thirty designated foreign countries, and manages the business of the postal savings bank. VI. The Department of the Navy under the Secretary of the Navy purchases naval supplies, provides for the construction and equipment of vessels, supervises the navy yards and docks, and controls the Naval Academy at Annapolis. VII. The Department of the Interior under the Secretary of the Interior has charge of national affairs that are of a purely domestic nature. It examines pension claims and grants pensions, controls Indian affairs, directs the sale of public lands, issues patents, superintends such educational interests as are of a national concern, directs the work of the geological survey, superintends the construction and operation of irrigation works authorized by Congress, and investigates methods by which the safety of miners may be provided for. VIII. The Department of Agriculture under the Secretary of Agriculture diffuses among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture in the most general and comprehensive sense of that term, and procures, propagates and distributes among the people new and valuable seeds and plants. This department has charge of the Weather Bureau which forecasts the weather; it conducts the inspection of animals and meat and food products when these are subjects of interstate commerce; it studies plant life in all its relations to agriculture and gives to farmers the benefit of its investigations; it has charge of the forests belonging to the United States; it collects informations as to crops; it investigates soils and obtains information regarding insects which injure crops and plants. IX. The Department of Commerce under the Secretary of Commerce "fosters, promotes and develops the foreign and domestic commerce, the mining, manufacturing, shipping and fishing industries and the transportation facilities of the United States." X. The Department of Labor under the Secretary of Labor fosters, promotes and develops the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, improves their working conditions and advances their opportunities for profitable employment. One of its chief duties is "to collect, collate and report full and complete statistics of the conditions of labor and the products and distribution of the same." It also enforces the immigration laws and the laws relating to the naturalization of aliens and through the agency of the Children's Bureau reports upon the welfare of children. Each of the ten departments has the control of a vast amount of executive business, and it is necessary to subdivide the work of a department and place an officer at the head of each subdivision. A subdivision of a department is sometimes known as a division of the department but more often it is known as a bureau, and the head of the bureau is called a director or commissioner, or superintendent. For example, in the department of Commerce there is a Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, a Bureau of Lighthouses, a Bureau of Census, a Bureau of Fisheries, a Bureau of Navigation, a Bureau of Standards, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and a Steamboat-Inspection Service. A few items of executive business have not been assigned to any one of the ten great departments. The work of the Interstate Commerce Commission is performed by nine commissioners who act independently of any department. The Civil Service Commission, whose duty is to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States, consists of three commissioners who are responsible directly to the President. The Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, the Shipping Board, the Farm Loan Board, the Government Printing Office, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution are also outside of departmental control. The chief officers in all these cases of extra-departmental activity are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, just as other principal officers are. There are more than 500,000 persons employed in the executive civil service. Of these nearly 10,000 are appointed directly by the President. These are known as the presidential appointments. The presidential appointments are the leading officials, the heads of departments and their chief assistants, the heads of bureaus and divisions, the postmasters of large cities and towns, the chief custom house officers, the ministers to foreign countries and the like. All officers and employees who are not appointed directly by the President are appointed by the heads of the department (98). In 1883 Congress provided for the competitive examination of a large class of employees in the civil service, and for appointment according to merit rather than according to party affiliation. The rule of appointment according to ascertained merit has been extended until it now reaches almost every department of the national civil service and embraces about two-thirds of all the employees. Appointees under the competitive system hold their positions during good behavior and efficient service. No employee, however, is placed beyond the President's power to remove. The salaries of the principal officers of the federal government are as follows: President. Vice-President Members of the cabinet. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Judges of Circuit Courts 10,000 10,000 12,000 Members of Interstate Commerce Commission Members of Federal Trade Commission 7,500 3,000 to 6,000 CHAPTER VI COURTS, STATE AND FEDERAL UNDER our political system it has been necessary to establish two separate and distinct systems of judicial tribunals, State courts and federal courts. The judges of the State courts in more than threefourths of the States are chosen by the voters. In the other States they are either appointed by the governor or chosen by the legislature. Their terms. vary in length, the average term being about eight years. In a very few States they hold office for life. Federal judges are appointed by the President (196). Once appointed they cannot be removed except for cause (106) and then only by the solemn process of impeachment. Their salaries may not be decreased, although they may be increased. The State courts are entirely independent of the federal courts. They have their own judges and court officers-sheriffs, clerks and prosecuting officers-and their own court-houses. They attend to the judicial business of the State and cannot be compelled to perform judicial duties of a federal nature. Their decisions, however, may be reviewed and reversed by the federal courts. When one of the parties to a case in a State court claims that the decision of the court is |