Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/82

80 year. Agriculture, stock raising, and mining have prospered. Crime is not more common than in older communities in the East, and, with one exception, infractions of the law meet with as sure and speedy punishment. The one exception is the utter failure or inability of the officers of the law in certain counties to punish violations of the law of July 1, 1862, against polygamy. Further legislation is earnestly recommended looking to the effectual suppression of this vice, which, under the guise of religion, is spreading throughout these Territories in violation of law and in direct opposition to the moral sense of the people of the country.

In the estimates of expenditures for the next fiscal year I have recommended an increase in the salaries of various officers and clerks in this Department, and in the report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, presented herewith, there will be found an elaborate and instructive letter addressed to me by that officer upon this subject. There is no doubt in my mind after the experience of nearly four years in the conduct of this Department, that the pay allowed to almost all the higher grades of its officers and clerks is entirely out of proportion to the ability required in the discharge of their duties, the labor exacted, and the great responsibility borne by them. The duties performed by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior are such that I see no reason why his salary should be less than those of the Assistant Secretaries of the Treasury. I am, on the contrary, of the opinion that all the assistant secretaries are underpaid. The public interest demands that those places be filled by men who in the absence of the respective Secretaries may be trusted temporarily to perform their duties and to discharge their responsibilities. Their compensation should be at least equal to that of the Comptrollers of the Treasury.

The office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs is one of the most arduous places in the government, devolving upon him probably more work and responsibility than falls to the lot of any bureau chief in any of the executive departments. Of the Commissioner of the General Land Office and of the Commissioner of Pensions almost the same can be said. These positions require great knowledge of affairs and more than ordinary executive ability. The Commissioner of Patents is a little more favored in point of salary; but, considering the cost of living here, I do not think that in any great government in the world officers of the same rank, discharging the same high order of duties, and bearing the same responsibilities, are as badly paid in proportion. Not one of them should, in my opinion, have less than $5,000 a year. If the American people desire that the public business be well done, and that the high places of the government be filled with men of corresponding character and ability, the salaries ought to be such as to command what is required in that respect. Most of the division chiefs in the General Land Office, such as the chiefs of the Mineral Division, the Division of Private