Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/169

What has been found good for one is assumed to be good for all. Because certain features of certain Indian dances are found to be injurious to the health of the Indians and to interfere with their economic development, it is easy to take a general position against all Indian dances. Because favorable reports are received regarding the success of a certain practice in treating trachoma in a given area, it seems simple to issue a general circular suggesting its use to the entire service affected. Because so excellent a device as the five-year program is producing good results where economic possibilities exist, pressure may be brought to bear on superintendents to adopt it in places where grave doubt exists as to whether the economic resources are sufficient to warrant making a distinctive feature of it. Reports, letters, and other paper work are greatly increased. The local superintendent and his assistants have to make the effort to put into words and figures what sometimes must be actually seen to be appreciated. Sometimes the matters involved are really of first importance and the superintendent’s time is well spent. At times they are of much less importance, and the superintendent must devote energies much needed in other directions to showing why something good on other reservations is not applicable on his own. These things tend to diminish his authority and his responsibility. He can often say truthfully, in matters requiring prompt action, that he cannot act without specific authority from Washington, or in matters which seem open to criticism that a certain course was taken in accordance with general instruction from Washington, and that he personally thinks it a mistake. Occasionally a superintendent will be encountered who has the reputation of being so desirous of playing absolutely safe that he puts almost everything up to the Washington office, despite the fact that a prompt exchange of letters takes ten days to two weeks. In exceptional cases a superintendent is painfully embarrassed, if not discredited either with the Indians or with his employees, because his recommendations are reversed without what he regards as consideration of all the facts, or because although sustained, the action comes so late as to be ineffective or harsh.

Two Possible Steps. Although no form of organization or procedure will entirely overcome such difficulties, yet it is believed that