familiar with its character to be well adapted to make attractive homes for thousands of our citizens, with abundant opportunity for profitable industry.

That the present railroad interests are deliberately using the land grant for the purpose of retarding the development of western Oregon can not be asserted as a fact; but it is certain that its policy has this direct effect, and it is not difficult to understand that a selfish purpose may be subserved thereby. In this connection it is proper to consider that the Oregon and California Railroad Company is now a part of a well-organized transportation system, which controls the commerce of approximately one-third of the United States. So far as western Oregon is concerned, this railroad system not only holds an absolute monopoly of transportation, but, through the manipulation of the land grant, it practically controls production.

The following facts are significant: The present transportation facilities of western Oregon are taxed to their full capacity in handling the products of the country. If the railroad company should abandon its present policy and dispose of its land grant to those who would develop it and subject it to productive industry, it is certain that the increased production of the country would be so greatly in excess of the present transportation facilities that competing transportation lines would be attracted to that State. It is equally certain that, with the Southern Pacific interests controlling substantially onehalf of the land, no other transportation company, however formidable, is likely to venture into that territory to engage in competition with a system which virtually controls not only transportation, but also production. More than four-fifths of the land grant now held by the railroad company is situated in southern Oregon. At the time the railroad company withdrew its lands from sale, in 1902, southern Oregon was developing rapidly. It was largely this development which taxed the capacity of the existing transportation facilities. The sale of land was stopped and the development of southern Oregon was checked.

TAXES.

It may possibly be urged that the railroad company has for many years paid taxes in large amounts, and is therefore entitled to equitable consideration. It will be stated that including the year 1907 the railroad company has paid approximately $1,000,000 in taxes. An examination of this question, however, disposes of all apparent equities in favor of the railroad company.

Prior to the year 1891 very little of the land had ever been assessed or listed for taxation. But a small portion of the land grant had been patented; the railroad company had postponed the procuring of patents to avoid taxation. The total taxes paid by the railroad company down to that time did not exceed $75,000. Surely this did not palliate the violations of law which occurred at that time. Several large sales were made in the years 1891, 1892, and 1393, in each of which the excess price charged and received by the railroad company was greater than the total amount of taxes which it had paid to that time.

Since 1891 the greater part of the lands have been listed for taxation; but, until the year 1902, when the railroad company for the first time asserted an absolute, unqualified ownership of the lands, with

no obligation as to the disposition of the same, and permanently withdrew its lands from sale, the assessed valuation of the land was based upon the assumption that the interest of the railroad company was limited to $2.50 per acre, and therefore the lands were assessed at a nominal valuation averaging approximately 50 cents per acre. So that, down to the year 1902, the amount of taxes paid by the railroad company was still a comparatively small item. After the company adopted its present policy, the county officers of each county instituted the practice of assessing the railroad lands the same as the lands of other proprietors. The various counties have had the lands cruised and their value estimated and assessments made accordingly. The total assessed valuation of the land grant for the year 1907 was approximately $18,000,000, whereas prior to the year 1902 the assessed valuation had never exceeded $2,000,000.

Of the total taxes paid by the railroad company on account of its land grant, from 1870 to the present time, more than one-half has been paid since the year 1902. In other words, the greater portion of the taxes paid by the railroad company down to the present time have been incurred by it as a direct result of its own violation of the law. It is difficult to see how any equities can be predicated upon these facts. Even as it is, the total taxes paid by the railroad company does not average to exceed 40 cents per acre, and but for the increased taxation brought about in the manner heretofore stated would have been but about 15 to 20 cents per acre for the whole thirty-seven years since it acquired the grant.

CONCLUSION.

If the conditions of the grant had been observed, under no circumstances could the railroad company have enjoyed a bounty exceeding approximately $8,000,000 from the disposition of the lands, which it has received. It has already realized approximately $4,500,000, and now asserts absolute ownership to property the assessed valuation of which is $18,000,000.

The grants contained restrictions designed to make the general public welfare superior to any interest which the railroad company should ever possess with respect to the lands granted. Those provisions have been repeatedly violated in the disposition of a large portion of the grants, and because thereof the legal right to permanently ignore them and convert the remainder of the grant into an absolute and unqualified single ownership is now boldly asserted.

