EDUCATION, THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF, established by Congress as an independent department of the Gov ernment in 1867 and in 1869 as a bureau in the Department of the Interior, is the principal agency in the United States for educa tional research, statistics, investigation and general dissemination of information relating to schools. It has no administrative power over State school systems but exercises certain administrative functions in connection with the expenditure of funds appropriated by the Federal Government for the colleges of agriculture and me chanic arts in the States and Territories and is entirely responsible for the administration of the schools, hospitals and other activities relating to the natives of Alaska. The Bureau of Education had completed (1928) more than 200 formal surveys of school sys tems, of which I I have comprised entire States and a consider able number have been national in scope, such as the survey of negro colleges and universities in the United States and the one on land-grant colleges and universities. The most important of its publications is The Biennial Survey of Education, a compre hensive statistical and textual review of education in the United States. The bureau possesses the largest and most valuable purely educational library in the United States.