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Show 50 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. gent competition was had. That the Indian business was'made more attractive is proved by the increase in the bids received, 775 bids hav-ing been received for the fiscal year 1912 and 806 bids received on similar articles for the fiscal year 1913, an increase of 4 per cent. The plan of shipping supplies to points having competitive trans-portation facilities over the line offering the best terms h u not yet been fully developed, but will probably he consummated next year. The plan to have disbursing o5cers pay supply claims is partially in effect at the present time, but it has been arranged that claims covering supplies purchased through the warehouses shall be paid through the disbursing officer of the Interior Department after re-ceiving administrative examination in the Indian office, instead of through the Treasury Department, as heretofore, which will, no doubt, result in their payment within 30 days from the date the goods are delivered in the warehouse. The total value of all supplies purchased for the Indian service during the past fiscal year is approximately $3,875,000. THE FINANCE DIVISION OF THE OFFICE. A very large part of the sand in the machinery of Indian adminis-tration gets in its work in the finance division of the Indian office. In the first place, the present form of appropriations by the Con-gress entails an enormous amount of detail work, which is of little or no use in business-like administration; consequently a complete set of hooks has to be kept for administrative guidance. Many of the forms of doing business compelled by antiquated statutes cause need-less delay. The result is that in accounting for every cent, as it should be accounted for, frequently matters are delayed at great human cost. Yet, because certain of the clerical work in this divi-sion can be done by less skilled persons than are required in the work of *he land or the education divisions, the finance division of the office inevitably has to contain the largest percentage of persons who are really kept in their position as a pension, because of the absence of a civil pension list. A strengthening of the personnel of this &vision would react more than would at first sight appear throughout the whole service along the lines of prompt response td vital needs. THE PROPERTY OF THE INDIANS. The property interests of the Indians constitute one of the great-est estates ever held in trust by any organization, governmental or private. Including the lands, forests, water powers, minerals, and funds held in tribal or individual ownership, the Indians' principal amounts to approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars, and from this property in rentals and interest there comes annually ap-proximately $12,000,000. |