No. 95, Second Series—3500 
 
 A Man and His Opportunity 
 
 BY M. K. SNIFFEN 
 
 Secretary Indian Rights Association 
 
 ) 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION 
 995 Drexel Building 
 
 May 1, 1914 
 
Hon. Cato Sells 
 Commissioner of Indian Affairs 
 
A MAN AND HIS OPPORTUNITY 
 
 By M. K. Sniffen 
 
 Secretary Indian Rights Association. 
 
 We have frequently been asked for an opinion regarding 
 the administration of Hon. Cato Sells, the present Com¬ 
 missioner of Indian Affairs. Heretofore we have stated 
 to all such inquiries that we believed the outlook for im¬ 
 proved conditions under his management was more hopeful 
 than it had been for many years. Before making any 
 public statement on the subject, however, we preferred 
 to wait until Commissioner Sells had demonstrated his 
 worth. He has been actively in charge of the Indian 
 Bureau for nine months, and his administration has there¬ 
 fore passed the experimental stage. During that time 
 we have had abundant opportunity to closely observe 
 the man and his methods, and we feel that it is now possible 
 for us to give a mature, unbiased review of Mr. Sells’ 
 stewardship, as an answer to the question: “What do you 
 think of the present Commissioner?” Unfortunately, 
 there has been much occasion to criticise the Indian Bu¬ 
 reau’s management in the past, and it is a satisfaction 
 to praise where that is possible,—to give credit to whom 
 credit is due. It affords us peculiar pleasure to submit 
 for the information of our members and friends the following 
 sketch of Commissioner Sells’ masterful work, and also 
 to record our thanks to President Wilson and Secretary 
 Lane for putting the “right man in the right place.” 
 
 vl* 
 
 ^ ^ •'j* »§• 
 
 When the present administration came into power, on 
 March 4, 1913, there was a feeling of deep concern by the 
 friends of the Red Man as to the kind of man who would 
 
2 
 
 be selected for the post of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 
 This feeling was further intensified by our investigation 
 of the record of a number of those who were seeking “to 
 land the job”; for it developed that in this group the 
 “undesirable class” was decidedly conspicuous and ag¬ 
 gressive. 
 
 THE PROMISE 
 
 On March 15, 1913, a large delegation of the Executive 
 Committee of the Indian Rights Association was granted 
 a most courteous hearing by President Wilson and Sec¬ 
 retary Lane of the Interior Department, when attention 
 was called to the importance of selecting a Commissioner 
 who would command the respect of the entire country. 
 Our Committee was assured that the best man obtainable 
 would be selected. President Wilson said he wanted for 
 the place “a man of affairs, because he has millions to 
 administer; a man of imagination, that he may have 
 sympathy for the Indian; and, above all, a man with the 
 fear of God in his heart.” 
 
 Secretary Lane tersely expressed the same thought 
 when he said he wanted a “big man” for the place, one 
 to whom it “would not be a job, but an opportunity . ” 
 
 THE FULFILLMENT 
 
 This interview took place in March, but it was not until 
 June that the place was filled by the appointment of Hon. 
 Cato Sells, of Cleburne, Texas. To indicate the care 
 exercised by Secretary Lane in selecting the present Com¬ 
 missioner, it is interesting to state that before Mr. Sells 
 was appointed his record was thoroughly investigated 
 from the time he was twenty years old; he was literally 
 “weighed in the balance” and not found wanting. 
 
 Mr. Sells brought to his office a well-rounded equipment 
 probably never possessed by any former Commissioner,— 
 that of lawyer, business man and agriculturalist, fully 
 qualifying him to handle the Bureau’s various ramifications 
 
3 
 
 which involve every phase of human life and necessarily 
 draw upon such an equipment every day in the proper 
 performance of the duties of the office. First of all he 
 is “a man of affairs,” having served as Mayor of La Porte, 
 Iowa, when he was but twenty-two years old; two terms 
 as County attorney; and as U. S. Attorney under President 
 Cleveland. Although active and successful in his pro¬ 
 fession, he became deeply interested in stock-raising and 
 farming, and for years was a member of the Board of 
 Trustees of the Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 
 In 1907 he moved to Texas and was successful in the bank¬ 
 ing business. In that connection he took such an active 
 interest in developing the resources of the State, that he 
 was a member of practically every important agricultural 
 board in Texas. 
 
