soldier of the War of 1812 died in 1905. There are now 279 widows of that war on the roll.

The law now requires each pensioner to present a voucher to the pension agent, executed after the pension has become due, before a check may be issued in payment thereof. This system is very expensive to the Government as well as to the pensioner. The Commissioner of Pensions, in response to a provision contained in the last appropriation act directing him to formulate a simplified plan for the payment of pensions, recommends that discretionary authority shall be granted whereby pensions may be paid without vouchers. The plan recommended provides for payment by check mailed to the last-known address of the payee. Postmasters are to be required to return the check for cancellation if the pensioner has died or remarried if a widow. The unpaid pension to the date of death of the pensioner will then be disposed of in accordance with the law, which provides specifically for the payment of accrued pension. The plan also provides that postmasters shall be required to report promptly to the proper office the death of any pensioner or the remarriage if a widow, in order that checks may not be issued in such cases. The check to be used will contain a provision to the effect that it is void if the payee shall have died or remarried if a widow prior to date of issue. It will be payable only when personally indorsed in ink by the payee, in the presence of two responsible witnesses, who shall certify to the identity of the payee with the pensioner named in the check and pension certificate. The plan further provides a penalty for forgery in the indorsement of the check, receiving payment of check upon a forged indorsement, or receiving payment of pension for any period subsequent to reenlistment, remarriage, or termination of period of dependence.

Under the plan proposed checks would be prepared and ready for mailing on the 4th of the payment month, many pensioners receiving their checks on that date. The pensioners will be saved the expense of the execution of pension vouchers and the delay often due to the return of faulty vouchers for correction. It is estimated that the cost to the pensioners in the execution of their vouchers is nearly $1,000,000 per annum.

The plan proposed will save to the Government the expense of printing, preparing, and mailing about 4,000,000 vouchers and the furnishing of 4,000,000 envelopes each year in which to return the vouchers for payment.

The Government will likewise be saved the expense of employing a large number of temporary clerks at the agencies during each quarterly payment.

The plan recommended by the commissioner shows that great care has been observed in working out the details to insure its suc

cessful operation. As it is shown to be along the line of economy and efficiency in the public service and will undoubtedly be greatly to the advantage of the pensioners, the same meets with my most hearty approval.

APPEALS IN PENSION AND BOUNTY LAND CLAIMS.

The number of appeals and motions for reconsideration pending at the beginning of the fiscal year July 1, 1910, and those filed during the year, their disposition, and the number pending July 1, 1911, is shown by the following table:

In 186 cases the Pension Office was reversed, and in 118 cases the Commissioner of Pensions reported that upon reconsideration the adverse action taken by the Bureau was receded from and asked permission to allow appellants' contention. The Department, after considering such cases, decided that the action proposed by the Bureau was warranted under the law and the evidence, and the papers therein were returned to the Bureau for final action and favorable adjudication. There were also during the year returned to the Bureau for further action and report 118 cases for the reason that upon review it was found that additional and material evidence had been filed which had not been considered by the Bureau, or that a special examination or another medical examination was thought necessary, or for various reasons the claims had not been properly adjudicated. At the close of the year there were 12 of such cases pending, which are included in the total number of pending appeals as shown by the table.

Although there is a material increase in the number of appeals left pending and undisposed of at the end of the last fiscal year, and the total number finally disposed of by the board during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, largely exceeded the total number disposed of during the last fiscal year, this is fully accounted for by the reduction of the working force of the board and a comparison shows that the average number of cases disposed of per member during the last year was greater than during the preceding year.

The provisions of the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation act, approved March 4, 1911, having abolished the Board of Pension Appeals and transferred the duties theretofore performed

by it to the office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of the Interior, the present report shows the final work of the board and the termination of its labors.

The figures shown by the foregoing tabulated statements demonstrate that the rapid falling off in the number of pension cases presented to the Department on appeal which was anticipated when the legislation above referred to was enacted has not been realized, and the fact that there has been a steady increase during the past year in the number of cases left pending and undisposed of at the close of each month, and a gradual falling behind in the docket notwithstanding the individual output of work by the members and employees of the board has markedly increased, would suggest that this work can not be successfully accomplished with less than the present working force.

I would, therefore, recommend that the Board of Pension Appeals be reestablished at the earliest possible date with at least the same working force provided for said board by the appropriation act for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911. Provision might be made, as heretofore, that any vacancies occurring on the board by death, resignation, or otherwise should not be filled, thereby anticipating the decrease in the number of appeals taken that may be expected in a few years.

