appear to desire to make use of the coal deposits near the southern boundary of the reservation, he deemed it would be advisable to rearrange the southern line in such way as to protect the interests of the Indians and at the same time benefit all concerned.

The Commanding General of the Army, June 18, 1889, submitted these reports to the Secretary of War for the information and action of the Department of the Interior, with the recommendation that the line as run by Deputy United States Surveyor Reicker, under the Executive Order of March 31, 1877, should receive further consideration with reference to its accuracy; and, if it be deemed inaccurate, that another survey should be made under the directions of the Interior Department, with an officer of the Army, if desired, to assist in making the new survey. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to whom the communication of the Secretary of War was referred by the Secretary of the Interior, reported on August 3 that the accuracy of the Reicker survey ought to be speedily determined; and on reference to the Commissioner of the General Land Office it was estimated that it would cost at least $800 to make this survey, and the Commissioner further reported that the Reicker survey was, as he considered, made as construed by the United States surveyor-general for Arizona and approved by the Land Office, and not as construed by Captain Miltimore.

The segregation of these coal-lands from the reservation has been a question before the Department since 1881. In 1884, under the provisions of July 4, 1881, the Department detailed an employé of the Geological Survey and appointed Mr. M. Bannon to report upon the character of these coal-fields, and their report was transmitted to Congress, as required by the law, in Departmental letter of September 26, 1884. (See S. Ex. Doc. 20, 48th Cong., 2d sess.)

In 1885 and 1886 attention was called to this matter in the annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Surveyor-General Johnson, in his report to the Secretary of the Inte rior, stated that he had long since been in favor, and was still in favor of running a straight line east and west from Camp Goodwin, which would cut off the coal and not deprive the Indians of anything to which they attach value, unless it was some mescal, but the Gila River for a boundary would possibly be objectionable to the Indians.

In view of the statement of Captain Miltimore, that if his line was found correct it would cut off some little of the coal-fields from the reservation, and inasmuch as the proposed change would put these coal-fields beyond the reservation for the use of the inhabitants of Arizona, it seems scarcely necessary to make a resurvey, at the expense from $800 to $1,000, to determine which of these surveys, Reicker's or Miltimore's, is correct, but these facts are here presented that Congress may change the southern boundary if it deems best, so as to segregate the coal-fields from the reservation, upon such consideration as will secure to the Indians a proper compensation for the lands so taken.

There is little doubt but that these lands are now sought by particular individuals who urge the change to be made that is here suggested, but there is a public interest to be served by throwing this part of the reservation into the public domain. The public interests will be worked out through the private interests. Scarcely anything indeed can be done or suggested which may not be stopped if suspicion of the gain of the individual take the place of a broad view of the public interests.

If the inhabitants of Arizona need the coal contained in these acres, for which the Indians themselves have no use, and which they will neither work nor lease to others, there should be some steps taken by the Government to have the Indians compensated to a reasonable degree and the lands brought into public use, under the laws as established. If an executive order is relied on, it may not secure the Indians the compensation they deserve.

PENSIONS.

ESTIMATES.

The estimates for pensions made for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1889, were not only inadequate but must have been known to be so when recommended to Congress. The estimate for the previous year was $80,000,000. But before this estimate for the present year was completed, it was apparent that a deficiency would be incurred, as it was incurred, for the previous year, to the amount of at least $8,000,000, and that this added to the original eighty millions would not be enough to meet the obligations accruing before the end of even that fiscal year. It was known also that the pension list was increasing, and if the payments of 1888-'89 could not be met with $80,000,000, but a deficiency bill had to be passed for $8,000,000 more, it must have been anticipated that the former Commissioner's successor would be run into a deficiency. Yet the estimate for pensions was confined to eighty million dollars ($80,000,000) for 1889-'90. The result, if the cause were not so easily detected, might produce an unfair comparison between the previous administration and the present as to the amount to be expended in this branch of the service. I do not hesitate, however, to assume the responsibility, as I have done in the estimates for the next fiscal year, of recommending an increase in the appropriation for pensions, so that a liberal and legal payment may be made to all the deserving pensioners of the Republic. This sum will reach $97,210,252.

DEPENDENT PENSION.

It is recommended that a pension be granted to every soldier and sailor who did substantial service during the war in the Army or Navy and was honorably discharged therefrom, and who, being dependent on

his daily labor for his support is now, or may hereafter be disabled from procuring his subsistence by such labor. A due regard to its own dignity and character should prevent the Government from allowing any of the men who fought to maintain the Union to suffer from want, when they have become so incapacitated. It is well known to all our people that many who were never disabled in the fight or the service were yet those who met the greatest dangers of the war and who served continuously and faithfully. That Providence saved them from wounds or disease, and that their strong constitutions withstood the hardships of the field, give no reason why they should be left disregarded and unsupported now. The pension is paid by the Government in reward for past services to those who fought to maintain its existence. It has the sanction of the law of self-preservation, which no government in the treatment of its veterans can safely ignore. The preservation of the nation for which these men fought and endured so much to secure, has given to all our people a wonderful degree of prosperity and an almost unlimited ability to pay any obligations honor imposes.

I am not disposed to confer upon all who may ask the money of the people, and would have confined to well-ascertained limits the claims of those who demand a pension. Nevertheless, a disregard of those of the service named whose disability has become since the war so great as to make them dependent would be both unjust to them and unworthy of our country.

You, however, have considered these matters so deeply, both in the halls of legislation and in your present high position, that there would be no need for me to mention them, were it not that, the Pension Bureau being in my Department, any omission of the subject on my part might be misunderstood and misconstrued.

