Fort Concho, Tex., to July, 1882; at Fort Davis, Tex. (on leave October 26, 1883, to January 2, 1884), to April 1, 1885; commanding post of Fort Thomas, Ariz., to Aug. 26, 1886; on leave to March 27, 1887; on duty at Fort Grant, Ariz., being frequently in field to September 24, 1888; on sick leave to May, 1889; on duty at Fort Bliss, Tex., assisting officers of the Interior Department in surveys (before congressional committee in this city January to March, 1890) to April 2, 1890; and on leave and under orders to July, 1890. He joined the Fourth Cavalry July 13, 1890, and served at the Presidio of San Francisco, Cal., to October 31, 1891; commanding regiment and post of Fort Walla Walla, Wash., to February 11, 1893. He joined the Third Cavalry February 28, 1893, and commanded it and the post at Fort McIntosh, Tex., to June 21, 1893, and the post of Fort Reno, Okla., to August 12, 1893; on leave to October 26, 1893; and since then on duty as commissioner of the United States International Boundary Commission of the United States and Mexico. ADDITION TO THE RECORD OF COL. ANSON MILLS, UNITED STATES ARMY, NOT INCLUDED IN THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S CERTIFICATE OF MILITARY SERVICE. He left West Point in 1857, went to the frontier of Texas, and engaged in engineering and land surveying; laid out the first plan of the city of El Paso; in 1859 was surveyor to the boundary commission establishing the boundary between New Mexico, Indian Territory, and Texas; in February, 1861, on submission to the popular vote of the State of Texas the question of "separation" or "no separation," he cast one of the lonely two votes in the county of El Paso against separation to 985 for separation; in March, 1861, he abandoned the State going to Washington, and there joined the military organization known as the "Cassius M. Clay Guards,” quartered, armed, and equipped by the United States Government, and served there, protecting Federal officers and property, until relieved by volunteer forces called out by the President. On May 14, 1861, was appointed first lieutenant Eighteenth Infantry on the following recommendation from the then first class at the Military Academy: LORENZO THOMAS, UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY, Adjutant General, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: We, the undersigned, members of the first class at the United States Military Academy, respectfully recommend to your favorable consideration the claims of Mr. Anson Mills, an applicant for a commission as second lieutenant in the United States Army. Mr. Mills was formerly a member for nearly two years of the class preceding ours, when he resigned. During that time his habits and character conformed to the strictest military propriety and discipline, and we feel assured that he would be an honor to the service, and that its interest would be promoted by his appointment. Respectfully submitted. James F. McQuesten, Chas. E. Hazlett, Henry B. Noble, During the four years of the war he was never absent, either on leave or from sickness, and was present in all of the engagements of his regiment. Fox's "Regimental Losses" states on page 3, that his regimentEighteenth Infantry-lost more in killed and mortally wounded than any other regiment in the Regular Army and that his company-H, First Batallion (p. 420) lost more in killed and mortally wounded than any company in his regiment. He invented the woven cartridge belt (and loom for manufacture), now adopted and exclusively used by the Army and Navy of the United States. He stands No. 24 on the lineal list of 71 colonels in the Army. [Private resolution No. 1.] Joint resolution permitting Anson Mills, colonel of Third Regiment, United States Cavalry, to accept and exercise the functions of boundary commissioner on the part of the United States. Resolved, etc., That Anson Mills, colonel, Third Regiment United States Cavalry, having been nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate as a commissioner of the United States under the convention between the United States of America and the United States of Mexico concluded and signed by the contracting parties at the city of Washington March 1, 1889, is hereby permitted to accept and exercise the functions of said office of commissioner: Provided, Said officer shall continue to receive his emoluments in pay and allowances as colonel in the Army while holding said office of commissioner the same as he would receive were he performing such duty under military orders, and no other or additional pay or emoluments for his services as such commissioner. Approved, December 12, 1893. Mr. Nathan Boyd to the First Assistant Secretary of the Interior. THE FARRAGUT, WASHINGTON, D. C., November 18, 1915. DEAR MR. JONES (in re The Rio Grande Claim): On learning that Judge King had filed in your office a report on the claim presented by Mr. John M. Rankin, respecting the original incorporation of the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., it seemed to me that it would be well for me to follow suit by preparing a statement in behalf of the investors in the securities sold by the Rio Grande Irrigation & Land Co. (Ltd.), so that their claim could also be considered by you and in like manner be reported upon. Inasmuch as the claim of the English company is valid in a strictly legal sense as well as morally so, I have made my statement cover the most essential of the legal points therein involved and have made it a fairly complete history of the case. Of course, I am reluctant to add to your burdens of office, but in the circumstances I fancy you will readily admit that all things considered I am entitled to ask that you take the trouble promptly to consider the facts I have presented in the accompanying statement and that, as a means of expediting a settlement of this long neglected case, you will call on Judge King to report on my presentation of the case for the said investors, as well as on the claim presented by Mr. Rankin. Unofficially other high officers of the Government have-like yourself-not hesitated to say that a great injustice