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the new land in the name of the King, white man and red man exchanged greetings cordially. Such was the first meeting with the Indians. Soon another scene followed. It was much as follows: Several red men bound hand and foot being forcibly marched onto ships anchored at the shore, ready to make a return trip. Rapidly following this came battle scenes; Indians fighting to save their possessions. Any race which would not have fought under such circumstances would not be worthy of the name of American. The Indian would never be enslaved. He fought and died in preference. Continuing the picture, we in our imagination can see the Indian retreating, fighting every foot of the way, the victors grabbing and holding all they conquered. The next scene shows the Indians collected. on bodies of land known as Indian reservations, these surrounded not by barbed wire fences as during the Cuban War, but by soldiers with fixed bayonets ready to charge if any Indian should attempt to leave the reservation. Up to this period the treatment of the Indian might be said to have been inhuman. At this time, however, the scene changes and the humane element in the treatment of the Indians is introduced. It was decided that it would be cheaper to educate the Indian than to fight him. Schools were planned and built. Gradually but slowly the number was increased, being built mostly by missionary effort in the beginning. Later the government took up the work, and as is always true in this great country of ours, the work undertaken by the government has been well done. Approximately $60,000,000 have been expended for Indian education. More than 350 schools have been erected and are now being maintained. Today approximately 35,000 Indian boys and girls are attending these schools. Thoro elementary, academic, and industrial training is being regularly given during nine months of each year. The usual literary subjects are taught to both boys and girls. In addition the boys are taught handwork, not merely manual training but actual industrial work, such as farming, gardening, stock-raising, dairying, blacksmithing, carpentering, masonry, painting, the elements of steam engineering as applied especially to heating, harness-making, cobbling, tailoring, printing; and the girls are taught cooking, sewing, laundering, general housekeeping, nursing. Picture if you will in your minds 350 day and boarding-schools scattered over 22 of the states of the union, with groups of from 10 to 30 children in the day schools and groups of from 50 to 1,000 in boardingschools, mass them all together until you have a picture of 3,500 red children varying in age from 6 to 21 years, and you will have an educational picture into which the humane element has been introduced and is taking a large place.

The picture is very incomplete, however, as Indian education does not stop with the children. It deals with adults as well. Fathers and mothers, yes, grandfathers and grandmothers, are included. All over the country wherever Indians have land, allotments have been and are being made,

and the Indians are being taught the necessity of having permanent homes. Schools located on reservations among the Indians are being constantly urged to emphasize the value of home life. Such schools are in fact community centers and their work is with the family unit, not simply with the children: Schools located away from the reservations place emphasis on the teaching of the home industries, such as farming, gardening, care of stock, the use of simple tools, etc., for boys, and cooking, sewing, laundering, etc., for the girls. Some of them also conduct what is known as the outing system, placing boys and girls in homes where they may learn lessons of home life from actual contact and association with them, the purpose of such work being gradually but surely to improve the Indian home. Other very important features of Indian education that might be pictured, if there were time, are the very active campaigns that are being made under the direction of the Indian Bureau in an effort not only to relieve the diseased and distressed who have been marked by the dread diseases of tuberculosis, trachoma, and others, but also to prevent so far as possible any further extension. Also the campaign is carried on against liquor traffic among Indians, and in enforcing proper marriage and divorce laws.

My time is short; therefore I must not dwell at greater length upon what is being done. The federal government has done and is doing much, but I should like to call your attention for just a few moments to some things which it would seem might be better done by state and local authorities than by the federal government.

Among the resolutions adopted by this conference yesterday was the following:

The department is most heartily in sympathy with the policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to promote and encourage the attendance of Indian children in the public schools and authorizes the out-going president to appoint a committee of five to investigate the present conditions of the Indians with reference to their relation to the public schools for the purpose of determining what co-operation or supplemental work is practicable.

I trust that I may be pardoned if I suggest some needed co-operation. 1. In securing attendance in some school of every Indian child of school age who is physically able to attend.

As the Indian children go out of the government school into the public school their attendance will be very irregular unless looked after carefully.

There are approximately 60,000 Indian children of school age in this country. Between 20,000 and 25,000 of them are out of school-many because there is no law to compel attendance. The federal government cannot enact such a law for the several states. The states must do it. Federal officers are not in a position to take any active part in securing the enactment of such laws. I trust that this may be thoughtfully considered by the members of the committee appointed to represent this Department of Superintendence.

2. Co-operation is needed in the campaign against the sale of liquor among Indians. 3. The work of the health section of the Indian Bureau in an effort to stamp out tuberculosis and trachoma should be supplemented, extended.

4. Proper marriage and divorce laws should be enforced among the Indians. The states must see to the enactment of such laws.

5. Government schools need a much larger eligible list of well-qualified teachers in all departments. State normal schools and agricultural colleges and other public and private educational institutions can, by co-operation, help to secure such help.

6. Many Indian schools are isolated and necessarily the instructors are out of touch with educational movements. A liberal distribution of educational reports, bulletins, and helps of all kinds would be a blessing and great inspiration to such teachers. During the past year the various state courses of study have been adopted by the Indian schools. We do not want to be a side show any longer. We want to become an integral part as far as possible of the great public-school system.

Only by such contact and competition may the Indians ever become good, independent, productive citizens.

