El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-01-06
Department Of the Interior is
Collection Of Unrelated Bureaus
Was Following Pensions,
Indians Surveys, Nat andP Lands
By FREDERICK J. HASKu.

~ HE department of the interior is
little more than a collection OF
\ unrelated governmental bureaus.
There is no relation whatever between
the work of the pension bureau and
that of the geological survey, nor IS
there any reason why such widely d.
vergent activities as those Of the pat
ent office and the office of indian al
fairs should be placed under the COR
troll Of the same department When Ine
department of the interior was estaD-
lished IT was intended that it should
have charge of all matters relating u
the internal affairs of the country.
Its establishment grew out OF the
large accession Of territory following
the Mexican war and the consequent
Increase in population, wealthy and Dusl-
ness. The act under which the degdtL-
ment of the interior was established
was entitled AN act to establish lle
home department" Since the establish
ment Of the department of agriculture
and the department of commerce aIlu
labor, there have been many instances
of duplication of departmental actlN-
tiles and divided jurisdiction over tne
same subject matters This IS MUS
trated by the fact that the departme lIs
Of agriculture and Of the interior nave
joint supervision Of the lands IN the ma
tiOnal forests, but the powers and du-
ties Of each are clearly DEFINED
linger declared in one of his oIIlcldl
reports that the department OF the m
terror ought to be consolidated Win me
department of agriculture. he thousuS
that the supervision of the capltOi
building and grounds should be trans
ferred to the supervising archltecl OF
the treasury, that the patent o11lce
should 60 to the department OF com
merce and labor. and the pension ONCE
TO the war and navy departments
Watches Many Unrelated Bureaus.
The activities of the secretary OF the
interior are now taken up by the su-
pervision of the affairs of the unIe-
lated bureaus which make up the de-
partment. Holding first rank aInOhS
these bureaus is the general land oIIlce-
Uncle sam has been one OF the most
bountifuI distributors of land in the
history of the world. From the time the
government WasrfOunded down 20 tue
present. ], $50. 100000 acres OF lana ma
come into his control He has disposed
of all of this to the people OF the
United States EXCEPT dOO,OOD.Uuv acres
As buyer of real estate Uncle sam
amount Of land received by him cost
him less than cents an acre j ne
great Louisiana Purchase embracing
some of the finest land in the entire
country and now representing an az
gregate value Of many billions OF DOL
lars s cost considerably less than
nickel an acre. A large proportion OF
the public lands has been given away
settle and improve them Inc lIee
homesteads consist Of $50 acres A
law has recently been enacted by con-
gress providing that homesteaoer can
secure a surface patent for his land
where il is underlaid with coal. rms
viii permit the farmers to go upon
coal lands and raise crops there WHlIe
the government reserves the coaI 0e-
posts which may be found IN the
ground beneath. This law VIII result IN
millions Of acres of public lands being
utilized for farming purposes Wnicn
might otherwise gie completely idle
pending the utilization of the coal be-
The National Monuments.
The general land office also has
charge of national monuments, forest
reserve work, and power site reserves
Among the national monuments under
its control is the Rainbow brlaSe.
natural arch, resembling a ralnDoG'
sos feet high. and 27S feet IN span,
which lies in the southern part OF Utah
Another is the Sitlka, national monu-
uent fin Alaska upon the site OF the he
cisive battle grounds OF the busslah
of Alaska in 1904. It has nu-
merous totem poles which contain the
genealogical history of several clans
of EskimOs.
bureau OF the interior department The
number of survivors Of the civil war
now on the pension roll exceeds nan
a million but their names are being
erased DE uedLu dL tllc o-EN "a ---
than 10000 a year. The total NUMBER
of pensioners on the roll now ap-
prOXimateS 900. 900. The annual pay
ments on account Of pensions at the
beginning of the fiscal year 1911 was
S158. 0OO. 900. The average value OF each
pension per year was $lfLSO. Ihe 70
tai amount paid out for pensions at the
beginning of the fiscal wear 1911 was
more than $4,000 000 600 Offhis SS,SSi,-
600. 600 was paid out for civil war pen
sfous In other words more than four
-fifteenths Of all the pensions paid
by the national government have been
on account Of the civil war. The ADMIT
ted pension claims in the files Of the
pension office are so numerous that
they fiji - rooms and weigh more
than thousand tons. More than three
and a quarter millions claims have oeen
filed since the establishment of the
American pension system. 4 million ana (
a quarter of these have been rejected (
One Revolutionary Pension
AIRS. Phoebe NJ. Palmeter, OF BROOK
field. n. Y. aged SO years. pensioned oy
a special act of congress as the dauSh-
ter Of Jonathan WOOley, VINO served !
under George washington. in New /
siOner on account Of the revolutionary /
war remaining on the roll in 1911 The (
last widow ~ensiOner Of that war was /
Esther S Damon Of Plymouth Union, !
Vt. who died in 1906 at the ase OF 90. /
The last survivor of the revolutionary /
army was Daniel F. Brakeman, who died /
1T Freedom. Cattara ugus county. n y /
In 1869. aged 100 wears. six months and /
eight days. The last survivor of the I
E@1Hw9G8sI