REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, D. C., November 20, 1916.

SIR: I beg herewith to submit to you my report of the activities of this department during the past year.

Respectfully, yours,

The PRESIDENT.

FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary.

ADMINISTRATIVE EFFORT.

THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

1. Allowed during the fiscal year original entries of public and Indian lands for an area of 19,043,152.92 acres, as against 16,861,214.69 acres in 1915, 16,522,852.12 acres in 1914, 15,867,222.45 acres in 1913, and 14,574,688.82 acres in 1912, a steady annual increase for each year of the present administration.

2. Collected from all sources, $5,470,466.81, as against $5,394,948.20 the year previous, an increase in receipts of $75,518.61.

3. Opened to leasing the coal. deposits in the Matanuska and Bering River fields, Territory of Alaska, after special surveys and field examination by mining engineers.

4. Secured 8 applications for coal leases in Alaska, with an indicated investment of $2,914,000.

5. Disposed of 4,891 applications for second homestead entry, as against 2,943 in 1915, 777 in 1914, 749 in 1913, and 837 in 1912.

6. Acted upon 18,556 petitions for the designation of lands applied for under the enlarged homestead law.

7. Patented 2,208 desert-land entries, embracing 350,534 acres, as compared with 2,711 entries, embracing 448,752 acres, the preceding year; 2,127 patents, embracing 346,794 acres in 1914; 2,209 patents, embracing 356,477 acres in 1913.

8. Certified 300,715 acres of indemnity school land selections, as against 16,277 acres the year previous.

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9. Certified 746,015 acres of State selections under quantity grants, as against 840,606 acres the year previous.

10. Issued 3,568 Indian trust patents, embracing 505,961 acres, as compared with 2,324 trust patents, embracing 284,713 acres, the year preceding.

11. Issued 2,298 Indian fee patents, relieving 300,391 acres from restriction against alienation and rendering such acreage subject to taxation, as compared with an area of 202,050 acres patented in 1915, 224,565 acres patented in 1914, 122,432 acres patented in 1913, and 137,267 acres in 1912.

12. Restored to settlement and entry the public lands, subject to disposition, in 8,526,129 acres excluded from national forests.

13. Issued the first general circular containing a compilation of all the laws and regulations specially applicable in the Territory of Alaska.

14. Collected and turned into the United States Treasury as the result of the work of the Field Service, $175,035, as against $90,799 in 1915.

15. Restored to the public domain as the result of investigations in the field, 239,315 acres.

16. Secured judicial decisions favorable to the Government for 13,000 acres of Arkansas "lake lands," erroneously excluded from the public surveys.

17. Consummated the restoration, after field investigation, of over 120,000 acres in the Imperial Valley, Cal., embracing 17,000 acres of public lands free from all claims or rights and subject to settlement and entry.

18. Secured as escrow deposits, under contracts entered into with. claimants of oil lands, by authority of the act of August 25, 1914 (38 Stat., 708), pending determination of title thereto, the sum of $419,174.

19. Approved and accepted surveys and resurveys aggregating 11,578,235 acres.

20. Approved and accepted resurveys aggregating 2,722,511 acres, as compared with a total of 2,350,962 acres in 1915.

21. Surveyed within railroad grants under the act of June 25, 1910, since the passage of said act, 11,000,000 acres; of which approximately 7,000,000 acres were surveyed since March 4, 1913.

22. Issued notices for the restoration of 1,525 lists of lands in national forests, by which approximately 152,000 acres of agricultural lands were opened to homestead settlement and entry.

23. Opened to settlement and entry 56,175 acres of ceded Chippewa lands in Minnesota, classified as "cut-over" and "pine" lands.

24. Patented under railroad and wagon-road grants 2,208,178 acres, as against 1,624,142 acres in 1915, 828,911 acres in 1914, 1,340,998 acres in 1913, and 20,975 acres in 1912.

25. Patented under the Carey Act 160,741 acres, as against 146,079 acres in 1915, and 4,244 acres in 1914.

26. Prepared and submitted for the use of Congress, a compilation of the unadjusted school land grants with the laws of the several States and decisions of the courts construing said grants, with a tabulated statement showing the adjustment of said grants to date.

THE INDIAN OFFICE.

1. Reduced the death rate approximately seven per thousand and instituted a vigorous campaign to save the bables, which has decreased infant mortality among the Indians.

2. Provided additional school facilities for 1,295 Indian children. 3. Introduced a new course of vocational study into all schools of the service.

4. Probated 4,085 Indian estates and instituted 507 civil and criminal suits in the interest of Indians.

5. Prescribed new regulations to govern the leasing of oil and mineral lands in the Osage Nation, increasing royalties, and adding to the wealth of that tribe $2,230,000 from sales of leases.

6. Organized an effective field-inspection force, covering every phase of governmental activities in behalf of the Indians, simplifying the detection of wrongs, and making possible constructive and practical supervision.

7. Advanced Indian industry, thereby reducing the issuance of rations to 3,807 Indians, as compared with 6,650 for the preceding year, and increasing the individual income of Indians from $15,308,662 in 1915 to $16,069,515 in 1916.

