concentrated in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. The vigorous action of
Rear-Admiral Benham in protecting the personal and commercial rights of
our citizens during the disturbed conditions afforded results which
will, it is believed, have a far-reaching and wholesome influence
whenever in like circumstances it may become necessary for our naval
commanders to interfere on behalf of our people in foreign ports.
The war now in progress between China and Japan has rendered it
necessary or expedient to dispatch eight vessels to those waters.
Both the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Treasury
recommend the transfer of the work of the Coast Survey proper to the
Navy Department. I heartily concur in this recommendation. Excluding
Alaska and a very small area besides, all the work of mapping and
charting our coasts has been completed. The hydrographic work, which
must be done over and over again by reason of the shifting and varying
depths of water consequent upon the action of streams and tides, has
heretofore been done under the direction of naval officers in
subordination to the Superintendent of the Coast Survey. There seems to
be no good reason why the Navy should not have entire charge hereafter
of such work, especially as the Hydrographic Office of the Navy
Department is now and has been for many years engaged in making
efficient maps entirely similar to those prepared by the Coast Survey.
I feel it my imperative duty to call attention to the recommendation of
the Secretary in regard to the personnel of the line of the Navy. The
stagnation of promotion in this the vital branch of the service is so
great as to seriously impair its efficiency.
I consider it of the utmost importance that the young and middle-aged
officers should before the eve of retirement be permitted to reach a
grade entitling them to active and important duty.
The system adopted a few years ago regulating the employment of labor
at the navy-yards is rigidly upheld and has fully demonstrated its
usefulness and expediency. It is within the domain of civil-service
reform inasmuch as workmen are employed through a board of labor
selected at each navy-yard and are given work without reference to
politics and in the order of their application, preference, however,
being given to Army and Navy veterans and those having former navy-yard
experience.
Amendments suggested by experience have been made to the rules
regulating the system. Through its operation the work at our navy-yards
has been vastly improved in efficiency and the opportunity to work has
been honestly and fairly awarded to willing and competent applicants.
It is hoped that if this system continues to be strictly adhered to
there will soon be as a natural consequence such an equalization of
party benefit as will remove all temptation to relax or abandon it.
The report of the Secretary of the Interior exhibits the situation of
the numerous and interesting branches of the public service connected
with his Department. I commend this report and the valuable
recommendations of the Secretary to the careful attention of the
Congress.
The public land disposed of during the year amounted to 10,406,100.77
acres, including 28,876.05 of Indian lands.
It is estimated that the public domain still remaining amounts to a
little more than 600,000,000 acres, including, however, about
360,000,000 acres in Alaska, as well as military reservations and
railroad and other selections of lands yet unadjudicated.
The total cash receipts from sale of lands amounted to $2,674,285.79,
including $91,981.03 received for Indian lands.
Thirty-five thousand patents were issued for agricultural lands, and
3,100 patents were issued to Indians on allotments of their holdings in
severalty, the land so allotted being inalienable by the Indian
allottees for a period of twenty-five years after patent.
There were certified and patented on account of railroad and wagon-road
grants during the year 865,556.45 acres of land, and at the close of
the year 29,000,000 acres were embraced in the lists of selections made
by railroad and wagon-road companies and awaited settlement.
The selections of swamp lands and that taken as indemnity therefor
since the passage of the act providing for the same in 1849 amount to
nearly or quite 80,500,000 acres, of which 58,000,000 have been
patented to States. About 138,000 acres were patented during the last
year. Nearly 820,000 acres of school and education grants were approved
during the year, and at its close 1,250,363.81 acres remained
unadjusted.
It appears that the appropriation for the current year on account of
special service for the protection of the public lands and the timber
thereon is much less than those for previous years, and inadequate for
an efficient performance of the work. A larger sum of money than has
been appropriated during a number of years past on this account has
been returned to the Government as a result of the labors of those
employed in the particular service mentioned, and I hope it will not be
crippled by insufficient appropriation.
I fully indorse the recommendation of the Secretary that adequate
protection be provided for our forest reserves and that a comprehensive
forestry system be inaugurated. Such keepers and superintendents as are
necessary to protect the forests already reserved should be provided.
I am of the opinion that there should be an abandonment of the policy
sanctioned by present laws under which the Government, for a very small
consideration, is rapidly losing title to immense tracts of land
covered with timber, which should be properly reserved as permanent
sources of timber supply.
