The Irish standard., 1905-02-18
They Petition That Moneys Be Given to
Schools Which They Wished Their
Children to Attend.
The Sensational Charges of Senator Bard
in Reference to Catholic Schools
Without Basis.

President Roosevelt has sent let
ter to Secretary of the Interior Hitch
cock on the subject of authority for
granting contracts for the education
of Indians in denominational schools.
AS the legal authority exists to
grant the request of the Indians, the
president says, unquestionably they
are entitled by moral right to have
their moneys to educate the children
at the schools they choose.
Mr.. Roosevelt directs that the inte-
rior department continue the practice
unless congress direct otherwise or the
courts hold that the decision of the
department of justice to this effect is
wrong. He urges the passage of the
Lacey bill, authorizing the allotment
of annuities in severalty to the Indians
in the same way as their land is al
lotted. In his letter the president
says:
early in 1902 petitions on behalf of
various Catholic and Episcopal schools
were brought to my attention by GER
tain ecclesiastics and laymen, who
requested the interior department to
distribute the rations and annuities
through the mission schools of their
several churches when the children
were in the care of these schools. The
1n1 %1nt
quest was illegal and could not prop
erly be granted.
"AIore than year afterward the
request was made, originally on behalf
of certain Catholic schools i'll 1908, also
OH behalf of a Lutheran school in 1901,
that where there were Indian moneys
held in trust for the Indians by the
secretary of the interior, the interest
ON these Indian moneys being distrib-
uted among the individual Indians, Or
in such other ways as the secretary of
the interior might direct, and where
certain of the Indians petitioned that
the moneys so distributed to them
should be used for the support of the
particular denominatonal school which
they desired their children should at
tend, this petition should be granted.
The question raised was, of course,
wholly different from that originally
raised OH behalf of the Episcopal
church and of the Catholic church.
''This new request was submitted to
the department of justice, and the de-
partment decided, as set forth in the
accompanying report, that the prohibit
ton of the law as to the use of public
moneys for sectarian schools did not
extend to moneys belonging to the
Indians themselves and not to the pub
lie and that these moneys belonging to
the Indians themselves might be
applied in accordance with the desire
of the Indians for the support Of the
schols to which they were sending
their children.
'There was, in my judgment, no
question that, inasmuch as the legal
authority existed to grant the request
of the Indians. they We're entitled as
a matter of moral right to have the
moneys coming to them used for the
education of their children at the
schools of their choice.
"Care must be taken, of course, to
see that any petition by the Indians is
genuine. and that the money appropri
ated for any given school represents
only the pro rata proportion to which
the Indians making the petition are
entitled. But if these two conditions
are fulfilled. it is, in my opinion just
and right that the Indians themselves
should have their wishes respected
when they request that their own
money-not the money of the public
be applied to the support of certain
schools to which they desire to send
their children.
''The practice will be continued by
the department unless congress should
decree to the contrary, or, of course,
unless the courts should decide that
the decision of the department of JUS
tice is erroneous.
sit is, however, greatly to be de-