The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1924-12-11
The Eskimo

are now worth 81 ,650,O00 more than
the United States paid to Russia in
1867 for the entire territory, announced
the Bureau of Education of the De-
partment of the Interior in it's annual
report for the past fiscal year made
public today.
Of the whole number of reindeer,
approximately $4,000, about 235,OOO
are owned by natives. The deer sup
ply to their owners not only food and
clothing but livelihood. The entire
industry has developed, since 1892,
when the Bureau of Education began
to import the animals from Siberia.
The herds extend from the Arctic to
Pacific ocean, and in the interior from
the Alaskan railroad to the Aleutian
islands. The present problem which
confronts the Bureau of Education in
this connection is to reorganize the
industry on a cooperative basis so as
to handle the increasing herds more
efficiently and to market the meat more
economically. Already reindeer veni-
son is appearing frequently as '.spe-
cial' in high grade restaurants and
dining cars of the northwest and its
general use in the States will soon be
merely matter of transportation.
The Bureau of Education is charged
by law with the education and welfare
of the natives of Alaska, and the intro
duction of reindeer is but part of
its work in their behalf. Schools, hos
pitfalls and cooperative commercial en-
terprises are also included. The COM
missioner in his report lays stress upon
the reorganization of this work which
has recently been undertaken, and es-
pecially upon the introduction of mod
ern methods of industrial training. The
changes extended to all the schools,
more or less, but the most striking in
novation is the establishment of in
dustrial boarding schools at Eklutna,
Kanakanak and White Mountain.
The principal activities of the Bu-
reau of Education are in behalf of the
schools of the nation as whole. The
commissioner states that in this re-
spect the situation is more promising
than at any other time in it's existence.
The removal of the Office from the UNI
satisfactory quarters it occupied in the
pension building to the commodious
new building of the interior depart
ment has improved in a marked degree
the efficiency and moral of the bureaus
staff, and has added distinctly to the
facilities of cooperation with the off,
GERS of the department and of related
bureaus.
It's publications have always been and
will probably continue to be the princi-
pal means by which the influence of
the bureau is exerted, but with increas-
ed appropriations and better organize
ton, the commissioner says; that the
personal element is entering more and
more into its achievements.
Educational surveys, which depend
upon personal examination of local
conditions and recommendations for
changes, have become a popular in
strument of improvement. In this the
Bureau of Education was the leader
in point of time, and now directs more
surveys of this character than any
other agency-perhaps more than all
others combined.
During the fiscal year 1924 it con-
Quoted 10. OF these the survey of
higher education in Massachusetts is
easily the most important, in the com
missioner's opinion, for it will probably
lead to g complete change in the pol
icy of the state toward higher educa-
ton. A statewide survey of the high
er institutions of Tennessee and a sur
vey of higher education in Cleveland,
Ohio, are still in progress. A survey
made of the school buildings of Port
land, Ore, is of equal Importance in
another direction, inasmuch as it in
wolves the reorganization of the
schools of the city.
Conferences of specialists in certain
lines of education are frequently called
by the Commissioner of Education, who
considers this is an effective method of
diffusing information of value to the
country. The National Conference on
Illiteracy, held in the auditorium of
the Department of the Interior in jan
uary, was a CONSPICUOUS example of
such conferences; both because of the
high character of the participants and
of the results mat may be expected to
come from it. The summer meeting of
the National Education association,
which was held in Washington. afford