Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1873.djvu/23

Rh Three other grand diplomas of honor, viz, to the State of Massachusetts, the city of Boston, and to the Smithsonian Institution, respectively, as well as many medals and diplomas of merit to various cities of the United States for their contributions to the educational department of the exposition, were awarded.

The Commissioner recommends an increase of the permanent force of the office commensurate with the increasing amount of work to be done, an appropriation for book-cases and record-cases, additional funds for the publication of circulars of information to meet the increasing demand for the same, the passage of a law requiring annual reports respecting the condition of education in the Territories for the information of Congress and the public, the setting apart of the net proceeds of public land-sales in behalf of public instruction, and the printing of a larger number of his annual report.

"The report of the Superintendent of the Census details the work of that office during the past year, in supervising the printing and publication of the voluminous reports of the ninth census; in adjusting under the act of Congress approved March 3, 1873, the accounts of assistant marshals at the eighth census in the Southern States; in conducting current correspondence; and in placing the records and files of the office in shape for use and reference at future censuses. It will be seen that the three quarto volumes, comprising the complete reports of the ninth census, as well as the compendium provided for by the concurrent resolution of Congress passed on May 31, 1872, have issued from the press since the date of the last annual report of this Department. Eight hundred and twenty-eight accounts of assistant marshals at the eighth census, which have for twelve years been suspended for proof of loyalty, have been adjusted, in a total sum of $164,341.53, and forwarded to the Treasury Department for payment. The force of the office has meanwhile been rapidly reduced. Now that the last of the great body of manuscript record brought into the Department by the enumeration of 1870 has been arranged, one clerk, it is believed, will suffice, as in the interval between the eighth and ninth censuses, to conduct all the correspondence and perform all the duties relating to this branch of the public service.

At the date of my last annual report the duties of the Superintendent of the Census under my appointment were discharged by the Commissioner of Indian affairs, Hon. Francis A. Walker, who had held the office of superintendent prior to his appointment to the Indian Bureau. On the resignation of Commissioner Walker, February 1, 1873, to accept a position in private life, I requested him to continue his charge of matters relating to the census, in order that the continuity of plan and procedure might not be unnecessarily interrupted. In compliance with this invitation Mr. Walker duly qualified, and has continued to act as