60TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. { REPORT No. 2167. DONATION OF CONDEMNED CANNON TO MERCER COUNTY, W. Va. FEBRUARY 15, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. HULL, of Iowa, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany S. 6392.] The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 6392) authorizing the Secretary of War to donate two condemned cannon to the county court of Mercer County, W. Va., having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass. 60TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 2d Session. SPECIAL PEACE OFFICERS IN ALASKA. FEBRUARY 15, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. COLE, from the Committee on the Territories, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 27971.] The Committee on the Territories, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 27971) authorizing the Attorney-General to appoint as special peace officers such employees of the Alaska school service as may be named by the Secretary of the Interior (the reference of the said bill having been changed from the Committee on the Judiciary to the Committee on the Territories by action of the House on February 15, 1909), report the same back to the House with the recommendation that it do pass. The purpose of this bill is to remedy, so far as the scope of the bill will permit, the deplorable conditions which exist among the natives. of Alaska. This condition is doubtless due, more than to any other one cause, to the sale of liquor to Indians, which, although it is prohibited by law, still continues to an alarming extent because of an inadequate force of officers, coupled with the great distances between centers of native population and the very limited means of communication and transportation. It is stated in reports to the Bureau of Education that 90 per cent of the natives in Alaska, of both sexes and of all ages, from 7 years old and upward, use liquor. What has always been true as to the effect of liquor upon Indians in the United States is true, perhaps to an even greater extent, in Alaska, and the difficulty of enforcement of prohibitory laws is unquestionably greater. The effect of the liquor traffic among the natives is not only ruinous because of its immediate influence, resulting in lawlessness, but because it, coupled with the lack of moral force and character among them, directly or indirectly brings all ages and sexes to a pitiable condition of disease and immorality. The moral and physical condition of the women, traceable to the use of liquor. among them by unscrupulous white men, although well known, is almost beyond belief. Teachers investigating the cause of light attendance frequently find their pupils intoxicated from liquor brought into the villages by whites. The sanitary conditions among the natives, whether due directly or indirectly to the liquor traffic, or to other causes, are deplorable. The local officials of the bureau of education in Alaska, and doubtless other officials, have done what they could by example, by teaching and by persuasion, and have accomplished much, but the lack of compulsory sanitary and education laws, and the increasing knowledge among the natives as to the lack of authority among teachers to compel obedience, make progress difficult. The natives will do nothing to care for themselves. Their dwellings are insanitary in the extreme; there is practically no ventilation, and a high and unhealthful temperature is maintained. No care is taken of garbage and other refuse. Consumption prevails to an alarming extent, but the natives will take no steps to protect themselves against its spread, and the teachers can not compel the observance of wholesome regulations. It is one of the characteristics of the natives of Alaska, in many things like children, that they have the highest respect for those whom they know have authority to enforce the penalty of the law. There is a corresponding lack of respect for those whom they know can not compel obedience, and, as has been stated, natives are coming more and more to know what is or is not unlawful and who can or can not enforce the law. The difficulty which this bill seeks in a measure to remedy is that there are no officer's authorized to enforce the law either in or near a great percentage of the native communities. Your committee is informed that there are about 40 United States commissioners and about an equal number of deputy United States marshals in all Alaska, but there are only 24 native villages near these officers. There are schools in about 75 native villages, and therefore, if the teachers can be given the police authority provided for in this bill, in at least 50 villages where there is now no one to enforce the law as it exists or may be extended there will be officers competent to protect the natives against themselves and againt unscrupulous whites. There are, of course, many native villages where the bureau of education has no teachers, and this law will not reach them, but it will give protection to at least 50 more villages than are now protected. There is appended hereto a letter from the Secretary of the Interior urging the passage of House bill 26919, with certain amendments which he suggests in his letter. Some amendments in addition to those suggested by the Secretary were deemed advisable by the committee, and these amendments, with the amendments suggested by the Secretary, have been incorporated in the bill which this report accompanies, which was prepared by officers of the Department of Justice and which has the approval of the Interior Department. Your committee believes this bill to be one of very great merit and can not too strongly urge its passage at this session. