The promotion and demotion of employees is governed entirely by their efficiency ratings.

13. Question. The number of officers and employees whose place of official duty is Washington, and the number of such whose official place of duty is outside of Washington.

Answer:

Officers and employees on duty in Washington, General Land Office...---

376

Field service (now a part of the inspection division of the depart

Total_____

14. Question. Description of the field service, showing whether agents thereof are assigned to the Washington office or from offices located in other cities, and if from local offices, the designation of such offices and the number of agents assigned to each.

Answer. This question is treated in connection with question 15 (b).

15. Question. A discussion of the administration of the General Land Office to show what functions thereof are performed:

(a) By local officers and employees in the field.

(b) By officers and employees of the field service.

(c) By officers and employees whose official place of duty is Washington. Answer:

LOCAL LAND OFFICES

There are 45 United States district land offices in the public-land States each having jurisdiction over lands within certain prescribed limits. Applications for land within those limits must be presented at the proper offices.

At these offices individuals and representatives of States, railroads, and other corporations initiate their entries, applications, filings, and selections under the homestead, enlarged homestead, stock-raising homestead, desert-land, timber and stone, reclamation, mineral, leasing, swamp, railroad land grant, educational and other grants to States, rights of way, and numerous other public-land laws, for recording and preliminary or interlocutory action. These cases are eventually transmitted to the General Land Office, but many cases are appealed to the Secretary of the Interior, and many others have become the subject of suits in the Federal courts throughout the United States.

At the present time 24 offices are in charge of two officers, a register and a receiver, and 21 offices in charge of but one official, a register.

In the States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Mississippi, Michigan, and Wisconsin the district land offices have been abolished. The

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remaining public lands in those States must be entered at the General Land Office, the commissioner being authorized to execute the required papers as ex-officio register and receiver.

The duties of these officials (of whom the register is considered the administrative head and the receiver the fiscal head) may be briefly summarized as follows but in land cases requiring affirmative action, such action must be taken jointly: Furnish prospective entrymen available information relative to vacant lands in their respective districts; receive and act upon all forms of applications to enter or select public lands under the various public-land laws, and receive the fees therefor; pass upon the sufficiency of final proofs submitted (and required) in support of claims for patent; note on the records all changes affecting status of lands, such as withdrawals and restorations; render decisions in contest cases, both Government and private; issue final and cash certificates showing compliance with laws and that all payments required have been made; and transmit papers in all cases to the General Land Office for final action before issuance of patent; to deliver patents to lands; make copies of plats and transcripts of records, and collect the legal fees therefor, etc.

On July 1, 1925, all of these offices with the exception of the offices at Fairbanks and Nome, Alaska, will be in charge of one official, designated as register. The clerks and marshals of the United States district courts in Alaska are exofficio register and ex-officio receiver, respectively, at Fairbanks and Nome. The following statement shows the 44 land offices which will remain June 1, 1925, and the offices with which discontinued land offices have been consolidated:

CADASTRAL ENGINEERING SERVICE

This may be divided into the field surveying service (active field work) and the present offices of surveyors general (preparation of plats of survey and maintenance of such records).

The offices of surveyors general will be consolidated with the field surveying service July 1, pursuant to the specific provisions of the appropriation act for the fiscal year 1926. The organization at present is as follows:

The survey of the public lands of the United States is inseparably associated with questions relating to the acquisition and disposal of proprietary title to the lands embracing that vast area added to the thirteen original States, including approximately 1,442,200,320 acres, or more than three-fourths of the total area of the 48 States, together with the Territory of Alaska, estimated at 378,165,760

acres.

In order that an accurate, scientific, and uniform system of survey be adopted by which descriptive data could be secured for the identification of lands for disposal under the various public land laws, Congress adopted, in the early history of the country, what is known as the rectangular system of surveys. For approximately 120 years the cadastral surveys of the United States were prosecuted under this system by contracting deputy surveyors who were responsible to the United States surveyors general, hereafter referred to, but, due to the diversified character of the work and the lack of direct supervision on the part of the General Land Office, as the surveys became more complicated in character, this system proved very unsatisfactory. As settlement increased and title to large areas passed from the United States, there remained only those areas that presented the greatest technical difficulty to survey. The necessity for resurveys also developed as the evidences of the older surveys deteriorated or became totally obliterated and in 1910 Congress authorized what is now known as the "direct system" of cadastral surveys, whereby the work of surveying and resurveying in the field is carried on by cadastral engineers under the direct supervision of the Commissioner of the General Land Office and direction of the Secretary of the Interior.