The suggestion that a change be made in the manner of securing surveys
of the public lands is especially worthy of consideration. I am
satisfied that these surveys should be made by a corps of competent
surveyors under the immediate control and direction of the Commissioner
of the General Land Office.
An exceedingly important recommendation of the Secretary relates to the
manner in which contests and litigated cases growing out of efforts to
obtain Government land are determined. The entire testimony upon which
these controversies depend in all their stages is taken before the
local registers and receivers, and yet these officers have no power to
subpoena witnesses or to enforce their attendance to testify. These
cases, numbering three or four thousand annually, are sent by the local
officers to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for his action.
The exigencies of his other duties oblige him to act upon the decisions
of the registers and receivers without an opportunity of thorough
personal examination. Nearly 2,000 of these cases are appealed annually
from the Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior. Burdened with
other important administrative duties, his determination of these
appeals must be almost perfunctory and based upon the examination of
others, though this determination of the Secretary operates as a final
adjudication upon rights of very great importance.
I concur in the opinion that the Commissioner of the General Land
Office should be relieved from the duty of deciding litigated land
cases, that a nonpartisan court should be created to pass on such
cases, and that the decisions of this court should be final, at least
so far as the decisions of the Department are now final. The proposed
court might be given authority to certify questions of law in matters
of especial importance to the Supreme Court of the United States or the
court of appeals for the District of Columbia for decision. The
creation of such a tribunal would expedite the disposal of cases and
insure decisions of a more satisfactory character. The registers and
receivers who originally hear and decide these disputes should be
invested with authority to compel witnesses to attend and testify
before them.
Though the condition of the Indians shows a steady and healthy
progress, their situation is not satisfactory at all points. Some of
them to whom allotments of land have been made are found to be unable
or disinclined to follow agricultural pursuits or to otherwise
beneficially manage their land. This is especially true of the
Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who, as it appears by reports of their agent,
have in many instances never been located upon their allotments, and in
some cases do not even know where their allotments are. Their condition
has deteriorated. They are not self-supporting and they live in camps
and spend their time in idleness.
I have always believed that allotments of reservation lands to Indians
in severalty should be made sparingly, or at least slowly, and with the
utmost caution. In these days, when white agriculturists and stock
raisers of experience and intelligence find their lot a hard one, we
ought not to expect Indians, unless far advanced in civilization and
habits of industry, to support themselves on the small tracts of land
usually allotted to them.
If the self-supporting scheme by allotment fails, the wretched
pauperism of the allottees which results is worse than their original
condition of regulated dependence. It is evident that the evil
consequences of ill-advised allotment are intensified in cases where
the false step can not be retraced on account of the purchase by the
Government of reservation lands remaining after allotments are made and
the disposition of such remaining lands to settlers or purchasers from
the Government.
I am convinced that the proper solution of the Indian problem and the
success of every step taken in that direction depend to a very large
extent upon the intelligence and honesty of the reservation agents and
the interest they have in their work. An agent fitted for his place can
do much toward preparing the Indians under his charge for citizenship
and allotment of their lands, and his advice as to any matter
concerning their welfare will not mislead. An unfit agent will make no
effort to advance the Indians on his reservation toward civilization or
preparation for allotment of lands in severalty, and his opinion as to
their condition in this and other regards is heedless and valueless.
The indications are that the detail of army officers as Indian agents
will result in improved management on the reservations.
Whenever allotments are made and any Indian on the reservation has
previously settled upon a lot and cultivated it or shown a disposition
to improve it in any way, such lot should certainly be allotted to him,
and this should be made plainly obligatory by statute.
In the light of experience and considering the uncertainty of the
Indian situation and its exigencies in the future, I am not only
disposed to be very cautious in making allotments, but I incline to
agree with the Secretary of the Interior in the opinion that when
allotments are made the balance of reservation land remaining after
allotment, instead of being bought by the Government from the Indians
and opened for settlement with such scandals and unfair practices as
seem unavoidable, should remain for a time at least as common land or
be sold by the Government on behalf of the Indians in an orderly way
and at fixed prices, to be determined by its location and desirability,
and that the proceeds, less expenses, should be held in trust for the
benefit of the Indian proprietors.
The intelligent Indian-school management of the past year has been
followed by gratifying results. Efforts have been made to advance the
work in a sound and practical manner. Five institutes of Indian
teachers have been held during the year, and have proved very
beneficial through the views exchanged and methods discussed
particularly applicable to Indian education.
