Evening star., 1934-06-10
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

One OF the most picturesque men In
Congress, Representative Edgar How.
ard Of Nebraska, former secretary tc
William Jennings Bryan, whom he
visualizes in figure and raiment, with
long flowing silver locks and wearing
cloak and square-topped, black felt
hat, has come from a sick bed to fight
/ in the House for a cause to which he
has devoted many years of his life
the cause Of 10, the poor Indian" the
original American, the Forgotten
Man"-to whom, he protests, this
Government owes long-overdue JUS
tice."
Representative Howard counts as
one Of the greatest opportunities that
ever came to him the distinction OF
being chairman of the Indian Affairs
Committee so that he could bring to
legislation affecting the Indians per-
sonal knowledge and sympathy and
zeal to do right" toward the Red
skin-as a crowning achievement OF
his career.
Reviewing. from a long memory, the
course of Indian legislation in the
past, Mr.. Howard stresses the urgency
for passage of the Wheeler Howard
Indian rights bill before this session
Of Congress closes.
With tear in his voice this veteran
contender for the rights Of the vanish
ing race, points out that Indian leg
islation has always been subject to de-
lays-procrastinatio This is some
thing that the Indians themselves can
not understand: When they make ar
agreement it is settled. Nothing Is
needed except an exchange of pledges
and once they have given theiI
pledges they keep them. Those OF u:
who are personal friends with the
Red Men, as well as taking legisla-
tive interest in them, find 1t hard
sometimes to explain to these friends
the ways of the white mans justice.
Sitting in his busy office with Sec
retaries clicking out his report to the
House on the Indian rights bill, Rep
resentative Howard stated his views
! regarding the present Indian situation
with a background of lifelong liv-
ing in the plains Indian country.
This Government of ours is the
greatest and best that the world has
ever known" he said yet I am otter
humiliated by the fact that we have
ruthlessly violated practically every
sacred treaty that we have ever made
with q tribe of American Indians.
THE Wheeler Howard bill seeks ir
many directions to improve the rela-
| tionship between the Government anc
its Indian wards the beetle-browec
Nebraskan explains, and with CLEAN
| In his eye he continues-"The Amer
ican people at last are awakening tc
the situation and gradually squirting
| their agencies of Government to carry
pelated justice to the remnant Of In
disns still upon the earth.
II am bold in the belief that oul
present Secretary of the Interior
Harold Ickes. has heart and soul en-
listed in the cause of our Indiar
wards, and from 10 years Of close
touch with John Collier, our present
commissioner of Indian affairs.
have unfaltering faith in his sincere
regard for the American Indian anc
! his determination to remove then
from the control of the mailed bu-
! reaucratic hand under which they
have so long been oppressed"
To the women Of the country Mr.
Howard gives unstinted credit anc
praise for arousing this new attitude
toward the Indians. The American
Federation of Women's- Clubs" h
said, "is taking an important role II
the effort to discover the wrongs o.
the bureaucratic guardianship of oul
Indians. with determination to right
these wrongs. And ultimately these
wrongs will be righted. because woman
will never cease her efforts until she
has gotten what she sought" t....