The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-05-05
SKIRTS AND INDIANS

Our Seminoles have received hard
measure in their time, but we doubt if
any more deadly illumination was ever
launched on them from a rife bullet
to a broken treaty than was fired when
in our present session of the elgisla-
ture the committee on Indian affairs
asked that the bill prohibiting harem
skirts be confided to it's tender mercies.
Why? We must suppose that the
committee thought itself deprived of
duty or responsibility when asked to
recommend such legislation as might
be wise or desirable on the matters
implied in it's title, or that the skirt
problem was more interesting than
that of the Indian; we cannot believe
that committee headed by the Hon.
A. J. LEngle and composed of other
Floridians as good and wise as he
could have invited the problem of the
harem skirt merely oinsult the In
dams or to show other good Floridians
that request for some consideration
of the Indians needs and future need
not employ their time; it must be that
these gentlemen spoke merely because
they didn't think, and because they
had no adequate conception of their
duties as representatives of important
interests-in a very real measure as
guardians of the good name of the
state.
These Indians have rights both in
law and in morals. They also de-
serve consideration because their fate
will have very practical bearing on
certain state expenditures and on the
well-being of the states citizens in
their neighborhood. To deprive a
community of some three hundred
souls of the means of livelihood is a
serious matter-to deprive them of
the means of livelihood by legislation
in which they have no voice, directly
or indirectly, must constitute very
grave political scandal. To expect
that these Indians when deprived of
bread or the hope of bread for them
down and die is to credit them. posi-
bly,, with a more Christian spirit than
they possess. If half dozen of the
three hundred refused to die quietly
and chose to die as white men would
die under the circumstances, the state
might be required to pay more for
now suffice to make a decent ending
of the matter.
These Indians are not citizens of
Florida. When permission for the
remnant to remain was accorded after
the body of the nation had been trans
ferred to the west, that remnant was
recognized as a nation and such status
has never been resigned-it stands
good today by the official acts of the
territory binding on the state of Flor
ida and of the United States as party
thereto. 1t is probable that such rights
could not be enforced in any court
but they will appeal to the tribunal of
infinite justice to which we appeal in
the agitation for universal peace.
Indians and harem skirts! A COM
mittee representing the state of Flor
ida on an issue affecting her reputa-
ton for justice and decency in mat
ter of both local and international JUS
| tice, setting forth in burning words
that it has so little business before it
/ that it must ask permission to consid-
er the subject of dress and constitute
| itself a tribunal of fashioni A COM
mittee that should speak the senti-
ments of Floridians on a matter af-
fecting the livelihood of three hundred
people, some of them women and chill
dren, can step aside before speaking
a word on its legitimate business to
beg for permission to express itself
on harem skirt!
We hope some members of the COM
mittee will rise to justify it's creation
and show that as legal body it has
some conception of duty and response
bility.-St. Augustine Record.
CARD OF THANKS