by the native population. It is extremely desirable that these people should be provided with good mail facilities, not only on their own account, but also on account of the growing importance of this point to the future interests of the Territory.

New Regulations for Alaskan Schools.

The rules and regulations for the conduct of public schools in Alaska promulgated by your predecessor June 14, 1887, and published in my Annual Report for 1886-87, have proved, as a whole, wise and effective. Experience, however, has shown some points wherein they can be improved. The changes and additions found advisable were approved by you August 15, 1888, and are here printed to complete the record in this direction.

Amendment of Section 2 of Part 1.

The second paragraph of Section 2, Part 1, of said Rules and Regulations is amended so as to read as follows: The Governor of the Territory, the Judge of the United States Court, and the General Agent of Education in Alaska, for the time being, with two other persons, to be appointed by the Secretary, upon the nomination of the Commissioner of Education, shall constitute the Board of Education, and the General Agent of Education shall be the Secretary of said Board, and shall keep the record of its proceedings. Three members shall constitute a quorum of said Board.

Additional Rules.

SECTION 1. All missionary, boarding, or other schools, conducted by private persons or under the supervision of any of the Christian churches, which shall receive aid and assistance from the Government, shall be subject to the visitation and inspection of the Board of Education, who shall have power to see that proper discipline is maintained and instruction given, and wholesome food and proper clothing and comforta ble lodging furnished to the inmates of such school.

SECTION 2. The Board of Education shall have power, and it shall be its duty, to prescribe courses of study for the several schools under its jurisdiction, and particularly to prescribe what shall be the extent and character of the industrial instruction to be given in any or all of said schools, and the teachers of said schools shall conform as nearly as prac ticable to the courses of study prescribed by the Board. This rule shall include such schools as receive aid from the Government.

SECTION 3. Corporal punishment shall not be excessive and shall be inflicted upon pupils in attendance upon the public and other schools only in extreme cases, and then in moderation. Any teacher who shall violate this rule shail be subject to removal and loss of pay. The Board of Education will enforce this rule rigidly, and report all violations to the Commissioner of Education.

SECTION 4. Any action taken by the Territorial Board of Education under the preceding rules shall be subject to the revision and approval of the Commissioner of Education.

Changes in the Territorial Board.

It is proper to add that in compliance with the terms of the amendment above recited, the Hon. James Sheakley, of Fort Wrangell, and Mr. William Duncan, of New Metlakahtla, have been appointed members of the Territorial Board of Education.

Increased Appropriations for Alaska needed.

Justice to the different parts of the Territory requires that more schools should be opened, more school buildings erected, more supplies purchased, more teachers employed. I respectfully urge the propriety and equity of granting a substantial increase of appropriations for these most worthy objects. During the twenty-one years that have elapsed since the contract with the Alaska Fur Seal Company was made, that corporation has paid a rental into the Federal Treasury of $55,000 per annum, or an aggregate of $1,155,000, besides the much greater sum realized from the royalty on every seal taken.

Surely the expenditure of a fair share of this money for the training of the native inhabitants of the Territory in the habits and industries of American civilization will be both just in the present and wisely provident for the future.

Change in School-Books.

The experience of teachers in Alaskan schools emphasizes that of the teachers in Indian schools as to the unsuitable character of ordinary text-books. General S. C. Armstrong, of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, one of the wisest men engaged in the work of Indian education, has expressed his readiness "to advocate the preparation, by competent persons, of a set of school text-books for Indian schools." Mr. Arthur Grabowski, principal of Haskell Institute, says that the text-books used in Indian schools are as little adapted to the wants of the pupils as French books would be. I concur in these opinions as to Alaska also, and would suggest the propriety of taking meas ures whereby suitable books may be prepared by a committee of competent persons, published by arrangement with some respectable firm, and used exclusively in all Indian and Alaskan schools. These books need not cover the whole field of public education; they should, however, provide for the beginnings of work in each of the elementary branches, and be carefully adapted to the surroundings of Indian life and the peculiarities of the Indian child.

