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State of the Union Addresses of Theodore Roosevelt







The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***



Dates of addresses by Theodore Roosevelt in this eBook:



   December 3, 1901

   December 2, 1902

   December 7, 1903

   December 6, 1904

   December 5, 1905

   December 3, 1906

   December 3, 1907

   December 8, 1908







***



State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 3, 1901



To the Senate and House of Representatives:



The Congress assembles this year under the shadow of a great calamity.

On the sixth of September, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist

while attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, and died in

that city on the fourteenth of that month.



Of the last seven elected Presidents, he is the third who has been

murdered, and the bare recital of this fact is sufficient to justify

grave alarm among all loyal American citizens. Moreover, the

circumstances of this, the third assassination of an American

President, have a peculiarly sinister significance. Both President

Lincoln and President Garfield were killed by assassins of types

unfortunately not uncommon in history; President Lincoln falling a

victim to the terrible passions aroused by four years of civil war, and

President Garfield to the revengeful vanity of a disappointed

office-seeker. President McKinley was killed by an utterly depraved

criminal belonging to that body of criminals who object to all

governments, good and bad alike, who are against any form of popular

liberty if it is guaranteed by even the most just and liberal laws, and

who are as hostile to the upright exponent of a free people's sober

will as to the tyrannical and irresponsible despot.



It is not too much to say that at the time of President McKinley's

death he was the most widely loved man in all the United States; while

we have never had any public man of his position who has been so wholly

free from the bitter animosities incident to public life. His political

opponents were the first to bear the heartiest and most generous

tribute to the broad kindliness of nature, the sweetness and gentleness

of character which so endeared him to his close associates. To a

standard of lofty integrity in public life he united the tender

affections and home virtues which are all-important in the make-up of

national character. A gallant soldier in the great war for the Union,

he also shone as an example to all our people because of his conduct in

the most sacred and intimate of home relations. There could be no

personal hatred of him, for he never acted with aught but consideration

for the welfare of others. No one could fail to respect him who knew

him in public or private life. The defenders of those murderous

criminals who seek to excuse their criminality by asserting that it is

exercised for political ends, inveigh against wealth and irresponsible

power. But for this assassination even this base apology cannot be

urged.



President McKinley was a man of moderate means, a man whose stock

sprang from the sturdy tillers of the soil, who had himself belonged

among the wage-workers, who had entered the Army as a private soldier.

Wealth was not struck at when the President was assassinated, but the

honest toil which is content with moderate gains after a lifetime of

unremitting labor, largely in the service of the public. Still less was

power struck at in the sense that power is irresponsible or centered in

the hands of any one individual. The blow was not aimed at tyranny or

wealth. It was aimed at one of the strongest champions the wage-worker

has ever had; at one of the most faithful representatives of the system

of public rights and representative government who has ever risen to

public office. President McKinley filled that political office for

which the entire people vote, and no President not even Lincoln

himself--was ever more earnestly anxious to represent the well

thought-out wishes of the people; his one anxiety in every crisis was

to keep in closest touch with the people--to find out what they thought

and to endeavor to give expression to their thought, after having

endeavored to guide that thought aright. He had just been reelected to

the Presidency because the majority of our citizens, the majority of

our farmers and wage-workers, believed that he had faithfully upheld

their interests for four years. They felt themselves in close and

intimate touch with him. They felt that he represented so well and so

honorably all their ideals and aspirations that they wished him to

continue for another four years to represent them.



And this was the man at whom the assassin struck That there might be

nothing lacking to complete the Judas-like infamy of his act, he took

advantage of an occasion when the President was meeting the people

generally; and advancing as if to take the hand out-stretched to him in

kindly and brotherly fellowship, he turned the noble and generous

confidence of the victim into an opportunity to strike the fatal blow.

There is no baser deed in all the annals of crime.



The shock, the grief of the country, are bitter in the minds of all who

saw the dark days, while the President yet hovered between life and

death. At last the light was stilled in the kindly eyes and the breath

went from the lips that even in mortal agony uttered no words save of

forgiveness to his murderer, of love for his friends, and of faltering

trust in the will of the Most High. Such a death, crowning the glory of

such a life, leaves us with infinite sorrow, but with such pride in

what he had accomplished and in his own personal character, that we

feel the blow not as struck at him, but as struck at the Nation We

mourn a good and great President who is dead; but while we mourn we are

lifted up by the splendid achievements of his life and the grand

heroism with which he met his death.



When we turn from the man to the Nation, the harm done is so great as

to excite our gravest apprehensions and to demand our wisest and most

resolute action. This criminal was a professed anarchist, inflamed by

the teachings of professed anarchists, and probably also by the

reckless utterances of those who, on the stump and in the public press,

appeal to the dark and evil spirits of malice and greed, envy and

sullen hatred. The wind is sowed by the men who preach such doctrines,

and they cannot escape their share of responsibility for the whirlwind

that is reaped. This applies alike to the deliberate demagogue, to the

exploiter of sensationalism, and to the crude and foolish visionary

who, for whatever reason, apologizes for crime or excites aimless

discontent.



The blow was aimed not at this President, but at all Presidents; at

every symbol of government. President McKinley was as emphatically the

embodiment of the popular will of the Nation expressed through the

forms of law as a New England town meeting is in similar fashion the

embodiment of the law-abiding purpose and practice of the people of the

town. On no conceivable theory could the murder of the President be

accepted as due to protest against "inequalities in the social order,"

save as the murder of all the freemen engaged in a town meeting could

be accepted as a protest against that social inequality which puts a

malefactor in jail. Anarchy is no more an expression of "social

discontent" than picking pockets or wife-beating.



The anarchist, and especially the anarchist in the United States, is

merely one type of criminal, more dangerous than any other because he

represents the same depravity in a greater degree. The man who

advocates anarchy directly or indirectly, in any shape or fashion, or

the man who apologizes for anarchists and their deeds, makes himself

morally accessory to murder before the fact. The anarchist is a

criminal whose perverted instincts lead him to prefer confusion and

chaos to the most beneficent form of social order. His protest of

concern for workingmen is outrageous in its impudent falsity; for if

the political institutions of this country do not afford opportunity to

every honest and intelligent son of toil, then the door of hope is

forever closed against him. The anarchist is everywhere not merely the

enemy of system and of progress, but the deadly foe of liberty. If ever

anarchy is triumphant, its triumph will last for but one red moment, to

be succeeded, for ages by the gloomy night of despotism.



For the anarchist himself, whether he preaches or practices his

doctrines, we need not have one particle more concern than for any

ordinary murderer. He is not the victim of social or political

injustice. There are no wrongs to remedy in his case. The cause of his

criminality is to be found in his own evil passions and in the evil

conduct of those who urge him on, not in any failure by others or by

the State to do justice to him or his. He is a malefactor and nothing

else. He is in no sense, in no shape or way, a "product of social

conditions," save as a highwayman is "produced" by the fact than an

unarmed man happens to have a purse. It is a travesty upon the great

and holy names of liberty and freedom to permit them to be invoked in

such a cause. No man or body of men preaching anarchistic doctrines

should be allowed at large any more than if preaching the murder of

some specified private individual. Anarchistic speeches, writings, and

meetings are essentially seditious and treasonable.



I earnestly recommend to the Congress that in the exercise of its wise

discretion it should take into consideration the coming to this country

of anarchists or persons professing principles hostile to all

government and justifying the murder of those placed in authority. Such

individuals as those who not long ago gathered in open meeting to

glorify the murder of King Humbert of Italy perpetrate a crime, and the

law should ensure their rigorous punishment. They and those like them

should be kept out of this country; and if found here they should be

promptly deported to the country whence they came; and far-reaching

provision should be made for the punishment of those who stay. No

matter calls more urgently for the wisest thought of the Congress.



The Federal courts should be given jurisdiction over any man who kills

or attempts to kill the President or any man who by the Constitution or

by law is in line of succession for the Presidency, while the

punishment for an unsuccessful attempt should be proportioned to the

enormity of the offense against our institutions.



Anarchy is a crime against the whole human race; and all mankind should

band against the anarchist. His crime should be made an offense against

the law of nations, like piracy and that form of man-stealing known as

the slave trade; for it is of far blacker infamy than either. It should

be so declared by treaties among all civilized powers. Such treaties

would give to the Federal Government the power of dealing with the

crime.



A grim commentary upon the folly of the anarchist position was afforded

by the attitude of the law toward this very criminal who had just taken

the life of the President. The people would have torn him limb from

limb if it had not been that the law he defied was at once invoked in

his behalf. So far from his deed being committed on behalf of the

people against the Government, the Government was obliged at once to

exert its full police power to save him from instant death at the hands

of the people. Moreover, his deed worked not the slightest dislocation

in our governmental system, and the danger of a recurrence of such

deeds, no matter how great it might grow, would work only in the

direction of strengthening and giving harshness to the forces of order.

No man will ever be restrained from becoming President by any fear as

to his personal safety. If the risk to the President's life became

great, it would mean that the office would more and more come to be

filled by men of a spirit which would make them resolute and merciless

in dealing with every friend of disorder. This great country will not

fall into anarchy, and if anarchists should ever become a serious

menace to its institutions, they would not merely be stamped out, but

would involve in their own ruin every active or passive sympathizer

with their doctrines. The American people are slow to wrath, but when

their wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming flame.



During the last five years business confidence has been restored, and

the nation is to be congratulated because of its present abounding

prosperity. Such prosperity can never be created by law alone, although

it is easy enough to destroy it by mischievous laws. If the hand of the

Lord is heavy upon any country, if flood or drought comes, human wisdom

is powerless to avert the calamity. Moreover, no law can guard us

against the consequences of our own folly. The men who are idle or

credulous, the men who seek gains not by genuine work with head or hand

but by gambling in any form, are always a source of menace not only to

themselves but to others. If the business world loses its head, it

loses what legislation cannot supply. Fundamentally the welfare of each

citizen, and therefore the welfare of the aggregate of citizens which

makes the nation, must rest upon individual thrift and energy,

resolution, and intelligence. Nothing can take the place of this

individual capacity; but wise legislation and honest and intelligent

administration can give it the fullest scope, the largest opportunity

to work to good effect.



The tremendous and highly complex industrial development which went on

with ever accelerated rapidity during the latter half of the nineteenth

century brings us face to face, at the beginning of the twentieth, with

very serious social problems. The old laws, and the old customs which

had almost the binding force of law, were once quite sufficient to

regulate the accumulation and distribution of wealth. Since the

industrial changes which have so enormously increased the productive

power of mankind, they are no longer sufficient.



The growth of cities has gone on beyond comparison faster than the

growth of the country, and the upbuilding of the great industrial

centers has meant a startling increase, not merely in the aggregate of

wealth, but in the number of very large individual, and especially of

very large corporate, fortunes. The creation of these great corporate

fortunes has not been due to the tariff nor to any other governmental

action, but to natural causes in the business world, operating in other

countries as they operate in our own.



The process has aroused much antagonism, a great part of which is

wholly without warrant. It is not true that as the rich have grown

richer the poor have grown poorer. On the contrary, never before has

the average man, the wage-worker, the farmer, the small trader, been so

well off as in this country and at the present time. There have been

abuses connected with the accumulation of wealth; yet it remains true

that a fortune accumulated in legitimate business can be accumulated by

the person specially benefited only on condition of conferring immense

incidental benefits upon others. Successful enterprise, of the type

which benefits all mankind, can only exist if the conditions are such

as to offer great prizes as the rewards of success.



The captains of industry who have driven the railway systems across

this continent, who have built up our commerce, who have developed our

manufactures, have on the whole done great good to our people. Without

them the material development of which we are so justly proud could

never have taken place. Moreover, we should recognize the immense

importance of this material development of leaving as unhampered as is

compatible with the public good the strong and forceful men upon whom

the success of business operations inevitably rests. The slightest

study of business conditions will satisfy anyone capable of forming a

judgment that the personal equation is the most important factor in a

business operation; that the business ability of the man at the head of

any business concern, big or little, is usually the factor which fixes

the gulf between striking success and hopeless failure.



An additional reason for caution in dealing with corporations is to be

found in the international commercial conditions of to-day. The same

business conditions which have produced the great aggregations of

corporate and individual wealth have made them very potent factors in

international Commercial competition. Business concerns which have the

largest means at their disposal and are managed by the ablest men are

naturally those which take the lead in the strife for commercial

supremacy among the nations of the world. America has only just begun

to assume that commanding position in the international business world

which we believe will more and more be hers. It is of the utmost

importance that this position be not jeoparded, especially at a time

when the overflowing abundance of our own natural resources and the

skill, business energy, and mechanical aptitude of our people make

foreign markets essential. Under such conditions it would be most

unwise to cramp or to fetter the youthful strength of our Nation.



Moreover, it cannot too often be pointed out that to strike with

ignorant violence at the interests of one set of men almost inevitably

endangers the interests of all. The fundamental rule in our national

life--the rule which underlies all others--is that, on the whole, and

in the long run, we shall go up or down together. There are exceptions;

and in times of prosperity some will prosper far more, and in times of

adversity, some will suffer far more, than others; but speaking

generally, a period of good times means that all share more or less in

them, and in a period of hard times all feel the stress to a greater or

less degree. It surely ought not to be necessary to enter into any

proof of this statement; the memory of the lean years which began in

1893 is still vivid, and we can contrast them with the conditions in

this very year which is now closing. Disaster to great business

enterprises can never have its effects limited to the men at the top.

It spreads throughout, and while it is bad for everybody, it is worst

for those farthest down. The capitalist may be shorn of his luxuries;

but the wage-worker may be deprived of even bare necessities.



The mechanism of modern business is so delicate that extreme care must

be taken not to interfere with it in a spirit of rashness or ignorance.

Many of those who have made it their vocation to denounce the great

industrial combinations which are popularly, although with technical

inaccuracy, known as "trusts," appeal especially to hatred and fear.

These are precisely the two emotions, particularly when combined with

ignorance, which unfit men for the exercise of cool and steady

judgment. In facing new industrial conditions, the whole history of the

world shows that legislation will generally be both unwise and

ineffective unless undertaken after calm inquiry and with sober

self-restraint. Much of the legislation directed at the trusts would

have been exceedingly mischievous had it not also been entirely

ineffective. In accordance with a well-known sociological law, the

ignorant or reckless agitator has been the really effective friend of

the evils which he has been nominally opposing. In dealing with

business interests, for the Government to undertake by crude and

ill-considered legislation to do what may turn out to be bad, would be

to incur the risk of such far-reaching national disaster that it would

be preferable to undertake nothing at all. The men who demand the

impossible or the undesirable serve as the allies of the forces with

which they are nominally at war, for they hamper those who would

endeavor to find out in rational fashion what the wrongs really are and

to what extent and in what manner it is practicable to apply remedies.



All this is true; and yet it is also true that there are real and grave

evils, one of the chief being over-capitalization because of its many

baleful consequences; and a resolute and practical effort must be made

to correct these evils.



There is a widespread conviction in the minds of the American people

that the great corporations known as trusts are in certain of their

features and tendencies hurtful to the general welfare. This springs

from no spirit of envy or uncharitableness, nor lack of pride in the

great industrial achievements that have placed this country at the head

of the nations struggling for commercial supremacy. It does not rest

upon a lack of intelligent appreciation of the necessity of meeting

changing and changed conditions of trade with new methods, nor upon

ignorance of the fact that combination of capital in the effort to

accomplish great things is necessary when the world's progress demands

that great things be done. It is based upon sincere conviction that

combination and concentration should be, not prohibited, but supervised

and within reasonable limits controlled; and in my judgment this

conviction is right.



It is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract to

require that when men receive from Government the privilege of doing

business under corporate form, which frees them from individual

responsibility, and enables them to call into their enterprises the

capital of the public, they shall do so upon absolutely truthful

representations as to the value of the property in which the capital is

to be invested. Corporations engaged in interstate commerce should be

regulated if they are found to exercise a license working to the public

injury. It should be as much the aim of those who seek for social

betterment to rid the business world of crimes of cunning as to rid the

entire body politic of crimes of violence. Great corporations exist

only because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and

it is therefore our right and our duty to see that they work in harmony

with these institutions.



The first essential in determining how to deal with the great

industrial combinations is knowledge of the facts--publicity. In the

interest of the public, the Government should have the right to inspect

and examine the workings of the great corporations engaged in

interstate business. Publicity is the only sure remedy which we can now

invoke. What further remedies are needed in the way of governmental

regulation, or taxation, can only be determined after publicity has

been obtained, by process of law, and in the course of administration.

The first requisite is knowledge, full and complete--knowledge which

may be made public to the world.



Artificial bodies, such as corporations and joint stock or other

associations, depending upon any statutory law for their existence or

privileges, should be subject to proper governmental supervision, and

full and accurate information as to their operations should be made

public regularly at reasonable intervals.



The large corporations, commonly called trusts, though organized in one

State, always do business in many States, often doing very little

business in the State where they are incorporated. There is utter lack

of uniformity in the State laws about them; and as no State has any

exclusive interest in or power over their acts, it has in practice

proved impossible to get adequate regulation through State action.

Therefore, in the interest of the whole people, the Nation should,

without interfering with the power of the States in the matter itself,

also assume power of supervision and regulation over all corporations

doing an interstate business. This is especially true where the

corporation derives a portion of its wealth from the existence of some

monopolistic element or tendency in its business. There would be no

hardship in such supervision; banks are subject to it, and in their

case it is now accepted as a simple matter of course. Indeed, it is

probable that supervision of corporations by the National Government

need not go so far as is now the case with the supervision exercised

over them by so conservative a State as Massachusetts, in order to

produce excellent results.



When the Constitution was adopted, at the end of the eighteenth

century, no human wisdom could foretell the sweeping changes, alike in

industrial and political conditions, which were to take place by the

beginning of the twentieth century. At that time it was accepted as a

matter of course that the several States were the proper authorities to

regulate, so far as was then necessary, the comparatively insignificant

and strictly localized corporate bodies of the day. The conditions are

now wholly different and wholly different action is called for. I

believe that a law can be framed which will enable the National

Government to exercise control along the lines above indicated;

profiting by the experience gained through the passage and

administration of the Interstate-Commerce Act. If, however, the

judgment of the Congress is that it lacks the constitutional power to

pass such an act, then a constitutional amendment should be submitted

to confer the power.



There should be created a Cabinet officer, to be known as Secretary of

Commerce and Industries, as provided in the bill introduced at the last

session of the Congress. It should be his province to deal with

commerce in its broadest sense; including among many other things

whatever concerns labor and all matters affecting the great business

corporations and our merchant marine.



The course proposed is one phase of what should be a comprehensive and

far-reaching scheme of constructive statesmanship for the purpose of

broadening our markets, securing our business interests on a safe

basis, and making firm our new position in the international industrial

world; while scrupulously safeguarding the rights of wage-worker and

capitalist, of investor and private citizen, so as to secure equity as

between man and man in this Republic.



With the sole exception of the farming interest, no one matter is of

such vital moment to our whole people as the welfare of the

wage-workers. If the farmer and the wage-worker are well off, it is

absolutely certain that all others will be well off too. It is

therefore a matter for hearty congratulation that on the whole wages

are higher to-day in the United States than ever before in our history,

and far higher than in any other country. The standard of living is

also higher than ever before. Every effort of legislator and

administrator should be bent to secure the permanency of this condition

of things and its improvement wherever possible. Not only must our

labor be protected by the tariff, but it should also be protected so

far as it is possible from the presence in this country of any laborers

brought over by contract, or of those who, coming freely, yet represent

a standard of living so depressed that they can undersell our men in

the labor market and drag them to a lower level. I regard it as

necessary, with this end in view, to re-enact immediately the law

excluding Chinese laborers and to strengthen it wherever necessary in

order to make its enforcement entirely effective.



The National Government should demand the highest quality of service

from its employees; and in return it should be a good employer. If

possible legislation should be passed, in connection with the

Interstate Commerce Law, which will render effective the efforts of

different States to do away with the competition of convict contract

labor in the open labor market. So far as practicable under the

conditions of Government work, provision should be made to render the

enforcement of the eight-hour law easy and certain. In all industries

carried on directly or indirectly for the United States Government

women and children should be protected from excessive hours of labor,

from night work, and from work under unsanitary conditions. The

Government should provide in its contracts that all work should be done

under "fair" conditions, and in addition to setting a high standard

should uphold it by proper inspection, extending if necessary to the

subcontractors. The Government should forbid all night work for women

and children, as well as excessive overtime. For the District of

Columbia a good factory law should be passed; and, as a powerful

indirect aid to such laws, provision should be made to turn the

inhabited alleys, the existence of which is a reproach to our Capital

city, into minor streets, where the inhabitants can live under

conditions favorable to health and morals.



American wage-workers work with their heads as well as their hands.

Moreover, they take a keen pride in what they are doing; so that,

independent of the reward, they wish to turn out a perfect job. This is

the great secret of our success in competition with the labor of

foreign countries.



The most vital problem with which this country, and for that matter the

whole civilized world, has to deal, is the problem which has for one

side the betterment of social conditions, moral and physical, in large

cities, and for another side the effort to deal with that tangle of

far-reaching questions which we group together when we speak of

"labor." The chief factor in the success of each man--wage-worker,

farmer, and capitalist alike--must ever be the sum total of his own

individual qualities and abilities. Second only to this comes the power

of acting in combination or association with others. Very great good

has been and will be accomplished by associations or unions of

wage-workers, when managed with forethought, and when they combine

insistence upon their own rights with law-abiding respect for the

rights of others. The display of these qualities in such bodies is a

duty to the nation no less than to the associations themselves.

Finally, there must also in many cases be action by the Government in

order to safeguard the rights and interests of all. Under our

Constitution there is much more scope for such action by the State and

the municipality than by the nation. But on points such as those

touched on above the National Government can act.



When all is said and done, the rule of brotherhood remains as the

indispensable prerequisite to success in the kind of national life for

which we strive. Each man must work for himself, and unless he so works

no outside help can avail him; but each man must remember also that he

is indeed his brother's keeper, and that while no man who refuses to

walk can be carried with advantage to himself or anyone else, yet that

each at times stumbles or halts, that each at times needs to have the

helping hand outstretched to him. To be permanently effective, aid must

always take the form of helping a man to help himself; and we can all

best help ourselves by joining together in the work that is of common

interest to all.



Our present immigration laws are unsatisfactory. We need every honest

and efficient immigrant fitted to become an American citizen, every

immigrant who comes here to stay, who brings here a strong body, a

stout heart, a good head, and a resolute purpose to do his duty well in

every way and to bring up his children as law-abiding and God-fearing

members of the community. But there should be a comprehensive law

enacted with the object of working a threefold improvement over our

present system. First, we should aim to exclude absolutely not only all

persons who are known to be believers in anarchistic principles or

members of anarchistic societies, but also all persons who are of a low

moral tendency or of unsavory reputation. This means that we should

require a more thorough system of inspection abroad and a more rigid

system of examination at our immigration ports, the former being

especially necessary.



The second object of a proper immigration law ought to be to secure by

a careful and not merely perfunctory educational test some intelligent

capacity to appreciate American institutions and act sanely as American

citizens. This would not keep out all anarchists, for many of them

belong to the intelligent criminal class. But it would do what is also

in point, that is, tend to decrease the sum of ignorance, so potent in

producing the envy, suspicion, malignant passion, and hatred of order,

out of which anarchistic sentiment inevitably springs. Finally, all

persons should be excluded who are below a certain standard of economic

fitness to enter our industrial field as competitors with American

labor. There should be proper proof of personal capacity to earn an

American living and enough money to insure a decent start under

American conditions. This would stop the influx of cheap labor, and the

resulting competition which gives rise to so much of bitterness in

American industrial life; and it would dry up the springs of the

pestilential social conditions in our great cities, where anarchistic

organizations have their greatest possibility of growth.



Both the educational and economic tests in a wise immigration law

should be designed to protect and elevate the general body politic and

social. A very close supervision should be exercised over the steamship

companies which mainly bring over the immigrants, and they should be

held to a strict accountability for any infraction of the law.



There is general acquiescence in our present tariff system as a

national policy. The first requisite to our prosperity is the

continuity and stability of this economic policy. Nothing could be more

unwise than to disturb the business interests of the country by any

general tariff change at this time. Doubt, apprehension, uncertainty

are exactly what we most wish to avoid in the interest of our

commercial and material well-being. Our experience in the past has

shown that sweeping revisions of the tariff are apt to produce

conditions closely approaching panic in the business world. Yet it is

not only possible, but eminently desirable, to combine with the

stability of our economic system a supplementary system of reciprocal

benefit and obligation with other nations. Such reciprocity is an

incident and result of the firm establishment and preservation of our

present economic policy. It was specially provided for in the present

tariff law.



Reciprocity must be treated as the handmaiden of protection. Our first

duty is to see that the protection granted by the tariff in every case

where it is needed is maintained, and that reciprocity be sought for so

far as it can safely be done without injury to our home industries.

Just how far this is must be determined according to the individual

case, remembering always that every application of our tariff policy to

meet our shifting national needs must be conditioned upon the cardinal

fact that the duties must never be reduced below the point that will

cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad. The

well-being of the wage-worker is a prime consideration of our entire

policy of economic legislation.



Subject to this proviso of the proper protection necessary to our

industrial well-being at home, the principle of reciprocity must

command our hearty support. The phenomenal growth of our export trade

emphasizes the urgency of the need for wider markets and for a liberal

policy in dealing with foreign nations. Whatever is merely petty and

vexatious in the way of trade restrictions should be avoided. The

customers to whom we dispose of our surplus products in the long run,

directly or indirectly, purchase those surplus products by giving us

something in return. Their ability to purchase our products should as

far as possible be secured by so arranging our tariff as to enable us

to take from them those products which we can use without harm to our

own industries and labor, or the use of which will be of marked benefit

to us.



It is most important that we should maintain the high level of our

present prosperity. We have now reached the point in the development of

our interests where we are not only able to supply our own markets but

to produce a constantly growing surplus for which we must find markets

abroad. To secure these markets we can utilize existing duties in any

case where they are no longer needed for the purpose of protection, or

in any case where the article is not produced here and the duty is no

longer necessary for revenue, as giving us something to offer in

exchange for what we ask. The cordial relations with other nations

which are so desirable will naturally be promoted by the course thus

required by our own interests.



The natural line of development for a policy of reciprocity will be in

connection with those of our productions which no longer require all of

the support once needed to establish them upon a sound basis, and with

those others where either because of natural or of economic causes we

are beyond the reach of successful competition.



I ask the attention of the Senate to the reciprocity treaties laid

before it by my predecessor.



The condition of the American merchant marine is such as to call for

immediate remedial action by the Congress. It is discreditable to us as

a Nation that our merchant marine should be utterly insignificant in

comparison to that of other nations which we overtop in other forms of

business. We should not longer submit to conditions under which only a

trifling portion of our great commerce is carried in our own ships. To

remedy this state of things would not .merely serve to build up our

shipping interests, but it would also result in benefit to all who are

interested in the permanent establishment of a wider market for

American products, and would provide an auxiliary force for the Navy.

Ships work for their own countries just as railroads work for their

terminal points. Shipping lines, if established to the principal

countries with which we have dealings, would be of political as well as

commercial benefit. From every standpoint it is unwise for the United

States to continue to rely upon the ships of competing nations for the

distribution of our goods. It should be made advantageous to carry

American goods in American-built ships.



At present American shipping is under certain great disadvantages when

put in competition with the shipping of foreign countries. Many of the

fast foreign steamships, at a speed of fourteen knots or above, are

subsidized; and all our ships, sailing vessels and steamers alike,

cargo carriers of slow speed and mail carriers of high speed, have to

meet the fact that the original cost of building American ships is

greater than is the case abroad; that the wages paid American officers

and seamen are very much higher than those paid the officers and seamen

of foreign competing countries; and that the standard of living on our

ships is far superior to the standard of living on the ships of our

commercial rivals.



Our Government should take such action as will remedy these

inequalities. The American merchant marine should be restored to the

ocean.



The Act of March 14, 1900, intended unequivocally to establish gold as

the standard money and to maintain at a parity therewith all forms of

money medium in use with us, has been shown to be timely and judicious.

The price of our Government bonds in the world's market, when compared

with the price of similar obligations issued by other nations, is a

flattering tribute to our public credit. This condition it is evidently

desirable to maintain.



In many respects the National Banking Law furnishes sufficient liberty

for the proper exercise of the banking function; but there seems to be

need of better safeguards against the deranging influence of commercial

crises and financial panics. Moreover, the currency of the country

should be made responsive to the demands of our domestic trade and

commerce.



The collections from duties on imports and internal taxes continue to

exceed the ordinary expenditures of the Government, thanks mainly to

the reduced army expenditures. The utmost care should be taken not to

reduce the revenues so that there will be any possibility of a deficit;

but, after providing against any such contingency, means should be

adopted which will bring the revenues more nearly within the limit of

our actual needs. In his report to the Congress the Secretary of the

Treasury considers all these questions at length, and I ask your

attention to the report and recommendations.



I call special attention to the need of strict economy in expenditures.

The fact that our national needs forbid us to be niggardly in providing

whatever is actually necessary to our well-being, should make us doubly

careful to husband our national resources, as each of us husbands his

private resources, by scrupulous avoidance of anything like wasteful or

reckless expenditure. Only by avoidance of spending money on what is

needless or unjustifiable can we legitimately keep our income to the

point required to meet our needs that are genuine.



In 1887 a measure was enacted for the regulation of interstate

railways, commonly known as the Interstate Commerce Act. The cardinal

provisions of that act were that railway rates should be just and

reasonable and that all shippers, localities, and commodities should be

accorded equal treatment. A commission was created and endowed with

what were supposed to be the necessary powers to execute the provisions

of this act. That law was largely an experiment. Experience has shown

the wisdom of its purposes, but has also shown, possibly that some of

its requirements are wrong, certainly that the means devised for the

enforcement of its provisions are defective. Those who complain of the

management of the railways allege that established rates are not

maintained; that rebates and similar devices are habitually resorted

to; that these preferences are usually in favor of the large shipper;

that they drive out of business the smaller competitor; that while many

rates are too low, many others are excessive; and that gross

preferences are made, affecting both localities and commodities. Upon

the other hand, the railways assert that the law by its very terms

tends to produce many of these illegal practices by depriving carriers

of that right of concerted action which they claim is necessary to

establish and maintain non-discriminating rates.



The act should be amended. The railway is a public servant. Its rates

should be just to and open to all shippers alike. The Government should

see to it that within its jurisdiction this is so and should provide a

speedy, inexpensive, and effective remedy to that end. At the same time

it must not be forgotten that our railways are the arteries through

which the commercial lifeblood of this Nation flows. Nothing could be

more foolish than the enactment of legislation which would

unnecessarily interfere with the development and operation of these

commercial agencies. The subject is one of great importance and calls

for the earnest attention of the Congress.



The Department of Agriculture during the past fifteen years has

steadily broadened its work on economic lines, and has accomplished

results of real value in upbuilding domestic and foreign trade. It has

gone into new fields until it is now in touch with all sections of our

country and with two of the island groups that have lately come under

our jurisdiction, whose people must look to agriculture as a

livelihood. It is searching the world for grains, grasses, fruits, and

vegetables specially fitted for introduction into localities in the

several States and Territories where they may add materially to our

resources. By scientific attention to soil survey and possible new

crops, to breeding of new varieties of plants, to experimental

shipments, to animal industry and applied chemistry, very practical aid

has been given our farming and stock-growing interests. The products of

the farm have taken an unprecedented place in our export trade during

the year that has just closed.



Public opinion throughout the United States has moved steadily toward a

just appreciation of the value of forests, whether planted or of

natural growth. The great part played by them in the creation and

maintenance of the national wealth is now more fully realized than ever

before.



Wise forest protection does not mean the withdrawal of forest

resources, whether of wood, water, or grass, from contributing their

full share to the welfare of the people, but, on the contrary, gives

the assurance of larger and more certain supplies. The fundamental idea

of forestry is the perpetuation of forests by use. Forest protection is

not an end of itself; it is a means to increase and sustain the

resources of our country and the industries which depend upon them. The

preservation of our forests is an imperative business necessity. We

have come to see clearly that whatever destroys the forest, except to

make way for agriculture, threatens our well being.



The practical usefulness of the national forest reserves to the mining,

grazing, irrigation, and other interests of the regions in which the

reserves lie has led to a widespread demand by the people of the West

for their protection and extension. The forest reserves will inevitably

be of still greater use in the future than in the past. Additions

should be made to them whenever practicable, and their usefulness

should be increased by a thoroughly business-like management.



At present the protection of the forest reserves rests with the General

Land Office, the mapping and description of their timber with the

United States Geological Survey, and the preparation of plans for their

conservative use with the Bureau of Forestry, which is also charged

with the general advancement of practical forestry in the United

States. These various functions should be united in the Bureau of

Forestry, to which they properly belong. The present diffusion of

responsibility is bad from every standpoint. It prevents that effective

co-operation between the Government and the men who utilize the

resources of the reserves, without which the interests of both must

suffer. The scientific bureaus generally should be put under the

Department of Agriculture. The President should have by law the power

of transferring lands for use as forest reserves to the Department of

Agriculture. He already has such power in the case of lands needed by

the Departments of War and the Navy.



The wise administration of the forest reserves will be not less helpful

to the interests which depend on water than to those which depend on

wood and grass. The water supply itself depends upon the forest. In the

arid region it is water, not land, which measures production. The

western half of the United States would sustain a population greater

than that of our whole country to-day if the waters that now run to

waste were saved and used for irrigation. The forest and water problems

are perhaps the most vital internal questions of the United States.



Certain of the forest reserves should also be made preserves for the

wild forest creatures. All of the reserves should be better protected

from fires. Many of them need special protection because of the great

injury done by live stock, above all by sheep. The increase in deer,

elk, and other animals in the Yellowstone Park shows what may be

expected when other mountain forests are properly protected by law and

properly guarded. Some of these areas have been so denuded of surface

vegetation by overgrazing that the ground breeding birds, including

grouse and quail, and many mammals, including deer, have been

exterminated or driven away. At the same time the water-storing

capacity of the surface has been decreased or destroyed, thus promoting

floods in times of rain and diminishing the flow of streams between

rains.



In cases where natural conditions have been restored for a few years,

vegetation has again carpeted the ground, birds and deer are coming

back, and hundreds of persons, especially from the immediate

neighborhood, come each summer to enjoy the privilege of camping. Some

at least of the forest reserves should afford perpetual protection to

the native fauna and flora, safe havens of refuge to our rapidly

diminishing wild animals of the larger kinds, and free camping grounds

for the ever-increasing numbers of men and women who have learned to

find rest, health, and recreation in the splendid forests and

flower-clad meadows of our mountains. The forest reserves should be set

apart forever for the use and benefit of our people as a whole and not

sacrificed to the shortsighted greed of a few.



The forests are natural reservoirs. By restraining the streams in flood

and replenishing them in drought they make possible the use of waters

otherwise wasted. They prevent the soil from washing, and so protect

the storage reservoirs from filling up with silt. Forest conservation

is therefore an essential condition of water conservation.



The forests alone cannot, however, fully regulate and conserve the

waters of the arid region. Great storage works are necessary to

equalize the flow of streams and to save the flood waters. Their

construction has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast

for private effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual

States acting alone. Far-reaching interstate problems are involved; and

the resources of single States would often be inadequate. It is

properly a national function, at least in some of its features. It is

as right for the National Government to make the streams and rivers of

the arid region useful by engineering works for water storage as to

make useful the rivers and harbors of the humid region by engineering

works of another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the

headwaters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy of

river control, under which levees are built on the lower reaches of the

same streams.



The Government should construct and maintain these reservoirs as it

does other public works. Where their purpose is to regulate the flow of

streams, the water should be turned freely into the channels in the dry

season to take the same course under the same laws as the natural flow.



The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents a different

problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the flow of streams. The

object of the Government is to dispose of the land to settlers who will

build homes upon it. To accomplish this object water must be brought

within their reach.



The pioneer settlers on the arid public domain chose their homes along

streams from which they could themselves divert the water to reclaim

their holdings. Such opportunities are practically gone. There remain,

however, vast areas of public land which can be made available for

homestead settlement, but only by reservoirs and main-line canals

impracticable for private enterprise. These irrigation works should be

built by the National Government. The lands reclaimed by them should be

reserved by the Government for actual settlers, and the cost of

construction should so far as possible be repaid by the land reclaimed.

The distribution of the water, the division of the streams among

irrigators, should be left to the settlers themselves in conformity

with State laws and without interference with those laws or with vested

fights. The policy of the National Government should be to aid

irrigation in the several States and Territories in such manner as will

enable the people in the local communities to help themselves, and as

will stimulate needed reforms in the State laws and regulations

governing irrigation.



The reclamation and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every

portion of our country, just as the settlement of the Ohio and

Mississippi valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic States. The

increased demand for manufactured articles will stimulate industrial

production, while wider home markets and the trade of Asia will consume

the larger food supplies and effectually prevent Western competition

with Eastern agriculture. Indeed, the products of irrigation will be

consumed chiefly in upbuilding local centers of mining and other

industries, which would otherwise not come into existence at all. Our

people as a whole will profit, for successful home-making is but

another name for the upbuilding of the nation.



The necessary foundation has already been laid for the inauguration of

the policy just described. It would be unwise to begin by doing too

much, for a great deal will doubtless be learned, both as to what can

and what cannot be safely attempted, by the early efforts, which must

of necessity be partly experimental in character. At the very beginning

the Government should make clear, beyond shadow of doubt, its intention

to pursue this policy on lines of the broadest public interest. No

reservoir or canal should ever be built to satisfy selfish personal or

local interests; but only in accordance with the advice of trained

experts, after long investigation has shown the locality where all the

conditions combine to make the work most needed and fraught with the

greatest usefulness to the community as a whole. There should be no

extravagance, and the believers in the need of irrigation will most

benefit their cause by seeing to it that it is free from the least

taint of excessive or reckless expenditure of the public moneys.



Whatever the nation does for the extension of irrigation should

harmonize with, and tend to improve, the condition of those now living

on irrigated land. We are not at the starting point of this

development. Over two hundred millions of private capital has already

been expended in the construction of irrigation works, and many million

acres of arid land reclaimed. A high degree of enterprise and ability

has been shown in the work itself; but as much cannot be said in

reference to the laws relating thereto. The security and value of the

homes created depend largely on the stability of titles to water; but

the majority of these rest on the uncertain foundation of court

decisions rendered in ordinary suits at law. With a few creditable

exceptions, the arid States have failed to provide for the certain and

just division of streams in times of scarcity. Lax and uncertain laws

have made it possible to establish rights to water in excess of actual

uses or necessities, and many streams have already passed into private

ownership, or a control equivalent to ownership.



Whoever controls a stream practically controls the land it renders

productive, and the doctrine of private ownership of water apart from

land cannot prevail without causing enduring wrong. The recognition of

such ownership, which has been permitted to grow up in the arid

regions, should give way to a more enlightened and larger recognition

of the rights of the public in the control and disposal of the public

water supplies. Laws founded upon conditions obtaining in humid

regions, where water is too abundant to justify hoarding it, have no

proper application in a dry country.



In the arid States the only right to water which should be recognized

is that of use. In irrigation this right should attach to the land

reclaimed and be inseparable therefrom. Granting perpetual water rights

to others than users, without compensation to the public, is open to

all the objections which apply to giving away perpetual franchises to

the public utilities of cities. A few of the Western States have

already recognized this, and have incorporated in their constitutions

the doctrine of perpetual State ownership of water.



The benefits which have followed the unaided development of the past

justify the nation's aid and co-operation in the more difficult and

important work yet to be accomplished. Laws so vitally affecting homes

as those which control the water supply will only be effective when

they have the sanction of the irrigators; reforms can only be final and

satisfactory when they come through the enlightenment of the people

most concerned. The larger development which national aid insures

should, however, awaken in every arid State the determination to make

its irrigation system equal in justice and effectiveness that of any

country in the civilized world. Nothing could be more unwise than for

isolated communities to continue to learn everything experimentally,

instead of profiting by what is already known elsewhere. We are dealing

with a new and momentous question, in the pregnant years while

institutions are forming, and what we do will affect not only the

present but future generations.



Our aim should be not simply to reclaim the largest area of land and

provide homes for the largest number of people, but to create for this

new industry the best possible social and industrial conditions; and

this requires that we not only understand the existing situation, but

avail ourselves of the best experience of the time in the solution of

its problems. A careful study should be made, both by the Nation and

the States, of the irrigation laws and conditions here and abroad.

Ultimately it will probably be necessary for the Nation to co-operate

with the several arid States in proportion as these States by their

legislation and administration show themselves fit to receive it.



In Hawaii our aim must be to develop the Territory on the traditional

American lines. We do not wish a region of large estates tilled by

cheap labor; we wish a healthy American community of men who themselves

till the farms they own. All our legislation for the islands should be

shaped with this end in view; the well-being of the average home-maker

must afford the true test of the healthy development of the islands.

The land policy should as nearly as possible be modeled on our

homestead system.



It is a pleasure to say that it is hardly more necessary to report as

to Puerto Rico than as to any State or Territory within our continental

limits. The island is thriving as never before, and it is being

administered efficiently and honestly. Its people are now enjoying

liberty and order under the protection of the United States, and upon

this fact we congratulate them and ourselves. Their material welfare

must be as carefully and jealously considered as the welfare of any

other portion of our country. We have given them the great gift of free

access for their products to the markets of the United States. I ask

the attention of the Congress to the need of legislation concerning the

public lands of Puerto Rico.



In Cuba such progress has been made toward putting the independent

government of the island upon a firm footing that before the present

session of the Congress closes this will be an accomplished fact. Cuba

will then start as her own mistress; and to the beautiful Queen of the

Antilles, as she unfolds this new page of her destiny, we extend our

heartiest greetings and good wishes. Elsewhere I have discussed the

question of reciprocity. In the case of Cuba, however, there are

weighty reasons of morality and of national interest why the policy

should be held to have a peculiar application, and I most earnestly ask

your attention to the wisdom, indeed to the vital need, of providing

for a substantial reduction in the tariff duties on Cuban imports into

the United States. Cuba has in her constitution affirmed what we

desired: that she should stand, in international matters, in closer and

more friendly relations with us than with any other power; and we are

bound by every consideration of honor and expediency to pass commercial

measures in the interest of her material well-being.



In the Philippines our problem is larger. They are very rich tropical

islands, inhabited by many varying tribes, representing widely

different stages of progress toward civilization. Our earnest effort is

to help these people upward along the stony and difficult path that

leads to self-government. We hope to make our administration of the

islands honorable to our Nation by making it of the highest benefit to

the Filipinos themselves; and as an earnest of what we intend to do, we

point to what we have done. Already a greater measure of material

prosperity and of governmental honesty and efficiency has been attained

in the Philippines than ever before in their history.



It is no light task for a nation to achieve the temperamental qualities

without which the institutions of free government are but an empty

mockery. Our people are now successfully governing themselves, because

for more than a thousand years they have been slowly fitting

themselves, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, toward this

end. What has taken us thirty generations to achieve, we cannot expect

to have another race accomplish out of hand, especially when large

portions of that race start very far behind the point which our

ancestors had reached even thirty generations ago. In dealing with the

Philippine people we must show both patience and strength, forbearance

and steadfast resolution. Our aim is high. We do not desire to do for

the islanders merely what has elsewhere been done for tropic peoples by

even the best foreign governments. We hope to do for them what has

never before been done for any people of the tropics--to make them fit

for self-government after the fashion of the really free nations.



History may safely be challenged to show a single instance in which a

masterful race such as ours, having been forced by the exigencies of

war to take possession of an alien land, has behaved to its inhabitants

with the disinterested zeal for their progress that our people have

shown in the Philippines. To leave the islands at this time would mean

that they would fall into a welter of murderous anarchy. Such desertion

of duty on our part would be a crime against humanity. The character of

Governor Taft and of his associates and subordinates is a proof, if

such be needed, of the sincerity of our effort to give the islanders a

constantly increasing measure of self-government, exactly as fast as

they show themselves fit to exercise it. Since the civil government was

established not an appointment has been made in the islands with any

reference to considerations of political influence, or to aught else

Save the fitness of the man and the needs of the service.



In our anxiety for the welfare and progress of the Philippines, may be

that here and there we have gone too rapidly in giving them local

self-government. It is on this side that our error, if any, has been

committed. No competent observer, sincerely desirous of finding out the

facts and influenced only by a desire for the welfare of the natives,

can assert that we have not gone far enough. We have gone to the very

verge of safety in hastening the process. To have taken a single step

farther or faster in advance would have been folly and weakness, and

might well have been crime. We are extremely anxious that the natives

shall show the power of governing themselves. We are anxious, first for

their sakes, and next, because it relieves us of a great burden. There

need not be the slightest fear of our not continuing to give them all

the liberty for which they are fit.



The only fear is test in our overanxiety we give them a degree of

independence for which they are unfit, thereby inviting reaction and

disaster. As fast as there is any reasonable hope that in a given

district the people can govern themselves, self-government has been

given in that district. There is not a locality fitted for

self-government which has not received it. But it may well be that in

certain cases it will have to be withdrawn because the inhabitants show

themselves unfit to exercise it; such instances have already occurred.

In other words, there is not the slightest chance of our failing to

show a sufficiently humanitarian spirit. The danger comes in the

opposite direction.



There are still troubles ahead in the islands. The insurrection has

become an affair of local banditti and marauders, who deserve no higher

regard than the brigands of portions of the Old World. Encouragement,

direct or indirect, to these insurrectors stands on the same footing as

encouragement to hostile Indians in the days when we still had Indian

wars. Exactly as our aim is to give to the Indian who remains peaceful

the fullest and amplest consideration, but to have it understood that

we will show no weakness if he goes on the warpath, so we must make it

evident, unless we are false to our own traditions and to the demands

of civilization and humanity, that while we will do everything in our

power for the Filipino who is peaceful, we will take the sternest

measures with the Filipino who follows the path of the insurrecto and

the ladrone.



The heartiest praise is due to large numbers of the natives of the

islands for their steadfast loyalty. The Macabebes have been

conspicuous for their courage and devotion to the flag. I recommend

that the Secretary of War be empowered to take some systematic action

in the way of aiding those of these men who are crippled in the service

and the families of those who are killed.



The time has come when there should be additional legislation for the

Philippines. Nothing better can be done for the islands than to

introduce industrial enterprises. Nothing would benefit them so much as

throwing them open to industrial development. The connection between

idleness and mischief is proverbial, and the opportunity to do

remunerative work is one of the surest preventatives of war. Of course

no business man will go into the Philippines unless it is to his

interest to do so; and it is immensely to the interest of the islands

that he should go in. It is therefore necessary that the Congress

should pass laws by which the resources of the islands can be

developed; so that franchises (for limited terms of years) can be

granted to companies doing business in them, and every encouragement be

given to the incoming of business men of every kind.



Not to permit this is to do a wrong to the Philippines. The franchises

must be granted and the business permitted only under regulations which

will guarantee the islands against any kind of improper exploitation.

But the vast natural wealth of the islands must be developed, and the

capital willing to develop it must be given the opportunity. The field

must be thrown open to individual enterprise, which has been the real

factor in the development of every region over which our flag has

flown. It is urgently necessary to enact suitable laws dealing with

general transportation, mining, banking, currency, homesteads, and the

use and ownership of the lands and timber. These laws will give free

play to industrial enterprise; and the commercial development which

will surely follow will accord to the people of the islands the best

proofs of the sincerity of our desire to aid them.



I call your attention most earnestly to the crying need of a cable to

Hawaii and the Philippines, to be continued from the Philippines to

points in Asia. We should not defer a day longer than necessary the

construction of such a cable. It is demanded not merely for commercial

but for political and military considerations.



Either the Congress should immediately provide for the construction of

a Government cable, or else an arrangement should be made by which like

advantages to those accruing from a Government cable may be secured to

the Government by contract with a private cable company.



No single great material work which remains to be undertaken on this

continent is of such consequence to the American people as the building

of a canal across the Isthmus connecting North and South America. Its

importance to the Nation is by no means limited merely to its material

effects upon our business prosperity; and yet with view to these

effects alone it would be to the last degree important for us

immediately to begin it. While its beneficial effects would perhaps be

most marked upon the Pacific Coast and the Gulf and South Atlantic

States, it would also greatly benefit other sections. It is

emphatically a work which it is for the interest of the entire country

to begin and complete as soon as possible; it is one of those great

works which only a great nation can undertake with prospects of

success, and which when done are not only permanent assets in the

nation's material interests, but standing monuments to its constructive

ability.



I am glad to be able to announce to you that our negotiations on this

subject with Great Britain, conducted on both sides in a spirit of

friendliness and mutual good will and respect, have resulted in my

being able to lay before the Senate a treaty which if ratified will

enable us to begin preparations for an Isthmian canal at any time, and

which guarantees to this Nation every right that it has ever asked in

connection with the canal. In this treaty, the old Clayton-Bulwer

treaty, so long recognized as inadequate to supply the base for the

construction and maintenance of a necessarily American ship canal, is

abrogated. It specifically provides that the United States alone shall

do the work of building and assume the responsibility of safeguarding

the canal and shall regulate its neutral use by all nations on terms of

equality without the guaranty or interference of any outside nation

from any quarter. The signed treaty will at once be laid before the

Senate, and if approved the Congress can then proceed to give effect to

the advantages it secures us by providing for the building of the

canal.



The true end of every great and free people should be self-respecting

peace; and this Nation most earnestly desires sincere and cordial

friendship with all others. Over the entire world, of recent years,

wars between the great civilized powers have become less and less

frequent. Wars with barbarous or semi-barbarous peoples come in an

entirely different category, being merely a most regrettable but

necessary international police duty which must be performed for the

sake of the welfare of mankind. Peace can only be kept with certainty

where both sides wish to keep it; but more and more the civilized

peoples are realizing the wicked folly of war and are attaining that

condition of just and intelligent regard for the rights of others which

will in the end, as we hope and believe, make world-wide peace

possible. The peace conference at The Hague gave definite expression to

this hope and belief and marked a stride toward their attainment.



This same peace conference acquiesced in our statement of the Monroe

Doctrine as compatible with the purposes and aims of the conference.



The Monroe Doctrine should be the cardinal feature of the foreign

policy of all the nations of the two Americas, as it is of the United

States. Just seventy-eight years have passed since President Monroe in

his Annual Message announced that "The American continents are

henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by

any European power." In other words, the Monroe Doctrine is a

declaration that there must be no territorial aggrandizement by any

non-American power at the expense of any American power on American

soil. It is in no wise intended as hostile to any nation in the Old

World. Still less is it intended to give cover to any aggression by one

New World power at the expense of any other. It is simply a step, and a

long step, toward assuring the universal peace of the world by securing

the possibility of permanent peace on this hemisphere.



During the past century other influences have established the

permanence and independence of the smaller states of Europe. Through

the Monroe Doctrine we hope to be able to safeguard like independence

and secure like permanence for the lesser among the New World nations.



This doctrine has nothing to do with the commercial relations of any

American power, save that it in truth allows each of them to form such

as it desires. In other words, it is really a guaranty of the

commercial independence of the Americas. We do not ask under this

doctrine for any exclusive commercial dealings with any other American

state. We do not guarantee any state against punishment if it

misconducts itself, provided that punishment does not take the form of

the acquisition of territory by any non-American power.



Our attitude in Cuba is a sufficient guaranty of our own good faith. We

have not the slightest desire to secure any territory at the expense of

any of our neighbors. We wish to work with them hand in hand, so that

all of us may be uplifted together, and we rejoice over the good

fortune of any of them, we gladly hail their material prosperity and

political stability, and are concerned and alarmed if any of them fall

into industrial or political chaos. We do not wish to see any Old World

military power grow up on this continent, or to be compelled to become

a military power ourselves. The peoples of the Americas can prosper

best if left to work out their own salvation in their own way.



The work of upbuilding the Navy must be steadily continued. No one

point of our policy, foreign or domestic, is more important than this

to the honor and material welfare, and above all to the peace, of our

nation in the future. Whether we desire it or not, we must henceforth

recognize that we have international duties no less than international

rights. Even if our flag were hauled down in the Philippines and Puerto

Rico, even if we decided not to build the Isthmian Canal, we should

need a thoroughly trained Navy of adequate size, or else be prepared

definitely and for all time to abandon the idea that our nation is

among those whose sons go down to the sea in ships. Unless our commerce

is always to be carried in foreign bottoms, we must have war craft to

protect it.



Inasmuch, however, as the American people have no thought of abandoning

the path upon which they have entered, and especially in view of the

fact that the building of the Isthmian Canal is fast becoming one of

the matters which the whole people are united in demanding, it is

imperative that our Navy should be put and kept in the highest state of

efficiency, and should be made to answer to our growing needs. So far

from being in any way a provocation to war, an adequate and highly

trained navy is the best guaranty against war, the cheapest and most

effective peace insurance. The cost of building and maintaining such a

navy represents the very lightest premium for insuring peace which this

nation can possibly pay.



Probably no other great nation in the world is so anxious for peace as

we are. There is not a single civilized power which has anything

whatever to fear from aggressiveness on our part. All we want is peace;

and toward this end we wish to be able to secure the same respect for

our rights from others which we are eager and anxious to extend to

their rights in return, to insure fair treatment to us commercially,

and to guarantee the safety of the American people.



Our people intend to abide by the Monroe Doctrine and to insist upon it

as the one sure means of securing the peace of the Western Hemisphere.

The Navy offers us the only means of making our insistence upon the

Monroe Doctrine anything but a subject of derision to whatever nation

chooses to disregard it. We desire the peace which comes as of right to

the just man armed; not the peace granted on terms of ignominy to the

craven and the weakling.



It is not possible to improvise a navy after war breaks out. The ships

must be built and the men trained long in advance. Some auxiliary

vessels can be turned into makeshifts which will do in default of any

better for the minor work, and a proportion of raw men can be mixed

with the highly trained, their shortcomings being made good by the

skill of their fellows; but the efficient fighting force of the Navy

when pitted against an equal opponent will be found almost exclusively

in the war ships that have been regularly built and in the officers and

men who through years of faithful performance of sea duty have been

trained to handle their formidable but complex and delicate weapons

with the highest efficiency. In the late war with Spain the ships that

dealt the decisive blows at Manila and Santiago had been launched from

two to fourteen years, and they were able to do as they did because the

men in the conning towers, the gun turrets, and the engine-rooms had

through long years of practice at sea learned how to do their duty.



Our present Navy was begun in 1882. At that period our Navy consisted

of a collection of antiquated wooden ships, already almost as out of

place against modern war vessels as the galleys of Alcibiades and

Hamilcar--certainly as the ships of Tromp and Blake. Nor at that time

did we have men fit to handle a modern man-of-war. Under the wise

legislation of the Congress and the successful administration of a

succession of patriotic Secretaries of the Navy, belonging to both

political parties, the work of upbuilding the Navy went on, and ships

equal to any in the world of their kind were continually added; and

what was even more important, these ships were exercised at sea singly

and in squadrons until the men aboard them were able to get the best

possible service out of them. The result was seen in the short war with

Spain, which was decided with such rapidity because of the infinitely

greater preparedness of our Navy than of the Spanish Navy.



While awarding the fullest honor to the men who actually commanded and

manned the ships which destroyed the Spanish sea forces in the

Philippines and in Cuba, we must not forget that an equal meed of

praise belongs to those without whom neither blow could have been

struck. The Congressmen who voted years in advance the money to lay

down the ships, to build the guns, to buy the armor-plate; the

Department officials and the business men and wage-workers who

furnished what the Congress had authorized; the Secretaries of the Navy

who asked for and expended the appropriations; and finally the officers

who, in fair weather and foul, on actual sea service, trained and

disciplined the crews of the ships when there was no war in sight--all

are entitled to a full share in the glory of Manila and Santiago, and

the respect accorded by every true American to those who wrought such

signal triumph for our country. It was forethought and preparation

which secured us the overwhelming triumph of 1898. If we fail to show

forethought and preparation now, there may come a time when disaster

will befall us instead of triumph; and should this time come, the fault

will rest primarily, not upon those whom the accident of events puts in

supreme command at the moment, but upon those who have failed to

prepare in advance.



There should be no cessation in the work of completing our Navy. So far

ingenuity has been wholly unable to devise a substitute for the great

war craft whose hammering guns beat out the mastery of the high seas.

It is unsafe and unwise not to provide this year for several additional

Battle ships and heavy armored cruisers, with auxiliary and lighter

craft in proportion; for the exact numbers and character I refer you to

the report of the Secretary of the Navy. But there is something we need

even more than additional ships, and this is additional officers and

men. To provide battle ships and cruisers and then lay them up, with

the expectation of leaving them unmanned until they are needed in

actual war, would be worse than folly; it would be a crime against the

Nation.



To send any war ship against a competent enemy unless those aboard it

have been trained by years of actual sea service, including incessant

gunnery practice, would be to invite not merely disaster, but the

bitterest shame and humiliation. Four thousand additional seamen and

one thousand additional marines should be provided; and an increase in

the officers should be provided by making a large addition to the

classes at Annapolis. There is one small matter which should be

mentioned in connection with Annapolis. The pretentious and unmeaning

title of "naval cadet" should be abolished; the title of "midshipman,"

full of historic association, should be restored.



Even in time of peace a war ship should be used until it wears out, for

only so can it be kept fit to respond to any emergency. The officers

and men alike should be kept as much as possible on blue water, for it

is there only they can learn their duties as they should be learned.

The big vessels should be manoeuvred in squadrons containing not merely

battle ships, but the necessary proportion of cruisers and scouts. The

torpedo boats should be handled by the younger officers in such manner

as will best fit the latter to take responsibility and meet the

emergencies of actual warfare.



Every detail ashore which can be performed by a civilian should be so

performed, the officer being kept for his special duty in the sea

service. Above all, gunnery practice should be unceasing. It is

important to have our Navy of adequate size, but it is even more

important that ship for ship it should equal in efficiency any navy in

the world. This is possible only with highly drilled crews and

officers, and this in turn imperatively demands continuous and

progressive instruction in target practice, ship handling, squadron

tactics, and general discipline. Our ships must be assembled in

squadrons actively cruising away from harbors and never long at anchor.

The resulting wear upon engines and hulls must be endured; a battle

ship worn out in long training of officers and men is well paid for by

the results, while, on the other hand, no matter in how excellent

condition, it is useless if the crew be not expert.



We now have seventeen battle ships appropriated for, of which nine are

completed and have been commissioned for actual service. The remaining

eight will be ready in from two to four years, but it will take at

least that time to recruit and train the men to fight them. It is of

vast concern that we have trained crews ready for the vessels by the

time they are commissioned. Good ships and good guns are simply good

weapons, and the best weapons are useless save in the hands of men who

know how to fight with them. The men must be trained and drilled under

a thorough and well-planned system of progressive instruction, while

the recruiting must be carried on with still greater vigor. Every

effort must be made to exalt the main function of the officer--the

command of men. The leading graduates of the Naval Academy should be

assigned to the combatant branches, the line and marines.



Many of the essentials of success are already recognized by the General

Board, which, as the central office of a growing staff, is moving

steadily toward a proper war efficiency and a proper efficiency of the

whole Navy, under the Secretary. This General Board, by fostering the

creation of a general staff, is providing for the official and then the

general recognition of our altered conditions as a Nation and of the

true meaning of a great war fleet, which meaning is, first, the best

men, and, second, the best ships.



Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 9,

p.6667



The Naval Militia forces are State organizations, and are trained for

coast service, and in event of war they will constitute the inner line

of defense. They should receive hearty encouragement from the General

Government.



But in addition we should at once provide for a National Naval Reserve,

organized and trained under the direction of the Navy Department, and

subject to the call of the Chief Executive whenever war becomes

imminent. It should be a real auxiliary to the naval seagoing peace

establishment, and offer material to be drawn on at once for manning

our ships in time of war. It should be composed of graduates of the

Naval Academy, graduates of the Naval Militia, officers and crews of

coast-line steamers, longshore schooners, fishing vessels, and steam

yachts, together with the coast population about such centers as

lifesaving stations and light-houses.



The American people must either build and maintain an adequate navy or

else make up their minds definitely to accept a secondary position in

international affairs, not merely in political, but in commercial,

matters. It has been well said that there is no surer way of courting

national disaster than to be "opulent, aggressive, and unarmed."



It is not necessary to increase our Army beyond its present size at

this time. But it is necessary to keep it at the highest point of

efficiency. The individual units who as officers and enlisted men

compose this Army, are, we have good reason to believe, at least as

efficient as those of any other army in the entire world. It is our

duty to see that their training is of a kind to insure the highest

possible expression of power to these units when acting in combination.



The conditions of modern war are such as to make an infinitely heavier

demand than ever before upon the individual character and capacity of

the officer and the enlisted man, and to make it far more difficult for

men to act together with effect. At present the fighting must be done

in extended order, which means that each man must act for himself and

at the same time act in combination with others with whom he is no

longer in the old-fashioned elbow-to-elbow touch. Under such conditions

a few men of the highest excellence are worth more than many men

without the special skill which is only found as the result of special

training applied to men of exceptional physique and morale. But

nowadays the most valuable fighting man and the most difficult to

perfect is the rifleman who is also a skillful and daring rider.



The proportion of our cavalry regiments has wisely been increased. The

American cavalryman, trained to manoeuvre and fight with equal facility

on foot and on horseback, is the best type of soldier for general

purposes now to be found in the world. The ideal cavalryman of the

present day is a man who can fight on foot as effectively as the best

infantryman, and who is in addition unsurpassed in the care and

management of his horse and in his ability to fight on horseback.



A general staff should be created. As for the present staff and supply

departments, they should be filled by details from the line, the men so

detailed returning after a while to their line duties. It is very

undesirable to have the senior grades of the Army composed of men who

have come to fill the positions by the mere fact of seniority. A system

should be adopted by which there shall be an elimination grade by grade

of those who seem unfit to render the best service in the next grade.

Justice to the veterans of the Civil War who are still in the Army

would seem to require that in the matter of retirements they be given

by law the same privileges accorded to their comrades in the Navy.



The process of elimination of the least fit should be conducted in a

manner that would render it practically impossible to apply political

or social pressure on behalf of any candidate, so that each man may be

judged purely on his own merits. Pressure for the promotion of civil

officials for political reasons is bad enough, but it is tenfold worse

where applied on behalf of officers of the Army or Navy. Every

promotion and every detail under the War Department must be made solely

with regard to the good of the service and to the capacity and merit of

the man himself. No pressure, political, social, or personal, of any

kind, will be permitted to exercise the least effect in any question of

promotion or detail; and if there is reason to believe that such

pressure is exercised at the instigation of the officer concerned, it

will be held to militate against him. In our Army we cannot afford to

have rewards or duties distributed save on the simple ground that those

who by their own merits are entitled to the rewards get them, and that

those who are peculiarly fit to do the duties are chosen to perform

them.



Every effort should be made to bring the Army to a constantly

increasing state of efficiency. When on actual service no work save

that directly in the line of such service should be required. The paper

work in the Army, as in the Navy, should be greatly reduced. What is

needed is proved power of command and capacity to work well in the

field. Constant care is necessary to prevent dry rot in the

transportation and commissary departments.



Our Army is so small and so much scattered that it is very difficult to

give the higher officers (as well as the lower officers and the

enlisted men) a chance to practice manoeuvres in mass and on a

comparatively large scale. In time of need no amount of individual

excellence would avail against the paralysis which would follow

inability to work as a coherent whole, under skillful and daring

leadership. The Congress should provide means whereby it will be

possible to have field exercises by at least a division of regulars,

and if possible also a division of national guardsmen, once a year.

These exercises might take the form of field manoeuvres; or, if on the

Gulf Coast or the Pacific or Atlantic Seaboard, or in the region of the

Great Lakes, the army corps when assembled could be marched from some

inland point to some point on the water, there embarked, disembarked

after a couple of days' journey at some other point, and again marched

inland. Only by actual handling and providing for men in masses while

they are marching, camping, embarking, and disembarking, will it be

possible to train the higher officers to perform their duties well and

smoothly.



A great debt is owing from the public to the men of the Army and Navy.

They should be so treated as to enable them to reach the highest point

of efficiency, so that they may be able to respond instantly to any

demand made upon them to sustain the interests of the Nation and the

honor of the flag. The individual American enlisted man is probably on

the whole a more formidable fighting man than the regular of any other

army. Every consideration should be shown him, and in return the

highest standard of usefulness should be exacted from him. It is well

worth while for the Congress to consider whether the pay of enlisted

men upon second and subsequent enlistments should not be increased to

correspond with the increased value of the veteran soldier.



Much good has already come from the act reorganizing the Army, passed

early in the present year. The three prime reforms, all of them of

literally inestimable value, are, first, the substitution of four-year

details from the line for permanent appointments in the so-called staff

divisions; second, the establishment of a corps of artillery with a

chief at the head; third, the establishment of a maximum and minimum

limit for the Army. It would be difficult to overestimate the

improvement in the efficiency of our Army which these three reforms are

making, and have in part already effected.



The reorganization provided for by the act has been substantially

accomplished. The improved conditions in the Philippines have enabled

the War Department materially to reduce the military charge upon our

revenue and to arrange the number of soldiers so as to bring this

number much nearer to the minimum than to the maximum limit established

by law. There is, however, need of supplementary legislation. Thorough

military education must be provided, and in addition to the regulars

the advantages of this education should be given to the officers of the

National Guard and others in civil life who desire intelligently to fit

themselves for possible military duty. The officers should be given the

chance to perfect themselves by study in the higher branches of this

art. At West Point the education should be of the kind most apt to turn

out men who are good in actual field service; too much stress should

not be laid on mathematics, nor should proficiency therein be held to

establish the right of entry to a corps d'elite. The typical American

officer of the best kind need not be a good mathematician; but he must

be able to master himself, to control others, and to show boldness and

fertility of resource in every emergency.



Action should be taken in reference to the militia and to the raising

of volunteer forces. Our militia law is obsolete and worthless. The

organization and armament of the National Guard of the several States,

which are treated as militia in the appropriations by the Congress,

should be made identical with those provided for the regular forces.

The obligations and duties of the Guard in time of war should be

carefully defined, and a system established by law under which the

method of procedure of raising volunteer forces should be prescribed in

advance. It is utterly impossible in the excitement and haste of

impending war to do this satisfactorily if the arrangements have not

been made long beforehand. Provision should be made for utilizing in

the first volunteer organizations called out the training of those

citizens who have already had experience under arms, and especially for

the selection in advance of the officers of any force which may be

raised; for careful selection of the kind necessary is impossible after

the outbreak of war.



That the Army is not at all a mere instrument of destruction has been

shown during the last three years. In the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto

Rico it has proved itself a great constructive force, a most potent

implement for the upbuilding of a peaceful civilization.



No other citizens deserve so well of the Republic as the veterans, the

survivors of those who saved the Union. They did the one deed which if

left undone would have meant that all else in our history went for

nothing. But for their steadfast prowess in the greatest crisis of our

history, all our annals would be meaningless, and our great experiment

in popular freedom and self-government a gloomy failure. Moreover, they

not only left us a united Nation, but they left us also as a heritage

the memory of the mighty deeds by which the Nation was kept united. We

are now indeed one Nation, one in fact as well as in name; we are

united in our devotion to the flag which is the symbol of national

greatness and unity; and the very completeness of our union enables us

all, in every part of the country, to glory in the valor shown alike by

the sons of the North and the sons of the South in the times that tried

men's souls.



The men who in the last three years have done so well in the East and

the West Indies and on the mainland of Asia have shown that this

remembrance is not lost. In any serious crisis the United States must

rely for the great mass of its fighting men upon the volunteer soldiery

who do not make a permanent profession of the military career; and

whenever such a crisis arises the deathless memories of the Civil War

will give to Americans the lift of lofty purpose which comes to those

whose fathers have stood valiantly in the forefront of the battle.



The merit system of making appointments is in its essence as democratic

and American as the common school system itself. It simply means that

in clerical and other positions where the duties are entirely

non-political, all applicants should have a fair field and no favor,

each standing on his merits as he is able to show them by practical

test. Written competitive examinations offer the only available means

in many cases for applying this system. In other cases, as where

laborers are employed, a system of registration undoubtedly can be

widely extended. There are, of course, places where the written

competitive examination cannot be applied, and others where it offers

by no means an ideal solution, but where under existing political

conditions it is, though an imperfect means, yet the best present means

of getting satisfactory results.



Wherever the conditions have permitted the application of the merit

system in its fullest and widest sense, the gain to the Government has

been immense. The navy-yards and postal service illustrate, probably

better than any other branches of the Government, the great gain in

economy, efficiency, and honesty due to the enforcement of this

principle.



I recommend the passage of a law which will extend the classified

service to the District of Columbia, or will at least enable the

President thus to extend it. In my judgment all laws providing for the

temporary employment of clerks should hereafter contain a provision

that they be selected under the Civil Service Law.



It is important to have this system obtain at home, but it is even more

important to have it applied rigidly in our insular possessions. Not an

office should be filled in the Philippines or Puerto Rico with any

regard to the man's partisan affiliations or services, with any regard

to the political, social, or personal influence which he may have at

his command; in short, heed should be paid to absolutely nothing save

the man's own character and capacity and the needs of the service.



The administration of these islands should be as wholly free from the

suspicion of partisan politics as the administration of the Army and

Navy. All that we ask from the public servant in the Philippines or

Puerto Rico is that he reflect honor on his country by the way in which

he makes that country's rule a benefit to the peoples who have come

under it. This is all that we should ask, and we cannot afford to be

content with less.



The merit system is simply one method of securing honest and efficient

administration of the Government; and in the long run the sole

justification of any type of government lies in its proving itself both

honest and efficient.



The consular service is now organized under the provisions of a law

passed in 1856, which is entirely inadequate to existing conditions.

The interest shown by so many commercial bodies throughout the country

in the reorganization of the service is heartily commended to your

attention. Several bills providing for a new consular service have in

recent years been submitted to the Congress. They are based upon the

just principle that appointments to the service should be made only

after a practical test of the applicant's fitness, that promotions

should be governed by trustworthiness, adaptability, and zeal in the

performance of duty, and that the tenure of office should be unaffected

by partisan considerations.



The guardianship and fostering of our rapidly expanding foreign

commerce, the protection of American citizens resorting to foreign

countries in lawful pursuit of their affairs, and the maintenance of

the dignity of the nation abroad, combine to make it essential that our

consuls should be men of character, knowledge and enterprise. It is

true that the service is now, in the main, efficient, but a standard of

excellence cannot be permanently maintained until the principles set

forth in the bills heretofore submitted to the Congress on this subject

are enacted into law.



In my judgment the time has arrived when we should definitely make up

our minds to recognize the Indian as an individual and not as a member

of a tribe. The General Allotment Act is a mighty pulverizing engine to

break up the tribal mass. It acts directly upon the family and the

individual. Under its provisions some sixty thousand Indians have

already become citizens of the United States. We should now break up

the tribal funds, doing for them what allotment does for the tribal

lands; that is, they should be divided into individual holdings. There

will be a transition period during which the funds will in many cases

have to be held in trust. This is the case also with the lands. A stop

should be put upon the indiscriminate permission to Indians to lease

their allotments. The effort should be steadily to make the Indian work

like any other man on his own ground. The marriage laws of the Indians

should be made the same as those of the whites.



In the schools the education should be elementary and largely

industrial. The need of higher education among the Indians is very,

very limited. On the reservations care should be taken to try to suit

the teaching to the needs of the particular Indian. There is no use in

attempting to induce agriculture in a country suited only for cattle

raising, where the Indian should be made a stock grower. The ration

system, which is merely the corral and the reservation system, is

highly detrimental to the Indians. It promotes beggary, perpetuates

pauperism, and stifles industry. It is an effectual barrier to

progress. It must continue to a greater or less degree as long as

tribes are herded on reservations and have everything in common. The

Indian should be treated as an individual--like the white man. During

the change of treatment inevitable hardships will occur; every effort

should be made to minimize these hardships; but we should not because

of them hesitate to make the change. There should be a continuous

reduction in the number of agencies.



In dealing with the aboriginal races few things are more important than

to preserve them from the terrible physical and moral degradation

resulting from the liquor traffic. We are doing all we can to save our

own Indian tribes from this evil. Wherever by international agreement

this same end can be attained as regards races where we do not possess

exclusive control, every effort should be made to bring it about.



I bespeak the most cordial support from the Congress and the people for

the St. Louis Exposition to commemorate the One Hundredth Anniversary

of the Louisiana Purchase. This purchase was the greatest instance of

expansion in our history. It definitely decided that we were to become

a great continental republic, by far the foremost power in the Western

Hemisphere. It is one of three or four great landmarks in our

history--the great turning points in our development. It is eminently

fitting that all our people should join with heartiest good will in

commemorating it, and the citizens of St. Louis, of Missouri, of all

the adjacent region, are entitled to every aid in making the

celebration a noteworthy event in our annals. We earnestly hope that

foreign nations will appreciate the deep interest our country takes in

this Exposition, and our view of its importance from every standpoint,

and that they will participate in securing its success. The National

Government should be represented by a full and complete set of

exhibits.



The people of Charleston, with great energy and civic spirit, are

carrying on an Exposition which will continue throughout most of the

present session of the Congress. I heartily commend this Exposition to

the good will of the people. It deserves all the encouragement that can

be given it. The managers of the Charleston Exposition have requested

the Cabinet officers to place thereat the Government exhibits which

have been at Buffalo, promising to pay the necessary expenses. I have

taken the responsibility of directing that this be done, for I feel

that it is due to Charleston to help her in her praiseworthy effort. In

my opinion the management should not be required to pay all these

expenses. I earnestly recommend that the Congress appropriate at once

the small sum necessary for this purpose.



The Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo has just closed. Both from the

industrial and the artistic standpoint this Exposition has been in a

high degree creditable and useful, not merely to Buffalo but to the

United States. The terrible tragedy of the President's assassination

interfered materially with its being a financial success. The

Exposition was peculiarly in harmony with the trend of our public

policy, because it represented an effort to bring into closer touch all

the peoples of the Western Hemisphere, and give them an increasing

sense of unity. Such an effort was a genuine service to the entire

American public.



The advancement of the highest interests of national science and

learning and the custody of objects of art and of the valuable results

of scientific expeditions conducted by the United States have been

committed to the Smithsonian Institution. In furtherance of its

declared purpose--for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge among

men"--the Congress has from time to time given it other important

functions. Such trusts have been executed by the Institution with

notable fidelity. There should be no halt in the work of the

Institution, in accordance with the plans which its Secretary has

presented, for the preservation of the vanishing races of great North

American animals in the National Zoological Park. The urgent needs of

the National Museum are recommended to the favorable consideration of

the Congress.



Perhaps the most characteristic educational movement of the past fifty

years is that which has created the modern public library and developed

it into broad and active service. There are now over five thousand

public libraries in the United States, the product of this period. In

addition to accumulating material, they are also striving by

organization, by improvement in method, and by co-operation, to give

greater efficiency to the material they hold, to make it more widely

useful, and by avoidance of unnecessary duplication in process to

reduce the cost of its administration.



In these efforts they naturally look for assistance to the Federal

library, which, though still the Library of Congress, and so entitled,

is the one national library of the United States. Already the largest

single collection of books on the Western Hemisphere, and certain to

increase more rapidly than any other through purchase, exchange, and

the operation of the copyright law, this library has a unique

opportunity to render to the libraries of this country--to American

scholarship--service of the highest importance. It is housed in a

building which is the largest and most magnificent yet erected for

library uses. Resources are now being provided which will develop the

collection properly, equip it with the apparatus and service necessary

to its effective use, render its bibliographic work widely available,

and enable it to become, not merely a center of research, but the chief

factor in great co-operative efforts for the diffusion of knowledge and

the advancement of learning.



For the sake of good administration, sound economy, and the advancement

of science, the Census Office as now constituted should be made a

permanent Government bureau. This would insure better, cheaper, and

more satisfactory work, in the interest not only of our business but of

statistic, economic, and social science.



The remarkable growth of the postal service is shown in the fact that

its revenues have doubled and its expenditures have nearly doubled

within twelve years. Its progressive development compels constantly

increasing outlay, but in this period of business energy and prosperity

its receipts grow so much faster than its expenses that the annual

deficit has been steadily reduced from $11,411,779 in 1897 to

$3,923,727 in 1901. Among recent postal advances the success of rural

free delivery wherever established has been so marked, and actual

experience has made its benefits so plain, that the demand for its

extension is general and urgent.



It is just that the great agricultural population should share in the

improvement of the service. The number of rural routes now in operation

is 6,009, practically all established within three years, and there are

6,000 applications awaiting action. It is expected that the number in

operation at the close of the current fiscal year will reach 8,600. The

mail will then be daily carried to the doors of 5,700,000 of our people

who have heretofore been dependent upon distant offices, and one-third

of all that portion of the country which is adapted to it will be

covered by this kind of service.



The full measure of postal progress which might be realized has long

been hampered and obstructed by the heavy burden imposed on the

Government through the intrenched and well-understood abuses which have

grown up in connection with second-class mail matter. The extent of

this burden appears when it is stated that while the second-class

matter makes nearly three-fifths of the weight of all the mail, it paid

for the last fiscal year only $4,294,445 of the aggregate postal

revenue of $111,631,193. If the pound rate of postage, which produces

the large loss thus entailed, and which was fixed by the Congress with

the purpose of encouraging the dissemination of public information,

were limited to the legitimate newspapers and periodicals actually

contemplated by the law, no just exception could be taken. That expense

would be the recognized and accepted cost of a liberal public policy

deliberately adopted for a justifiable end. But much of the matter

which enjoys the privileged rate is wholly outside of the intent of the

law, and has secured admission only through an evasion of its

requirements or through lax construction. The proportion of such

wrongly included matter is estimated by postal experts to be one-half

of the whole volume of second-class mail. If it be only one-third or

one-quarter, the magnitude of the burden is apparent. The Post-Office

Department has now undertaken to remove the abuses so far as is

possible by a stricter application of the law; and it should be

sustained in its effort.



Owing to the rapid growth of our power and our interests on the

Pacific, whatever happens in China must be of the keenest national

concern to us.



The general terms of the settlement of the questions growing out of the

antiforeign uprisings in China of 1900, having been formulated in a

joint note addressed to China by the representatives of the injured

powers in December last, were promptly accepted by the Chinese

Government. After protracted conferences the plenipotentiaries of the

several powers were able to sign a final protocol with the Chinese

plenipotentiaries on the 7th of last September, setting forth the

measures taken by China in compliance with the demands of the joint

note, and expressing their satisfaction therewith. It will be laid

before the Congress, with a report of the plenipotentiary on behalf of

the United States, Mr. William Woodville Rockhill, to whom high praise

is due for the tact, good judgment, and energy he has displayed in

performing an exceptionally difficult and delicate task.



The agreement reached disposes in a manner satisfactory to the powers

of the various grounds of complaint, and will contribute materially to

better future relations between China and the powers. Reparation has

been made by China for the murder of foreigners during the uprising and

punishment has been inflicted on the officials, however high in rank,

recognized as responsible for or having participated in the outbreak.

Official examinations have been forbidden for a period of five years in

all cities in which foreigners have been murdered or cruelly treated,

and edicts have been issued making all officials directly responsible

for the future safety of foreigners and for the suppression of violence

against them.



Provisions have been made for insuring the future safety of the foreign

representatives in Peking by setting aside for their exclusive use a

quarter of the city which the powers can make defensible and in which

they can if necessary maintain permanent military guards; by

dismantling the military works between the capital and the sea; and by

allowing the temporary maintenance of foreign military posts along this

line. An edict has been issued by the Emperor of China prohibiting for

two years the importation of arms and ammunition into China. China has

agreed to pay adequate indemnities to the states, societies, and

individuals for the losses sustained by them and for the expenses of

the military expeditions sent by the various powers to protect life and

restore order.



Under the provisions of the joint note of December, 1900, China has

agreed to revise the treaties of commerce and navigation and to take

such other steps for the purpose of facilitating foreign trade as the

foreign powers may decide to be needed.



The Chinese Government has agreed to participate financially in the

work of bettering the water approaches to Shanghai and to Tientsin, the

centers of foreign trade in central and northern China, and an

international conservancy board, in which the Chinese Government is

largely represented, has been provided for the improvement of the

Shanghai River and the control of its navigation. In the same line of

commercial advantages a revision of the present tariff on imports has

been assented to for the purpose of substituting specific for ad

valorem duties, and an expert has been sent abroad on the part of the

United States to assist in this work. A list of articles to remain free

of duty, including flour, cereals, and rice, gold and silver coin and

bullion, has also been agreed upon in the settlement.



