PUBLIC BUILDINGS

We, have laid out a public building program for the District of Columbia and the country at large running into hundreds of millions of dollars.  Three important structures and one annex are already, under way and one addition has been completed in the City of Washington. in the country sites have been acquired, many buildings are in course of construction, and some are already completed.  Plans for all this work are being prepared in order that it may be carried forward as rapidly as possible.  This is the greatest building program ever assumed by this Nation.  It contemplates structures of utility and of beauty.  When it reaches completion the people will be well served and the Federal city will be supplied with the most beautiful and stately public buildings which adorn any capital in the world.

THE AMERICAN INDIAN

The administration of Indian affairs has been receiving intensive study for several years.  The Department of the Interior has been able to provide better supervision of health, education, and industrial advancement of this native race through additional funds provided by the Congress.  The present cooperative arrangement existing between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Public Health Service should be extended.  The Government’s responsibility to the American Indian has been acknowledged by annual increases in appropriations to fulfill its obligations to them and to hasten the time when Federal supervision of their affairs may be properly and safely terminated.  The movement in Congress and in some of the State legislatures for extending responsibility in Indian affairs to States should be encouraged.  A complete participation by the Indian in our economic life is the end to be desired.

THE NEGRO

For 65 years now our negro Population has been under the peculiar care and solicitude of the National Government.  The progress which they have made in education and the professions, in wealth and in the arts of civilization, affords one of the most remarkable incidents in this period of world history.  They have demonstrated their ability to partake of the advantages of our institutions and to benefit by a free and more and more independent existence.  Whatever doubt there may have been of their capacity to assume, the status granted to them by the Constitution of this Union is being rapidly dissipated.  Their cooperation in the life of the Nation is constantly enlarging.

Exploiting the Negro problem for political ends is being abandoned and their protection is being increased by those States in which their percentage of population is largest.  Every encouragement should be extended for t le development of the race.  The colored people have been the victims of the crime of lynching, which has in late years somewhat decreased.  Some parts of the South already have wholesome laws for its restraint and punishment.  Their example might well be followed by other States, and by such immediate remedial legislation as the Federal Government can extend under the Constitution.