REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Office of the Secretary, 



Washington, August 15, 1923. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith a report on the work of 



the Division of Pubhcations for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1923. 



Respectfully, 



Edwin C. Powell, 



Acting Assistant in Charge of Publications. 



Hon. H. C. Wallace, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



SUMMARY. 



A greater amount of printing was done or chargeable to the depart- 

 ment than during the preceding year although less money was 

 appropriated for printing and binding. A decision of the comptroller 

 to the effect that all work sent to the Government Printing Office 

 during the year would be charged against the appropriation of 1923, 

 no matter in what year it was completed, reversed the conditions pre- 

 viously existing when only jobs which were completed and delivered 

 were charged to the printing and binding appropriation. At the close 

 of the fiscal year 1922 the estimates for uncompleted work at the 

 Government Printing Office amounted to $175,343.72. Included in 

 this was the 1921 Yearbook, and partial or full charges for the com- 

 plete reports of field operations, Bureau of Soils, for the years 1917, 

 1918, 1919, and 1920. 



The chief of the division, John L. Cobbs, jr., resigned April 30 to 

 accept a position of private employment. 



The staff of editors was reduced by the transfer of William F. Harding 

 in September to the Bureau of Entomology and the death in June of Rob- 

 ert B. Handy, both of whom had been with the division for many years. 



The office of motion pictures was transferred to the office of the 

 director of extension in order that all extension activities might be 

 coordinated. 



There was an extremely large turnover— 75 per cent — of the S960 

 per annum clerical grade. Much difficulty was experienced in obtain- 

 ing eligibles to fill these low-salaried positions, and still greater diffi- 

 culty in endeavoring to hold the employees obtained, due to higher 

 salaries paid by other offices and bureaus. The Divisions of Publica- 

 tions has a higher percentage of S960 positions than any bureau of the 

 department and the salaries of the clerical grades are $189.31 lower 

 than the average of the department. Efficient work is thereby 

 seriously hampered because of the unenviable position in which our 

 employees stand in relation to those of the entire department. It is 

 hoped that this condition may be remedied in the near future so that 

 our employees may be paid at least as well as the average. 



The work of the division and of the office of the Superintendent of 

 Documents is unnecessarily increased by the growing practice of 

 bureaus and divisions of ordering publications to be mailed direct by 

 them. Inasmuch as the law requires that all publications be mailed 

 by the Superintendent of Documents, steps have been taken to dis- 

 courage the practice referred to. 



515 



