Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/178

144 necessary preparations for the change in the condition of the Indians with forecast and wisdom, but must push them with the greatest possible expedition and energy if untoward accidents are to be avoided.

It is, therefore, very much to be regretted that the bill authorizing and enabling the Interior Department to settle the Indians in severalty wherever practicable, to give them patents, conveying a fee-simple title to their allotments, inalienable for a certain period, and to dispose of the reservation lands not so allotted with the consent of the Indians and for their benefit, so that they may be opened for general settlement and enterprise, did not become a law at the last session of Congress, or, rather, that such a law was not enacted years ago. The debate in the Senate on the severalty bill, last winter, turned on the imperfections of its details. No doubt, such imperfections existed. It would, indeed, be very difficult, if not impossible, to draw up a bill of this kind so perfect in all its details that further experience gathered from its practical application might not suggest some desirable amendment. But the essential thing is that opportunity be given to the branch of the Government managing Indian affairs to gather such further experience from the actual experiment, and that opportunity will be given only by the enactment of a law containing the principal features of the plan, and allowing the Executive sufficient latitude in applying it, according to circumstances, wherever the Indians may be prepared for it, or wherever, even

without such preparation, the exigencies of the case may demand prompt action. The Executive will then be able understandingly to recommend amendments in the details of the law, as practical experience may point out their necessity. Certainly, not another session of Congress should be permitted to pass without comprehensive legislation on this important subject.