THE PUEBLO INDIANS WITH THEIR BACKS TO THE WALL

N a population of over a hundred million a mere eight thousand is a paltry number. It is hardly enough for more than a good-sized village or a tiny city. In a community like New York or Chicago eight thousand could disappear and hardly be missed. And when the eight thousand are not white people with votes, but merely Indians, their number seems the more insignificant.

There is a bill now before Congress affecting the property rights of eight thousand Pueblo Indians in the State of New Mexico. It is not surprising that this bill received practically no attention in the Senate. It was brought before the Senate by Mr. Bursum, of New Mexico, on September 11. He explained that it affected the titles to about five thousand homes in his State. Some of these titles were granted by authorities under the Spanish Government, others by authorities under the Mexican Government. Some of the claimants to lands which the Indians also claim base their right to the land on peaceable pos

(C) Keystone

DECEMBER 6. 1922

session for twenty years. On assurance that the bill simply provided a method for quieting these titles by suits at law, and that it was recommended by the Interior Department and by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and also agreed to by the parties to the controversy, it was, in the most casual manner possible, "reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed."

Now it appears that the Pueblo Indians are very much disturbed at the passage of this bill. Representatives of twenty pueblos have appealed to the people of the United States against this bill, which, they declare, "will destroy our common life and will rob us of everything which we hold dear-our lands, our customs, our traditions."

Evidently the bill is not at all agreed to by the Indians themselves. Nor is it agreed to by certain white friends of these Indians. It is true that the bill provides chiefly for a legal method of settling disputes as to the titles of these lands; but that does not at all tell the whole story. There are two features

which seem to us on their face certainly doubtful and probably objectionable. One feature is the transfer of jurisdiction. This transfer is twofold. It transfers the jurisdiction over some of the administrative questions from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to a court of law which by its very nature is not suited to settle administrative questions; and it transfers jurisdiction over some of the most important questions from Federal courts, which are removed from preju dice, to State courts, which are much less able to deal with local Indian questions without prejudice. The other

feature is that of establishing ownership of land by virtue of possession without color of title. If this bill is passed, undoubtedly Indians will be deprived of land, and even of the right of proving superior title.

The Pueblo Indians are not nomadic. The lands they possess are not like other Indian reservations. As their name indicates, they inhabit pueblos, or villages, and have a kind of civilization of their own.

Certainly the House of Representatives should not pass this bill.

It is not merely the rights of these few Indians that are at stake; it is the honor and good faith of the United States.

IN AID OF

AMERICAN COMMERCE

THE

HE President, in his address to Congress on the measure commonly called the Ship Subsidy Bill, described it correctly as an attempt to promote our merchant marine, and with it our National welfare. The aid proposed is not strictly a subsidy, because it is not a bounty or gift, but an advance to be paid back. The method of the bill's operation is this: Create a fund by taking out ten per cent of all import duties paid in. Call it the Merchant Marine Fund. From the fund advance money to American built and operated ships on a sliding scale as to speed and tonnage. Do this for not longer than ten years. Let all accounts be open to Government inspection. Wherever a ship begins to earn more than ten per cent on the investment, stop the advances and demand back yearly half of that ship's profits over ten per cent until the whole amount is repaid. Let these ships carry our mails free.

The financial argument for this bill which President Harding has so much at heart is, as he believes, that it would stop waste and thus save money. It may cost $40,000,000 a year for ten years, but we are now losing $50,000,000 a year above receipts in order to keep up our foreign trade in America. Why should we do this? The reason is thus put by one advocate of the bill: "We must sell our surplus products of the farm, mine, and factory in the same competitive markets in which the owners of the foreign ships are trying to sell similar surplus products of their own. A swell

we will have to sell our goods from our rivals' delivery wagon!"

The general situation as the President views it is tersely described by him in a few compact paragraphs:

Three courses of action are possible, and the choice among them is no longer to be avoided.

