After determined efforts the break at Abejas River was successfully closed and levees on the west bank of the Colorado for a considerable distance north and south of the Abejas were constructed. The early summer floods again broke through at the Abejas, jeopardized the permanency of the work and ultimately resulted in considerable damage to the levees. The essential part of the damaged portions is readily susceptible of repair during the present low-water season, and such repair is believed to be vital to the interests of the people of Imperial Valley. This work is now being done.

By your direction I convened a board of persons interested in and familiar with conditions along the Colorado River to make a careful study of the work accomplished and to suggest plans for future operations. The board recommends that the work be continued along certain lines and is of the opinion that to meet the present emergencies the sum of at least $1,000,000 should be provided. The systematic treatment of the river is a problem to be worked out in connection with the Government of Mexico, and the board suggests the creation of an International Colorado River Commission, to be composed of Mexican and American engineers, with ample authority to investigate and report to their respective Governments a basis for the final adjustment of all questions affecting the use and control of the waters of the Colorado. I heartily concur in this recommendation. The problem is one of great magnitude and moment. The interests of the Government of the United States are such as, in my opinion, justify the early consideration of the entire subject by Congress.

Any provision for future operations along the Colorado River which Congress may see fit to make should authorize the expenditure of any portion of such fund within the limits of the Republic of Mexico in accordance with agreements heretofore or hereafter made with that Government.

I have heretofore transmitted to you for submission to Congress the following documents bearing on this matter:

(1) Report of J. A. Ockerson of May 20, 1911.

(2) Copy of letter of Secretary of Interior, dated June 1, creating board.

(3) Report of board, dated June 7, 1911.

(4) Statement of physical and related facts accompanying report of June 7, 1911.

NEW BUILDING NEEDED FOR PATENT OFFICE AND DEPARTMENTAL RECORDS.

I call special attention to the congested condition of the buildings occupied by this Department and to the necessarily decreased efficiency of the clerical force because of overcrowding. Three of the

bureaus of this Department-the Geological Survey, the Bureau of Mines, and the Reclamation Service-are located in rented quarters at an annual combined rental of $52,800. Good administration would seem to indicate that provision should be made for these bureaus to be housed in Government-owned buildings. The Pension Office and the Office of Indian Affairs in the Pension Office Building, the General Land Office and the Bureau of Education in the old Post Office Department building, and the Office of the Secretary and the Patent Office in the Patent Office Building are located in Governmentowned buildings.

Each of the above branches of this Department has accumulated and is constantly accumulating records of priceless value to the Government. In some, notably the Geological Survey, the Patent Office, the Office of the Secretary, the General Land Office, and the Office of Indian Affairs, these records have accumulated to such an extent that it is beginning to be a grave question how to provide for future accumulations, and those now existing are crowded in every available space-in corridors, attics, workrooms, basements, and subbasements-constantly exposed to accumulating dust, dampness, and improper handling, to say nothing of the ever-existent grave danger from fire and consequent total destruction. There should be provided at the earliest practicable date a properly constructed fireproof central filing place for the records of this Department or a hall of records for the departmental service in the District of Columbia generally.

The most congested condition with respect to the clerical force occurs in what is known as the Patent Office Building, housing the Patent Office and the Office of the Secretary. This Department was organized and created by the act of March 3, 1849 (9 Stat., 395), and among the bureaus transferred to it under the organic act was the Patent Office. From the time of the Department's organization until 1853 the Department proper (that is, the Office of the Secretary, comprising the Secretary and his staff of assistants and clerical force, which now includes the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Interior Department) occupied rooms in a building rented by the Treasury Department. These quarters appear to have been unsuitable and inadequate, and the Secretary of the Interior in his annual report for 1851 (p. 34, H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 1, 31st Cong., 2d sess.) formally announced to the President and Congress his intention, as soon as the other wing of the Patent Office was completed, to transfer to it the Department proper and the different offices thereto attached, which proposition appears to have received congressional sanction. The total floor space of the Patent Office Building is 148,014 square feet, of which 114,060 square feet are assigned to the use of the Patent Office, embracing 934 employees, and of which

33,954 square feet are assigned to the use of the Office of the Secretary (including the Office of the Assistant Attorney General), embracing 266 employees.

