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SECTION 3

Section 3 of the proposed bill is an amendment of section 17 of the act of May 25, 1918 (40 Stat. L. 561-579), which provides for the change of designation of homestead allotments of Osage Indians to an equal area of unencumbered surplus lands, the proposed amendment extending the tax-exempt privilege to purchased and inherited lands.

After April 8, 1931, only homesteads of Indians of one-half or more Indian blood are exempt from taxation. Our records show the following homesteads and acre

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Undivided interests in homesteads exempt from taxation, owned by unallotted heirs or devisees..

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Total..

445

65, 933. 56

The increasing difficulty of individual Indians to meet the tax burden on their lands and property is indicated graphically in the rapid exhaustion of their surplus funds as shown by the tabulation of individual accounts attached hereto. There is great need of extending this privilege of tax exemption on homestead lands to purchased and inherited lands with valuable improvements, because of the danger of such improved lands being sold for taxes. Out of the 1,470,000 acres in the original reservation, all of which was prorated among 2,229 allottees under the act of June 28, 1906 (34 Stat. 539), there remained restricted on October 15, 1933, only 436,000 acres, of which only the above small percentage is now tax exempt, and this is being gradually depleted by the death of Indians holding same. There are already a number of Indians of one-half or more Indian blood who are unable to pay taxes on highly improved purchased or inherited land, which under the existing law cannot be exchanged for their tax exempt land. Many of the Indians are living on and making use of this purchased or inherited lands as homes, who if their funds are depleted will lose these properties through inability to pay taxes.

Respectfully,

C. L. ELLIS, Acting Superintendent.

OSAGE INDIAN AGENCY, Pawhuska, Okla., December 26, 1934. Washington, D. C.

The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,

SIR: Attached is copy of draft of proposed legislation for the Osage Indians as finally agreed upon by the Osage Tribal Council.

SECTION 4

Section 4 of the proposed bill provides for the repeal of section 3 of the act of March 2, 1929, which has to do with the payment of funds to Indians of less than one-half blood and issuance of certificates of competency to this class of Indians within 10 years from the date of the act.

The Osage census records of April 1, 1934, show a total of 3,560 persons divided as follows:

Mixed bloods-male, 1,517; female, 1,434. Full bloods-male, 304; female, 305.

The line of demarcation is one-half blood. One thousand one hundred and sixty-three certificates of competency have been issued; one certificate was canceled, and 29 have been revoked to date. Approximately three-fourths of the Indians are restricted in whole or in part. Some of this number, those less than half blood, who were allotted, had restrictions as to lands removed by the act of March 3, 1921, but restrictions as to funds continue. Unallotted Indians are restricted as to lands and funds under section 5 of the act of March 2, 1929.

Respectfully,

C. L. ELLIS, Acting Superintendent.

The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,

OSAGE INDIAN AGENCY, Pawhuska, Okla., December 26, 1934.

Washington, D. C.

SIR: Attached for your consideration is copy of final draft of proposed legislation for the Osage Tribe of Indians as agreed upon by the Osage Tribal Council.

SECTION 5

Section 5 provides that no administrator or executor of an estate of an Osage Indian of half or more Indian blood, or who does not have a certificate of competency at date of death, shall be appointed except on the written application or approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

This section, if enacted, will give the same departmental supervision over estates and in connection with the appointment of administrators and executors as now exists in guardianship proceedings by virtue of section 1 of the 1925 act. This amendment will give the Osages the right to enjoy the privileges of a closer supervision by the Department now enjoyed by other tribes.

Respectfully,

The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,

C. L. ELLIS, Acting Superintendent.

OSAGE INDIAN AGENCY, Pawhuska, Okla., December 26, 1934.

Washington, D. C.

SIR: There is submitted herewith for your consideration copy of proposed draft of legislation for the Osage Tribe of Indians as finally suggested by the Osage Tribal Council.

SECTION 6

Section 6, if enacted, will withdraw the payment to Osage County, Okla., of the additional sum equal to 1 percent of the amount received from the Osage Tribe of Indians as royalty from the production of oil and gas, which has been in force and effect since the passage of section 5 of the act of March 3, 1921.

To date more than $1,000,000 has been paid under section 5 of the act of March 3, 1921, and it is highly discriminatory against the Osages, since such payment is in addition to the gross production tax and is chargeable against a particular class of people as distinguished from the general public, and is not made by any other tribe of Indians in the United States.

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74TH CONGRESS 1st Session

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SENATE

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REPORT No. 479

EXTENDING THE BENEFITS OF THE EMERGENCY OFFICERS' RETIREMENT ACT OF MAY 24, 1928, TO PROVISIONAL OFFICERS OF THE REGULAR ESTABLISHMENT WHO SERVED DURING THE WORLD WAR

APRIL 11 (calendar day, APRIL 12), 1935.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. THOMAS of Utah, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 2265]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2265) extending the benefits of the Emergency Officers' Retirement Act of May 24, 1928, to provisional officers of the Regular Establishment who served during the World War, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with a recommendation that it do pass amended as follows:

Page 2, line 11, after the word "Act", strike out the period, and add the following:

or if application is already on file with the Veterans' Administration for such benefits: Provided, That no back pay, compensation, benefit, or allowance conferred by this Act shall be held to have accrued prior to the passage of this Act.

A bill similar to S. 2265 was reported favorably by your committee to the Senate during the Seventy-third Congress, second session, and was passed by the Senate on April 25, 1934. The measure failed of action in the House.

The World War officers who would be affected by this measure are those who because of being neither regular nor emergency officers have been unable to secure the benefits of either service through the Veterans' Administration. As pointed out previously by your committee, this situation is due to the fact that a number of officers were appointed provisional officers in 1917. These provisional officers continued to serve during the World War under such commissions but rendering exactly the same service as any other commissioned officer.

This measure is to correct an injustice and what was evidently an oversight in the writing of the act of May 24, 1928. The act of

May 24, 1928, as written and administered has left these fully deserving ex-World War officers literally as men without a status. Report of the War Department on S. 2265 follows:

Hon. MORRIS SHEPPARD,

APRIL 3, 1935.

Chairman Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate. DEAR SENATOR SHEPPARD: Careful consideration has been given to the bill, S. 2265, extending the benefits of the Emergency Officers' Retirement Act of May 24, 1928, to provisional officers of the Regular Establishment who served during the World War, which you transmitted under date of March 18, 1935, with request for the views of the War Department relative to the measure.

Inasmuch as the administration of the Emergency Officers' Retirement Act is vested in the Veterans' Administration, it is believed that it is the agency having primary interest in the proposed amendment and the one which should report on the bill.

In view of the foregoing and of this Department's policy of refraining from expressing any views with respect to measures administered by other agencies, the War Department has no views that it desires to communicate with reference to this bill.

Sincerely yours,

HARRY H. WOODRING,
Acting Secretary of War.

Report of Veterans' Administration on S. 2265 follows:

Hon. MORRIS SHEPPARD,
Chairman Committee on Military Affairs,

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

APRIL 9, 1935.

MY DEAR SENATOR SHEPPARD: This is in response to your letter of March 18, 1935, with which you forwarded for report a copy of S. 2265, Seventy-fourth Congress, "A bill extending the benefits of the Emergency Officers' Retirement Act of May 24, 1928, to provisional officers of the Regular Establishment who served during the World War."

The appointment of officers designated as provisional officers was authorized by section 23 of the National Defense Act (Public, 85, 64th Cong.), approved June 3, 1916. That section of the law reads as follows:

"Original appointments to be provisional.-Hereafter all appointments of persons other than graduates of the United States Military Academy to the grade of second lieutenant in the Regular Army shall be provisional for a period of 2 years, at the close of which period such appointments shall be made permanent if the appointees shall have demonstrated, under such regulations as the President may prescribe, their suitability and moral, professional, and physical fitness for such permanent appointment but should any appointee fail so to demonstrate his suitability and fitness, his appointment shall terminate; and should any officer become eligible for promotion to a vacancy in a higher grade and qualify therefor before the expiration of 2 years from the date of his original appointment, he shall receive a provisional appointment in such higher grade, which appointment shall be made permanent when he shall have qualified for permanent appointment upon the expiration of 2 years from the date of his original appointment, or shall terminate if he shall fail so to qualify" (39 Stat. 181).

On June 4, 1920, there was enacted Public, No. 242, Sixty-sixth Congress, which amended section 23 to read as follows:

"Provisional appointments.-All laws providing that certain appointments of officers shall be provisional for a period of time are hereby repealed" (41 Stat. 771). The act of July 9, 1918 (40 Stat. 852), permitted the retirement of these provisional officers for disability if application for retirement was made before leaving service. Thus it will be seen that insofar as the privilege of retirement was concerned these officers were on a parity with officers of the Regular Army and Navy. The Judge Advocate General of the Army has ruled that they may not be retired upon an application made after leaving the service.

Under date of February 28, 1929, the Comptroller General of the United States held that provisional officers of the Army were not entitled to retirement under the provisions of the disabled Emergency Officers' Retirement Act, giving as his reason the fact that these men had not served as emergency officers during the World War. While the Comptroller General later modified this decision in certain

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