Arizona republican., 1902-12-03

in the west which are suitable chiefly or only for grazing. The sound and steady development of the west de- bends upon the building up of homes therein. Much Of our prosperity as a nation has been due to the operations 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 unable 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 out side only one head of cattle to every ten acres. In the past great tracts of the public domain have been fenced in by persons having TO title thereto, in direct defiance of the law forbidding the maintenance or construction of any such unlawful inclosure of public land. For various reasons there has been lit- tie interference with such inclosures in the past. but ample notice has now been given the trespassers, and all the resources at the command of the gov ernment will hereafter be used to put stop to such trespassing.
 In view of the capital importance of these matters, I commend them to the earnest consideration oi the congress, and if the congress finds difficulty in dealing with them from lack of thor ough knowledge of the subject, I rec ommend that provision be made for a commission of experts specially to in- vestigate and report upon the compli- cated questions involved
 ALASKA.
 l especially urge upon the congress the need of wise legislation for Alaska. It 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 more valuable possession- in mineral wealth, in fisheries, furs, forests, and also in land available for certain kinds Of farming and stock growing. It is territory of great size and varied resources. well fitted to sup port a large permanent population. Alaska needs a good land law and such provisions for homesteads and preemp- tions as will encourage permanent set clement. We should shape legislation with 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. The forests of Alaska should be protected. and, as a secondary but still important matter, the game also. and at the same time it is imperative that the settlers should be allowed to cut timber. under proper regulations. for their own use. Laws should be enacted to protect the Alas kan salmon fisheries against the greed which would destroy them. They should be preserved as a perma nent industry and food supply. Their man. agement and control should be turned over to the commission of fish and fish cries. Alaska should have a delegate in the congress. It would be we'll if congressional committee could visit Alaska and investigate its needs on the ground.
 THE INDIANS.
 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 h. dian territory the mixture Of blood has gone on at the same time with progress in wealth and education, so that there are plenty of men with varying de- grees of purity of Indian blood who are absolutely indistinguishable in point of social, political. and economic ability from their white associates. There are other tribes which have as yet made no perceptible advance toward such equality. To try to force such tribes too fast is to prevent their going for ward at all Moreover, the tribes live under widely different conditions. Where a tribe has made considera ble advance and lives on fertile farming soil it is possible to allot the members lands in severalty much as is the case with white settlers. There are other tribes where such a course is not desir- able. On the arid prairie lands the effort should be to induce the Indians to lead pastoral rather than agricul- tural lives. and to permit them to settle in villages rather than to force them into isolation.
 The large Indian schools situated re- mote from any Indian reservation do d special and peculiar work of great i'm portance. But. excellent though these are. an immense amount of additional work must be done on the reservations themselves among the old, and above all among the young, Indians.
 The first and most important step toward the absorption of the Indian is to teach him to earn his living; yet 1t is not necessarily to be assumed that in each community all Indians must become either tillers of the soil or stock raisers. Their industries may properly be diversified, and those who show special desire or adaptability for industrial or even commercial pursuits should be encouraged so far as practi- cable to follow out each his own bent Every effort should be made to de- velop the Indian along the lines of nat ural aptitude, and to encourage the existing native industries peculiar tc ! certain tribes, such as the various kinds of basket weaving. canoe build ing, smith work. and blanket work Above all, the Indian boys and girls