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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page.

Annual Report of Board of Managers..

Table A. Statement of estimates and appropriations for year ending June 30, 1890.

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B. Appropriations by the Board of Managers for the same year.
C. Expenditures by general treasurer for the same year..

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D. Receipts and expenditures of the branches for the same year..

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E. (No. 1, 2, 3.) Estimates submitted by the branches for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892. Also averages present, and present and absent, for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1889, and June 30, 1890.....

F. Estimate of Board of Managers for fiscal year ending June 30, 1892 ... 15
G. Expenditures for bedding and clothing during fiscal year ending June
30, 1890.....

H. Bedding and clothing manufactured during same year

I. Bedding and clothing issued during same year.

J. Expenses of Board of Managers for same year..

K. Average cost per year per member from date of organization.

L (No. 1, 2, 3). Financial statement and statistics of State Homes for fiscal year ending June 30, 1890......

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M. Accounts of general treasurer for the same year

N. Pension fund account

O. Posthumous fund account.

P. Post fund account...

Letter of Secretary to Board of Managers.

Table of average numbers present, present and absent, whole number cared for, gain and loss, from date of organization to June 30, 1590. Comparative percentages of number of men rurnished by the States in the civil war, and number of men from the same States cared for by the Home...... Average annual number of members of the Home present, and present and absent, and number cared for each year from organization, with number of deaths, and percentages of deaths.

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Ages, deaths, and percentages of deaths of whole number cared for during fiscal year ending June 30, 1890.

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Return of the National Home for the year ending June 30, 1890..
Proceedings of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890.
Annual report of the Central Branch, for the year ending June 30, 1890.
Annual report of the Northwestern Branch, for the year ending June 30, 1890
Annual report of the Eastern Branch, for the year ending June 30, 1890.
Annual report of the Southern Branch, for the year ending June 30, 1890.
Annual report of the Western Branch, for the year ending June 30, 1890.
Annual report of the Pacific Branch, for the year ending June 30, 1890.
Annual report of the Marion Branch, for the year ending June 30, 1890.
Report of General W. W. Averell, assistant inspector-general...........
Record of members of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers for the
year ending June 30, 1890.

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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1890.

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled:

The Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers makes the following report of that institution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890.

During the year there have been two vacancies caused by death, viz, General John A. Martin, ex-governor of Kansas, second vice presi dent of the Board, who died on October 2, 1889, and General John F. Hartranft, ex-governor of Pennsylvania, who died on October 17, 1889. These vacancies were noted and remarked upon in the last annual report.

A third vacancy is caused by the death of Colonel Leonard A. Harris, of Ohio, first vice president of the Board, who died July 5, 1890, just after the end of the fiscal year. The loss to the Board of Managers and to the Home by the death of Colonel Harris is exceedingly grave.

He had served on the Board for twelve years. He gave to his duties the strictest attention, and his experience in the conduct of similar institutions, his extreme sympathy for the disabled soldiers, his business qualifications, and his administrative experience as the mayor of Cincinnati, joined to his long service on the Board of Managers, cause his loss to be a particularly severe one for the Board. His genial disposition and ready wit had endeared him to every member of the Board.

The terms of the three members above mentioned would have expired on April 21, 1394. It is respectfully recommended that the vacancies be filled.

The terms of W. B. Franklin, of Connecticut; J. C. Black, of Illinois; and T. W. Hyde, of Maine, expired on April 21, 1890. These vacancies also should be filled, although by the terms of the organic law of the Home the present incumbents serve until their successors are appointed by Congress.

The ordinary duties of the Board have been performed during the year, and the branches of the Home have been visited and inspected, and the accounts audited and examined as required by law.

The supplies of the Home have been purchased by contract with the lowest bidders. They have been of excellent quality. The materials for bedding and clothing have been procured in the same way, and have been made up by the labor of the members and their families. The members have been comfortably clothed, housed, and fed, and no complaints have been made on these matters, except as to food. These complaints, as well as all others, have been few in number, and when

made were investigated by the Board, and when found to be well founded the correction has been immediately applied.

NEW BRANCHES.

Four barracks of the Marion (Indiana) branch of the Home were sufficiently completed in April last to justify their occupation by disabled soldiers, and the number present at that branch at the end of the fiscal year was 405. This occupation, although the branch was in a crude and unfinished state, was a great relief to the overcrowded older branches.

By the end of the fiscal year two other barracks were virtually finished, making six in all.

Congress has appropriated in the act, approved August 30, 1890, for this branch, for two additional barracks, a hospital, mess hall, storehouse, and laundry, the sum of $108,500. All of these buildings are under contract and the work has been commenced. They will be completed by September 15, 1891. This branch will then be capable of caring for over one thousand members.

By the same act there was appropriated by Congress, for the Pacifi branch, the sum of $132,500 for hospital, mess hall, waterworks, a barrack, headquarters, and library. These works will all be commenced during the fall and will be completed within a year. The capacity of this branch will then be sufficient for about 900 men.

MEMBERSHIP.

The average number present in the whole National Home for the year ending June 30, 1889, was 11,727. For the year ending June 30, 1890, the corresponding number was 12,935, an increase of 1,208, or 10.30 per cent. The average present and absent for the same time was 16,383, and the whole number cared for was 19,372. The average number pres ent in the State homes for the year ending June 30, 1890, was 4,516, so that there was an average number of 17,451 soldiers supported for the year in the national and State homes.

The deaths during the same years in the National Home were, for 1889, 793, and for 1890, 847, an increase of 7 per cent.

The average age of the members cared for in the Home for the year is 57.32 years, and the average age of those who died was 59.79 years. In the report of the Board of Managers for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1882, the following statement is made:

The Board of Managers has in several reports called the attention of Congress to the fact that, as the management of the Home has been kept in the control of Congress, no other department of the Government is responsible for it, and consequently no department, bureau, or office in Washington is interested in its welfare. The whole business of the corporation is done by the Board of Managers, and the Board is anxious that its doings shall be carefully watched by Congress, and any mistakes that it may make be corrected by law. It therefore again respectfully invites such investigation of its proceedings and management as Congress may consider proper.

The House of Representatives of the Forty-eighth Congress, by resolution of May 26, 1884, authorized an investigation of the Home by the Committee on Military Affairs. In its report the committee

states:

The general spirit of the laws establishing these Homes exhibits the intention of our people. They are to be Homes for the country's defenders, not asylums for the helpless poor whom society, by the laws of its existence, is bound to support.

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