The Bureau of Labor Statistics.

He was appointed by President McKinley September 7, 1898, as member of the National Industrial Commission created by Congress, where he served for nearly two years, resigning the same to accept the office of Commissioner of Labor Statistics of Ohio, to which he was appointed by Governor George K. Nash, April 25, 1900, and reappointed April 25, 1902.

Mr. Ratchford is unswerving in his devotion to the Republican party, and as such has ably discussed the issues for which his party stands in many states of the Union during national and state campaigns.

The Commissioner of Labor Statistics is appointed by the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate for a term of two years. The Chief Clerk and office force of the Bureau are appointed by the Commissioner with the consent of the Governor. The superintendents and clerks of the five Free Public Employment Offices-Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo, which are under the direction and supervision of the Bureau, are also appointed by the Commissioner in the same manner for a term of two years.

The Bureau, under the law-Sec. 308 of the Revised Statutes— collects, arranges and systematizes all statistics relating to the various branches of labor in the state, and especially those relating to the commercial, industrial, social, educational and sanitary conditions of the laboring classes.

COMMISSIONERS OF LABOR STATISTICS.

Appointive by the Governor, and term of office for two years.

NOTE. Commissioner Fassett was legislated out of office in 1890, and was succeeded by Mr. McBride, who resigned before his term expired.

THE CANAL COMMISSION.

N THE year 1887, Hon. Jacob A. Kohler, Attorney General, called the attention of Governor Foraker and the Board of Public Works to the valuable state property, in the city of Akron, that had been unlawfully taken possession of by individuals and corporations, and shortly thereafter, ten civil actions, against as many different defendants, were commenced to recover state property valued at one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars.

When the succeeding General Assembly convened, the governor recommended that a commission be created to ascertain what lands the State owned; thereupon Hon. J. Park Alexander, of Summit county, introduced a bill, embodying the ideas of the governor and attorney general, creating "a commission to establish the boundaries and lines of the canals, canal basins, reservoirs, etc., of the State by actual surveys by metes and bounds, together with maps and plats of the same, and to define and protect the ownership and titles in and to all lands belonging to and connected with said canals."

Subsequently, the duties of the commission were enlarged by adding to its work the duties previously performed by the swamp land commissioner, and providing for the recording of all documents, maps, plats and records in any wise appertaining to the title of any real estate formerly belonging to or now owned by the State.

The commission is generally called a "Canal Commission," but should be called a land commission, as it has nothing to do with the navigation. or management of the canals, and has no relation whatever to the old. board of canal commissioners that laid out and constructed the public works of the State.

The duties of the commission are to locate and define the State's property, to recover such portions of it as are found in the unlawful possession of individuals and corporations, to lease such portions of it as are not necessary for canal purposes, to acquire title to swamp lands and to collect the cash indemnity due for such lands when they have been disposed of by the United States.

The original act was passed March 28, 1888, and shortly thereafter Governor Foraker appointed as members of said commission, General William H. Gibson of Seneca county, Col. Charles F. Baldwin of Knox county, and Judge Alexander S. Latty of Defiance county, General Gib

The Canal Commission.

son being made president, Judge Latty vice president, and T. C. Ryan of Washington county, secretary. Col. Baldwin resigned after a few months' service, and Hon. R. M. Rownd of Franklin county, was appointed in his place.

The commissioners found that there was practically nothing with which to commence their labors. The original surveys and maps of the canals had all disappeared along with the books that showed the awards of damages paid for lands appropriated for canals and reservoir purposes. Fortunately a half dozen of these books were found in a consignment of old paper that had been shipped to one of the paper mills on the Miami and Erie canal, and were finally restored to the State, where they have been of inestimable value in aiding the recovery of State property.

The first three or four years may be called the period of surveys and discovery. More than twelve hundred miles of transit lines have been run since the commencement of the canals and reservoir surveys, while hundreds of monuments have been planted to perpetuate the lines established for the boundaries of the State property. In addition, the title to lands owned by the State, at one time and another, aggregated one million two hundred and thirty thousand five hundred and twenty-two (1,230,522) acres, have been recorded in the records of the office.

Twenty-three large volumes of maps have been completed and bound. in convenient book form, and others are in process of completion.

These maps when completed will embrace the entire canal system, including the canals, reservoirs, basins, wide-waters, feeders, raceways, water-powers, hydraulics, dams, slack-waters, locks, aqueducts, bridges, culverts, bulk-heads, waste-weirs, and in fact nearly every thing pertaining to the public works of the State.

In addition to these, plats have been made of all the swamp lands in the northwestern part of the State. This was necessary in order to determine the indemnity due the state, from the United States, for swamp lands, and the commission has filed claims for swamp land indemnity aggregating $121,601.66, which claims are pending for hearing before the secretary of the interior.

The net results to the State from the work of the commission in lands recovered, and lands leased and sold, is approximately $1,000,000.00, and this will be substantially increased if pending litigation results in favor of the State.

The fixed policy of the commission has been to lease the State lands rather than to sell them in order that the State may derive a steady income from the same.

The Canal Commission.

The following is a list of the different canal commissioners who have served on that board from time to time. The date of each commission being some day in the latter part of April.

The membership of the commission was reduced from three to two

members in 1892.

A

LLEN TRIMBLE WIKOFF, son of John and Nancy (Jones) Wikoff,

was born in Green township, Adams county, Ohio, November 15, 1825, and died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, July 22, 1902

He received a common school education, which he supplemented by diligent study at home, and which enabled him in after life to attain social and political preferment seldom accorded to one whose early education was necessarily limited.

He continued the vocation of farming until the breaking out of the Civil War, and in 1862 he was commissioned first lieutenant of Company I, 91st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was promoted the following year to the captaincy of the company, in which capacity he served with honor until the close of the war.

After his return from the army he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1867, but never engaged actively in the practice of law.

He held successively the office of Chief Clerk in the Secretary of State's office, Secretary of State and Adjutant General of Ohio; was chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee during the national campaign of 1876, and in that year was chosen as the Ohio member of the Republican National Committee; was appointed by President Grant, in 1877, as United States Pension Agent for Ohio, and reappointed to the position by Presidents Hayes and Arthur. Shortly after his retirement in 1885, he was appointed receiver, by the United States Court, for The Cleveland & Marietta Railroad, and after its sale and reorganization, became president and general manager of the road, and continued as such until 1893, when it became a part of the Pennsylvania system.

In April, 1896, he was appointed by Governor Bushnell as a member of the Ohio Canal Commission, and reappointed by Governor Nash in 1900, retaining the position up to the time of his death.