Morning journal and courier., 1889-09-20
Washington Notes.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19.-W. M. Stone, act ing commissioner of the general land office, in his annual report to the Secretary of the Interior says that entering upon his duties as acting commissioner on June 1, 1889, he found himself confronted with an enormous amount of unfinished business left over from former administrations in all the di- visions of the office. This great &C., emulation of official work in arrears he found to result partly from the con- stantly increasing returns of the 107 local offices in the several public lands, States and territories, which had been met by no eorre- spending increase of clerical force, and in great part also by the prevalence in the office of mistaken methods and practices, which, in his judgment, have had the effect of ob- structing rather than facilitating the proper transaction of business.
 The acting commissioner discusses at some l length, Commissioner Sparks' well known order of April g. 1885, suspending final &C., tion in a large class of pending cases and the subsequent orders supplementary thereto in- l cluding the one creating the board of re- view. He says:
 | During the existence of this board all homestead, pre-emption, desert land and timber culture cases, after already being ex- amined by the public lands division, were | sent to it and assigned to @ clerk or sxamina- tion de novo. The clerk who took the case was often inexperienced in the business and not specially qualified in other respects for | the task.
 Necessarily the examination by the oom- missioner was perfunctory and imperfect one, as he could not himself review the evi. dence in so many cases and was compelled to rely upon the facts found therein by his clerks. By this exceedingly superficial pro cess the decisions of competent clerks in the public lands and pre-emption divisions were often set aside by the preoarious de- cisions of these reviewing clerks.
 "On assuming the duties of his office the acting commissioner found that there was an accumulation of between 17,000 and 1S,O0O cases pending before the board of review. but he succeeded in so recognizing it's mode of doing business that by the sixth day of July following the entire mass of pending cases was fully disposed of and acting under the authority of Secretary Noble he immediately issued an order abolishing the board"
 The report shows that during the year there were issued for lands classed as agri- cultural 70, Al patents, being an increase of 22,961 over the preceding year. Of this number 27, 857 were final homesteads, 9,562 | cOInmuteu uoinSSCeauS, l4,odo pIo-oupIioiA cash entries, 7,504 private cash entries. WASHINGTON, Sept. 1o.-President and Mrs. Harrison, have settled upon Tuesday the 24th instant as the time for starting from Deer Park on g jaunt into the mountains.
 The party, which will include Genera and Mrs. Clarkson, will be driven to Cor man, Md, where they then travel to Elkins the terminus of the road, on the West Vir ginia Central.
 The Secretary of War has decided to ac cept the offer of the Indian Rights associa tion to purchase tract of land in Nortl Carolina for Geronimo's band of Indians nov confined at Mount Vernon barracks.
 Connecticut pensions-Or1g1nal, William
 B. Austin (deceased).
 DEER PARK, Md, Sept. 1s.-Presiden
 Harrison has not entirely given Major War
 ner up. He has asked him to reconsider hi
 declination and it is stated from the Whit
 House Cottage that President Harrison him
 self does not know yet who will be commis l sioner of pensions.
 Sixty members of the Lumbermen's Ex change of Philadelphia, arrived tonight ol pleasure trip. They will call upon Presi dent Harrison in body tomorrow. . Charles Emory Smith, editor of the Phila
 delphia Press, Hon. Wm. Wagner arrived at the hotel tonight. Messrs. Smith an Minor will pay their respects to the Presi . dent tomorrow. Private Secretary Haltor
 and wife, accompanied by Miss Wanamakel , came from Washington to night.