in a plan for "serial numbering." On Mar. 3, 1817, all the documents were brought into the numbered series by the passage of the following resolution:

Resolved, That the secretary of the Senate and clerk of the House of Representatives be directed, in making any further contracts for the printing of Congress, to stipulate and require that the same, excepting only the bills, or when otherwise specially directed by either House, shall be done in royal octavo form, the size of the pages to be the same as those of the laws of the United States, and that when any tables will not admit, with the use of a small type, of compression into that size, they shall be so printed as to fold conveniently into the volume.

Repeating the "document number"

The provision in the resolution of Dec. 14, 1813, that the number of each document shall be ́ ́distinctly marked on the top of the title-page and every subsequent page, in addition to the number of each page of such document," was observed to the commencement of the 2d session of the 33d Congress, when the "document number" was dropped from the top of all but the first page of the document. No evidence has been found of the repeal of this resolution.

The document number has been, however, carried as a part of the printer's signature mark on most of the documents, beginning with the 2d session of the 33d Congress; and since about the middle of Feb. 1904, during the 2d session of the 58th Congress, the signature marks of the upnumber carry also the number of the Congress and session. Certain large documents and certain annual reports have always been exceptions to this custom.

For some time prior to the 2d session of the 59th Congress, in some cases as early as the 2d session of the 49th Congress, the bound volumes of the Congressional reserve carried both a volume signature mark and an individual document signature mark; but beginning with the 2d session of the 59th Congress, the individual document signature mark, while retained on the upnumber, is eliminated from the bound volume (reserve). Therefore, the present custom in binding the Congressional reserve has resulted in only one appearance of the document number on each document, namely, on the top of the first page.

Arrangement of the documents

The separating of the committee reports from the other documents was begun by the House at the commencement of the 16th Congress, but the Senate did not adopt any plan of arrangement until the 30th Congress, 1st session, when the following plan was adopted by each House:

Journals.

Executive documents, containing communications from the President or the Executive Departments.

Miscellaneous documents, containing amendments, resolutions, petitions, memorials, and special reports of all kinds other than of committees.

Reports.

The above arrangement was in vogue through the 53d Congress, 3d session. Beginning with the 54th Congress, in accordance with provisions of the general printing art of Jan. 12, 1895, the four series in each House of Congress were reduced to three, by the consolidation of the former "executive documents" and "miscellaneous documents." From the 54th Congress, therefore, we have in each House only 3 series, namely, Journals, Documents, and Reports, the arrangement in each House being in the order just mentioned, from the beginning of the 54th Congress through the 1st session of the 57th. During this period, as well as prior thereto, all the publications of the Senate preceded those of the House.

Beginning with the 2d session of the 57th Congress, in order to facilitate the work of binding up the Congressional set, a change in the arrangement was made so as to

bring both Journals and both series of Reports ahead of the Documents, and the order has since been as follows:

Senate journal.

House journal.

Senate reports.

House reports.
Senate documents.

House documents.

A serious problem in the arrangement of committee reports arose in the middle of the 58th Congress, 3d session, when under the provisions of the act of Jan. 20, 1905, the "usual number" of reports on private bills and on simple and concurrent resolutions could not be printed. This act necessitated the splitting up of committee reports into numbered volumes for reports on public bills and lettered volumes for reports on private bills and on simple and concurrent resolutions. The situation is very awkward, for the committee reports so separated into numbered and lettered volumes form in each House of Congress one consecutive set of report numbers, irrespective of their public or private nature. The solution of this difficult problem in arrangement is made evident by reference to the entries and footnotes for Senate and House reports of recent Congresses as listed between p. 139 and 164 of this Checklist.

Numbering of series

For many years Senate and House reports were each numbered consecutively through the whole Congress, no matter how many sessions were held, but for Senate and House documents a new series of numbers was begun with each session. Whereas this is true as a general rule, important exceptions must be noted, as follows:

From the 16th Congress to the 46th Congress, inclusive, House reports received new numbers at each session.

Beginning with the 2d session of the 60th Congress, in compliance with the act of Mar. 1, 1907, the documents as well as the reports are numbered throughout a Congress.

Sessional indexes to the Congressional set

Indexing was begun at the 15th Congress, 1st session, by the Senate, and at the 16th Congress, 1st session, by the House. At first these indexes were mere tables of contents, and it was many years before they really deserved the name of index. For the 15th, 16th, and the first half of the 17th Congress, the indexes were contained sometimes in the first and sometimes in the last volume of the series indexed, and on occasions they appeared in more than one volume of the set. It was not, however, until the 2d session of the 17th Congress, that the various indexes of the several series were systematically repeated in all volumes of that series, except when a single document filled a whole volume, in which case the index was sometimes omitted from that volume. This was the general practice until the close of the 53d Congress, at which time there were 6 series of Congressional documents and reports, each of which had its own index, and that index was repeated in all volumes of that series. The repetition of these indexes was done away with by sec. 62 of the act of Jan. 12, 1895, which substituted for the 6 indexes a one-volumed "consolidated index." This "consolidated index," or "Document index" as it is popularly called, has been prepared and issued by the Superintendent of Documents regularly, beginning with the 54th Congress, 1st session. The Document index is an integral part of the Congressional series and bears its own House document number, usually the last, or the next to the last, document number for the session.

Title-pages and "back titles"

The appended list (p. 175-184) contains bibliographical matter which could not be conveniently introduced into the Congressional tables (p. 5-169). As will be seen by reference to this list, the systematic arrangement of the volumes is greatly impeded by the lack of title-pages or their peculiar and varied construction. The "back titles” "binder's titles," which present the only means of identification when no titlepages appear, are even more aggravating in their variety. For example, the top "band" was adopted for the "series title," and reads "State papers, 1st sess., 18th Congress" for v. 6, but v. 7 of the same series reads “Commercial regulations." It seems to have been the rule to drop the series title on the back whenever the document filled a volume, even when no series title-page was provided.

Although volume title-pages frequently appeared in the Congressional set through the 32d Congress, it was not until the 33d Congress that the custom of providing titlepages became a regular practice; this practice was continued through the 53d Congess. From the 54th Congress through the 58th Congress, volume title-pages were gain omitted, but beginning with the 59th Congress they have been resumed.

Annual reports and serial publications for depository libraries

It seems needless here to enter into any elaborate explanation of the operation of the proviso attached to sec. 1 of the joint resolution approved Jan. 15, 1908, which removed from the Congressional set as distributed to depository libraries the annual reports, periodicals, and serially numbered publications of the Executive Departments, bureaus, and commissions. This resolution became effective with the 1st son of the 60th Congress.

In that part of this Checklist which relates to the Congressional series of the 60th Congress, 1st and 2d sessions (see p. 156-169) heavy figures for volume numbers in the 2d column indicate volumes forwarded to depository libraries in the Congressional edition with report or document numbers and bearing the titles and volume numbers of the Congressional series. Light figures in the 2d column indicate volumes of annual reports and serial publications which, under the provisions of the joint resolution of Jan. 15, 1908, were taken out of the Congressional set for depository libraries; these volumes are sent to depository libraries in buckram binding, without Congressional notation, and having title-pages in conformity with the departmental issues.

Readers who are anxious for a more detailed explanation of the legislative history and the practical operation of this joint resolution are referred to Monthly catalogues, Jan. 1908, p. 263-272, and Feb. 1910, p. 373-378; also to the preface to the Document index of the 60th Congress, 1st session.