Morning journal and courier., 1888-09-27
N0WO ny tOIOSioPH
FROM ALL QUARTERS.
TO ClVILIZE THE INDIAN.
Lyman Abbott Urges Com
puIsory Education.
THE FEVER is DYING OUT.
Few Deaths Reported And
Confidence Expressed.
GENERAL HARRISON SUGGESTS
Another Plan To Dispose
Of The Surplus.
GENERAL HARRISON SUGGESTS
TO crv.1rzE THE INDIAN.

Friends ofthe Savage Meet and Discuss
Measures for Ref0rm-Lyman Abbott
Urges Compulsory EducatiOn.
LAKE MoHoNk, NY, Sept. 26.-The sixth
annual meeting of the Lake Mohonk confer
ence of the friends of the Indian was called
to order this morning by Hon. Albert z.
Smiley, member Of the board of Indian
commissioners. General Clinton B. Fiske,
president of the board of Indian commits
sioners, was for the sixth year elected presi-
dent of the conference. The secretaries are
J. W. Davis of Boston, J. G. Kinney of Hart
ford and Mrs. Isabella @. Barrow Of Boston.
PROGRESS OF INDIAN CIVILIZATION.
General Whittelsey of Washington, secre-
tary of the board OF Indian commissioners,
opened the conference by giving resume of
the progress of Indian work and of its pres
emit condition. There were at present about
260, 900 Indians in the country. The census
makes it probable that the number is gradu-
ally increasing. It will be twenty years next
spring since General Grant inaugurated the
peace policy, the policy of humane and just
dealing with the Indians. During that peri
cd progress has been made all along the line.
In spite of occasional set-backs and i'll criti-
cisms, the government management of
Indian affairs is decidedly better than
twenty years ago. Frauds on the In
dams and on the government are
now of rare occurrence. There has
been remarkable progress in industries.
The friends of Indian civilization have been
laboring to secure them lands in severalty
and as result we now have the Dawes bill.
Only slight progress has been made because
of the failure of the appropriation, which
made it necessary last spring to suspend all
the work that had been begun. In conclus-
ion General Whittlesey gave interesting sta
tistics concerning the Indians of Canada who
number 228, 900. Their condition is general
" better than that of our own Indians.
A PLEA FOR COMPULSORY EDUCATION.
The first paper of the session was present
ed by DIR. Lyman Abbott on the need of a
strong government educational system for
Indian children. The country, he said, has
entered upon the solution of the land prob
lem and the law problem has been put in
the way Of solution, but nothing has been
done toward the solution of the educational
problem. The speaker alluded to the undue
preponderance of Roman Catholic schools
and to the fragmentary efforts at the educa-
ton of Indian children as vices which should
be eradicated, and submitted to the confer
ence the following propositions:
The United States must undertake to pro-
vide this education, not to supplement pros
visions made by others, but to assume the
work of equipping for civilized industry and
intelligent citizenship the entire mass of In
dian population now under the age of, say
sixteen. The education thus to be afforded
must not merely be offered as gift; it must
be imposed by superior authority. 1t must
be made compulsory. This policy would re-
iieve the churches to a considerable extent
from the responsibility of educating the In
dian children.
he commended that in order to take the
question out of politics that the President
appoint a non-political commissioner, who
shall be authorized to organize and direct q
new educational system; that the money for
that system be appropriated in the lump by
Congress to that educational commission, and
that the appointment of teachers, the organ
ization of schools and the maintenance of the
system be placed under its direction and con-
troll freed from the entanglements involved
on the one hand in connection with an ad-
ministrative bureau, on the other hand by
the necessity of securing influence" in the
House of Representatives for useful appro-
priAtions.
Hon Seth Low thought the natural solu-
ton of the problem would be a national
board of education TO carry out the system
advocated by Dr.. Abbott. Judge Draper,
superintendent of public instruction, regard
cd DIR. Abbotts plan q well considered one
and warmly endorsed it. The Indian prob
lem would not be solved until education was
made compulsory and thorough under a ma
tionAl non sectarian system
At the evening session the special commit
tee appointed to report on DIR. Abbott's paper
presented 9 series of resolutions favoring a
national system of secular education for In
dams children under the care of a permanent
and responsible commission appointed by the
President; and said commission shall have
power to appoint superintendent and teach
ers and to organize and operate the system.
General Armstrong, who is fresh from the
Sioux reservation, said that the thing to dc
is to be sure that the agent is the right man.
1t would not do to give up the religious
schools. Keep all the good we have and get
az much more as we can.
Tomorrow will be devoted to the question
Of law. The discussion will be opened by
Prof. Thayer and Austin Abbott. =