ing touch of coordinated action to make its success complete. To develop methods by which the energies of many individuals shall be brought to work together is the need. And as the method of doing this politically has been found in this Republic, so we may feel assured that economically and socially we shall not fail.

An intense nationalization has been the marking note of the past year. Each American has realized with keener consciousness the meaning of this land to him, and has sought for a larger view of it in its many aspects and, if possible, to gain a glimpse at its future. To each has come his dream. We know now that there is more to national feeling than pride in the possession of a land that is rare and valuable or the splendid memory of a history of struggle for those things of the spirit which men call principles. The highest sense of nationality comes with a sense of purpose a sense of common purpose. In what direction are we consciously going? What are we determined that this land shall be? This, I take it, is the accepted test of a real national sense; and if it is, the obligations we must carry are certainly serious. For the United States is not yet ours in the proudest sense, and can not be until we are doing all that can be done to give to all its people and to the world the full expression of its highest intelligence applied alike to its resources and to the life of the people.

Respectfully yours,

The PRESIDENT.

FRANKLIN K. LANE,

Secretary.

ADMINISTRATIVE EFFORT.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

1. Patented under all classes of entries, 13,025,427 acres, as against 12,678,076 acres in 1913 and 10,135,475 acres in 1912.

2. Issued 2,711 patents on desert-land entries, embracing 448,752 acres, as against 2,127 patents, embracing 346,794 acres, during the year previous; 2,209 patents, embracing 356,477 acres, in 1913; and 2,285 patents, embracing 364,728 acres, in 1912.

3. Issued 1,669 patents in fee to Indians, relieving 202,050 acres from restrictions against alienation and rendering such acreage subject to taxation, as against 986 patents, embracing 122,432 acres, in 1913, and 1,051 patents, embracing 137,267 acres, in 1912.

4. Patented 146,079 acres under the Carey Act, as against 4,244 acres the year before and 35,170 acres in 1912–13.

5. Patented and certified under railroad and wagon-road grants, 1,624,142 acres, as against 828,911 acres in 1914, 1,340,998 acres in 1913, and 20,975 acres in 1912.

6. Allowed entries of public and Indian lands for 16,861,214 acres, as against 16,522,852 acres in 1914, 15,867,222 acres in 1913, and 14,574,688 acres in 1912.

7. Disposed of 2,943 applications for second entry, compared with 777 in 1914, 749 in 1913, and 837 in 1912.

8. Approved and accepted original surveys covering 11,988,387 acres and 2,350,962 acres of resurveys, an acreage largely in excess of accepted surveys in any year during the last two decades.

9. Surveyed and opened to entry 27,416 acres of Arkansas lands heretofore erroneously shown on the plats of survey as lake or sunk lands.

10. Reserved 23 town sites on the line of the new Government railroad in Alaska.

11. Laid out and surveyed town site of Anchorage, Alaska, and sold at public sale 655 town lots for $148,980, all within six months. 12. Disposed of 1,389 applications for rights of way for irrigation and kindred purposes, as compared with 898 of the same class the year previous.

13. Investigated 714 railroad rights of way under original action taken in the present year, of which 302 were declared forfeited for failure to construct the road.

14. Issued notices for the restoration of 2,838 lists of lands in national forests, by which approximately 280,000 acres of agricultural lands were opened to homestead entry, compared with 2,580 lists embracing 255,000 acres the year previous.

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15. Restored to the public domain 530,841 acres as the result of investigations by the field service, as against 516,298 acres the year previous.

16. Sold 889 tracts of lands surveyed as villa sites, fronting on Flathead Lake, Mont., for $125,000, some tracts selling for $300 per acre. First sale of the kind in the disposition of public lands.

17. Settled and disposed of controversy of several years' standing, involving the exchange of over 400,000 acres of land in the Navajo and Moqui Indian Reservations, Ariz., for lands outside of said reservations.

18. Restored to settlement and entry after special investigation in the field 7,805 acres in the Imperial Valley, Cal.

19. Surveyed in the field under the Alaska coal leasing act of October 20, 1914, the coal lands in the Matanuska, Bering River, and Nenana coal fields, organizing therefor 15 field parties.

20. Restored from national forests during the period from March 14, 1913, to June 30, 1915, inclusive, 4,789,910 acres, as against 2,400,149 acres restored during the period from November 4, 1910, to March 3, 1913, inclusive.

21. Surveyed within railroad grants during 1914 and 1915 4,008,000 acres, as against 1,620,000 acres in 1912 and 1913.

THE INDIAN OFFICE.

1. Health conditions are considered of first importance. Six new hospitals were constructed during the past year in furtherance of a vigorous health campaign. Every Indian hospital bed not necessarily occupied with those suffering from disease or injury is being utilized for the Indian mother in childbirth. Education and protection of property are highly important, but everything is regarded secondary to the basic condition which makes for the perpetuation of the race.

