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accuses roosevelt and his cabinet of aiding the catholics new york feb 2 the evening post today prints a statement from the rev william hare protestant episcopal bishop of south in which he charges that the law prohibiting hi aid to sectarian indian schools lias been evaded and that money has been paid out to the catholic mission schools bishop barea statement Is dated sioux falls S D january 5 lie describes the pecuniary embarrass and anxiety on the part ot the schools the abolishment of tho contract system of government aid and recites his efforts to secure come measure ot relict from its rigid application it was urged sas bishop hare that iv hen rations and annuities had reached the indian country and a parent who had a child in a mission boarding school consented that that childs calr share oe the rations should be turned over to tha said mission school compliance with his alah could not fairly be held to be an appropriation to a sectarian school I 1 ventured to present this view of the case to the commissioner of indian affairs he rejected it I 1 then carried tha case to the secretary 0 the interior he upheld the decision of the commissioner I 1 then took the matter up to the president who referred the matter to uio attorney general mr knox the state mem then quotes attorney general knobs upholding the position of the indgin commissioner and declaring that official has no authority to grant bishop hares application this opinion continues the statement was cent me by the president as hla answer to my appeal this of I 1 course finally settled the CASC what its effect upon the school work of other societies was I 1 can only imagine in regard to my own board lag school work it made it necessary to give up entirely two ot the mission boarding schools ach namely st pauls yankton agency and st johni cheyenne river reserve and aggregate upon the two remaining boarding schools all the boarding school auada which I 1 could I 1 was ultimately driven to sell st pauls school for about halt its value and st johns for about one tenth of ita value the only comfort lay in the act that the highest executive officers of the government seemed to have been driven to seemingly act by a nigh and imperative denae of duty blut public duty being abot to we funds in the hands of abo government for denominational schools 1 I have gone into some detail in making ahli statement in order that the fact may be apparent that government officials hon W A jones commissioner the lion E A hitchcock secretary of the interior the hon theodore roosevelt president of the united states under advice of tho attorney general tho hon P C knox reached and avowed the opinion after much discussion and despite the great hardship that this conclusion brought upon missionary effort that it was the settled policy of the government not to uso tho money entrusted to it in aid of any denominational school not a traction of the rations in the charge of auy indian agent could at the re queba of the head of a family be set apart for the of that child it that child was in a school imagine my surprise therefore on discovering last september that the samo executive officers who bad declared tills to ba the of the government and had administered the policy with inexorable suddenness and severity had been making large contracts for the conduct ot mission boarding schools on tho spur ot the moment it deemed to me that I 1 might case my pecuniary burdens by securing such a contract for my mission boarding schools and I 1 wrote to J rf jones commissioner of indian affairs asking tor information he replied these contracts were entered into pursuant to a petition filed in the house by the indians of several reservations vat ions the expense to be paid out ot trust funds now to their credit in the treasury of the united states in answer to a second letter he wrote me 1 I do not it is necessary for you to secure the consent or even to have a request made for the tribe tor the purpose of entering into a contract for your boarding school my eyes began to be opened not to say to stare I 1 recall the whole cause of the action of the government in regard to the denominational schools as rehearsed above I 1 wrote to three or tour protestant missionary societies and learned that their amazement was equal to mine I 1 next discovered that these contracts numbered in all nine and that eight had been made with one denomination and that ot the total amount of the contracts viz 1027 SU all but was tor the benefit of one denomination |
