ing, and more than 12,000 sets of rescue apparatus have been purchased by private companies. (More than 3,000 men were killed and more than 100,000 men were injured in the mining and metallurgical industries of this country during 1913. The money loss from these accidents is estimated at not less than $12,000,000, and hundreds of millions of dollars were lost or wasted from not employing efficient methods of mining and treating ores and minerals.)

THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

1. Made a comprehensive study of recent developments in higher education in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; of the preparation of teachers for secondary schools in Germany, France, and Great Britain; of the methods of teaching English and sciences in American high schools, and of standards of colleges and secondary schools in the United States.

2. Made and published a digest of all school legislation and judicial decisions affecting schools and education in the United States within the last three years, and began a complete digest of all the school laws of all the States.

3. Prepared and published bulletins on health teaching and on the better care of health of school children, and a bulletin on rural schoolhouses and grounds, and gave direct assistance to State and city school officers and college boards of education in all parts of the country in planning schoolhouses and grounds.

4. Visited 500 rural schools, participated in 100 rural-school conferences, studied rural high schools and agricultural schools in 15 States, visited rural schools in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and studied the rural-school systems of these countries.

5. Investigated 400 schools for negroes in eight Southern States, and studied elementary and secondary education for negroes in the South.

6. Made a comprehensive study of kindergartens in the United States, the relation of kindergartens to the elementary schools, the results of kindergarten work, and the preparation of teachers in kindergarten training schools.

7. Made a study of illiteracy among the foreign population of three States, and is devising means for the elimination of illiteracy among the adult population.

8. Provided schools for the natives of Alaska, cared for their health, and gave relief from the effects of storm, flood, and epidemic diseases.

9. Increased its activities by organization of divisions for the study and promotion of home education, for instruction in civics and citizenship, and for the education of immigrants, and made provision for divisions for the study and promotion of agricultural education, education in trades and industries, education in home economics and for home making, and for horticultural education and home gardening directed by the schools in cities, towns, and manufacturing communities.

THE NATIONAL PARKS.

1. Replaced military troops with civilian rangers in several parks. 2. Admitted automobile to parks where condition of roads makes motoring safe.

3. Gave better protection to park timber from fire through cooperation with Forest Service.

4. Cooperated with Good Roads Office of the Department of Agriculture in beginning of comprehensive surveys by experienced engineers for systems of roads and trails through parks, at reduced cost of construction.

5. Made sanitary inspections of the larger parks, and began work looking to protection from pollution of drinking water, proper disposals of sewage, and enforcement of hygienic regulations necessary to protect the health of visitors.

6. Improved hotel and camp facilities for visitors in several parks, and made a 20 per cent reduction in transportation rates from the western entrance of Yellowstone Park.

7. Increased efficiency and reduced cost of superintendence by the appointment of a general superintendent and landscape engineer for all the parks, and the gradual superseding of superintendents of the several parks with park supervisors at lower salaries.

THE PATENT OFFICE.

1. By change of method has enabled an applicant to secure a patent in two-thirds of the time that formerly was necessary. In order to do this the office has acted upon 19,873 more old cases and 1,368 more new ones than had been acted upon during the preceding year.

2. From January 1, 1914, to November 14, 1914, granted 4,703 more patents and sent to issue 11,257 more applications than in the same period of 1913.

3. Substantially reduced the accumulation of pending applications.

4. Increased the surplus receipts of the office for the fiscal year from $158,030.81 in 1913 to $240,856.43 in 1914.

5. Accomplished these results without increasing the office force.

Respectfully yours,

The PRESIDENT.

FKANKLIN K. LANE,

Secretary.

ABSTRACTS OF REPORTS OF BUREAUS AND OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL.1

The following table shows the receipt and disposal of matters that are docketed or recorded, but does not account for numerous matters of which no formal record is kept:

Work of office of Assistant Attorney General.

Under "Miscellaneous" are now grouped matters, such as "Disbarments," "Opinions,” etc., heretofore separately classified.

Although it appears from the foregoing that the total number of arrears on October 1, 1914, is 5,140 in contrast with 3,305 the previous year, this is entirely due to the remarkable increase in the number of appeals filed in pension cases-a matter discussed under the caption of "Appeals in pension and bounty land claims."

The gratifying feature suggested by the figures lies in the marked reduction of arrears in the appeal cases affecting public lands, wherein a gain of over 500 has been made. On October 1, 1913, there were 2,194 cases pending on appeal and 123 on rehearing. On October 1, 1914, 1,642 were pending on appeal and 100 on rehearing.

This curtailment is in part due to an increase in the number of cases decided. The fact that during the past year the office has been relieved of the review of abstracts of title in connection with the work of the Reclamation Service has contributed somewhat to this accomplishment, but it is largely due to the change in the method of disposing of certain cases-cases where the decision of the Commissioner of the General Land Office has been found so carefully and fully to set

1 The designation of this officer was changed to Solicitor by the act approved July 16, 1914 (Public No. 127).

out the essential facts and the law applicable as to make it unnecessary to do other than to affirm the judgment formally. A thorough and cautious examination of such cases here makes this plan feasible. The saving accomplished is in the elimination of a great deal of transcription and other work entailed by the former method of an extended opinion in each case. This saves much time both to the clerical and law force and renders easier the problem of keeping the work of the small stenographic force current with that of the attorneys.

During the year 17 cases against the department in the courts sitting in the District of Columbia, in which the Assistant Attorney General has been charged with the defense of the Secretary or his officers, have been disposed of successfully save in two cases, and in one of these petition for rehearing is pending. Two of these cases were in the Supreme Court of the United States, 4 in the Court of Appeals, and 11 in the Supreme Court of the District. Fifteen cases are now pending in the Supreme Court of the District and 2 in the Supreme Court of the United States.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

The total area of public and Indian lands originally entered and allowed during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1914, is 16,522,852.12 acres, an increase of 655,629.67 acres as compared with the area entered during the year 1913.

The area patented during the fiscal year is 14,391,071 acres, an increase of 1,712,995 as compared with the fiscal year 1913. Of the above area, 10,000,635 acres was patented under the homestead law, an increase of 2,680,577, not including homesteads-22,129 patented as soldiers' additional entries.

The decrease in receipts and increase in area disposed of is caused by the decreased number of homestead entries commuted to cash. and the increased number on which proof was made under the threeyear act of June 6, 1912, the area patented under this act in 1913 being 3,500,388 acres, as against 6,645,046 in 1914, an increase of 3,144,658, or nearly double.

The total cash receipts from the sales of public land, including fees and commissions on both original and final entries and sales of old Government property in the local offices, for the fiscal year 1914 were $4,256,102.96 (1913, $4,287,540.67), a decrease of $31,437.71 Miscellaneous receipts were as follows: From sales of Indian lands, $1,844,802.77 (1913, $2,118,469.34); depredations on public lands, $21,913.85; leases, power sites, etc., act of February 15, 1901, $2,681.28; copies of records, plats, etc., made at General Land Office, $17,180.66, and at 13 surveyor generals' offices, $5,686.11; making the aggregate cash receipts of this bureau during the fiscal year 1914,