OCR Text |
Show I COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE. During the last session of Congress a compulsory law was passed, designed to enforoe attendance of Indians at school where compulsion . should be found necessary. The text of the law is as follows : And the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, subject to the direction of the Seoretarg ' ~ of the Interior, ia hereby authorized and directed to make eud enforoe by proper means auch rules and regnlationa rua will secure the attandance of Indian children of suitable age and health at aohools established and maintained for their benefit, The rules and regulations prepared by this office for the enforcement of this law will be found in the Appendix, page 158: The difflaulties of executiug any compulsory law are many and perplexing. It is an unsettled question how far it is wise or expedient to atkmpt to compel by force the attendance of children at school. In 'some instances force has been used, and in others the knowledge of the fact that the Gocernmeut would use forceif necessary has been sufficieut . Special pains have been taken to falniliarize the Indians with the idea that it is now the settled policy of theGoverument to educate tlleir children, aud they hare been told that they are expected to voluntarily avail t&mselves of the muuiticeut [,ro.iisious made for this purpose, ;tnd that if they do not do this the Goverhtuenr mill use sach force i18 is necessary to compel it. That the Government has a perfee6 right to insist that the Indians, who are dependent upon it for support and protection, and whose children are liable to grow up in savagery, barbarism, or helpless iguor-ance, shall allow their children to have the benefit of Government iusti-tutions established for their welfare, hardly needs argument. Ordi-narily the parent should be'regarded as the natural guardian and custodian of his child, and so long as he is williog or able to provide such an education as will fit the child for his position in life as a citizen of the Republic the Government ought not to interfere. When, how- ' ever, it becomes evident that the parent is unwilling or unable to do this, and that the child, in consequence, is wellnigh cert8iu to grow up idle, vicious, or helpless, a menace or a burden to the public, it becomes not only the right of the Government as a matter of self-protection, but its duty toward the child and tovsrd the community, which is to be blessed or cursed by the child's activities, to see to it that he shall have in his youth that training that shall save him from vice and fit him for citizenship. If, therefore, the present law is found to be inadequate to securehhe purposes designed by its passaxe, some measure sufficiently compre-hensive and stringent should be adopted and put at once into operation, both as a matter of public safety and out of regard for theC welfare of the Indian wards of the nation. |