The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-03

Irrigation, Forest Reserves, Public
Lands, Territories and Indians.

or natlonally-alded irrigation Tor the arlu
regions of the far West. A good beginning
therein has been made. Now that this pol
icy Of national irrigation has been adopted,
the need of thorough and scientific forest
protection will grow more rapidly than ever
throughout the public-land States.
Legislation should be provided for the
protection of the game, and the wild crea-
lures generally, on the forest reserves. The
senseless slaughter of game. which can by
judicious protection be permanently pre-
served on our national reserves for the
people as a whole, should be stopped at
once. 1t is, for instance. a serious count
against our national good sense to permit
the present practice of butchering off such
a stately and beautiful creature as the elk
for it's antlers and tusks.
So far as they are available for agricul-
ture. and to whatever extent they may be
reclaimed under the national irrigation law,
the remaining public lands should be held
rigidly for the home builder, the settler
who lives on his land, and for no one else.
In their actual use the desert-land law, the
timber and stone Iaw, and the Communication
clause of the homestead law have been so
perverted from the intention with which
they were enacted as to permit the acqui-
sition of large areas of the public domain
for other than actual settlers and the con-
Sequent prevention of settlement. More
over. the approaching exhaustion of the
public ranges has of late led to much dis
cussion as to the best manner of using these
public lands in the West which are suitable
chiefly or only for grazing. The sound and
steady development of the West depends
upon the building up of homes therein.
Much of our prosperity as a nation has been
due to the operation of the homestead law.
On the other hand, we should recognize the
fact that in the grazing region the man who
corresponds TO the homesteader may be un-
able to settle permanently If only allowed TO
use the same amount of pasture land that
his brother, the homesteader, is allowed to
use of arabic land. One hundred and sixty
acres Of fairly rich and well-watered soil,
or a much smaller amount of irrigated land,
may keep a family in plenty, whereas no
one could get a living from one hundred
and sixty acres of dry pasture land capable
of supporting at the outside only one head
of cattle to every ten acres.
TRESPASSERS WARNED.
In past great tracts of the public domain
have been fenced in by persons having no
title thereto, in direct defiance of the law
forbidding the maintenance or construc-
| ton of any such unlawful Enclosure of pub
lie land. For various reasons there has
been little interference with such inclos-
| ures In the past, but ample notice has now
been given the trespassers. and all the re-
sources at the command of the government
will hereafter be used to put a stop to such
trespassing.
In view of the capital Importance Of these
matters, / commend them to the earnest
consideration of the Congress, and if the
Congress finds difficulty in dealing with
them from lack of thorough knowledge of
the subject, 1 that provision
be made for a commission of experts spe-
cially to investigate and report upon the
complicated questions involved.
/ especially urge upon the Congress the
need Of wise legislation for Alaska. 1t is
not to our credit as a nation that Alaska,
which has been ours for thirty-five years,
should still have as poor a system of laws
as is the case. No country has a more
valuable possession-in mineral wealth. in
fisheries, furS, forests, and also in land
| available for certain kinds of farming and
| stockgrowing. 1t is a territory of great
size and varied resources, well fitted to
support a large permanent population.
Alaska needs a good land law and such
provisions for homeSteads and prescriptions
as will encourage permanent settlement.
We should shape legislation with a view
not to the exploiting and abandoning of the
territory, but to the building up of homes
therein. The land laws should be liberal in
type, so as TO hold out inducements to the
actual settler whom we most desire to see
take possession of the country. HI forests
of Alaska should be protected, and, as a
secondary but still important matter, the
game also, and at the same time it is i'm
to cut timber, under proper regulations, for
their own use. Laws should be enacted to
protect the Alaskan salmon fisheries
against the greed which would destroy
them. They should be preserved as a per-
manent industry and food supply. Their
management and control should be turned
over to the Commission of Fish and Fish
cries. Alaska should ave a delegate in
the Congress. 1t would be we'll if a con-
gressional committee could visit Alaska and
investigate its needs on the ground.
DUFF INDIAN WARDS.
In dealing with the Indians our aim
should be their ultimate absorption into the
body of our people. But in many cases this
absorption must and should be very slow
In portions of the Indian Territory the mix.
ture of blood has gone on at the same tim
with progress in wealth and education, Sc
that there are plenty of men with varying
degrees of purity of Indian blood who arr
absolutely ind%istinguishable in point of so.
cial, political and economic ability from
their white associates. There are othel
tribes which have as yet made no percep
tible advance toward such equality. To try
TO force such tribes too fast is to proven
their going forward at all. Moreover, tn,
tribes live under widely different condi
tions. Where a tribes has made consider
able advance and lives on fertile farmins
soil IL is possible to allot the member
lands in severalty much as is the case witt
white settlers. There are other tribes wher,
such a course is not desirable. On the ari,
prairie lands the efforts should be to in
duce the Indians to lead pastoral rattle
than agricultural lives. and TO permit then
to settle in villages rather than to fore,
them into isolation.
The large Indian schools situated remot
from any Indian reservation do a spec;a
and peculiar work of great importance
But. excellent though these are. an i'm
mense amount of additional work must b
done or the reservations themselves anon,
the old, and above all among the young
Indians.
The first and most important step towar,
the absorption of the Indian is TO teach hin
TO earn his living: yet II is not nesessaril
TO be assumed that in each community al
Indians must become either tillers of tn
soil or stock raiserS. Their industries ma
properly be diversified. and those who shoy
special desire or ~adaptability for industrial
or even commercial pursuits should be en-
couraged so far as practicable TO follow on
each his own bent.
Every effort should be made to develo
the indian along the lines of natural anti
tude. and 10 encourage the existing nativ
Industries peculiar to certain tribes. sue
as the various kinds of basket weaving
canoe building. smith work and blanke
work. Above all. the Indian boys and girl
should be given confident command of colo
ouial English. and should ordinarily h
prepared for a vigorous struggle with tn
conditions under which their people live
rather than for immediate absorption int
more highly developed community.
The officials who represent the govern
J ment in dealing with the Indians work un