The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-29

Total ..-.....-.......-...... $l5, $40, 55153
The estimates for the fiscal year ending June
30, 1886, revised by me, are as follows:
Salaries, contingent expenses and
postage -.,.;;-.-.-..-.--..-.---,$ 80, 11s,315oo
Military estabishment-army and
Military Academy -..-..--.. &c, 429, 577.45
Public works, including river andhar-
Dor improvements and new seaeoast
Notifications 1S,49I, AGO S
Miscellaneous objects. 3 sos, LAT. 65
Total .............$ $50, $50, 500. SO
The estimates for the fiscal year 1886 are below
those for 1885, with few exceptions, the principal
increase being for Notifications and other works
of defense, $6303,900 building for the signal
Office, $3.50, 600; artificial limbs, $450,000, and
support of the National Home for Disabled Vol
unteer Soldiers, $l99, O95. 88.
The report then considers briefly the claims of
the States for expenses incurred in repelling in
vasions and suppressing hostile Indians. These
claims aggregate about 81, 800, 600, and are in
process of adjustment. The Secretary then con-
siders the report of General Sheridan extracts
from which have already been printed
The superintendent of the Military Academy
at West Point reports that there were present at
the academy on Sept. l. 1884, 3l4 cadets, and
that there has been an improvement in the tone
and discipline of the corps. The appointment
of a professor Of law is recommended for the
academy.
The report of the Adiutantgeneral of the
army shows that out of a total average of 5,474
pupils over fifteen years Of age attending col
leges and other schools in the United States to
which offcers of the army are assigned as mill
tafy instructors, under existing laws, 2 529 at
tended infantry drills and 424 artillery drills
that the aptitude of the students is excellent,
and that the interest manifested by the facul
ties of the several institutions of learning where
these officers stationed is steadily increasing.
Under recent amendment of the law forty
officers may now be detailed for this work.
The Adjutant general renews the recommen-
in rod inn IF net
year, that provision be made for the retirement
of enlisted men on the o'0DletiOn of thirty five
years of honorable and faithful service in the
army,
THE SOLDIERS HOME.
The commissioners renew the recommends
tion made in their last annual report, that the
government make an appropriation Of $4,000
for tho purchase of a small piece of land in the
District Of Columbia belonging to the Home and
now used for the purpose of national cemetery
The number of inmates on the rolls of the
Home is 719- The large number, 1913, admitted
during the year is greatly i'll excess of the num-
her received during any one year since the es-
Enlistment of the Home.
An extension Of the quarters having become
absolutely necessary, approved a reeolnmenda-
ton of the board for the erection of new build
ing. to about SO, 600, and also for the cree
Mon of another building at an estimated cost of
$4,000. The first building is about completed,
and the larger one will probably be faished by
the end of the present fiscal year
The total amount drawn from the, permanent
fund of the Home during the year. upon resoI.-
tions of the board. Of commissioners, approved
by the Secretary of War, was $139 900. Receipts
from other sources made the treaSureriS total
accountability for the year $l9I III H., all of
which is reported by the board as satisfactorily
accounted for. the current expenses, of maintain
ing the Home being $13l, S57. A.
The board EeuewS its Recommendation that
legal authority be given to have force of clerks
employed in the Treasury Department, at the
expense of the Home, to settle the accounts in
the treasury upon which considerable sums will,
under existing laws, be credited to the perma-
nent fund; and calls attention to what is believed
to be an inadyeptence in the act approved July
T. 1884, making appropriations for the support
OF the Gcgernment Hospital for the Insane. uIr
der VIII the board of commissioners is re-
qured to pay the expenses of maintenance of all
inmates of the Soldiers Home admitted to
the hospital The heard renews its recommends
ton in which I CONQUERED, that the Soldiers
Home should have the same privilege of sending
insane patients to the hospital as was granted by
the act approved Aug Z, 1889, for the National
Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers Prior to
the last legislation the Soldiers Home did not
have to pay the expenses of maintenance of sol
diers who became insane within three years af-
ter their discharges from the army, bat under
this legislation it is required to pay the expenses
Of all sent to the hospital from the Home.
ment Hospital for the Insane and of the Judge
Advocate generals department. showing the
humber of trials by court martial during the
year. The operations of the quarterinaster's
subsistence and medical departments are con-
sldered at some length Recommendation is
made that officers connected with tho pay de
partment be permitted to furnish the bonds of
an approved guaranty company. The report
then treats of the bureaus of engineers and ord
nance, but there is nothing of general interest
stated,
cHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER HAzEN.
The repop5 of the Chief Signal Officer shows
she progress Of the usual meteorological work.
During the fiscal year ending June 80, 1884,
the entire expenses of the signal service were
for the fist time kept distinct and separate
from the expenditures for the support of the
army, and the cost of the service for that year,
including the amounts drawn from the treasury
up to Oct 81, 1884, for the expenses of the
above named fiscal year, under the several titles
OF appropriations was 1858, 1872 95, from which
should be deducted the receipts of military tele-
graph lines covered into the treasury during the
fiscal year $17,074 Y, leaving the ref exnei,di
cure $94l, 3l823 The appropriations for the As
eal year 1883 aggregate ST. 0Ol OBS 49, and the es-
slmates for the fiscal year 1886 amount to 81
So, 659 ST. -
lie recommends an increase in the appropra-
honss which submit but do not concur in his
suggestion that return be made to the old
method OF Incorporating the appropriations for
the support of this service with those for the
support of the army. My reasons are briefly
tha5 even if in the army bill the amounts to
be expended for the Weather Bureau should be
made specific and definite, as was not the case
until recently, deem it preiudciaF TO the inter
ests of the army that it's. apparent cost Of main
tenance should be SO largely increased by adding
TO it the cost of the Weather Bureau service
with which the armyis not concerned 1t would
seem to be as appropriate to make the river and
aarbor appropriation part Of the army ez
lenses because few army officers supervise the
York In this connection 1 renew my recon