chairman of the delegation; Hon. Charles H. Duell, former Commissioner of Patents and ex-justice of the court of appeals of the District of Columbia; Frederick P. Fish, Esq., of Boston; Melville Church, Esq., of Washington, D. C., and Robert H. Parkinson, Esq., of Chicago, Ill., all of whom are leaders of the patent bar and well-known authorities in patent law and practice. NEW BUILDING. Permit me to again refer to the urgent need of a new and more commodious building to be occupied by the Patent Office. The utter inadequacy of the present quarters is apparent. The business of the office has increased so rapidly as to entirely outstrip the accommodations provided, which are practically the same as those of a decade ago. Your earnest efforts to give me more room for the Patent Office force by the restriction of the space occupied by your immediate office is highly appreciated, but at the same time it is a fact that if the Patent Office occupied all of the present building it would still be cramped and provided with insufficient facilities not only for the working force, but for the storage of the vast amount of valuable records, which, being constantly in use, must be kept accessible at all times. Storage space is at a premium, copies of patents having long since overrun into the corridors where they are constantly exposed to the ravages of dust and of possibility of destruction by fire. Since the total of receipts covered into the Treasury by the Patent Office exceeds all expenses by about $7,000,000, this sum could well be used for the construction of a new, modern, and commodious building for a Patent Office, the inventors of the country, by payment of fees, having contributed all of this vast sum. The Patent Office has always been self-supporting. It is clear that the lack of space has the effect of retarding the work and places the Patent Office in the light of not giving the inventors of the country the service to which they are entitled through the payment of their money. The best facilities for expediting the work can not be furnished where records are necessarily promiscuously deposited and where clerks and examiners have not the requisite amount of light and air which the laws of hygiene prescribe and which are desirable in the interests of humanity. I can not too strongly urge the importance of beginning the fight for the building of a greater Patent Office. The location has been suggested by the late Senator Daniel in his bill introduced in 1909 (S. 1629), which has received the approval of yourself. Above all, the inventors and manufacturers of the country are entitled to this recommendation. Respectfully submitted. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. EDWARD B. MOORE, REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the Seventy-ninth Annual Report of the Office of Indian Affairs covering the period July 1, 1909, to June 30, 1910. EMPLOYEES. Several changes in the policy of the service have been made with a view to improving the personnel and increasing the efficiency of its employees. The constant shifting of employees from one school or agency to another has in the past been the bane of the Indian Service personnel. For various reasons, either through the importunities of the employees or their friends or on account of some dissatisfaction, the pressure to make these changes has been exceedingly great. The evil has been largely eliminated by prohibiting transfers at indiscriminate times during the fiscal year. This rule has been closely adhered to with reference to the schools, with the consequence that now these changes, with few exceptions, are limited to vacation periods. The beneficial effects of this policy are far-reaching in that it has eliminated from the minds of the employees ideas resulting from a constant desire to change and has relieved the officers in charge from the necessity of breaking in new people at any and all times. As a corollary of this plan the old system of granting promotions at the beginning of each fiscal year has been done away with, and now promotion is made whenever it is clearly shown that employees are deserving of promotion. This idea is being carefully impressed on the field service, and when thoroughly appreciated it undoubtedly will have the effect of improving the personnel by inculcating greater interest in the work. There has been marked improvement in the method of handling the employee personnel. Heretofore the record of employees has been kept in large and cumbersome record books. These books have been entirely eliminated and a complete card system installed. This has meant an immense saving of clerical labor and will make the records much more accessible. It also does away with the annual transfer of the entire employee force from one book to another at the beginning of each fiscal year. A new system of reporting the efficiency of employees has been installed. Instead of continuing the former arbitrary method of rating each employee, the superintendent or other officer in charge gives briefly, in a few strong descriptive words, a clear statement of the employee's efficiency, ability, and industry. These are made on separate sheets and filed in the status record of the employee. Inspecting officers