Monthly Catalogue

United States Public Documents

No. 228

December, 1913

ISSUED BY THE

SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS

WASHINGTON

1914

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

H. or S. followed by a number stands for House bill or Senate bill, respectively.

* Document for sale by Superintendent of Documents.

† Distribution by office issuing document, free if unaccompanied by a price.

‡ Document not obtainable.

Words and figures inclosed in brackets [] are given for information, but do not appear on the title-pages of the publications catalogued. When size is not given octavo is to be understood. Size of maps is measured from outer edge of border, excluding margin. The dates, including day, month, and year, given with Senate and House documents and reports, are the dates on which they were ordered to be printed. Usually the printing promptly follows the ordering, but various causes sometimes make delays. When Congress and session are not given with the numbers of Senate and House documents and reports, 63d Congress, 2d session, is to be understood.

The Superintendent of Documents is authorized to sell at cost any public document in his charge, the distribution of which is not otherwise provided for.

Documents can not be supplied by this Office free to individuals nor forwarded in advance of payment.

Documents entered in this catalogue that are for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., are indicated by a star (*) preceding the price named. A dagger (†) indicates that application should be made to the Department, Bureau, or Division issuing the document, a double dagger (‡) indicates that the document is not obtainable, and whenever additional information concerning the method of procuring a document seems necessary it will be found under the name of the Bureau. The Senate and House documents and reports are issued in limited editions and, unless otherwise indicated, may be obtained only through Members of Congress.

In ordering a publication from the Superintendent of Documents, give the name of the issuing Department, Bureau, or Division, and title. If publication is numbered give number also. Do not order by Library of Congress card number.

Read carefully the instructions "How to remit," found at the bottom of the next page.

The accumulation of publications in this Office amounts to several millions, of which over a million are assorted, forming the sales stock. Many rare books are included, but under the law all must be sold "at cost," regardless of their age or scarcity.

In ordering, it should be borne in mind that many of the books have been in stock some time and are apt to be shop-worn. In filling orders, however, the best copy available is sent.

No general price-list of public documents is available, but lists on special subjects will be furnished on application.

The Monthly catalogue is sent to each Senator, Representative, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, and officer in Congress, to designated depositories and State and Territorial libraries, to substantially all Government authors, and to as many school, college, and public libraries as the limited edition will supply.

Subscription price to individuals, $1.10 a year, including index. Back numbers can not be supplied. Please notify the Superintendent of Documents of any change in address.

Numbers to be used in ordering the L. C. catalogue cards will be found at the end of the titles of the more important monographic documents. The figure following the card number (separated from it by a slanting line) indicates the number of cards required for entries suggested (title entry not included) on the cards. The price of the cards is 2c. for the first card and 7/10c. for each additional card for the same title ordered at the same time. Remittances should be made to the Librarian of Congress. Cards can not be furnished by the Superintendent of Documents.

Beginning with July, 1913, an Index to the Monthly catalogue will be issued at the end of the fiscal year, June, 1914. This will contain index entries for all the numbers issued from July, 1913, to June, 1914, and can be bound with those numbers as an index for the volume. Persons desiring to bind the catalogue at the end of the year should be careful to retain the numbers received monthly, as duplicate numbers can not be supplied.

Remittances for the documents marked with a star (*) should be made to the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., by postal money order, express order, or New York draft. Currency may be sent at sender's risk.

Postage stamps, foreign money, defaced or smooth coins will positively not be accepted.

To facilitate the payment of the cost of documents, the Superintendent of Documents will hereafter accept coupons issued by him instead of cash. Coupons of the value of 5 cents each are sold in sets of 20 for $1.00. Address order to Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office.

No charge is made for postage on documents forwarded to points in United States, Guam, Hawaii, Philippine Islands, Porto Rico, or to Canada, Cuba, or Mexico. To other countries the regular rate of postage is charged, and remittances must cover such postage.

