The committee of special advisers on reclamation___ Success of future projects dependent on further legislation_-_ Money must be provided to supplement settler's capital__ Applications under the mineral leasing acts, fiscal year 1923–24_. Producing oil and gas fields and dates defined, in accordance with National parks administered by the National Park Service-National National monuments administered by the National Park Service‒‒‒‒ National monuments administered by the Department of Agriculture__ Appendix E----- Map of the United States.. At end At end REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, November 20, 1924. SIR: In accordance with the policy of your administration, rigid economy has been stressed in operating the Department of the Interior through its 14 bureaus and establishments. The appropriations for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1924, were $325,872,078. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1925, they are $290.473.724.06, or a saving of $35,398,353.95 over the previous year. The appropriations asked for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1926, are $267,785,596.17, or $22,688,127.89 under 1925, and approximately $83,000,000 under 1922. These savings were made without impairment of service rendered to the public by this department, abundant proof in itself that efficiency and economy are inseparable. Each is necessary to the other. ORGANIZATION Each bureau of this department was found, two years ago, to be operating as an independent unit of Government, with complete divisions, some of them duplicating functions of others. There were duplicated law officers, boards of appeal, disbursing officers, and libraries. The books in the department's law libraries, in duplicate and triplicate, numbered 24,122. There were separate units handling business relating to health, education, irrigation, oil and gas, publications, purchases and supplies, accounting and auditing, contracts, engineering, drafting, editing, motor vehicles, mimeographing and multigraphing, personnel, inspection, property accounting, map making, photographing, addressographing, photostating, and traffic. Progress toward coordinating activities has been made during the fiscal year, but much of the duplication is compelled by specific legislation or appropriation, leaving little administrative option in merging similar activities or shifting them from one bureau to another in the same department. There must be more latitude allowed by law in the administration of the department's bureaus to insure the highest efficiency. There are two avenues of administration open to a Secretary of the Interior-by bureaus or through bureaus. The one offering least resistance is for the Secretary to consent to an independent administration of unrelated activities by its bureaus, |