The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-12-13
SECRETARY SHURz ON THE INDIANS

SECRETARY SHURZ ON THE INDIANS.
Before the congressional joint COM
mission which is considering the sub
ject of the transfer of the Indian bureau
from the interior to the war department,
secretary Shurz made the following
statement:
He denied very emphatically that the
red tape sytem of reporting Indian out
breaks which had been asserted was re-
quired under the present administration
of Indian affairs whenever a case arises
where prompt action is necessary. He
in person communicated with the secre-
tary of war, or the general of the army,
as the case may be, thereby causing but
a very few hours delay in perfecting ar
rangements to meet any emergency, rath-
er than months as intimated by General
Sherman.
He claimed that the demand for the
transfer of the bureau from the civil to
the military department was based upon
assumption rather than facts History
will prove that the Indian bureau is
credited with Indian wars which, in re-
ality occurred previous to its organiza-
ton under the civil management. The
cause of the majority of the wars, in his
opinion, is the breaking of treaties, to-
gether with the encroachment of greedy
whites upon the settlements allotted to
them. He did not believe that such mil
itary officers as General Sherman, Sher-
ldan and others, desired a war, but the
subOrdinates, who had a reputation to
make, were not so keen for peace, espe-
cially with the Indian race. The army
officers (the secretary said, in reply to a
question by General HookeF,) who have
been in charge at Indian agencies, have
been very faithful and efficient Their
duties were, however, in connection with
the unsettled affairs, and not with the
view of civiliZing the Indians.
The secretary advised the placing of
troublesome Indians on a reservation IN
der marshal laws; of increasing the num-
Der of the Indian police force from $50
to 1000 or 1900. This force was very
reliable, and had rendered good service.
He said he had read in the papers a
statement by Gen. Marcy that when in
the war department, the bureau worked
smoothly enough; that there was no
acknowledgement, and in fact no suspi.
cion of any. 1t was, in fact, as he had
said, as if angels had descended upon
earth, doing gentle ministrations among
the savages to lead them to a higher
state of well being. 1t was easily proven
that this was far from being the case. A
report of the committee to the house of
representatives, made in 1912, when the
war department had charge of Indian af-
fairs, charged clerks with objectionable
neglect; that the accounts showed an al
most total want of method; that the &C
counts of expenditures were so careless
ly kept as to furnish scarcely any trace
of the expenditures of very large sums.
For several years entries were made in
ca SIOy1nnlU q manner I'll Of tho uarxy o1o he
themselves could not explain them.
There was not single entry referring to
the Indian lands, and all the records left
in the Indian office of the war depart
ment were scraps of memoranda, pencil
notes, etc.
To bear out this statement with re-
spect to malfeasances, he quoted from
the report of Lieutenant-General Hitch
cock, and cited the action of the depart
ment in reference to the removal of the
Cherokees. The contract was made at
$40 per head, and 10000 Cherokees were
removed, but 16, 900 in excess of the &C
tual number were charged and paid for,
making the actual payment 500, 276 in
excess, or $1O3 per capita. He also read
a report dated 1884, which showed the
exorbitant prices which the Indians
were charged for various articles, and
concluded that from all this it would be
seen that the record of the war depart
ment In the management of Indian af.
fairs was by no means SO clean as Gen
eral Marcy tried to make out. He was
not going to pretend that the civil ad.
ministration was pure, but he would
say that they had no scandal quite SO bad
as the Cherokee affair. He alluded to
the difficulties of the supervision of the
different agencies, but said that many
abuses that had formerly existed were
being swept away with the explosion
of the Treasury Department prosecu-
tions of the whiskey ring. He did not
think that any department had been
more active in prosecuting their con-
tractors when they were detected.
They had perhaps fifteen or twenty I'm.
der prosecution now and only q few
weeks ago one Of these contractors was
| convicted. Now he should be very slow
to assert that the army officers, as such,
had dishonest tendencies. He thought
that the army deserved, as whole, its
reputation for honesty; that is to say,
for honest intention; yet it would be alb
surd TO say that such, class of men were
inaccessible TO the bad impulses of hu.
man nature, General Marcy has stated,
that while the administrator of the War
Department cost 81 800, 900, the Indian
Department cost $4,000, 600, a difference
| OF $3,2OO,OOO. Such a comparison was
absurd The Indian business in 1913
was nothing to what it had now become
He read statement of the amount paid
per hundred pounds of beef by the two
| departments, the Indian Bureau and
Military, which showed a saving OF
$6444, 900 in favor of the former, Gener,
| al Miles had stated that the transporta-
ton of the army cost 100000, while
the transportation of food, clothing, etc,
for the Indians only cost S225 900. A
| glance would show that the department
of the Intefior gets its transportation al
cheaper rates. He did not attribute any
of these things to the dishonesty of the
army, but rather to the cavalier way OF
looking at and dealing with these things,
Soldiers never thought of the cost of any.
| thing, if IL was thought to be necessary
AS an instance, he mentioned that at the
close of the Sioux war, there were about
10000 horses, ponies and mules taken
from the Indians, for which cows were
to be given to them, and it turned out
that these ponies and mules cost SI9.4I2
besides the COWS; and that to sell them
cost $5,6S3 additional This was an in.
stance of their cavalierly way, which
was not found in the Interior Depart
ment.
When resumption took place in
France. there was hardly a ripple upon
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