The quarterly magazine, Bulletin of Mount Weather Observatory, established in 1908, has been consolidated with the Monthly weather review, and the Mount Weather, Va., observatory has been virtually abandoned, the scientific force having been reduced to one caretaker.

Miscellaneous series 10, Foreign and Domestic Commerce Bureau, Foreign publications for advertising American goods, is out of press. It is a list of publications (chiefly newspapers) issued in all parts of the world, with instructive notes as to character, circulation, rates, population of cities, towns, and provinces where published, commercial wants of the people, and other particulars necessary to the intelligent direction of advertising campaigns. It does not profess to be a complete directory, but only a slight inspection of it is needed to convince any business man that it is packed with valuable information. Sold by the Superintendent of Documents at 25 cents.

The November Monthly catalogue recorded the fact that on Nov. 11 the Geological Survey had sent to the Public Printer its Water-supply paper 337 under the rule which permits publishing bureaus to ask that their publications be marked "Special—rush to the limit," on condition that they shall be charged 20 per cent, above the ordinary price for printing. The publication now in question was rushed so effectively that on Dec. 24 the Survey had not only received its copies but had disposed of the whole edition and sent in an order for 1000 copies more. The title of the publication is "The effects of ice on stream flow," and this is the season when such a treatise is most timely. Perhaps some day the Documents Office will feel rich enough to mark its Monthly catalogues and price lists "Special—rush to the limit."

Geological Survey Professional paper 79, not yet out of press, treats of a new science, Fossil geography. This is an attempt by Professor Henry Shaler Williams to reconstruct the geological map of the world on the basis of the finds of fossils. The reasons for believing this undertaking to be possible are set forth in the paper. It shows that groups of animals or faunas may be driven out of a region by earth movements or other causes, and that the same animals, slightly modified perhaps, but still recognizable, may later return to the region. A study of the fossils representing these recurrent fauna may thus throw light on geographic changes.

The Official Congressional directory is the one document which contains more information than any other as to Government officials, their history, rank, duties, powers, etc. The new edition, published according to law at the opening of the regular session of Congress, Dec. 1, 1913, is now on sale by the Superintendent of Documents, in cloth, at 60 cents.

This latest edition of the Congressional directory is not to be reprinted as a numbered Congressional document, and it is the present intention that there shall be no more such superfluous and wasteful reprints. It is a useful document without such numbering, and the addition of the number gives no added value, though it does give some added cost. When the Documents Office was newly established it discovered that the official libraries (designated depositories) were getting only the numbered copies of the Directory bound in costly and worthless sheep bindings. As the "Congressional reserve" was then from two to four years in arrears, the net result was that no library received a Directory until years after its interest and value had mostly evaporated. To remedy this a successful appeal was made to the Public Printer of that day to supply cloth bound copies of the first (unnumbered) print for the libraries. So fully was the appeal responded to that not only was the 1st edition in red cloth sent, but also the 2d edition in blue cloth, and likewise the 3d edition in green cloth when there was one. This liberal treatment of the libraries made it seem wasteful to send them in addition a leather bound copy of the Directory three or four years after, but the Documents Office failed in its efforts to have this belated sending discontinued. So for some years the libraries got all the kinds of Congressional directories that were published. But of course if there are to be no more numbered copies none can be sent.

This is the season of annual reports of Government officials. It is the fashion to scoff at these documents as literary lumber, too dry for any use except feeding bonfires. The simple fact is, however, that they embody the record and the purposes of the executive branch of the Government, and nobody can understand the work done and planned by any Department, bureau, service, or office of the Government without rending the annual report of its head. Any or nil of the annual reports for 1913 can be supplied by the Superintendent of Documents at the cost of paper and printing. They are numerous, for every Government organization, great or small, though it may not transmit or publish anything else, transmits an annual report, and the most of thorn are printed. The only exception is the State Department.

