Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1873 — Indians and Intemperance. [ARTICLE]

Indians and Intemperance.

General R, JI. Milroy., Superintendent of Indian affairs for. Was-h-1 ington Territory, iii a recent report concerning the litdians under his i supervision, takes extreme adi vaticed grounds against the nianu- ■ factur.e of and traffic in intoxicat4 •*' ing liquors. He says: j~ A higlrer civilizat ion - demands the ■ extermination, not only of this ■ ble traffic, but of the manufacturing of the deadly beverage which has not I only occasioned the destruction of •two-thirds of the Indian, race of ! America, by opening to them the 1 road to every other vice with that of drunkenness, but is annually leading over 50,000 white meh down to drunkard’s graves, and furnishing I our prisons and almshouses with : three-fourths of their inmates. A national law prohibiting, under the .severest penalties, the 1 imporfatiorr,""possession, sale, or use of intoxicating liquors, would effectually suppress this great evil.. Such a i law would do more for the permanent i benefit, both of (he Indians and the white uiaHi and far the advtincemeht

of civilization ami progress generally, r than any other that could be passed. <'(.mmenting upon General [Milroy's report, the Echo, a temperance paper published at Olympia, observes. asjhllmsLsL—... Gen. 11. if. Milroy, Superintendent of ludian affairs, fbr this Territory, in his report of the affairs of his suimrintemhmey lor the past, year, to ihe Gom.missi(:ner of liraian affairs,' makes a si rong app'-al for a natioiml prohibitory liq'ffor Jltw for the protection of the Indian tribes in the United States, q’hc apjieid will be en.dorsed by every one who has lived on the frontier or where the Ipdlans Troquent, all over this eontinefit, and' who have witnessed the degredation, wretchedness and squalor of tlye Indian tri bes traceable d i refftly; to 1 iqubr* If the Indian was inclined to be ever so. 1 leaceabie and friendly thc-jnfernab traffic in rum, so fruitful of disturbance in civilized 1 ife, makes a demon of him just as it doos a vvhite man, and an Indian war is often ..the result. The demoralizing influences of a mock-civilization is fast sweeping the red man b&fore it, and Soon, if no prohibitory laws are enacted, the rumseller’s oeciipatliHi will be gone, xv’ith that .people.' Gsi:. M i iroy is a temperance ..;.ni, a;: iiib'ii;orii-.t a'ml a (food.'i'en,. an■> wphased to make mention of so singular a fact as a United State- ofib-cr sent to a distant Territory being a man of this stamp.