Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



States Code and might be cited in subsequent legis- 

 lative or court proceedings. This 1925 edition has 

 been followed by a number of supplements having 

 for their purpose to bring the compilation more nearlj- 

 to date. In 1935 a new edition of the Code was pre- 

 pared by incorporating in the first edition the material 

 contained in the supplements; and this, in turn, has 

 been followed by supplements.^" 



In the Code, the laws are classified according to a 

 scheme having for its purpose to bring together all 

 laws relating to the same subject matter, a purpose 

 that is not, however, always achieved. The Code is 

 annotated in the sense that appended to each section 

 are citations of the original and amendatory acts and 

 the sections of the Revised Statutes constituting the 

 authority for its inclusion. Obsolete and repealed 

 statutes are eliminated, though such statutes were not 

 expressly repealed until a later date. The most im- 

 portant of these general repeal acts was that of 1933 

 ^47 Stat. 1428), which repealed 1005 sections, said to 

 be the most comprehensive repeal act ever enacted. In 

 appendixes to the Code are given parallel tables show- 

 ing where Revised Statutes sections and Statutes at 

 Large sections may be found in the Code. Finally the 

 Code is i^rovided with an exhaustive index. ^^ 



From time to tune, under the authorization of Con- 

 gress, or at the instance of the several administrative 

 services, special pamplilet compilations of the laws re- 

 lating to particular services or particular subjects 

 are printed and published. Much the most important 

 of these special compilations are those issued bj^ the 

 Superintendent of the House Document Room.^- 



As a further means of facilitating the securing of 

 information regarding Federal legislation, Congress 

 has, from time to time, directed the preparation of 

 consolidated indexes to the statutes. The first of these 

 was the compilation : Consolidated Index to the Stat- 

 utes at- Large of the United States of America from 

 March 4, 1789 to March 3, 1003, 4 volumes, G. P. O. 

 1903. In this work no attempt was made to prepare 



"The 1935 edition is Isnown as tbe 1934 edition, 1934 being the last 

 completed year covered. 



u The value of this Code has been greatly increased by the prepara- 

 tion by the joint editorial staffs of the two law book publishing houses 

 that prepared the Code for the House Committee on the Revision of 

 the Laws of the comprehensive annotated edition of the Code, which 

 they have published under the title : The Code of Laws of the United 

 States in Force December 7, 1925, as Enacted by Congress June 25 and 

 Approved June SO, IKS, Annotated from all the Cases Construing the 

 Laws. 52 volumes. 1927-1928. Annual cumulative supplements are 

 issued in pamphlet form, each of the 52 volumes being pro\ided with 

 a pocket in which to insert the pamphlet containing the new legislation 

 covered by the volume. The publication of this compilation is a purely 

 pri\'ate enterprise on a commercial basis. 



"For a list of the more important of these compilations available 

 for purchase, see : Price List 10: Lairs, Federal and State, Opiniojis of 

 Attorney General, Decisions of Courts, issued by the Superintendent of 

 Documents, Government Printing Office, a copy of which may be obtained 

 upon application. 



125 



a new analytical index to the legislation of tlie period 

 covered : All that was done was to consolidate the in- 

 dexes to the several volumes of the Statutes at Large 

 of the period. Strangely enough, only 25 copies of this 

 work were printed. The volume, therefore, is to be 

 found in but few libraries and is practically unobtain- 

 able. Though superseded by subsequently prepared 

 indexes, this work, nevertheless, is still of value as an 

 aid in securing information regarding the enactment 

 of private laws since the indexes later prepared cover 

 only general laws. 



Of much greater importance was the index prt^paied 

 under the direction of the Library of Congress by 

 George Winfield Scott and Middleton G. Beaman and 

 published in 1908. The title of this work is: Index 

 Analysis of the Federal Statutes Together with a Table 

 of Repeals and Amendments: Vol. /, General and 

 Peivnanent Laws in the Revised Statutes of 1873 and 

 the Statutes at Large 1873-1007 {Vol. 18-34) G- P- O. 

 1908. This was followed in 1911 by a volume, pre- 

 pared by Middleton G. Beaman and A. K. McNiimara, 

 the title of which is: Index Analysis of the Federal 

 Statutes {General and Permanent Laws) 1789-1873, 

 Together with a Table of Repeals and Amendments, 

 G. P. O. 1911. In 1927 Congress, by Act of JNIarch 3, 

 1927, as amended by Act of June 14, 1930, directed the 

 preparation, under the direction of the Library of 

 Congress, of a revision of the first of these two works 

 in order to bring it to a later date. This revision was 

 prepared by "Walter H. McCleiion and Wilfred C. Gil- 

 bert and appeared under the title of: Index to the Fed- 

 eral Statutes, 187 4-1931 : General and Permanent Law 

 Contained in the Revised Statutes of 1874 and the 

 Volumes 18-46 of the Statutes at Large: Revision of 

 the Scott and Beaman Index Analysis of the Federal 

 Statutes, G. P. O. 1933. The two works togetlior thus 

 cover the period from the beginning of the goverinuent, 

 1789, to 1931. 



It will be noted that these indexes relate to the 

 original Statutes at Large and the Revised Statutes of 

 1873 while the index to the United States Code relates 

 only to that document which gives the laws then in 

 force. The two sets of indexes can be used in conjunc- 

 tion since one may contain a reference omitted in the 

 other. Mention also should be made that there is now 

 being maintained at the Library of Congress a card 

 index to the Federal Statutes that embraces reference 

 to private and temporary acts as well as general and 

 ]3cnnanent laws, that covers the entire period since 

 1789 and is kept constantly to date. 



All that has been written regarding the necessity and 

 usefulness of compiled statutes and indexes applies, of 

 course, with equal force to the State laws. At the 

 close of each session of a State legislature, the laws 



