dition of the person whose mental status is under investigation. In a majority of the States the presence in court of the party whose sanity is to be inquired into is discretionary with the court, and likewise the trial by jury is in the discretion of the court. Persons not residents of the District are frequently arrested, tried, and convicted of vagrancy and other misdemeanors, sentenced for short periods in one of the correctional institutions of the District, and thereafter becoming insane are transferred to the Government Hospital, and their relatives being unknown they become a perpetual charge on the United States.

The law providing for the transfer to this institution of persons charged with crime in the custody of Federal officers or after conviction likewise needs revision. During the period when Indian Territory was practically under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior it was customary, because they had no place in which to confine the insane in that Territory, to transfer persons committing minor or other offenses in that district, on the slightest evidence of temporary mental aberration, to the Government Hospital for the Insane; and even at the present time United States prisoners convicted in various sections of the country and serving short sentences becoming temporarily insane or mentally incompetent are at once transferred to the Government Hospital; whereas if they had been cared for in the district in which the crime was committed, after the serving of the sentence they would be immediately turned over to the custody of those charged with the care of the insane in the community of which they were legal residents, and the United States be not charged with their care and treatment.

After careful consideration of all the circumstances, and as a result of conferences between officials of this Department and other departments of the Government interested in the matter, a committee was organized consisting of the following: Surg. Gen. George H. Torney, representing the Secretary of War; Surg. A. W. Dunbar, representing the Secretary of the Navy; Robert V. La Dow, superintendent of prisons, representing the Attorney General; Maj. William V. Judson, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, representing the District of Columbia; Mr. Scott C. Bone, representing the board of visitors; and Dr. William A. White, superintendent of the hospital, representing the Secretary of the Interior. The committee was instructed as follows:

1. To investigate and report on any defects in the laws governing the conduct of the institution and the commitment of patients thereto.

2. To investigate and report on the advisability of continuing therein patients committed from the District, and from the Army and Navy, from distant points. 3. To recommend as to the policy to be adopted relating to the growth of the institution, and the matter of additional lands, buildings, equipment, etc.

11355°-INT 1911-VOL 1- -5

4. To report on the present conduct of the institution, and to make any recommendations necessary for the improvement of the service and the advancement of the interests of the inmates.

The report of the above-mentioned committee has been submitted and is now under consideration.

FREEDMEN'S HOSPITAL.

There were 2,900 indoor patients treated in this institution during the year, an increase of 31 over the preceding year. One thousand eight hundred and eighty-two cases were received from the District of Columbia and 1,018 from various States. Two thousand seven hundred and twenty-four were discharged, of whom 1,416 recovered, 919 improved, 138 were unimproved, 17 were not treated, and 234 died. The number of patients remaining in the hospital at the close of the year was 176. Of the deaths reported, 57 were beyond medical and surgical aid when received. The surgical work has been very heavy during the past year, involving 1,767 operations, an increase of 285 over the previous year. In the out-patient department, 4,839 were treated, an increase of 1,113 over last year.

The account with the Board of Charities of the District of Columbia shows an unpaid balance of $73,505.71. It is hoped that the Commissioners of the District may see their way clear to include in future estimates to Congress a sum sufficient to cover the contract price for the care of all patients who have been admitted to the hospital as residents of the District of Columbia. The bill rendered during the past year for the care and treatment of this class of patients amounted to $37,139.36, or $11,639.36 more than the appropriation received for this purpose.

The training school of nursing has completed its seventeenth year of work and is represented by 217 graduates. These women are engaged successfully in private nursing and not a few are engaged in institutional work in various parts of the country. At the graduating exercises held on May 19, 1911, 13 nurses received their diplomas.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY.

Howard University was incorporated by the act of March 2, 1867 (14 Stats., 338). The purpose of the incorporation named in the first section of the act was "for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences." The incorporators were declared to be "a body politic and corporate, with perpetual succession," etc. Control was vested in a board of 17 trustees.

The incorporators and their successors were authorized to take for the university property, of any character, "by gift, devise, grant, donation, bargain, sale, conveyance, assurance, or will;" to transfer or lease any of the property of the university; and to place at interest,

in such manner as a majority of the incorporators or their successors should decide, any money belonging to the university, and with the general powers usually conferred on corporations with reference to the right to sue and be sued in any courts of law and equity, in actions of any character. Congress reserved the right to alter, amend, or repeal the act of incorporation.

The enrollment of the university for the past year was 1,382. The international character of the institution is shown by the fact that these students came from 37 States and 11 foreign countriesfrom British West Indies 83, British Guiana 7, Cuba 6, Porto Rico 5, Africa and South America 3, and from Dutch West Indies, Bermuda, Liberia, and the Republic of Panama 1 each. Two hundred students completed their studies in the institution, of whom 129 received degrees as follows: Twenty-eight M. D.; 17 D. D. S.; 8 Phar. D.; 28 LL. B.; 6 B. D.; 37 A. B.; and 5 Ped. B.

The school of theology receives no aid from Congress, but is supported entirely through endowments and special gifts. It requires no doctrinal tests, is interdenominational, and is open for all who are preparing for greater efficiency in moral and religious work.

