section tracts, if such lands cannot be classified as timber and irrigable lands and are more dependable for grazing than for any other purpose.

Certain reservations were made for water power projects by the organic act of the Federal Power Commission.27

3. Activities

(a) Nature and Extent of Surveys.-The General Land Office has conducted cadastral surveys of about 2,000,000 square miles of the public domain. Such surveys include only the details necessary to identify the land subdivisions. Topographic mapping is done by the Geological Survey, discussed post.

(b) Surveys of Townships.-Surveys of those townships which are occupied in whole or in part by actual settlers are made. When a township applies for a resurvey, it must show that the original survey has been obliterated beyond local restoration. The authority to make resurveys was widened by the Act of September 21, 1918.28

(c) Surveys of Land Grants to States and Territories.-Before grants are made to states for such purposes as education, recovery of swamp, and reclamation, the Land Office must survey them.

(d) Abandoned Military Reservations.-Abandoned military reservations are surveyed, appraised, and sold.

(e) Mineral Claims.-When mineral claims are subject to disposal, they are surveyed by the Land Office, if not otherwise provided for.

(f) Railroad Land Grants.-The survey of lands within the limits of railroad grants has been nearly completed.

(g) Indian Reservations.-At the request of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Land Office directs the survey of Indian reservations, and ceded lands are then offered for sale.

(h) Agricultural Lands.-Surveys of agricultural lands, adaptable to dry farming or irrigation, are made preparatory to disposal.

(i) Private Land Claims.-When claimants in private land claims, which have been finally confirmed, request surveys, they are authorized; the expense being borne by the claimants.

(j) Retracement Surveys.-Such retracements and remarking of state boundaries as are necessary to close the public land lines are authorized,29 such as the Texas-New Mexico and New Mexico-Colorado lines.

(k) Resurveys. Such resurveys and retracements of the surveys of public lands as the Secretary of the Interior may deem essential properly to mark boundaries of undisposed public lands may be made.30

(1) Map Compiling and Drafting.-Maps are made of public land states, show

27 Act June 10, 1920 (41 Stat. 1063 [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, § 99924 et seq.]). 28 40 Stat. 965 (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, § 4824b).

29 Act June 5, 1920 (41 Stat. 909).

30 Act March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. 845 [Comp. St. § 4824]). See, also, Act March 3, 1841 (5) Stat. 429); Act March 3, 1843 (5 Stat. 643); Act March 3, 1845 (5 Stat. 762); Act Aug. 7, 1882 (22 Stat. 327); Act July 7, 1884 (23 Stat. 211); Act May 3, 1887 (24 Stat. 527); Act May 29, 1908 (35 Stat. 465); Act Sept. 21, 1918 (40 Stat. 965 [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, § 4824b]).

ing the boundaries of national parks, monuments, forests, reclamation projects, Indian reservations, and the location of Department of Interior field offices dealing with public land matters. Township plats are drafted; maps are compiled from the Land Office engineers' field surveys and sketches; parks are mapped to show land status; sketches of railways, with adjacent lands; maps to accompany territorial governors' reports; maps of boundaries between states and of oil lands; and maps to show available lands of reservations opened for settlement, are made. Defaced official plats of surveys and other plats constituting part of the Land Office records are reproduced. An annual edition of the United States map is published, showing the extent of public land surveys, boundaries of national reservations and reclamation projects, and the location of principal cities, towns, and railroads. These maps may be bought from the Superintendent of Documents.

(m) Surveys in Alaska.-The General Land Office co-operates with the Alaskan Engineering Commission (q. v.) in making rectangular surveys over agricultural areas tributary to the government railroad. Divers other surveys are made in Alaska. The duties were enlarged by the extension of the homestead laws to Alaska.31

(n) Protection of Public Domain.-The General Land Office is required to prevent depredations on public timber, to protect public lands from illegal and fraudulent entry or appropriation, and to adjust claims for swamp land. Such cases as require court action are referred to the Department of Justice.