During these troubles our Government has unswervingly advocated

moderation, and has materially aided in bringing about an adjustment

which tends to enhance the welfare of China and to lead to a more

beneficial intercourse between the Empire and the modern world; while

in the critical period of revolt and massacre we did our full share in

safe-guarding life and property, restoring order, and vindicating the

national interest and honor. It behooves us to continue in these paths,

doing what lies in our power to foster feelings of good will, and

leaving no effort untried to work out the great policy of full and fair

intercourse between China and the nations, on a footing of equal rights

and advantages to all. We advocate the "open door" with all that it

implies; not merely the procurement of enlarged commercial

opportunities on the coasts, but access to the interior by the

waterways with which China has been so extraordinarily favored. Only by

bringing the people of China into peaceful and friendly community of

trade with all the peoples of the earth can the work now auspiciously

begun be carried to fruition. In the attainment of this purpose we

necessarily claim parity of treatment, under the conventions,

throughout the Empire for our trade and our citizens with those of all

other powers.



We view with lively interest and keen hopes of beneficial results the

proceedings of the Pan-American Congress, convoked at the invitation of

Mexico, and now sitting at the Mexican capital. The delegates of the

United States are under the most liberal instructions to cooperate with

their colleagues in all matters promising advantage to the great family

of American commonwealths, as well in their relations among themselves

as in their domestic advancement and in their intercourse with the

world at large.



My predecessor communicated to the Congress the fact that the Weil and

La Abra awards against Mexico have been adjudged by the highest courts

of our country to have been obtained through fraud and perjury on the

part of the claimants, and that in accordance with the acts of the

Congress the money remaining in the hands of the Secretary of State on

these awards has been returned to Mexico. A considerable portion of the

money received from Mexico on these awards had been paid by this

Government to the claimants before the decision of the courts was

rendered. My judgment is that the Congress should return to Mexico an

amount equal to the sums thus already paid to the claimants.



The death of Queen Victoria caused the people of the United States deep

and heartfelt sorrow, to which the Government gave full expression.

When President McKinley died, our Nation in turn received from every

quarter of the British Empire expressions of grief and sympathy no less

sincere. The death of the Empress Dowager Frederick of Germany also

aroused the genuine sympathy of the American people; and this sympathy

was cordially reciprocated by Germany when the President was

assassinated. Indeed, from every quarter of the civilized world we

received, at the time of the President's death, assurances of such

grief and regard as to touch the hearts of our people. In the midst of

our affliction we reverently thank the Almighty that we are at peace

with the nations of mankind; and we firmly intend that our policy shall

be such as to continue unbroken these international relations of mutual

respect and good will.



***



State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 2, 1902



To the Senate and House of Representatives:



We still continue in a period of unbounded prosperity. This prosperity

is not the creature of law, but undoubtedly the laws under which we

work have been instrumental in creating the conditions which made it

possible, and by unwise legislation it would be easy enough to destroy

it. There will undoubtedly be periods of depression. The wave will

recede; but the tide will advance. This Nation is seated on a continent

flanked by two great oceans. It is composed of men the descendants of

pioneers, or, in a sense, pioneers themselves; of men winnowed out from

among the nations of the Old World by the energy, boldness, and love of

adventure found in their own eager hearts. Such a Nation, so placed,

will surely wrest success from fortune.



As a people we have played a large part in the world, and we are bent

upon making our future even larger than the past. In particular, the

events of the last four years have definitely decided that, for woe or

for weal, our place must be great among the nations. We may either fall

greatly or succeed greatly; but we can not avoid the endeavor from

which either great failure or great success must come. Even if we

would, we can not play a small part. If we should try, all that would

follow would be that we should play a large part ignobly and

shamefully.



But our people, the sons of the men of the Civil War, the sons of the

men who had iron in their blood, rejoice in the present and face the

future high of heart and resolute of will. Ours is not the creed of the

weakling and the coward; ours is the gospel of hope and of triumphant

endeavor. We do not shrink from the struggle before us. There are many

problems for us to face at the outset of the twentieth century--grave

problems abroad and still graver at home; but we know that we can solve

them and solve them well, provided only that we bring to the solution

the qualities of head and heart which were shown by the men who, in the

days of Washington, rounded this Government, and, in the days of

Lincoln, preserved it.



No country has ever occupied a higher plane of material well-being than

ours at the present moment. This well-being is due to no sudden or

accidental causes, but to the play of the economic forces in this

country for over a century; to our laws, our sustained and continuous

policies; above all, to the high individual average of our citizenship.

Great fortunes have been won by those who have taken the lead in this

phenomenal industrial development, and most of these fortunes have been

won not by doing evil, but as an incident to action which has benefited

the community as a whole. Never before has material well-being been so

widely diffused among our people. Great fortunes have been accumulated,

and yet in the aggregate these fortunes are small Indeed when compared

to the wealth of the people as a whole. The plain people are better off

than they have ever been before. The insurance companies, which are

practically mutual benefit societies--especially helpful to men of

moderate means--represent accumulations of capital which are among the

largest in this country. There are more deposits in the savings banks,

more owners of farms, more well-paid wage-workers in this country now

than ever before in our history. Of course, when the conditions have

favored the growth of so much that was good, they have also favored

somewhat the growth of what was evil. It is eminently necessary that we

should endeavor to cut out this evil, but let us keep a due sense of

proportion; let us not in fixing our gaze upon the lesser evil forget

the greater good. The evils are real and some of them are menacing, but

they are the outgrowth, not of misery or decadence, but of

prosperity--of the progress of our gigantic industrial development.

This industrial development must not be checked, but side by side with

it should go such progressive regulation as will diminish the evils. We

should fail in our duty if we did not try to remedy the evils, but we

shall succeed only if we proceed patiently, with practical common sense

as well as resolution, separating the good from the bad and holding on

to the former while endeavoring to get rid of the latter.



In my Message to the present Congress at its first session I discussed

at length the question of the regulation of those big corporations

commonly doing an interstate business, often with some tendency to

monopoly, which are popularly known as trusts. The experience of the

past year has emphasized, in my opinion, the desirability of the steps

I then proposed. A fundamental requisite of social efficiency is a high

standard of individual energy and excellence; but this is in no wise

inconsistent with power to act in combination for aims which can not so

well be achieved by the individual acting alone. A fundamental base of

civilization is the inviolability of property; but this is in no wise

inconsistent with the right of society to regulate the exercise of the

artificial powers which it confers upon the owners of property, under

the name of corporate franchises, in such a way as to prevent the

misuse of these powers. Corporations, and especially combinations of

corporations, should be managed under public regulation. Experience has

shown that under our system of government the necessary supervision can

not be obtained by State action. It must therefore be achieved by

national action. Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the

contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of

modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile

unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the

entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating

and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds

that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away

with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely

determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public

good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth. The

capitalist who, alone or in conjunction with his fellows, performs some

great industrial feat by which he wins money is a welldoer, not a

wrongdoer, provided only he works in proper and legitimate lines. We

wish to favor such a man when he does well. We wish to supervise and

control his actions only to prevent him from doing ill. Publicity can

do no harm to the honest corporation; and we need not be over tender

about sparing the dishonest corporation.  In curbing and regulating the

combinations of capital which are, or may become, injurious to the

public we must be careful not to stop the great enterprises which have

legitimately reduced the cost of production, not to abandon the place

which our country has won in the leadership of the international

industrial world, not to strike down wealth with the result of closing

factories and mines, of turning the wage-worker idle in the streets and

leaving the farmer without a market for what he grows. Insistence upon

the impossible means delay in achieving the possible, exactly as, on

the other hand, the stubborn defense alike of what is good and what is

bad in the existing system, the resolute effort to obstruct any attempt

at betterment, betrays blindness to the historic truth that wise

evolution is the sure safeguard against revolution.



No more important subject can come before the Congress than this of the

regulation of interstate business. This country can not afford to sit

supine on the plea that under our peculiar system of government we are

helpless in the presence of the new conditions, and unable to grapple

with them or to cut out whatever of evil has arisen in connection with

them. The power of the Congress to regulate interstate commerce is an

absolute and unqualified grant, and without limitations other than

those prescribed by the Constitution. The Congress has constitutional

authority to make all laws necessary and proper for executing this

power, and I am satisfied that this power has not been exhausted by any

legislation now on the statute books. It is evident, therefore, that

evils restrictive of commercial freedom and entailing restraint upon

national commerce fall within the regulative power of the Congress, and

that a wise and reasonable law would be a necessary and proper exercise

of Congressional authority to the end that such evils should be

eradicated.



I believe that monopolies, unjust discriminations, which prevent or

cripple competition, fraudulent overcapitalization, and other evils in

trust organizations and practices which injuriously affect interstate

trade can be prevented under the power of the Congress to "regulate

commerce with foreign nations and among the several States" through

regulations and requirements operating directly upon such commerce, the

instrumentalities thereof, and those engaged therein.



I earnestly recommend this subject to the consideration of the Congress

with a view to the passage of a law reasonable in its provisions and

effective in its operations, upon which the questions can be finally

adjudicated that now raise doubts as to the necessity of constitutional

amendment. If it prove impossible to accomplish the purposes above set

forth by such a law, then, assuredly, we should not shrink from

amending the Constitution so as to secure beyond peradventure the power

sought.



The Congress has not heretofore made any appropriation for the better

enforcement of the antitrust law as it now stands. Very much has been

done by the Department of Justice in securing the enforcement of this

law, but much more could be done if the Congress would make a special

appropriation for this purpose, to be expended under the direction of

the Attorney-General.



One proposition advocated has been the reduction of the tariff as a

means of reaching the evils of the trusts which fall within the

category I have described. Not merely would this be wholly ineffective,

but the diversion of our efforts in such a direction would mean the

abandonment of all intelligent attempt to do away with these evils.

Many of the largest corporations, many of those which should certainly

be included in any proper scheme of regulation, would not be affected

in the slightest degree by a change in the tariff, save as such change

interfered with the general prosperity of the country. The only

relation of the tariff to big corporations as a whole is that the

tariff makes manufactures profitable, and the tariff remedy proposed

would be in effect simply to make manufactures unprofitable. To remove

the tariff as a punitive measure directed against trusts would

inevitably result in ruin to the weaker competitors who are struggling

against them. Our aim should be not by unwise tariff changes to give

foreign products the advantage over domestic products, but by proper

regulation to give domestic competition a fair chance; and this end can

not be reached by any tariff changes which would affect unfavorably all

domestic competitors, good and bad alike. The question of regulation of

the trusts stands apart from the question of tariff revision.



Stability of economic policy must always be the prime economic need of

this country. This stability should not be fossilization. The country

has acquiesced in the wisdom of the protective-tariff principle. It is

exceedingly undesirable that this system should be destroyed or that

there should be violent and radical changes therein. Our past

experience shows that great prosperity in this country has always come

under a protective tariff; and that the country can not prosper under

fitful tariff changes at short intervals. Moreover, if the tariff laws

as a whole work well, and if business has prospered under them and is

prospering, it is better to endure for a time slight inconveniences and

inequalities in some schedules than to upset business by too quick and

too radical changes. It is most earnestly to be wished that we could

treat the tariff from the standpoint solely of our business needs. It

is, perhaps, too much to hope that partisanship may be entirely

excluded from consideration of the subject, but at least it can be made

secondary to the business interests of the country--that is, to the

interests of our people as a whole. Unquestionably these business

interests will best be served if together with fixity of principle as

regards the tariff we combine a system which will permit us from time

to time to make the necessary reapplication of the principle to the

shifting national needs. We must take scrupulous care that the

reapplication shall be made in such a way that it will not amount to a

dislocation of our system, the mere threat of which (not to speak of

the performance) would produce paralysis in the business energies of

the community. The first consideration in making these changes would,

of course, be to preserve the principle which underlies our whole

tariff system--that is, the principle of putting American business

interests at least on a full equality with interests abroad, and of

always allowing a sufficient rate of duty to more than cover the

difference between the labor cost here and abroad. The well-being of

the wage-worker, like the well-being of the tiller of the soil, should

be treated as an essential in shaping our whole economic policy. There

must never be any change which will jeopardize the standard of comfort,

the standard of wages of the American wage-worker.



One way in which the readjustment sought can be reached is by

reciprocity treaties. It is greatly to be desired that such treaties

may be adopted. They can be used to widen our markets and to give a

greater field for the activities of our producers on the one hand, and

on the other hand to secure in practical shape the lowering of duties

when they are no longer needed for protection among our own people, or

when the minimum of damage done may be disregarded for the sake of the

maximum of good accomplished. If it prove impossible to ratify the

pending treaties, and if there seem to be no warrant for the endeavor

to execute others, or to amend the pending treaties so that they can be

ratified, then the same end--to secure reciprocity--should be met by

direct legislation.



Wherever the tariff conditions are such that a needed change can not

with advantage be made by the application of the reciprocity idea, then

it can be made outright by a lowering of duties on a given product. If

possible, such change should be made only after the fullest

consideration by practical experts, who should approach the subject

from a business standpoint, having in view both the particular

interests affected and the commercial well-being of the people as a

whole. The machinery for providing such careful investigation can

readily be supplied. The executive department has already at its

disposal methods of collecting facts and figures; and if the Congress

desires additional consideration to that which will be given the

subject by its own committees, then a commission of business experts

can be appointed whose duty it should be to recommend action by the

Congress after a deliberate and scientific examination of the various

schedules as they are affected by the changed and changing conditions.

The unhurried and unbiased report of this commission would show what

changes should be made in the various schedules, and how far these

changes could go without also changing the great prosperity which this

country is now enjoying, or upsetting its fixed economic policy.



The cases in which the tariff can produce a monopoly are so few as to

constitute an inconsiderable factor in the question; but of course if

in any case it be found that a given rate of duty does promote a

monopoly which works ill, no protectionist would object to such

reduction of the duty as would equalize competition.



In my judgment, the tariff on anthracite coal should be removed, and

anthracite put actually, where it now is nominally, on the free list.

This would have no effect at all save in crises; but in crises it might

be of service to the people.



Interest rates are a potent factor in business activity, and in order

that these rates may be equalized to meet the varying needs of the

seasons and of widely separated communities, and to prevent the

recurrence of financial stringencies which injuriously affect

legitimate business, it is necessary that there should be an element of

elasticity in our monetary system. Banks are the natural servants of

commerce, and upon them should be placed, as far as practicable, the

burden of furnishing and maintaining a circulation adequate to supply

the needs of our diversified industries and of our domestic and foreign

commerce; and the issue of this should be so regulated that a

sufficient supply should be always available for the business interests

of the country.



It would be both unwise and unnecessary at this time to attempt to

reconstruct our financial system, which has been the growth of a

century; but some additional legislation is, I think, desirable. The

mere outline of any plan sufficiently comprehensive to meet these

requirements would transgress the appropriate limits of this

communication. It is suggested, however, that all future legislation on

the subject should be with the view of encouraging the use of such

instrumentalities as will automatically supply every legitimate demand

of productive industries and of commerce, not only in the amount, but

in the character of circulation; and of making all kinds of money

interchangeable, and, at the will of the holder, convertible into the

established gold standard.



I again call your attention to the need of passing a proper immigration

law, covering the points outlined in my Message to you at the first

session of the present Congress; substantially such a bill has already

passed the House.



How to secure fair treatment alike for labor and for capital, how to

hold in check the unscrupulous man, whether employer or employee,

without weakening individual initiative, without hampering and cramping

the industrial development of the country, is a problem fraught with

great difficulties and one which it is of the highest importance to

solve on lines of sanity and far-sighted common sense as well as of

devotion to the right. This is an era of federation and combination.

Exactly as business men find they must often work through corporations,

and as it is a constant tendency of these corporations to grow larger,

so it is often necessary for laboring men to work in federations, and

these have become important factors of modern industrial life. Both

kinds of federation, capitalistic and labor, can do much good, and as a

necessary corollary they can both do evil. Opposition to each kind of

organization should take the form of opposition to whatever is bad in

the conduct of any given corporation or union--not of attacks upon

corporations as such nor upon unions as such; for some of the most

far-reaching beneficent work for our people has been accomplished

through both corporations and unions. Each must refrain from arbitrary

or tyrannous interference with the rights of others. Organized capital

and organized labor alike should remember that in the long run the

interest of each must be brought into harmony with the interest of the

general public; and the conduct of each must conform to the fundamental

rules of obedience to the law, of individual freedom, and of justice

and fair dealing toward all. Each should remember that in addition to

power it must strive after the realization of healthy, lofty, and

generous ideals. Every employer, every wage-worker, must be guaranteed

his liberty and his right to do as he likes with his property or his

labor so long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others. It is

of the highest importance that employer and employee alike should

endeavor to appreciate each the viewpoint of the other and the sure

disaster that will come upon both in the long run if either grows to

take as habitual an attitude of sour hostility and distrust toward the

other. Few people deserve better of the country than those

representatives both of capital and labor--and there are many such--who

work continually to bring about a good understanding of this kind,

based upon wisdom and upon broad and kindly sympathy between employers

and employed. Above all, we need to remember that any kind of class

animosity in the political world is, if possible, even more wicked,

even more destructive to national welfare, than sectional, race, or

religious animosity. We can get good government only upon condition

that we keep true to the principles upon which this Nation was founded,

and judge each man not as a part of a class, but upon his individual

merits. All that we have a right to ask of any man, rich or poor,

whatever his creed, his occupation, his birthplace, or his residence,

is that he shall act well and honorably by his neighbor and by, his

country. We are neither for the rich man as such nor for the poor man

as such; we are for the upright man, rich or poor. So far as the

constitutional powers of the National Government touch these matters of

general and vital moment to the Nation, they should be exercised in

conformity with the principles above set forth.



It is earnestly hoped that a secretary of commerce may be created, with

a seat in the Cabinet. The rapid multiplication of questions affecting

labor and capital, the growth and complexity of the organizations

through which both labor and capital now find expression, the steady

tendency toward the employment of capital in huge corporations, and the

wonderful strides of this country toward leadership in the

international business world justify an urgent demand for the creation

of such a position. Substantially all the leading commercial bodies in

this country have united in requesting its creation. It is desirable

that some such measure as that which has already passed the Senate be

enacted into law. The creation of such a department would in itself be

an advance toward dealing with and exercising supervision over the

whole subject of the great corporations doing an interstate business;

and with this end in view, the Congress should endow the department

with large powers, which could be increased as experience might show

the need.



I hope soon to submit to the Senate a reciprocity treaty with Cuba. On

May 20 last the United States kept its promise to the island by

formally vacating Cuban soil and turning Cuba over to those whom her

own people had chosen as the first officials of the new Republic.



Cuba lies at our doors, and whatever affects her for good or for ill

affects us also. So much have our people felt this that in the Platt

amendment we definitely took the ground that Cuba must hereafter have

closer political relations with us than with any other power. Thus in a

sense Cuba has become a part of our international political system.

This makes it necessary that in return she should be given some of the

benefits of becoming part of our economic system. It is, from our own

standpoint, a short-sighted and mischievous policy to fail to recognize

this need. Moreover, it is unworthy of a mighty and generous nation,

itself the greatest and most successful republic in history, to refuse

to stretch out a helping hand to a young and weak sister republic just

entering upon its career of independence. We should always fearlessly

insist upon our rights in the face of the strong, and we should with

ungrudging hand do our generous duty by the weak. I urge the adoption

of reciprocity with Cuba not only because it is eminently for our own

interests to control the Cuban market and by every means to foster our

supremacy in the tropical lands and waters south of us, but also

because we, of the giant republic of the north, should make all our

sister nations of the American Continent feel that whenever they will

permit it we desire to show ourselves disinterestedly and effectively

their friend.



A convention with Great Britain has been concluded, which will be at

once laid before the Senate for ratification, providing for reciprocal

trade arrangements between the United States and Newfoundland on

substantially the lines of the convention formerly negotiated by the

Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine. I believe reciprocal trade relations

will be greatly to the advantage of both countries.



As civilization grows warfare becomes less and less the normal

condition of foreign relations. The last century has seen a marked

diminution of wars between civilized powers; wars with uncivilized

powers are largely mere matters of international police duty, essential

for the welfare of the world. Wherever possible, arbitration or some

similar method should be employed in lieu of war to settle difficulties

between civilized nations, although as yet the world has not progressed

sufficiently to render it possible, or necessarily desirable, to invoke

arbitration in every case. The formation of the international tribunal

which sits at The Hague is an event of good omen from which great

consequences for the welfare of all mankind may flow. It is far better,

where possible, to invoke such a permanent tribunal than to create

special arbitrators for a given purpose.



It is a matter of sincere congratulation to our country that the United

States and Mexico should have been the first to use the good offices of

The Hague Court. This was done last summer with most satisfactory

results in the case of a claim at issue between us and our sister

Republic. It is earnestly to be hoped that this first case will serve

as a precedent for others, in which not only the United States but

foreign nations may take advantage of the machinery already in

existence at The Hague.



I commend to the favorable consideration of the Congress the Hawaiian

fire claims, which were the subject of careful investigation during the

last session.



The Congress has wisely provided that we shall build at once an

isthmian canal, if possible at Panama. The Attorney-General reports

that we can undoubtedly acquire good title from the French Panama Canal

Company. Negotiations are now pending with Colombia to secure her

assent to our building the canal. This canal will be one of the

greatest engineering feats of the twentieth century; a greater

engineering feat than has yet been accomplished during the history of

mankind. The work should be carried out as a continuing policy without

regard to change of Administration; and it should be begun under

circumstances which will make it a matter of pride for all

Administrations to continue the policy.



The canal will be of great benefit to America, and of importance to all

the world. It will be of advantage to us industrially and also as

improving our military position. It will be of advantage to the

countries of tropical America. It is earnestly to be hoped that all of

these countries will do as some of them have already done with signal

success, and will invite to their shores commerce and improve their

material conditions by recognizing that stability and order are the

prerequisites of successful development. No independent nation in

America need have the slightest fear of aggression from the United

States. It behoves each one to maintain order within its own borders

and to discharge its just obligations to foreigners. When this is done,

they can rest assured that, be they strong or weak, they have nothing

to dread from outside interference. More and more the increasing

interdependence and complexity of international political and economic

relations render it incumbent on all civilized and orderly powers to

insist on the proper policing of the world.



During the fall of 1901 a communication was addressed to the Secretary

of State, asking whether permission would be granted by the President

to a corporation to lay a cable from a point on the California coast to

the Philippine Islands by way of Hawaii. A statement of conditions or

terms upon which such corporation would undertake to lay and operate a

cable was volunteered.



Inasmuch as the Congress was shortly to convene, and Pacific-cable

legislation had been the subject of consideration by the Congress for

several years, it seemed to me wise to defer action upon the

application until the Congress had first an opportunity to act. The

Congress adjourned without taking any action, leaving the matter in

exactly the same condition in which it stood when the Congress

convened.



Meanwhile it appears that the Commercial Pacific Cable Company had

promptly proceeded with preparations for laying its cable. It also made

application to the President for access to and use of soundings taken

by the U. S. S. Nero, for the purpose of discovering a practicable

route for a trans-Pacific cable, the company urging that with access to

these soundings it could complete its cable much sooner than if it were

required to take soundings upon its own account. Pending consideration

of this subject, it appeared important and desirable to attach certain

conditions to the permission to examine and use the soundings, if it

should be granted.



In consequence of this solicitation of the cable company, certain

conditions were formulated, upon which the President was willing to

allow access to these soundings and to consent to the landing and

laying of the cable, subject to any alterations or additions thereto

imposed by the Congress. This was deemed proper, especially as it was

clear that a cable connection of some kind with China, a foreign

country, was a part of the company's plan. This course was, moreover,

in accordance with a line of precedents, including President Grant's

action in the case of the first French cable, explained to the Congress

in his Annual Message of December, 1875, and the instance occurring in

1879 of the second French cable from Brest to St. Pierre, with a branch

to Cape Cod.



These conditions prescribed, among other things, a maximum rate for

commercial messages and that the company should construct a line from

the Philippine Islands to China, there being at present, as is well

known, a British line from Manila to Hongkong.



The representatives of the cable company kept these conditions long

under consideration, continuing, in the meantime, to prepare for laying

the cable. They have, however, at length acceded to them, and an

all-American line between our Pacific coast and the Chinese Empire, by

way of Honolulu and the Philippine Islands, is thus provided for, and

is expected within a few months to be ready for business.



Among the conditions is one reserving the power of the Congress to

modify or repeal any or all of them. A copy of the conditions is

herewith transmitted.



Of Porto Rico it is only necessary to say that the prosperity of the

island and the wisdom with which it has been governed have been such as

to make it serve as an example of all that is best in insular

administration.



On July 4 last, on the one hundred and twenty-sixth anniversary of the

declaration of our independence, peace and amnesty were promulgated in

the Philippine Islands. Some trouble has since from time to time

threatened with the Mohammedan Moros, but with the late insurrectionary

Filipinos the war has entirely ceased. Civil government has now been

introduced. Not only does each Filipino enjoy such rights to life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as he has never before known

during the recorded history of the islands, but the people taken as a

whole now enjoy a measure of self-government greater than that granted

to any other Orientals by any foreign power and greater than that

enjoyed by any other Orientals under their own governments, save the

Japanese alone. We have not gone too far in granting these rights of

liberty and self-government; but we have certainly gone to the limit

that in the interests of the Philippine people themselves it was wise

or just to go. To hurry matters, to go faster than we are now going,

would entail calamity on the people of the islands. No policy ever

entered into by the American people has vindicated itself in more

signal manner than the policy of holding the Philippines. The triumph

of our arms, above all the triumph of our laws and principles, has come

sooner than we had any right to expect. Too much praise can not be

given to the Army for what it has done in the Philippines both in

warfare and from an administrative standpoint in preparing the way for

civil government; and similar credit belongs to the civil authorities

for the way in which they have planted the seeds of self-government in

the ground thus made ready for them. The courage, the unflinching

endurance, the high soldierly efficiency; and the general

kind-heartedness and humanity of our troops have been strikingly

manifested. There now remain only some fifteen thousand troops in the

islands. All told, over one hundred thousand have been sent there. Of

course, there have been individual instances of wrongdoing among them.

They warred under fearful difficulties of climate and surroundings; and

under the strain of the terrible provocations which they continually

received from their foes, occasional instances of cruel retaliation

occurred. Every effort has been made to prevent such cruelties, and

finally these efforts have been completely successful. Every effort has

also been made to detect and punish the wrongdoers. After making all

allowance for these misdeeds, it remains true that few indeed have been

the instances in which war has been waged by a civilized power against

semicivilized or barbarous forces where there has been so little

wrongdoing by the victors as in the Philippine Islands. On the other

hand, the amount of difficult, important, and beneficent work which has

been done is well-nigh incalculable.



Taking the work of the Army and the civil authorities together, it may

be questioned whether anywhere else in modern times the world has seen

a better example of real constructive statesmanship than our people

have given in the Philippine Islands. High praise should also be given

those Filipinos, in the aggregate very numerous, who have accepted the

new conditions and joined with our representatives to work with hearty

good will for the welfare of the islands.



The Army has been reduced to the minimum allowed by law. It is very

small for the size of the Nation, and most certainly should be kept at

the highest point of efficiency. The senior officers are given scant

chance under ordinary conditions to exercise commands commensurate with

their rank, under circumstances which would fit them to do their duty

in time of actual war. A system of maneuvering our Army in bodies of

some little size has been begun and should be steadily continued.

Without such maneuvers it is folly to expect that in the event of

hostilities with any serious foe even a small army corps could be

handled to advantage. Both our officers and enlisted men are such that

we can take hearty pride in them. No better material can be found. But

they must be thoroughly trained, both as individuals and in the mass.

The marksmanship of the men must receive special attention. In the

circumstances of modern warfare the man must act far more on his own

individual responsibility than ever before, and the high individual

efficiency of the unit is of the utmost importance. Formerly this unit

was the regiment; it is now not the regiment, not even the troop or

company; it is the individual soldier. Every effort must be made to

develop every workmanlike and soldierly quality in both the officer and

the enlisted man.



I urgently call your attention to the need of passing a bill providing

for a general staff and for the reorganization of the supply

departments on the lines of the bill proposed by the Secretary of War

last year. When the young officers enter the Army from West Point they

probably stand above their compeers in any other military service.

Every effort should be made, by training, by reward of merit, by

scrutiny into their careers and capacity, to keep them of the same high

relative excellence throughout their careers.



The measure providing for the reorganization of the militia system and

for securing the highest efficiency in the National Guard, which has

already passed the House, should receive prompt attention and action.

It is of great importance that the relation of the National Guard to

the militia and volunteer forces of the United States should be

defined, and that in place of our present obsolete laws a practical and

efficient system should be adopted.



Provision should be made to enable the Secretary of War to keep cavalry

and artillery horses, worn-out in long performance of duty. Such horses

fetch but a trifle when sold; and rather than turn them out to the

misery awaiting them when thus disposed of, it would be better to

employ them at light work around the posts, and when necessary to put

them painlessly to death.



For the first time in our history naval maneuvers on a large scale are

being held under the immediate command of the Admiral of the Navy.

Constantly increasing attention is being paid to the gunnery of the

Navy, but it is yet far from what it should be. I earnestly urge that

the increase asked for by the Secretary of the Navy in the

appropriation for improving the markmanship be granted. In battle the

only shots that count are the shots that hit. It is necessary to

provide ample funds for practice with the great guns in time of peace.

These funds must provide not only for the purchase of projectiles, but

for allowances for prizes to encourage the gun crews, and especially

the gun pointers, and for perfecting an intelligent system under which

alone it is possible to get good practice.



There should be no halt in the work of building up the Navy, providing

every year additional fighting craft. We are a very rich country, vast

in extent of territory and great in population; a country, moreover,

which has an Army diminutive indeed when compared with that of any

other first-class power. We have deliberately made our own certain

foreign policies which demand the possession of a first-class navy. The

isthmian canal will greatly increase the efficiency of our Navy if the

Navy is of sufficient size; but if we have an inadequate navy, then the

building of the canal would be merely giving a hostage to any power of

superior strength. The Monroe Doctrine should be treated as the

cardinal feature of American foreign policy; but it would be worse than

idle to assert it unless we intended to back it up, and it can be

backed up only by a thoroughly good navy. A good navy is not a

provocative of war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.



Each individual unit of our Navy should be the most efficient of its

kind as regards both material and personnel that is to be found in the

world. I call your special attention to the need of providing for the

manning of the ships. Serious trouble threatens us if we can not do

better than we are now doing as regards securing the services of a

sufficient number of the highest type of sailormen, of sea mechanics.

The veteran seamen of our war ships are of as high a type as can be

found in any navy which rides the waters of the world; they are

unsurpassed in daring, in resolution, in readiness, in thorough

knowledge of their profession. They deserve every consideration that

can be shown them. But there are not enough of them. It is no more

possible to improvise a crew than it is possible to improvise a war

ship. To build the finest ship, with the deadliest battery, and to send

it afloat with a raw crew, no matter how brave they were individually,

would be to insure disaster if a foe of average capacity were

encountered. Neither ships nor men can be improvised when war has

begun.



We need a thousand additional officers in order to properly man the

ships now provided for and under construction. The classes at the Naval

School at Annapolis should be greatly enlarged. At the same time that

we thus add the officers where we need them, we should facilitate the

retirement of those at the head of the list whose usefulness has become

impaired. Promotion must be fostered if the service is to be kept

efficient.



The lamentable scarcity of officers, and the large number of recruits

and of unskilled men necessarily put aboard the new vessels as they

have been commissioned, has thrown upon our officers, and especially on

the lieutenants and junior grades, unusual labor and fatigue and has

gravely strained their powers of endurance. Nor is there sign of any

immediate let-up in this strain. It must continue for some time longer,

until more officers are graduated from Annapolis, and until the

recruits become trained and skillful in their duties. In these

difficulties incident upon the development of our war fleet the conduct

of all our officers has been creditable to the service, and the

lieutenants and junior grades in particular have displayed an ability

and a steadfast cheerfulness which entitles them to the ungrudging

thanks of all who realize the disheartening trials and fatigues to

which they are of necessity subjected.



There is not a cloud on the horizon at present. There seems not the

slightest chance of trouble with a foreign power. We most earnestly

hope that this state of things may continue; and the way to insure its

continuance is to provide for a thoroughly efficient navy. The refusal

to maintain such a navy would invite trouble, and if trouble came would

insure disaster. Fatuous self-complacency or vanity, or

short-sightedness in refusing to prepare for danger, is both foolish

and wicked in such a nation as ours; and past experience has shown that

such fatuity in refusing to recognize or prepare for any crisis in

advance is usually succeeded by a mad panic of hysterical fear once the

crisis has actually arrived.



The striking increase in the revenues of the Post-Office Department

shows clearly the prosperity of our people and the increasing activity

of the business of the country.



The receipts of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal year ending

June 30 last amounted to $121,848,047.26, an increase of $10,216,853.87

over the preceding year, the largest increase known in the history of

the postal service. The magnitude of this increase will best appear

from the fact that the entire postal receipts for the year 1860

amounted to but $8,518,067.



Rural free-delivery service is no longer in the experimental stage; it

has become a fixed policy. The results following its introduction have

fully justified the Congress in the large appropriations made for its

establishment and extension. The average yearly increase in post-office

receipts in the rural districts of the country is about two per cent.

We are now able, by actual results, to show that where rural

free-delivery service has been established to such an extent as to

enable us to make comparisons the yearly increase has been upward of

ten per cent.



On November 1, 1902, 11,650 rural free-delivery routes had been

established and were in operation, covering about one-third of the

territory of the United States available for rural free-delivery

service. There are now awaiting the action of the Department petitions

and applications for the establishment of 10,748 additional routes.

This shows conclusively the want which the establishment of the service

has met and the need of further extending it as rapidly as possible. It

is justified both by the financial results and by the practical

benefits to our rural population; it brings the men who live on the

soil into close relations with the active business world; it keeps the

farmer in daily touch with the markets; it is a potential educational

force; it enhances the value of farm property, makes farm life far

pleasanter and less isolated, and will do much to check the undesirable

current from country to city.



It is to be hoped that the Congress will make liberal appropriations

for the continuance of the service already established and for its

further extension.



Few subjects of more importance have been taken up by the Congress in

recent years than the inauguration of the system of nationally-aided

irrigation for the arid regions of the far West. A good beginning

therein has been made. Now that this policy of national irrigation has

been adopted, the need of thorough and scientific forest protection

will grow more rapidly than ever throughout the public-land States.



Legislation should be provided for the protection of the game, and the

wild creatures generally, on the forest reserves. The senseless

slaughter of game, which can by judicious protection be permanently

preserved on our national reserves for the people as a whole, should be

stopped at once. It is, for instance, a serious count against our

national good sense to permit the present practice of butchering off

such a stately and beautiful creature as the elk for its antlers or

tusks.



So far as they are available for agriculture, and to whatever extent

they may be reclaimed under the national irrigation law, the remaining

public lands should be held rigidly for the home builder, the settler

who lives on his land, and for no one else. In their actual use the

desert-land law, the timber and stone law, and the commutation clause

of the homestead law have been so perverted from the intention with

which they were enacted as to permit the acquisition of large areas of

the public domain for other than actual settlers and the consequent

prevention of settlement. Moreover, the approaching exhaustion of the

public ranges has of late led to much discussion as to the best manner

of using these public lands in the West which are suitable chiefly or

only for grazing. The sound and steady development of the West depends

upon the building up of homes therein. Much of our prosperity as a

nation has been due to the operation of the homestead law. On the other

hand, we should recognize the fact that in the grazing region the man

who corresponds to the homesteader may be unable to settle permanently

if only allowed to use the same amount of pasture land that his

brother, the homesteader, is allowed to use of arable land. One hundred

and sixty acres of fairly rich and well-watered soil, or a much smaller

amount of irrigated land, may keep a family in plenty, whereas no one

could get a living from one hundred and sixty acres of dry pasture land

capable of supporting at the outside only one head of cattle to every

ten acres. In the past great tracts of the public domain have been

fenced in by persons having no title thereto, in direct defiance of the

law forbidding the maintenance or construction of any such unlawful

inclosure of public land. For various reasons there has been little

interference with such inclosures in the past, but ample notice has now

been given the trespassers, and all the resources at the command of the

Government will hereafter be used to put a stop to such trespassing.



In view of the capital importance of these matters, I commend them to

the earnest consideration of the Congress, and if the Congress finds

difficulty in dealing with them from lack of thorough knowledge of the

subject, I recommend that provision be made for a commission of experts

specially to investigate and report upon the complicated questions

involved.



I especially urge upon the Congress the need of wise legislation for

Alaska. It is not to our credit as a nation that Alaska, which has been

ours for thirty-five years, should still have as poor a system Of laws

as is the case. No country has a more valuable possession--in mineral

wealth, in fisheries, furs, forests, and also in land available for

certain kinds of farming and stockgrowing. It is a territory of great

size and varied resources, well fitted to support a large permanent

population. Alaska needs a good land law and such provisions for

homesteads and pre-emptions as will encourage permanent settlement. We

should shape legislation with a view not to the exploiting and

abandoning of the territory, but to the building up of homes therein.

The land laws should be liberal in type, so as to hold out inducements

to the actual settler whom we most desire to see take possession of the

country. The forests of Alaska should be protected, and, as a secondary

but still important matter, the game also, and at the same time it is

imperative that the settlers should be allowed to cut timber, under

proper regulations, for their own use. Laws should be enacted to

protect the Alaskan salmon fisheries against the greed which would

destroy them. They should be preserved as a permanent industry and food

supply. Their management and control should be turned over to the

Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Alaska should have a Delegate in the

Congress. It would be well if a Congressional committee could visit

Alaska and investigate its needs on the ground.



In dealing with the Indians our aim should be their ultimate absorption

into the body of our people. But in many cases this absorption must and

should be very slow. In portions of the Indian Territory the mixture of

blood has gone on at the same time with progress in wealth and

education, so that there are plenty of men with varying degrees of

purity of Indian blood who are absolutely indistinguishable in point of

social, political, and economic ability from their white associates.

There are other tribes which have as yet made no perceptible advance

toward such equality. To try to force such tribes too fast is to

prevent their going forward at all. Moreover, the tribes live under

widely different conditions. Where a tribe has made considerable

advance and lives on fertile farming soil it is possible to allot the

members lands in severalty much as is the case with white settlers.

There are other tribes where such a course is not desirable. On the

arid prairie lands the effort should be to induce the Indians to lead

pastoral rather than agricultural lives, and to permit them to settle

in villages rather than to force them into isolation.



The large Indian schools situated remote from any Indian reservation do

a special and peculiar work of great importance. But, excellent though

these are, an immense amount of additional work must be done on the

reservations themselves among the old, and above all among the young,

Indians.



The first and most important step toward the absorption of the Indian

is to teach him to earn his living; yet it is not necessarily to be

assumed that in each community all Indians must become either tillers

of the soil or stock raisers. Their industries may properly be

diversified, and those who show special desire or adaptability for

industrial or even commercial pursuits should be encouraged so far as

practicable to follow out each his own bent.



Every effort should be made to develop the Indian along the lines of

natural aptitude, and to encourage the existing native industries

peculiar to certain tribes, such as the various kinds of basket

weaving, canoe building, smith work, and blanket work. Above all, the

Indian boys and girls should be given confident command of colloquial

English, and should ordinarily be prepared for a vigorous struggle with

the conditions under which their people live, rather than for immediate

absorption into some more highly developed community.



The officials who represent the Government in dealing with the Indians

work under hard conditions, and also under conditions which render it

easy to do wrong and very difficult to detect wrong. Consequently they

should be amply paid on the one hand, and on the other hand a

particularly high standard of conduct should be demanded from them, and

where misconduct can be proved the punishment should be exemplary.



In no department of governmental work in recent years has there been

greater success than in that of giving scientific aid to the farming

population, thereby showing them how most efficiently to help

themselves. There is no need of insisting upon its importance, for the

welfare of the farmer is fundamentally necessary to the welfare of the

Republic as a whole. In addition to such work as quarantine against

animal and vegetable plagues, and warring against them when here

introduced, much efficient help has been rendered to the farmer by the

introduction of new plants specially fitted for cultivation under the

peculiar conditions existing in different portions of the country. New

cereals have been established in the semi-arid West. For instance, the

practicability of producing the best types of macaroni wheats in

regions of an annual rainfall of only ten inches or thereabouts has

been conclusively demonstrated. Through the introduction of new rices

in Louisiana and Texas the production of rice in this country has been

made to about equal the home demand. In the South-west the possibility

of regrassing overstocked range lands has been demonstrated; in the

North many new forage crops have been introduced, while in the East it

has been shown that some of our choicest fruits can be stored and

shipped in such a way as to find a profitable market abroad.



I again recommend to the favorable consideration of the Congress the

plans of the Smithsonian Institution for making the Museum under its

charge worthy of the Nation, and for preserving at the National Capital

not only records of the vanishing races of men but of the animals of

this continent which, like the buffalo, will soon become extinct unless

specimens from which their representatives may be renewed are sought in

their native regions and maintained there in safety.



The District of Columbia is the only part of our territory in which the

National Government exercises local or municipal functions, and where

in consequence the Government has a free hand in reference to certain

types of social and economic legislation which must be essentially

local or municipal in their character. The Government should see to it,

for instance, that the hygienic and sanitary legislation affecting

Washington is of a high character. The evils of slum dwellings, whether

in the shape of crowded and congested tenement-house districts or of

the back-alley type, should never be permitted to grow up in

Washington. The city should be a model in every respect for all the

cities of the country. The charitable and correctional systems of the

District should receive consideration at the hands of the Congress to

the end that they may embody the results of the most advanced thought

in these fields. Moreover, while Washington is not a great industrial

city, there is some industrialism here, and our labor legislation,

while it would not be important in itself, might be made a model for

the rest of the Nation. We should pass, for instance, a wise

employer's-liability act for the District of Columbia, and we need such

an act in our navy-yards. Railroad companies in the District ought to

be required by law to block their frogs.



The safety-appliance law, for the better protection of the lives and

limbs of railway employees, which was passed in 1893, went into full

effect on August 1, 1901. It has resulted in averting thousands of

casualties. Experience shows, however, the necessity of additional

legislation to perfect this law. A bill to provide for this passed the

Senate at the last session. It is to be hoped that some such measure

may now be enacted into law.



There is a growing tendency to provide for the publication of masses of

documents for which there is no public demand and for the printing of

which there is no real necessity. Large numbers of volumes are turned

out by the Government printing presses for which there is no

justification. Nothing should be printed by any of the Departments

unless it contains something of permanent value, and the Congress could

with advantage cut down very materially on all the printing which it

has now become customary to provide. The excessive cost of Government

printing is a strong argument against the position of those who are

inclined on abstract grounds to advocate the Government's doing any

work which can with propriety be left in private hands.



Gratifying progress has been made during the year in the extension of

the merit system of making appointments in the Government service. It

should be extended by law to the District of Columbia. It is much to be

desired that our consular system be established by law on a basis

providing for appointment and promotion only in consequence of proved

fitness.



Through a wise provision of the Congress at its last session the White

House, which had become disfigured by incongruous additions and

changes, has now been restored to what it was planned to be by

Washington. In making the restorations the utmost care has been

exercised to come as near as possible to the early plans and to

supplement these plans by a careful study of such buildings as that of

the University of Virginia, which was built by Jefferson. The White

House is the property of the Nation, and so far as is compatible with

living therein it should be kept as it originally was, for the same

reasons that we keep Mount Vernon as it originally was. The stately

simplicity of its architecture is an expression of the character of the

period in which it was built, and is in accord with the purposes it was

designed to serve. It is a good thing to preserve such buildings as

historic monuments which keep alive our sense of continuity with the

Nation's past.



The reports of the several Executive Departments are submitted to the

Congress with this communication.



***



State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 7, 1903



To the Senate and House of Representatives:



The country is to be congratulated on the amount of substantial

achievement which has marked the past year both as regards our foreign

and as regards our domestic policy.



With a nation as with a man the most important things are those of the

household, and therefore the country is especially to be congratulated

on what has been accomplished in the direction of providing for the

exercise of supervision over the great corporations and combinations of

corporations engaged in interstate commerce. The Congress has created

the Department of Commerce and Labor, including the Bureau of

Corporations, with for the first time authority to secure proper

publicity of such proceedings of these great corporations as the public

has the right to know. It has provided for the expediting of suits for

the enforcement of the Federal anti-trust law; and by another law it

has secured equal treatment to all producers in the transportation of

their goods, thus taking a long stride forward in making effective the

work of the Interstate Commerce Commission.



The establishment of the Department of Commerce and Labor, with the

Bureau of Corporations thereunder, marks a real advance in the

direction of doing all that is possible for the solution of the

questions vitally affecting capitalists and wage-workers. The act

creating Department was approved on February 14, 1903, and two days

later the head of the Department was nominated and confirmed by the

Senate. Since then the work of organization has been pushed as rapidly

as the initial appropriations permitted, and with due regard to

thoroughness and the broad purposes which the Department is designed to

serve. After the transfer of the various bureaus and branches to the

Department at the beginning of the current fiscal year, as provided for

in the act, the personnel comprised 1,289 employees in Washington and

8,836 in the country at large. The scope of the Department's duty and

authority embraces the commercial and industrial interests of the

Nation. It is not designed to restrict or control the fullest liberty

of legitimate business action, but to secure exact and authentic

information which will aid the Executive in enforcing existing laws,

and which will enable the Congress to enact additional legislation, if

any should be found necessary, in order to prevent the few from

obtaining privileges at the expense of diminished opportunities for the

many.



The preliminary work of the Bureau of Corporations in the Department

has shown the wisdom of its creation. Publicity in corporate affairs

will tend to do away with ignorance, and will afford facts upon which

intelligent action may be taken. Systematic, intelligent investigation

is already developing facts the knowledge of which is essential to a

right understanding of the needs and duties of the business world. The

corporation which is honestly and fairly organized, whose managers in

the conduct of its business recognize their obligation to deal squarely

with their stockholders, their competitors, and the public, has nothing

to fear from such supervision. The purpose of this Bureau is not to

embarrass or assail legitimate business, but to aid in bringing about a

better industrial condition--a condition under which there shall be

obedience to law and recognition of public obligation by all

corporations, great or small. The Department of Commerce and Labor will

be not only the clearing house for information regarding the business

transactions of the Nation, but the executive arm of the Government to

aid in strengthening our domestic and foreign markets, in perfecting

our transportation facilities, in building up our merchant marine, in

preventing the entrance of undesirable immigrants, in improving

commercial and industrial conditions, and in bringing together on

common ground those necessary partners in industrial progress--capital

and labor. Commerce between the nations is steadily growing in volume,

and the tendency of the times is toward closer trade relations.

Constant watchfulness is needed to secure to Americans the chance to

participate to the best advantage in foreign trade; and we may

confidently expect that the new Department will justify the expectation

of its creators by the exercise of this watchfulness, as well as by the

businesslike administration of such laws relating to our internal

affairs as are intrusted to its care.



In enacting the laws above enumerated the Congress proceeded on sane

and conservative lines. Nothing revolutionary was attempted; but a

common-sense and successful effort was made in the direction of seeing

that corporations are so handled as to subserve the public good. The

legislation was moderate. It was characterized throughout by the idea

that we were not attacking corporations, but endeavoring to provide for

doing away with any evil in them; that we drew the line against

misconduct, not against wealth; gladly recognizing the great good done

by the capitalist who alone, or in conjunction with his fellows, does

his work along proper and legitimate lines. The purpose of the

legislation, which purpose will undoubtedly be fulfilled, was to favor

such a man when he does well, and to supervise his action only to

prevent him from doing ill. Publicity can do no harm to the honest

corporation. The only corporation that has cause to dread it is the

corporation which shrinks from the light, and about the welfare of such

corporations we need not be oversensitive. The work of the Department

of Commerce and Labor has been conditioned upon this theory, of

securing fair treatment alike for labor and for capital.



The consistent policy of the National Government, so far as it has the

power, is to hold in check the unscrupulous man, whether employer or

employee; but to refuse to weaken individual initiative or to hamper or

cramp the industrial development of the country. We recognize that this

is an era of federation and combination, in which great capitalistic

corporations and labor unions have become factors of tremendous

importance in all industrial centers. Hearty recognition is given the

far-reaching, beneficent work which has been accomplished through both

corporations and unions, and the line as between different

corporations, as between different unions, is drawn as it is between

different individuals; that is, it is drawn on conduct, the effort

being to treat both organized capital and organized labor alike; asking

nothing save that the interest of each shall be brought into harmony

with the interest of the general public, and that the conduct of each

shall conform to the fundamental rules of obedience to law, of

individual freedom, and of justice and fair dealing towards all.

Whenever either corporation, labor union, or individual disregards the

law or acts in a spirit of arbitrary and tyrannous interference with

the rights of others, whether corporations or individuals, then where

the Federal Government has jurisdiction, it will see to it that the

misconduct is stopped, paying not the slightest heed to the position or

power of the corporation, the union or the individual, but only to one

vital fact--that is, the question whether or not the conduct of the

individual or aggregate of individuals is in accordance with the law of

the land. Every man must be guaranteed his liberty and his right to do

as he likes with his property or his labor, so long as he does not

infringe the rights of others. No man is above the law and no man is

below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to

obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a

favor.



We have cause as a nation to be thankful for the steps that have been

so successfully taken to put these principles into effect. The progress

has been by evolution, not by revolution. Nothing radical has been

done; the action has been both moderate and resolute. Therefore the

work will stand. There shall be no backward step. If in the working of

the laws it proves desirable that they shall at any point be expanded

or amplified, the amendment can be made as its desirability is shown.

Meanwhile they are being administered with judgment, but with

insistence upon obedience to them, and their need has been emphasized

in signal fashion by the events of the past year.



From all sources, exclusive of the postal service, the receipts of the

Government for the last fiscal year aggregated $560,396,674. The

expenditures for the same period were $506,099,007, the surplus for the

fiscal year being $54,297,667. The indications are that the surplus for

the present fiscal year will be very small, if indeed there be any

surplus. From July to November the receipts from customs were,

approximately, nine million dollars less than the receipts from the

same source for a corresponding portion of last year. Should this

decrease continue at the same ratio throughout the fiscal year, the

surplus would be reduced by, approximately, thirty million dollars.

Should the revenue from customs suffer much further decrease during the

fiscal year, the surplus would vanish. A large surplus is certainly

undesirable. Two years ago the war taxes were taken off with the

express intention of equalizing the governmental receipts and

expenditures, and though the first year thereafter still showed a

surplus, it now seems likely that a substantial equality of revenue and

expenditure will be attained. Such being the case it is of great moment

both to exercise care and economy in appropriations, and to scan

sharply any change in our fiscal revenue system which may reduce our

income. The need of strict economy in our expenditures is emphasized by

the fact that we can not afford to be parsimonious in providing for

what is essential to our national well-being. Careful economy wherever

possible will alone prevent our income from falling below the point

required in order to meet our genuine needs.



The integrity of our currency is beyond question, and under present

conditions it would be unwise and unnecessary to attempt a

reconstruction of our entire monetary system. The same liberty should

be granted the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit customs receipts as

is granted him in the deposit of receipts from other sources. In my

Message of December 2, 1902, I called attention to certain needs of the

financial situation, and I again ask the consideration of the Congress

for these questions.



During the last session of the Congress at the suggestion of a joint

note from the Republic of Mexico and the Imperial Government of China,

and in harmony with an act of the Congress appropriating $25,000 to pay

the expenses thereof, a commission was appointed to confer with the

principal European countries in the hope that some plan might be

devised whereby a fixed rate of exchange could be assured between the

gold-standard countries and the silver-standard countries. This

commission has filed its preliminary report, which has been made

public. I deem it important that the commission be continued, and that

a sum of money be appropriated sufficient to pay the expenses of its

further labors.



A majority of our people desire that steps be taken in the interests of

American shipping, so that we may once more resume our former position

in the ocean carrying trade. But hitherto the differences of opinion as

to the proper method of reaching this end have been so wide that it has

proved impossible to secure the adoption of any particular scheme.

Having in view these facts, I recommend that the Congress direct the

Secretary of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, and the Secretary of

Commerce and Labor, associated with such a representation from the

Senate and House of Representatives as the Congress in its wisdom may

designate, to serve as a commission for the purpose of investigating

and reporting to the Congress at its next session what legislation is

desirable or necessary for the development of the American merchant

marine and American commerce, and incidentally of a national ocean mail

service of adequate auxiliary naval crusiers and naval reserves. While

such a measure is desirable in any event, it is especially desirable at

this time, in view of the fact that our present governmental contract

for ocean mail with the American Line will expire in 1905. Our ocean

mail act was passed in 1891. In 1895 our 20-knot transatlantic mail

line was equal to any foreign line. Since then the Germans have put on

23-knot, steamers, and the British have contracted for 24-knot

steamers. Our service should equal the best. If it does not, the

commercial public will abandon it. If we are to stay in the business it

ought to be with a full understanding of the advantages to the country

on one hand, and on the other with exact knowledge of the cost and

proper methods of carrying it on. Moreover, lines of cargo ships are of

even more importance than fast mail lines; save so far as the latter

can be depended upon to furnish swift auxiliary cruisers in time of

war. The establishment of new lines of cargo ships to South America, to

Asia, and elsewhere would be much in the interest of our commercial

expansion.



We can not have too much immigration of the right kind, and we should

have none at all of the wrong kind. The need is to devise some system

by which undesirable immigrants shall be kept out entirely, while

desirable immigrants are properly distributed throughout the country.

At present some districts which need immigrants have none; and in

others, where the population is already congested, immigrants come in

such numbers as to depress the conditions of life for those already

there. During the last two years the immigration service at New York

has been greatly improved, and the corruption and inefficiency which

formerly obtained there have been eradicated. This service has just

been investigated by a committee of New York citizens of high standing,

Messrs. Arthur V. Briesen, Lee K. Frankel, Eugene A. Philbin, Thomas W.

Hynes, and Ralph Trautman. Their report deals with the whole situation

at length, and concludes with certain recommendations for

administrative and legislative action. It is now receiving the

attention of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.



The special investigation of the subject of naturalization under the

direction of the Attorney-General, and the consequent prosecutions

reveal a condition of affairs calling for the immediate attention of

the Congress. Forgeries and perjuries of shameless and flagrant

character have been perpetrated, not only in the dense centers of

population, but throughout the country; and it is established beyond

doubt that very many so-called citizens of the United States have no

title whatever to that right, and are asserting and enjoying the

benefits of the same through the grossest frauds. It is never to be

forgotten that citizenship is, to quote the words recently used by the

Supreme Court of the United States, an "inestimable heritage," whether

it proceeds from birth within the country or is obtained by

naturalization; and we poison the sources of our national character and

strength at the fountain, if the privilege is claimed and exercised

without right, and by means of fraud and corruption. The body politic

can not be sound and healthy if many of its constituent members claim

their standing through the prostitution of the high right and calling

of citizenship. It should mean something to become a citizen of the

United States; and in the process no loophole whatever should be left

open to fraud.



The methods by which these frauds--now under full investigation with a

view to meting out punishment and providing adequate remedies--are

perpetrated, include many variations of procedure by which false

certificates of citizenship are forged in their entirety; or genuine

certificates fraudulently or collusively obtained in blank are filled

in by the criminal conspirators; or certificates are obtained on

fraudulent statements as to the time of arrival and residence in this

country; or imposition and substitution of another party for the real

petitioner occur in court; or certificates are made the subject of

barter and sale and transferred from the rightful holder to those not

entitled to them; or certificates are forged by erasure of the original

names and the insertion of the names of other persons not entitled to

the same.



It is not necessary for me to refer here at large to the causes leading

to this state of affairs. The desire for naturalization is heartily to

be commended where it springs from a sincere and permanent intention to

become citizens, and a real appreciation of the privilege. But it is a

source of untold evil and trouble where it is traceable to selfish and

dishonest motives, such as the effort by artificial and improper means,

in wholesale fashion to create voters who are ready-made tools of

corrupt politicians, or the desire to evade certain labor laws creating

discriminations against alien labor. All good citizens, whether

naturalized or native born, are equally interested in protecting our

citizenship against fraud in any form, and, on the other hand, in

affording every facility for naturalization to those who in good faith

desire to share alike our privileges and our responsibilities.



The Federal grand jury lately in session in New York City dealt with

this subject and made a presentment which states the situation briefly

and forcibly and contains important suggestions for the consideration

of the Congress. This presentment is included as an appendix to the

report of the Attorney-General.



In my last annual Message, in connection with the subject of the due

regulation of combinations of capital which are or may become injurious

to the public, I recommend a special appropriation for the better

enforcement of the antitrust law as it now stands, to be extended under

the direction of the Attorney-General. Accordingly (by the legislative,

executive, and judicial appropriation act of February 25, 1903, 32

Stat., 854, 904), the Congress appropriated, for the purpose of

enforcing the various Federal trust and interstate-commerce laws, the

sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to be expended under the

direction of the Attorney-General in the employment of special counsel

and agents in the Department of Justice to conduct proceedings and

prosecutions under said laws in the courts of the United States. I now

recommend, as a matter of the utmost importance and urgency, the

extension of the purposes of this appropriation, so that it may be

available, under the direction of the Attorney-General, and until used,

for the due enforcement of the laws of the United States in general and

especially of the civil and criminal laws relating to public lands and

the laws relating to postal crimes and offenses and the subject of

naturalization. Recent investigations have shown a deplorable state of

affairs in these three matters of vital concern. By various frauds and

by forgeries and perjuries, thousands of acres of the public domain,

embracing lands of different character and extending through various

sections of the country, have been dishonestly acquired. It is hardly

necessary to urge the importance of recovering these dishonest

acquisitions, stolen from the people, and of promptly and duly

punishing the offenders. I speak in another part of this Message of the

widespread crimes by which the sacred right of citizenship is falsely

asserted and that "inestimable heritage" perverted to base ends. By

similar means--that is, through frauds, forgeries, and perjuries, and

by shameless briberies--the laws relating to the proper conduct of the

public service in general and to the due administration of the

Post-Office Department have been notoriously violated, and many

indictments have been found, and the consequent prosecutions are in

course of hearing or on the eve thereof. For the reasons thus

indicated, and so that the Government may be prepared to enforce

promptly and with the greatest effect the due penalties for such

violations of law, and to this end may be furnished with sufficient

instrumentalities and competent legal assistance for the investigations

and trials which will be necessary at many different points of the

country, I urge upon the Congress the necessity of making the said

appropriation available for immediate use for all such purposes, to be

expended under the direction of the Attorney-General.



Steps have been taken by the State Department looking to the making of

bribery an extraditable offense with foreign powers. The need of more

effective treaties covering this crime is manifest. The exposures and

prosecutions of official corruption in St. Louis, Mo., and other cities

and States have resulted in a number of givers and takers of bribes

becoming fugitives in foreign lands. Bribery has not been included in

extradition treaties heretofore, as the necessity for it has not

arisen. While there may have been as much official corruption in former

years, there has been more developed and brought to light in the

immediate past than in the preceding century of our country's history.

It should be the policy of the United States to leave no place on earth

where a corrupt man fleeing from this country can rest in peace. There

is no reason why bribery should not be included in all treaties as

extraditable. The recent amended treaty with Mexico, whereby this crime

was put in the list of extraditable offenses, has established a

salutary precedent in this regard. Under this treaty the State

Department has asked, and Mexico has granted, the extradition of one of

the St. Louis bribe givers.



There can be no crime more serious than bribery. Other offenses violate

one law while corruption strikes at the foundation of all law. Under

our form of Government all authority is vested in the people and by

them delegated to those who represent them in official capacity. There

can be no offense heavier than that of him in whom such a sacred trust

has been reposed, who sells it for his own gain and enrichment; and no

less heavy is the offense of the bribe giver. He is worse than the

thief, for the thief robs the individual, while the corrupt official

plunders an entire city or State. He is as wicked as the murderer, for

the murderer may only take one life against the law, while the corrupt

official and the man who corrupts the official alike aim at the

assassination of the commonwealth itself. Government of the people, by

the people, for the people will perish from the face of the earth if

bribery is tolerated. The givers and takers of bribes stand on an evil

pre-eminence of infamy. The exposure and punishment of public

corruption is an honor to a nation, not a disgrace. The shame lies in

toleration, not in correction. No city or State, still less the Nation,

can be injured by the enforcement of law. As long as public plunderers

when detected can find a haven of refuge in any foreign land and avoid

punishment, just so long encouragement is given them to continue their

practices. If we fail to do all that in us lies to stamp out corruption

we can not escape our share of responsibility for the guilt. The first

requisite of successful self-government is unflinching enforcement of

the law and the cutting out of corruption.



For several years past the rapid development of Alaska and the

establishment of growing American interests in regions theretofore

unsurveyed and imperfectly known brought into prominence the urgent

necessity of a practical demarcation of the boundaries between the

jurisdictions of the United States and Great Britain. Although the

treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, the provisions of

which were copied in the treaty of 1867, whereby Russia conveyed Alaska

to the United States, was positive as to the control, first by Russia

and later by the United States, of a strip of territory along the

continental mainland from the western shore of Portland Canal to Mount

St. Elias, following and surrounding the indentations of the coast and

including the islands to the westward, its description of the landward

margin of the strip was indefinite, resting on the supposed existence

of a continuous ridge or range of mountains skirting the coast, as

figured in the charts of the early navigators. It had at no time been

possible for either party in interest to lay down, under the authority

of the treaty, a line so obviously exact according to its provisions as

to command the assent of the other. For nearly three-fourths of a

century the absence of tangible local interests demanding the exercise

of positive jurisdiction on either side of the border left the question

dormant. In 1878 questions of revenue administration on the Stikine

River led to the establishment of a provisional demarcation, crossing

the channel between two high peaks on either side about twenty-four

miles above the river mouth. In 1899 similar questions growing out of

the extraordinary development of mining interests in the region about

the head of Lynn Canal brought about a temporary modus vivendi, by

which a convenient separation was made at the watershed divides of the

White and Chilkoot passes and to the north of Klukwan, on the Klehini

River. These partial and tentative adjustments could not, in the very

nature of things, be satisfactory or lasting. A permanent disposition

of the matter became imperative.



After unavailing attempts to reach an understanding through a Joint

High Commission, followed by prolonged negotiations, conducted in an

amicable spirit, a convention between the United States and Great

Britain was signed, January 24, 1903, providing for an examination of

the subject by a mixed tribunal of six members, three on a side, with a

view to its final disposition. Ratifications were exchanged on March 3

last, whereupon the two Governments appointed their respective members.

Those on behalf of the United States were Elihu Root, Secretary of War,

Henry Cabot Lodge, a Senator of the United States, and George Turner,

an ex-Senator of the United States, while Great Britain named the Right

Honourable Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Louis

Amable Jette, K. C. M. G., retired judge of the Supreme Court of

Quebec, and A. B. Aylesworth, K. C., of Toronto. This Tribunal met in

London on September 3, under the Presidency of Lord Alverstone. The

proceedings were expeditious, and marked by a friendly and

conscientious spirit. The respective cases, counter cases, and

arguments presented the issues clearly and fully. On the 20th of

October a majority of the Tribunal reached and signed an agreement on

all the questions submitted by the terms of the Convention. By this

award the right of the United States to the control of a continuous

strip or border of the mainland shore, skirting all the tide-water

inlets and sinuosities of the coast, is confirmed; the entrance to

Portland Canal (concerning which legitimate doubt appeared) is defined

as passing by Tongass Inlet and to the northwestward of Wales and

Pearse islands; a line is drawn from the head of Portland Canal to the

fifty-sixth degree of north latitude; and the interior border line of

the strip is fixed by lines connecting certain mountain summits lying

between Portland Canal and Mount St. Elias, and running along the crest

of the divide separating the coast slope from the inland watershed at

the only part of the frontier where the drainage ridge approaches the

coast within the distance of ten marine leagues stipulated by the

treaty as the extreme width of the strip around the heads of Lynn Canal

and its branches.



While the line so traced follows the provisional demarcation of 1878 at

the crossing of the Stikine River, and that of 1899 at the summits of

the White and Chilkoot passes, it runs much farther inland from the

Klehini than the temporary line of the later modus vivendi, and leaves

the entire mining district of the Porcupine River and Glacier Creek

within the jurisdiction of the United States.



The result is satisfactory in every way. It is of great material

advantage to our people in the Far Northwest. It has removed from the

field of discussion and possible danger a question liable to become

more acutely accentuated with each passing year. Finally, it has

furnished a signal proof of the fairness and good will with which two

friendly nations can approach and determine issues involving national

sovereignty and by their nature incapable of submission to a third

power for adjudication.



The award is self-executing on the vital points. To make it effective

as regards the others it only remains for the two Governments to

appoint, each on its own behalf, one or more scientific experts, who

shall, with all convenient speed, proceed together to lay down the

boundary line in accordance with the decision of the majority of the

Tribunal. I recommend that the Congress make adequate provision for the

appointment, compensation, and expenses of the members to serve on this

joint boundary commission on the part of the United States.



It will be remembered that during the second session of the last

Congress Great Britain, Germany, and Italy formed an alliance for the

purpose of blockading the ports of Venezuela and using such other means

of pressure as would secure a settlement of claims due, as they

alleged, to certain of their subjects. Their employment of force for

the collection of these claims was terminated by an agreement brought

about through the offices of the diplomatic representatives of the

United States at Caracas and the Government at Washington, thereby

ending a situation which was bound to cause increasing friction, and

which jeoparded the peace of the continent. Under this agreement

Venezuela agreed to set apart a certain percentage of the customs

receipts of two of her ports to be applied to the payment of whatever

obligations might be ascertained by mixed commissions appointed for

that purpose to be due from her, not only to the three powers already

mentioned, whose proceedings against her had resulted in a state of

war, but also to the United States, France, Spain, Belgium, the

Netherland Sweden and Norway, and Mexico, who had not employed force

for the collection of the claims alleged to be due to certain of their

citizens.



A demand was then made by the so-called blockading powers that the sums

ascertained to be due to their citizens by such mixed commissions

should be accorded payment in full before anything was paid upon the

claims of any of the so-called peace powers. Venezuela, on the other

hand, insisted that all her creditors should be paid upon a basis of

exact equality. During the efforts to adjust this dispute it was

suggested by the powers in interest that it should be referred to me

for decision, but I was clearly of the opinion that a far wiser course

would be to submit the question to the Permanent Court of Arbitration

at The Hague. It seemed to me to offer an admirable opportunity to

advance the practice of the peaceful settlement of disputes between

nations and to secure for the Hague Tribunal a memorable increase of

its practical importance. The nations interested in the controversy

were so numerous and in many instances so powerful as to make it

evident that beneficent results would follow from their appearance at

the same time before the bar of that august tribunal of peace.



Our hopes in that regard have been realized. Russia and Austria are

represented in the persons of the learned and distinguished jurists who

compose the Tribunal, while Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain,

Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Mexico, the United

States, and Venezuela are represented by their respective agents and

counsel. Such an imposing concourse of nations presenting their

arguments to and invoking the decision of that high court of

international justice and international peace can hardly fail to secure

a like submission of many future controversies. The nations now

appearing there will find it far easier to appear there a second time,

while no nation can imagine its just pride will be lessened by

following the example now presented. This triumph of the principle of

international arbitration is a subject of warm congratulation and

offers a happy augury for the peace of the world.



There seems good ground for the belief that there has been a real

growth among the civilized nations of a sentiment which will permit a

gradual substitution of other methods than the method of war in the

settlement of disputes. It is not pretended that as yet we are near a

position in which it will be possible wholly to prevent war, or that a

just regard for national interest and honor will in all cases permit of

the settlement of international disputes by arbitration; but by a

mixture of prudence and firmness with wisdom we think it is possible to

do away with much of the provocation and excuse for war, and at least

in many cases to substitute some other and more rational method for the

settlement of disputes. The Hague Court offers so good an example of

what can be done in the direction of such settlement that it should be

encouraged in every way.



Further steps should be taken. In President McKinley's annual Message

of December 5, 1898, he made the following recommendation:



"The experiences of the last year bring forcibly home to us a sense of

the burdens and the waste of war. We desire in common with most

civilized nations, to reduce to the lowest possible point the damage

sustained in time of war by peaceable trade and commerce. It is true we

may suffer in such cases less than other communities, but all nations

are damaged more or less by the state of uneasiness and apprehension

into which an outbreak of hostilities throws the entire commercial

world. It should be our object, therefore, to minimize, so far as

practicable, this inevitable loss and disturbance. This purpose can

probably best be accomplished by an international agreement to regard

all private property at sea as exempt from capture or destruction by

the forces of belligerent powers. The United States Government has for

many years advocated this humane and beneficent principle, and is now

in a position to recommend it to other powers without the imputation of

selfish motives. I therefore suggest for your consideration that the

Executive be authorized to correspond with the governments of the

principal maritime powers with a view of incorporating into the

permanent law of civilized nations the principle of the exemption of

all private property at sea, not contraband of war, from capture or

destruction by belligerent powers."



I cordially renew this recommendation.



The Supreme Court, speaking on December 11. 1899, through Peckham, J.,

said:



"It is, we think, historically accurate to say that this Government has

always been, in its views, among the most advanced of the governments

of the world in favor of mitigating, as to all non-combatants, the

hardships and horrors of war. To accomplish that object it has always

advocated those rules which would in most cases do away with the right

to capture the private property of an enemy on the high seas."



I advocate this as a matter of humanity and morals. It is anachronistic

when private property is respected on land that it should not be

respected at sea. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that shipping

represents, internationally speaking, a much more generalized species

of private property than is the case with ordinary property on

land--that is, property found at sea is much less apt than is the case

with property found on land really to belong to any one nation. Under

the modern system of corporate ownership the flag of a vessel often

differs from the flag which would mark the nationality of the real

ownership and money control of the vessel; and the cargo may belong to

individuals of yet a different nationality. Much American capital is

now invested in foreign ships; and among foreign nations it often

happens that the capital of one is largely invested in the shipping of

another. Furthermore, as a practical matter, it may be mentioned that

while commerce destroying may cause serious loss and great annoyance,

it can never be more than a subsidiary factor in bringing to terms a

resolute foe. This is now well recognized by all of our naval experts.

The fighting ship, not the commerce destroyer, is the vessel whose

feats add renown to a nation's history, and establish her place among

the great powers of the world.



Last year the Interparliamentary Union for International Arbitration

met at Vienna, six hundred members of the different legislatures of

civilized countries attending. It was provided that the next meeting

should be in 1904 at St. Louis, subject to our Congress extending an

invitation. Like the Hague Tribunal, this Interparliamentary Union is

one of the forces tending towards peace among the nations of the earth,

and it is entitled to our support. I trust the invitation can be

extended.



Early in July, having received intelligence, which happily turned out

to be erroneous, of the assassination of our vice-consul at Beirut, I

dispatched a small squadron to that port for such service as might be

found necessary on arrival. Although the attempt on the life of our

vice-consul had not been successful, yet the outrage was symptomatic of

a state of excitement and disorder which demanded immediate attention.

The arrival of the vessels had the happiest result. A feeling of

security at once took the place of the former alarm and disquiet; our

officers were cordially welcomed by the consular body and the leading

merchants, and ordinary business resumed its activity. The Government

of the Sultan gave a considerate hearing to the representations of our

minister; the official who was regarded as responsible for the

disturbed condition of affairs was removed. Our relations with the

Turkish Government remain friendly; our claims rounded on inequitable

treatment of some of our schools and missions appear to be in process

of amicable adjustment.



The signing of a new commercial treaty with China, which took place at

Shanghai on the 8th of October, is a cause for satisfaction. This act,

the result of long discussion and negotiation, places our commercial

relations with the great Oriental Empire on a more satisfactory footing

than they have ever heretofore enjoyed. It provides not only for the

ordinary rights and privileges of diplomatic and consular officers, but

also for an important extension of our commerce by increased facility

of access to Chinese ports, and for the relief of trade by the removal

of some of the obstacles which have embarrassed it in the past. The

Chinese Government engages, on fair and equitable conditions, which

will probably be accepted by the principal commercial nations, to

abandon the levy of "liken" and other transit dues throughout the

Empire, and to introduce other desirable administrative reforms. Larger

facilities are to be given to our citizens who desire to carry on

mining enterprises in China. We have secured for our missionaries a

valuable privilege, the recognition of their right to rent and lease in

perpetuity such property as their religious societies may need in all

parts of the Empire. And, what was an indispensable condition for the

advance and development of our commerce in Manchuria, China, by treaty

with us, has opened to foreign commerce the cities of Mukden, the

capital of the province of Manchuria, and An-tung, an important port on

the Yalu River, on the road to Korea. The full measure of development

which our commerce may rightfully expect can hardly be looked for until

the settlement of the present abnormal state of things in the Empire;

but the foundation for such development has at last been laid.



I call your attention to the reduced cost in maintaining the consular

service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, as shown in the

annual report of the Auditor for the State and other Departments, as

compared with the year previous. For the year under consideration the

excess of expenditures over receipts on account of the consular service

amounted to $26,125.12, as against $96,972.50 for the year ending June

30, 1902, and $147,040.16 for the year ending June 30, 1901. This is

the best showing in this respect for the consular service for the past

fourteen years, and the reduction in the cost of the service to the

Government has been made in spite of the fact that the expenditures for

the year in question were more than $20,000 greater than for the

previous year.



The rural free-delivery service has been steadily extended. The

attention of the Congress is asked to the question of the compensation

of the letter carriers and clerks engaged in the postal service,

especially on the new rural free-delivery routes. More routes have been

installed since the first of July last than in any like period in the

Department's history. While a due regard to economy must be kept in

mind in the establishment of new routes, yet the extension of the rural

free-delivery system must be continued, for reasons of sound public

policy. No governmental movement of recent years has resulted in

greater immediate benefit to the people of the country districts. Rural

free delivery, taken in connection with the telephone, the bicycle, and

the trolley, accomplishes much toward lessening the isolation of farm

life and making it brighter and more attractive. In the immediate past

the lack of just such facilities as these has driven many of the more

active and restless young men and women from the farms to the cities;

for they rebelled at loneliness and lack of mental companionship. It is

unhealthy and undesirable for the cities to grow at the expense of the

country; and rural free delivery is not only a good thing in itself,

but is good because it is one of the causes which check this

unwholesome tendency towards the urban concentration of our population

at the expense of the country districts. It is for the same reason that

we sympathize with and approve of the policy of building good roads.

The movement for good roads is one fraught with the greatest benefit to

the country districts.



I trust that the Congress will continue to favor in all proper ways the

Louisiana Purchase Exposition. This Exposition commemorates the

Louisiana purchase, which was the first great step in the expansion

which made us a continental nation. The expedition of Lewis and Clark

across the continent followed thereon, and marked the beginning of the

process of exploration and colonization which thrust our national

boundaries to the Pacific. The acquisition of the Oregon country,

including the present States of Oregon and Washington, was a fact of

immense importance in our history; first giving us our place on the

Pacific seaboard, and making ready the way for our ascendency in the

commerce of the greatest of the oceans. The centennial of our

establishment upon the western coast by the expedition of Lewis and

Clark is to be celebrated at Portland, Oregon, by an exposition in the

summer of 1905, and this event should receive recognition and support

from the National Government.



I call your special attention to the Territory of Alaska. The country

is developing rapidly, and it has an assured future. The mineral wealth

is great and has as yet hardly been tapped. The fisheries, if wisely

handled and kept under national control, will be a business as

permanent as any other, and of the utmost importance to the people. The

forests if properly guarded will form another great source of wealth.

Portions of Alaska are fitted for farming and stock raising, although

the methods must be adapted to the peculiar conditions of the country.

Alaska is situated in the far north; but so are Norway and Sweden and

Finland; and Alaska can prosper and play its part in the New World just

as those nations have prospered and played their parts in the Old

World. Proper land laws should be enacted; and the survey of the public

lands immediately begun. Coal-land laws should be provided whereby the

coal-land entryman may make his location and secure patent under

methods kindred to those now prescribed for homestead and mineral

entrymen. Salmon hatcheries, exclusively under Government control,

should be established. The cable should be extended from Sitka

westward. Wagon roads and trails should be built, and the building of

railroads promoted in all legitimate ways. Light-houses should be built

along the coast. Attention should be paid to the needs of the Alaska

Indians; provision should be made for an officer, with deputies, to

study their needs, relieve their immediate wants, and help them adapt

themselves to the new conditions.



The commission appointed to investigate, during the season of 1903, the

condition and needs of the Alaskan salmon fisheries, has finished its

work in the field, and is preparing a detailed report thereon. A

preliminary report reciting the measures immediately required for the

protection and preservation of the salmon industry has already been

submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for his attention and

for the needed action.



I recommend that an appropriation be made for building light-houses in

Hawaii, and taking possession of those already built. The Territory

should be reimbursed for whatever amounts it has already expended for

light-houses. The governor should be empowered to suspend or remove any

official appointed by him, without submitting the matter to the

legislature.



Of our insular possessions the Philippines and Porto Rico it is

gratifying to say that their steady progress has been such as to make

it unnecessary to spend much time in discussing them. Yet the Congress

should ever keep in mind that a peculiar obligation rests upon us to

further in every way the welfare of these communities. The Philippines

should be knit closer to us by tariff arrangements. It would, of

course, be impossible suddenly to raise the people of the islands to

the high pitch of industrial prosperity and of governmental efficiency

to which they will in the end by degrees attain; and the caution and

moderation shown in developing them have been among the main reasons

why this development has hitherto gone on so smoothly. Scrupulous care

has been taken in the choice of governmental agents, and the entire

elimination of partisan politics from the public service. The condition

of the islanders is in material things far better than ever before,

while their governmental, intellectual, and moral advance has kept pace

with their material advance. No one people ever benefited another

people more than we have benefited the Filipinos by taking possession

of the islands.



The cash receipts of the General Land Office for the last fiscal year

were $11,024,743.65, an increase of $4,762,816.47 over the preceding

year. Of this sum, approximately, $8,461,493 will go to the credit of

the fund for the reclamation of arid land, making the total of this

fund, up to the 30th of June, 1903, approximately, $16,191,836.



A gratifying disposition has been evinced by those having unlawful

inclosures of public land to remove their fences. Nearly two million

acres so inclosed have been thrown open on demand. In but comparatively

few cases has it been necessary to go into court to accomplish this

purpose. This work will be vigorously prosecuted until all unlawful

inclosures have been removed.



Experience has shown that in the western States themselves, as well as

in the rest of the country, there is widespread conviction that certain

of the public-land laws and the resulting administrative practice no

longer meet the present needs. The character and uses of the remaining

public lands differ widely from those of the public lands which

Congress had especially in view when these laws were passed. The

rapidly increasing rate of disposal of the public lands is not followed

by a corresponding increase in home building. There is a tendency to

mass in large holdings public lands, especially timber and grazing

lands, and thereby to retard settlement. I renew and emphasize my

recommendation of last year that so far as they are available for

agriculture in its broadest sense, and to whatever extent they may be

reclaimed under the national irrigation law, the remaining public lands

should be held rigidly for the home builder. The attention of the

Congress is especially directed to the timber and stone law, the

desert-land law, and the commutation clause of the homestead law, which

in their operation have in many respects conflicted with wise

public-land policy. The discussions in the Congress and elsewhere have

made it evident that there is a wide divergence of opinions between

those holding opposite views on these subjects; and that the opposing

sides have strong and convinced representatives of weight both within

and without the Congress; the differences being not only as to matters

of opinion but as to matters of fact. In order that definite

information may be available for the use of the Congress, I have

appointed a commission composed of W. A. Richards, Commissioner of the

General Land Office; Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Bureau of Forestry

of the Department of Agriculture, and F. H. Newell, Chief Hydrographer

of the Geological Survey, to report at the earliest practicable moment

upon the condition, operation, and effect of the present land laws and

on the use, condition, disposal, and settlement of the public lands.

The commission will report especially what changes in organization,

laws, regulations, and practice affecting the public lands are needed

to effect the largest practicable disposition of the public lands to

actual settlers who will build permanent homes upon them, and to secure

in permanence the fullest and most effective use of the resources of

the public lands; and it will make such other reports and

recommendations as its study of these questions may suggest. The

commission is to report immediately upon those points concerning which

its judgment is clear; on any point upon which it has doubt it will

take the time necessary to make investigation and reach a final

judgment.



The work of reclamation of the arid lands of the West is progressing

steadily and satisfactorily under the terms of the law setting aside

the proceeds from the disposal of public lands. The corps of engineers

known as the Reclamation Service, which is conducting the surveys and

examinations, has been thoroughly organized, especial pains being taken

to secure under the civil-service rules a body of skilled, experienced,

and efficient men. Surveys and examinations are progressing throughout

the arid States and Territories, plans for reclaiming works being

prepared and passed upon by boards of engineers before approval by the

Secretary of the Interior. In Arizona and Nevada, in localities where

such work is pre-eminently needed, construction has already been begun.

In other parts of the arid West various projects are well advanced

towards the drawing up of contracts, these being delayed in part by

necessities of reaching agreements or understanding as regards rights

of way or acquisition of real estate. Most of the works contemplated

for construction are of national importance, involving interstate

questions or the securing of stable, self-supporting communities in the

midst of vast tracts of vacant land. The Nation as a whole is of course

the gainer by the creation of these homes, adding as they do to the

wealth and stability of the country, and furnishing a home market for

the products of the East and South. The reclamation law, while perhaps

not ideal, appears at present to answer the larger needs for which it

is designed. Further legislation is not recommended until the

necessities of change are more apparent.



