“What is to become of them then? Have we done our duty to this people when we have said to them: ‘We will scatter you and let you become isolated and vagabonds on the earth, and then we will apply to you the philosophic command, “Go, take care of yourselves; we have every dollar of your possessions, every acre of your heritage; we have killed more of your fellows than there are of you left; we have burnt your little homes, and now we have arrived at the conclusion that it is time to take away from you the last foot of ground upon which you can rest, and we shall have done our duty when we command you to take care of yourselves?”’ That is not the way I read it; I know how sincere and honest, and probably as near right everybody else is, but I am only telling how I feel. I feel just this: that every dollar of money, and every hour of effort that can be applied to each individual Indian, day and night, in season and out of season, with patience and perseverance, with kindness and with charity, is not only due him in atonement for what we have inflicted upon him in the past, but is our own obligation towards him in order that we may not have him a vagabond and a pauper, without home or occupation among us in this land. One or the other is the alternative; he is to be a vagabond about our streets, begging from door to door, and plundering our citizens, or he is to be taken up and made a man among us; a citizen of this great republic, absorbed into the body politic and made a useful and influential citizen.” President Cleveland voiced the opinion of all thoughtful and intelligent citizens when he wrote that “the conscience of the people demands that the Indians within our boundaries be fairly and honestly treated as wards of the government, _and their education and civilization promoted with view to ultimate citizenship_.” With a chance to work, the Indian needs also the chance to learn, and this he is getting more and more. Whether he _will_ learn is a question no longer open to doubt. General Armstrong’s testimony is given above. Captain Pratt says “scarcely a student but is able to take care of himself or herself among civilized people at the end of their five years’ course.” Bishop Hare, of the Episcopal Church, who has been doing splendid work among the Indians for many years, gives unwearying attention to schools on the reservations, but says, “I cannot shut my eyes to the incalculable service which well-conducted Eastern boarding-schools have done the Indians.” When we shall have for a few years treated the Indian like a human being, there will be no “Indian question” to discuss. CHAPTER XVI. THE PRESS. The editor is the great American schoolmaster. None other is worthy to be compared with him. He is about as numerous as all other teachers combined. His lessons are given more frequently, they last longer and they cost less than any others.