 As to the qualities of imagination and sympathy, they 
 are evident from the broad and humane way in which 
 Commissioner Sells has been grasping situations and 
 developing plans for the benefit and advancement of the 
 Indian in a material and moral way. He has shown that 
 he has that other requirement specified by the President,— 
 ‘‘The fear of God in his heart,”—by “hewing to the line,” 
 and adopting methods that will have a salutary and lasting 
 effect. 
 
 As was well stated by some Washington correspondent 
 in commenting on Mr. Sells’ administration: 
 
 “The job of Indian Commissioner with him is a business 
 proposition. He answered an altruistic call when he took 
 the position, for he had retired from active business and 
 had planned to settle down in Texas, the state he has lived 
 in ever since he left Iowa after a brilliant career as a United 
 States attorney. 
 
 “Secretary Lane let it be known that he wanted a man 
 of ability, not a job-seeker, a man of red blood and purpose, 
 not a weakling. He heard of Sells and his fight against 
 pension grafters in the middle west, and he found that 
 Sells was indeed a regular fighting man, with ability, 
 altruism, and that’s how today, Secretary Lane has a man 
 on the job of Indian Affairs fourteen hours a day, and 
 
4 
 
 that’s why a new era is dawning in Oklahoma and the 
 other Indian states.” 
 
 *1* *1* vl> v!. ^ . V. 
 
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 Commissioner Sells entered upon the duties of his office 
 with no preconceived notions. He announced no policies, 
 but began a thorough inventory of his “plant,” with its 
 6,ooo employes, and a careful survey of the whole field. 
 
 One of the first things that impressed him was the great 
 value to the Indians of their grazing tracts. The breaking 
 up of the big ranges in Texas and other states has practi¬ 
 cally eliminated stock-raising on an extensive scale. The 
 best and largest tracts available for cattle and sheep are 
 on the Indian Reservation, from which the Indian has 
 received but small returns. Heretofore those advan¬ 
 tages have been leased, at a small annual rental, to white 
 men, who have grown rich, while the owners either remained 
 stationary or actually retrograded. 
 
 Commissioner Sells believed that these natural advan¬ 
 tages should be used for the benefit of the Indian owners. 
 Within ten days after taking his office, Commissioner 
 Sells inaugurated a stock census. The result showed, as 
 against magnificent opportunities, a very poor equipment— 
 bulls and stallions of low grade and too old for use. The 
 sheep situation was similar. Useless pony stallions by 
 the thousand were grazing on the ranges and bringing 
 no return to the Indians. 
 
 The first real work of Commissioner Sells in this connec¬ 
 tion was to reduce the old “he-stuff, ” and to purchase 
 a sufficient number of good stallions, bulls and rams to 
 secure the best result with the “she-stuff, ” both in the case 
 of tribal and individual ownership;—in short, to build 
 up the Indian stock wherever money was available for such 
 purposes. For the Crow reservation alone $450,000 has 
 been expended for 9,250 white-faced Hereford heifers, 
 bulls and steers. 
 
 As a result of this plan there is now going on a process 
 of upbuilding and equalizing the Indian stock and elim- 
 
mating that which is bringing no return. As rapidly 
 as circumstances will permit, the various reservation 
 ranges will be stocked to the maximum limit with 
 Indian cattle. If this can be done, not only will thousands 
 of Red Men soon be in the industrious and self-supporting- 
 class, but they will be an important factor in helping to 
 avert a meat famine, threatened by the white man’s 
 diminishing herds. 
 
 Where grazing leases are now made to white men, they 
 are always on a competitive basis, and for short terms. 
 A revocable clause is part of the lease, to avoid over¬ 
 stocking the ranges, and also to provide for the natural 
 increase of the Indian herds. This plan, under proper 
 management, should not take many years to make the 
 Indian the American Cattle King. 
 
 v!. .! - . t - 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 Much is being planned for the Indians’ industrial develop¬ 
 ment by Commissioner Sells, along practical lines. The 
 value and necessity for “Reimbursable funds,” have 
 been recognized in the past, but the amount heretofore 
 granted by Congress (never exceeding $100,000 per annum) 
 has been wholly insufficient. Commissioner Sells, with 
 his broad experience in scientific agriculture and stock 
 raising, believes in doing things in a way that will secure 
 definite results, and he asked Congress for a reimbursable 
 fund of $900,000, to use in cases where the Indians have 
 no tribal money that can be applied for their benefit. 
 