2. The Indian Office has taken aggressive steps toward the development of improved vocational training, and has adopted plans in several of the boarding schools which will accomplish the educational training necessary to instill in the Indian youth the real object of educational equipment. Emphasis is being placed on agriculture and domestic science. This program will be carried out in all nonreservation and reservation boarding schools.

3. All Indian schools and reservations are being required to utilize every acre of available farm land for the production of the things they consume. Every effort is being put forth to the end that the Indians shall no longer be altogether consumers but shall become producers, thereby bringing about a corresponding reduction in congressional appropriations.

4. Through the use of the $600,000 reimbursable appropriation for the promotion of industry among Indians the Indian Office has been enabled to purchase equipment and establish on a sound and business

like basis numerous Indian families on farms and through this system of loans promote the financial integrity and prosperity of the Indians participating in this fund.

5. The policy of promoting and developing the live-stock industry by the purchase of 2,678 stallions, 1,048 bulls, 12,272 heifers, 2,510 steers, 3,738 cows, 2,110 mares, 469 rams, 513 sheep, 670 horses, and 67 mules at an expense of one and a half million dollars, inaugurated during the year ending June 30, 1914, has been continued by the expenditure of a similar amount during the year ending June 30, 1915, in the purchase of 3,682 horses and mules, 72 stallions and jacks, 15,804 cows and heifers, 1,194 bulls, and a considerable number of other miscellaneous stock.

6. The increase in the number of Indian-owned stock has correspondingly decreased the areas of grazing ranges for lease. This condition, together with the advanced prices of beef, mutton, and wool and the great demand for horses and mules, has materially increased the number of bidders for Indian-reservation leases and has resulted in uniformly advanced prices for grazing privileges.

7. The number of acres farmed by the Indians has been greatly increased during the last year, more than three times the amount of seed having been distributed last spring than ever before.

8. Developed a new type of cotton of the long staple Egyptian variety, which has been given the name of "Pima," after the name of the Indian reservation in Arizona on which it was produced. Approximately $1,000,000 will be realized from this production during the year.

9. The greatest efforts are being put forth to induce the Indians to take advantage of the expenditures, totaling more than $12,000,000, for irrigation construction, which in the past on several projects have been almost unproductive. On many reservations the areas actually irrigated have been more than doubled in the year of this report.

10. For the first time an appropriation out of the Ute judgment fund was made for the benefit of the several tribes of Ute Indians. Since March 14, 1915, more than 20,000 acres on the Uintah Reservation has been placed under cultivation and the water rights thereby protected.

11. During the year the first real step toward a systematic and comprehensive inventory of the timber resources of the Indians has been taken.

12. The rules of probate procedure adopted by the county judges at the suggestion of the commissioner, afterwards promulgated by the Supreme Court, have in their enforcement resulted in the saving and safe investment of more than $1,000,000 during the last half of the fiscal year to the Indians of Oklahoma.

13. New regulations have been adopted to govern the leasing of the Osage lands for oil and gas purposes, which become effective in March of next year. Under these regulations the Osage Indians will receive one-sixth, and in some cases one-fifth, royalty instead of oneeighth on oil and one-sixth royalty on gas instead of a nominal payment on each producing well. They will also receive $1 per acre per annum on all undeveloped leased territory until the same is developed. Large tracts of producing territory under leases expiring March 16, 1916, will be leased on competitive bidding, from which it is expected a great sum of money will be realized. Improved drilling conditions have been adopted which will greatly diminish the waste in oil and gas throughout all Oklahoma.

THE BUREAU OF PENSIONS.

1. Paid for pensions $165,518,266.14

2. Returned to the Treasury $3,534,964.08 (including $53,230.22 repayments) of the amount appropriated by Congress for the payment of pensions.

3. Returned to the Treasury $190,296.46 of the sum appropriated for maintenance and expense of the pension system, including salaries of special examiners.

4. Reduced the number of employees by 93 persons without the necessity of dismissing or removing any employee. This was in addition to the reduction of the force by 145 persons for the preceding year.

5. Continued with increasing facility the payment of pensions without vouchers, enabling the pensioners to receive their checks earlier than under the former system and saving to such pensioners the cost of execution of vouchers.

6. Inaugurated an accounting system by which the exact status of the work of the bureau is ascertained and recorded every day, which has resulted in equalization of the work among the examiners, and elimination of idleness due to waiting for distribution of work.

7. Secured statements showing the marital status of about 350,000 male pensioners for use in the adjudication of widows' claims filed hereafter, and making permanent record of the history of these soldiers.

8. Convictions were obtained in 39 out of 40 criminal cases tried during the year because of violation of the pension laws.

9. By requiring pension claimants to make statement before the board of examining surgeons of all disabilities alleged to be due to service, a large reduction has been effected in the number of medical examinations ordered, the reason being that such a statement eliminates repeated applications by the same claimant based upon new disabilities. The amount expended for examining surgeons' fees in 1915 was $45,704.40, as against $128,206.17 in 1912.