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country, the situation can be met in part by securing them more land, but, in general, the solution lies in an intelligent employment service.
In developing an employment service the Indian Office will have to supply the motive force and the directing brains and in some jurisdictions full time employment workers, but much can be achieved through establishment of coöperative relationships with existing labor placing organizations. Fortunately the evidence tends to show that the Indians make good workers in industrial pursuits. Their main difficulty lies in making the initial contacts and in pressing for recognition and advancement.
This shift into industry cannot be made hurriedly or as a wholesale movement if it is to be successful. Employment finding should be individualized and should seek to place the Indians, usually the younger rather than the older Indians, in lines of work in which they are interested and which offer opportunity for advancement and for establishing a permanent home for themselves, and if they are married, for their families. The mass placing of large numbers of Indians in unskilled temporary jobs which offer no permanent opportunity and involve either separation from their families, or the makeshift of group camping, is at best a temporary expedient. Where it involves keeping children out of school and a low type of camp life, it probably does more harm than good. In placing Indians in temporary jobs of this character the government should see that their wages are fair and their living conditions are up to a reasonable standard. The Indians should not be exploited as a source of cheap labor.
The policy of the government should be deliberately directed toward reducing the amount of unearned income available to the able bodied Indian for living expenses. It is a stimulus to idleness and permits of a low standard of existence without work. Unearned income should be utilized to increase the economic productivity of the Indians.
The policy of the present administration in exercising extreme conservatism in giving fee patents to restricted Indians is eminently sound in theory. The practice can be materially improved by keeping much better records of the Indians’ accomplishments in the fields that indicate competency, and basing decisions as to competency not so much on opinion as on definite achievements. A