Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/284

272 4. Compulsory Insurance in Germany.

5. The Gothenburg System of Liquor Traffic.

6. The Phosphate Industry of the United States.

7. Slums of Great Cities.

8. Housing of the Working People.

In addition to these two methods of disseminating the information collected, the Department of Labor is now authorized by law to publish a bulletin, which will consist of condensations of foreign and American reports on labor and industrial subjects, results of original inquiry, and any facts or information of value to the industrial interests of the country.

While it may be considered that the annual reports of all the departments, not only those that have been mentioned, but those of the Post Office Department in dealing with the transmission of intelligence, the Department of Justice in dealing with criminal conditions, so far as it may, and every office of the government in giving facts relative to the transactions of the government, are in themselves contributions to social science, those which have been specifically named are deemed to be emphatically so.

I have endeavored to give in as brief manner as possible the principal contributions of the United States Government to social science through the various organized offices. I have not been able to make a chronological statement, nor is such statement necessary, but I have tried to indicate to the social scientist the chief contributions, their value, and where they may be found. Any one making application to any of the offices named may, so far as supplies still exist, secure the specific information to which reference has been made. There is another body besides these organized offices engaged in making such contributions, that is, the Congress itself, and I close the list with a brief reference to some of the more important specific contributions of that particular body to social science.

Prior to 1820 the statistical work of the government, apart from that of the decennial census and those figures given in the