Report of the Secretary of the Interior/1883
Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/5 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/6 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/7 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/8 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/9 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/10 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/11 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/12 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/13 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/14 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/15 A year's experience since making the above suggestion has confirmed my views on that question, and I cannot urge too strongly the necessity of the creation of a fund on which the Department has a discretionary power, not to be used for subsistence, but for aiding exceptional cases for civilizing purposes, such as employing farmers, mechanics, and others to teach by practice the Indians to become farmers, mechanics, stock-raisers, and general laborers.
COMPENSATION OF INDIAN AGENTS.
The salaries allowed to Indian agents are, in most cases, grossly inadequate to the labor performed by them. In several instances agents have found the labor so great and the compensation so small that they have surrendered their positions to accept a larger salary, with less labor and responsibility, in other fields. The work required of an Indian agent is of the highest order, and can only be performed by men of large capacity and business experience. He is charged with the distribution of a large amount of property among the Indians. He submits estimates for the necessary appropriations for his agency, has the general oversight of the affairs of the agency, and directly represents the Government in its efforts to care for, protect, and advance the Indians. Work of this character ought not to be left to men of doubtful financial probity or of questionable morals. Men who can properly perform the work assigned to them as Indian agents can make more money, with less labor and privation, in other pursuits.
I earnestly recommend that the salaries of agents be increased sufficiently to secure good men and retain them in the service.
INDIAN TITLES.
The tenure by which most of the Indian tribes hold their land is very unsatisfactory. In a few cases the Indians are sufficiently advanced to appreciate the advantages of land in severalty, but the great mass of the Indians are not only not ready for land in severalty, but violently opposed to it, and incapable of taking care of such title if given to them. A title in severalty to or individual ownership of land is unknown in Indian polity, and they cannot understand why one man should have a claim on or title to land that he does not occupy, any more than they can understand how one man can become the owner of more air than he needs. They do not cultivate land in common, but each Indian has a separate patch or piece of ground which he tills year after year if he desires. When he neglects to cultivate it, any other person may do so. While he cannot comprehend individual ownership, he does know what title to his tribe means. He has been accustomed to hear the claim made that his tribe owns a section of the country. The invasion by one tribe of the region claimed by another has been the cause of innumerable wars. The denial of ownership in his tribe he fully understands, and whether that denial comes from a hostile tribe or from one of his Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/17 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/18 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/19 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/20 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/21 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/22 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/23 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/24 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/25 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/26 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/27 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/28 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/29 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/30 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/31 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/32 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/33 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/34 masses of the people to become the tenants of such land-owners. It has been the policy of the Government heretofore to distribute the public land among the people in such quantities as would enable all desiring to engage in agriculture to do so as land-owners, and not as renters. As the country grows rich the tendency is to aggregate the lands in the hands of a less number of people; this is an evil with which the General Government is not called to deal after it has parted with the title to its land, but as the owner of the public land, held for the people of the United States, it becomes the duty of the Government to see that the laws intended to secure a fair distribution of these lands are strictly enforced.
RAILROAD LAND GRANTS.
In my last report I called attention to the necessity for some legislation in reference to lapsed grants. The necessity for such legislation still exists, and I repeat what I said on that subject:
Congress has from time to time, commencing in 1850, made grants to the several States or to corporations to aid in the construction of railroads. In some instances the roads have been constructed and in others partially completed; but in some cases no attempt has been made to build the roads and thus secure a title to the land. The lands thus granted have been withheld from the operation of the settlement laws.
The Supreme Court of the United States has declared, in the case of Schulenburg v. Harriman (21 Wallace, 44), that a failure to complete the road within the time fixed in the grant did not forfeit the grant. Lands thus withheld from the operation of the settlement laws must so remain until Congress shall declare such lands forfeited. If it is the intention of Congress to allow the railroad companies to complete their roads after the expiration of the term fixed in the grant, and thus claim the benefit of the grant, it should be so declared at an early day. Large tracts of land are not available for settlement because the settler cannot determine whether the title is in the Government or in the railroad company. If he purchase from the railroad company and it fails to complete its road and secure the title, he takes nothing by such purchase, and he cannot secure the land under the settlement laws, for the Department is not authorized to treat such lands as public lands. Besides this, the even sections within the limits of the grants are subject to cash entry at not less than $2.50
per acre. Thus the settler is sometimes compelled to pay a double price for the privilege of owning lands near a railroad which is never constructed.
