REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., October 8, 1904. SIR: In submitting the annual report of this Office for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, I have to state that the business of the Office shows a small decrease from the year 1903, the total receipts being $9,283,341.98, a decrease of $1,741,401.67 from the preceding year, and the total area disposed of being 16,405,821.95 acres, a decrease of 6,418,477.70 acres. With the exception of the year 1903, the cash receipts are, however, greater than for any year since the fiscal year 1889. There were 56,386 patents of all classes issued during the fiscal year, an increase of 2,021 over the preceding; but there were 89,433 cases pending in the Office on July 1, 1904, and I have, therefore, included in my annual estimates an item for ten additional clerks at $1,200 per annum. ADDITIONAL SPACE FOR CLERKS AND RECORDS. By letters of February 27 and March 11, 1904, the needs of this Office in the matter of additional space were called to the attention of the Department. When the General Land Office was removed, in March, 1900, to the public building in which it is now located, the space then assigned to it was barely sufficient for the accommodation of the records and the clerical force. Since then the force has been increased by 65 clerks, without any increase in the number of rooms, and a proper regard for the orderly and convenient working of the clerical force, and the health of its individual members, requires that some provision be made for additional space in the building, or in some other suitable building conveniently situated. The great and regular increase of the past few years in the sales of public lands has caused a consequent increase in the records. A very large part of the old records and files is stored away in boxes and piled in the attic, and the remainder is stored in the lower hall and passageway under the court, adjacent to steam pipes, which so affect them that the binding of the books become destroyed, and papers so baked as to become brittle and break when handled. Inquiries are frequently received for information regarding transactions relating back to the organization of the Office and the intervening period, and access to 3 the records is extremely difficult, causing a waste of time on the part of the clerical force. These old records and files are as valuable as the current ones, and reference has to be made to them very often in order to trace back titles, and their condition is such as to require three or four times the period for the examination of a particular record or file, as would be necessary if systematically arranged. To accommodate the clerical force, with a view to its efficiency, and provide for the systematic arrangement of its records and files in such manner as to render them easy of access for the next ten years, it is estimated that it will require 28 additional rooms 16 by 20 feet (height of ceiling not less than 12 feet), and I can not too strenuously urge that the additional space be provided. DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC LANDS. The following is a statement of the acreage disposed of during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904: Showing a decrease of 6,418,477.70 acres as compared with the aggregate of disposals for the fiscal year 1903. The foregoing statement does not include the following entries, the areas of which have been previously reported in the original entries of the respective classes: Final desert-land entries. Homesteads commuted to cash Timber-culture entries commuted under act March 3, 1891. Abandoned military reservations Cash substitutions. Supplemental payments Under sundry acts.. Final homesteads Final timber-culture entries Commuted homestead and final desert entries, Indian lands. Total... Acres. 268, 913. 43 2, 142, 185. 44 320.00 18, 804.81 2, 721. 49 178.14 3, 232, 716. 75 5, 748, 393. 43 5,837, 253. 65 |