The United States Government has no police power within the States, and it is not within its province to enact or enforce rules or laws, or even to make police inspection regarding the methods of operating mining properties. The province of the mine accidents investigations and that of its successor, the Bureau of Mines, is, within the States, like that of other and similar Government bureaus in the Interior Department, the Department of Agriculture, and other Federal departments, merely to investigate and disseminate information. It remains for the States to enact laws and rules applying the remedies which may be indicated as a result of Federal investigation. Investigations are now in progress and tests are being conducted with a view to issuing circulars concerning the methods of fighting mine fires, the installation of telephones and other means of signaling, and other subjects of the kind to which Mr. Bartoccini refers. Much as the writer appreciates the kindly and sympathetic spirit of the discussion of Messrs. Allen and Bartoccini, he appreciates even more that of Colonel Dunn and Mr. Stott, who are recognized authorities regarding the subjects they discuss, and of Messrs. Kreisinger and Snelling, who have added materially to the details presented in the paper relative to the particular investigations of which they have charge in Pittsburg. Mr. Snelling’s reference to the use of explosives in blasting operations should be of interest to all civil engineers, as well as to mining engineers, as should Colonel Dunn’s discussion concerning the means adopted to safeguard the transportation of explosives. Since the presentation of the paper, Congress has enacted a law establishing, in the Department of the Interior, a United States Bureau of Mines. To this Bureau have been transferred from the Geological Survey the fuel-testing and the mine accidents investigations described in this paper. To the writer it seems a matter for deep regret that the investigations of the structural materials belonging to and for the use of the United States, were not also transferred to the same Bureau. On the last day of the session of Congress, a conference report transferred these from the Geological Survey to the Bureau of Standards. It is doubtful whether the continuation of these investigations in that Bureau, presided over as it is by physicists and chemists of high scientific attainments, will be of as immediate value to engineers and to those engaged in building and engineering construction as they would in the Bureau of Mines, charged as it is with the investigations pertinent to the mining and quarrying industries, and having in its employ mining, mechanical, and civil engineers. FOOTNOTES [Footnote 1: Presented at the meeting of April 20th, 1910.] [Footnote 2: “Coal Mine Accidents,” by Clarence Hall and Walter O. Snelling. Bulletin No. 333, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.]