DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS. 637 



years the department has been restricted to 1,000 copies of such pub- 

 lications, which number is insufficient to supply the regular lists, 

 leaving none for general distribution. In many cases these bulletins 

 have been of very great importance, and the inability to distribute 

 them more generously has been a great hardship to the department, 

 and the people have been deprived of valuable information. It is 

 hoped the provision will prevail. 



REMITTANCES FOR PUBLICATIONS. 



Under the regulations, all money received by the various bureaus, 

 divisions, and offices in payment for pubhcations is turned over to this 

 office for transmission to the Superintendent of Documents, who alone 

 is authorized to sell Government publications. The amount of money 

 received by the department has greatly decreased in the last year, and 

 yet, nothwithstanding the instructions printed on the Monthly List of 

 Pubhcations, money is occasional!}^ forwarded to the department in- 

 stead of to the Superintendent of Documents. If all money sent by 

 mistake to the bureau in which the pubhcation originated was 

 promptly turned over to this office, the cause of the complaint of delay 

 on the part of the remitters would be avoided. 



INSUFFICIENT SUPPLY OF YEARBOOKS. 



For several years the department's allotment of the Yearbook has 

 been insufficient to supply its correspondents, especialy those of the 

 Bureau of Statistics. The reports of these voluntary correspond- 

 ents are the original and most important basis of the department's 

 crop reports. There is no compensation for this valuable service 

 other than occasional pubhcations of the department. They all want 

 and should receive the Yearbook, but to supply them all would re- 

 quire 50,000 additional copies, or 80,000 for the use of the department. 

 To secure this number an amendment to the law of January 12, 1895, 

 would be necessary, and an increase of S30,000 in the fund for print- 

 ing and biLding would be required. Such amendment and increase, 

 if made, would undoubtedly inspire better service from the corre- 

 spondents who could thereby be supphed with the pubhcation. 



INCONVENIENT AND CONGESTED OFFICE ROOMS. 



Larger and more convenient quarters are urgently needed for the 

 division. It ought to be housed in one fireproof building large enough 

 to accommodate all the sections of the work. At present the main 

 or administrative ofhce is on the first floor of the old building; the 

 editorial and indexing rooms on the second floor are too small; the 

 rooms devoted to drafting and photography are on the fourth floor; 

 while the distribution of the documents is made from a building two 

 squares away. If all the work were concentrated in one building, 

 erected for the special accommodation of the division, close super- 

 vision would be possible, time and labor now unavoidably wasted 

 would be saved to the Government, and the business and efficiency 

 of the division would be increased. It is earnestly hoped that such a 

 separate building in which to house the division may be provided. 



