New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-08-16
TEACHING THEM 10 WORK.

There is reason to hope that Secretary Ieller
is on the right track in the matter OF Indian
education. Early in his service as Secretary he
announced his belief that it was more impor-
tant to teach the Indians to labor than 10 teach
them to read, aud the good sense OF the propo-
sition is conclusive. Perhaps his estimate, In
his letter to the National Educational Associa-
ton meeting at Ocean Grove-that IL Congress
will give money enough for the Indian schools
nothing will he heard of the Indian problem III
the next esneraton-was too sanguine. The
leonard cannot change his spots in one genera
tiop. even if his teeth are pnlled and he Is
s.t to work running the treadmill tor the fam
ilv cburn. The characteristics of the race can
not be obliterated even by the most civllizlng
influences, except after II long lapse of time,
and we shall doubtless have Indian troubles
through the beginning of the twentieth Gen.
tury. to say the least. But it is interesting to
estimate what can DE done toward Indian CIV
ilization in this way, and especially by the es-
tablishment of manual-labOr schools. In his
last repor. the Secretary estimated that by the
establishment of a sufficient number OF these
schools, 10000 pupils i'll all would have been
sent out by the end of the fiscal year 1883,
able to care for themselves, and the total
expense would not exceed $22,5OO,OOo, or
about two. thirds the amount expended in fight
ing the Indians during 1S64-'65. The school
population of the Indians at the present time
is nearly 10000. The average attendance OF
all the schools last year was $500; tins year
the Secretary expects to have $500 in labor
schools alone.
To carry out his proposed plan would require
a liberal increase in appropriations. Leaving
the question of its entire adoption open, 1t may
safely be said that it is cheaper to educate an
Indian than to kill him. The old saying Was
that it cost thousand dollars to kill an Indian.
The probability is that it cost a good deal more,
but thousand dollars, taking that as the fig
ure. would have given that Indian, when few
wears Younger, about five years schooling at
Carlisle or Hampton, at the rate of cost fixed
bv Congress. He W ould have emerged from it
with a trade. or some other preparation for
labor with good store of general knowledge.
and with the old savage idea that work is fit
only for squaws and white men well educated
out of him. II is as plain as the rule OF three
that this must tend rapidly to the civilization
of the race.
One great drawback, however, has been the
inability of some of the educated young men
and women 10 stand against the demoralizing
influences of the half-savage life when they
returned to it. They found themselves, with
their newly acquired refinement and decency,
in the midst of the old filth, squalor, immortality
and shiftlessness by which they were once sur
rounded. Pitiful stories are told of the misery
and despair of some of these poor people who
| had been educated to live out of the mud and
vet had to go back to it. No doubt there has
| been an improvement here. Senator Edmnnds,
| who will not be accused of sentimentalism, de-
| clared in debate last winter that, according
| to information received at the Hampton School,
near which he had spent a month, visiting it
constantly hardly per cent of those who were
! sent out from that school failed 10 sustain
themselves in their new mode of life. Secre-
tary Ieller's argument is that if the Govern
| ment will provide schools for 30 or 40 per cent
of the children, the number will be so near a
| majority as to be able to control the sentiment
of the rising generation Of Indians, and SO
| exert powerful influence on tue side of civili-
Zaton-and work.