great educators of the world. It is probable if the teachers of the
United States could have a personal vote, their unanimous choice would
fall upon Dr. Harris as their Commissioner. The offices of the Bureau of
Education are in a brick building at the corner of G and Eighth Streets.
Footnote 5:
In July, 1906, Commissioner Harris retired on a Carnegie pension and
Prof. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, of California, became Commissioner of
Education.
The Commissioner has about forty assistants, who are confined to about
twenty-eight rooms. This office collects, tabulates, and reports on all
schools in the United States. Any one who desires to compare the
curriculums of different institutions consults the Commissioner's
report. Or should one desire to know what is being done in Europe, or
any other part of the world, along the line of art in schools, or manual
or industrial training, or the advanced education for women, all such
inquiries can be answered by reference to the Commissioner's report.
This bureau is held in high estimation in Europe. Many of the South
American republics and some Asiatic countries are trying, through the
reports of Dr. Harris, to model their school systems after that of the
United States.
Miss Frances G. French has charge of the foreign correspondence, and
tabulates statistics and reports on thirty-two foreign countries.
The school work presented by the Department of Education at Paris in
1900 secured favorable commendation from the best educators of Europe.
Only three commissioners have preceded Dr. Harris: Hon. Henry Barnard,
1867-1870; Hon. John Eaton, 1870-1886; Hon. N. H. R. Dawson, 1886-1889.
The latter was a brother-in-law of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Harris was
appointed by President Harrison, September, 1889. The best work of the
Bureau of Education lies in bringing about homogeneity in the work of
education throughout the United States. Without the tabulated work of
the Superintendents of States, how would the Superintendent of, say, one
of the Dakotas, know whether the work of the public schools of his State
corresponds with the work done in New York or Pennsylvania? Yet the boy
educated in Dakota may have to do his life-work in Pennsylvania. Then
the Commissioner's report keeps us informed what the State, Nation, or
Church is doing for the education of the colored race, the Indian, or
the people of our new possessions.
A short extract from the Commissioner's report of 1899 will give an idea
of the tabulated work for women:
The barriers to woman's higher education seem effectually removed,
and to-day eight-tenths of the colleges, universities, and
professional schools of the United States are open to women
students. As is stated by ex-President Alice Freeman Palmer, of
Wellesley College, "30,000 girls have graduated from colleges, while
40,000 more are preparing to graduate." The obtaining of a
collegiate education gives the women more ambition to enter a
profession, or, if they decide to marry, it is stated that—
The advanced education they have received has added to their
natural endowments wisdom, strength, patience, balance, and
self-control ... and in addition to a wise discharge of their
domestic duties, their homes have become centers of scientific
or literary study or of philanthropy in the communities where
they live.
It is stated that the advancement of women in professional life is
less rapid than in literature. The training of women for medical
practise was long opposed by medical schools and men physicians.
Equally tedious was the effort to obtain legal instruction and
admission to the legal profession, and even to-day the admission to
theological schools and the ministry is seriously contested; yet all
these professions are gradually being opened to women. In 1896-97
there were in the United States 1,583 women pursuing medical studies
to 1,471 in 1895-96; in dentistry, 150 women in 1896-97 to 143 in
1895-96; in pharmacy, 131 in 1896-97 to 140 in 1895-96. In law
courses of professional schools were 131 women in 1896-97 to 77 in
1895-96; in theological courses 193 women in 1896-97.
The only aggressive work done by this bureau is in Alaska, and of this
Dr. Sheldon Jackson[6] is agent or superintendent. Besides doing a great
work in education, this department has brought about 1,300 deer from
Siberia to take the place of dogs, mules, and horses in transportation,
and at the same time to give milk, butter, cheese, and meat to the
population. The reindeer are self-supporting, living on the moss which
grows abundantly.
Footnote 6:
Dr. Sheldon Jackson died May 2, 1909.
These animals are loaned to individuals or missions, and at the end of
five years the government requires an equivalent number to be returned.
The Eskimo, the Lapp, and the Finn become expert in handling these
herds, now numbering many thousands. By them mails are carried, and
whalers, sealers, miners, and soldiers rescued from starvation, danger,
or death.
The education as well as religious training of Alaska is up to this time
conducted through the mission stations, all of which are visited,
encouraged, and assisted by Dr. Jackson.
The _Youth's Companion_ tersely states the present condition of things:
When the churches first planned to send missionaries and teachers
into Alaska, representatives of the several denominations met and
divided the territory among them. Should the traveler ask the
ordinary Alaskan miner what is the result of effort, he would
probably be answered that there has been no result. The miner, in
the words of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, is unconscious that the very fact
of his presence there at all is the direct outcome of Christian
missions. In 1877 Sitka and St. Michaels were armed trading-posts,
out of which the soldiers shut the natives every night, that the
inhabitants might rest in safety. For ten years not a single whaler
dared to stay overnight at Cape Prince of Wales, so savage was the
native population. Now, in all those ports, the miner and whaler and
traveler can dwell in safety, because of the civilizing work of the
missionaries. Probably ten thousand natives have been brought under
Christian influences, and many public as well as mission schools
have been opened.
