The Patent Office is one of the few departments which is more than self-supporting. In the year 1836 but one patent was taken out; during the year ending December 31, 1901, the total number of applications was 46,449. The total receipts for the year were $6,626,856.71; total expenditures, $1,297,385.64—leaving a balance far over five million dollars in favor of the government. There are divisions for different classes of inventions. When a patent is applied for, examiners make all necessary investigations, and carefully look into the invention claimed to be new, comparing it, part by part, with patents already existing before determining whether a patent can be granted. They have a library with plates and descriptions of about everything under the sun. From this library inventors can have books and plates sent them in order to compare their work with inventions now existing. The Secretary of the Interior is a member of the President's Cabinet, and receives $12,000 per year. He has charge of the Capitol (through the architect), the Insane Asylum, and the College for Mutes—indeed, it would seem that his work is sufficient for ten Secretaries. There is an Assistant Secretary of the Interior, who receives $4,000 per annum, and commissioners of different divisions and bureaus who receive from $3,000 to $6,000 annually. Many officers of this department could command higher salaries in the commercial world, but these positions secure honor and respect not only for the man himself but also for his descendants, hence these commissionerships are very desirable. For that reason men give up a legal practise or a railroad position, bringing salaries eight or ten times as large. The present Secretary, Ethan Allen Hitchcock,[4] of Missouri, great-grandson of Ethan Allen, of Vermont, has a wide experience in manufacturing, railroad, and mining interests, and has served as Ambassador to Russia. He was called to his present place in 1898. Footnote 4: Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, died April 9, 1909, age seventy-four. The Secretary in his report for 1901 entreats that at least twenty more persons of fine mechanical ability be appointed as examiners, as his force is much behind in their work, altho many labor far over allotted time. The Bureau of Education, established in 1867, is probably as little known to the general public as any branch of the government. It is a clearing-house. The Commissioner of Education, Hon. William T. Harris,[5] is one of the great educators of the world. It is probable if the teachers of the United States could have a personal vote, their unanimous choice would fall upon Dr. Harris as their Commissioner. The offices of the Bureau of Education are in a brick building at the corner of G and Eighth Streets. Footnote 5: