Resigns Taft Office To Join Roosevelt.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 11, 1912:
Indian Commissioner Valentine Out on Eve of a Decision on His "Religious Garb" Order.
THE PRESIDENT REVOKED IT
Official Had Not Even Consulted Secretary Fisher, Who Later Gave Hearings and Reported to Taft.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Sept. 10.— Robert G. Valentine of Massachusetts, who has been Commissioner of Indian Affairs since soon after President Taft was inaugurated, resigned to-day, and in a statement given to the newspapers said that he did so in order to join the Progressive Party.
    The resignation apparently comes on the eve of President Taft's decision on an order of Commissioner Valentine, abolishing religious garb and insignia of teachers in the Indian schools. This order, which was aimed at priests and sisters of Roman Catholic religious bodies, was revoked by the President, who directed that an inquiry be held to ascertain the necessity for the Commissioner's action.
    In directing that the order be revoked President Taft said he was a believer in the separation of church and state, but that the Commissioner's action amounted to a discharge of employes who were under the protection of the civil service rules. Furthermore, the Commissioner had taken this course without consultation with the President or the Secretary of the Interior.
    In a pamphlet criticising Commissioner Valentine's action Father Ketcham, Director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, said that teachers of contract Indian schools conducted by Protestant denominational orders had been taken over into the Government service. He asserted also that be had obtained from Secretary Fisher a promise that a hearing would be given to Father Ketcham before action was taken on protests against the wearing of religious insignia by teachers in Indian schools, but Commissioner Valentine issued his order without giving a hearing or any warning whatever to the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions or to the parties m interest.
    Hearings were given to persons interested in the matter, and Secretary Fisher made a decision, which was submitted to President Taft. The nature of that decision had not been disclosed, but it had been expected that he would pass judgment soon on the question involved. It has been intimated that a new order would be promulgated which would satisfy both sides of the controversy.
    Mr. Valentine, who is 40 years old, formerly an instructor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an employe of the National City Bank and the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company of New York, became in 1905 private secretary to Francis Leupp, who was Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Col. Roosevelt's second term. In September, 1905, President Roosevelt made him Assistant Commissioner, and in June, 1909, President Taft appointed him to the office of Commissioner.
    In his statement, setting forth the reasons for his resignation, he tells how his hope that the Progressive movement in the Republican Party would "rehumanize and revitalize" that party, had not been realized. Even if the Progressive Party goes down to defeat, he says, it will carry "the leaven, the yeast, the true hope of the future."
    It had been known, he asserts, that he intended to vote the Progressive ticket, and was anxious to quit his Government position, but he was afraid to leave the Indians until somebody satisfactory as his successor could be found.
    However, he thinks that the affairs of the Indians are safe while Secretary Fisher and Assistant Secretary Adams are in the Interior Department. In resigning he leaves injunctions for his successor as to the things to be guarded, and says in conclusion:
    "Inasmuch as the President knows the needs of the Indian service and the forces of evil that are to be guarded against, I need not refuse the call of duty that the Progressive Party programme makes on me through fear that the Indian will be left unprotected. On the contrary, I believe, when confronted with the necessity, the President will appoint some one having the standards of Miss Lathrop at the head of the Children's Bureau or Mr. Conant at the head of the Bureau of Corporations.
    "The work of the Indian service is, from every honorable point of view, a non-political work of social service. I would not now leave it except for what seems to me a pressing obligation to take part in the larger work of the Progressive Party on the same lines."
    Commissioner Valentine said to-night that he had nothing to add to his statement. He was going to Massachusetts to speak for the Progressive cause, and believed that the Roosevelt party had a good chance of carrying that State.