The study of the opportunities of reclamation of the vast extent of

arid land shows that whether this reclamation is done by individuals,

corporations, or the State, the sources of water supply must be

effectively protected and the reservoirs guarded by the preservation of

the forests at the headwaters of the streams. The engineers making the

preliminary examinations continually emphasize this need and urge that

the remaining public lands at the headwaters of the important streams

of the West be reserved to insure permanency of water supply for

irrigation. Much progress in forestry has been made during the past

year. The necessity for perpetuating our forest resources, whether in

public or private hands, is recognized now as never before. The demand

for forest reserves has become insistent in the West, because the West

must use the water, wood, and summer range which only such reserves can

supply. Progressive lumbermen are striving, through forestry, to give

their business permanence. Other great business interests are awakening

to the need of forest preservation as a business matter. The

Government's forest work should receive from the Congress hearty

support, and especially support adequate for the protection of the

forest reserves against fire. The forest-reserve policy of the

Government has passed beyond the experimental stage and has reached a

condition where scientific methods are essential to its successful

prosecution. The administrative features of forest reserves are at

present unsatisfactory, being divided between three Bureaus of two

Departments. It is therefore recommended that all matters pertaining to

forest reserves, except those involving or pertaining to land titles,

be consolidated in the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of

Agriculture.



The cotton-growing States have recently been invaded by a weevil that

has done much damage and threatens the entire cotton industry. I

suggest to the Congress the prompt enactment of such remedial

legislation as its judgment may approve.



In granting patents to foreigners the proper course for this country to

follow is to give the same advantages to foreigners here that the

countries in which these foreigners dwell extend in return to our

citizens; that is, to extend the benefits of our patent laws on

inventions and the like where in return the articles would be

patentable in the foreign countries concerned--where an American could

get a corresponding patent in such countries.



The Indian agents should not be dependent for their appointment or

tenure of office upon considerations of partisan politics; the practice

of appointing, when possible, ex-army officers or bonded

superintendents to the vacancies that occur is working well. Attention

is invited to the widespread illiteracy due to lack of public schools

in the Indian Territory. Prompt heed should be paid to the need of

education for the children in this Territory.



In my last annual Message the attention of the Congress was called to

the necessity of enlarging the safety-appliance law, and it is

gratifying to note that this law was amended in important respects.

With the increasing railway mileage of the country, the greater number

of men employed, and the use of larger and heavier equipment, the

urgency for renewed effort to prevent the loss of life and limb upon

the railroads of the country, particularly to employees, is apparent.

For the inspection of water craft and the Life-Saving Service upon the

water the Congress has built up an elaborate body of protective

legislation and a thorough method of inspection and is annually

spending large sums of money. It is encouraging to observe that the

Congress is alive to the interests of those who are employed upon our

wonderful arteries of commerce--the railroads--who so safely transport

millions of passengers and billions of tons of freight. The Federal

inspection, of safety appliances, for which the Congress is now making

appropriations, is a service analogous to that which the Government has

upheld for generations in regard to vessels, and it is believed will

prove of great practical benefit, both to railroad employees and the

traveling public. As the greater part of commerce is interstate and

exclusively under the control of the Congress the needed safety and

uniformity must be secured by national legislation.



No other class of our citizens deserves so well of the Nation as those

to whom the Nation owes its very being, the veterans of the civil war.

Special attention is asked to the excellent work of the Pension Bureau

in expediting and disposing of pension claims. During the fiscal year

ending July 1, 1903, the Bureau settled 251,982 claims, an average of

825 claims for each working day of the year. The number of settlements

since July 1, 1903, has been in excess of last year's average,

approaching 1,000 claims for each working day, and it is believed that

the work of the Bureau will be current at the close of the present

fiscal year.



During the year ended June 30 last 25,566 persons were appointed

through competitive examinations under the civil-service rules. This

was 12,672 more than during the preceding year, and 40 per cent of

those who passed the examinations. This abnormal growth was largely

occasioned by the extension of classification to the rural

free-delivery service and the appointment last year of over 9,000 rural

carriers. A revision of the civil-service rules took effect on April 15

last, which has greatly improved their operation. The completion of the

reform of the civil service is recognized by good citizens everywhere

as a matter of the highest public importance, and the success of the

merit system largely depends upon the effectiveness of the rules and

the machinery provided for their enforcement. A very gratifying spirit

of friendly co-operation exists in all the Departments of the

Government in the enforcement and uniform observance of both the letter

and spirit of the civil-service act. Executive orders of July 3, 1902;

March 26, 1903, and July 8, 1903, require that appointments of all

unclassified laborers, both in the Departments at Washington and in the

field service, shall be made with the assistance of the United States

Civil Service Commission, under a system of registration to test the

relative fitness of applicants for appointment or employment. This

system is competitive, and is open to all citizens of the United States

qualified in respect to age, physical ability, moral character,

industry, and adaptability for manual labor; except that in case of

veterans of the Civil War the element of age is omitted. This system of

appointment is distinct from the classified service and does not

classify positions of mere laborer under the civil-service act and

rules. Regulations in aid thereof have been put in operation in several

of the Departments and are being gradually extended in other parts of

the service. The results have been very satisfactory, as extravagance

has been checked by decreasing the number of unnecessary positions and

by increasing the efficiency of the employees remaining.



The Congress, as the result of a thorough investigation of the

charities and reformatory institutions in the District of Columbia, by

a joint select committee of the two Houses which made its report in

March, 1898, created in the act approved June 6, 1900, a board of

charities for the District of Columbia, to consist of five residents of

the District, appointed by the President of the United States, by and

with the advice and consent of the Senate, each for a term of three

years, to serve without compensation. President McKinley appointed five

men who had been active and prominent in the public charities in

Washington, all of whom upon taking office July 1, 1900, resigned from

the different charities with which they had been connected. The members

of the board have been reappointed in successive years. The board

serves under the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. The board

gave its first year to a careful and impartial study of the special

problems before it, and has continued that study every year in the

light of the best practice in public charities elsewhere. Its

recommendations in its annual reports to the Congress through the

Commissioners of the District of Columbia "for the economical and

efficient administration of the charities and reformatories of the

District of Columbia," as required by the act creating it, have been

based upon the principles commended by the joint select committee of

the Congress in its report of March, 1898, and approved by the best

administrators of public charities, and make for the desired

systematization and improvement of the affairs under its supervision.

They are worthy of favorable consideration by the Congress.



The effect of the laws providing a General Staff for the Army and for

the more effective use of the National Guard has been excellent. Great

improvement has been made in the efficiency of our Army in recent

years. Such schools as those erected at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley

and the institution of fall maneuver work accomplish satisfactory

results. The good effect of these maneuvers upon the National Guard is

marked, and ample appropriation should be made to enable the guardsmen

of the several States to share in the benefit. The Government should as

soon as possible secure suitable permanent camp sites for military

maneuvers in the various sections of the country. The service thereby

rendered not only to the Regular Army, but to the National Guard of the

several States, will be so great as to repay many times over the

relatively small expense. We should not rest satisfied with what has

been done, however. The only people who are contented with a system of

promotion by mere seniority are those who are contented with the

triumph of mediocrity over excellence. On the other hand, a system

which encouraged the exercise of social or political favoritism in

promotions would be even worse. But it would surely be easy to devise a

method of promotion from grade to grade in which the opinion of the

higher officers of the service upon the candidates should be decisive

upon the standing and promotion of the latter. Just such a system now

obtains at West Point. The quality of each year's work determines the

standing of that year's class, the man being dropped or graduated into

the next class in the relative position which his military superiors

decide to be warranted by his merit. In other words, ability, energy,

fidelity, and all other similar qualities determine the rank of a man

year after year in West Point, and his standing in the Army when he

graduates from West Point; but from that time on, all effort to find

which man is best or worst, and reward or punish him accordingly, is

abandoned; no brilliancy, no amount of hard work, no eagerness in the

performance of duty, can advance him, and no slackness or indifference

that falls short of a court-martial offense can retard him. Until this

system is changed we can not hope that our officers will be of as high

grade as we have a right to expect, considering the material upon which

we draw. Moreover, when a man renders such service as Captain Pershing

rendered last spring in the Moro campaign, it ought to be possible

to reward him without at once jumping him to the grade of

brigadier-general.



Shortly after the enunciation of that famous principle of American

foreign policy now known as the "Monroe Doctrine," President Monroe, in

a special Message to Congress on January 30, 1824, spoke as follows:

"The Navy is the arm from which our Government will always derive most

aid in support of our rights. Every power engaged in war will know the

strength of our naval power, the number of our ships of each class,

their condition, and the promptitude with which we may bring them into

service, and will pay due consideration to that argument."



I heartily congratulate the Congress upon the steady progress in

building up the American Navy. We can not afford a let-up in this great

work. To stand still means to go back. There should be no cessation in

adding to the effective units of the fighting strength of the fleet.

Meanwhile the Navy Department and the officers of the Navy are doing

well their part by providing constant service at sea under conditions

akin to those of actual warfare. Our officers and enlisted men are

learning to handle the battleships, cruisers, and torpedo boats with

high efficiency in fleet and squadron formations, and the standard of

marksmanship is being steadily raised. The best work ashore is

indispensable, but the highest duty of a naval officer is to exercise

command at sea.



The establishment of a naval base in the Philippines ought not to be

longer postponed. Such a base is desirable in time of peace; in time of

war it would be indispensable, and its lack would be ruinous. Without

it our fleet would be helpless. Our naval experts are agreed that Subig

Bay is the proper place for the purpose. The national interests require

that the work of fortification and development of a naval station at

Subig Bay be begun at an early date; for under the best conditions it

is a work which will consume much time.



It is eminently desirable, however, that there should be provided a

naval general staff on lines similar to those of the General Staff

lately created for the Army. Within the Navy Department itself the

needs of the service have brought about a system under which the duties

of a general staff are partially performed; for the Bureau of

Navigation has under its direction the War College, the Office of Naval

Intelligence, and the Board of Inspection, and has been in close touch

with the General Board of the Navy. But though under the excellent

officers at their head, these boards and bureaus do good work, they

have not the authority of a general staff, and have not sufficient

scope to insure a proper readiness for emergencies. We need the

establishment by law of a body of trained officers, who shall exercise

a systematic control of the military affairs of the Navy, and be

authorized advisers of the Secretary concerning it.



By the act of June 28, 1902, the Congress authorized the President to

enter into treaty with Colombia for the building of the canal across

the Isthmus of Panama; it being provided that in the event of failure

to secure such treaty after the lapse of a reasonable time, recourse

should be had to building a canal through Nicaragua. It has not been

necessary to consider this alternative, as I am enabled to lay before

the Senate a treaty providing for the building of the canal across the

Isthmus of Panama. This was the route which commended itself to the

deliberate judgment of the Congress, and we can now acquire by treaty

the right to construct the canal over this route. The question now,

therefore, is not by which route the isthmian canal shall be built, for

that question has been definitely and irrevocably decided. The question

is simply whether or not we shall have an isthmian canal.



When the Congress directed that we should take the Panama route under

treaty with Colombia, the essence of the condition, of course, referred

not to the Government which controlled that route, but to the route

itself; to the territory across which the route lay, not to the name

which for the moment the territory bore on the map. The purpose of the

law was to authorize the President to make a treaty with the power in

actual control of the Isthmus of Panama. This purpose has been

fulfilled.



In the year 1846 this Government entered into a treaty with New

Granada, the predecessor upon the Isthmus of the Republic of Colombia

and of the present Republic of Panama, by which treaty it was provided

that the Government and citizens of the United States should always

have free and open right of way or transit across the Isthmus of Panama

by any modes of communication that might be constructed, while in turn

our Government guaranteed the perfect neutrality of the above-mentioned

Isthmus with the view that the free transit from the one to the other

sea might not be interrupted or embarrassed. The treaty vested in the

United States a substantial property right carved out of the rights of

sovereignty and property which New Granada then had and possessed over

the said territory. The name of New Granada has passed away and its

territory has been divided. Its successor, the Government of Colombia,

has ceased to own any property in the Isthmus. A new Republic, that of

Panama, which was at one time a sovereign state, and at another time a

mere department of the successive confederations known as New Granada

and Columbia, has now succeeded to the rights which first one and then

the other formerly exercised over the Isthmus. But as long as the

Isthmus endures, the mere geographical fact of its existence, and the

peculiar interest therein which is required by our position, perpetuate

the solemn contract which binds the holders of the territory to respect

our right to freedom of transit across it, and binds us in return to

safeguard for the Isthmus and the world the exercise of that

inestimable privilege. The true interpretation of the obligations upon

which the United States entered in this treaty of 1846 has been given

repeatedly in the utterances of Presidents and Secretaries of State.

Secretary Cuss in 1858 officially stated the position of this

Government as follows:



"The progress of events has rendered the interoceanic route across the

narrow portion of Central America vastly important to the commercial

world, and especially to the United States, whose possessions extend

along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and demand the speediest and

easiest modes of communication. While the rights of sovereignty of the

states occupying this region should always be respected, we shall

expect that these rights be exercised in a spirit befitting the

occasion and the wants and circumstances that have arisen. Sovereignty

has its duties as well as its rights, and none of these local

governments, even if administered with more regard to the just demands

of other nations than they have been, would be permitted, in a spirit

of Eastern isolation, to close the gates of intercourse on the great

highways of the world, and justify the act by the pretension that these

avenues of trade and travel belong to them and that they choose to shut

them, or, what is almost equivalent, to encumber them with such unjust

relations as would prevent their general use."



Seven years later, in 1865, Mr. Seward in different communications took

the following position:



"The United States have taken and will take no interest in any question

of internal revolution in the State of Panama, or any State of the

United States of Colombia, but will maintain a perfect neutrality in

connection with such domestic altercations. The United States will,

nevertheless, hold themselves ready to protect the transit trade across

the Isthmus against invasion of either domestic or foreign disturbers

of the peace of the State of Panama. Neither the text nor the spirit of

the stipulation in that article by which the United States engages to

preserve the neutrality of the Isthmus of Panama, imposes an obligation

on this Government to comply with the requisition of the President of

the United States of Colombia for a force to protect the Isthmus of

Panama from a body of insurgents of that country. The purpose of the

stipulation was to guarantee the Isthmus against seizure or invasion by

a foreign power only."



Attorney-General Speed, under date of November 7, 1865, advised

Secretary Seward as follows:



"From this treaty it can not be supposed that New Granada invited the

United States to become a party to the intestine troubles of that

Government, nor did the United States become bound to take sides in the

domestic broils of New Granada. The United States did guarantee New

Granada in the sovereignty and property over the territory. This was as

against other and foreign governments."



For four hundred years, ever since shortly after the discovery of this

hemisphere, the canal across the Isthmus has been planned. For two

score years it has been worked at. When made it is to last for the

ages. It is to alter the geography of a continent and the trade routes

of the world. We have shown by every treaty we have negotiated or

attempted to negotiate with the peoples in control of the Isthmus and

with foreign nations in reference thereto our consistent good faith in

observing our obligations; on the one hand to the peoples of the

Isthmus, and on the other hand to the civilized world whose commercial

rights we are safeguarding and guaranteeing by our action. We have done

our duty to others in letter and in spirit, and we have shown the

utmost forbearance in exacting our own rights.



Last spring, under the act above referred to, a treaty concluded

between the representatives of the Republic of Colombia and of our

Government was ratified by the Senate. This treaty was entered into at

the urgent solicitation of the people of Colombia and after a body of

experts appointed by our Government especially to go into the matter of

the routes across the Isthmus had pronounced unanimously in favor of

the Panama route. In drawing up this treaty every concession was made

to the people and to the Government of Colombia. We were more than just

in dealing with them. Our generosity was such as to make it a serious

question whether we had not gone too far in their interest at the

expense of our own; for in our scrupulous desire to pay all possible

heed, not merely to the real but even to the fancied rights of our

weaker neighbor, who already owed so much to our protection and

forbearance, we yielded in all possible ways to her desires in drawing

up the treaty. Nevertheless the Government of Colombia not merely

repudiated the treaty, but repudiated it in such manner as to make it

evident by the time the Colombian Congress adjourned that not the

scantiest hope remained of ever getting a satisfactory treaty from

them. The Government of Colombia made the treaty, and yet when the

Colombian Congress was called to ratify it the vote against

ratification was unanimous. It does not appear that the Government made

any real effort to secure ratification.



Immediately after the adjournment of the Congress a revolution broke

out in Panama. The people of Panama had long been discontented with the

Republic of Colombia, and they had been kept quiet only by the prospect

of the conclusion of the treaty, which was to them a matter of vital

concern. When it became evident that the treaty was hopelessly lost,

the people of Panama rose literally as one man. Not a shot was fired by

a single man on the Isthmus in the interest of the Colombian

Government. Not a life was lost in the accomplishment of the

revolution. The Colombian troops stationed on the Isthmus, who had long

been unpaid, made common cause with the people of Panama, and with

astonishing unanimity the new Republic was started. The duty of the

United States in the premises was clear. In strict accordance with the

principles laid down by Secretaries Cass and Seward in the official

documents above quoted, the United States gave notice that it would

permit the landing of no expeditionary force, the arrival of which

would mean chaos and destruction along the line of the railroad and of

the proposed Canal, and an interruption of transit as an inevitable

consequence. The de facto Government of Panama was recognized in the

following telegram to Mr. Ehrman:



"The people of Panama have, by apparently unanimous movement, dissolved

their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and resumed

their independence. When you are satisfied that a de facto government,

republican in form and without substantial opposition from its own

people, has been established in the State of Panama, you will enter

into relations with it as the responsible government of the territory

and look to it for all due action to protect the persons and property

of citizens of the United States and to keep open the isthmian transit,

in accordance with the obligations of existing treaties governing the

relations of the United States to that Territory."



The Government of Colombia was notified of our action by the following

telegram to Mr. Beaupre:



"The people of Panama having, by an apparently unanimous movement,

dissolved their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and

resumed their independence, and having adopted a Government of their

own, republican in form, with which the Government of the United States

of America has entered into relations, the President of the United

States, in accordance with the ties of friendship which have so long

and so happily existed between the respective nations, most earnestly

commends to the Governments of Colombia and of Panama the peaceful and

equitable settlement of all questions at issue between them. He holds

that he is bound not merely by treaty obligations, but by the interests

of civilization, to see that the peaceful traffic of the world across

the Isthmus of Panama shall not longer be disturbed by a constant

succession of unnecessary and wasteful civil wars."



When these events happened, fifty-seven years had elapsed since the

United States had entered into its treaty with New Granada. During that

time the Governments of New Granada and of its successor, Colombia,

have been in a constant state of flux. The following is a partial list

of the disturbances on the Isthmus of Panama during the period in

question as reported to us by our consuls. It is not possible to give a

complete list, and some of the reports that speak of "revolutions" must

mean unsuccessful revolutions. May 22, 1850.--Outbreak; two Americans

killed. War vessel demanded to quell outbreak. October,

1850.--Revolutionary plot to bring about independence of the Isthmus.

July 22, 1851.--Revolution in four southern provinces. November 14,

1851.--Outbreak at Chagres. Man-of-war requested for Chagres. June 27,

1853.--Insurrection at Bogota, and consequent disturbance on Isthmus.

War vessel demanded. May 23, 1854--Political disturbances; war vessel

requested. June 28, 1854.--Attempted revolution. October 24,

1854.--Independence of Isthmus demanded by provincial legislature.

April, 1856.--Riot, and massacre of Americans. May 4, 1856.--Riot. May

18, 1856.--Riot. June 3, 1856.--Riot. October 2, 1856.--Conflict

between two native parties. United States forces landed. December 18,

1858.--Attempted secession of Panama. April, 1859.--Riots. September,

1860.--Outbreak. October 4, 1860.--Landing of United States forces in

consequence. May 23, 1861.--Intervention of the United States forces

required by intendente. October 2, 1861.--Insurrection and civil war.

April 4, 1862.--Measures to prevent rebels crossing Isthmus. June 13,

1862.--Mosquera's troops refused admittance to Panama. March,

1865.--Revolution, and United States troops landed. August,

1865.--Riots; unsuccessful attempt to invade Panama. March,

1866.--Unsuccessful revolution. April, 1867.--Attempt to overthrow

Government. August, 1867.--Attempt at revolution. July 5,

1868.--Revolution; provisional government inaugurated. August 29,

1868.--Revolution; provisional government overthrown. April,

1871.--Revolution; followed apparently by counter revolution. April,

1873.--Revolution and civil war which lasted to October, 1875. August,

1876.--Civil war which lasted until April, 1877. July,

1878.--Rebellion. December, 1878.--Revolt. April, 1879.--Revolution.

June, 1879.--Revolution. March, 1883.--Riot. May, 1883.--Riot. June,

1884.--Revolutionary attempt. December, 1884.--Revolutionary attempt.

January, 1885.--Revolutionary disturbances. March, 1885.--Revolution.

April, 1887.--Disturbance on Panama Railroad. November,

1887.--Disturbance on line of canal. January, 1889.--Riot. January,

1895.--Revolution which lasted until April. March, 1895.--Incendiary

attempt. October, 1899.--Revolution. February, 1900, to July,

1900.--Revolution. January, 1901--Revolution. July,

1901.--Revolutionary disturbances. September, 1901.--City of Colon

taken by rebels. March, 1902.--Revolutionary disturbances. July,

1902.--Revolution. The above is only a partial list of the revolutions,

rebellions, insurrections, riots, and other outbreaks that have

occurred during the period in question; yet they number 53 for the 57

years. It will be noted that one of them lasted for nearly three years

before it was quelled; another for nearly a year. In short, the

experience of over half a century has shown Colombia to be utterly

incapable of keeping order on the Isthmus. Only the active interference

of the United States has enabled her to preserve so much as a semblance

of sovereignty. Had it not been for the exercise by the United States

of the police power in her interest, her connection with the Isthmus

would have been sundered long ago. In 1856, in 1860, in 1873, in 1885,

in 1901, and again in 1902, sailors and marines from United States war

ships were forced to land in order to patrol the Isthmus, to protect

life and property, and to see that the transit across the Isthmus was

kept open. In 1861, in 1862, in 1885, and in 1900, the Colombian

Government asked that the United States Government would land troops to

protect its interests and maintain order on the Isthmus. Perhaps the

most extraordinary request is that which has just been received and

which runs as follows:



"Knowing that revolution has already commenced in Panama [an eminent

Colombian] says that if the Government of the United States will land

troops to preserve Colombian sovereignty, and the transit, if requested

by Colombian charge d'affaires, this Government will declare martial

law; and, by virtue of vested constitutional authority, when public

order is disturbed, will approve by decree ratification of the canal

treaty as signed; or, if the Government of the United States prefers,

will call extra session of the Congress--with new and friendly

members--next May to approve the treaty. [An eminent Colombian] has the

perfect confidence of vice-president, he says, and if it became

necessary will go to the Isthmus or send representatives there to

adjust matters along above lines to the satisfaction of the people

there."



This dispatch is noteworthy from two standpoints. Its offer of

immediately guaranteeing the treaty to us is in sharp contrast with the

positive and contemptuous refusal of the Congress which has just closed

its sessions to consider favorably such a treaty; it shows that the

Government which made the treaty really had absolute control over the

situation, but did not choose to exercise this control. The dispatch

further calls on us to restore order and secure Colombian supremacy in

the Isthmus from which the Colombian Government has just by its action

decided to bar us by preventing the construction of the canal.



The control, in the interest of the commerce and traffic of the whole

civilized world, of the means of undisturbed transit across the Isthmus

of Panama has become of transcendent importance to the United States.

We have repeatedly exercised this control by intervening in the course

of domestic dissension, and by protecting the territory from foreign

invasion. In 1853 Mr. Everett assured the Peruvian minister that we

should not hesitate to maintain the neutrality of the Isthmus in the

case of war between Peru and Colombia. In 1864 Colombia, which has

always been vigilant to avail itself of its privileges conferred by the

treaty, expressed its expectation that in the event of war between Peru

and Spain the United States would carry into effect the guaranty of

neutrality. There have been few administrations of the State Department

in which this treaty has not, either by the one side or the other, been

used as a basis of more or less important demands. It was said by Mr.

Fish in 1871 that the Department of State had reason to believe that an

attack upon Colombian sovereignty on the Isthmus had, on several

occasions, been averted by warning from this Government. In 1886, when

Colombia was under the menace of hostilities from Italy in the Cerruti

case, Mr. Bayard expressed the serious concern that the United States

could not but feel, that a European power should resort to force

against a sister republic of this hemisphere, as to the sovereign and

uninterrupted use of a part of whose territory we are guarantors under

the solemn faith of a treaty.



The above recital of facts establishes beyond question: First, that the

United States has for over half a century patiently and in good faith

carried out its obligations under the treaty of 1846; second, that when

for the first time it became possible for Colombia to do anything in

requital of the services thus repeatedly rendered to it for fifty-seven

years by the United States, the Colombian Government peremptorily and

offensively refused thus to do its part, even though to do so would

have been to its advantage and immeasurably to the advantage of the

State of Panama, at that time under its jurisdiction; third, that

throughout this period revolutions, riots, and factional disturbances

of every kind have occurred one after the other in almost uninterrupted

succession, some of them lasting for months and even for years, while

the central government was unable to put them down or to make peace

with the rebels; fourth, that these disturbances instead of showing any

sign of abating have tended to grow more numerous and more serious in

the immediate past; fifth, that the control of Colombia over the

Isthmus of Panama could not be maintained without the armed

intervention and assistance of the United States. In other words, the

Government of Colombia, though wholly unable to maintain order on the

Isthmus, has nevertheless declined to ratify a treaty the conclusion of

which opened the only chance to secure its own stability and to

guarantee permanent peace on, and the construction of a canal across,

the Isthmus.



Under such circumstances the Government of the United States would have

been guilty of folly and weakness, amounting in their sum to a crime

against the Nation, had it acted otherwise than it did when the

revolution of November 3 last took place in Panama. This great

enterprise of building the interoceanic canal can not be held up to

gratify the whims, or out of respect to the governmental impotence, or

to the even more sinister and evil political peculiarities, of people

who, though they dwell afar off, yet, against the wish of the actual

dwellers on the Isthmus, assert an unreal supremacy over the territory.

The possession of a territory fraught with such peculiar capacities as

the Isthmus in question carries with it obligations to mankind. The

course of events has shown that this canal can not be built by private

enterprise, or by any other nation than our own; therefore it must be

built by the United States.



Every effort has been made by the Government of the United States to

persuade Colombia to follow a course which was essentially not only to

our interests and to the interests of the world, but to the interests

of Colombia itself. These efforts have failed; and Colombia, by her

persistence in repulsing the advances that have been made, has forced

us, for the sake of our own honor, and of the interest and well-being,

not merely of our own people, but of the people of the Isthmus of

Panama and the people of the civilized countries of the world, to take

decisive steps to bring to an end a condition of affairs which had

become intolerable. The new Republic of Panama immediately offered to

negotiate a treaty with us. This treaty I herewith submit. By it our

interests are better safeguarded than in the treaty with Colombia which

was ratified by the Senate at its last session. It is better in its

terms than the treaties offered to us by the Republics of Nicaragua and

Costa Rica. At last the right to begin this great undertaking is made

available. Panama has done her part. All that remains is for the

American Congress to do its part, and forthwith this Republic will

enter upon the execution of a project colossal in its size and of

well-nigh incalculable possibilities for the good of this country and

the nations of mankind.



By the provisions of the treaty the United States guarantees and will

maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama. There is granted

to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of

a strip ten miles wide and extending three nautical miles into the sea

at either terminal, with all lands lying outside of the zone necessary

for the construction of the canal or for its auxiliary works, and with

the islands in the Bay of Panama. The cities of Panama and Colon are

not embraced in the canal zone, but the United States assumes their

sanitation and, in case of need, the maintenance of order therein; the

United States enjoys within the granted limits all the rights, power,

and authority which it would possess were it the sovereign of the

territory to the exclusion of the exercise of sovereign rights by the

Republic. All railway and canal property rights belonging to Panama and

needed for the canal pass to the United States, including any property

of the respective companies in the cities of Panama and Colon; the

works, property, and personnel of the canal and railways are exempted

from taxation as well in the cities of Panama and Colon as in the canal

zone and its dependencies. Free immigration of the personnel and

importation of supplies for the construction and operation of the canal

are granted. Provision is made for the use of military force and the

building of fortifications by the United States for the protection of

the transit. In other details, particularly as to the acquisition of

the interests of the New Panama Canal Company and the Panama Railway by

the United States and the condemnation of private property for the uses

of the canal, the stipulations of the Hay-Herran treaty are closely

followed, while the compensation to be given for these enlarged grants

remains the same, being ten millions of dollars payable on exchange of

ratifications; and, beginning nine years from that date, an annual

payment of $250,000 during the life of the convention.



***



State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 6, 1904



To the Senate and House of Representatives:



The Nation continues to enjoy noteworthy prosperity. Such prosperity is

of course primarily due to the high individual average of our

citizenship, taken together with our great natural resources; but an

important factor therein is the working of our long-continued

governmental policies. The people have emphatically expressed their

approval of the principles underlying these policies, and their desire

that these principles be kept substantially unchanged, although of

course applied in a progressive spirit to meet changing conditions.



The enlargement of scope of the functions of the National Government

required by our development as a nation involves, of course, increase

of expense; and the period of prosperity through which the country is

passing justifies expenditures for permanent improvements far greater

than would be wise in hard times. Battle ships and forts, public

buildings, and improved waterways are investments which should be made

when we have the money; but abundant revenues and a large surplus

always invite extravagance, and constant care should be taken to guard

against unnecessary increase of the ordinary expenses of government.

The cost of doing Government business should be regulated with the same

rigid scrutiny as the cost of doing a private business.



In the vast and complicated mechanism of our modern civilized life the

dominant note is the note of industrialism; and the relations of

capital and labor, and especially of organized capital and organized

labor, to each other and to the public at large come second in

importance only to the intimate questions of family life. Our peculiar

form of government, with its sharp division of authority between the

Nation and the several States, has been on the whole far more

advantageous to our development than a more strongly centralized

government. But it is undoubtedly responsible for much of the

difficulty of meeting with adequate legislation the new problems

presented by the total change in industrial conditions on this

continent during the last half century. In actual practice it has

proved exceedingly difficult, and in many cases impossible, to get

unanimity of wise action among the various States on these subjects.

From the very nature of the case this is especially true of the laws

affecting the employment of capital in huge masses.



With regard to labor the problem is no less important, but it is

simpler. As long as the States retain the primary control of the police

power the circumstances must be altogether extreme which require

interference by the Federal authorities, whether in the way of

safeguarding the rights of labor or in the way of seeing that wrong is

not done by unruly persons who shield themselves behind the name of

labor. If there is resistance to the Federal courts, interference with

the mails, or interstate commerce, or molestation of Federal property,

or if the State authorities in some crisis which they are unable to

face call for help, then the Federal Government may interfere; but

though such interference may be caused by a condition of things arising

out of trouble connected with some question of labor, the interference

itself simply takes the form of restoring order without regard to the

questions which have caused the breach of order--for to keep order is a

primary duty and in a time of disorder and violence all other questions

sink into abeyance until order has been restored. In the District of

Columbia and in the Territories the Federal law covers the entire field

of government; but the labor question is only acute in populous centers

of commerce, manufactures, or mining. Nevertheless, both in the

enactment and in the enforcement of law the Federal Government within

its restricted sphere should set an example to the State governments,

especially in a matter so vital as this affecting labor. I believe that

under modern industrial conditions it is often necessary, and even

where not necessary it is yet often wise, that there should be

organization of labor in order better to secure the rights of the

individual wage-worker. All encouragement should be given to any such

organization so long as it is conducted with a due and decent regard

for the rights of others. There are in this country some labor unions

which have habitually, and other labor unions which have often, been

among the most effective agents in working for good citizenship and for

uplifting the condition of those whose welfare should be closest to our

hearts. But when any labor union seeks improper ends, or seeks to

achieve proper ends by improper means, all good citizens and more

especially all honorable public servants must oppose the wrongdoing as

resolutely as they would oppose the wrongdoing of any great

corporation. Of course any violence, brutality, or corruption, should

not for one moment be tolerated. Wage-workers have an entire right to

organize and by all peaceful and honorable means to endeavor to

persuade their fellows to join with them in organizations. They have a

legal right, which, according to circumstances, may or may not be a

moral right, to refuse to work in company with men who decline to join

their organizations. They have under no circumstances the right to

commit violence upon these, whether capitalists or wage-workers, who

refuse to support their organizations, or who side with those with whom

they are at odds; for mob rule is intolerable in any form.



The wage-workers are peculiarly entitled to the protection and the

encouragement of the law. From the very nature of their occupation

railroad men, for instance, are liable to be maimed in doing the

legitimate work of their profession, unless the railroad companies are

required by law to make ample provision for their safety. The

Administration has been zealous in enforcing the existing law for this

purpose. That law should be amended and strengthened. Wherever the

National Government has power there should be a stringent employer's

liability law, which should apply to the Government itself where the

Government is an employer of labor.



In my Message to the Fifty-seventh Congress, at its second session, I

urged the passage of an employer's liability law for the District of

Columbia. I now renew that recommendation, and further recommend that

the Congress appoint a commission to make a comprehensive study of

employer's liability with the view of extending the provisions of a

great and constitutional law to all employments within the scope of

Federal power.



The Government has recognized heroism upon the water, and bestows

medals of honor upon those persons who by extreme and heroic daring

have endangered their lives in saving, or endeavoring to save, lives

from the perils of the sea in the waters over which the United States

has jurisdiction, or upon an American vessel. This recognition should

be extended to cover cases of conspicuous bravery and self-sacrifice in

the saving of life in private employments under the jurisdiction of the

United States, and particularly in the land commerce of the Nation.



The ever-increasing casualty list upon our railroads is a matter of

grave public concern, and urgently calls for action by the Congress. In

the matter of speed and comfort of railway travel our railroads give at

least as good service as those of any other nation, and there is no

reason why this service should not also be as safe as human ingenuity

can make it. Many of our leading roads have been foremost in the

adoption of the most approved safeguards for the protection of

travelers and employees, yet the list of clearly avoidable accidents

continues unduly large. The passage of a law requiring the adoption of

a block-signal system has been proposed to the Congress. I earnestly

concur in that recommendation, and would also point out to the Congress

the urgent need of legislation in the interest of the public safety

limiting the hours of labor for railroad employees in train service

upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce, and providing that only

trained and experienced persons be employed in positions of

responsibility connected with the operation of trains. Of course

nothing can ever prevent accidents caused by human weakness or

misconduct; and there should be drastic punishment for any railroad

employee, whether officer or man, who by issuance of wrong orders or by

disobedience of orders causes disaster. The law of 1901, requiring

interstate railroads to make monthly reports of all accidents to

passengers and employees on duty, should also be amended so as to

empower the Government to make a personal investigation, through proper

officers, of all accidents involving loss of life which seem to require

investigation, with a requirement that the results of such

investigation be made public.



The safety-appliance law, as amended by the act of March 2, 1903, has

proved beneficial to railway employees, and in order that its

provisions may be properly carried out, the force of inspectors

provided for by appropriation should be largely increased. This service

is analogous to the Steamboat-Inspection Service, and deals with even

more important interests. It has passed the experimental stage and

demonstrated its utility, and should receive generous recognition by

the Congress.



There is no objection to employees of the Government forming or

belonging to unions; but the Government can neither discriminate for

nor discriminate against nonunion men who are in its employment, or who

seek to be employed under it. Moreover, it is a very grave impropriety

for Government employees to band themselves together for the purpose of

extorting improperly high salaries from the Government. Especially is

this true of those within the classified service. The letter carriers,

both municipal and rural, are as a whole an excellent body of public

servants. They should be amply paid. But their payment must be obtained

by arguing their claims fairly and honorably before the Congress, and

not by banding together for the defeat of those Congressmen who refuse

to give promises which they can not in conscience give. The

Administration has already taken steps to prevent and punish abuses of

this nature; but it will be wise for the Congress to supplement this

action by legislation.



Much can be done by the Government in labor matters merely by giving

publicity to certain conditions. The Bureau of Labor has done excellent

work of this kind in many different directions. I shall shortly lay

before you in a special message the full report of the investigation of

the Bureau of Labor into the Colorado mining strike, as this was a

strike in which certain very evil forces, which are more or less at

work everywhere under the conditions of modern industrialism, became

startlingly prominent. It is greatly to be wished that the Department

of Commerce and Labor, through the Labor Bureau, should compile and

arrange for the Congress a list of the labor laws of the various

States, and should be given the means to investigate and report to the

Congress upon the labor conditions in the manufacturing and mining

regions throughout the country, both as to wages, as to hours of labor,

as to the labor of women and children, and as to the effect in the

various labor centers of immigration from abroad. In this investigation

especial attention should be paid to the conditions of child labor and

child-labor legislation in the several States. Such an investigation

must necessarily take into account many of the problems with which this

question of child labor is connected. These problems can be actually

met, in most cases, only by the States themselves; but the lack of

proper legislation in one State in such a matter as child labor often

renders it excessively difficult to establish protective restriction

upon the work in another State having the same industries, so that the

worst tends to drag down the better. For this reason, it would be well

for the Nation at least to endeavor to secure comprehensive information

as to the conditions of labor of children in the different States. Such

investigation and publication by the National Government would tend

toward the securing of approximately uniform legislation of the proper

character among the several States.



When we come to deal with great corporations the need for the

Government to act directly is far greater than in the case of labor,

because great corporations can become such only by engaging in

interstate commerce, and interstate commerce is peculiarly the field of

the General Government. It is an absurdity to expect to eliminate the

abuses in great corporations by State action. It is difficult to be

patient with an argument that such matters should be left to the States

because more than one State pursues the policy of creating on easy

terms corporations which are never operated within that State at all,

but in other States whose laws they ignore. The National Government

alone can deal adequately with these great corporations. To try to deal

with them in an intemperate, destructive, or demagogic spirit would, in

all probability, mean that nothing whatever would be accomplished, and,

with absolute certainty, that if anything were accomplished it would be

of a harmful nature. The American people need to continue to show the

very qualities that they have shown--that is, moderation, good sense,

the earnest desire to avoid doing any damage, and yet the quiet

determination to proceed, step by step, without halt and without hurry,

in eliminating or at least in minimizing whatever of mischief or evil

there is to interstate commerce in the conduct of great corporations.

They are acting in no spirit of hostility to wealth, either individual

or corporate. They are not against the rich man any more than against

the poor man. On the contrary, they are friendly alike toward rich man

and toward poor man, provided only that each acts in a spirit of

justice and decency toward his fellows. Great corporations are

necessary, and only men of great and singular mental power can manage

such corporations successfully, and such men must have great rewards.

But these corporations should be managed with due regard to the

interest of the public as a whole. Where this can be done under the

present laws it must be done. Where these laws come short others should

be enacted to supplement them.



Yet we must never forget the determining factor in every kind of work,

of head or hand, must be the man's own good sense, courage, and

kindliness. More important than any legislation is the gradual growth

of a feeling of responsibility and forbearance among capitalists, and

wage-workers alike; a feeling of respect on the part of each man for

the rights of others; a feeling of broad community of interest, not

merely of capitalists among themselves, and of wage-workers among

themselves, but of capitalists and wage-workers in their relations to

each other, and of both in their relations to their fellows who with

them make up the body politic. There are many captains of industry,

many labor leaders, who realize this. A recent speech by the president

of one of our great railroad systems to the employees of that system

contains sound common sense. It rims in part as follows:



"It is my belief we can better serve each other, better understand the

man as well as his business, when meeting face to face, exchanging

views, and realizing from personal contact we serve but one interest,

that of our mutual prosperity.



"Serious misunderstandings can not occur where personal good will

exists and opportunity for personal explanation is present.



"In my early business life I had experience with men of affairs of a

character to make me desire to avoid creating a like feeling of

resentment to myself and the interests in my charge, should fortune

ever place me in authority, and I am solicitous of a measure of

confidence on the part of the public and our employees that I shall

hope may be warranted by the fairness and good fellowship I intend

shall prevail in our relationship.



"But do not feel I am disposed to grant unreasonable requests, spend

the money of our company unnecessarily or without value received, nor

expect the days of mistakes are disappearing, or that cause for

complaint will not continually occur; simply to correct such abuses as

may be discovered, to better conditions as fast as reasonably may be

expected, constantly striving, with varying success, for that

improvement we all desire, to convince you there is a force at work in

the right direction, all the time making progress--is the disposition

with which I have come among you, asking your good will and

encouragement.



"The day has gone by when a corporation can be handled successfully in

defiance of the public will, even though that will be unreasonable and

wrong. A public may be led, but not driven, and I prefer to go with it

and shape or modify, in a measure, its opinion, rather than be swept

from my bearings, with loss to myself and the interests in my charge.



"Violent prejudice exists towards corporate activity and capital today,

much of it founded in reason, more in apprehension, and a large measure

is due to the personal traits of arbitrary, unreasonable, incompetent,

and offensive men in positions of authority. The accomplishment of

results by indirection, the endeavor to thwart the intention, if not

the expressed letter of the law (the will of the people), a disregard

of the rights of others, a disposition to withhold what is due, to

force by main strength or inactivity a result not justified, depending

upon the weakness of the claimant and his indisposition to become

involved in litigation, has created a sentiment harmful in the extreme

and a disposition to consider anything fair that gives gain to the

individual at the expense of the company.



"If corporations are to continue to do the world's work, as they are

best fitted to, these qualities in their representatives that have

resulted in the present prejudice against them must be relegated to the

background. The corporations must come out into the open and see and be

seen. They must take the public into their confidence and ask for what

they want, and no more, and be prepared to explain satisfactorily what

advantage will accrue to the public if they are given their desires;

for they are permitted to exist not that they may make money solely,

but that they may effectively serve those from whom they derive their

power.



"Publicity, and not secrecy, will win hereafter, and laws be construed

by their intent and not by their letter, otherwise public utilities

will be owned and operated by the public which created them, even

though the service be less efficient and the result less satisfactory

from a financial standpoint."



The Bureau of Corporations has made careful preliminary investigation

of many important corporations. It will make a special report on the

beef industry.



The policy of the Bureau is to accomplish the purposes of its creation

by co-operation, not antagonism; by making constructive legislation,

not destructive prosecution, the immediate object of its inquiries; by

conservative investigation of law and fact, and by refusal to issue

incomplete and hence necessarily inaccurate reports. Its policy being

thus one of open inquiry into, and not attack upon, business, the

Bureau has been able to gain not only the confidence, but, better

still, the cooperation of men engaged in legitimate business.



The Bureau offers to the Congress the means of getting at the cost of

production of our various great staples of commerce.



Of necessity the careful investigation of special corporations will

afford the Commissioner knowledge of certain business facts, the

publication of which might be an improper infringement of private

rights. The method of making public the results of these investigations

affords, under the law, a means for the protection of private rights.

The Congress will have all facts except such as would give to another

corporation information which would injure the legitimate business of a

competitor and destroy the incentive for individual superiority and

thrift.



The Bureau has also made exhaustive examinations into the legal

condition under which corporate business is carried on in the various

States; into all judicial decisions on the subject; and into the

various systems of corporate taxation in use. I call special attention

to the report of the chief of the Bureau; and I earnestly ask that the

Congress carefully consider the report and recommendations of the

Commissioner on this subject.



The business of insurance vitally affects the great mass of the people

of the United States and is national and not local in its application.

It involves a multitude of transactions among the people of the

different States and between American companies and foreign

governments. I urge that the Congress carefully consider whether the

power of the Bureau of Corporations can not constitutionally be

extended to cover interstate transactions in insurance.



Above all else, we must strive to keep the highways of commerce open to

all on equal terms; and to do this it is necessary to put a complete

stop to all rebates. Whether the shipper or the railroad is to blame

makes no difference; the rebate must be stopped, the abuses of the

private car and private terminal-track and side-track systems must be

stopped, and the legislation of the Fifty-eighth Congress which

declares it to be unlawful for any person or corporation to offer,

grant, give, solicit, accept, or receive any rebate, concession, or

discrimination in respect of the transportation of any property in

interstate or foreign commerce whereby such property shall by any

device whatever be transported at a less rate than that named in the

tariffs published by the carrier must be enforced. For some time after

the enactment of the Act to Regulate Commerce it remained a mooted

question whether that act conferred upon the Interstate Commerce

Commission the power, after it had found a challenged rate to be

unreasonable, to declare what thereafter should, prima facie, be the

reasonable maximum rate for the transportation in dispute. The Supreme

Court finally resolved that question in the negative, so that as the

law now stands the Commission simply possess the bare power to denounce

a particular rate as unreasonable. While I am of the opinion that at

present it would be undesirable, if it were not impracticable, finally

to clothe the Commission with general authority to fix railroad rates,

I do believe that, as a fair security to shippers, the Commission

should be vested with the power, where a given rate has been challenged

and after full hearing found to be unreasonable, to decide, subject to

judicial review, what shall be a reasonable rate to take its place; the

ruling of the Commission to take effect immediately, and to obtain

unless and until it is reversed by the court of review. The Government

must in increasing degree supervise and regulate the workings of the

railways engaged in interstate commerce; and such increased supervision

is the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one

hand or a still more radical policy on the other. In my judgment the

most important legislative act now needed as regards the regulation of

corporations is this act to confer on the Interstate Commerce

Commission the power to revise rates and regulations, the revised rate

to at once go into effect, and stay in effect unless and until the

court of review reverses it.



Steamship companies engaged in interstate commerce and protected in our

coastwise trade should be held to a strict observance of the interstate

commerce act.



In pursuing the set plan to make the city of Washington an example to

other American municipalities several points should be kept in mind by

the legislators. In the first place, the people of this country should

clearly understand that no amount of industrial prosperity, and above

all no leadership in international industrial competition, can in any

way atone for the sapping of the vitality of those who are usually

spoken of as the working classes. The farmers, the mechanics, the

skilled and unskilled laborers, the small shop keepers, make up the

bulk of the population of any country; and upon their well-being,

generation after generation, the well-being of the country and the race

depends. Rapid development in wealth and industrial leadership is a

good thing, but only if it goes hand in hand with improvement, and not

deterioration, physical and moral. The over-crowding of cities and the

draining of country districts are unhealthy and even dangerous symptoms

in our modern life. We should not permit overcrowding in cities. In

certain European cities it is provided by law that the population of

towns shall not be allowed to exceed a very limited density for a given

area, so that the increase in density must be continually pushed back

into a broad zone around the center of the town, this zone having great

avenues or parks within it. The death-rate statistics show a terrible

increase in mortality, and especially in infant mortality, in

overcrowded tenements. The poorest families in tenement houses live in

one room, and it appears that in these one-room tenements the average

death rate for a number of given cities at home and abroad is about

twice what it is in a two-room tenement, four times what it is in a

three-room tenement, and eight times what it is in a tenement

consisting of four rooms or over. These figures vary somewhat for

different cities, but they approximate in each city those given above;

and in all cases the increase of mortality, and especially of infant

mortality, with the decrease in the number of rooms used by the family

and with the consequent overcrowding is startling. The slum exacts a

heavy total of death from those who dwell therein; and this is the case

not merely in the great crowded slums of high buildings in New York and

Chicago, but in the alley slums of Washington. In Washington people can

not afford to ignore the harm that this causes. No Christian and

civilized community can afford to show a happy-go-lucky lack of concern

for the youth of to-day; for, if so, the community will have to pay a

terrible penalty of financial burden and social degradation in the

to-morrow. There should be severe child-labor and factory-inspection

laws. It is very desirable that married women should not work in

factories. The prime duty of the man is to work, to be the breadwinner;

the prime duty of the woman is to be the mother, the housewife. All

questions of tariff and finance sink into utter insignificance when

compared with the tremendous, the vital importance of trying to shape

conditions so that these two duties of the man and of the woman can be

fulfilled under reasonably favorable circumstances. If a race does not

have plenty of children, or if the children do not grow up, or if when

they grow up they are unhealthy in body and stunted or vicious in mind,

then that race is decadent, and no heaping up of wealth, no splendor of

momentary material prosperity, can avail in any degree as offsets.  The

Congress has the same power of legislation for the District of Columbia

which the State legislatures have for the various States. The problems

incident to our highly complex modern industrial civilization, with its

manifold and perplexing tendencies both for good and for evil, are far

less sharply accentuated in the city of Washington than in most other

cities. For this very reason it is easier to deal with the various

phases of these problems in Washington, and the District of Columbia

government should be a model for the other municipal governments of the

Nation, in all such matters as supervision of the housing of the poor,

the creation of small parks in the districts inhabited by the poor, in

laws affecting labor, in laws providing for the taking care of the

children, in truant laws, and in providing schools.



In the vital matter of taking care of children, much advantage could be

gained by a careful study of what has been accomplished in such States

as Illinois and Colorado by the juvenile courts. The work of the

juvenile court is really a work of character building. It is now

generally recognized that young boys and young girls who go wrong

should not be treated as criminals, not even necessarily as needing

reformation, but rather as needing to have their characters formed, and

for this end to have them tested and developed by a system of

probation. Much admirable work has been done in many of our

Commonwealths by earnest men and women who have made a special study of

the needs of those classes of children which furnish the greatest

number of juvenile offenders, and therefore the greatest number of

adult offenders; and by their aid, and by profiting by the experiences

of the different States and cities in these matters, it would be easy

to provide a good code for the District of Columbia.



Several considerations suggest the need for a systematic investigation

into and improvement of housing conditions in Washington. The hidden

residential alleys are breeding grounds of vice and disease, and should

be opened into minor streets. For a number of years influential

citizens have joined with the District Commissioners in the vain

endeavor to secure laws permitting the condemnation of insanitary

dwellings. The local death rates, especially from preventable diseases,

are so unduly high as to suggest that the exceptional wholesomeness of

Washington's better sections is offset by bad conditions in her poorer

neighborhoods. A special "Commission on Housing and Health Conditions

in the National Capital" would not only bring about the reformation of

existing evils, but would also formulate an appropriate building code

to protect the city from mammoth brick tenements and other evils which

threaten to develop here as they have in other cities. That the

Nation's Capital should be made a model for other municipalities is an

ideal which appeals to all patriotic citizens everywhere, and such a

special Commission might map out and organize the city's future

development in lines of civic social service, just as Major L'Enfant

and the recent Park Commission planned the arrangement of her streets

and parks.



It is mortifying to remember that Washington has no compulsory school

attendance law and that careful inquiries indicate the habitual absence

from school of some twenty per cent of all children between the ages of

eight and fourteen. It must be evident to all who consider the problems

of neglected child life or the benefits of compulsory education in

other cities that one of the most urgent needs of the National Capital

is a law requiring the school attendance of all children, this law to

be enforced by attendance agents directed by the board of education.



Public play grounds are necessary means for the development of

wholesome citizenship in modern cities. It is important that the work

inaugurated here through voluntary efforts should be taken up and

extended through Congressional appropriation of funds sufficient to

equip and maintain numerous convenient small play grounds upon land

which can be secured without purchase or rental. It is also desirable

that small vacant places be purchased and reserved as small-park play

grounds in densely settled sections of the city which now have no

public open spaces and are destined soon to be built up solidly. All

these needs should be met immediately. To meet them would entail

expenses; but a corresponding saving could be made by stopping the

building of streets and levelling of ground for purposes largely

speculative in outlying parts of the city.



There are certain offenders, whose criminality takes the shape of

brutality and cruelty towards the weak, who need a special type of

punishment. The wife-beater, for example, is inadequately punished by

imprisonment; for imprisonment may often mean nothing to him, while it

may cause hunger and want to the wife and children who have been the

victims of his brutality. Probably some form of corporal punishment

would be the most adequate way of meeting this kind of crime.



The Department of Agriculture has grown into an educational institution

with a faculty of two thousand specialists making research into all the

sciences of production. The Congress appropriates, directly and

indirectly, six millions of dollars annually to carry on this work. It

reaches every State and Territory in the Union and the islands of the

sea lately come under our flag. Co-operation is had with the State

experiment stations, and with many other institutions and individuals.

The world is carefully searched for new varieties of grains, fruits,

grasses, vegetables, trees, and shrubs, suitable to various localities

in our country; and marked benefit to our producers has resulted.



The activities of our age in lines of research have reached the tillers

of the soil and inspired them with ambition to know more of the

principles that govern the forces of nature with which they have to

deal. Nearly half of the people of this country devote their energies

to growing things from the soil. Until a recent date little has been

done to prepare these millions for their life work. In most lines of

human activity college-trained men are the leaders. The farmer had no

opportunity for special training until the Congress made provision for

it forty years ago. During these years progress has been made and

teachers have been prepared. Over five thousand students are in

attendance at our State agricultural colleges. The Federal Government

expends ten millions of dollars annually toward this education and for

research in Washington and in the several States and Territories. The

Department of Agriculture has given facilities for post-graduate work

to five hundred young men during the last seven years, preparing them

for advance lines of work in the Department and in the State

institutions.



The facts concerning meteorology and its relations to plant and animal

life are being systematically inquired into. Temperature and moisture

are controlling factors in all agricultural operations. The seasons of

the cyclones of the Caribbean Sea and their paths are being forecasted

with increasing accuracy. The cold winds that come from the north are

anticipated and their times and intensity told to farmers, gardeners,

and fruiterers in all southern localities.



We sell two hundred and fifty million dollars' worth of animals and

animal products to foreign countries every year, in addition to

supplying our own people more cheaply and abundantly than any other

nation is able to provide for its people. Successful manufacturing

depends primarily on cheap food, which accounts to a considerable

extent for our growth in this direction. The Department of Agriculture,

by careful inspection of meats, guards the health of our people and

gives clean bills of health to deserving exports; it is prepared to

deal promptly with imported diseases of animals, and maintain the

excellence of our flocks and herds in this respect. There should be an

annual census of the live stock of the Nation.



We sell abroad about six hundred million dollars' worth of plants and

their products every year. Strenuous efforts are being made to import

from foreign countries such grains as are suitable to our varying

localities. Seven years ago we bought three-fourths of our rice; by

helping the rice growers on the Gulf coast to secure seeds from the

Orient suited to their conditions, and by giving them adequate

protection, they now supply home demand and export to the islands of

the Caribbean Sea and to other rice-growing countries. Wheat and other

grains have been imported from light-rainfall countries to our lands in

the West and Southwest that have not grown crops because of light

precipitation, resulting in an extensive addition to our cropping area

and our home-making territory that can not be irrigated. Ten million

bushels of first-class macaroni wheat were grown from these

experimental importations last year. Fruits suitable to our soils and

climates are being imported from all the countries of the Old

World--the fig from Turkey, the almond from Spain, the date from

Algeria, the mango from India. We are helping our fruit growers to get

their crops into European markets by studying methods of preservation

through refrigeration, packing, and handling, which have been quite

successful. We are helping our hop growers by importing varieties that

ripen earlier and later than the kinds they have been raising, thereby

lengthening the harvesting season. The cotton crop of the country is

threatened with root rot, the bollworm, and the boll weevil. Our

pathologists will find immune varieties that will resist the root

disease, and the bollworm can be dealt with, but the boll weevil is a

serious menace to the cotton crop. It is a Central American insect that

has become acclimated in Texas and has done great damage. A scientist

of the Department of Agriculture has found the weevil at home in

Guatemala being kept in check by an ant, which has been brought to our

cotton fields for observation. It is hoped that it may serve a good

purpose.



The soils of the country are getting attention from the farmer's

standpoint, and interesting results are following. We have duplicates

of the soils that grow the wrapper tobacco in Sumatra and the filler

tobacco in Cuba. It will be only a question of time when the large

amounts paid to these countries will be paid to our own people. The

reclamation of alkali lands is progressing, to give object lessons to

our people in methods by which worthless lands may be made productive.



The insect friends and enemies of the farmer are getting attention. The

enemy of the San Jose scale was found near the Great Wall of China, and

is now cleaning up all our orchards. The fig-fertilizing insect

imported from Turkey has helped to establish an industry in California

that amounts to from fifty to one hundred tons of dried figs annually,

and is extending over the Pacific coast. A parasitic fly from South

Africa is keeping in subjection the black scale, the worst pest of the

orange and lemon industry in California.



Careful preliminary work is being done towards producing our own silk.

The mulberry is being distributed in large numbers, eggs are being

imported and distributed, improved reels were imported from Europe last

year, and two expert reelers were brought to Washington to reel the

crop of cocoons and teach the art to our own people.



The crop-reporting system of the Department of Agriculture is being

brought closer to accuracy every year. It has two hundred and fifty

thousand reporters selected from people in eight vocations in life. It

has arrangements with most European countries for interchange of

estimates, so that our people may know as nearly as possible with what

they must compete.



During the two and a half years that have elapsed since the passage of

the reclamation act rapid progress has been made in the surveys and

examinations of the opportunities for reclamation in the thirteen

States and three Territories of the arid West. Construction has already

been begun on the largest and most important of the irrigation works,

and plans are being completed for works which will utilize the funds

now available. The operations are being carried on by the Reclamation

Service, a corps of engineers selected through competitive

civil-service examinations. This corps includes experienced consulting

and constructing engineers as well as various experts in mechanical and

legal matters, and is composed largely of men who have spent most of

their lives in practical affairs connected with irrigation. The larger

problems have been solved and it now remains to execute with care,

economy, and thoroughness the work which has been laid out. All

important details are being carefully considered by boards of

consulting engineers, selected for their thorough knowledge and

practical experience. Each project is taken up on the ground by

competent men and viewed from the standpoint of the creation of

prosperous homes, and of promptly refunding to the Treasury the cost of

construction. The reclamation act has been found to be remarkably

complete and effective, and so broad in its provisions that a wide

range of undertakings has been possible under it. At the same time,

economy is guaranteed by the fact that the funds must ultimately be

returned to be used over again.



It is the cardinal principle of the forest-reserve policy of this

Administration that the reserves are for use. Whatever interferes with

the use of their resources is to be avoided by every possible means.

But these resources must be used in such a way as to make them

permanent.



The forest policy of the Government is just now a subject of vivid

public interest throughout the West and to the people of the United

States in general. The forest reserves themselves are of extreme value

to the present as well as to the future welfare of all the western

public-land States. They powerfully affect the use and disposal of the

public lands. They are of special importance because they preserve the

water supply and the supply of timber for domestic purposes, and so

promote settlement under the reclamation act. Indeed, they are

essential to the welfare of every one of the great interests of the

West.



Forest reserves are created for two principal purposes. The first is to

preserve the water supply. This is their most important use. The

principal users of the water thus preserved are irrigation ranchers and

settlers, cities and towns to whom their municipal water supplies are

of the very first importance, users and furnishers of water power, and

the users of water for domestic, manufacturing, mining, and other

purposes. All these are directly dependent upon the forest reserves.



The second reason for which forest reserves are created is to preserve

the timber supply for various classes of wood users. Among the more

important of these are settlers under the reclamation act and other

acts, for whom a cheap and accessible supply of timber for domestic

uses is absolutely necessary; miners and prospectors, who are in

serious danger of losing their timber supply by fire or through export

by lumber companies when timber lands adjacent to their mines pass into

private ownership; lumbermen, transportation companies, builders, and

commercial interests in general.



Although the wisdom of creating forest reserves is nearly everywhere

heartily recognized, yet in a few localities there has been

misunderstanding and complaint. The following statement is therefore

desirable:



The forest reserve policy can be successful only when it has the full

support of the people of the West. It can not safely, and should not in

any case, be imposed upon them against their will. But neither can we

accept the views of those whose only interest in the forest is

temporary; who are anxious to reap what they have not sown and then

move away, leaving desolation behind them. On the contrary, it is

everywhere and always the interest of the permanent settler and the

permanent business man, the man with a stake in the country, which must

be considered and which must decide.



The making of forest reserves within railroad and wagon-road land-grant

limits will hereafter, as for the past three years, be so managed as to

prevent the issue, under the act of June 4, 1897, of base for exchange

or lieu selection (usually called scrip). In all cases where forest

reserves within areas covered by land grants appear to be essential to

the prosperity of settlers, miners, or others, the Government lands

within such proposed forest reserves will, as in the recent past, be

withdrawn from sale or entry pending the completion of such

negotiations with the owners of the land grants as will prevent the

creation of so-called scrip.



It was formerly the custom to make forest reserves without first

getting definite and detailed information as to the character of land

and timber within their boundaries. This method of action often

resulted in badly chosen boundaries and consequent injustice to

settlers and others. Therefore this Administration adopted the present

method of first withdrawing the land from disposal, followed by careful

examination on the ground and the preparation of detailed maps and

descriptions, before any forest reserve is created.



I have repeatedly called attention to the confusion which exists in

Government forest matters because the work is scattered among three

independent organizations. The United States is the only one of the

great nations in which the forest work of the Government is not

concentrated under one department, in consonance with the plainest

dictates of good administration and common sense. The present

arrangement is bad from every point of view. Merely to mention it is to

prove that it should be terminated at once. As I have repeatedly

recommended, all the forest work of the Government should be

concentrated in the Department of Agriculture, where the larger part of

that work is already done, where practically all of the trained

foresters of the Government are employed, where chiefly in Washington

there is comprehensive first-class knowledge of the problems of the

reserves acquired on the ground, where all problems relating to growth

from the soil are already gathered, and where all the sciences

auxiliary to forestry are at hand for prompt and effective

co-operation. These reasons are decisive in themselves, but it should

be added that the great organizations of citizens whose interests are

affected by the forest-reserves, such as the National Live Stock

Association, the National Wool Growers' Association, the American

Mining Congress, the national Irrigation Congress, and the National

Board of Trade, have uniformly, emphatically, and most of them

repeatedly, expressed themselves in favor of placing all Government

forest work in the Department of Agriculture because of the peculiar

adaptation of that Department for it. It is true, also, that the forest

services of nearly all the great nations of the world are under the

respective departments of agriculture, while in but two of the smaller

nations and in one colony are they under the department of the

interior. This is the result of long and varied experience and it

agrees fully with the requirements of good administration in our own

case.



The creation of a forest service in the Department of Agriculture will

have for its important results:



First. A better handling of all forest work; because it will be under a

single head, and because the vast and indispensable experience of the

Department in all matters pertaining to the forest reserves, to

forestry in general, and to other forms of production from the soil,

will be easily and rapidly accessible.



Second. The reserves themselves, being handled from the point of view

of the man in the field, instead of the man in the office, will be more

easily and more widely useful to the people of the West than has been

the case hitherto.



Third. Within a comparatively short time the reserves will become

self-supporting. This is important, because continually and rapidly

increasing appropriations will be necessary for the proper care of this

exceedingly important interest of the Nation, and they can and should

he offset by returns from the National forests. Under similar

circumstances the forest possessions of other great nations form an

important source of revenue to their governments.



Every administrative officer concerned is convinced of the necessity

for the proposed consolidation of forest work in the Department of

Agriculture, and I myself have urged it more than once in former

messages. Again I commend it to the early and favorable consideration

of the Congress. The interests of the Nation at large and of the West

in particular have suffered greatly because of the delay.



I call the attention of the Congress again to the report and

recommendation of the Commission on the Public Lands forwarded by me to

the second session of the present Congress. The Commission has

prosecuted its investigations actively during the past season, and a

second report is now in an advanced stage of preparation.



In connection with the work of the forest reserves I desire again to

urge upon the Congress the importance of authorizing the President to

set aside certain portions of these reserves or other public lands as

game refuges for the preservation of the bison, the wapiti, and other

large beasts once so abundant in our woods and mountains and on our

great plains, and now tending toward extinction. Every support should

be given to the authorities of the Yellowstone Park in their successful

efforts at preserving the large creatures therein; and at very little

expense portions of the public domain in other regions which are wholly

unsuited to agricultural settlement could be similarly utilized. We owe

it to future generations to keep alive the noble and beautiful

creatures which by their presence add such distinctive character to the

American wilderness. The limits of the Yellowstone Park should be

extended southwards. The Canyon of the Colorado should be made a

national park; and the national-park system should include the Yosemite

and as many as possible of the groves of giant trees in California.



The veterans of the Civil War have a claim upon the Nation such as no

other body of our citizens possess. The Pension Bureau has never in its

history been managed in a more satisfactory manner than is now the

case.



The progress of the Indians toward civilization, though not rapid, is

perhaps all that could be hoped for in view of the circumstances.

Within the past year many tribes have shown, in a degree greater than

ever before, an appreciation of the necessity of work. This changed

attitude is in part due to the policy recently pursued of reducing the

amount of subsistence to the Indians, and thus forcing them, through

sheer necessity, to work for a livelihood. The policy, though severe,

is a useful one, but it is to be exercised only with judgment and with

a full understanding of the conditions which exist in each community

for which it is intended. On or near the Indian reservations there is

usually very little demand for labor, and if the Indians are to earn

their living and when work can not be furnished from outside (which is

always preferable), then it must be furnished by the Government.

Practical instruction of this kind would in a few years result in the

forming of habits of regular industry, which would render the Indian a

producer and would effect a great reduction in the cost of his

maintenance.



It is commonly declared that the slow advance of the Indians is due to

the unsatisfactory character of the men appointed to take immediate

charge of them, and to some extent this is true. While the standard of

the employees in the Indian Service shows great improvement over that

of bygone years, and while actual corruption or flagrant dishonesty is

now the rare exception, it is nevertheless the fact that the salaries

paid Indian agents are not large enough to attract the best men to that

field of work. To achieve satisfactory results the official in charge

of an Indian tribe should possess the high qualifications which are

required in the manager of a large business, but only in exceptional

cases is it possible to secure men of such a type for these positions.

Much better service, however, might be obtained from those now holding

the places were it practicable to get out of them the best that is in

them, and this should be done by bringing them constantly into closer

touch with their superior officers. An agent who has been content to

draw his salary, giving in return the least possible equivalent in

effort and service, may, by proper treatment, by suggestion and

encouragement, or persistent urging, be stimulated to greater effort

and induced to take a more active personal interest in his work.



Under existing conditions an Indian agent in the distant West may be

wholly out of touch with the office of the Indian Bureau. He may very

well feel that no one takes a personal interest in him or his efforts.

Certain routine duties in the way of reports and accounts are required

of him, but there is no one with whom he may intelligently consult on

matters vital to his work, except after long delay. Such a man would be

greatly encouraged and aided by personal contact with some one whose

interest in Indian affairs and whose authority in the Indian Bureau

were greater than his own, and such contact would be certain to arouse

and constantly increase the interest he takes in his work.



The distance which separates the agents--the workers in the field--from

the Indian Office in Washington is a chief obstacle to Indian progress.

Whatever shall more closely unite these two branches of the Indian

Service, and shall enable them to co-operate more heartily and more

effectively, will be for the increased efficiency of the work and the

betterment of the race for whose improvement the Indian Bureau was

established. The appointment of a field assistant to the Commissioner

of Indian Affairs would be certain to insure this good end. Such an

official, if possessed of the requisite energy and deep interest in the

work, would be a most efficient factor in bringing into closer

relationship and a more direct union of effort the Bureau in Washington

and its agents in the field; and with the co-operation of its branches

thus secured the Indian Bureau would, in measure fuller than ever

before, lift up the savage toward that self-help and self-reliance

which constitute the man.



In 1907 there will be held at Hampton Roads the tricentennial

celebration of the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, with which the

history of what has now become the United States really begins. I

commend this to your favorable consideration. It is an event of prime

historic significance, in which all the people of the United States

should feel, and should show, great and general interest.



In the Post-Office Department the service has increased in efficiency,

and conditions as to revenue and expenditure continue satisfactory. The

increase of revenue during the year was $9,358,181.10, or 6.9 per cent,

the total receipts amounting to $143,382,624.34. The expenditures were

$152,362,116.70, an increase of about 9 per cent over the previous

year, being thus $8,979,492.36 in excess of the current revenue.

Included in these expenditures was a total appropriation of

$152,956,637.35 for the continuation and extension of the rural

free-delivery service, which was an increase of $4,902,237.35 over the

amount expended for this purpose in the preceding fiscal year. Large as

this expenditure has been the beneficent results attained in extending

the free distribution of mails to the residents of rural districts have

justified the wisdom of the outlay. Statistics brought down to the 1st

of October, 1904, show that on that date there were 27,138 rural routes

established, serving approximately 12,000,000 of people in rural

districts remote from post-offices, and that there were pending at that

time 3,859 petitions for the establishment of new rural routes.

Unquestionably some part of the general increase in receipts is due to

the increased postal facilities which the rural service has afforded.

The revenues have also been aided greatly by amendments in the

classification of mail matter, and the curtailment of abuses of the

second-class mailing privilege. The average increase in the volume of

mail matter for the period beginning with 1902 and ending June, 1905

(that portion for 1905 being estimated), is 40.47 per cent, as compared

with 25.46 per cent for the period immediately preceding, and 15.92 for

the four-year period immediately preceding that.



Our consular system needs improvement. Salaries should be substituted

for fees, and the proper classification, grading, and transfer of

consular officers should be provided. I am not prepared to say that a

competitive system of examinations for appointment would work well; but

by law it should be provided that consuls should be familiar, according

to places for which they apply, with the French, German, or Spanish

languages, and should possess acquaintance with the resources of the

United States.



The collection of objects of art contemplated in section 5586 of the

Revised Statutes should be designated and established as a National

Gallery of Art; and the Smithsonian Institution should be authorized to

accept any additions to said collection that may be received by gift,

bequest, or devise.



It is desirable to enact a proper National quarantine law. It is most

undesirable that a State should on its own initiative enforce

quarantine regulations which are in effect a restriction upon

interstate and international commerce. The question should properly be

assumed by the Government alone. The Surgeon-General of the National

Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service has repeatedly and

convincingly set forth the need for such legislation.



I call your attention to the great extravagance in printing and binding

Government publications, and especially to the fact that altogether too

many of these publications are printed. There is a constant tendency to

increase their number and their volume. It is an understatement to say

that no appreciable harm would be caused by, and substantial benefit

would accrue from, decreasing the amount of printing now done by at

least one-half. Probably the great majority of the Government reports

and the like now printed are never read at all, and furthermore the

printing of much of the material contained in many of the remaining

ones serves no useful purpose whatever.



The attention of the Congress should be especially given to the

currency question, and that the standing committees on the matter in

the two Houses charged with the duty, take up the matter of our

currency and see whether it is not possible to secure an agreement in

the business world for bettering the system; the committees should

consider the question of the retirement of the greenbacks and the

problem of securing in our currency such elasticity as is consistent

with safety. Every silver dollar should be made by law redeemable in

gold at the option of the holder.



I especially commend to your immediate attention the encouragement of

our merchant marine by appropriate legislation.



The growing importance of the Orient as a field for American exports

drew from my predecessor, President McKinley, an urgent request for its

special consideration by the Congress. In his message of 1898 he

stated:



"In this relation, as showing the peculiar volume and value of our

trade with China and the peculiarly favorable conditions which exist

for their expansion in the normal course of trade, I refer to the

communication addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives

by the Secretary of the Treasury on the 14th of last June, with its

accompanying letter of the Secretary of State, recommending an

appropriation for a commission to study the industrial and commercial

conditions in the Chinese Empire and to report as to the opportunities

for and the obstacles to the enlargement of markets in China for the

raw products and manufactures of the United States. Action was not

taken thereon during the last session. I cordially urge that the

recommendation receive at your hands the consideration which its

importance and timeliness merit."



In his annual message of 1889 he again called attention to this

recommendation, quoting it, and stated further:



"I now renew this recommendation, as the importance of the subject has

steadily grown since it was first submitted to you, and no time should

be lost in studying for ourselves the resources of this great field for

American trade and enterprise."



The importance of securing proper information and data with a view to

the enlargement of our trade with Asia is undiminished. Our consular

representatives in China have strongly urged a place for permanent

display of American products in some prominent trade center of that

Empire, under Government control and management, as an effective means

of advancing our export trade therein. I call the attention of the

Congress to the desirability of carrying out these suggestions.



In dealing with the questions of immigration and naturalization it is

indispensable to keep certain facts ever before the minds of those who

share in enacting the laws. First and foremost, let us remember that

the question of being a good American has nothing whatever to do with a

man's birthplace any more than it has to do with his creed. In every

generation from the time this Government was founded men of foreign

birth have stood in the very foremost rank of good citizenship, and

that not merely in one but in every field of American activity; while

to try to draw a distinction between the man whose parents came to this

country and the man whose ancestors came to it several generations back

is a mere absurdity. Good Americanism is a matter of heart, of

conscience, of lofty aspiration, of sound common sense, but not of

birthplace or of creed. The medal of honor, the highest prize to be won

by those who serve in the Army and the Navy of the United States

decorates men born here, and it also decorates men born in Great

Britain and Ireland, in Germany, in Scandinavia, in France, and

doubtless in other countries also. In the field of statesmanship, in

the field of business, in the field of philanthropic endeavor, it is

equally true that among the men of whom we are most proud as Americans

no distinction whatever can be drawn between those who themselves or

whose parents came over in sailing ship or steamer from across the

water and those whose ancestors stepped ashore into the wooded

wilderness at Plymouth or at the mouth of the Hudson, the Delaware, or

the James nearly three centuries ago. No fellow-citizen of ours is

entitled to any peculiar regard because of the way in which he worships

his Maker, or because of the birthplace of himself or his parents, nor

should he be in any way discriminated against therefor. Each must stand

on his worth as a man and each is entitled to be judged solely thereby.



There is no danger of having too many immigrants of the right kind. It

makes no difference from what country they come. If they are sound in

body and in mind, and, above all, if they are of good character, so

that we can rest assured that their children and grandchildren will be

worthy fellow-citizens of our children and grandchildren, then we

should welcome them with cordial hospitality.



But the citizenship of this country should not be debased. It is vital

that we should keep high the standard of well-being among our

wage-workers, and therefore we should not admit masses of men whose

standards of living and whose personal customs and habits are such that

they tend to lower the level of the American wage-worker; and above all

we should not admit any man of an unworthy type, any man concerning

whom we can say that he will himself be a bad citizen, or that his

children and grandchildren will detract from instead of adding to the

sum of the good citizenship of the country. Similarly we should take

the greatest care about naturalization. Fraudulent naturalization, the

naturalization of improper persons, is a curse to our Government; and

it is the affair of every honest voter, wherever born, to see that no

fraudulent voting is allowed, that no fraud in connection with

naturalization is permitted.



In the past year the cases of false, fraudulent, and improper

naturalization of aliens coming to the attention of the executive

branches of the Government have increased to an alarming degree.

Extensive sales of forged certificates of naturalization have been

discovered, as well as many cases of naturalization secured by perjury

and fraud; and in addition, instances have accumulated showing that

many courts issue certificates of naturalization carelessly and upon

insufficient evidence.



Under the Constitution it is in the power of the Congress "to establish

a uniform rule of naturalization," and numerous laws have from time to

time been enacted for that purpose, which have been supplemented in a

few States by State laws having special application. The Federal

statutes permit naturalization by any court of record in the United

States having common-law jurisdiction and a seal and clerk, except the

police court of the District of Columbia, and nearly all these courts

exercise this important function. It results that where so many courts

of such varying grades have jurisdiction, there is lack of uniformity

in the rules applied in conferring naturalization. Some courts are

strict and others lax. An alien who may secure naturalization in one

place might be denied it in another, and the intent of the

constitutional provision is in fact defeated. Furthermore, the

certificates of naturalization issued by the courts differ widely in

wording and appearance, and when they are brought into use in foreign

countries, are frequently subject to suspicion.



There should be a comprehensive revision of the naturalization laws.

The courts having power to naturalize should be definitely named by

national authority; the testimony upon which naturalization may be

conferred should be definitely prescribed; publication of impending

naturalization applications should be required in advance of their

hearing in court; the form and wording of all certificates issued

should be uniform throughout the country, and the courts should be

required to make returns to the Secretary of State at stated periods of

all naturalizations conferred.



Not only are the laws relating to naturalization now defective, but

those relating to citizenship of the United States ought also to be

made the subject of scientific inquiry with a view to probable further

legislation. By what acts expatriation may be assumed to have been

accomplished, how long an American citizen may reside abroad and

receive the protection of our passport, whether any degree of

protection should be extended to one who has made the declaration of

intention to become a citizen of the United States but has not secured

naturalization, are questions of serious import, involving personal

rights and often producing friction between this Government and foreign

governments. Yet upon these question our laws are silent. I recommend

that an examination be made into the subjects of citizenship,

expatriation, and protection of Americans abroad, with a view to

appropriate legislation.



The power of the Government to protect the integrity of the elections

of its own officials is inherent and has been recognized and affirmed

by repeated declarations of the Supreme Court. There is no enemy of

free government more dangerous and none so insidious as the corruption

of the electorate. No one defends or excuses corruption, and it would

seem to follow that none would oppose vigorous measures to eradicate

it. I recommend the enactment of a law directed against bribery and

corruption in Federal elections. The details of such a law may be

safely left to the wise discretion of the Congress, but it should go as

far as under the Constitution it is possible to go, and should include

severe penalties against him who gives or receives a bribe intended to

influence his act or opinion as an elector; and provisions for the

publication not only of the expenditures for nominations and elections

of all candidates but also of all contributions received and

expenditures made by political committees.



No subject is better worthy the attention of the Congress than that

portion of the report of the Attorney-General dealing with the long

delays and the great obstruction to justice experienced in the cases of

Beavers, Green and Gaynor, and Benson. Were these isolated and special

cases, I should not call your attention to them; but the difficulties

encountered as regards these men who have been indicted for criminal

practices are not exceptional; they are precisely similar in kind to

what occurs again and again in the case of criminals who have

sufficient means to enable them to take advantage of a system of

procedure which has grown up in the Federal courts and which amounts in

effect to making the law easy of enforcement against the man who has no

money, and difficult of enforcement, even to the point of sometimes

securing immunity, as regards the man who has money. In criminal cases

the writ of the United States should run throughout its borders. The

wheels of justice should not be clogged, as they have been clogged in

the cases above mentioned, where it has proved absolutely impossible to

bring the accused to the place appointed by the Constitution for his

trial. Of recent years there has been grave and increasing complaint of

the difficulty of bringing to justice those criminals whose

criminality, instead of being against one person in the Republic, is

against all persons in the Republic, because it is against the Republic

itself. Under any circumstance and from the very nature of the case it

is often exceedingly difficult to secure proper punishment of those who

have been guilty of wrongdoing against the Government. By the time the

offender can be brought into court the popular wrath against him has

generally subsided; and there is in most instances very slight danger

indeed of any prejudice existing in the minds of the jury against him.

At present the interests of the innocent man are amply safeguarded; but

the interests of the Government, that is, the interests of honest

administration, that is the interests of the people, are not recognized

as they should be. No subject better warrants the attention of the

Congress. Indeed, no subject better warrants the attention of the bench

and the bar throughout the United States.



Alaska, like all our Territorial acquisitions, has proved resourceful

beyond the expectations of those who made the purchase. It has become

the home of many hardy, industrious, and thrifty American citizens.

Towns of a permanent character have been built. The extent of its

wealth in minerals, timber, fisheries, and agriculture, while great, is

probably not comprehended yet in any just measure by our people. We do

know, however, that from a very small beginning its products have grown

until they are a steady and material contribution to the wealth of the

nation. Owing to the immensity of Alaska and its location in the far

north, it is a difficult matter to provide many things essential to its

growth and to the happiness and comfort of its people by private

enterprise alone. It should, therefore, receive reasonable aid from the

Government. The Government has already done excellent work for Alaska

in laying cables and building telegraph lines. This work has been done

in the most economical and efficient way by the Signal Corps of the

Army.



In some respects it has outgrown its present laws, while in others

those laws have been found to be inadequate. In order to obtain

information upon which I could rely I caused an official of the

Department of Justice, in whose judgment I have confidence, to visit

Alaska during the past summer for the purpose of ascertaining how

government is administered there and what legislation is actually

needed at present. A statement of the conditions found to exist,

together with some recommendations and the reasons therefor, in which I

strongly concur, will be found in the annual report of the

Attorney-General. In some instances I feel that the legislation

suggested is so imperatively needed that I am moved briefly to

emphasize the Attorney-General's proposals.



Under the Code of Alaska as it now stands many purely administrative

powers and duties, including by far the most important, devolve upon

the district judges or upon the clerks of the district court acting

under the direction of the judges, while the governor, upon whom these

powers and duties should logically fall, has nothing specific to do

except to make annual reports, issue Thanksgiving Day proclamations,

and appoint Indian policemen and notaries public. I believe it

essential to good government in Alaska, and therefore recommend, that

the Congress divest the district judges and the clerks of their courts

of the administrative or executive functions that they now exercise and

cast them upon the governor. This would not be an innovation; it would

simply conform the government of Alaska to fundamental principles,

making the governorship a real instead of a merely nominal office, and

leaving the judges free to give their entire attention to their

judicial duties and at the same time removing them from a great deal of

the strife that now embarrasses the judicial office in Alaska.



