(Witnesses: Blodgett, Stone.)

work upon these crop reports; and, in fact, the other room we considered as the complement of the township work. The county reports and the State reports do not come into my hands. I have been responsible mainly for the township reports, and I know better what is done with them than with the others.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you been there continuously from that time until now?

Professor BLODGETT. Yes, sir; except for such leave as I have taken.

STATEMENT OF MR. ISRAEL W. STONE, AN EMPLOYEE OF THE BUREAU OF STATISTICS, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. What is your business in the Department, Mr. Stone?

Mr. STONE. I am a fourth-class clerk at the present time.
The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been such?
Mr. STONE. I judge about eight years.

I have suffered a reduction

once in the meantime, but was afterwards put back.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you been continuously in the Bureau of Statistics?

Mr. STONE. I have been there about twelve years.

The CHAIRMAN. What room were you occupying in 1904?

Mr. STONE. The room adjoining that in which Mr. Olmsted had his place as Chief of the Section, or Chief of Division, as he was styled at that time.

The CHAIRMAN. You were occupying the room next to the one occ pied by the Chief of the Division?

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What work were you doing?

Mr. STONE. I was doing the tabulation of the county sheets. I had charge of the footings and that class of work.

The CHAIRMAN. What sort of work did Mr. Harrison do?

Mr. STONE. That was work that Mr. Harrison did at the time he was there. Two years before he went away he was ill and I did that work for him, before Mr. Olmsted came in.

The CHAIRMAN. After Mr. Harrison went away and Mr. Olmsted came in, what work did you do?

Mr. STONE. Mr. Olmsted did not come in immediately after Mr. Harrison went away.

The CHAIRMAN. After Mr. Harrison dropped out, who did his work?

Mr. STONE. I did.

The CHAIRMAN. How long did you continue to do it?

Mr. STONE. I think I did it most of the time for nearly two years before Major Harrison went away, then for about eight or nine months after Major Harrison went away. I think it was before Mr. Olmsted came in and took charge of the division that I had full charge of that section and did the work that Major Harrison was doing.

The CHAIRMAN. When did Harrison drop out, if you remember? Mr. STONE. He dropped out of that section and went over into the library about seven, eight, or nine months before he left the Depart

(Witness: Stone.)

ment permanently, so that for two years before he went over there he had not been able to do very much of the work. During that period I did the work for him.

The CHAIRMAN. And while he was over in the library did you continue to do the work that he had been doing?

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir; for a number of months, until Mr. Olmsted was assigned to that.

The CHAIRMAN. Then who did the work?

Mr. STONE. I had charge of the footings still, under Mr. Olmsted's direction-doing the tabulation and supervising the details of the work, keeping the clerks supplied with work, etc.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you continue to do the work that was done by Mr. Harrison?

Mr. STONE. No, sir. Mr. Olmsted, I think, enlarged its scope considerably.

The CHAIRMAN. What was done in reference to enlarging the scope? Mr. STONE. He took hold of the township and the county lists and the various lists and increased them very largely. Each month a circular was sent out to postmasters, and the list was thus continually augmented.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you mean by that-you got more information or got it from more people?

Mr. STONE. More people were reporting.

The CHAIRMAN. It broadened the scope of the investigation? Mr. STONE. Broadened the scope of the reports, you might say.

The CHAIRMAN. That is, you sent out more circulars to more people?

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir; and received more replies.

The CHAIRMAN. Was there any change in the character of the information?

Mr. STONE. No, sir; not until about a year ago.

The CHAIRMAN. How many people were you sending circulars to before Mr. Olmsted came in and made this change?

Mr. STONE. I think we were sending them every month to about 35,000.

The CHAIRMAN. And to how many after the change was made? That is, how many names did you add?

Mr. STONE. I do not think I can say, because I did not have occasion to keep track of it as closely as Mr. Olmsted did himself. But my recollection is that we had about 30,000 or 32,000 township and about 3,000 county correspondents.

The CHAIRMAN. You have already said you had 35,000.

Mr. STONE. Well, about 35,000; yes, sir. And this is outside the ginners' list that we had of about 40,000 names, the independent farmers' list of 40,000, and the special cotton list of 15,000.

The CHAIRMAN. What I was trying to find out was how many names you added to your list of 35,000 after you increased your sources of information.

Mr. STONE. I can not tell you, because I had no occasion to keep track of it.

The CHAIRMAN. What else was done by way of change in your Bureau?

Mr. STONE. I think Mr. Olmsted increased the efficiency of the

(Witnesses: Olmsted, Stone.)

clerks quite a good deal-in attendance, in their work, and their ability to do the work, perhaps by his metho ls of control.

The CHAIRMAN. Was there any change in the methods of the work in the bureau; and if so, what?

Mr. STONE. I do not understand that there was any large amount of change in the work that was done in the division or in the section. The CHAIRMAN. That is, any change in personnel or in redistribution of duties, or any change in methods of getting information?

Mr. STONE. No, sir; until we arrived at those additional schedules that we put on about a year and a half ago. The matter was brought forward and worked up, you know; it was studied over. We had to have a certain line of questions on certain groups. Under Mr. Olmsted's direction the schedules were enlarged and we took in ten or twelve additional groups-minor groups.

The CHAIRMAN. Going more into detail?

Mr. STONE. It made quite a good deal more work.

The CHAIRMAN. You say that was done about a year and a half ago? Mr. STONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That was about the time of the Hyde difficulty, was it not?

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir; right after that.

Mr. OLMSTED. May I suggest something?

The CHAIRMAN. Certainly.

Mr. OLMSTED. Both these witnesses have overlooked the fact that when I took charge there was no Division of Domestic Crop Reports. The CHAIRMAN. You may ask these witnesses anything at any time.

