INDIAN AGENTS.
That the office of an Indian agent is a very responsible one, requiring high moral qualities and a superior business capacity, and that a salary of $1,500 a year, without a fair prospect of advancement, is, under ordinary circumstances, inadequate to induce men of such caliber to expose themselves and their families to the discomforts and privations of frontier life, has too frequently been stated by my predecessors in their reports to need repetition here. The consequences to which such false economy is apt to lead need scarcely be described. The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs furnishes some interesting illustrations. I cannot too urgently commend to the attention of Congress the gradation in the salaries of Indian agents which he suggests. Even higher salaries than he recommends might be paid, and prove wise economy in the end. The proposed gradation in salaries is not only just in itself, by making pay correspond witb responsibility, but will also have the advantage of holding out to an agent who distinguishes himself in the performance of his duties, the prospect of promotion to a more important and better-paying place. The selection of Indian agents is one of the most difficult tasks of this department. No man of experience in public life need be told how little ordinary recommendations can be depended upon to furnish men well fitted for the discharge of complicated and delicate duties and responsibilities. The present system which permits religious societies to nominate candidates for Indian agencies is, in some respects, undoubtedly an improvement upon the former practice of making appointments in the Indian service on political grounds. But that the present system is by no means perfect, is demonstrated by the frequent necessity of changes. The Indian service is very much in need of the element of stability. An arrangement enabling the department to assign an officer upon his entrance into the service to a place of minor importance and then to promote him in grade of duty and pay according to merit, will, in a great measure, supply that want, and in the course of time give us a body of far more experienced, efficient, and trustworthy agents than any mode of selection heretofore in practice can ever be expected to furnish.
It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the valuable service rendered by the Board of Indian Commissioners in the supervision of purchases and the examination of contracts and accounts, as well as by some of its members by visiting Indian agencies and tribes, and by inquiring into and giving the department very valuable information concerning their condition and ueeds. The board has not yet made its annual report, and I can therefore not speak of its operations in detail. As soon as that report reaches me, it will be duly brought to the notice of the Executive and of the two houses of Congress. Whenever there was occasion to call upon the War Department for assistance in the management of Indian affairs, that assistance has always been granted with the greatest promptness, and in a spirit of harmonious co-operation which I cannot too gratefully acknowledge.
