The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-06-12
PROTEST FROM ALASKA
Grand Jury Scores General Agent
of Education,

Juneau, Alaska, June 6, (via Seattle,
Wash, June 1L)-The grand jury of
the United States district court for
Alaska has made sensational report
on the conduct of educational matters
in Alaska The report reads:
I'm the hope that it may be able to
effeotually reach some remedial power,
or authority the grand jury desires to
direct attention to the deplorable con-
dition of educational affairs in Alaska.
1.-The blame cannot be justly laid at
the doors of congress. Between the
years 1884 and 1887 inclusive, there was
appropriated for education in Alaska,
an aggregate OF $415.0o0. a sum which,
had it been judiciousiy expended, ought
to have given Alaska a school system
fairly commensurate with the require
mentS of our people. We do not under
take to say that there has been any
dishonest or direct misrepresentation of
any part of this large sum of money,
but We do aver that a considerable por-
ton of it has been frittered away in
payment Of the expenses of wholly use
less summer jaunts by the general
agent Of education to remote parts of
the territory and in the establishment
of schools at points where none were
needed, unless indeed it be conceded
that the education of the children of a
people who,
by day catch the ermine.
And by night chase other vermin,"
are to be given the preference over
those of the intelligent white people
who form the advance guard in the
march of civilization into Alaska
Money Is Squandered.
But for the reason that it believes
that a large amount of money has been
uselessly expended, and, the truth not
being made manifest, will continue to
be expended under the direction of the
general agent of education in Alaska,
while yet the neglect of our educational
interests is prolonged. the grand jury
would hesitate to refer even CASUALLY
to his extraordinary scheme for revo-
lutioniZing the mode of travel and
transportation of mails and supplies in
Alaska. by the introduction of do
mesticated reindeer from Siberia But
we submit that his utter neglect OF the
duties for the performance of which
he is paid a salary and the consequent
demoralized condition of our educa-
tional system, demands and justifies
even a harsher criticism than that
which follows:
I'VE charge that this man is I'M
truthful, and that he has persist
emily embodied in his official reports
statements concerning educational
matters in Alaska which he knew to
be absolutely false. He has charged
time and time again in his official re-
ports that the clergy of the Greco
Russian church oppose the teaching of
English in their schools, and threaten
parents that if they allow their children
to learn English, their boys will be
taken away and put into the American
army as soon as they are old enough
TO do duty as soldiers, whereas, the
truth is, that English has always been
taught in the principal Greco Rus
sian schools. If he has been guilty of
deliberate falsehood in his official re-
ports on schools and education in
Alaska. what reliance is to be placed
on those he makes concerning the use
of reindeer in Alaska? The plain,
simple truth is, that each and every
attempt at the use of reindeer for
transportation in Alaska has been a