office rent, stationery and other incidental expenses. In 1819 the salary of the Attorney-General was raised to $3,500, at the same time that the salaries of the Secretary of State, Treasury, War, and Navy were fixed at $6,000, and that of the PostmasterGeneral at $4,000.

In 1822 the Attorney-General was given his first official quarters in a room on the second floor of the old War Building, where he remained until 1839, when better quarters were provided in the Treasury Building.

In 1830 the salary was raised to $4,000. In 1840 Congress appropriated $1,000 for books for the Attorney-General. In 1841 Congress made it the duty of the Attorney-General to examine the titles to all Government lands purchased by the United States for Governmental purposes.

In 1845 President Polk, in his annual message to Congress, strongly urged upon Congress the necessity for creating a legal department, with the AttorneyGeneral as its head, and have it placed on the same footing with the other executive departments, but no action was taken by Congress.

The act of Congress of February 26, 1849, provided that the Attorney-General shall cause to be made and provided for his office a seal with such device as the President of the United States should approve. It is supposed, though it is not certainly known, that the seal was devised by Attorney-General Cushing. The exact time at which it was adopted and approved is not known.

In 1850 the preliminary and advisory work upon applications for executive clemency were transferred to the Attorney-General by order of the President, and ever since that time this has been a part of his duties.

In 1851 during the incumbency of John Jordan Crittenden, of Kentucky, he salary of the office was raised to $6,000, and during this year was begun the first publication of the "Opinions of Attorneys-General," at the same time two clerks and a messenger were allowed.

In 1853 Congress complied with the recommendations of many Presidents and placed the Attorney-General on an equal footing with other cabinet officials, and fixed his salary with other

cabinet officials at $8,000, at which figure it remained until recently increased.

In 1853 during the incumbency of Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, two important reports were prepared, one on the judiciary and one on the legal department of the Government, both monumental as historical documents. The report upon the judiciary consists of a complete history of the judiciary from the adoption of the Constitution, with recommendations for the enlargement of the entire judiciary system. This report prepared the way for the subsequent change in the Circuit Court, and embodies the first suggestion regarding an intermediate appellate court which was consummated by the act of 1891, creating the Circuit Courts of Appeal. The report on the legal department of the Government was in many respects, it is interesting to note, a repetition of the recommendations which had originally been presented by Edmund Randolph with some new thoughts of Cushing.

In 1855 the force in the Attorney-General's office was increased by the addition of seven clerks, a messenger, and a general superintendent.

In 1859 the office of the Assistant Attorney-General was created with a salary of $3,000.

In 1861 Congress carried out the suggestion contained in the recommendation of Edmund Randolph made seventy years before, and gave the Attorney-General control of the District Attorneys.

In 1865 the offices of the chief clerk, opinion clerk, and pardon clerk were created. On March 2, 1867, it was provided that the Attorney-General and the other cabinet officers should hold their respective offices for and during the term of the President by whom they were appointed, and for one month thereafter. Until the passage of this law there had been no fixed tenure of office for the cabinet officers.

The Act of June 22, 1870, established the Department of Justice as it is known today, and provided that the Attorney-General should be the head of the department, and fixed his duties and salary; created the office of the Solicitor-General with a salary of $7,500, and provided for two Assistant Attorneys-General

with salaries of $5,000, and it is interesting to note that this sum has been continued as the salary of an Assistant AttorneyGeneral until the first of July, 1914. This act placed under the Attorney-General all law officers of other departments, and gave him control of all criminal prosecutions and civil proceedings in which the United States was interested, of district attorneys, and all other attorneys employed on behalf of the United States, and of the accounts of the district attorneys, marshals and clerks and all other officers of the Federal Courts.

In 1903 the office of the assistant to the Attorney-General was created, and all suits under the interstate commerce and antitrust laws were placed under his supervision.