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, DEAR SIR: I beg to call your attention to bill H. R. 26919, which has for its object the protection of the natives of Alaska by the enforcement of the laws through employees of the Alaska school service. This bill was carefully prepared in the Department of Justice and was introduced in the Senate by Senator Nelson, at my request, and in the House by Mr. Humphrey, of Washington. Since the introduction of the bill the fact has been brought to my attention that it practically gives the employees of the Alaska school service the full powers of deputy marshals. Such was not the intention of this department, for it is desirous that the employees of the Alaska school service shall confine their work entirely to the Alaskan natives. To meet this objection I beg now to suggest an amendment, as follows: Strike out all that follows the semicolon in line 7, page 1, as far as the semicolon in line 1, page 2, and substitute for the omitted portion the following: "and such special peace officer shall have authority to arrest, upon warrant duly issued, any native in the district of Alaska charged with the violation of any of the provisions of the Criminal Code of Alaska (act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, second supplement, Revised Statutes, page ten hundred and three) or any amendment thereof, or any white man charged with the violation of any of said provisions, to the detriment of any native of the district of Alaska; and such special peace officer shall also have authority to arrest, without warrant, any native detected in the act of violating any of said provisions, or any white man detected in the act of violating any of said provisions, to the detriment of any native of the district of Alaska." There is great need for the passage of this bill in order that the superintendents and teachers in the Alaska school service, under the Bureau of Education, may be enabled (1) to protect the natives from the wrongs inflicted by unprincipled white men; (2) to secure enforcement of propo-ed legislation, applicable to natives only, as contained in bills S. 4710 and H. R. 16273 (which bills are identical); (3) to strengthen the moral influence of the superintendents and teachers over the natives. Under these headings the following additional considerations may be submitted: 1. At present, owing to the small number of officials of the Department of Justice in Alaska, scattered over a large extent of territory, and owing to the regulations of which confine the duties of the deputy marshals to the serving of papers, fully threefourths of the native villages are unprotected from the criminal or otherwise unlawful acts of white men, in violation of statutes already in existence, Under the present conditions the work performed by the appointees in the Alaska school service for the elevation of the native races is largely neutralized by the evil deeds of the lower class of white men. It is believed that by the passage of this bill such protection could be furnished the natives as will establish conditions favorable to their rapid advancement in civilization. 2. The judicious enforcement of a sanitary code is necessary to stamp out tuberculosis and to improve generally the physical life of these native peoples. The few special investigations which have been made previous to this year, and the results of the general investigation now in progress, indicate that from 8 to 10 per cent of the natives of southeastern Alaska are afflicted with pulmonary tuberculosis and that the sanitary conditions are extremely inimical to health. Compulsory attendance upon the schools, which are now emphasizing industrial, hygienic, and moral teaching, should increase the total attendance by 75 to 100 per cent. The statistics for the last school year show an enrollment of 3,068 and an average daily attendance of only 1,197. 3. With inferior races, as with children, much more can be accomplished if those in authority have at least the power to compel obedience. Teachers are losing to some extent the influence they once possessed as government officials, by reason of the fact that increasing knowledge of the world has taught the natives that the teachers have no legal authority over them. This law would, by giving the teachers control in major offenses, reestablish their influence as a whole. As regards the provision that employees of the school service should be appointed by the Attorney-General on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, it may be noted that it is impracticable to have the marshals appoint members of the school service as deputy marshals, for the reason that they have and should have the right to choose their own deputies, (1) because they are responsible for their deputies, both morally and through their official bond, and for that reason could properly refuse to appoint as deputies those suggested by the school service through this department, and (2) because the funds available to the marshals are necessarily limited, and it is necessary that the employees of the school service should serve without fees. I inclose herewith copy of the entire bill as it would stand with the amendment proposed above. Trusting that this measure may have a favorable report from the Committee on Territories, JAMES RUDOLPH GARFIFLD, I am, very truly, yours, Hon. EDWARD L. HAMILTON, Chairman of Committee on Territories, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. Secretary. A BILL Authorizing the Attorney-General to appoint as special peace officers such employees of the Alaska school service as may be named by the Secretary of the Interior. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Attorney-General shall have power to appoint, in his discretion, any person employed in the Alaska school service, who may be designated by the Secretary of the Interior, as a special peace officer of the division of the district of Alaska in which such person resides; and such special peace officer shall have authority to arrest, upon warrant duly issued, any native in the district of Alaska charged with the violation of any of the provisions of the Criminal Code of Alaska (act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, second supplement Revised Statutes, page one thousand and three) or any amendment thereof, or any white man charged with the violation of any of said provisions to the detriment of any native of the district of Alaska; and such special peace officer shall also have authority to arrest, without warrant, any native (detected in the act of violating any of said provisions, or any white man detected in the act of violating any of said provisions, to the detriment of any native of the district of Alaska); and any person so arrested shall be taken, in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Attorney-General and without unnecessary delay, before a United States commissioner or other judicial officer for trial: Provided, however, That no person so appointed shall be entitled to any fees or emoluments of any character whatsoever for performing any of the services herein mentioned, but may be allowed, in the discretion of the Attorney-General, expenses actually and necessarily incurred in connection with such services. |