The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-10-01

they TenCeF service aS SoFeiA'Heiit
teachers.
The secretary Of the interior, after
a very full and patient consideration.
has cached the conclusion, stated IN
a letter to the commissioner o. In
dian affairs, that the order ought not
to be made. and that those persons
who are now engaged IN teaching in
government schools as members or
the government civil service, and who
are wearing the garb, should be per
mitted to remain in the service and
while d~ischarging their duties to wear
the garb. l concur in this View. and
the order as revoked will not be re-
viyed.
The secretary OF the interior goes
into a very full discussion OF the
whole history Of the conditions sur
rounding the teaching in government
Indian schools 1t is evident that at
first the government gave very little
care or attention to the teaching OF
Indians, and was quite willing to ac-
cept the services Of any religious de
nomination engaged in missionary
work which would take charge of the
education of Indians and give them
sectarian teaching, and we all should
be most grateful to those denomina-
tons who we're willing to spend the
money and the effort not only to edu-
cate but to instiu mora and religious
principles in the young Indians who
were wards Of the government. At
ter a time, however, it evidently be-
came the policy Of the government it
self to assume the burden OF the edu-
cation Of the Indians and to direct
what 1t should consist In, and it Is evil
dent from acts Of Congress that it was
and is the settled intention Of Con-
gress that the general education OF
the Indians shall be secular and nom
sectarian and hat their religious in
struction shall be separate and left to
the volition of the Indians and to the
care OF the denominations to whose
communion they belong. But in this
transition state, in which the Indian
youth are being transferred from
s%ectarian to government instruction,
the ultimate purpose has not always
been strictly held in view, and 1t
has been a frequent method to trans
fer a whole school. previously under
a Protestant or Catholic denom1na-
ton, to government control, and TO
include, in the transfer, all the teach
ers who had been engaged in this
work in the sectarian schools and to
incorporate them as a whole and as
individuals in the classified civil SER
vice Of the government. The trans
t11uS I1otC OAlCA bSSIi SASNASN "
the governments renting denomina-
tional schools and taking over the
whole plant and the teachers as we'll.
It appears that out of 1000 teachers
in the Indian schools there are 81
who wear a religious garb and who
are regularly classified members Of
the government civil service. To di-
rect them to give up their religious
garb would necessarily cause their
leaving the service of the
vows under which they have assumed
that sarb.
The secretary of the interior holds,
as a matter Of congressional policy,
tina all orders hereafter made should
be directed toward securing the sec
ular and non-Sectarian OF
teaching; that this is the vident pur-
pose of Congress from its legisla-
ton. He holds. further. that the
wearing Of a distinctive religious
garb is not. as claimed by some be-
fore him, a violation Of any constitu-
tional limitation in respect to religion;
that it does not violate the freedom
of religion; tina it does not consti-
tute an established religion; and it
does not prevent or impair the Sepa
ration of church and state. He sus-
tains this view by reference. to the
authority Of a well-considered ase
decided by the supreme court or
Pennsylvania. He therefore finds
that to allow the present members
of the civil service who wear a dis
tinctive garb to remain in the ser
vice until such time as their service
may end, either by resignation, sepa-
ration for cause. disability, or by
death, is not forbidden by existing law
or statute. and that while the method
of transfers was a mistaken one, the
circumstances surrounding them con-
stitute an equity in aEo Of those
who are now in the service and are
wearing the garb which should pre-
vent their being excluded from the
service by such an inhibition.
On the other hand. he finds hat
while the wearing of the religious
/ garb is not a violation Of the consti-
tutional limitations referred to, a
regulation forbidding the wearing Of
such a garb by teachers to be here
after appointed would be equitable,
reasonable, and within the authority
Of the secretary of the interior to
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