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Show CSX REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIBS. lights. He is allowed a clerk, and is entitled to the services of the agency physician for himself and family. He is expected to furnish all supplies used by his family, though he may buy of the Government at cost price. His hospitality is in many eases severely taxed, owing to the entire absence of places of entertainment for visitors. Hon. E. P. Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his report for 1874, page 14, said on this subject: Scarcely any service in tho Government is more delicate and difficult than that of an Indian agent. Surely the Government can not afford to appoint a man to this duty who is not both able and opright, and who can be kept strong in his integrity. And yet the Government offers for s u ~ #hse rvice requirinx such qualitloations the aum of $1,500 per annum as pay of an agent and the support of his family in a country unusually expensive. Can it be that the Government intends either delibarately to maim and cripple its serviee, or to wrong honest land efficient oEoersl I respectfully repeat and nrgu the reeomroendatiau of last year, that the salaries of Indian agents he increased to at least $2,000 per aunum for tbs eastern sgauoiea and $2,500 fer the remoto. Alluding to the same matter Eon. Hiram Price, Commissioner of In-dian Affairs, said in his report for 1882, page v: If the agent is an honest, industrious, and intelligent Christian man, with the pbyaioal ability and disposition to endure hardship and conrageously enoonnter diE-cnlty and disappointment, or, in other words, if hs is morally, mentally and physically above the average s5f lrhat are considered good men, he will work wonders among theae wards of the nation. And I but state what every thinking man must know, that, as a. role, this class of men oao not be proonred to out themaelvea off from oivil-ilieation and deprive themselves and families of the comforts and ad~antageao. f oivilimed societv for the pittance which is now paid to Indian sn-e nts. Ocoasionallv Inen have been fonnd who, for the good which they hoped to acoomplish, have vol-unt, arily exiled themselveaandlabored for the gaod of them p.e op-le,. bn tthey generally found more trouble fivm their surroundinns aid less moritl suooort i'mm t h e ~ o v e r i - A > m e ~tth an va.s expected and becoming discouraged and disheartened, have retired fmm the service, leaving their plaoe8 to be filled by lass competent men. I give it na my honest canvietion BB a business man, after one year and a half of olose obssrvatioo, in a position where the chances for a oorreot knowledge of this quostion are better than in any other, that the true policy of the Government is to pay Indian agents such compe~lsntiona nd place them llnder such regolations of law as will insure the services of first-class men. It is not enough that a manis honest; he mnst, in sddition tothis, becapable. Hemust beup to thostandsrdphysically rse well asmorally sndmentally. Men of thia class areeomparatively scarce, and sssrole onn not 1Jo had unless the eompeusation ia eqnal to the service required. Low-priced men are not alwnva the oheaneat. A bad article is dear a t an-v nrice. Pav- ine a man as Intlinu agent $1,200 or $1,500, and expecting him to perform)5,000 or $4,000 worthof labor, is not economy, and in e largenumber of casea has proven to be the wontkind of extravagance. The wholesale,-sweeping oharge of dishonesty sometimes made against 111dian agents is not true. Some of them are good and true men, doing the very best they can under the embarrassing cironmstsnces by whioh they ere aur-rounded, andsoma of them are cspsble; but I repeat, the inducements for such men to remain are insufficient, ao8 the diffioulties and discourngements whioh they meet cmwd them out of the service, and until all Indian agenta ara aelectad and paid as a. good businessnlanaeleotv andpays his employ6s (whichis not thecase now), it need not be wondered at if many of them are incompetent, and a few of them dishonest. |
