The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-12-05
and fatigues to which they are Of necessity sub

There seems not the slightest chance Of troubl,
with a foreign power. We most earnestly hope
that this state OF things may continue, and the
way to insure its continuance is to provide for 9
thoroughly efficient navy. The refusal to main.
tain such a navy would invite trouble, and il
trouble came would insure disaster. Fatuous sci,
competency or vanity or shortsightedness in re.
fusing to prepare for danger is both foolish and
wicked in such a nation as ours, and past expert.
ence has shown that such faulty in refusing to
recognize or prepare for any crisis in advance is
usually succeeded by a mad panic Of hysterical
fear once the crisis has actually arrived.
The striking increase in the revenues of the
postoitice department shows clearly the PROSPERITY
OF our people and the increasing activity of the
business of the country.
The receipts of the postofnce department for
the fiscal year ending June 80 last amounted to
Si2l,s4e,o4!.26 an increase of &c., PIC, $685. 81 over
the pr"r"d1nr year, the largest increase known in
ine history OF the postal service. The magnitude
that the entire postal receipts for the year 1860
amounted TO but IS, 51s,O OCT.
Rural free delivery service is no longer in the
experimental stage. 1t has become a fixed policy.
The results following its introduction have fully
justified the congress in the large appropriations
made for its establishment and extension. The
average yearly increase in postof1ce receipts in
the rural districts of the country is about 2 per
cent. We are now able, by actual results, to
sho" that where rural free delivery service has
been Established to such an extent as to enable
US to make comparisons the yearly increase has
been upward of 10 per cent.
On Nov. l. 1902, 1850 rural free delivery
'l4't MT teeH cStIDilSneQ ana were IN operation.
covering about one-third of the territory Of the
United Sta:es available for rural free delivery
service. There are now awaiting the action Of
the department petitions and applications for the
establishment of 10, 74s additional routes, This
Shows conolusively the want which the establish.
ment OF the service has met and the need OF fur.
Their extending it as rapidly as possible. 1t is
justified both by the financial results and by the
practical benefits to our rural population; it
brings the men who live on the soil into close
relations with the active business world; it keeps
n f1r1npr \ fajly fntInh with h ,nr1ot- - l.
a potential educational force; it enhances the
value OF farm property, makes farm life far
pleasanter and less isolated, and will do much to
check the undesirable current from country to
city.
1t is to be hoped that the congress will make
liberal appropriations for the continuance of the
tension.
Few subjects of more Importance have been
taken up by the congress in recent years than
the inauguration of the system of nationally aided
irrigation for the arid regions Of the far west.
A good beginning therein has been made. Now
that this policy of national irrigation has been
protection will grow more rapidly than ever
throughout the public land states.
Legislation should be provided for the protec-
ton OF the game and the wild creatures gener-
ally on the forest reserves. The senseless siaugh-
ter of game, which can by judicious protection be
permanently preserved on our national reserves
once. 1t is, for instance, a serious count against
our national good sense to permit the present
practice, OF bus.hering off such a stately and
beautiful creature as the elk for its antlers or
tusks.
So far as they are available for agriculture and
to whatever extent they may be reclaimed under
lands az sa should I be- Fed ris !aM;' t tor t the homsbd R;IlSl,e
the settler who lives on his land, and for no one
else. In their actual use the desert land law,
the timber and stone law and the communication
clause of the homestead law have been 80 ner.
verified from the intention with which they were
enacted as to permit the acquisition Of large
settlers and the consequent prevention Of settle
ment. Moreover, the approaching exhaustion Of
the public ranges has OF late led to much dis
eussion as to the best manner Of using these pub
lie lands in the west which are suitable chiefly or
only for grazing, The sound and steady develop
ment 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 home
stead law. On the other hand, we should recog-
nize the fact that in the grazing region the man
corresponds to the homesteader may be un-
able to settle permanently if only allowed to use
the SAINT amount Of pasture land that his brother,
homcsteader, is allowed to use of arabic land.
One hundred and sixty acres Of fairly rich and
we'll watered soil or a much smaller amount of
land may keep a family in plenty, where
as no one could get a living from 100 acres Of
dry pasture land capable Of supporting at the
In the 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 construction of any such un-
lawful Enclosure of public land; For various
such enclosures in the past, but ample notice has
now been given the trespassers, and all the re-
sources at the command Of the government will
In view Of the capital Importance of the IA lat-
l commend them to the earnest consi. lion
Of the congress, and if the congress finds diff.
Guilty in dealing with them from lack of thorough
knowledge OF the subject l omm that pro.
vision be made for a commission of experts spe-
cially to investigate and report upon the COM
plicated questions involved.
l 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-fve years, should still have as poor
a more valuable possession in mineral wealth, in
fisheries. furs, forests and also in land available
for certain kinds of farming and stock growing.
1t is a territory of great size and varied re-
sources, we'll fitted to support a large permanent
population. Alaska needs a good land law and
such provisions for homcsteads and prescriptions
as will encourage permanent settlement. We
should shape legislation with a view not to the
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
to the actual Sc, tier whom We most
desire to see take possession Of the country. The
forests OF Alaska should be protected, and, as a
but still important matter, the game
also, and Mt the anne time it is imperative that
the settlers should be allowed to cut timber, un-
der proper regulations, for their own use. Laws
should be enacted to protect the Alaskan salmon
against the greed which would destroy
them. They should be preserved as a permanent
industry and fo6d supply. Their management
and control should be turned over to the commits
sion of fish and fisheries. Alaska should have a
delegate in the congress. 1t would be we'll if a
congressional committee could visit Alaska and
investigate its needs on the ground.
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 In
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 deglaes Of purity of Indian GOOD who
are absolutely indistinguishable in pt%e Of social,
political and economic ability from their white
yet made no perceptible advance toward such
equality. To try to force such tribes too fast is
to prevent their going forward at all. Moreover,
the tribes live under widely different conditions.
Where a tribe has made considerable 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 desirable. 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 vii
lagos rather than to force them into isolation.
The large Indian schools situated remote from
any Indian reservation do a special and peculiar
work of great Importance; 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 it is not necessarily to be assumed
either tillers of the soil or stock raisers. Their
industr;es NAV pronerly he diversified, and those