 There has undoubtedly been, in the past, an indefen¬ 
 sible, one-sided, unbusiness-like conception of the Indians’ 
 needs in various quarters. Extensive and expensive 
 irrigation systems have been built on reservations, the 
 Indians given individual tracts of land, and then left 
 absolutely without any means for developing them. An 
 irrigation system for the Blackfeet reservation, Montana, 
 was authorized by Congress, at a cost of $6,000,000 to 
 be charged against these Indians. As their tribal prop¬ 
 erty is only valued at $5,000,000, they will, under the 
 scheme, be in debt to the Government for one million 
 
6 
 
 dollars. The people mostly to be benefited by this are 
 white men who are to be allowed fifteen years in which 
 to pay for the improvement. By this plan their lands 
 are brought under an irrigation system at the Indians’ 
 expense. Meanwhile, the Indian is without any funds 
 with which to develop his allotment and make beneficial 
 use of the water in time to escape the forfeiture provision. 
 
 The Uintah and Ouray reservation, in Utah, was also 
 brought under a reclamation project. It is eighty miles 
 from a railroad. The Indians were placed on raw land, 
 with no equipment for breaking and improving it, but 
 under obligation to get the water on their individual hold¬ 
 ings within a few years or forfeit their water rights. This 
 is expecting something that no white man could do under 
 similar circumstances. Yet some people wonder why the 
 Indian does not progress more rapidly towards self-support. 
 
 These instances are cited to show some of the situations 
 with which the Commissioner is dealing in an effort to 
 hold for the Indian what he has, and also to indicate why 
 a large reimbursable fund is absolutely necessary if the 
 best results are to be accomplished. By its judicious 
 use, Commissioner Sells could help such people to secure 
 farming implements, horses and cattle, so necessary for 
 agriculture; to build up comfortable and sanitary homes; 
 to utilize their own timber and other resources which here¬ 
 tofore has been impossible. 
 
 Commissioner Sells is determined to bring about a radical 
 and speedy change in the present unsatisfactory agri¬ 
 cultural, stock and industrial conditions generally exist¬ 
 ing throughout the Indian country. Instructions have 
 been sent to all reservations that “every Indian service 
 farmer shall give his time to actual farming and under 
 no circumstances shall he continue, as so generally has been 
 done, making the office work the first consideration and 
 the promoting of the farm work of the Indians secondary. 
 These things must be reversed.” Superintendents are 
 also directed to devote the major part of their time to 
 field work, in order that they may come in direct contact 
 
7 
 
 with the Indians and know actual conditions and stimulate 
 individual effort. Heretofore, the majority of reservation 
 superintendents have devoted three-fourths or more of 
 their time to office duties, much of which can be performed 
 by clerks. The Commissioner contends that “Reservation 
 employes should know the Indians and know them well; 
 understand their condition and substantially aid them in 
 their forward march toward self-support and equipment 
 for citizenship. ” 
 
 Another important question calling for vigorous attention 
 on the part of Commissioner Sells was the probate situ¬ 
 ation in Oklahoma. This is summarized in a statement 
 made by the Commissioner to the Denver Times, in part 
 as follows: 
 
 “The Indian children of Oklahoma are the richest aver¬ 
 age children in the United States; however, it is a lament¬ 
 able fact that they have less statutory protection there 
 than in any other state. In each of the forty counties 
 in eastern Oklahoma there are now pending from 800 to 
 1,500 probate estates, about 85 per cent of which are 
 Indian children’s estates. 
 
 “I have recently discovered that it costs about three 
 per cent to settle a white child’s estate, and that it costs 
 more than twenty per cent to settle the estate of an Indian 
 boy or girl. This is the result of guardians having been 
 appointed without regard to their equipment and the 
 acceptance of bondsmen many times wholly insolvent. 
 
 “Enormous fees have been charged by attorneys, 
 and unconscionable fees by guardians, together with 
 indefensible expenditures of their funds which has fre¬ 
 quently resulted in the dissipation of their entire property. 
 
 “It is not an uncommon thing when an Indian child 
 reaches his majority to find that his guardian has absconded, 
 and that his bondsmen are wholly financially irrespon¬ 
 sible. It is my determined intention to reform this in¬ 
 defensible condition, and to this end I have recently appoint¬ 
 ed a number of probate attorneys who will give their whole 
 time under my direction to this work. I am now submit¬ 
 ting a number of cases to the grand juries in Oklahoma 
 looking towards the indictment and criminal prosecution 
 of those who have embezzled funds. 
 
8 
 
 “Last week we secured a ruling from one of the courts 
 of Oklahoma, holding a guardian and his bondsmen respon¬ 
 sible where the Indian children’s lands have been sold 
 for a grossly inadequate consideration. It is my great 
 desire to co-operate with the state authorities and par¬ 
 ticularly with the county judges in effecting these results, 
 and I have every reason to believe that this co-operation 
 will be perfectly arranged and carried out.” 
 
