properly compelled the Superintendent of Documents to accept only a small portion of these proffered returns. Even with repeated refusals and every attempt being made to discourage the librarians in this respect, over 3,000,000 books, pamphlets, and circulars have accumulated and are now occupying valuable storage space in this office.

At last, it is possible to throw wide the doors and invite the return of useless Government publications from all sources, and at the same time offer to the libraries of the country hundreds of useful documents from the heaps upon heaps now used only as dust collectors.

Under date of October 1, 1907, the lists and circulars connected with this great clearing-house or exchange scheme were sent out to every library in the country, the name of which could be obtained.

Over 6,000 sets of these information circulars were disposed of, and the libraries were requested to fill up the blanks and return them as quickly as possible.

The returns so far are gratifying, although not as many have replied as were anticipated. Usually, when anything is offered free, there are plenty to demand the product. Perhaps many did not reply because the matter outlined entailed a little labor.

However, this campaign will succeed and in the end we will have the libraries of the country in possession of just those publications which they desire and can use to advantage, and those which to some are of little or no service will find their way into the proper fields.

It is necessary, in dealing with so large a number of libraries, to establish certain rules for supplying publications. In order to simplify the work in this Office, and at the same time provide a convenient and uniform blank for applications, the following form was adopted, which is printed 10 to a sheet, and made up into pads of 50 sheets each.

—Library No.— (Do not write on this line)

Title:—

Series—

Issuing Office—

Ship as requested—

Accompanying these sheets were the following instructions, which it was hoped would insure the proper filling out of the "Library Wants," but which in many cases were not clearly understood:

Enter on the blanks entitled "Library Wants" the titles of publications which are desired.

Enter but one title on a block, and do not run beyond the perforated lines. a

a By this is meant that a block when filled out should represent but one publication, whether it be an annual, a serial, or a titled publication of a miscellaneous nature. The entry should describe but a single publication, be it a year, or number, or title.

Duplicate copies of these "want" lists should be retained by the library for checking purposes, as no detailed invoice will be sent with shipments.

Great care should be taken in transcribing the titles. Be sure they are accurate.

Where possible use series titles only (such as Geological Survey bulletin, no. 203).

In the case of the Congressional series, the serial number is all that need be given.

Always return a full sheet, even though only one block is used. Requests will be filled in the order of their receipt. No requests will be considered unless the lists are properly filled out in every particular.

Those books which can be furnished will be promptly forwarded, and the "want" slips for those not on hand will be filed for checking, and whenever any of the publications are received they will be forwarded.

In the future this form of request will be adopted for all "wants." This system will provide the libraries with a surer method of filling up gaps than previous spasmodic endeavors have developed.

No letter need accompany these "want" blanks, but the name of the library must appear at the top of the first sheet of a list, and the library number must in every case be plainly stamped or written on each block of a blank which is used.

Books sent out upon request of libraries are required by law to be for public use without charge, are always stamped "Property of the United States Government," and must not be destroyed, removed, or otherwise disposed of, except as this Office shall direct.

It will be of service to this Office if you carefully note your library number and refer to it in your future correspondence.

Address all communications:

SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS,

Government Printing Office,

Washington, D. C.

On several other occasions we have attempted to write instructions or ask questions of the library world and have found that our use of the English language was not sufficiently in accord with library methods to gain the attention and comprehension which were desired.

In this instance some librarians have inquired if they should enter several publications in an annual or a numbered series on a block, although the instructions state clearly, "Enter but one title on a block." What should have been said An explanation of the instructions seems to us like painting the lily. Is not the title of a book, even though it be issued annually, as distinct for each year as though it were worded differently?

The line "Ship as requested" is for the use of this Office and need not be taken into account by the librarians.

Perhaps a little more extended explanation of the use to which these slips are to be put will reveal the necessity of entering but one title or the request for one publication on a block.

Where it is found impossible to supply the publication requested, the want slip will be filed under its proper classification to await the receipt of the book, and these slips will be checked daily by the book receipts, and the "want" slips withdrawn and used as "order out blanks" when it becomes possible to supply the work desired.

These "library wants" blanks will be supplied on application, as will any of the other literature relative to the clearing-house proposition, and hereafter requests from those libraries which have received this notification will not be considered unless made on the proper forms. Attention to this ruling will save much time and avoid needless correspondence.

A shipment will soon be made to depository libraries. The receipt of books for this purpose has been slow for the past few months. The last shipment was made July 13, 1907, and the present invoice covers all books received since that time, except the Statutes at large, which will be sent as a special shipment as soon as Part 3 is received from the Printing Office.

Users of the Document catalogue will be glad to learn that the long-delayed Catalogue of the 58th Congress is at last ready for the press, and that the Catalogue for the 59th Congress is in a fair way towards completion. The reorganization of the Office, which took all the cataloguers away from their regular work, is responsible for the late issue of these publications.