Then, with the exception of the additional schedules adopted something like a year and a half ago and broadening the sources of your information, you recall no change in the method of doing business in the office?

Mr. STONE. I do not know that of course that would be a reflection upon myself, because I had charge of that work for some time. The CHAIRMAN. There is no reflection intended on anybody.

Mr. STONE. No; I do not understand that there was any great amount of increase in methods in the office.

The CHAIRMAN. There may not have been any occasion for change. I do not know how that was.

Mr. STONE. And I do not understand that Mr. Olmsted took charge, of course, of the two sides. Before that time we had two sections, and they were under the charge of Mr. Holmes largely. Professor Blodgett had charge of one and Major Harrison and myself the other. The CHAIRMAN. What work was done by yourself and Mr. Olmsted, when he came in as the head of the Bureau, in addition to what had been done by you?

Mr. STONE. We did quite a good deal of work for other Bureaus for the chemical bureau, for the Division of Foreign Markets, and many other people.

The CHAIRMAN. Was that work that had not been done before? Mr. STONE. Yes, sir; that had not been done before.

The CHAIRMAN. By whom was that done by you or Mr. Olmsted, or both of you?

(Witness: Stone.)

Mr. STONE. It was brought over under Mr. Olmsted when he was Chief of Division for the first time, I think.

The CHAIRMAN. From what Bureaus did you say?

Mr. STONE. From the chemical bureau. They were making experiments and had a great amount of computations to make on the lines which they laid down. That was done on Professor Blodgett's side, and on our side of the hall under Mr. Olmsted's direction.

The CHAIRMAN. What was the other Bureau.

Mr. STONE. The other was a division of our own Bureau, the Foreign Markets Division; that was work that we had never been doing before.

The CHAIRMAN. You were simply working out results for these other people?

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That involved details.

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir; it involved a great amount of figuring.

The CHAIRMAN. Was there any increase in personnel in the office there except by the addition of Mr. Olmsted?

Mr. STONE. I think occasionally there was a young gentleman brought in there; some young clerk. I think there were four or five young men brought in there.

The CHAIRMAN. Brought in on that work?

Mr. STONE. No, sir; they were brought in and put in the library on the other side, and I have no knowledge of what they were doing. The CHAIRMAN. What I mean is: In your room?

Mr. STONE. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Was this work sufficient in quantity to keep both yourself and Mr. Olmsted employed from the time when he came inthe first nine or ten months?

Mr. STONE. Well, generally we had all the work that we felt we ought to do.

The CHAIRMAN. That is not exactly the question. As a matter of fact, did the business of the office, as thus conducted, with the additional work that you have described, keep both yourself and Mr. Olmsted employed fully all the time?

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Then I infer from that that Mr. Olmsted must have been at the office and employed substantially all the while?

Mr. STONE. I think so, sir. I do not recollect that Mr. Olmsted was away any more than anybody else. Aside from his thirty days' proportion of annual leave, I think he was there all the time. I do not recollect that he was away any unusual number of days.

The CHAIRMAN. You have no way of giving, except by an estimate, the additional sources of information that you have suggested; that is, you were sending out 35,000 circulars or you were in communication with 35,000 sources of information? Can you give any approximation as to how many in addition to that you took on?

Mr. STONE. No, sir; I do not know to-day, because I have not had access to the figures in the past six or eight months. I am not in charge of any af the work now, and I do not know what the lists show. The CHAIRMAN. Have you ever made any estimate as to the number of correspondents you had before that time?

Mr. STONE. Not recently; no.

(Witnesses: Olmsted, Stone.)

The CHAIRMAN. So that it is merely your recollection prior to that time?

Mr. STONE. At that time I had a list which showed accurately the number of correspondents.

Mr. OLMSTED. You will recall, perhaps, that when I was placed in charge there there was no division of domestic crop reports?

Mr. STONE. That is right.

Mr. OLMSTED. The work was carried on by two sections practically, one being the township section, in charge of Professor Blodgett, and the other the county section, in charge of Major Harrison and yourself.

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir; that is right.

Mr. OLMSTED. When I was placed in charge I organized the Division of Domestic Crop Reports and coordinated the work of the two sections?

Mr. STONE. That is right.

Mr. OLMSTED. And I changed the work from one side to the other and endeavored to increase the efficiency of the clerks so far as I could by bringing more into harmony the work of the two sections, between which there had been some generous rivalry?

Mr. STONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. You mean the county and township sections?

Mr. OLMSTED. We had two sections-the county and township sections and I assigned Professor Blodgett in charge of the township section, which he still retains. Major Harrison, as my assistant, was in charge of the other section, I having control over the entire division. Is that correct?

Mr. STONE. That is right.

Mr. OLMSTED. In regard to these correspondents you have mentioned, we had about 35,000, including the township and the county. Do you recall that we have also a list of individual farms, numbering 40,000 or 50,000; another list of special crop correspondents, numbering 20,000 or 30,000, and also a list of millers and elevator men that we send to twice a year? Those things escaped you for the moment. Mr. STONE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Do those all come within his scope?

Mr. STONE. My jurisdiction is not necessarily his. Of course when Mr. Olmsted came there we had those lists.

Mr. OLMSTED. But we took up the township and county lists and eliminated as many of the useless addresses as we could. I merely wished to bring those facts out.

Mr. STONE. Those lists were in the office, of course, when Mr. Olmsted took charge.

Mr. OLMSTED. What I wanted to bring out was the fact that I organized this Division as it now exists, which did not exist before I went there.

The CHAIRMAN. That is, the coordination of the county and township sections?

Mr. OLMSTED. Yes, sir. There were two sections. One had charge of the township schedules and the other had charge of the county schedules. When I went there I organized the Division of Domestic Crop Reports, embracing both sections.