Arizona republican., 1902-03-01
PHoEN1x. ARIZONA, MARCH I. 1902.

 HOT HOUSE tives the other day TRAINING that the vast sums of FOR INDIANS. money annually eX-
 pended for the main tenance of the Indian school at Car Iisle. Pennsylvania. and for other east ern schools, are practically wasted. The Indian appropriation bill was un- der consideration by the committee of the whole. and Mir. smith had just been defeated in his efforts to secure an appropriation of fifty thousand dol lars for the commencement of con- struction of the San Carlos reservoir. He had set forth in eloquent as well as pointed language the duty of the government to provide water for the Indians for irrigation on the Gila River reservation. and had shown that many thousands of peaceable. agricultural h. dians will be reduced to pauperism if the government does not provide them with water wherewith to sustain themselves. He had pointed out that the annual appropria ton for taking care of these wards in future years will inevitably grow to be a burden on the federal treasury. compared with which expense the interest on the cost of the San Carlos dam would be tria- ing. But he found no encouragement among the representatives. and his amendment was ruled out on a point of order raised by Mir. Cannon, chair man of the committee on appropria- tions. Sung by the injustice thus
 
 MT. smith improved the opportunity a few minutes later to attack the sys-I tenn of wGsting a fortune each year in educating Indians away from their environment. We quote from the Record:
 Mir. Smith-I have always been op- posed to this policy of educating an Indian at a distance from his native place, removing him from his regular environment. and bringing him up within an atmosphere that can never possibly aid him in his future struggle for bread.
 I think the experience of aH man with the actual Indian returned to his former surroundings will bear me out in the assertion that this foreign edu cation has done the Indian boy or girl no earthly good. Eor has their return aided or honored their tribe or bene- fited the community.
 Isolate them in their youth, educate and clothe them return them to the reservation. and their subsequent his tory is known to all men who know poor human nature, whether they ever saw an Indian in their life or not. What is the result? He learns clean Illness and returns to his Indian home with it's dirt. it's squalor. and it's yer min. What is left to him or her? The suggestion is enough. The boy has learned to read and write, to cipher and sing a song and smoke cigarettes. as suggested to me by my friend here. and we are spending these hundreds and thousands Of dol.a.s anC I hear no protest from my friend from Illi- nois.
 Mir. Caunon-Wm my friend allow me to interrupt him?
 Mir. Smith (of na)--Certainly.
 MT CaEnon-ComrIenCin in 1886. by a report I male. in connection with other members Of q special committee, | after full eHa mination, no congress has passed-aId I have been in from that time to this-but what I have pro | tested, and nov protest, that | think it is the highest charaCcr Of cruelty | to take people
 T hear the gentleman say so.
 Mir. Cannon fcontinuingJ-And give l them a finished education that do not know how to work. and send them back to the tribcs.- where it is a mat l ter of pride that the young men there put on the blanket. and in many in- stances the young woman shall be ! prostitued.
 MT. smith (or Arizona) T am glad to ] see that the gentleman feels in this cx- actIy as I do. I wish in all that time. l with his great, and justly great infiu | ence in this house, he had Ions ago persuaded it to quit this sort of busi- | ness.
 Now, gentlemen. this sort Of educa- | tion does no earthly good. These chil- l dren are taken away from their native | place, without consent of their friends | and against the natural and often eS- 1 pressed opposition of the parents. They | may obtain some sort of consent but | never the free. voluntary will of any | one of them. They are brought here by | force; they are educated by force; they i are made show of by force. and hu- | mane and misguided people take great | delight in showing him with his cut off hair and new clothes as evidence conclusive of his ultimate bettermentI in life
 lSooh al them, Nif- (ndirnan, NHeE they go back from these schools. The gentleman from Illinois CNr. Caunom has stated with great power and force what their condition is ss.Te 90 be l ! protest here in the name of the Indian himself in the name of the boy and the girl for the Lords sake and huual- ity's sake educate them in tiir cnviror'- meat where they have to live; quit this business Of talSinr them or to the east and teaching them songs ami thc