The nation has made princely grants and subsidies to a system of railroads projected as great national highways to connect the Pacific States with the East.  It has been charged that these donations from the people have been diverted to private gain and corrupt uses, and thus public indignation has been aroused and suspicion engendered.  Our great nation does not begrudge its generosity, but it abhors peculation and fraud; and the favorable regard of our people for the great corporations to which these grants were made can only be revived by a restoration of confidence, to be secured by their constant, unequivocal, and clearly manifested integrity.  A faithful application of the undiminished proceeds of the grants to the construction and perfecting of their roads, an honest discharge of their obligations, and entire justice to all the people in the enjoyment of their rights on these highways of travel are all the public asks, and it will be content with no less.  To secure these things should be the common purpose of the officers of the Government, as well as of the corporations.  With this accomplishment prosperity would be permanently secured to the roads, and national pride would take the place of national complaint.

It appears from the report of the Commissioner of Pensions that there were on the 1st day of July, 1885, 345,125 persons borne upon the pension rolls, who were classified as follows:  Army invalids, 241,456; widows, minor children, and dependent relatives of deceased soldiers, 78,841; navy invalids, 2,745; navy widows, minor children, and dependents, 1,926; survivors of the War of 1812, 2,945; and widows of those who served in that war, 17,212.  About one man in ten of all those who enlisted in the late war are reported as receiving pensions, exclusive of the dependents of deceased soldiers.  On the 1st of July, 1875, the number of pensioners was 234,821, and the increase within the ten years next thereafter was 110,304.

While there is no expenditure of the public funds which the people more cheerfully approve than that made in recognition of the services of our soldiers living and dead, the sentiment underlying the subject should not be vitiated by the introduction of any fraudulent practices.  Therefore it is fully as important that the rolls should be cleansed of all those who by fraud have secured a place thereon as that meritorious claims should be speedily examined and adjusted.  The reforms in the methods of doing the business of this Bureau which have lately been inaugurated promise better results in both these directions.

The operations of the Patent Office demonstrate the activity of the inventive genius of the country.  For the year ended June 30, 1885, the applications for patents, including reissues, and for the registration of trade-marks and labels, numbered 35,688.  During the same period there were 22,928 patents granted and reissued and 1,429 trade-marks and labels registered.  The number of patents issued in the year 1875 was 14,387.  The receipts during the last fiscal year were $1,074,974.35, and the total expenditures, not including contingent expenses, $934,123.11.