Among the Moravian missions of the Yukon Valley few of the natives
can read or write. At bedtime a bell rings, and the entire
population goes to the churches. A chapter in the Bible is read, a
prayer offered, a hymn sung; and the men, women, and children return
to their homes and go to bed. Where in the United States can be
found a better record?
In introducing religion with the arts, sciences, and conveniences of
civilization, Dr. Jackson's work reminds one of the words of Whittier:
I hear the mattock in the mine,
The ax stroke in the dell,
The clamor of the Indian lodge,
And now the chapel bell.
I hear the tread of pioneers,
Of nations yet to be,
The first low wash of waves where soon
Shall roll a human sea.
XXI
BRANCHES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE
INTERIOR
THE Gallaudet College for the Deaf is situated in Northeast Washington,
at Kendall Green. It is surrounded by about one hundred acres of ground.
Until within a year it has been known as the Columbian Institution for
the Deaf and Dumb, but the Board of Directors, at the request of the
alumni, wisely changed it to Gallaudet College, in honor and memory of
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of deaf-mute education in America. The
honor is also deserved by the Hon. Edward M. Gallaudet, LL.D., its
president at the time. He is probably the greatest teacher of mutes now
living. He is certainly the most distinguished one. It is the only real
college for this unfortunate class in the world. All the other schools
for mutes in this country only prepare them to enter this institution.
The college embraces, in a four years' course, languages, mathematics,
natural science, history, philosophy, and political science—about the
usual classical course in any college.
They are instructed by what is known as the combined method—that is,
both the oral and sign methods are used.
Mutes among themselves greatly prefer signs. All mutes can not learn the
oral method, and I know by experience among mutes that the talking which
they learn is not very satisfactory. Their voices are too loud or too
low; in some of them the sound of the voice is most distressing, not
having the ear by which to regulate it.
I met one woman in Washington stone-deaf who could talk as well as any
one, and I had met her three times before I knew she was deficient in
any sense. Then she took me by the shoulders and turned me toward the
window, saying: "I do believe you are talking. You know I can not hear
thunder, so I must see your lips."
The director for the school of mutes in Japan made a lengthy visit to
Washington to study the methods of the college instruction, and several
countries of Europe have sent delegates to examine its workings. Dr.
Gallaudet has visited every great school for mutes in Europe—not once,
but several times—so that he brings to his great work not only his own
skill, knowledge, and experience, but also the results of his
observations in many lands.
Congress appropriates about $50,000 per year for the support of this
college. Here the mutes from the District of Columbia and of the Army
and Navy, besides sixty indigent students from different parts of the
country, without charge for board, receive a college training. Beside
these there are many who pay full tuition. The annual attendance is
between one and two hundred. About six hundred young men and women have
been graduated, showing that deafness does not interfere with the
highest mental culture.
The following extract from the report of 1893 will give an idea of the
beneficent work of this government institution. The report says:
Fifty-seven who have gone out from the college have been engaged in
teaching; four have entered the Christian ministry; three have
become editors and publishers of newspapers; three others have taken
positions connected with journalism; fifteen have entered the civil
service of the government—one of these, who had risen rapidly to a
high and responsible position, resigned to enter upon the practise
of law in patent cases in Cincinnati and Chicago, and has been
admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of the United States; one
is the official botanist of a State, who has correspondents in
several countries of Europe who have repeatedly purchased his
collections, and he has written papers upon seed tests and related
subjects which have been published and circulated by the
Agricultural Department; one, while filling a position as instructor
in a Western institution, has rendered important service to the
Coast Survey as a microscopist, and one is engaged as an engraver in
the chief office of the Survey. Of three who became draftsmen in
architects' offices, one is in successful practise as an architect
on his own account, which is also true of another, who completed his
preparation by a course of study in Europe; one has been repeatedly
elected recorder of deeds in a Southern city, and two others are
recorders' clerks in the West; one was elected and still sits as a
city councilman; another has been elected city treasurer and is at
present cashier of a national bank; one has become eminent as a
practical chemist and assayer; two are members of the faculty of the
college, and two others are rendering valuable service as
instructors therein; some have gone into mercantile and other
offices; some have undertaken business on their own account, while
not a few have chosen agricultural and mechanical pursuits, in which
the advantages of thorough mental training will give them a
superiority over those not so well educated. Of those alluded to as
having engaged in teaching, one has been the principal of a
flourishing institution in Pennsylvania; one is now in his second
year as principal of the Ohio institution; one has been at the head
of a day-school in Cincinnati, and later of the Colorado
institution; a third has had charge of the Oregon institution; a
fourth is at the head of a day-school in St. Louis; three others
have respectively founded and are now at the head of schools in New
Mexico, North Dakota, and Evansville, Ind., and others have done
pioneer work in establishing schools in Florida and in Utah.
