Reports

Annual reports of several Cabinet officers were published. They included:

Treasury Department. Secretary Mellon reported a surplus of $309,657,460 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1923, with a reduction of $613,674,343 in the public debt. This improvement was due in large part to unexpectedly large receipts from income and customs taxes. The Government's revenue was derived from:

Income and profits taxes 41.89%

Internal revenue taxes ...23.61%

Customs taxes 14.02%

Proceeds from foreign obligations .. 5.81%

Miscellaneous 14.67%

A large part of the report was devoted to an exposition of the Secre- tary's plan for tax reduction (TIME, Nov. 19).

Of Prohibition, he pointed out that whiskey withdrawal permits reached a new low mark, 1,754,893 gallons (as compared with 2,645,506 gallons in the previous year and an average consumption of 130,000,000 gallons before Prohibition). There were 66,936 arrests for violation of the Volstead Act and over $5,000,000 receipts from fines, forfeitures and "compromises" under the Act.

Department of Justice. Attorney General Daugherty reported increased prosecutions for War frauds, and for violations of the Prohibition, white slave, tax, public land and postal banking laws. Although 46,000 Prohibition cases were disposed of, there are still 27,000 cases pending. About $4,500,000 has been recovered from the War fraud cases.

Navy Department. Secretary Denby urged the need of $30,000,000 for modernizing the fleet, the building of eight 10,000-ton cruisers, three cruising submarines, $7,676,000 for naval bases and a five year building program for the naval air force. The modernization program includes heavier deck armor for aeroplane defense, blisters for hulls as protection from torpedoes and bombs, and the much disputed proposal to increase the elevation of naval guns.

Department of the Interior. Secretary Work presented an exceptionally brief report summarizing the work of his Department including the Pension Bureau, Patent Office, reclamation projects and Howard University (Negro). His recommendations included increased pensions for Civil War veterans and their widows, to be granted solely on the ground of their growing age and infirmities.

Department of Agriculture. Secretary Wallace discussed at some length the farm situation. He pointed out that 8.5% of the owner farmers have lost their farms through foreclosure or by agreements with their creditors and 15% hold their farms only on account of the leniency of their creditors. Low prices for farm products, high prices for labor and manufactured goods, high local taxes are responsible for the situation. The Secretary proposed no general remedy but suggested that selling our surplus grain to some country which could not pay cash but could give obligations to pay later was worth consideration.

Department of Commerce. Secretary Hoover's report covering the multifarious activities of his Department, carried no recommendations of general importance, excepting the declaration that the year's experience of the Department has shown "more emphatically than ever" the need for railway consolidation.