was done to the said English company; and, therefore, assuming that the present administration desires to do what is right in its foreign as well as in its domestic affairs, it goes without saying that a just settlement of this Rio Grande claim should be promptly made. Governments can not, no more than private citizens, honorably put off paying their just debts by resorting to evasive practices and by playing for delay. If you will take the trouble to read Secretary Root's "memoranda," set out in the accompanying statement, pages 14 to 24, you will see that the late Republican administration resorted to (evasive) practices in this matter that could not but convince the British Govern ment of the dishonest purpose of the responsible officials that so long contended that the matter was not arbitrable. After years of delay this disgraceful affair was at last scheduled for arbitration; but, unhappily, this war in Europe has indefinitely postponed the possibility of the case being arbitrated in the ordinary way. This being so, and it being well known and admitted that the English company is entitled to suitable compensation, it is plain that if the present responsible officials of the present administration do not take steps to pay such compensation, without more ado the current belief abroad that they are no more to be relied upon for just treatment than were their Republican predecessors, will appear selfevident. For years I endeavored to convince the distinguished Englishmen that I had induced to join with me in financing the original Elephant Butte Dam project that the "General Government " had been misled into instituting the Elephant Butte Dam suit. Unfortunately my argument in defense of the good faith of the Government was proved to be intenable. Then I had to contend that in due course our Federal Supreme Court would surely protect the rights of the English investors and that faith being destroyed I could but bid them hope for a Democratic victory at the polls-which I believed and assured my friends abroad would mean the return of honest men to power in this country. Our party, however, has now been in office nearly three years, and seemingly is no more disposed to make for speedy justice in the case than was the old Republican gang. So what can I now say in defense of our national honor. Please read the last two pages of the accompanying statement, then do me the justice of calling on Judge King to pass on the merits of the case. If the claim presented by Rankin is entitled to such consideration then surely the one I represent is entitled to like consideration. Yours sincerely, NATHAN BOYD. Mr. Nathan Boyd to the First Assistant Secretary of the Interior. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 17, 1916. MY DEAR MR. JONES: In the press of other matters incidental to rewriting part of my forthcoming history of the Elephant Butte Dam project for presentation to the members of the Irrigation Congress at El Paso next November, I doubt if I shall be able to see you again before you start on your way to New Mexico and, as I have decided, after careful consideration, that unless I receive some definite assurance of the present administration's intention to give prompt justice in respect to "The Rio Grande Claim," the justice of which claim is officially admitted in Judge King's formal report thereon, I can not consistently continue to disregard the fact that certain high officials of the "General Government " now in office are, evidently, no more disposed to uphold our national honor, by making for prompt justice in the premises, than were their predecessors in office. I am writing to assure you personally of my confidence in your good will and desire to see justice done in this matter, and of my deep appreciation of your kindness to me; also that in any event I shall, on my return home, do all that I may to help make for your election to the United States Senate. My statement of case in behalf of the defrauded investors in the original Elephant Butte Dam project, filed in the department on November 16, 1915, and my letters (written in 1913) to Secretary Lane apropos of the Rio Grande claim, have it appears been deliberately ignored by the present "powers that be," and as it is officially admitted in Judge King's report that the record facts conclusively establish that suitable compensation should be paid to the said defrauded investors, I am reluctantly constrained to believe that there is but little, if any, reason for me to expect that the present administration, as such, will do anything looking to a prompt and just settlement of the claim. Therefore, as the matter is one that touches, nay, besmirches, our national honor, I shall, perforce, have to treat the subject accordingly in my said forthcoming publication, unless, as above stated, I am promptly given definite assurances of the administration's desire and intention finally and justly to dispose of the case before the present Cabinet retires next March. As stated in my last letter to you (11 instant), I am fully convinced that, if made cognizant of the real facts of the case, President Wilson would insist that it should at once be settled, and with entire justice to the claimants; and, such being my belief, I intend, if Secretary Lane elects not to interest himself in the matter, to address a communication to the President, which, by reason of the fact that our national honor is involved in it, can hardly fail to move him to take suitable action thereon. With a view to ensuring that the matter will receive the President's personal consideration, I shall offer to present the Mazzolini portrait of Beatrice Cenci to any public art gallery he may designate if I receive his personal assurance that the statement of fact (I shall submit with such communication) has been given his personal attention. Should it so happen that his private secretary, or other, neglects to call the President's attention to such communication, or if it should appear that he is imposed upon by parties that misrepresent the real facts of the case, then I shall at once publish in the local press, even |