For service connected disabilities, 14,758 soldiers were on the roll and 3,699 widows, the death of whose husbands was due to causes originating in service in line of duty.

By classes the pension roll showed at the close of this fiscal year 259,127 soldiers, 210,724 widows, 2,304 minor children, 884 helpless children, 4,423 dependent parents, and 453 Army nurses.

Disbursements.-In the fiscal year 1929 the amount disbursed for pensions was $229,889,986.48. This amount represented the entire appropriations for 1929 plus $603,384.18 drawn from the appropriation of $221,000,000 for 1930. For fees and expenses of examining surgeons, $451,680.18 were disbursed; for cost, maintenance, and expenses of pension system, $1,276,511.65; and for per diem and expenses of field representatives, $125,989.75.

There was expended out of the "civil-service retirement and disability fund" the amount of $12,005,048. 88 for annuities and $4,067,423.54 for refunds. The appropriation for administration of the retirement law was $82,900 and expenditures were $82,557.45, of which $70,421.29 were for personal services.

The total disbursements made by the Pension Bureau in 1929 were $246,414,139.08, which required the issuance of 6,154,943 checks. Applications filed and certificates issued.-On June 30, 1928, there were on file 42,589 active claims. During the year 135,708 claims were received, making a total of 178,297 before the bureau for consideration. The disposals numbered 137,015, leaving 41,282 claims on hand June 30, 1929. Of the claims disposed of 25,004 were based on Civil War service and 79,046 on Spanish War service.

During the year 84,374 pension certificates were issued, 1,074 reissues in lieu of lost certificates, 7,148 accrued pension orders, and 2,827 orders issued authorizing reimbursements for expenses of last sickness and burial of deceased pensioners amounting to $112,627.82.

The number of pension claims allowed since the establishment of the pension system has been as follows: Original claims of soldiers and sailors, 1,517,871; reissue and increase claims, 4,157,792; claims of widows, minor children, and dependents, 1,241,207; total of all claims, 6,916,870. The total amount paid to pensioners from 1790 to end of fiscal year 1929 has been $7,950,354,932.29.

Medical examinations.-Under the terms of a proviso of the act of March 4, 1929, making appropriations for the Department of the

Interior for 1930, claimants for pension or increase of pension are now being examined by one surgeon only, who is paid a fee of $5 for each examination, instead of by three surgeons, as under the former board method of making examinations, each of whom received $3 for his participation in the examination. Under this new method there is a substantial saving in the cost of medical examinations. Based on an annual average of 60,000 examinations it is estimated that a saving of at least $150,000 per year will be effected.

Double pension-Aviation accident.-Between March 3, 1915, and March 1, 1929, double pension for disability or death due to aviation accident was payable only in Navy or Marine Corps cases. On the latter date the Congress amended the act of March 3, 1915, so as to make it applicable to officers and enlisted men of the Army. As the law now reads, any enlisted man of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps disabled by reason of any injury received or disease contracted in line of duty the result of an aviation accident received while employed in actual flying or in handling aircraft is entitled to double pension, and should death of an officer or enlisted man occur by reason of an injury so received or disease so contracted, double pension is paid to the person otherwise entitled to pension by reason of such death.

Administration of retirement act.-During the past fiscal year the work of adjudication of claims under the civil service retirement act was practically current. Of the 32,321 claims of all classes before the bureau for action, 30,640 were disposed of, leaving 1,681 active claims awaiting responses to calls for information necessary to their final settlement.

The balance in the civil-service retirement and disability fund on June 30, 1928, was $83,078,000.43. During the fiscal year there was added to the fund as deductions from salaries of classified civilservice employees, $28,019,824.61, and as interest and profits, $4,550,042.24, making a total of $115,647,867.28. To this amount must be added $19,950,000 appropriated from the general fund of the Treasury. The disbursements for the year on account of annuities were $12,005,048.88 and on account of refunds, $4,067,423.54, a total of $16,072,472.42. The balance in the fund June 30, 1929, was $119,525,394.86.

OFFICE OF EDUCATION

The Office of Education has no administrative functions except those connected with the expenditure of the funds appropriated by the Federal Government for the maintenance of colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts in the several States and Territories, and those connected with the education, support, and medical relief of natives of Alaska. It is primarily an establishment for educational research and promotion.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, the office completed its survey of negro colleges and universities throughout the United States. The results of this comprehensive study showed great advancement and an extraordinary demand among the negro people of the country for college and university education. The progress of the survey of land-grant colleges begun in July, 1927, was gratifying. Leading authorities in land-grant college education are now engaged in writing the tentative reports on the several aspects of the survey.

A school building survey was made of the Mount Vernon schools, Mount Vernon, N. Y., at the request of the board of education. A survey was also made of the junior and senior high schools of Roanoke, Va. Upon the invitation of the board of education of Huntington, W. Va., a survey was made of the school finances in that city.

