The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-08-20
SOaE VIEWS AT WASHINGTON
tBY c. A. EDwARps.)

being given Just now to the governmental
establishment OF a special asylum for in
sane Indians. There IL an appropriation
| OF $4,000 for this purpose and the site
selected is near Canton, Lincoln county
South Dakota. The plan contemplates a
three story main building with necessary
outbuildngs, and there is some talk OF
having enough OF the asylum ready BY
next fall to begin removing the insane
Indians thther. Most Of the newspaper
comments on this institutlon Is approving
in tone. the Idea seeming to be that the
asylum was a much needed addition to the
general scheme of government benefcence
to the Indians. No greater mistake was
over made. The whole thing Is humbug.
Its only use will be to draw little more
mon.y from the treausry IN South Dakota,
without giving the Indians any additional
advantage That congress should have
been led blindfold into this Job is fresh
evidence of the ignorance or carelessness
Of the average member when 1t comes to
dealing with Indian affairs.
III tHe HTst place. dil tut eNiueuCo poiuIn
to a great scarcity of insanity among the
Indians as race. There is no reason in
sanity should assume any considerable pro-
portions among them. The two classes OF
human beings most subject to Insanity are
the class whose cares keep them constantly
worried, and the class whose emotional
nature predominates over their reason.
The Indians belong to neither Of these
classes. They have no cause to worry,
because the government takes care Of
them. and nature has not made them espe
cially emotional
Senator Pettigrew. who procured this ap-
preparation for South Dakota, raked the
Indian seryic: clean In his effort to draw
arguments from agents in favor of his
plan. The bulk of the best testimony that
could be procured. however. showed that
counting together all the insane. mildly
deranged, and harmlessly weak minded,
there was barely an average of one In
dian to an agency, or at the outside, say
seventy Indians in a gross population
to be almost comical, when it is consid-
cred in the light of project to found an
exclusive asylum for Indians. Thus far
the government had got on very well by
turning those insane Indians who seem
to need restraint over TO the care of state
asylums and charitable institutions found
ed by religious bodies. A few have been
sent to the government hospital for the
insane in the District of Columbia. 1t
costs about 81 day to maintain these
Indians here. In the other places the ex-
pense has been still less. In all the in
stitutions where they have been put they
have hal the same care as other patients,
and have got the benefit of the skill of the
trained alierists in charge. Apart from
the question Of their good treatment at
cost In institutions near their
homes there arises the further consldera-
ton of accessibility and climate.
~
An Indian on a Southwestern reserya-
ton, accustomed to the mild winters, ETC.,
does not gain anything by being
set down In the midst of a Dakota prairie
simply because his mind is unbalanced
The government has established schools
'or Indian children all over the Indian
pie any further than necessary from the
leighborhood in which they have been ac-
,limated by years of residence. Why 1t
should adopt a different rule with a per-
on of deranged mind, who is presumably
10 better able to ward off physical ef-
ects OF climatic changes, does not appear.
t is too late now to cry over split milk,
md congress was duly warned that it was
'ntering upon silly enterprise before It
vent into this thing. Secretary Bliss saw
through the thing at the outset and made
very creditable adverse report or recon-
which congress promptly pro-
eeded to ignore. The only thing that
an be done now Is to cut off the absurd
treatment by newspapers which do not
it, and which assume, on gen.
raj principles, that any money appropriate
i for a gratuity to the Indians must be
good thing. We shall probably witness
reorganization Of the Indian committee
n the senate next winter, with the chance
hat legislation that gets into the hands
{ that committee hereafter will come out
lore infused with common sense and less
oaded with South Dakota.
~
Before the end is reached It will prob ,
bly, appear that OF all the rotten scandals {
hat have blackened the Mckinley ad-
Illustration. the one relating to the Car
n court martial case will be found the
lost injurious to its record and to the q
epublican party next year.
On the 18th of May, 1898, Captain ober-
n NJ. Carter of the engineer corps OF the I
rmy was found guilty of flching a for S
Inc from the government. In other +
ords, he stole $1.600,000 from the tax 1
ayers OF this country. The court martial {
lat tried him also sentenced him and v
lie sentence was dismissal from the army,
be imprisoned for Ave years and to pay :
fine of $4,000. In addition, his name, '
line and punishment were ordered to be I
iblished in the press of his home town v
r period Of six months, The RECORD e
the trial was approved by the Judge ad- ]
Icate general of the army and trans v
tilted to the president for final action I
| July 10, 1898. Carter is still captain I
the army under full pay, and is at large. t.
s technical arrest combining him only Il
the limits of the United States. No de. A
sion has been reached, or at least II
by Mr.. Mckinley, although o
ore than year has elapsed since the "
pers were presented to him. Ii
The Judge advocates approval was j.
nored, and former Senator Edmunds was n
nployed at fee Of $4,000 to go over the v