ber of women in the building engaged in making such copies all the time. I have no objection to those women making all they can out of it, but I think the Government ought to do its own work, and we could do it if we had a little margin of money, so that when a person ordered a copy and said, "This must be gotten out by day after tomorrow," we could give it to them just as these private people do.

Mr. BYRNS. Would it be possible to do that work with a photostat? Mr. EWING. No; I think not. The work does not run straight ahead. For example, a person will order a file of a patent. Now, that file is in numerous papers, cut up a good deal, and it is not feasible to use the photostat. We do a good deal of photostatic work, how

ever.

LABORERS.

Mr. STAFFORD. I notice you have recommended to be eliminated 42 laborers at $540 each, to which you have not referred.

Mr. EWING. You see, we ar asking for 45 examiners' aids. We have changed their name.

Mr. STAFFORD. No; they were in place of the 40 messenger boys. Mr. EWING. We want 25 copy pullers instead. I think the number is exactly the same. We want to call them copy pullers because they are boys and are not laborers.

FREIGHT ON COPIES OF PATENTS.

We have for the library an appropriation of $3,000 for buying books which I think is altogether too small. I am not asking that it be increased, but it is now charged with about $800 spent in shipment of copies of patents to foreign countries in exchange for copies of their patents, and I think that that charge of $800 might properly be charged against the appropriation for lithographic work, in which there is usually some surplus, and leave us the $3,000 for books undiminished by this item.

Mr. BYRNS. That is simply a transfer from one appropriation to another?

Mr. EWING. Yes; except that usually money is turned back from that appropriation because it is not used altogether: but it would not increase the appropriation. The books are the scientific textbooks and technical journals, which are very essential to the work of examination in the office, which, of course, as you know, are very costly books. We have to have the best books there are and not merely cheap books made up for popular sale, so that the library expenses are heavy, and $3,000 is little enough.

There is no other item in which there is any change from what the appropriation has always been. I have discussed, I think, every

item.

REORGANIZATION.

Mr. STAFFORD. You appeared at the last session before the Committee on Patents, and asked for a reorganization of your bureau? Mr. EWING. Yes.

Mr. STAFFORD. Is this an amplification of what you recommended and an afterthought?

Mr. EWING. No; not an afterthought.

Mr. STAFFORD. To carry out the recommendations you presented then?

Mr. EWING. No; I accomplished that, and that is in the present appropriation bill. What I have been asking here is in addition to that.

Mr. STAFFORD. We will be very likely confronted with the claim that the Patent Office was reorganized only last year, and now we are recommending a further reorganization.

Mr. EWING. It is not a further reorganization. The thing that was done last year was this: We had 110 forth assistant examinersMr. STAFFORD. I recall exactly what was done.

Mr. EWING. And we have 86 in each class.

Mr. STAFFORD. We also increased the number of examiners. Mr. EWING. Yes: the examiners in chief, from 3 to 5. That is in the present appropriation bill, but the point I was wishing to make plain is this: I did not ask for what I had in mind all at once, partly because I did not think I would get it, and partly because I wanted to feel my way and feel I was right in my conclusions. But a primary examiner can supervise the work of 8 assistants. In addition to the 43 divisions and the 86 men in each class, which would make just 8 assistants, there is this enormous work of classification, and on the present organization of the office that work of classification ought to be taken care of separately from the 86 men in each class of assistants, and if you agree to it you would not only not exhaust the income of the office, but you would not begin to put the office back where it was in 1890, if you considered at once the number of applications and the field of search which has to be examined.

To show you what this classification work amounts to, here is our index to the classification [indicating]. This is just the index. Now you can see it is a perfectly enormous task. The attempt to reclassify, which has been carried to the point of reclassification of half of the existing United States patents, has been going on since 1897. I want to bring it to an end some time, so we will have all of them classified according to one general scheme, and not half under the old scheme and half under the new scheme, which is very detrimental to the work.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1916.

BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

STATEMENT OF MR. PHILANDER P. CLAXTON, COMMISSIONER.

Mr. BYRNS. Doctor, you will find your estimates on page 253. Mr. CLAXTON. Mr. Chairman, for each item of increase and each new item I have prepared a brief statement, and have made copies for you. I wonder if that will not help.

Mr. BYRNS. Yes; it will help very greatly.

Mr. CLAXTON. I shall be glad to answer any questions about these items. I would like these statements to go in the hearings.

Mr. BYRNS. Yes; we will be very glad to have them go in the record.

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER.

Mr. CLAXTON. The Bureau of Education is one of less than half a dozen, I think, of all the bureaus in the Federal Government that have no assistant commissioner or assistant chief, and it probably needs it more than many others. The problems of education require constant study. The Commissioner of Education ought to have time, uninterrupted by the details of the office, to study them very carefully and to do such work as can be done only under such conditions. The commissioner is visited by school officers from all States and many cities. They come with important problems which require days or even weeks of careful study for their solution. The survey of the schools of a State or city is made by a commission appointed by the commissioner or by a portion of the staff of the bureau. The results of the survey, the report and conclusions, come finally to the commissioner for his careful consideration and approval.

On the other hand, the commissioner must give much of his time to minor details of the office and to receiving visitors whose requests could be just as well attended to by an assistant. I believe the Bureau of Education can never render the service it ought until there is an assistant commissioner. It would seem to be unwise for the Government to maintain an office and condemn it to inefficiency by not giving it the help and the means necessary to make it efficient. The Bureau of Education can be either an efficient statistical bureau without the means of collecting accurate statistics even, or it can be a vital force in the education of the Nation, without administrative authority, a clearing house of information, a source of sound advice, helping as no other agency can help in creating a great national system of education-national in spirit, in aim, in purpose, and in method. Assistant commissioner (salary $4.500), who should also be a specialist in secondary education and should serve as chief of a highschool division of the bureau. The duties of the office make it necessary for the commissioner to visit distant parts of the country and to be absent from the office sometimes many weeks at a time. Without this the office can not render its best service to the country. There should be an assistant commissioner to carry on the work in the office during his absence, and to relieve him of much of the routine work of the office when present, so that he may be able to give more time and attention to the larger problems of education and to direct more effectively the more important work of the bureau. Probably the most important phase of public education in the United States at present is that of the secondary schools. I am sure it is. The high school is, or should be, the heart and center of our school system. The problems of the high school are more difficult and their solution more urgent than those of any other part of the school system. The head of the high-school division of the bureau should therefore be a man of great ability. By combining the offices of assistant commissioner and of specialist in secondary education it should be possible to pay a salary sufficiently large to obtain the services of such

a man.

PAY OF CHIEF CLERK.

The second matter is the chief clerk's salary, for which I have. asked an increase of $500. The salary of the chief clerk is now the same as that fixed by the act of March, 1867, creating the bureau. and is less than that of chief clerk in most of the bureaus in this and other departments. Out of a total of 40 chief clerks provided for in the legislative bill only 3 others receive salaries as low as that paid to the chief clerk of the Bureau of Education. From the nature of his work the chief clerk of the Bureau of Education must have a wide knowledge of educational affairs throughout the country. He is constantly called upon to render important opinions and decisions not only as to the work of clerks and specialists but in regard to policies of school officers and institutions of learning. In the absence of the commissioner he must also perform the duties of acting commissioner.

PAY OF SPECIALIST IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

The third item is the salary of the specialist in higher education. The salary was fixed six years ago when the position was created at $3,000. It is impossible to retain the services of an able man in that position on this salary. The character of the work justifies the larger salary.

Mr. BYRNS. When was this position created?

Mr. CLAXTON. It was created in 1910. The salaries of men of the same character in colleges and universities have been increased largely within the last few years. He receives now less than is paid to ordinary professors in colleges of medium wealth and size.

