ABOUT THE INDIAN. 

 The total expenditure by the Govern- 

 ment on account of the Indian service 

 from March 4, 1789, up to and including 

 July 30, 1900, has been $368,358,217, ac- 

 cording to the annual report of Commis- 

 sioner of Indian Affairs William A. Jones. 

 The expenditures for the fiscal year ended 

 last July amounted to $10,175,107. Of 

 this amount at least $3,330,000 was de- 

 voted to the cau!*e of Indian education. 



The report reviews the changes in the 

 system of the purchasing of supplies, by 

 which the supplies are bought in open 

 market shipped by common carrier at tar- 

 iff or better rates, and estimates that this 

 saves 20 per cent in cost. 



Under the head of obstacles to self-sup- 

 port of the Indians, the report deprecates 

 the ration system, annuity payments and 

 the leasing of allotments. The ration sys- 

 tem, says the report, is the corollary of the 

 reservation system. The Indian popula- 

 tion of the United States is about 267,900, 

 of which 45,270 receive a daily ration. 

 The ration issued and its value vary ac- 

 cording to the tribe. Nearly two-fifths of 

 the number receiving rations belong to the 

 great Sioux nation. The ration has been 

 gradually reduced the past few years, in 

 accordance with the policy of the Indian 

 bureau. 



If the Indians' claim for full ratons as a 

 right is conceded the commissioner pre- 

 dicts that the time when they will be self- 

 supporting lies in the very distant fnture, 

 if it comes at all. A number of Indians 

 also are assisted by occasional issues and 

 at several agencies the old and indigent 

 are provided for. Altogether there are 

 57,570 Indians receiving subsistence in 



some degree, exclusive of Indian children 

 in boarding schools. The Commissioner 

 urges that the indiscriminate issue of ra- 

 tions should stop at once. The old and 

 helpless, he says, should be provided for, 

 but rations should be issued to the able- 

 bodied only for labor, while those who 

 have been educated in Indian schools de- 

 pend entirely on their own resources. 



Annuities distributed last year aggre- 

 gated $1,507.543, the per capita ranging 

 from $255 down to 50 cents. The report 

 says that the large money payments to the 

 Indians are demoralizing in the extreme. 

 They degrade the Indians and corrupt the 

 whites; they induce pauperism and scan- 

 dal and crime; they nullify all the good 

 effects of labor. Unscrupulous people in- 

 duee the Indian to go into debt and then 

 when the debt has accumulated and the 

 Indian's credit is gone, pressure is brought 

 to bear by the creditors upon the Govern- 

 ment to pay the Indian so that he can pay 

 his honest debts. The state of things 

 growing out of the surroundings at the 

 agencies is a scandal and disgrace. 



There is now in the treasurey to the 

 credit of the Indian tribes $33,315,955.09, 

 drawing interest at the rate of 4 and 5 per 

 cent, the annnal interests amounting to 

 $1,646,485.96. Besides this, several of 

 the tribes have large incomes from leasing 

 and other sources. It is a safe prediction 

 that as long as these funds exist they will 

 be the prey of designing people. 



The ultimate disposition of the Indian 

 funds is a subject for the most serious con- 

 sideration. In some cases they are small 

 and in other very large. With respect to 

 the former, they can, as a rule, be paid 

 out to the Indians with little, if any, evil 