The first is constructive-enact the pending bill, under which, I firmly believe, an American merchant marine, privately owned and privately operated, but serving all the people and always available to the Government in any emergency, may be established and maintained.

The second is obstructive-continue Government operations and attending Government losses and discourage private enterprise by Government competition, under whch losses are met by the public Treasury, and witness the continued losses and deterioration until the colossal failure ends in sheer exhaustion.

The third is destructive-involving the sacrifice of our ships abroad or the scrapping of them at home, the surrender of our aspirations, and the confession of our impotence to the world in general, and our humiliation before the competing world in particular.

A choice among the three is inevitable. It is unbelievable that the American people or the Congress which expresses their power will consent to surrender and destruction. It is equally unbelievable that our people and the Congress which translates their wishes into action will longer sustain a programme of obstruction and attending losses to the Treasury.

The bill is, as we write, under consideration and has the right of way in Congress. It is evident that there will be many attempts to amend it or to substitute another measure in its place.

crisis in 1896, he found himself unable to vote for Bryan and became an adherent of the Democratic Palmer-Buckner hard money party. It was not his political activity but his vigor, and even severity, as an administrator that led to his appointment by President McKinley in 1900 as a member of the Philippine Commission. During the absence of Mr. Taft, who was Governor-General at the time, General Wright acted in his place and carried out with ability the policy of the United States as already firmly established by Mr. Taft. When the latter became Secretary of War, General Wright was his natural successor as Governor-General, and in that capacity served with distinction. Finally, in 1908, President Roosevelt appointed General Wright Secretary of War upon the resignation of Secretary Taft.

Few Americans have given to their country more arduous service or have accomplished more of solid and substantial importance in administrative work.

FOOTBALL

D

ESPITE the activities of some of the sport writers, the football season has come to a successful conclusion. The game to-day has a greater hold upon the popular mind than ever before. Even the Yale Bowl, holding nearly 80,000, was this year twice filled to capacity. At the game with Harvard, applications for seats came in in such floods that graduates of the two universities were limited to two seats each. When the Bowl was built, it was supposed to provide accommodation for the "sisters, the cous

ins, and the aunts" of the graduates. Possibly some graduates may look forward to the time when their social problems can be simplified by the excuse, "You know, we are only allowed to apply for one ticket this year."

Of the old Big Three, Princeton alone has been uniformly victorious. The schedule included a dramatic game with the University of Chicago, which Princeton won by a score of 21 to 18. The threepoint margin represented three goals after touchdowns. The new rule that the additional point must be made from a scrimmage has added another touch of interest and uncertainty to the game. On the whole, this change in the rules seems to have been a successful innovation.

Yale in the course of the season lost to Iowa, Princeton, and Harvard. Harvard succumbed to Brown and Princeton.

The hard-fought contest between West Point and Annapolis went this year to the cadets. The Army won all its gamesexcept two tie games with Yale and Notre Dame. The Navy, in addition to defeat at the hands and feet of its service rivals, lost to the University of Pennsylvania.

Other teams with notable records of success are: Syracuse, defeated only by Pittsburgh; Lafayette, which was beaten by Washington and Jefferson; Iowa, with a clean slate; Michigan, with a similar record except for one tie with Vanderbilt; the University of Pennsylvania, which lost close games with Alabama and Pittsburgh and was awaiting, as we went to press, its annual game with

LUKE WRIGHT: SOLDIER, ADMINISTRATOR, AMBASSADOR, SECRETARY OF WAR

HAT a Southerner, as a boy a private

THAT a as federate army

and later a Democratic leader, should become the first American Ambassador to Japan and Secretary of War under a Republican Administration (that of Roosevelt) is an indication that secTional issues have become a thing of the ;ast and also that party considerations may occasionally be waived with public advantage.

Luke E. Wright, who died in Memphis on November 17, at the age of seventyseven, was a native of Tennessee and did valuable service in that State as Attorney-General, as a criminal judge, and particularly in organizing the fight against the yellow-fever epidemic in 1878.

When the free silver issue came to a

Paul Thompson