THE CHEM AW A
5
AM ERICAN
MY BROTHER’S KEEPER
IN T E R E S T IN G COM M ENT O N
C O M M IS SIO N E R S E L L S
AN
ADDRESS
OF
IE Missoulian of Missoula, Montana, of March 29,
1914, contains one of the finest and fairest articles on
the liquor question which we have ever read, taking
an address of Commissioner Cato Sells as a theme.
The article follows:
“ Am I my brother’s keeper?’’ It is a question
which has been asked ever since the birth of man.
Always it is asked by somebody who is seeking to evade responsibility.
Always it is the alibi offered by those who would dodge the issue. It
is the cowardly defense of the guilty. The man who asks this question
may be classified at once as not right.
A day or two ago, The Missoulian printed an official letter from the
commissioner of Indian affairs. It was addressed personally to each of
the six thousand employees of the bureau over which Mr. Sells presides
in Washington. It was devoted to the problem of suppressing the sale
of liquor to Indians. Its tone was lofty and its plane was high. The
letter should be read by every man and woman, by every boy and girl.
For its scope is wider than the mere relation between booze and the red
man. It takes in the whole question of personal responsibility; it is an
able presentation of the liquor problem.
“ I believe,” says the letter, “ that the greatest present menace to the
American Indian is whiskey. It does more to destroy his constitution
and invite the ravages of disease than anything else. It does more to
demoralize him as a man and, frequently, as a women. It does more
to make him an easy prey to the unscrupulous than everything else
combined. If I say nothing more to you tonight that leaves an impres
sion, let it be this one thought: Let us save the American Indian from
the curse of whiskey.”
Commissioner Sells does not ignore the question of responsibility,
either. In the course of his letter, he says: “ There is nothing that
could induce me, since I have taken the oath of office as commissioner
of Indian affairs, to touch a single drop of any intoxicating liquor, and
this regardless of my attitude on the prohibition question.”
There is the whole proposition. The primary purpose of the letter
was, of course, to discuss with the employes of the Indian service the
question of suppressing the sale of liquor to the Indians. And it carries
out that purpose admirably. But with that phase of the letter we have
no concern this morning. We might comment upon what we know,