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Show I REPORT OF THE COJI~SSIOXER OF IXDIAN AFFAIRB. 5 into permanent improvements nnder such circumstances. Especially has the absence of Indian hostilities been of the highest value, within 1 the last few sears. in directing and determining to the extreme frontier ! the imu~i~rnint arr iving i n s~%hv ast nu~nheryono nr shore% Ameri- (.~IIIPI ~ilt)it~~:t~ot othde coate~splationo f rhia species uf dnnger a s c ~ n~f ~ e thr features of niourerlile. will scarcr l~c o~nerel tet~il~e ~rel llrctallce with ; which men accistomed to'the absolut; secuhty of person and property in the settled co~~utrioefs Europe expose themselves and their fanlilies to perils of this kind. I mas informed by the late president of the Northern Pacific Eailroad that it was found allnost impossible to hire Swedes and Norwegians to work upon the line of that road, then nnder construction from the Red River to the Missouri, pn account of t,he ngue a~prehension of Indian aGtack which preva~led in connection with the progress of the road through t,he past summer. As a niatter of Fact. no well-informed nerson believed that the savaees would under* take k y offensive operakous whatever until after t i e Missouri had bee11 crossed and passed at least one hundred miles. But these neonle, nnaecustomed to recard oossihle torture and murder as oue. of tbe &n: ~~~ ~ ditions of a contracrto libor, would refuse high wages rather than s ~ - iect themselves to the slightest risk. Thefact tha,t Americansare more "daring and ;id\.eut~~rol~n-thiue presence of n tlnngcr more f;~n~iliator them, only i~o~~s t i t~a lstterosn ger reason tbr lnairlrnil~i~ltgh e iu~uul~i ty which has, for three years now,been secured by the fe,ediug system. There are inunmerable little rifts of aericultural or mininn settle~nents a11 over the western country which, rf unmolested, w~ :il l a few years become self-protecting communities, hut which, in the event of a general Indian war bccurriu-@ att he Dreseut time. woild utterly a,nd initantlv clis:~ppe;~cr,i tl~crb y abancl&~~ueo~r ~mt &ss:terr. ~ l ~ c " f i rIaI tI O I I ~(~if 1~ .o "~ t ~\\.lI)~IItIS~~PP rii~t'ty VI I ICJ.u~p, w l ~ i ( ~p0I 1~) 111:11io1i1s 11o\\.s lonly L I Is~te a~lilyc l.ecping ur~clert :nrt3r ol' the tiedil~yS SSCVIII, sn.t3pt I,:~rt.I I ~ t l ~ lrio rricl atn~virirso t l u a l i n ~n~n rtLrr, or clrrrrrv~i1 1y t l ~ r ~8trti .ipl1trd ittlral,it:tuts,l~nstil.vd rivilag hchre them \ vL~i ro l' thvil. htot:k rnultl bo gathered at a moment's notice, and bearing away what of their house.. hold goods could be carried in their single wagous. Such would he the result even nith the most favorable issue of military operations. It is right that those who critioise the policy of the Government toward the Indians, ?ud ridicule it. as undignified in its. coucesrions and unstates. mall-like lo its temporizing with a recognized evil, should fairly face the oue alternative which is presented. There is no question of national dignity, be it remembered, involved in the treatment of savages by a cirilized power. With wild men, as with wild beasts, the question mhether in a given situation one shall fight, coax, or run, is a question merely of what is easiest and safest. i THE USE OB THE MILITARY ARX. The system now pursued in dealing with the roving trihes dangerous to our frontier population and obstructing our industrial progress, ia entirely consistent with, and, indeed, requires the occasio~~uasle of the milit,arp arm, in restrainiilg or chastisiug refractory individuals and b;ulds. Such a use of the military coustitutes no abaudon~nenot f the "Deace ~ol i c~.a)n'd involves no disnaragement of it. I t was not to he eGectea-itswas not in the nature of'thigg8-that the entire body ofwilj Indians should submit to be restrained.iu their Ishmaelitish proulivities \%.itbout a struggle on the part of the more audacious to mahtaiu their traditional freedom. In the first annouucement made of the reserva- |