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be judged not by the number of Indians it turns loose so much as by the ability of those turned loose to make good. This subject is further considered in other sections of the report.[1] It has been presented here to indicate the position taken by the survey staff with respect to this matter of general policy.
The Function of the Indian Education Service. The Indian Service, as has been said, is recognizing to an increasing degree that its work in all fields is primarily educational. The problem of the Service is to translate this principle into action. The greater part of the present report is devoted primarily to a consideration of what needs to be done, in the light of conditions found by the survey, to promote the efficiency of the Indian Service as an educational organization confronted with a difficult and diverse educational task.
The Question of Cost. Early in the work of preparing this report the question was raised as to what consideration the survey staff should give to the element of cost in making its recommendations. The question was vividly brought home in an interview with a doctor on one of the reservations. He had previously been visited by Dr. H. R. Edwards, the medical specialist on the survey staff, and they had discussed at length what the real health needs of the service were on that reservation. This reservation doctor said in substance. “Your doctor is all right; he knows what we need; but Congress will never appropriate the money.” The reply at the moment was that Congress was the body to say whether it would or would not appropriate the funds; that the duty of the survey staff was to determine conditions and to make the best constructive recommendations it could devise which in its judgment were practicable. More careful deliberation has tended to confirm the soundness of that general position. It would be entirely improper for a survey staff to presume to predict what Congress would or would not do and to frame its recommendations to fit its guess as to the attitude of Congress or the attitude of the administration or anybody else who is concerned with Indian appropriations or administration. The effort has been to keep both feet on the ground and not to get above reasonable standards as set by other organizations
- ↑ See pages 472 and 473.