are also required from time to time to make similar reports on employees who have come under their observation. These records are placed in the same file. In this way a complete descriptive history of each employee is immediately available when the question of promotion or transfer or change in position or salary comes up. The Civil Service Commission has given hearty cooperation to the service in securing high-grade employees for appointment to the field force. The limitations of that service and its difference from the departmental service are given consideration and an earnest effort has been made to provide eligible lists commensurate with practical needs. The service recognizes the value of the merit system as applied to its work. The commission, on the other hand, also recognizes the peculiar difficulties of the work and the liberal treatment required in order to procure proper human material for the work of elevating the Indian and conserving his property. The rapid development of irrigation and allotment work in the field has clearly shown the necessity for a modification of the usual civil-service procedure in making appointments. This fact has been recognized by the commission and a satisfactory arrangement has been made by appointing local boards of examiners at various convenient points throughout the West. These boards conduct examinations and maintain registers of eligibles for certain classes of positions, and appointing officers resort to them for material from which to select their employees. These local registers are utilized for the large bulk of appointments to positions not requiring clerical or high-grade technical knowledge or experience. The results of this method have been satisfactory and it will undoubtedly be further developed in the future. The merit system in and of itself can never provide a force of high efficiency. The question of compensation is vital. The compensation must be adequate for the work performed and at least equal to that which the same grade of work commands in the ordinary business world. Without this relative condition of salaries, it is not possible for the Indian Service, with its hardships, its isolations, and its many disagreeable features, to get the best material for its appointments. The appointment of a special disbursing agent at Union Agency deserves special attention because the plan is to be extended to other large fields of the Indian Service as opportunity may arise. For years the superintendent at Union Agency has been each year financially responsible for five or six million dollars, in the proper care of which only the qualities of accuracy and integrity are required. The disbursement of these funds necessarily took a large part of the time which he, as the executive officer of the Indian Service among the Five Civilized Tribes should have devoted to the broad questions of general management, to decisions of disputed cases, and to careful watching of the enormous business and human interests of these Indians. The mere manual labor of signing the immense number of checks and petty details connected with them took nearly half of his time. The special disbursing agent appointed this year will free the superintendent of this unnecessary waste of time and energy in the future. This special agent is bonded in a sufficient amount to care for the fiscal affairs of not only the Union Agency but of the educational work which has been heretofore managed by a separate officer. The superintendent in charge of the agency, as well as the supervising officials in care of education, have been relieved of a tremendous burden of detail and may now be, in fact as well as in name, the executive and administrative officers representing the Government in old Indian Territory. uct. FARMING. The Indian Service realizes that instruction in farming is an essential basic part of its present educational policy and is, therefore, making use of every possible resource in order to promote farming among the Indians. Farmers are employed on reservations to teach the Indians how to farm according to the most improved modern methods. Experimental farins have been established in different sections to discover the best crops for the Indians of the district, to improve the quality of the seed, and raise the standard of the prodThe cooperation of the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural colleges and experiment stations of the various States has been solicited, and valuable assistance and advice have been procured from those sources in finding what class of cereals, plants, fruits, berries, and other industries carried on by farmers were best adapted to the various Indian reservations. Instruction in agriculture is receiving new emphasis in the schools. The Indians are being encouraged to hold agricultural fairs where their stock and produce are exhibited. The standard of Indian live stock is being raised by cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry. A special examination was held by the Civil Service Commission on March 30, 1910, for the purpose of procuring candidates for appointment as expert farmer, and expert farmers were appointed at the following reservations: Blackfeet, Colville, Fort Apache, Fort