American Missionary | Page 3

in the whole administration of the Indian service. We believe that this should be disconnected entirely from the Department of the Interior, and be made a separate department. This whole Indian question is so important and so complex that it ought not to be simply an annex to a department which has under its control land, patents, etc. It should stand by itself; there should no longer be a divided responsibility, which is always productive of evil. We are finding the necessity in our cities of making responsibility more direct and personal. The time, we believe, has fully come to reorganize the Indian service on this basis. Our criticism is not against any individual, but against a system which is the growth of many years.
We would suggest the following;
1. Have the Commissioner of Indian Affairs responsible only to the President and to the public. What he does, or may do, shall not be controlled by the Department of the Interior.
2. Ask Congress to provide such legislation that no agents or teachers shall ever be removed without proper cause.
3. All inspectors and special agents shall be under the absolute control of the Commissioner.
4. There shall be a division of the Indian reservation into school districts, with an assistant superintendent for each. It shall be their duty to visit the schools constantly, and keep themselves in full sympathy and touch with the work. This is the method in the States--an official responsible for a field which he can properly cover.
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_EDUCATORS' CONVENTION._
The recent Educators' Convention of Atlanta was a large and significant gathering. Such consultations of teachers carry a wide and beneficial influence. We learn that the papers and addresses were of a high character, and that the discussions were carried on with great interest, and we have no doubt that the educational work throughout the South will feel the upward impulse of this Convention.
We quote the following paragraph from the excellent report in the _Congregationalist_:
The importance of the work of the Convention may be indicated by the topics discussed: Education in Rural Districts, Relative Mortality of the Colored Race, Hygiene, Industrial Training, Better Teaching in the Elementary Grades, A Scientific Course in the College Curriculum, Compulsory Education, What Can the Negro Do? What the Ministry is Doing to Elevate the Freedmen. A r��sum�� was given of the educational work of the different denominations, mainly by the secretaries of their educational societies. The reports of the colored Methodist churches were especially interesting, as indicating the gratifying extent to which the colored people are taking hold of the work of their own education. No paper of the Convention, however, was received with such spontaneous enthusiasm and applause as the report of Dr. Beard of the work of the American Missionary Association. It was the eloquence of facts. The proceedings of the Association will constitute a large volume, which will soon be published and widely circulated.
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_"AN OPEN PATH FOR TALENT."_
Napoleon said this was the meaning of the French Revolution. He gave promotion in the army not for what a man's ancestry had been, but for what the man himself could do. Who else ever had such efficient subordinates? Opportunities became open generally in France, according to each one's personal ability. The excesses of the revolutionary period were transitory. The enlargement of the nation's power, by removing the fetters of prescription, has been permanent. The recuperative energy displayed by France in the last twenty years is a marvelous example of the strength imparted by liberty.
The educational work of the American Missionary Association in the South makes no revolutionary disturbance. It quietly opens a path for talent whose existence had been before unnoticed or denied. It has been already instrumental in bringing forward many men and women to positions of influence. Beginning with the lowest branches of education, it trained the first colored teachers for the State school systems. Its schools for higher education have as yet come far short of supplying the demand for advanced teachers and for educated ministers and other educated professional and business men.
We cannot make talent, but opening the door for talent to find development and activity adds rich gifts to the Nation's life.
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_IRRESPONSIBLE INSTITUTIONS._
The Independent, in its Symposium of December 11th upon Gen. Booth's Plan, has an article from Charles D. Kellogg, Superintendent of the Charity Organization Society, in which, referring to a certain irresponsible piece of charity, he says:
We do not believe that it is right for any one to ask for the support of such an individual enterprise, except from those who give it because of personal knowledge and confidence in the manager. When the public is appealed to, such contributions take on the nature of trust funds, the receipts and disbursements of which should be audited