Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1882 — DEPARTMENT REPORTS. [ARTICLE]

DEPARTMENT REPORTS.

The Navy. The report of the Secretary Of the Navy recommends promotion by selection to the grad? of Rear Ad niral, and the construction of two sec-ond-rate steel cruisers, one steel ram and an iron dispatch boat, all to cost not to exceed $3,500,000. The report r-'commends the transfer of the lighthouse servi e, coast survey and revenue marine to the Navy Department, as the first two are not proper y part of the treasury, and are largely operated by navy employes at present, and prcpc! ly come within its scope of operations. As a measure of re nomya union Of naval and ma ine hospitals is suggested. The fepo. t coniments at length upon the decline of American shipping, and shys the present evils must be remedied or American shipping will be ent rely wiped out He recommended the adop‘ion of a protective system, and 1-irge com l ensation for carrying the mails in Ante: lean ships, and the establishment of a mercantile marine in the Navy Department; the report concludes as follows: “If the tia al establishmen is not made effective it should Ire discontinued, and the $15,000,000 annually expended bereso ved to procure, in national emergencies, the assl tance of foreign ships and guns. It Governmental mens're - are ni t soon adopted to promote the carrying trade and arrest the disappearance of American ships from the ocean, We shall -oon cease to be a seafaring people, a d not need to maintain a navy m our own. The Postoffiee, Postmaster General HOWe in his annual report reccommends that a system of postal sav-ings-banks should be inaugurated. After careful study he has arrived at the conclusion that the telegraph and postal systems of the country should be Included under one management and that the only protection for the public against multiplied extortions is for the Government to assume exclusive control of the transmission of domestic messages. He considers the telegraph “too terrible a power to be wielded by any other than the representatives of t'.e whole people.” ior tho first time in tiiL ty-one years the P'-stoffice has not been a burden on ti:e public treasury. After deducting all extra expenses there was a net surplus of receipts over expenses of $330,050, while last year there was a deficiency of $2,4*6,338. The e-timated revenue for the fiscal year 1883-81 is given at $50,6'0,456, and the estimated expenses at $<6,741,111, which will leave a surplus revenue of $3,923,345 The heaviest item of expenditure is for transportation of mails on railways. The next. heaviest is that for the pay of Postmasters. These two items must swell with the volume of business, since the rate of compensation is proportioned to the amount of business done. The expenditure next in rank is for what is known as the star service. That includes all the mail transportation not on railways nor on steamboats. The amount and co t of that service is left almost wholly to the arbitrary control of the department. For the year ended June 31, 1881, the s'ar service covered 79,557,2 6 miles of transportation, at a cost of $6,597,353. F. r the year ended June 3', 1882, the Bane service covered 76,924,867 miles, and cost $51553,819. Congress is invoked by the Postmaster General to make one more effort to engraft upon th? postal service a system of deposits for small sums, and a recommendation is made that postage on second-class matter be abolished. “After the fullest consideration which I have been able to give the subject of postal telegraphy, I am forced to the conclusion that the time has fully come when the telegraph and postal Service should be embraced under one management.”

Department of Justice. Attorney General Brew ter asks legislation to protect civil officers of the Government in tho performance of their duties, as there is no Federal law to punish the murderer of an official. He calls attention to the refusal of the Legislature of Utah to appropriate fun s to execute Territorial 1 .ws, by which it evades a charge of about $.6,000 per annum. The Interior. Secretary Teller commences his report with the discussion of Indian affairs, and i ecommends the disarming of the Indians as a means of removing temptations from them to go upon the warpath. Upon the vexed question of the title to Indian lands, the Secretary says that the savage Indian objects to land in severally .because he has been taught, both as a question of political economy and Indian morals, that it is a crime to divide the land and allow one man to o« n it to the exclusion of ano her. To the end hat the Ind'ans may be secure in their title< and have the assi.ranc that they will not be r.-mo ed except by tlieir tree consent, he recommends the passage of a law to give each tribe a patent for the land the Government has gu r .nteed t ■ it, leaving the Indians to determine the question of allotment for themselves. At le st half of all the Indian children of school age should he put to manual-lab r schools, and more attention should lie paid to teaching the n to labor than to read. With 20, 00 or more Indian children propeily selected in our schools there will be no danger of Indian wars. Some care should be had in the selection of the chi dren to include the children of those indiv duals and tribes most Ilk. ly to make trouble. The Secretary indorses the recommendation of the Commissioner of the Lund Office for the repeal of tho pre-emption law and the modification of th? Homestead law. The Pre-emption law, intended as a me ns of enabling the citizen wishing to make a home to do so cheiplyand speedily, has been used largely to aggregate large quantities of lands for the benefit of the speculator, and not for those wh >se benefit it was intended. It will be useless to repeal the pre-emption laws •if tlie opportunity still exists to commit the same frauds u der the cover of the Homestead law. If it is thought best to retain the pre-emp-tion laws they shou d be sb amended that the filing for pre-emption should precede the entry by at le st a year. The Commissioner of Railroads repo-ts tha', with the exception of a few minor roads, he regards the United States as seen, cin tlie ultimate payment of both principal and interest of the loans adv need.