praised figure at any time after 20 years would be a further protection and one not burdensome, while for better service it would seem advisable that all plants be permitted, in fact encouraged, to physically combine, just as our railroads are required to couple themselves into through routes and thus make their service continuous and interdependent; but they should not be allowed either to agree as to rates or to merge their capitalization or their identity.

Such plan as is here suggested should be attractive to capital wherever there is bona fide need for such water-power development, for it is definite in its terms and can be made a precise basis for capitalization. The term of the franchise would be long enough to permit of the amortization of the plant upon such a percentage as would lay no heavy burden upon each year's earnings.

Where a reservoir site is also used for the storage of irrigation waters, the right to which attaches to certain lands which should enjoy that use forever, it could be provided that at the end of the franchise period the Government would either turn over the plant to the water users or the State or otherwise provide for its operation.

IN CONCLUSION.

I have endeavored herein barely to outline such a constructive program as would meet any reasonable demand and with the least burden place our resources at the service of the people. It should not be impossible to hearten the hopes of those who live in Alaska or the many who would engage in her development were the doors of opportunity open to them. And if we can follow some such plan as has been suggested, by which, sensibly and conservatively, the resources of the West may be utilized for her upbuilding and improvement by the fullest recognition of their interdependence, I believe that we would meet the demands of all whose ambition to gain fortune has not closed their eyes to the general good.

This department has to do not alone with general policies but with an infinitude of administrative detail. Its embarrassments arise out of the large number of matters as to which administrative discretion may be exercised. I have not sought to present these at this time. That you may, however, appreciate the scope of this department's activities and read perhaps with greater interest the accompanying outline of the work done by our various bureaus, permit me

to note here that we care for the Eskimo in Alaska and for the insane in the District of Columbia; for 324,000 Indians scattered throughout the continent, for whom we hold property in trust approximating in value $1,000,000,000; that the choice beauty spots of our country have been set aside as national parks which are in our care; that we distribute to over 800,000 pensioners, their widows and dependents, a round sum of over $165,000,000 a year; that we issue to inventors of the United States and foreign countries an average of more than 3,000 patents each month; that every miner in the land is interested in those means which we are taking to prevent mine accidents and to more fully realize the mineral wealth of the land; that the schools of the Indians and the national university of the colored people are under our jurisdiction, together with the Hot Springs of Arkansas and the cliff dwellings of Colorado; that the internal economy of the Territory of Hawaii, as well as that of Alaska, fall within the purview of this department; that it is our part to measure the waters of a thousand streams, survey the lands of all the States, and look beneath the surface to see what they contain; that we have still in our care a great body of public land (some 300,000,000 acres outside of Alaska), out of which each year approximately 60,000 farms are carved; that we have a bureau of education, which should be provided with the equipment by which it may adequately do a great work for the schools, the teachers, and the children of this country, or be abolished.

Respectfully, yours,

FRANKLIN K. LANE,

The PRESIDENT.

Secretary of the Interior.

ABSTRACTS OF REPORTS OF BUREAUS AND OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL.

The following table shows the receipt and disposal of matters that are docketed or recorded, but does not account for numerous matters of which no formal record is made:

Attention was called in last year's report to the rapid and enormous increase of work in this office, and figures were submitted showing the cases received and docketed since 1909-4,755 in the year ended October 1, 1909; 13,301 in 1910; 16,609 in 1911; 34,783 in 1912; and this year, 48,870-an increase of over 1,000 per cent in five years. In spite of this and the insufficiency in number of attorneys to cope with it, there has been no increase in the average of cases pending at the close of the year-3,305, as compared with 3,308 in 1912. Yet in land appeals, where delay is prejudicial to the interests of entrymen or claimants of the benefits of the general-land law, the arrears, including motions for rehearing, have increased from 2,230 to 2,267. This is not large; on the contrary, it is surprisingly small. It demonstrates, however, that the need of a greater number of qualified assistant attorneys, to which the attention of Congress has been

repeatedly invited, is not transitory, occasioned by temporary conditions.

In a note in connection with the estimates for the ensuing year, the necessary legislation to remedy this condition is suggested.

