Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-05

ogniSed and the work has begun.
Then after the school the home.
Nurses. Not only nurses for ira
choma, tuberculosis, diseases Of the
body, but women who can add to pro-
fessional medical training the unweary-
ing patience, the vision OF the Indian.
Teach something of the care Of babies.
Persuade the Indian woman to cook
just little, to clean up the house Just
a little, to wash.
Eleven New Hospitals.
More hospitals, tool new ones
replaced, improved. enlarged = so
far. Incredible inadeQuacy of the old
ones, lack of bare decency unspeakable
conditions vanishing or gone
AS I read scores of reports from
those women in the field 1 am appalled,
at the greatness of the job and the
magnificent courage of the effort. Hot
sun of Arizona to billiards of Mime
sofa. Just bit here and a bit there.
They, too. are doing only what one can
do in a day-and little more.
More Of them" says Mr.. Rhoads,
and all of them trained"
Essence of the Rhoads policy-profes-
sional skill
Some Indians may learn to farm,
though some of them seem incapable of
keeping stock on hand. They prefer
to eat it up as fast as possible. Yet try
to teach them to keep a few cows for
milk, vegetable garden. maybe some
fruit trees. Give them some date palms
Help them to irrigate the land they
live on.
Here, again, turn trained workers into
the business. To achieve 1t, coming
green into this thing of Government
position, Mr.. Rhoads must entirely re-
organize the Government system in this
department In washington.
Find supervisors who will not merely
supervise" but assist. Twenty spe-
cialists as supervisors have been put to
work. Cut out superfluous district
administrators. Get new directors for
education, irrigation work, agricultural
extension. industrial work Make a
program Of topnotch entrance require
ments for the service so that 1t will be
prideful thing to belong to 1t.
He listens patiently there. conquers
opposition by patient Quaker quiet. In
less than two years he has accomplished
enormous reorganization. Technical and
professional people now for the first
time are demanded for the service
Educational Leave"
Impossible under the old system TO
persuade many such workers to enter
the Indian service. Low pay-of course
that. Bad living conditions. isolation.
Also only the usual Government vaca-
ton Teachers, vocational workers, pro-
fessional people in similar fields. are
accustomed to long vacation Not al
ways vacations Of idleness. Frequently
vacations of further study. advanced
work.
Mr.. Rhoads has managed to arrange
educational leave"
And then, totally new, these trained
people in the field report to other pro-
fessionally trained people in Washing
ton and through them directly to the
commissioners. Elimination of bureau
cratic red tape.
The motor is beginning TO run in the
old buggy.
Mr.. Rhoads was not long in ofice be-
fore he began to clarity his thinking by
dividing the whole work into those two
aspects" human" and economic" Our
crimes against the Indian have been
similarly divided On the one side out
raging his feelings. demoraliztng his
character on the other side, doing him
out Of his property
Mr.. Rhoads has given the major part
Of his attention to questions Of reor-
ganization. personnel, humanitarian
work Mr., Scattergood to such ques-
tons as, for example, the "Flathead
Dam"
Now, it happened that Mr. Scatter
good had served on the Public Service
Commission in Pennsylvan MIA under Gov
Pinchot. He had had some practice in
defending public rights against mo
nopolistic power interests"
Arrange Power Payments.
The Montana Power Co. wished to
build a power dam on Indian land.
Cutting out the tale Of months OF nego-
tiation and pages of technicalities, the
result amounts to this
The Indians, under the original offer
probab bly, could never have received more
than 100000 per annum. while under
the license Scattergood arranged they
receive $1,000 a month from the date
of the license and for each of the two
years after the first unit is placed in
commercial operation they get 100000.
these payments increasing until the an
nual payment reaches $4,000.
Or take the famous matter Of the
Coolidge Dam in Arizona, again boiling
down the story. One hundred thousand
acres of rich soil. early cantaloupe
orange, grapefruit land, 10 acres Of it
sand acres for the Indians, $4,000 for
the whites.
Great stir among Indian friends be-
cause Indian money was assigned to
help to build bridge on the trans
continental highway therein. Rhoads
and Scattergood found that charge
against the Indian funds when they
came into Office. 1t was only paper
charge. No money had been paid out.
They have succeeded in writing 1t off
the books.
Complicated situation Of Indian legal
processes. Confused and contradictory
legislation. bits of law in appropriation
bills lack of unified general law.
Rhoads gets a bill through the House
for codification and simplif1cation, as
the first step. 1t fails in the Senate.
He will persevere. Meanwhile he takes
the Indians side in matters before the
Cooperation with other Government
departments wherever they are willing
to be useful Agriculture. to use their
farm demonstrators among the In
dians-county agents used almost al
ways to drive straight past an Indians
land. Public health, In nursing. in
clinics-in raising the standard of med
icsl work. No more unskilled trachoma
Notwithstanding in blindness
when the new science finds trachoma
primarily a disease of dirt and n1alnu-
triton. Cooperation with the govern
ments of the various States toward
health, education. agricultural extern
sion.
Cooperation with the many varieties
Of private associations organized to
help the Indian" who are often at
daggers drawn with the missionaries.
Arrangements for all Protestant mis-
sionaries to deal direct with the Fed
Grated Churches in Indian matters.
New Hope for Indians.
Just the high spots. these have
chosen, out of the work of less than two |
years, just the beginning of a new hope |
for the American Indian. Rather, one |