The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-14
tant when the Indian territory will be-

tant when the Indian territory will be-
come Kansas and Kansas Missouri.
In favoring the opening of Oklahona
and what land will follow it we sacri-
feed our temporary former permanent
prosperity. wise and sagacious act for
an individual; community or state. The
citizens Of Kansas standing on the
threatening ground of mortgaged indebt-
edness, with their homes gradually
slipping from beneath their feet are
quick to relinquish their old possessions
and cast their fortunes in country
where they can manage their affairs
mora prudentiy.
| The way the Indian has been treated,
the apathetic indifference with which
his pleadings for natural and hereditary
rights have been entertained ever since
the white man commenced to encroach
| upon his possessions, has cast a stain of
disgrace upon the history of America
which modern charity has tried in vain
to purge. We are beginning to learn
that no human race can be Invested of
its original privileges and immunities
given by nature in her primitive stages
and strengthened aad fortified by agss of
uninterrupted sway, and afterwards
stances entirely different, without caus-
ing an uncomfortable remonstrance and
an infractible uprising eff disconnected
factions, except 1t be through number
less years of amalgamation and altera-
ton of environments, and the
eliminated sense of the nation is
passing from the golden crucible
OF experience, the important
division ultimate and complete that
gorged Incidence is unmistakable misery
and that no real favor Is conferred on
the red man by granting him an exist
ence free from the trouble and anxiety
of pursuit. In feeding the Indian, with
no attempt to instruct him in the arts of
peace, we waste our substance and in
fiict mental wound on those to whom
we owe favor. Some OF the tribes are
fairly schooied and well advanced in
agricultural pursuits. They send their
children to school and church, prohibit
bigamy and sexual discrimination;
raise some cotton, grain and tobacco;
devote considerable attention to pointer
Gus culture and show marked improve
ment in their manipulation of social and
political affairs. They have imbibed the
spirit of civilization, exchanging their
savage instincts for the plastic senti-
ments of peace. These tribes might be
turned adrift to shift, and flow to their
native level. They are able to take care
of themselves, and aid, heaped on pro-
fciency, reduces itself to burden.
But there are other nations grossly ig-
unsophisticatedf from their native
vices, savage and dirty and idolent,
beyond comparison. Clothed in the
gaudy robes which cover their native
and tatooed deformity. they
cling to their customare
practices and refuse to accept the anne
liorating influences of civilization. They
cultivate the soil in the rudest way and |
teach their Legitimate children the arts
of mendacity and criminality. They |
draw their money and rations, but gam
bling and debauchery soon reduces them |
to penniless condition and they wait |
again for their periodical supplies. They |
are fruitless source Of expenditure and |
| doubt whether there is more depend
ent and corpulent race of individuals on
the earth today than these copper
skinned votares of generous republic.
They live IN their little teepes and in
heir squallied huts, food is unsolicited
hence the tendency must be toward the
setting sun. Observe what a prostitu-
ion of Justice it would be to force or in
luce these helpless creaturs to immed-
ately depart from their former
conditions and to depend on voluntary
,xertions for their daily bread. The
,uick transition would paralyze their
lbility and throw upon society disgust
ng burden They must be educated by
degrees, and this is by no means being
entirely neglected. Philanthropic eff
orts are penetrating the paganistic dark
less and the seemingly aimless lives OF
he youth are being shaped into forms of
ymmetry and truth. Let the admins
ration relying on judicious Judgment
md proceeding from just conception of
PREVIOUS contracts notify the more intel
igent tribes TO pull their freights, and
hereby check this useless claim on the
,ublic treasury. while simultaneously
efforts, both legal charitable,
hould be made to bring around as soon
S possible a self-supporting class of the
tribes.
1t is spring, now. The vines and
hrubs and grass are bursting the walls
f their wintry confinement and awak-
ming to the solicitations of sun and rain,
nd nature will soon be clad i'll her an
ual garment of green. The trees are
lothing naked limbs and their
eafless branches will howl no
lore the pitiless requiem of ,
,ng departed joys. Vernal beauty
aust pass and fade, flowers must wilt
nd droop away, and through all the !
nades of summer and the fruitful
utumn thousands of acres of tenantless I
md lying within the domain of this Z
lagniticent region must lie dormant or {
ring forth their spontaneous bounty in 6
ain. Think Of the number Of destitute :
antilles waiting around the borders of {
le territory, desiring to enter and apply I
leir labor TO the unturned sod. What '
u amount of baffied energy they repre- t
mt.
Every industry is depressed from sea I
sea. Two hundred thousand paupers, {
omeless and penniless, extend their {
.illing hands in vain. The American '
easent bends his head and utters voice
SIS prayer, and vet this vast stretch of S
denic waste is allowed to grow once
lore 10 the protitless grass and fruitless ,
erbage OF an unproductive plain.
WALTER BIDwELL