Forty-first annual report of the Director of the United States Geological Survey

Abstract

The appropriations for the public work under the United States Geological Survey for the fiscal year 1919-20 comprised items amounting to $1,586,353.50. In general the results of the varied activities of the Geological Survey may be regarded as meeting with a constantly increasing measure of public approval, as shown by the larger use that is being made of this branch of the public service. Correspondence with all classes of citizens—ranchers and corporation officials, school children and university professors, prospectors and mining engineers—has continued to increase, and this gain has been evident in the requests both for specific information and for publications. Ten years ago a telegraphic request for a map or report was a notable incident; now telegrams of this kind are of daily occurrence. Especially gratifying has been the popular demand for topographic maps, the increase in sales this year being 70 per cent. The number of all publications—books and maps—distributed during the year exceeded the number printed this year, this disproving the common assertion that Government publications simply accumulate until they become only waste paper. Indeed, an embarrassing feature of much of the correspondence during the year has been the thousands of requests for reports that were out of print, and more reprints than usual of exhausted editions have been authorized to meet an insistent demand. The public is making use of the publications of the Geological Survey as never before.