THE BUREAU'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE OHIO VALLEY CENTENNIAL. In compliance with your desire that the several offices of your Department should make, at the Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Val

ley and Central States, as extensive and creditable a display of their specialties as the brief time and limited funds at their command would permit (the exposition being announced to open in Cincinnati on the fourth of July), this Bureau, under instructions from Mr. Marcellus Gardner, your representative in charge of the Department's exhibit, prepared and forwarded in the latter part of June a varied assortment of articles from its museum, books from its library, and statistical charts compiled from the most recent information in its possession. Dr. A. P. Bogue, a clerk in this Bureau, who had served in connection with the Bureau's exhibits at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876 and the New Orleans Cotton Centennial in 1884-85, was detailed for similar duty under Mr. Gardner in Cincinnati.

For general distribution at this exposition a little eight-page" folder" was compiled by Mr. John W. Holcombe, Chief Clerk of the Bureau, which briefly set forth the purpose, history, and organization of the Office, the number and character of its publications, and the part it had taken in previous exhibitions, native and foreign. This leaflet describes the exhibit at Cincinnati as follows:

"The effort of the Bureau of Education is confined strictly to setting forth its own organization, methods of doing business, and the results of its labors. Several specimen file-cases, index books, and letter-press books indicate the system of managing the records and correspondence, while a few large cards display selected statistical tables. A complete set of the publications of the Bureau is shown in thirty-three bound volumes, together with samples of reports, circulars, and bulletins, in the cloth or paper covers in which they are distributed. In six cases taken from the thirty in the museum is placed a selected display, which is intended to indicate the character and variety of the Bureau's collections. From the library is sent a representation of general educational literature; of educational reports of States, cities, and institutions, bound or filed in boxes; and of foreign educational literature and reports. The diplomas won at previous expositions, and a few selected pictures, complete the exhibit."

ESTIMATES FOR 1890-91.

I have repeated the estimates made last year for the service of the Office.1

At the meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association, March, 1889, a committee appointed to inquire into the needs of the Bureau of Education and the means necessary to increase its efficiency made the following report:

"The special committee to whom was referred the need of legislation to increase the efficiency and usefulness of the Bureau of Education, beg leave to submit the following report:

"The act of Congress creating the Bureau as an independent Department of Education, and intrusting its management to a Commissioner with a salary of four thousand dollars, was passed March 2, 1867.

"In 1869 a strong opposition to the new Department of Education manifested it

With respect to the estimate for education in Alaska, I have added to the estimate previously submitted the amount usually appropriated for the support of industrial schools for Indians in that Territory, since it is proposed to transfer the support and supervision of these schools to this Bureau.

QUARTERS FOR THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION.

In my last Report I stated the reasons why the transfer of this Office to the Pension building, as required by the Act of Congress of March 3, 1887, would be injurious to its work, its collections, and its usefulness. Time has only confirmed the opinions I then expressed.

I am glad that this Act has been repealed, and that the Office will be allowed to remain in its present quarters.

The Office is under great obligations to you for the steps you took to prevent the proposed change, and I feel that the repeal of this legislation is mainly due to your personal efforts, as expressed in your letter self, in Congress, and the act creating it was so amended as to reduce the Department to the subordinate position of an 'Office of Education,' in the Department of the Interior, and to make the management of the Office, by the Commissioner, 'subject to the direction of the Secretary of the Interior,' and the annual salary of the Commissioner was reduced to three thousand dollars.

"Under those uuwise limitations the Bureau of Education has been conducted for nearly twenty years, and the fact that it has been able to render such valuable service to the cause of education is due largely to the fidelity and self-sacrificing spirit of the men who have filled the position of Commissioner. Few realize the embarrassments which have beset the duties of the Office, and fewer know how greatly its possible efficiency has been lossened by the lack of official appreciation and adequate pecuniary support.

"But in spite of all limitations and embarrassments the Bureau of Education has fully justified the wisdom of its creation. Its great value as an educational agency of the General Government is no longer questioned by anyone who knows its history and work. It has not only furnished needed assistance to thoso intrusted with the organization and conduct of schools and school systems, but it has from time to time responded to the call of Congress itself for valuable information on school affairs.