The adjudication of appeals and the consideration of legal questions constantly arising in administration are not the only charges upon the time and industry of this office. Litigation in the courts of the District involves the department in many suits at law and in equity which must be defended by the Assistant Attorney General. During the last year 19 such causes have been tried and decisions rendered-4 in the Supreme Court of the United States, 8 in the Court of Appeals, and 7 in the Supreme Court of the District. This does not include interlocutory orders. The department was successful in all save one, which is now pending in the Court of Appeals from the adverse decision of a Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. There are now pending 27 cases-3 in the Supreme Court of the United States, 4 in the Court of Appeals, and 20 in the Supreme Court of the District.

Elsewhere, in connection with appeals in pension and bounty land matters, the reestablishment is recommended of the Board of Pension Appeals to relieve the Assistant Attorney General's office of responsibility in connection with that class of appeals.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

In the year that has passed the operation of the so-called threeyear homestead law has had a marked effect upon the output of the office, owing to the premature submission of final proofs in a large number of cases. This placed upon the office the duty of considering an unusual number of proofs that did not furnish a proper basis for a patent, so while the work of the office was much heavier on account of this act, there was not the equivalent showing of results that might have been expected.

The number of patents written during the last year was 63,496, as against 67,475 for the year previous, but when the conditions under which this result was secured are compared with those of the former year it is apparent that there was no want of industry in the office.

Area entered and patented. The total area of public and Indian lands originally entered and allowed during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913, is 15,867,222.45 acres, an increase of 1,292,533.63 acres, as compared with the area entered during the year 1912. The area patented during the fiscal year is 12,678,076 acres, an increase of 2,542,601 acres, as compared with the fiscal year of 1912; of the above area 7,320,058 acres were patented under the homestead law.

Receipts and expenditures.-The total cash receipts from the sales of public lands, including fees and commissions on both original and

final entries, for the fiscal year 1913 were $4,287,540.67. Miscellaneous receipts were as follows: From sales of Indian lands, $2,118,469.34; reclamation water-right charges, $274,172.57; depredations on public lands, sales of Government property, and copies of records and plats, etc., $275,322.23; making the aggregate of cash receipts of this bureau during the fiscal year 1913, $6,955,504.81, a decrease of $3,017,543.19, as compared with those for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912.

The decrease in receipts and increase in the area disposed of is caused by the decreased number of homestead entries commuted to cash and the increased number on which proof was made under the three-year act of June 6, 1912. The difference of nearly 2,000,000 acres on which commissions only were received instead of the Government price of $1.25 and $2.50 per acre would account for the decrease in receipts, and also the fact that the land service no longer collects reclamation water-right charges, these moneys now being collected by the Reclamation Service under the act of August 9, 1912 (37 Stat., 265).

The total expenses of district land offices for salaries and commissions of registers and receivers and incidental expenses during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913, were $890,474.06, an increase of $40,353.02. The aggregate expenditures and estimated liabilities of the public-land service, including expenses of district land offices and surveys, were $3,316,362.30, leaving a net surplus of $3,639,142.51.

Field service. The field service has been somewhat handicapped in the prosecution of its work by reason of the reduction by $150,000 of the appropriation allowed for its maintenance, necessitating a considerable reduction in the force. Nevertheless, the high standard of efficiency heretofore set has been maintained and, while the number of cases investigated and closed during the fiscal year is not as large as during the previous year, yet, when the reduction of the force is taken into consideration, the results accomplished make an excellent showing.

Some progress has been made in the investigation of oil lands in California, and, as a result of the investigations made by the field force, a number of suits have been instituted during the year by the Department of Justice to recover lands patented as agricultural which, in fact, are oil in character. The necessity for increase in the force assigned to this work has been recognized, but it has been impossible to meet the demand by reason of the limited appropriation. During this fiscal year field investigation has been completed in connection with the 1,129 Alaska coal claims. The past year proceedings were directed against 99 of the Alaska coal claims, which brings the total up to 399 on which hearings have been ordered. The testimony has been taken in a number of cases and the records are