Conferences.-Two important conferences in the field of education were called by the Secretary of the Interior during the latter part of the fiscal year. The first was devoted to the subject of education by radio, and the second to the relationship which should exist between the Federal Government and education in the States. The conference on education by radio, which was held on May 24, 1929, in the office of the Secretary of the Interior, was attended by educators and representatives of various radio corporations.

A conference called by the Secretary of the Interior, February 10, 1929, and participated in by Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, officers of Howard University, and members of the staff of the Office of Education was held for the purpose of discussing future relationships of the Federal Government to Howard University. Since the foregoing a series of conferences have been held in the Office of Education to prepare a plan for a 20-year program of development for Howard University.

The following conferences were also called by the Commissioner of Education:

Conference of State and county supervisors of rural education of the Southern States held at New Orleans, La., December, 1928. Conference of State and county supervisors of rural schools of the Midwestern States held at Des Moines, Iowa, June, 1929.

Library. During nine months of the year the library division was without a librarian. An assistant educationist, who had been appointed temporarily to assist in the collecting and editing of material for the Bibliography of Research Studies in Education, left the service in June, 1928. With this decrease in staff the task of maintaining the regular work of the division and carrying on the new research undertaking has been arduous.

Two important bulletins were completed and issued during the year, namely, Bulletin, 1928, No. 22, Bibliography of Research Studies in Education, 1926-27, with 162 pages; and Bulletin, 1928, No. 23, Record of Current Educational Publications, 1927, with 116 pages.

Publications.-The whole number of documents printed in the year ended June 30, 1929, was 75, of which 47 were bulletins, 7 leaflets and circulars, 1 report of the Commissioner of Education, 10 numbers of School Life, 8 numbers of the Clip Sheet, and 2 miscellaneous publications. Of the bulletins issued, 13 were chapters for the Biennial Survey of Education.

The Clip Sheet, which was issued monthly for several years and was devoted to current news items regarding education, was discontinued during the year.

The allotment of funds for printing was $2,500 more than in 1928, and the total output of printed matter was greater by seven documents than in the previous year. Twenty-eight manuscripts were in the files of the editorial division awaiting publication at the end of the year owing to the lack of funds available for printing.

Alaska.-Through its Alaska division, the Office of Education maintains schools, furnishes medical relief, supervises the reindeer industry, and provides assistance generally for the aboriginal races in the widely varying regions of Alaska.

The 27,000 Eskimos, Aleuts, Athabascans, and Thlingets are scattered along thousands of miles of coast from the southernmost boundary to the northernmost cape, and on the great rivers, in villages varying from 30 or 40 to 300 or 400 persons. To some of the settlements on the shores of the frozen ocean or on remote islands the annual visit of the office's vessel, the Boxer, furnishes their only means of communication with the rest of the world. In

many instances the school is the only elevating influence in the village.

The growth of the reindeer industry rendered it urgent that provisions be made for the allotment of grazing lands. By the act of March 4, 1927, authority was granted for the establishment by the Secretary of the Interior of grazing districts in Alaska, and for the granting of leases for definitely described areas therein. The provisions of this act are being carried into effect as rapidly as possible by the General Land Office, with the cooperation of the Office of Education's supervisor of the reindeer service. This action will regulate the occupancy of grazing lands by the reindeer herds and prevent friction among the owners of reindeer in regions where the herds are most numerous.

With the great increase in the number of reindeer and the entrance of white men into the industry, the need for scientific attention became apparent, resulting in the assignment by Congress to the Bureau of Biological Survey of the duty of making investigations in connection with the diseases and parasites affecting the reindeer; breeding, feeding, and management practices, and the grazing resources of the Territory.

In view of the fact that large numbers of reindeer are killed for food locally and for exportation, it is difficult to state the precise number in Alaska at any given date. According to a statement submitted by the general supervisor of the Alaska reindeer service, the total number in Alaska June 30, 1929, was 599,825.

Based on a preliminary survey of the grazing areas of Alaska suitable for reindeer production in 1921, it was estimated that between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 reindeer could be supported on the 150,000 to 200,000 square miles of open grazing lands, from which 1,000,000 or more animals would be available annually for slaughter. Later investigations have shown that approximately 350,000 square miles of the Territory are of value for grazing.

The total number of pupils enrolled in the native schools of Alaska during the year was 3,660; the average daily attendance throughout the year was 2,588.31; total number of schools open, 93. During the fiscal year the sum of $17,500 was spent for repairs on the school buildings and not counted as a part of the operation of the school. The sum of $45,075.96 was spent for new buildings.

The radio service operated in Alaska by the War and Navy Departments has materially aided the office's work. Emergency calls by radio for the services of a physician or nurse, requests for medicines or for advice as to treatment, have time and again resulted in the relief of illness or the saving of life. Important administrative messages are promptly forwarded by radio to their destinations.