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ing the nature of the survey of Indian affairs and the general procedure which should be followed in conducting it. It should embrace the educational, industrial, social and medical activities maintained among the Indians, their property rights and their general economic conditions. It should be conducted by persons selected because of their impartiality and special qualifications who will command the confidence of those concerned, the government officials, the Indians and the general public. The correspondence with you and my knowledge of the Institute for Government Research convince me that the Institute is specially well qualified to conduct such a survey in a thoroughly impartial and scientific spirit with the object of making the result of its work a constructive contribution in this difficult field of government administration. I wish, therefore, formally to request that the Institute for Government Research undertake a comprehensive survey and to assure you, if you can undertake it, of the full cooperation of the Department of the Interior.

The Survey Privately Financed Through the Institute. Upon receipt of this letter the Institute agreed at once to take steps to see if it could raise the funds necessary for this special project, as its regular funds were appropriated for other activities already under way. It secured very promptly a small special gift to enable it to carry on the preliminary planning of the project. By the first of October pledges had been received guaranteeing to the Institute the entire amount which it believed would be required. All the money came from private sources. The Institute is entirely supported from private funds and receives no contributions or grants from the government. All expenses of the survey were met from the special funds of the Institute, except that the government contributed to the project indirectly in two ways. It generally furnished members of the survey staff with local transportation about the schools and reservations, and where guest rooms or other lodgings were available the members of the survey staff were permitted to use them without charge or with a very nominal charge for care and cleaning. When staff members were accorded the privileges of the employees’ mess at a school or reservation, they paid the standard price for meals.