ASSESSMENTS ON INDIAN ALLOTMENTS OF STATE RURAL HIGHWAYS. JANUARY 25, 1915.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. MILLER, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 20193.] The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 20193) to provide for the payment of assessments on Indian allotments benefited by the construction of State rural highways in the State of Minnesota, recommends that the bill do pass. The following letter from the Assistant Secretary of the Interior is self-explanatory: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, MY DEAR MR. STEPHENS: I have received your letter of December 22, 1914, transmitting for report H. R. 20193, "providing for the payment of assessments on Indian allotments benefited by the construction of State rural highways in the State of Minnesota." This bill is almost identical with H. R. 15289, upon which a report was made under date of May 22, 1914. In that report it was stated that the department was in accord with the purpose of the bill, except that it might be construed in its present form to create a lien on Indian lands held in trust by the United States and to authorize a sale of such lands to pay the charges assessed. It was therefore suggested that there be inserted a provision specifically exempting the Indian lands from a forced sale. As the suggested modification has been made, the department favors the enact ment of the proposed legislation. Very truly, yours, Hon. JOHN H. STEPHENS, A. A. JONES, First Assistant Secretary. Chairman Committee on Indian Affairs, House of Representatives. O PENSION APPROPRIATION BILL. JANUARY 25, 1915.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. BARTLETT, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 21161.] The Committee on Appropriations, in presenting the bill making appropriations for the payment of invalid and other pensions for the fiscal year 1916, submit the following in explanation thereof: The estimates on which the bill is based will be found on page 473 of the Book of Estimates for 1916, and amount to $166,100,000. The accompanying bill appropriates $165,100,000. The following statement gives, by appropriate title of expenditure, the amounts appropriated for 1915, the estimates for 1916, and the amounts recommended in the accompanying bill for 1916: The reduction, from $169,000,000 for 1915 to $165, 000, 000 for 1916, in the appropriation for payment of pensions is in accordance with the annual estimates submitted to Congress and is approved by the Commissioner of Pensions in statements made by him to the committee. The reduction in the amount for payment of fees of examining surgeons in pension cases is also in accordance with the estimates and the recommendation of the Commissioner of Pensions from $150,000 for 1915 to $100,000 for 1916; this service is largely diminished for the reason that many who are put on the pension roll now because of age and service are not required to submit to medical examination. ECONOMIES FROM ABOLISHING PENSION AGENCIES. The pension appropriation act for the fiscal year 1913 abolished the 18 separate agents for the payment of pensions, at $4,000 each, and created in their place a single disbursing officer at $4,000, through whom all payments should be made. This change in the manner of paying pensions has been in operation for two years and has resulted not only in greater facility in the handling of pension disbursements but has resulted in the gratifying reduction of $145,000 annually in the cost of paying pensions. ESTIMATED INCREASE IN COST OF PENSIONS DUE TO ACT OF MAY 11, 1912. [Pension Hearings 1916, p. 12.] The number of pensioners on the roll under the act of May 11, 1912, the amounts paid out to such pensioners, and the average annual value per pensioner by fiscal years, as shown in the annual reports for 1912, 1913, and 1914, are as follows: The exact additional cost to the Government for pensions, due to said act of May 11, 1912, is not obtainable, as the great body of the pensioners enrolled thereunder were gained from pensioners already on the roll under other laws, and in such cases no account of payments by differences in old and new rates is maintained, all pensions paid upon the new grant being charged to the law under which it is made, and the old rate being merged in the new from the date to which payment was last made at the old rate. The grants under the act of May 11, 1912, have been very largely to pensioners who were on the roll under the act of February 6, 1907, as will appear by the following table, which shows the number on the roll under said latter act on the dates in the above table and gives also the amounts disbursed and the average annual values: The total of original allowances under the act of May 11, 1912, to claimants not on the roll under other laws for the three years noted was 1,456, and the balance was made up of transfers from the general law and the act of June 27, 1890, classes of Civil War survivors. The average annual value of these two latter classes combined for the three years was $194.27. The average annual value of the act of February 6, 1907, class for the same period was $173.75, and the average annual value of the three classes combined for said period was $184.01, as against an average annual value of $255.79 in the act of May 11, 1912, class showing an increase in annual value per pensioner in the latter class of $71.78. In a hearing before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations on January 30, 1913, it was stated by Mr. Thompson, of this bureau, that the act of May 11, 1912, would add about $72 per annum for each pensioner. In view of the changes going on during the period in question in the classes named, which embrace all of the Civil War survivors on the roll, a comparison of the amounts paid out would not afford trustworthy information as to the increase in cost of pensions chargeable to the act of May 11, 1912. The amounts paid out on account of pensions for the fiscal years 1909 to 1912, inclusive, are shown as follows: In the absence of legislative provision as made by the act of May 11, 1912, and in view of the progressive decrease in expenditure above shown, a decrease of $6,000,000 and over for the ensuing year 1913, and of $8,000,000 and over for the year 1914, or, say, $15,000,000 for the two years, would appear to be a conservative estimate. As above shown, the amount expended in 1912 was $152,986,433.72. With decreases for the ensuing years 1913 and 1914 by $6,500,000 and $8,500,000, respectively, the expenditures for said years would have been: The difference of $62,116,339.62 might thus be taken to represent the additional cost to the Government for pensions chargeable to the act of May 11, 1912, for the period from date of its approval to the close of the last fiscal year, June 30, 1914. TOTAL EXPENDITURES FOR PENSIONS. The following table, furnished by the Commissioner of Pensions, shows the amounts paid by the Government in pensions to soldiers, sailors, and marines, their widows, minor children, and dependent |