| OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE OOM~ISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 31 ~ on account of land grant, the service is considerably benefited. Other reduced rates are given it only when shipments of large proportions (such as wagons, coal, etc.) are made in car lots, and then only when the traffic is competitive. While the actual shipping of the goods and supplies is done as 8 rule by the warehouse superintendents, the routing is controlled by the office. Competitive traffic, unless special rates are obtained or some other consideration makes it expedient to ship a certain class of goods by a particular route, is divided equitably between com-peting lines, based on the tonnage moving to each point during the fiscal year preceding the one for which the shipping instructions are prepared. These data are used for the reason that the tonnage for the current year is, on account of the nature of the supplies to be shipped, in many instances not available. When it is practicable to do so, supplies, such as cereals, dried fruit, sugar,etc., are shipped in carload lots to certain distributing points throughout the country, and there are reshipped to their ultiniate destinations by representa-tives of the Indian Office. Between July 1, 1908, and June 30, 1909, the purchase section handled 664 formal contracts involving the sum of $3,248,976.61; made 6,451 purchases' in the open market to the amount of $3,714,215.32; and 3,927 other expenditures in thesumof $1,802,431.01 were passed on. In addition thereto 54 per capita payments amount-ing to $3,343,490.02 were authorized, $225,362.90 were spent in the transportation of.goods and supplies, and $9,676.12 for passsenget transportation. A consideration of the aggregate amount of these authorizations ($12,344,151.98) indicates something .of ,the work of the office. . . . ' I WORK OF THE POPUIATION SECTION. COOPERATION WITH CENSUS BUREAU. The p l m as already outlined for the federal census of 1910 con-template the supervisi.on by the Census O5ce of the enumeration of . all Indians under the.jurisdiction of this office. . ..,:. The clerk in charge of the statistical section of the office has been in conference with the o5cials of the Census OfXce, and with the Bureau of American Ethnology, with a view to working out a plan by which a brief history of the various tribes can be compiled, describ-ing their condition as they existed in the savage state, theirprogress I in its various stages toward enlightenment and civilization, and their conditions as they now exist. Plans are under way to have this historical review written by ethnologists located in various parts of the country. These will be men who have made a special study of Indian conditions, etc.,and 13906-16-3 |
