The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-06
Iffe-sayfnx Service.

~S<A4 7 DAA IeksC|+ElA pktCLA~AA'sA t'J LAAC desirabiIity of giving to the members of the Life-saving Service pensions such as are given to fremen and policemen in all our great cities. The men in the Life-saving Service continually and in the most matter-Of-f fact way do deeds such as make Americans proud of their country. They have no political infu- ence;- and they live in such remote places that the really heroic services they continually render receive the seantiest recognition from the public. It is unjust for a great nation like this to permit these men to become totally disabled or to meet death in the per- formance of their hazardous duty and yet to give them no sort of reward. If one of them serves thirty years of his life in such a position he should surely be entitled to retire on half pay, as a fireman or policeman does, and if he becomes totally incapacitated through accident or sickness or loses his health in the discharge of his duty he or his family should receive a pension just as any soldier should. call your at tention with especial earnestness to this mater because it appeals not only to our Judgment but to our sympathy; for the people on whose behalf I ask 1t are comparatively few in number, render incalculable service of a partic- ularly dangerous kind, and have no one to speak for them.
 Indians.
 During the wear just past the phase of the Indian question which has been most sharply brought to public atten- tion is the larger legal significance of the Indians induction into citizenship. This has made itself manifest not only in a great access of litigation in which the citizen Indian figures as a party defendant and in widespread dispo- sition to levy local taxation upon his personality, but in a decision of the United States Supreme Court which struck away the main prop on which has hitherto rested the Government s benevolent effort to protect him against the evils of intemperance. The court holds, in effect, that when an Indian becomes, by virtue of an allotment of land to him, 8 citizen of the state in which his land is situated, he passes from under Federal control in such matters as this, and the acts of Con- gress prohibiting the sale or gift to him of intoxicants become substantially in operative. It is gratifying to note that the states and municipalities of the West which have most at stake in the welfare of the Indians are taking up this subject and are trying to supply in a measure at least, the publication of It's trusteeship forced upon the Fed eral Government. Nevertheless, ] would urgently press upon the atten- ton Of the Congress the question whether some amendment of the in- ternal-revenue laws might not be of aid in prosecuting those indicators known in the Indian country as "boot- leggers,'' who are engaged at once in defrauding the United States Treasury of taxes and what is far more import ant, in debauching the Indians by carrying liquors illicitly into territory still completely under Federal juris- diction.
 Among the crying present needs of the Indians are more day schools situ- ated in the midst of their settlements, more effective instruction in the indus tries pursued on their own farms, and a more liberal extension of the field- matron service, which means the edu- cation of the Indian women in the arts Of home making. Until. the mothers are well started in the right direction we can not reasonably expect much from the children who are soon to form an integral part of our American citi- zenship. Moreover, the excuse contin- ually advanced by male Indians for re- fusing offers of remunerative employ naent at distance from their homes Is that they dare not leave their fami- lies too long out of their sight. One eff fectual remedy for this state of things 2 is to employ the minds and strengthen the moral fiber of the Indian women the end to which the work of the field matron is especially directed. I trust that the Congress will make it's appro- priations for Indian day schools and fts1d matrons as generous as may con- sfst with the other pressing demands upon its providence.
 The Philippines.
 During the last year the Philippine Islands have been slowly recovering from the series of disasters which, since American occupation, have great ] ly reduced the amount of agricultural products below what was produced In Spanish times. The war; the rinder- pest, the locusts, the drought, and the cholera have been united as causes to prevent a return of the prosperity much needed in the islands. The most serious is the destruction by the rim derpest of more than 75 per cent. of the draft cattle, because it will take several years of breeding to restore the necessary number of these indispensa- ble aids to agriculture. The Comnlis- sion attempted to supply by purchase from adjoining countries the needed cattle, but the experiments made were unsuccessful. Most of the cattle inn ported were unable to withstand the change of climate and the rigors of the voyage and died from other diseases than rinderpest.
 The income of the Philippine govern ment has necessarily been reduced by reason of the business and agricultur- al depression in the islands, and the government has been obliged to exer- else great economy to cut down it's ex- penses, to reduce salaries, and in eve " way to avoid deficit. It has adop- ted an internal-revenue law, imposing asc 1+a,r, .Jt