 Mr. Sells visited Oklahoma for a personal conference 
 on this subject with the tribal attorneys, probate attorneys, 
 field clerks and county judges. In the past there was 
 always a feeling of antagonism between the Oklahoma 
 people and the Washington authorities. It was so intense 
 that co-operation was practically impossible. As a result 
 of the Commissioner’s trip, a spirit of co-operation was 
 developed, and there is now a disposition on the part of 
 Oklahomans to accept the attitude of the Government, 
 and a desire to help reform conditions. As a result of 
 these conferences a set of uniform rules governing probate 
 cases was adopted by the county judges that are more 
 complete than any statute of the United States. The 
 outlook is very promising for a “clean up” and an elevation 
 of the Oklahoma standard, and an improvement in con¬ 
 ditions that will be an everlasting credit to the adminis¬ 
 tration and gratifying to every one interested in Indian 
 affairs. A complete reorganization has been effected; 
 a good system adopted, and hearty co-operation of the 
 county judges with the Federal Government has been 
 established. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that 
 since Commissioner Sells visited Oklahoma there have 
 been several convictions and sentences to the penitentiary 
 for those charged with robbing the Indian minor children. 
 
 Before his trip to Oklahoma, Commissioner Sells asked 
 Congress for $50,000 for probate attorneys. Upon his 
 return to Washington he appeared before the Indian Com¬ 
 mittee of the House and asked for more money. The 
 amount was increased to $85,000 for this purpose,—an 
 indication of the forceful and convincing manner in which 
 
9 
 
 the Commissioner presents to the Congress the needs of 
 his bureau, and the confidence his statements inspire. 
 
 The firmness and determination of Commissioner Sells 
 to do things on business principles is indicated in his hand¬ 
 ling the oil situation in Oklahoma, where many leases 
 had been made covering Indian lands. Heretofore, the 
 lessees had been allowed to do practically as they pleased; 
 departmental regulations were ignored, which resulted 
 in an enormous waste of gas. One company which held 
 a lease on a Creek Indian allotment, had been warned of 
 its violation of these regulations, but that produced no 
 effect. Commissioner Sells thereupon imposed a fine of 
 $1,000 on this company, and indicated very forcibly that 
 failure on the part of others to respect their agreements 
 would invite a cancellation of-their leases. 
 
 Commissioner Sells’ reorganization of the Indian Bureau 
 has been the work of a genius. When he took charge, it 
 was badly torn by faction and strife. The personal ambi¬ 
 tion of a few people had produced a demoralized and chaotic 
 condition, which often resulted in the Bureau’s real 
 purpose—the welfare of the Indian—being lost sight of. 
 The effect of this was not confined to Washington, but 
 had spread throughout the field service. It was truly a 
 “house divided against itself.” By the use of tact and 
 judgment, Mr. Sells has developed into the Bureau a 
 spirit of loyalty, harmony and hearty co-operation that 
 has not existed for a long time, if ever before. The em¬ 
 ployes were literally inspired by the magnetic personality 
 of their chief; his activity and enthusiasm were conta¬ 
 gious, and the responsiveness in efficiency has been little 
 short of marvellous. The Commissioner has aimed to 
 so adjust matters that there would be no round pegs in 
 square holes, and to assign the clerks to work that was 
 not only congenial but to which they were adapted. As 
 a result, the work is now nearer up to date than at any time 
 in the Bureau’s history. This has been brought about 
 by increased efficiency, by system, and the loyalty of the 
 subordinates who willingly worked nights as well as days, 
 
10 
 
 in keeping with the pace set by Mr. Sells. It is unreason¬ 
 able, however, to expect them to do this indefinitely, and 
 additional clerical help should be provided by Congress. 
 
 One noticeable improvement is in handling what are 
 known as individual Indian moneys. Formerly when 
 a request for authority to draw on these funds came in 
 from the field, weeks and months elapsed before it was 
 acted upon. Now, in most cases, these requests are dis¬ 
 posed of the same day they reach the Bureau, and reach 
 the reservations within a week or ten days after the original 
 mailing date. 
 
