In pursuance to a call by the President of the United States, over 200 people, representing practically every State in the Union, and all shades of political and religious opinions, assembled at the White House, all working in harmony to devise plans that would result in the best interests of the children, unanimously adopted a resolution favorable to the passage of this bill.

The committee is in receipt of hundreds of letters, petitions, and resolutions from all parts of the country, also urging the establishment of this bureau.

No opposition to the bill appeared before the committee, but strong protest is made by John W. Lindsay, president of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The objections he makes are that these matters are exclusively of state concern, and that the subject does not properly belong to the Federal Government, except possibly for the collection of statistics, and that this can be done by the Census Bureau.

The consensus of opinion among those favoring the establishment of such a bureau was that much good would result from this legislation. In view of the fact that there are no general statistics within the country as to the subjects enumerated in the bill, the compilation, publication, and dissemination of such information is much needed in order to accomplish the desired results.

The bill has not only for its object the compiling of statistics which are needed, but also a compilation of measures adopted by the several States, and nations, such as France, Germany, England, and other countries engaged in this grand and valuable work. The object is not to duplicate the present volume of statistics which we now get in the present form from the various government bureaus, but to gather up and bring together from all possible sources all the valuable information that is now being brought out in the scientific investigations that would have a bearing on these questions, and the dissemination of this information in the form of documents and bulletins, such as are being published by the Department of Agriculture, and which is rendering so valuable a service not only to the farmers and agricultural classes of this country, but to all the people.

If this work is justifiable, and nobody questions that; if an expenditure of $4,500,000 for the Bureau of Animal Industry, $1,500,000 for the Bureau of Plant Industry, $4,500,000 for the Forestry Service, and the millions of dollars for the various other bureaus are justifiable, in view of the fact that the children are our most valuable resources; and inasmuch as our future destiny lies in our coming generation, it would seem that the expenditure of $51,820, as provided in this bill, even though in time it may increase to several times that amount, would be a wise, just, and warranted expenditure.

There seems to be a woeful lack of knowledge as to the causes of crime, diseases, and other existing evils among our children; and it is essential to have more specific information leading up to these causes, and the dissemination of this information; to have a central body, a central bureau, for research work and publicity, for the gathering of information; to get scientific data, and at actual facts, as well as the results of the best scientific treatments with regard to children; information as to wise as well as unwise legislation affecting children; not only as to legislation, but as to plans of work evolved by various individuals, organizations, and States, and as to the dangers of child

life and how they may be avoided; information as to diseases, for instance, as suggested by Mr. Sherman, chairman of the New York Association for the Blind, in a letter to Congressman Parsons and printed in the hearings.

It is an established fact that a large percentage of blindness is due to the lack of simple preventive medical treatment in the eyes of infants. This neglect is due almost wholly to ignorance. If the proper data and information were collected and disseminated by a national bureau, the public ignorance of this subject would be dispelled and health officials aroused to proper action, and thereby much unnecessary blindness [prevented], with its consequent deprivations and distress of caring for blind children; and children with diseased eyes are defective, owing to the lack of statistical data and of a proper dissemination of information.

and information in general affecting the welfare of the child. Not only information on diseases and those subjects enumerated herein or in the bill, but general information as affecting the children. To collect all the information just as the Bureau of Education does; to give it widespread publication all over the country for the benefit of the public, private individuals, organizations, States, and all agencies engaged in looking after the welfare not only of the dependent and destitute children and those who need homes, but that the mother and everybody who has the welfare of the children at heart may have the benefit of the knowledge and experience of others.

The legislation affecting the children that is being enacted by many States could be wisely directed with the information that would be obtained through such a bureau. The light that would come from special investigations of these questions that come up in the treatment of the problems of childhood would enable the various private individuals, organizations, and States to multiply many fold the value of the work for the nation that is now being done by them by giving them the benefit of each other's experience and knowledge.

Each would be stimulated to better efforts. It would permit better cooperation among the various societies and States in devising ways and means to eliminate or reduce crime and, as far as possible, the causes of diseases, and would result in enlightened legislation and the betterment of the conditions surrounding many of the poor and afflicted children, and in the end we would have better men and women.

Besides the consideration given by the committee to the needs and demand for such legislation, the committee consulted the Director of the Census, the Commissioner of Labor, and the Commissioner of Education as to the best method by which the objects of this bill could be obtained-whether by the establishment of a new bureau, as provided in the bill, or the creation of a division under some other bureau. Their unanimous opinion was that a new bureau should be created.

