THE SOLICITOR. 



903 



were given. Cooperation during the year with the officers and agents 

 of the Department of the Interior has been cordial and productive 

 of splendid results. The office has filed 241 briefs in contested claims 

 cases before the Interior Department, and assistants to the Solicitor 

 have appej^red at 186 hearings before the local land offices and clerks 

 of court, where testimony has been taken. Appeals in 21 cases from 

 decisions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office were taken 

 by the Solicitor to the Secretary of the Interior, one motion to dismiss 

 an appeal was made, and five oral arguments before the Secretary of 

 the Interior were made by the office. In the Washington office 980 

 claims cases were handled during the year. The district assistants 

 handled 1,568 cases. Final action by the Interior Department was 

 taken ia 622 cases, of which 462 were decided favorably to the United 

 States and 160 favorably to the claimants. The 462 cases decided 

 favorably to the United States embrace 91,300 acres, supporting 

 upwards of 700,000,000 feet of merchantable timber, valued at up- 

 wards of $2,000,000. 



Ex}ierience has demonstrated the wisdom of the joint orders of 

 the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior of June 25 and 

 November 25, 1910, providing for cooperation between the two 

 departments in the handling of claims cases affecting lands in the 

 National Forests. The assistant to the Soficitor at Portland, Oreg., in 

 District 6, in his report to the Solicitor of the operations of liis office 

 for the fiscal year, states that 85 per cent of the claims cases decided 

 during the year resulted favorably to the United States, and he 

 concludes as follows: 



From the decisions rendered during the past year, I am more than ever impressed 

 with the beneficial results which are obtained from the joint orders of the Secretary 

 of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture of June 25 and November 25, 1910, 

 under which hearings are conducted and which grant this department all the rights 

 of a private contestant, including the filing of briefs for the consideration of the 

 reviewing officers. I think this in a measure accounts for the increased pe<-centage 

 of cases which have been won during the past two years as compared with previous 

 years. 



In addition to briefs filed and hearings attended by the district 

 assistants to the Solicitor, they have taken u])ward of 75 de])Osi- 

 tions of witnesses before notaries public and other qualified officers, 

 and the assistant in District 4 cooj)erated extensively witli the chief 

 of field division of the General Land Office in jiroceedings to revoke 

 the commission of a mineral examiner whose returns in several cases 

 had been found to be irregular. Before final action by the Commis- 

 sioner of the General Land Office the examiner resigned. 



An epitome of the work of the district assistants to the Solicitor ia 

 claims cases during the year is shown in the following schedule, by 

 districts: 



