THE SOLICITOR. 875 



which the Department was recognized as a contestant on an equal 

 footing with all other contestants, and its legal department given 

 full right of appeal from and motion of review of all adverse de- 

 cisions of the Department of the Interior. In addition, this Office 

 was accorded the right to be represented of record by its assistants 

 at all hearings in the field and to participate in the examination of 

 witnesses and production of evidence. It was further tlirected in 

 this order that the chiefs of field division should consult with the 

 assistants of this Office in the matter of setting dates for hearings. 

 So far as the procedure before the Interior Department was con- 

 cerned this order was effective, and secured to the Department of 

 Agriculture a status of equal rank with all contestants and placed 

 the work on a solid foundation. 



The method of handling the initiatory steps of the work in the 

 Department needed reform. In their commendable zeal to preserve 

 the lands within National Forests from unlawful appropriation, 

 rangers and supervisors, whose duty it was to report on all claims 

 in their respective territories, sometimes submitted adverse reports 

 upon claims of meritorious character, resulting in great expense and 

 annoyance to the claimant and equal expense to the Government 

 when hearings were ordered by the Interior Department. With a 

 view to obviating this, to give effect to your determination not to 

 make difficult and expensive the acquisition of homes by honest, 

 well-intending, and deserving citizens, who comply substantially 

 with the requirements of the law, as well also, in order that you 

 might more directly exercise a supervision over the claims work of 

 the Department, a draft of instructions to the district forester and 

 district law officers was submitted to you for approval on June 28, 

 and by its approval on that date a new order of handling the work 

 was put into immediate efl'ect. By this order no report of the 

 Forest Service adverse to the claimant is permitted to go to the 

 Secretary of the Interior until all the facts in the case are submitted 

 to you for a determination of the propriety and necessity for a hearing. 

 By this course the possibility of mjuring the claimants, with no real 

 benefit to the United States, will be reduced to the minimum, if 

 not altogether eliminated. 



The order will largely increase the work of this Oflice, which 

 theretofore had no part in the proceedings until hearings were di- 

 rected by the Interior Department. All the reports of the Forest 

 Service adverse to claimants must now be submitted to the Solicitor 

 for examination as to the sufficiency of the law and evidence to 

 sustain adverse proceedings. If the facts submitted appear, in the 

 judgment of the Solicitor, to be insufficient, and it seems possible 

 to supply the deficiencv, the papers will be returned to the Forester 

 for further action loofving to procurement of additional evidence. 

 When all the available evidence is secured, a recommendation is 

 made by the Solicitor to you, and the Secretary of the Interior is 

 requested either to order a hearing or to take no adverse action, as 

 the examination of the reports justifies. When hearijigs are ordered, 

 the assistants to the Solicitor in the respective districts are promptly 

 notified, and dates are set, as before stated, in accordance with the 

 cooperation of the cliiefs of field divisit)ji. At the appointed time 

 for the hearing, the Oilice is representetl by one of its assistants, 