The Department at present comprises the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, and six Assistant Attorneys-General, five solicitors, and about 2,000 other persons, made up of special assistants to the Attorney-General, United States Attorneys, Assistant United States Attorneys, special assistants to United States Attorneys, clerks, and messengers. There is an Account

ing Bureau, with a chief and a force of clerks, which has control of and audits the accounts and the payment of salaries of all judges, United States attorneys, United States marshals, and other expenses of the courts, including witnesses' fees, jurors' fees, stationery, etc. There is a Disbursing Bureau, with a chief, and clerks, through which is disbursed the funds under the different appropriations. There is a bureau, with a chief and a force of clerks, dealing with the Federal penitentiaries, training schools, etc. Under this Bureau comes the control of the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, with 1,200 prisoners; the Federal penitentiary at Atlanta, with 1,000 prisoners, and the paroling, guarding, feeding, clothing and management of these prisoners. There is also under the control of the Attorney-General, located at Washington, D. C., a reformatory school for girls, and a reformatory school for boys. There is also a bureau of investigation, with a chief and a force of clerks and expert investigators, who are employed in investigating and working up the evidence in all matters under the control of the Department. There is in the Department one of the most extensive law libraries in the country, which is in charge of a librarian and assistants. For

all of these purposes, under fifty different appropriations, the Attorney-General disburses each year approximately the sum of $11,500,000.

The Attorney-General apportions among the different assistant attorneys-general, the various kinds of litigation, and all correspondence and papers as they come into the Department each morning are referred to these assistants according to their assignments. These assistants keep in direct communication with the district attorneys, supervise the initiation and progress of suits, and when they reach the Supreme Court of the United States, prepare briefs and argue them alone or with the assistance of the Solicitor-General.

The following list of assignments to one assistant attorneygeneral will give some idea of the variety of questions which come to the Department, and the method in which they are handled:

Alien contract labor.

Chinese cases.

Vessels, damages of in canals; collisions.

Deserting soldiers and sailors-habeas corpus.

Illegal shipment of seamen-shanghaing, crimping.
Motor boat act.

Immigration and deportation.

Internal revenue.

Naturalization.

Obstructions to navigation.

Peonage.

Postal service.

Eight-hour law.

White slave.

Corporation tax.

Income tax.

Labor questions, except Sherman Act.

Criminal matters, miscellaneous.

Legacy tax.

Miscellaneous matters.

Navigation.

Restoration civil rights.

Among the duties of the Attorney-General and the Deparment is to construe in an authoritative way all laws passed by Congress for the direction of all the heads of the departments— a very arduous and important duty; to construe almost every provision of each tariff act, that is, to fix the legal duty to be levied upon every article of commerce in every tariff act or amendment thereof; to pass upon land titles, amounting to many millions of dollars in value, to advise congressmen and senators about any matters as to which they are in doubt; also to passing upon all applications for pardons and commutation of sentence, where the application is approved by the judge and the district attorney, and writing an opinion thereon for the President. The burden of this work alone can be readily seen when I state that during the past year there were 716, 16 applications of this character in over 200 of which, after review, an opinion had to be prepared for the President.

During the past year 20,000 suits, criminal and civil, were brought by the Department, 65 opinions were prepared to the President and to the heads of the departments; 231 opinions were prepared on land titles involving 650,000 acres of land.

Under the anti-trust law the special agents of the Department investigated on an average of 36 complaints per month, and at the beginning of last year there were pending 43 cases.

Under rebates or unlawful discriminations there were 49 suits instituted and 55 concluded. Under the Safety Appliance Act there were instituted 191 cases, involving 626 defendants. Under the hours of service act 306 cases, involving 3,499 separate causes of action.

Under the twenty-eight-hour law 1,037 cases were reported to the Department and transmitted to the district attorneys for action.

In the Supreme Court there were 141 cases pending in which the Government was interested.

In the Court of Claims there were pending 18,900 suits involving claims amounting to $150,000,000.

In the Customs Department there were pending 146,000 cases, of which 98,000 were disposed of.

Twenty-eight thousand acres of land were acquired by eject