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Show . COMWSSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 5 In furtherance of our health campaign, on January 10, 1916, I sent the following letter to every Indian Service employee and to others known to be interested or those who, it was thought, might be induced to participate, directly or indirectly, in the accomplish-ment of health betterments among the Indians. XI? an address before the Congress on Indian. Progress held at San Francis? in August of last year I said: "It is our chief duty to Protext the Indian's health and to save him from ~ ~ r ~ma t uderaeth . Before we educate him, before we conserve his prqperty, we should save his life. If he is to be perpetuated, we must care for the ciiiidren. We rauSt stop the tendency of the Indian to diminish in number, and reStow a eondttlon that will insure, his increase. Every Indian hospltsl bed not neeeasarily occupied with those suffering from disease or injury should he a~-nilable for the mother in childbirth. It is of first importance that \ve hegin by reestablishing the health and constitution of Indian children. Education and protection of property are highly important, hut exemthing is secondary to the basic condition which makes for the perpetuation of the race." That thought has deepened its hold upon my convictions. We must guarantee to the Indian the first of inalienable right-the right to live. No race was ever created for utter extinction. The chief concern of all ethics and all science and all philosophies is life. The Indian has demonstrated his humanity and his capacity for intellectual nnd moral progress amid conditions not always propitious and I am eager to participate with ?I1 the favoring forces that contribute to his racial triumph, believing as I do that when he comes to himself as a factor in the modern world his achievements will enrich and brighten the civilhation of his native land. I should l e e to get the feeling I have upon this question into the,congcience and aspirations of every Indian Service employee until there shall prevail a sort of righteous passion to see that everyIndian child has a fair chance to iive. There is something fundamental here: We can not solve the Indian problem wlthoht Indians. We can not educate their children unless they are kept alive. All our Indian schools, reservations, individual allotments, and acculnulated incomes tend pathetically toward a wasted nltruism if maintained and con-served for a withering, decadent people. If we have an Indian policy worthy of the name, its goal must be an endur-ing and sturdy race, true to the noblest of its original instincts and virtues and loyally sympathetic with our social and national life; a body of eBcieat citizens blending their unique poise andpod'ers with the kegu and sleepless vigor of the white man. We must,. therefore, renew naily our warfare against the arch foe of ei%- ciency--disease. We must begin at the right place--not only with the infant at its mother's breast, hut with the unborn geuern.tion. The new campaign for health in which I would enlist yml is first of ail to save the babies. Stntistics startle us with the fact that approximately three-fifths of the Indian infants die before the age of 5 years. Of what use to this mournful mortality are onr splendidly +quipped schools7 |