A small but important change has been made in the method of publication of the slip laws. Heretofore, during all the years of the publication of these separate prints of the laws, no indication of the Congress from which they proceeded appeared on any of them except no. 1 of each session. Any person who had such a law and wanted to know to what Congress it belonged could find the date of approval at the end, and then, if he had the necessary records at hand, could find what Congress was sitting at that date. This was his only means of getting the desired information. Beginning with the first law of the 2d session of the 63d Congress, the heading has been modified to read thus: "Public—No. 39-63d Congress." Formerly the words "63d Congress" were not included. This small and much belated change, costing nothing, will be a convenience to many good citizens.

The 1913 revised edition of the Soldiers' handbook, canvas bound, is now ready. Price, 15 cents.

The Proceedings of the 29th annual convention of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, held at Washington, Sept. 16-18, 1012, has been published as Chemistry Bureau Bulletin 162. price 25 cents. The rumor that these proceedings were no longer to be published by the Government it seems was incorrect.

Education Bureau Bulletin 48, series of 1913, is a report of the 4th International Congress of School Hygiene, held at Buffalo last August. It was an important meeting, attended by delegates from many countries, and Bulletin 48 presents a compact and convenient report of its action. (15 cents.) The next Congress is to be held in Brussels, Belgium, in 1915.

Of all the very numerous publications of the United States Geological Survey, those for which there seems to be the most active demand, and the supply of which is soonest exhausted, are the annual collections of papers published under the title Contributions to economic geology, and receiving nonconsecutive numbers in the bulletin series. A recent issue is Bulletin 531, being Part 2 of the Contributions for the calendar year 1911, the special subject treated being Mineral fuels. Price, 45 cents.

Index to the reports of the Chief of Ordnance, Army, 1864 to 1912, is a December publication, in red cloth, which can be supplied by the Superintendent of Documents for 35 cents.

The Educational directory for 1913, published as Education Bureau Bulletin 46, series of 1913, can be supplied for 15 cents.

The State Department has published a list of the Diplomatic and consular service of the United States, corrected to Dec. 11, 1913. This list can not be supplied by the Superintendent of Documents.

Appendix 1, Report of Chief of Ordnance, Army, 1913, The Taylor system of shop management at the Watertown Arsenal, has been separately printed and is sold by the Superintendent of Documents at 10 cents. It is made up of two petitions by workmen at the Arsenal, asking for the discontinuance of the Taylor system, and a reply by General Crozier, Chief of Ordnance.

Bulletin 127. Bureau of Labor Statistics, has for title: Dangers to workers from dusts and fumes and methods of protection. It is in major part made up of photographic plates illustrating the dangers and the protection. There are 62 such full-page plates. Price, 40 cents.

A pamphlet in which a good deal of interest has been shown both before and after publication is Special agents series 76 of the Foreign and Domestic Commerce Bureau. Commerce and industries of Canada and Newfoundland is its title and 10 cents is its price.

Drs. Wilbert and Motter have prepared for the Public Health Service a Digest of laws and regulations relating to the possession, use, sale, and manufacture of poisons and habit-forming drugs enacted during 1912 and 1913, now in force in the United States, and the Superintendent of Documents is selling it for 10 cents. It is well to let those who trifle with drugs and toxins know that their practices are against the law as well as against good sense, but no law can put much sense into the heads of those who carelessly leave poisons accessible to small children, a practice whose dire consequences are reported almost daily in the newspapers.

Aviation has now been the subject of an annual naval report for two years and it can safely be predicted that it will be continued for many years to come. The reports for 1912 and 1913 lave been issued as Appendix 1 to the Annual report of the Navigation Bureau, Navy Department. Of course the Signal Corps of the Army has been experimenting and reporting on this subject for a longer time.

Bulletin 26, Agriculture Department, is American medicinal flowers, fruits, and seeds, by Alice Henkel. This author's previous publications on medicinal plants, roots, and barks have had a large sale, and this latest one is likely to duplicate this record. The price is 5 cents.

