there are 3,920. While an outbuilding has been added since 1907 for the stamp department, the total floor space of 214,000 feet available in all buildings to-day is entirely inadequate to the proper and efficient housing of the nearly 4,000 employees.

The director states that not only does the present floor space fail to accommodate the ordinary growth of the bureau, but that he is prevented absolutely from inaugurating highly beneficial improvements in machinery and in management. The operation of hundreds of machines in such proximity that barely sufficient space is left to move between them, the unavoidable overcrowding of men and women in almost every part of the present floor space, the necessity of working portions of the force at night on account of limited floor space, the keeping of hundreds of millions of securities, such as bonds, circulating notes, internal-revenue and post-office stamps in vaults not absolutely fireproof, are some of the conditions which make the demand for an adequate building imperative.

While Director Ralph has taken every precaution possible under present conditions and is guarding the situation with a watchfulness deserving of the highest praise, the loss in property and life which might result from fire in the present buildings is practically beyond

measure.

It is therefore the unanimous conclusiou of the committee that the highest considerations both of humanity and expediency demand that the construction of a new building immediately begin. The committee therefore recommends the passage of the bill under consideration.

62D CONGRESS, 1st Session.

}

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

REPORT No. 135.

MEMBER OF BOARD OF MANAGERS OF NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS.

AUGUST 8, 1911.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed.

Mr. HAY, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. J. Res. 146.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred House joint resolution 146, for appointment of a member of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass.

Your committee has examined with care the indorsements of Gen. T. H. Barry, and is satisfied that he is in every way well qualified for this position. He was a soldier in the Civil War, and has a record of service in that war of which any man might be proud.

62D CONGRESS, 1st Session.

} HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. {

REPORT No. 136.

EXTENSION OF TIME FOR PAYMENT OF LAND SOLD BY ACT OF CONGRESS, 1910.

AUGUST 8, 1911.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. STEPHENS of Texas, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 12534.]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 12534) to extend the time of payment of balance due for lands sold under act of Congress approved June 17, 1910, having had the same under consideration, recommend that the bill be amended and as amended do pass.

In line 7, after the word "ten," strike out the period and put e comma and insert the following:

to open to settlement and entry under the general provisions of the homestead laws of the United States certain lands in the State of Oklahoma and for other | urposes: Provided, That purchasers shall pay interest at the rate of five per centum per annum on the deferred payments for the time of the extension herein granted.

The bill as amended will read as follows:

That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to extend for a period of one year the time for the payment of the several annual installments due on the purchase price for lands sold under the act of Congress approved June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and ten, "to open to settlement and entry under the general provisions of the homestead laws of the United States certain lands in the State of Oklahoma and for other purposes": Provided, That purchasers shall pay interest at the rate of five per centum per annum on the deferred payments for the time of the extension herein granted.

The bill has the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, as is shown by the following letter from the Secretary to the chairman of this committee, and which is as follows:

Hon. JNO. H. STEPHENS,

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, July 28, 1911.

Chairman Committee on Indian Affairs, House of Representatives.

SIR: The department is in receipt of your request, under date of July 27, 1911, for report on H. R. 12534, entitled "A bill to extend the time of payment of balances due for lands sold under act of Congress approved June 17, 1910.”