Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1881.djvu/14

XII , Bloods, and Piegans, $15,000; support of Indians in central superintendency, $7,500; support of Modocs, $5,000; support of Navajoes, $5,000; support of Nez Percés of Joseph's band, $7,500; support of schools, $50,000; telegraphing and purchase of Indian supplies, $5,000; transportation of Indian supplies, $25,000. Large sums are also due different parties for goods and supplies furnished and for services rendered in 1873 and 1874, which have repeatedly been reported to Congress for appropriation, but none has so far been made. There is due the Western Union Telegraph Company, for messages transmitted during May and June, 1879, the sum of $361.65; contractors for transporting Indian goods and supplies during the fiscal year 1879, $9,556.63 ; during the fiscal year 1880, $44,882.14, and during the fiscal year 1881, about fifty thousand dollars. This indebtedness was incurred by this office under an absolute necessity, and early provision for its payment should be made by Congress.

Early in last spring it was found that the amount appropriated by Congress for the support of the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Apaches, Kiowas, Comanches, and Wichitas, located at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe and Kiowa, and Comanche Agencies, Indian Territory, for the fiscal year 1881, was insufficient to furnish them with beef, coffee, and sugar until the end of the fiscal year. The agents in charge were notified of the insufficient appropriations and directed to reduce the issue of beef, but in reply thereto submitted statements which convinced the department that to reduce the rations of those Indians was to invite a war. Copies of these letters were transmitted to Congress with a request for an additional appropriation, but the same was not granted. After the adjournment of Congress the case was submitted by you to the President, and, upon consultation with the honorable Secretary of War, it was decided that the War Department would furnish the agents at Cheyenne and Arapahoe, and Kiowa and Comanche Agencies with beef and flour until the end of the last fiscal year, the cost of these supplies to be reimbursed from any appropriation which may hereafter be made by Congress for that purpose. Accounts amounting to $59,232.01 have been presented by the War Department for reimbursement, and it is hoped that Congress, at an early day, will furnish this office with the means to cancel this debt.

TRANSPORTATION OF INDIAN SUPPLIES.

Owing to the failure of Congress to appropriate during the fiscal years 1879, 1880, and 1881 sufficient funds to pay for the transportation of goods and supplies to the different agencies, this office has been greatly embarrassed this summer by not having its stores promptly delivered. Contractors to whom the government owes over $100,000 for transportation services performed under former contracts are not very anxious to render services and wait for their pay several years. Flour delivered to the contractors for different agencies in October, 1880, was not delivered until July or August, 1881, and when this office urged them to comply more strictly with their contracts, their reply, that this office had no funds to pay them after service was rendered, appeared a sufficient excuse for the delay. The failure of Congress to appropriate last winter sufficient funds to pay outstanding indebtedness for transportation costs the government in increased price of transportation for the present fiscal year more than the interest on the money due, and while there are such large sums lying idle in the United States Treasury, the policy of not paying debts lawfully due appears to me very short-sighted. It cannot be expected that contractors will wait years for money due and honestly earned without attempting to get even with the government by charging increased rates of transportation, and for this reason it is urged that sufficient means be furnished this office to liquidate these debts. This would certainly be true economy.

The right of this office to incur this indebtedness above the amount appropriated cannot be questioned. Congress appropriates a certain amount of money to be used in the purchase of clothing and supplies, mostly due the Indians under treaty stipulation. Of what avail are these goods and supplies to the Indians, if sufficient funds}}