In addition to these eight bureaus, the department has charge of various other branches of government. All of the territories come under the Secretary's supervision, and look to him in case of any difficulty. The Secretary also has charge of the Yellowstone National Park, the Hot Springs Reservation in Arkansas, and of certain hospitals and eleemosynary institutions in the District of Columbia. A Superintendent of Public Documents looks after the receipt, distribution, and sale of government publications. The most important subjects of recent legislation concerning this department have been the dependent pension act, the act providing for the survey of Western lands suitable for irrigation, and the land forfeiture act. By this act over 8,000,000 acres of lands were forfeited by the railroads for failure to fulfill the conditions under which the land was originally granted to them. _#The Post Office Department.#_--The Post Office Department was established in 1789, but the Postmaster-General did not become a cabinet officer until 1829. The Postmaster-General has charge and management of the department, and of the domestic and foreign mail service. He can establish post offices and appoint postmasters of the fourth and fifth classes, i.e. those whose salaries are less than $1,000. These number over 50,000. The total number of postoffices is about 56,000. The President appoints to those of the first three classes. Other officers besides the Assistant Postmasters-General are, the Superintendents of the Money Order Division, of Foreign Mails, and of the Railway Service, and an Assistant Attorney-General for the department. The United States is a member of the Universal Postal Union, of which most, if not all, of the civilized countries are members. The central office is known as the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union, and is conducted under the superintendence of the Swiss Postal Administration, and its expenses are borne by all the nations composing the Union. The revenues of the Post Office Department nearly equal the expenditures, and would have exceeded them before this but for the fact that as soon as the amount of receipts has warranted, improvements have been made in the service, through the reduction of postage rates and the extension of the free delivery system. It has never been the policy of the government to make this department a source of revenue.