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Problem of Indian Administration

resultingly poor farm, and a poor dairy herd. Here the per capita was woefully inadequate and its inadequacy handicapped the efforts of the superintendent and the principal to bring the plant back to efficiency. A boarding school on a neighboring reservation in the same state had an excellent irrigation plant, a remarkable farm, and an outstanding dairyman. The children had an abundance of milk, plenty of butter, loads of fresh vegetables, good home grown meat, and almost a gallon of honey per pupil per year. Sales from the farm added to its income. It was a pleasure to see these Indian children eat, effectively refuting the argument that Indian children will not drink milk and eat butter and that you can’t get them to like vegetables. Each of the two schools, however, had substantially the same per capita. Either Congress itself should give more consideration to the needs of each individual school or it should delegate this authority to the Indian Office subject to suitable accounting control.

Conferences of Employees. This recommendation for a committee on rules, regulations, and procedure should be accompanied by one for the wider use and fuller development of local conferences for superintendents, other agency employees, supervisory officers from the Washington office, and members of the suggested Division of Planning and Development. The annual conference of the superintendents of the Navajo jurisdictions indicates the possibilities in this direction. It is beneficial for the superintendents and other employees to get together to discuss their problems and for the Washington officers to participate with them. Provisions should be made so that persons not in the Indian Service, specially qualified to discuss the problems the superintendents face, may attend these conferences, speak, and participate in the discussions. The superintendents and the other field employees should not be asked to keep their noses always to the grindstone; they need now and then to get and possibly to give a new vision of their work. Such labor in itself affords in a way a little rest and relaxation and is a legitimate government expense. On rare occasions a national convention of Indian workers might return many times its cost, especially if it were divided into sections for the discussion of concrete problems and if the missionary bodies and other interested organizations would codperate fully, as there is every reason to believe they would.