ment. Much complaint has been made on behalf of the Indians, especially in California, that unscrupulous white men have pre-empted lands in the occupation of Indians, and in some cases where the lands were occupied for Indian village farms before the cession of California to the United States. In order to save to these Indians the lands in their actual possession, I ordered the Commissioner of the General Land Office to refuse to receive filings on lands in the actual possession of Indians. SURVEYING INDIAN RESERVATIONS. The Indian appropriation act for the current year contained an appropriation of $50,000 for the surveying into subdivisions of Indian reservations. The amount is grossly inadequate to the wants of the Department. An appropriation of like amount should be made for the next fiscal year. On this subject the Commissioner says: The want of a proper definition of reservation boundaries has been for years, and is still, one of the most fruitful causes of contention and disorder known to the Department, and it is to be hoped that the full amount of my estimate for surveys for the ensuing fiscal year may be provided, in order that existing disputes may be speedily settled, and a subdivision of lands within the reservations made, wherever required and deemed advisable, for the settlement of the Indians in individual homes. THE GREAT SIOUX RESERVATION. In my last report I called attention to the magnitude of this reservation, and urged that it should be reduced by a purchase of about 18,000 square miles, as proposed by the commission appointed in 1882. A bill reported from the Committee on Indian Affairs for this purpose passed the Senate and is now pending in the House of Representatives. I again urge the necessity of action in this matter both in the interest of the Indians and whites. CROW RESERVATION. Since my last report the I again call attention to this reservation. Indians have been located on the Big Horn. larger than required for their support. The reservation is situated in the Territory of Montana, and contains 7,364 square miles, or 4,713,000 acres of land. At least 3,000,000 acres might be disposed of, leaving the Indians sufficient agricultural lands to become self-supporting if they desire to become agriculturists, and a sufficient amount of grazing lands should they prefer to become stock raisers. The 1,713,000 acres that would be left would give nearly, if not quite, 600 acres of land to each individual member of their tribes. The number of Crows has been estimated at 3,500; but it is quite certain that the number is much less, and probably not over 2,500 or 3,000. A portion of the money realized for such sale should be at once invested in a herd for the tribes, and cared for by the Government until such time as the Indians shall be prepared to accept and care for their stock themselves. The proceeds of the surplus lands, properly used, would make the Crows self-supporting in a few years at the furthest. THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE. The report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office shows that sales, entries, and selections of public lands under various acts of Congress embrace 26,834,041.03 acres, and of Indian lands 697,128.97, aggregating 27,531,170, an increase over the year 1883 of 8,101,137.20. The receipts for disposal of public lands are $11,840,993.07; Indian lands, $938,137.26, or a total of $12,779,130.33, an increase over that of 1883 of $1,073,364.68, to which is to be added $10,276.76 received for certified copies of records, making a total of $12,789,405.09. The Commissioner reports the total number of entries, &c., to be as follows: The total number of entries and filings made during the year is 286,832, aggregating 40,625,000 acres; an increase of 60,724 over the year 1883 and 128,588 over 1882. The total number of entries and filings posted during the year is 327,186. These entries and filings constitute claims of record awaiting completion and adjudication. The increase in number of claims posted in 1884 is 75,501 over the year 1883 and 131,049 over the year 1882. PRE-EMPTIONS. Twenty-one thousand two hundred and eighty-six pre-emption entries were made during the year, embracing an area of 3,206,095.86 acres; 11,012 ex-parte cases were approved for patent and 352 contested cases were decided, the patented and decided cases involving 1,725,000 acres. The number of cases undecided June 30, 1884, was 17,911, an increase of the number in arrears of 4,854 contested and ex-parte cases. The number of pre-emption filings made during the year was 51,641, which, at 160 acres each, would cover 8,262,560 acres. REPEAL OF THE PRE-EMPTION LAW. The Commissioner again recommends the repeal of the pre-emption law. He says: I renew previous recommendations for the repeal of the pre-emption law. In my last annual report I pointed out the absence of any great utility of the pre-emption system for a legitimate appropriation of the public lands by actual settlers, as the homestead system contains a sufficient pre-emption feature and a double system is not required. Economy of administration alone suggests such repeal, while the great abuses flowing from the illegal acquisition of land titles by fictitious pre-emption entries, and the exactions made upon bona fide settlers, who are often obliged to buy off such claims in order to get access to public lands, render the appeal, in my judgment, a matter of public necessity. Pre-emption claims are filed when no intention of perfecting entries exists, but the alleged claim is held for speculation, or as a cover for denuding land of its timber. The average proportion of entries to filings is less than one-half. In cases of entries actually made, it is found that the most valuable timber lands and large areas of agricultural and grazing lands are entered in fictitious names or by persons employed for the purpose, and the lands thus pass