Decidedly the most important and interesting public document of the month is the Twenty-fifth annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Besides the usual administrative summary of the work of the Bureau for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, it contains two extensive and profusely illustrated memoirs by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes, one entitled "The aborigines of Porto Rico and neighboring islands," the other "Certain antiquities of eastern Mexico." The second paper is considered preliminary only, though it is indorsed by Professor Holmes, Chief of the Bureau of Ethnology, as "a very important contribution to our knowledge of the ancient culture of the Gulf States of Mexico." The first memoir is based upon personal research and collection in Porto Rico by the author during the years 1901, 1903, and. 1904, enabling Professor Holmes to say that "the data for the report are drawn from the largest and most representative collection of Porto Rican archeological material in the world. * * * Archeological objects are the main sources from which we may now hope to interpret aboriginal Porto Rican life in prehistoric and early historic times. Doctor Fewkes gives due prominence to this source in his report, bringing, when possible, pertinent ethnological and historical evidences to the support of the archeological data. By the use of these three methods he is able to present a picture of the characteristic culture of the aborigines of one of the most important of our insular possessions."

The ninth volume of the literal reprint of the "Journals of the Continental Congress" has just come off the press. This remarkable reproduction, critically edited and annotated in the Library of Congress, illustrated with facsimiles of rare historical documents, and printed from special type on special paper, is sold by the Superintendent of Documents at the amazingly low price of $1 a volume.

The Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1906 was issued during the month. Like the preceding numbers for half a century, it gives, in its General appendix, a most valuable and interesting illustrated scientific miscellany of more than 400 pages.

The Census Bureau, in continuation of its publication of the results of the census of manufactures taken in 1905, has issued five new bulletins giving a statistical view of various industries. No. 81 relates to shipbuilding; no. 84, to carriages and wagons and the steam and street railroad car industry; no. 85, to pens and pencils, buttons, needles, pins, and hooks and eyes, oilcloth and linoleum, and turpentine and rosin; no. 86, to copper, lead, and zinc, smelting and refining; and no. 88, to power employed in manufactures. These bulletins are not altogether in figures. The statistics are also interestingly summarized in the text.

The Census Bureau issues also a special report of 372 pages on the 1905 statistics of cities of over 30,000 inhabitants. How many such cities are there now in the United States? Only 154. When the Government was formed, in 1789, there were two—Philadelphia and New York—Philadelphia being the larger, but hardly 40,000. As estimated in this special report, the 1905 population of New York was 4,000,403, and of Philadelphia 1,417,062. The report contains also an exhaustive monograph on a very important subject—Accounting, and especially governmental accounting.

Bulletin 101 of the Plant Industry Bureau is a contents table of and index to the preceding 100 bulletins of that industrious and useful bureau. An index to the mass of scientific material contained in the first 100 bulletins is something much to be desired, but it is also much to be desired that Government indexes should have a more modern and compact and convenient form. This index departs so widely from the accepted forms as to be almost grotesque. Still, any index is better than no index, and this one will no doubt be found to have a certain usefulness.

The Experiment Stations Office, Agriculture Department, has issued a small circular on a large subject. It is Circular 76, and its title is, "Swamp and overflowed lands in the United States, ownership and reclamation." It relates, however, only to the States east of the Rocky Mountains. In these States it is found, after an extensive canvass, that the swamp lands amount, approximately, to 77,000,000 acres. The question of draining these lands and making them available for tillage is not a whit less important than that of the irrigation of the arid lands. The subject of draining the swamp lands has taken a strong hold on the public mind, and early governmental action upon it seems to be rather confidently hoped for. Circular 76 is therefore timely, and the figures it gives of possible profit are fascinating.

The Geological Survey devotes its Bulletin 313, of 200 pages, to a description, both scientific and popular, of one of the chief assets of the State of Maine, namely, its rock-bound coasts and granite ledges.

Land decisions, v. 35, is in the month's list.

The publications of the Experiment Stations Office relating to diet and nutrition have aroused about as much popular interest as any class of official documents. An interesting addition to the series is the one issued this month, Bulletin 193, giving the results of experiments made at the University of Illinois to determine which method of cooking makes meat most digestible. Like the former publications of the Experiment Stations Office, this one does little to bolster any current theory. So far as the new experiments may be held to determine the question, one kind of cooking is as good as another. Whether fried, broiled, roasted, or boiled, the meat was found to digest just about as well.

One of the most vital subjects nowadays is the purity of the milk supply. Animal Industry Circular 117 gives a useful new idea concerning it.

Many teachers and others will be glad to know that the Education Bureau has begun the issue of a series of bulletins on various phases of educational work. No. 2 of the series is a stout pamphlet of 140 pages, well indexed. Its subject is Agricultural education, including nature study and school gardens.

The commendable policy of getting the information gathered by Government investigators into the hands of the public at the earliest moment by issuing voluminous reports in piecemeal, that is, in separate pamphlet parts, is steadily pursued. The annual volume for the calendar year 1906, entitled "Mineral resources of the United States," can not be issued in full for some time yet, but we have this month three pamphlet parts of it, which show the 1906 production of salt, of slate, and of tin. From the still unissued report on the field operations of the Bureau of Soils for 1906 we have pamphlet parts describing and mapping the soil surveys of Blue Earth County, and of Crookston area, Minn., Greene County, Ind., and Ransom County, N. Dak.

