offered them, using those which will save them money and keeping the others so that competing corporations may not be able to use them. Any American, and any foreigner whose native country protects American inventions, by the payment of a $35 fee, is given the exclusive right to manufacture the patented article for seventeen years.1 On filing an application for a patent $15 must be paid, and the additional $20 is paid if the patent is granted. The applicant for the patent must declare to the Commissioner of Patents that he is the real inventor of the article described by drawings, or by a model if the commissioner demands it. When a new patent is applied for, it requires considerable research to know whether a prior patent is being infringed. To facilitate this research the bureau is divided into a number of divisions. If, for example, application is made for a patent upon a trap of any kind it is referred to the division which examines nothing but traps. In obtaining a patent a patentattorney is not essential, but a good one is valuable for the reason that if one's claims are rejected, an attorney can often suggest other claims which will persuade the patent clerks that the invention really contains a new idea. However, if by error the patent office grants a second patent for the same invention the owner of the first patent can have the Commissioner of Patents or the Federal Courts declare the second patent void. The United States reciprocates with all the principal nations of the world for copyrights and patents by treaty or other agreement. A copyright attorney or patent attorney can obtain copyrights or patents for an author or inventor simultaneously in the various countries. A fee must be paid to each country. 100. The Pension Office examines applications for pensions and makes recommendations to Congress, which body votes all money for pensions. Most of the half million military pen 1 Rights are secured to heirs and assignees of inventors. sioners are veterans of the Civil War. Others fought in the World War, Spanish War, Mexican War, or served in the army or navy in times of peace. There are still on the pension list widows of veterans of the War of 1812. Because of the Civil War alone the National government has paid between $4,000,000,000 and $5,000,000,000 in pensions through this office. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 101. The Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the Department of Agriculture, which, until 1889, was the Bureau of Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. ONE WING OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C. The main building is not yet erected, the entire appropriation having been spent upon the two wings. Agriculture in the Department of the Interior. The functions of the department are divided among the following bureaus and divisions: animal industry, plant industry, weather, forest service, soils, chemistry, entomology, biological survey, crop estimates, state relations, roads and rural engineering, markets and rural organization, insecticide and fungicide, horticulture, publications, library. 102. The Bureau of Animal Industry regulates the national quarantine for live stock, studies animal diseases, inspects animals before slaughter and the meat after they have been slaughtered. By experiments in the breeding and feeding of live stock and poultry it has discovered that about one fourth of the dairy cows of the United States do not pay for their feed, and if the bureau's directions were followed as to the best breeds of chickens to keep and how to feed them it is estimated that the increased annual value of eggs would be $50,000,000. 103. The Bureau of Plant Industry among its various discoveries has shown us that the fungus which causes cedar rust upon apples must have each alternate generation on the red cedar; thus, by destroying all red cedars fruit growers are able to keep their orchards clean of this once dreaded disease. This bureau also ransacks the world for new crops suitable to the American soils. 104. The Weather Bureau receives reports from stations all over the United States, from hundreds of vessels, and from foreign countries. Storm warnings save millions of dollars invested in vessels besides many lives; frost warnings serve the growers of fruit and vegetables; flood forecasts, often a week in advance, enable farmers to save live stock and other property. Freezing forecasts enable railroads to save perishables in transit, greenhouses to fire their boilers, gasoline engines to be drained, concrete work to be stopped, coal dealers to supply partial orders to all instead of full orders to a few, ice factories to reduce their output, and merchants to curtail their advertising. Rain forecasts protect the raisin crop, enable fruit growers and farmers to harvest and shelter crops, protect the manufacturer of lime, cement, and brick, as well as photographers. Humidity forecasts are useful to silk and candy manufacturers. 105. The Forest Service has charge of national forest reserves now about 200,000,000 acres. The forests are constantly patroled by forest-service rangers, who prevent destructive fires and the stealing of timber. Large areas are planted with trees suitable to the climate and soil of the particular regions. 106. The Entomology Division combats insects which are a menace to crops, animals, and persons. It imports harmless insects which prey upon harmful insects, e.g. ladybugs to prey upon aphis. The Biological Survey is carried on under the Entomology Division and investigates the relations of birds and mammals to the work of farmers and stockmen. 107. The Bureau of Chemistry has an important duty in connection with the pure food laws. It determines which foods are adulterated with poisonous elements and with ingredients that give little or no nourishment. When Dr. H. W. Wiley was chief of this bureau he had a "poison squad" who tested the effects of foods by eating large quantities and studying the effects upon their own systems DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 108. The Secretary of Commerce is the head of the Department of Commerce. This department gathers census statistics; regulates standards and measures; propagates and distributes fishes; maintains light-houses; supervises navigable waters, coast and geodetic survey work, and steam-boat inspection; and promotes foreign and domestic commerce. One bureau of this department, the census bureau, demands further mention. The Census Bureau enumerates the population of the United States every ten years in order to apportion representation in the House of Representatives and presidential electors among the States. In 1920 more than 87,000 enumerators counted the people according to race, sex, and age, and collected many other facts, such as agricultural statistics. Several years are required to tabulate the statistics gathered each decade. Between the periods for the decennial censuses various other special reports are made on agricultural, vital, and other sta tistics. Every fifth year an investigation of all manufacturing industries is made. (See Sec. 6, 4 f.) DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 109. The Secretary of Labor has a portion of the functions performed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor until 1913, when the Department of Commerce and Labor was divided, with a few new functions added. The purpose of the new department is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of wage earners in the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. The department has a bureau of immigration, a bureau of naturalization, a bureau of labor statistics, a children's bureau, and the new women's bureau. 110. The Bureau of Immigration. - The Commissioner-General of Immigration is charged with the reception of all immigrants, three-fourths of whom enter at the port of New York (Ellis Island). Adults, with a few exceptions, are required to read forty words of some language; a head tax of $8.00 is |