While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The increase in promptness in purchasing and shipping supplies for the last two
years has been noticeable. Members of the board were in attendance to assist at
the opening of bids at Chicago, in April, 1901, and at New York in May, 1901;
and one or more of the commissioners were in daily attendance, as a rule, to
assist in inspecting samples and awarding contracts during the six or seven
weeks required in this business. The report of the purchasing committee of our
board is herewith, submitted as Appendix A. A report from the chairman of this
board upon certain deliveries of clothing for the Indians at the New York
warehouse, which were decidedly below samples and bids, is also submitted with
this report as Appendix B.
We are of opinion that the maintenance of four separate warehouses at Omaha, San
Francisco, Chicago, and New York for the purchase and shipping of Indian
supplies involves entirely needless expense. We respectfully renew our
suggestion made in preceding reports that the business of the opening of bids,
the examination of samples, and the awarding of contracts could be done at
Washington with great advantage to the service and a marked reduction in
expenditures.
The Open Sore Of The Service Unfit Agents Appointed Or Held In Position By
Political Influence.
We are compelled to express once more our conviction as a Board that the
greatest practical need of the Indian Service in the matter of administration is
the wise choice of suitable men as Indian agents, the quick redress of manifest
abuses, the prompt removal of agents who are evidently unfit for their work, and
permanent tenure for such agents as show themselves competent and effective in
the position. Statistics which we have presented in earlier reports, calling
attention to the fact that both Democratic and Republican Administrations, not
withstanding professions of civil service reform, have as a rule made
substantially a "clean sweep," changing within each four years' administration
all but two or three of the sixty or more Indian agents in the service at the
beginning of the Administration, prove that, not withstanding professions of
devotion to civil-service reform, wherever civil service regulations have not
been made to apply by law, partisan considerations have seemed to rule in the
appointing and the removal of Indian agents.
We are entirely confident that if in the choice of agents regard were had to the
character of the men appointed, their experience with Indians, and their fitness
for the service, there would be no assignable reason for the frequent and
injurious changes which hold back the civilization of the Indians and give
license and strength to all the worst evils of reservation life. Again and again
we have seen particular tribes or bands of Indians led forward rapidly and
successfully toward civilization b}^ wise and upright agents, and we have had
the pain of seeing such agents displaced time after time for purely partisan
reasons, and of seeing the same bands and tribes of Indians lapse into immoral
practices and back toward savagery under inexperienced agents who were unfit for
the work and who undid all that their better predecessors had accomplished. For
the good of the Indians and for the sake of economy and effectiveness in doing
the work of the Government, we strongly urge the application, to the appointment
and the tenure of office of Indian agents, of those sound principles of civil
service reform to which both the political parties stand committed.
Gladly recognizing progress and improvement in many other respects in the Indian
Service, and again calling attention to the most important considerations
presented in these last paragraphs, we respectfully submit our thirty-third
annual report.
Darwin R. James, Chairman.
Merrill E. Gates, Secretary.
Albert K. Smiley.
E. Whittlesey.
William D. Walker,
Wm. H. Lyon.
Joseph T. Jacobs.
Philip C. Garrett.
Wm. M. Beardshear.
The Secretary Of The Interior.
Sir: The purchasing committee have the following report to make of the business
during the year 1901:
Bids for supplies for the Indian Service, in accordance with advertisements and
specifications, were opened at Chicago, 111., at the United States Indian
warehouse, 235 Johnson street, on Tuesday, April 9, 1901. The number of bids
submitted and opened was 479. The number of contracts awarded, 134. Commissioner
Gates was in daily attendance at the warehouse, assisting in inspecting and
awarding, until the evening of April 19. General Whittlesey, of the Board of
Indian Commissioners, was in attendance for the same purpose from Tuesday
morning, April 23, until the awarding of contracts was finished.
Roger C. Spooner, superintendent of the Chicago Indian warehouse, reports under
date of January 2, 1902, that the number and approximate weight of packages
shipped from the Chicago warehouse and from points under its jurisdiction was
87,085 packages, with a total weight of 9,046,831 pounds. The total number of
packages sent by registered mail was 355, aggregating in weight 685 pounds. The
following is a complete summary of shipments on account of the United States
Indian Service under instructions of the United States Indian warehouse at
Chicago, 111., from July 1 to December 31, 1901, both dates inclusive:
Point of delivery
Number of packages
Weight
Chicago warehouse and fob Chicago
70,926
7,391,004
Kansas City
3,881
758,440
Omaha
4,741
189,282
Sioux City
1,034
129,745
St. Paul
2,078
286,395
St Louis
284
52,413
San Francisco
4,068
231,422
Minneapolis
70
7,490
Racine Wis.
