Another collection of articles, even more interesting and suggestive, was displayed in 1885 at the New Orleans Exhibition by the Indian Office, under the direction of Miss Alice C. Fletcher. This collection excited so much interest in Indian progress and civilization that the Senate in February, 1885, ordered the material bearing upon the subject in the possession of the Bureau to be printed. Miss Fletcher was assigned by my predecessor, the Hon. John Eaton, to the task of enlarging and preparing this material for the press, and has made such progress that it is my expectation that the work will be ready for the printer in a very short time.* EDUCATION IN ALASKA. When I took charge of this Office I found that Dr. Sheldon Jackson, general agent of education for the Territory of Alaska, had just departed upon a tour of inspection. For information as to the condition of things before his departure, I beg to refer to the report made by him to you for transmission to Congress. If later information is received while this Report is going through the press, it will be inserted in an appendix.t ESTIMATES AND RECOMMENDATIONS. In my letter of October 20, 1886, submitting estimates of the Bureau of Education for 1887-88, I used the following language: It will be seen that I have asked for appropriations amounting to $70,095, which is in excess of the appropriations for 1886-'87 by $2,500. This amount is made up of $200 to the increase of the salary of the chief clerk, $500 additional to the library, and the salary of a librarian, or clerk of class four, $1,800. The sum of $500 is a very small addition to the allowance for the purchase of such books as should be placed upon the shelves of the library. So many new publications are being issued, that it is absolutely necessary to make a selection from them and to keep our library well supplied with the leading works upon subjects appertaining to the work of the Bureau. The salary of the chief clerk should be made equal to the salary of the same officers in the other Bureaus of the several Departments. The library, now numbering nearly twenty thousand volumes of valuable works, on nearly every subject pertaining to education and the philosophy of teaching, should be well equipped, with a librarian skilled in the newest and best methods of arrangement and classification. His services in these departments of his work would not only be invaluable, but his familiarity with the subjects treated in the books of the library would be of untold convenience, and make the library a most valuable adjunct of the Bureau. For these reasons I have asked for an appropriation of $1,800 for a librarian, and trust that it will be granted. The tendency is to increase in the work committed to the Bureau of Education. The statistical branch of the office is daily subjected to additional burdens in the shape of State, city, school, college, and university reports from the United States, and from many foreign countries. The statistics from all these ever-increasing sources are to be collected, tabulated, put in form, and finally given a local habitation in the Annual Report. The labor is twofold what it was in former years, and all indications point to a large and continuing increase in its operations. If it be decided that the 'Since the date of this Report, Miss Fletcher has completed her work, and the manuscript has been sent to the Public Printer. + See Appendix XI, p. 750, infra. Bureau is to be kept within its present limits of investigation, in spite of the many new subjects now occupying the attention of educationists, the present force of the Office can be made to do the work as now done; but if the Office is to comprehend these topics in its range of inquiry, to treat them as the advance in the methods of statistical science requires, and as the expectations of its intelligent correspondents hope for, some addition to the force will have to be made. If the present force cannot be increased according to the views and purposes of the administration, I shall most cheerfully conform to its policy, and endeavor with the means at hand to produce the best attainable results. Accompanying the foregoing letter I submitted the revised estimates therein mentioned. The following tabular statement compares the items of that estimate with the corresponding items of the appropriations made for the fiscal years 1886-87 and 1887-288, respectively: To the labors of my predecessor, the Honorable John Eaton, for more than sixteen years the Commissioner of this Bureau, I am much indebted. The records and reports of this Office attest the efficiency of his work in the cause of Education. Whatever of good it has accomplished is attributable, in great measure, to his energy, zeal, and selfdevotion. In the preparation of this volume I am under repeated obligations to the many thousand correspondents of the Office, who have supplied the sources from which its contents have largely been derived. I am also indebted to the trained and laborious corps of employés in this Office for steady work and intelligent co-operation' in the preparation of this volume, and for useful help in other directions. I desire to express my special sense of obligation to Dr. Charles Warren, statistician; to Miss Annie Tolman Smith, translator; and to Mr. Henderson Presnell and Mr. Frederick E. Upton, clerks of this Bureau. My indebtedness to yourself and to the officers of the Department is manifold. The Public Printer and his principal assistants have given help whenever needed, and without stint or delay. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, The Hon. L. Q. C. LAMAR, Commissioner. Secretary of the Interior. |