It is difficult to make the people understand that the executive depart- ment of the Government cannot declare a grant forfeited when the corporation for whose benefit it was made has failed to comply with the conditions thereof. Petitions are presented to the Executive demanding the forfeiture of grants for non-compliance with the conditions thereof. Individual claimants declare themselves outraged because the Commis- sioner of the General Land Office refuses to allow filings on the odd sections of land within the unforfeited railroad grants. The Govern- ment is derided as the Government of the rich and opposed to the poor, because the executive department of the Government does not do what the courts have repeatedly declared could be done only by the legisla- tive branch of the Government, that is, declare a forfeiture of a grant. 6262 i in Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/36 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/37 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/38 Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/39 The whole building will be of brick, burned clay, and metal, and be fire-proof throughout.
The expenditures to this time for work and for material, of which a large quantity is on hand, has been $176,970.14 for construction of building, and a contract has been made for heating apparatus much under the appropriation, and this work is now in course of erection, the steam and return pipes being inserted in the flues provided for them and carried up as the walls themselves rise.
There remains available on the construction of the building $223,- 129.86; for construction of heating apparatus, $39,480.55.
PATENTS.
The report of the Commissioner of Patents shows increased activity in that Bureau during the past fiscal year.
Number of applications for patents received . . . . 32,845
Number of applications for design patents received . . . . 1,039
Number of applications for reissue patents received . . . . 247
Number of applications for registration of trade-marks . . . . 854
Number of applications for registration of labels . . . . 749
Total . . . . 35, 734
Number of caveats filed . . . . 2,688
Number of patents granted, including reissues and designs . . . . 21,185
Number of trade-marks registered . . . . 883
Number of labels registered . . . . 618
Total . . . . 22,686
Number of patents withheld for non-payment of final fees . . . . 2,056
Number of patents expired . . . . 7,471
RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES.
Receipts from all sources . . . . $1,095,884 70
Expenditures (not including printing) . . . . 704,348 45
Surplus . . . . 391,536 25
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT SHOWING THE INCREASE IN THE WORK.
Number of applications for patents, including reissues, designs, trade-marks, and labels, received—
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881 . . . . 24,906
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1882 . . . . 30,062
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1883 . . . . 35,734
Increase 1883 over 1881 . . . . 10,828
Increase 1883 over 1832 . . . . 5,672
Number of applications awaiting action on the part of the office on—
July 1, 1882 . . . . 3,387
July 1, 1883 . . . . 4,699
Increase, 39 per cent., or . . . . 1,312
The Commissioner reports the total indebtedness of the several subsidized Pacific railroads to the United States on June 30, 1883, to be as follows:
TOTAL DEBT.
Union Pacific (including Kansas Pacific):
Principal . . . . $33,539,512 00
Accrued interest . . . . 31,087,183 50
Central Pacific (including Western Pacific):
Principal . . . . 27,855,680 00
Accrued interest . . . . 25,120,804 21
Sioux City and Pacific:
Principal . . . . 1,628,320 00
Accrued interest . . . . 1,464,297 49
Central Branch Union Pacific:
Principal . . . . 1,600,000 00
Accrued interest . . . . 1,549,808 26
Total . . . . 123,845, 605 46
TOTAL CREDIT.
Transportation services performed and money paid into the Treasury:
Union Pacific . . . . $13,535,040 05
Central Pacific . . . . 7,653,813 07
Sioux City and Pacific . . . . 121,355 39
Central Branch Union Pacific . . . . 159,084 01
Total . . . . 21,469,292 52
Balance in favor of the United States, but not due until maturity of the principal (1895-'99) . . . . 102,376,312 94
CONDITION OF THE SINKING-FUND ACCOUNTS.
The Commissioner gives a detailed statement showing the condition of the sinking funds of the Union and Central Pacific companies, held by the Treasurer of the United States under the act of Congress approved May 7, 1878, from which it will be seen that on June 30, 1883, these funds amounted to $4,036,713.45; the Central Pacific having to its credit $2,404,015.86, and the Union Pacific $1,632,697.59. Investments have been made by the Secretary of the Treasury as follows:
| Character of bonds. | Union Pacific. | Central Pacific. | Total. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Funded loan of 1881 (5 per cent.) . . . . | $256,450 00 | $736,700 00 | $993,150 00 |
| Funded loan of 1907 (4 per cent.) . . . . | 32,650 00 | 199,100 00 | 231,750 00 |
| Currency 6's . . . . | 361,000 00 | 444,000 00 | 805,000 00 |
| Principal . . . . | 650,100 00 | 1,379,800 00 | 2,029,900 00 |
| Premium paid . . . . | 124,065 43 | 179,563 73 | 303,629 16 |
| Total cost . . . . | 774,164 43 | 1,559,363 73 | 2,333,529 16 |