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Show 2.4 REPORT OF THE DOMMI88IONER OF INDIAN APFAIW. this is done one of the largest factom which make for unevenness in appropriationsfrom year to year will be eliminated, and, after a care-ful review of the situation, I believe that the needed appropriations by Congress will show a steady diminution from year to year. This is not only good from the point of view of the Treasury, but it is good for the Indians. They will be getting more and more on their feet, and the slow and irindly withdrawal of government support in one form or another going on at the same time will tend to increase their feelings of self-confidence. I would point out here a few of the ways in which economies may begin at once, in each case of mutual advantage to the Indians and the Treasury. Last year Congress appropriated an aggregate of $665,500 for gratuities in 28 separate appropriations. If Congress will lump this into one sum, or even divide them up into a few large lumps, I will take $640,000 and make such report of the expenditures to Congress as will show as good or better results than were gained with the larger amounts. Table 51 shows the increase of the work in the Indian Office during the last ten years and the size of the force in each year. Up to the present, better organization and improved methods have enabled the office not only to keep pace with the work, but to-day it is substan-tially current-a situation new in its history. That the steady increase due to the change from tribal relations to individualistic relations has reached a point where something more than organi-zation and improved methods will have to be used to meet it, is shown b ~ rt he fact that from February 1 to June 30, 1909, the aggregate overtime of employees of the office was equal to the time of one additional clerk for seven hundred and twenty-three days of seven hours each, or nearly the time of six additional clerks during the period stated. The work done under such pressure can not be done in a way to produce the best results most cheaply. An increase of 8 clerks would do away with the necessity of overtime, and more than pay for itself in the better direction of economic use of money in the field. By the same reasoning, higher salaries to superintend-ents in the field would result in a wiser and speedier handling of local business. Of nonreservation schools, I believe that both Congress and the office should demand at least some approach to self-support, and the appropriations for their benefit could gradually be cut down. It seems to me a condition not capable of explanation that a big school in a fertile section of the country, and equipped tb teach trades or stock raising, should not make a substantial income if it is doing its work right. |
