and necessarily a difficult one. It has been doubly so by reason of exceptional occurrences since they came under our sovereignty. If there is to be any American aid to Filipino industries, congressional legislation must open the way for and not hinder it. Federal officers must be led to concentrate their study upon the subject, and, having done so, they must be expected to take definite public attitudes, and, having done this, they must be listened to. The simple industries which will contribute to better living must be encouraged through better implements and improved methods. And other industries which will find or develop markets must be studiously ascertained and methodically introduced by government action and, if need be, by liberal government aid. The amount of money we spend in the matter is of little account so long as it is honestly expended and really leads to self-supporting industries. We are not in this business for commercial gain, and unless there is moral gain we shall be ourselves disgraced, if not debauched, by it. A tariff against insular products for the real purpose of affording superior profits to home industries that are no longer in their infancy is abhorrent to the good conscience and overwhelming opinion of the American people. The Philippine industries are now "home industries" quite as much as any other industries and the circumstances claim for them not only equal terms but any preference which their existence and reasonable prosperity may require. There are some people who do not see things which they do not want to see unless they are told in particular ways. If party managers who control these things continue to turn a deaf ear to the gentle voices which are now protesting, they will find that many objectors will join forces and they will hear from enough people in a way that will be entirely intelligible to them. Not only the revenue tariffs but every other instrumentality of the general government is expected to be used in uplifting the people of the Philippine Islands. McKinley's thought must be carried out. The members of Congress talk most entertainingly, and no doubt genuinely; but congressional action is often so very different from the Congressmen whom we know. There is the rub. The Washington departments and both houses of Congress, as to everything but the coming elections, have come to be the most easily resistive machines in all history.

For myself alone, I have doubt about making the War Department the essential and permanent Washington instrument of insular administration, and it is not relieved by the qualities and the experiences of Secretary Taft. It was natural enough at the beginning because it was then military

administration almost exclusively. Perhaps it was well. Possibly it saved us from purely partizan administration. The military service, as President Eliot points out, is one for protection and not instruction, and it seems as though the essential work we are to do in the Philippines will be more quickly done without any unnecessary control by the military establishment.

We do not overlook little Porto Rico, or our good friends in the Hawaiian Islands. The problem with them is by no means so large. Before the Conference is over you will doubtless know that the Hawaiian people are abundantly able to speak for themselves. And both of these peoples will quickly get the benefit of any insular policies which the overwhelming situation in the Philippines may induce.

In a concluding word, the millions of Filipinos who have come under our care will move out of the darkness and into the light more quickly when it is fully realized that whether they do it or not depends alike upon themselves and upon the people of the United States; that the process is essentially a moral one and the task upon us is one of the world burdens which our own advance has brought to us; that legislation which is not framed upon altruistic lines will not serve any good purpose for them or for us; that efficient administration must have very special reference to the things to be done, and expert opinion must have the respect and the influence which belong to it; and that over all there must be definite, responsive and reachable accountability. And there is reason enough to question whether it is not desirable that there be an independent office at Washington which will have specific and pretty independent charge of insular affairs, which will have power to do things and the right to be listened to, which will be charged with full knowledge about dependencies in general and the Philippines in particular, and which will not only be established upon a legal footing that will enable it to be independent of all meanness if it is willing to be, but, above all else, will be under the direct influence of the better spirit of the American people. (Applause.)

THE CHAIRMAN: The first speaker of the morning is HON. FRANCIS E. LEUPP, United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs. After his remarks, he will present a number of workers in the Indian fields who will explain to us the present day operations of the Indian service.

THE GOVERNMENT'S POLICY TOWARD THE UTE

INDIANS

REMARKS OF HON. FRANCIS E. LEUPP

Ladies and Gentlemen: Last year I spoke to you at some length on what we are trying to do in the Indian service in the way of getting the Indians away from the reservations, trying to mix them with the white people, and having them work just as white people do. You will hear something more on this subject from one of our lieutenants in the field whom I have asked to address you this morning.

I wish to concentrate what little I have to say upon one subject which may come up a while later, and upon which I wish the members of this Conference to be fully informed. Judging from past experiences they may not get all the information that they ought to have from the newspapers.

Last year, as you may recall, a body of three or four hundred of the Ute Indians started from their reservation in the State of Utah, travelling across the country in the direction of the Sioux Reservation, with the notion that the Sioux country was "Indian country," and that they had just as much right there as anybody else. They said they would rather live there than back where they were. Their idea was to get away from the advance of white civilization into their country; they were particularly disgusted with the thought that the government had allotted their lands to them, and that they had not been consulted quite so much on some points as they felt they ought to be. The reason they were not, was that Congress knew perfectly well that if it waited for this particular tribe to ask for allotment, no allotment would ever be made, the one desire of these Indians being to remain hunters and fishermen-primitive inhabitants of the soiljust as they had been in the past.