When the Patent Office Building was erected it was evidently believed that provision was being made for the growth in volume of business and clerical force of the Patent Office, beyond any possibility of future overcrowding. The fourth story of this building was architecturally designed to provide an exhibition place for all the models which should accumulate, together with the scientific library. Before 1893 it became necessary to remove the patent models from the building and devote this space to clerical purposes. Wooden partitions have been erected in almost the entire space theretofore devoted to exhibition purposes, thereby cutting the space up into small rooms, poorly ventilated, badly lighted, and overcrowded with records, which space has been assigned to the use of various divisions of the Patent Office. The scientific library, which is on that floor, is so limited architecturally that it has become overcrowded, and it is almost impossible to provide the proper ventilation and to light it satisfactorily. In this space, under these conditions, it is necessary to provide accommodation for attorneys who from day to day are obliged to examine the records of patents issued or pending. Every effort has been made to prevent the accumulation of dust by the vacuum process of cleaning, but under existing conditions the practical results have been most unsatisfactory. Every available foot of space for clerical assistance and the filing of records in the Patent Office has been occupied by them, and I am convinced that the Department is now face to face with the proposition of renting outside quarters for the accommodation of the constantly expanding activities of the Patent Office.

The Patent Office througnout its existence has been self-sustaining, and according to the accounts kept by it has turned into the Treasury a total surplus of approximately $9,000,000. Attention is invited to the report of Secretary Garfield for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1907, at page 33; to the report of Secretary Ballinger for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, at page 33; and also to Secretary Ballinger's report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, at page 49. Senate document 543, Sixty-first Congress, second session, shows an effort made to obtain relief for this situation by securing an appropriation of $220,000 for the erection of an addition to the Patent Office Building. This effort failed, and a renewal of the estimate has been submitted with the estimates for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913 (Book of Estimates, p. 350). Even though the Office of the Secretary were removed from the Patent Office Building and provided with quarters elsewhere, it would be but a short time until the same condition would again exist, because the overcrowding now

existing in the Patent Office, in relieving itself, would extend practically over the entire area now occupied by the Office of the Secretary.

I can not too strongly urge the grave necessity now present that steps be immediately taken to provide a new, modern, properly equipped building for the use of the Patent Office, constructed upon lines which will suffice for its future needs and growth and be a monument to the inventive genius of the American people. The space provided in such a building for future growth might be used for the priceless records of the other bureaus of the Department of the Interior until other fireproof buildings or a hall of records is provided.

OFFICE OF ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL.

The following table in some degree illustrates the volume of work disposed of by this office in the year ended October 1, 1911:

Work of office of Assistant Attorney General.

1 July 1, 1911. The work formerly done by the Board of Pension Appeals was transferred to this office July 1, 1911.

2 Since July 1, 1911.

Prior to the abolishment of the division system in the office of the Secretary in April, 1907, the office of the Assistant Attorney General was charged with the adjudication of appeals from the General Land Office and the preparation of opinions on miscellaneous questions of law. Little by little the scope of its work has been increased until it has included Indian, pension, reclamation, and other matters. In the six months prior to April 1, 1907, 1,163 matters were disposed of an average of 269 a month. In contrast, an average of 1,285 a month marks the work done during the year ended October 1, 1911. The office was called upon to consider 17,478 matters during that period and disposed of 15,412. During the corresponding period in 1909 to 1910, 14,399 matters came before the office for consideration, and 14,084 were disposed of-an average of 1,174 a month.

Aside from these matters, and not recorded in the above table, there is handled in this office a large amount of correspondence between this

Department and individuals and between this Department and other executive departments of the Government, particularly with the Department of Justice, in relation to litigation; also the examination of bills pending in Congress and the preparation of reports thereon. Suits in the local courts against the Department are defended by the Assistant Attorney General for this Department. In the year ended June 30, 1911, 24 cases were disposed of in the Supreme Court of the District, in which the Department was successful in all but one, and this has been reversed on appeal to the court of appeals. In the latter court the Department submitted and was successful in 12 cases during the year. In addition to this there were many interlocutory proceedings.

Notwithstanding the great volume of work thus presented to this office for consideration and action, the disposal thereof has proceeded with great care and such dispatch as its importance and difficulties and the number of the force permitted.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

The work in the General Land Office during the past year has been energetically pushed. The majority of the most important lines of work in the office are up to date.

There has been no relaxation in the work of the prosecution of frauds against the United States and the attempted unlawful acquisition of lands.

The closer scrutiny paid to applications under the "Carey Act" has demanded the devotion of a larger amount of time on the part of the field force to this work. Not only is an examination made of the land sought to be segregated, but the question of sufficiency of water and practicability of the proposed scheme is looked into.

Every care, by examination in the field, is also being taken that no mineral lands are lost to the United States under school land, railroad, or other grants, providing for the acquisition of agricultural lands only.

There has been a close cooperation between the work of the field force of the General Land Office and the work of the Geological Survey in the classification of lands.

The investigation of coal claims in Alaska is proceeding as rapidly as possible. A decision has been rendered in the so-called "Cunningham" cases, holding the entries for cancellation. Hearing has been had in one other group, and examination made on the ground in a large majority of the cases, to see whether or not a mine or mines have been opened in accordance with the provisions of law.

The total number of locations in Alaska coal claims is given as 1,125; the number of applications for patent, 521; number of notices of charges served, 172; number of answers to charges filed, 125; num