(0) Classification of Public Lands.-Economic management requires that lands be classified according to their natural resources, as well as according to their most valuable utilities. Classifications generally originate from (1) the applicant for land; (2) surveyors in the field; (3) the Land Office field service; (4) the Geological Survey.32

(p) Granting Patents.-The Land Office issues an increasing number of patents for mineral, swamp, desert, timber, and stone lands; coal deposits, forest lieu selections, town sites,33 town lots, and military bounty lands; stock-raising reclamation, forest, soldiers', and commuted homesteads; railroad and private claim lands; abandoned military reservations; Indian lands; and areas for public sale.

(q) Swamp and Overflowed Land Patents.-Before issuing patents for swamp. lands under the Act of March 2, 1849,34 and subsequent acts, the Land Office must determine the actual character of the lands.

(r) Certified Copies of Land Records.-The Commissioner constantly is required to furnish copies of records, books, and papers on file in his office, certified under the seal of the office and by the proper official, which constitute valid evidence in the courts equally with the original documents.

(s) Repayments.-Where lands have been erroneously sold, amounts in excess

31 Act May 14, 1898 (30 Stat. 409 [Comp. St. §. 5083 et seq.]).

32 See Woodruff, Classification of Public Lands, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XXXIII, No. 3, May 1909, pp. 605-610.

33 Copp, The American Settler's Guide.

34 9 Stat. 352.

of legal requirements have been paid, or entries are canceled because they cannot be confirmed, reimbursements or repayments are granted to claimant entrymen or their heirs, assigns, or legal representatives.

(t) Public Land Reservations.-Record must be made in the General Land Office of all lands withdrawn from settlement and entry and reserved to the government for various purposes. When Indian reservations are extended over lands already entered and settled, substitute lands must be offered the dispossessed entryman.35 To encourage the Indian to break away from his natural tribal life, the government conveys reservation land (held in trust) to him by a patent in fee after twenty-five years, if he is deemed capable.36

The Indian desiring to obtain non-reservation land must file at the proper District Land Office a certificate of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that he is entitled to an allotment. Then the Indian's application operates to segregate the land. The Indian must use the land two years before the trust patents are issued, and after proof of capable management a fee patent is issued in lieu of the trust patent.

Reservations are made in the interest of forest conservation; 37 also for reclamation projects. (See Reclamation Service, post.)

(u) Judicial Activities.-Under the Commissioner's power to perform all executive duties pertaining to the survey and sale of public lands, "or in any wise respecting such public lands, and also such as relate to private claims of land," 38 the General Land Office exercises judicial discretion through its jurisdiction extending upon the instant of the filing of an application until the patent is rejected or granted. The first action usually is taken in the office of the register and receiver. Practice before the District Land Offices is sui generis and is independent of state civil procedure. Judicial discretion in the performance of administrative functions is subject to review by the Commissioner of the General Land Office. His decision usually is final, though appeals may be taken to the Secretary of the Interior.

In cases before the Commissioner, he himself prepares the charge upon which action is based. His agents collect the evidence and present it to a hearing which he orders, and his subordinate officers preside at the trial, find the facts, and declare the law. Then the Commissioner or Assistant Commissioner passes judgment upon the entire record.39

The Land Office makes legal research into the various laws involved in the prosecution of cases before the courts in its behalf, and so assists the Department of Justice therein.

Before granting a patent under the Mineral laws, the General Land Office

35 Act April 21, 1904 (33 Stat. 211 [Comp. St. § 4527]).

36 Act Feb. 8, 1887 (24 Stat. 388).

37 Proclamation of March 30, 1891 (26 Stat. 1565); Act June 4, 1897 (30 Stat. 35 [Comp. St. § 5125 et seq.]); Act Feb. 1, 1905 (33 Stat. 628); Act March 4, 1907 (34 Stat. 1271 [Comp. St. § 5135]); Act June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 848); Act Aug. 24, 1912 (37 Stat. 497 [Comp. St. § 4524]).

38 R. S. § 453 (Comp. St. § 699).

39 See Annual Report, General Land Office, 1910, for an outline of judicial duties of the Commissioner.

must search the records covering every step from the survey of the claims for location to the completion of the proof, involving notice to conflicting claim

ants.

The adjudication of land cases involves a large number of statutes.40

(v) Subordinate Legislative Action.-The Commissioner must promulgate rules and regulations for the execution of congressional acts, such as the selection of lands by states for education, rules for the recognition of agents and attorneys before District Land Offices, regulations as to rights of way over public lands,

etc.

