sary, the sum of $265,000 was available for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1885, under the appropriations of March 3, 1885, and previous years. After consulting the military commanders and the Quartermaster-General this sum was distributed as follows: The title to the land required for the new military post at Atlanta, Ga., having been favorably reported by the Attorney-General, the purchase money ($15,000) has been paid, and brick buildings for the post are now being erected. The building in New York City known as the "Old Produce Exchange" has been purchased for the amount appropriated by the act of February 2, 1886, namely, $250,000, the Attorney-General having approved the title to the same on the 24th of March. An appropriation of $200,000 was also made for altering and remodeling the building. Upon examination the foundations were found to be defective, and it became necessary to reconstruct the entire building. The work is rapidly progressing and the cost will not exceed the amount appropri ated. No part of the money appropriated for the purchase of Fort Brown, Texas, has been expended, the parties having failed to offer a good and valid title. The sum of $199,096 has been expended for repairs upon buildings, &c., and one hundred and ten new buildings have been erected at a cost of $211,120. Under the authority of the act of July 31, 1882, to provide additional training-schools for Indian youths, twenty-three buildings at Fort Lapwai, Idaho Territory, have been transferred to the Department of the Interior; and five useless and abandoned military reservations, or parts thereof, have also been transferred to that Department in accordance with the provisions of the act of July 5, 1884. The buildings and grounds at Newport Barracks, Kentucky, are flooded at each high stage of the Ohio River, and higher land is needed for a military post in that vicinity. It is hoped that Congress will make the necessary provision for this purpose at the coming session. This is a two-company post, and the Quartermaster-General informs me that if $50,000 are appropriated this year for the purpose the necessary land can be purchased and the erection of the buildings begun. The entire cost of Army transportation during the fiscal year was as follows: For transportation of 236,180 persons, including 200,662 transported or For transportation of 7,907 horses and mules and 169,192 tons of freight. For tolls, payment of employés, purchasing, maintaining, and operating $266,401 38 975, 793 93 337,258 27 1,501, 125 58 3,080,579 16 The Indian troubles in Arizona and New Mexico and the operations in the Oklahoma country have increased transportation expenses and compelled the strictest economy. Many wants of the service have been denied and movements of troops postponed which otherwise would have been ordered. The expense of military transportation, not paid from the regular appropriations, includes that over the bonded Pacific railroads, amounting to $488,761.06. This sum is credited at the Treasury on the debt of those roads due the United States. I quote the words of the Quartermas ter-General on the subject of these railroads, showing that a special appropriation of $906,314.42 is required to carry into effect the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of the Central Pacific Railroad Company The United States. The subject is fully set forth in House Ex. Doc. 270, Forty-ninth Congress, first session: The accounts of the bonded Pacific railroads are adjusted under the following statutes: Act March 3, 1873; act May 7, 1878; act March 3, 1879. Settlements for services on the unsubsidized portions of the Union Pacific Railway, including the Kansas Division (formerly the Kansas Pacific), and the Denver Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company, the Central Branch Union Pacific Railroad, and the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad, continue to be made the same as during the past fiscal year. Settlements for services over the unsubsidized portions of the Central Pacific Railroad have heretofore been held subject to the provisions of Treasury circular letter dated January 12, 1884, under which the amounts were certified by the accounting officers and reported to the Secretary of the Treasury, subject to the disposition of Congress. No action having been taken by Congress in reference to the disposition of the amounts embraced in the settlements held in abeyance, a motion was made by the company before the accounting officers of the Treasury, by which, in offect, the revocation of the order of January 12, 1884, and the revival of the enforcement of that of June 27, 1883, was requested. The Second Comptroller, in a decision thereon, dated August 28, 1885, which was approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, and published in Treasury Circular No. 136, dated September 11, 1885, directs the revocation of Department Circular No. 83, of June 27, 1883, and circular letter of January 12, 1884, and that all compensation now due or which may hereafter become due the Central Pacific Railroad for services rendered the Government be withheld and applied, one-half upon interest account and the other half credited to the sinking fund, as required by act of May 7, 1878; also that hereafter the accounts of the company be adjusted by the accounting officers, the Secretary of the Treasury retaining the whole amount, applying the same in the manner as provided by that act. It is understood that on application of the company the Secretary of the Treasury consented to suspend action under that part of his order directing the withholdment and application of compensation due or to become due the company, upon the condition that the matter in issue be presented to the proper courts for judicial decision. In conformity thereto a petition of the Central Pacific Railroad against the United States, No. 14,711, was filed in the United States Court of Claims, November 24, 1885, to recover compensation for services performed for the United States in transportation over those portions of the road as above mentioned, in the building of which it had not been aided by the Government and therefore not embraced in the above-named act. The United States demurred on the ground that the whole of said compensation is required to be retained under the provisions of the second section of the act May 7, 1878, chapter 96 (Thurman act), 20 Stat., page 58. The decision of the court was that the provisions of the act applied only to services over the aided portions of the road, and the demurrer was overruled. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States (October term, 1885), and decision rendered May 10, 1886, sustaining the railroad company in its construction of the second section of act of May 7, 1878, that cash payment for services over the unsubsidized roads should be made by the United States. The Secretary of the Treasury, in circular of June 4, 1886, invited attention to decision referred to, and directed that thereafter the accounts and claims of the company for such services shall be settled, adjusted, and paid in conformity to such decision, and that all Department circulars heretofore issued upon the subject are modified accordingly. On the suggestion of the honorable the Secretary of the Treasury, and by direction of the honorable the Secretary of War, the Quartermaster General, on June 7, 1886, submitted the estimates of appropriations required to execute the decision of the Supreme Court, aggregating $906,314.42. (See House Ex. Doc. 270, Forty-ninth Congress, first session.) The appropriation was, however, refused by Congress. (See House Report No. 3109, Forty-ninth Congress, first session.) In view of the circumstances here reported, and the fact that the estimates upon which the regular appropriations of the Quartermaster's Department entitled "Transportation of the Army" were based carefully excluded any provision for payment of money to the bonded Pacific railroads, for the reason that the laws as interpreted by the accounting officers of the Treasury and the Department of Justice, at the time of the preparation of the estimates, prohibited any payment to these companies, it is thought that the Army transportation appropriation should not be used in payment of any accounts of these companies, but that a special appropriation from Congress for the purpose should be secured. As a matter of fact, the appropriation for transportation of the Army will be hardly sufficient to meet the usual demands of the service, as contemplated in the preparation of the estimates of the amount needed for the purpose. The average cost of cavalry and artillery horses during the year was $141.24; of draft horses, $205.85, and of mules, $154.99 per head. At the close of the fiscal year there were on hand 8,609 cavalry and artillery horses, 454 team horses, 5,493 mules, and 6 oxen. The veterinary sup plies purchased this year cost $2,266.95, a saving of $11,065.33 as compared with last year. This is due to the revision of the supply table and the purchase of the supplies from the Medical Department. There were 1,552 miscellaneous claims and accounts acted on during the year, amounting to $532,160.85, leaving on hand July 1, 1886, 10,669 miscellaneous claims and 249 accounts, amounting to the sum of $8,516,715.59. The agents of the Quartermaster's Department have investigated and reported upon 2,906 claims of loyal citizens for quartermaster's stores, filed under the act of July 4, 1864. The Quartermaster General has taken final action upon 3,767 of these claims during the year, and on July 1, 1886, there were 4,983 awaiting action. The following table exhibits the entire number and amount of claims filed under the act: Number of claims presented to June 30, 1886... Number of claims allowed.... Number of claims disallowed.. 57,821 18, 329 34, 509 52, 838 4,983 Number on hand July 1, 1886.......... Amount of 57,821 claims presented.... Claims on hand (4,983)... $39,811, 886 90 35, 195, 309 04 4,616,577 95 The clothing and equipage for the Army are obtained by contract or by manufacture at the quartermaster's depots at Philadelphia, Jeffersonville, and San Francisco. The boots and shoes are manufactured at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. These supplies have given general satisfaction. In the eighty-two national cemeteries there are 323,947 interments.. Contracts are about to be made for the construction of the roads authorized by Congress at its last session to the Chalmette, Knoxville, and Natchez national cemeteries. When these are completed there will be nine roads constructed under special authority of law, for the maintenance of which there is no appropriation. Some are almost impassable for want of repairs. The road to the Vicksburg national cemetery could have been kept in good order for a few hundred dollars expended as required; it will now cost $10,000 to restore it to good condition. An estimate has been submitted for the maintenance and repair of these roads. SUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT. The report of the Commissary-General of Subsistence is very satisfactory and contains the usual financial exhibit of the operations of the Subsistence Bureau for the fiscal year 1886, and other statistical matter relating to the conduct of its affairs. The Army ration is ample in quantity, excellent in quality, and the utensils for cooking it are all provided; but it is not cooked as it should be, for want of proper skill. This is one of the great wants of the service, as reported both by the Commissary-General and the Surgeon General, and nothing would add so much to the comfort and health of the troops as a corps of good cooks; accordingly I unite with the Commissary-General in recommending that legislative authority be granted for the enlistment of one cook for each troop, battery, and company, and each general depot of recruits, and of a baker for each garrisoned post. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. The Acting Surgeon-General gives a financial statement of operations of the Medical Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886. He recommends that existing laws relative to the issue of trusses be so amended that every person who has been or who may hereafter be ruptured in the line of duty in the military or naval service of the United States shall be entitled to a truss. The money value of medical and hospital supplies actually issued during the fiscal year was $168,119.06; the cost of supplies for the current year will probably exceed that amount. The limit of the amount of appropriation to be expended for pay of employés of the Medical Department should be increased to $46,000, rendered necessary by needed increase of force in purveying depots; and he also recommends, as for the best interests of the service and in view of economy, that Congress be requested to grant authority to make purchases of medical and hospital supplies costing less than $500, after the usual advertisements, but without entering into the formal written contract now required, as in many cases the expenses entailed thereby are equal to the cost of the article. The number of admissions to sick-report during the past year was 32,990, or 3,839 less than for the preceding year, while the ratio of cases to mean strength was considerably lower, being as 1,367 is to 1,532. There were during the year 182 deaths from all causes, 115 from disease, 67 from injuries, or a ratio per 1,000 of mean strength of 7.5, against a ratio of 10.9 for previous year. It is a matter of congratulation that not only the admission-rate to hospital but also the death-rate has fallen to a lower point than at any time within the history of the Medical Department. There were 757 discharges for disability during the year, a decrease as compared with the previous year. The past year has been one of exceptional freedom from disease and epidemic, though one of unusual activity and severity for the troops engaged in military operations on the southwest frontier. The principal causes of disability in the past year have been injuries, diarrheal diseases, diseases of respiratory system, malarial diseases, rheumatism, venereal affections, and the acute infectious diseases. Enteric or typhoid fever, which for several years has had an epidemic tendency, shows a decided decrease, 76 cases being reported against 156 in preceding year. Venereal diseases also show a decrease: 55 per 1,000 against 65 per 1,000 for preceding year. Among the acute infectious diseases, are reported chicken-pox, dengue, diphtheria, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, and one case of typhus fever. The rate of mortality, as shown in the different arms of the service, place the cavalry first, infantry second, and artillery third. But little difference is shown in the death-rates for commissioned officers and en listed men, the rates for the former being 7 and for the latter 7.1 per |