I also recommend that the salaries of the district judges and district

attorneys in Alaska be increased so as to make them equal to those

received by corresponding officers in the United States after deducting

the difference in the cost of living; that the district attorneys

should be prohibited from engaging in private practice; that United

States commissioners be appointed by the governor of the Territory

instead of by the district judges, and that a fixed salary be provided

for them to take the place of the discredited "fee system," which

should be abolished in all offices; that a mounted constabulary be

created to police the territory outside the limits of incorporated

towns--a vast section now wholly without police protection; and that

some provision be made to at least lessen the oppressive delays and

costs that now attend the prosecution of appeals from the district

court of Alaska. There should be a division of the existing judicial

districts, and an increase in the number of judges.



Alaska should have a Delegate in the Congress. Where possible, the

Congress should aid in the construction of needed wagon roads.

Additional light-houses should be provided. In my judgment, it is

especially important to aid in such manner as seems just and feasible

in the construction of a trunk line of railway to connect the Gulf of

Alaska with the Yukon River through American territory. This would be

most beneficial to the development of the resources of the Territory,

and to the comfort and welfare of its people.



Salmon hatcheries should be established in many different streams, so

as to secure the preservation of this valuable food fish. Salmon

fisheries and canneries should be prohibited on certain of the rivers

where the mass of those Indians dwell who live almost exclusively on

fish.



The Alaskan natives are kindly, intelligent, anxious to learn, and

willing to work. Those who have come under the influence of

civilization, even for a limited period, have proved their capability

of becoming self-supporting, self-respecting citizens, and ask only for

the just enforcement of law and intelligent instruction and

supervision. Others, living in more remote regions, primitive, simple

hunters and fisher folk, who know only the life of the woods and the

waters, are daily being confronted with twentieth-century civilization

with all of its complexities. Their country is being overrun by

strangers, the game slaughtered and driven away, the streams depleted

of fish, and hitherto unknown and fatal diseases brought to them, all

of which combine to produce a state of abject poverty and want which

must result in their extinction. Action in their interest is demanded

by every consideration of justice and humanity.



The needs of these people are:



The abolition of the present fee system, whereby the native is

degraded, imposed upon, and taught the injustice of law.



The establishment of hospitals at central points, so that contagious

diseases that are brought to them continually by incoming whites may be

localized and not allowed to become epidemic, to spread death and

destitution over great areas.



The development of the educational system in the form of practical

training in such industries as will assure the Indians self-support

under the changed conditions in which they will have to live.



The duties of the office of the governor should be extended to include

the supervision of Indian affairs, with necessary assistants in

different districts. He should be provided with the means and the power

to protect and advise the native people, to furnish medical treatment

in time of epidemics, and to extend material relief in periods of

famine and extreme destitution.



The Alaskan natives should be given the right to acquire, hold, and

dispose of property upon the same conditions as given other

inhabitants; and the privilege of citizenship should be given to such

as may be able to meet certain definite requirements. In Hawaii

Congress should give the governor power to remove all the officials

appointed under him. The harbor of Honolulu should be dredged. The

Marine-Hospital Service should be empowered to study leprosy in the

islands. I ask special consideration for the report and recommendation

of the governor of Porto Rico.



In treating of our foreign policy and of the attitude that this great

Nation should assume in the world at large, it is absolutely necessary

to consider the Army and the Navy, and the Congress, through which the

thought of the Nation finds its expression, should keep ever vividly in

mind the fundamental fact that it is impossible to treat our foreign

policy, whether this policy takes shape in the effort to secure justice

for others or justice for ourselves, save as conditioned upon the

attitude we are willing to take toward our Army, and especially toward

our Navy. It is not merely unwise, it is contemptible, for a nation, as

for an individual, to use high-sounding language to proclaim its

purposes, or to take positions which are ridiculous if unsupported by

potential force, and then to refuse to provide this force. If there is

no intention of providing and of keeping the force necessary to back up

a strong attitude, then it is far better not to assume such an

attitude.



The steady aim of this Nation, as of all enlightened nations, should be

to strive to bring ever nearer the day when there shall prevail

throughout the world the peace of justice. There are kinds of peace

which are highly undesirable, which are in the long run as destructive

as any war. Tyrants and oppressors have many times made a wilderness

and called it peace. Many times peoples who were slothful or timid or

shortsighted, who had been enervated by ease or by luxury, or misled by

false teachings, have shrunk in unmanly fashion from doing duty that

was stern and that needed self-sacrifice, and have sought to hide from

their own minds their shortcomings, their ignoble motives, by calling

them love of peace. The peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of craven

weakness, the peace of injustice, all these should be shunned as we

shun unrighteous war. The goal to set before us as a nation, the goal

which should be set before all mankind, is the attainment of the peace

of justice, of the peace which comes when each nation is not merely

safe-guarded in its own rights, but scrupulously recognizes and

performs its duty toward others. Generally peace tells for

righteousness; but if there is conflict between the two, then our

fealty is due-first to the cause of righteousness. Unrighteous wars are

common, and unrighteous peace is rare; but both should be shunned. The

right of freedom and the responsibility for the exercise of that right

can not be divorced. One of our great poets has well and finely said

that freedom is not a gift that tarries long in the hands of cowards.

Neither does it tarry long in the hands of those too slothful, too

dishonest, or too unintelligent to exercise it. The eternal vigilance

which is the price of liberty must be exercised, sometimes to guard

against outside foes; although of course far more often to guard

against our own selfish or thoughtless shortcomings.



If these self-evident truths are kept before us, and only if they are

so kept before us, we shall have a clear idea of what our foreign

policy in its larger aspects should be. It is our duty to remember that

a nation has no more right to do injustice to another nation, strong or

weak, than an individual has to do injustice to another individual;

that the same moral law applies in one case as in the other. But we

must also remember that it is as much the duty of the Nation to guard

its own rights and its own interests as it is the duty of the

individual so to do. Within the Nation the individual has now delegated

this right to the State, that is, to the representative of all the

individuals, and it is a maxim of the law that for every wrong there is

a remedy. But in international law we have not advanced by any means as

far as we have advanced in municipal law. There is as yet no judicial

way of enforcing a right in international law. When one nation wrongs

another or wrongs many others, there is no tribunal before which the

wrongdoer can be brought. Either it is necessary supinely to acquiesce

in the wrong, and thus put a premium upon brutality and aggression, or

else it is necessary for the aggrieved nation valiantly to stand up for

its rights. Until some method is devised by which there shall be a

degree of international control over offending nations, it would be a

wicked thing for the most civilized powers, for those with most sense

of international obligations and with keenest and most generous

appreciation of the difference between right and wrong, to disarm. If

the great civilized nations of the present day should completely

disarm, the result would mean an immediate recrudescence of barbarism

in one form or another. Under any circumstances a sufficient armament

would have to be kept up to serve the purposes of international police;

and until international cohesion and the sense of international duties

and rights are far more advanced than at present, a nation desirous

both of securing respect for itself and of doing good to others must

have a force adequate for the work which it feels is allotted to it as

its part of the general world duty. Therefore it follows that a

self-respecting, just, and far-seeing nation should on the one hand

endeavor by every means to aid in the development of the various

movements which tend to provide substitutes for war, which tend to

render nations in their actions toward one another, and indeed toward

their own peoples, more responsive to the general sentiment of humane

and civilized mankind; and on the other hand that it should keep

prepared, while scrupulously avoiding wrongdoing itself, to repel any

wrong, and in exceptional cases to take action which in a more advanced

stage of international relations would come under the head of the

exercise of the international police. A great free people owes it to

itself and to all mankind not to sink into helplessness before the

powers of evil.



We are in every way endeavoring to help on, with cordial good will,

every movement which will tend to bring us into more friendly relations

with the rest of mankind. In pursuance of this policy I shall shortly

lay before the Senate treaties of arbitration with all powers which are

willing to enter into these treaties with us. It is not possible at

this period of the world's development to agree to arbitrate all

matters, but there are many matters of possible difference between us

and other nations which can be thus arbitrated. Furthermore, at the

request of the Interparliamentary Union, an eminent body composed of

practical statesmen from all countries, I have asked the Powers to join

with this Government in a second Hague conference, at which it is hoped

that the work already so happily begun at The Hague may be carried some

steps further toward completion. This carries out the desire expressed

by the first Hague conference itself.



It is not true that the United States feels any land hunger or

entertains any projects as regards the other nations of the Western

Hemisphere save such as are for their welfare. All that this country

desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and

prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count

upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act

with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters,

if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no

interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an

impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized

society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention

by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence

of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United

States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or

impotence, to the exercise of an international police power. If every

country washed by the Caribbean Sea would show the progress in stable

and just civilization which with the aid of the Platt amendment Cuba

has shown since our troops left the island, and which so many of the

republics in both Americas are constantly and brilliantly showing, all

question of interference by this Nation with their affairs would be at

an end. Our interests and those of our southern neighbors are in

reality identical. They have great natural riches, and if within their

borders the reign of law and justice obtains, prosperity is sure to

come to them. While they thus obey the primary laws of civilized

society they may rest assured that they will be treated by us in a

spirit of cordial and helpful sympathy. We would interfere with them

only in the last resort, and then only if it became evident that their

inability or unwillingness to do justice at home and abroad had

violated the rights of the United States or had invited foreign

aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations. It

is a mere truism to say that every nation, whether in America or

anywhere else, which desires to maintain its freedom, its independence,

must ultimately realize that the right of such independence can not be

separated from the responsibility of making good use of it.



In asserting the Monroe Doctrine, in taking such steps as we have taken

in regard to Cuba, Venezuela, and Panama, and in endeavoring to

circumscribe the theater of war in the Far East, and to secure the open

door in China, we have acted in our own interest as well as in the

interest of humanity at large. There are, however, cases in which,

while our own interests are not greatly involved, strong appeal is made

to our sympathies. Ordinarily it is very much wiser and more useful for

us to concern ourselves with striving for our own moral and material

betterment here at home than to concern ourselves with trying to better

the condition of things in other nations. We have plenty of sins of our

own to war against, and under ordinary circumstances we can do more for

the general uplifting of humanity by striving with heart and soul to

put a stop to civic corruption, to brutal lawlessness and violent race

prejudices here at home than by passing resolutions about wrongdoing

elsewhere. Nevertheless there are occasional crimes committed on so

vast a scale and of such peculiar horror as to make us doubt whether it

is not our manifest duty to endeavor at least to show our disapproval

of the deed and our sympathy with those who have suffered by it. The

cases must be extreme in which such a course is justifiable. There must

be no effort made to remove the mote from our brother's eye if we

refuse to remove the beam from our own. But in extreme cases action may

be justifiable and proper. What form the action shall take must depend

upon the circumstances of the case; that is, upon the degree of the

atrocity and upon our power to remedy it. The cases in which we could

interfere by force of arms as we interfered to put a stop to

intolerable conditions in Cuba are necessarily very few. Yet it is not

to be expected that a people like ours, which in spite of certain very

obvious shortcomings, nevertheless as a whole shows by its consistent

practice its belief in the principles of civil and religious liberty

and of orderly freedom, a people among whom even the worst crime, like

the crime of lynching, is never more than sporadic, so that individuals

and not classes are molested in their fundamental rights--it is

inevitable that such a nation should desire eagerly to give expression

to its horror on an occasion like that of the massacre of the Jews in

Kishenef, or when it witnesses such systematic and long-extended

cruelty and oppression as the cruelty and oppression of which the

Armenians have been the victims, and which have won for them the

indignant pity of the civilized world.



Even where it is not possible to secure in other nations the observance

of the principles which we accept as axiomatic, it is necessary for us

firmly to insist upon the rights of our own citizens without regard to

their creed or race; without regard to whether they were born here or

born abroad. It has proved very difficult to secure from Russia the

right for our Jewish fellow-citizens to receive passports and travel

through Russian territory. Such conduct is not only unjust and

irritating toward us, but it is difficult to see its wisdom from

Russia's standpoint. No conceivable good is accomplished by it. If an

American Jew or an American Christian misbehaves himself in Russia he

can at once be driven out; but the ordinary American Jew, like the

ordinary American Christian, would behave just about as he behaves

here, that is, behave as any good citizen ought to behave; and where

this is the case it is a wrong against which we are entitled to protest

to refuse him his passport without regard to his conduct and character,

merely on racial and religious grounds. In Turkey our difficulties

arise less from the way in which our citizens are sometimes treated

than from the indignation inevitably excited in seeing such fearful

misrule as has been witnessed both in Armenia and Macedonia.



The strong arm of the Government in enforcing respect for its just

rights in international matters is the Navy of the United States. I

most earnestly recommend that there be no halt in the work of

upbuilding the American Navy. There is no more patriotic duty before us

a people than to keep the Navy adequate to the needs of this country's

position. We have undertaken to build the Isthmian Canal. We have

undertaken to secure for ourselves our just share in the trade of the

Orient. We have undertaken to protect our citizens from proper

treatment in foreign lands. We continue steadily to insist on the

application of the Monroe Doctrine to the Western Hemisphere. Unless

our attitude in these and all similar matters is to be a mere boastful

sham we can not afford to abandon our naval programme. Our voice is now

potent for peace, and is so potent because we are not afraid of war.

But our protestations upon behalf of peace would neither receive nor

deserve the slightest attention if we were impotent to make them good.



The war which now unfortunately rages in the far East has emphasized in

striking fashion the new possibilities of naval warfare. The lessons

taught are both strategic and tactical, and are political as well as

military. The experiences of the war have shown in conclusive fashion

that while sea-going and sea-keeping torpedo destroyers are

indispensable, and fast lightly armed and armored cruisers very useful,

yet that the main reliance, the main standby, in any navy worthy the

name must be the great battle ships, heavily armored and heavily

gunned. Not a Russian or Japanese battle ship has been sunk by a

torpedo boat, or by gunfire, while among the less protected ships,

cruiser after cruiser has been destroyed whenever the hostile squadrons

have gotten within range of one another's weapons. There will always be

a large field of usefulness for cruisers, especially of the more

formidable type. We need to increase the number of torpedo-boat

destroyers, paying less heed to their having a knot or two extra speed

than to their capacity to keep the seas for weeks, and, if necessary,

for months at a time. It is wise to build submarine torpedo boats, as

under certain circumstances they might be very useful. But most of all

we need to continue building our fleet of battle ships, or ships so

powerfully armed that they can inflict the maximum of damage upon our

opponents, and so well protected that they can suffer a severe

hammering in return without fatal impairment of their ability to fight

and maneuver. Of course ample means must be provided for enabling the

personnel of the Navy to be brought to the highest point of efficiency.

Our great fighting ships and torpedo boats must be ceaselessly trained

and maneuvered in squadrons. The officers and men can only learn their

trade thoroughly by ceaseless practice on the high seas. In the event

of war it would be far better to have no ships at all than to have

ships of a poor and ineffective type, or ships which, however good,

were yet manned by untrained and unskillful crews. The best officers

and men in a poor ship could do nothing against fairly good opponents;

and on the other hand a modern war ship is useless unless the officers

and men aboard her have become adepts in their duties. The marksmanship

in our Navy has improved in an extraordinary degree during the last

three years, and on the whole the types of our battleships are

improving; but much remains to be done. Sooner or later we shall have

to provide for some method by which there will be promotions for merit

as well as for seniority, or else retirement all those who after a

certain age have not advanced beyond a certain grade; while no effort

must be spared to make the service attractive to the enlisted men in

order that they may be kept as long as possible in it. Reservation

public schools should be provided wherever there are navy-yards.



Within the last three years the United States has set an example in

disarmament where disarmament was proper. By law our Army is fixed at a

maximum of one hundred thousand and a minimum of sixty thousand men.

When there was insurrection in the Philippines we kept the Army at the

maximum. Peace came in the Philippines, and now our Army has been

reduced to the minimum at which it is possible to keep it with due

regard to its efficiency. The guns now mounted require twenty-eight

thousand men, if the coast fortifications are to be adequately manned.

Relatively to the Nation, it is not now so large as the police force of

New York or Chicago relatively to the population of either city. We

need more officers; there are not enough to perform the regular army

work. It is very important that the officers of the Army should be

accustomed to handle their men in masses, as it is also important that

the National Guard of the several States should be accustomed to actual

field maneuvering, especially in connection with the regulars. For this

reason we are to be congratulated upon the success of the field

maneuvers at Manassas last fall, maneuvers in which a larger number of

Regulars and National Guard took part than was ever before assembled

together in time of peace. No other civilized nation has, relatively to

its population, such a diminutive Army as ours; and while the Army is

so small we are not to be excused if we fail to keep it at a very high

grade of proficiency. It must be incessantly practiced; the standard

for the enlisted men should be kept very high, while at the same time

the service should be made as attractive as possible; and the standard

for the officers should be kept even higher--which, as regards the

upper ranks, can best be done by introducing some system of selection

and rejection into the promotions. We should be able, in the event of

some sudden emergency, to put into the field one first-class army

corps, which should be, as a whole, at least the equal of any body of

troops of like number belonging to any other nation.



Great progress has been made in protecting our coasts by adequate

fortifications with sufficient guns. We should, however, pay much more

heed than at present to the development of an extensive system of

floating mines for use in all our more important harbors. These mines

have been proved to be a most formidable safeguard against hostile

fleets.



I earnestly call the attention of the Congress to the need of amending

the existing law relating to the award of Congressional medals of honor

in the Navy so as to provide that they may be awarded to commissioned

officers and warrant officers as well as to enlisted men. These justly

prized medals are given in the Army alike to the officers and the

enlisted men, and it is most unjust that the commissioned officers and

warrant officers of the Navy should not in this respect have the same

rights as their brethren in the Army and as the enlisted men of the

Navy.



In the Philippine Islands there has been during the past year a

continuation of the steady progress which has obtained ever since our

troops definitely got the upper hand of the insurgents. The Philippine

people, or, to speak more accurately, the many tribes, and even races,

sundered from one another more or less sharply, who go to make up the

people of the Philippine Islands, contain many elements of good, and

some elements which we have a right to hope stand for progress. At

present they are utterly incapable of existing in independence at all

or of building up a civilization of their own. I firmly believe that we

can help them to rise higher and higher in the scale of civilization

and of capacity for self-government, and I most earnestly hope that in

the end they will be able to stand, if not entirely alone, yet in some

such relation to the United States as Cuba now stands. This end is not

yet in sight, and it may be indefinitely postponed if our people are

foolish enough to turn the attention of the Filipinos away from the

problems of achieving moral and material prosperity, of working for a

stable, orderly, and just government, and toward foolish and dangerous

intrigues for a complete independence for which they are as yet totally

unfit.



On the other hand our people must keep steadily before their minds the

fact that the justification for our stay in the Philippines must

ultimately rest chiefly upon the good we are able to do in the islands.

I do not overlook the fact that in the development of our interests in

the Pacific Ocean and along its coasts, the Philippines have played and

will play an important part; and that our interests have been served in

more than one way by the possession of the islands. But our chief

reason for continuing to hold them must be that we ought in good faith

to try to do our share of the world's work, and this particular piece

of work has been imposed upon us by the results of the war with Spain.

The problem presented to us in the Philippine Islands is akin to, but

not exactly like, the problems presented to the other great civilized

powers which have possessions in the Orient. There are points of

resemblance in our work to the work which is being done by the British

in India and Egypt, by the French in Algiers, by the Dutch in Java, by

the Russians in Turkestan, by the Japanese in Formosa; but more

distinctly than any of these powers we are endeavoring to develop the

natives themselves so that they shall take an ever-increasing share in

their own government, and as far as is prudent we are already admitting

their representatives to a governmental equality with our own. There

are commissioners, judges, and governors in the islands who are

Filipinos and who have exactly the same share in the government of the

islands as have their colleagues who are Americans, while in the lower

ranks, of course, the great majority of the public servants are

Filipinos. Within two years we shall be trying the experiment of an

elective lower house in the Philippine legislature. It may be that the

Filipinos will misuse this legislature, and they certainly will misuse

it if they are misled by foolish persons here at home into starting an

agitation for their own independence or into any factious or improper

action. In such case they will do themselves no good and will stop for

the time being all further effort to advance them and give them a

greater share in their own government. But if they act with wisdom and

self-restraint, if they show that they are capable of electing a

legislature which in its turn is capable of taking a sane and efficient

part in the actual work of government, they can rest assured that a

full and increasing measure of recognition will be given them. Above

all they should remember that their prime needs are moral and

industrial, not political. It is a good thing to try the experiment of

giving them a legislature; but it is a far better thing to give them

schools, good roads, railroads which will enable them to get their

products to market, honest courts, an honest and efficient

constabulary, and all that tends to produce order, peace, fair dealing

as between man and man, and habits of intelligent industry and thrift.

If they are safeguarded against oppression, and if their real wants,

material and spiritual, are studied intelligently and in a spirit of

friendly sympathy, much more good will be done them than by any effort

to give them political power, though this effort may in its own proper

time and place be proper enough.



Meanwhile our own people should remember that there is need for the

highest standard of conduct among the Americans sent to the Philippine

Islands, not only among the public servants but among the private

individuals who go to them. It is because I feel this so deeply that in

the administration of these islands I have positively refused to permit

any discrimination whatsoever for political reasons and have insisted

that in choosing the public servants consideration should be paid

solely to the worth of the men chosen and to the needs of the islands.

There is no higher body of men in our public service than we have in

the Philippine Islands under Governor Wright and his associates. So far

as possible these men should be given a free hand, and their

suggestions should receive the hearty backing both of the Executive and

of the Congress. There is need of a vigilant and disinterested support

of our public servants in the Philippines by good citizens here in the

United States. Unfortunately hitherto those of our people here at home

who have specially claimed to be the champions of the Filipinos have in

reality been their worst enemies. This will continue to be the case as

long as they strive to make the Filipinos independent, and stop all

industrial development of the islands by crying out against the laws

which would bring it on the ground that capitalists must not "exploit"

the islands. Such proceedings are not only unwise, but are most harmful

to the Filipinos, who do not need independence at all, but who do need

good laws, good public servants, and the industrial development that

can only come if the investment, of American and foreign capital in the

islands is favored in all legitimate ways.



Every measure taken concerning the islands should be taken primarily

with a view to their advantage. We should certainly give them lower

tariff rates on their exports to the United States; if this is not done

it will be a wrong to extend our shipping laws to them. I earnestly

hope for the immediate enactment into law of the legislation now

pending to encourage American capital to seek investment in the islands

in railroads, in factories, in plantations, and in lumbering and

mining.



***



State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 5, 1905



To the Senate and House of Representatives:



The people of this country continue to enjoy great prosperity.

Undoubtedly there will be ebb and flow in such prosperity, and this ebb

and flow will be felt more or less by all members of the community,

both by the deserving and the undeserving. Against the wrath of the

Lord the wisdom of man cannot avail; in time of flood or drought human

ingenuity can but partially repair the disaster. A general failure of

crops would hurt all of us. Again, if the folly of man mars the general

well-being, then those who are innocent of the folly will have to pay

part of the penalty incurred by those who are guilty of the folly. A

panic brought on by the speculative folly of part of the business

community would hurt the whole business community. But such stoppage of

welfare, though it might be severe, would not be lasting. In the long

run the one vital factor in the permanent prosperity of the country is

the high individual character of the average American worker, the

average American citizen, no matter whether his work be mental or

manual, whether he be farmer or wage-worker, business man or

professional man.



In our industrial and social system the interests of all men are so

closely intertwined that in the immense majority of cases a

straight-dealing man who by his efficiency, by his ingenuity and

industry, benefits himself must also benefit others. Normally the man

of great productive capacity who becomes rich by guiding the labor of

many other men does so by enabling them to produce more than they could

produce without his guidance; and both he and they share in the

benefit, which comes also to the public at large. The superficial fact

that the sharing may be unequal must never blind us to the underlying

fact that there is this sharing, and that the benefit comes in some

degree to each man concerned. Normally the wage-worker, the man of

small means, and the average consumer, as well as the average producer,

are all alike helped by making conditions such that the man of

exceptional business ability receives an exceptional reward for his

ability. Something can be done by legislation to help the general

prosperity; but no such help of a permanently beneficial character can

be given to the less able and less fortunate, save as the results of a

policy which shall inure to the advantage of all industrious and

efficient people who act decently; and this is only another way of

saying that any benefit which comes to the less able and less fortunate

must of necessity come even more to the more able and more fortunate.

If, therefore, the less fortunate man is moved by envy of his more

fortunate brother to strike at the conditions under which they have

both, though unequally, prospered, the result will assuredly be that

while danger may come to the one struck at, it will visit with an even

heavier load the one who strikes the blow. Taken as a whole we must all

go up or down together.



Yet, while not merely admitting, but insisting upon this, it is also

true that where there is no governmental restraint or supervision some

of the exceptional men use their energies not in ways that are for the

common good, but in ways which tell against this common good. The

fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large, and

vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of

necessity to give to the sovereign--that is, to the Government, which

represents the people as a whole--some effective power of supervision

over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and

industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by,

and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its

conduct. I am in no sense hostile to corporations. This is an age of

combination, and any effort to prevent all combination will be not only

useless, but in the end vicious, because of the contempt for law which

the failure to enforce law inevitably produces. We should, moreover,

recognize in cordial and ample fashion the immense good effected by

corporate agencies in a country such as ours, and the wealth of

intellect, energy, and fidelity devoted to their service, and therefore

normally to the service of the public, by their officers and directors.

The corporation has come to stay, just as the trade union has come to

stay. Each can do and has done great good. Each should be favored so

long as it does good. But each should be sharply checked where it acts

against law and justice.



So long as the finances of the Nation are kept upon an honest basis no

other question of internal economy with which the Congress has the

power to deal begins to approach in importance the matter of

endeavoring to secure proper industrial conditions under which the

individuals--and especially the great corporations--doing an interstate

business are to act. The makers of our National Constitution provided

especially that the regulation of interstate commerce should come

within the sphere of the General Government. The arguments in favor of

their taking this stand were even then overwhelming. But they are far

stronger today, in view of the enormous development of great business

agencies, usually corporate in form. Experience has shown conclusively

that it is useless to try to get any adequate regulation and

supervision of these great corporations by State action. Such

regulation and supervision can only be effectively exercised by a

sovereign whose jurisdiction is coextensive with the field of work of

the corporations--that is, by the National Government. I believe that

this regulation and supervision can be obtained by the enactment of law

by the Congress. If this proves impossible, it will certainly be

necessary ultimately to confer in fullest form such power upon the

National Government by a proper amendment of the Constitution. It would

obviously be unwise to endeavor to secure such an amendment until it is

certain that the result cannot be obtained under the Constitution as it

now is. The laws of the Congress and of the several States hitherto, as

passed upon by the courts, have resulted more often in showing that the

States have no power in the matter than that the National Government

has power; so that there at present exists a very unfortunate condition

of things, under which these great corporations doing an interstate

business occupy the position of subjects without a sovereign, neither

any State Government nor the National Government having effective

control over them. Our steady aim should be by legislation, cautiously

and carefully undertaken, but resolutely persevered in, to assert the

sovereignty of the National Government by affirmative action.



This is only in form an innovation. In substance it is merely a

restoration; for from the earliest time such regulation of industrial

activities has been recognized in the action of the lawmaking bodies;

and all that I propose is to meet the changed conditions in such manner

as will prevent the Commonwealth abdicating the power it has always

possessed not only in this country, but also in England before and

since this country became a separate Nation.



It has been a misfortune that the National laws on this subject have

hitherto been of a negative or prohibitive rather than an affirmative

kind, and still more that they have in part sought to prohibit what

could not be effectively prohibited, and have in part in their

prohibitions confounded what should be allowed and what should not be

allowed. It is generally useless to try to prohibit all restraint on

competition, whether this restraint be reasonable or unreasonable; and

where it is not useless it is generally hurtful. Events have shown that

it is not possible adequately to secure the enforcement of any law of

this kind by incessant appeal to the courts. The Department of Justice

has for the last four years devoted more attention to the enforcement

of the anti-trust legislation than to anything else. Much has been

accomplished, particularly marked has been the moral effect of the

prosecutions; but it is increasingly evident that there will be a very

insufficient beneficial result in the way of economic change. The

successful prosecution of one device to evade the law immediately

develops another device to accomplish the same purpose. What is needed

is not sweeping prohibition of every arrangement, good or bad, which

may tend to restrict competition, but such adequate supervision and

regulation as will prevent any restriction of competition from being to

the detriment of the public--as well as such supervision and regulation

as will prevent other abuses in no way connected with restriction of

competition. Of these abuses, perhaps the chief, although by no means

the only one, is overcapitalization--generally itself the result of

dishonest promotion--because of the myriad evils it brings in its

train; for such overcapitalization often means an inflation that

invites business panic; it always conceals the true relation of the

profit earned to the capital actually invested, and it creates a burden

of interest payments which is a fertile cause of improper reduction in

or limitation of wages; it damages the small investor, discourages

thrift, and encourages gambling and speculation; while perhaps worst of

all is the trickiness and dishonesty which it implies--for harm to

morals is worse than any possible harm to material interests, and the

debauchery of politics and business by great dishonest corporations is

far worse than any actual material evil they do the public. Until the

National Government obtains, in some manner which the wisdom of the

Congress may suggest, proper control over the big corporations engaged

in interstate commerce--that is, over the great majority of the big

corporations--it will be impossible to deal adequately with these

evils.



I am well aware of the difficulties of the legislation that I am

suggesting, and of the need of temperate and cautious action in

securing it. I should emphatically protest against improperly radical

or hasty action. The first thing to do is to deal with the great

corporations engaged in the business of interstate transportation. As I

said in my message of December 6 last, the immediate and most pressing

need, so far as legislation is concerned, is the enactment into law of

some scheme to secure to the agents of the Government such supervision

and regulation of the rates charged by the railroads of the country

engaged in interstate traffic as shall summarily and effectively

prevent the imposition of unjust or unreasonable rates. It must include

putting a complete stop to rebates in every shape and form. This power

to regulate rates, like all similar powers over the business world,

should be exercised with moderation, caution, and self-restraint; but

it should exist, so that it can be effectively exercised when the need

arises.



The first consideration to be kept in mind is that the power should be

affirmative and should be given to some administrative body created by

the Congress. If given to the present Interstate Commerce Commission,

or to a reorganized Interstate Commerce Commission, such commission

should be made unequivocally administrative. I do not believe in the

Government interfering with private business more than is necessary. I

do not believe in the Government undertaking any work which can with

propriety be left in private hands. But neither do I believe in the

Government flinching from overseeing any work when it becomes evident

that abuses are sure to obtain therein unless there is governmental

supervision. It is not my province to indicate the exact terms of the

law which should be enacted; but I call the attention of the Congress

to certain existing conditions with which it is desirable to deal, In

my judgment the most important provision which such law should contain

is that conferring upon some competent administrative body the power to

decide, upon the case being brought before it, whether a given rate

prescribed by a railroad is reasonable and just, and if it is found to

be unreasonable and unjust, then, after full investigation of the

complaint, to prescribe the limit of rate beyond which it shall not be

lawful to go--the maximum reasonable rate, as it is commonly

called--this decision to go into effect within a reasonable time and to

obtain from thence onward, subject to review by the courts. It

sometimes happens at present not that a rate is too high but that a

favored shipper is given too low a rate. In such case the commission

would have the right to fix this already established minimum rate as

the maximum; and it would need only one or two such decisions by the

commission to cure railroad companies of the practice of giving

improper minimum rates. I call your attention to the fact that my

proposal is not to give the commission power to initiate or originate

rates generally, but to regulate a rate already fixed or originated by

the roads, upon complaint and after investigation. A heavy penalty

should be exacted from any corporation which fails to respect an order

of the commission. I regard this power to establish a maximum rate as

being essential to any scheme of real reform in the matter of railway

regulation. The first necessity is to secure it; and unless it is

granted to the commission there is little use in touching the subject

at all.



Illegal transactions often occur under the forms of law. It has often

occurred that a shipper has been told by a traffic officer to buy a

large quantity of some commodity and then after it has been bought an

open reduction is made in the rate to take effect immediately, the

arrangement resulting to the profit of one shipper and the one railroad

and to the damage of all their competitors; for it must not be

forgotten that the big shippers are at least as much to blame as any

railroad in the matter of rebates. The law should make it clear so that

nobody can fail to understand that any kind of commission paid on

freight shipments, whether in this form or in the form of fictitious

damages, or of a concession, a free pass, reduced passenger rate, or

payment of brokerage, is illegal. It is worth while considering whether

it would not be wise to confer on the Government the right of civil

action against the beneficiary of a rebate for at least twice the value

of the rebate; this would help stop what is really blackmail. Elevator

allowances should be stopped, for they have now grown to such an extent

that they are demoralizing and are used as rebates.



The best possible regulation of rates would, of course, be that

regulation secured by an honest agreement among the railroads

themselves to carry out the law. Such a general agreement would, for

instance, at once put a stop to the efforts of any one big shipper or

big railroad to discriminate against or secure advantages over some

rival; and such agreement would make the railroads themselves agents

for enforcing the law. The power vested in the Government to put a stop

to agreements to the detriment of the public should, in my judgment, be

accompanied by power to permit, under specified conditions and careful

supervision, agreements clearly in the interest of the public. But, in

my judgment, the necessity for giving this further power is by no means

as great as the necessity for giving the commission or administrative

body the other powers I have enumerated above; and it may well be

inadvisable to attempt to vest this particular power in the commission

or other administrative body until it already possesses and is

exercising what I regard as by far the most important of all the powers

I recommend--as indeed the vitally important power--that to fix a given

maximum rate, which rate, after the lapse of a reasonable time, goes

into full effect, subject to review by the courts.



All private-car lines, industrial roads, refrigerator charges, and the

like should be expressly put under the supervision of the Interstate

Commerce Commission or some similar body so far as rates, and

agreements practically affecting rates, are concerned. The private car

owners and the owners of industrial railroads are entitled to a fair

and reasonable compensation on their investment, but neither private

cars nor industrial railroads nor spur tracks should be utilized as

devices for securing preferential rates. A rebate in icing charges, or

in mileage, or in a division of the rate for refrigerating charges is

just as pernicious as a rebate in any other way. No lower rate should

apply on goods imported than actually obtains on domestic goods from

the American seaboard to destination except in cases where water

competition is the controlling influence. There should be publicity of

the accounts of common carriers; no common carrier engaged in

interstate business should keep any books or memoranda other than those

reported pursuant to law or regulation, and these books or memoranda

should be open to the inspection of the Government. Only in this way

can violations or evasions of the law be surely detected. A system of

examination of railroad accounts should be provided similar to that now

conducted into the National banks by the bank examiners; a few

first-class railroad accountants, if they had proper direction and

proper authority to inspect books and papers, could accomplish much in

preventing willful violations of the law. It would not be necessary for

them to examine into the accounts of any railroad unless for good

reasons they were directed to do so by the Interstate Commerce

Commission. It is greatly to be desired that some way might be found by

which an agreement as to transportation within a State intended to

operate as a fraud upon the Federal interstate commerce laws could be

brought under the jurisdiction of the Federal authorities. At present

it occurs that large shipments of interstate traffic are controlled by

concessions on purely State business, which of course amounts to an

evasion of the law. The commission should have power to enforce fair

treatment by the great trunk lines of lateral and branch lines.



I urge upon the Congress the need of providing for expeditious action

by the Interstate Commerce Commission in all these matters, whether in

regulating rates for transportation or for storing or for handling

property or commodities in transit. The history of the cases litigated

under the present commerce act shows that its efficacy has been to a

great degree destroyed by the weapon of delay, almost the most

formidable weapon in the hands of those whose purpose it is to violate

the law.



Let me most earnestly say that these recommendations are not made in

any spirit of hostility to the railroads. On ethical grounds, on

grounds of right, such hostility would be intolerable; and on grounds

of mere National self-interest we must remember that such hostility

would tell against the welfare not merely of some few rich men, but of

a multitude of small investors, a multitude of railway employes, wage

workers, and most severely against the interest of the public as a

whole. I believe that on the whole our railroads have done well and not

ill; but the railroad men who wish to do well should not be exposed to

competition with those who have no such desire, and the only way to

secure this end is to give to some Government tribunal the power to see

that justice is done by the unwilling exactly as it is gladly done by

the willing. Moreover, if some Government body is given increased power

the effect will be to furnish authoritative answer on behalf of the

railroad whenever irrational clamor against it is raised, or whenever

charges made against it are disproved. I ask this legislation not only

in the interest of the public but in the interest of the honest

railroad man and the honest shipper alike, for it is they who are

chiefly jeoparded by the practices of their dishonest competitors. This

legislation should be enacted in a spirit as remote as possible from

hysteria and rancor. If we of the American body politic are true to the

traditions we have inherited we shall always scorn any effort to make

us hate any man because he is rich, just as much as we should scorn any

effort to make us look down upon or treat contemptuously any man

because he is poor. We judge a man by his conduct--that is, by his

character--and not by his wealth or intellect. If he makes his fortune

honestly, there is no just cause of quarrel with him. Indeed, we have

nothing but the kindliest feelings of admiration for the successful

business man who behaves decently, whether he has made his success by

building or managing a railroad or by shipping goods over that

railroad. The big railroad men and big shippers are simply Americans of

the ordinary type who have developed to an extraordinary degree certain

great business qualities. They are neither better nor worse than their

fellow-citizens of smaller means. They are merely more able in certain

lines and therefore exposed to certain peculiarly strong temptations.

These temptations have not sprung newly into being; the exceptionally

successful among mankind have always been exposed to them; but they

have grown amazingly in power as a result of the extraordinary

development of industrialism along new lines, and under these new

conditions, which the law-makers of old could not foresee and therefore

could not provide against, they have become so serious and menacing as

to demand entirely new remedies. It is in the interest of the best type

of railroad man and the best type of shipper no less than of the public

that there should be Governmental supervision and regulation of these

great business operations, for the same reason that it is in the

interest of the corporation which wishes to treat its employes aright

that there should be an effective Employers' Liability act, or an

effective system of factory laws to prevent the abuse of women and

children. All such legislation frees the corporation that wishes to do

well from being driven into doing ill, in order to compete with its

rival, which prefers to do ill. We desire to set up a moral standard.

There can be no delusion more fatal to the Nation than the delusion

that the standard of profits, of business prosperity, is sufficient in

judging any business or political question--from rate legislation to

municipal government. Business success, whether for the individual or

for the Nation, is a good thing only so far as it is accompanied by and

develops a high standard of conduct--honor, integrity, civic courage.

The kind of business prosperity that blunts the standard of honor, that

puts an inordinate value on mere wealth, that makes a man ruthless and

conscienceless in trade, and weak and cowardly in citizenship, is not a

good thing at all, but a very bad thing for the Nation. This Government

stands for manhood first and for business only as an adjunct of

manhood.



The question of transportation lies at the root of all industrial

success, and the revolution in transportation which has taken place

during the last half century has been the most important factor in the

growth of the new industrial conditions. Most emphatically we do not

wish to see the man of great talents refused the reward for his

talents. Still less do we wish to see him penalized but we do desire to

see the system of railroad transportation so handled that the strong

man shall be given no advantage over the weak man. We wish to insure as

fair treatment for the small town as for the big city; for the small

shipper as for the big shipper. In the old days the highway of

commerce, whether by water or by a road on land, was open to all; it

belonged to the public and the traffic along it was free. At present

the railway is this highway, and we must do our best to see that it is

kept open to all on equal terms. Unlike the old highway it is a very

difficult and complex thing to manage, and it is far better that it

should be managed by private individuals than by the Government. But it

can only be so managed on condition that justice is done the public. It

is because, in my judgment, public ownership of railroads is highly

undesirable and would probably in this country entail far-reaching

disaster, but I wish to see such supervision and regulation of them in

the interest of the public as will make it evident that there is no

need for public ownership. The opponents of Government regulation dwell

upon the difficulties to be encountered and the intricate and involved

nature of the problem. Their contention is true. It is a complicated

and delicate problem, and all kinds of difficulties are sure to arise

in connection with any plan of solution, while no plan will bring all

the benefits hoped for by its more optimistic adherents. Moreover,

under any healthy plan, the benefits will develop gradually and not

rapidly. Finally, we must clearly understand that the public servants

who are to do this peculiarly responsible and delicate work must

themselves be of the highest type both as regards integrity and

efficiency. They must be well paid, for otherwise able men cannot in

the long run be secured; and they must possess a lofty probity which

will revolt as quickly at the thought of pandering to any gust of

popular prejudice against rich men as at the thought of anything even

remotely resembling subserviency to rich men. But while I fully admit

the difficulties in the way, I do not for a moment admit that these

difficulties warrant us in stopping in our effort to secure a wise and

just system. They should have no other effect than to spur us on to the

exercise of the resolution, the even-handed justice, and the fertility

of resource, which we like to think of as typically American, and which

will in the end achieve good results in this as in other fields of

activity. The task is a great one and underlies the task of dealing

with the whole industrial problem. But the fact that it is a great

problem does not warrant us in shrinking from the attempt to solve it.

At present we face such utter lack of supervision, such freedom from

the restraints of law, that excellent men have often been literally

forced into doing what they deplored because otherwise they were left

at the mercy of unscrupulous competitors. To rail at and assail the men

who have done as they best could under such conditions accomplishes

little. What we need to do is to develop an orderly system, and such a

system can only come through the gradually increased exercise of the

right of efficient Government control.



In my annual message to the Fifty-eighth Congress, at its third

session, I called attention to the necessity for legislation requiring

the use of block signals upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce.

The number of serious collisions upon unblocked roads that have

occurred within the past year adds force to the recommendation then

made. The Congress should provide, by appropriate legislation, for the

introduction of block signals upon all railroads engaged in interstate

commerce at the earliest practicable date, as a measure of increased

safety to the traveling public.



Through decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and the

lower Federal courts in cases brought before them for adjudication the

safety appliance law has been materially strengthened, and the

Government has been enabled to secure its effective enforcement in

almost all cases, with the result that the condition of railroad

equipment throughout the country is much improved and railroad employes

perform their duties under safer conditions than heretofore. The

Government's most effective aid in arriving at this result has been its

inspection service, and that these improved conditions are not more

general is due to the insufficient number of inspectors employed. The

inspection service has fully demonstrated its usefulness, and in

appropriating for its maintenance the Congress should make provision

for an increase in the number of inspectors.



The excessive hours of labor to which railroad employes in train

service are in many cases subjected is also a matter which may well

engage the serious attention of the Congress. The strain, both mental

and physical, upon those who are engaged in the movement and operation

of railroad trains under modern conditions is perhaps greater than that

which exists in any other industry, and if there are any reasons for

limiting by law the hours of labor in any employment, they certainly

apply with peculiar force to the employment of those upon whose

vigilance and alertness in the performance of their duties the safety

of all who travel by rail depends.



In my annual message to the Fifty-seventh Congress, at its second

session, I recommended the passage of an employers' liability law for

the District of Columbia and in our navy yards. I renewed that

recommendation in my message to the Fifty-eighth Congress, at its

second session, and further suggested the appointment of a commission

to make a comprehensive study of employers' liability, with a view to

the enactment of a wise and Constitutional law covering the subject,

applicable to all industries within the scope of the Federal power. I

hope that such a law will be prepared and enacted as speedily as

possible.



The National Government has, as a rule, but little occasion to deal

with the formidable group of problems connected more or less directly

with what is known as the labor question, for in the great majority of

cases these problems must be dealt with by the State and municipal

authorities, and not by the National Government. The National

Government has control of the District of Columbia, however, and it

should see to it that the City of Washington is made a model city in

all respects, both as regards parks, public playgrounds, proper

regulation of the system of housing, so as to do away with the evils of

alley tenements, a proper system of education, a proper system of

dealing with truancy and juvenile offenders, a proper handling of the

charitable work of the District. Moreover, there should be proper

factory laws to prevent all abuses in the employment of women and

children in the District. These will be useful chiefly as object

lessons, but even this limited amount of usefulness would be of real

National value.



There has been demand for depriving courts of the power to issue

injunctions in labor disputes. Such special limitation of the equity

powers of our courts would be most unwise. It is true that some judges

have misused this power; but this does not justify a denial of the

power any more than an improper exercise of the power to call a strike

by a labor leader would justify the denial of the right to strike. The

remedy is to regulate the procedure by requiring the judge to give due

notice to the adverse parties before granting the writ, the hearing to

be ex parte if the adverse party does not appear at the time and place

ordered. What is due notice must depend upon the facts of the case; it

should not be used as a pretext to permit violation of law or the

jeopardizing of life or property. Of course, this would not authorize

the issuing of a restraining order or injunction in any case in which

it is not already authorized by existing law.



I renew the recommendation I made in my last annual message for an

investigation by the Department of Commerce and Labor of general labor

conditions, especial attention to be paid to the conditions of child

labor and child-labor legislation in the several States. Such an

investigation should take into account the various problems with which

the question of child labor is connected. It is true that these

problems can be actually met in most cases only by the States

themselves, but it would be well for the Nation to endeavor to secure

and publish comprehensive information as to the conditions of the labor

of children in the different States, so as to spur up those that are

behindhand and to secure approximately uniform legislation of a high

character among the several States. In such a Republic as ours the one

thing that we cannot afford to neglect is the problem of turning out

decent citizens. The future of the Nation depends upon the citizenship

of the generations to come; the children of today are those who

tomorrow will shape the destiny of our land, and we cannot afford to

neglect them. The Legislature of Colorado has recommended that the

National Government provide some general measure for the protection

from abuse of children and dumb animals throughout the United States. I

lay the matter before you for what I trust will be your favorable

consideration.



The Department of Commerce and Labor should also make a thorough

investigation of the conditions of women in industry. Over five million

American women are now engaged in gainful occupations; yet there is an

almost complete dearth of data upon which to base any trustworthy

conclusions as regards a subject as important as it is vast and

complicated. There is need of full knowledge on which to base action

looking toward State and municipal legislation for the protection of

working women. The introduction of women into industry is working

change and disturbance in the domestic and social life of the Nation.

The decrease in marriage, and especially in the birth rate, has been

coincident with it. We must face accomplished facts, and the adjustment

of factory conditions must be made, but surely it can be made with less

friction and less harmful effects on family life than is now the case.

This whole matter in reality forms one of the greatest sociological

phenomena of our time; it is a social question of the first importance,

of far greater importance than any merely political or economic

question can be, and to solve it we need ample data, gathered in a sane

and scientific spirit in the course of an exhaustive investigation.



In any great labor disturbance not only are employer and employe

interested, but a third party--the general public. Every considerable

labor difficulty in which interstate commerce is involved should be

investigated by the Government and the facts officially reported to the

public.



The question of securing a healthy, self-respecting, and mutually

sympathetic attitude as between employer and employe, capitalist and

wage-worker, is a difficult one. All phases of the labor problem prove

difficult when approached. But the underlying principles, the root

principles, in accordance with which the problem must be solved are

entirely simple. We can get justice and right dealing only if we put as

of paramount importance the principle of treating a man on his worth as

a man rather than with reference to his social position, his occupation

or the class to which he belongs. There are selfish and brutal men in

all ranks of life. If they are capitalists their selfishness and

brutality may take the form of hard indifference to suffering, greedy

disregard of every moral restraint which interferes with the

accumulation of wealth, and cold-blooded exploitation of the weak; or,

if they are laborers, the form of laziness, of sullen envy of the more

fortunate, and of willingness to perform deeds of murderous violence.

Such conduct is just as reprehensible in one case as in the other, and

all honest and farseeing men should join in warring against it wherever

it becomes manifest. Individual capitalist and individual wage-worker,

corporation and union, are alike entitled to the protection of the law,

and must alike obey the law. Moreover, in addition to mere obedience to

the law, each man, if he be really a good citizen, must show broad

sympathy for his neighbor and genuine desire to look at any question

arising between them from the standpoint of that neighbor no less than

from his own, and to this end it is essential that capitalist and

wage-worker should consult freely one with the other, should each

strive to bring closer the day when both shall realize that they are

properly partners and not enemies. To approach the questions which

inevitably arise between them solely from the standpoint which treats

each side in the mass as the enemy of the other side in the mass is

both wicked and foolish. In the past the most direful among the

influences which have brought about the downfall of republics has ever

been the growth of the class spirit, the growth of the spirit which

tends to make a man subordinate the welfare of the public as a whole to

the welfare of the particular class to which he belongs, the

substitution of loyalty to a class for loyalty to the Nation. This

inevitably brings about a tendency to treat each man not on his merits

as an individual, but on his position as belonging to a certain class

in the community. If such a spirit grows up in this Republic it will

ultimately prove fatal to us, as in the past it has proved fatal to

every community in which it has become dominant. Unless we continue to

keep a quick and lively sense of the great fundamental truth that our

concern is with the individual worth of the individual man, this

Government cannot permanently hold the place which it has achieved

among the nations. The vital lines of cleavage among our people do not

correspond, and indeed run at right angles to, the lines of cleavage

which divide occupation from occupation, which divide wage-workers from

capitalists, farmers from bankers, men of small means from men of large

means, men who live in the towns from men who live in the country; for

the vital line of cleavage is the line which divides the honest man who

tries to do well by his neighbor from the dishonest man who does ill by

his neighbor. In other words, the standard we should establish is the

standard of conduct, not the standard of occupation, of means, or of

social position. It is the man's moral quality, his attitude toward the

great questions which concern all humanity, his cleanliness of life,

his power to do his duty toward himself and toward others, which really

count; and if we substitute for the standard of personal judgment which

treats each man according to his merits, another standard in accordance

with which all men of one class are favored and all men of another

class discriminated against, we shall do irreparable damage to the body

politic. I believe that our people are too sane, too self-respecting,

too fit for self-government, ever to adopt such an attitude. This

Government is not and never shall be government by a plutocracy. This

Government is not and never shall be government by a mob. It shall

continue to be in the future what it has been in the past, a Government

based on the theory that each man, rich or poor, is to be treated

simply and solely on his worth as a man, that all his personal and

property rights are to be safeguarded, and that he is neither to wrong

others nor to suffer wrong from others.



The noblest of all forms of government is self-government; but it is

also the most difficult. We who possess this priceless boon, and who

desire to hand it on to our children and our children's children,

should ever bear in mind the thought so finely expressed by Burke: "Men

are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their

disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion

as they are disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good in

preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist unless a

controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the

less of it there be within the more there must be without. It is

ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate

minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."



The great insurance companies afford striking examples of corporations

whose business has extended so far beyond the jurisdiction of the

States which created them as to preclude strict enforcement of

supervision and regulation by the parent States. In my last annual

message I recommended "that the Congress carefully consider whether the

power of the Bureau of Corporations cannot constitutionally be extended

to cover interstate transactions in insurance."



Recent events have emphasized the importance of an early and exhaustive

consideration of this question, to see whether it is not possible to

furnish better safeguards than the several States have been able to

furnish against corruption of the flagrant kind which has been exposed.

It has been only too clearly shown that certain of the men at the head

of these large corporations take but small note of the ethical

distinction between honesty and dishonesty; they draw the line only

this side of what may be called law-honesty, the kind of honesty

necessary in order to avoid falling into the clutches of the law. Of

course the only complete remedy for this condition must be found in an

aroused public conscience, a higher sense of ethical conduct in the

community at large, and especially among business men and in the great

profession of the law, and in the growth of a spirit which condemns all

dishonesty, whether in rich man or in poor man, whether it takes the

shape of bribery or of blackmail. But much can be done by legislation

which is not only drastic but practical. There is need of a far

stricter and more uniform regulation of the vast insurance interests of

this country. The United States should in this respect follow the

policy of other nations by providing adequate national supervision of

commercial interests which are clearly national in character. My

predecessors have repeatedly recognized that the foreign business of

these companies is an important part of our foreign commercial

relations. During the administrations of Presidents Cleveland,

Harrison, and McKinley the State Department exercised its influence,

through diplomatic channels, to prevent unjust discrimination by

foreign countries against American insurance companies. These

negotiations illustrated the propriety of the Congress recognizing the

National character of insurance, for in the absence of Federal

legislation the State Department could only give expression to the

wishes of the authorities of the several States, whose policy was

ineffective through want of uniformity.



I repeat my previous recommendation that the Congress should also

consider whether the Federal Government has any power or owes any duty

with respect to domestic transactions in insurance of an interstate

character. That State supervision has proved inadequate is generally

conceded. The burden upon insurance companies, and therefore their

policy holders, of conflicting regulations of many States, is

unquestioned, while but little effective check is imposed upon any able

and unscrupulous man who desires to exploit the company in his own

interest at the expense of the policy holders and of the public. The

inability of a State to regulate effectively insurance corporations

created under the laws of other States and transacting the larger part

of their business elsewhere is also clear. As a remedy for this evil of

conflicting, ineffective, and yet burdensome regulations there has been

for many years a widespread demand for Federal supervision. The

Congress has already recognized that interstate insurance may be a

proper subject for Federal legislation, for in creating the Bureau of

Corporations it authorized it to publish and supply useful information

concerning interstate corporations, "including corporations engaged in

insurance." It is obvious that if the compilation of statistics be the

limit of the Federal power it is wholly ineffective to regulate this

form of commercial intercourse between the States, and as the insurance

business has outgrown in magnitude the possibility of adequate State

supervision, the Congress should carefully consider whether further

legislation can be bad. What is said above applies with equal force to

fraternal and benevolent organizations which contract for life

insurance.



There is more need of stability than of the attempt to attain an ideal

perfection in the methods of raising revenue; and the shock and strain

to the business world certain to attend any serious change in these

methods render such change inadvisable unless for grave reason. It is

not possible to lay down any general rule by which to determine the

moment when the reasons for will outweigh the reasons against such a

change. Much must depend, not merely on the needs, but on the desires,

of the people as a whole; for needs and desires are not necessarily

identical. Of course, no change can be made on lines beneficial to, or

desired by, one section or one State only. There must be something like

a general agreement among the citizens of the several States, as

represented in the Congress, that the change is needed and desired in

the interest of the people, as a whole; and there should then be a

sincere, intelligent, and disinterested effort to make it in such shape

as will combine, so far as possible, the maximum of good to the people

at large with the minimum of necessary disregard for the special

interests of localities or classes. But in time of peace the revenue

must on the average, taking a series of years together, equal the

expenditures or else the revenues must be increased. Last year there

was a deficit. Unless our expenditures can be kept within the revenues

then our revenue laws must be readjusted. It is as yet too early to

attempt to outline what shape such a readjustment should take, for it

is as yet too early to say whether there will be need for it. It should

be considered whether it is not desirable that the tariff laws should

provide for applying as against or in favor of any other nation maximum

and minimum tariff rates established by the Congress, so as to secure a

certain reciprocity of treatment between other nations and ourselves.

Having in view even larger considerations of policy than those of a

purely economic nature, it would, in my judgment, be well to endeavor

to bring about closer commercial connections with the other peoples of

this continent. I am happy to be able to announce to you that Russia

now treats us on the most-favored-nation basis.



I earnestly recommend to Congress the need of economy and to this end

of a rigid scrutiny of appropriations. As examples merely, I call your

attention to one or two specific matters. All unnecessary offices

should be abolished. The Commissioner of the General Land Office

recommends the abolishment of the office of Receiver of Public Moneys

for the United States Land Office. This will effect a saving of about a

quarter of a million dollars a year. As the business of the Nation

grows, it is inevitable that there should be from time to time a

legitimate increase in the number of officials, and this fact renders

it all the more important that when offices become unnecessary they

should be abolished. In the public printing also a large saving of

public money can be made. There is a constantly growing tendency to

publish masses of unimportant information. It is probably not unfair to

say that many tens of thousands of volumes are published at which no

human being ever looks and for which there is no real demand whatever.



Yet, in speaking of economy, I must in no wise be understood as

advocating the false economy which is in the end the worst

extravagance. To cut down on the navy, for instance, would be a crime

against the Nation. To fail to push forward all work on the Panama

Canal would be as great a folly.



In my message of December 2, 1902, to the Congress I said:



"Interest rates are a potent factor in business activity, and in order

that these rates may be equalized to meet the varying needs of the

seasons and of widely separated communities, and to prevent the

recurrence of financial stringencies, which injuriously affect

legitimate business, it is necessary that there should be an element of

elasticity in our monetary system. Banks are the natural servants of

commerce, and, upon them should be placed, as far as practicable, the

burden of furnishing and maintaining a circulation adequate to supply

the needs of our diversified industries and of our domestic and foreign

commerce; and the issue of this should be so regulated that a

sufficient supply should be always available for the business interests

of the country."



Every consideration of prudence demands the addition of the element of

elasticity to our currency system. The evil does not consist in an

inadequate volume of money, but in the rigidity of this volume, which

does not respond as it should to the varying needs of communities and

of seasons. Inflation must be avoided; but some provision should be

made that will insure a larger volume of money during the Fall and

Winter months than in the less active seasons of the year; so that the

currency will contract against speculation, and will expand for the

needs of legitimate business. At present the Treasury Department is at

irregularly recurring intervals obliged, in the interest of the

business world--that is, in the interests of the American public--to

try to avert financial crises by providing a remedy which should be

provided by Congressional action.



At various times I have instituted investigations into the organization

and conduct of the business of the executive departments. While none of

these inquiries have yet progressed far enough to warrant final

conclusions, they have already confirmed and emphasized the general

impression that the organization of the departments is often faulty in

principle and wasteful in results, while many of their business methods

are antiquated and inefficient. There is every reason why our executive

governmental machinery should be at least as well planned, economical,

and efficient as the best machinery of the great business

organizations, which at present is not the case. To make it so is a

task of complex detail and essentially executive in its nature;

probably no legislative body, no matter how wise and able, could

undertake it with reasonable prospect of success. I recommend that the

Congress consider this subject with a view to provide by legislation

for the transfer, distribution, consolidation, and assignment of duties

and executive organizations or parts of organizations, and for the

changes in business methods, within or between the several departments,

that will best promote the economy, efficiency, and high character of

the Government work.



In my last annual message I said:



"The power of the Government to protect the integrity of the elections

of its own officials is inherent and has been recognized and affirmed

by repeated declarations of the Supreme Court. There is no enemy of

free government more dangerous and none so insidious as the corruption

of the electorate. No one defends or excuses corruption, and it would

seem to follow that none would oppose vigorous measures to eradicate

it. I recommend the enactment of a law directed against bribery and

corruption in Federal elections. The details of such a law may be

safely left to the wise discretion of the Congress, but it should go as

far as under the Constitution it is possible to go, and should include

severe penalties against him who gives or receives a bribe intended to

influence his act or opinion as an elector; and provisions for the

publication not only of the expenditures for nominations and elections

of all candidates, but also of all contributions received and

expenditures made by political committees."



I desire to repeat this recommendation. In political campaigns in a

country as large and populous as ours it is inevitable that there

should be much expense of an entirely legitimate kind. This, of course,

means that many contributions, and some of them of large size, must be

made, and, as a matter of fact, in any big political contest such

contributions are always made to both sides. It is entirely proper both

to give and receive them, unless there is an improper motive connected

with either gift or reception. If they are extorted by any kind of

pressure or promise, express or implied, direct or indirect, in the way

of favor or immunity, then the giving or receiving becomes not only

improper but criminal. It will undoubtedly be difficult, as a matter of

practical detail, to shape an act which shall guard with reasonable

certainty against such misconduct; but if it is possible to secure by

law the full and verified publication in detail of all the sums

contributed to and expended by the candidates or committees of any

political parties, the result cannot but be wholesome. All

contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any

political purpose should be forbidden by law; directors should not be

permitted to use stockholders' money for such purposes; and, moreover,

a prohibition of this kind would be, as far as it went, an effective

method of stopping the evils aimed at in corrupt practices acts. Not

only should both the National and the several State Legislatures forbid

any officer of a corporation from using the money of the corporation in

or about any election, but they should also forbid such use of money in

connection with any legislation save by the employment of counsel in

public manner for distinctly legal services.



The first conference of nations held at The Hague in 1899, being unable

to dispose of all the business before it, recommended the consideration

and settlement of a number of important questions by another conference

to be called subsequently and at an early date. These questions were

the following: (1) The rights and duties of neutrals; (2) the

limitation of the armed forces on land and sea, and of military

budgets; (3) the use of new types and calibres of military and naval

guns; (4) the inviolability of private property at sea in times of war;

(5) the bombardment of ports, cities, and villages by naval forces. In

October, 1904, at the instance of the Interparliamentary Union, which,

at a conference held in the United States, and attended by the

lawmakers of fifteen different nations, had reiterated the demand for a

second conference of nations, I issued invitations to all the powers

signatory to The Hague Convention to send delegates to such a

conference, and suggested that it be again held at The Hague. In its

note of December 16, 1904, the United States Government communicated to

the representatives of foreign governments its belief that the

conference could be best arranged under the provisions of the present

Hague treaty.



From all the powers acceptance was received, coupled in some cases with

the condition that we should wait until the end of the war then waging

between Russia and Japan. The Emperor of Russia, immediately after the

treaty of peace which so happily terminated this war, in a note

presented to the President on September 13, through Ambassador Rosen,

took the initiative in recommending that the conference be now called.

The United States Government in response expressed its cordial

acquiescence, and stated that it would, as a matter of course, take

part in the new conference and endeavor to further its aims. We assume

that all civilized governments will support the movement, and that the

conference is now an assured fact. This Government will do everything

in its power to secure the success of the conference, to the end that

substantial progress may be made in the cause of international peace,

justice, and good will.



This renders it proper at this time to say something as to the general

attitude of this Government toward peace. More and more war is coming

to be looked upon as in itself a lamentable and evil thing. A wanton or

useless war, or a war of mere aggression--in short, any war begun or

carried on in a conscienceless spirit, is to be condemned as a

peculiarly atrocious crime against all humanity. We can, however, do

nothing of permanent value for peace unless we keep ever clearly in

mind the ethical element which lies at the root of the problem. Our aim

is righteousness. Peace is normally the hand-maiden of rightousness;

but when peace and righteousness conflict then a great and upright

people can never for a moment hesitate to follow the path which leads

toward righteousness, even though that path also leads to war. There

are persons who advocate peace at any price; there are others who,

following a false analogy, think that because it is no longer necessary

in civilized countries for individuals to protect their rights with a

strong hand, it is therefore unnecessary for nations to be ready to

defend their rights. These persons would do irreparable harm to any

nation that adopted their principles, and even as it is they seriously

hamper the cause which they advocate by tending to render it absurd in

the eyes of sensible and patriotic men. There can be no worse foe of

mankind in general, and of his own country in particular, than the

demagogue of war, the man who in mere folly or to serve his own selfish

ends continually rails at and abuses other nations, who seeks to excite

his countrymen against foreigners on insufficient pretexts, who excites

and inflames a perverse and aggressive national vanity, and who may on

occasions wantonly bring on conflict between his nation and some other

nation. But there are demagogues of peace just as there are demagogues

of war, and in any such movement as this for The Hague conference it is

essential not to be misled by one set of extremists any more than by

the other. Whenever it is possible for a nation or an individual to

work for real peace, assuredly it is failure of duty not so to strive,

but if war is necessary and righteous then either the man or the nation

shrinking from it forfeits all title to self-respect. We have scant

sympathy with the sentimentalist who dreads oppression less than

physical suffering, who would prefer a shameful peace to the pain and

toil sometimes lamentably necessary in order to secure a righteous

peace. As yet there is only a partial and imperfect analogy between

international law and internal or municipal law, because there is no

sanction of force for executing the former while there is in the case

of the latter. The private citizen is protected in his rights by the

law, because the law rests in the last resort upon force exercised

through the forms of law. A man does not have to defend his rights with

his own hand, because he can call upon the police, upon the sheriff's

posse, upon the militia, or in certain extreme cases upon the army, to

defend him. But there is no such sanction of force for international

law. At present there could be no greater calamity than for the free

peoples, the enlightened, independent, and peace-loving peoples, to

disarm while yet leaving it open to any barbarism or despotism to

remain armed. So long as the world is as unorganized as now the armies

and navies of those peoples who on the whole stand for justice, offer

not only the best, but the only possible, security for a just peace.

For instance, if the United States alone, or in company only with the

other nations that on the whole tend to act justly, disarmed, we might

sometimes avoid bloodshed, but we would cease to be of weight in

securing the peace of justice--the real peace for which the most

law-abiding and high-minded men must at times be willing to fight. As

the world is now, only that nation is equipped for peace that knows how

to fight, and that will not shrink from fighting if ever the conditions

become such that war is demanded in the name of the highest morality.



So much it is emphatically necessary to say in order both that the

position of the United States may not be misunderstood, and that a

genuine effort to bring nearer the day of the peace of justice among

the nations may not be hampered by a folly which, in striving to

achieve the impossible, would render it hopeless to attempt the

achievement of the practical. But, while recognizing most clearly all

above set forth, it remains our clear duty to strive in every

practicable way to bring nearer the time when the sword shall not be

the arbiter among nations. At present the practical thing to do is to

try to minimize the number of cases in which it must be the arbiter,

and to offer, at least to all civilized powers, some substitute for war

which will be available in at least a considerable number of instances.

Very much can be done through another Hague conference in this

direction, and I most earnestly urge that this Nation do all in its

power to try to further the movement and to make the result of the

decisions of The Hague conference effective. I earnestly hope that the

conference may be able to devise some way to make arbitration between

nations the customary way of settling international disputes in all

save a few classes of cases, which should themselves be as sharply

defined and rigidly limited as the present governmental and social

development of the world will permit. If possible, there should be a

general arbitration treaty negotiated among all the nations represented

at the conference. Neutral rights and property should be protected at

sea as they are protected on land. There should be an international

agreement to this purpose and a similar agreement defining contraband

of war.



During the last century there has been a distinct diminution in the

number of wars between the most civilized nations. International

relations have become closer and the development of The Hague tribunal

is not only a symptom of this growing closeness of relationship, but is

a means by which the growth can be furthered. Our aim should be from

time to time to take such steps as may be possible toward creating

something like an organization of the civilized nations, because as the

world becomes more highly organized the need for navies and armies will

diminish. It is not possible to secure anything like an immediate

disarmament, because it would first be necessary to settle what peoples

are on the whole a menace to the rest of mankind, and to provide

against the disarmament of the rest being turned into a movement which

would really chiefly benefit these obnoxious peoples; but it may be

possible to exercise some check upon the tendency to swell indefinitely

the budgets for military expenditure. Of course such an effort could

succeed only if it did not attempt to do too much; and if it were

undertaken in a spirit of sanity as far removed as possible from a

merely hysterical pseudo-philanthropy. It is worth while pointing out

that since the end of the insurrection in the Philippines this Nation

has shown its practical faith in the policy of disarmament by reducing

its little army one-third. But disarmament can never be of prime

importance; there is more need to get rid of the causes of war than of

the implements of war.



I have dwelt much on the dangers to be avoided by steering clear of any

mere foolish sentimentality because my wish for peace is so genuine and

earnest; because I have a real and great desire that this second Hague

conference may mark a long stride forward in the direction of securing

the peace of justice throughout the world. No object is better worthy

the attention of enlightened statesmanship than the establishment of a

surer method than now exists of securing justice as between nations,

both for the protection of the little nations and for the prevention of

war between the big nations. To this aim we should endeavor not only to

avert bloodshed, but, above all, effectively to strengthen the forces

of right. The Golden Rule should be, and as the world grows in morality

it will be, the guiding rule of conduct among nations as among

individuals; though the Golden Rule must not be construed, in fantastic

manner, as forbidding the exercise of the police power. This mighty and

free Republic should ever deal with all other States, great or small,

on a basis of high honor, respecting their rights as jealously as it

safeguards its own.



One of the most effective instruments for peace is the Monroe Doctrine

as it has been and is being gradually developed by this Nation and

accepted by other nations. No other policy could have been as efficient

in promoting peace in the Western Hemisphere and in giving to each

nation thereon the chance to develop along its own lines. If we had

refused to apply the doctrine to changing conditions it would now be

completely outworn, would not meet any of the needs of the present day,

and, indeed, would probably by this time have sunk into complete

oblivion. It is useful at home, and is meeting with recognition abroad

because we have adapted our application of it to meet the growing and

changing needs of the hemisphere. When we announce a policy such as the

Monroe Doctrine we thereby commit ourselves to the consequences of the

policy, and those consequences from time to time alter. It is out of

the question to claim a right and yet shirk the responsibility for its

exercise. Not only we, but all American republics who are benefited by

the existence of the doctrine, must recognize the obligations each

nation is under as regards foreign peoples no less than its duty to

insist upon its own rights.



That our rights and interests are deeply concerned in the maintenance

of the doctrine is so clear as hardly to need argument. This is

especially true in view of the construction of the Panama Canal. As a

mere matter of self-defense we must exercise a close watch over the

approaches to this canal; and this means that we must be thoroughly

alive to our interests in the Caribbean Sea.



There are certain essential points which must never be forgotten as

regards the Monroe Doctrine. In the first place we must as a Nation

make it evident that we do not intend to treat it in any shape or way

as an excuse for aggrandizement on our part at the expense of the

republics to the south. We must recognize the fact that in some South

American countries there has been much suspicion lest we should

interpret the Monroe Doctrine as in some way inimical to their

interests, and we must try to convince all the other nations of this

continent once and for all that no just and orderly Government has

anything to fear from us. There are certain republics to the south of

us which have already reached such a point of stability, order, and

prosperity that they themselves, though as yet hardly consciously, are

among the guarantors of this doctrine. These republics we now meet not

only on a basis of entire equality, but in a spirit of frank and

respectful friendship, which we hope is mutual. If all of the republics

to the south of us will only grow as those to which I allude have

already grown, all need for us to be the especial champions of the

doctrine will disappear, for no stable and growing American Republic

wishes to see some great non-American military power acquire territory

in its neighborhood. All that this country desires is that the other

republics on this continent shall be happy and prosperous; and they

cannot be happy and prosperous unless they maintain order within their

boundaries and behave with a just regard for their obligations toward

outsiders. It must be understood that under no circumstances will the

United States use the Monroe Doctrine as a cloak for territorial

aggression. We desire peace with all the world, but perhaps most of all

with the other peoples of the American Continent. There are, of course,

limits to the wrongs which any self-respecting nation can endure. It is

always possible that wrong actions toward this Nation, or toward

citizens of this Nation, in some State unable to keep order among its

own people, unable to secure justice from outsiders, and unwilling to

do justice to those outsiders who treat it well, may result in our

having to take action to protect our rights; but such action will not

be taken with a view to territorial aggression, and it will be taken at

all only with extreme reluctance and when it has become evident that

every other resource has been exhausted.



Moreover, we must make it evident that we do not intend to permit the

Monroe Doctrine to be used by any nation on this Continent as a shield

to protect it from the consequences of its own misdeeds against foreign

nations. If a republic to the south of us commits a tort against a

foreign nation, such as an outrage against a citizen of that nation,

then the Monroe Doctrine does not force us to interfere to prevent

punishment of the tort, save to see that the punishment does not assume

the form of territorial occupation in any shape. The case is more

difficult when it refers to a contractual obligation. Our own

Government has always refused to enforce such contractual obligations

on behalf, of its citizens by an appeal to arms. It is much to be

wished that all foreign governments would take the same view. But they

do not; and in consequence we are liable at any time to be brought face

to face with disagreeable alternatives. On the one hand, this country

would certainly decline to go to war to prevent a foreign government

from collecting a just debt; on the other hand, it is very inadvisable

to permit any foreign power to take possession, even temporarily, of

the custom houses of an American Republic in order to enforce the

payment of its obligations; for such temporary occupation might turn

into a permanent occupation. The only escape from these alternatives

may at any time be that we must ourselves undertake to bring about some

arrangement by which so much as possible of a just obligation shall be

paid. It is far better that this country should put through such an

arrangement, rather than allow any foreign country to undertake it. To

do so insures the defaulting republic from having to pay debt of an

improper character under duress, while it also insures honest creditors

of the republic from being passed by in the interest of dishonest or

grasping creditors. Moreover, for the United States to take such a

position offers the only possible way of insuring us against a clash

with some foreign power. The position is, therefore, in the interest of

peace as well as in the interest of justice. It is of benefit to our

people; it is of benefit to foreign peoples; and most of all it is

really of benefit to the people of the country concerned.



This brings me to what should be one of the fundamental objects of the

Monroe Doctrine. We must ourselves in good faith try to help upward

toward peace and order those of our sister republics which need such

help. Just as there has been a gradual growth of the ethical element in

the relations of one individual to another, so we are, even though

slowly, more and more coming to recognize the duty of bearing one

another's burdens, not only as among individuals, but also as among

nations.



Santo Domingo, in her turn, has now made an appeal to us to help her,

and not only every principle of wisdom but every generous instinct

within us bids us respond to the appeal. It is not of the slightest

consequence whether we grant the aid needed by Santo Domingo as an

incident to the wise development of the Monroe Doctrine or because we

regard the case of Santo Domingo as standing wholly by itself, and to

be treated as such, and not on general principles or with any reference

to the Monroe Doctrine. The important point is to give the needed aid,

and the case is certainly sufficiently peculiar to deserve to be judged

purely on its own merits. The conditions in Santo Domingo have for a

number of years grown from bad to worse until a year ago all society

was on the verge of dissolution. Fortunately, just at this time a ruler

sprang up in Santo Domingo, who, with his colleagues, saw the dangers

threatening their country and appealed to the friendship of the only

great and powerful neighbor who possessed the power, and as they hoped

also the will to help them. There was imminent danger of foreign

intervention. The previous rulers of Santo Domingo had recklessly

incurred debts, and owing to her internal disorders she had ceased to

be able to provide means of paying the debts. The patience of her

foreign creditors had become exhausted, and at least two foreign

nations were on the point of intervention, and were only prevented from

intervening by the unofficial assurance of this Government that it

would itself strive to help Santo Domingo in her hour of need. In the

case of one of these nations, only the actual opening of negotiations

to this end by our Government prevented the seizure of territory in

Santo Domingo by a European power. Of the debts incurred some were

just, while some were not of a character which really renders it

obligatory on or proper for Santo Domingo to pay them in full. But she

could not pay any of them unless some stability was assured her

Government and people.



Accordingly, the Executive Department of our Government negotiated a

treaty under which we are to try to help the Dominican people to

straighten out their finances. This treaty is pending before the

Senate. In the meantime a temporary arrangement has been made which

will last until the Senate has had time to take action upon the treaty.

Under this arrangement the Dominican Government has appointed Americans

to all the important positions in the customs service and they are

seeing to the honest collection of the revenues, turning over 45 per

cent. to the Government for running expenses and putting the other 55

per cent. into a safe depository for equitable division in case the

treaty shall be ratified, among the various creditors, whether European

or American.



The Custom Houses offer well-nigh the only sources of revenue in Santo

Domingo, and the different revolutions usually have as their real aim

the obtaining of these Custom Houses. The mere fact that the Collectors

of Customs are Americans, that they are performing their duties with

efficiency and honesty, and that the treaty is pending in the Senate

gives a certain moral power to the Government of Santo Domingo which it

has not had before. This has completely discouraged all revolutionary

movement, while it has already produced such an increase in the

revenues that the Government is actually getting more from the 45 per

cent. that the American Collectors turn over to it than it got formerly

when it took the entire revenue. It is enabling the poor, harassed

people of Santo Domingo once more to turn their attention to industry

and to be free from the cure of interminable revolutionary disturbance.

It offers to all bona-fide creditors, American and European, the only

really good chance to obtain that to which they are justly entitled,

while it in return gives to Santo Domingo the only opportunity of

defense against claims which it ought not to pay, for now if it meets

the views of the Senate we shall ourselves thoroughly examine all these

claims, whether American or foreign, and see that none that are

improper are paid. There is, of course, opposition to the treaty from

dishonest creditors, foreign and American, and from the professional

revolutionists of the island itself. We have already reason to believe

that some of the creditors who do not dare expose their claims to

honest scrutiny are endeavoring to stir up sedition in the island and

opposition to the treaty. In the meantime, I have exercised the

authority vested in me by the joint resolution of the Congress to

prevent the introduction of arms into the island for revolutionary

purposes.



Under the course taken, stability and order and all the benefits of

peace are at last coming to Santo Domingo, danger of foreign

intervention has been suspended, and there is at last a prospect that

all creditors will get justice, no more and no less. If the arrangement

is terminated by the failure of the treaty chaos will follow; and if

chaos follows, sooner or later this Government may be involved in

serious difficulties with foreign Governments over the island, or else

may be forced itself to intervene in the island in some unpleasant

fashion. Under the proposed treaty the independence of the island is

scrupulously respected, the danger of violation of the Monroe Doctrine

by the intervention of foreign powers vanishes, and the interference of

our Government is minimized, so that we shall only act in conjunction

with the Santo Domingo authorities to secure the proper administration

of the customs, and therefore to secure the payment of just debts and

to secure the Dominican Government against demands for unjust debts.

The proposed method will give the people of Santo Domingo the same

chance to move onward and upward which we have already given to the

people of Cuba. It will be doubly to our discredit as a Nation if we

fail to take advantage of this chance; for it will be of damage to

ourselves, and it will be of incalculable damage to Santo Domingo.

Every consideration of wise policy, and, above all, every consideration

of large generosity, bids us meet the request of Santo Domingo as we

are now trying to meet it.



We cannot consider the question of our foreign policy without at the

same time treating of the Army and the Navy. We now have a very small

army indeed, one well-nigh infinitesimal when compared With the army of

any other large nation. Of course the army we do have should be as

nearly perfect of its kind and for its size as is possible. I do not

believe that any army in the world has a better average of enlisted men

or a better type of junior officer; but the army should be trained to

act effectively in a mass. Provision should be made by sufficient

appropriations for manoeuvers of a practical kind, so that the troops

may learn how to take care of themselves under actual service

conditions; every march, for instance, being made with the soldier

loaded exactly as he would be in active campaign. The Generals and

Colonels would thereby have opportunity of handling regiments,

brigades, and divisions, and the commissary and medical departments

would be tested in the field. Provision should be made for the exercise

at least of a brigade and by preference of a division in marching and

embarking at some point on our coast and disembarking at some other

point and continuing its march. The number of posts in which the army

is kept in time of peace should be materially diminished and the posts

that are left made correspondingly larger. No local interests should be

allowed to stand in the way of assembling the greater part of the

troops which would at need form our field armies in stations of such

size as will permit the best training to be given to the personnel of

all grades, including the high officers and staff officers. To

accomplish this end we must have not company or regimental garrisons,

but brigade and division garrisons. Promotion by mere seniority can

never result in a thoroughly efficient corps of officers in the higher

ranks unless there accompanies it a vigorous weeding-out process. Such

a weeding-out process--that is, such a process of selection--is a chief

feature of the four years' course of the young officer at West Point.

There is no good reason why it should stop immediately upon his

graduation. While at West Point he is dropped unless he comes up to a

certain standard of excellence, and when he graduates he takes rank in

the army according to his rank of graduation. The results are good at

West Point; and there should be in the army itself something that will

achieve the same end. After a certain age has been reached the average

officer is unfit to do good work below a certain grade. Provision

should be made for the promotion of exceptionally meritorious men over

the heads of their comrades and for the retirement of all men who have

reached a given age without getting beyond a given rank; this age of

retirement of course changing from rank to rank. In both the army and

the navy there should be some principle of selection, that is, of

promotion for merit, and there should be a resolute effort to eliminate

the aged officers of reputable character who possess no special

efficiency.



There should be an increase in the coast artillery force, so that our

coast fortifications can be in some degree adequately manned. There is

special need for an increase and reorganization of the Medical

Department of the army. In both the army and navy there must be the

same thorough training for duty in the staff corps as in the fighting

line. Only by such training in advance can we be sure that in actual

war field operations and those at sea will be carried on successfully.

The importance of this was shown conclusively in the Spanish-American

and the Russo-Japanese wars. The work of the medical departments in the

Japanese army and navy is especially worthy of study. I renew my

recommendation of January 9, 1905, as to the Medical Department of the

army and call attention to the equal importance of the needs of the

staff corps of the navy. In the Medical Department of the navy the

first in importance is the reorganization of the Hospital Corps, on the

lines of the Gallinger bill, (S. 3,984, February 1, 1904), and the

reapportionment of the different grades of the medical officers to meet

service requirements. It seems advisable also that medical officers of

the army and navy should have similar rank and pay in their respective

grades, so that their duties can be carried on without friction when

they are brought together. The base hospitals of the navy should be put

in condition to meet modern requirements and hospital ships be

provided. Unless we now provide with ample forethought for the medical

needs of the army and navy appalling suffering of a preventable kind is

sure to occur if ever the country goes to war. It is not reasonable to

expect successful administration in time of war of a department which

lacks a third of the number of officers necessary to perform the

medical service in time of peace. We need men who are not merely

doctors; they must be trained in the administration of military medical

service.



Our navy must, relatively to the navies of other nations, always be of

greater size than our army. We have most wisely continued for a number

of years to build up our navy, and it has now reached a fairly high

standard of efficiency. This standard of efficiency must not only be

maintained, but increased. It does not seem to be necessary, however,

that the navy should--at least in the immediate future--be increased

beyond the present number of units. What is now clearly necessary is to

substitute efficient for inefficient units as the latter become worn

out or as it becomes apparent that they are useless. Probably the

result would be attained by adding a single battleship to our navy each

year, the superseded or outworn vessels being laid up or broken up as

they are thus replaced. The four single-turret monitors built

immediately after the close of the Spanish war, for instance, are

vessels which would be of but little use in the event of war. The money

spent upon them could have been more usefully spent in other ways. Thus

it would have been far better never to have built a single one of these

monitors and to have put the money into an ample supply of reserve

guns. Most of the smaller cruisers and gunboats, though they serve a

useful purpose so far as they are needed for international police work,

would not add to the strength of our navy in a conflict with a serious

foe. There is urgent need of providing a large increase in the number

of officers, and especially in the number of enlisted men.



