Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1875.djvu/15

Rh 379 widows of soldiers in the revolutionary war, and of 1,009 widows and children of soldiers who served in wars subsequent to the Revolution, excepting that of 1812, and prior to the late rebellion.

During said year 675 applications for bounty-land were filed, and 407 warrants issued for 63,560 acres of laud, being 27,920 in excess of the number of acres issued for the preceding year. I respectfully renew the recommendation contained in the last annual report of this Department, in regard to the propriety of suitable legislation by Congress for limiting the period during which the several laws relating to bounty-land shall remain in force. Attention is invited to the recommendation of the Commissioner for the repeal of section 2444 of the Revised Statutes. Under that section bounty-land warrants are made personal chattels, and assignable by legal representatives. Before the enactment of that provision of law, it was the custom of the Department, in accordance with the opinion of several Attorneys-General of the United States, to treat such warrants as realty, because they were inchoate title to real estate. The change thus wrought in their status has opened up a wide field for fraud, and improperly-appointed administrators have sold and assigned such warrants, without the knowledge or consent of the heirs, and without the latter knowing even of the issue of the warrants by the Pension-Office. In this manner frauds have been committed and widows deprived of their property, under cover of the section referred to. Its repeal will render such transactions impossible in the future. Section 2445 of said statutes should also be repealed, because administrators, as such, should have no control over real property; the widows and heirs of deceased claimants being, through their attorneys, fully competent to prosecute their claims, and to protect their own interests before the Pension-Office.

The Commissioner estimates that by the 4th of December next 12,500 applications for increased pension, based upon the biennial examinations made on the 4th of September last, will have been filed. A total estimated cost of $25,000 for re-examinations by surgeons is involved in the adjudication of these claims, as, under existing laws, an increase of pension must, unless the disability be permanent and specific, commence from the date of the examining-surgeon's certificate made under the pending claim. The Commissioner is of opinion that re-examinations in these claims are unnecessary, for the reason that they could be properly adjudicated upon the reports of the recent biennial examinations, and that the sum of $25,000 could be thus saved to the Government. I therefore recommend such an amendment to the law as will authorize the acceptance of such reports within six months after their date, in the adjudication of claims for increased pension, so that the increase, if allowed, will commence from the date of the biennial examination in each case.

The Commissioner also suggests the propriety of further legislation to more fully define what shall be accepted as evidence of the remarriage