Public Health Service has issued a compilation entitled Municipal ordinances, rules, and regulations pertaining to public health adopted from July 1, 1911, to Dec. 31, 1911, by cities of the United States having a population of over 10,000 in 1910. Though the period covered is limited, the document fills 226 pages. It is Reprint 121 from the weekly Public health reports.

A clever and useful manual Is Bulletin 47, series of 1913, Education Bureau, Teaching material in Government publications, compiled by Frederick K. Noyes. In the small compass of 61 pages he has gathered a rather surprising amount of information. From the publications of the Commerce Department, the Treasury Department, the Immigration Commission, the Labor Department, the Interior Department, the Census Bureau, the Industrial Commission, the Senate and the House, and other Government publishing offices, especially from the Agriculture Department and its numerous scientific bureaus, he has gathered several hundred titles of public documents, every one of which contains matter worthy to be taught to scholars in one or another of the school or college grades. The finding of such material is not strange, for everybody who knows anything of the public documents knows that it exists in bountiful measure, but the arrangement of it in alphabetical order by authors under subject headings may prove generally convenient, while a smart little index rounds it out to completion. Besides all this is the further and very important feature, a most unusual feature in bibliographies, that the compiler gives his readers most minute and intelligible instructions as to how they may get the publications that are cited in his list. Price, 10 cents.

The Annual report of the Librarian of Congress, always an interesting document, is especially so in its 1913 issue, because of Appendix 4, relating to that very much alive subject, a legislative reference bureau, a great and crying need in the organization of the legislative branch of the Government.

Internal revenue Regulations no. 33, relative to the income tax of individuals, including all decisions and regulations, and some (perhaps all) of the forms for income returns that had been issued up to the end of the calendar year 1913 (possibly even a little later) is now in press, under the "rush to the limit" rule, and will in all probability be on sale by the Superintendent of Documents before this number of the Monthly catalogue reaches the reader. The price can not be determined till the publication is out of press. There will also be a large free distribution of Regulations no. 33 by the Treasury Department. Regulations of all later dates will be found in the weekly Treasury decisions, mailed promptly to subscribers by the Superintendent of Documents at $1.75 a year.

The State Department has issued its circular announcing that a set of the laws of the 63d Congress, 1st session, consists of Public acts 1 to 38; Public resolutions 1 to 13; Private act 1; Private resolutions 1 and 2.

Supplement 1 to the July, 1913, edition of the list of Radio stations of the United States issued by the Navigation Bureau, Commerce Department, is now on sale by the Superintendent of Documents at 10 cents. It supplies corrections in the list up to Oct. 1, 1913. Two more supplements will be published before the issue of the 1914 edition of the entire list. These three supplements, supplying Quarterly corrections to the radio stations list, will be supplied for 26 cents paid in advance. By such payment, subscribers will ensure receipt of the supplements as soon as issued without the trouble of making further remittances.

Mr. Richard Rogers Bowker is an American citizen who for many years has been active in literature, politics, and business. He is especially well known in the book trade and in library circles. He is the editor, publisher, and proprietor of the Publishers' weekly, organ of the book trade, and of the Library journal, organ of the American Library Association. He is the author of several books on important subjects. No man has a better right to address a letter to the President, and if his letter of Dec. 4, 1913, had reached the President's eye it would certainly have been treated with respect. But it is well known that not one in a hundred of the letters addressed to the President ever can meet his eye, and Mr. Bowker's letter, like most others of the kind, was referred by one of the President's secretaries to a lesser official for consideration. As this letter raised a question of the preparation and printing of public documents, it was appropriately referred to the Public Printer, and was by him again appropriately referred to the Superintendent of Documents.

The letter is not of a private nature, but makes suggestions of a public kind, and is sure to be of much interest to all librarians. It seems therefore, entirely appropriate that it should be printed here and followed by a few comments which it is hoped may be found equally appropriate:

141 East 25th St., New York, December 4, 1913.

To the President:

Sir: I should hesitate to add my personal mite of felicitation to the burden of congratulations on your message but that I venture to make a suggestion in the direction of informing the people and thus increasing democratic relations of governed and government.

