Exposition and Education

 

Omaha Daily Bee 1 July 1898: 1.

INDIANS COMING TO OMAHA

Congress of the Red Men Now an Assured Feature of the Exposition.

BILL PASSES CONGRESS AND IS SIGNED

Forty Thousand Dollars Appropriated—Insures an Additional Attraction for the Big Fair at Omaha.

WASHINGTON, June 30.—(Special Telegram.)—The senate, after 6 o'clock tonight, agreed to the report of the conferees on the Indian appropriation bill, and the bill as agreed to was passed, the house having agreed to the bill yesterday. The bill was immediately signed by Vice President Hobart and Speaker Reed and rushed to the White House for the signature of President McKinley, who affixed his name long before midnight, when it becomes a law by reason of the beginning of a new fiscal year.

The passage of this bill assures the Transmississippi and International Exposition an additional attraction, as it makes possible a convention of Indian people at Omaha during the term of the exposition, which as an educational feature will be of incalculable benefit to students of ethnology, while the general public will, for the first time, have an object lesson that cannot fail to be far reaching as to the habits, customs, religious rites and ceremonial dances of Uncle Sam's red wards. The bill carries an appropriation of $40,000 for the proposed Indian congress.

Senator Thurston today had an extended talk with Assistant Secretary Vanderlip in relation to making Omaha a distributing center for stamped paper required under the provisions of the revenue law which goes into effect at midnight tonight. Senator Thurston showed that the territory contiguous to Omaha was entitled to such consideration, contending that it would greatly facilitate the business of the transmississippl states and would be of especial benefit to banks and bankers. Secretary Vanderlip said he would like to favor Omaha as a distributing center, but so far only nine points of distribution had been agreed upon and until it was shown that these cities could not take care of the business no extension would be made, but should the Treasury department decide that for the purpose of expediting the business of the department additional distributing centers are desirable Omaha would be among the first to be named.

A petition signed by Ben B. Wood, M. T. Barlow, J. H. Millard, H. Kountze, H. W. Yates, C. W. Lyman, J. H. Evans, J. W. Thomas, F. J. Moriarty. H. C. Bostwick and Thomas B. McPherson, bankers of Omaha and South Omaha, directed to Senator Thurston, praying for the selection of Omaha as a distributing center, was used by the junior senator to show the desire of the bankers to have a nearby point where stsamped paper could be had.