"The attention of the department has so often been called, both by agents and former superintendents, to the mistaken policy which has so long obtained in the payment of annuities, that I forbear to dwell upon the subject, being well satisfied that if the abundant evidence which has heretofore been furnished, and forcible arguments which have been employed, have not convinced the department of the folly and injustice, not to say the fraud of the practice, it is useless and vain for me to attempt it." Mr. Hale then advises that annuities be paid only to Indians willing to reside at the reservations and as incentives and aids to work; clothing might be furnished only for the aged or infirm or children attending school. "Whatever may be furnished in this way," he continues, "should be selected with the greatest care, and with due reference to its intended application. Any article needed, for all the purposes specified, can be obtained on this coast at rates equally favorable as in the Atlantic cities; thus saving the very large expenditures which have heretofore been made in the way of freights."[37] The local superintendents and agents, of course, might have been in part influenced by desire to benefit the section in which they were working, and, perhaps, by the design to get expenditures more completely into their own hands; and the Government, on the other hand, may have had good reasons for purchasing in New York. But the unanimity and earnestness of the local officials indicate here a real and grave source of trouble. We come now to the important question as to how far the local officials themselves were honest and capable. The answer to this question is difficult.