 Another important advance step is shown in the re¬ 
 organization of the inspection force. Commissioner Sells 
 secured for his Chief Inspector, Mr. E. B. Linnen, formerly 
 attached to the office of the Secretary of the Interior. Mr. 
 Linnen’s long and honorable record for honesty and effici¬ 
 ency in the Government service is of itself a guarantee 
 that hereafter the Bureau’s inspection force will not be 
 ‘‘weak in the head, weak-eyed and hard of hearing.” The 
 Commissioner desires to substantially strengthen his 
 inspection force by the appointment of a few specially 
 equipped, high grade and dependable confidential men 
 who can be relied upon to help in the work of “ cleaning 
 up” the service,—men who will not be handicapped by 
 previous personal friendship for the officials to be investi¬ 
 gated. The Treasury and other Departments have a 
 secret service corps, but no where is it more needed than 
 in the Indian Service. It is believed that in the near 
 future numerous changes will be made in the personnel 
 of the service which will greatly improve its efficiency. 
 
 In selecting Mr. E. B. Meritt as Assistant Commissioner, 
 Mr. Sells secured a man of honesty, efficiency, experience 
 and courage. Mr. Meritt’s record in the Indian Bureau 
 proves that he is thoroughly dependable; his fearless, 
 and practically single-handed fight to prevent a corporation 
 from securing the San Carlos dam site will long be re¬ 
 membered. The Commissioner can leave his office, when 
 occasion requires it, with no fear that his confidence will 
 
II 
 
 be abused, and with the assurance that his plans will be 
 loyally and wisely adhered to by Mr. Meritt. 
 
 Commissioner Sells does not regard his post as a job , 
 but an opportunity to help a race of over 300,000, whose 
 property interests are valued at $900,000,000; and he has 
 been seeking in every possible way to imbue his subor¬ 
 dinates with the same thought,—to emphasize the human 
 side of the Bureau’s work. He believes in getting his 
 workers together for conference, as a means of promoting 
 a clear understanding and unity of effort. He called in 
 to Washington every supervisor in the service, and met 
 with them twice a day for one week. They returned to 
 their respective posts with new hope and ambition to 
 accomplish things; to spread the spirit of co-operation 
 throughout the entire field. 
 
 Commissioner Sells spent two days at Denver, in con¬ 
 ference with the Liquor suppression staff, to organize a 
 systematic procedure to secure the best results. The 
 good effect of these personal relations with his subordi¬ 
 nates are apparent in every direction. 
 
 Mr. Sells is a keen, intelligent listener, and has but little 
 to say for publication. He believes in doing things rather 
 than talking about them, and his actions tell their own 
 story. When he does talk on a public occasion, his remarks 
 are forceful and direct, with a ring of sincerity about them. 
 At the conference of Indian Supervisors, held recently 
 in Washington, Mr. Sells made an address from which 
 the following is taken: 
 
 “I believe that the greatest present menace to the 
 American Indian is whiskey. It does more to destroy 
 his constitution and invite the ravages of disease than 
 anything else: It does more to demoralize him as a man 
 and frequently as a woman: It does more to make him an 
 easy prey to the unscrupulous than everything else com¬ 
 bined. If I say nothing more to you tonight that leaves 
 an impression, let it be this one thought: Let us save the 
 American Indian from the curse of whiskey. 
 
 “We have a force of men engaged in the suppression of 
 
12 
 
 the liquor traffic. That is their special business. But 
 it is my business, and it is your business, to do everything 
 we can without injecting ourselves offensively into the 
 work of others or assuming a duty that is not properly 
 ours, to create an atmosphere, and suggest conditions 
 that will be helpful in this respect, and above all to be a 
 personal object-lesson inviting the Indian to banish liquor, 
 rather than to be guilty of anything that may cause him 
 to look upon one of us as a justification for doing that 
 which leads him to the destruction caused by the use of 
 whiskey. 
 
 “There is nothing that could induce me, since I have 
 taken the oath of office as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
 to touch a single drop of any sort of intoxicating liquor, 
 and this regardless of my attitude on the Prohibition 
 question. 
 
 “As a matter of good faith to our treaty relationships, 
 to legislative enactments, to the Congress which appro¬ 
 priates $100,000 a year for the suppression of the liquor 
 traffic among the Indians, we should do everything reason¬ 
 ably within our power to justify this appropriation and 
 insure the best results obtainable. This accomplished, 
 we have laid a substantial foundation for all of our work 
 in solving the Indian problem, and made a long step 
 forward looking toward their equipment for the respon¬ 
 sibilities of citizenship.” 
 