I hope that the appointment of a committee for the study of the conditions of the Indians by members of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association will mark a new era in Indian education.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE MEXICAN CENTENNIAL HORACE H. CUMMINGS, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT, L.D.S. SCHOOLS, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

At the annual meeting of the Department of Superintendence two years ago an invitation was received from the Mexican government thru its Department of Education for this body of superintendents to meet in the City of Mexico during the month of September, 1910, and take part in the grand centennial celebration of Mexican independence. If impracticable for the entire body to meet there, it was urged that a delegation be sent to represent them. Accordingly Francis G. Blair, state superintendent of Illinois, Edmund A. Jones, at that time commissioner of common schools of Ohio, and Horace H. Cummings, general superintendent, L.D.S. schools of Utah, were chosen as delegates. Unfortunately, however, when the time arrived for the visit it was impossible for the first two members of the delegation to go, and the duties of the three fell upon the shoulders of the one least fitted to discharge them.

Similar invitations were sent to leading educational institutions of the world and some forty or fifty delegates from the great universities of Europe and America were present and took part in the festivities.

On arriving at the City of Mexico the delegates were met by committees appointed by the Secretary of Public Instruction, and escorted to good hotels where they were given every comfort, convenience, and attention. In fact, more skillful and generous hospitality could hardly be provided. Every want was anticipated and provided for almost before it was felt. Carriages and automobiles carried us to and from the various functions, chairs

at the opera were provided for unoccupied evenings, and attentive servants were always within call. For two or three weeks we enjoyed the proverbial hospitality and politeness of the Mexicans, which must be experienced to be truly appreciated.

The centennial celebration lasted during the entire month of September, but the important educational features did not begin until after the tenth and most of the delegates did not arrive until September 12. From the moment of their arrival, however, they were kept busy, for from two to five functions in which they were expected to take part occurred every day until the time arrived for their departure. It was indeed a time of strenuous pleasure as well as profit.

Among the many interesting educational features the following important ones are mentioned, but space forbids more than the briefest account of them:

1. The Seventeenth Congress of Americanists convened and held daily sessions for about two weeks. This is an organization of archaeologists devoting themselves to the study of American antiquities. Mexico offers the richest field for such research, and the government has been very liberal in appropriating means to aid them in their work. Excursions were given to the delegates to some of the most important of the ancient ruins which are being uncovered and restored. A wide interest is felt in this work.

2. A national primary industrial school was inaugurated with fitting ceremonies and given a new modern building to occupy. This will provide for the introduction of industrial education into their system of schools, a feature for which the children there have a natural aptness.

3. The establishment of a normal school for primary teachers was not only a beautiful and impressive exercise, but a movement of the greatest importance, for the conditions there seemed at once to render such an institution necessary, and to insure it a useful and successful career.

4. The inaugural session of the National Congress of Primary Teachers occurred September 13 and was followed by daily sessions thereafter until their work was finished. Here reports were given from the various states and districts comprising the Republic of Mexico, showing the condition of progress of elementary education in each, and plans were stated for future improvements. In considering the statistics setting forth cost of school buildings and equipment, the number, sex, and salaries of teachers, the attendance of pupils, etc., the reports on the whole were most gratifying and demonstrated that rapid and substantial advancement is being made where it is most needed and will do the most good to Mexico.

5. The opening of the Mexican Medical Exposition was an event well calculated to give an idea of the attention given and the progress made in the science and practice of medicine in that land. A national medical congress was also inaugurated September 19 with imposing ceremonies. and held a number of sessions during the month. The latest medical

There were no regrets that costly buildings and displays would be destroyed after the celebration. It was a gigantic affair, very impressive, instructive, and enjoyable, with few things about it to regret.

In this connection it may be well to state that the City of Mexico now seems to be as clean, as well drained and paved, and supplied with water, as any of our own large cities, and is with its even and delightful climate a safe and pleasant city in which to live.

Since real conditions, however, cannot be judged from dress parade exhibitions, I took excursions into the suburbs, which I found clean and sanitary-a remarkable change since I used to live in Mexico twenty-five years ago. I also visited rural schools in three different towns, Ciudad Juarez, Ixtacalco, and Tlalpam, and in one of them I was invited to conduct a recitation in history.

I found the children, most of whom are full-blooded Indians, very polite and intelligent-far more capable than the Indians of our own country. Tho the conditions and methods in the schools have improved much since my former acquaintance with them, they are still much behind the times. The little restless tots are confined in school from nine till five and sometimes longer. The charts and texts used reminded me of my own childhood school days in the far West. Still, elementary schools are much more numerous and teachers use better methods and are better paid than formerly, and I was often impressed with the thought that Mexico is one nation, at least, who does not in her rapid rush toward higher civilization destroy her native races, but patiently helps them along the same road.

The attitude of the administration toward education is most gratifying. Within little more than half a decade the Secretary of Public Instruction and Fine Arts has been advanced from a subordinate branch of the Department of Justice to that of a Cabinet minister, while the national appropriation has been increased in four years from $2,000,000 to $8,000,000. The new school buildings are of the latest and most approved styles— well lighted and ventilated. The same is true of other public buildings. The new City Post-Office is a model of beauty, stability, and convenience, while the new opera house nearing completion will have few equals in the world. The hotels also show the spirit of the modern movement which is everywhere.

But more in the broad, wise, and generous treatment of the education of the masses than in any other feature do I see the true foundation of Mexico's future success and greatness. It is chiefly thru her schools that she may hope to prepare her people to exercise safely and wisely the freedom and power of self-government so well provided for in her constitution.

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