"It is believed that the time has now come when the Bureau of Education should be restored to its original position as an independent Department, and its management be again intrusted to the Commissioner in charge. The salary of the Commissioner should be increased to not less than five thousand dollars-the present salary of the Commissioner of Labor, and the recent salary of the Commissioner of Agriculture. The position of the Commissioner of Education never can assume its proper dignity at the seat of government so long as the Commissioner is obliged to live on the present salary, and it is certainly too much to ask the Commissioner to supplement this salary by his private means.

"The Department of Education should receive an annual appropriation sufficient for the efficient discharge of the important duties intrusted to it, and all its reports, circulars, and other information respecting educational progress should be promptly published and distributed. The practical value of the successive Annual Reports of the Bureau has been greatly lessened by their tardy issue and circulation.

"It is recommended that a committee be appointed by this body to memorialize Congress to these ends, and, if possible, secure necessary legislation.

"It is also suggested that this committee make an effort to secure such supervision of the education schedules in the next deceunial census by the Commissioner of Education as will result in more accurate and valuable statistics in this department."

of July 30, 1888, which I insert here for the purpose of putting upon record the reasons against such a change as was contemplated in the Act of March 3, 1887:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, July 30, 1888.

MY DEAR SIR: I observe by the sundry civil bill, as it has been reported by the Committee on Appropriations to the Senate, the only repeal of the act of March 3, 1887, which required the removal of the General Land Office, Bureau of Railroads, and Bureau of Education to the Pension building, provided for is so much as relates to the Land Office.

I do most sincerely think it will be a serious injury to the Educational Bureau and also to the Pension Bureau to compel the removal of the former into the Pension building. It can not but practically strangle the Bureau of Education for a considerable period at least, and I can not see but that it must seriously interfere with its usefulness so long as it shall remain there. There are now about forty-three clerks and people employed in the Bureau of Education, and they have a large collection of books, models, educational appliances, and bric-a-brac of various character and all contributary to enlightenment. I have visited the Pension building and can not see how this can be stored, except in great part in the fourth story. Practically, it becomes when placed there unavailable for use.

The appropriation in the legislative, executive, and judicial bill on account of the Bureau of Education is, all together, $50,920. The rent of the building to be saved by this change is $4,000. In order to save this sum of $4,000 of rent, I do not hesitate to say that this action will waste $25,000 of the appropriation for the Bureau.

I have heard the idea expressed in casual conversation that the Bureau of Education was not an instrumentality of especial value, and I fear that this idea has had something to do with the willingness to cripple it by this removal.

I do not concur at all in the sentiment; but if the sentiment is to have any influence, and especially under the plea of economy, it should take an effective direction to accomplish the latter end; and this would require that, in case of this removal being insisted upon, a great part of the force should be discharged and the appropriation made for the conduct of the Bureau diminished. I do not doubt that it could be diminished one-half, upon the theory of the removal, and as effective work be accomplished as if the same number of officers and employés shall be retained now provided for, because they can not work to advantage in such quarters as can be assigned in the Pension Bureau.

The legislative bill has made provision for the rent of the building now occupied by the Bureau of Education only until the 1st of December next, appropriating $1,667 for the purpose, one-third of the annual rental. The time is short and the pressure upon Congress, and especially upon you, my dear sir, I recognize to be very great at this juncture. Is it not the part of wisdom to continue that Bureau where it is for the remainder of this fiscal year, which will involve but $2,333 more (perhaps less than the cost of its removal), and review this subject at the next session with more attention than can now be allowed to it?

If it be possible for yourself, or some member of the committee, to give an hour or an hour and a half to a personal examination of the circumstances, I feel convinced you will recognize by a survey of the buildings and the property involved the imperative urgency and the wisdom of the suggestion I venture to make.

The provision for the post-office within the area of the Pension building will make that building as thoroughly occupied as almost any Government building in the city, perhaps quite as much.

I have the honor to be, my dear Mr. Chairman,

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

HON. WILLIAM B. ALLISON,

Chairman Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate.

WM. F. VILAS,

Secretary.