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Show COMMI8810?.?EBO F INDYLN AFLFR.&IW. 19 many of them necessarily green hands athhe beginning, is becoming ' a very e5cient organization. Neopit is a small lumbering town. An electric power plant fur-nishes the town and mill with light. In organizing a11 the serviees of a modern town the superintendent has taken the initiative; for instance, he reports that he has five trained fire crews ready to respond at any moment, and by actual test they can have water on a fire in three minutes after an alarm. For the Indians buildings are being constructed with proper regard to light, air, and health. INDIVIDUAL INDIAN MONEYS. At the beginning of the year there were on hand $9,500,000 of money to the credit of individual Indians. These funds were derived from sales of land, agricultural and grazing leases of allotments, royalties from oil and gas wells, sales of timber, earnings of outing pupils, and similar sources. Through supervision the expenditure of these moneys is now made one of the most effective means of devel-oping independence and self-support. For instance, if an Indian is able to work he is allowed to draw from money to his credit only for purposes that increase the e5ciency of himself and his family. Con-sequently, a liberal supervision of expenditures has not only in-creased the Indians' capital in property, but has conserved the funds of many Indians who otherwise, through infirmity or age, would have become dependent on the Government for support. The success of this policy of liberal supervision has been especially apparent during the fiscal year. Superintendents' requests for au-thority to approve checks disclose Indians occupying niodern houses and eager to improve them, profitably farming as extensive acreage as their progressive white neighbors, and supplying themselves with heavy horses and good grades of cattle. At times in the past individual moneys have been sources of p&- ' tive harm; for traders, encouraging the possessors of funds to ex-travagant and useless purchases, have inculcated spendthrift habits in direct antagonism to the purposes of the Government. The depart-ment has now taken very decisive steps to prevent further demoraliza-tion from this source. On December 17, 1909, departmental orders called attention to the regulation which requires all persons dealing with Indians to extend credit entirely at their own risk, and to the earlier announcement by this o5ce that no credit accounts incurred after July 1,1909, would be settled from funds in the custody of the Indian O5ce unless prior authority for the purchases had been p n t e d through the superintendent. To-day traders who extend credit receive their money, if at all, from the hands of the Indians themselves. |