The Director of the Census states that his bureau is purely a statistical bureau and could not make scientific investigations of causes and conditions. The Commissioner of Labor states that his duties pertain to labor conditions alone, and that with the multitude of questions to be handled by his bureau proper attention could not be directed to the proposed new work. Substantially the same contention is made by the Commissioner of Education. All, however, admitted that there would be no duplication, and that they could and would be very glad to cooperate with such a bureau, and could no doubt be of valuable assistance.

The undersigned members of the Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Department have not been able to agree with the majority in their report upon this bill, and we respectfully submit herewith our reasons for opposing the passage of this measure:

The committee had before it a number of people favoring the bill, representing various organizations for the betterment of child life, as well as the Director of the Census and the Commissioners of Labor and Education.

The bill provides for the establishment of a new bureau in the Department of the Interior for certain specific purposes: "The welfare of children and child life, infant mortality, the birth rate, physical degeneracy, orphanage, juvenile delinquency and juvenile courts, desertion and illegitimacy, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children of the working classes, employment, legislation affecting children in the several States and Territories, and such other facts as have a bearing upon the health, efficiency, character, and training of children, and from time to time publish the results of these investigations."

It is clear to us that already there exists governmental departments for the gathering of all necessary information desired by the advocates of this bill; in fact, much of it is being gathered. The Census is the one great statistical bureau of the Government, and deals with infant mortality and the birth rate. The Bureau of Labor, if it is doing the work it was created to do, is investigating all subjects connected with the working people, children as well as adults, including dangerous occupations, employment, and diseases of the children of the working classes. The Bureau of Education is doing work and gathering statistics as to legislation affecting children in the several States, and such facts as bear upon the health, character, efficiency, and training of children.

Therefore the establishment of the bureau will mean a duplication of work. In addition to all that the National Government is doing along the lines indicated, every State in the Union is engaged in identically the same work. Nothing, perhaps, affecting the people has had from the legislatures of the several States during recent years so much attention as the welfare of the children, resulting in child-labor laws, the establishment of orphanages and reformatories. In fact, it appears that this whole movement for the benefit of children had its inception. in States and cities. We believe this to be specifically the work of the various States and that the entrance of the National Government into this field would be followed by a loss of interest and a cessation of effort on the part of the States. The bill goes into the domain of the health and character of its citizens, a field not only belonging to the States but one with which the States are better qualified to deal, for the reason that they can follow up the work of investigation with necessary legislation.

The undersigned are in sympathy and hearty accord with the object of the bill, but differ with the majority as to the best means of attaining this end. They are aware that in recent years it has become popular for the United States Government to remedy all the evils with which the public may be afflicted, and that Congress, and not the state legislatures, should enact laws for the correction of existing evils, and especially is the United States Treasury a popular institution, and in their opinion furnishes the inspiration for much proposed law. If this desire on the part of a well-meaning people continues to be encouraged by the enactment into law of every demand for an appropriation, the time is near at hand when the States, through their legislatures, will have little to do either in the gathering of information, the enactment of law, or the appropriation and expenditure of money.

ROBERT N. PAGE.
RUFUS HARDY.

COURT OF PATENT APPEALS.

FEBRUARY 13, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. TIRRELL, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 21455.]

The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 21455) to establish a United States court of patent appeals, and for other purposes, having had the same under consideration beg leave to report it back to the House with a recommendation that it do pass as amended.

The purpose of the bill is to establish a single court of last resort to hear all appeals in patent causes. This court is designated in the bill as the "Court of patent appeals."

Prior to the establishment of the circuit courts of appeal in 1891, the circuit courts of the United States had original jurisdiction and the Supreme Court of the United States appellate jurisdiction in all patent litigation, except such as was by special act within the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims. This system prevailed from the date of the judiciary act, 1793, down to 1891, and the reports of the Supreme Court of the United States contain a great body of law which is consistent, coherent, voluminous, and wise, the result of a large number of cases which arose during a century interpreting the statutes as they existed from time to time and creating a vast number of rules of law outside of the statute, and which constitute the great body of the patent law of the United States down to 1891. This system was eminently successful and satisfactory to lawyers and litigants in every particular except one, and that was the delays which were incident to the disposition of these appeals by the Supreme Court.

With the enormous growth of the country the burden upon that court became so great that it was physically impossible for the judges to dispose in a reasonable time of the great mass of business which was brought to it for final adjudication. By the year 1891 the court was from three to four years behind its docket, and such delays in the

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