ENLISTED FORCE.

The enlistments and reenlistments in the Marine Corps during the past year have been as follows:

The following is the general distribution of the officers and enlisted men of the Marine Corps at the present time:

During the past year there were four retirements, one resignation, and two deaths among the officers of the Marine Corps.

In conclusion, the undersigned desires to state that the recommendations herein made, both as to the personnel and the matériel, have been very carefully considered; and he trusts that they will receive favorable consideration on the part of the department.

Very respectfully,

The SECRETARY OF THE NAVY,

G. F. ELLIOTT, Major-General, Commandant.

Navy Department, Washington, D. C.

REPORT

OF THE

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 1, 1910.

SIR: I have the honor to submit for your consideration my second annual report of the operations of the Department of the Interior, together with the report of the bureaus, offices, institutions, and Territories under its supervision.

ORIGIN AND PRINCIPAL FUNCTIONS OF THE

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.

As a result of the accession of territory following the Mexican war and the great increase in population, wealth, and business throughout the country, an executive department which should transact the public business relating to domestic affairs was urgently demanded. At that time the work pertaining to the Patent Office was under the supervision of the Secretary of State; to the General Land Office and the Census under the Secretary of the Treasury; to Indian Affairs under the Secretary of War; and pensions were granted under the joint supervision of the Secretary of War and of the Secretary of the Navy. Accordingly, Congress, by the act of March 3, 1849, entitled "An act to establish the Home Department * "created the Depart

ment of the Interior. This act conferred administrative authority upon the Secretary of the Interior over the General Land Office, the Patent Office, the Office of Indian Affairs, and the Pension Office; also supervision and control over the officers of the Census, and over accounts of marshals, clerks, and other officers of the United States courts, jurisdiction over the Commissioner of Public Buildings in Washington, over the warden and inspectors of the District of Columbia penitentiary, and over the lead and other mines of the United States.

This constituted the Department of the Interior, then, as now, the depository of governmental functions which could not be conveniently placed under the head of any other department. After its creation there was first added in 1855 the Government Hospital for the Insane, for the treatment of the insane of the army, the navy,

and the District of Columbia, and in 1857 a supervisory authority was given to the department over the Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, which in a modified sense still continues. As an incidental function during the same year, the Secretary was directed to construct a wagon road from Fort Kearny, Nebr., to the eastern boundary of the State of California, as well as several other roads in the Western States and Territories.

In 1862 a Returns Office was established in the department, in which should be filed all contracts executed on behalf of the War, Navy, and Interior departments. In 1867 the Department of Education was created, which by subsequent legislation became the Bureau of Education, attached to the Department of the Interior. Freedmen's Hospital in 1871 was placed under the control of the Secretary of War, but in 1874 the control of this institution was transferred to the Secretary of the Interior. In 1879 the Geological Survey was authorized as a bureau of the Interior Department, and in 1884 the Bureau of Labor was established in the department. By the act of March 1, 1873, the Department of the Interior was given jurisdiction over the Territories of the United States, including Alaska. Howard University was established by the act of March 2, 1867, and the Secretary of the Interior given supervision over congressional appropriations for this institution. Beginning with 1872 the Government undertook the establishment of national parks by the creation of the Yellowstone National Park, and placed its supervision under the Secretary of the Interior. All the national parks thereafter created on the public domain were placed under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department, including the Hot Springs Reservation in Arkansas. By virtue of the reclamation act of June 17, 1902, the Reclamation Service came into existence, to be administered by the Secretary of the Interior, and during the last session Congress established a Bureau of Mines in the department.

Various other duties of a miscellaneous kind have been imposed from time to time on the Secretary of the Interior; thus by section. 1818 of the Revised Statutes he is required to prevent the improper appropriation or occupation of any of the public streets, avenues, squares, or reservations in the city of Washington, and by the act of March 3, 1875, together with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster-General, he is required to approve plans and estimates for public buildings throughout the United States. He was required to execute the policy of the Government in regard to certain of the Pacific railroads, to supervise the slave trade, and to execute the act in relation to the colonization of Liberia.

