Birmingham age-herald., 1894-12-04

work, especially as the Photographic office
 of the navy department is now, and has
 been for many years, engaged in making efficient maps entirely similar to those pre-
 pared by the coast survey.
 feel it my imperative duty to call atten-
 ton to the recommendation of the secretary
 in regard to the personnel of the line
 motion in this, the vital branch of
 the service. is so great as to seriously im-
 pair it's efficiency. l consider it of the
 utmost importance that the young and
 middle aged officers should, before the era
 of retirement, be permitted to reach a
 grade entitling them to active and i'm.
 portant duty.
 The system adopted few years ago
 regulating the employment of labor at the
 navy yards has been rigidly upheld, and has fuiiy demonstrated it's usefulness and
 expedenca. It is within the domains of
 civil service reform, inasmuch as Workmen
 are employed through board of labor
 selected at each navy yard, and are given
 work without reference to politics and in
 the order of their applications; preference,
 however, being given to army aud navy
 veterans and those having former navy
 yard experience. Amendments suggested by experience have been made to the rules
 regulating the system. Through it's opera
 ton the work at our navy yards has been
 vastly improved iu 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 bs as a natural consequence such au equaiiza- | ton of party benefit as will remove all | mptation to relax or abandon 1t.
 rHE INTERIOR DEPAR lMENT. Tue report of the secretary of the interior | exhibits the situation of the numerous and | iDteresting branches Of the public service | con nnected with his department. l com | mend this report and tue valuable recom- | mendations of the secretary to the cIreful | attention of the congress. The public land
 disposed of during the year amounted to | 10, 906, 100T Y acres, including 28, S76 05 oi | Ipdlan lanus. It is estim lied that the pub | lie domain still remaining amounts to q | little more than 600, ,C09, GOO acres, exclud- | ing, however. about S6) ,000, ,0j0 acres in Alaska as we'll as military reservations and | railroad and other selections of land as yet unaojusted. The total cash receipts from
 the sale of lands amounted to S2, 67I 2S5. 79, | including S01 ,96l.03 received for Indian | lands.
 Thirty five thousand patents were issued
 for agricultural lands and 310) patents were l issued to Indians on allotments of heir | holdings in severalty, the land not allotted
 being inalenable by the Indians for period | of twenty five years after patent.
 | Tnere were certified and patented on ac- | count of railroad and wagon road grants dur | ing the year S55 ,555 45 acres of lanf, and at | tle close of tue year 29, ,009, ,000 acres vera | em braced in the list of selections made by | raiload and wagon road compani ies and | awaiting settlement. The sele ctions of | swamp lands and that taken as indemnity | therefor sincs the passage Of the act pro- | vioing for the same in 1S49 amount to nearly | or quite 80 ,000 ,000 acres, of which 5S ,000, | 900 have beeu pItented to states. About | l3 800 acres were patented during the last
 year. Nearly S20, ,000 acres of school and | education grants were approved during the | year, and at it's close ,z50, 363 S1 acres re- | mained unadj djusted.
 It appears that the appropriation for the | current year on account of special service
 for the protection ot the public lands and | timber thereon is much less than for those
 of previous years and inadequate for etfi l cieat performance of the work. larger
 tum of money than has been appropriated | during number of years past on this ac- 1 count has been returned to the govern ment
 as result of the labors of those employed l in the particular service mentioned, and | hope it will not bs crippled by insufficient | appropriation.
 | I fully ipdorse the recommendation ofthe | secretary that adequate protection be pro- | vided for our forest reserves and that a l comprehensive forestry syst m be inaugu-
 rated. Such keepers and snperntendents | as necessary to protect the forests al- | ready reserved should be prov ded. am
 ot the opinion that there should be an
 abandonment of the policy sanctioned by | present laws, under with the government | TOT d very blnHll CO0SIuSTullOu IS THplily | losing title to immense tracts o! lands cov- | cred with tim Der which should be prop | erly reserved as permanent sources of tim | Der supply.
 1 The suggestion that change be made in | the manner of securing surveys of the phi bliC l land is especially worthy of consideration | am satisfied that those surveys should be made by corps of competent surveyors under tue immediate control aud direction | of he commissioner of the general land of | flee.
 An exceedingly important recommends | tion of the secretary relates 10 the m tu n CT | in which contests and litiga: ed cases grow | ing out of efforts to obtain government | land are determined. The entire es,imony | upon which these controversies depend in | all theIr staPts is taken before the local | registers and receivers, and yet thrse ofh
 cers have no ,Wer to subI@ Ia witnesses | or enforce tueIr attendance to testify. 1 These cases, numbering 3)e0 or 400) an :
 nually, are sent by the lecI offers to tn c
 commissioner of the general land office for | his action. The exigencies of his other duties | oblige him 10 act upon the decision Of the | registers and receivers without an oppor-
 tunity of thorough personal examination | Nearly 2000 of these cases are appealed an | nually from the commissioner To the sec
 retary of the interior. Burdened
 with other important administra- :
 tive duties, his determination oi | these appeals must be almost perfu Dctory I | though this department of the secretary | operates as final adjudication upon
 rights of very great importance.
 | concur in the opinion that the commis-
 sioner of the general land office should be
 relieved from the duty of deciuing litig glted | land cases; that a non- partisan court | should be created to pass on such cases and
 that the decisions of tnis court should be 1 final, at least so far as the final decisions ol 1 the department are uow fual. The pro- | posed court might be given power to verify | questions Of law in matters of pecial im- portance sent to the supreme court of the
 United States or the court of the appeals for | the District of Columbia for decision. The
 creation of such q tribunal would expedite l the disposs of eases and insure a decision
 oi more satisfactory character. The reg l isters and receivers who originally decided
 these disputes should be invested with au- | thority to compel witnesses to attend and l testify before them.
 | Though the condition of the Indian | shows steady and healthy progress their | situation is not satisfactory in all points. | Some Of them, to whom alotments of land l have been made, are found to be unable or