No appropriation was made by Congress for the support of the university until March 3, 1879, although it was established in 1867. In 1879, $10,000 was appropriated "for maintenance." From March 3, 1879, to June 30, 1911, Congress has appropriated for this institution a total of $1,386,340, divided as follows: For maintenance, $894,700; for scientific building and equipment, $90,000; for addition to the manual-training building, $23,000; for tools, books, and improvement of grounds and buildings, equipment of different departments, chemical apparatus, fuel, light, etc., $360,300; and for the construction of a building for coal storage and for other improvements to the university plant, $18,340.

The only buildings erected from appropriations made by Congress are the scientific building, the addition to the manual-training building, and the building for the storage of coal, but for many years separate appropriations have been made for the repairs of buildings and the improvement of grounds. For several years past these two items have been combined in making the appropriations.

A report of the secretary of the university, dated November 10, 1911, shows that on September 30, 1911, the total value of all property belonging to the university was $1,660,748.64, of which $395,504.46 represents endowments. The total amount appropriated by Congress for the university is $1,386,340; the sum of the endowments and the appropriations is $1,781,844.46. The plant, therefore, as it stood on September 30, was worth $121,095.82 less than the aggregate amount of the endowments and the total amount appropriated by Congress for all purposes.

As the law now exists, this Department has no representation on the board of trustees, although it has for several years given administrative examination to the accounts of the special disbursing officer handling appropriations made by Congress for the university. Neither has the Government any title to the buildings erected or improvements made to the buildings from congressional appropriation. At the beginning of the present fiscal year, however, the Secretary of the Interior has, under his general supervisory power and for administrative reasons, directed the disbursing officer of this Department to disburse all moneys appropriated by Congress for this institution. The president of the university, in his report for the last fiscal year, says: "It has become increasingly evident that the institution must depend for the years to come almost entirely on Government support and current receipts from tuition in the several departments." Considering the magnitude of the appropriations made by Congress for the maintenance, improvement, etc., of the university, and the statement of the president thereof, it is manifest that the Government should have greater supervision over the institution, and it is therefore recommended that the act of incorporation of March 2, 1867, be so amended as to give the Government a proper representation on the board of trustees, that appropriations made by Congress shall be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and that the institution be required to protect the United States against possible transfer or loss of the lands upon which buildings have heretofore or may hereafter be erected from funds provided by the Government.

COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF.

This Department has no supervision over the expenditures of the appropriation made by Congress for, or general supervision over, the administration of the affairs of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf. Under existing law the only duty imposed upon the Secretary of the Interior in relation to this institution is the reception of the annual report thereof and the admission of indigent deaf mutes of the several States and Territories to that institution for instruction in the collegiate branch thereof. In my judgment this Department should either be given control of the expenditure of the appropriation and the administration of this institution, or it should be divested of the minor authority now conferred upon it by law, and the entire control and management of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf vested in the president and board of directors thereof, they being required to report directly to Congress as to the administration of the institution.

MARYLAND SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.

Section 2 of the act of Congress approved May 29, 1858 (11 Stat., 294), authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to place for instruction in an institution for the blind, in the State of Maryland or some other

State, the indigent blind children of teachable age who are children of persons actually engaged in the military and naval service of the United States, and under section 4869, Revised Statutes of the United States, the blind children of teachable age belonging to the District of Columbia.

The act of May 26, 1908 (35 Stat., 295), making appropriations for the District of Columbia, provided that after July 1, 1908, a contract should be entered into by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for the instruction, in Maryland or some other State, of indigent blind children of the District, appropriated $6,000 for the purpose, and repealed the permanent indefinite appropriation under section 3689 of the Revised Statutes. Inasmuch as the Secretary of the Interior, by section 2 of the act of May 29, 1858 (11 Stat., 293), was also charged with providing for the instruction of the blind children of all persons in the military and naval service of the United States, while such persons are actually in such service, the expense to be defrayed from the permanent indefinite appropriation above referred to, the question was submitted to the Comptroller of the Treasury as to whether that appropriation was repealed so far as to be no longer available for the instruction of this class of beneficiaries. In an opinion rendered October 27, 1908, the Comptroller of the Treasury held that the act of May 26, 1908, supra, only repealed the provisions of section 3489 of the Revised Statutes to the extent that said section provides for the education of the blind children of the District of Columbia, and that the permanent indefinite appropriation in question is still available for instructing the blind children of all persons in the military and naval service of the United States, in some institution in Maryland or some other State, and that the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to continue to issue permits for the instruction of such children. No permits for this class of beneficiaries were issued during the past year.

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL BUILDING AND GROUNDS.

The superintendent in his annual report calls attention to the increased administrative service now rendered. In 1905 supervision was exercised over the Capitol Building and Grounds; the Courthouse and Court of Claims Building. Since that date there have been added the Senate and House Office Buildings, the heating, lighting, and power plant for the Capitol and other congressional buildings, and subways connecting the Capitol with the Office Buildings; the court of appeals addition to the courthouse.

The improvements and repairs in the Capitol and Senate and House Office Buildings have been carried on successfully. The central