These are but samples from the October list. Many others are of almost equal import and interest. Investigators in many lines may find aid in the October documents.

For several years certain notes of correction have been affixed to certain pages in the copy of volume 1 of the 1896 Report of the American Historical Association standing on the shelves of the Public Documents library. There is apparently no good reason why other copies in other libraries should not have the same corrections, and the most effective way to pass them along is to print them here. The first note is in reply to a paragraph on page 1112, which reads thus:

It is to be noted that Richardson, in his valuable Messages and Papers of the Presidents, which will be described later in volume 1, omits the proclamations, or, rather, notices, that assembled the Senate in its special session of July 17 to 19, 1798, when Adams wished to secure the prompt confirmation of Washington to be lieutenant-general.

The note correcting the statement concerning General Washington is as follows:

This is a gross historical error. The nomination of Washington had been sent to the Senate July 2, 1798, and confirmed by unanimous vote July 3. July 7 President Adams wrote a notification to General Washington, which was delivered to him at Mount Vernon on the evening of the 11th by the Secretary of War (James McHenry, of Maryland). July 13 Washington wrote his acceptance, which was delivered to the President on the morning of July 17 by the Secretary, and on the 18th was sent to the Senate. On the 18th the President also sent in a message nominating Alexander Hamilton to be inspector-general with the rank of major-general, and several other general officers, Hamilton being thus made the ranking officer of the Army, second only to Washington. All of these nominations except one brigadier were confirmed July 19, 1798. The special (16th) session of the Senate which began July 17 and ended July 19, 1798, was not called by proclamation but by personal notice, dated July 16, to each Senator. These facts and dates are clearly set forth in the Executive Journals of the Senate, printed at Washington, 1828, by Duff Green, v. 1, pages 284, 289-293.

It is thus made plain that President Adams was not compelled to resort to a special session nor to any other special means to "secure" the confirmation of Washington's nomination as lieutenant-general and commander in chief to serve during the then expected war with France.

The second note is inserted opposite page 1113 and relates to the beginning of the practice of numbering the documents ordered printed in the Senate and the House in a continuous sequence during each session. In the article quoted from the Superintendent of Documents is sharply called to account for not beginning the general numbering of the bound volumes of documents with the Thirteenth Congress rather than with the Fifteenth Congress. Dr. John G. Ames, formerly superintendent of documents in the Department of the Interior, decided on the point of beginning, and, in fact, originated the scheme of a continuous whole number, but the writer in the American Historical Association report apparently did not know this and intended his criticism for the publisher of the second edition of the Ames Checklist of public documents, in which the volume numbers were first printed. The particular paragraph in page 1113 to which the note is intended as a reply is the following:

Recurring to the action of Congress itself, it may be said that it was not until the commencement of the Thirteenth Congress, in December, 1813, that the House of Representatives, which legislative branch publishes by far the larger number of documents and reports, realized sufficiently the growing importance and permanent value of its own transactions to impel it to introduce systematic methods of publication. The House then adopted a consecutive series of numbers, which was applied to its public documents, beginning anew at the commencement of each Congress and running uninterruptedly to the end of the last session of such Congress.

The note correcting the statements in this paragraph reads thus:

These remarks are highly erroneous and misleading. The Thirteenth Congress did not begin its term in December, 1813, nor did it then first convene. Its second session began in the month named, on the 6th day; but at this session the House did not "adopt a consecutive series of numbers, which was applied to its public documents, beginning anew at the commencement of each Congress and running uninterruptedly to the end of the last session of such Congress." The action taken was, first, December 8, 1813, when, on motion of Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts, it was ordered by the House that all those documents of the House "which * * * shall be printed in octavo fold * * * shall have their pages numbered in one continuous series of numbers, commencing and terminating with each session." This applied only to octavos, provided for consecutive paging, not numbering, and for a new series of page numbers, not for each Congress only, but for each session. Six days later, December 14, Mr. Pickering moved an order "that the documents which were the subject of the order of the House of the 8th instant" (that is, the octavos), "instead of having their pages numbered consecutively in one continuous series * * * each session, shall be themselves numbered in a regular series in the order of time in which they shall be directed to be printed; the number of the document to appear on every page in addition to the page number." If all House documents had been octavos, it might have been possible to apply a system of serial numbering to the House documents at and after the second session of the Thirteenth Congress. But as a matter of fact the most important documents, the annual reports from the Executive Departments, were presented to Congress in folio form, already printed but not numbered. Even up to the end of the Fourteenth Congress this was the case. Not until the last day of that Congress, March 3, 1817, did both Houses adopt a joint resolution requiring that all Congressional documents should thereafter be printed in the octavo size. Thus it followed that at the beginning of the Fifteenth Congress for the first time did the rule requiring the numbering of octavo documents become applicable to all documents and the use of a serial system of numbering the bound volumes become feasible. The document numbering and the volume numbering have always been by sessional series, never by series of Congresses.

Libraries which have not a cloth copy of volume 1 of the American Historical Association Report for 1896 will find it in the "sheep set" as serial number 3550, v. 1.