PATENT OFFICE.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, there were received 65,154 applications for mechanical patents, 1,315 applications for designs, 206 applications for reissues, 6,857 applications for trade-marks, 879 applications for labels, and 266 applications for prints. There were 34,428 patents granted, including reissues and designs, and 3,791 trade-marks, 576 labels, and 181 prints were registered. The number of patents that expired was 22,546. The number of allowed applications which were by operation of law forfeited for nonpayment of the final fees was 7,098. The total receipts of the office were $1,987,778.58; the total expenditures were $1,957,001.85; and the net surplus of receipts over expenditures was $30,776.73. The total net surplus for all years of receipts over expenditures of all kinds (including salaries of the force) is now $7,029,004.73. This surplus covered into the Treasury represents the net earnings of the Bureau, and it has all been paid by the inventors.

The commissioner calls attention to the great need for legislation providing for the elimination of one of the appeals within the Patent Office. The commissioner states that, under the present law, appeals are considered twice by the tribunals within the office, which is not only a duplication of work, thereby causing great delay in the prosecution of applications, but an additional and unnecessary burden of expense to inventors in the matter of appeals and attorneys' fees.

He also recommends legislation requiring the filing of photographic copies of drawings to accompany applications for patents for the purpose of more fully safeguarding the records of the office from unauthorized changes and reducing the chances of attempted fraud during the prosecution of the application.

I concur in the commissioner's recommendation for legislation to authorize him to issue certificates of correction in certain cases where mistakes have been made by the office or by the Public Printer; also for provision by law that applications shall be completed and prepared for examination within six months after filing of the application.

The commissioner urgently recommends that provision be made for more room for housing the United States Patent Office. The present structure is not fireproof and is filled with tons of inflammable material, comprising the secret archives of the office, which, if destroyed, would work untold damage to the commercial interests of the country. The District of Columbia fire department officials have pronounced the building unsafe as to fire, and the engineers of the War Department have said that the walls should be lightened of their load.

The commissioner suggests that a suitable building be rented for the Patent Office, to be used until the present building could be thoroughly remodeled, and if thought desirable when that is done the bureaus which are now in rented quarters, such as the Geological Survey, the Reclamation Service, and the Bureau of Mines, could be housed in the remodeled present building and a new building erected to accommodate the annually increasing force and volume of business of the Patent Office while that bureau was occupying temporary quarters. He urges that the Patent Office be given immediate and special relief and that part, at least, of the $7,000,000 in excess of the expenditures of the Patent Office be used to furnish larger and better quarters, with modern facilities for the force, which would then be in a position to accomplish the best possible results in the work for which the inventors pay the total cost.

BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

We have no national system of education. The several States have their own systems, and it has been and is the policy of the Federal Government not to interfere in any way with their schools, public or private; but it has been just as clearly its policy to foster education in all the States, not only by appropriations of money and lands, but in other ways not contrary to the accepted theory of the relation of the Federal and State Governments. For this purpose nearly half a century ago the Bureau of Education was established and attached to the Department of the Interior for the purpose of "collecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories and of diffusing such infor

mation respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems and methods of teaching as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country." From year to year this Bureau has published statistical reports and many valuable studies of various problems of education, by the help of which school officers and teachers in each of the States have been enabled to know the progress of education in other States and throughout the world, and legislatures have been able to consider educational measures in the light of the experience of other States and the world at large.

Much more than half the children in the United States live under rural conditions in small towns, villages, and open country. All their education must be had in the rural schools. While the schools in the great cities are constantly the subject of study, there is no means of studying the comparative methods and development of rural schools in different communities except through the Bureau of Edu- ́ cation. I believe the work of the Bureau should, therefore, be especially directed to this end, and that it should be afforded men and means sufficient to enable it to make such study of the needs of rural schools as will be a help to all parts of the country. The problems of the rural school are admitted to be the most difficult of all school problems, but this Bureau has in the past been able to give very little direct help toward this solution. There is great need in the Bureau for a comparatively large group of competent men and women giving their entire time and energies to these problems, with freedom, under the direction of the commissioner, to study them directly or indirectly wherever they can be studied to best advantage, prepare bulletins on the various phases of these problems for the general information of the people, to cooperate with national, State, and local committees constituted for their study by governments and various organizations and societies, and to go to any part of the country to give direct and specific assistance whenever needed. Such a division in the Bureau might in a very few years add much to the effectiveness of all country schools.

Over all the world the demand for industrial or vocational education is growing. In this country teachers and laymen in urban and rural communities alike are demanding that the schools shall do something to prepare the masses of boys and girls for effective service in some industrial occupation, fit them to make a living, and to contribute their part to the Commonwealth. How this shall be done and in what kind of schools is still uncertain. Experiments of many kinds have been tried in many places. Much money has been spent on these experiments and much more will be spent more or less wisely.

11355°-INT 1911-VOL 1