Recent naval history has emphasized certain lessons which ought not to,

but which do, need emphasis. Seagoing torpedo boats or destroyers are

indispensable, not only for making night attacks by surprise upon an

enemy, but even in battle for finishing already crippled ships. Under

exceptional circumstances submarine boats would doubtless be of use.

Fast scouts are needed. The main strength of the navy, however, lies,

and can only lie, in the great battleships, the heavily armored,

heavily gunned vessels which decide the mastery of the seas.

Heavy-armed cruisers also play a most useful part, and unarmed

cruisers, if swift enough, are very useful as scouts. Between

antagonists of approximately equal prowess the comparative perfection

of the instruments of war will ordinarily determine the fight. But it

is, of course, true that the man behind the gun, the man in the engine

room, and the man in the conning tower, considered not only

individually, but especially with regard to the way in which they work

together, are even more important than the weapons with which they

work. The most formidable battleship is, of course, helpless against

even a light cruiser if the men aboard it are unable to hit anything

with their guns, and thoroughly well-handled cruisers may count

seriously in an engagement with much superior vessels, if the men

aboard the latter are ineffective, whether from lack of training or

from any other cause. Modern warships are most formidable mechanisms

when well handled, but they are utterly useless when not well handled,

and they cannot be handled at all without long and careful training.

This training can under no circumstance be given when once war has

broken out. No fighting ship of the first class should ever be laid up

save for necessary repairs, and her crew should be kept constantly

exercised on the high seas, so that she may stand at the highest point

of perfection. To put a new and untrained crew upon the most powerful

battleship and send it out to meet a formidable enemy is not only to

invite, but to insure, disaster and disgrace. To improvise crews at the

outbreak of a war, so far as the serious fighting craft are concerned,

is absolutely hopeless. If the officers and men are not thoroughly

skilled in, and have not been thoroughly trained to, their duties, it

would be far better to keep the ships in port during hostilities than

to send them against a formidable opponent, for the result could only

be that they would be either sunk or captured. The marksmanship of our

navy is now on the whole in a gratifying condition, and there has been

a great improvement in fleet practice. We need additional seamen; we

need a large store of reserve guns; we need sufficient money for ample

target practice, ample practice of every kind at sea. We should

substitute for comparatively inefficient types--the old third-class

battleship Texas, the single-turreted monitors above mentioned, and,

indeed, all the monitors and some of the old cruisers--efficient,

modern seagoing vessels. Seagoing torpedo-boat destroyers should be

substituted for some of the smaller torpedo boats. During the present

Congress there need be no additions to the aggregate number of units of

the navy. Our navy, though very small relatively to the navies of other

nations, is for the present sufficient in point of numbers for our

needs, and while we must constantly strive to make its efficiency

higher, there need be no additions to the total of ships now built and

building, save in the way of substitution as above outlined. I

recommend the report of the Secretary of the Navy to the careful

consideration of the Congress, especially with a view to the

legislation therein advocated.



During the past year evidence has accumulated to confirm the

expressions contained in my last two annual messages as to the

importance of revising by appropriate legislation our system of

naturalizing aliens. I appointed last March a commission to make a

careful examination of our naturalization laws, and to suggest

appropriate measures to avoid the notorious abuses resulting from the

improvident of unlawful granting of citizenship. This commission,

composed of an officer of the Department of State, of the Department of

Justice, and of the Department of Commerce and Labor, has discharged

the duty imposed upon it, and has submitted a report, which will be

transmitted to the Congress for its consideration, and, I hope, for its

favor, able action.



The distinguishing recommendations of the commission are:



First--A Federal Bureau of Naturalization, to be established in the

Department of Commerce and Labor, to supervise the administration of

the naturalization laws and to receive returns of naturalizations

pending and accomplished.



Second--Uniformity of naturalization certificates, fees to be charged,

and procedure.



Third--More exacting qualifications for citizenship.



Fourth--The preliminary declaration of intention to be abolished and no

alien to be naturalized until at least ninety days after the filing of

his petition.



Fifth--Jurisdiction to naturalize aliens to be confined to United

States district courts and to such State courts as have jurisdiction in

civil actions in which the amount in controversy is unlimited; in

cities of over 100,000 inhabitants the United States district courts to

have exclusive jurisdiction in the naturalization of the alien

residents of such cities.



In my last message I asked the attention of the Congress to the urgent

need of action to make our criminal law more effective; and I most

earnestly request that you pay heed to the report of the Attorney

General on this subject. Centuries ago it was especially needful to

throw every safeguard round the accused. The danger then was lest he

should be wronged by the State. The danger is now exactly the reverse.

Our laws and customs tell immensely in favor of the criminal and

against the interests of the public he has wronged. Some antiquated and

outworn rules which once safeguarded the threatened rights of private

citizens, now merely work harm to the general body politic. The

criminal law of the United States stands in urgent need of revision.

The criminal process of any court of the United States should run

throughout the entire territorial extent of our country. The delays of

the criminal law, no less than of the civil, now amount to a very great

evil.



There seems to be no statute of the United States which provides for

the punishment of a United States Attorney or other officer of the

Government who corruptly agrees to wrongfully do or wrongfully refrain

from doing any act when the consideration for such corrupt agreement is

other than one possessing money value. This ought to be remedied by

appropriate legislation. Legislation should also be enacted to cover

explicitly, unequivocally, and beyond question breach of trust in the

shape of prematurely divulging official secrets by an officer or

employe of the United States, and to provide a suitable penalty

therefor. Such officer or employe owes the duty to the United States to

guard carefully and not to divulge or in any manner use, prematurely,

information which is accessible to the officer or employe by reason of

his official position. Most breaches of public trust are already

covered by the law, and this one should be. It is impossible, no matter

how much care is used, to prevent the occasional appointment to the

public service of a man who when tempted proves unfaithful; but every

means should be provided to detect and every effort made to punish the

wrongdoer. So far as in my power see each and every such wrongdoer

shall be relentlessly hunted down; in no instance in the past has he

been spared; in no instance in the future shall he be spared. His crime

is a crime against every honest man in the Nation, for it is a crime

against the whole body politic. Yet in dwelling on such misdeeds it is

unjust not to add that they are altogether exceptional, and that on the

whole the employes of the Government render upright and faithful

service to the people. There are exceptions, notably in one or two

branches of the service, but at no time in the Nation's history has the

public service of the Nation taken as a whole stood on a higher plane

than now, alike as regards honesty and as regards efficiency.



Once again I call your attention to the condition of the public land

laws. Recent developments have given new urgency to the need for such

changes as will fit these laws to actual present conditions. The honest

disposal and right use of the remaining public lands is of fundamental

importance. The iniquitous methods by which the monopolizing of the

public lands is being brought about under the present laws are becoming

more generally known, but the existing laws do not furnish effective

remedies. The recommendations of the Public Lands Commission upon this

subject are wise and should be given effect.



The creation of small irrigated farms under the Reclamation act is a

powerful offset to the tendency of certain other laws to foster or

permit monopoly of the land. Under that act the construction of great

irrigation works has been proceeding rapidly and successfully, the

lands reclaimed are eagerly taken up, and the prospect that the policy

of National irrigation will accomplish all that was expected of it is

bright. The act should be extended to include the State of Texas.



The Reclamation act derives much of its value from the fact that it

tends to secure the greatest possible number of homes on the land, and

to create communities of freeholders, in part by settlement on public

lands, in part by forcing the subdivision of large private holdings

before they can get water from Government irrigation works. The law

requires that no right to the use of water for land in private

ownership shall be sold for a tract exceeding 160 acres to any one land

owner. This provision has excited active and powerful hostility, but

the success of the law itself depends on the wise and firm enforcement

of it. We cannot afford to substitute tenants for freeholders on the

public domain.



The greater part of the remaining public lands can not be irrigated.

They are at present and will probably always be of greater value for

grazing than for any other purpose. This fact has led to the grazing

homestead of 640 acres in Nebraska and to the proposed extension of it

to other States. It is argued that a family can not be supported on 160

acres of arid grazing land. This is obviously true, but neither can a

family be supported on 640 acres of much of the land to which it is

proposed to apply the grazing homestead. To establish universally any

such arbitrary limit would be unwise at the present time. It would

probably result on the one hand in enlarging the holdings of some of

the great land owners, and on the other in needless suffering and

failure on the part of a very considerable proportion of the bona fide

settlers who give faith to the implied assurance of the Government that

such an area is sufficient. The best use of the public grazing lands

requires the careful examination and classification of these lands in

order to give each settler land enough to support his family and no

more. While this work is being done, and until the lands are settled,

the Government should take control of the open range, under reasonable

regulations suited to local needs, following the general policy already

in successful operation on the forest reserves. It is probable that the

present grazing value of the open public range is scarcely more than

half what it once was or what it might easily be again under careful

regulation.



The forest policy of the Administration appears to enjoy the unbroken

support of the people. The great users of timber are themselves

forwarding the movement for forest preservation. All organized

opposition to the forest preserves in the West has disappeared. Since

the consolidation of all Government forest work in the National Forest

Service there has been a rapid and notable gain in the usefulness of

the forest reserves to the people and in public appreciation of their

value. The National parks within or adjacent to forest reserves should

be transferred to the charge of the Forest Service also.



The National Government already does something in connection with the

construction and maintenance of the great system of levees along the

lower course of the Mississippi; in my judgment it should do much more.



To the spread of our trade in peace and the defense of our flag in war

a great and prosperous merchant marine is indispensable. We should have

ships of our own and seamen of our own to convey our goods to neutral

markets, and in case of need to reinforce our battle line. It cannot

but be a source of regret and uneasiness to us that the lines of

communication with our sister republics of South America should be

chiefly under foreign control. It is not a good thing that American

merchants and manufacturers should have to send their goods and letters

to South America via Europe if they wish security and dispatch. Even on

the Pacific, where our ships have held their own better than on the

Atlantic, our merchant flag is now threatened through the liberal aid

bestowed by other Governments on their own steam lines. I ask your

earnest consideration of the report with which the Merchant Marine

Commission has followed its long and careful inquiry.



I again heartily commend to your favorable consideration the

tercentennial celebration at Jamestown, Va. Appreciating the

desirability of this commemoration, the Congress passed an act, March

3, 1905, authorizing in the year 1907, on and near the waters of

Hampton Roads, in the State of Virginia, an international naval,

marine, and military celebration in honor of this event. By the

authority vested in me by this act, I have made proclamation of said

celebration, and have issued, in conformity with its instructions,

invitations to all the nations of the earth to participate, by sending

their naval vessels and such military organizations as may be

practicable. This celebration would fail of its full purpose unless it

were enduring in its results and commensurate with the importance of

the event to be celebrated, the event from which our Nation dates its

birth. I earnestly hope that this celebration, already indorsed by the

Congress of the United States, and by the Legislatures of sixteen

States since the action of the Congress, will receive such additional

aid at your hands as will make it worthy of the great event it is

intended to celebrate, and thereby enable the Government of the United

States to make provision for the exhibition of its own resources, and

likewise enable our people who have undertaken the work of such a

celebration to provide suitable and proper entertainment and

instruction in the historic events of our country for all who may visit

the exposition and to whom we have tendered our hospitality.



It is a matter of unmixed satisfaction once more to call attention to

the excellent work of the Pension Bureau; for the veterans of the civil

war have a greater claim upon us than any other class of our citizens.

To them, first of all among our people, honor is due.



Seven years ago my lamented predecessor, President McKinley, stated

that the time had come for the Nation to care for the graves of the

Confederate dead. I recommend that the Congress take action toward this

end. The first need is to take charge of the graves of the Confederate

dead who died in Northern prisons.



The question of immigration is of vital interest to this country. In

the year ending June 30, 1905, there came to the United States

1,026,000 alien immigrants. In other words, in the single year that has

just elapsed there came to this country a greater number of people than

came here during the one hundred and sixty-nine years of our Colonial

life which intervened between the first landing at Jamestown and the

Declaration of Independence. It is clearly shown in the report of the

Commissioner General of Immigration that while much of this enormous

immigration is undoubtedly healthy and natural, a considerable

proportion is undesirable from one reason or another; moreover, a

considerable proportion of it, probably a very large proportion,

including most of the undesirable class, does not come here of its own

initiative, but because of the activity of the agents of the great

transportation companies. These agents are distributed throughout

Europe, and by the offer of all kinds of inducements they wheedle and

cajole many immigrants, often against their best interest, to come

here. The most serious obstacle we have to encounter in the effort to

secure a proper regulation of the immigration to these shores arises

from the determined opposition of the foreign steamship lines who have

no interest whatever in the matter save to increase the returns on

their capital by carrying masses of immigrants hither in the steerage

quarters of their ships.



As I said in my last message to the Congress, we cannot have too much

immigration of the right sort and we should have none whatever of the

wrong sort. Of course, it is desirable that even the right kind of

immigration should be properly distributed in this country. We need

more of such immigration for the South; and special effort should be

made to secure it. Perhaps it would be possible to limit the number of

immigrants allowed to come in any one year to New York and other

Northern cities, while leaving unlimited the number allowed to come to

the South; always provided, however, that a stricter effort is made to

see that only immigrants of the right kind come to our country

anywhere. In actual practice it has proved so difficult to enforce the

migration laws where long stretches of frontier marked by an imaginary

line alone intervene between us and our neighbors that I recommend that

no immigrants be allowed to come in from Canada and Mexico save natives

of the two countries themselves. As much as possible should be done to

distribute the immigrants upon the land and keep them away from the

contested tenement-house districts of the great cities. But

distribution is a palliative, not a cure. The prime need is to keep out

all immigrants who will not make good American citizens. The laws now

existing for the exclusion of undesirable immigrants should be

strengthened. Adequate means should be adopted, enforced by sufficient

penalties, to compel steamship companies engaged in the passenger

business to observe in good faith the law which forbids them to

encourage or solicit immigration to the United States. Moreover, there

should be a sharp limitation imposed upon all vessels coming to our

ports as to the number of immigrants in ratio to the tonnage which each

vessel can carry. This ratio should be high enough to insure the coming

hither of as good a class of aliens as possible. Provision should be

made for the surer punishment of those who induce aliens to come to

this country under promise or assurance of employment. It should be

made possible to inflict a sufficiently heavy penalty on any employer

violating this law to deter him from taking the risk. It seems to me

wise that there should be an international conference held to deal with

this question of immigration, which has more than a merely National

significance; such a conference could, among other things, enter at

length into the method for securing a thorough inspection of would-be

immigrants at the ports from which they desire to embark before

permitting them to embark.



In dealing with this question it is unwise to depart from the old

American tradition and to discriminate for or against any man who

desires to come here and become a citizen, save on the ground of that

man's fitness for citizenship. It is our right and duty to consider his

moral and social quality. His standard of living should be such that he

will not, by pressure of competition, lower the standard of living of

our own wage-workers; for it must ever be a prime object of our

legislation to keep high their standard of living. If the man who seeks

to come here is from the moral and social standpoint of such a

character as to bid fair to add value to the community he should be

heartily welcomed. We cannot afford to pay heed to whether he is of one

creed or another, of one nation, or another. We cannot afford to

consider whether he is Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile; whether

he is Englishman or Irishman, Frenchman or German, Japanese, Italian,

Scandinavian, Slav, or Magyar. What we should desire to find out is the

individual quality of the individual man. In my judgment, with this end

in view, we shall have to prepare through our own agents a far more

rigid inspection in the countries from which the immigrants come. It

will be a great deal better to have fewer immigrants, but all of the

right kind, than a great number of immigrants, many of whom are

necessarily of the wrong kind. As far as possible we wish to limit the

immigration to this country to persons who propose to become citizens

of this country, and we can well afford to insist upon adequate

scrutiny of the character of those who are thus proposed for future

citizenship. There should be an increase in the stringency of the laws

to keep out insane, idiotic, epileptic, and pauper immigrants. But this

is by no means enough. Not merely the Anarchist, but every man of

Anarchistic tendencies, all violent and disorderly people, all people

of bad character, the incompetent, the lazy, the vicious, the

physically unfit, defective, or degenerate should be kept out. The

stocks out of which American citizenship is to be built should be

strong and healthy, sound in body, mind, and character. If it be

objected that the Government agents would not always select well, the

answer is that they would certainly select better than do the agents

and brokers of foreign steamship companies, the people who now do

whatever selection is done.



The questions arising in connection with Chinese immigration stand by

themselves. The conditions in China are such that the entire Chinese

coolie class, that is, the class of Chinese laborers, skilled and

unskilled, legitimately come under the head of undesirable immigrants

to this country, because of their numbers, the low wages for which they

work, and their low standard of living. Not only is it to the interest

of this country to keep them out, but the Chinese authorities do not

desire that they should be admitted. At present their entrance is

prohibited by laws amply adequate to accomplish this purpose. These

laws have been, are being, and will be, thoroughly enforced. The

violations of them are so few in number as to be infinitesimal and can

be entirely disregarded. This is no serious proposal to alter the

immigration law as regards the Chinese laborer, skilled or unskilled,

and there is no excuse for any man feeling or affecting to feel the

slightest alarm on the subject.



But in the effort to carry out the policy of excluding Chinese

laborers, Chinese coolies, grave injustice and wrong have been done by

this Nation to the people of China, and therefore ultimately to this

Nation itself. Chinese students, business and professional men of all

kinds--not only merchants, but bankers, doctors, manufacturers,

professors, travelers, and the like--should be encouraged to come here,

and treated on precisely the same footing that we treat students,

business men, travelers, and the like of other nations. Our laws and

treaties should be framed, not so as to put these people in the

excepted classes, but to state that we will admit all Chinese, except

Chinese of the coolie class, Chinese skilled or unskilled laborers.

There would not be the least danger that any such provision would

result in any relaxation of the law about laborers. These will, under

all conditions, be kept out absolutely. But it will be more easy to see

that both justice and courtesy are shown, as they ought to be shown, to

other Chinese, if the law or treaty is framed as above suggested.

Examinations should be completed at the port of departure from China.

For this purpose there should be provided a more adequate Consular

Service in China than we now have. The appropriations both for the

offices of the Consuls and for the office forces in the consulates

should be increased.



As a people we have talked much of the open door in China, and we

expect, and quite rightly intend to insist upon, justice being shown us

by the Chinese. But we cannot expect to receive equity unless we do

equity. We cannot ask the Chinese to do to us what we are unwilling to

do to them. They would have a perfect right to exclude our laboring men

if our laboring men threatened to come into their country in such

numbers as to jeopardize the well-being of the Chinese population; and

as, mutatis mutandis, these were the conditions with which Chinese

immigration actually brought this people face to face, we had and have

a perfect right, which the Chinese Government in no way contests, to

act as we have acted in the matter of restricting coolie immigration.

That this right exists for each country was explicitly acknowledged in

the last treaty between the two countries. But we must treat the

Chinese student, traveler, and business man in a spirit of the broadest

justice and courtesy if we expect similar treatment to be accorded to

our own people of similar rank who go to China. Much trouble has come

during the past Summer from the organized boycott against American

goods which has been started in China. The main factor in producing

this boycott has been the resentment felt by the students and business

people of China, by all the Chinese leaders, against the harshness of

our law toward educated Chinamen of the professional and business

classes.  This Government has the friendliest feeling for China and

desires China's well-being. We cordially sympathize with the announced

purpose of Japan to stand for the integrity of China. Such an attitude

tends to the peace of the world.



The civil service law has been on the statute books for twenty-two

years. Every President and a vast majority of heads of departments who

have been in office during that period have favored a gradual extension

of the merit system. The more thoroughly its principles have been

understood, the greater has been the favor with which the law has been

regarded by administration officers. Any attempt to carry on the great

executive departments of the Government without this law would

inevitably result in chaos. The Civil Service Commissioners are doing

excellent work, and their compensation is inadequate considering the

service they perform.



The statement that the examinations are not practical in character is

based on a misapprehension of the practice of the Commission. The

departments are invariably consulted as to the requirements desired and

as to the character of questions that shall be asked. General

invitations are frequently sent out to all heads of departments asking

whether any changes in the scope or character of examinations are

required. In other words, the departments prescribe the requirements

and qualifications desired, and the Civil Service Commission

co-operates with them in securing persons with these qualifications and

insuring open and impartial competition. In a large number of

examinations (as, for example, those for trades positions), there are

no educational requirements whatever, and a person who can neither read

nor write may pass with a high average. Vacancies in the service are

filled with reasonable expedition, and the machinery of the Commission,

which reaches every part of the country, is the best agency that has

yet been devised for finding people with the most suitable

qualifications for the various offices to be filled. Written

competitive examinations do not make an ideal method for filling

positions, but they do represent an immeasurable advance upon the

"spoils" method, under which outside politicians really make the

appointments nominally made by the executive officers, the appointees

being chosen by the politicians in question, in the great majority of

cases, for reasons totally unconnected with the needs of the service or

of the public.



Statistics gathered by the Census Bureau show that the tenure of office

in the Government service does not differ materially from that enjoyed

by employes of large business corporations. Heads of executive

departments and members of the Commission have called my attention to

the fact that the rule requiring a filing of charges and three days'

notice before an employe could be separated from the service for

inefficiency has served no good purpose whatever, because that is not a

matter upon which a hearing of the employe found to be inefficient can

be of any value, and in practice the rule providing for such notice and

hearing has merely resulted in keeping in a certain number of

incompetents, because of the reluctance of the heads of departments and

bureau chiefs to go through the required procedure. Experience has

shown that this rule is wholly ineffective to save any man, if a

superior for improper reasons wishes to remove him, and is mischievous

because it sometimes serves to keep in the service incompetent men not

guilty of specific wrongdoing. Having these facts in view the rule has

been amended by providing that where the inefficiency or incapacity

comes within the personal knowledge of the head of a department the

removal may be made without notice, the reasons therefor being filed

and made a record of the department. The absolute right of the removal

rests where it always has rested, with the head of a department; any

limitation of this absolute right results in grave injury to the public

service. The change is merely one of procedure; it was much needed, and

it is producing good results.



The civil service law is being energetically and impartially enforced,

and in the large majority of cases complaints of violations of either

the law or rules are discovered to be unfounded. In this respect this

law compares very favorably with any other Federal statute. The

question of politics in the appointment and retention of the men

engaged in merely ministerial work has been practically eliminated in

almost the entire field of Government employment covered by the civil

service law. The action of the Congress in providing the commission

with its own force instead of requiring it to rely on detailed clerks

has been justified by the increased work done at a smaller cost to the

Government. I urge upon the Congress a careful consideration of the

recommendations contained in the annual report of the commission.



Our copyright laws urgently need revision. They are imperfect in

definition, confused and inconsistent in expression; they omit

provision for many articles which, under modern reproductive processes

are entitled to protection; they impose hardships upon the copyright

proprietor which are not essential to the fair protection of the

public; they are difficult for the courts to interpret and impossible

for the Copyright Office to administer with satisfaction to the public.

Attempts to improve them by amendment have been frequent, no less than

twelve acts for the purpose having been passed since the Revised

Statutes. To perfect them by further amendment seems impracticable. A

complete revision of them is essential. Such a revision, to meet modern

conditions, has been found necessary in Germany, Austria, Sweden, and

other foreign countries, and bills embodying it are pending in England

and the Australian colonies. It has been urged here, and proposals for

a commission to undertake it have, from time to time, been pressed upon

the Congress. The inconveniences of the present conditions being so

great, an attempt to frame appropriate legislation has been made by the

Copyright Office, which has called conferences of the various interests

especially and practically concerned with the operation of the

copyright laws. It has secured from them suggestions as to the changes

necessary; it has added from its own experience and investigations, and

it has drafted a bill which embodies such of these changes and

additions as, after full discussion and expert criticism, appeared to

be sound and safe. In form this bill would replace the existing

insufficient and inconsistent laws by one general copyright statute. It

will be presented to the Congress at the coming session. It deserves

prompt consideration.



I recommend that a law be enacted to regulate inter-State commerce in

misbranded and adulterated foods, drinks, and drugs. Such law would

protect legitimate manufacture and commerce, and would tend to secure

the health and welfare of the consuming public. Traffic in food-stuffs

which have been debased or adulterated so as to injure health or to

deceive purchasers should be forbidden.



The law forbidding the emission of dense black or gray smoke in the

city of Washington has been sustained by the courts. Something has been

accomplished under it, but much remains to be done if we would preserve

the capital city from defacement by the smoke nuisance. Repeated

prosecutions under the law have not had the desired effect. I recommend

that it be made more stringent by increasing both the minimum and

maximum fine; by providing for imprisonment in cases of repeated

violation, and by affording the remedy of injunction against the

continuation of the operation of plants which are persistent offenders.

I recommend, also, an increase in the number of inspectors, whose duty

it shall be to detect violations of the act.



I call your attention to the generous act of the State of California in

conferring upon the United States Government the ownership of the

Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove. There should be no

delay in accepting the gift, and appropriations should be made for the

including thereof in the Yosemite National Park, and for the care and

policing of the park. California has acted most wisely, as well as with

great magnanimity, in the matter. There are certain mighty natural

features of our land which should be preserved in perpetuity for our

children and our children's children. In my judgment, the Grand Canyon

of the Colorado should be made into a National park. It is greatly to

be wished that the State of New York should copy as regards Niagara

what the State of California has done as regards the Yosemite. Nothing

should be allowed to interfere with the preservation of Niagara Falls

in all their beauty and majesty. If the State cannot see to this, then

it is earnestly to be wished that she should be willing to turn it over

to the National Government, which should in such case (if possible, in

conjunction with the Canadian Government) assume the burden and

responsibility of preserving unharmed Niagara Falls; just as it should

gladly assume a similar burden and responsibility for the Yosemite

National Park, and as it has already assumed them for the Yellowstone

National Park. Adequate provision should be made by the Congress for

the proper care and supervision of all these National parks. The

boundaries of the Yellowstone National Park should be extended to the

south and east, to take in such portions of the abutting forest

reservations as will enable the Government to protect the elk on their

Winter range.



The most characteristic animal of the Western plains was the great,

shaggy-maned wild ox, the bison, commonly known as buffalo. Small

fragments of herds exist in a domesticated state here and there, a few

of them in the Yellowstone Park. Such a herd as that on the Flat-head

Reservation should not be allowed to go out of existence. Either on

some reservation or on some forest reserve like the Wichita reserve and

game refuge provision should be made for the preservation of such a

herd. I believe that the scheme would be of economic advantage, for the

robe of the buffalo is of high market value, and the same is true of

the robe of the crossbred animals.



I call your especial attention to the desirability of giving to the

members of the Life Saving Service pensions such as are given to

firemen and policemen in all our great cities. The men in the Life

Saving Service continually and in the most matter of fact way do deeds

such as make Americans proud of their country. They have no political

influence, and they live in such remote places that the really heroic

services they continually render receive the scantiest recognition from

the public. It is unjust for a great nation like this to permit these

men to become totally disabled or to meet death in the performance of

their hazardous duty and yet to give them no sort of reward. If one of

them serves thirty years of his life in such a position he should

surely be entitled to retire on half pay, as a fireman or policeman

does, and if he becomes totally incapacitated through accident or

sickness, or loses his health in the discharge of his duty, he or his

family should receive a pension just as any soldier should. I call your

attention with especial earnestness to this matter because it appeals

not only to our judgment but to our sympathy; for the people on whose

behalf I ask it are comparatively few in number, render incalculable

service of a particularly dangerous kind, and have no one to speak for

them.



During the year just past, the phase of the Indian question which has

been most sharply brought to public attention is the larger legal

significance of the Indian's induction into citizenship. This has made

itself manifest not only in a great access of litigation in which the

citizen Indian figures as a party defendant and in a more widespread

disposition to levy local taxation upon his personalty, but in a

decision of the United States Supreme Court which struck away the main

prop on which has hitherto rested the Government's benevolent effort to

protect him against the evils of intemperance. The court holds, in

effect, that when an Indian becomes, by virtue of an allotment of land

to him, a citizen of the State in which his land is situated, he passes

from under Federal control in such matters as this, and the acts of the

Congress prohibiting the sale or gift to him of intoxicants become

substantially inoperative. It is gratifying to note that the States and

municipalities of the West which have most at stake in the welfare of

the Indians are taking up this subject and are trying to supply, in a

measure at least, the abdication of its trusteeship forced upon the

Federal Government. Nevertheless, I would urgently press upon the

attention of the Congress the question whether some amendment of the

internal revenue laws might not be of aid in prosecuting those

malefactors, known in the Indian country as "bootleggers," who are

engaged at once in defrauding the United States Treasury of taxes and,

what is far more important, in debauching the Indians by carrying

liquors illicitly into territory still completely under Federal

jurisdiction.



Among the crying present needs of the Indians are more day schools

situated in the midst of their settlements, more effective instruction

in the industries pursued on their own farms, and a more liberal

tension of the field-matron service, which means the education of the

Indian women in the arts of home making. Until the mothers are well

started in the right direction we cannot reasonably expect much from

the children who are soon to form an integral part of our American

citizenship. Moreover the excuse continually advanced by male adult

Indians for refusing offers of remunerative employment at a distance

from their homes is that they dare not leave their families too long

out of their sight. One effectual remedy for this state of things is to

employ the minds and strengthen the moral fibre of the Indian

women--the end to which the work of the field matron is especially

directed. I trust that the Congress will make its appropriations for

Indian day schools and field matrons as generous as may consist with

the other pressing demands upon its providence.



During the last year the Philippine Islands have been slowly recovering

from the series of disasters which, since American occupation, have

greatly reduced the amount of agricultural products below what was

produced in Spanish times. The war, the rinderpest, the locusts, the

drought, and the cholera have been united as causes to prevent a return

of the prosperity much needed in the islands. The most serious is the

destruction by the rinderpest of more than 75 per cent of the draught

cattle, because it will take several years of breeding to restore the

necessary number of these indispensable aids to agriculture. The

commission attempted to supply by purchase from adjoining countries the

needed cattle, but the experiments made were unsuccessful. Most of the

cattle imported were unable to withstand the change of climate and the

rigors of the voyage and died from other diseases than rinderpest.



The income of the Philippine Government has necessarily been reduced by

reason of the business and agricultural depression in the islands, and

the Government has been obliged to exercise great economy to cut down

its expenses, to reduce salaries, and in every way to avoid a deficit.

It has adopted an internal revenue law, imposing taxes on cigars,

cigarettes, and distilled liquors, and abolishing the old Spanish

industrial taxes. The law has not operated as smoothly as was hoped,

and although its principle is undoubtedly correct, it may need

amendments for the purpose of reconciling the people to its provisions.

The income derived from it has partly made up for the reduction in

customs revenue.



There has been a marked increase in the number of Filipinos employed in

the civil service, and a corresponding decrease in the number of

Americans. The Government in every one of its departments has been

rendered more efficient by elimination of undesirable material and the

promotion of deserving public servants.



Improvements of harbors, roads, and bridges continue, although the

cutting down of the revenue forbids the expenditure of any great amount

from current income for these purposes. Steps are being taken, by

advertisement for competitive bids, to secure the construction and

maintenance of 1,000 miles of railway by private corporations under the

recent enabling legislation of the Congress. The transfer of the friar

lands, in accordance with the contract made some two years ago, has

been completely effected, and the purchase money paid. Provision has

just been made by statute for the speedy settlement in a special

proceeding in the Supreme Court of controversies over the possession

and title of church buildings and rectories arising between the Roman

Catholic Church and schismatics claiming under ancient municipalities.

Negotiations and hearings for the settlement of the amount due to the

Roman Catholic Church for rent and occupation of churches and rectories

by the army of the United States are in progress, and it is hoped a

satisfactory conclusion may be submitted to the Congress before the end

of the session.



Tranquillity has existed during the past year throughout the

Archipelago, except in the Province of Cavite, the Province of Batangas

and the Province of Samar, and in the Island of Jolo among the Moros.

The Jolo disturbance was put an end to by several sharp and short

engagements, and now peace prevails in the Moro Province, Cavite, the

mother of ladrones in the Spanish times, is so permeated with the

traditional sympathy of the people for ladronism as to make it

difficult to stamp out the disease. Batangas was only disturbed by

reason of the fugitive ladrones from Cavite, Samar was thrown into

disturbance by the uneducated and partly savage peoples living in the

mountains, who, having been given by the municipal code more power than

they were able to exercise discreetly, elected municipal officers who

abused their trusts, compelled the people raising hemp to sell it at a

much less price than it was worth, and by their abuses drove their

people into resistance to constituted authority. Cavite and Samar are

instances of reposing too much confidence in the self-governing power

of a people. The disturbances have all now been suppressed, and it is

hoped that with these lessons local governments can be formed which

will secure quiet and peace to the deserving inhabitants. The incident

is another proof of the fact that if there has been any error as

regards giving self-government in the Philippines it has been in the

direction of giving it too quickly, not too slowly. A year from next

April the first legislative assembly for the islands will be held. On

the sanity and self-restraint of this body much will depend so far as

the future self-government of the islands is concerned.



The most encouraging feature of the whole situation has been the very

great interest taken by the common people in education and the great

increase in the number of enrolled students in the public schools. The

increase was from 300,000 to half a million pupils. The average

attendance is about 70 per cent. The only limit upon the number of

pupils seems to be the capacity of the government to furnish teachers

and school houses.



The agricultural conditions of the islands enforce more strongly than

ever the argument in favor of reducing the tariff on the products of

the Philippine Islands entering the United States. I earnestly

recommend that the tariff now imposed by the Dingley bill upon the

products of the Philippine Islands be entirely removed, except the

tariff on sugar and tobacco, and that that tariff be reduced to 25 per

cent of the present rates under the Dingley act; that after July 1,

1909, the tariff upon tobacco and sugar produced in the Philippine

Islands be entirely removed, and that free trade between the islands

and the United States in the products of each country then be provided

for by law.



A statute in force, enacted April 15, 1904, suspends the operation of

the coastwise laws of the United States upon the trade between the

Philippine Islands and the United States until July 1, 1906. I

earnestly recommend that this suspension be postponed until July 1,

1909. I think it of doubtful utility to apply the coastwise laws to the

trade between the United States and the Philippines under any

circumstances, because I am convinced that it will do no good whatever

to American bottoms, and will only interfere and be an obstacle to the

trade between the Philippines and the United States, but if the

coastwise law must be thus applied, certainly it ought not to have

effect until free trade is enjoyed between the people of the United

States and the people of the Philippine Islands in their respective

products.



I do not anticipate that free trade between the islands and the United

States will produce a revolution in the sugar and tobacco production of

the Philippine Islands. So primitive are the methods of agriculture in

the Philippine Islands, so slow is capital in going to the islands, so

many difficulties surround a large agricultural enterprise in the

islands, that it will be many, many years before the products of those

islands will have any effect whatever upon the markets of the United

States. The problem of labor is also a formidable one with the sugar

and tobacco producers in the islands. The best friends of the Filipino

people and the people themselves are utterly opposed to the admission

of Chinese coolie labor. Hence the only solution is the training of

Filipino labor, and this will take a long time. The enactment of a law

by the Congress of the United States making provision for free trade

between the islands and the United States, however, will be of great

importance from a political and sentimental standpoint; and, while its

actual benefit has doubtless been exaggerated by the people of the

islands, they will accept this measure of justice as an indication that

the people of the United States are anxious to aid the people of the

Philippine Islands in every way, and especially in the agricultural

development of their archipelago. It will aid the Filipinos without

injuring interests in America.



In my judgment immediate steps should be taken for the fortification of

Hawaii. This is the most important point in the Pacific to fortify in

order to conserve the interests of this country. It would be hard to

overstate the importance of this need. Hawaii is too heavily taxed.

Laws should be enacted setting aside for a period of, say, twenty years

75 per cent of the internal revenue and customs receipts from Hawaii as

a special fund to be expended in the islands for educational and public

buildings, and for harbor improvements and military and naval defenses.

It cannot be too often repeated that our aim must be to develop the

territory of Hawaii on traditional American lines. That territory has

serious commercial and industrial problems to reckon with; but no

measure of relief can be considered which looks to legislation

admitting Chinese and restricting them by statute to field labor and

domestic service. The status of servility can never again be tolerated

on American soil. We cannot concede that the proper solution of its

problems is special legislation admitting to Hawaii a class of laborers

denied admission to the other States and Territories. There are

obstacles, and great obstacles, in the way of building up a

representative American community in the Hawaiian Islands; but it is

not in the American character to give up in the face of difficulty.

Many an American Commonwealth has been built up against odds equal to

those that now confront Hawaii.



No merely half-hearted effort to meet its problems as other American

communities have met theirs can be accepted as final. Hawaii shall

never become a territory in which a governing class of rich planters

exists by means of coolie labor. Even if the rate of growth of the

Territory is thereby rendered slower, the growth must only take place

by the admission of immigrants fit in the end to assume the duties and

burdens of full American citizenship. Our aim must be to develop the

Territory on the same basis of stable citizenship as exists on this

continent.



I earnestly advocate the adoption of legislation which will explicitly

confer American citizenship on all citizens of Porto Rico. There is, in

my judgment, no excuse for failure to do this. The harbor of San Juan

should be dredged and improved. The expenses of the Federal Court of

Porto Rico should be met from the Federal Treasury and not from the

Porto Rican treasury. The elections in Porto Rico should take place

every four years, and the Legislature should meet in session every two

years. The present form of government in Porto Rico, which provides for

the appointment by the President of the members of the Executive

Council or upper house of the Legislature, has proved satisfactory and

has inspired confidence in property owners and investors. I do not deem

it advisable at the present time to change this form in any material

feature. The problems and needs of the island are industrial and

commercial rather than political.



I wish to call the attention of the Congress to one question which

affects our insular possessions generally; namely, the need of an

increased liberality in the treatment of the whole franchise question

in these islands. In the proper desire to prevent the islands being

exploited by speculators and to have them develop in the interests of

their own people an error has been made in refusing to grant

sufficiently liberal terms to induce the investment of American capital

in the Philippines and in Porto Rico. Elsewhere in this message I have

spoken strongly against the jealousy of mere wealth, and especially of

corporate wealth as such. But it is particularly regrettable to allow

any such jealousy to be developed when we are dealing either with our

insular or with foreign affairs. The big corporation has achieved its

present position in the business world simply because it is the most

effective instrument in business competition. In foreign affairs we

cannot afford to put our people at a disadvantage with their

competitors by in any way discriminating against the efficiency of our

business organizations. In the same way we cannot afford to allow our

insular possessions to lag behind in industrial development from any

twisted jealousy of business success. It is, of course, a mere truism

to say that the business interests of the islands will only be

developed if it becomes the financial interest of somebody to develop

them. Yet this development is one of the things most earnestly to be

wished for in the interest of the islands themselves. We have been

paying all possible heed to the political and educational interests of

the islands, but, important though these objects are, it is not less

important that we should favor their industrial development. The

Government can in certain ways help this directly, as by building good

roads; but the fundamental and vital help must be given through the

development of the industries of the islands, and a most efficient

means to this end is to encourage big American corporations to start

industries in them, and this means to make it advantageous for them to

do so. To limit the ownership of mining claims, as has been done in the

Philippines, is absurd. In both the Philippines and Porto Rico the

limit of holdings of land should be largely raised.



I earnestly ask that Alaska be given an elective delegate. Some person

should be chosen who can speak with authority of the needs of the

Territory. The Government should aid in the construction of a railroad

from the Gulf of Alaska to the Yukon River, in American territory. In

my last two messages I advocated certain additional action on behalf of

Alaska. I shall not now repeat those recommendations, but I shall lay

all my stress upon the one recommendation of giving to Alaska some one

authorized to speak for it. I should prefer that the delegate was made

elective, but if this is not deemed wise, then make him appointive. At

any rate, give Alaska some person whose business it shall be to speak

with authority on her behalf to the Congress. The natural resources of

Alaska are great. Some of the chief needs of the peculiarly energetic,

self-reliant, and typically American white population of Alaska were

set forth in my last message. I also earnestly ask your attention to

the needs of the Alaskan Indians. All Indians who are competent should

receive the full rights of American citizenship. It is, for instance, a

gross and indefensible wrong to deny to such hard-working,

decent-living Indians as the Metlakahtlas the right to obtain licenses

as captains, pilots, and engineers; the right to enter mining claims,

and to profit by the homestead law. These particular Indians are

civilized and are competent and entitled to be put on the same basis

with the white men round about them.



I recommend that Indian Territory and Oklahoma be admitted as one State

and that New Mexico and Arizona be admitted as one State. There is no

obligation upon us to treat territorial subdivisions, which are matters

of convenience only, as binding us on the question of admission to

Statehood. Nothing has taken up more time in the Congress during the

past few years than the question as to the Statehood to be granted to

the four Territories above mentioned, and after careful consideration

of all that has been developed in the discussions of the question, I

recommend that they be immediately admitted as two States. There is no

justification for further delay; and the advisability of making the

four Territories into two States has been clearly established.



In some of the Territories the legislative assemblies issue licenses

for gambling. The Congress should by law forbid this practice, the

harmful results of which are obvious at a glance.



The treaty between the United States and the Republic of Panama, under

which the construction of the Panama Canal was made possible, went into

effect with its ratification by the United States Senate on February

23, 1904. The canal properties of the French Canal Company were

transferred to the United States on April 23, 1904, on payment of

$40,000,000 to that company. On April 1, 1905, the Commission was

reorganized, and it now consists of Theodore P. Shonts, Chairman;

Charles E. Magoon, Benjamin M. Harrod, Rear Admiral Mordecai T.

Endicott, Brig. Gen. Peter C. Hains, and Col. Oswald H. Ernst. John F.

Stevens was appointed Chief Engineer on July 1 last. Active work in

canal construction, mainly preparatory, has been in progress for less

than a year and a half. During that period two points about the canal

have ceased to be open to debate: First, the question of route; the

canal will be built on the Isthmus of Panama. Second, the question of

feasibility; there are no physical obstacles on this route that

American engineering skill will not be able to overcome without serious

difficulty, or that will prevent the completion of the canal within a

reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. This is virtually the

unanimous testimony of the engineers who have investigated the matter

for the Government.



The point which remains unsettled is the question of type, whether the

canal shall be one of several locks above sea level, or at sea level

with a single tide lock. On this point I hope to lay before the

Congress at an early day the findings of the Advisory Board of American

and European Engineers, that at my invitation have been considering the

subject, together with the report of the Commission thereon, and such

comments thereon or recommendations in reference thereto as may seem

necessary.



The American people is pledged to the speediest possible construction

of a canal adequate to meet the demands which the commerce of the world

will make upon it, and I appeal most earnestly to the Congress to aid

in the fulfillment of the pledge. Gratifying progress has been made

during the past year, and especially during the past four months. The

greater part of the necessary preliminary work has been done. Actual

work of excavation could be begun only on a limited scale till the

Canal Zone was made a healthful place to live in and to work in. The

Isthmus had to be sanitated first. This task has been so thoroughly

accomplished that yellow fever has been virtually extirpated from the

Isthmus and general health conditions vastly improved. The same methods

which converted the island of Cuba from a pest hole, which menaced the

health of the world, into a healthful place of abode, have been applied

on the Isthmus with satisfactory results. There is no reason to doubt

that when the plans for water supply, paving, and sewerage of Panama

and Colon and the large labor camps have been fully carried out, the

Isthmus will be, for the tropics, an unusually healthy place of abode.

The work is so far advanced now that the health of all those employed

in canal work is as well guarded as it is on similar work in this

country and elsewhere.



In addition to sanitating the Isthmus, satisfactory quarters are being

provided for employes and an adequate system of supplying them with

wholesome food at reasonable prices has been created. Hospitals have

been established and equipped that are without their superiors of their

kind anywhere. The country has thus been made fit to work in, and

provision has been made for the welfare and comfort of those who are to

do the work. During the past year a large portion of the plant with

which the work is to be done has been ordered. It is confidently

believed that by the middle of the approaching year a sufficient

proportion of this plant will have been installed to enable us to

resume the work of excavation on a large scale.



What is needed now and without delay is an appropriation by the

Congress to meet the current and accruing expenses of the commission.

The first appropriation of $10,000,000, out of the $135,000,000

authorized by the Spooner act, was made three years ago. It is nearly

exhausted. There is barely enough of it remaining to carry the

commission to the end of the year. Unless the Congress shall

appropriate before that time all work must cease. To arrest progress

for any length of time now, when matters are advancing so

satisfactorily, would be deplorable. There will be no money with which

to meet pay roll obligations and none with which to meet bills coming

due for materials and supplies; and there will be demoralization of the

forces, here and on the Isthmus, now working so harmoniously and

effectively, if there is delay in granting an emergency appropriation.

Estimates of the amount necessary will be found in the accompanying

reports of the Secretary of War and the commission.



I recommend more adequate provision than has been made heretofore for

the work of the Department of State. Within a few years there has been

a very great increase in the amount and importance of the work to be

done by that department, both in Washington and abroad. This has been

caused by the great increase of our foreign trade, the increase of

wealth among our people, which enables them to travel more generally

than heretofore, the increase of American capital which is seeking

investment in foreign countries, and the growth of our power and weight

in the councils of the civilized world. There has been no corresponding

increase of facilities for doing the work afforded to the department

having charge of our foreign relations.



Neither at home nor abroad is there a sufficient working force to do

the business properly. In many respects the system which was adequate

to the work of twenty-five years or even ten years ago, is inadequate

now, and should be changed. Our Consular force should be classified,

and appointments should be made to the several classes, with authority

to the Executive to assign the members of each class to duty at such

posts as the interests of the service require, instead of the

appointments being made as at present to specified posts. There should

be an adequate inspection service, so that the department may be able

to inform itself how the business of each Consulate is being done,

instead of depending upon casual private information or rumor. The fee

system should be entirely abolished, and a due equivalent made in

salary to the officers who now eke out their subsistence by means of

fees. Sufficient provision should be made for a clerical force in every

Consulate composed entirely of Americans, instead of the insufficient

provision now made, which compels the employment of great numbers of

citizens of foreign countries whose services can be obtained for less

money. At a large part of our Consulates the office quarters and the

clerical force are inadequate to the performance of the onerous duties

imposed by the recent provisions of our immigration laws as well as by

our increasing trade. In many parts of the world the lack of suitable

quarters for our embassies, legations, and Consulates detracts from the

respect in which our officers ought to be held, and seriously impairs

their weight and influence.



Suitable provision should be made for the expense of keeping our

diplomatic officers more fully informed of what is being done from day

to day in the progress of our diplomatic affairs with other countries.

The lack of such information, caused by insufficient appropriations

available for cable tolls and for clerical and messenger service,

frequently puts our officers at a great disadvantage and detracts from

their usefulness. The salary list should be readjusted. It does not now

correspond either to the importance of the service to be rendered and

the degrees of ability and experience required in the different

positions, or to the differences in the cost of living. In many cases

the salaries are quite inadequate.



***



State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 3, 1906



To the Senate and House of Representatives:



As a nation we still continue to enjoy a literally unprecedented

prosperity; and it is probable that only reckless speculation and

disregard of legitimate business methods on the part of the business

world can materially mar this prosperity.



No Congress in our time has done more good work of importance than the

present Congress. There were several matters left unfinished at your

last session, however, which I most earnestly hope you will complete

before your adjournment.



I again recommend a law prohibiting all corporations from contributing

to the campaign expenses of any party. Such a bill has already past one

House of Congress. Let individuals contribute as they desire; but let

us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making

contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly.



Another bill which has just past one House of the Congress and which it

is urgently necessary should be enacted into law is that conferring

upon the Government the right of appeal in criminal cases on questions

of law. This right exists in many of the States; it exists in the

District of Columbia by act of the Congress. It is of course not

proposed that in any case a verdict for the defendant on the merits

should be set aside. Recently in one district where the Government had

indicted certain persons for conspiracy in connection with rebates, the

court sustained the defendant's demurrer; while in another jurisdiction

an indictment for conspiracy to obtain rebates has been sustained by

the court, convictions obtained under it, and two defendants sentenced

to imprisonment. The two cases referred to may not be in real conflict

with each other, but it is unfortunate that there should even be an

apparent conflict. At present there is no way by which the Government

can cause such a conflict, when it occurs, to be solved by an appeal to

a higher court; and the wheels of justice are blocked without any real

decision of the question. I can not too strongly urge the passage of

the bill in question. A failure to pass it will result in seriously

hampering the Government in its effort to obtain justice, especially

against wealthy individuals or corporations who do wrong; and may also

prevent the Government from obtaining justice for wage-workers who are

not themselves able effectively to contest a case where the judgment of

an inferior court has been against them. I have specifically in view a

recent decision by a district judge leaving railway employees without

remedy for violation of a certain so-called labor statute. It seems an

absurdity to permit a single district judge, against what may be the

judgment of the immense majority of his colleagues on the bench,

to declare a law solemnly enacted by the Congress to be

"unconstitutional," and then to deny to the Government the right to

have the Supreme Court definitely decide the question.



It is well to recollect that the real efficiency of the law often

depends not upon the passage of acts as to which there is great public

excitement, but upon the passage of acts of this nature as to which

there is not much public excitement, because there is little public

understanding of their importance, while the interested parties are

keenly alive to the desirability of defeating them. The importance of

enacting into law the particular bill in question is further increased

by the fact that the Government has now definitely begun a policy of

resorting to the criminal law in those trust and interstate commerce

cases where such a course offers a reasonable chance of success. At

first, as was proper, every effort was made to enforce these laws by

civil proceedings; but it has become increasingly evident that the

action of the Government in finally deciding, in certain cases, to

undertake criminal proceedings was justifiable; and though there have

been some conspicuous failures in these cases, we have had many

successes, which have undoubtedly had a deterrent effect upon

evil-doers, whether the penalty inflicted was in the shape of fine or

imprisonment--and penalties of both kinds have already been inflicted

by the courts. Of course, where the judge can see his way to inflict

the penalty of imprisonment the deterrent effect of the punishment on

other offenders is increased; but sufficiently heavy fines accomplish

much. Judge Holt, of the New York district court, in a recent decision

admirably stated the need for treating with just severity offenders of

this kind. His opinion runs in part as follows:



'The Government's evidence to establish the defendant's guilt was

clear, conclusive, and undisputed. The case was a flagrant one. The

transactions which took place under this illegal contract were very

large; the amounts of rebates returned were considerable; and the

amount of the rebate itself was large, amounting to more than one-fifth

of the entire tariff charge for the transportation of merchandise from

this city to Detroit. It is not too much to say, in my opinion, that if

this business was carried on for a considerable time on that

basis--that is, if this discrimination in favor of this particular

shipper was made with an 18 instead of a 23 cent rate and the tariff

rate was maintained as against their competitors--the result might be

and not improbably would be that their competitors would be driven out

of business. This crime is one which in its nature is deliberate and

premeditated. I think over a fortnight elapsed between the date of

Palmer's letter requesting the reduced rate and the answer of the

railroad company deciding to grant it, and then for months afterwards

this business was carried on and these claims for rebates submitted

month after month and checks in payment of them drawn month after

month. Such a violation of the law, in my opinion, in its essential

nature, is a very much more heinous act than the ordinary common,

vulgar crimes which come before criminal courts constantly for

punishment and which arise from sudden passion or temptation. This

crime in this case was committed by men of education and of large

business experience, whose standing in the community was such that they

might have been expected to set an example of obedience to law upon the

maintenance of which alone in this country the security of their

property depends. It was committed on behalf of a great railroad

corporation, which, like other railroad corporations, has received

gratuitously from the State large and valuable privileges for the

public's convenience and its own, which performs quasi public functions

and which is charged with the highest obligation in the transaction of

its business to treat the citizens of this country alike, and not to

carry on its business with unjust discriminations between different

citizens or different classes of citizens. This crime in its nature is

one usually done with secrecy, and proof of which it is very difficult

to obtain. The interstate commerce act was past in 1887, nearly twenty

years ago. Ever since that time complaints of the granting of rebates

by railroads have been common, urgent, and insistent, and although the

Congress has repeatedly past legislation endeavoring to put a stop to

this evil, the difficulty of obtaining proof upon which to bring

prosecution in these cases is so great that this is the first case that

has ever been brought in this court, and, as I am formed, this case and

one recently brought in Philadelphia are the only cases that have ever

been brought in the eastern part of this country. In fact, but few

cases of this kind have ever been brought in this country, East or

West. Now, under these circumstances, I am forced to the conclusion, in

a case in which the proof is so clear and the facts are so flagrant, it

is the duty of the court to fix a penalty which shall in some degree be

commensurate with the gravity of the offense. As between the two

defendants, in my opinion, the principal penalty should be imposed on

the corporation. The traffic manager in this case, presumably, acted

without any advantage to himself and without any interest in the

transaction, either by the direct authority or in accordance with what

he understood to be the policy or the wishes of his employer.



"The sentence of this court in this case is, that the defendant

Pomeroy, for each of the six offenses upon which he has been convicted,

be fined the sum of $1,000, making six fines, amounting in all to the

sum of $6,000; and the defendant, The New York Central and Hudson River

Railroad Company, for each of the six crimes of which it has been

convicted, be fined the sum of $18,000, making six fines amounting in

the aggregate to the sum of $108,000, and judgment to that effect will

be entered in this case."



In connection with this matter, I would like to call attention to the

very unsatisfactory state of our criminal law, resulting in large part

from the habit of setting aside the judgments of inferior courts on

technicalities absolutely unconnected with the merits of the case, and

where there is no attempt to show that there has been any failure of

substantial justice. It would be well to enact a law providing

something to the effect that:



No judgment shall be set aside or new trial granted in any cause, civil

or criminal, on the ground of misdirection of the jury or the improper

admission or rejection of evidence, or for error as to any matter of

pleading or procedure unless, in the opinion of the court to which the

application is made, after an examination of the entire cause, it shall

affirmatively appear that the error complained of has resulted in a

miscarriage of justice.



In my last message I suggested the enactment of a law in connection

with the issuance of injunctions, attention having been sharply drawn

to the matter by the demand that the right of applying injunctions in

labor cases should be wholly abolished. It is at least doubtful whether

a law abolishing altogether the use of injunctions in such cases would

stand the test of the courts; in which case of course the legislation

would be ineffective. Moreover, I believe it would be wrong altogether

to prohibit the use of injunctions. It is criminal to permit sympathy

for criminals to weaken our hands in upholding the law; and if men seek

to destroy life or property by mob violence there should be no

impairment of the power of the courts to deal with them in the most

summary and effective way possible. But so far as possible the abuse of

the power should be provided against by some such law as I advocated

last year.



In this matter of injunctions there is lodged in the hands of the

judiciary a necessary power which is nevertheless subject to the

possibility of grave abuse. It is a power that should be exercised with

extreme care and should be subject to the jealous scrutiny of all men,

and condemnation should be meted out as much to the judge who fails to

use it boldly when necessary as to the judge who uses it wantonly or

oppressively. Of course a judge strong enough to be fit for his office

will enjoin any resort to violence or intimidation, especially by

conspiracy, no matter what his opinion may be of the rights of the

original quarrel. There must be no hesitation in dealing with disorder.

But there must likewise be no such abuse of the injunctive power as is

implied in forbidding laboring men to strive for their own betterment

in peaceful and lawful ways; nor must the injunction be used merely to

aid some big corporation in carrying out schemes for its own

aggrandizement. It must be remembered that a preliminary injunction in

a labor case, if granted without adequate proof (even when authority

can be found to support the conclusions of law on which it is founded),

may often settle the dispute between the parties; and therefore if

improperly granted may do irreparable wrong. Yet there are many judges

who assume a matter-of-course granting of a preliminary injunction to

be the ordinary and proper judicial disposition of such cases; and

there have undoubtedly been flagrant wrongs committed by judges in

connection with labor disputes even within the last few years, although

I think much less often than in former years. Such judges by their

unwise action immensely strengthen the hands of those who are striving

entirely to do away with the power of injunction; and therefore such

careless use of the injunctive process tends to threaten its very

existence, for if the American people ever become convinced that this

process is habitually abused, whether in matters affecting labor or in

matters affecting corporations, it will be well-nigh impossible to

prevent its abolition.



It may be the highest duty of a judge at any given moment to disregard,

not merely the wishes of individuals of great political or financial

power, but the overwhelming tide of public sentiment; and the judge who

does thus disregard public sentiment when it is wrong, who brushes

aside the plea of any special interest when the pleading is not rounded

on righteousness, performs the highest service to the country. Such a

judge is deserving of all honor; and all honor can not be paid to this

wise and fearless judge if we permit the growth of an absurd convention

which would forbid any criticism of the judge of another type, who

shows himself timid in the presence of arrogant disorder, or who on

insufficient grounds grants an injunction that does grave injustice, or

who in his capacity as a construer, and therefore in part a maker, of

the law, in flagrant fashion thwarts the cause of decent government.

The judge has a power over which no review can be exercised; he himself

sits in review upon the acts of both the executive and legislative

branches of the Government; save in the most extraordinary cases he is

amenable only at the bar of public opinion; and it is unwise to

maintain that public opinion in reference to a man with such power

shall neither be exprest nor led.



The best judges have ever been foremost to disclaim any immunity from

criticism. This has been true since the days of the great English Lord

Chancellor Parker, who said: "Let all people be at liberty to know what

I found my judgment upon; that, so when I have given it in any cause,

others may be at liberty to judge of me." The proprieties of the case

were set forth with singular clearness and good temper by Judge W. H.

Taft, when a United States circuit judge, eleven years ago, in 1895:



"The opportunity freely and publicly to criticize judicial action is of

vastly more importance to the body politic than the immunity of courts

and judges from unjust aspersions and attack. Nothing tends more to

render judges careful in their decisions and anxiously solicitous to do

exact justice than the consciousness that every act of theirs is to be

subjected to the intelligent scrutiny and candid criticism of their

fellow-men. Such criticism is beneficial in proportion as it is fair,

dispassionate, discriminating, and based on a knowledge of sound legal

principles. The comments made by learned text writers and by the acute

editors of the various law reviews upon judicial decisions are

therefore highly useful. Such critics constitute more or less impartial

tribunals of professional opinion before which each judgment is made to

stand or fall on its merits, and thus exert a strong influence to

secure uniformity of decision. But non-professional criticism also is

by no means without its uses, even if accompanied, as it often is, by a

direct attack upon the judicial fairness and motives of the occupants

of the bench; for if the law is but the essence of common sense, the

protest of many average men may evidence a defect in a judicial

conclusion, though based on the nicest legal reasoning and profoundest

learning. The two important elements of moral character in a judge are

an earnest desire to reach a just conclusion and courage to enforce it.

In so far as fear of public comment does not affect the courage of a

judge, but only spurs him on to search his conscience and to reach the

result which approves itself to his inmost heart such comment serves a

useful purpose. There are few men, whether they are judges for life or

for a shorter term, who do not prefer to earn and hold the respect of

all, and who can not be reached and made to pause and deliberate by

hostile public criticism. In the case of judges having a life tenure,

indeed their very independence makes the right freely to comment on

their decisions of greater importance, because it is the only practical

and available instrument in the hands of a free people to keep such

judges alive to the reasonable demands of those they serve.



"On the other hand, the danger of destroying the proper influence of

judicial decisions by creating unfounded prejudices against the courts

justifies and requires that unjust attacks shall be met and answered.

Courts must ultimately rest their defense upon the inherent strength of

the opinions they deliver as the ground for their conclusions and must

trust to the calm and deliberate judgment of all the people as their

best vindication."



There is one consideration which should be taken into account by the

good people who carry a sound proposition to an excess in objecting to

any criticism of a judge's decision. The instinct of the American

people as a whole is sound in this matter. They will not subscribe to

the doctrine that any public servant is to be above all criticism. If

the best citizens, those most competent to express their judgment in

such matters, and above all those belonging to the great and honorable

profession of the bar, so profoundly influential in American life, take

the position that there shall be no criticism of a judge under any

circumstances, their view will not be accepted by the American people

as a whole. In such event the people will turn to, and tend to accept

as justifiable, the intemperate and improper criticism uttered by

unworthy agitators. Surely it is a misfortune to leave to such critics

a function, right, in itself, which they are certain to abuse. Just and

temperate criticism, when necessary, is a safeguard against the

acceptance by the people as a whole of that intemperate antagonism

towards the judiciary which must be combated by every right-thinking

man, and which, if it became widespread among the people at large,

would constitute a dire menace to the Republic.



In connection with the delays of the law, I call your attention and the

attention of the Nation to the prevalence of crime among us, and above

all to the epidemic of lynching and mob violence that springs up, now

in one part of our country, now in another. Each section, North, South,

East, or West, has its own faults; no section can with wisdom spend its

time jeering at the faults of another section; it should be busy trying

to amend its own shortcomings. To deal with the crime of corruption It

is necessary to have an awakened public conscience, and to supplement

this by whatever legislation will add speed and certainty in the

execution of the law. When we deal with lynching even mote is

necessary. A great many white men are lynched, but the crime is

peculiarly frequent in respect to black men. The greatest existing

cause of lynching is the perpetration, especially by black men, of the

hideous crime of rape--the most abominable in all the category of

crimes, even worse than murder. Mobs frequently avenge the commission

of this crime by themselves torturing to death the man committing it;

thus avenging in bestial fashion a bestial deed, and reducing

themselves to a level with the criminal.



Lawlessness grows by what it feeds upon; and when mobs begin to lynch

for rape they speedily extend the sphere of their operations and lynch

for many other kinds of crimes, so that two-thirds of the lynchings are

not for rape at all; while a considerable proportion of the individuals

lynched are innocent of all crime. Governor Candler, of Georgia, stated

on one occasion some years ago: "I can say of a verity that I have,

within the last month, saved the lives of half a dozen innocent Negroes

who were pursued by the mob, and brought them to trial in a court of

law in which they were acquitted." As Bishop Galloway, of Mississippi,

has finely said: "When the rule of a mob obtains, that which

distinguishes a high civilization is surrendered. The mob which lynches

a negro charged with rape will in a little while lynch a white man

suspected of crime. Every Christian patriot in America needs to lift up

his voice in loud and eternal protest against the mob spirit that is

threatening the integrity of this Republic." Governor Jelks, of

Alabama, has recently spoken as follows: "The lynching of any person

for whatever crime is inexcusable anywhere--it is a defiance of orderly

government; but the killing of innocent people under any provocation is

infinitely more horrible; and yet innocent people are likely to die

when a mob's terrible lust is once aroused. The lesson is this: No good

citizen can afford to countenance a defiance of the statutes, no matter

what the provocation. The innocent frequently suffer, and, it is my

observation, more usually suffer than the guilty. The white people of

the South indict the whole colored race on the ground that even the

better elements lend no assistance whatever in ferreting out criminals

of their own color. The respectable colored people must learn not to

harbor their criminals, but to assist the officers in bringing them to

justice. This is the larger crime, and it provokes such atrocious

offenses as the one at Atlanta. The two races can never get on until

there is an understanding on the part of both to make common cause with

the law-abiding against criminals of any color."



Moreover, where any crime committed by a member of one race against a

member of another race is avenged in such fashion that it seems as if

not the individual criminal, but the whole race, is attacked, the

result is to exasperate to the highest degree race feeling. There is

but one safe rule in dealing with black men as with white men; it is

the same rule that must be applied in dealing with rich men and poor

men; that is, to treat each man, whatever his color, his creed, or his

social position, with even-handed justice on his real worth as a man.

White people owe it quite as much to themselves as to the colored race

to treat well the colored man who shows by his life that he deserves

such treatment; for it is surely the highest wisdom to encourage in the

colored race all those individuals who are honest, industrious,

law-abiding, and who therefore make good and safe neighbors and

citizens. Reward or punish the individual on his merits as an

individual. Evil will surely come in the end to both races if we

substitute for this just rule the habit of treating all the members of

the race, good and bad, alike. There is no question of "social

equality" or "negro domination" involved; only the question of

relentlessly punishing bad men, and of securing to the good man the

right to his life, his liberty, and the pursuit of his happiness as his

own qualities of heart, head, and hand enable him to achieve it.



Every colored man should realize that the worst enemy of his race is

the negro criminal, and above all the negro criminal who commits the

dreadful crime of rape; and it should be felt as in the highest degree

an offense against the whole country, and against the colored race in

particular, for a colored man to fail to help the officers of the law

in hunting down with all possible earnestness and zeal every such

infamous offender. Moreover, in my judgment, the crime of rape should

always be punished with death, as is the case with murder; assault with

intent to commit rape should be made a capital crime, at least in the

discretion of the court; and provision should be made by which the

punishment may follow immediately upon the heels of the offense; while

the trial should be so conducted that the victim need not be wantonly

shamed while giving testimony, and that the least possible publicity

shall be given to the details.



The members of the white race on the other hand should understand that

every lynching represents by just so much a loosening of the bands of

civilization; that the spirit of lynching inevitably throws into

prominence in the community all the foul and evil creatures who dwell

therein. No man can take part in the torture of a human being without

having his own moral nature permanently lowered. Every lynching means

just so much moral deterioration in all the children who have any

knowledge of it, and therefore just so much additional trouble for the

next generation of Americans.



Let justice be both sure and swift; but let it be justice under the

law, and not the wild and crooked savagery of a mob.



There is another matter which has a direct bearing upon this matter of

lynching and of the brutal crime which sometimes calls it forth and at

other times merely furnishes the excuse for its existence. It is out of

the question for our people as a whole permanently to rise by treading

down any of their own number. Even those who themselves for the moment

profit by such maltreatment of their fellows will in the long run also

suffer. No more shortsighted policy can be imagined than, in the

fancied interest of one class, to prevent the education of another

class. The free public school, the chance for each boy or girl to get a

good elementary education, lies at the foundation of our whole

political situation. In every community the poorest citizens, those who

need the schools most, would be deprived of them if they only received

school facilities proportioned to the taxes they paid. This is as true

of one portion of our country as of another. It is as true for the

negro as for the white man. The white man, if he is wise, will decline

to allow the Negroes in a mass to grow to manhood and womanhood without

education. Unquestionably education such as is obtained in our public

schools does not do everything towards making a man a good citizen; but

it does much. The lowest and most brutal criminals, those for instance

who commit the crime of rape, are in the great majority men who have

had either no education or very little; just as they are almost

invariably men who own no property; for the man who puts money by out

of his earnings, like the man who acquires education, is usually lifted

above mere brutal criminality. Of course the best type of education for

the colored man, taken as a whole, is such education as is conferred in

schools like Hampton and Tuskegee; where the boys and girls, the young

men and young women, are trained industrially as well as in the

ordinary public school branches. The graduates of these schools turn

out well in the great majority of cases, and hardly any of them become

criminals, while what little criminality there is never takes the form

of that brutal violence which invites lynch law. Every graduate of

these schools--and for the matter of that every other colored man or

woman--who leads a life so useful and honorable as to win the good will

and respect of those whites whose neighbor he or she is, thereby helps

the whole colored race as it can be helped in no other way; for next to

the negro himself, the man who can do most to help the negro is his

white neighbor who lives near him; and our steady effort should be to

better the relations between the two. Great though the benefit of these

schools has been to their colored pupils and to the colored people, it

may well be questioned whether the benefit, has not been at least as

great to the white people among whom these colored pupils live after

they graduate.



Be it remembered, furthermore, that the individuals who, whether from

folly, from evil temper, from greed for office, or in a spirit of mere

base demagogy, indulge in the inflammatory and incendiary speeches and

writings which tend to arouse mobs and to bring about lynching, not

only thus excite the mob, but also tend by what criminologists call

"suggestion," greatly to increase the likelihood of a repetition of the

very crime against which they are inveighing. When the mob is composed

of the people of one race and the man lynched is of another race, the

men who in their speeches and writings either excite or justify the

action tend, of course, to excite a bitter race feeling and to cause

the people of the opposite race to lose sight of the abominable act of

the criminal himself; and in addition, by the prominence they give to

the hideous deed they undoubtedly tend to excite in other brutal and

depraved natures thoughts of committing it. Swift, relentless, and

orderly punishment under the law is the only way by which criminality

of this type can permanently be supprest.



In dealing with both labor and capital, with the questions affecting

both corporations and trades unions, there is one matter more important

to remember than aught else, and that is the infinite harm done by

preachers of mere discontent. These are the men who seek to excite a

violent class hatred against all men of wealth. They seek to turn wise

and proper movements for the better control of corporations and for

doing away with the abuses connected with wealth, into a campaign of

hysterical excitement and falsehood in which the aim is to inflame to

madness the brutal passions of mankind. The sinister demagogs and

foolish visionaries who are always eager to undertake such a campaign

of destruction sometimes seek to associate themselves with those

working for a genuine reform in governmental and social methods, and

sometimes masquerade as such reformers. In reality they are the worst

enemies of the cause they profess to advocate, just as the purveyors of

sensational slander in newspaper or magazine are the worst enemies of

all men who are engaged in an honest effort to better what is bad in

our social and governmental conditions. To preach hatred of the rich

man as such, to carry on a campaign of slander and invective against

him, to seek to mislead and inflame to madness honest men whose lives

are hard and who have not the kind of mental training which will permit

them to appreciate the danger in the doctrines preached--all this is to

commit a crime against the body politic and to be false to every worthy

principle and tradition of American national life. Moreover, while such

preaching and such agitation may give a livelihood and a certain

notoriety to some of those who take part in it, and may result in the

temporary political success of others, in the long run every such

movement will either fail or else will provoke a violent reaction,

which will itself result not merely in undoing the mischief wrought by

the demagog and the agitator, but also in undoing the good that the

honest reformer, the true upholder of popular rights, has painfully and

laboriously achieved. Corruption is never so rife as in communities

where the demagog and the agitator bear full sway, because in such

communities all moral bands become loosened, and hysteria and

sensationalism replace the spirit of sound judgment and fair dealing as

between man and man. In sheer revolt against the squalid anarchy thus

produced men are sure in the end to turn toward any leader who can

restore order, and then their relief at being free from the intolerable

burdens of class hatred, violence, and demagogy is such that they can

not for some time be aroused to indignation against misdeeds by men of

wealth; so that they permit a new growth of the very abuses which were

in part responsible for the original outbreak. The one hope for success

for our people lies in a resolute and fearless, but sane and

cool-headed, advance along the path marked out last year by this very

Congress. There must be a stern refusal to be misled into following

either that base creature who appeals and panders to the lowest

instincts and passions in order to arouse one set of Americans against

their fellows, or that other creature, equally base but no baser, who

in a spirit of greed, or to accumulate or add to an already huge

fortune, seeks to exploit his fellow Americans with callous disregard

to their welfare of soul and body. The man who debauches others in

order to obtain a high office stands on an evil equality of corruption

with the man who debauches others for financial profit; and when hatred

is sown the crop which springs up can only be evil.



The plain people who think--the mechanics, farmers, merchants, workers

with head or hand, the men to whom American traditions are dear, who

love their country and try to act decently by their neighbors, owe it

to themselves to remember that the most damaging blow that can be given

popular government is to elect an unworthy and sinister agitator on a

platform of violence and hypocrisy. Whenever such an issue is raised in

this country nothing can be gained by flinching from it, for in such

case democracy is itself on trial, popular self-government under

republican forms is itself on trial. The triumph of the mob is just as

evil a thing as the triumph of the plutocracy, and to have escaped one

danger avails nothing whatever if we succumb to the other. In the end

the honest man, whether rich or poor, who earns his own living and

tries to deal justly by his fellows, has as much to fear from the

insincere and unworthy demagog, promising much and performing nothing,

or else performing nothing but evil, who would set on the mob to

plunder the rich, as from the crafty corruptionist, who, for his own

ends, would permit the common people to be exploited by the very

wealthy. If we ever let this Government fall into the hands of men of

either of these two classes, we shall show ourselves false to America's

past. Moreover, the demagog and the corruptionist often work hand in

hand. There are at this moment wealthy reactionaries of such obtuse

morality that they regard the public servant who prosecutes them when

they violate the law, or who seeks to make them bear their proper share

of the public burdens, as being even more objectionable than the

violent agitator who hounds on the mob to plunder the rich. There is

nothing to choose between such a reactionary and such an agitator;

fundamentally they are alike in their selfish disregard of the rights

of others; and it is natural that they should join in opposition to any

movement of which the aim is fearlessly to do exact and even justice to

all.



I call your attention to the need of passing the bill limiting the

number of hours of employment of railroad employees. The measure is a

very moderate one and I can conceive of no serious objection to it.

Indeed, so far as it is in our power, it should be our aim steadily to

reduce the number of hours of labor, with as a goal the general

introduction of an eight-hour day. There are industries in which it is

not possible that the hours of labor should be reduced; just as there

are communities not far enough advanced for such a movement to be for

their good, or, if in the Tropics, so situated that there is no analogy

between their needs and ours in this matter. On the Isthmus of Panama,

for instance, the conditions are in every way so different from what

they are here that an eight-hour day would be absurd; just as it is

absurd, so far as the Isthmus is concerned, where white labor can not

be employed, to bother as to whether the necessary work is done by

alien black men or by alien yellow men. But the wageworkers of the

United States are of so high a grade that alike from the merely

industrial standpoint and from the civic standpoint it should be our

object to do what we can in the direction of securing the general

observance of an eight-hour day. Until recently the eight-hour law on

our Federal statute books has been very scantily observed. Now,

however, largely through the instrumentality of the Bureau of Labor, it

is being rigidly enforced, and I shall speedily be able to say whether

or not there is need of further legislation in reference thereto; .for

our purpose is to see it obeyed in spirit no less than in letter. Half

holidays during summer should be established for Government employees;

it is as desirable for wageworkers who toil with their hands as for

salaried officials whose labor is mental that there should be a

reasonable amount of holiday.



The Congress at its last session wisely provided for a truant court for

the District of Columbia; a marked step in advance on the path of

properly caring for the children. Let me again urge that the Congress

provide for a thorough investigation of the conditions of child labor

and of the labor of women in the United States. More and more our

people are growing to recognize the fact that the questions which are

not merely of industrial but of social importance outweigh all others;

and these two questions most emphatically come in the category of those

which affect in the most far-reaching way the home life of the Nation.

The horrors incident to the employment of young children in factories

or at work anywhere are a blot on our civilization. It is true that

each. State must ultimately settle the question in its own way; but a

thorough official investigation of the matter, with the results

published broadcast, would greatly help toward arousing the public

conscience and securing unity of State action in the matter. There is,

however, one law on the subject which should be enacted immediately,

because there is no need for an investigation in reference thereto, and

the failure to enact it is discreditable to the National Government. A

drastic and thoroughgoing child-labor law should be enacted for the

District of Columbia and the Territories.



Among the excellent laws which the Congress past at the last session

was an employers' liability law. It was a marked step in advance to get

the recognition of employers' liability on the statute books; but the

law did not go far enough. In spite of all precautions exercised by

employers there are unavoidable accidents and even deaths involved in

nearly every line of business connected with the mechanic arts. This

inevitable sacrifice of life may be reduced to a minimum, but it can

not be completely eliminated. It is a great social injustice to compel

the employee, or rather the family of the killed or disabled victim, to

bear the entire burden of such an inevitable sacrifice. In other words,

society shirks its duty by laying the whole cost on the victim, whereas

the injury comes from what may be called the legitimate risks of the

trade. Compensation for accidents or deaths due in any line of industry

to the actual conditions under which that industry is carried on,

should be paid by that portion of the community for the benefit of

which the industry is carried on--that is, by those who profit by the

industry. If the entire trade risk is placed upon the employer he will

promptly and properly add it to the legitimate cost of production and

assess it proportionately upon the consumers of his commodity. It is

therefore clear to my mind that the law should place this entire "risk

of a trade" upon the employer. Neither the Federal law, nor, as far as

I am informed, the State laws dealing with the question of employers'

liability are sufficiently thoroughgoing. The Federal law should of

course include employees in navy-yards, arsenals, and the like.



The commission appointed by the President October 16, 1902, at the

request of both the anthracite coal operators and miners, to inquire

into, consider, and pass upon the questions in controversy in

connection with the strike in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania

and the causes out of which the controversy arose, in their report,

findings, and award exprest the belief "that the State and Federal

governments should provide the machinery for what may be called the

compulsory investigation of controversies between employers and

employees when they arise." This expression of belief is deserving of

the favorable consideration of the Congress and the enactment of its

provisions into law. A bill has already been introduced to this end.



Records show that during the twenty years from January 1, 1881, to,

December 31, 1900, there were strikes affecting 117,509 establishments,

and 6,105,694 employees were thrown out of employment. During the same

period there were 1,005 lockouts, involving nearly 10,000

establishments, throwing over one million people out of employment.

These strikes and lockouts involved an estimated loss to employees of

$307,000,000 and to employers of $143,000,000, a total of $450,000,000.

The public suffered directly and indirectly probably as great

additional loss. But the money loss, great as it was, did not measure

the anguish and suffering endured by the wives and children of

employees whose pay stopt when their work stopt, or the disastrous

effect of the strike or lockout upon the business of employers, or the

increase in the cost of products and the inconvenience and loss to the

public.



Many of these strikes and lockouts would not have occurred had the

parties to the dispute been required to appear before an unprejudiced

body representing the nation and, face to face, state the reasons for

their contention. In most instances the dispute would doubtless be

found to be due to a misunderstanding by each of the other's rights,

aggravated by an unwillingness of either party to accept as true the

statements of the other as to the justice or injustice of the matters

in dispute. The exercise of a judicial spirit by a disinterested body

representing the Federal Government, such as would be provided by a

commission on conciliation and arbitration, would tend to create an

atmosphere of friendliness and conciliation between contending parties;

and the giving each side an equal opportunity to present fully its case

in the presence of the other would prevent many disputes from

developing into serious strikes or lockouts, and, in other cases, would

enable the commission to persuade the opposing parties to come to

terms.



In this age of great corporate and labor combinations, neither

employers nor employees should be left completely at the mercy of the

stronger party to a dispute, regardless of the righteousness of their

respective claims. The proposed measure would be in the line of

securing recognition of the fact that in many strikes the public has

itself an interest which can not wisely be disregarded; an interest not

merely of general convenience, for the question of a just and proper

public policy must also be considered. In all legislation of this kind

it is well to advance cautiously, testing each step by the actual

results; the step proposed can surely be safely taken, for the

decisions of the commission would not bind the parties in legal

fashion, and yet would give a chance for public opinion to crystallize

and thus to exert its full force for the right.



It is not wise that the Nation should alienate its remaining coal

lands. I have temporarily withdrawn from settlement all the lands which

the Geological Survey has indicated as containing, or in all

probability containing, coal. The question, however, can be properly

settled only by legislation, which in my judgment should provide for

the withdrawal of these lands from sale or from entry, save in certain

especial circumstances. The ownership would then remain in the United

States, which should not, however, attempt to work them, but permit

them to be worked by private individuals under a royalty system, the

Government keeping such control as to permit it to see that no

excessive price was charged consumers. It would, of course, be as

necessary to supervise the rates charged by the common carriers to

transport the product as the rates charged by those who mine it; and

the supervision must extend to the conduct of the common carriers, so

that they shall in no way favor one competitor at the expense of

another. The withdrawal of these coal lands would constitute a policy

analogous to that which has been followed in withdrawing the forest

lands from ordinary settlement. The coal, like the forests, should be

treated as the property of the public and its disposal should be under

conditions which would inure to the benefit of the public as a whole.



The present Congress has taken long strides in the direction of

securing proper supervision and control by the National Government over

corporations engaged in interstate business and the enormous majority

of corporations of any size are engaged in interstate business. The

passage of the railway rate bill, and only to a less degree the passage

of the pure food bill, and the provision for increasing and rendering

more effective national control over the beef-packing industry, mark an

important advance in the proper direction. In the short session it will

perhaps be difficult to do much further along this line; and it may be

best to wait until the laws have been in operation for a number of

months before endeavoring to increase their scope, because only

operation will show with exactness their merits and their shortcomings

and thus give opportunity to define what further remedial legislation

is needed. Yet in my judgment it will in the end be advisable in

connection with the packing house inspection law to provide for putting

a date on the label and for charging the cost of inspection to the

packers. All these laws have already justified their enactment. The

interstate commerce law, for instance, has rather amusingly falsified

the predictions, both of those who asserted that it would ruin the

railroads and of those who asserted that it did not go far enough and

would accomplish nothing. During the last five months the railroads

have shown increased earnings and some of them unusual dividends; while

during the same period the mere taking effect of the law has produced

an unprecedented, a hitherto unheard of, number of voluntary reductions

in freights and fares by the railroads. Since the founding of the

Commission there has never been a time of equal length in which

anything like so many reduced tariffs have been put into effect. On

August 27, for instance, two days before the new law went into effect,

the Commission received notices of over five thousand separate tariffs

which represented reductions from previous rates.



It must not be supposed, however, that with the passage of these laws

it will be possible to stop progress along the line of increasing the

power of the National Government over the use of capital interstate

commerce. For example, there will ultimately be need of enlarging the

powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission along several different

lines, so as to give it a larger and more efficient control over the

railroads.



