The larger divisions are subdivided into sections, and each section is commanded by a Chief of Section.

Division "A." This is the Chief Clerk's Office proper. Its function is to exercise general supervision over all of the activities of the bureau, the personnel, equipment, expenditures, and requisitions. These functions include the close supervision of appointments and promotions, leaves of absence, and the bonds of officers other than the mineral surveyors. Division A, handles the correspondence pertaining to the local officers and the Surveyors-General. It inspects the offices of the Surveyors-General, administers the establishment of new land districts, the changes in the location of district land offices, the changes in district boundary lines, and the discontinuance of local land offices. It publishes the notices of intentions to offer final proof, and manages the opening and sale of Indian reservations. It attends to the printing and binding of documents. It attends to matters relating to bird reservations and to requisitions for supplies. It examines the records of attorneys and agents who are admitted before the office and before the district land offices.

Included in Division A is the Board of Law Review, which was instituted by Commissioner Richard A. Ballinger on April 2, 1907. It has been in continuous service ever since. Technically it is merely an advisory counsel to the Commissioner, and its decisions are valueless per se until accepted and pronounced by the Commissioner. In fact, however, the Board of Law Review is a superior land tribunal. It consists of a Chief Counsel, six Associates Counsel, and a Secretary-Librarian. It passes on decisions that are prepared in the various divisions before they are presented to the Commissioner for his signature.

Related to the Board of Law Review, but not a part of the Land Office, is the Board of Equitable Jurisdiction, which is composed of the Secretary of the Interior, Attorney-Gen

eral, and the Commissioner of the General Land Office. This board may not adjudicate contests between private parties, but it may adjudicate cases between the United States and claimants when the latter have substantially complied with the law but may have made some secondary error due to ignorance, accident, or mistake. The decisions of this tribunal are final.

Division "B." This division is engaged chiefly in the work directly connected with land patents. It usually consists of thirty-six persons, and is organized into three sections: the Office of the Recorder, the Correspondence Section, and the Patent Section.

The Office of the Recorder is the dominating unit, and it is supervised by the Recorder of the General Land Office, who is appointed by the President. The Recorder is required by law to affix the seal of the office to all patents, and attend to the engrossing, recording, and transmission of patents. He prepares alphabetical indexes of the names of patentees and of persons who are entitled to patents, as well as copies and exemplifications of matters on file in the General Land Office.

The most important duty of Division B is, perhaps, that of furnishing certified copies of official records that may be needed as proofs of title in thousands of cases a century after the original transfer has been made.

The details of these general duties may be executed by the Correspondence Section, which includes three Examiners, two Photostat Operators and File Clerks, a Transmitting

2 "The Commissioner of the General Land Office is authorized to decide upon principles of equity and justice, as recognized in courts of equity, and in accordance with regulations to be settled by the Secretary of the [Interior] the Attorney-General, and the Commissioner, conjointly, consistently with such principles, all cases of suspended entries of public lands and of suspended preemption landclaims, and to adjudge in what cases patents shall issue upon the same."-R. S. 2450. See also Secs. 2451-2457.

Clerk, three Correspondence Clerks, and six other assistants. The Patent Section includes two Examiners on the Patent Board, four Patent Writers, two Patent Readers, a Recording Clerk, and a Transmitting Clerk.

Division "C." This division, also known as the "Homestead and Timber and Stone Division," is not subdivided into sections. It deals chiefly with the adjudication of all land claims under the homestead laws, excepting reclamation and Indian homesteads. This includes the homesteads under the Timber and Stone Act of June 3, 1878 (2 Stat. L., 89), homesteads on isolated tracts, commuted homesteads, and all original and final homesteads. It is directly concerned with both the public and private sales of public lands.

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Division "D." This division keeps the files, records and indexes, and manages and handles the mail. Thirtyeight persons are required to attend to this work.

Division "E." This division exercises general supervision over all public surveys and resurveys, whether they be made of Indian reservations, national forests, national parks, reclamation projects, railroad land grants, private land claims, town sites, or military reservations. It directs the policy and formulates the technical procedure and practice in the matter of cadastral surveys and resurveys. All instructions for these surveys are examined by this division. Two Cadastral Engineers are required to assist in this work.

Division "F." In this division is handled the business of the Land Office pertaining to rights of way, easements, and permits; power sites; desert land entries; the reclamation work excepting the Minnesota drainage; and the business relating to the withdrawals and restorations of land under the

3 An account of the American homestead system from an objective viewpoint is Vacher, Le homestead aux Etats Unis. Comparison is made with the land systems of other countries.

act of June 25, 1910. The division includes four sections: the Desert Land, Reclamation, Irrigation, and Miscellaneous sections. The Miscellaneous Section attends to rights of way in Alaska and in the Indian and forest lands.

Division "G." This division is responsible for the adjudication and adjustment of land grants to states and corporations. It includes five Land Examiners and four Record Clerks.

The railroad grants give rise to many questions regarding such matters as forfeiture when the roads are not completed at the specified time or when the railroad fails to comply with the provisions of the charter.

Division "H." This division is commonly called the "Contest Division," but its work does not conflict with that of the Board of Law Review or the Board of Adjudication. Much of it has to do with the settlement of ex parte cases, of which there are many hundred a year. The judicial decisions in litigated cases, other than mineral cases, which arise under the various public land laws are prepared by the division, and the work is materially augmented in cases where a hearing is ordered. Consequently four of the ten members of the divisions are Examiners of Records and of Hearings. Cases arise out of disputed questions of law and fact (1) between adverse claimants for the same tract of land under the settlement laws, or based on priorities otherwise; (2) between entrymen or claimants of public land on one side and contestants charging illegality or failure to comply with the law and seeking cancellation of the existing entries or claims with a view to procuring a preference right of entry under the act of May 14, 1880; (3) upon Government proceedings on like charges based on the investigations of special agents of the office or by officials of the Forest Service, in case the lands are in national forests. The matters handled include cases involving homesteaders, miners, desert land, and timber and stone

claimants contending for the same land under different laws, controversies between claimants and states over lands alleged to be swamp in character, or cases involving extensive conspiracies for the acquisition of public lands. The questions presented in these several cases can only be determined after a hearing regularly had at which testimony is introduced on all phases of the matter involved.

The volume of this work is but little affected by the gradual diminution of the public lands, or the general stress of financial conditions. If the land is in fact desirable, there will always be more than one claimant, not only ready to exercise his rights under the law but also to see that no one else gets the title without compliance with the statutory requirements.

In the year ending June 30, 1920, the office disposed of 730 litigated cases. All contests filed do not result in hearings, as many entries are canceled under the rules of practice for default of the entrymen in filing answer to contest charges, and many contests are dismissed for failure of the contestant to prosecute the same. During the past year 2624 contests were disposed of under this procedure." 4

Division "K." This is also known as the "Indian Lands Division." It is composed almost entirely of Law Examiners, as its work is largely judicial. The Law Examiners adjudicate or administer such matters as Indian allotments; Indian homesteads; the opening and the sale of Indian reservations; preëmptions; town sites; military bounty land warrants; abandoned military reservations; agricultural college scrip and other similiar scrip; Indian exchange selections; lieu selections; graduation and credit system entries; private land claims; the Minnesota drainage entries; and the Chippewa logging work in Minnesota.

Division "L." This division consists of a body of about ten draftsmen who compile, engrave, and supervise the annual publication of the United States Map, and also com4 Annual Report, 1920, pp. 85-86.