into speculative holdings, or holdings in large quantities for permanent control. Coal lands, the Government price of which is $10 and $20 per acre, are illegally obtained in the same manner at the minimum price of non-mineral lands. The Government loses the difference in price, while a loss to the general public lies in the increased price of the coal product in consequence of the control of coal-fields, which in this way is acquired and held with a comparatively small outlay of capital. The result is equally true as to timber lands. Experience has demonstrated that an effective remedy for these evils can only be found in the repeal of the laws under which they arise. The difficulty of protecting the public lands from fraudulent entries under the pre-emption law can be readily understood by the statement of the Commissioner concerning the work of the special agents, twentyfive in number, appointed for the protection of the public land from fraudulent entries and illegal appropriation. The Commissioner says: Thirty-five hundred and thirty-one alleged fraudulent entries of public lands, embracing an area of 500,000 acres, have been investigated and reported, principally in California, Colorado, Dakota, Minnesota, and New Mexico, and a lesser number in all other public land States and Territories; 680 entries have been canceled on final proceedings, 782 held for cancellation, and hearings have been ordered in 781 cases. About 5,000 entries have been suspended, awaiting investigation. In a special report submitted May 15, 1884, in reply to a resolution of the Senate, I stated as follows: "Beyond cases specifically examined, I have no doubt that much has been done in the way of prevention within the sphere of these operations. But the territory to be covered is so vast and the proportion of fraudulent entries found to exist is so large, that if it be the intention of Congress that the remaining public lands shall be protected from indiscriminate absorption through illegal and fraudulent appropriation, more adequate legislative measures will need to be adopted. "The repeal of the pre-emption and timber-culture laws, which I have heretofore recommended, is one of the first essential steps in this direction. It is not possible, by any administrative action, to close the doors opened to abuses under these laws. "This may equally be said in reference to the timber-land and desert-land laws and the commutation features of the homestead laws, and also of the provision allowing the filing of soldiers' homestead declarations by attorney, which latter provision is used to defraud both the soldier and the Government. "If all laws for the disposal of public lands, except the homestead law, were repealed, and the latter amended as heretofore suggested, the great bulk of misappropriations would disappear from future entries. "An examination of pending entries alleged and believed to be fraudulent would require a special agent to be constantly on duty in each of the principal land districts, and in some districts one such agent would be unable to cope with the work before him. "If the system of examination in the field is to be effective, provision should be made for not less than one hundred special agents. The compensation of such agents, including guides, surveyors, and assistants, averages about $3,600 a year each, and additional expenses for the payment of witnesses and the cost of taking testimony on the part of the Government at hearings before local officers are also necessarily incurred. The total appropriation for the protection of the public lands the next fiscal year should not be less than $400,000, if efficient measures are desired. An addition of twenty-five clerks, who should be of the higher grades, would also be necessary in this office in directing the operations of special agents and examining and acting upon their reports. "Further legislation is also requisite to authorize registers and receivers to subpœna witnesses and compel their attendance." No increased appropriation having been made by Congress for the current fiscal year, I was confronted at the outset with the necessity of either withdrawing special agents from investigations in the field or of abandoning or suspending further action upon investigations that had already been had, and as a result of which hearings had been ordered in several hundred cases. It was found impossible to carry on both, as the expenses of each singly would exhaust the appropriation. Hearings could not be had without the presence of special agents, who are material witnesses, and the payment of their expenses would leave no means to defray other costs. It was therefore determined, as the only available course, to continue in the field such number of special agents as the appropriation permits and to suspend all hearings ordered on their reports. The result is that final action cannot be taken for the cancellation of entries examined and reported fraudulent until Congress shall make provision for the expenses of formal hearings, or obviate the necessity of them by clearly investing the executive department with power to summarily cancel entries found fraudulent upon special examination. For a similar reason of the inadequacy of the appropriation to the needs of the service I have been compelled to remove general suspensions of entries in localities in which fraudulent appropriations have been reported as prevalent, and to permit entries to go to patent without the investigation necessary to determine the bona fide or fraudulent character of any of them. It is obvious that some decisive action by Congress is called for by every consideration of public policy and administrative expediency. If it is the legislative purpose to adhere to the policy of preserving the remaining public lands for actual settlers, and to prevent the acquisition of great bodies of land in fraud of law by single individuals and corporations, American