minor children, and dependents received $847,588.90. To the 5,574 soldiers and 4,000 widows granted pension on account of service in Indian Wars, $4,451,534.72 were paid in the past year. There is one soldier and 730 widows on the pension roll on account of Mexican War service and to these $472,693.61 were paid. There are yet 9 widows on the roll whose husbands served in the War of 1812, and each of these receives $50 per month pension.

SPECIAL ACTS OF CONGRESS

The Seventieth Congress, in its second session passed four omnibus bills granting pensions by special acts to 3,973 individuals. Since March 4, 1861, the Congress has granted pension by special acts in 76,823 cases. On June 30, 1929, there were 14,302 persons in receipt of pension by special legislation, as against 10,036 on June 30, 1928, and the annual value of the pension paid to this class is $6,316,660.

DISBURSEMENTS

In the fiscal year 1929 the disbursements for pensions amounted to $229,889,986.48. This amount represented the entire appropriations for 1929, plus $603,384.18 drawn from the appropriation of $221,000,000 of 1930, under authorization contained in the act of March 4, 1929, making appropriations for the Department of the Interior for the fiscal year 1930. For fees and expenses of examining surgeons $451,680.18 were disbursed. The amount paid out for annuities and refunds under the civil service retirement law was $16,072,472.42. The total disbursements in the past fiscal year were $246,414,139.08 which required the issuance of 6,154,943 checks.

Included in the amount disbursed for pensions are $5,991,902.43 paid to members of the United States Soldiers' Home and the 11 branches of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. From these homes 21,530 notices of admissions, discharges, and transfers were received during the year, necessitating changes in the records to conform with the notices. In addition to this, changes in post-office addresses of pensioners, averaging 11,800 each month, were made.

On June 30, 1929, there were in soldiers' homes 10,834 pensioners, of whom 2,074 were Civil War veterans, 7,384 Spanish War veterans, 498 Indian war veterans, and 878 pensioned for service-connected disabilities.

CIVIL WAR WIDOWS-ACT OF MAY 23, 1928

President Coolidge, on May 23, 1928, approved the bill passed by the Congress increasing from $30 to $40 the pension of widows and former widows of Civil War veterans who have attained the age of 75 years. To ascertain who of the Civil War widows on the pension roll were entitled to this new rate, it was necessary to draw from the files 173,000 cases and examine the papers for information as to date of birth and attained age. Most of this extra work was done in the first quarter of the past fiscal year by the regular force of examiners. The services of 35 temporary employees were used, mostly for the drawing and refiling of cases, at a cost of $10,478. By September 4, 1928,

the increase of pension allowed by the act of May 23, 1928, had been paid to 103,858 widows. The pension roll shows that 99,373 Civil War widows were in receipt of the $40 rate allowed by this act on June 30, 1929; also that 13,257 widows were in receipt of $50 per month, the rate allowed by the act of July 3, 1926, to widows who were the wives of Civil War soldiers during the period of their service in said war. There were 56,415 widows still in receipt of the $30 rate allowed by act of May 1, 1920. Of this number, those who become 75 years of age are allowed the $40 rate commencing on the date of attaining the prescribed age. That this may be done, it is necessary that the widow approaching the age of 75 years send to the bureau a statement setting forth the date of her birth.

AVIATION ACCIDENT-DOUBLE PENSION

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 passed an amendment to the act of March 3, 1915, amending it so as to read:

In all cases where an officer or enlisted man of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps dies or where an enlisted man of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps is 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 in or in handling aircraft, the amount of pension allowed shall be double that authorized to be paid should death or the disability have occurred by reason of an injury received or disease contracted in line of duty not the result of an aviation accident.

WAR OF 1812 WIDOWS

Although the War of 1812 ended over 114 years ago, there are yet 9 widows of soldiers of that war in receipt of pension at $50 per month. They are as follows:

Arminia I. Anderson, Cedar Grove, Ga.; husband, Robert Anderson, fifer, Nabor's company, South Carolina Militia.

Emma Arnout, rural route 65, Ashville, N. Y.; husband, Samuel Arnout, private, Parker's company, New York Militia.

Marion A. Clark, Iowa City, Iowa: husband, John R. Clark, private, McClellan's company, Massachusetts Militia.