Efforts are being made in the direction of a gradual reduction of the
number of Indian contract schools, so that in a comparatively short
time they may give way altogether to Government schools, and it is
hoped that the change may be so gradual as to be perfected without too
great expense to the Government or undue disregard of investments made
by those who have established and are maintaining such contract schools.
The appropriation for the current year, ending June 30, 1895,
applicable to the ordinary expenses of the Indian service amounts to
$6,733,003.18, being less by $663,240.64 than the sum appropriated on
the same account for the previous year.
At the close of the last fiscal year, on the 30th day of June, 1894,
there were 969,544 persons on our pension rolls, being a net increase
of 3,532 over the number reported at the end of the previous year.
These pensioners may be classified as follows: Soldiers and sailors
survivors of all wars, 753,968; widows and relatives of deceased
soldiers, 215,162; army nurses in the War of the Rebellion, 414. Of
these pensioners 32,039 are surviving soldiers of Indian and other wars
prior to the late Civil War and the widows or relatives of such
soldiers.
The remainder, numbering 937,505, are receiving pensions on account of
the rebellion, and of these 469,344 are on the rolls under the
authority of the act of June 27, 1890, sometimes called the
dependent-pension law.
The total amount expended for pensions during the year was
$139,804,461.05, leaving an unexpended balance from the sum
appropriated of $25,205,712.65.
The sum necessary to meet pension expenditures for the year ending June
30, 1896, is estimated at $140,000,000.
The Commissioner of Pensions is of the opinion that the year 1895,
being the thirtieth after the close of the War of the Rebellion, must,
according to all sensible human calculation, see the highest limit of
the pension roll, and that after that year it must begin to decline.
The claims pending in the Bureau have decreased more than 90,000 during
the year. A large proportion of the new claims filed are for increase
of pension by those now on the rolls.
The number of certificates issued was 80,213.
The names dropped from the rolls for all causes during the year
numbered 37,951.
Among our pensioners are 9 widows and 3 daughters of soldiers of the
Revolution and 45 survivors of the War of 1812.
The barefaced and extensive pension frauds exposed under the direction
of the courageous and generous veteran soldier now at the head of the
Bureau leave no room for the claim that no purgation of our pension
rolls was needed or that continued vigilance and prompt action are not
necessary to the same end.
The accusation that an effort to detect pension frauds is evidence of
unfriendliness toward our worthy veterans and a denial of their claims
to the generosity of the Government suggests an unfortunate
indifference to the commission of any offense which has for its motive
the securing of a pension and indicates a willingness to be blind to
the existence of mean and treacherous crimes which play upon demagogic
fears and make sport of the patriotic impulse of a grateful people.
The completion of the Eleventh Census is now in charge of the
Commissioner of Labor. The total disbursements on account of the work
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, amounted to $10,365,676.81.
At the close of the year the number of persons employed in the Census
Office was 679; at present there are about 400. The whole number of
volumes necessary to comprehend the Eleventh Census will be 25, and
they will contain 22,270 printed pages. The assurance is confidently
made that before the close of the present calendar year the material
still incomplete will be practically in hand, and the census can
certainly be closed by the 4th of March, 1895. After that the revision
and proof reading necessary to bring out the volumes will still be
required.
The text of the census volumes has been limited as far as possible to
the analysis of the statistics presented. This method, which is in
accordance with law, has caused more or less friction and in some
instances individual disappointment, for when the Commissioner of Labor
took charge of the work he found much matter on hand which according to
this rule he was compelled to discard. The census is being prepared
according to the theory that it is designed to collect facts and
certify them to the public, not to elaborate arguments or to present
personal views.
The Secretary of Agriculture in his report reviews the operations of
his Department for the last fiscal year and makes recommendations for
the further extension of its usefulness. He reports a saving in
expenditures during the year of $600,000, which is covered back into
the Treasury. This sum is 23 per cent of the entire appropriation.
A special study has been made of the demand for American farm products
in all foreign markets, especially Great Britain, That country received
from the United States during the nine months ending September 30,
1894, 305,910 live beef cattle, valued at $26,500,000, as against
182,611 cattle, valued at $16,634,000, during the same period for 1893.
During the first six months of 1894 the United Kingdom took also
112,000,000 pounds of dressed beef from the United States, valued at
nearly $10,000,000.
