About 24,000 patents are issued annually. There is an Assistant Commissioner-in-chief, an Examiner of Interferences, three Examiners-in-chief, thirty-eight Principal Examiners, and a large force of assistant examiners for different branches. Patents run for seventeen years. The annual receipts of the bureau from fees more than equal the expenditures, and the office now has a surplus of several millions to its credit in the Treasury.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs has charge of all matters concerning the Indians, their education, government and support. There are 239 Indian schools supported by appropriations made by Congress, 147 of which are controlled directly by the Indian Bureau. The average attendance of pupils at these schools is between eleven and twelve thousand. The number of Indians in our country (not counting those of Alaska) is about 250,000. They occupy or have control of about 116,630,106 acres.
The Bureau of Education was originally established as an independent Department by act of Congress, approved by the President March 2, 1867. By an act of Congress which took effect July 1, 1869, this Department was changed to an Office or Bureau in the Interior Department. The duties of this Bureau are to collect and diffuse information regarding schools, methods of instruction and school discipline, etc., and otherwise to promote the cause of education. The results of the investigations here carried on, though with a small clerical force, are of the utmost value to all educators, and such is the extent to which the merit of the work and publications of this office are recognized by the leading educators of the country, that, in their opinion, the Bureau should be re-established as a department, and its chief be made a member of the President's cabinet. The publications of the Bureau consist of (1) Annual Reports, which set forth statistics and general information concerning the educational systems of the States, Territories, larger cities, universities, and colleges; professional, special, and scientific schools, academies, preparatory schools and kindergartens, with a summary of the progress of education in foreign countries; (2) Special Reports, on subjects pertinent to the times; (3) Occasional Bulletins, on matters of current educational interest; (4) Circulars of Information, on important questions of educational work or history, which are issued in yearly series. Under this last title there is now in course of publication a very valuable series of monographs upon the History of Higher Education in the various States. These monographs are being prepared by competent scholars under the editorial supervision of Dr. H.B. Adams of the Johns Hopkins University. Numerous Annual Reports have been issued, and one is now in press, for the year 1889-90. The working force of the Bureau is divided into three divisions: (1) Records; (2) Statistics; (3) Library and Museum. The library of this Office contains one of the most valuable pedagogical collections in the country.
The Commissioner of Railroads has charge of the government's interests in certain railroads to which the United States has granted loans of credit or subsidies in lands or bonds. By the acts of July 1, 1862, and July 1, 1864, Congress, in order to encourage the building of a trans-continental railroad, granted to several Pacific railroad companies subsidies in land adjacent to the roads, and issued certain amounts of bonds on which was guaranteed interest at the rate of six per cent. The amount of lands given and bonds issued were in proportion to the number of miles of road constructed. The lands were a gift. The bonds were to be repaid by the companies with all interest which might have been advanced by the government. From 1850 to 1872 the various railroads received a total of 155,504,994 acres of lands, and $147,110,069 proceeds of bonds and interest paid by the United States. The roads have repaid of this amount $36,723,477, leaving at the present time due from the roads to the United States the sum of $110,386,592. This they will be unable to pay upon the maturity of the bonds, and a bill has been before Congress for several sessions looking towards a better adjustment of this debt. The Commissioner of Railroads was originally styled the "Auditor of Railroad Accounts." The office was created June 19, 1878.
Geological Survey.—This branch of the Interior Department was established in 1879. Its work is the investigation and determination of the geological structure of the various sections of the country, the composition of soils, the reclamation of waste lands, etc. In this bureau are made topographical surveys and irrigation surveys of arid regions of the United States. The publications connected with this work, number ten Annual Reports, thirteen Monographs, fifty-eight Bulletins and five Statistical Papers. In these there is a discussion of the geological structure of every state and territory, and information concerning the occurrence and production of each great metallic and mineral staple of the country. The bureau comprises one geographical, twelve geological, six paleontological and four accessory divisions. A division of mines and mining publishes an annual report on the mineral resources and production of the United States.
The Superintendent of the Census.—The Superintendent of the Census is appointed each decade for the purpose of taking the regular decennial census. The Eleventh Census has just been taken. The first was taken in 1790. Each census has shown a tendency to be more elaborate and to embrace a greater number of subjects than any preceding. There were employed in the taking of the Eleventh Census 42,000 enumerators, 2,000 clerks, from 800 to 900 special agents, 175 supervisors and 25 experts.
In addition to these eight bureaus, the department has charge of various other branches of government. All of the territories come under the Secretary's supervision, and look to him in case of any difficulty. The Secretary also has charge of the Yellowstone National Park, the Hot Springs Reservation in Arkansas, and of certain hospitals and eleemosynary institutions in the District of Columbia. A Superintendent of Public Documents looks after the receipt, distribution, and sale of government publications.
The most important subjects of recent legislation concerning this department have been the dependent pension act, the act providing for the survey of Western lands suitable for irrigation, and the land forfeiture act. By this act over 8,000,000 acres of lands were forfeited by the railroads for failure to fulfill the conditions under which the land was originally granted to them.
#The Post Office Department.#—The Post Office Department was established in 1789, but the Postmaster-General did not become a cabinet officer until 1829. The Postmaster-General has charge and management of the department, and of the domestic and foreign mail service. He can establish post offices and appoint postmasters of the fourth and fifth classes, i.e. those whose salaries are less than $1,000. These number over 50,000. The total number of postoffices is about 56,000. The President appoints to those of the first three classes. Other officers besides the Assistant Postmasters-General are, the Superintendents of the Money Order Division, of Foreign Mails, and of the Railway Service, and an Assistant Attorney-General for the department.
The United States is a member of the Universal Postal Union, of which most, if not all, of the civilized countries are members. The central office is known as the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union, and is conducted under the superintendence of the Swiss Postal Administration, and its expenses are borne by all the nations composing the Union. The revenues of the Post Office Department nearly equal the expenditures, and would have exceeded them before this but for the fact that as soon as the amount of receipts has warranted, improvements have been made in the service, through the reduction of postage rates and the extension of the free delivery system. It has never been the policy of the government to make this department a source of revenue.