It can not too often be repeated that experience has conclusively shown

the impossibility of securing by the actions of nearly half a hundred

different State legislatures anything but ineffective chaos in the way

of dealing with the great corporations which do not operate exclusively

within the limits of any one State. In some method, whether by a

national license law or in other fashion, we must exercise, and that at

an early date, a far more complete control than at present over these

great corporations--a control that will among other things prevent the

evils of excessive overcapitalization, and that will compel the

disclosure by each big corporation of its stockholders and of its

properties and business, whether owned directly or through subsidiary

or affiliated corporations. This will tend to put a stop to the

securing of inordinate profits by favored individuals at the expense

whether of the general public, the stockholders, or the wageworkers.

Our effort should be not so much to prevent consolidation as such, but

so to supervise and control it as to see that it results in no harm to

the people. The reactionary or ultraconservative apologists for the

misuse of wealth assail the effort to secure such control as a step

toward socialism. As a matter of fact it is these reactionaries and

ultraconservatives who are themselves most potent in increasing

socialistic feeling. One of the most efficient methods of averting the

consequences of a dangerous agitation, which is 80 per cent wrong, is

to remedy the 20 per cent of evil as to which the agitation is well

rounded. The best way to avert the very undesirable move for the

government ownership of railways is to secure by the Government on

behalf of the people as a whole such adequate control and regulation of

the great interstate common carriers as will do away with the evils

which give rise to the agitation against them. So the proper antidote

to the dangerous and wicked agitation against the men of wealth as such

is to secure by proper legislation and executive action the abolition

of the grave abuses which actually do obtain in connection with the

business use of wealth under our present system--or rather no

system--of failure to exercise any adequate control at all. Some

persons speak as if the exercise of such governmental control would do

away with the freedom of individual initiative and dwarf individual

effort. This is not a fact. It would be a veritable calamity to fail to

put a premium upon individual initiative, individual capacity and

effort; upon the energy, character, and foresight which it is so

important to encourage in the individual. But as a matter of fact the

deadening and degrading effect of pure socialism, and especially of its

extreme form communism, and the destruction of individual character

which they would bring about, are in part achieved by the wholly

unregulated competition which results in a single individual or

corporation rising at the expense of all others until his or its rise

effectually checks all competition and reduces former competitors to a

position of utter inferiority and subordination.



In enacting and enforcing such legislation as this Congress already has

to its credit, we are working on a coherent plan, with the steady

endeavor to secure the needed reform by the joint action of the

moderate men, the plain men who do not wish anything hysterical or

dangerous, but who do intend to deal in resolute common-sense fashion

with the real and great evils of the present system. The reactionaries

and the violent extremists show symptoms of joining hands against us.

Both assert, for instance, that, if logical, we should go to government

ownership of railroads and the like; the reactionaries, because on such

an issue they think the people would stand with them, while the

extremists care rather to preach discontent and agitation than to

achieve solid results. As a matter of fact, our position is as remote

from that of the Bourbon reactionary as from that of the impracticable

or sinister visionary. We hold that the Government should not conduct

the business of the nation, but that it should exercise such

supervision as will insure its being conducted in the interest of the

nation. Our aim is, so far as may be, to secure, for all decent, hard

working men, equality of opportunity and equality of burden.



The actual working of our laws has shown that the effort to prohibit

all combination, good or bad, is noxious where it is not ineffective.

Combination of capital like combination of labor is a necessary element

of our present industrial system. It is not possible completely to

prevent it; and if it were possible, such complete prevention would do

damage to the body politic. What we need is not vainly to try to

prevent all combination, but to secure such rigorous and adequate

control and supervision of the combinations as to prevent their

injuring the public, or existing in such form as inevitably to threaten

injury--for the mere fact that a combination has secured practically

complete control of a necessary of life would under any circumstances

show that such combination was to be presumed to be adverse to the

public interest. It is unfortunate that our present laws should forbid

all combinations, instead of sharply discriminating between those

combinations which do good and those combinations which do evil.

Rebates, for instance, are as often due to the pressure of big shippers

(as was shown in the investigation of the Standard Oil Company and as

has been shown since by the investigation of the tobacco and sugar

trusts) as to the initiative of big railroads. Often railroads would

like to combine for the purpose of preventing a big shipper from

maintaining improper advantages at the expense of small shippers and of

the general public. Such a combination, instead of being forbidden by

law, should be favored. In other words, it should be permitted to

railroads to make agreements, provided these agreements were sanctioned

by the Interstate Commerce Commission and were published. With these

two conditions complied with it is impossible to see what harm such a

combination could do to the public at large. It is a public evil to

have on the statute books a law incapable of full enforcement because

both judges and juries realize that its full enforcement would destroy

the business of the country; for the result is to make decent railroad

men violators of the law against their will, and to put a premium on

the behavior of the wilful wrongdoers. Such a result in turn tends to

throw the decent man and the wilful wrongdoer into close association,

and in the end to drag down the former to the latter's level; for the

man who becomes a lawbreaker in one way unhappily tends to lose all

respect for law and to be willing to break it in many ways. No more

scathing condemnation could be visited upon a law than is contained in

the words of the Interstate Commerce Commission when, in commenting

upon the fact that the numerous joint traffic associations do

technically violate the law, they say: "The decision of the United

States Supreme Court in the Trans-Missouri case and the Joint Traffic

Association case has produced no practical effect upon the railway

operations of the country. Such associations, in fact, exist now as

they did before these decisions, and with the same general effect. In

justice to all parties, we ought probably to add that it is difficult

to see how our interstate railways could be operated with due regard to

the interest of the shipper and the railway without concerted action of

the kind afforded through these associations."



This means that the law as construed by the Supreme Court is such that

the business of the country can not be conducted without breaking it. I

recommend that you give careful and early consideration to this

subject, and if you find the opinion of the Interstate Commerce

Commission justified, that you amend the law so as to obviate the evil

disclosed.



The question of taxation is difficult in any country, but it is

especially difficult in ours with its Federal system of government.

Some taxes should on every ground be levied in a small district for use

in that district. Thus the taxation of real estate is peculiarly one

for the immediate locality in which the real estate is found. Again,

there is no more legitimate tax for any State than a tax on the

franchises conferred by that State upon street railroads and similar

corporations which operate wholly within the State boundaries,

sometimes in one and sometimes in several municipalities or other minor

divisions of the State. But there are many kinds of taxes which can

only be levied by the General Government so as to produce the best

results, because, among other reasons, the attempt to impose them in

one particular State too often results merely in driving the

corporation or individual affected to some other locality or other

State. The National Government has long derived its chief revenue from

a tariff on imports and from an internal or excise tax. In addition to

these there is every reason why, when next our system of taxation is

revised, the National Government should impose a graduated inheritance

tax, and, if possible, a graduated income tax. The man of great wealth

owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special

advantages from the mere existence of government. Not only should he

recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the

way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by

the way in which he pays for the protection the State gives him. On the

one hand, it is desirable that he should assume his full and proper

share of the burden of taxation; on the other hand, it is quite as

necessary that in this kind of taxation, where the men who vote the tax

pay but little of it, there should be clear recognition of the danger

of inaugurating any such system save in a spirit of entire justice and

moderation. Whenever we, as a people, undertake to remodel our taxation

system along the lines suggested, we must make it clear beyond

peradventure that our aim is to distribute the burden of supporting the

Government more equitably than at present; that we intend to treat rich

man and poor man on a basis of absolute equality, and that we regard it

as equally fatal to true democracy to do or permit injustice to the one

as to do or permit injustice to the other.



I am well aware that such a subject as this needs long and careful

study in order that the people may become familiar with what is

proposed to be done, may clearly see the necessity of proceeding with

wisdom and self-restraint, and may make up their minds just how far

they are willing to go in the matter; while only trained legislators

can work out the project in necessary detail. But I feel that in the

near future our national legislators should enact a law providing for a

graduated inheritance tax by which a steadily increasing rate of duty

should be put upon all moneys or other valuables coming by gift,

bequest, or devise to any individual or corporation. It may be well to

make the tax heavy in proportion as the individual benefited is remote

of kin. In any event, in my judgment the pro rata of the tax should

increase very heavily with the increase of the amount left to any one

individual after a certain point has been reached. It is most desirable

to encourage thrift and ambition, and a potent source of thrift and

ambition is the desire on the part of the breadwinner to leave his

children well off. This object can be attained by making the tax very

small on moderate amounts of property left; because the prime object

should be to put a constantly increasing burden on the inheritance of

those swollen fortunes which it is certainly of no benefit to this

country to perpetuate.



There can be no question of the ethical propriety of the Government

thus determining the conditions upon which any gift or inheritance

should be received. Exactly how far the inheritance tax would, as an

incident, have the effect of limiting the transmission by devise or

gift of the enormous fortunes in question it is not necessary at

present to discuss. It is wise that progress in this direction should

be gradual. At first a permanent national inheritance tax, while it

might be more substantial than any such tax has hitherto been, need not

approximate, either in amount or in the extent of the increase by

graduation, to what such a tax should ultimately be.



This species of tax has again and again been imposed, although only

temporarily, by the National Government. It was first imposed by the

act of July 6, 1797, when the makers of the Constitution were alive and

at the head of affairs. It was a graduated tax; though small in amount,

the rate was increased with the amount left to any individual,

exceptions being made in the case of certain close kin. A similar tax

was again imposed by the act of July 1, 1862; a minimum sum of one

thousand dollars in personal property being excepted from taxation, the

tax then becoming progressive according to the remoteness of kin. The

war-revenue act of June 13, 1898, provided for an inheritance tax on

any sum exceeding the value of ten thousand dollars, the rate of the

tax increasing both in accordance with the amounts left and in

accordance with the legatee's remoteness of kin. The Supreme Court has

held that the succession tax imposed at the time of the Civil War was

not a direct tax but an impost or excise which was both constitutional

and valid. More recently the Court, in an opinion delivered by Mr.

Justice White, which contained an exceedingly able and elaborate

discussion of the powers of the Congress to impose death duties,

sustained the constitutionality of the inheritance-tax feature of the

war-revenue act of 1898.



In its incidents, and apart from the main purpose of raising revenue,

an income tax stands on an entirely different footing from an

inheritance tax; because it involves no question of the perpetuation of

fortunes swollen to an unhealthy size. The question is in its essence a

question of the proper adjustment of burdens to benefits. As the law

now stands it is undoubtedly difficult to devise a national income tax

which shall be constitutional. But whether it is absolutely impossible

is another question; and if possible it is most certainly desirable.

The first purely income-tax law was past by the Congress in 1861, but

the most important law dealing with the subject was that of 1894. This

the court held to be unconstitutional.



The question is undoubtedly very intricate, delicate, and troublesome.

The decision of the court was only reached by one majority. It is the

law of the land, and of course is accepted as such and loyally obeyed

by all good citizens. Nevertheless, the hesitation evidently felt by

the court as a whole in coming to a conclusion, when considered

together with the previous decisions on the subject, may perhaps

indicate the possibility of devising a constitutional income-tax law

which shall substantially accomplish the results aimed at. The

difficulty of amending the Constitution is so great that only real

necessity can justify a resort thereto. Every effort should be made in

dealing with this subject, as with the subject of the proper control by

the National Government over the use of corporate wealth in interstate

business, to devise legislation which without such action shall attain

the desired end; but if this fails, there will ultimately be no

alternative to a constitutional amendment.



It would be impossible to overstate (though it is of course difficult

quantitatively to measure) the effect upon a nation's growth to

greatness of what may be called organized patriotism, which necessarily

includes the substitution of a national feeling for mere local pride;

with as a resultant a high ambition for the whole country. No country

can develop its full strength so long as the parts which make up the

whole each put a feeling of loyalty to the part above the feeling of

loyalty to the whole. This is true of sections and it is just as true

of classes. The industrial and agricultural classes must work together,

capitalists and wageworkers must work together, if the best work of

which the country is capable is to be done. It is probable that a

thoroughly efficient system of education comes next to the influence of

patriotism in bringing about national success of this kind. Our federal

form of government, so fruitful of advantage to our people in certain

ways, in other ways undoubtedly limits our national effectiveness. It

is not possible, for instance, for the National Government to take the

lead in technical industrial education, to see that the public school

system of this country develops on all its technical, industrial,

scientific, and commercial sides. This must be left primarily to the

several States. Nevertheless, the National Government has control of

the schools of the District of Columbia, and it should see that these

schools promote and encourage the fullest development of the scholars

in both commercial and industrial training. The commercial training

should in one of its branches deal with foreign trade. The industrial

training is even more important. It should be one of our prime objects

as a Nation, so far as feasible, constantly to work toward putting the

mechanic, the wageworker who works with his hands, on a higher plane of

efficiency and reward, so as to increase his effectiveness in the

economic world, and the dignity, the remuneration, and the power of his

position in the social world. Unfortunately, at present the effect of

some of the work in the public schools is in the exactly opposite

direction. If boys and girls are trained merely in literary

accomplishments, to the total exclusion of industrial, manual, and

technical training, the tendency is to unfit them for industrial work

and to make them reluctant to go into it, or unfitted to do well if

they do go into it. This is a tendency which should be strenuously

combated. Our industrial development depends largely upon technical

education, including in this term all industrial education, from that

which fits a man to be a good mechanic, a good carpenter, or

blacksmith, to that which fits a man to do the greatest engineering

feat. The skilled mechanic, the skilled workman, can best become such

by technical industrial education. The far-reaching usefulness of

institutes of technology and schools of mines or of engineering is now

universally acknowledged, and no less far--reaching is the effect of a

good building or mechanical trades school, a textile, or watch-making,

or engraving school. All such training must develop not only manual

dexterity but industrial intelligence. In international rivalry this

country does not have to fear the competition of pauper labor as much

as it has to fear the educated labor of specially trained competitors;

and we should have the education of the hand, eye, and brain which will

fit us to meet such competition.



In every possible way we should help the wageworker who toils with his

hands and who must (we hope in a constantly increasing measure) also

toil with his brain. Under the Constitution the National Legislature

can do but little of direct importance for his welfare save where he is

engaged in work which permits it to act under the interstate commerce

clause of the Constitution; and this is one reason why I so earnestly

hope that both the legislative and judicial branches of the Government

will construe this clause of the Constitution in the broadest possible

manner. We can, however, in such a matter as industrial training, in

such a matter as child labor and factory laws, set an example to the

States by enacting the most advanced legislation that can wisely be

enacted for the District of Columbia.



The only other persons whose welfare is as vital to the welfare of the

whole country as is the welfare of the wageworkers are the tillers of

the soil, the farmers. It is a mere truism to say that no growth of

cities, no growth of wealth, no industrial development can atone for

any falling off in the character and standing of the farming

population. During the last few decades this fact has been recognized

with ever-increasing clearness. There is no longer any failure to

realize that farming, at least in certain branches, must become a

technical and scientific profession. This means that there must be open

to farmers the chance for technical and scientific training, not

theoretical merely but of the most severely practical type. The farmer

represents a peculiarly high type of American citizenship, and he must

have the same chance to rise and develop as other American citizens

have. Moreover, it is exactly as true of the farmer, as it is of the

business man and the wageworker, that the ultimate success of the

Nation of which he forms a part must be founded not alone on material

prosperity but upon high moral, mental, and physical development. This

education of the farmer--self-education by preference but also

education from the outside, as with all other men--is peculiarly

necessary here in the United States, where the frontier conditions even

in the newest States have now nearly vanished, where there must be a

substitution of a more intensive system of cultivation for the old

wasteful farm management, and where there must be a better business

organization among the farmers themselves.



Several factors must cooperate in the improvement of the farmer's

condition. He must have the chance to be educated in the widest

possible sense--in the sense which keeps ever in view the intimate

relationship between the theory of education and the facts of life. In

all education we should widen our aims. It is a good thing to produce a

certain number of trained scholars and students; but the education

superintended by the State must seek rather to produce a hundred good

citizens than merely one scholar, and it must be turned now and then

from the class book to the study of the great book of nature itself.

This is especially true of the farmer, as has been pointed out again

and again by all observers most competent to pass practical judgment on

the problems of our country life. All students now realize that

education must seek to train the executive powers of young people and

to confer more real significance upon the phrase "dignity of labor,"

and to prepare the pupils so that, in addition to each developing in

the highest degree his individual capacity for work, they may together

help create a right public opinion, and show in many ways social and

cooperative spirit. Organization has become necessary in the business

world; and it has accomplished much for good in the world of labor. It

is no less necessary for farmers. Such a movement as the grange

movement is good in itself and is capable of a well-nigh infinite

further extension for good so long as it is kept to its own legitimate

business. The benefits to be derived by the association of farmers for

mutual advantage are partly economic and partly sociological.



Moreover, while in the long run voluntary efforts will prove more

efficacious than government assistance, while the farmers must

primarily do most for themselves, yet the Government can also do much.

The Department of Agriculture has broken new ground in many directions,

and year by year it finds how it can improve its methods and develop

fresh usefulness. Its constant effort is to give the governmental

assistance in the most effective way; that is, through associations of

farmers rather than to or through individual farmers. It is also

striving to coordinate its work with the agricultural departments of

the several States, and so far as its own work is educational to

coordinate it with the work of other educational authorities.

Agricultural education is necessarily based upon general education, but

our agricultural educational institutions are wisely specializing

themselves, making their courses relate to the actual teaching of the

agricultural and kindred sciences to young country people or young city

people who wish to live in the country.



Great progress has already been made among farmers by the creation of

farmers' institutes, of dairy associations, of breeders' associations,

horticultural associations, and the like. A striking example of how the

Government and the farmers can cooperate is shown in connection with

the menace offered to the cotton growers of the Southern States by the

advance of the boll weevil. The Department is doing all it can to

organize the farmers in the threatened districts, just as it has been

doing all it can to organize them in aid of its work to eradicate the

cattle fever tick in the South. The Department can and will cooperate

with all such associations, and it must have their help if its own work

is to be done in the most efficient style.



Much is now being done for the States of the Rocky Mountains and Great

Plains through the development of the national policy of irrigation and

forest preservation; no Government policy for the betterment of our

internal conditions has been more fruitful of good than this. The

forests of the White Mountains and Southern Appalachian regions should

also be preserved; and they can not be unless the people of the States

in which they lie, through their representatives in the Congress,

secure vigorous action by the National Government.



I invite the attention of the Congress to the estimate of the Secretary

of War for an appropriation to enable him to begin the preliminary work

for the construction of a memorial amphitheater at Arlington. The Grand

Army of the Republic in its national encampment has urged the erection

of such an amphitheater as necessary for the proper observance Of

Memorial Day and as a fitting monument to the soldier and sailor dead

buried there. In this I heartily concur and commend the matter to the

favorable consideration of the Congress.



I am well aware of how difficult it is to pass a constitutional

amendment. Nevertheless in my judgment the whole question of marriage

and divorce should be relegated to the authority of the National

Congress. At present the wide differences in the laws of the different

States on this subject result in scandals and abuses; and surely there

is nothing so vitally essential to the welfare of the nation, nothing

around which the nation should so bend itself to throw every safeguard,

as the home life of the average citizen. The change would be good from

every standpoint. In particular it would be good because it would

confer on the Congress the power at once to deal radically and

efficiently with polygamy; and this should be done whether or not

marriage and divorce are dealt with. It is neither safe nor proper to

leave the question of polygamy to be dealt with by the several States.

Power to deal with it should be conferred on the National Government.



When home ties are loosened; when men and women cease to regard a

worthy family life, with all its duties fully performed, and all its

responsibilities lived up to, as the life best worth living; then evil

days for the commonwealth are at hand. There are regions in our land,

and classes of our population, where the birth rate has sunk below the

death rate. Surely it should need no demonstration to show that wilful

sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of

the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death,

race death; a sin for which there is no atonement; a sin which is the

more dreadful exactly in proportion as the men and women guilty thereof

are in other respects, in character, and bodily and mental powers,

those whom for the sake of the state it would be well to see the

fathers and mothers of many healthy children, well brought up in homes

made happy by their presence. No man, no woman, can shirk the primary

duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other

cause, and retain his or her self-respect.



Let me once again call the attention of the Congress to two subjects

concerning which I have frequently before communicated with them. One

is the question of developing American shipping. I trust that a law

embodying in substance the views, or a major part of the views, exprest

in the report on this subject laid before the House at its last session

will be past. I am well aware that in former years objectionable

measures have been proposed in reference to the encouragement of

American shipping; but it seems to me that the proposed measure is as

nearly unobjectionable as any can be. It will of course benefit

primarily our seaboard States, such as Maine, Louisiana, and

Washington; but what benefits part of our people in the end benefits

all; just as Government aid to irrigation and forestry in the West is

really of benefit, not only to the Rocky Mountain States, but to all

our country. If it prove impracticable to enact a law for the

encouragement of shipping generally, then at least provision should be

made for better communication with South America, notably for fast mail

lines to the chief South American ports. It is discreditable to us that

our business people, for lack of direct communication in the shape of

lines of steamers with South America, should in that great sister

continent be at a disadvantage compared to the business people of

Europe.



I especially call your attention to the second subject, the condition

of our currency laws. The national bank act has ably served a great

purpose in aiding the enormous business development of the country; and

within ten years there has been an increase in circulation per capita

from $21.41 to $33.08. For several years evidence has been accumulating

that additional legislation is needed. The recurrence of each crop

season emphasizes the defects of the present laws. There must soon be a

revision of them, because to leave them as they are means to incur

liability of business disaster. Since your body adjourned there has

been a fluctuation in the interest on call money from 2 per cent to 30

per cent; and the fluctuation was even greater during the preceding six

months. The Secretary of the Treasury had to step in and by wise action

put a stop to the most violent period of oscillation. Even worse than

such fluctuation is the advance in commercial rates and the uncertainty

felt in the sufficiency of credit even at high rates. All commercial

interests suffer during each crop period. Excessive rates for call

money in New York attract money from the interior banks into the

speculative field; this depletes the fund that would otherwise be

available for commercial uses, and commercial borrowers are forced to

pay abnormal rates; so that each fall a tax, in the shape of increased

interest charges, is placed on the whole commerce of the country.



The mere statement of these has shows that our present system is

seriously defective. There is need of a change. Unfortunately, however,

many of the proposed changes must be ruled from consideration because

they are complicated, are not easy of comprehension, and tend to,

disturb existing rights and interests. We must also rule out any plan

which would materially impair the value of the United States 2 per cent

bonds now pledged to secure circulations, the issue of which was made

under conditions peculiarly creditable to the Treasury. I do not press

any especial plan. Various plans have recently been proposed by expert

committees of bankers. Among the plans which are possibly feasible and

which certainly should receive your consideration is that repeatedly

brought to your attention by the present Secretary of the Treasury, the

essential features of which have been approved by many prominent

bankers and business men. According to this plan national banks should

be permitted to issue a specified proportion of their capital in notes

of a given kind, the issue to be taxed at so high a rate as to drive

the notes back when not wanted in legitimate trade. This plan would not

permit the issue of currency to give banks additional profits, but to

meet the emergency presented by times of stringency.



I do not say that this is the right system. I only advance it to

emphasize my belief that there is need for the adoption of some system

which shall be automatic and open to all sound banks, so as to avoid

all possibility of discrimination and favoritism. Such a plan would

tend to prevent the spasms of high money and speculation which now

obtain in the New York market; for at present there is too much

currency at certain seasons of the year, and its accumulation at New

York tempts bankers to lend it at low rates for speculative purposes;

whereas at other times when the crops are being moved there is urgent

need for a large but temporary increase in the currency supply. It must

never be forgotten that this question concerns business men generally

quite as much as bankers; especially is this true of stockmen, farmers,

and business men in the West; for at present at certain seasons of the

year the difference in interest rates between the East and the West is

from 6 to 10 per cent, whereas in Canada the corresponding difference

is but 2 per cent. Any plan must, of course, guard the interests of

western and southern bankers as carefully as it guards the interests of

New York or Chicago bankers; and must be drawn from the standpoints of

the farmer and the merchant no less than from the standpoints of the

city banker and the country banker.



The law should be amended so as specifically to provide that the funds

derived from customs duties may be treated by the Secretary of the

Treasury as he treats funds obtained under the internal-revenue laws.

There should be a considerable increase in bills of small

denominations. Permission should be given banks, if necessary under

settled restrictions, to retire their circulation to a larger amount

than three millions a month.



I most earnestly hope that the bill to provide a lower tariff for or

else absolute free trade in Philippine products will become a law. No

harm will come to any American industry; and while there will be some

small but real material benefit to the Filipinos, the main benefit will

come by the showing made as to our purpose to do all in our power for

their welfare. So far our action in the Philippines has been abundantly

justified, not mainly and indeed not primarily because of the added

dignity it has given us as a nation by proving that we are capable

honorably and efficiently to bear the international burdens which a

mighty people should bear, but even more because of the immense benefit

that has come to the people of the Philippine Islands. In these islands

we are steadily introducing both liberty and order, to a greater degree

than their people have ever before known. We have secured justice. We

have provided an efficient police force, and have put down ladronism.

Only in the islands of Leyte and Samar is the authority of our

Government resisted and this by wild mountain tribes under the

superstitious inspiration of fakirs and pseudo-religions leaders. We

are constantly increasing the measure of liberty accorded the

islanders, and next spring, if conditions warrant, we shall take a

great stride forward in testing their capacity for self-government by

summoning the first Filipino legislative assembly; and the way in which

they stand this test will largely determine whether the self-government

thus granted will be increased or decreased; for if we have erred at

all in the Philippines it has been in proceeding too rapidly in the

direction of granting a large measure of self-government. We are

building roads. We have, for the immeasurable good of the people,

arranged for the building of railroads. Let us also see to it that they

are given free access to our markets. This nation owes no more

imperative duty to itself and mankind than the duty of managing the

affairs of all the islands under the American flag--the Philippines,

Porto Rico, and Hawaii--so as to make it evident that it is in every

way to their advantage that the flag should fly over them.



American citizenship should be conferred on the citizens of Porto Rico.

The harbor of San Juan in Porto Rico should be dredged and improved.

The expenses of the federal court of Porto Rico should be met from the

Federal Treasury. The administration of the affairs of Porto Rico,

together with those of the Philippines, Hawaii, and our other insular

possessions, should all be directed under one executive department; by

preference the Department of State or the Department of War.



The needs of Hawaii are peculiar; every aid should be given the

islands; and our efforts should be unceasing to develop them along the

lines of a community of small freeholders, not of great planters with

coolie-tilled estates. Situated as this Territory is, in the middle of

the Pacific, there are duties imposed upon this small community which

do not fall in like degree or manner upon any other American community.

This warrants our treating it differently from the way in which we

treat Territories contiguous to or surrounded by sister Territories or

other States, and justifies the setting aside of a portion of our

revenues to be expended for educational and internal improvements

therein. Hawaii is now making an effort to secure immigration fit in

the end to assume the duties and burdens of full American citizenship,

and whenever the leaders in the various industries of those islands

finally adopt our ideals and heartily join our administration in

endeavoring to develop a middle class of substantial citizens, a way

will then be found to deal with the commercial and industrial problems

which now appear to them so serious. The best Americanism is that which

aims for stability and permanency of prosperous citizenship, rather

than immediate returns on large masses of capital.



Alaska's needs have been partially met, but there must be a complete

reorganization of the governmental system, as I have before indicated

to you. I ask your especial attention to this. Our fellow-citizens who

dwell on the shores of Puget Sound with characteristic energy are

arranging to hold in Seattle the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition. Its

special aims include the upbuilding of Alaska and the development of

American commerce on the Pacific Ocean. This exposition, in its

purposes and scope, should appeal not only to the people of the Pacific

slope, but to the people of the United States at large. Alaska since it

was bought has yielded to the Government eleven millions of dollars of

revenue, and has produced nearly three hundred millions of dollars in

gold, furs, and fish. When properly developed it will become in large

degree a land of homes. The countries bordering the Pacific Ocean have

a population more numerous than that of all the countries of Europe;

their annual foreign commerce amounts to over three billions of

dollars, of which the share of the United States is some seven hundred

millions of dollars. If this trade were thoroughly understood and

pushed by our manufacturers and producers, the industries not only of

the Pacific slope, but of all our country, and particularly of our

cotton-growing States, would be greatly benefited. Of course, in order

to get these benefits, we must treat fairly the countries with which we

trade.



It is a mistake, and it betrays a spirit of foolish cynicism, to

maintain that all international governmental action is, and must ever

be, based upon mere selfishness, and that to advance ethical reasons

for such action is always a sign of hypocrisy. This is no more

necessarily true of the action of governments than of the action of

individuals. It is a sure sign of a base nature always to ascribe base

motives for the actions of others. Unquestionably no nation can afford

to disregard proper considerations of self-interest, any more than a

private individual can so do. But it is equally true that the average

private individual in any really decent community does many actions

with reference to other men in which he is guided, not by

self-interest, but by public spirit, by regard for the rights of

others, by a disinterested purpose to do good to others, and to raise

the tone of the community as a whole. Similarly, a really great nation

must often act, and as a matter of fact often does act, toward other

nations in a spirit not in the least of mere self-interest, but paying

heed chiefly to ethical reasons; and as the centuries go by this

disinterestedness in international action, this tendency of the

individuals comprising a nation to require that nation to act with

justice toward its neighbors, steadily grows and strengthens. It is

neither wise nor right for a nation to disregard its own needs, and it

is foolish--and may be wicked--to think that other nations will

disregard theirs. But it is wicked for a nation only to regard its own

interest, and foolish to believe that such is the sole motive that

actuates any other nation. It should be our steady aim to raise the

ethical standard of national action just as we strive to raise the

ethical standard of individual action.



Not only must we treat all nations fairly, but we must treat with

justice and good will all immigrants who come here under the law.

Whether they are Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile; whether they

come from England or Germany, Russia, Japan, or Italy, matters nothing.

All we have a right to question is the man's conduct. If he is honest

and upright in his dealings with his neighbor and with the State, then

he is entitled to respect and good treatment. Especially do we need to

remember our duty to the stranger within our gates. It is the sure mark

of a low civilization, a low morality, to abuse or discriminate against

or in any way humiliate such stranger who has come here lawfully and

who is conducting himself properly. To remember this is incumbent on

every American citizen, and it is of course peculiarly incumbent on

every Government official, whether of the nation or of the several

States.



I am prompted to say this by the attitude of hostility here and there

assumed toward the Japanese in this country. This hostility is sporadic

and is limited to a very few places. Nevertheless, it is most

discreditable to us as a people, and it may be fraught with the gravest

consequences to the nation. The friendship between the United States

and Japan has been continuous since the time, over half a century ago,

when Commodore Perry, by his expedition to Japan, first opened the

islands to western civilization. Since then the growth of Japan has

been literally astounding. There is not only nothing to parallel it,

but nothing to approach it in the history of civilized mankind. Japan

has a glorious and ancient past. Her civilization is older than that of

the nations of northern Europe--the nations from whom the people of the

United States have chiefly sprung. But fifty years ago Japan's

development was still that of the Middle Ages. During that fifty years

the progress of the country in every walk in life has been a marvel to

mankind, and she now stands as one of the greatest of civilized

nations; great in the arts of war and in the arts of peace; great in

military, in industrial, in artistic development and achievement.

Japanese soldiers and sailors have shown themselves equal in combat to

any of whom history makes note. She has produced great generals and

mighty admirals; her fighting men, afloat and ashore, show all the

heroic courage, the unquestioning, unfaltering loyalty, the splendid

indifference to hardship and death, which marked the Loyal Ronins; and

they show also that they possess the highest ideal of patriotism.

Japanese artists of every kind see their products eagerly sought for in

all lands. The industrial and commercial development of Japan has been

phenomenal; greater than that of any other country during the same

period. At the same time the advance in science and philosophy is no

less marked. The admirable management of the Japanese Red Cross during

the late war, the efficiency and humanity of the Japanese officials,

nurses, and doctors, won the respectful admiration of all acquainted

with the facts. Through the Red Cross the Japanese people sent over

$100,000 to the sufferers of San Francisco, and the gift was accepted

with gratitude by our people. The courtesy of the Japanese, nationally

and individually, has become proverbial. To no other country has there

been such an increasing number of visitors from this land as to Japan.

In return, Japanese have come here in great numbers. They are welcome,

socially and intellectually, in all our colleges and institutions of

higher learning, in all our professional and social bodies. The

Japanese have won in a single generation the right to stand abreast of

the foremost and most enlightened peoples of Europe and America; they

have won on their own merits and by their own exertions the right to

treatment on a basis of full and frank equality. The overwhelming mass

of our people cherish a lively regard and respect for the people of

Japan, and in almost every quarter of the Union the stranger from Japan

is treated as he deserves; that is, he is treated as the stranger from

any part of civilized Europe is and deserves to be treated. But here

and there a most unworthy feeling has manifested itself toward the

Japanese--the feeling that has been shown in shutting them out from the

common schools in San Francisco, and in mutterings against them in one

or two other places, because of their efficiency as workers. To shut

them out from the public schools is a wicked absurdity, when there are

no first-class colleges in the land, including the universities and

colleges of California, which do not gladly welcome Japanese students

and on which Japanese students do not reflect credit. We have as much

to learn from Japan as Japan has to learn from us; and no nation is fit

to teach unless it is also willing to learn. Throughout Japan Americans

are well treated, and any failure on the part of Americans at home to

treat the Japanese with a like courtesy and consideration is by just so

much a confession of inferiority in our civilization.



Our nation fronts on the Pacific, just as it fronts on the Atlantic. We

hope to play a constantly growing part in the great ocean of the

Orient. We wish, as we ought to wish, for a great commercial

development in our dealings with Asia; and it is out of the question

that we should permanently have such development unless we freely and

gladly extend to other nations the same measure of justice and good

treatment which we expect to receive in return. It is only a very small

body of our citizens that act badly. Where the Federal Government has

power it will deal summarily with any such. Where the several States

have power I earnestly ask that they also deal wisely and promptly with

such conduct, or else this small body of wrongdoers may bring shame

upon the great mass of their innocent and right-thinking fellows--that

is, upon our nation as a whole. Good manners should be an international

no less than an individual attribute. I ask fair treatment for the

Japanese as I would ask fair treatment for Germans or Englishmen,

Frenchmen, Russians, or Italians. I ask it as due to humanity and

civilization. I ask it as due to ourselves because we must act

uprightly toward all men.



I recommend to the Congress that an act be past specifically providing

for the naturalization of Japanese who come here intending to become

American citizens. One of the great embarrassments attending the

performance of our international obligations is the fact that the

Statutes of the United States are entirely inadequate. They fail to

give to the National Government sufficiently ample power, through

United States courts and by the use of the Army and Navy, to protect

aliens in the rights secured to them under solemn treaties which are

the law of the land. I therefore earnestly recommend that the criminal

and civil statutes of the United States be so amended and added to as

to enable the President, acting for the United States Government, which

is responsible in our international relations, to enforce the rights of

aliens under treaties. Even as the law now is something can be done by

the Federal Government toward this end, and in the matter now before me

affecting the Japanese everything that it is in my power to do will be

done, and all of the forces, military and civil, of the United States

which I may lawfully employ will be so employed. There should, however,

be no particle of doubt as to the power of the National Government

completely to perform and enforce its own obligations to other nations.

The mob of a single city may at any time perform acts of lawless

violence against some class of foreigners which would plunge us into

war. That city by itself would be powerless to make defense against the

foreign power thus assaulted, and if independent of this Government it

would never venture to perform or permit the performance of the acts

complained of. The entire power and the whole duty to protect the

offending city or the offending community lies in the hands of the

United States Government. It is unthinkable that we should continue a

policy under which a given locality may be allowed to commit a crime

against a friendly nation, and the United States Government limited,

not to preventing the commission of the crime, but, in the last resort,

to defending the people who have committed it against the consequences

of their own wrongdoing.



Last August an insurrection broke out in Cuba which it speedily grew

evident that the existing Cuban Government was powerless to quell. This

Government was repeatedly asked by the then Cuban Government to

intervene, and finally was notified by the President of Cuba that he

intended to resign; that his decision was irrevocable; that none of the

other constitutional officers would consent to carry on the Government,

and that he was powerless to maintain order. It was evident that chaos

was impending, and there was every probability that if steps were not

immediately taken by this Government to try to restore order the

representatives of various European nations in the island would apply

to their respective governments for armed intervention in order to

protect the lives and property of their citizens. Thanks to the

preparedness of our Navy, I was able immediately to send enough ships

to Cuba to prevent the situation from becoming hopeless; and I

furthermore dispatched to Cuba the Secretary of War and the Assistant

Secretary of State, in order that they might grapple with the situation

on the ground. All efforts to secure an agreement between the

contending factions, by which they should themselves come to an

amicable understanding and settle upon some modus vivendi--some

provisional government of their own--failed. Finally the President of

the Republic resigned. The quorum of Congress assembled failed by

deliberate purpose of its members, so that there was no power to act on

his resignation, and the Government came to a halt. In accordance with

the so-called Platt amendment, which was embodied in the constitution

of Cuba, I thereupon proclaimed a provisional government for the

island, the Secretary of War acting as provisional governor until he

could be replaced by Mr. Magoon, the late minister to Panama and

governor of the Canal Zone on the Isthmus; troops were sent to support

them and to relieve the Navy, the expedition being handled with most

satisfactory speed and efficiency. The insurgent chiefs immediately

agreed that their troops should lay down their arms and disband; and

the agreement was carried out. The provisional government has left the

personnel of the old government and the old laws, so far as might be,

unchanged, and will thus administer the island for a few months until

tranquillity can be restored, a new election properly held, and a new

government inaugurated. Peace has come in the island; and the

harvesting of the sugar-cane crop, the great crop of the island, is

about to proceed.



When the election has been held and the new government inaugurated in

peaceful and orderly fashion the provisional government will come to an

end. I take this opportunity of expressing upon behalf of the American

people, with all possible solemnity, our most earnest hope that the

people of Cuba will realize the imperative need of preserving justice

and keeping order in the Island. The United States wishes nothing of

Cuba except that it shall prosper morally and materially, and wishes

nothing of the Cubans save that they shall be able to preserve order

among themselves and therefore to preserve their independence. If the

elections become a farce, and if the insurrectionary habit becomes

confirmed in the Island, it is absolutely out of the question that the

Island should continue independent; and the United States, which has

assumed the sponsorship before the civilized world for Cuba's career as

a nation, would again have to intervene and to see that the government

was managed in such orderly fashion as to secure the safety of life and

property. The path to be trodden by those who exercise self-government

is always hard, and we should have every charity and patience with the

Cubans as they tread this difficult path. I have the utmost sympathy

with, and regard for, them; but I most earnestly adjure them solemnly

to weigh their responsibilities and to see that when their new

government is started it shall run smoothly, and with freedom from

flagrant denial of right on the one hand, and from insurrectionary

disturbances on the other.



The Second International Conference of American Republics, held in

Mexico in the years 1901-2, provided for the holding of the third

conference within five years, and committed the fixing of the time and

place and the arrangements for the conference to the governing board of

the Bureau of American Republics, composed of the representatives of

all the American nations in Washington. That board discharged the duty

imposed upon it with marked fidelity and painstaking care, and upon the

courteous invitation of the United States of Brazil the conference was

held at Rio de Janeiro, continuing from the 23d of July to the 29th of

August last. Many subjects of common interest to all the American

nations were discust by the conference, and the conclusions reached,

embodied in a series of resolutions and proposed conventions, will be

laid before you upon the coming in of the final report of the American

delegates. They contain many matters of importance relating to the

extension of trade, the increase of communication, the smoothing away

of barriers to free intercourse, and the promotion of a better

knowledge and good understanding between the different countries

represented. The meetings of the conference were harmonious and the

conclusions were reached with substantial unanimity. It is interesting

to observe that in the successive conferences which have been held the

representatives of the different American nations have been learning to

work together effectively, for, while the First Conference in

Washington in 1889, and the Second Conference in Mexico in 1901-2,

occupied many months, with much time wasted in an unregulated and

fruitless discussion, the Third Conference at Rio exhibited much of the

facility in the practical dispatch of business which characterizes

permanent deliberative bodies, and completed its labors within the

period of six weeks originally allotted for its sessions.



Quite apart from the specific value of the conclusions reached by the

conference, the example of the representatives of all the American

nations engaging in harmonious and kindly consideration and discussion

of subjects of common interest is itself of great and substantial value

for the promotion of reasonable and considerate treatment of all

international questions. The thanks of this country are due to the

Government of Brazil and to the people of Rio de Janeiro for the

generous hospitality with which our delegates, in common with the

others, were received, entertained, and facilitated in their work.



Incidentally to the meeting of the conference, the Secretary of State

visited the city of Rio de Janeiro and was cordially received by the

conference, of which he was made an honorary president. The

announcement of his intention to make this visit was followed by most

courteous and urgent invitations from nearly all the countries of South

America to visit them as the guest of their Governments. It was deemed

that by the acceptance of these invitations we might appropriately

express the real respect and friendship in which we hold our sister

Republics of the southern continent, and the Secretary, accordingly,

visited Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Panama, and Colombia.

He refrained from visiting Paraguay, Bolivia, and Ecuador only because

the distance of their capitals from the seaboard made it impracticable

with the time at his disposal. He carried with him a message of peace

and friendship, and of strong desire for good understanding and mutual

helpfulness; and he was everywhere received in the spirit of his

message. The members of government, the press, the learned professions,

the men of business, and the great masses of the people united

everywhere in emphatic response to his friendly expressions and in

doing honor to the country and cause which he represented.



In many parts of South America there has been much misunderstanding of

the attitude and purposes of the United States towards the other

American Republics. An idea had become prevalent that our assertion of

the Monroe Doctrine implied, or carried with it, an assumption of

superiority, and of a right to exercise some kind of protectorate over

the countries to whose territory that doctrine applies. Nothing could

be farther from the truth. Yet that impression continued to be a

serious barrier to good understanding, to friendly intercourse, to the

introduction of American capital and the extension of American trade.

The impression was so widespread that apparently it could not be

reached by any ordinary means.



It was part of Secretary Root's mission to dispel this unfounded

impression, and there is just cause to believe that he has succeeded.

In an address to the Third Conference at Rio on the 31st of July--an

address of such note that I send it in, together with this message--he

said:



"We wish for no victories but those of peace; for no territory except

our own; for no sovereignty except the sovereignty over ourselves. We

deem the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest

member of the family of nations entitled to as much respect as those of

the greatest empire, and we deem the observance of that respect the

chief guaranty of the weak against the oppression of the strong. We

neither claim nor desire any rights or privileges or powers that we do

not freely concede to every American Republic. We wish to increase our

prosperity, to extend our trade, to grow in wealth, in wisdom, and in

spirit, but our conception of the true way to accomplish this is not to

pull down others and profit by their ruin, but to help all friends to a

common prosperity and a common growth, that we may all become greater

and stronger together. Within a few months for the first time the

recognized possessors of every foot of soil upon the American

continents can be and I hope will be represented with the acknowledged

rights of equal sovereign states in the great World Congress at The

Hague. This will be the world's formal and final acceptance of the

declaration that no part of the American continents is to be deemed

subject to colonization. Let us pledge ourselves to aid each other in

the full performance of the duty to humanity which that accepted

declaration implies, so that in time the weakest and most unfortunate

of our Republics may come to march with equal step by the side of the

stronger and more fortunate. Let us help each other to show that for

all the races of men the liberty for which we have fought and labored

is the twin sister of justice and peace. Let us unite in creating and

maintaining and making effective an all-American public opinion, whose

power shall influence international conduct and prevent international

wrong, and narrow the causes of war, and forever preserve our free

lands from the burden of such armaments as are massed behind the

frontiers of Europe, and bring us ever nearer to the perfection of

ordered liberty. So shall come security and prosperity, production and

trade, wealth, learning, the arts, and happiness for us all."



These words appear to have been received with acclaim in every part of

South America. They have my hearty approval, as I am sure they will

have yours, and I can not be wrong in the conviction that they

correctly represent the sentiments of the whole American people. I can

not better characterize the true attitude of the United States in its

assertion of the Monroe Doctrine than in the words of the distinguished

former minister of foreign affairs of Argentina, Doctor Drago, in his

speech welcoming Mr. Root at Buenos Ayres. He spoke of--



"The traditional policy of the United States (which) without

accentuating superiority or seeking preponderance, condemned the

oppression of the nations of this part of the world and the control of

their destinies by the great Powers of Europe."



It is gratifying to know that in the great city of Buenos Ayres, upon

the arches which spanned the streets, entwined with Argentine and

American flags for the reception of our representative, there were

emblazoned not' only the names of Washington and Jefferson and

Marshall, but also, in appreciative recognition of their services to

the cause of South American independence, the names of James Monroe,

John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Richard Rush. We take especial

pleasure in the graceful courtesy of the Government of Brazil, which

has given to the beautiful and stately building first used for the

meeting of the conference the name of "Palacio Monroe." Our grateful

acknowledgments are due to the Governments and the people of all the

countries visited by the Secretary of State for the courtesy, the

friendship, and the honor shown to our country in their generous

hospitality to him.



In my message to you on the 5th of December, 1905, I called your

attention to the embarrassment that might be caused to this Government

by the assertion by foreign nations of the right to collect by force of

arms contract debts due by American republics to citizens of the

collecting nation, and to the danger that the process of compulsory

collection might result in the occupation of territory tending to

become permanent. I then said:



"Our own Government has always refused to enforce such contractual

obligations on behalf of its citizens by an appeal to arms. It is much

to be wisht that all foreign governments would take the same view."



This subject was one of the topics of consideration at the conference

at Rio and a resolution was adopted by that conference recommending to

the respective governments represented "to consider the advisability of

asking the Second Peace Conference at The Hague to examine the question

of the compulsory collection of public debts, and, in general, means

tending to diminish among nations conflicts of purely pecuniary

origin."



This resolution was supported by the representatives of the United

States in accordance with the following instructions:



"It has long been the established policy of the United States not to

use its armed forces for the collection of ordinary contract debts due

to its citizens by other governments. We have not considered the use of

force for such a purpose consistent with that respect for the

independent sovereignty of other members of the family of nations which

is the most important principle of international law and the chief

protection of weak nations against the oppression of the strong. It

seems to us that the practise is injurious in its general effect upon

the relations of nations and upon the welfare of weak and disordered

states, whose development ought to be encouraged in the interests of

civilization; that it offers frequent temptation to bullying and

oppression and to unnecessary and unjustifiable warfare. We regret that

other powers, whose opinions and sense of justice we esteem highly,

have at times taken a different view and have permitted themselves,

though we believe with reluctance, to collect such debts by force. It

is doubtless true that the non-payment of public debts may be

accompanied by such circumstances of fraud and wrongdoing or violation

of treaties as to justify the use of force. This Government would be

glad to see an international consideration of the subject which shall

discriminate between such cases and the simple nonperformance of a

contract with a private person, and a resolution in favor of reliance

upon peaceful means in cases of the latter class.



"It is not felt, however, that the conference at Rio should undertake

to make such a discrimination or to resolve upon such a rule. Most of

the American countries are still debtor nations, while the countries of

Europe are the creditors. If the Rio conference, therefore, were to

take such action it would have the appearance of a meeting of debtors

resolving how their creditors should act, and this would not inspire

respect. The true course is indicated by the terms of the program,

which proposes to request the Second Hague Conference, where both

creditors and debtors will be assembled, to consider the subject."



Last June trouble which had existed for some time between the Republics

of Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras culminated in war--a war which

threatened to be ruinous to the countries involved and very destructive

to the commercial interests of Americans, Mexicans, and other

foreigners who are taking an important part in the development of these

countries. The thoroughly good understanding which exists between the

United States and Mexico enabled this Government and that of Mexico to

unite in effective mediation between the warring Republics; which

mediation resulted, not without long-continued and patient effort, in

bringing about a meeting of the representatives of the hostile powers

on board a United States warship as neutral territory, and peace was

there concluded; a peace which resulted in the saving of thousands of

lives and in the prevention of an incalculable amount of misery and the

destruction of property and of the means of livelihood. The Rio

Conference past the following resolution in reference to this action:



"That the Third International American Conference shall address to the

Presidents of the United States of America and of the United States of

Mexico a note in which the conference which is being held at Rio

expresses its satisfaction at the happy results of their mediation for

the celebration of peace between the Republics of Guatemala, Honduras,

and Salvador."



This affords an excellent example of one way in which the influence of

the United States can properly be exercised for the benefit of the

peoples of the Western Hemisphere; that is, by action taken in concert

with other American republics and therefore free from those suspicions

and prejudices which might attach if the action were taken by one

alone. In this way it is possible to exercise a powerful influence

toward the substitution of considerate action in the spirit of justice

for the insurrectionary or international violence which has hitherto

been so great a hindrance to the development of many of our neighbors.

Repeated examples of united action by several or many American

republics in favor of peace, by urging cool and reasonable, instead of

excited and belligerent, treatment of international controversies, can

not fail to promote the growth of a general public opinion among the

American nations which will elevate the standards of international

action, strengthen the sense of international duty among governments,

and tell in favor of the peace of mankind.



I have just returned from a trip to Panama and shall report to you at

length later on the whole subject of the Panama Canal.



The Algeciras Convention, which was signed by the United States as well

as by most of the powers of Europe, supersedes the previous convention

of 1880, which was also signed both by the United States and a majority

of the European powers. This treaty confers upon us equal commercial

rights with all European countries and does not entail a single

obligation of any kind upon us, and I earnestly hope it may be speedily

ratified. To refuse to ratify it would merely mean that we forfeited

our commercial rights in Morocco and would not achieve another object

of any kind. In the event of such refusal we would be left for the

first time in a hundred and twenty years without any commercial treaty

with Morocco; and this at a time when we are everywhere seeking new

markets and outlets for trade.



The destruction of the Pribilof Islands fur seals by pelagic sealing

still continues. The herd which, according to the surveys made in 1874

by direction of the Congress, numbered 4,700,000, and which, according

to the survey of both American and Canadian commissioners in 1891,

amounted to 1,000,000, has now been reduced to about 180,000. This

result has been brought about by Canadian and some other sealing

vessels killing the female seals while in the water during their annual

pilgrimage to and from the south, or in search of food. As a rule the

female seal when killed is pregnant, and also has an unweaned pup on

land, so that, for each skin taken by pelagic sealing, as a rule, three

lives are destroyed--the mother, the unborn offspring, and the nursing

pup, which is left to starve to death. No damage whatever is done to

the herd by the carefully regulated killing on land; the custom of

pelagic sealing is solely responsible for all of the present evil, and

is alike indefensible from the economic standpoint and from the

standpoint of humanity.



In 1896 over 16,000 young seals were found dead from starvation on the

Pribilof Islands. In 1897 it was estimated that since pelagic sealing

began upward of 400,000 adult female seals had been killed at sea, and

over 300,000 young seals had died of starvation as the result. The

revolting barbarity of such a practise, as well as the wasteful

destruction which it involves, needs no demonstration and is its own

condemnation. The Bering Sea Tribunal, which sat in Paris in 1893, and

which decided against the claims of the United States to exclusive

jurisdiction in the waters of Bering Sea and to a property right in the

fur seals when outside of the three-mile limit, determined also upon

certain regulations which the Tribunal considered sufficient for the

proper protection and preservation of the fur seal in, or habitually

resorting to, the Bering Sea. The Tribunal by its regulations

established a close season, from the 1st of May to the 31st of July,

and excluded all killing in the waters within 60 miles around the

Pribilof Islands. They also provided that the regulations which they

had determined upon, with a view to the protection and preservation of

the seals, should be submitted every five years to new examination, so

as to enable both interested Governments to consider whether, in the

light of past experience, there was occasion for any modification

thereof.



The regulations have proved plainly inadequate to accomplish the object

of protection and preservation of the fur seals, and for a long time

this Government has been trying in vain to secure from Great Britain

such revision and modification of the regulations as were contemplated

and provided for by the award of the Tribunal of Paris.



The process of destruction has been accelerated during recent years by

the appearance of a number of Japanese vessels engaged in pelagic

sealing. As these vessels have not been bound even by the inadequate

limitations prescribed by the Tribunal of Paris, they have paid no

attention either to the close season or to the sixty-mile limit imposed

upon the Canadians, and have prosecuted their work up to the very

islands themselves. On July 16 and 17 the crews from several Japanese

vessels made raids upon the island of St. Paul, and before they were

beaten off by the very meager and insufficiently armed guard, they

succeeded in killing several hundred seals and carrying off the skins

of most of them. Nearly all the seals killed were females and the work

was done with frightful barbarity. Many of the seals appear to have

been skinned alive and many were found half skinned and still alive.

The raids were repelled only by the use of firearms, and five of the

raiders were killed, two were wounded, and twelve captured, including

the two wounded. Those captured have since been tried and sentenced to

imprisonment. An attack of this kind had been wholly unlookt for, but

such provision of vessels, arms, and ammunition will now be made that

its repetition will not be found profitable.



Suitable representations regarding the incident have been made to the

Government of Japan, and we are assured that all practicable measures

will be taken by that country to prevent any recurrence of the outrage.

On our part, the guard on the island will be increased and better

equipped and organized, and a better revenue-cutter patrol service

about the islands will be established; next season a United States war

vessel will also be sent there.



We have not relaxed our efforts to secure an agreement with Great

Britain for adequate protection of the seal herd, and negotiations with

Japan for the same purpose are in progress.



The laws for the protection of the seals within the jurisdiction of the

United States need revision and amendment. Only the islands of St. Paul

and St. George are now, in terms, included in the Government

reservation, and the other islands are also to be included. The landing

of aliens as well as citizens upon the islands, without a permit from

the Department of Commerce and Labor, for any purpose except in case of

stress of weather or for water, should be prohibited under adequate

penalties. The approach of vessels for the excepted purposes should be

regulated. The authority of the Government agents on the islands should

be enlarged, and the chief agent should have the powers of a committing

magistrate. The entrance of a vessel into the territorial waters

surrounding the islands with intent to take seals should be made a

criminal offense and cause of forfeiture. Authority for seizures in

such cases should be given and the presence on any such vessel of seals

or sealskins, or the paraphernalia for taking them, should be made

prima facie evidence of such intent. I recommend what legislation is

needed to accomplish these ends; and I commend to your attention the

report of Mr. Sims, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, on this

subject.



In case we are compelled to abandon the hope of making arrangements

with other governments to put an end to the hideous cruelty now

incident to pelagic sealing, it will be a question for your serious

consideration how far we should continue to protect and maintain the

seal herd on land with the result of continuing such a practise, and

whether it is not better to end the practice by exterminating the herd

ourselves in the most humane way possible.



In my last message I advised you that the Emperor of Russia had taken

the initiative in bringing about a second peace conference at The

Hague. Under the guidance of Russia the arrangement of the

preliminaries for such a conference has been progressing during the

past year. Progress has necessarily been slow, owing to the great

number of countries to be consulted upon every question that has

arisen. It is a matter of satisfaction that all of the American

Republics have now, for the first time, been invited to join in the

proposed conference.



The close connection between the subjects to be taken up by the Red

Cross Conference held at Geneva last summer and the subjects which

naturally would come before The Hague Conference made it apparent that

it was desirable to have the work of the Red Cross Conference completed

and considered by the different powers before the meeting at The Hague.

The Red Cross Conference ended its labors on the 6th day of July, and

the revised and amended convention, which was signed by the American

delegates, will be promptly laid before the Senate.



By the special and highly appreciated courtesy of the Governments of

Russia and the Netherlands, a proposal to call The Hague Conference

together at a time which would conflict with the Conference of the

American Republics at Rio de Janeiro in August was laid aside. No other

date has yet been suggested. A tentative program for the conference has

been proposed by the Government of Russia, and the subjects which it

enumerates are undergoing careful examination and consideration in

preparation for the conference.



It must ever be kept in mind that war is not merely justifiable, but

imperative, upon honorable men, upon an honorable nation, where peace

can only be obtained by the sacrifice of conscientious conviction or of

national welfare. Peace is normally a great good, and normally it

coincides with righteousness; but it is righteousness and not peace

which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the

conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can

surrender conscience to another's keeping. Neither can a nation, which

is an entity, and which does not die as individuals die, refrain from

taking thought for the interest of the generations that are to come, no

less than for the interest of the generation of to-day; and no public

men have a right, whether from shortsightedness, from selfish

indifference, or from sentimentality, to sacrifice national interests

which are vital in character. A just war is in the long run far better

for a nation's soul than the most prosperous peace obtained by

acquiescence in wrong or injustice. Moreover, though it is criminal for

a nation not to prepare for war, so that it may escape the dreadful

consequences of being defeated in war, yet it must always be remembered

that even to be defeated in war may be far better than not to have

fought at all. As has been well and finely said, a beaten nation is not

necessarily a disgraced nation; but the nation or man is disgraced if

the obligation to defend right is shirked.



We should as a nation do everything in our power for the cause of

honorable peace. It is morally as indefensible for a nation to commit a

wrong upon another nation, strong or weak, as for an individual thus to

wrong his fellows. We should do all in our power to hasten the day when

there shall be peace among the nations--a peace based upon justice and

not upon cowardly submission to wrong. We can accomplish a good deal in

this direction, but we can not accomplish everything, and the penalty

of attempting to do too much would almost inevitably be to do worse

than nothing; for it must be remembered that fantastic extremists are

not in reality leaders of the causes which they espouse, but are

ordinarily those who do most to hamper the real leaders of the cause

and to damage the cause itself. As yet there is no likelihood of

establishing any kind of international power, of whatever sort, which

can effectively check wrongdoing, and in these circumstances it would

be both a foolish and an evil thing for a great and free nation to

deprive itself of the power to protect its own rights and even in

exceptional cases to stand up for the rights of others. Nothing would

more promote iniquity, nothing would further defer the reign upon earth

of peace and righteousness, than for the free and enlightened peoples

which, though with much stumbling and many shortcomings, nevertheless

strive toward justice, deliberately to render themselves powerless

while leaving every despotism and barbarism armed and able to work

their wicked will. The chance for the settlement of disputes

peacefully, by arbitration, now depends mainly upon the possession by

the nations that mean to do right of sufficient armed strength to make

their purpose effective.



The United States Navy is the surest guarantor of peace which this

country possesses. It is earnestly to be wisht that we would profit by

the teachings of history in this matter. A strong and wise people will

study its own failures no less than its triumphs, for there is wisdom

to be learned from the study of both, of the mistake as well as of the

success. For this purpose nothing could be more instructive than a

rational study of the war of 1812, as it is told, for instance, by

Captain Mahan. There was only one way in which that war could have been

avoided. If during the preceding twelve years a navy relatively as

strong as that which this country now has had been built up, and an

army provided relatively as good as that which the country now has,

there never would have been the slightest necessity of fighting the

war; and if the necessity had arisen the war would under such

circumstances have ended with our speedy and overwhelming triumph. But

our people during those twelve years refused to make any preparations

whatever, regarding either the Army or the Navy. They saved a million

or two of dollars by so doing; and in mere money paid a hundredfold for

each million they thus saved during the three years of war which

followed--a war which brought untold suffering upon our people, which

at one time threatened the gravest national disaster, and which, in

spite of the necessity of waging it, resulted merely in what was in

effect a drawn battle, while the balance of defeat and triumph was

almost even.



I do not ask that we continue to increase our Navy. I ask merely that

it be maintained at its present strength; and this can be done only if

we replace the obsolete and outworn ships by new and good ones, the

equals of any afloat in any navy. To stop building ships for one year

means that for that year the Navy goes back instead of forward. The old

battle ship Texas, for instance, would now be of little service in a

stand-up fight with a powerful adversary. The old double-turret

monitors have outworn their usefulness, while it was a waste of money

to build the modern single-turret monitors. All these ships should be

replaced by others; and this can be done by a well-settled program of

providing for the building each year of at least one first-class battle

ship equal in size and speed to any that any nation is at the same time

building; the armament presumably to consist of as large a number as

possible of very heavy guns of one caliber, together with smaller guns

to repel torpedo attack; while there should be heavy armor, turbine

engines, and in short, every modern device. Of course, from time to

time, cruisers, colliers, torpedo-boat destroyers or torpedo boats,

Will have to be built also. All this, be it remembered, would not

increase our Navy, but would merely keep it at its present strength.

Equally of course, the ships will be absolutely useless if the men

aboard them are not so trained that they can get the best possible

service out of the formidable but delicate and complicated mechanisms

intrusted to their care. The marksmanship of our men has so improved

during the last five years that I deem it within bounds to say that the

Navy is more than twice as efficient, ship for ship, as half a decade

ago. The Navy can only attain proper efficiency if enough officers and

men are provided, and if these officers and men are given the chance

(and required to take advantage of it) to stay continually at sea and

to exercise the fleets singly and above all in squadron, the exercise

to be of every kind and to include unceasing practise at the guns,

conducted under conditions that will test marksmanship in time of war.



In both the Army and the Navy there is urgent need that everything

possible should be done to maintain the highest standard for the

personnel, alike as regards the officers and the enlisted men. I do not

believe that in any service there is a finer body of enlisted men and

of junior officer than we have in both the Army and the Navy, including

the Marine Corps. All possible encouragement to the enlisted men should

be given, in pay and otherwise, and everything practicable done to

render the service attractive to men of the right type. They should be

held to the strictest discharge of their duty, and in them a spirit

should be encouraged which demands not the mere performance of duty,

but the performance of far more than duty, if it conduces to the honor

and the interest of the American nation; and in return the amplest

consideration should be theirs.



West Point and Annapolis already turn out excellent officers. We do not

need to have these schools made more scholastic. On the contrary we

should never lose sight of the fact that the aim of each school is to

turn out a man who shall be above everything else a fighting man. In

the Army in particular it is not necessary that either the cavalry or

infantry officer should have special mathematical ability. Probably in

both schools the best part of the education is the high standard of

character and of professional morale which it confers.



But in both services there is urgent need for the establishment of a

principle of selection which will eliminate men after a certain age if

they can not be promoted from the subordinate ranks, and which will

bring into the higher ranks fewer men, and these at an earlier age.

This principle of selection will be objected to by good men of mediocre

capacity, who are fitted to do well while young in the lower positions,

but who are not fitted to do well when at an advanced age they come

into positions of command and of great responsibility. But the desire

of these men to be promoted to positions which they are not competent

to fill should not weigh against the interest of the Navy and the

country. At present our men, especially in the Navy, are kept far too

long in the junior grades, and then, at much too advanced an age, are

put quickly through the senior grades, often not attaining to these

senior grades until they are too old to be of real use in them; and if

they are of real use, being put through them so quickly that little

benefit to the Navy comes from their having been in them at all.



The Navy has one great advantage over the Army in the fact that the

officers of high rank are actually trained in the continual performance

of their duties; that is, in the management of the battle ships and

armored cruisers gathered into fleets. This is not true of the army

officers, who rarely have corresponding chances to exercise command

over troops under service conditions. The conduct of the Spanish war

showed the lamentable loss of life, the useless extravagance, and the

inefficiency certain to result, if during peace the high officials of

the War and Navy Departments are praised and rewarded only if they save

money at no matter what cost to the efficiency of the service, and if

the higher officers are given no chance whatever to exercise and

practise command. For years prior to the Spanish war the Secretaries of

War were praised chiefly if they practised economy; which economy,

especially in connection with the quartermaster, commissary, and

medical departments, was directly responsible for most of the

mismanagement that occurred in the war itself--and parenthetically be

it observed that the very people who clamored for the misdirected

economy in the first place were foremost to denounce the mismanagement,

loss, and suffering which were primarily due to this same misdirected

economy and to the lack of preparation it involved. There should soon

be an increase in the number of men for our coast defenses; these men

should be of the right type and properly trained; and there should

therefore be an increase of pay for certain skilled grades, especially

in the coast artillery. Money should be appropriated to permit troops

to be massed in body and exercised in maneuvers, particularly in

marching. Such exercise during the summer just past has been of

incalculable benefit to the Army and should under no circumstances be

discontinued. If on these practise marches and in these maneuvers

elderly officers prove unable to bear the strain, they should be

retired at once, for the fact is conclusive as to their unfitness for

war; that is, for the only purpose because of which they should be

allowed to stay in the service. It is a real misfortune to have scores

of small company or regimental posts scattered throughout the country;

the Army should be gathered in a few brigade or division posts; and the

generals should be practised in handling the men in masses. Neglect to

provide for all of this means to incur the risk of future disaster and

disgrace.



The readiness and efficiency of both the Army and Navy in dealing with

the recent sudden crisis in Cuba illustrate afresh their value to the

Nation. This readiness and efficiency would have been very much less

had it not been for the existence of the General Staff in the Army and

the General Board in the Navy; both are essential to the proper

development and use of our military forces afloat and ashore. The

troops that were sent to Cuba were handled flawlessly. It was the

swiftest mobilization and dispatch of troops over sea ever accomplished

by our Government. The expedition landed completely equipped and ready

for immediate service, several of its organizations hardly remaining in

Havana over night before splitting up into detachments and going to

their several posts, It was a fine demonstration of the value and

efficiency of the General Staff. Similarly, it was owing in large part

to the General Board that the Navy was able at the outset to meet the

Cuban crisis with such instant efficiency; ship after ship appearing on

the shortest notice at any threatened point, while the Marine Corps in

particular performed indispensable service. The Army and Navy War

Colleges are of incalculable value to the two services, and they

cooperate with constantly increasing efficiency and importance.



The Congress has most wisely provided for a National Board for the

promotion of rifle practise. Excellent results have already come from

this law, but it does not go far enough. Our Regular Army is so small

that in any great war we should have to trust mainly to volunteers; and

in such event these volunteers should already know how to shoot; for if

a soldier has the fighting edge, and ability to take care of himself in

the open, his efficiency on the line of battle is almost directly

Proportionate to excellence in marksmanship. We should establish

shooting galleries in all the large public and military schools, should

maintain national target ranges in different parts of the country, and

should in every way encourage the formation of rifle clubs throughout

all parts of the land. The little Republic of Switzerland offers us an

excellent example in all matters connected with building up an

efficient citizen soldiery.



***



State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 3, 1907



To the Senate and House of Representatives:



No nation has greater resources than ours, and I think it can be

truthfully said that the citizens of no nation possess greater energy

and industrial ability. In no nation are the fundamental business

conditions sounder than in ours at this very moment; and it is foolish,

when such is the case, for people to hoard money instead of keeping it

in sound banks; for it is such hoarding that is the immediate occasion

of money stringency. Moreover, as a rule, the business of our people is

conducted with honesty and probity, and this applies alike to farms and

factories, to railroads and banks, to all our legitimate commercial

enterprises.



In any large body of men, however, there are certain to be some who are

dishonest, and if the conditions are such that these men prosper or

commit their misdeeds with impunity, their example is a very evil thing

for the community. Where these men are business men of great sagacity

and of temperament both unscrupulous and reckless, and where the

conditions are such that they act without supervision or control and at

first without effective check from public opinion, they delude many

innocent people into making investments or embarking in kinds of

business that are really unsound. When the misdeeds of these

successfully dishonest men are discovered, suffering comes not only

upon them, but upon the innocent men whom they have misled. It is a

painful awakening, whenever it occurs; and, naturally, when it does

occur those who suffer are apt to forget that the longer it was

deferred the more painful it would be. In the effort to punish the

guilty it is both wise and proper to endeavor so far as possible to

minimize the distress of those who have been misled by the guilty. Yet

it is not possible to refrain because of such distress from striving to

put an end to the misdeeds that are the ultimate causes of the

suffering, and, as a means to this end, where possible to punish those

responsible for them. There may be honest differences of opinion as to

many governmental policies; but surely there can be no such differences

as to the need of unflinching perseverance in the war against

successful dishonesty.



In my Message to the Congress on December 5, 1905, I said:



"If the folly of man mars the general well-being, then those who are

innocent of the folly will have to pay part of the penalty incurred by

those who are guilty of the folly. A panic brought on by the

speculative folly of part of the business community would hurt the

whole business community; but such stoppage of welfare, though it might

be severe, would not be lasting. In the long run, the one vital factor

in the permanent prosperity of the country is the high individual

character of the average American worker, the average American citizen,

no matter whether his work be mental or manual, whether he be farmer or

wage-worker, business man or professional man.



"In our industrial and social system the interests of all men are so

closely intertwined that in the immense majority of cases a

straight-dealing man, who by his efficiency, by his ingenuity and

industry, benefits himself, must also benefit others. Normally, the man

of great productive capacity who becomes rich by guiding the labor of

many other men does so by enabling them to produce more than they could

produce without his guidance; and both he and they share in the

benefit, which comes also to the public at large. The superficial fact

that the sharing may be unequal must never blind us to the underlying

fact that there is this sharing, and that the benefit comes in some

degree to each man concerned.. Normally, the wageworker, the man of

small means, and the average consumer, as well as the average producer,

are all alike helped by making conditions such that the man of

exceptional business ability receives an exceptional reward for his

ability Something can be done by legislation to help the general

prosperity; but no such help of a permanently beneficial character can

be given to the less able and less fortunate save as the results of a

policy which shall inure to the advantage of all industrious and

efficient people who act decently; and this is only another way of

saying that any benefit which comes to the less able and less fortunate

must of necessity come even more to the more able and more fortunate.

If, therefore, the less fortunate man is moved by envy of his more

fortunate brother to strike at the conditions under which they have

both, though unequally, prospered, the result will assuredly be that

while damage may come to the one struck at, it will visit with an even

heavier load the one who strikes the blow. Taken as a whole, we must

all go up or go down together.



"Yet, while not merely admitting, but insisting upon this, it is also

true that where there is no governmental restraint or supervision some

of the exceptional men use their energies, not in ways that are for the

common good, but in ways which tell against this common good. The

fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large, and

vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of

necessity to give to the sovereign--that is, to the Government, which

represents the people as a whole--some effective power of supervision

over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and

industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by,

and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its

conduct. I am in no sense hostile to corporations. This is an age of

combination, and any effort to prevent all combination will be not only

useless, but in the end vicious, because of the contempt for law which

the failure to enforce law inevitably produces. We should, moreover,

recognize in cordial and ample fashion the immense good effected by

corporate agencies in a country such as ours, and the wealth of

intellect, energy, and fidelity devoted to their service, and therefore

normally to the service of the public, by their officers and directors.

The corporation has come to stay, just as the trade union has come to

stay. Each can do and has done great good. Each should be favored so

long as it does good. But each should be sharply checked where it acts

against law and justice.



"The makers of our National Constitution provided especially that the

regulation of interstate commerce should come within the sphere of the

General Government. The arguments in favor of their taking this stand

were even then overwhelming. But they are far stronger to-day, in view

of the enormous development of great business agencies, usually

corporate in form. Experience has shown conclusively that it is useless

to try to get any adequate regulation and supervision of these great

corporations by State action. Such regulation and supervision can only

be effectively exercised by a sovereign whose jurisdiction is

coextensive with the field of work of the corporations--that is, by the

National Government. I believe that this regulation and supervision can

be obtained by the enactment of law by the Congress. Our steady aim

should be by legislation, cautiously and carefully undertaken, but

resolutely persevered in, to assert the sovereignty of the National

Government by affirmative action.



"This is only in form an innovation. In substance it is merely a

restoration; for from the earliest time such regulation of industrial

activities has been recognized in the action of the lawmaking bodies;

and all that I propose is to meet the changed conditions in such manner

as will prevent the Commonwealth abdicating the power it has always

possessed, not only in this country, but also in England before and

since this country became a separate nation.



"It has been a misfortune that the National laws on this subject have

hitherto been of a negative or prohibitive rather than an affirmative

kind, and still more that they have in part sought to prohibit what

could not be effectively prohibited, and have in part in their

prohibitions confounded what should be allowed and what should not be

allowed. It is generally useless to try to prohibit all restraint on

competition, whether this restraint be reasonable or unreasonable; and

where it is not useless it is generally hurtful. The successful

prosecution of one device to evade the law immediately develops another

device to accomplish the same purpose. What is needed is not sweeping

prohibition of every arrangement, good or bad, which may tend to

restrict competition, but such adequate supervision and regulation as

will prevent any restriction of competition from being to the detriment

of the public, as well as such supervision and regulation as will

prevent other abuses in no way connected with restriction of

competition."



I have called your attention in these quotations to what I have already

said because I am satisfied that it is the duty of the National

Government to embody in action the principles thus expressed.



No small part of the trouble that we have comes from carrying to an

extreme the national virtue of self-reliance, of independence in

initiative and action. It is wise to conserve this virtue and to

provide for its fullest exercise, compatible with seeing that liberty

does not become a liberty to wrong others. Unfortunately, this is the

kind of liberty that the lack of all effective regulation inevitably

breeds. The founders of the Constitution provided that the National

Government should have complete and sole control of interstate

commerce. There was then practically no interstate business save such

as was conducted by water, and this the National Government at once

proceeded to regulate in thoroughgoing and effective fashion.

Conditions have now so wholly changed that the interstate commerce by

water is insignificant compared with the amount that goes by land, and

almost all big business concerns are now engaged in interstate

commerce. As a result, it can be but partially and imperfectly

controlled or regulated by the action of any one of the several States;

such action inevitably tending to be either too drastic or else too

lax, and in either case ineffective for purposes of justice. Only the

National Government can in thoroughgoing fashion exercise the needed

control. This does not mean that there should be any extension of

Federal authority, for such authority already exists under the

Constitution in amplest and most far-reaching form; but it does mean

that there should be an extension of Federal activity. This is not

advocating centralization. It is merely looking facts in the face, and

realizing that centralization in business has already come and can not

be avoided or undone, and that the public at large can only protect

itself from certain evil effects of this business centralization by

providing better methods for the exercise of control through the

authority already centralized in the National Government by the

Constitution itself. There must be no ball in the healthy constructive

course of action which this Nation has elected to pursue, and has

steadily pursued, during the last six years, as shown both in the

legislation of the Congress and the administration of the law by the

Department of Justice. The most vital need is in connection with the

railroads. As to these, in my judgment there should now be either a

national incorporation act or a law licensing railway companies to

engage in interstate commerce upon certain conditions. The law should

be so framed as to give to the Interstate Commerce Commission power to

pass upon the future issue of securities, while ample means should be

provided to enable the Commission, whenever in its judgment it is

necessary, to make a physical valuation of any railroad. As I stated in

my Message to the Congress a year ago, railroads should be given power

to enter into agreements, subject to these agreements being made public

in minute detail and to the consent of the Interstate Commerce

Commission being first obtained. Until the National Government assumes

proper control of interstate commerce, in the exercise of the authority

it already possesses, it will be impossible either to give to or to get

from the railroads full justice. The railroads and all other great

corporations will do well to recognize that this control must come; the

only question is as to what governmental body can most wisely exercise

it. The courts will determine the limits within which the Federal

authority can exercise it, and there will still remain ample work

within each State for the railway commission of that State; and the

National Interstate Commerce Commission will work in harmony with the

several State commissions, each within its own province, to achieve the

desired end.



Moreover, in my judgment there should be additional legislation looking

to the proper control of the great business concerns engaged in

interstate business, this control to be exercised for their own benefit

and prosperity no less than for the protection of investors and of the

general public. As I have repeatedly said in Messages to the Congress

and elsewhere, experience has definitely shown not merely the unwisdom

but the futility of endeavoring to put a stop to all business

combinations. Modern industrial conditions are such that combination is

not only necessary but inevitable. It is so in the world of business

just as it is so in the world of labor, and it is as idle to desire to

put an end to all corporations, to all big combinations of capital, as

to desire to put an end to combinations of labor. Corporation and labor

union alike have come to stay. Each if properly managed is a source of

good and not evil. Whenever in either there is evil, it should be

promptly held to account; but it should receive hearty encouragement so

long as it is properly managed. It is profoundly immoral to put or keep

on the statute books a law, nominally in the interest of public

morality that really puts a premium upon public immorality, by

undertaking to forbid honest men from doing what must be done under

modern business conditions, so that the law itself provides that its

own infraction must be the condition precedent upon business success.

To aim at the accomplishment of too much usually means the

accomplishment of too little, and often the doing of positive damage.

In my Message to the Congress a year ago, in speaking of the antitrust

laws, I said:



"The actual working of our laws has shown that the effort to prohibit

all combination, good or bad, is noxious where it is not ineffective.

Combination of capital, like combination of labor, is a necessary

element in our present industrial system. It is not possible completely

to prevent it; and if it were possible, such complete prevention would

do damage to the body politic. What we need is not vainly to try to

prevent all combination, but to secure such rigorous and adequate

control and supervision of the combinations as to prevent their

injuring the public, or existing in such forms as inevitably to

threaten injury. It is unfortunate that our present laws should forbid

all combinations instead of sharply discriminating between those

combinations which do evil. Often railroads would like to combine for

the purpose of preventing a big shipper from maintaining improper

advantages at the expense of small shippers and of the general public.

Such a combination, instead of being forbidden by law, should be

favored. It is a public evil to have on the statute books a law

incapable of full enforcement, because both judges and juries realize

that its full enforcement would destroy the business of the country;

for the result is to make decent men violators of the law against their

will, and to put a premium on the behavior of the willful wrongdoers.

Such a result in turn tends to throw the decent man and the willful

wrongdoer into close association, and in the end to drag down the

former to the latter's level; for the man who becomes a lawbreaker in

one way unhappily tends to lose all respect for law and to be willing

to break it in many ways. No more scathing condemnation could be

visited upon a law than is contained in the words of the Interstate

Commerce Commission when, in commenting upon the fact that the numerous

joint traffic associations do technically violate the law, they say:

The decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Trans-Missouri

case and the Joint Traffic Association case has produced no practical

effect upon the railway operations of the country. Such associations,

in fact, exist now as they did before these decisions, and with the

same general effect. In justice to all parties, we ought probably to

add that it is difficult to see how our interstate railways could be

operated with due regard to the interest of the shipper and the railway

without concerted action of the kind afforded through these

associations.



"This means that the law as construed by the Supreme Court is such that

the business of the country can not be conducted without breaking it."



As I have elsewhere said:



"All this is substantially what I have said over and over again. Surely

it ought not to be necessary to say that it in no shape or way

represents any hostility to corporations as such. On the contrary, it

means a frank recognition of the fact that combinations of capital,

like combinations of labor, are a natural result of modern conditions

and of our National development. As far as in my ability lies my

endeavor is and will be to prevent abuse of power by either and to

favor both so long as they do well. The aim of the National Government

is quite as much to favor and protect honest corporations, honest

business men of wealth, as to bring to justice those individuals and

corporations representing dishonest methods. Most certainly there will

be no relaxation by the Government authorities in the effort to get at

any great railroad wrecker--any man who by clever swindling devices

robs investors, oppresses wage-workers, and does injustice to the

general public. But any such move as this is in the interest of honest

railway operators, of honest corporations, and of those who, when they

invest their small savings in stocks and bonds, wish to be assured that

these will represent money honestly expended for legitimate business

purposes. To confer upon the National Government the power for which I

ask would be a check upon overcapitalization and upon the clever

gamblers who benefit by overcapitalization. But it alone would mean an

increase in the value, an increase in the safety of the stocks and

bonds of law-abiding, honestly managed railroads, and would render it

far easier to market their securities. I believe in proper publicity.

There has been complaint of some of the investigations recently carried

on, but those who complain should put the blame where it belongs--upon

the misdeeds which are done in darkness and not upon the investigations

which brought them to light. The Administration is responsible for

turning on the light, but it is not responsible for what the light

showed. I ask for full power to be given the Federal Government,

because no single State can by legislation effectually cope with these

powerful corporations engaged in interstate commerce, and, while doing

them full justice, exact from them in return full justice to others.

The conditions of railroad activity, the conditions of our immense

interstate commerce, are such as to make the Central Government alone

competent to exercise full supervision and control.



"The grave abuses in individual cases of railroad management in the

past represent wrongs not merely to the general public, but, above all,

wrongs to fair-dealing and honest corporations and men of wealth,

because they excite a popular anger and distrust which from the very

nature of the case tends to include in the sweep of its resentment good

and bad alike. From the standpoint of the public I can not too

earnestly say that as soon as the natural and proper resentment aroused

by these abuses becomes indiscriminate and unthinking, it also becomes

not merely unwise and unfair, but calculated to defeat the very ends

which those feeling it have in view. There has been plenty of dishonest

work by corporations in the past. There will not be the slightest

let-up in the effort to hunt down and punish every dishonest man. But

the bulk of our business is honestly done. In the natural indignation

the people feel over the dishonesty, it is essential that they should

not lose their heads and get drawn into an indiscriminate raid upon all

corporations, all people of wealth, whether they do well or ill. Out of

any such wild movement good will not come, can not come, and never has

come. On the contrary, the surest way to invite reaction is to follow

the lead of either demagogue or visionary in a sweeping assault upon

property values and upon public confidence, which would work

incalculable damage in the business world and would produce such

distrust of the agitators that in the revulsion the distrust would

extend to honest men who, in sincere and same fashion, are trying to

remedy the evils."



