Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-12-05
CONSULAR REFORMS.

Inc guardianship and fostering of our
rapidly expanding foreign commerce, the
protection of American citizens resorting to
foreign countries in lawful pursuit of their
affairs, and the maintenance of the dignity
of the nation abroad, combine to make it
essential that our cOnSulS should be men
of character, knowledge and enterprise 1t
is true that the service is now, in the main
efficient, but Il standard of excellence can
not be permanently maintained until the
principles set forth in the bills heretofore
submitted to the congress on this subject
are enacted into law.
In the presidents Judgment the time has
arrived when we should definitely make up
our minds to recognize the Indian as an
Individual and not as n member of d tribe.
We should now break up the tribal feuds,
doing for them what allotment does for the
tribal lands; that is, they should be di-
vided into individual holdings A stop
should be put upon the indiscrminate per-
mission to Indians to lease their allot-
ments. The effort should be steadily to
make the Indian work like any other man
on his own ground. The marriage laws of
the Indians should be made the same as
those of the whites. In the schools the
education should be elementary and largely
Industrial. There is no use in attempting
to induce agriculture in q country suited
only for cattle raising, where the Indian
should be made a stock grower. The ration
system. which is merely the corral and the
reservation system, rs highly detrimental to
the Indians. 1t promotes beggary, perpet-
yates pauperiSm, and stiles industry. It
is an effectual barrier to progress. The In
dian should be treated as an individual
like the white man.
COmmendatiOn is accorded the st. Louis
and Charleston expositions.
LIBRARIES
Perhaps the most characteristic educa-
tional movement of the past fifty years is
that which has created the modern public
library and developed it into broad and &C
tive service There are now over 5000 pub
lie libraries in the United States, the prod
uct of this period. In addition to accumu-
lating material, they are also striving by
organization, by Improvement in method,
and by cooperation, to give greater eff
cheney to the material they hold, to make
it more widely useful, and by avoidance Of
unnecessary duplication in process to re-
duce cost of its administration. In these
efforts they naturally look for assistance to
the federal library.
For the sake of good administration,
sound economy, and the advancement Of
science, the census office as now constituted
should be made a permanent government
bureau.
POSTAL ABUSES.
The full measure of postal progress which
might be realized has long been hampered
and obstructeu by the heavy burden inn
posed on the government through the in
trenched and Well-understOOd abuses which
have grown up i'll connection with second
class mail matter. The extent of this bur-
den appears wheE it is stated that while
the SecOnd-class matter makes nearly three
ffths of the weight of all the mail, it paid
for the last fiscal year only $4,294, 445 of the
aggregate postal revenue of Sill 631, 1873. If
the pound rate of postage, which produces
the large loss thus entailed, and which was
fixed by congress with the purpose Of en-
couraging the dissemination of public in
formation, were limited to the legitimate
newspapers and periodicals actually con-
templated by the law, no exception could
be taken. That expense would be the rec
ognized and accepted cost of liberal pol
icy deliberately adopted for a unsuitable
end. But much Of the matter which enjoys
the privileged rate is wholly outside of the
in.cnt of the law, and has secured admis-
sion only through an evasion of its require
ments or through lax construction. The
proportion of such wrongly included matter
is estimated by postal experts to be one
half of the whole volume of second-class
mail If it be only one-third or One-quarter
the magnitude of the burden is apparent.
The postoffice department has now under
taken to remove the abuses so far as pos
sble by a stricter application Of the law;
ana it should be sustained in its effort.
In conclusion the presiuent alludes to the
settlement of the troubles in China.