3
640
Total
87,085
9,046,831
Bids for clothing, dry goods, hats and caps, blankets, small ware, and notions
were opened on May 7, 1901, at the Indian warehouse, 77 Wooster street, New
York, in the presence and with the assistance of Chairman James, Messrs. Lyon,
Garrett, Walker, Smiley and Gates, of the United States Board of Indian
Commissioners. Seventy-seven bids were submitted. Commissioner Gates, the
secretary of the board, was in attendance assisting in inspecting and awarding
contracts during most of the time until the awards were completed, and
Commissioner Whittlesey was also in daily attendance for the same purpose for
most of the period during which this work was in progress. Under date of January
3, 1902, Mr. C. F. Nesler, United States Indian inspector, in charge of the New
York warehouse, reports as follows:
Complying with the request contained in your letter of December 23, for
information concerning the amount of business done at the New York Indian
warehouse during the year ending December 31, 1901, I submit the following as
being approximately correct:
"A. The number of bids opened in May, 77.
"B. The number of contracts awarded, 24.
"C. The number of packages shipped by freight, 10,454, weighing 1,255,807
pounds.
"D. The number of packages shipped by mail, 144, weighing 502 pounds.
Yours, very truly,
C. F. Nesler, "United States Indian Inspector in Charge."
The following inspectors of Indian supplies acted at the New York warehouse.
With the name of each inspector is given the time during which he has served in
that capacity.
Inspectors At New York Warehouse.
Herman Wischmann, inspecting coffee and sugar, ten days.
Fred. W. Kohler, inspecting hats and caps, thirty-eight days.
Jesse H. Barclay, inspecting dry goods and notions, four days.
Charles L. Jobe, inspecting dry goods and notions, eleven days.
S. S. Stewart, inspecting dry goods and notions, fifty-one days.
Dewitt C. Whiteman, inspecting clothing, fifty-one days.
Charles E. Teale, inspecting clothing, seventeen days.
John F. Calder, inspecting clothing, seventy-six days.
The following inspectors of Indian supplies acted at the Chicago warehouse. With
the name of each inspector is given the time during which he has served in that
capacity.
Inspectors At Chicago Warehouse.
Henry W. Dudley, of Chicago, coffee, third year of service.
Thomas Robertson, Milwaukee, tea, third year.
Jonathan B. Young, Chicago, flour, beans, lard, bread, and corn meal, fourth
year.
Prof. John H. Long, Chicago, baking powder, soap, etc., third year.
Benton W. Warder, Chicago, sugar, rice, hominy, groceries, etc., fourth year.
Wilhelm Bodeman, Chicago, medical supplies, fourth year.
George E. Watson, Chicago, paints, oils, glass, etc., third year.
Edward Devlin, Chicago, stoves, hardware, and glass 10 and 15, sixth year.
Lorenzo C. Bartley, Elkhart, Ind., wagons, agricultural implements, etc., sixth
year.
Allan W. Reid, Chicago, boots, shoes, etc., second year.
William J. Ford, Chicago, crockery, lamps, etc., third year.
Fred. C. Hall, Chicago, harness, saddlery, etc., sixth year.
During the delivery of goods at the New York warehouse in September and October
a serious difficulty arose as to the quality of some of the clothing offered
under contracts made in May. It is understood by the purchasing committee that a
brief report upon this subject is made by the Hon. Darwin R. James, chairman of
the board, who gave personal attention to the matter at the time.
The very limited appropriation for the expenses of the Board of Indian
Commissioners did not permit the attendance of any members of the board at the
opening of bids at San Francisco, Ca.
William H. Lyon, Chairman,
E. Whittlesey,
Merrill E. Gates,
Philip C. Garrett,
Joseph T. Jacobs,
William M. Beardshear,
Purchasing Committee.
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Thirty-Third Annual Report Of The Board Of Indian Commissioners,
1901
