Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1902-07-10
EDUCATORS CONVENE
Meetings Of the National Council
Held At Minneapolis.
VIEWS ABOUT EDUCATING INDIANS,
Niles Alice Robsrtson Declares Unsducated
White People Menace to the Indians
In That They Offer Deterrent In
6uences-Dr. Harper's Address.

Minneapolis, Mimi, July S.-While
there are large numbers Of the edu-
Gators Of the country already in Min
neapolis and the different hotels be-
gin to look as II there Is really q
large crowd here, the great majority
Of the visitors will arrive to-day.
Three meetings Of the national coun-
Gil and two of the department Of In
dian education were the only SEES
sions which were held yesterday.
Four general sessions Of the asso-
citation are scheduled for this after
noon, when Gov. Van SAINT, State Su.
perintendent Olson, Mayor Ames,
City Superintendent c. NJ. Jordan
and President Cyrus Northrop, Of
the state university, will deliver ad-
dresses of welcome. They will be
responded to by Superintendent J. A.
Foshay, Of Los Angeles; DR.. T. B.
Moss, Of California, and DR.. Joseph
Swain, president Of Indiana univer-
sity.
The national council will complete
its work this morning at the Uni
tartan church, when D. +. Mcclure,
of Lansing, Mich; John Dewey, Of
the University of Chicago, and Miss
Anna 7. Smith, Of the United States
bureau Of education, will speak.
A meeting of the Indian depart
ment this morning and another gen.
eral session In the evening will be
oil that will occur before tomorrow,
when the real work of the conven-
ton begins in earnest, and when the
meeting of all the departments crowd
on each other thick and fast.
Methods of education, with the in
lection of international relations,
formed the chief themes in the initial
sessions Of the national council yes
terday, while the dilatoriness of the
Indian in the acceptance Of civlliza-
ton occupied the attention of the
Indian section. l.. M. Compton, su-
perintendent Of Indian schools in
Wisconsin, urged that educational
work among the redskins be devoted
chiefly to agriculture. Miss Alice
Robertson, supervisor Of the Creek
nation, Indian territory, declared
that the uneducated white people
formed the greatest menace to the
education of the Indians in that they
offered deterrent influences. Presi-
dent S. M. MCGOWAN, of Oklahoma,
president Of the Indian section, de-
clared that tendency was apparent
to overcrowd the development of the
Indian. He said Christianity could
not be taught to white man in a
minute and that an Indian required
generation in which to learn 1t
The Indian, he said, should be led
and not driven and the leaders
should not lead them too fast. X
d. Shut, of TuIalip, Wash, said the
Indian boy and girl should be taught
to do the same work on the farm
Miss Robertson dissented from this
on the ground that the Indians al
ready force their women to perform
too much manual work.
Dr. W. r. Harper, president OF the
University Of Chicago, delivered an
address before the national council
last night in review of the education
al progress of the year. lie referred
to Yankee supremacy in various
branches Of pedagogy and in con
clusion painted picture of an Anglo
American alliance in the fields of en-
lightenment and humanity, describ-
ing the scholarship requests OF Cecil
Rhodes and the Carnegie endowment
of a national university at Washing
ton as the greatest educational
events of the last decade.
The Unitarian church, in which the
sessions of the national council are
held, was crowded beyond its ca
pacity at the three gatherings yes
terday.