Salary of specialist in higher education, increase $1,000 (present salary, $3.000). The duties of this specialist require a wide knowledgeof principles and policies of higher education and of the administration of universities, colleges, normal schools, and technical schools. To do effective work he must be a man of such recognized ability as will insure the confidence of boards of regents and boards of trustees, presidents, deans, and professors in institutions of higher learning. It is impossible to retain the services of an efficient man in this position at the salary now paid, which is considerably less than that paid to deans and full professors in all the universities and better colleges of the country.

ASSISTANT SPECIALISTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

I am asking in the fourth item for two assistant specialists in higher education, one at $3,500 and one at $3,000. The constant and increasing requests from regents, trustees, and presidents of universities, colleges, technical, professional, and normal schools for the help of this bureau in making internal surveys of separate institutions and surveys of entire State systems of higher education, for advice as to the reorganization of separate institutions and the better coordination of the work of the several institutions making up State systems, and for information and help of other kinds are far more numerous than the bureau can respond to effectively with its present force. We have been asked within the last year to make

careful internal surveys of several colleges and universities and of five or six State systems of higher education. This work requires much time and a high degree of ability. One person can not begin to do it all or even any reasonable portion of it. There are 17 agricultural colleges for negroes. We have studied them very carefully in the last few years, and I am sure that more than half the money that goes to them from the Federal Government-the total amount is $250,000-is practically wasted for lack of the kind of intelligent direction and help this bureau should give them.

It is not intended to assume administrative authority over them. That the Federal Government has no right to do. I am asking for a man who can spend his time with them, see what they are doing, carry to all reports of the best that each does, attend meetings of their presidents and faculties, and advise their boards of trustees from time to time. I feel quite sure, gentlemen, such a man could almost double the effectiveness of these 17 schools. He ought to be a man who knows the South, who knows the negro and his needs, and one who can work tactfully with both white and black.

The Federal Government appropriates this money, a large part of which is lost for lack of this kind of help. To save it, to render it more effective, it will, I believe, be wise to appropriate this additional amount of $3,500.

Mr. BYRNS. What is the average amount of the appropriation, Doctor?

Mr. CLAXTON. To the land-grant colleges?

Mr. BYRNS. Yes.

Mr. CLAXTON. To the 50 land-grant colleges it is $2,500,000, and then there is the interest on the original land-grant fund, which amounts to about $750,000.

Mr. BYRNS. Did I understand you to say that about $250,000 of that amount goes to the negro colleges?

Mr. CLAXTON. Yes; to the negro colleges in 17 Southern States.

4. Assistant specialists in higher education (2 at $3,500 each, 1 at $3,000).— The constant and increasing requests from regents, trustees, and presidents of universities, colleges, technical, professional, and normal schools for the help of this bureau in making internal surveys of separate institutions and surveys of entire State systems .of higher education, and for advice as to the reorganization of separate institutious and the better coordination of the work of the several institutions making up State systems, and for information and help of other kinds are much larger and far more numerous than the bureau can respond to effectively with its present force. Within a year the bureau has attempted upon request to make careful studies of 25 institutions of higher learning and a general but comprehensive study of the equipment, administration, and work of more than half of the colleges of the country. A comprehensive study in detail of the work of land-grant colleges in all the States begun five years ago at the request of the presidents of these colleges has had to be suspended for lack of ability to continue it.

Of the three additional specialists asked for in the estimates, one should give his attention to the normal schools of the country in which teachers are prepared and on the work of which must depend to a very large extent the effectiveness of the common schools. There is constant demand from these normal schools for the help of this bureau, but it has no one who can give his time and attention to them.

Another of these specialists should give his time to the 17 agricultural colleges for negroes in the Southern States. Most of the support of these schools comes from the Federal Government, which contributes to them more than a quarter of a million dollars a year. In very few of them is satisfactory instruction given in agriculture and other'industrial subjects. Through the help of a good man from this bureau, with a knowledge of agricultural and