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Show 00MMISSIOBEB OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 1 f l ~ " j . v Permanent results in the individual are best secured when hi ' own will power is enlisted as an aid to temperance. A pledge-sign- . ing campaign has been inaugurated among the Indians with gratify-ing results. The Vermillion Lake Indihns celebrated with great joy the first anniversary of a general signing of the temperance pledge, apd even the women demanded the right to affix their names. At La Pointe Agency, Wis., about 60 per cent of the Indians signed the pledge to abstain from the use of intoxicants. These instances are cited as evidence of a remarkable change in sentiment, as it has I occurred in a territory where intemperance ambng the Indians by. reason of local conditions was probably as flagrant as anywhere in the country. As an educational side to the evils of the use of alcohol a spirited essay contest was promoted in the schools, the children of the third, fourth, and fifth grades writing on the topic <'What do I know about alcohol!" and the sixth, seventh, eighth, and higher grades on "Alco-hol and my future." This method of acquainting the youth with the danger of indulgence was very successful, as shown in the thought-fulness with which the essays were prepared. In many instances the home life of the writer was dram upon for vivid illustrations. On June 22, 1915, I addressed the following letter to 739 pupils in the Indian schools making prize awards: MY WFXENO: I take pleasure in presenting to you tp6 prize which h i been awarded under the terms of the essay contest on alcoholism. It is gratifying to me that yon have so good an understanding of the evU efPects of alcohol, and the importance of preventing its introduction, sale, or use among Indians. It has now come about that there is a world-wide campaign agaiast the. liquor tr&c not only from a moral point of view, but in recent years it has become essentially 'an economic question, and its banishment is advocated from the business office as strenuously as from the pulpit. More recently the use of intoxicants has been officially denounced by many of the great European Governments as destructive to military disclpiine and et8dency. (feneraliy throughout the Indlan country there hns been splendid coopera.Uon in our efforts to frpe the Indlan from the malign influence and destructive effects of whiskv. I am greatly pleased with the helpful spirit'manifested among adult Indium ' ' and for the intelligent -and syrnpathetlc response from the Indian schools, 8s exemplified in this contest. Annuity payments in the past have been frequently described as .orgies of drunkenness. I have taken radical steps never before un-dertaken to eliminate this condition. Invoking the aid of the law (sec. 2078, R. S.), I directed for the Osage payment that no money be paid the Indians while they were under the influence of intoxi-cants, nor while it was evident to the officer making the payment that intoxicants were within convenient reach of the Indians, or until the chiefs and head men of the tribe should have pledged themselves |