The work of surveying the public lands is divided among three coordinate branches of the surveying service.

The field engineering service is the executive and operating branch of the organization. It performs the actual field work in the execution of all cadastral engineering projects, conducts field investigations and performs all duties of an engineering character, incident to the identification of the public lands and cooperates with other governmental agencies in the accomplishment of work in which different services are interested. It is under the immediate administrative and technical direction of the supervisor of surveys.

The Washington branch consists of the division of surveys. It advises directly with the Commissioner of the General Land Office in all technical and engineering matters and makes recommendation along broad lines on questions relating to the policy of the General Land Office in the execution of cadastral surveys and

resurveys.

The offices of the United States surveyors general, of which there are 12, are in the nature of district headquarters, through which the public generally, throughout the country, transacts its business incident to survey matters. They also receive the returns of surveys when completed in the field by the engineering service, and prepare the necessary records and plats for official acceptance and filing by the commissioner.

The field organization and the offices of the United States surveyors general are described more in detail as follows:

FIELD SURVEYING SERVICE

The field surveying organization came into existence in its present form under authority of the act of Congress of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 703-740). Prior to that time the surveys and resurveys of the public lands were accomplished by local engineers deputized by the United States surveyor general under contractual relations, but for reasons explained elsewhere, Congress in 1910 abandoned that method in favor of having the surveys and resurveys executed by a permanent corps of engineers selected under competitive civil-service requirements.

This corps of engineers is headed by a supervisor of surveys, with offices at Denver, Colo., who is held responsible by the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the efficient and economic execution of the public land surveys of the United States and Alaska. He is assisted by an associate and nine assistant supervisors of surveys, with field offices located as follows: at Helena for district No. 1 (Montana), at Denver for district No. 2 (Colorado and Wyoming), at Omaha for district No. 3 (Nebraska and South Dakota), at Santa Fe for district No. 4 (New Mexico), at Phoenix for district No. 5 (Arizona and California), at Salt Lake City for district No. 6 (Utah and Nevada), at Boise for district No. 7 (Idaho and Washington), at Portland for district No. 8 (Oregon), at Juneau for district No. 9 (Alaska) and at Denver for district No. 10 (Eastern States). This last named district is under the immediate supervision of the associate supervisor of surveys, whose duties, in addition, include special work relating to the whole service. The associate and assistant supervisors of surveys are held accountable by the supervisor for the technical and administrative work in their districts. This work includes the organization, equipment, and assignment of engineering parties in the field on all classes of cadastral surveys including subdivisional, townsite, Indian allotments, small-holding claim, certain underground, erosion, segregation and fragmentary surveys, and such topographic surveys in connection therewith as are necessary to accomplish the object of certain work as a whole; test of position determined by astronomical process, also decision on technical procedure and methods, field investigation of work, preparation of field notes, maps and plats, preparation for final executive action, reports, estimates, plans, specifications, and data; consideration of technical and legal effect of proposed action upon vested rights; serving as consulting specialist in cadastral work of major importance and all other work necessary for the making of the complete and legal survey. The nature of the work in the field throws it naturally in close contact with the office branches with which there is always the closest cooperation.

The normal organization engaged in the field execution of the cadastral engineering work of the General Land Office consists of over 100 engineers graded according to their responsibilities, experience, and ability, from an entrance designation of transitman to that of United States surveyor and cadastral engineer, and with the necessary field assistants, such as chainmen, flagmen, cornermen, etc., constitute in all a field force of normally between 800 to 900 employees.

This service is the only agency authorized and qualified under the law to func

tion in this capacity.

