Evening star., 1912-09-06
statistics and the other the collection of
additional cotton statistics, have also add
ed to the work Of the bureau.

statistics and the other the collection Of
additional cotton statistics, have also add
ed to the work Of the bureau.
May Not Affect photographic Office.
Commander George r. Cooper, in charge
Of the naval photographic Office in the
Mills building, said today that he did not
consider that section of the legisla-
tive bill applied to the publications of
the hydrogra phic Office. Charts. he ex-
planned, were expressly exempted from
the operation of the law and the NO
tices to Mariners" he declared, were not
issued to the public. These notices, he
said were sent to the eight branch hydo-
graphic offices and to mariners only. and
were not intended for general public dis
tribution.
Their issue to the merchant service. he
said, was in return for reports OF marine
that service. There was no regular mall
ing list in the general sense. In many
cases the reports were sent out to meet
requests for special information Notices
to mariners are issued weekly to the
number of about $500 and special parts
of those publications are distributed to
various interested parties to the extent
of about 6OO,O 600 a year.
The decision as to whether these pub
lications are affected by the recent legis-
Navy, but Commander Cooper said that
so far as his judgment went. the law did
not apply to the publications. OF ms Oh
f1ce Even if it should be decided that
the work of distributing the hydrograpnlc
publications was transferred to the gov
ernment printing office. he said. 1t would
not affect the working force OF the hydro
graphic Office as under present conditions.
the distribution Of those documents was
simply an incident to the routine work Of
many employees Of the bureau and was
not the exclusive work of any one of the
employees.
Aids One Department.
The law will lift a burden from the
shoulders Of certain clerks of the civil
service commission upon whom devolves
once a year the duty Of sending out about
5000 copies Of the commissions annual
report. These clerks can now be used at
their regular duties while the government
printing Office force Is sending out the
matter.
It was thought that tho printed matter
which the commission sends to thousands
of young people in all parts Of the coun-
try In answer to requests for informa-
ton as to the procedure would come
under the new law, but Secretary Doyl le
noted In section Of the measure that
circulars of information" are to go out
from the respective departments as Tor
merly. This provision. It Is pointed out,
covers all the mail matter sent out by
the commission which might In any way
be affected by the law. excepting the dis
tribution of the annual reports.
Four years ago all the documents dis
tributed by the patent office were sent 70
the superintendent of documents OF the
government printing office, and since that
time that official has had the duty OF at
tending to all inquiries for the documents
in question.
About seven clerks were engaged In the
work when the change was made, and
the patent Office officials had plenty OF
work for them in other departments OF
the establishment, to which places they
were assigned at once.