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16 Copp's Land Owner 1 (1889)

handle is hein.journals/coplndow20 and id is 1 raw text is: COPP'S LAND-OWNER. WASHINGTON, D. C.,. APRIL 1, 1889. No. 1. BACK NUMBERS. Several numbers of Volume One of Copp's LAND OWNER have been reprinted, and a few complete sets of Volumes 1 to 14 can now be furnished. SEE Table of Contents on second page of cover. PARTIES who have volume 12 of the LAND- OWNER and desire to sell it, are requested to communicate immediately with the editor of the LAND-OWNER. THE act of Congress found on page 288 of the March 15 LAND-OWNER was taken from the Con- gressional Record and marked approved to the best of the editor's information. Subscribers are requested to change the date of approval from 4th to 2d of March, and strike out the word already in the last line of section 5. AARON- H. NEiSON, assistant chief of Contest Division of the General Land Office, was ad- mitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States on March 18, 1889. He was in- troduced to the courtby Solicitor-General Jenks. THE New York World of March 18, 1889, page 5, contains a scathing article on a recent grad- uate of the General Land Office named W. B. Matthews. REORGANIZATION OF THE GEN- ERAL LAND OFFICE. A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEW AD- MINISTRATION TO CONSIDER. During the last administration, a Con- test Division (H) and a Board of Review (0) were created in the General Land Of- fice. To the former are assigned for de- cision the contested pre-emption, home- stead and timber culture cases. This di- vision has proved its worth and should stand as at present constituted. But it is the general sentiment that the Board of Review is not a success. Its function is to duplicate previous exami- nations and the comparatively few errors discovered by such re-examination do not repay the cost of the work. The Division of Public Lands (C) is so overloaded with returns to be posted on the tract books and with correspondence with officials and individuals thatit should be relieved of the examination of proofs entirely. Since the examination of contested cases has been taken from the Pre-emption Di- vision (G), that division may well be abolished. To Division C should be added the cor- respondence now attended to by the Pre- emption Division, such as general in- quiries, applications for amendments of filings and all other questions preliminary to examination of proof. It should con- tinue the posting, as at present, together with all correspondence touching home- stead and timber culture- claims prior to examination of proofs. The several mis- cellaneous desks now there could remain. A new division should be organized to be composed of the most experienced clerks who display legal aptitude and who should be allowed liberal salaries. The duty of this proposed division would be the examination of homestead, pre-emp- tion, timber culture and miscellaneous proofa, and the necessary work connected with perfecting and forwarding the same to the patenting division. This proposed division should be subdivided into sec- tions with competent chiefs who should be responsibe for the discipline of, and the amount of work accomplished by, their subordinates. The only other division in which there appears to be a marked need of improve- ment is the Mineral Lands Division (N). The law of May 10, 1872, under which this division operates, is probably the simplest and least ambiguous of the pub- lic land laws. The only difficulty under it, the matter of conflicts, is referred, in clearly defined terms, to the courts for determination. The principal cause of delay in this division is the magnifying into importance of insignificant, hair- splitting questions that should not con- sume a second thought. There is also much time used in duplication of work and in many cases, triplication of exami- nation. Another trouble this division labors under is the transfer of its exper- ienced clerks to other divisions. Natu- rally employees want variety and change of labor. But the interests of claimants must suffer to secure such change, and ap- plications for transfer should be carefully considered. In general, there is too much time wasted in all the divisions in making weekly reports of work done and work pending. These reports are consolidated by the chief clerk and sent to the Secre- tary. A quarterly report, at most, is all that is needed. The time spent in com- piling, figuring, arranging, copying, and typewriting these reports could much better be used in actually doing the work and getting the cases disposed of. A rearrangement of rooms could be made to advantage to bring the divisions using the tract books as near Division C as possible. An elevator on the 9th St. side of the building would soon repay its cost in the saving of time. PRACTICE. RICHARD GODFREY. Private Claim.-Land suspended from sale or entry, by order of surveyor-general, pending the final location of a private claim, is not subject to appropriation un- der the homestead law.-Secretary Vilas to Commissioner Stockslager, February 7, 1889. NATHAN T. JENNINGS. Commutation.-A homesteader who, by com- mutation, makes final entry of a part of the !and covered by his original entry, exhausts thereby his right under the general homestead law.-Secretary Vilas to Commissioner Stock- slager, January 12, 1889. AUGUST POLZIN. Commutation - Repayment. - Repayment, with the right to thereafter submit the ordinary homestead proof, cannot be accorded to a homesteader who has made commutation proof which is found insufficient; but he may submit new commutation proof within the life of the original entry. FIRST ASSISTANT SECRETARY MULDROW to Commissioner Stocklager, January 18, 1889. I have considered the appeal of August Polzin from your office decision of October 12, 1887, rejecting his application for re- payment of purchase money paid on com- mutation proof under homestead entry for the N. W. I of Sec. 30, T. 101 N., R. 67 W., Mitchell, Dakota, land district. Polzin made homestead entry for said land April 10, 1883, and advertised to make final commutation proof thereunder on February 28, 1885, before the clerk of the district court. Proof was made March 4, 1885, before the officer named in the advertisement. Accompanying the proof was the affidavit of the claimant setting up that the delay in making said proof was occasioned by the sickness of his child, and that it was made as soon as possible after the day ad- vertised; and also the affidavit of J. E. Cone, a physician, dated March 4, 1885, stating that February 23, 1885, he was called to the residence of August Polzin on Sec. 30, T. 101, R. 67, to treat profes- sionally the child of said Polzin; that he found said child dangerously sick, in which condition he has remained ever VOL. XVI.

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