8. Increased the number of Indians farming from 31,956 in 1915 to 35,658 in 1916; the cultivated acreage from 664,539 to 668,552, and the value of crops from $1,790,968 to $5,293,719.

9. Permanently located, after 60 years of wandering, Rocky Boy's Band of Chippewa Indians on a part of the Fort Assinniboine Military Reservation in Montana, where they have so improved their opportunities as to warrant a material reduction in the rations heretofore issued to them.

10. Revised the system of bookkeeping in the office and the field and placed it on a substantial business basis, and what was heretofore a fragmentary accounting system is now a complete double-entry record adapted to all requirements of ready accounting and the furnishing of information required by Congress.

11. Expended in Oklahoma for the benefit of allottees in improving their homes the sum of $908,892; collected for individual Indians of Oklahoma as oil royalties over $4,000,000, and deposited in the State and national banks of Oklahoma over $6,000,000. It handled

through the superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes over $17,000,000.

12. Removed the restrictions on alienation from 42,110 acres of allotted land, of which 33,117 were sold for $360,422.

13. Issued more fee patents than in any other previous year, numbering about 1,900, involving an area of over 230,000 acres.

14. Sold individual Indian lands covering an area of over 90,000 acres, involving a consideration of $1,661,851, at an average price of $18.60 per acre, an advance of nearly $6 per acre.

15. Purchased land for homeless Indians to the amount of 17,860 acres in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and California.

THE BUREAU OF PENSIONS.

1. Paid for pensions, $159,155,089.92.

2. Returned to the Treasury $4,895,499.03 (including $50,588.95 repayments) of the amount appropriated by Congress for the payment of pensions.

3. Returned to the Treasury $78,455.38 of the sum appropriated for maintenance and expense of the pension system, including salaries of special examiners.

4. Reduced the number of employees by 67 persons without the necessity of dismissing or removing any employee. The appropriation act for 1917 limits appointments and promotions to 25 per cent of the vacancies occurring in any grade during that fiscal year. No appointments were made in the classified service after February, 1916. 5. Under orders heretofore issued, each one of the more than 700,000 pensioners was required to exhibit his or her certificate each time when the pension check was indorsed. This to most of them meant some trouble, and to many, because of feebleness caused by age and sickness, was a very great hardship. Under the authority of the Secretary of the Interior it was directed that this requirement should be discontinued after July 1, 1916.

6. There was created by the act of April 27, 1916, a medal-of-honor roll, which gave to each of the soldiers and sailors thereon $10 per month, payable quarterly, "in addition to any pension or other benefit, right, or privilege he may be entitled to under existing or subsequent law." These cases are promptly disposed of as rapidly as filed. 7. In the interests of efficiency, special examiners performing field service in connection with the investigation of pension matters have been equipped with up-to-date portable typewriters and instructed to use them in the preparation of depositions, reports, accounts, and other official papers. This has lessened the review work of field cases about 50 per cent.

8. Convictions were obtained in all of the 28 criminal cases tried during the year because of violation of the pension laws.

9. Money receipts in the bureau for copies of papers and post-office addresses show that there is a constantly increasing revenue from this source, which, though not large now, will become larger. In this connection it might be proper to say that there were received for copies, etc., during the last fiscal year, $10,720.47.

THE PATENT OFFICE.

The total number of applications received for patent in 1915 was 69,349, and in 1916, 70,303, an increase of 954 over the prior year. The total number of applications awaiting action on June 30, 1915, was 18,270 and the number of applications awaiting action on June 30, 1916, was 16,559, a decrease of 1,711. The total number of patents granted in 1915, 44,402, and the total number in 1916, 46,133, an increase of 1,731.

The total receipts of the office were $2,334,030.48, and the total expenditures for all purposes were $2,051,656.79, the net surplus of earnings over expenditures being $282,373.69 for the year.

THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

1. Made surveys of the State institutions of higher education in Iowa, North Dakota, and Washington, of the University of Oregon, and the College of St. Teresa, Winona, Minn.

2. Made surveys of the public school system of Wyoming and of the city systems of San Francisco, Cal.; Jamestown, N. Dak.; Webster Groves, Mɔ.; and assisted in surveys of Nassau County, N. Y., and Richmond, Ind.

3. Rendered decisions as to the eligibility of 551 universities, colleges, and schools for inclusion in the list of institutions to be accredited by the United States Military Academy.

4. Organized and directed conferences of home economics teachers and of teachers and directors of industrial education.

5. Organized and promoted the National Rural Teachers' Reading Circle, whose work has been accepted by 42 States.

6. Conducted a campaign for better rural schools.

7. Cooperated with the State of Delaware in introducing and organizing instruction in civics.

8. Conducted a campaign for the education of adult immigrants. 9. Established a hospital at Juneau, Alaska, for the treatment of Alaskan natives.

THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

1. Conducted geologic investigations in 47 States, the Canal Zone, and the West Indies, and topographic surveys in 29 States. Made detailed and reconnaissance geologic surveys of 43,662 square miles and