Mary Coleman, route 1, Claudeville, Va.; husband, Robert Coleman, private, Davenport's company, Virginia Militia.

Lydia Ann Graham, Brushy Run, W. Va.; husband, Isaac Graham, musician, Bodkin's company, Virginia Militia.

Mary Isgrigg, 588 Delta Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio; husband, Daniel Isgrigg, private, Cullum's company, Ohio Militia.

Carolina King, East Aurora, N. Y.; husband, Darius King, private, Stevens's company, New York Militia.

Emma Mann, Greenbush, Mass.; husband, Thomas Mann, private, Elen's and Hastings's companies, Massachusetts Militia.

Mary A. Williams, 2641 Janney Street, Philadelphia, Pa.; husband, John M. Williams, private, Moore's company, Maryland Militia.

WAR WITH MEXICO-LAST SURVIVOR

Owen Thomas Edgar, who served in the War with Mexico, as a first-class apprentice on board the U. S. S. Potomac, Experiment, Pennsylvania, and Alleghany, United States Navy, is the last survivor of that war. He was born June 17, 1831. Two of the three surviving veterans of the Mexican War borne on the report of a year ago have

died. Richard A. Howard, born August 14, 1831, and who served as a private in Battery G, First United States Artillery, died November 1, 1928, at Stirling City, Tex.; and William F. Buckner, born January 27, 1828, who was a private in Company A, Second Missouri Mounted Volunteers, died June 15, 1929, at Paris, Mo.

The last survivor of the Revolutionary War was Daniel F. Bakeman, who died at Freedom, New York, April 5, 1869, aged 109 years 6 months and 8 days. The last widow of that war was Esther S. Damon, of Plymouth Union, Vt., who died November 11, 1906, aged 92 years. The last survivor of the War of 1812 was Hiram Cronk, of Ava, New York, who died May 13, 1905, aged 105 years and 16 days.

If history repeats itself, at least a quarter of a century will elapse before the chronicler of events will note the death of the last survivor of the great Civil War, and the twentieth century will be drawing to a close before the last widow of a soldier of the Civil War will have passed

away.

MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS OF CLAIMANTS

In the act of March 4, 1929, making appropriations for the Department of the Interior for 1930 it is provided:

That hereafter all necessary medical examinations of claimants or pensioners not heretofore ordered shall be made by one physician or surgeon, duly appointed under the act of July 25, 1882, as amended (U. S. C., p. 1194, secs. 71, 72), and duly designated for such examination by the Commissioner of Pensions, except when in the judgment of the said commissioner the examination should be made by more than one: Provided further, That the fee paid any such physician making such examination alone, or otherwise, shall be $5 for each examination, foreign or domestic.

Under the terms of this legislation 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 the new method there is a substantial saving in the cost of each medical examination. 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. Those charged with the medical work in the bureau express the opinion that the reports of examinations made by one surgeon are just as complete and satisfactory, if not more so, than the reports heretofore made by boards of examining surgeons. As in the orders now issued, there is no set day or hour for examination, arrangements can be made between surgeons and claimants for examinations at times that best suit their convenience, and this is proving to be a source of much satisfaction both to examining surgeons and claimants.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR ARCHIVES

Inquiries of individuals and patriotic and historical societies concerning genealogical and historical matters of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 are constantly increasing. In these archives there are about 80,000 manuscript documents, consisting of claims on account of Revolutionary War services, and about 74,000 cases relating to the War of 1812. Many of these papers are of the greatest value from a historical and patriotic standpoint. In the past fiscal year 3,024 persons called at the bureau to examine records, 13,270

cases were drawn from the files, 15,366 communications were prepared in response to requests for information, and 2,535 photostat copies of papers were furnished to persons interested in the records of their ancestors in the War of the Revolution and the War of 1812.

NUMBER OF PENSIONERS BY STATES

A frequent inquiry made of the bureau is as to the number of pensioners resident in various States, Territories, and foreign countries. This information is given in detail in one of the statistical tables appended to this report. Of the 477,915 pensioners on the roll on June 30, 1929, there were in the United States 470,567; in the insular possessions, 4,089; and in foreign countries, 3,163. The States having over 10,000 resident pensioners are as follows: Ohio, 42,429; Pennsylvania, 39,137; New York, 37,509; California, 32,168; Illinois, 32,160; Indiana, 27,108; Missouri, 22,252; Michigan, 18,689; Massachusetts, 17,374; Kansas, 17,234; Iowa, 15,182; Kentucky, 12,584; Wisconsin, 11,984; and New Jersey, 10,502.