This is—that there be printed with the message a compact summary furnished by each Department of its own operations and its recommendations, combined in a pamphlet to be had at a minimum price through the Superintendent of Documents or sold at each post-office for a few cents, or possibly furnished gratuitously at each post-office to any citizen as postal information is supplied. Possibly such a pamphlet might usefully include a schedule of receipts and expenditures of the government, compacted like the tabulation now printed on the back of New York City tax-bills; a summary of the more important legislation of the Congress directly bearing upon the people; and a select list of government publications of the year, with information as to price and method of purchasing—particularly those of the Agriculture Department, which should be better known to farmers and to the people generally.

Truly yours,

R. R. BOWKER.

The Monthly catalogue is of course not in any sense authorized to speak for the President, but there are a few things in relation to his messages to Congress so obvious that it is surprising such a veteran observer as Mr. Bowker should have failed to take note of them. President Wilson, as a historian, has probably read pretty much all the Presidential messages that were ever penned, and it is likely he has become impressed with the feeling that it is hopeless to expect the average man to read such formal, labored, detailed, statistical documents. He may even in his reading have come across the political story of half a century and more ago that the reason Lewis Cass could never be elected President was the general belief that he could not possibly write an annual message less than 49 columns long. Whatever the reason which may have inspired President Wilson's action, it is now a matter of record that he has stripped his messages of all rehashes of the annual reports of the Executive Departments and of all the usual formal introductions and spread-eagleism, and has struck at once at the heart of his subjects. By reading them himself in joint sessions of Congress he has compelled every Senator and Representative to listen to them, which few did when the messages of former Presidents were read by a reading clerk. By their remarkable brevity and pith he has virtually compelled every newspaper in the country to print them in full. He has undoubtedly secured for his official utterances a wider publicity than has ever been secured by any other President. Of course this is partly due to the fact that there are now more American citizens than were ever ruled by any other President, but it is due in still larger measure to the novel and effective methods which he has adopted for arousing and holding the public attention.

In view of this situation, to ask the President to tack to his purposely abbreviated messages an appendix made up in part of just the material used by most former Piesidents (but which this President has thus far carefully excluded) and further extended by the addition of many sorts of material which no former President has ever used, is certainly a request to excite astonishment. If the President ever hears of it one may safely say it will give him a new sensation.

Of course it is desirable that all the kinds of official information specified by Mr. Bowker shall be readily accessible to every citizen, and they are so now, and in our opinion in more suitable form than that proposed by Mr. Bowker.

So multifarious are the operations of the Government that very few citizens can be interested in all of them. By the present plan of printing the official reports of the various departments and their numerous bureaus separately any citizen is enabled to get at small cost, and often at no cost at all, the special information he seeks without taking along with it a lot of material for which he has no use. Of all the drugs in the document sales market the worst is the so-called Abridgment of the messages and documents, which is a collection of all the annual reports of the Executive Departments printed together in a set of volumes. Occasionally a buyer does want an annual report, but the buyer who wants a volume of the different reports hound together is a myth.

We venture the opinion that the compact summaries of the reports of the Departments suggested by Mr. Bowker are hardly a possibility. The operations of the Departments are so varied and numerous that the confinement of the reports of these operations within a limited space is hardly practicable. The Treasury Department, for instance, has not only the great subject of the finances, with its subdivisions of customs, internal revenue, currency, and the auditing of the accounts of all the vast outlay of the whole Government, but also the great Bureau of Engraving and Printing with its four thousand employees, the Public Health Service, the Life-Saving Service, the Revenue-Cutter Service, and others besides. The Agriculture Department is carrying on original research in chemistry, entomology, road building, plant life, animal life, forestry, marketing, agricultural education, and various subdivisions and branches of these great lines of inquiry. And of all the other Departments like things may truthfully be said. It is obvious that not all of these extremely varied subjects can be adequately (or even superficially) reported upon in an appendix of small (or even of moderate) size. Some must be slighted. Who shall decide which shall be mentioned and which shall be slurred over or ignored? It would be easy to show that each one of them is of real and lasting importance to the welfare and well-being of the American people. They are now treated in separate publications, if not adequately, certainly much more nearly so than would be possible in any single publication, though it were to be made as big as Webster's Dictionary.