UNITED STATES SURVEYORS GENERAL

These offices, of which there are 12, as follows: Juneau, Alaska; Phoenix, Ariz.; San Francisco, Calif.; Denver, Colo.; Boise, Idaho; Helena, Mont.; Reno, Nev. Santa Fe, N. Mex.; Portland, Oreg.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Olympia, Wash. Cheyenne, Wyo.; were originally created under authority of section 2207, United States Revised Statutes, as district headquarters, from which the field work of surveying the public lands, under the old contract system, was administered. The act of Congress approved June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 703-740), brought to a close the practice of having these surveys executed under contracts, by authorizing the employment of a permanent corps of United States engineers selected under competitive civil-service requirements. functions of these offices, and since that time they have been as an intermediate The change affected very materially the agency between the advisory reviewing and consulting unit in the General Land Office, and the engineering organization, both of which are elsewhere described. President, and a force of technical and other assistants whose duties, since 1910, These offices consist of 12 United States surveyors general, appointed by the have

structions for surveys and resurveys, examine, transcribe, and plat, and approve returns of surveys and resurveys, cooperate with the Forest Service in the execu

tion of homestead entry surveys in national forests. All of these duties are subject to the supervisory control of the General Land Office.

While the distribution of work in each of the offices of the surveyors general varies somewhat, so as best to utilize the talents and abilities of the individual engineers, the organization of each office is, generally, as follows:

The technical and administrative work and personnel of the office is under the general supervision of the chief clerk, who is the technical expert of the office. It is under his guidance that the special instructions for cadastral surveys are prepared, subject to the approval of superior authority, the returns of surveys completed by the field surveying service transcribed and platted and the general clerical and fiscal duties of the office discharged. He is required to prepare all estimates for surveys, attend to the technical correspondence with both the General Land Office and the public, and pass upon all applications for surveys

or resurveys.

The technical and clerical work incident to the transcribing and platting of the returns of completed public land surveys together with the attending problems in engineering and mathematics fall to the drafting section, which is under a chief draftsman. In this section are the technical experts who are engaged in drafting, computing and field note writing incident to the survey of the public lands.

The mineral section, in charge of a chief mineral clerk or chief mineral draftsman, is charged with the responsibility of transcribing and platting the returns of mineral surveys executed by the United States mineral surveyors who are appointed by the United States surveyor general. These mineral surveyors are no part of the field surveying organization operating under the supervisor of surveys, but are a relic of the old contract system. Not only must the mineral section of the surveyor general's office test the technical accuracy of the mineral surveys, but must see to it that the work conforms to the requirements of the Federal and State statutes and departmental regulations.

To that end it acts in an advisory capacity with the mineral surveyors. Up to the present time there has been in each office of surveyor general a disbursing or financial clerk, who has audited the field and office accounts, attended to the depositing of moneys earned, procurement of proposals for purchase of office supplies and equipment, and preparation of such correspondence as relates to accounting matters. The surveyor general has made the actual disbursements, he being the bonded officer, but the accounting and keeping of cost records and their analyses has devolved upon the financial clerk. Arrangements have already been made to centralize at Denver all accounting work for the consolidated surveying service, and the surveyors general have within the past few weeks been relieved of all duties in connection with disbursements for the surveying service. From now until they go out of office June 30 they will have only the disbursing work which is connected with their own offices. The accounts and vouchers of the field parties are now being forwarded to Denver to the office of the supervisor of surveys.

The supervisor of surveys receives a salary of $5,200. The associate and 10 assistant supervisors receive a salary of $3,800, with the exception of the assistant supervisor of surveys for Alaska who receives $4,400, his title being assistant supervisor of surveys and public lands and he being charged in addition to survey matters with all duties formerly performed under his direction as chief of the Alaskan field division of the field service, now known as the inspection service.

The cadastral engineers receive a salary of $3,000, the United States surveyors salaries ranging from $1,860 to $2,400, and transitmen a salary of $1,860.

All

The surveyor general and ex-officio secretary of the Territory of Alaska receives a salary of $4,400. The other surveyors general receive a salary of $3,300. of them go out of office June 30. The present chief clerks in their offices receive $3,000 per annum. The draftsmen receive salaries ranging from $1,620 to $2,400. A large number receive $1,860. The clerks and financial clerks receive salaries ranging from $1,500 to $1,860.

FIELD SERVICE (NOW KNOWN AS INSPECTION SERVICE)

This service as at present constituted was organized and became operative in June, 1907. The public land States are grouped into what are called field divisions, with the headquarters of each division established at a central point. Each division is in charge of an employee formerly designated as chief of field division, but now known as division inspector. The investigating activities of the Land Office, Pension Office, Indian Office, and Bureau of Reclamation have been consolidated with the inspection division of the department under the general direction of the chief inspector. The chief of field service of the General Land Office is the assistant chief inspector.