The antitrust law should not be repealed; but it should be made both

more efficient and more in harmony with actual conditions. It should be

so amended as to forbid only the kind of combination which does harm to

the general public, such amendment to be accompanied by, or to be an

incident of, a grant of supervisory power to the Government over these

big concerns engaged in interstate business. This should be accompanied

by provision for the compulsory publication of accounts and the

subjection of books and papers to the inspection of the Government

officials. A beginning has already been made for such supervision by

the establishment of the Bureau of Corporations.



The antitrust law should not prohibit combinations that do no injustice

to the public, still less those the existence of which is on the whole

of benefit to the public. But even if this feature of the law were

abolished, there would remain as an equally objectionable feature the

difficulty and delay now incident to its enforcement. The Government

must now submit to irksome and repeated delay before obtaining a final

decision of the courts upon proceedings instituted, and even a

favorable decree may mean an empty victory. Moreover, to attempt to

control these corporations by lawsuits means to impose upon both the

Department of Justice and the courts an impossible burden; it is not

feasible to carry on more than a limited number of such suits. Such a

law to be really effective must of course be administered by an

executive body, and not merely by means of lawsuits. The design should

be to prevent the abuses incident to the creation of unhealthy and

improper combinations, instead of waiting until they are in existence

and then attempting to destroy them by civil or criminal proceedings.



A combination should not be tolerated if it abuse the power acquired by

combination to the public detriment. No corporation or association of

any kind should be permitted to engage in foreign or interstate

commerce that is formed for the purpose of, or whose operations create,

a monopoly or general control of the production, sale, or distribution

of any one or more of the prime necessities of life or articles of

general use and necessity. Such combinations are against public policy;

they violate the common law; the doors of the courts are closed to

those who are parties to them, and I believe the Congress can close the

channels of interstate commerce against them for its protection. The

law should make its prohibitions and permissions as clear and definite

as possible, leaving the least possible room for arbitrary action, or

allegation of such action, on the part of the Executive, or of

divergent interpretations by the courts. Among the points to be aimed

at should be the prohibition of unhealthy competition, such as by

rendering service at an actual loss for the purpose of crushing out

competition, the prevention of inflation of capital, and the

prohibition of a corporation's making exclusive trade with itself a

condition of having any trade with itself. Reasonable agreements

between, or combinations of, corporations should be permitted, provided

they are submitted to and approved by some appropriate Government body.



The Congress has the power to charter corporations to engage in

interstate and foreign commerce, and a general law can be enacted under

the provisions of which existing corporations could take out Federal

charters and new Federal corporations could be created. An essential

provision of such a law should be a method of predetermining by some

Federal board or commission whether the applicant for a Federal charter

was an association or combination within the restrictions of the

Federal law. Provision should also be made for complete publicity in

all matters affecting the public and complete protection to the

investing public and the shareholders in the matter of issuing

corporate securities. If an incorporation law is not deemed advisable,

a license act for big interstate corporations might be enacted; or a

combination of the two might be tried. The supervision established

might be analogous to that now exercised over national banks. At least,

the antitrust act should be supplemented by specific prohibitions of

the methods which experience has shown have been of most service in

enabling monopolistic combinations to crush out competition. The real

owners of a corporation should be compelled to do business in their own

name. The right to hold stock in other corporations should hereafter be

denied to interstate corporations, unless on approval by the Government

officials, and a prerequisite to such approval should be the listing

with the Government of all owners and stockholders, both by the

corporation owning such stock and by the corporation in which such

stock is owned.



To confer upon the National Government, in connection with the

amendment I advocate in the antitrust law, power of supervision over

big business concerns engaged in interstate commerce, would benefit

them as it has benefited the national banks. In the recent business

crisis it is noteworthy that the institutions which failed were

institutions which were not under the supervision and control of the

National Government. Those which were under National control stood the

test.



National control of the kind above advocated would be to the benefit of

every well-managed railway. From the standpoint of the public there is

need for additional tracks, additional terminals, and improvements in

the actual handling of the railroads, and all this as rapidly as

possible. Ample, safe, and speedy transportation facilities are even

more necessary than cheap transportation. Therefore, there is need for

the investment of money which will provide for all these things while

at the same time securing as far as is possible better wages and

shorter hours for their employees. Therefore, while there must be just

and reasonable regulation of rates, we should be the first to protest

against any arbitrary and unthinking movement to cut them down without

the fullest and most careful consideration of all interests concerned

and of the actual needs of the situation. Only a special body of men

acting for the National Government under authority conferred upon it by

the Congress is competent to pass judgment on such a matter.



Those who fear, from any reason, the extension of Federal activity will

do well to study the history not only of the national banking act but

of the pure-food law, and notably the meat inspection law recently

enacted. The pure-food law was opposed so violently that its passage

was delayed for a decade; yet it has worked unmixed and immediate good.

The meat inspection law was even more violently assailed; and the same

men who now denounce the attitude of the National Government in seeking

to oversee and control the workings of interstate common carriers and

business concerns, then asserted that we were "discrediting and ruining

a great American industry." Two years have not elapsed, and already it

has become evident that the great benefit the law confers upon the

public is accompanied by an equal benefit to the reputable packing

establishments. The latter are better off under the law than they were

without it. The benefit to interstate common carriers and business

concerns from the legislation I advocate would be equally marked.



Incidentally, in the passage of the pure-food law the action of the

various State food and dairy commissioners showed in striking fashion

how much good for the whole people results from the hearty cooperation

of the Federal and State officials in securing a given reform. It is

primarily to the action of these State commissioners that we owe the

enactment of this law; for they aroused the people, first to demand the

enactment and enforcement of State laws on the subject, and then the

enactment of the Federal law, without which the State laws were largely

ineffective. There must be the closest cooperation between the National

and State governments in administering these laws.



In my Message to the Congress a year ago I spoke as follows of the

currency:



"I especially call your attention to the condition of our currency

laws. The national-bank act has ably served a great purpose in aiding

the enormous business development of the country, and within ten years

there has been an increase in circulation per capita from $21.41 to

$33.08. For several years evidence has been accumulating that

additional legislation is needed. The recurrence of each crop season

emphasizes the defects of the present laws. There must soon be a

revision of them, because to leave them as they are means to incur

liability of business disaster. Since your body adjourned there has

been a fluctuation in the interest on call money from 2 per cent to 30

percent, and the fluctuation was even greater during the preceding six

months. The Secretary of the Treasury had to step in and by wise action

put a stop to the most violent period of oscillation. Even worse than

such fluctuation is the advance in commercial rates and the uncertainty

felt in the sufficiency of credit even at high rates. All commercial

interests suffer during each crop period. Excessive rates for call

money in New York attract money from the interior banks into the

speculative field. This depletes the fund that would otherwise be

available for commercial uses, and commercial borrowers are forced to

pay abnormal rates, so that each fall a tax, in the shape of increased

interest charges, is placed on the whole commerce of the country.



"The mere statement of these facts shows that our present system is

seriously defective. There is need of a change. Unfortunately, however,

many of the proposed changes must be ruled from consideration because

they are complicated, are not easy of comprehension, and tend to

disturb existing rights and interests. We must also rule out any plan

which would materially impair the value of the United States 2 per cent

bonds now pledged to secure circulation, the issue of which was made

under conditions peculiarly creditable to the Treasury. I do not press

any especial plan. Various plans have recently been proposed by expert

committees of bankers. Among the plans which are possibly feasible and

which certainly should receive your consideration is that repeatedly

brought to your attention by the present Secretary of the Treasury, the

essential features of which have been approved by many prominent

bankers and business men. According to this plan national banks should

be permitted to issue a specified proportion of their capital in notes

of a given kind, the issue to be taxed at so high a rate as to drive

the notes back when not wanted in legitimate trade. This plan would not

permit the issue of currency to give banks additional profits, but to

meet the emergency presented by times of stringency.



"I do not say that this is the right system. I only advance it to

emphasize my belief that there is need for the adoption of some system

which shall be automatic and open to all sound banks, so as to avoid

all possibility of discrimination and favoritism. Such a plan would

tend to prevent the spasms of high money and speculation which now

obtain in the New York market; for at present there is too much

currency at certain seasons of the year, and its accumulation at New

York tempts bankers to lend it at low rates for speculative purposes;

whereas at other times when the crops are being moved there is urgent

need for a large but temporary increase in the currency supply. It must

never be forgotten that this question concerns business men generally

quite as much as bankers; especially is this true of stockmen, farmers,

and business men in the West; for at present at certain seasons of the

year the difference in interest rates between the East and the West is

from 6 to 10 per cent, whereas in Canada the corresponding difference

is but 2 per cent. Any plan must, of course, guard the interests of

western and southern bankers as carefully as it guards the interests of

New York or Chicago bankers, and must be drawn from the standpoints of

the farmer and the merchant no less than from the standpoints of the

city banker and the country banker."



I again urge on the Congress the need of immediate attention to this

matter. We need a greater elasticity in our currency; provided, of

course, that we recognize the even greater need of a safe and secure

currency. There must always be the most rigid examination by the

National authorities. Provision should be made for an emergency

currency. The emergency issue should, of course, be made with an

effective guaranty, and upon conditions carefully prescribed by the

Government. Such emergency issue must be based on adequate securities

approved by the Government, and must be issued under a heavy tax. This

would permit currency being issued when the demand for it was urgent,

while securing its requirement as the demand fell off. It is worth

investigating to determine whether officers and directors of national

banks should ever be allowed to loan to themselves. Trust companies

should be subject to the same supervision as banks; legislation to this

effect should be enacted for the District of Columbia and the

Territories.



Yet we must also remember that even the wisest legislation on the

subject can only accomplish a certain amount. No legislation can by any

possibility guarantee the business community against the results of

speculative folly any more than it can guarantee an individual against

the results of his extravagance. When an individual mortgages his house

to buy an automobile he invites disaster; and when wealthy men, or men

who pose as such, or are unscrupulously or foolishly eager to become

such, indulge in reckless speculation--especially if it is accompanied

by dishonesty--they jeopardize not only their own future but the future

of all their innocent fellow-citizens, for the expose the whole

business community to panic and distress.



The income account of the Nation is in a most satisfactory condition.

For the six fiscal years ending with the 1st of July last, the total

expenditures and revenues of the National Government, exclusive of the

postal revenues and expenditures, were, in round numbers, revenues,

$3,465,000,0000, and expenditures, $3,275,000,000. The net excess of

income over expenditures, including in the latter the fifty millions

expended for the Panama Canal, was one hundred and ninety million

dollars for the six years, an average of about thirty-one millions a

year. This represents an approximation between income and outgo which

it would be hard to improve. The satisfactory working of the present

tariff law has been chiefly responsible for this excellent showing.

Nevertheless, there is an evident and constantly growing feeling among

our people that the time is rapidly approaching when our system of

revenue legislation must be revised.



This country is definitely committed to the protective system and any

effort to uproot it could not but cause widespread industrial disaster.

In other words, the principle of the present tariff law could not with

wisdom be changed. But in a country of such phenomenal growth as ours

it is probably well that every dozen years or so the tariff laws should

be carefully scrutinized so as to see that no excessive or improper

benefits are conferred thereby, that proper revenue is provided, and

that our foreign trade is encouraged. There must always be as a minimum

a tariff which will not only allow for the collection of an ample

revenue but which will at least make good the difference in cost of

production here and abroad; that is, the difference in the labor cost

here and abroad, for the well-being of the wage-worker must ever be a

cardinal point of American policy. The question should be approached

purely from a business standpoint; both the time and the manner of the

change being such as to arouse the minimum of agitation and disturbance

in the business world, and to give the least play for selfish and

factional motives. The sole consideration should be to see that the sum

total of changes represents the public good. This means that the

subject can not with wisdom be dealt with in the year preceding a

Presidential election, because as a matter of fact experience has

conclusively shown that at such a time it is impossible to get men to

treat it from the standpoint of the public good. In my judgment the

wise time to deal with the matter is immediately after such election.



When our tax laws are revised the question of an income tax and an

inheritance tax should receive the careful attention of our

legislators. In my judgment both of these taxes should be part of our

system of Federal taxation. I speak diffidently about the income tax

because one scheme for an income tax was declared unconstitutional by

the Supreme Court; while in addition it is a difficult tax to

administer in its practical working, and great care would have to be

exercised to see that it was not evaded by the very men whom it was

most desirable to have taxed, for if so evaded it would, of course, be

worse than no tax at all; as the least desirable of all taxes is the

tax which bears heavily upon the honest as compared with the dishonest

man. Nevertheless, a graduated income tax of the proper type would be a

desirable feature of Federal taxation, and it is to be hoped that one

may be devised which the Supreme Court will declare constitutional. The

inheritance tax, however, is both a far better method of taxation, and

far more important for the purpose of having the fortunes of the

country bear in proportion to their increase in size a corresponding

increase and burden of taxation. The Government has the absolute right

to decide as to the terms upon which a man shall receive a bequest or

devise from another, and this point in the devolution of property is

especially appropriate for the imposition of a tax. Laws imposing such

taxes have repeatedly been placed upon the National statute books and

as repeatedly declared constitutional by the courts; and these laws

contained the progressive principle, that is, after a certain amount is

reached the bequest or gift, in life or death, is increasingly burdened

and the rate of taxation is increased in proportion to the remoteness

of blood of the man receiving the bequest. These principles are

recognized already in the leading civilized nations of the world. In

Great Britain all the estates worth $5,000 or less are practically

exempt from death duties, while the increase is such that when an

estate exceeds five millions of dollars in value and passes to a

distant kinsman or stranger in blood the Government receives all told

an amount equivalent to nearly a fifth of the whole estate. In France

so much of an inheritance as exceeds $10,000,000 pays over a fifth to

the State if it passes to a distant relative. The German law is

especially interesting to us because it makes the inheritance tax an

imperial measure while allotting to the individual States of the Empire

a portion of the proceeds and permitting them to impose taxes in

addition to those imposed by the Imperial Government. Small

inheritances are exempt, but the tax is so sharply progressive that

when the inheritance is still not very large, provided it is not an

agricultural or a forest land, it is taxed at the rate of 25 per cent

if it goes to distant relatives. There is no reason why in the United

States the National Government should not impose inheritance taxes in

addition to those imposed by the States, and when we last had an

inheritance tax about one-half of the States levied such taxes

concurrently with the National Government, making a combined maximum

rate, in some cases as high as 25 per cent. The French law has one

feature which is to be heartily commended. The progressive principle is

so applied that each higher rate is imposed only on the excess above

the amount subject to the next lower rate; so that each increase of

rate will apply only to a certain amount above a certain maximum. The

tax should if possible be made to bear more heavily upon those residing

without the country than within it. A heavy progressive tax upon a very

large fortune is in no way such a tax upon thrift or industry as a like

would be on a small fortune. No advantage comes either to the country

as a whole or to the individuals inheriting the money by permitting the

transmission in their entirety of the enormous fortunes which would be

affected by such a tax; and as an incident to its function of revenue

raising, such a tax would help to preserve a measurable equality of

opportunity for the people of the generations growing to manhood. We

have not the slightest sympathy with that socialistic idea which would

try to put laziness, thriftlessness and inefficiency on a par with

industry, thrift and efficiency; which would strive to break up not

merely private property, but what is far more important, the home, the

chief prop upon which our whole civilization stands. Such a theory, if

ever adopted, would mean the ruin of the entire country--a ruin which

would bear heaviest upon the weakest, upon those least able to shift

for themselves. But proposals for legislation such as this herein

advocated are directly opposed to this class of socialistic theories.

Our aim is to recognize what Lincoln pointed out: The fact that there

are some respects in which men are obviously not equal; but also to

insist that there should be an equality of self-respect and of mutual

respect, an equality of rights before the law, and at least an

approximate equality in the conditions under which each man obtains the

chance to show the stuff that is in him when compared to his fellows.



A few years ago there was loud complaint that the law could not be

invoked against wealthy offenders. There is no such complaint now. The

course of the Department of Justice during the last few years has been

such as to make it evident that no man stands above the law, that no

corporation is so wealthy that it can not be held to account. The

Department of Justice has been as prompt to proceed against the

wealthiest malefactor whose crime was one of greed and cunning as to

proceed against the agitator who incites to brutal violence. Everything

that can be done under the existing law, and with the existing state of

public opinion, which so profoundly influences both the courts and

juries, has been done. But the laws themselves need strengthening in

more than one important point; they should be made more definite, so

that no honest man can be led unwittingly to break them, and so that

the real wrongdoer can be readily punished.



Moreover, there must be the public opinion back of the laws or the laws

themselves will be of no avail. At present, while the average juryman

undoubtedly wishes to see trusts broken up, and is quite ready to fine

the corporation itself, he is very reluctant to find the facts proven

beyond a reasonable doubt when it comes to sending to jail a member of

the business community for indulging in practices which are profoundly

unhealthy, but which, unfortunately, the business community has grown

to recognize as well-nigh normal. Both the present condition of the law

and the present temper of juries render it a task of extreme difficulty

to get at the real wrongdoer in any such case, especially by

imprisonment. Yet it is from every standpoint far preferable to punish

the prime offender by imprisonment rather than to fine the corporation,

with the attendant damage to stockholders.



The two great evils in the execution of our criminal laws to-day are

sentimentality and technicality. For the latter the remedy must come

from the hands of the legislatures, the courts, and the lawyers. The

other must depend for its cure upon the gradual growth of a sound

public opinion which shall insist that regard for the law and the

demands of reason shall control all other influences and emotions in

the jury box. Both of these evils must be removed or public discontent

with the criminal law will continue.



Instances of abuse in the granting of injunctions in labor disputes

continue to occur, and the resentment in the minds of those who feel

that their rights are being invaded and their liberty of action and of

speech unwarrantably restrained continues likewise to grow. Much of the

attack on the use of the process of injunction is wholly without

warrant; but I am constrained to express the belief that for some of it

there is warrant. This question is becoming more and more one of prime

importance, and unless the courts will themselves deal with it in

effective manner, it is certain ultimately to demand some form of

legislative action. It would be most unfortunate for our social welfare

if we should permit many honest and law-abiding citizens to feel that

they had just cause for regarding our courts with hostility. I

earnestly commend to the attention of the Congress this matter, so that

some way may be devised which will limit the abuse of injunctions and

protect those rights which from time to time it unwarrantably invades.

Moreover, discontent is often expressed with the use of the process of

injunction by the courts, not only in labor disputes, but where State

laws are concerned. I refrain from discussion of this question as I am

informed that it will soon receive the consideration of the Supreme

Court.



The Federal courts must of course decide ultimately what are the

respective spheres of State and Nation in connection with any law,

State or National, and they must decide definitely and finally in

matters affecting individual citizens, not only as to the rights and

wrongs of labor but as to the rights and wrongs of capital; and the

National Government must always see that the decision of the court is

put into effect. The process of injunction is an essential adjunct of

the court's doing its work well; and as preventive measures are always

better than remedial, the wise use of this process is from every

standpoint commendable. But where it is recklessly or unnecessarily

used, the abuse should he censured, above all by the very men who are

properly anxious to prevent any effort to shear the courts of this

necessary power. The court's decision must be final; the protest is

only against the conduct of individual judges in needlessly

anticipating such final decision, or in the tyrannical use of what is

nominally a temporary injunction to accomplish what is in fact a

permanent decision.



The loss of life and limb from railroad accidents in this country has

become appalling. It is a subject of which the National Government

should take supervision. It might be well to begin by providing for a

Federal inspection of interstate railroads somewhat along the lines of

Federal inspection of steamboats, although not going so far; perhaps at

first all that it would be necessary to have would be some officer

whose duty would be to investigate all accidents on interstate

railroads and report in detail the causes thereof. Such an officer

should make it his business to get into close touch with railroad

operating men so as to become thoroughly familiar with every side of

the question, the idea being to work along the lines of the present

steamboat inspection law.



The National Government should be a model employer. It should demand

the highest quality of service from each of its employees and it should

care for all of them properly in return. Congress should adopt

legislation providing limited but definite compensation for accidents

to all workmen within the scope of the Federal power, including

employees of navy yards and arsenals. In other words, a model

employers' liability act, far-reaching and thoroughgoing, should be

enacted which should apply to all positions, public and private, over

which the National Government has jurisdiction. The number of accidents

to wage-workers, including those that are preventable and those that

are not, has become appalling in the mechanical, manufacturing, and

transportation operations of the day. It works grim hardship to the

ordinary wage-worker and his family to have the effect of such an

accident fall solely upon him; and, on the other hand, there are whole

classes of attorneys who exist only by inciting men who may or may not

have been wronged to undertake suits for negligence. As a matter of

fact a suit for negligence is generally an inadequate remedy for the

person injured, while it often causes altogether disproportionate

annoyance to the employer. The law should be made such that the payment

for accidents by the employer would be automatic instead of being a

matter for lawsuits. Workmen should receive certain and definite

compensation for all accidents in industry irrespective of negligence.

The employer is the agent of the public and on his own responsibility

and for his own profit he serves the public. When he starts in motion

agencies which create risks for others, he should take all the ordinary

and extraordinary risks involved; and the risk he thus at the moment

assumes will ultimately be assumed, as it ought to be, by the general

public. Only in this way can the shock of the accident be diffused,

instead of falling upon the man or woman least able to bear it, as is

now the case. The community at large should share the burdens as well

as the benefits of industry. By the proposed law, employers would gain

a desirable certainty of obligation and get rid of litigation to

determine it, while the workman and his family would be relieved from a

crushing load. With such a policy would come increased care, and

accidents would be reduced in number. The National laws providing for

employers' liability on railroads engaged in interstate commerce and

for safety appliances, as well as for diminishing the hours any

employee of a railroad should be permitted to work, should all be

strengthened wherever in actual practice they have shown weakness; they

should be kept on the statute books in thoroughgoing form.



The constitutionality of the employers' liability act passed by the

preceding Congress has been carried before the courts. In two

jurisdictions the law has been declared unconstitutional, and in three

jurisdictions its constitutionality has been affirmed. The question has

been carried to the Supreme Court, the case has been heard by that

tribunal, and a decision is expected at an early date. In the event

that the court should affirm the constitutionality of the act, I urge

further legislation along the lines advocated in my Message to the

preceding Congress. The practice of putting the entire burden of loss

to life or limb upon the victim or the victim's family is a form of

social injustice in which the United States stands in unenviable

prominence. In both our Federal and State legislation we have, with few

exceptions, scarcely gone farther than the repeal of the fellow-servant

principle of the old law of liability, and in some of our States even

this slight modification of a completely outgrown principle has not yet

been secured. The legislation of the rest of the industrial world

stands out in striking contrast to our backwardness in this respect.

Since 1895 practically every country of Europe, together with Great

Britain, New Zealand, Australia, British Columbia, and the Cape of Good

Hope has enacted legislation embodying in one form or another the

complete recognition of the principle which places upon the employer

the entire trade risk in the various lines of industry. I urge upon the

Congress the enactment of a law which will at the same time bring

Federal legislation up to the standard already established by all the

European countries, and which will serve as a stimulus to the various

States to perfect their legislation in this regard.



The Congress should consider the extension of the eight-hour law. The

constitutionality of the present law has recently been called into

question, and the Supreme Court has decided that the existing

legislation is unquestionably within the powers of the Congress. The

principle of the eight-hour day should as rapidly and as far as

practicable be extended to the entire work carried on by the

Government; and the present law should be amended to embrace contracts

on those public works which the present wording of the act has been

construed to exclude. The general introduction of the eight-hour day

should be the goal toward which we should steadily tend, and the

Government should set the example in this respect.



Strikes and lockouts, with their attendant loss and suffering, continue

to increase. For the five years ending December 31, 1905, the number of

strikes was greater than those in any previous ten years and was double

the number in the preceding five years. These figures indicate the

increasing need of providing some machinery to deal with this class of

disturbance in the interest alike of the employer, the employee, and

the general public. I renew my previous recommendation that the

Congress favorably consider the matter of creating the machinery for

compulsory investigation of such industrial controversies as are of

sufficient magnitude and of sufficient concern to the people of the

country as a whole to warrant the Federal Government in taking action.



The need for some provision for such investigation was forcibly

illustrated during the past summer. A strike of telegraph operators

seriously interfered with telegraphic communication, causing great

damage to business interests and serious inconvenience to the general

public. Appeals were made to me from many parts of the country, from

city councils, from boards of trade, from chambers of commerce, and

from labor organizations, urging that steps be taken to terminate the

strike. Everything that could with any propriety be done by a

representative of the Government was done, without avail, and for weeks

the public stood by and suffered without recourse of any kind. Had the

machinery existed and had there been authority for compulsory

investigation of the dispute, the public would have been placed in

possession of the merits of the controversy, and public opinion would

probably have brought about a prompt adjustment.



Each successive step creating machinery for the adjustment of labor

difficulties must be taken with caution, but we should endeavor to make

progress in this direction.



The provisions of the act of 1898 creating the chairman of the

Interstate Commerce Commission and the Commissioner of Labor a board of

mediation in controversies between interstate railroads and their

employees has, for the first time, been subjected to serious tests

within the past year, and the wisdom of the experiment has been fully

demonstrated. The creation of a board for compulsory investigation in

cases where mediation fails and arbitration is rejected is the next

logical step in a progressive program.



It is certain that for some time to come there will be a constant

increase absolutely, and perhaps relatively, of those among our

citizens who dwell in cities or towns of some size and who work for

wages. This means that there will be an ever-increasing need to

consider the problems inseparable from a great industrial civilization.

Where an immense and complex business, especially in those branches

relating to manufacture and transportation, is transacted by a large

number of capitalists who employ a very much larger number of

wage-earners, the former tend more and more to combine into

corporations and the latter into unions. The relations of the

capitalist and wage-worker to one another, and of each to the general

public, are not always easy to adjust; and to put them and keep them on

a satisfactory basis is one of the most important and one of the most

delicate tasks before our whole civilization. Much of the work for the

accomplishment of this end must be done by the individuals concerned

themselves, whether singly or in combination; and the one fundamental

fact that must never be lost track of is that the character of the

average man, whether he be a man of means or a man who works with his

hands, is the most important factor in solving the problem aright. But

it is almost equally important to remember that without good laws it is

also impossible to reach the proper solution. It is idle to hold that

without good laws evils such as child labor, as the over-working of

women, as the failure to protect employees from loss of life or limb,

can be effectively reached, any more than the evils of rebates and

stock-watering can be reached without good laws. To fail to stop these

practices by legislation means to force honest men into them, because

otherwise the dishonest who surely will take advantage of them will

have everything their own way. If the States will correct these evils,

well and good; but the Nation must stand ready to aid them.



No question growing out of our rapid and complex industrial development

is more important than that of the employment of women and children.

The presence of women in industry reacts with extreme directness upon

the character of the home and upon family life, and the conditions

surrounding the employment of children bear a vital relation to our

future citizenship. Our legislation in those areas under the control of

the Congress is very much behind the legislation of our more

progressive States. A thorough and comprehensive measure should be

adopted at this session of the Congress relating to the employment of

women and children in the District of Columbia and the Territories. The

investigation into the condition of women and children wage-earners

recently authorized and directed by the Congress is now being carried

on in the various States, and I recommend that the appropriation made

last year for beginning this work be renewed, in order that we may have

the thorough and comprehensive investigation which the subject demands.

The National Government has as an ultimate resort for control of child

labor the use of the interstate commerce clause to prevent the products

of child labor from entering into interstate commerce. But before using

this it ought certainly to enact model laws on the subject for the

Territories under its own immediate control.



There is one fundamental proposition which can be laid down as regards

all these matters, namely: While honesty by itself will not solve the

problem, yet the insistence upon honesty--not merely technical honesty,

but honesty in purpose and spirit--is an essential element in arriving

at a right conclusion. Vice in its cruder and more archaic forms shocks

everybody; but there is very urgent need that public opinion should be

just as severe in condemnation of the vice which hides itself behind

class or professional loyalty, or which denies that it is vice if it

can escape conviction in the courts. The public and the representatives

of the public, the high officials, whether on the bench or in executive

or legislative positions, need to remember that often the most

dangerous criminals, so far as the life of the Nation is concerned, are

not those who commit the crimes known to and condemned by the popular

conscience for centuries, but those who commit crimes only rendered

possible by the complex conditions of our modern industrial life. It

makes not a particle of difference whether these crimes are committed

by a capitalist or by a laborer, by a leading banker or manufacturer or

railroad man, or by a leading representative of a labor union.

Swindling in stocks, corrupting legislatures, making fortunes by the

inflation of securities, by wrecking railroads, by destroying

competitors through rebates--these forms of wrongdoing in the

capitalist, are far more infamous than any ordinary form of

embezzlement or forgery; yet it is a matter of extreme difficulty to

secure the punishment of the man most guilty of them, most responsible

for them. The business man who condones such conduct stands on a level

with the labor man who deliberately supports a corrupt demagogue and

agitator, whether head of a union or head of some municipality, because

he is said to have "stood by the union." The members of the business

community, the educators, or clergymen, who condone and encourage the

first kind of wrongdoing, are no more dangerous to the community, but

are morally even worse, than the labor men who are guilty of the second

type of wrongdoing, because less is to be pardoned those who have no

such excuse as is furnished either by ignorance or by dire need.  When

the Department of Agriculture was founded there was much sneering as to

its usefulness. No Department of the Government, however, has more

emphatically vindicated its usefulness, and none save the Post-Office

Department comes so continually and intimately into touch with the

people. The two citizens whose welfare is in the aggregate most vital

to the welfare of the Nation, and therefore to the welfare of all other

citizens, are the wage-worker who does manual labor and the tiller of

the soil, the farmer. There are, of course, kinds of labor where the

work must be purely mental, and there are other kinds of labor where,

under existing conditions, very little demand indeed is made upon the

mind, though I am glad to say that the proportion of men engaged in

this kind of work is diminishing. But in any community with the solid,

healthy qualities which make up a really great nation the bulk of the

people should do work which calls for the exercise of both body and

mind. Progress can not permanently exist in the abandonment of physical

labor, but in the development of physical labor, so that it shall

represent more and more the work of the trained mind in the trained

body. Our school system is gravely defective in so far as it puts a

premium upon mere literary training and tends therefore to train the

boy away from the farm and the workshop. Nothing is more needed than

the best type of industrial school, the school for mechanical

industries in the city, the school for practically teaching agriculture

in the country. The calling of the skilled tiller of the soil, the

calling of the skilled mechanic, should alike be recognized as

professions, just as emphatically as the callings of lawyer, doctor,

merchant, or clerk. The schools recognize this fact and it should

equally be recognized in popular opinion. The young man who has the

farsightedness and courage to recognize it and to get over the idea

that it makes a difference whether what he earns is called salary or

wages, and who refuses to enter the crowded field of the so-called

professions, and takes to constructive industry instead, is reasonably

sure of an ample reward in earnings, in health, in opportunity to marry

early, and to establish a home with a fair amount of freedom from

worry. It should be one of our prime objects to put both the farmer and

the mechanic on a higher plane of efficiency and reward, so as to

increase their effectiveness in the economic world, and therefore the

dignity, the remuneration, and the power of their positions in the

social world.



No growth of cities, no growth of wealth, can make up for any loss in

either the number or the character of the farming population. We of the

United States should realize this above almost all other peoples. We

began our existence as a nation of farmers, and in every great crisis

of the past a peculiar dependence has had to be placed upon the farming

population; and this dependence has hitherto been justified. But it can

not be justified in the future if agriculture is permitted to sink in

the scale as compared with other employments. We can not afford to lose

that preeminently typical American, the farmer who owns his own

medium-sized farm. To have his place taken by either a class of small

peasant proprietors, or by a class of great landlords with

tenant-farmed estates would be a veritable calamity. The growth of our

cities is a good thing but only in so far as it does not mean a growth

at the expense of the country farmer. We must welcome the rise of

physical sciences in their application to agricultural practices, and

we must do all we can to render country conditions more easy and

pleasant. There are forces which now tend to bring about both these

results, but they are, as yet, in their infancy. The National

Government through the Department of Agriculture should do all it can

by joining with the State governments and with independent associations

of farmers to encourage the growth in the open farming country of such

institutional and social movements as will meet the demand of the best

type of farmers, both for the improvement of their farms and for the

betterment of the life itself. The Department of Agriculture has in

many places, perhaps especially in certain districts of the South,

accomplished an extraordinary amount by cooperating with and teaching

the farmers through their associations, on their own soil, how to

increase their income by managing their farms better than they were

hitherto managed. The farmer must not lose his independence, his

initiative, his rugged self-reliance, yet he must learn to work in the

heartiest cooperation with his fellows, exactly as the business man has

learned to work; and he must prepare to use to constantly better

advantage the knowledge that can be obtained from agricultural

colleges, while he must insist upon a practical curriculum in the

schools in which his children are taught. The Department of Agriculture

and the Department of Commerce and Labor both deal with the fundamental

needs of our people in the production of raw material and its

manufacture and distribution, and, therefore, with the welfare of those

who produce it in the raw state, and of those who manufacture and

distribute it. The Department of Commerce and Labor has but recently

been founded but has already justified its existence; while the

Department of Agriculture yields to no other in the Government in the

practical benefits which it produces in proportion to the public money

expended. It must continue in the future to deal with growing crops as

it has dealt in the past, but it must still further extend its field of

usefulness hereafter by dealing with live men, through a far-reaching

study and treatment of the problems of farm life alike from the

industrial and economic and social standpoint. Farmers must cooperate

with one another and with the Government, and the Government can best

give its aid through associations of farmers, so as to deliver to the

farmer the large body of agricultural knowledge which has been

accumulated by the National and State governments and by the

agricultural colleges and schools.



The grain producing industry of the country, one of the most important

in the United States, deserves special consideration at the hands of

the Congress. Our grain is sold almost exclusively by grades. To secure

satisfactory results in our home markets and to facilitate our trade

abroad, these grades should approximate the highest degree of

uniformity and certainty. The present diverse methods of inspection and

grading throughout the country under different laws and boards, result

in confusion and lack of uniformity, destroying that confidence which

is necessary for healthful trade. Complaints against the present

methods have continued for years and they are growing in volume and

intensity, not only in this country but abroad. I therefore suggest to

the Congress the advisability of a National system of inspection and

grading of grain entering into interstate and foreign commerce as a

remedy for the present evils.



The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use

constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other

problem of our National life. We must maintain for our civilization the

adequate material basis without which that civilization can not exist.

We must show foresight, we must look ahead. As a nation we not only

enjoy a wonderful measure of present prosperity but if this prosperity

is used aright it is an earnest of future success such as no other

nation will have. The reward of foresight for this Nation is great and

easily foretold. But there must be the look ahead, there must be a

realization of the fact that to waste, to destroy, our natural

resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to

increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our

children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to

them amplified and developed. For the last few years, through several

agencies, the Government has been endeavoring to get our people to look

ahead and to substitute a planned and orderly development of our

resources in place of a haphazard striving for immediate profit. Our

great river systems should be developed as National water highways, the

Mississippi, with its tributaries, standing first in importance, and

the Columbia second, although there are many others of importance on

the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf slopes. The National Government

should undertake this work, and I hope a beginning will be made in the

present Congress; and the greatest of all our rivers, the Mississippi,

should receive especial attention. From the Great Lakes to the mouth of

the Mississippi there should be a deep waterway, with deep waterways

leading from it to the East and the West. Such a waterway would

practically mean the extension of our coast line into the very heart of

our country. It would be of incalculable benefit to our people. If

begun at once it can be carried through in time appreciably to relieve

the congestion of our great freight-carrying lines of railroads. The

work should be systematically and continuously carried forward in

accordance with some well-conceived plan. The main streams should be

improved to the highest point of efficiency before the improvement of

the branches is attempted; and the work should be kept free from every

faint of recklessness or jobbery. The inland waterways which lie just

back of the whole eastern and southern coasts should likewise be

developed. Moreover, the development of our waterways involves many

other important water problems, all of which should be considered as

part of the same general scheme. The Government dams should be used to

produce hundreds of thousands of horsepower as an incident to improving

navigation; for the annual value of the unused water-power of the

United States perhaps exceeds the annual value of the products of all

our mines. As an incident to creating the deep waterways down the

Mississippi, the Government should build along its whole lower length

levees which taken together with the control of the headwaters, will at

once and forever put a complete stop to all threat of floods in the

immensely fertile Delta region. The territory lying adjacent to the

Mississippi along its lower course will thereby become one of the most

prosperous and populous, as it already is one of the most fertile,

farming regions in all the world. I have appointed an Inland Waterways

Commission to study and outline a comprehensive scheme of development

along all the lines indicated. Later I shall lay its report before the

Congress.



Irrigation should be far more extensively developed than at present,

not only in the States of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, but

in many others, as, for instance, in large portions of the South

Atlantic and Gulf States, where it should go hand in hand with the

reclamation of swamp land. The Federal Government should seriously

devote itself to this task, realizing that utilization of waterways and

water-power, forestry, irrigation, and the reclamation of lands

threatened with overflow, are all interdependent parts of the same

problem. The work of the Reclamation Service in developing the larger

opportunities of the western half of our country for irrigation is more

important than almost any other movement. The constant purpose of the

Government in connection with the Reclamation Service has been to use

the water resources of the public lands for the ultimate greatest good

of the greatest number; in other words, to put upon the land permanent

home-makers, to use and develop it for themselves and for their

children and children's children. There has been, of course, opposition

to this work; opposition from some interested men who desire to exhaust

the land for their own immediate profit without regard to the welfare

of the next generation, and opposition from honest and well-meaning men

who did not fully understand the subject or who did not look far enough

ahead. This opposition is, I think, dying away, and our people are

understanding that it would be utterly wrong to allow a few individuals

to exhaust for their own temporary personal profit the resources which

ought to be developed through use so as to be conserved for the

permanent common advantage of the people as a whole.



The effort of the Government to deal with the public land has been

based upon the same principle as that of the Reclamation Service. The

land law system which was designed to meet the needs of the fertile and

well-watered regions of the Middle West has largely broken down when

applied to the dryer regions of the Great Plains, the mountains, and

much of the Pacific slope, where a farm of 160 acres is inadequate for

self-support. In these regions the system lent itself to fraud, and

much land passed out of the hands of the Government without passing

into the hands of the home-maker. The Department of the Interior and

the Department of Justice joined in prosecuting the offenders against

the law; and they have accomplished much, while where the

administration of the law has been defective it has been changed. But

the laws themselves are defective. Three years ago a public lands

commission was appointed to scrutinize the law, and defects, and

recommend a remedy. Their examination specifically showed the existence

of great fraud upon the public domain, and their recommendations for

changes in the law were made with the design of conserving the natural

resources of every part of the public lands by putting it to its best

use. Especial attention was called to the prevention of settlement by

the passage of great areas of public land into the hands of a few men,

and to the enormous waste caused by unrestricted grazing upon the open

range. The recommendations of the Public Lands Commission are sound,

for they are especially in the interest of the actual homemaker; and

where the small home-maker can not at present utilize the land they

provide that the Government shall keep control of it so that it may not

be monopolized by a few men. The Congress has not yet acted upon these

recommendations; but they are so just and proper, so essential to our

National welfare, that I feel confident, if the Congress will take time

to consider them, that they will ultimately be adopted.



Some such legislation as that proposed is essential in order to

preserve the great stretches of public grazing land which are unfit for

cultivation under present methods and are valuable only for the forage

which they supply. These stretches amount in all to some 300,000,000

acres, and are open to the free grazing of cattle, sheep, horses and

goats, without restriction. Such a system, or lack of system, means

that the range is not so much used as wasted by abuse. As the West

settles the range becomes more and more over-grazed. Much of it can not

be used to advantage unless it is fenced, for fencing is the only way

by which to keep in check the owners of nomad flocks which roam hither

and thither, utterly destroying the pastures and leaving a waste behind

so that their presence is incompatible with the presence of

home-makers. The existing fences are all illegal. Some of them

represent the improper exclusion of actual settlers, actual

home-makers, from territory which is usurped by great cattle companies.

Some of them represent what is in itself a proper effort to use the

range for those upon the land, and to prevent its use by nomadic

outsiders. All these fences, those that are hurtful and those that are

beneficial, are alike illegal and must come down. But it is an outrage

that the law should necessitate such action on the part of the

Administration. The unlawful fencing of public lands for private

grazing must be stopped, but the necessity which occasioned it must be

provided for. The Federal Government should have control of the range,

whether by permit or lease, as local necessities may determine. Such

control could secure the great benefit of legitimate fencing, while at

the same time securing and promoting the settlement of the country. In

some places it may be that the tracts of range adjacent to the

homesteads of actual settlers should be allotted to them severally or

in common for the summer grazing of their stock. Elsewhere it may be

that a lease system would serve the purpose; the leases to be temporary

and subject to the rights of settlement, and the amount charged being

large enough merely to permit of the efficient and beneficial control

of the range by the Government, and of the payment to the county of the

equivalent of what it would otherwise receive in taxes. The destruction

of the public range will continue until some such laws as these are

enacted. Fully to prevent the fraud in the public lands which, through

the joint action of the Interior Department and the Department of

Justice, we have been endeavoring to prevent, there must be further

legislation, and especially a sufficient appropriation to permit the

Department of the Interior to examine certain classes of entries on the

ground before they pass into private ownership. The Government should

part with its title only to the actual home-maker, not to the

profit-maker who does not care to make a home. Our prime object is to

secure the rights and guard the interests of the small ranchman, the

man who plows and pitches hay for himself. It is this small ranchman,

this actual settler and homemaker, who in the long run is most hurt by

permitting thefts of the public land in whatever form.



Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess it

becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this

country as inexhaustible; this is not so. The mineral wealth of the

country, the coal, iron, oil, gas, and the like, does not reproduce

itself, and therefore is certain to be exhausted ultimately; and

wastefulness in dealing with it to-day means that our descendants will

feel the exhaustion a generation or two before they otherwise would.

But there are certain other forms of waste which could be entirely

stopped--the waste of soil by washing, for instance, which is among the

most dangerous of all wastes now in progress in the United States, is

easily preventable, so that this present enormous loss of fertility is

entirely unnecessary. The preservation or replacement of the forests is

one of the most important means of preventing this loss. We have made a

beginning in forest preservation, but it is only a beginning. At

present lumbering is the fourth greatest industry in the United States;

and yet, so rapid has been the rate of exhaustion of timber in the

United States in the past, and so rapidly is the remainder being

exhausted, that the country is unquestionably on the verge of a timber

famine which will be felt in every household in the land. There has

already been a rise in the price of lumber, but there is certain to be

a more rapid and heavier rise in the future. The present annual

consumption of lumber is certainly three times as great as the annual

growth; and if the consumption and growth continue unchanged,

practically all our lumber will be exhausted in another generation,

while long before the limit to complete exhaustion is reached the

growing scarcity will make itself felt in many blighting ways upon our

National welfare. About 20 per cent of our forested territory is now

reserved in National forests; but these do not include the most

valuable timber lauds, and in any event the proportion is too small to

expect that the reserves can accomplish more than a mitigation of the

trouble which is ahead for the nation. Far more drastic action is

needed. Forests can be lumbered so as to give to the public the full

use of their mercantile timber without the slightest detriment to the

forest, any more than it is a detriment to a farm to furnish a harvest;

so that there is no parallel between forests and mines, which can only

be completely used by exhaustion. But forests, if used as all our

forests have been used in the past and as most of them are still used,

will be either wholly destroyed, or so damaged that many decades have

to pass before effective use can be made of them again. All these facts

are so obvious that it is extraordinary that it should be necessary to

repeat them. Every business man in the land, every writer in the

newspapers, every man or woman of an ordinary school education, ought

to be able to see that immense quantities of timber are used in the

country, that the forests which supply this timber are rapidly being

exhausted, and that, if no change takes place, exhaustion will come

comparatively soon, and that the effects of it will be felt severely in

the every-day life of our people. Surely, when these facts are so

obvious, there should be no delay in taking preventive measures. Yet we

seem as a nation to be willing to proceed in this matter with

happy-go-lucky indifference even to the immediate future. It is this

attitude which permits the self-interest of a very few persons to weigh

for more than the ultimate interest of all our people. There are

persons who find it to their immense pecuniary benefit to destroy the

forests by lumbering. They are to be blamed for thus sacrificing the

future of the Nation as a whole to their own self-interest of the

moment; but heavier blame attaches to the people at large for

permitting such action, whether in the White Mountains, in the southern

Alleghenies, or in the Rockies and Sierras. A big lumbering company,

impatient for immediate returns and not caring to look far enough

ahead, will often deliberately destroy all the good timber in a region,

hoping afterwards to move on to some new country. The shiftless man of

small means, who does not care to become an actual home-maker but would

like immediate profit, will find it to his advantage to take up timber

land simply to turn it over to such a big company, and leave it

valueless for future settlers. A big mine owner, anxious only to

develop his mine at the moment, will care only to cut all the timber

that he wishes without regard to the future--probably net looking ahead

to the condition of the country when the forests are exhausted, any

more than he does to the condition when the mine is worked out. I do

not blame these men nearly as much as I blame the supine public

opinion, the indifferent public opinion, which permits their action to

go unchecked. Of course to check the waste of timber means that there

must be on the part of the public the acceptance of a temporary

restriction in the lavish use of the timber, in order to prevent the

total loss of this use in the future. There are plenty of men in public

and private life who actually advocate the continuance of the present

system of unchecked and wasteful extravagance, using as an argument the

fact that to check it will of course mean interference with the ease

and comfort of certain people who now get lumber at less cost than they

ought to pay, at the expense of the future generations. Some of these

persons actually demand that the present forest reserves be thrown open

to destruction, because, forsooth, they think that thereby the price of

lumber could be put down again for two or three or more years. Their

attitude is precisely like that of an agitator protesting against the

outlay of money by farmers on manure and in taking care of their farms

generally. Undoubtedly, if the average farmer were content absolutely

to ruin his farm, he could for two or three years avoid spending any

money on it, and yet make a good deal of money out of it. But only a

savage would, in his private affairs, show such reckless disregard of

the future; yet it is precisely this reckless disregard of the future

which the opponents of the forestry system are now endeavoring to get

the people of the United States to show. The only trouble with the

movement for the preservation of our forests is that it has not gone

nearly far enough, and was not begun soon enough. It is a most

fortunate thing, however, that we began it when we did. We should

acquire in the Appalachian and White Mountain regions all the forest

lands that it is possible to acquire for the use of the Nation. These

lands, because they form a National asset, are as emphatically national

as the rivers which they feed, and which flow through so many States

before they reach the ocean.



There should be no tariff on any forest product grown in this country;

and, in especial, there should be no tariff on wood pulp; due notice of

the change being of course given to those engaged in the business so as

to enable them to adjust themselves to the new conditions. The repeal

of the duty on wood pulp should if possible be accompanied by an

agreement with Canada that there shall be no export duty on Canadian

pulp wood.



In the eastern United States the mineral fuels have already passed into

the hands of large private owners, and those of the West are rapidly

following. It is obvious that these fuels should be conserved and not

wasted, and it would be well to protect the people against unjust and

extortionate prices, so far as that can still be done. What has been

accomplished in the great oil fields of the Indian Territory by the

action of the Administration, offers a striking example of the good

results of such a policy. In my judgment the Government should have the

right to keep the fee of the coal, oil, and gas fields in its own

possession and to lease the rights to develop them under proper

regulations; or else, if the Congress will not adopt this method, the

coal deposits should be sold under limitations, to conserve them as

public utilities, the right to mine coal being separated from the title

to the soil. The regulations should permit coal lands to be worked in

sufficient quantity by the several corporations. The present

limitations have been absurd, excessive, and serve no useful purpose,

and often render it necessary that there should be either fraud or

close abandonment of the work of getting out the coal.



Work on the Panama Canal is proceeding in a highly satisfactory manner.

In March last, John F. Stevens, chairman of the Commission and chief

engineer, resigned, and the Commission was reorganized and constituted

as follows: Lieut. Col. George W. Goethals, Corps. of Engineers, U. S.

Army, chairman and chief engineer; Maj. D. D. Gall-lard, Corps of

Engineers, U. S. Army; Maj. William L. Sibert, Corps of Engineers, U.

S. Army; Civil Engineer H. H. Rousseau, U. S. Navy; Mr. J. C. S.

Blackburn; Col. W. C. Gorgas, U. S. Army, and Mr. Jackson Smith,

Commissioners. This change of authority and direction went into effect

on April 1, without causing a perceptible check to the progress of the

work. In March the total excavation in the Culebra Cut, where effort

was chiefly concentrated, was 815,270 cubic yards. In April this was

increased to 879,527 cubic yards. There was a considerable decrease in

the output for May and June owing partly to the advent of the rainy

season and partly to temporary trouble with the steam shovel men over

the question of wages. This trouble was settled satisfactorily to all

parties and in July the total excavation advanced materially and in

August the grand total from all points in the canal prism by steam

shovels and dredges exceeded all previous United States records,

reaching 1,274,404 cubic yards. In September this record was eclipsed

and a total of 1,517,412 cubic yards was removed. Of this amount

1,481,307 cubic yards were from the canal prism and 36,105 cubic yards

were from accessory works. These results were achieved in the rainy

season with a rainfall in August of 11.89 inches and in September of

11.65 inches. Finally, in October, the record was again eclipsed, the

total excavation being 1,868,729 cubic yards; a truly extraordinary

record, especially in view of the heavy rainfall, which was 17.1

inches. In fact, experience during the last two rainy seasons

demonstrates that the rains are a less serious obstacle to progress

than has hitherto been supposed.



Work on the locks and dams at Gatun, which began actively in March

last, has advanced so far that it is thought that masonry work on the

locks can be begun within fifteen months. In order to remove all doubt

as to the satisfactory character of the foundations for the locks of

the Canal, the Secretary of War requested three eminent civil

engineers, of special experience in such construction, Alfred Noble,

Frederic P. Stearns and John R. Freeman, to visit the Isthmus and make

thorough personal investigations of the sites. These gentlemen went to

the Isthmus in April and by means of test pits which had been dug for

the purpose, they inspected the proposed foundations, and also examined

the borings that had been made. In their report to the Secretary of

War, under date of May 2, 1907, they said: "We found that all of the

locks, of the dimensions now proposed, will rest upon rock of such

character that it will furnish a safe and stable foundation."

Subsequent new borings, conducted by the present Commission, have fully

confirmed this verdict. They show that the locks will rest on rock for

their entire length. The cross section of the dam and method of

construction will be such as to insure against any slip or sloughing

off. Similar examination of the foundations of the locks and dams on

the Pacific side are in progress. I believe that the locks should be

made of a width of 120 feet.



Last winter bids were requested and received for doing the work of

canal construction by contract. None of them was found to be

satisfactory and all were rejected. It is the unanimous opinion of the

present Commission that the work can be done better, more cheaply, and

more quickly by the Government than by private contractors. Fully 80

per cent of the entire plant needed for construction has been purchased

or contracted for; machine shops have been erected and equipped for

making all needed repairs to the plant; many thousands of employees

have been secured; an effective organization has been perfected; a

recruiting system is in operation which is capable of furnishing more

labor than can be used advantageously; employees are well sheltered and

well fed; salaries paid are satisfactory, and the work is not only

going forward smoothly, but it is producing results far in advance of

the most sanguine anticipations. Under these favorable conditions, a

change in the method of prosecuting the work would be unwise and

unjustifiable, for it would inevitably disorganize existing conditions,

check progress, and increase the cost and lengthen the time of

completing the Canal.



The chief engineer and all his professional associates are firmly

convinced that the 85 feet level lock canal which they are constructing

is the best that could be desired. Some of them had doubts on this

point when they went to the Isthmus. As the plans have developed under

their direction their doubts have been dispelled. While they may decide

upon changes in detail as construction advances they are in hearty

accord in approving the general plan. They believe that it provides a

canal not only adequate to all demands that will be made upon it but

superior in every way to a sea level canal. I concur in this belief.



I commend to the favorable consideration of the Congress a postal

savings bank system, as recommended by the Postmaster-General. The

primary object is to encourage among our people economy and thrift and

by the use of postal savings banks to give them an opportunity to

husband their resources, particularly those who have not the facilities

at hand for depositing their money in savings banks. Viewed, however,

from the experience of the past few weeks, it is evident that the

advantages of such an institution are till more far-reaching. Timid

depositors have withdrawn their savings for the time being from

national banks, trust companies, and savings banks; individuals have

hoarded their cash and the workingmen their earnings; all of which

money has been withheld and kept in hiding or in safe deposit box to

the detriment of prosperity. Through the agency of the postal savings

banks such money would be restored to the channels of trade, to the

mutual benefit of capital and labor.



I further commend to the Congress the consideration of the

Postmaster-General's recommendation for an extension of the parcel

post, especially on the rural routes. There are now 38,215 rural

routes, serving nearly 15,000,000 people who do not have the advantages

of the inhabitants of cities in obtaining their supplies. These

recommendations have been drawn up to benefit the farmer and the

country storekeeper; otherwise, I should not favor them, for I believe

that it is good policy for our Government to do everything possible to

aid the small town and the country district. It is desirable that the

country merchant should not be crushed out.



The fourth-class postmasters' convention has passed a very strong

resolution in favor of placing the fourth-class postmasters under the

civil-service law. The Administration has already put into effect the

policy of refusing to remove any fourth-class postmasters save for

reasons connected with the good of the service; and it is endeavoring

so far as possible to remove them from the domain of partisan politics.

It would be a most desirable thing to put the fourth-class postmasters

in the classified service. It is possible that this might be done

without Congressional action, but, as the matter is debatable, I

earnestly recommend that the Congress enact a law providing that they

be included under the civil-service law and put in the classified

service.



Oklahoma has become a State, standing on a full equality with her elder

sisters, and her future is assured by her great natural resources. The

duty of the National Government to guard the personal and property

rights of the Indians within her borders remains of course unchanged.



I reiterate my recommendations of last year as regards Alaska. Some

form of local self-government should be provided, as simple and

inexpensive as possible; it is impossible for the Congress to devote

the necessary time to all the little details of necessary Alaskan

legislation. Road building and railway building should be encouraged.

The Governor of Alaska should be given an ample appropriation wherewith

to organize a force to preserve the public peace. Whisky selling to the

natives should be made a felony. The coal land laws should be changed

so as to meet the peculiar needs of the Territory. This should be

attended to at once; for the present laws permit individuals to locate

large areas of the public domain for speculative purposes; and cause an

immense amount of trouble, fraud, and litigation. There should be

another judicial division established. As early as possible lighthouses

and buoys should be established as aids to navigation, especially in

and about Prince William Sound, and the survey of the coast completed.

There is need of liberal appropriations for lighting and buoying the

southern coast and improving the aids to navigation in southeastern

Alaska. One of the great industries of Alaska, as of Puget Sound and

the Columbia, is salmon fishing. Gradually, by reason of lack of proper

laws, this industry is being ruined; it should now be taken in charge,

and effectively protected, by the United States Government.



The courage and enterprise of the citizens of the far north-west in

their projected Alaskan-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, to be held in 1909,

should receive liberal encouragement. This exposition is not

sentimental in its conception, but seeks to exploit the natural

resources of Alaska and to promote the commerce, trade, and industry of

the Pacific States with their neighboring States and with our insular

possessions and the neighboring countries of the Pacific. The

exposition asks no loan from the Congress but seeks appropriations for

National exhibits and exhibits of the western dependencies of the

General Government. The State of Washington and the city of Seattle

have shown the characteristic western enterprise in large donations for

the conduct of this exposition in which other States are lending

generous assistance.



The unfortunate failure of the shipping bill at the last session of the

last Congress was followed by the taking off of certain Pacific

steamships, which has greatly hampered the movement of passengers

between Hawaii and the mainland. Unless the Congress is prepared by

positive encouragement to secure proper facilities in the way of

shipping between Hawaii and the mainland, then the coastwise shipping

laws should be so far relaxed as to prevent Hawaii suffering as it is

now suffering. I again call your attention to the capital importance

from every standpoint of making Pearl Harbor available for the largest

deep water vessels, and of suitably fortifying the island.



The Secretary of War has gone to the Philippines. On his return I shall

submit to you his report on the islands.



I again recommend that the rights of citizenship be conferred upon the

people of Porto Rico.



A bureau of mines should be created under the control and direction of

the Secretary of the Interior; the bureau to have power to collect

statistics and make investigations in all matters pertaining to mining

and particularly to the accidents and dangers of the industry. If this

can not now be done, at least additional appropriations should be given

the Interior Department to be used for the study of mining conditions,

for the prevention of fraudulent mining schemes, for carrying on the

work of mapping the mining districts, for studying methods for

minimizing the accidents and dangers in the industry; in short, to aid

in all proper ways the development of the mining industry.



I strongly recommend to the Congress to provide funds for keeping up

the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson; these funds to be used

through the existing Hermitage Association for the preservation of a

historic building which should ever be dear to Americans.



I further recommend that a naval monument be established in the

Vicksburg National Park. This national park gives a unique opportunity

for commemorating the deeds of those gallant men who fought on water,

no less than of those who fought on land, in the great civil War.



Legislation should be enacted at the present session of the Congress

for the Thirteenth Census. The establishment of the permanent Census

Bureau affords the opportunity for a better census than we have ever

had, but in order to realize the full advantage of the permanent

organization, ample time must be given for preparation.



There is a constantly growing interest in this country in the question

of the public health. At last the public mind is awake to the fact that

many diseases, notably tuberculosis, are National scourges. The work of

the State and city boards of health should be supplemented by a

constantly increasing interest on the part of the National Government.

The Congress has already provided a bureau of public health and has

provided for a hygienic laboratory. There are other valuable laws

relating to the public health connected with the various departments.

This whole branch of the Government should be strengthened and aided in

every way.



I call attention to two Government commissions which I have appointed

and which have already done excellent work. The first of these has to

do with the organization of the scientific work of the Government,

which has grown up wholly without plan and is in consequence so

unwisely distributed among the Executive Departments that much of its

effect is lost for the lack of proper coordination. This commission's

chief object is to introduce a planned and orderly development and

operation in the place of the ill-assorted and often ineffective

grouping and methods of work which have prevailed. This can not be done

without legislation, nor would it be feasible to deal in detail with so

complex an administrative problem by specific provisions of law. I

recommend that the President be given authority to concentrate related

lines of work and reduce duplication by Executive order through

transfer and consolidation of lines of work.



The second committee, that on Department methods, was instructed to

investigate and report upon the changes needed to place the conduct of

the executive force of the Government on the most economical and

effective basis in the light of the best modern business practice. The

committee has made very satisfactory progress. Antiquated practices and

bureaucratic ways have been abolished, and a general renovation of

departmental methods has been inaugurated. All that can be done by

Executive order has already been accomplished or will be put into

effect in the near future. The work of the main committee and its

several assistant committees has produced a wholesome awakening on the

part of the great body of officers and employees engaged in Government

work. In nearly every Department and office there has been a careful

self-inspection for the purpose of remedying any defects before they

could be made the subject of adverse criticism. This has led

individuals to a wider study of the work on which they were engaged,

and this study has resulted in increasing their efficiency in their

respective lines of work. There are recommendations of special

importance from the committee on the subject of personnel and the

classification of salaries which will require legislative action before

they can be put into effect. It is my intention to submit to the

Congress in the near future a special message on those subjects.



Under our form of government voting is not merely a right but a duty,

and, moreover, a fundamental and necessary duty if a man is to be a

good citizen. It is well to provide that corporations shall not

contribute to Presidential or National campaigns, and furthermore to

provide for the publication of both contributions and expenditures.

There is, however, always danger in laws of this kind, which from their

very nature are difficult of enforcement; the danger being lest they be

obeyed only by the honest, and disobeyed by the unscrupulous, so as to

act only as a penalty upon honest men. Moreover, no such law would

hamper an unscrupulous man of unlimited means from buying his own way

into office. There is a very radical measure which would, I believe,

work a substantial improvement in our system of conducting a campaign,

although I am well aware that it will take some time for people so to

familiarize themselves with such a proposal as to be willing to

consider its adoption. The need for collecting large campaign funds

would vanish if Congress provided an appropriation for the proper and

legitimate expenses of each of the great national parties, an

appropriation ample enough to meet the necessity for thorough

organization and machinery, which requires a large expenditure of

money. Then the stipulation should be made that no party receiving

campaign funds from the Treasury should accept more than a fixed amount

from any individual subscriber or donor; and the necessary publicity

for receipts and expenditures could without difficulty be provided.



There should be a National gallery of art established in the capital

city of this country. This is important not merely to the artistic but

to the material welfare of the country; and the people are to be

congratulated on the fact that the movement to establish such a gallery

is taking definite form under the guidance of the Smithsonian

Institution. So far from there being a tariff on works of art brought

into the country, their importation should be encouraged in every way.

There have been no sufficient collections of objects of art by the

Government, and what collections have been acquired are scattered and

are generally placed in unsuitable and imperfectly lighted galleries.



The Biological Survey is quietly working for the good of our

agricultural interests, and is an excellent example of a Government

bureau which conducts original scientific research the findings of

which are of much practical utility. For more than twenty years it has

studied the food habits of birds and mammals that are injurious or

beneficial to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry; has distributed

illustrated bulletins on the subject, and has labored to secure

legislative protection for the beneficial species. The cotton

boll-weevil, which has recently overspread the cotton belt of Texas and

is steadily extending its range, is said to cause an annual loss of

about $3,000,000. The Biological Survey has ascertained and gives wide

publicity to the fact that at least 43 kinds of birds prey upon this

destructive insect. It has discovered that 57 species of birds feed

upon scale-insects--dreaded enemies of the fruit grower. It has shown

that woodpeckers as a class, by destroying the larvae of wood-boring

insects, are so essential to tree life that it is doubtful if our

forests could exist without them. It has shown that cuckoos and orioles

are the natural enemies of the leaf-eating caterpillars that destroy

our shade and fruit trees; that our quails and sparrows consume

annually hundreds of tons of seeds of noxious weeds; that hawks and

owls as a class (excepting the few that kill poultry and game birds)

are markedly beneficial, spending their lives in catching grasshoppers,

mice, and other pests that prey upon the products of husbandry. It has

conducted field experiments for the purpose of devising and perfecting

simple methods for holding in check the hordes of destructive

rodents--rats, mice, rabbits, gophers, prairie dogs, and ground

squirrels--which annually destroy crops worth many millions of dollars;

and it has published practical directions for the destruction of wolves

and coyotes on the stock ranges of the West, resulting during the past

year in an estimated saving of cattle and sheep valued at upwards of a

million dollars.



It has inaugurated a system of inspection at the principal ports of

entry on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts by means of which the

introduction of noxious mammals and birds is prevented, thus keeping

out the mongoose and certain birds which are as much to be dreaded as

the previously introduced English sparrow and the house rats and mice.



In the interest of game protection it has cooperated with local

officials in every State in the Union, has striven to promote uniform

legislation in the several States, has rendered important service in

enforcing the Federal law regulating interstate traffic in game, and

has shown how game protection may be made to yield a large revenue to

the State--a revenue amounting in the case of Illinois to $128,000 in a

single year.



The Biological Survey has explored the faunas and floras of America

with reference to the distribution of animals and plants; it has

defined and mapped the natural life areas--areas in which, by reason of

prevailing climatic conditions, certain kinds of animals and plants

occur--and has pointed out the adaptability of these areas to the

cultivation of particular crops. The results of these investigations

are not only of high educational value but are worth each year to the

progressive farmers of the country many times the cost of maintaining

the Survey, which, it may be added, is exceedingly small. I recommend

to Congress that this bureau, whose usefulness is seriously handicapped

by lack of funds, be granted an appropriation in some degree

commensurate with the importance of the work it is doing.



I call your especial attention to the unsatisfactory condition of our

foreign mail service, which, because of the lack of American steamship

lines is now largely done through foreign lines, and which,

particularly so far as South and Central America are concerned, is done

in a manner which constitutes a serious barrier to the extension of our

commerce.



The time has come, in my judgment, to set to work seriously to make our

ocean mail service correspond more closely with our recent commercial

and political development. A beginning was made by the ocean mail act

of March 3, 1891, but even at that time the act was known to be

inadequate in various particulars. Since that time events have moved

rapidly in our history. We have acquired Hawaii, the Philippines, and

lesser islands in the Pacific. We are steadily prosecuting the great

work of uniting at the Isthmus the waters of the Atlantic and the

Pacific. To a greater extent than seemed probable even a dozen years

ago, we may look to an American future on the sea worthy of the

traditions of our past. As the first step in that direction, and the

step most feasible at the present time, I recommend the extension of

the ocean mail act of 1891. This act has stood for some years free from

successful criticism of its principle and purpose. It was based on

theories of the obligations of a great maritime nation, undisputed in

our own land and followed by other nations since the beginning of steam

navigation. Briefly those theories are, that it is the duty of a

first-class Power so far as practicable to carry its ocean mails under

its own flag; that the fast ocean steamships and their crews, required

for such mail service, are valuable auxiliaries to the sea power of a

nation. Furthermore, the construction of such steamships insures the

maintenance in an efficient condition of the shipyards in which our

battleships must be built.



The expenditure of public money for the Performance of such necessary

functions of government is certainly warranted, nor is it necessary to

dwell upon the incidental benefits to our foreign commerce, to the

shipbuilding industry, and to ship owning and navigation which will

accompany the discharge of these urgent public duties, though they,

too, should have weight.



The only serious question is whether at this time we can afford to

improve our ocean mail service as it should be improved. All doubt on

this subject is removed by the reports of the Post-Office Department.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1907, that Department estimates that

the postage collected on the articles exchanged with foreign countries

other than Canada and Mexico amounted to $6,579,043.48, or

$3,637,226.81 more than the net cost of the service exclusive of the

cost of transporting the articles between the United States exchange

post-offices and the United States post-offices at which they were

mailed or delivered. In other words, the Government of the United

States, having assumed a monopoly of carrying the mails for the people,

making a profit of over $3,600,000 by rendering a cheap and inefficient

service. That profit I believe should be devoted to strengthening

maritime power in those directions where it will best promote our

prestige. The country is familiar with the facts of our maritime

impotence in the harbors of the great and friendly Republics of South

America. Following the failure of the shipbuilding bill we lost our

only American line of steamers to Australasia, and that loss on the

Pacific has become a serious embarrassment to the people of Hawaii, and

has wholly cut off the Samoan islands from regular communication with

the Pacific coast. Puget Sound, in the year, has lost over half (four

out of seven) of its American steamers trading with the Orient.



We now pay under the act of 1891 $4 a statute mile outward to 20-knot

American mail steamships, built according to naval plans, available as

cruisers, and manned by Americans. Steamships of that speed are

confined exclusively to trans-Atlantic trade with New York. To

steamships of 16 knots or over only $2 a mile can be paid, and it is

steamships of this speed and type which are needed to meet the

requirements of mail service to South America, Asia (including the

Philippines), and Australia. I strongly recommend, therefore, a simple

amendment to the ocean mail act of 1891 which shall authorize the

Postmaster-General in his discretion to enter into contracts for the

transportation of mails to the Republics of South America, to Asia, the

Philippines, and Australia at a rate not to exceed $4 a mile for

steamships of 16 knots speed or upwards, subject to the restrictions

and obligations of the act of 1891. The profit of $3,600,000 which has

been mentioned will fully cover the maximum annual expenditure involved

in this recommendation, and it is believed will in time establish the

lines so urgently needed. The proposition involves no new principle,

but permits the efficient discharge of public functions now

inadequately performed or not performed at all.



Not only there is not now, but there never has been, any other nation

in the world so wholly free from the evils of militarism as is ours.

There never has been any other large nation, not even China, which for

so long a period has had relatively to its numbers so small a regular

army as has ours. Never at any time in our history has this Nation

suffered from militarism or been in the remotest danger of suffering

from militarism. Never at any time of our history has the Regular Army

been of a size which caused the slightest appreciable tax upon the

tax-paying citizens of the Nation. Almost always it has been too small

in size and underpaid. Never in our entire history has the Nation

suffered in the least particular because too much care has been given

to the Army, too much prominence given it, too much money spent upon

it, or because it has been too large. But again and again we have

suffered because enough care has not been given to it, because it has

been too small, because there has not been sufficient preparation in

advance for possible war. Every foreign war in which we have engaged

has cost us many times the amount which, if wisely expended during the

preceding years of peace on the Regular Army, would have insured the

war ending in but a fraction of the time and but for a fraction of the

cost that was actually the case. As a Nation we have always been

shortsighted in providing for the efficiency of the Army in time of

peace. It is nobody's especial interest to make such provision and no

one looks ahead to war at any period, no matter how remote, as being a

serious possibility; while an improper economy, or rather

niggardliness, can be practiced at the expense of the Army with the

certainty that those practicing it will not be called to account

therefor, but that the price will be paid by the unfortunate persons

who happen to be in office when a war does actually come.



I think it is only lack of foresight that troubles us, not any

hostility to the Army. There are, of course, foolish people who

denounce any care of the Army or Navy as "militarism," but I do not

think that these people are numerous. This country has to contend now,

and has had to contend in the past, with many evils, and there is ample

scope for all who would work for reform. But there is not one evil that

now exists, or that ever has existed in this country, which is, or ever

has been, owing in the smallest part to militarism. Declamation against

militarism has no more serious place in an earnest and intelligent

movement for righteousness in this country than declamation against the

worship of Baal or Astaroth. It is declamation against a non-existent

evil, one which never has existed in this country, and which has not

the slightest chance of appearing here. We are glad to help in any

movement for international peace, but this is because we sincerely

believe that it is our duty to help all such movements provided they

are sane and rational, and not because there is any tendency toward

militarism on our part which needs to be cured. The evils we have to

fight are those in connection with industrialism, not militarism.

Industry is always necessary, just as war is sometimes necessary. Each

has its price, and industry in the United States now exacts, and has

always exacted, a far heavier toll of death than all our wars put

together. The statistics of the railroads of this country for the year

ended June 30, 1906, the last contained in the annual statistical

report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, show in that one year a

total of 108,324 casualties to persons, of which 10,618 represent the

number of persons killed. In that wonderful hive of human activity,

Pittsburg, the deaths due to industrial accidents in 1906 were 919, all

the result of accidents in mills, mines or on railroads. For the entire

country, therefore, it is safe to say that the deaths due to industrial

accidents aggregate in the neighborhood of twenty thousand a year. Such

a record makes the death rate in all our foreign wars utterly trivial

by comparison. The number of deaths in battle in all the foreign wars

put together, for the last century and a quarter, aggregate

considerably less than one year's death record for our industries. A

mere glance at these figures is sufficient to show the absurdity of the

outcry against militarism.



But again and again in the past our little Regular Army has rendered

service literally vital to the country, and it may at any time have to

do so in the future. Its standard of efficiency and instruction is

higher now than ever in the past. But it is too small. There are not

enough officers; and it is impossible to secure enough enlisted men. We

should maintain in peace a fairly complete skeleton of a large army. A

great and long-continued war would have to be fought by volunteers. But

months would pass before any large body of efficient volunteers could

be put in the field, and our Regular Army should be large enough to

meet any immediate need. In particular it is essential that we should

possess a number of extra officers trained in peace to perform

efficiently the duties urgently required upon the breaking out of war.



The Medical Corps should be much larger than the needs of our Regular

Army in war. Yet at present it is smaller than the needs of the service

demand even in peace. The Spanish war occurred less than ten years ago.

The chief loss we suffered in it was by disease among the regiments

which never left the country. At the moment the Nation seemed deeply

impressed by this fact; yet seemingly it has already been forgotten,

for not the slightest effort has been made to prepare a medical corps

of sufficient size to prevent the repetition of the same disaster on a

much larger scale if we should ever be engaged in a serious conflict.

The trouble in the Spanish war was not with the then existing officials

of the War Department; it was with the representatives of the people as

a whole who, for the preceding thirty years, had declined to make the

necessary provision for the Army. Unless ample provision is now made by

Congress to put the Medical Corps where it should be put disaster in

the next war is inevitable, and the responsibility will not lie with

those then in charge of the War Department, but with those who now

decline to make the necessary provision. A well organized medical

corps, thoroughly trained before the advent of war in all the important

administrative duties of a military sanitary corps, is essential to the

efficiency of any large army, and especially of a large volunteer army.

Such knowledge of medicine and surgery as is possessed by the medical

profession generally will not alone suffice to make an efficient

military surgeon. He must have, in addition, knowledge of the

administration and sanitation of large field hospitals and camps, in

order to safeguard the health and lives of men intrusted in great

numbers to his care. A bill has long been pending before the Congress

for the reorganization of the Medical Corps; its passage is urgently

needed.



But the Medical Department is not the only department for which

increased provision should be made. The rate of pay for the officers

should be greatly increased; there is no higher type of citizen than

the American regular officer, and he should have a fair reward for his

admirable work. There should be a relatively even greater increase in

the pay for the enlisted men. In especial provision should be made for

establishing grades equivalent to those of warrant officers in the Navy

which should be open to the enlisted men who serve sufficiently long

and who do their work well. Inducements should be offered sufficient to

encourage really good men to make the Army a life occupation. The prime

needs of our present Army is to secure and retain competent

noncommissioned officers. This difficulty rests fundamentally on the

question of pay. The noncommissioned officer does not correspond with

an unskilled laborer; he corresponds to the best type of skilled

workman or to the subordinate official in civil institutions. Wages

have greatly increased in outside occupations in the last forty years

and the pay of the soldier, like the pay of the officers, should be

proportionately increased. The first sergeant of a company, if a good

man, must be one of such executive and administrative ability, and such

knowledge of his trade, as to be worth far more than we at present pay

him. The same is true of the regimental sergeant major. These men

should be men who had fully resolved to make the Army a life occupation

and they should be able to look forward to ample reward; while only men

properly qualified should be given a chance to secure these final

rewards. The increase over the present pay need not be great in the

lower grades for the first one or two enlistments, but the increase

should be marked for the noncommissioned officers of the upper grades

who serve long enough to make it evident that they intend to stay

permanently in the Army, while additional pay should be given for high

qualifications in target practice. The position of warrant officer

should be established and there should be not only an increase of pay,

but an increase of privileges and allowances and dignity, so as to make

the grade open to noncommissioned officers capable of filling them

desirably from every standpoint. The rate of desertion in our Army now

in time of peace is alarming. The deserter should be treated by public

opinion as a man guilty of the greatest crime; while on the other hand

the man who serves steadily in the Army should be treated as what he

is, that is, as preeminently one of the best citizens of this Republic.

After twelve years' service in the Army, my own belief is that the man

should be given a preference according to his ability for certain types

of office over all civilian applicants without examination. This should

also apply, of course, to the men who have served twelve years in the

Navy. A special corps should be provided to do the manual labor now

necessarily demanded of the privates themselves.



Among the officers there should be severe examinations to weed out the

unfit up to the grade of major. From that position on appointments

should be solely by selection and it should be understood that a man of

merely average capacity could never get beyond the position of major,

while every man who serves in any grade a certain length of time prior

to promotion to the next grade without getting the promotion to the

next grade should be forthwith retired. The practice marches and field

maneuvers of the last two or three years have been invaluable to the

Army. They should be continued and extended. A rigid and not a

perfunctory examination of physical capacity has been provided for the

higher grade officers. This will work well. Unless an officer has a

good physique, unless he can stand hardship, ride well, and walk

fairly, he is not fit for any position, even after he has become a

colonel. Before he has become a colonel the need for physical fitness

in the officers is almost as great as in the enlisted man. I hope

speedily to see introduced into the Army a far more rigid and

thoroughgoing test of horsemanship for all field officers than at

present. There should be a Chief of Cavalry just as there is a Chief of

Artillery.



Perhaps the most important of all legislation needed for the benefit of

the Army is a law to equalize and increase the pay of officers and

enlisted men of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Revenue-Cutter

Service. Such a bill has been prepared, which it is hoped will meet

with your favorable consideration. The next most essential measure is

to authorize a number of extra officers as mentioned above. To make the

Army more attractive to enlisted men, it is absolutely essential to

create a service corps, such as exists in nearly every modern army in

the world, to do the skilled and unskilled labor, inseparably connected

with military administration, which is now exacted, without just

compensation, of enlisted men who voluntarily entered the Army to do

service of an altogether different kind. There are a number of other

laws necessary to so organize the Army as to promote its efficiency and

facilitate its rapid expansion in time of war; but the above are the

most important.



It was hoped The Hague Conference might deal with the question of the

limitation of armaments. But even before it had assembled informal

inquiries had developed that as regards naval armaments, the only ones

in which this country had any interest, it was hopeless to try to

devise any plan for which there was the slightest possibility of

securing the assent of the nations gathered at The Hague. No plan was

even proposed which would have had the assent of more than one first

class Power outside of the United States. The only plan that seemed at

all feasible, that of limiting the size of battleships, met with no

favor at all. It is evident, therefore, that it is folly for this

Nation to base any hope of securing peace on any international

agreement as to the limitations of armaments. Such being the fact it

would be most unwise for us to stop the upbuilding of our Navy. To

build one battleship of the best and most advanced type a year would

barely keep our fleet up to its present force. This is not enough. In

my judgment, we should this year provide for four battleships. But it

is idle to build battleships unless in addition to providing the men,

and the means for thorough training, we provide the auxiliaries for

them, unless we provide docks, the coaling stations, the colliers and

supply ships that they need. We are extremely deficient in coaling

stations and docks on the Pacific, and this deficiency should not

longer be permitted to exist. Plenty of torpedo boats and destroyers

should be built. Both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts,

fortifications of the best type should be provided for all our greatest

harbors.



We need always to remember that in time of war the Navy is not to be

used to defend harbors and sea-coast cities; we should perfect our

system of coast fortifications. The only efficient use for the Navy is

for offense. The only way in which it can efficiently protect our own

coast against the possible action of a foreign navy is by destroying

that foreign navy. For defense against a hostile fleet which actually

attacks them, the coast cities must depend upon their forts, mines,

torpedoes, submarines, and torpedo boats and destroyers. All of these

together are efficient for defensive purposes, but they in no way

supply the place of a thoroughly efficient navy capable of acting on

the offensive; for parrying never yet won a fight. It can only be won

by hard hitting, and an aggressive sea-going navy alone can do this

hard hitting of the offensive type. But the forts and the like are

necessary so that the Navy may be footloose. In time of war there is

sure to be demand, under pressure, of fright, for the ships to be

scattered so as to defend all kind of ports. Under penalty of terrible

disaster, this demand must be refused. The ships must be kept together,

and their objective made the enemies' fleet. If fortifications are

sufficiently strong, no modern navy will venture to attack them, so

long as the foe has in existence a hostile navy of anything like the

same size or efficiency. But unless there exists such a navy then the

fortifications are powerless by themselves to secure the victory. For

of course the mere deficiency means that any resolute enemy can at his

leisure combine all his forces upon one point with the certainty that

he can take it.



Until our battle fleet is much larger than at present it should never

be split into detachments so far apart that they could not in event of

emergency be speedily united. Our coast line is on the Pacific just as

much as on the Atlantic. The interests of California, Oregon, and

Washington are as emphatically the interests of the whole Union as

those of Maine and New York, of Louisiana and Texas. The battle fleet

should now and then be moved to the Pacific, just as at other times it

should be kept in the Atlantic. When the Isthmian Canal is built the

transit of the battle fleet from one ocean to the other will be

comparatively easy. Until it is built I earnestly hope that the battle

fleet will be thus shifted between the two oceans every year or two.

The marksmanship on all our ships has improved phenomenally during the

last five years. Until within the last two or three years it was not

possible to train a battle fleet in squadron maneuvers under service

conditions, and it is only during these last two or three years that

the training under these conditions has become really effective.

Another and most necessary stride in advance is now being taken. The

battle fleet is about starting by the Straits of Magellan to visit the

Pacific coast.. Sixteen battleships are going under the command of

Rear-Admiral Evans, while eight armored cruisers and two other

battleships will meet him at San Francisco, whither certain torpedo

destroyers are also going. No fleet of such size has ever made such a

voyage, and it will be of very great educational use to all engaged in

it. The only way by which to teach officers and men how to handle the

fleet so as to meet every possible strain and emergency in time of war

is to have them practice under similar conditions in time of peace.

Moreover, the only way to find out our actual needs is to perform in

time of peace whatever maneuvers might be necessary in time of war.

After war is declared it is too late to find out the needs; that means

to invite disaster. This trip to the Pacific will show what some of our

needs are and will enable us to provide for them. The proper place for

an officer to learn his duty is at sea, and the only way in which a

navy can ever be made efficient is by practice at sea, under all the

conditions which would have to be met if war existed.



I bespeak the most liberal treatment for the officers and enlisted men

of the Navy. It is true of them, as likewise of the officers and

enlisted men of the Army, that they form a body whose interests should

be close to the heart of every good American. In return the most rigid

performance of duty should be exacted from them. The reward should be

ample when they do their best; and nothing less than their best should

be tolerated. It is idle to hope for the best results when the men in

the senior grades come to those grades late in life and serve too short

a time in them. Up to the rank of lieutenant-commander promotion in the

Navy should be as now, by seniority, subject, however, to such

rigid tests as would eliminate the unfit. After the grade of

lieutenant-commander, that is, when we come to the grade of command

rank, the unfit should be eliminated in such manner that only the

conspicuously fit would remain, and sea service should be a principal

test of fitness. Those who are passed by should, after a certain length

of service in their respective grades, be retired. Of a given number of

men it may well be that almost all would make good lieutenants and most

of them good lieutenant-commanders, while only a minority be fit to be

captains, and but three or four to be admirals. Those who object to

promotion otherwise than by mere seniority should reflect upon the

elementary fact that no business in private life could be successfully

managed if those who enter at the lowest rungs of the ladder should

each in turn, if he lived, become the head of the firm, its active

director, and retire after he had held the position a few months. On

its face such a scheme is an absurdity. Chances for improper favoritism

can be minimized by a properly formed board; such as the board of last

June, which did such conscientious and excellent work in elimination.