FIELD REPRESENTATIVE SERVICE

The primary purpose of this service is to aid deserving applicants for pension, especially those who have exhausted their limited sources of information yet failed to establish a pensionable status under the laws applicable to their respective cases. The honest efforts of such claimants to supply the requisite evidence, are thus supplemented by the services of employees of the bureau, known as field representatives, qualified by training and experience to render valuable assistance in bringing to light the facts essential to a proper and conclusive settlement of claims the merits of which could never be definitely determined by the usual methods. In a public service of such magnitude as the pension system there are bound to crop out occasional cases of attempts to obtain undue benefits; in these, the field representative service affords a safeguard to the interests of the Government and its pensioners, as well as a wholesome deterrent against willful wrongdoing.

In terms of reports submitted, as outlined in Table 18 of this report, the field work of 1929 is virtually on a par with that of 1928. Quantity and cost averages, however, were adversely affected by the expenditure of time and money in the establishment of field service in the Philippines, the wisdom of which is being demonstrated by the disclosure of activities (particularly on the part of unprincipled attorneys) hostile to public policy and detrimental to the interests of worthy soldiers and widows. Thus, in the distant Pearl of the Orient, has been laid the groundwork of an effective campaign against existing corrupt practices in pension matters, and it is only a question of time when law-abiding claimants and pensioners in the islands will be reasonably well protected. Due to this extension and the new problems thus presented, the work of the field representatives has not only increased in volume but has become more difficult and complex. Since the development and maintenance of the pensionable rights of many aged and infirm soldiers and widows depend on the facilities of this service, it is especially important that the work be handled with dispatch, wherefore plans looking to a substantial increase of the force of field representatives are being perfected.

CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENT

PROGRESS OF WORK

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, there were 32,321 claims of all classes before the division of the bureau charged with the adjudication of claims of civil-service employees under the retirement act of July 3, 1926. Of these, 30,640 claims were disposed of, leaving on hand at the close of the fiscal year 1,681 active cases awaiting responses to calls for information necessary to their final settlement. During the entire year just closed the work in connection with the adjudication of all claims presented under the retirement act was practically current. Applications for refund of deductions in cases. of employees separated from the service were disposed of promptly, settlement being effected within a few days after the receipt of a properly certified application. Annuity claims were adjudicated upon receipt of information necessary to establish title under the terms of the retirement law.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

The last Annual Report of the Commissioner of Pensions showed a balance in the civil-service retirement and disability fund on June 30, 1928, of $83,078,000.43. The Secretary of the Treasury reports that $28,019,824.61 were transferred to the fund during the last fiscal year and that through the receipt of interest and profits and from miscellaneous sources, the fund was increased by $4,550,042.24, making a total of $115,647,867.28. To this amount must be added the sum of $19,950,000 which was appropriated from the general fund of the Treasury, making a total of $135,597,867.28 to be accounted for. The total disbursements for the fiscal year on account of annuities refunds, and allowances amounted to $16,072,472.42, leaving a balance in the fund on June 30, 1929, of $119,525,394.96.

In the Interior Department appropriation act (H. R. 15089) approved March 4, 1929, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1930, the appropriation amounts to $20,500,000, but as this was not available for credit to the fund until after July 1, 1929, it will appear in the next annual report.

LEGISLATION

Several bills amending the retirement act were introduced during the last session of Congress. Bill known as S. 1727, providing a maximum annuity of $1,200 with optional retirement after 30 years of service, provided the employee had reached the age of 60, 63, or 68 according to each of the three respective age groups, was passed by the House of Representatives on February 26, 1929, concurred in by the Senate on February 27, 1929, presented to the President on February 28, 1929, but was not signed.

Several special act bills were also introduced for the purpose of extending the benefits of the retirement act to certain individuals not otherwise entitled thereto, but none was enacted.

In the special session of the Seventy-first Congress, which convened on April 15, 1929, bill S. 15 was introduced in the Senate and H. R. 1815 in the House, amending the existing retirement act. The two bills are of the same terms and follow substantially the provisions of S. 1727 which failed in the preceding session.