Berthold, Fort Totten, Fort Yuma, Flathead, Klamath, Lac du Flambeau, Mescalero, Nevada, Tongue River, Sac and Fox of Oklahoma, Shoshone, Southern Ute, Uintah, Warm Springs, White Earth, Winnebago, and Yakima. A horticulturist was appointed at the San Juan Agency. As an example of the sort of result that may be looked for from the experimental farms, I wish to call attention to the work of the experimental farm at Sacaton, Ariz., in raising Egyptian cotton. As a result of two years' experiment sixteen bales of a fine grade of Egyptian cotton, weighing 8,886 pounds, were raised and shipped to New York markets. A small part of this cotton was raised at the Phoenix School. Reliable tests showed that this cotton was very much stronger than ordinary southern cotton and averaged from oneeighth to one-fourth of an inch longer, which made it especially valuable for thread and fine qualities of cotton weaves. This cotton was sold for 31 cents a pound. This price strikingly contrasts with the ruling price for southern short staple cotton, which is 12 to 15 cents per pound. This cotton was raised through cooperative action between the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Agricultural Department and this office. The money and years of effort expended by that bureau in testing Egyptian cotton in Arizona culminated in the production of this quantity of a high grade of cotton. A great opportunity is open for the superintendent of the Pima Reservation on which this cotton was grown, to stimulate the Indians there to successfully raise this high-grade cotton. The importance of the agricultural fair as a means of stimulating interest in farming among the Indians has been convincingly demonstrated by its success among the Crows. Last year the superintendents of the Tongue River, Fort Belknap, and Fort Peck reservations in Montana, and the superintendent of the Fort Totten Reserva tion in North Dakota, attended the Crow fair, and reported that such fairs are a benefit on those reservations that have opportunities for growing field crops. The fair promotes healthy rivalry among Indians and furnishes a rational basis for meeting together, which ought eventually to take the place of the indiscriminate gatherings of Indians, which are usually productive of considerable harm. Fairs were held last year at the following reservations: Crow, Capitan Grande, Cheyenne and Arapahoe, La Jolla, Pine Ridge, San Juan, and Southern Ute. Officers in charge of various reservations are being encouraged to hold these agricultural fairs. On several reservations conspicuous progress in farming has been made during the year. On the Fort Peck Reservation about 50 per cent of the male adult Indians are cultivating their farms, and there is approximately 3,000 acres under cultivation, an increase of about 50 per cent over last year. The largest area cultivated by any one Indian is 200 acres. Oats, potatoes, flax, wheat, and corn are the principal crops grown. The market is good. An elevator is now being constructed at Poplar to handle the grain harvested in this vicinity. About 75 per cent of the male adult Indians on this reservation raise stock, ranging from 5 to 100 head each. They have a few more cattle than horses, aggregating about 9,000 head. On the Sisseton Reservation there are about 220 families engaged in farming, an increase of 25 per cent over the number farming last year. There are about 17,325 acres under cultivation, the best Indian farmers cultivating from 80 to 390 acres. Many of their farms are in excellent condition. Nearly all the Indian farmers have a few head of cattle; during the last two years eight Indians began raising horses. Two hundred and seventy families have distributed among them about 1,300 head of cattle and 2,500 head of horses; the number of horses on the reservation has increased about 50 per cent, and of cattle about 25 per cent over the previous two years. The Nez Perce Reservation, in Idaho, has 128,000 acres of allotted land under cultivation. Considerable interest has been manifested by the Indians in the planting of fruit trees and plants. One Indian procured from the superintendent 150 fruit trees and planted all of them in good shape. Marketing facilities are excellent. On the Yakima Reservation, in Washington, there are 60,000 acres under cultivation. Some white lessees of the reservation have established what might properly be called "model farms," and the example set by them is having a noticeable effect upon the Indians. They are imbibing the progressive spirit, and are making rapid advance ment. At the Winnebago Agency wonderful progress has been made. Last year the Winnebagos cultivated only about 3,000 acres of allotted land and it was done rather indifferently. During the present year they have under cultivation more than 8,000 acres, mostly planted in corn, and it is reported to be fully as well cared for as the crop of the average white man. About 75 per cent of the able-bodied adults on this reservation are engaged in farming. Thirty-six of them are farming during the present season for practically the first time. The largest farm cultivated by a single Winnebago Indian contains 200 acres, but many members of the tribe care for farms of 80 or more acres. |