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Show COXMIRBIONEB OF INDIAN AFFAIRB. 27 induces persons engaged in the traffic to break the law in order to sell it to them at exorbitant prices. The Office has used every avail-able means to break up the liquor traffic with the Indians, but it has no power to enforce the criminal laws. The Heff decision will add vastly to the di5culty of protecting.even the unallotted Indians. The Office is, therefore, moved once more to recommend that Cou-gress be asked to appropriate $10,000 to be used in obtaining evidence and in prosecuting parties engaged in the sale of liquor to Indians. THE INDIAN TRADER. The Indian trader has a bad n?.me with the public, but it is doubt-ful if he is any more given to taking advantage of the ignorance or necessities of his customers than is the conductor of an ordinary busi-ness outside of an Indian reservation, from an oil monopoly to a house plumber. He has, however, some specially favorable oppor-tunities for overreaching if he is disposed to take advantage of them. The Indian's habitual lack of forethought and the small amount of money which passes through his hands, the isolation of his reser-vation, and his unsettled mode of life, all conspire to make him dependent upon the trader. Humanity compels, quite as often as business interest invites, the man with the store of clothing and food to advance supplies to the cold and hungry. The trader who tries to restrict his trade to a cash basis find? his custom diverted to his credit-giving competitor, and present needs, usually far in excess of even future income, keep the debit side of the account continually against the Indian. The influence of a trader for good or evil is great and continuous. His store is a wmmon gathering place; he knows the Indians per-sonally, and to nearly every one of them.hehas been at some time the friend in need; he furnishes the nearest market for whatever the In-dian has to dispose of, and rarely does he turn an unsympathetic ear to the Indian's longing for some article of civilized luxury-it may be a buggy or a phonograph-to be paid for out of the next '' annuity " or '' lease money " or purchase price of a dead ancestor's allotment. The licensed trader is a survival from the old days of the wild frontier, like the rickety stagecoach and the wolf's-scalp currency, and among more modern conditions seems almost as much of an anomaly. But he is retained largely because whatever trade with Indians is licensed by the Government can be supervised and re-stricted by the Government, and it is no small advantage that one trading place can be offered the Indian-and that the nearest one-where he can not obtain liquor. |