The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume], December 07, 1892, Image 1

About The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1892-1894

Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS

                
AND TOPEKA TRIBUNE.
you IT. NO. 16. 1
$1.00 A YKAE. f
TOPEKA, KANSAS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBEE 7, 1C92.
I OTTXCIAL PAPER OS" TTTJ3
I PKOFUfi'S PARTY OF KA243JL3,
DtmiOB DIPAETMEST.
Secretary Noble Submits a Beport Loaded
With Self-Praise.
Washington, December 1 The annual
report of Secretary Noble to the president
ia an interesting document, and covers
fully and in detail the operations of this
department.
In the general land office on June 30,
1888, there were pending 350,953 final
entries, and the accumulation steadily in
creasing. These have all been disposed
of. Duritg the present administration,
308,128 agricultural .'patents have been
issued, againBt 162,751 in the preceding
four years, representing an excess in
acreage of 37,659,840 acres. The policy
of making forestries over the western
states and territories has been greatly
advanced during the past year. Reserves
have been created by presidential procla
mation making an area of 3,252,260 acres.
This policy will be further carried into
effect, and will be most beneficent and
far-reaching in its results.
The public parks in the United States
under control of the interior department
Yellowstone park, the National park,
the Sequoia national park, U. S. Grant
national park, and the Hot Springs id
ervation in Arkansas, excepting the lat
ter, are under guard of special details
from the army, and are well protected
and rapidly gaining in natural beauty
and attractiveness. The boundary line
between the states of North and South
Dakota has been surveyed from the east
era end of the line to the Missouri river,
and the remainder of the line will be
completed before the close of the present
surveying season. This line is marked
on monuments of quartizite, and will re
main one of the most conspicuous works
of the land office.
Educational work among the Indians
has been greatly increased and improved
in efficiency. There has been an increase
of 12 per cent, in attendance of children
in the schools, the total for 1892 being
19,793 scholars. New Indian reservation
boarding schools have been established
during the present administration, and
more are in progress which it is antici
pated will be opened soon. Under the
policy of Indian allotments, negotiations
with fourteen tribes during the present
administration have resulted in the open
ing up for public settlement of nearly
26,000,000 acres of land. Other negotia
tions which are pending will, when rati
fied, add 10,000,000 acres more.
Allotments of land in severalty to the
Indians have been made in very large
numbers, and 5,900, to whom patents
have been issued, have, by operation of
law, become citizens of the United States.
The report goes into extensive detail of
negotiations with the various Indian
tribes, and recites fully the progress of
the work under the various Indian com
missions, too numerous to mention.
There has been no marked change in
the business methods of the patent office.
The number of applications for patents
during the year was 45,945, the total
number awaiting action July 1, 1892,
9,417. The number of patents granted
was 23,626; the total receipts were $1,208,
724.35, and the expenditures $1,114,134.23.
The amount in the treasury to the credit
of the patent office is now $4,102,441.09.
The secretary states that the work of the
estimated that the appropriation for 1893
of $144,506,000 "will leave a deficiency,
There have been filed p to date of Octo
ber 13, 1392, 920,957 claims under the act
of June 27, 1890, and there have been
issued thus far of these claims 438,345
certificates.
The force of the pension office consists
of 2,095 persons, assigned to fifteen divi
sions. A certain number of these divi
sioas are under the immediate direction
of the deputy commissioners and chief
clerks. Some idea of the magnitude of
its m
HON. A. C. 8III2STN,
Of Ottawa, Kansas, Vice President American Bl-metaDlo League.
geological survey has been carried on
with great efficiency. In the topographic
branch, 180,000 square miles have been
surveyed during the past year, making a
total of 600,000 square miles up to the
present time.
The report stated that it has been de
termined by triangulation that the sum
mit of Mount St. Elias has an altitude of
18,100 feet above the sea, making it the
highest point on the continent, unless
certain unmeasured volcanoes of Mexico
should prove to be higher. This great
landmark lies just a little to one side of
the boundary between Alaska and Brit
ish America, and will bear the United
States flag.
The volume of business handled and
disposed of by the pension office during
the past year is shown to have been
enormous. There were on J une 30, 1892,
876,068 pensioners borne upon the rolls,
being 199,908 more than were on the rolls
at the close of the last fiscal year. Among
these are twenty-two widows and daugh
ters of soldiers of the revolution, and 165
survivors of the war of 1812. The total
amount expended for pensions during
the year was $139,035,612.68, and it is
the work can be formed from the fact
that during the year 5,537,120 piece of
mail were received, and 4,316,616 pieces
sent out. The total number of certifi
cates issued during the year was 311,589.
The total number of pensioners dropped
from the rolls was 25,206. The average
annual value of each pension on the
roll is $133.41. Under the provisions of
the act of June 27, 1890, many claimants
who were seriously disabled and living
upon charity, but who could not estab
lish service origin of their disability,
have been enabled to securt much
needed assistance and financial relief.
The bureau of railroads has been em
ployed in seeking conclusions as to the
beet treatment the government should
give to the debt of subsidized railroads
now approaching maturity. Full reports
have been submitted to congress as to
the guarantees of stocks or bonds, and
payment of indebtedness of the various
roads. The suggestions made in the
commissioners' report look to an exten
sion of the debt, and an increase of
security. A history of the railways of
the United States, and tables of statis
tics showing the effect of railway con
struction upon the population and
development was furnished the interna
tional American conference.
Great satisfaction has been produced
by the organization of the land court
and the charcter of the judges selected.
Alaska is virtually without an organized
government It is difficult to punish
perpetrators of outrages, and smugglers
that infest the ooast and debauch the
natives. The secretary recommends an
appropriation for a steam police vessel to
run along the coast and among the is
lands to which many of the fugitives
scape. Only a nucleus of military or
ganization exists, consisting of one com
pany, and the congressional appropriation
for Alaska is now being withheld, so that
even the operations of this small body of
militia are restricted Additional com
missioners and deputy marshals are
earnestly requested and represented to
be necessary, in order to furnish court
facilities.
The international complications from
the killing of the seals in the ocean and
in the Behring sea have greatly em
barrassed the lessees of the seal islands.
In 1890, no less than 50,000 seals ware
taken in the open sea, and mors than
that number in 1891. During the last
season, only 1,500 seals were killed on the
seal islands, and the diminished number
upon the rookeries shows a terrible waste
of seal life by the destructive methods
employed in pelagic sealing.
An Outrage.
Under a pretense that the regular
minutes of the Memphis meeting could
not be readily obtained, the National
Economitt printed in last week's issue.
under its authority as the national organ
of the A lliance, a most infamous, libe'ous
and garbled report of the transactions of
that meeting. Such a report would dis.
grace any newspaper, no matter how
vile, much more one that assumes to be
the national organ. If the national ex
ecutive committee does not immediately
take from it the authority it has assumed
for the past three years, the members of
tne order will hold them responsible for
future outrages of this character. Na
tional Watchman, November 30.
To Whom it May Concern.
I most respectfully ask that the chair
man, secretary and treasurer of each of
the state committees of the People's,
party of the respective states of the
union, send me their full name and post
office address. I desire to have the same
published in the political almanacs-of
1893. I am already in receipt of requests
from publishers of such periodicals.
Tours respectfully,
Lawrence J. McPabun.
Secretary National Executive Com
mittee People's party.
Lockport, N. Y., November 28.