In Dr. Gallaudet's travels he was met in every country by the educated
mutes, and by his sign language could converse with them, showing that
the world has at least one universal language. Every honor that grateful
hearts could shower upon a devoted friend and philanthropist was shown
the doctor in his travels in Europe. He deserves them all.
The Smithsonian Institution is situated on a fifty-two acre reservation
between the Capitol and the Potomac River. The main building is near the
center of the grounds opposite Tenth Street, West. It is built of a fine
light purplish gray freestone which is soft when it comes from the
quarry, but becomes almost like granite on long exposure to the air. It
constitutes the great National Museum, in animal, vegetable, geological,
and even social life. Relics of almost every administration,
particularly from Washington's to Jackson's time, are preserved here.
James Smithson was the natural son of Sir Hugh Smithson, first Duke of
Northumberland. James Smithson took a degree in Oxford in 1786. He died
in Genoa, June, 1829. He desired to found in the United States, a land
he never saw, an institution which should live in the memory of men when
the titles of his ancestors, the Northumberlands and the Percys, were
extinct and forgotten.
The institution is for the increase of knowledge among men. It assists
scientific men in original research, and it publishes the results, which
are sent to leading libraries, and are also accessible to scientists
throughout the land.
The bequest was for several years before Congress, but in 1846, when the
funds had reached three-fourths of a million dollars, the Smithsonian
Institution was founded.
Its translators turn all scientific works into English, so that
Americans can have the benefit of them in their own language.
Miss Thora Steineger, a Norwegian lady, has charge of the classification
of all animals received by the Smithsonian. Women's work in the
scientific departments is gradually increasing, as colleges, like
Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr give more and more attention to
science.
Here one can see the birds of all lands, animals of every clime,
vegetation from every latitude. The idols of heathendom glare at
passers-by; the quaint costumes of the Asiatics, the Eskimos of the
extreme North, and the inhabitants of the islands of the sea are worn by
wax figures so lifelike that one almost fears to make any comment in
their presence.
The fruits of much of the learning of the world are under this roof, and
every youth in our land should see its classic stores.
XXII
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
THIS bureau is located in a beautiful white marble building between
Seventh and Eighth streets, facing the Patent Office. These two
buildings are among the very best specimens of architecture in the
capital.
Hon. Francis E. Leupp, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, receives a
salary of $5,000; the Assistant Commissioner receives $3,000. They have
about one hundred assistants in Washington, consisting of clerks,
bookkeepers, stenographers, superintendents, architects, draftsmen, etc.
Of persons connected with Indian affairs, on the field, including Indian
agents, storekeepers, teachers, farmers, and artisans, fully 10,000 are
paid government money. There are in the United States, exclusive of
Alaska, 269,388 Indians under the government care. Of these, 184,881 are
not included in the five great tribes. Over 98,000 of these Indians wear
the dress of civilization, and over 46,000 can read and write. Of
communicant church-members there are 30,935—not a very large proportion
after two hundred years of instruction.
There are 59 agencies, and about 20,000 Indians outside of the agencies.
The reservations are, generally speaking, the lands which white men
considered they would never want, being the most barren, forlorn,
hopeless spots in the state or territory in which they are located. Bad
as they are, many of them are now coveted by the white man, who, under
the plea of breaking up Indian tribal relations, will within a few years
buy or appropriate the last acre.
There are now no nomadic tribes; the hunting-grounds are all taken, and
the Indian must work, receive government rations, or die. The Indians
receive over $200,000 in money, some by contract receive rations through
removal, and all are assisted with agricultural implements, seeds, and
breeding animals.
It was once my lot to see an Indian tribe forcibly removed from some
place in the North to the Indian Territory. A more sorrowful sight can
scarcely be imagined. My recollection is that they were the Nez Percés.
They were large men with fine heads and faces. The women were worthy to
be the mothers of warriors. As they camped for the night, the men
gathered in small circular groups, sat Turkish fashion on the ground,
and smoked their pipes in absolute silence. Sorrow, dejection, and
despair were written all over them. The women pitched the tents and
cooked the suppers, with the bent bodies and cast-down countenances of
broken hearts.
A company of regular army men was their escort. I spoke to the officers.
The captain said: "I hope my government will never again detail my
company to do such work. It simply uses me up to see these
broken-hearted people. Many have escaped, but I can not shoot them."
That they have been deeply wronged, no one doubts; that they are still
in many cases victims of the white man's cupidity, is self-evident; but
the government is trying to do the best now possible for them. It is not
possible in a short time to correct the errors of a century, but when
kind hearts and wise brains are acting in their behalf the future may be
considered more hopeful.
