The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-08-26
CATHOLIC INDIAN SCHOOLS.
Effort on Foot to Prejudice Congress
Against Them.
Correspondence Intermountain Cath
olic.)


olic.)
Washington, Aug. 21.-There is a
quiet, but determined. effort now on
foot to prejudice the incoming con-
gress against the Catholic Indian
schools, and to induce it to enact leg
islation intended to deprive these
| schools of the funds which they are
now receiving from the Indians own
moneys and obtained last year
through an order of President Roose-
welt
Everybody knows of the fruitless eff
| fort which was made last winter in this
direction, an effort which, however,
Il came near being successful. As 1
stated in q former letter, last winter
occurred the first instance in the his
tory of this country where a congress
refused to follow the dictates of the
fanatics and bigots that have for years
made it their business to lobby for
anti-Catholic legislation, and who had
| always succeeded until then.
The question is: What will the next
| congress do? l hold in my possession
{ certain papers that show what it is eX-
pected to do. These papers 1 received
only a few weeks ago, and their con-
| tents leave no doubt that other things
beside the tariff viii occupy the atten-
ton of our statesmen next winter.
And here it may not be Improbable
to study the personnel of the Indian
affairs committees of both houses of
congress. The house committee is COM
posed of the following members:
Republicans-Jam S. Sherman, n.
Y; Charles Curtis, Kansas; John f.
Lacey. Iowa; Thomas F. Marshall n.
! D.; Webster L. Brown, Wisconsin;
| Charles H. Burke. S. D.; Charles L.
| Knapp, n. Y; Binger Herman, Ore
| gon; C. B. Buckman, Minnesota; Ed
mund II. Hinshaw, Nebraska; Herschel
NJ. Hogg, Colorado.
Democrats-John H. Stephens, Tex;
| William T. Zenor, Ind; John j. Fitz-
| gerald, n. Y; John Dougherty Mis-
souri,; James McAndrews, Illinois;
| Charles c. Reid, Arkansas; Bernard S.
| Rodey, New Mexico.
| This committee will probably remain
! intact. Those who have approached
the subject of Indian legislation in a
| spirit of fairness to all are Representa-
| tives Sherman, Curtis Marshall
Brown, Burke, Hinshaw, Hogg, Fitz
gerald and McAndrews. The last two
are Catholics. Those who have in
variably voted against US are John F.
Lacey, John II. Stephens and Charles
Reid. The rest are more or less doubt
| full. 1t will thus be seen that the house
| committee is evenly divided and that
one member gained from the doubtful
list will again block anti-CathoIic leg
islation. This is the first committee
! in which the Indian schools had such
strength. The ringleader of the dnti-
Catholic forces is our distinguished and
| irrepressible friend, John H. Stephens
of Texas.
The senate committee on Indian af-
| fairs of the last congress was composed
as follows:
| Republicans-w NJ. Stewart, Ne
vada; Orville H. Platt, Connecticut;
Porter J. McCumber, \. D.; Thomas
r. Bard. California; Matthew 5. Quay,
Pennsylvania; Moses Z. Clapp, Min
nesota; Robert j. Gamble, S. D.; Clar-
ence D. Clark, Wyoming; Chester /.
| Long, Kansas.
Democrats-John T. Morgon, Ala
bama; Fred T. Dubois, Idaho; William
A Clark, Montana; Henry NJ. Teller,
Colorado; William ]. Stone, Missouri;
Lee S. Overman, N. c.
OF these Senators Stewart, MeCum-
| Der, Clark of Wyoming, Clark of Mon
tana and Stone of Missouri, were al
ways fair in their treatment of this
| question. Sena tors Bard. Morgan and
Teller were decidedly hostile, and the
| rest were doubtful quantities Senator
Dubois supported the McCumber
| amendment otherwise his position is
! uncertain. Senator Plat of Connecti-
cut was inclined to be fair, for ut least
on one occasion he worked and voted
for the rationS amendment, and on
that very occasion it passed both
houses. Senators Platt and Quay are
dead, and Senators Stewart and Bard
are no longer members of the senate.
Their. places viii be filled at the COM
ing session of congress. According to
the usages of the senate, Senator Sic
Cumber viii be chairman of the SEN
ate committee, being the ranking MEM
Der.
E. l.. SCHARF. IN. D.