REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., September 17, 1889. SIR: I have the honor herewith to submit for your consideration the annual report of the transactions of the General Land Office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889. On the 1st of June, 1889, the resignation of Hon. S. M. Stockslager, as Commissioner, was duly accepted, whereupon, being Assistant Commissioner, the duties and responsibilities of the bureau have devolved upon me as Acting Commissioner from that date. This report therefore covers the doings of the General Land Office for eleven months under the administration of my predecessor and only one month under my own management. Entering upon my duties as Acting Commissioner I found myself confronted with an enormous amount of unfinished business left over from former administrations in all the divisions of the office. This great accumulation of official work in arrears I found to result partly from the constantly increasing returns of the one hundred and seven local land offices in the several public land States and Territories, which has been met by no corresponding increase of clerical force, and in great part also by the prevalence in the office of mistaken methods and practices, which, in my judgment, had the effect of obstructing rather than facilitating the proper transaction of business. I found that much time was expended in the performance of what may be termed mere "division work," or work considered proper for the internal management of the different divisions, or consumed in work of a merely preliminary character as introductory to the important work on hand, or in useless guards against improbable or impossible irregularities, instead of being employed in efficient work directly applied for the prompt examination and rapid disposition of the cases arising. Thus a large number of clerks were employed in the performance of duties, laborious and intri |