The disability pension law passed June 27,1890, will greatly lengthen the pension list and increase the annual expenditures.  The present Commissioner says in his last report that “it is believed that there are probably over one hundred thousand claims in this office which can be properly allowed under the provisions of these regulations.  The act of June 27, 1890, is the first disability pension law in the history of the world which grants to soldiers and sailors pensions for disabilities which are not proven to have been incurred in the service and in line of duty.”  Speaker Reed of the House characterized it as “the most generous piece of pension legislation ever passed by any nation on earth.”

The Commissioner of Patents has charge of the granting of patents.  Up to 1793 the granting of letters-patent was given to a board consisting of the Secretary of State, Secretary of War and the Attorney General, the records and models being kept in the Department of State.  In 1793 the granting of patents was given exclusively to the Secretary of State.  In 1821 the clerk of the State Department who examined applications for patents received the title of Superintendent of the Patent Office, and on July 4, 1836, the Patent Office was created as a separate bureau and a Commissioner of Patents created.

About 24,000 patents are issued annually.  There is an Assistant Commissioner-in-chief, an Examiner of Interferences, three Examiners-in-chief, thirty-eight Principal Examiners, and a large force of assistant examiners for different branches.  Patents run for seventeen years.  The annual receipts of the bureau from fees more than equal the expenditures, and the office now has a surplus of several millions to its credit in the Treasury.

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs has charge of all matters concerning the Indians, their education, government and support.  There are 239 Indian schools supported by appropriations made by Congress, 147 of which are controlled directly by the Indian Bureau.  The average attendance of pupils at these schools is between eleven and twelve thousand.  The number of Indians in our country (not counting those of Alaska) is about 250,000.  They occupy or have control of about 116,630,106 acres.

The Bureau of Education was originally established as an independent Department by act of Congress, approved by the President March 2, 1867.  By an act of Congress which took effect July 1, 1869, this Department was changed to an Office or Bureau in the Interior Department.  The duties of this Bureau are to collect and diffuse information regarding schools, methods of instruction and school discipline, etc., and otherwise to promote the cause of education.  The results of the investigations here carried on, though with a small clerical force, are of the utmost value to all educators, and such is the extent to which the merit of the work and publications of this office