OCR Text |
Show 20 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. of everything pertaining to the clothing, feeding, housing, and instruct-ing of from 100 to 500 girls aud boy8 calla for very large executive ability, business capacity and experience, and gel~eral knowledge of affairs, in addition to the qualifications for strictly educational work usually expected of a school superintendent. Lack of business man-agement is ordinarily the weak point of bonded superiutendents who fail. A certificatiol~f rom the Civil Service Coillmission of names ou the eligible list gives no inforiuation whatever as to the capacity of the persons certified for conducting business a8'airs and I qllestion if any system of writter~ competitive examiuatiol~s could be relied upon to furnish infomation of aucha character. In view of the absolute neces-sity that snperiotendents of bonded scl~ools,e specially the large non-reservation schools, should be lnen of unusual force of ol~aracter and business capacity, and in view of the inadequacy of a civil-service exami-nation to indicate such qualifications, I am of the opinion that the good of the service will be promoted by re~novingb onded school superinten-dents from the operation of the civil-service law-so that such superin-tendents may be selected solely by reason of their fitness for the diffi-cult aud peculiar duties which will be imposed upon them, instead of being ganged by their rank in a pedagogical examination. SCHOOL EXHIBIT OF INDIAN BUREAU AT THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. The plan outlii~edin the last report for the exhibit of this Bureau a t C the Oolumbian Exposition has been carried out in most of its details. Afterconsiderablediffic~~litnyo btaining bids within the amount allowed for the purpose, and after cutting down expense in every pos~iblew ay, a two-story framebailding, withoutornamentation, and asinexpensive as was consistent with safety of construction, was erected on the Exposition grounds near the Anthropological Building. It mas plannedto accom-modate 30 pupils and half a dozen employds. It has school room, din-ing room, kitchen, dormitory, sitting rooms, and indnstrial rooms; is plainly furnished; and in it since the 15th of May, delegations of Indian boys and girls, accompanied by their instructors, have cooked, eaten, slept, worked, and recited. They bring their own tools, implements, bedding, specimens of school-room work and products of their shops, and, as far as circumstances permit, carry out and exemplify the routine and methods prevailing in their respective schools. Allowing for the peculiar surroundings, the aim has been to give a fair representation on a s~nalslc ale of an Indian boarding school. Even its lack of some conveniences and of needed space, notably in its school room, might be considered an added realistic touch. The schools thus, occupying the building at Chicago are Albu-querque, N. Mex.; Rensselaer, Ind.; Lincoln Institutioi~P, hiladelphia; Lawrence, Kans.; Genoa, Nebr.; Ohilocco, Okla., and Osage, Okla., |