It is gratifying to see that the present Commissioner urges that local
schools shall do the work with the Indians, for even tho the Indian
should learn less, his home ties will be maintained, and his knowledge,
as it is acquired, will be applied in the home. Then the _reconcentrado_
methods can be abolished.
Young Indians should be placed with farmers to learn farming, and paid
as much as their work is worth. In the same way girls should learn
housekeeping. Of all people the Indian is a social being. If placed on
farms all the homes would center in one place. Our young white people
can not stand the loneliness of the farm; how can we expect people who
have had tribal relations to endure it?
The white man's trades and occupations only to the degree positively
needed should be forced upon them; but their own bead-work, fancy
baskets, queer pottery, and Navajo blankets should be greatly improved,
and their artistic tastes in their own line cultivated. Let us make them
see that we white people like their own characteristic work, and we will
not need to turn their industry into new lines.
Miss Estelle Reel, Superintendent of Indian Schools, visits all the
Indian schools, whether in civilization at Carlisle and Hampton or at
the farthest reservation. She receives a salary of $3,000, with an
allowance of $1,500 for traveling expenses. Stage-coach, buckboard,
railroad, boat, and canoe are familiar servants in her work.
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY
Looking from the Capitol
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
GRAND STAIRWAY OF THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE ROTUNDA (READING-ROOM) OF THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE PENSION OFFICE
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE GERMAN EMBASSY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE BRITISH EMBASSY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE NEW FRENCH EMBASSY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY
]
Every line of her splendid reports teems with heart-and-soul enthusiasm.
She has just put out a book entitled, "Course of Study for the Indian
Schools of the United States, Industrial and Literary." Besides the
common school branches, it treats of the elements of agriculture,
bakery, basketry, blacksmithing, carpentry, cooking, housekeeping,
laundry, physiology, shoemaking, tailoring, upholstering, and, in fact,
almost everything needed in daily living. Through it all runs a real
practical teaching in morality—that good work is truth, bad work is
untruth. Work in any one is the measure of character.
You remember President Roosevelt, in his New York speech concerning
missions, spoke of the great underpaid army of faithful clergymen all
over this land who, in obscure places, hold up the correct models of
morality, who keep the ideals of the nation to honest, simple, earnest,
true daily living. Much more is this true of the missionaries among the
Indians.
I remember once visiting the Indian school at Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Professor Bryan was then at the head of it. The school was partly
supported by funds from the Presbyterian Church and partly by government
money. At the table I was trying to find from each one his or her share
in the great work they were doing. I asked each one, and each gave me a
short, graphic account of his work. I sat at Professor Bryan's right
hand; just opposite me sat a bright-faced German, looking the wisest
person at the table. As I came to him I said, "And you, Professor?"
"Madam, I am the cook." Whether my face flushed with surprise or not I
do not know. No one smiled. After a somewhat embarrassing moment for me,
he said: "Madam, since I was a little boy I have desired to be a
missionary to the Indians. I received a good education, graduated at the
Berlin University, took a course in theology at a seminary in Germany,
then came here, where I found that my imperfect English was an
insurmountable barrier to religious work among the Indians. We had no
cook. Some of our best teachers were ill nearly all the time, so I
became the cook, and I do it unto God, believing that every soul saved
by these devoted workers, whose health I have improved, is part of my
work. Do you approve?"
"Do I approve?" I said. "Why, every pot and kettle becomes a sanctified
implement in your hand. The Master said: 'And whosoever of you will be
the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom
for many.'"
XXIII
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
THE great necessity for a separate building for a Congressional Library
was first urged by Mr. A. R. Spofford, in his Librarian's Report in
1872. An appropriation was made for the purchase of the ground in 1886.
The site consists of ten acres of ground, facing the east front of the
Capitol. The ground and the old buildings upon it cost $585,000, and the
building itself, $6,032,124.34.
It is the handsomest, most convenient, and best lighted and ventilated
library building in the world, and I believe it to be the handsomest
building for public purposes in the world. The building is of the
Italian Rennaissance order of architecture. It has three stories and a
dome, and covers three and a half acres of ground. Its dimensions are
470 × 340 feet, and the height of the wall 69 feet.
The Library, or collection of books, was founded in 1800, Congress
appropriating $5,000 for that purpose. When the Capitol building was
fired by the British, this Library was nearly destroyed. It also
suffered from fire in 1851.
The Library of Congress purchases rare books from all lands. Its chief
source of supply is through the copyright law, which requires that two
copies of every book copyrighted should be sent to the Library. It has
acquired by gift or purchase the Library of Thomas Jefferson, of 6,700
volumes, for which $23,950 was paid, the Force Historical Collection in
1865, the Smithsonian Library in 1867, and the Toner Collection in 1882.