(w) Restoration of Lost and Obliterated Corners.-The Land Office prepares rules for the restoration of monuments marking corners of surveys that have been lost or obliterated through deterioration or criminal violation.

(x) Co-operation with Other National and State Agencies.-The Land Office is assisted by other departmental agencies; by the Bureau of Education, concerning the use of lands by natives in Alaska; by the Alaskan Engineering Commission, regarding surveys and sales in Alaska; by the Office of Indian Affairs, in the sale of lands ceded by Indians; by the Geological Survey, in the matter of surveys; by the Bureau of Mines,41 in reference to leased government land; by the Department of Justice and the Forest Service, in the investigation of depredations. There is also co-operation between the General Land Office and the state governments in the matter of land grants for colleges and school funds, in the matter of swamp lands, and in numerous other ways.

4. Organization and Distribution of Duties

1. Washington Headquarters Office.

(a) Commissioner's Office.

(1) The Commissioner is an executive officer, as head of the bureau; a legislator, in prescribing rules and regulations having the force of law; a prosecutor, in defending the public domain; a judge, in adjudicating land matters; an auditor and collector. In certain cases his interpretation of the law may be reviewed by the courts. He must furnish any information about the public lands and kindred subjects required by the President or Congress. He has, charge of the seal of the Land Office, the records, etc.

(2) Secretary.
(3) Stenographer.

40 For example, the Act of June 22, 1910 (36 Stat. 583 [Comp. St. §§ 4666-4668]); the Homestead Act of 1862 (12 Stat. 392); the Kinkaid Act of April 28, 1904 (33 Stat. 547 [Comp. St. §§ 4576-4578]); Enlarged Homestead Act of February 11, 1913 (37 Stat. 666); the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388); Desert Act of March 3, 1877 (19 Stat. 377 [Comp. St. §§ 4674-4676]); Timber and Stone Act of June 3, 1878 (20 Stat. 89); Carey Act of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat. 422 [Comp. St. § 4685]); and the Acts of March 3, 1875 (18 Stat. 482 [Comp. St. §§ 4921-4926]); March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1101), and Feb. 15, 1901 (31 Stat. 790 [Comp. St. § 4946]).

41 Act Feb. 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 437 [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, §§ 46404 to 46404 ss]).

(b) The Assistant Commissioner's Office.

(1) The Assistant Commissioner performs whatever duties the Commissioner may direct, and in the latter's absence he acts as Commissioner with full authority.

(2) Secretary.

(c) The Chief Clerk, under the general direction of the Commissioner, supervises the general business operations of the bureau.

(1) Division A.

(1a) The Chief Clerk's office proper, exercising the supervision above mentioned over all the activities of the bureau, personnel, equipment, expenditures, and requisitions; handles correspondence pertaining to local land offices; inspects local land offices; administers the establishment of new land districts, and the changes in the location of district land offices and in district boundary lines; manages the opening and sale of Indian reservations; attends to matters relating to bird reservations and requisitions for supplies; examines the records of attorneys and agents admitted before the general and district land. offices.

(1b) The Board of Law Review, composed of eight members, reviews all decisions before submission to the Commissioner for signature.

(2) Division B-Patents.

(2a) The office of the Recorder, supervised by the Recorder of the General Land Office, who affixes the seal to all patents, attends to engrossing, recording, and transmitting patents; prepares alphabetical indexes of the names of patentees and of persons entitled to patents; and prepares copies and exemplifications of papers on file in the General Land Office.

(2b) Correspondence Section executes details of the work of (2a). (2c) Patent Section attends to the details of preparing patents. (3) Division C-Homestead and Timber and Stone.-Deals chiefly with adjudication of land claims under homestead laws, excepting reclamation and Indian homesteads, but including those under the Timber and Stone Act of 1878.42

(4) Division D-Mail and Files.

(5) Division E-Surveys.-General supervision over public surveys and resurveys, drafting, and map making; custodian of original plats and field notes.

(6) Division F-Reclamation and Land Grant.

(6a) Desert Land Section.

(6b) Reclamation Section.-All reclamation work, except Minnesota drainage.

42 Act June 3, 1878 (20 Stat. 89).