The report shows that during the nine months immediately preceding
September 30, 1894, the United States exported to Great Britain
222,676,000 pounds of pork; of apples, 1,900,000 bushels, valued at
$2,500,000, and of horses 2,811, at an average value of $139 per head.
There was a falling off in American wheat exports of 13,500,000
bushels, and the Secretary is inclined to believe that wheat may not in
the future be the staple export cereal product of our country, but that
corn will continue to advance in importance as an export on account of
the new uses to which it is constantly being appropriated.
The exports of agricultural products from the United States for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, amounted to $628,363,038, being 72.28
per cent of American exports of every description, and the United
Kingdom of Great Britain took more than 54 per cent of all farm
products finding foreign markets.
The Department of Agriculture has undertaken during the year two new
and important lines of research. The first relates to grasses and
forage plants, with the purpose of instructing and familiarizing the
people as to the distinctive grasses of the United States and teaching
them how to introduce valuable foreign forage plants which may be
adapted to this country. The second relates to agricultural soils and
crop production, involving the analyses of samples of soils from all
sections of the American Union, to demonstrate their adaptability to
particular plants and crops. Mechanical analyses of soils may be of
such inestimable utility that it is foremost in the new lines of
agricultural research, and the Secretary therefore recommends that a
division having it in charge be permanently established in the
Department.
The amount appropriated for the Weather Bureau was $951,100. Of that
sum $138,500, or 14 per cent, has been saved and is returned to the
Treasury.
As illustrating the usefulness of this service it may be here stated
that the warnings which were very generally given of two tropical
storms occurring in September and October of the present year resulted
in detaining safely in port 2,305 vessels, valued at $36,183,913, laden
with cargoes of probably still greater value. What is much more
important and gratifying, many human lives on these ships were also
undoubtedly saved.
The appropriation to the Bureau of Animal Industry was $850,000, and
the expenditures for the year were only $495,429.24, thus leaving
unexpended $354,570.76. The inspection of beef animals for export and
interstate trade has been continued, and 12,944,056 head were inspected
during the year, at a cost of 1 3/4 cents per head, against 4 3/4 cents
for 1893. The amount of pork microscopically examined was 35,437,937
pounds, against 20,677,410 pounds in the preceding year. The cost of
this inspection has been diminished from 8 3/4 cents per head in 1893
to 6 1/2 cents in 1894.
The expense of inspecting the pork sold in 1894 to Germany and France
by the United States was $88,922.10. The quantity inspected was greater
by 15,000,000 pounds than during the preceding year, when the cost of
such inspection was $172,367.08. The Secretary of Agriculture
recommends that the law providing for the microscopic inspection of
export and interstate meat be so amended as to compel owners of the
meat inspected to pay the cost of such inspection, and I call attention
to the arguments presented in his report in support of this
recommendation.
The live beef cattle exported and tagged during the year numbered
353,535. This is an increase of 69,533 head over the previous year.
The sanitary inspection of cattle shipped to Europe has cost an average
of 10 3/4 cents for each animal, and the cost of inspecting Southern
cattle and the disinfection of cars and stock yards averages 2.7 cents
per animal.
The scientific inquiries of the Bureau of Animal Industry have
progressed steadily during the year. Much tuberculin and mallein have
been furnished to State authorities for use in the agricultural
colleges and experiment stations for the treatment of tuberculosis and
glanders.
Quite recently this Department has published the results of its
investigations of bovine tuberculosis, and its researches will be
vigorously continued. Certain herds in the District of Columbia will be
thoroughly inspected and will probably supply adequate scope for the
Department to intelligently prosecute its scientific work and furnish
sufficient material for purposes of illustration, description, and
definition.
The sterilization of milk suspected of containing the bacilli of
tuberculosis has been during the year very thoroughly explained in a
leaflet by Dr. D. E. Salmon, the Chief of the Bureau, and given general
circulation throughout the country.
The Office of Experiment Stations, which is a part of the United States
Department of Agriculture, has during the past year engaged itself
almost wholly in preparing for publication works based upon the reports
of agricultural experiment stations and other institutions for
agricultural inquiry in the United States and foreign countries.
The Secretary in his report for 1893 called attention to the fact that
the appropriations made for the support of the experiment stations
throughout the Union were the only moneys taken out of the National
Treasury by act of Congress for which no accounting to Federal
authorities was required. Responding to this suggestion, the
Fifty-third Congress, in making the appropriation for the Department
for the present fiscal year, provided that--