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Show XIV REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAX AFFAIRS. ing from their success and importance it still remains true that the great work of educating the Indian must be confined to the industrial schools on t,he reservations. There the object can be most conveniently and economically attained. In the erection of school buildings, for which the Government, fur-nishes money, I believe, from the best sources of informatioil attainable, that the purpose ia future shonld be to apply Government aid in the erection of small, rather thau large, structures, thereby increasing the number of buildings for which the appropriation can be made to provide. Another thought presents itself just here. It mill be the policy of the Bureau, while uuder its present control, to mauape by and through its own appointees all schools which occupy buildings erected with funds fnr~~iahebyd the Goverument. The Government should mausge its own schools, and the direrent religiousdul;ominations should urarlagu theirs separately. I11 il word, ilk the mauagemeut of schools, the Goverument s4ould be dir70rced from sectarian influence or control.' Any other course would eucl in heart-bnr~iingc, onfusion, and failure. But the Govern-ment can, and does, fairly and without iavidioos discrimination, en-courage any religious sects whose philanthropy and liberality prompts then) to a~s i sitn the great work of redeetning these benighted children of nature from the darkness of their superstition aud ignorance. A common English edocation is about all that these people ought to receive. That is necessary to their civilization. It is cheaper give thein educa.liou, together with everything else done by the Government for them, than it is to fight them, even if the loss of valuable human lives were left out of the account,. Since experience and practical dem-onstration has taught 11s that the Indian is easily educated, and that he is, like the Anglo-Saxon, a progressive being, capable of the highest mental and moral development, it is the policy of the friends of civili-zation, as it is of this Bureau, to extend to him the advantages ot'.edu. cation as rapidly as it can be practically arorded. In kiew of the couti~~ualilnyc reasing appropriations of Congress for this partictllar purpose and the voluntary contributions and services of associations s,ud individuals to the same end, I am encouraged to ask that a still further increase be made in the estimate for Indian schools, an increase of considerably over $100,000 above the appropriations for the current fiscal year. I have deemed it advantageous to the public service to place the anperintendent of Indian schools, who is a most 'competent and inde. fatigable officer, at the head of the educational work of this Bureau. I am glad to report that a steady advance and growing interest ma~ks the progress of Indian schools generally, and I feel assured that they will aoutini~e to advance aud improve in efficieucy. I will not enter into details or make further reference to Indian education, as the flub. ject is treated by the superintendent of schools more elaborately in his report hereunto appended, page ~xxv. I |