The subject of dependent relatives' pensions is hereinafter mentioned in connection with other recommendations.

RERATINGS.

Soon after the commencement of your administration there sprung up in the Bureau of Pensions practices in regard to the rerating of pensioners that required the intervention of the Secretary. This practice was suggested by the acts of the previous Commissioner. It was found that numbers of those who had been receiving pensions, many of whom were employés in the Pension Bureau, had had their pensions not only increased (some upon application therefor and some without such application), but the increase had been ordered to take effect long anterior to the application; and, on the orders of the Commissioner, large sums of money had been paid to these persons. Many of the cases bad also been made "special," that is, preferred in time of hearing, and not a few called "48-hour cases" had been hurried through an examination and the pension increased within two days.

The attention of the Commissioner was called to these cases and dis

approbation of such allowances expressed; the Commissioner, on the 11th of July, wrote to the Secretary that

While the Secretary of the Interior has the power to reverse the decision of the Commissioner of Pensions on appeal by a claimant against whom the Commissioner had decided, on the other hand, if for any reason it be held that the claimant has been granted too much pension, the Commissioner himself is the only person who has the power to call a halt and reduce the pension

and based this conclusion on section 3, act of June 21, 1879, which reads as follows:

That sections 4771, 4772, and 4773 of the Revised Statutes of the United States providing for biennial examinations of pensioners are hereby repealed: Provided, That the Commissioner of Pensions shall have the same power as heretofore to order special examinations whenever in his judgment the same may be necessary, and to increase or reduce pensions according to right and justice, but in no case shall a pension be withdrawn or reduced except upon notice to the pensioner and a hearing upon sworn testimony, except as to the certificate of the examining surgeons.

To this the Secretary replied July 24, 1889, that the power granted the Commissioner of Pensions by this section is expressly no greater than heretofore, and refers only to increase or reduction of pensions according to right and justice, and not to re-rating, which is giving a new and increased rate and ordering it to take effect back, often even to the date of discharge. The effect was, of course, to give the increase thus accumulated through many years to the pensioner in one gross sum at his first payment under his new certificate; this sum amounted, in a great many cases of re-rating, to several thousand dollars, and reached in not a few instances $5,000 and $6,000. It was maintained by the Secretary that he had control to correct any abuses in the Bureau of Pensions as in any other Bureau in the Department; and he proceeded to demonstrate the same at length by citation of the acts of Congress and the decisions of the courts.

Attention was also called to section 4698 of the Revised Statutes, in connection with the section above quoted, and on the same subjectmatter, which has not been repealed, and which reads as follows:

Except in cases of permanent specific disabilities, no increase of pension shall be allowed to commence prior to the date of the examining surgeon's certificate establishing the same, made under the pending claim for increase.

While this section remains, increased pensions can not be ordered at the mere will of the Commissioner; it requires a claim, an examination, and a certificate; such increase is not a matter of sentiment, it is a question of law.

The cases, about which this correspondence occurred as the letter mentioned, were ten in number; but many others were afterwards developed. It appeared in each of the ten cases that the increase was allowed prior to the surgeon's certificate in the pending claim, that in some there was no new examination, and in others not even an application, and that the sums allowed aggregated over $16,000.

There is a board of appeals established in the Department of the Interior, and the decisions arrived at by the Secretary, through the as

sistance of this board and the Assistant Secretary, are published at the Government's expense for the direction and guidance of the Pension Office and the information of all parties in interest. These decisions of the Secretary, upon cases of appeal, are the law of the Department until reversed or annulled by some higher authority.

In these decisions it has been announced many times that the Department will uniformly refuse to disturb an adjudication of claim by a former administration, except upon the most conclusive evidence that an error has been committed. When the question as to the propriety of a given rating is one of judgment merely, depending upon the weight of evidence, it will not allow the opinion of to-day to overturn the opinion of yesterday. But where the incorrectness of the former action is so manifest upon a review of the evidence that it is not a matter of dispute, the Department will not refuse to do justice because the error is of long standing and has been sanctioned by subsequent action. And furthermore, it is stated that old cases will not be reopened, reconsidered, nor readjusted except upon presentation of new and material evidence tending to show the existence of a palpable error or a mistake, and which, therefore, tends to change the real status of the claimant before the Department. Such old cases are clearly within the rule of res judicata.

No objection was expressed to an increase of pension, the increase to commence under the pending claim as the law directs, and upon evidence to support it; to be considered in due course, and with a proper regard to the right to be heard belonging to the thousands of other claimants for pensions.

The proposition was, that on the record as it stood, not as it might be made thereafter or on what might appear from a further examination of the men, but upon the record that was acted upon when the pensions were increased and the sums of money were paid to these several pensioners, there seemed to have been no sufficient evidence or law for the action.

The purpose was expressed that all these cases should be re-examined; but as those here mentioned were taken up when information was received of them from time to time, nothing having been communicated in regard thereto through ordinary official channels, the Secretary ordered an investigation to be made as to cases passed on both by the last administration and the present one, to obtain information as to what degree "re-ratings" had been illegal or irregular, and whether those during the last quarter had been in accordance with previous practice and precedent. As it was reasonable to suppose other cases of the same general character might be found, and the whole could be better disposed of together, he deferred any further orders until the partial or full report of the board which was organized for the foregoing purpose.

This letter was accompanied by a number of exhibits, and is itself to be found as an exhibit. The board of investigation reported upon