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Show COMMIBSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. lxxxvii As another step in the same direction, on November 5 last I made to the Department the following recommendation: Your attention is respectfully invited to the provision of section 7 of the <'sat to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States," which reads as fullaws: "That after the expiration of six months from the psssage of this ac;t * . no person shdi be * * * promoted in either of the said clmses now existing or that may be arranged hereunder pursuant to said rules [rules for carrying this act into effect], until he has passed an examination or is shown to be specially exempted from such examioztion in conformity herewith." Your attention is alaorespeotfi~ilsi nvited to Clnuse 6 of General R~ l s I l 1R, evised Civil-Service Ruieq approved Febroary 2, lLle.5, and in effect March 1, 1888, which reads as failows: "For the pnrpaaeofestablishiog in the clnnaified civil servioe thepriuaipie of com-pulsory competntive exantinstion for promotion, there shall be, so far as praoticeble and useful, compnhory oompetitiveexsminations of a suitable ohnreotar to test fitness for promotion." Upon consideration of the above-quoted proviaions of the oipil-service law and rules I consider it my duty to recommend that the Civil Servioe Commission be re-quested to apply to the Indian Bureau the regulations governing promotions in the departmental service which wore applied to theWar Department on the 17th of May, I l8?;ake thia recommendation. believino that a hishful observance of the orinoinlea L . requirrethespplication to thiaburcaaof the by examination, and also beosuae I believe that the application of thoser&oietions wDlincrease theeffioiencyof the bureao, pro-mote the interese of the Indian servioe gener&lly, and ao exolnde from promotion the elnment,8 of prejndice andundue influence as to give to merit a mnoh better opportunity than it oould otherwise haveof receiving its just reward. I CONCLUSION. In conclusion I beg leave to sag that I have no doubt that under the favorable couditious of an Indian service in which the evils of what is known as the party-spoils system of appointment and dismissal would be minimized, and in which intelligent and zealous action might. con-fidently anticipate the support of the Government ; in which, too, devo-tion and efficiency might labor assured of the applause of the people, and honest administration do its perfect work promptly on all occasions without rebuke or fear of persecution; the Iudian question, in '11 its most perplexing features, might be transeuted from a demoralizing political question into a not dangerous social question. Indeed, it may be declared, without the use of qualifying phrases, that, under the favorable conditions suggested, the Indian would receive our civil~za-tion, with all that it implies of social duty and of publict obligation. This is said in full knowledge of the many futile ettorts that have been made by zealous able men and women, by the churches, and by the Government, to lead the Indian out of barbarism. And to one of such efXorts not unprofitable reference ulay now be made. During the last quarter of the last century an important estate was given to the college of Wil1ia.m and Mary, Virginia, for the express purpose of maintaining Indiatls at that iustitutiorr of leanling, and Indians were |