or foreign, sufficient means should be placed at the disposal of the Land Department to prevent the vast and widespread violations of law which have been brought to the knowledge of this Department and the notice of Congress. I have discharged my own duty in presenting this subject, as I have from time to time in my annual reports and in special reports submitted to Congress, as clearly and forcibly as I could, and I leave to the higher power of that body the responsibility of determining the course to be pursued. It appears from the foregoing that if the pre-emption and timberculture laws are not repealed more liberal appropriations should be made for the detection and punishment of fraud on the Government through the agency of said laws. But even with liberal appropriations for the detection of frauds of the character before mentioned, it will be impossible to prevent unscrupulous persons in the thinly-settled regions of country from appropriating public land by a mere technical compliance with the laws, while the spirit thereof is violated. There is but one remedy, and that is in the repeal of the law no longer necessary to enable the actual settler to secure a title to the land he occupies on the public domain. The public lands ought to be reserved for actual settlers, and should be conveyed only when the settler has shown his good faith by a residence on the land for the period provided for by the homestead law. No commutation of homesteads should be allowed. In connection with this subject I call especial attention to the Commissioner's report on the disposal of public lands. He says: The surveyed public lands of the United States have largely been disposed of, or appropriated by various claims under general laws, or pledged for the satisfaction of educational, internal improvement, or other public grants. The total area surveyed rom the commencement is 938,940,125 acres. The estimated area unsurveyed, exclusive of the Territory of Alaska, is 506,495,454 acres. This estimate is of a very general nature, and affords no index to the disposable volume of land remaining, nor to the amount available for agricultural purposes. It includes Indian and other public reservations, unsurveyed private land claims, the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections reserved for common schools, unsurveyed lands embraced in railroad, swamp land, and other grants, and the great mountain areas, and areas of unsurveyed rivers and lakes. Deducting these, and areas wholly unproductive and unavailable for ordinary purposes, and the volume of remaining land shrinks to comparatively small proportions. The time is near at hand when there will be no public land to invite settlements or afford citizens of the country an opportunity to secure cheap homes. In the early history of the country, when the broad expanse of the public domain was unsettled, a liberal system of laws was adopted providing for an easy acquisition of individual titles, and even down to later periods the object apparently sought to be accomplished in the purpose of the laws and the policy of their administration was for the United States to hasten the disposal of its lands. With this purpose in view and abundant areas everywhere open to settlement, no special safeguard against appropriations in fraud of law appears to have been thought of or deemed necessary. On the contrary, the prevailing tendency of legislation has been to remove restrictions rather than to impose them, and acts have been passed primarily for the relief. or benefit of actual settlers which have been availed of to the defeat of settlements. by the facility afforded for the aggregation of land titles in speculative or monopolistic possession. The numerous methods of disposal now existing, and the laxity of precautionary provision against misappropriations, are resulting in a waste of the public domain. without the compensations attendant upon small ownerships for actual settlement and occupation. It is my opinion that the time has fully arrived when wastefulness in the disposal of public lands shall cease, and that the portion still remaining should be economized for the use of actual settlers only. An act reserving the public lands, except mineral lands and timber reserves, for entry exclusively under the homestead laws, and amending the homestead laws so as to prevent the present easy evasion of wise restrictions and essential requirements, would be a measure meeting this end, and answering a pronounced public demand. ILLEGAL FENCING OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. In my last annual report I called attention to numerous complaints made concerning the illegal fencing of the public laud, and urged some legislation by which such illegal fences might be summarily removed without the delay and expense of a suit in court. I regret to say that Congress has so far failed to take action on this subject. A number of suits have been instituted by the Department of Justice at the request of this Department, to compel the parties to remove such fences, but such proceedings involve much time and delay, and if the parties defendants desire to continue in possession of such fenced lands, appeals will be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Government put to great expense and the land withheld from occupation under the settlement laws. I trust that some legislation may be had that will enable the Department in a summary way to destroy these fences where the builders refuse to take them down. It has been claimed by some that the power exists in the Department to destroy these fences as obstructions on the public lands. If this is so the Department has no means at its disposal to pay the expenses of such removal, neither has the Department of Justice. Authority should be given to remove such obstructions, and provision made for the payment of the persons employed to do such work. 6087 INT—II |