M
VOL 10.
MAY 1, 1908.
NO. 45
Commissioner's Open Letter:
The following letter from the Honor
able Commissioner of Indian Affairs was
received during the week and is publish
ed in its entirety:
Deparement of the Interior
Office commissioner of Indian Affairs;
Washington.
-April 4. 1908.
The Editor -of The Arrow, :
Care U. S. I I. S., Carlisle, Pa.
Dear Sir: I send this letter to you
directly, without the; usual formality of
passing it through the Superintendent,
because it deals partly with the Superin
tendent's personality, and his modesty
might, and probably would, prevent its
ever seeing light. I feel, that by address
ing it to you I can be sure of making it
public.
If I had cared to go further into the
subject, while I was speaking the other
day at Carlisle, I should have said that
the presence of a man like Mr. Friedman
on the stage at that moment, performing,
the functions of Superintendent, was a
living refutation of any lies which mav
have been told about my treatment of
Carlisle School. I have, as ' I said, op
posed for some years the extension of
the system of non-reservation schools,
ana no new one nas been estabiisnea
during ray administration. Several of
those which were already established
had seen their best days and were run
ning down the hill. My purpose in pro
posing to Congress the , elimination of
those, and the gradual shrinkage of the
system as fast as one and another school
could be spared, was on the same basis
as the effort I have been steadily making
to diminish the scope and importance or
the Indian Office itself; and from the
time that I became Commissioner I'have'
worked' steadily to that end certainly.
I leave it for any honest champion of
Carlisle to say whether, when the super
intend en cy of the school felT vacant' and
I placed therein the verv best expert I
X JL
could rind in the Service in the domain
of the industrial arts I did "not do all"
that the strongest friend of the institu
tion could ''possibly ask. Mr. Friedman's
. position in the Service has long 'been '
'. recognized with such cordiality : among
his fel low Workers that my private mail
has contained :a mass1 of congratulations
-l . i ; t ; n . . 1 Y 1 ' . . 1 .
: and thanks tor the step"! nave taken.
My purpose 'was to give the industrial
end of the school the best impetus that I
. could.1 As long as Carlisle continues to