Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1893-01-26

where precarious employment, ex-
hausting work, miserable pay
throw them into a condition of des-
peration which is the threshold
Of ruin. School.taught handicraft
will revolutionize the industrial
world; for it will put into work, /,
mind and conscience, the want of
which makes so much of our work
useless when paid for; | can testify
from my experience in trying to
keep the Academy property in re-
pair that the saving of the waste of
botched" " work by clumsy and
conscienceless workmen would be
vast addition to the wealth of the
world; IL would be enough to double
the number Of men actually at
work, increase their wages and pro-
mote the general prosperity to an
extent now unthought of; moreover
the responsibility of the new and
better education does not end here;
by sumptuous but sensible luxury
of appointment our schools shall
familiarize all children, even the
poorest, from the very beginning
with the refnements that dignity
and ennoble life; art, dignifed in
tercourse, music, and noble conver-
sation in place of the scurrili;y and
profanity which forms the bulk Of
common speech, will no longer be
the exclusive possession of the
rich; indeed the poorer child will
be the more fortunate since the in
lluences which impress him will be
arranged by responsible and capa-
ble persons and will not be subject
to the caprices OF individual taste;
the school will be the complement
of the home; like the selection Of
the child's books and pictures, in
moral training also, it is better that
the child should be, part of. the
time, under the control of response
BILE and capable persons outside the
home and not entirely subject to
the caprices of individual taste; in
short, every natural right of which
the child is deprived in his home
through poverty or ignorance
should and shall be in due time
and with proper caution furnished
him in school; the child belongs to
the State as truly as to the parent;
the State will see that he shall
have a school to attend if he wills
and that no circumstance of birth
or surroundings shall deprive him
of what is necessary to make him
safe and useful member of society.
Such is an outline of the plan
which the school legislation of
future years will fill in; that such q
system, in nearly all its perfection,
is in vogue now in Washing
ton City is the assurance that
| am indulging in no empty dream;
agitators for a State socialism, have
tailed quite generally, | believe to
notice that our constitution in tax
ing the rich for the education of all
without distinction of class has es-
tablished a most splendid and i'm
posing fabric of socialism upon our
commonwealth, and has put into
practical operation the only scheme
by which the gains of the rich can
be appropriated for the benefit of
the poor to the real advantage of
the poor.
When the time comes to tax the
people of this Territory for the
erection of a school system, it will
have no rich class of property
holders to tax; it must tax forty
cent wheat if the people do not
dedicate the strip money to this
noble use; forty cent wheat, it is
very likely to remain; our country
has too many movers" who live
from hand to mouth and who rush
wheat upon the market and smash
prices, and leave the country with
notes unpaid while the honest
farmer class is left face to face with
ruined market, crops barely suf-
fcing under these ruinous prices
for bread and seed, and the grim
shadow of accumulating interest
growing into a cloud which literally
blots out the sun. The building OF
your school system will wait for
the more convenient day which will
never come until your people will
find out that they can get along
without schools, like some Of the
unhappy communities mentioned
in former article Of mine on this
subject.
What has all this to do with the
preservation OF the Cherokee auton-
omy2 A sentence in a recent is
sue of Territory paper is worth
noting: "We must expect the
government to deal with us as with
any other civilized people," which
means among other things that il
the Cherokee government does not
protect every individual in the en-
! joyment of his natural rights, the
general government should and
shall; the renters and others follow.
ing lawful callings are a vast bene-
fit to the nation; they represent
nearly all its productive energy and
are therefore the source of nearly
all its wealth and therefore the in.
gratitude Of leaving their children
destitute Of school privileges while
appropriating all their labor is az
manifest as its impolicy; the gen.
eral government will not turn a
deaf ear TO the bitter cry Of thesa
outcasts; the only reasonable pre-
text now being made for taking
forcible possession Of Indian Ter
ritory and destroying its autono,
mics is that men are not protected