REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., September 23, 1891. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following as the annual report of the business transacted by the General Land Office during the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1891, under the laws for the survey and sale of the public lands of the United States, or for otherwise disposing thereof, and the laws relating to private claims of land and the issuing of patents for grants of land under the authority of the government. My immediate predecessor, Hon. Lewis A. Groff, resigned his position March 20, 1891. I entered on duty, as Commissioner, March 31, 1891. Therefore, the transactions of which report is made in the following pages took place in the fiscal year, about nine months of which transpired during the administration of my immediate predecessor and about three months during my own administration. The administrative policy concerning the public lands, inaugurated under your direction shortly after March 4, 1889, has been continued throughout the fiscal year just closed, and it is most gratifying to report that this liberal and enlightened policy was favored by Congressional approval during the year. It will be remembered that in 1885, and for several succeeding years, the Commissioner in charge of this Bureau conducted his administration upon the assumption that a very large proportion of the settlers on the public domain were dishonest and disposed to evade the law and defraud the government. In the presence of this violent assumption each settler was placed at the disadvantage of being presumed guilty of evil intent until he made the contrary appear. On page 71 of his report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, in discussing the subject of commuted homesteads, the Commissioner says: The proportion of fraudulent entries of this kind can be more nearly estimated at the whole number of such entries than in any other manner. And of homestead cases he says: The average proportion of fraudulent entries made for five years' settlement is estimated at about 40 per cent. All preemption entries were pronounced bad, and of timber-culture entries he sets down 90 per cent. as fraudulent. To sum up, however, it is but necessary to quote from page 48 of his report the sweeping conclusion of Commissioner Sparks, which reads as follows: At the outset of my administration I was confronted with overwhelming evidences that the public domain was being made a prey of unscrupulous speculation and the worst forms of land monopoly through systematic fraud carried on and consummated under the public land laws. Entertaining such views it was but natural that the Commissioner should in every possible way impede the transaction of business in the Bureau. Such was the policy pursued. On April 3, 1885, an order was issued suspending action on all entries (except on certain scrip locations and on private cash entries) in the whole of Colorado, except the Ute reservation, and in all of Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Washington, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, and portions of Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. While this order was modified at a later date the spirit which prompted it controlled the administration of the land laws for many years. The great body of honest settlers were erroneously tainted with suspicion, created by the acts of a very small percentage of evil-disposed persons. On vague and indefinite charges large numbers of public land entries were suspended pending investigations conducted at the expense of the government to discover supposed frauds. Suspected settlers were required to travel to local land offices in every public land State and Territory, to furnish proof of the good faith on their part which the law presumes in every man's favor until the want of it is in some way affirmatively shown. The energies of the working force of the Bureau were diverted from customary duty and employed in an apparent effort to discover how to avoid transacting public business. In consequence of this policy thousands of well-meaning settlers were burdened with heavy expense they were ill able to bear, and all business in the public land States, and in the Territories, was very injuriously affected. Titles became unsettled, and the pioneer, engaged in clearing the way for advancing civilization, for the first time in a quarter of a century, was made to feel that the power of the government was arrayed against him. Efforts made to establish the wholesale charges preferred against settlers practically failed, as the records of the Bureau show. Nevertheless, land patents were very slowly and reluctantly issued between the close of the fiscal years ending June 30, 1885, and June 30, 1889. About the last-named date the effects of a change of policy became obvious. Under the changed order of business, and legal constructions, settlers were presumed to be honest and well disposed toward the gov ernment and its laws. This policy has controlled the administration of the General Land Office for the last two fiscal years, and as a contrast of the substantial results evolved in the way of actual business transacted under the respective lines of administrative policy may be of value, I submit the following: Comparative statement of agricultural and other patents issued by the General Land Office during the fiscal years ending June 30, 1886 and 1887, and the fiscal years ending June 30, 1890 and 1891. The sympathy of Congress with the expeditious disposal of publicland business was made manifest in the seventh section of an act approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to repeal the timber-culture law, and for other purposes." Under and by virtue of the provisions of said section cases long suspended on suspicion of fraud, or under harsh technical rules, are passed to patent in a manner which, while greatly facilitating the transaction of business, still leaves ample safeguards against the perpetration of possible fraud. The fiscal year upon which we are entering will be fruitful of results through the strength given the policy of the administration by this new legislation. Indeed, I feel justified in predicting that, with the present office force, the business of the Bureau will be practically brought up abreast with current work by the end of the next fiscal year. The work performed and the results accomplished during the fiscal year included herein sustain the prediction made, and may be briefly summed up as follows: DISPOSALS OF PUBLIC LANDS. The following is a statement of the acreage of public lands disposed of during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891: |