The Washington herald., 1913-02-02

Secretary Tor one Of the assistants). This
| is a practice which in great corporations
| the experts In organization and business
methods are criticizing so severely the
| work of men oS high official rank Is IN
| spected by men of lower rank and sal
ary Here the work of bureau ofhcers
appointed by the President is reviewed
and their decisions often reversed pS
attorneys and clerks appointed by tne
| Secretary This objection as to the de-
pa rtment Is theoretical rather than prac-
teal. The work reviewed has been pre-
pared by clerks and attorneys. and the
reviewing officers. through permanent
tenure and longer experience. are apt
TO know the subject and the law pet-
ter than the bureau head who has signed
the papers.
General Survey.
At this point a view may be had OF
the department in its expansion. Having
taken over from the State Department
the Patent Office. from the Treasury the
General Land Office. from the War De-
partment the Office OF Indian Arairs
and the Bureau of Pensions, the hrst
Secretary of the Interior found hlmseH
in command of four hundred and TWO
persons In his first report he recon-
m
Agriculture. This resulted in progress
sive increase from five TO thirty, ana then
IN seyentv-fiyc thousand dollars In the
appropriation for the collection OF agrl-
cultural statistics, invest stigations for pro-
noting domestic economy, and the pro
curement and distribution OF cuttings ana
seeds by the Patent Office There was
a great deal Of human nature IN Ton
cressmen in those days. As IN other
cases OF developing government work.
| line of least resistance was found in the
noIiticaI advantages to themselves which
Members recognized, in distributing seeds
and agricultural reports to their rural
| constituents. In 1867 the Secretary
| recommendation bore full fruit IN the
creation of an independent Department
OF Agriculture. under commissioner,
= who twenty-seven years later was raised
10 the rank of secretary with a seat
| in the Cabinet. To this jurisdiction was
transferred in 1876 the Forest Service
I which had grown TO great proportions
during fifteen years, under laws requlr-
I ing the Secretary of the Interior 10 es-
/ tablish forest reservations. PROVIDE 10Y
! their protection against fire and tres
pass. the sale OF timber. &C.
By n law OF 1854 there was estahhsAed
in the Interior Department Bureau OF
I Labor. for the purpose of collecting in
I
relation TO capital, its hours, the earn
jngs of laboring men and women. and
. means OF promoting their welfare. me
work of this bureau became OF such pub
lie importance that in four years 1t was
/ created into an independent department
! under its commissioner. The census was
taken decennially from $50 under the
direction OF the Secretary OF the IN
terror, and during the intervening years
I Dt1yici de-
nartment the work of computation and
publishing In 1903 the Department OF
! Labor and the Census Office, with sew
eral offices and divisions from the Treas
ury Department. were merged INTO the
new Department OF Commerce ana
Labor, with a secretary in the Cabinet
The first Secretary recommended the
construction of highway or railroad to
| the Pacific Coast. In 1857 his successor
was empowered to build a wagon road
| from Fort kearney. Nebraska, to the
eastern boundary OF California. and in
1867 the act for Incorporating the Union
| Pacific Railroad made the Secretary Of
the Interior the medium for carrying out
the governments policy respecting the
| road Later the Office OF Commissioner
of Railroads was established to devise,
under the secretarys direction. systems
| Of reports for government aided rail-
| ways. and to examine their accounts, a
| work which was closed in 1876. Even
| the Interstate Commerce Commission
| came into being In 1857 within the pro-
| tective sphere of the Interior Depart
ment but on the recommendation of the
Secretary himself this great regulative
| organ of the government was afterward
made subject only to Congress and the
President
An interesting. though from changed
| conditions unimportant, assignment to
| the Secretary of the Interior was the
| duty Of enforcing the laws for suppress
| ing the slave trade. for returning to
| Africa slaves Illegally imported, and for
colonizing freedmen in Liberia
The Original Bureaus.
Each of the great bureaus now con-
stituting the Department Of the Interior
| would require n volume, but can re-
| ceive here the merest mention. The
| Patent Office. housed along with the
| Secretary in the main building of the
department. n stately multiplex Doric
temple. has been the great stimulus of
inventive genius. issuing a year ago its
one millionth letter patent. Copyright
| business was transferred some years
previously to the Library of Congress In
questions affecting the nature of inven-
| tions the Commissioner OF Patents is sub
| ject to review by the Federal courts, but
i in administrative matters to the supervis-
ory powers of the Secretary of the In
/ terror. This Office is not only self
supporting, but has turned into the
Treasury 100000 OF surplus, derived
from fees paid by applicants for pat
| ents.
The General Land Office. formed in
/ connection with sales of the public
domain by the Treasury Department, is
| the instrument through which the coun-
| try, outside the original colonies, has
been peopled and built up. II one would
see its work let him traverse thirty-four
| great States, viewing farms and gardens
\ and villages and cities, and rejecting
| that the titles to every section or parcel
| OF land and every town lot are based on
surveys made and patents issued by this
| Office.
The Louisiana Purchase doubled the
! domain of the United States. The spirit
of adventure and thrift produced a rest
less movement westward and demand
fo- Land. Surveys we're Esde on Thomas