Various powers and duties have been from time to time transferred from the Secretary of the Interior, as follows:

The duties imposed upon the department relating to the suppression of the slave trade were rendered obsolete by the termination of

the civil war. Jurisdiction over the accounts and expenditures of district attorneys, United States marshals, and other court officers was transferred to the Department of Justice. The appointment and removal of the warden of the jail of the District of Columbia were placed under the supreme court of the District, and appropriations for such officer and his employees are now supervised by the Department of Justice. The office of Commissioner of Public Buildings was abolished and the duties thereof devolved upon the Chief Engineer of the Army. On May 16, 1862, the Agricultural Division of the Patent Office was transferred to what was then authorized by Congress as the Department of Agriculture. The Bureau of Labor was transferred from the Department of the Interior and made an independent establishment under the name of the Department of Labor by the act of June 13, 1888, and the Census Office was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Commerce and Labor when that department was created. The supervision of the national forests was transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture in 1905.

At the present time the Interior Department embraces supervision over the following offices and institutions:

The General Land Office, Office of Indian Affairs, Pension Office, Patent Office, Geological Survey, Bureau of Education, Bureau of Mines, Reclamation Service, the Territories (exclusive of insular possessions), national parks, American antiquities, Government Hospital for the Insane, Freedmen's Hospital, Howard University, and Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. In the District of Columbia supervision over the office of the Superintendent of the United States Capitol Building and Grounds; protection from improper appropriation or occupation of the public streets, avenues, squares, and reservations in the city of Washington; the issuing of deeds to certain lots in that city; and other duties in connection with other activities in the District of Columbia and elsewhere.

WHAT SHOULD BE TAKEN AWAY OR RESTORED TO RENDER THE OPERATIONS OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT MORE HOMOGENEOUS.

If, as originally intended, the Interior Department was to possess the bureaus and institutions relating to domestic affairs, it has lost that distinctive feature by the creation of two other departments which have taken over parts of its functions, viz, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce and Labor.

If I may venture the opinion, it would have been more logical to have consolidated the Interior Department and Department of Agriculture at the time of the creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor and transferred from them certain functions to the Department of Commerce and Labor and other departments, as, for instance

the Patent Office to the Department of Commerce and Labor; the Pension Office to the War and Navy Departments, where it was originally lodged. Under the existing system duplication of governmental effort necessarily arises in the exercise of the functions of departments with divided jurisdiction over the same subject-matter, as now exists in some measure between the Interior Department, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Commerce and Labor. This is well illustrated in connection with the jurisdiction of the Departments of Agriculture and of the Interior over forest reserves, and of the newly created Bureau of Mines in the Interior Department and the Bureau of Standards in the Department of Commerce and Labor. It would seem to be apparent that the supervision of the Capitol building and grounds should be transferred to the Treasury Department, under the Supervising Architect's Office; that the Returns Office should be attached to the Treasury Department; that the supervision of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and of the Maryland School for the Blind should be transferred to the District of Columbia; that all supervisory matters relating to the District of Columbia be transferred to the Commissioners of the District; and that the supervisory authority over the islands of Samoa and Guam be transferred to the Bureau of Insular Affairs.

BUILDINGS IN WASHINGTON OCCUPIED BY THE

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.

The government buildings under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department in Washington for the use of that department are the Patent Office building, the old Post-Office building, the Pension building, the Government Hospital for the Insane, Freedmen's Hospital, and buildings erected by the Government in connection with Howard University. Certain of the bureaus, such as the Geological Survey, the Reclamation Service, and the Bureau of Mines, occupy rented quarters, and the department also rents for the Civil Service Commission, through congressional direction, the building occupied by the commission. The rentals paid by the department for the fiscal year 1910 amounted to $55,900. (For the details of rentals for 1910 and other years, see Appendix A.)

It would be economy for the Government to build the necessary structures to care for all the bureaus which can not be accommodated in the three buildings of the Government, and the congested condition of the Patent Office and the Secretary's office makes some action in this direction necessary in the near future.