That at the expiration of forty years after the enactment of the grants 2,000,000 acres of the lands granted should be vested in a single proprietor, with no public obligation, and virtually controlling the commercial destiny of a large portion of the State of Oregon, is the very evil which the provisions of the grant were designed to avert. Yet that condition now exists, with the assertion of a legal right to make it permanent.

It is confidently believed that substantial remedies exist in favor of the Government. It is the purpose of the Department of Justice to enforce those remedies. It is respectfully suggested, however, that discussion of their form be deferred for presentation before the court to which the cause shall hereafter be addressed.

1st Session.

INSANE IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

No. 283.

Mr. GALLINGER presented the following

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CHARITIES IN REFERENCE TO THE INSANE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

FEBRUARY 18, 1908.-Referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia and ordered to be printed.

FEBRUARY 13, 1908.

To the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. GENTLEMEN: The Board of Charities submits the following report in reference to the insane in the District of Columbia:

The board has given special consideration to this subject for the past two years. At the suggestion of the Commissioners we have postponed the presentation of this report, awaiting the report of a special committee, consisting of Drs. W. L. Robins, W. P. Compton, and J. C. Simpson, who were requested by the Commissioners to "furnish them for the use of the Board of Charities of the District with any information within their knowledge which relates to the increased insanity in the District, its causes, the remedy if any, the expense of maintenance of the insane in the District as compared with insane asylums elsewhere, and the modern methods of care and treatment of the insane, especially of acute cases." This committee submitted under date of January 18, 1908, an interesting and comprehensive report, which has been given careful consideration by the Board of Charities. The Board has also carefully considered suggestions made in "A comparative study of the care and treatment of the insane in the District of Columbia and elsewhere in the United States," by Dr. Charles M. Emmons, which was referred to us by the Commissioners.

The information contained in the report of the committee of physicians in reference to the increase of insanity and the cost at various institutions throughout the country agrees substantially with the information already collected by the Board.

With some of the suggestions made in the special committee's report the Board of Charities is in hearty accord, while it dissents from other suggestions, giving the reasons therefor. Specific reference is made to these points in the course of the report. For the purpose of convenience we submit the report under three general divisions: (1) As to the number of insane, increase of insanity in the District of Columbia, comparison with other communities, probable causes of increase, etc.; (2) method of treatment; (3) cost.

1. NUMBER OF INSANE.

INCREASE IN INSANITY MORE APPARENT THAN REAL.

It has been very generally supposed that there has been a great increase in the rate of insanity throughout the country in the past twenty years, and this apparent increase is noticeable in the District of Columbia as in other communities. We desire to say at the outset, however, that the supposed increase of insanity has been more apparent than real, and while there may doubtless have been a considerable increase in the rate of insanity there is at present no information available to demonstrate this fact. Practically the only statistics available in this country are statistics showing the number of insane in institutions specially provided for the treatment of this class. The statistics do not include a vast number of insane persons in almshouses and county hospitals, nor do they include any insane resident in their homes. The increase of the number of insane in institutions has been very marked. The special census bulletin for 1904 on the insane and feeble-minded in institutions gives the following statistics in reference to the country at large:

Number of insane in institutions, per 100,000 population—

June 1, 1880..

June 1, 1890..

December 31, 1903..

81.6

118.2

186.2

This increase of insane in institutions is manifested throughout the country, but it has been greater in some sections than in others. A careful study of the census tables in the special bulletin above referred to clearly indicates that the increased number of insane in institutions in one State as compared with another State can be accounted for readily by the fact that the one State has provided more adequate hospital facilities than the other.

For instance, the group of States known as the North Atlantic division (which States have generally very adequate hospital facilities) shows an increase in the number of insane in hospitals between 1890 and 1903 more than twice as great as is the case in the South Atlantic group, where hospital facilities are much less adequate.

Mr. John Korem, the expert special agent under whose direction the special census bulletin on the insane and feeble-minded was prepared, says editorially in that bulletin: "The differences between ratios, and they are all in the direction of an increase, show primarily the extent to which hospitals are being utilized in the different communities, and not how many insane there are found in the population." The Board submits, therefore, that while there has probably been an increase in the rate of insanity, such increase has been greatly exaggerated in the public mind, because the statistics now available furnish information only in reference to the number of insane in institutions, and not the total number of insane in the community. These statistics indicate clearly, as above pointed out, that the increase in the number of the insane in institutions is to be accounted for very largely by the increased degree to which institutional facilities are made use of, and not by an actual increase in the amount of insanity.