As to the other matters which Mr. Bowker asks to have treated in an appendix to the President's message (a schedule of receipts and expenditures, a summary of legislation, an annual list of Government publications, and information as to prices and methods of buying them), all of these matters, except a summary of legislation, which the newspapers bountifully cover, are already provided for in Government publications readily accessible to all at the cost of paper and printing without charge for authors' royalty, publishers' profit, or cost of typesetting. The Treasury Department prints a volume of the Estimates of appropriations, follows this with a Digest of appropriations, and this with a Statement of receipts and expenditures, all annual publications. The Superintendent of Documents prints a Monthly catalogue of public documents, an annual Index to the Congressional documents and reports, and a biennial Catalogue of public documents. Just what hope there may be of condensing these several catalogues into a pamphlet appendix may be estimated in view of the fact that the latest Document catalogue, now in press, covering the fiscal years 1910 and 1911, will fill about 1,800 large double-column closely-printed pages. The Superintendent of Documents annually distributes many thousand price lists, in each of which are given, along with the prices, full and explicit directions as to conditions of buying. It is quite true, as Mr. Bowker says, that the publications of the Agriculture Department should be better known, and still the Department is doing fairly well, the latest annual report of its Publications Division showing the issue of more than 30,000,000 publications during the fiscal year 1913. A considerable proportion of the million and a half of documents which the Superintendent of Documents is now annually selling are also agricultural.

On the whole, the Monthly catalogue feels constrained to say—and it does so with all respect to Mr. Bowker and his opinions—that his proposals are apparently both ill-advised and impracticable, and we feel great confidence that if the President ever considers them he will come to the same conclusion.

Three numbers were issued by the Superintendent of Documents in December; A 7th edition of 18, Engineering, mechanics; a 3d edition of 31, Education; a 6th edition of 46, Soils.

No. 18 no longer carries the titles of the publications of the Mines Bureau, these and related publications having become so numerous as to require a separate list, which has been published as Xo. 59. Mines and mining. No. 18 still lists the publications of the Standards Bureau and the Patent Office, but past and present growth indicates that the former will at no distant day require a price list all to itself. The new edition of 18 fills 50 pages and contains about 900 titles. The river and harbor documents are entered in this list, those referring to such work generally under the heading Rivers and harbors and those referring to special projects under their specific geographical names.

The new edition of 31 is of course mainly made up of publications issuing from the Education Bureau, but it includes also documents on educational topics which have been published by Congress, by the Labor Bureau, by the Smithsonian Institution, and by other public offices. Its 68 pages contain about 1200 titles.

The 6th edition of 46 is made up mostly, though not entirely, of the publications of the Soils Bureau. This bureau of the Agriculture Department has made very extensive researches and their results are of extreme importance to the fanning industry nnd therefore to the general welfare of the country. Its 20 pages carry about 400 titles.

The price lists are the advertising mediums of the extensive sale business of the Superintendent of Documents, and are therefore supplied free of charge to all applicants. They are the only documents which he is authorized to give away. All the others must be sold at the range of prices authorized by law— namely, the cost of paper and printing, nothing being added for the compensation of authors or the cost of typesetting and electrotyping. Of course this means that the Government books and pamphlets are sold at a much lower rate than is charged for unofficial publications. The only limitation on this statement is the fact that the Government price for single copies does not go below 5 cents though some of the publications are very small—sometimes only single leaves. In these cases something is allowed for the cost of handling, wrapping, mailing, etc.

Erratum: In Price list 51, page 6, 2d entry from top, the price of the excellent publication of the Children's Bureau entitled Prenatal care is given at 15 cents. The correct price is 5 cents.