They were intercepted on their way across the country about the time that their food began to give out, and when it was feared by a number of scattered settlers in Wyoming, and South Dakota, and elsewhere, that they would begin to make raids upon the cattle farms; and the President ordered out a very large body of troops, so that the Indians could be rounded up without the firing of a shot or the shedding of a drop of blood, and peaceably carried back to their reservations. In the course of the parley which ensued after the Indians had been rounded up, it was decided that they should be allowed to send a delegation to Washington to consult with the President. They had a notion that the President would

listen to their plea for remaining in their old condition. He did agree to receive the delegation, and had a long talk with them, in which he very patiently explained that the conditions in the country everywhere had changed; that it was necessary now for the Indians to support themselves and prepare themselves for the citizenship which was inevitable; and that they as citizens were expected to return peaceably to their old homes. As they protested vigorously against that, and said they would like to go and find a new home in the Sioux country, the President consented, and sent Captain Carter Johnson, an army officer, to visit their old home to look over the conditions and report to him. When Captain Johnson returned, he said that he thought under all the existing conditions, as the Indians had gone as far as they had, it would be wiser to negotiate with the Cheyenne river Sioux, who had some surplus pasture lands, and see whether they were willing to lease the Utes land enough to settle on. This was done. The Cheyenne river Utes agreed to lease a certain part of their pasture at a definite rental, which was entirely satisfactory and the wandering Utes were planted there.

But it was no part of the President's purpose, as was explained to the Utes at the time, and has been repeatedly since, to let them live there in idleness; if they wished a change of climate and surroundings, he was willing to give them a chance to do as they pleased in these respects, but he did insist that they should, like all other citizens, of every race and color, pay for their own support. This was not in the Ute program. So we are faced with an interesting situation. The Utes were first of all offered an opportunity to work at high wages, including free house rent, free water, and free fuel, on the Sante Fe Railroad. They protested that it was a long distance off and they did not want to go so far; moreover, they had a herd of ponies, and they did not know what to do with those. It was suggested that they should do as white people would under the same circumstances-sell the ponies and use the money for the betterment of their own condition. That did not suit them at all. So the President then said: "Very well, we will see what we can find for you nearer home."

During the summer we made an investigation of labor conditions in the northwest, and found an opportunity for all the able bodied men among these people to do unskilled labor at two dollars a day, at a point not far from where the bulk of their band were living, and where the children could go to school within fifteen miles of their work, so that the parents could see them from time to time. This offer they have

absolutely rejected. They say: "We are government people, not like the Sioux-the Sioux have to work, but the government will feed us." Well, I am sorry to say that I fear this bodes ill for the relations of the government and these Utes. I think that later this fall they will be given once more the opportunity of choosing between going to work and doing the other thing-going hungry. Now, the pinch of hunger is one of the greatest educators for any race of people. We sometimes say that we reach the American mind and heart through the purse; with the aboriginal American we reach it through the stomach. When the Indian begins to find that his rations are dropping off, he for the first time realizes the problem which confronts him.

We are cutting down the rations everywhere through the Sioux country, and among the rest these Utes are suffering. A little while hence they will discover that what has been told them was absolutely true-that they must either go to work or go hungry. When that time comes I do not know what the result may be. It is possible, as they have carried their arms with them, that they will rise in revolt; if they do, that revolt will be suppressed, and, if necessary, with an iron hand. I want to say this right here and now, so that every member of the Conference will know exactly what is going to happen, and will understand the position of the government toward those people. It was not the government's fault that they took the course they did in order to get into a place where they could live in idleness and eat the bread of charity. If they persist in that course they will be made to understand what the word "must" means. (Applause.)

I will now proceed to introduce some of the workers from the field. The first I shall present to you is himself an Indian and belongs to the Peoria tribe. When I first entered office I established an employment bureau with the notion of getting the Indians out of their reservations and at work wherever they could find work, just as the white people go in search of it. But, knowing the lack of initiative in many of these poor people, I wanted to have some one give them the start. Mr. Dagenett appeared to be the most satisfactory man for that need; his heart was sympathetically in it; he fully believed in it. I knew he could be trusted to carry out the policy of the Department and I took pleasure in designating him for the head of this bureau. He will tell you something of what has been done in the way of getting the Indians out and putting them at work, and looking after their interests in the very general way in which we do it. MR. CHARLES E. DAGENETT, Supervisor of Indian Employment.