 The nearest approach of Commissioner Sells to announc¬ 
 ing any policy, is given at the close of his first annual 
 report, in which he says: 
 
 “I am emphasizing in every possible way the industrial 
 education of the Indian pupils and the industrial develop¬ 
 ment of the Indian population generally, and every effort 
 is being made to improve the efficiency of the employes 
 of the Indian Service, in order to accomplish more success¬ 
 fully the work in hand. 
 
 “I am also emphasizing the need of, and doing every¬ 
 thing possible to obtain for the Indians more sanitary 
 homes, more adequate school facilities for the Indian 
 children, to supply sick Indians with medical attention 
 and to take precautionary methods to prevent disease, 
 to adjust more equitably the cost of irrigation projects 
 constructed with reimbursable funds, to make larger use 
 of the timber resources of the Indians for their industrial 
 
13 
 
 and social advancement, to take advantage of the extensive 
 grazing land of the Indians and to build up tribal herds 
 as well as to promote among the individual Indians a large, 
 more profitable cattle, sheep and horse industry, and to 
 utilize in every practicable way the resources of the Indians, 
 both tribal and individual, in promoting and completing 
 their civilization and economic independence. 
 
 “It is my fixed purpose to bring about the speedy indi¬ 
 vidualizing of the Indians, and to this end I shall devote 
 my best efforts. ” 
 
 »±» vl. vT* «!' «1< 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 That Secretary Lane found the man to whom the Com- 
 missionership would be an opportunity and not a job , is 
 clear from Mr. Sells’ refusal to accept an important and 
 more lucrative post in another branch of the Government 
 service. Commenting on this the “New Republic” said: 
 
 “Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has the 
 most difficult, annoying, nerve racking, heart eating job 
 in the United States. He did not apply for the job or 
 any other job. He was ‘drafted’ into the service as a 
 public duty. He gets a salary of $5,000 per year. 
 
 “Recently, the Interstate Commerce Commission, in 
 quest of a high-grade man to put at the head of the work 
 of making a physical valuation of the railways of the 
 United States, offered the post to Mr. Sells at a salary of 
 $7,500, a comparatively easy and comfortable position. 
 
 “Did this offer of comparative ease and $2,500 addition 
 to the salary attract Sells? Not a bit. Three hundred 
 thousand Indians were looking to him to relieve them from 
 the results of a hideous maladministration and from a net¬ 
 work of accumulated abuses. He had entered upon the 
 task; it had taken a grip upon his heart and life that no 
 offer of ease or increased salary could shake. 
 
 “And the squeals and howls of rage and pain that are 
 going up from grafters and thieves around Indian reser¬ 
 vations indicate that there is 'something doing. ’ 
 
 “Long live Cato Sells and may he have the physical 
 strength to carry out his program, a program that wrecked 
 the health of two commissioners who honestly undertook 
 the task. ” 
 
 It is understood that when Mr. Sells declined the first 
 tender of this position a second offer was made with materi- 
 
H 
 
 ‘ally increased salary. His sense of duty and an appre¬ 
 ciation of his opportunity were stronger than the selfish 
 thought of material gain. 
 
 As a result of Mr. Sells’ brief tenure of office, the standard 
 of efficiency and honesty has been raised throughout the 
 Indian service,—both in Washington and in the field. 
 The work he has set out to do, however, is by no means 
 completed. The Big Things,—those demanding urgent 
 consideration,—are being disposed of as quickly as possible. 
 When they are well under way, other matters will, we 
 believe, receive proper attention. What has been thus 
 far done is a good indication of what may be expected in 
 a general cleaning up of every part of the Indian service. 
 
 It should not be overlooked, however, that Commissioner 
 Sells’ firm determination to preserve the vast resources 
 of the Indian, in land, timber, coal and oil, must sooner 
 or later develop great disappointment and bitter opposi¬ 
 tion from selfish interests; and it is highly important that 
 the true friends of an honest and efficient administration 
 shall strongly support him in his patriotic and fearless 
 course. 
 
 Our observation indicates that there has been developed 
 a general feeling of confidence in Mr. Sells’ ability, integrity 
 and courage on the part of the public and the press; and 
 Congress, for the first time within our knowledge of Indian 
 Affairs, seems to be in sympathy with the Commissioner, 
 and willing to grant the necessary appropriations to carry 
 on the work. 
 
 Commissioner Sells has established a new mark in Indian 
 administration, and his influence for good can never be 
 eradicated. He has elevated the service to a plane from 
 which he would not recede if he could, and from which 
 he could not recede if he would. He has set the pace, 
 and whoever may follow him (in the far distant future, 
 we hope), will of necessity be compelled to live up to those 
 established ideals or suffer by comparison.