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Show 74 REPORT OF THE CObtMISSIONEB OF IIiDL4N AFFAIRS. peculiarly susceptible, such as pneumonia, consumption, and tracho-ma, legislation appropriating a sufficient sum for the establishment of a medical corps should be enacted. It would be desirable to locate a chief medical officer at Salt Lake City with district physicians under him scattered throughout the field, who should cooperate with the agency pbysicians and establish uniform rules and regulations in line with the best and most advanced medical knowledge. There is great need for a determined and systematic effort to teach the Indians those industries best suited to their localities and to their abilities. An industrial corps similar in its administrative features to the medical corps above outlined should be established, with head-quarters in the field, with a view to the industrial education of the Indians, male and female, and whose duty it should be to educate the Indians in such industries, that they might become self-respecting and self-supporting. DEPREDATION CLAIMS. During the first session of the Sixtieth Congress there were intro-duced in the Senate and House of Representatives bills similar to H. R. 11316, H. R. 17797, and S. 4440 introduced in the Congress during the Fifty-ninth session. The bills have many objectionablefeatures, and if they should become law would enable claimants to present many depredation claims that were not fled in the Court of Claims within three years after the passage of the act of March 3, 1891; they would also admit claims for depredations committed prior to July 1, 1865, which were barred by that act. These bills provide also for eliminating the "amity clause," which has been a part of everydepre-dation claim since 1796, and is the law to-day. The office has always been and is still unalterably opposed to the passage of such bills for the reason that there is no opportunity on the part of the United States, on account of the long lapse of time,'to refute the claims and present a proper defense. If the claims which are now barred were to be reinstated, it would take many years and mucli expensive litigation to adjust them, and the amounts to be paid out would probably aggregate several million dollars. LAW LIBRARY. The attorneys for the Indian Office are constantly required to pass upon questions involving large and important interests and varied and intricate legal points. The law library is utterly inadequate, and many years behind the times, so that the attorneys for the office are required to consult libraries in other departments with great loss of time and efficiency. This condition Congress could improve by appropriating at least $500 for the purchase of new law books. |