If all that ought to be done can not now be done, at least let a

beginning be made. In my last three annual Messages, and in a special

Message to the last Congress, the necessity for legislation that will

cause officers of the line of the Navy to reach the grades of captain

and rear-admiral at less advanced ages and which will cause them to

have more sea training and experience in the highly responsible duties

of those grades, so that they may become thoroughly skillful in

handling battleships, divisions, squadrons, and fleets in action, has

been fully explained and urgently recommended. Upon this subject the

Secretary of the Navy has submitted detailed and definite

recommendations which have received my approval, and which, if enacted

into law, will accomplish what is immediately necessary, and will, as

compared with existing law, make a saving of more than five millions of

dollars during the next seven years. The navy personnel act of 1899 has

accomplished all that was expected of it in providing satisfactory

periods of service in the several subordinate grades, from the grade of

ensign to the grade of lieutenant-commander, but the law is inadequate

in the upper grades and will continue to be inadequate on account of

the expansion of the personnel since its enactment. Your attention is

invited to the following quotations from the report of the personnel

board of 1906, of which the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was

president:



"Congress has authorized a considerable increase in the number of

midshipmen at the Naval Academy, and these midshipmen upon graduation

are promoted to ensign and lieutenant (junior-grade). But no provision

has been made for a corresponding increase in the upper grades, the

result being that the lower grades will become so congested that a

midshipman now in one of the lowest classes at Annapolis may possibly

not be promoted to lieutenant until he is between 45 and 50 years of

age. So it will continue under the present law, congesting at the top

and congesting at the bottom. The country fails to get from the

officers of the service the best that is in them by not providing

opportunity for their normal development and training. The board

believes that this works a serious detriment to the efficiency of the

Navy and is a real menace to the public safety."



As stated in my special Message to the last Congress: "I am firmly of

the opinion that unless the present conditions of the higher

commissioned personnel is rectified by judicious legislation the future

of our Navy will be gravely compromised." It is also urgently necessary

to increase the efficiency of the Medical Corps of the Navy. Special

legislation to this end has already been proposed; and I trust it may

be enacted without delay.



It must be remembered that everything done in the Navy to fit it to do

well in time of war must be done in time of peace. Modern wars are

short; they do not last the length of time requisite to build a

battleship; and it takes longer to train the officers and men to do

well on a battleship than it takes to build it. Nothing effective can

be done for the Navy once war has begun, and the result of the war, if

the combatants are otherwise equally matched, will depend upon which

power has prepared best in time of peace. The United States Navy is the

best guaranty the Nation has that its honor and interest will not be

neglected; and in addition it offers by far the best insurance for

peace that can by human ingenuity be devised.



I call attention to the report of the official Board of Visitors to the

Naval Academy at Annapolis which has been forwarded to the Congress.

The report contains this paragraph:



"Such revision should be made of the courses of study and methods of

conducting and marking examinations as will develop and bring out the

average all-round ability of the midshipman rather than to give him

prominence in any one particular study. The fact should be kept in mind

that the Naval Academy is not a university but a school, the primary

object of which is to educate boys to be efficient naval officers.

Changes in curriculum, therefore, should be in the direction of making

the course of instruction less theoretical and more practical. No

portion of any future class should be graduated in advance of the full

four years' course, and under no circumstances should the standard of

instruction be lowered. The Academy in almost all of its departments is

now magnificently equipped, and it would be very unwise to make the

course of instruction less exacting than it is to-day."



Acting upon this suggestion I designated three seagoing officers, Capt.

Richard Wainwright, Commander Robert S. Griffin, and Lieut. Commander

Albert L. Key, all graduates of the Academy, to investigate conditions

and to recommend to me the best method of carrying into effect this

general recommendation. These officers performed the duty promptly and

intelligently, and, under the personal direction of Capt. Charles J.

Badger, Superintendent of the Academy, such of the proposed changes as

were deemed to be at present advisable were put into effect at the

beginning of the academic year, October 1, last. The results, I am

confident, will be most beneficial to the Academy, to the midshipmen,

and to the Navy.



In foreign affairs this country's steady policy is to behave toward

other nations as a strong and self-respecting man should behave toward

the other men with whom he is brought into contact. In other words, our

aim is disinterestedly to help other nations where such help can be

wisely given without the appearance of meddling with what does not

concern us; to be careful to act as a good neighbor; and at the same

time, in good-natured fashion, to make it evident that we do not intend

to be imposed upon.



The Second International Peace Conference was convened at The Hague on

the 15th of June last and remained in session until the 18th of

October. For the first time the representatives of practically all the

civilized countries of the world united in a temperate and kindly

discussion of the methods by which the causes of war might be narrowed

and its injurious effects reduced.



Although the agreements reached in the Conference did not in any

direction go to the length hoped for by the more sanguine, yet in many

directions important steps were taken, and upon every subject on the

programme there was such full and considerate discussion as to justify

the belief that substantial progress has been made toward further

agreements in the future. Thirteen conventions were agreed upon

embodying the definite conclusions which had been reached, and

resolutions were adopted marking the progress made in matters upon

which agreement was not yet sufficiently complete to make conventions

practicable.



The delegates of the United States were instructed to favor an

agreement for obligatory arbitration, the establishment of a permanent

court of arbitration to proceed judicially in the hearing and decision

of international causes, the prohibition of force for the collection of

contract debts alleged to be due from governments to citizens of other

countries until after arbitration as to the justice and amount of the

debt and the time and manner of payment, the immunity of private

property at sea, the better definition of the rights of neutrals, and,

in case any measure to that end should be introduced, the limitation of

armaments.



In the field of peaceful disposal of international differences several

important advances were made. First, as to obligatory arbitration.

Although the Conference failed to secure a unanimous agreement upon the

details of a convention for obligatory arbitration, it did resolve as

follows;



"It is unanimous: (1) In accepting the principle for obligatory

arbitration; (2) In declaring that certain differences, and notably

those relating to the interpretation and application of international

conventional stipulations are susceptible of being submitted to

obligatory arbitration without any restriction."



In view of the fact that as a result of the discussion the vote upon

the definite treaty of obligatory arbitration, which was proposed,

stood 32 in favor to 9 against the adoption of the treaty, there can be

little doubt that the great majority of the countries of the world have

reached a point where they are now ready to apply practically the

principles thus unanimously agreed upon by the Conference.



The second advance, and a very great one, is the agreement which

relates to the use of force for the collection of contract debts. Your

attention is invited to the paragraphs upon this subject in my Message

of December, 1906, and to the resolution of the Third American

Conference at Rio in the summer of 1906. The convention upon this

subject adopted by the Conference substantially as proposed by the

American delegates is as follows:



"In order to avoid between nations armed conflicts of a purely

pecuniary origin arising from contractual debts claimed of the

government of one country by the government of another country to be

due to its nationals, the signatory Powers agree not to have recourse

to armed force for the collection of such contractual debts.



"However, this stipulation shall not be applicable when the debtor

State refuses or leaves unanswered an offer to arbitrate, or, in case

of acceptance, makes it impossible to formulate the terms of

submission, or, after arbitration, fails to comply with the award

rendered.



"It is further agreed that arbitration here contemplated shall be in

conformity, as to procedure, with Chapter III of the Convention for the

Pacific Settlement of International Disputes adopted at The Hague, and

that it shall determine, in so far as there shall be no agreement

between the parties, the justice and the amount of the debt, the time

and mode of payment thereof."



Such a provision would have prevented much injustice and extortion in

the past, and I cannot doubt that its effect in the future will be most

salutary.



A third advance has been made in amending and perfecting the convention

of 1899 for the voluntary settlement of international disputes, and

particularly the extension of those parts of that convention which

relate to commissions of inquiry. The existence of those provisions

enabled the Governments of Great Britain and Russia to avoid war,

notwithstanding great public excitement, at the time of the Dogger Bank

incident, and the new convention agreed upon by the Conference gives

practical effect to the experience gained in that inquiry.



Substantial progress was also made towards the creation of a permanent

judicial tribunal for the determination of international causes. There

was very full discussion of the proposal for such a court and a general

agreement was finally reached in favor of its creation. The Conference

recommended to the signatory Powers the adoption of a draft upon which

it agreed for the organization of the court, leaving to be determined

only the method by which the judges should be selected. This remaining

unsettled question is plainly one which time and good temper will

solve.



A further agreement of the first importance was that for the creation

of an international prize court. The constitution, organization and

procedure of such a tribunal were provided for in detail. Anyone who

recalls the injustices under which this country suffered as a neutral

power during the early part of the last century can not fail to see in

this provision for an international prize court the great advance which

the world is making towards the substitution of the rule of reason and

justice in place of simple force. Not only will the international prize

court be the means of protecting the interests of neutrals, but it is

in itself a step towards the creation of the more general court for the

hearing of international controversies to which reference has just been

made. The organization and action of such a prize court can not fail to

accustom the different countries to the submission of international

questions to the decision of an international tribunal, and we may

confidently expect the results of such submission to bring about a

general agreement upon the enlargement of the practice.



Numerous provisions were adopted for reducing the evil effects of war

and for defining the rights and duties of neutrals.



The Conference also provided for the holding of a third Conference

within a period similar to that which elapsed between the First and

Second Conferences.



The delegates of the United States worthily represented the spirit of

the American people and maintained with fidelity and ability the policy

of our Government upon all the great questions discussed in the

Conference.



The report of the delegation, together with authenticated copies of the

conventions signed, when received, will be laid before the Senate for

its consideration.



When we remember how difficult it is for one of our own legislative

bodies, composed of citizens of the same country, speaking the same

language, living under the same laws, and having the same customs, to

reach an agreement, or even to secure a majority upon any difficult and

important subject which is proposed for legislation, it becomes plain

that the representatives of forty-five different countries, speaking

many different languages, accustomed to different methods of procedure,

with widely diverse interests, who discussed so many different subjects

and reached agreements upon so many, are entitled to grateful

appreciation for the wisdom, patience, and moderation with which they

have discharged their duty. The example of this temperate discussion,

and the agreements and the efforts to agree, among representatives of

all the nations of the earth, acting with universal recognition of the

supreme obligation to promote peace, can not fail to be a powerful

influence for good in future international relations.



A year ago in consequence of a revolutionary movement in Cuba which

threatened the immediate return to chaos of the island, the United

States intervened, sending down an army and establishing a provisional

government under Governor Magoon. Absolute quiet and prosperity have

returned to the island because of this action. We are now taking steps

to provide for elections in the island and our expectation is within

the coming year to be able to turn the island over again to government

chosen by the people thereof. Cuba is at our doors. It is not possible

that this Nation should permit Cuba again to sink into the condition

from which we rescued it. All that we ask of the Cuban people is that

they be prosperous, that they govern themselves so as to bring content,

order and progress to their island, the Queen of the Antilles; and our

only interference has been and will be to help them achieve these

results.



An invitation has been extended by Japan to the Government and people

of the United States to participate in a great national exposition to

be held at Tokyo from April 1 to October 31, 1912, and in which the

principal countries of the world are to be invited to take part. This

is an occasion of special interest to all the nations of the world, and

peculiarly so to us; for it is the first instance in which such a great

national exposition has been held by a great power dwelling on the

Pacific; and all the nations of Europe and America will, I trust, join

in helping to success this first great exposition ever held by a great

nation of Asia. The geographical relations of Japan and the United

States as the possessors of such large portions of the coasts of the

Pacific, the intimate trade relations already existing between the two

countries, the warm friendship which has been maintained between them

without break since the opening of Japan to intercourse with the

western nations, and her increasing wealth and production, which we

regard with hearty goodwill and wish to make the occasion of mutually

beneficial commerce, all unite in making it eminently desirable that

this invitation should be accepted. I heartily recommend such

legislation as will provide in generous fashion for the representation

of this Government and its people in the proposed exposition. Action

should be taken now. We are apt to underestimate the time necessary for

preparation in such cases. The invitation to the French Exposition of

1900 was brought to the attention of the Congress by President

Cleveland in December, 1895; and so many are the delays necessary to

such proceedings that the period of font years and a half which then

intervened before the exposition proved none too long for the proper

preparation of the exhibits.



The adoption of a new tariff by Germany, accompanied by conventions for

reciprocal tariff concessions between that country and most of the

other countries of continental Europe, led the German Government to

give the notice necessary to terminate the reciprocal commercial

agreement with this country proclaimed July 13, 1900. The notice was to

take effect on the 1st of March, 1906, and in default of some other

arrangements this would have left the exports from the United States to

Germany subject to the general German tariff duties, from 25 to 50 per

cent higher than the conventional duties imposed upon the goods of most

of our competitors for German trade.



Under a special agreement made between the two Governments in February,

1906, the German Government postponed the operation of their notice

until the 30th of June, 1907. In the meantime, deeming it to be my duty

to make every possible effort to prevent a tariff war between the

United States and Germany arising from misunderstanding by either

country of the conditions existing in the other, and acting upon the

invitation of the German Government, I sent to Berlin a commission

composed of competent experts in the operation and administration of

the customs tariff, from the Departments of the Treasury and Commerce

and Labor. This commission was engaged for several mouths in conference

with a similar commission appointed by the German Government, under

instructions, so far as practicable, to reach a common understanding as

to all the facts regarding the tariffs of the United States and Germany

material and relevant to the trade relations between the two countries.

The commission reported, and upon the basis of the report, a further

temporary commercial agreement was entered into by the two countries,

pursuant to which, in the exercise of the authority conferred upon the

President by the third section of the tariff act of July 24, 1897, I

extended the reduced tariff rates provided for in that section to

champagne and all other sparkling wines, and pursuant to which the

German conventional or minimum tariff rates were extended to about 96

1/2 per cent of all the exports from the United States to Germany. This

agreement is to remain in force until the 30th of June, 1908, and until

six months after notice by either party to terminate it.



The agreement and the report of the commission on which it is based

will be laid before the Congress for its information.



This careful examination into the tariff relations between the United

States and Germany involved an inquiry into certain of our methods of

administration which had been the cause of much complaint on the part

of German exporters. In this inquiry I became satisfied that certain

vicious and unjustifiable practices had grown up in our customs

administration, notably the practice of determining values of imports

upon detective reports never disclosed to the persons whose interests

were affected. The use of detectives, though often necessary, tends

towards abuse, and should be carefully guarded. Under our practice as I

found it to exist in this case, the abuse had become gross and

discreditable. Under it, instead of seeking information as to the

market value of merchandise from the well-known and respected members

of the commercial community in the country of its production, secret

statements were obtained from informers and discharged employees and

business rivals, and upon this kind of secret evidence the values of

imported goods were frequently raised and heavy penalties were

frequently imposed upon importers who were never permitted to know what

the evidence was and who never had an opportunity to meet it. It is

quite probable that this system tended towards an increase of the

duties collected upon imported goods, but I conceive it to be a

violation of law to exact more duties than the law provides, just as it

is a violation to admit goods upon the payment of less than the legal

rate of duty. This practice was repugnant to the spirit of American law

and to American sense of justice. In the judgment of the most competent

experts of the Treasury Department and the Department of Commerce and

Labor it was wholly unnecessary for the due collection of the customs

revenues, and the attempt to defend it merely illustrates the

demoralization which naturally follows from a long continued course of

reliance upon such methods. I accordingly caused the regulations

governing this branch of the customs service to be modified so that

values are determined upon a hearing in which all the parties

interested have an opportunity to be heard and to know the evidence

against them. Moreover our Treasury agents are accredited to the

government of the country in which they seek information, and in

Germany receive the assistance of the quasi-official chambers of

commerce in determining the actual market value of goods, in accordance

with what I am advised to be the true construction of the law.



These changes of regulations were adapted to the removal of such

manifest abuses that I have not felt that they ought to be confined to

our relations with Germany; and I have extended their operation to all

other countries which have expressed a desire to enter into similar

administrative relations.



I ask for authority to reform the agreement with China under which the

indemnity of 1900 was fixed, by remitting and cancelling the obligation

of China for the payment of all that part of the stipulated indemnity

which is in excess of the sum of eleven million, six hundred and

fifty-five thousand, four hundred and ninety-two dollars and sixty-nine

cents, and interest at four per cent. After the rescue of the foreign

legations in Peking during the Boxer troubles in 1900 the Powers

required from China the payment of equitable indemnities to the several

nations, and the final protocol under which the troops were withdrawn,

signed at Peking, September 7, 1901, fixed the amount of this indemnity

allotted to the United States at over $20,000,000, and China paid, up

to and including the 1st day of June last, a little over $6,000,000. It

was the first intention of this Government at the proper time, when all

claims had been presented and all expenses ascertained as fully as

possible, to revise the estimates and account, and as a proof of

sincere friendship for China voluntarily to release that country from

its legal liability for all payments in excess of the sum which should

prove to be necessary for actual indemnity to the United States and its

citizens.



This Nation should help in every practicable way in the education of

the Chinese people, so that the vast and populous Empire of China may

gradually adapt itself to modern conditions. One way of doing this is

by promoting the coming of Chinese students to this country and making

it attractive to them to take courses at our universities and higher

educational institutions. Our educators should, so far as possible,

take concerted action toward this end.



On the courteous invitation of the President of Mexico, the Secretary

of State visited that country in September and October and was received

everywhere with the greatest kindness and hospitality.



He carried from the Government of the United States to our southern

neighbor a message of respect and good will and of desire for better

acquaintance and increasing friendship. The response from the

Government and the people of Mexico was hearty and sincere. No pains

were spared to manifest the most friendly attitude and feeling toward

the United States.



In view of the close neighborhood of the two countries the relations

which exist between Mexico and the United States are just cause for

gratification. We have a common boundary of over 1,500 miles from the

Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. Much of it is marked only by the

shifting waters of the Rio Grande. Many thousands of Mexicans are

residing upon our side of the line and it is estimated that over 40,000

Americans are resident in Mexican territory and that American

investments in Mexico amount to over seven hundred million dollars. The

extraordinary industrial and commercial prosperity of Mexico has been

greatly promoted by American enterprise, and Americans are sharing

largely in its results. The foreign trade of the Republic already

exceeds $240,000,000 per annum, and of this two-thirds both of exports

and imports are exchanged with the United States. Under these

circumstances numerous questions necessarily arise between the two

countries. These questions are always approached and disposed of in a

spirit of mutual courtesy and fair dealing. Americans carrying on

business in Mexico testify uniformly to the kindness and consideration

with which they are treated and their sense of the security of their

property and enterprises under the wise administration of the great

statesman who has so long held the office of Chief Magistrate of that

Republic.



The two Governments have been uniting their efforts for a considerable

time past to aid Central America in attaining the degree of peace and

order which have made possible the prosperity of the northern ports of

the Continent. After the peace between Guatemala, Honduras, and

Salvador, celebrated under the circumstances described in my last

Message, a new war broke out between the Republics of Nicaragua,

Honduras, and Salvador. The effort to compose this new difficulty has

resulted in the acceptance of the joint suggestion of the Presidents of

Mexico and of the United States for a general peace conference between

all the countries of Central America. On the 17th day of September last

a protocol was signed between the representatives of the five Central

American countries accredited to this Government agreeing upon a

conference to be held in the City of Washington "in order to devise the

means of preserving the good relations among said Republics and

bringing about permanent peace in those countries." The protocol

includes the expression of a wish that the Presidents of the United

States and Mexico should appoint "representatives to lend their good

and impartial offices in a purely friendly way toward the realization

of the objects of the conference." The conference is now in session and

will have our best wishes and, where it is practicable, our friendly

assistance.



One of the results of the Pan American Conference at Rio Janeiro in the

summer of 1906 has been a great increase in the activity and usefulness

of the International Bureau of American Republics. That institution,

which includes all the American Republics in its membership and brings

all their representatives together, is doing a really valuable work in

informing the people of the United States about the other Republics and

in making the United States known to them. Its action is now limited by

appropriations determined when it was doing a work on a much smaller

scale and rendering much less valuable service. I recommend that the

contribution of this Government to the expenses of the Bureau be made

commensurate with its increased work.



***



State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 8, 1908



To the Senate and House of Representatives:



FINANCES.



The financial standing of the Nation at the present time is excellent,

and the financial management of the Nation's interests by the

Government during the last seven years has shown the most satisfactory

results. But our currency system is imperfect, and it is earnestly to

be hoped that the Currency Commission will be able to propose a

thoroughly good system which will do away with the existing defects.



During the period from July 1, 1901, to September 30, 1908, there was

an increase in the amount of money in circulation of $902,991,399. The

increase in the per capita during this period was $7.06. Within this

time there were several occasions when it was necessary for the

Treasury Department to come to the relief of the money market by

purchases or redemptions of United States bonds; by increasing deposits

in national banks; by stimulating additional issues of national bank

notes, and by facilitating importations from abroad of gold. Our

imperfect currency system has made these proceedings necessary, and

they were effective until the monetary disturbance in the fall of 1907

immensely increased the difficulty of ordinary methods of relief. By

the middle of November the available working balance in the Treasury

had been reduced to approximately $5,000,000. Clearing house

associations throughout the country had been obliged to resort to the

expedient of issuing clearing house certificates, to be used as money.

In this emergency it was determined to invite subscriptions for

$50,000,000 Panama Canal bonds, and $100,000,000 three per cent

certificates of indebtedness authorized by the act of June 13, 1898. It

was proposed to re-deposit in the national banks the proceeds of these

issues, and to permit their use as a basis for additional circulating

notes of national banks. The moral effect of this procedure was so

great that it was necessary to issue only $24,631,980 of the Panama

Canal bonds and $15,436,500 of the certificates of indebtedness.



During the period from July 1, 1901, to September 30, 1908, the balance

between the net ordinary receipts and the net ordinary expenses of the

Government showed a surplus in the four years 1902, 1903, 1906 and

1907, and a deficit in the years 1904, 1905, 1908 and a fractional part

of the fiscal year 1909. The net result was a surplus of

$99,283,413.54. The financial operations of the Government during this

period, based upon these differences between receipts and expenditures,

resulted in a net reduction of the interest-bearing debt of the United

States from $987,141,040 to $897,253,990, notwithstanding that there

had been two sales of Panama Canal bonds amounting in the aggregate to

$54,631,980, and an issue of three per cent certificates of

indebtedness under the act of June 13, 1998, amounting to $15,436,500.

Refunding operations of the Treasury Department under the act of March

14, 1900, resulted in the conversion into two per cent consols of 1930

of $200,309,400 bonds bearing higher rates of interest. A decrease of

$8,687,956 in the annual interest charge resulted from these

operations.



In short, during the seven years and three months there has been a net

surplus of nearly one hundred millions of receipts over expenditures, a

reduction of the interest-bearing debt by ninety millions, in spite of

the extraordinary expense of the Panama Canal, and a saving of nearly

nine millions on the annual interest charge. This is an exceedingly

satisfactory showing, especially in view of the fact that during this

period the Nation has never hesitated to undertake any expenditure that

it regarded as necessary. There have been no new taxes and no increase

of taxes; on the contrary, some taxes have been taken off; there has

been a reduction of taxation.



CORPORATIONS.



As regards the great corporations engaged in interstate business, and

especially the railroad, I can only repeat what I have already again

and again said in my messages to the Congress, I believe that under the

interstate clause of the Constitution the United States has complete

and paramount right to control all agencies of interstate commerce, and

I believe that the National Government alone can exercise this right

with wisdom and effectiveness so as both to secure justice from, and to

do justice to, the great corporations which are the most important

factors in modern business. I believe that it is worse than folly to

attempt to prohibit all combinations as is done by the Sherman

anti-trust law, because such a law can be enforced only imperfectly and

unequally, and its enforcement works almost as much hardship as good. I

strongly advocate that instead of an unwise effort to prohibit all

combinations there shall be substituted a law which shall expressly

permit combinations which are in the interest of the public, but shall

at the same time give to some agency of the National Government full

power of control and supervision over them. One of the chief features

of this control should be securing entire publicity in all matters

which the public has a right to know, and furthermore, the power, not

by judicial but by executive action, to prevent or put a stop to every

form of improper favoritism or other wrongdoing.



The railways of the country should be put completely under the

Interstate Commerce Commission and removed from the domain of the

anti-trust law. The power of the Commission should be made

thoroughgoing, so that it could exercise complete supervision and

control over the issue of securities as well as over the raising and

lowering of rates. As regards rates, at least, this power should be

summary. The power to investigate the financial operations and accounts

of the railways has been one of the most valuable features in recent

legislation. Power to make combinations and traffic agreements should

be explicitly conferred upon the railroads, the permission of the

Commission being first gained and the combination or agreement being

published in all its details. In the interest of the public the

representatives of the public should have complete power to see that

the railroads do their duty by the public, and as a matter of course

this power should also be exercised so as to see that no injustice is

done to the railroads. The shareholders, the employees and the shippers

all have interests that must be guarded. It is to the interest of all

of them that no swindling stock speculation should be allowed, and that

there should be no improper issuance of securities. The guiding

intelligences necessary for the successful building and successful

management of railroads should receive ample remuneration; but no man

should be allowed to make money in connection with railroads out of

fraudulent over-capitalization and kindred stock-gambling performances;

there must be no defrauding of investors, oppression of the farmers and

business men who ship freight, or callous disregard of the rights and

needs of the employees. In addition to this the interests of the

shareholders, of the employees, and of the shippers should all be

guarded as against one another. To give any one of them undue and

improper consideration is to do injustice to the others. Rates must be

made as low as is compatible with giving proper returns to all the

employees of the railroad, from the highest to the lowest, and proper

returns to the shareholders; but they must not, for instance, be

reduced in such fashion as to necessitate a cut in the wages of the

employees or the abolition of the proper and legitimate profits of

honest shareholders.



Telegraph and telephone companies engaged in interstate business should

be put under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission.



It is very earnestly to be wished that our people, through their

representatives, should act in this matter. It is hard to say whether

most damage to the country at large would come from entire failure on

the part of the public to supervise and control the actions of the

great corporations, or from the exercise of the necessary governmental

power in a way which would do injustice and wrong to the corporations.

Both the preachers of an unrestricted individualism, and the preachers

of an oppression which would deny to able men of business the just

reward of their initiative and business sagacity, are advocating

policies that would be fraught with the gravest harm to the whole

country. To permit every lawless capitalist, every law-defying

corporation, to take any action, no matter how iniquitous, in the

effort to secure an improper profit and to build up privilege, would be

ruinous to the Republic and would mark the abandonment of the effort to

secure in the industrial world the spirit of democratic fair dealing.

On the other hand, to attack these wrongs in that spirit of demagogy

which can see wrong only when committed by the man of wealth, and is

dumb and blind in the presence of wrong committed against men of

property or by men of no property, is exactly as evil as corruptly to

defend the wrongdoing of men of wealth. The war we wage must be waged

against misconduct, against wrongdoing wherever it is found; and we

must stand heartily for the rights of every decent man, whether he be a

man of great wealth or a man who earns his livelihood as a wage-worker

or a tiller of the soil.



It is to the interest of all of us that there should be a premium put

upon individual initiative and individual capacity, and an ample reward

for the great directing intelligences alone competent to manage the

great business operations of to-day. It is well to keep in mind that

exactly as the anarchist is the worst enemy of liberty and the

reactionary the worst enemy of order, so the men who defend the rights

of property have most to fear from the wrongdoers of great wealth, and

the men who are championing popular rights have most to fear from the

demagogues who in the name of popular rights would do wrong to and

oppress honest business men, honest men of wealth; for the success of

either type of wrongdoer necessarily invites a violent reaction against

the cause the wrongdoer nominally upholds. In point of danger to the

Nation there is nothing to choose between on the one hand the

corruptionist, the bribe-giver, the bribe-taker, the man who employs

his great talent to swindle his fellow-citizens on a large scale, and,

on the other hand, the preacher of class hatred, the man who, whether

from ignorance or from willingness to sacrifice his country to his

ambition, persuades well-meaning but wrong-headed men to try to destroy

the instruments upon which our prosperity mainly rests. Let each group

of men beware of and guard against the shortcomings to which that group

is itself most liable. Too often we see the business community in a

spirit of unhealthy class consciousness deplore the effort to hold to

account under the law the wealthy men who in their management of great

corporations, whether railroads, street railways, or other industrial

enterprises, have behaved in a way that revolts the conscience of the

plain, decent people. Such an attitude can not be condemned too

severely, for men of property should recognize that they jeopardize the

rights of property when they fail heartily to join in the effort to do

away with the abuses of wealth. On the other hand, those who advocate

proper control on behalf of the public, through the State, of these

great corporations, and of the wealth engaged on a giant scale in

business operations, must ever keep in mind that unless they do

scrupulous justice to the corporation, unless they permit ample profit,

and cordially encourage capable men of business so long as they act

with honesty, they are striking at the root of our national well-being;

for in the long run, under the mere pressure of material distress, the

people as a whole would probably go back to the reign of an

unrestricted individualism rather than submit to a control by the State

so drastic and so foolish, conceived in a spirit of such unreasonable

and narrow hostility to wealth, as to prevent business operations from

being profitable, and therefore to bring ruin upon the entire business

community, and ultimately upon the entire body of citizens.



The opposition to Government control of these great corporations makes

its most effective effort in the shape of an appeal to the old doctrine

of State's rights. Of course there are many sincere men who now believe

in unrestricted individualism in business, just as there were formerly

many sincere men who believed in slavery--that is, in the unrestricted

right of an individual to own another individual. These men do not by

themselves have great weight, however. The effective fight against

adequate Government control and supervision of individual, and

especially of corporate, wealth engaged in interstate business is

chiefly done under cover; and especially under cover of an appeal to

State's rights. It is not at all infrequent to read in the same speech

a denunciation of predatory wealth fostered by special privilege and

defiant of both the public welfare and law of the land, and a

denunciation of centralization in the Central Government of the power

to deal with this centralized and organized wealth. Of course the

policy set forth in such twin denunciations amounts to absolutely

nothing, for the first half is nullified by the second half. The chief

reason, among the many sound and compelling reasons, that led to the

formation of the National Government was the absolute need that the

Union, and not the several States, should deal with interstate and

foreign commerce; and the power to deal with interstate commerce was

granted absolutely and plenarily to the Central Government and was

exercised completely as regards the only instruments of interstate

commerce known in those days--the waterways, the highroads, as well as

the partnerships of individuals who then conducted all of what business

there was. Interstate commerce is now chiefly conducted by railroads;

and the great corporation has supplanted the mass of small partnerships

or individuals. The proposal to make the National Government supreme

over, and therefore to give it complete control over, the railroads and

other instruments of interstate commerce is merely a proposal to carry

out to the letter one of the prime purposes, if not the prime purpose,

for which the Constitution was rounded. It does not represent

centralization. It represents merely the acknowledgment of the patent

fact that centralization has already come in business. If this

irresponsible outside business power is to be controlled in the

interest of the general public it can only be controlled in one way--by

giving adequate power of control to the one sovereignty capable of

exercising such power--the National Government. Forty or fifty separate

state governments can not exercise that power over corporations doing

business in most or all of them; first, because they absolutely lack

the authority to deal with interstate business in any form; and second,

because of the inevitable conflict of authority sure to arise in the

effort to enforce different kinds of state regulation, often

inconsistent with one another and sometimes oppressive in themselves.

Such divided authority can not regulate commerce with wisdom and

effect. The Central Government is the only power which, without

oppression, can nevertheless thoroughly and adequately control and

supervise the large corporations. To abandon the effort for National

control means to abandon the effort for all adequate control and yet to

render likely continual bursts of action by State legislatures, which

can not achieve the purpose sought for, but which can do a great deal

of damage to the corporation without conferring any real benefit on the

public.



I believe that the more farsighted corporations are themselves coming

to recognize the unwisdom of the violent hostility they have displayed

during the last few years to regulation and control by the National

Government of combinations engaged in interstate business. The truth is

that we who believe in this movement of asserting and exercising a

genuine control, in the public interest, over these great corporations

have to contend against two sets of enemies, who, though nominally

opposed to one another, are really allies in preventing a proper

solution of the problem. There are, first, the big corporation men, and

the extreme individualists among business men, who genuinely believe in

utterly unregulated business that is, in the reign of plutocracy; and,

second, the men who, being blind to the economic movements of the day,

believe in a movement of repression rather than of regulation of

corporations, and who denounce both the power of the railroads and the

exercise of the Federal power which alone can really control the

railroads. Those who believe in efficient national control, on the

other hand, do not in the least object to combinations; do not in the

least object to concentration in business administration. On the

contrary, they favor both, with the all important proviso that there

shall be such publicity about their workings, and such thoroughgoing

control over them, as to insure their being in the interest, and not

against the interest, of the general public. We do not object to the

concentration of wealth and administration; but we do believe in the

distribution of the wealth in profits to the real owners, and in

securing to the public the full benefit of the concentrated

administration. We believe that with concentration in administration

there can come both be advantage of a larger ownership and of a more

equitable distribution of profits, and at the same time a better

service to the commonwealth. We believe that the administration should

be for the benefit of the many; and that greed and rascality, practiced

on a large scale, should be punished as relentlessly as if practiced on

a small scale.



We do not for a moment believe that the problem will be solved by any

short and easy method. The solution will come only by pressing various

concurrent remedies. Some of these remedies must lie outside the domain

of all government. Some must lie outside the domain of the Federal

Government. But there is legislation which the Federal Government alone

can enact and which is absolutely vital in order to secure the

attainment of our purpose. Many laws are needed. There should be

regulation by the National Government of the great interstate

corporations, including a simple method of account keeping, publicity,

supervision of the issue securities, abolition of rebates, and of

special privileges. There should be short time franchises for all

corporations engaged in public business; including the corporations

which get power from water rights. There should be National as well as

State guardianship of mines and forests. The labor legislation

hereinafter referred to should concurrently be enacted into law.



To accomplish this, means of course a certain increase in the use

of--not the creation of--power, by the Central Government. The power

already exists; it does not have to be created; the only question is

whether it shall be used or left idle--and meanwhile the corporations

over which the power ought to be exercised will not remain idle. Let

those who object to this increase in the use of the only power

available, the national power, be frank, and admit openly that they

propose to abandon any effort to control the great business

corporations and to exercise supervision over the accumulation and

distribution of wealth; for such supervision and control can only come

through this particular kind of increase of power. We no more believe

in that empiricism which demand, absolutely unrestrained individualism

than we do in that empiricism which clamors for a deadening socialism

which would destroy all individual initiative and would ruin the

country with a completeness that not even an unrestrained individualism

itself could achieve. The danger to American democracy lies not in the

least in the concentration of administrative power in responsible and

accountable hands. It lies in having the power insufficiently

concentrated, so that no one can be held responsible to the people for

its use. Concentrated power is palpable, visible, responsible, easily

reached, quickly held to account. Power scattered through many

administrators, many legislators, many men who work behind and through

legislators and administrators, is impalpable, is unseen, is

irresponsible, can not be reached, can not be held to account.

Democracy is in peril wherever the administration of political power is

scattered among a variety of men who work in secret, whose very names

are unknown to the common people. It is not in peril from any man who

derives authority from the people, who exercises it in sight of the

people, and who is from time to time compelled to give an account of

its exercise to the people.



LABOR.



There are many matters affecting labor and the status of the

wage-worker to which I should like to draw your attention, but an

exhaustive discussion of the problem in all its aspects is not now

necessary. This administration is nearing its end; and, moreover, under

our form of government the solution of the problem depends upon the

action of the States as much as upon the action of the Nation.

Nevertheless, there are certain considerations which I wish to set

before you, because I hope that our people will more and more keep them

in mind. A blind and ignorant resistance to every effort for the reform

of abuses and for the readjustment of society to modern industrial

conditions represents not true conservatism, but an incitement to the

wildest radicalism; for wise radicalism and wise conservatism go hand

in hand, one bent on progress, the other bent on seeing that no change

is made unless in the right direction. I believe in a steady effort, or

perhaps it would be more accurate to say in steady efforts in many

different directions, to bring about a condition of affairs under which

the men who work with hand or with brain, the laborers, the

superintendents, the men who produce for the market and the men who

find a market for the articles produced, shall own a far greater share

than at present of the wealth they produce, and be enabled to invest it

in the tools and instruments by which all work is carried on. As far as

possible I hope to see a frank recognition of the advantages conferred

by machinery, organization, and division of labor, accompanied by an

effort to bring about a larger share in the ownership by wage-worker of

railway, mill and factory. In farming, this simply means that we wish

to see the farmer own his own land; we do not wish to see the farms so

large that they become the property of absentee landlords who farm them

by tenants, nor yet so small that the farmer becomes like a European

peasant. Again, the depositors in our savings banks now number over

one-tenth of our entire population. These are all capitalists, who

through the savings banks loan their money to the workers--that is, in

many cases to themselves--to carry on their various industries. The

more we increase their number, the more we introduce the principles of

cooperation into our industry. Every increase in the number of small

stockholders in corporations is a good thing, for the same reasons; and

where the employees are the stockholders the result is particularly

good. Very much of this movement must be outside of anything that can

be accomplished by legislation; but legislation can do a good deal.

Postal savings banks will make it easy for the poorest to keep their

savings in absolute safety. The regulation of the national highways

must be such that they shall serve all people with equal justice.

Corporate finances must be supervised so as to make it far safer than

at present for the man of small means to invest his money in stocks.

There must be prohibition of child labor, diminution of woman labor,

shortening of hours of all mechanical labor; stock watering should be

prohibited, and stock gambling so far as is possible discouraged. There

should be a progressive inheritance tax on large fortunes. Industrial

education should be encouraged. As far as possible we should lighten

the burden of taxation on the small man. We should put a premium upon

thrift, hard work, and business energy; but these qualities cease to be

the main factors in accumulating a fortune long before that fortune

reaches a point where it would be seriously affected by any inheritance

tax such as I propose. It is eminently right that the Nation should fix

the terms upon which the great fortunes are inherited. They rarely do

good and they often do harm to those who inherit them in their

entirety.



PROTECTION FOR WAGEWORKERS.



The above is the merest sketch, hardly even a sketch in outline, of the

reforms for which we should work. But there is one matter with which

the Congress should deal at this session. There should no longer be any

paltering with the question of taking care of the wage-workers who,

under our present industrial system, become killed, crippled, or worn

out as part of the regular incidents of a given business. The majority

of wageworkers must have their rights secured for them by State action;

but the National Government should legislate in thoroughgoing and

far-reaching fashion not only for all employees of the National

Government, but for all persons engaged in interstate commerce. The

object sought for could be achieved to a measurable degree, as far as

those killed or crippled are concerned, by proper employers' liability

laws. As far as concerns those who have been worn out, I call your

attention to the fact that definite steps toward providing old-age

pensions have been taken in many of our private industries. These may

be indefinitely extended through voluntary association and contributory

schemes, or through the agency of savings banks, as under the recent

Massachusetts plan. To strengthen these practical measures should be

our immediate duty; it is not at present necessary to consider the

larger and more general governmental schemes that most European

governments have found themselves obliged to adopt.



Our present system, or rather no system, works dreadful wrong, and is

of benefit to only one class of people--the lawyers. When a workman is

injured what he needs is not an expensive and doubtful lawsuit, but the

certainty of relief through immediate administrative action. The number

of accidents which result in the death or crippling of wageworkers, in

the Union at large, is simply appalling; in a very few years it runs up

a total far in excess of the aggregate of the dead and wounded in any

modern war. No academic theory about "freedom of contract" or

"constitutional liberty to contract" should be permitted to interfere

with this and similar movements. Progress in civilization has

everywhere meant a limitation and regulation of contract. I call your

especial attention to the bulletin of the Bureau of Labor which gives a

statement of the methods of treating the unemployed in European

countries, as this is a subject which in Germany, for instance, is

treated in connection with making provision for worn-out and crippled

workmen.



Pending a thoroughgoing investigation and action there is certain

legislation which should be enacted at once. The law, passed at the

last session of the Congress, granting compensation to certain classes

of employees of the Government, should be extended to include all

employees of the Government and should be made more liberal in its

terms. There is no good ground for the distinction made in the law

between those engaged in hazardous occupations and those not so

engaged. If a man is injured or killed in any line of work, it was

hazardous in his case. Whether 1 per cent or 10 per cent of those

following a given occupation actually suffer injury or death ought not

to have any bearing on the question of their receiving compensation. It

is a grim logic which says to an injured employee or to the dependents

of one killed that he or they are entitled to no compensation because

very few people other than he have been injured or killed in that

occupation. Perhaps one of the most striking omissions in the law is

that it does not embrace peace officers and others whose lives may be

sacrificed in enforcing the laws of the United States. The terms of the

act providing compensation should be made more liberal than in the

present act. A year's compensation is not adequate for a wage-earner's

family in the event of his death by accident in the course of his

employment. And in the event of death occurring, say, ten or eleven

months after the accident, the family would only receive as

compensation the equivalent of one or two months' earnings. In this

respect the generosity of the United States towards its employees

compares most unfavorably with that of every country in Europe--even

the poorest.



The terms of the act are also a hardship in prohibiting payment in

cases where the accident is in any way due to the negligence of the

employee. It is inevitable that daily familiarity with danger will lead

men to take chances that can be construed into negligence. So well is

this recognized that in practically all countries in the civilized

world, except the United States, only a great degree of negligence acts

as a bar to securing compensation. Probably in no other respect is our

legislation, both State and National, so far behind practically the

entire civilized world as in the matter of liability and compensation

for accidents in industry. It is humiliating that at European

international congresses on accidents the United States should be

singled out as the most belated among the nations in respect to

employers' liability legislation. This Government is itself a large

employer of labor, and in its dealings with its employees it should set

a standard in this country which would place it on a par with the most

progressive countries in Europe. The laws of the United States in this

respect and the laws of European countries have been summarized in a

recent Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, and no American who reads this

summary can fail to be struck by the great contrast between our

practices and theirs--a contrast not in any sense to our credit.



The Congress should without further delay pass a model employers'

liability law for the District of Columbia. The employers' liability

act recently declared unconstitutional, on account of apparently

including in its provisions employees engaged in intrastate commerce as

well as those engaged in interstate commerce, has been held by the

local courts to be still in effect so far as its provisions apply to

District of Columbia. There should be no ambiguity on this point. If

there is any doubt on the subject, the law should be reenacted with

special reference to the District of Columbia. This act, however,

applies only to employees of common carriers. In all other occupations

the liability law of the District is the old common law. The severity

and injustice of the common law in this matter has been in some degree

or another modified in the majority of our States, and the only

jurisdiction under the exclusive control of the Congress should be

ahead and not behind the States of the Union in this respect. A

comprehensive employers' liability law should be passed for the

District of Columbia.



I renew my recommendation made in a previous message that half-holidays

be granted during summer to all wageworkers in Government employ.



I also renew my recommendation that the principle of the eight-hour day

should as rapidly and as far as practicable be extended to the entire

work being carried on by the Government; the present law should be

amended to embrace contracts on those public works which the present

wording of the act seems to exclude.



THE COURTS.



I most earnestly urge upon the Congress the duty of increasing the

totally inadequate salaries now given to our Judges. On the whole there

is no body of public servants who do as valuable work, nor whose

moneyed reward is so inadequate compared to their work. Beginning with

the Supreme Court, the Judges should have their salaries doubled. It is

not befitting the dignity of the Nation that its most honored public

servants should be paid sums so small compared to what they would earn

in private life that the performance of public service by them implies

an exceedingly heavy pecuniary sacrifice.



It is earnestly to be desired that some method should be devised for

doing away with the long delays which now obtain in the administration

of justice, and which operate with peculiar severity against persons of

small means, and favor only the very criminals whom it is most

desirable to punish. These long delays in the final decisions of cases

make in the aggregate a crying evil; and a remedy should be devised.

Much of this intolerable delay is due to improper regard paid to

technicalities which are a mere hindrance to justice. In some noted

recent cases this over-regard for technicalities has resulted in a

striking denial of justice, and flagrant wrong to the body politic.



At the last election certain leaders of organized labor made a violent

and sweeping attack upon the entire judiciary of the country, an attack

couched in such terms as to include the most upright, honest and

broad-minded judges, no less than those of narrower mind and more

restricted outlook. It was the kind of attack admirably fitted to

prevent any successful attempt to reform abuses of the judiciary,

because it gave the champions of the unjust judge their eagerly desired

opportunity to shift their ground into a championship of just judges

who were unjustly assailed. Last year, before the House Committee on

the Judiciary, these same labor leaders formulated their demands,

specifying the bill that contained them, refusing all compromise,

stating they wished the principle of that bill or nothing. They

insisted on a provision that in a labor dispute no injunction should

issue except to protect a property right, and specifically provided

that the right to carry on business should not be construed as a

property right; and in a second provision their bill made legal in a

labor dispute any act or agreement by or between two or more persons

that would not have been unlawful if done by a single person. In other

words, this bill legalized blacklisting and boycotting in every form,

legalizing, for instance, those forms of the secondary boycott which

the anthracite coal strike commission so unreservedly condemned; while

the right to carry on a business was explicitly taken out from under

that protection which the law throws over property. The demand was made

that there should be trial by jury in contempt cases, thereby most

seriously impairing the authority of the courts. All this represented a

course of policy which, if carried out, would mean the enthronement of

class privilege in its crudest and most brutal form, and the

destruction of one of the most essential functions of the judiciary in

all civilized lands.



The violence of the crusade for this legislation, and its complete

failure, illustrate two truths which it is essential our people should

learn. In the first place, they ought to teach the workingman, the

laborer, the wageworker, that by demanding what is improper and

impossible he plays into the hands of his foes. Such a crude and

vicious attack upon the courts, even if it were temporarily successful,

would inevitably in the end cause a violent reaction and would band the

great mass of citizens together, forcing them to stand by all the

judges, competent and incompetent alike, rather than to see the wheels

of justice stopped. A movement of this kind can ultimately result in

nothing but damage to those in whose behalf it is nominally undertaken.

This is a most healthy truth, which it is wise for all our people to

learn. Any movement based on that class hatred which at times assumes

the name of "class consciousness" is certain ultimately to fail, and if

it temporarily succeeds, to do far-reaching damage. "Class

consciousness," where it is merely another name for the odious vice of

class selfishness, is equally noxious whether in an employer's

association or in a workingman's association. The movement in question

was one in which the appeal was made to all workingmen to vote

primarily, not as American citizens, but as individuals of a certain

class in society. Such an appeal in the first place revolts the more

high-minded and far-sighted among the persons to whom it is addressed,

and in the second place tends to arouse a strong antagonism among all

other classes of citizens, whom it therefore tends to unite against the

very organization on whose behalf it is issued. The result is therefore

unfortunate from every standpoint. This healthy truth, by the way, will

be learned by the socialists if they ever succeed in establishing in

this country an important national party based on such class

consciousness and selfish class interest.



The wageworkers, the workingmen, the laboring men of the country, by

the way in which they repudiated the effort to get them to cast their

votes in response to an appeal to class hatred, have emphasized their

sound patriotism and Americanism. The whole country has cause to fell

pride in this attitude of sturdy independence, in this uncompromising

insistence upon acting simply as good citizens, as good Americans,

without regard to fancied--and improper--class interests. Such an

attitude is an object-lesson in good citizenship to the entire nation.



But the extreme reactionaries, the persons who blind themselves to the

wrongs now and then committed by the courts on laboring men, should

also think seriously as to what such a movement as this portends. The

judges who have shown themselves able and willing effectively to check

the dishonest activity of the very rich man who works iniquity by the

mismanagement of corporations, who have shown themselves alert to do

justice to the wageworker, and sympathetic with the needs of the mass

of our people, so that the dweller in the tenement houses, the man who

practices a dangerous trade, the man who is crushed by excessive hours

of labor, feel that their needs are understood by the courts--these

judges are the real bulwark of the courts; these judges, the judges of

the stamp of the president-elect, who have been fearless in opposing

labor when it has gone wrong, but fearless also in holding to strict

account corporations that work iniquity, and far-sighted in seeing that

the workingman gets his rights, are the men of all others to whom we

owe it that the appeal for such violent and mistaken legislation has

fallen on deaf ears, that the agitation for its passage proved to be

without substantial basis. The courts are jeopardized primarily by the

action of those Federal and State judges who show inability or

unwillingness to put a stop to the wrongdoing of very rich men under

modern industrial conditions, and inability or unwillingness to give

relief to men of small means or wageworkers who are crushed down by

these modern industrial conditions; who, in other words, fail to

understand and apply the needed remedies for the new wrongs produced by

the new and highly complex social and industrial civilization which has

grown up in the last half century.



The rapid changes in our social and industrial life which have attended

this rapid growth have made it necessary that, in applying to concrete

cases the great rule of right laid down in our Constitution, there

should be a full understanding and appreciation of the new conditions

to which the rules are to be applied. What would have been an

infringement upon liberty half a century ago may be the necessary

safeguard of liberty to-day. What would have been an injury to property

then may be necessary to the enjoyment of property now. Every judicial

decision involves two terms--one, as interpretation of the law; the

other, the understanding of the facts to which it is to be applied. The

great mass of our judicial officers are, I believe, alive to those

changes of conditions which so materially affect the performance of

their judicial duties. Our judicial system is sound and effective at

core, and it remains, and must ever be maintained, as the safeguard of

those principles of liberty and justice which stand at the foundation

of American institutions; for, as Burke finely said, when liberty and

justice are separated, neither is safe. There are, however, some

members of the judicial body who have lagged behind in their

understanding of these great and vital changes in the body politic,

whose minds have never been opened to the new applications of the old

principles made necessary by the new conditions. Judges of this stamp

do lasting harm by their decisions, because they convince poor men in

need of protection that the courts of the land are profoundly ignorant

of and out of sympathy with their needs, and profoundly indifferent or

hostile to any proposed remedy. To such men it seems a cruel mockery to

have any court decide against them on the ground that it desires to

preserve "liberty" in a purely technical form, by withholding liberty

in any real and constructive sense. It is desirable that the

legislative body should possess, and wherever necessary exercise, the

power to determine whether in a given case employers and employees are

not on an equal footing, so that the necessities of the latter compel

them to submit to such exactions as to hours and conditions of labor as

unduly to tax their strength; and only mischief can result when such

determination is upset on the ground that there must be no

"interference with the liberty to contract"--often a merely academic

"liberty," the exercise of which is the negation of real liberty.



There are certain decisions by various courts which have been

exceedingly detrimental to the rights of wageworkers. This is true of

all the decisions that decide that men and women are, by the

Constitution, "guaranteed their liberty" to contract to enter a

dangerous occupation, or to work an undesirable or improper number of

hours, or to work in unhealthy surroundings; and therefore can not

recover damages when maimed in that occupation and can not be forbidden

to work what the legislature decides is an excessive number of hours,

or to carry on the work under conditions which the legislature decides

to be unhealthy. The most dangerous occupations are often the poorest

paid and those where the hours of work are longest; and in many cases

those who go into them are driven by necessity so great that they have

practically no alternative. Decisions such as those alluded to above

nullify the legislative effort to protect the wage-workers who most

need protection from those employers who take advantage of their

grinding need. They halt or hamper the movement for securing better and

more equitable conditions of labor. The talk about preserving to the

misery-hunted beings who make contracts for such service their

"liberty" to make them, is either to speak in a spirit of heartless

irony or else to show an utter lack of knowledge of the conditions of

life among the great masses of our fellow-countrymen, a lack which

unfits a judge to do good service just as it would unfit any executive

or legislative officer.



There is also, I think, ground for the belief that substantial

injustice is often suffered by employees in consequence of the custom

of courts issuing temporary injunctions without notice to them, and

punishing them for contempt of court in instances where, as a matter of

fact, they have no knowledge of any proceedings. Outside of organized

labor there is a widespread feeling that this system often works great

injustice to wageworkers when their efforts to better their working

condition result in industrial disputes. A temporary injunction

procured ex parte may as a matter of fact have all the effect of a

permanent injunction in causing disaster to the wageworkers' side in

such a dispute. Organized labor is chafing under the unjust restraint

which comes from repeated resort to this plan of procedure. Its

discontent has been unwisely expressed, and often improperly expressed,

but there is a sound basis for it, and the orderly and law-abiding

people of a community would be in a far stronger position for upholding

the courts if the undoubtedly existing abuses could be provided

against.



Such proposals as those mentioned above as advocated by the extreme

labor leaders contain the vital error of being class legislation of the

most offensive kind, and even if enacted into law I believe that the

law would rightly be held unconstitutional. Moreover, the labor people

are themselves now beginning to invoke the use of the power of

injunction. During the last ten years, and within my own knowledge, at

least fifty injunctions have been obtained by labor unions in New York

City alone, most of them being to protect the union label (a "property

right"), but some being obtained for other reasons against employers.

The power of injunction is a great equitable remedy, which should on no

account be destroyed. But safeguards should be erected against its

abuse. I believe that some such provisions as those I advocated a year

ago for checking the abuse of the issuance of temporary injunctions

should be adopted. In substance, provision should be made that no

injunction or temporary restraining order issue otherwise than on

notice, except where irreparable injury would otherwise result; and in

such case a hearing on the merits of the order should be had within a

short fixed period, and, if not then continued after hearing, it should

forthwith lapse. Decisions should be rendered immediately, and the

chance of delay minimized in every way. Moreover, I believe that the

procedure should be sharply defined, and the judge required minutely to

state the particulars both of his action and of his reasons therefor,

so that the Congress can, if it desires, examine and investigate the

same.



The chief lawmakers in our country may be, and often are, the judges,

because they are the final seat of authority. Every time they interpret

contract, property, vested rights, due process of law, liberty, they

necessarily enact into law parts of a system of social philosophy, and

as such interpretation is fundamental, they give direction to all

law-making. The decisions of the courts on economic and social

questions depend upon their economic and social philosophy; and for the

peaceful progress of our people during the twentieth century we shall

owe most to those judges who hold to a twentieth century economic and

social philosophy and not to a long outgrown philosophy, which was

itself the product of primitive economic conditions. Of course a

judge's views on progressive social philosophy are entirely second in

importance to his possession of a high and fine character; which means

the possession of such elementary virtues as honesty, courage, and

fair-mindedness. The judge who owes his election to pandering to

demagogic sentiments or class hatreds and prejudices, and the judge who

owes either his election or his appointment to the money or the favor

of a great corporation, are alike unworthy to sit on the bench, are

alike traitors to the people; and no profundity of legal learning, or

correctness of abstract conviction on questions of public policy, can

serve as an offset to such shortcomings. But it is also true that

judges, like executives and legislators, should hold sound views on the

questions of public policy which are of vital interest to the people.



The legislators and executives are chosen to represent the people in

enacting and administering the laws. The judges are not chosen to

represent the people in this sense. Their function is to interpret the

laws. The legislators are responsible for the laws; the judges for the

spirit in which they interpret and enforce the laws. We stand aloof

from the reckless agitators who would make the judges mere pliant tools

of popular prejudice and passion; and we stand aloof from those equally

unwise partisans of reaction and privilege who deny the proposition

that, inasmuch as judges are chosen to serve the interests of the whole

people, they should strive to find out what those interests are, and,

so far as they conscientiously can, should strive to give effect to

popular conviction when deliberately and duly expressed by the

lawmaking body. The courts are to be highly commended and staunchly

upheld when they set their faces against wrongdoing or tyranny by a

majority; but they are to be blamed when they fail to recognize under a

government like ours the deliberate judgment of the majority as to a

matter of legitimate policy, when duly expressed by the legislature.

Such lawfully expressed and deliberate judgment should be given effect

by the courts, save in the extreme and exceptional cases where there

has been a clear violation of a constitutional provision. Anything like

frivolity or wantonness in upsetting such clearly taken governmental

action is a grave offense against the Republic. To protest against

tyranny, to protect minorities from oppression, to nullify an act

committed in a spasm of popular fury, is to render a service to the

Republic. But for the courts to arrogate to themselves functions which

properly belong to the legislative bodies is all wrong, and in the end

works mischief. The people should not be permitted to pardon evil and

slipshod legislation on the theory that the court will set it right;

they should be taught that the right way to get rid of a bad law is to

have the legislature repeal it, and not to have the courts by ingenious

hair-splitting nullify it. A law may be unwise and improper; but it

should not for these reasons be declared unconstitutional by a strained

interpretation, for the result of such action is to take away from the

people at large their sense of responsibility and ultimately to destroy

their capacity for orderly self restraint and self government. Under

such a popular government as ours, rounded on the theory that in the

long run the will of the people is supreme, the ultimate safety of the

Nation can only rest in training and guiding the people so that what

they will shall be right, and not in devising means to defeat their

will by the technicalities of strained construction.



For many of the shortcomings of justice in our country our people as a

whole are themselves to blame, and the judges and juries merely bear

their share together with the public as a whole. It is discreditable to

us as a people that there should be difficulty in convicting murderers,

or in bringing to justice men who as public servants have been guilty

of corruption, or who have profited by the corruption of public

servants. The result is equally unfortunate, whether due to

hairsplitting technicalities in the interpretation of law by judges, to

sentimentality and class consciousness on the part of juries, or to

hysteria and sensationalism in the daily press. For much of this

failure of justice no responsibility whatever lies on rich men as such.

We who make up the mass of the people can not shift the responsibility

from our own shoulders. But there is an important part of the failure

which has specially to do with inability to hold to proper account men

of wealth who behave badly.



The chief breakdown is in dealing with the new relations that arise

from the mutualism, the interdependence of our time. Every new social

relation begets a new type of wrongdoing--of sin, to use an

old-fashioned word--and many years always elapse before society is able

to turn this sin into crime which can be effectively punished at law.

During the lifetime of the older men now alive the social relations

have changed far more rapidly than in the preceding two centuries. The

immense growth of corporations, of business done by associations, and

the extreme strain and pressure of modern life, have produced

conditions which render the public confused as to who its really

dangerous foes are; and among the public servants who have not only

shared this confusion, but by some of their acts have increased it, are

certain judges. Marked inefficiency has been shown in dealing with

corporations and in re-settling the proper attitude to be taken by the

public not only towards corporations, but towards labor and towards the

social questions arising out of the factory system and the enormous

growth of our great cities.



The huge wealth that has been accumulated by a few individuals of

recent years, in what has amounted to a social and industrial

revolution, has been as regards some of these individuals made possible

only by the improper use of the modern corporation. A certain type of

modern corporation, with its officers and agents, its many issues of

securities, and its constant consolidation with allied undertakings,

finally becomes an instrument so complex as to contain a greater number

of elements that, under various judicial decisions, lend themselves to

fraud and oppression than any device yet evolved in the human brain.

Corporations are necessary instruments of modern business. They have

been permitted to become a menace largely because the governmental

representatives of the people have worked slowly in providing for

adequate control over them.



The chief offender in any given case may be an executive, a

legislature, or a judge. Every executive head who advises violent,

instead of gradual, action, or who advocates ill-considered and

sweeping measures of reform (especially if they are tainted with

vindictiveness and disregard for the rights of the minority) is

particularly blameworthy. The several legislatures are responsible for

the fact that our laws are often prepared with slovenly haste and lack

of consideration. Moreover, they are often prepared, and still more

frequently amended during passage, at the suggestion of the very

parties against whom they are afterwards enforced. Our great clusters

of corporations, huge trusts and fabulously wealthy multi-millionaires,

employ the very best lawyers they can obtain to pick flaws in these

statutes after their passage; but they also employ a class of secret

agents who seek, under the advice of experts, to render hostile

legislation innocuous by making it unconstitutional, often through the

insertion of what appear on their face to be drastic and sweeping

provisions against the interests of the parties inspiring them; while

the demagogues, the corrupt creatures who introduce blackmailing

schemes to "strike" corporations, and all who demand extreme, and

undesirably radical, measures, show themselves to be the worst enemies

of the very public whose loud-mouthed champions they profess to be. A

very striking illustration of the consequences of carelessness in the

preparation of a statute was the employers' liability law of 1906. In

the cases arising under that law, four out of six courts of first

instance held it unconstitutional; six out of nine justices of the

Supreme Court held that its subject-matter was within the province of

congressional action; and four of the nine justices held it valid. It

was, however, adjudged unconstitutional by a bare majority of the

court--five to four. It was surely a very slovenly piece of work to

frame the legislation in such shape as to leave the question open at

all.



Real damage has been done by the manifold and conflicting

interpretations of the interstate commerce law. Control over the great

corporations doing interstate business can be effective only if it is

vested with full power in an administrative department, a branch of the

Federal executive, carrying out a Federal law; it can never be

effective if a divided responsibility is left in both the States and

the Nation; it can never be effective if left in the hands of the

courts to be decided by lawsuits.



The courts hold a place of peculiar and deserved sanctity under our

form of government. Respect for the law is essential to the permanence

of our institutions; and respect for the law is largely conditioned

upon respect for the courts. It is an offense against the Republic to

say anything which can weaken this respect, save for the gravest reason

and in the most carefully guarded manner. Our judges should be held in

peculiar honor; and the duty of respectful and truthful comment and

criticism, which should be binding when we speak of anybody, should be

especially binding when we speak of them. On an average they stand

above any other servants of the community, and the greatest judges have

reached the high level held by those few greatest patriots whom the

whole country delights to honor. But we must face the fact that there

are wise and unwise judges, just as there are wise and unwise

executives and legislators. When a president or a governor behaves

improperly or unwisely, the remedy is easy, for his term is short; the

same is true with the legislator, although not to the same degree, for

he is one of many who belong to some given legislative body, and it is

therefore less easy to fix his personal responsibility and hold him

accountable therefor. With a judge, who, being human, is also likely to

err, but whose tenure is for life, there is no similar way of holding

him to responsibility. Under ordinary conditions the only forms of

pressure to which he is in any way amenable are public opinion and the

action of his fellow judges. It is the last which is most immediately

effective, and to which we should look for the reform of abuses. Any

remedy applied from without is fraught with risk. It is far better,

from every standpoint, that the remedy should come from within. In no

other nation in the world do the courts wield such vast and

far-reaching power as in the United States. All that is necessary is

that the courts as a whole should exercise this power with the

farsighted wisdom already shown by those judges who scan the future

while they act in the present. Let them exercise this great power not

only honestly and bravely, but with wise insight into the needs and

fixed purposes of the people, so that they may do justice and work

equity, so that they may protect all persons in their rights, and yet

break down the barriers of privilege, which is the foe of right.



FORESTS.



If there is any one duty which more than another we owe it to our

children and our children's children to perform at once, it is to save

the forests of this country, for they constitute the first and most

important element in the conservation of the natural resources of the

country. There are of course two kinds of natural resources, One is the

kind which can only be used as part of a process of exhaustion; this is

true of mines, natural oil and gas wells, and the like. The other, and

of course ultimately by far the most important, includes the resources

which can be improved in the process of wise use; the soil, the rivers,

and the forests come under this head. Any really civilized nation will

so use all of these three great national assets that the nation will

have their benefit in the future. Just as a farmer, after all his life

making his living from his farm, will, if he is an expert farmer, leave

it as an asset of increased value to his son, so we should leave our

national domain to our children, increased in value and not worn out.

There are small sections of our own country, in the East and the West,

in the Adriondacks, the White Mountains, and the Appalachians, and in

the Rocky Mountains, where we can already see for ourselves the damage

in the shape of permanent injury to the soil and the river systems

which comes from reckless deforestation. It matters not whether this

deforestation is due to the actual reckless cutting of timber, to the

fires that inevitably follow such reckless cutting of timber, or to

reckless and uncontrolled grazing, especially by the great migratory

bands of sheep, the unchecked wandering of which over the country means

destruction to forests and disaster to the small home makers, the

settlers of limited means.



Shortsighted persons, or persons blinded to the future by desire to

make money in every way out of the present, sometimes speak as if no

great damage would be done by the reckless destruction of our forests.

It is difficult to have patience with the arguments of these persons.

Thanks to our own recklessness in the use of our splendid forests, we

have already crossed the verge of a timber famine in this country, and

no measures that we now take can, at least for many years, undo the

mischief that has already been done. But we can prevent further

mischief being done; and it would be in the highest degree

reprehensible to let any consideration of temporary convenience or

temporary cost interfere with such action, especially as regards the

National Forests which the nation can now, at this very moment,

control.



All serious students of the question are aware of the great damage that

has been done in the Mediterranean countries of Europe, Asia, and

Africa by deforestation. The similar damage that has been done in

Eastern Asia is less well known. A recent investigation into conditions

in North China by Mr. Frank N. Meyer, of the Bureau of Plant Industry

of the United States Department of Agriculture, has incidentally

furnished in very striking fashion proof of the ruin that comes from

reckless deforestation of mountains, and of the further fact that the

damage once done may prove practically irreparable. So important are

these investigations that I herewith attach as an appendix to my

message certain photographs showing present conditions in China. They

show in vivid fashion the appalling desolation, taking the shape of

barren mountains and gravel and sand-covered plains, which immediately

follows and depends upon the deforestation of the mountains. Not many

centuries ago the country of northern China was one of the most fertile

and beautiful spots in the entire world, and was heavily forested. We

know this not only from the old Chinese records, but from the accounts

given by the traveler, Marco Polo. He, for instance, mentions that in

visiting the provinces of Shansi and Shensi he observed many

plantations of mulberry trees. Now there is hardly a single mulberry

tree in either of these provinces, and the culture of the silkworm has

moved farther south, to regions of atmospheric moisture. As an

illustration of the complete change in the rivers, we may take Polo's

statement that a certain river, the Hun Ho, was so large and deep that

merchants ascended it from the sea with heavily laden boats; today this

river is simply a broad sandy bed, with shallow, rapid currents

wandering hither and thither across it, absolutely unnavigable. But we

do not have to depend upon written records. The dry wells, and the

wells with water far below the former watermark, bear testimony to the

good days of the past and the evil days of the present. Wherever the

native vegetation has been allowed to remain, as, for instance, here

and there around a sacred temple or imperial burying ground, there are

still huge trees and tangled jungle, fragments of the glorious ancient

forests. The thick, matted forest growth formerly covered the mountains

to their summits. All natural factors favored this dense forest growth,

and as long as it was permitted to exist the plains at the foot of the

mountains were among the most fertile on the globe, and the whole

country was a garden. Not the slightest effort was made, however, to

prevent the unchecked cutting of the trees, or to secure reforestation.

Doubtless for many centuries the tree-cutting by the inhabitants of the

mountains worked but slowly in bringing about the changes that have now

come to pass; doubtless for generations the inroads were scarcely

noticeable. But there came a time when the forest had shrunk

sufficiently to make each year's cutting a serious matter, and from

that time on the destruction proceeded with appalling rapidity; for of

course each year of destruction rendered the forest less able to

recuperate, less able to resist next year's inroad. Mr. Meyer describes

the ceaseless progress of the destruction even now, when there is so

little left to destroy. Every morning men and boys go out armed with

mattox or axe, scale the steepest mountain sides, and cut down and grub

out, root and branch, the small trees and shrubs still to be found. The

big trees disappeared centuries ago, so that now one of these is never

seen save in the neighborhood of temples, where they are artificially

protected; and even here it takes all the watch and care of the

tree-loving priests to prevent their destruction. Each family, each

community, where there is no common care exercised in the interest of

all of them to prevent deforestation, finds its profit in the immediate

use of the fuel which would otherwise be used by some other family or

some other community. In the total absence of regulation of the matter

in the interest of the whole people, each small group is inevitably

pushed into a policy of destruction which can not afford to take

thought for the morrow. This is just one of those matters which it is

fatal to leave to unsupervised individual control. The forest can only

be protected by the State, by the Nation; and the liberty of action of

individuals must be conditioned upon what the State or Nation

determines to be necessary for the common safety.



The lesson of deforestation in China is a lesson which mankind should

have learned many times already from what has occurred in other places.

Denudation leaves naked soil; then gullying cuts down to the bare rock;

and meanwhile the rock-waste buries the bottomlands. When the soil is

gone, men must go; and the process does not take long.



This ruthless destruction of the forests in northern China has brought

about, or has aided in bringing about, desolation, just as the

destruction of the forests in central Asia aid in bringing ruin to the

once rich central Asian cities; just as the destruction of the forest

in northern Africa helped towards the ruin of a region that was a

fertile granary in Roman days. Shortsighted man, whether barbaric,

semi-civilized, or what he mistakenly regards as fully civilized, when

he has destroyed the forests, has rendered certain the ultimate

destruction of the land itself. In northern China the mountains are now

such as are shown by the accompanying photographs, absolutely barren

peaks. Not only have the forests been destroyed, but because of their

destruction the soil has been washed off the naked rock. The terrible

consequence is that it is impossible now to undo the damage that has

been done. Many centuries would have to pass before soil would again

collect, or could be made to collect, in sufficient quantity once more

to support the old-time forest growth. In consequence the Mongol Desert

is practically extending eastward over northern China. The climate has

changed and is still changing. It has changed even within the last half

century, as the work of tree destruction has been consummated. The

great masses of arboreal vegetation on the mountains formerly absorbed

the heat of the sun and sent up currents of cool air which brought the

moisture-laden clouds lower and forced them to precipitate in rain a

part of their burden of water. Now that there is no vegetation, the

barren mountains, scorched by the sun, send up currents of heated air

which drive away instead of attracting the rain clouds, and cause their

moisture to be disseminated. In consequence, instead of the regular and

plentiful rains which existed in these regions of China when the

forests were still in evidence, the unfortunate inhabitants of the

deforested lands now see their crops wither for lack of rainfall, while

the seasons grow more and more irregular; and as the air becomes dryer

certain crops refuse longer to grow at all. That everything dries out

faster than formerly is shown by the fact that the level of the wells

all over the land has sunk perceptibly, many of them having become

totally dry. In addition to the resulting agricultural distress, the

watercourses have changed. Formerly they were narrow and deep, with an

abundance of clear water the year around; for the roots and humus of

the forests caught the rainwater and let it escape by slow, regular

seepage. They have now become broad, shallow stream beds, in which

muddy water trickles in slender currents during the dry seasons, while

when it rains there are freshets, and roaring muddy torrents come

tearing down, bringing disaster and destruction everywhere. Moreover,

these floods and freshets, which diversify the general dryness, wash

away from the mountain sides, and either wash away or cover in the

valleys, the rich fertile soil which it took tens of thousands of years

for Nature to form; and it is lost forever, and until the forests grow

again it can not be replaced. The sand and stones from the mountain

sides are washed loose and come rolling down to cover the arable lands,

and in consequence, throughout this part of China, many formerly rich

districts are now sandy wastes, useless for human cultivation and even

for pasture. The cities have been of course seriously affected, for the

streams have gradually ceased to be navigable. There is testimony that

even within the memory of men now living there has been a serious

diminution of the rainfall of northeastern China. The level of the

Sungari River in northern Manchuria has been sensibly lowered during

the last fifty years, at least partly as the result of the

indiscriminate rutting of the forests forming its watershed. Almost all

the rivers of northern China have become uncontrollable, and very

dangerous to the dwellers along their banks, as a direct result of the

destruction of the forests. The journey from Pekin to Jehol shows in

melancholy fashion how the soil has been washed away from whole

valleys, so that they have been converted into deserts.



In northern China this disastrous process has gone on so long and has

proceeded so far that no complete remedy could be applied. There are

certain mountains in China from which the soil is gone so utterly that

only the slow action of the ages could again restore it; although of

course much could be done to prevent the still further eastward

extension of the Mongolian Desert if the Chinese Government would act

at once. The accompanying cuts from photographs show the inconceivable

desolation of the barren mountains in which certain of these rivers

rise--mountains, be it remembered, which formerly supported dense

forests of larches and firs, now unable to produce any wood, and

because of their condition a source of danger to the whole country. The

photographs also show the same rivers after they have passed through

the mountains, the beds having become broad and sandy because of the

deforestation of the mountains. One of the photographs shows a caravan

passing through a valley. Formerly, when the mountains were forested,

it was thickly peopled by prosperous peasants. Now the floods have

carried destruction all over the land and the valley is a stony desert.

Another photograph shows a mountain road covered with the stones and

rocks that are brought down in the rainy season from the mountains

which have already been deforested by human hands. Another shows a

pebbly river-bed in southern Manchuria where what was once a great

stream has dried up owing to the deforestation in the mountains. Only

some scrub wood is left, which will disappear within a half century.

Yet another shows the effect of one of the washouts, destroying an

arable mountain side, these washouts being due to the removal of all

vegetation; yet in this photograph the foreground shows that

reforestation is still a possibility in places.



What has thus happened in northern China, what has happened in Central

Asia, in Palestine, in North Africa, in parts of the Mediterranean

countries of Europe, will surely happen in our country if we do not

exercise that wise forethought which should be one of the chief marks

of any people calling itself civilized. Nothing should be permitted to

stand in the way of the preservation of the forests, and it is criminal

to permit individuals to purchase a little gain for themselves through

the destruction of forests when this destruction is fatal to the

well-being of the whole country in the future.



INLAND WATERWAYS.



Action should be begun forthwith, during the present session of the

Congress, for the improvement of our inland waterways--action which

will result in giving us not only navigable but navigated rivers. We

have spent hundreds of millions of dollars upon these waterways, yet

the traffic on nearly all of them is steadily declining. This condition

is the direct result of the absence of any comprehensive and far-seeing

plan of waterway improvement, Obviously we can not continue thus to

expend the revenues of the Government without return. It is poor

business to spend money for inland navigation unless we get it.



Inquiry into the condition of the Mississippi and its principal

tributaries reveals very many instances of the utter waste caused by

the methods which have hitherto obtained for the so-called

"improvement" of navigation. A striking instance is supplied by the

"improvement" of the Ohio, which, begun in 1824, was continued under a

single plan for half a century. In 1875 a new plan was adopted and

followed for a quarter of a century. In 1902 still a different plan was

adopted and has since been pursued at a rate which only promises a

navigable river in from twenty to one hundred years longer.



Such shortsighted, vacillating, and futile methods are accompanied by

decreasing water-borne commerce and increasing traffic congestion on

land, by increasing floods, and by the waste of public money. The

remedy lies in abandoning the methods which have so signally failed and

adopting new ones in keeping with the needs and demands of our people.



In a report on a measure introduced at the first session of the present

Congress, the Secretary of War said: "The chief defect in the methods

hitherto pursued lies in the absence of executive authority for

originating comprehensive plans covering the country or natural

divisions thereof." In this opinion I heartily concur. The present

methods not only fail to give us inland navigation, but they are

injurious to the army as well. What is virtually a permanent detail of

the corps of engineers to civilian duty necessarily impairs the

efficiency of our military establishment. The military engineers have

undoubtedly done efficient work in actual construction, but they are

necessarily unsuited by their training and traditions to take the broad

view, and to gather and transmit to the Congress the commercial and

industrial information and forecasts, upon which waterway improvement

must always so largely rest. Furthermore, they have failed to grasp the

great underlying fact that every stream is a unit from its source to

its mouth, and that all its uses are interdependent. Prominent officers

of the Engineer Corps have recently even gone so far as to assert in

print that waterways are not dependent upon the conservation of the

forests about their headwaters. This position is opposed to all the

recent work of the scientific bureaus of the Government and to the

general experience of mankind. A physician who disbelieved in

vaccination would not be the right man to handle an epidemic of

smallpox, nor should we leave a doctor skeptical about the transmission

of yellow fever by the Stegomyia mosquito in charge of sanitation at

Havana or Panama. So with the improvement of our rivers; it is no

longer wise or safe to leave this great work in the hands of men who

fail to grasp the essential relations between navigation and general

development and to assimilate and use the central facts about our

streams.



Until the work of river improvement is undertaken in a modern way it

can not have results that will meet the needs of this modern nation.

These needs should be met without further dilly-dallying or delay. The

plan which promises the best and quickest results is that of a

permanent commission authorized to coordinate the work of all the

Government departments relating to waterways, and to frame and

supervise the execution of a comprehensive plan. Under such a

commission the actual work of construction might be entrusted to the

reclamation service; or to the military engineers acting with a

sufficient number of civilians to continue the work in time of war; or

it might be divided between the reclamation service and the corps of

engineers. Funds should be provided from current revenues if it is

deemed wise--otherwise from the sale of bonds. The essential thing is

that the work should go forward under the best possible plan, and with

the least possible delay. We should have a new type of work and a new

organization for planning and directing it. The time for playing with

our waterways is past. The country demands results.



NATIONAL PARKS.



I urge that all our National parks adjacent to National forests be

placed completely under the control of the forest service of the

Agricultural Department, instead of leaving them as they now are, under

the Interior Department and policed by the army. The Congress should

provide for superintendents with adequate corps of first-class civilian

scouts, or rangers, and, further, place the road construction under the

superintendent instead of leaving it with the War Department. Such a

change in park management would result in economy and avoid the

difficulties of administration which now arise from having the

responsibility of care and protection divided between different

departments. The need for this course is peculiarly great in the

Yellowstone Park. This, like the Yosemite, is a great wonderland, and

should be kept as a national playground. In both, all wild things

should be protected and the scenery kept wholly unmarred.



I am happy to say that I have been able to set aside in various parts

of the country small, well-chosen tracts of ground to serve as

sanctuaries and nurseries for wild creatures.



DENATURED ALCOHOL.



I had occasion in my message of May 4, 1906, to urge the passage of

some law putting alcohol, used in the arts, industries, and

manufactures, upon the free list--that is, to provide for the

withdrawal free of tax of alcohol which is to be denatured for those

purposes. The law of June 7, 1906, and its amendment of March 2, 1907,

accomplished what was desired in that respect, and the use of denatured

alcohol, as intended, is making a fair degree of progress and is

entitled to further encouragement and support from the Congress.



PURE FOOD.



The pure food legislation has already worked a benefit difficult to

overestimate.



INDIAN SERVICE.



It has been my purpose from the beginning of my administration to take

the Indian Service completely out of the atmosphere of political

activity, and there has been steady progress toward that end. The last

remaining stronghold of politics in that service was the agency system,

which had seen its best days and was gradually falling to pieces from

natural or purely evolutionary causes, but, like all such survivals,

was decaying slowly in its later stages. It seems clear that its

extinction had better be made final now, so that the ground can be

cleared for larger constructive work on behalf of the Indians,

preparatory to their induction into the full measure of responsible

citizenship. On November 1 only eighteen agencies were left on the

roster; with two exceptions, where some legal questions seemed to stand

temporarily in the way, these have been changed to superintendencies,

and their heads brought into the classified civil service.



SECRET SERVICE.



Last year an amendment was incorporated in the measure providing for

the Secret Service, which provided that there should be no detail from

the Secret Service and no transfer therefrom. It is not too much to say

that this amendment has been of benefit only, and could be of benefit

only, to the criminal classes. If deliberately introduced for the

purpose of diminishing the effectiveness of war against crime it could

not have been better devised to this end. It forbade the practices that

had been followed to a greater or less extent by the executive heads of

various departments for twenty years. To these practices we owe the

securing of the evidence which enabled us to drive great lotteries out

of business and secure a quarter of a million of dollars in fines from

their promoters. These practices have enabled us to get some of the

evidence indispensable in order in connection with the theft of

government land and government timber by great corporations and by

individuals. These practices have enabled us to get some of the

evidence indispensable in order to secure the conviction of the

wealthiest and most formidable criminals with whom the Government has

to deal, both those operating in violation of the anti-trust law and

others. The amendment in question was of benefit to no one excepting to

these criminals, and it seriously hampers the Government in the

detection of crime and the securing of justice. Moreover, it not only

affects departments outside of the Treasury, but it tends to hamper the

Secretary of the Treasury himself in the effort to utilize the

employees of his department so as to best meet the requirements of the

public service. It forbids him from preventing frauds upon the customs

service, from investigating irregularities in branch mints and assay

offices, and has seriously crippled him. It prevents the promotion of

employees in the Secret Service, and this further discourages good

effort. In its present form the restriction operates only to the

advantage of the criminal, of the wrongdoer. The chief argument in

favor of the provision was that the Congressmen did not themselves wish

to be investigated by Secret Service men. Very little of such

investigation has been done in the past; but it is true that the work

of the Secret Service agents was partly responsible for the indictment

and conviction of a Senator and a Congressman for land frauds in

Oregon. I do not believe that it is in the public interest to protect

criminally in any branch of the public service, and exactly as we have

again and again during the past seven years prosecuted and convicted

such criminals who were in the executive branch of the Government, so

in my belief we should be given ample means to prosecute them if found

in the legislative branch. But if this is not considered desirable a

special exception could be made in the law prohibiting the use of the

Secret Service force in investigating members of the Congress. It would

be far better to do this than to do what actually was done, and strive

to prevent or at least to hamper effective action against criminals by

the executive branch of the Government.



POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.



I again renew my recommendation for postal savings hanks, for

depositing savings with the security of the Government behind them. The

object is to encourage thrift and economy in the wage-earner and person

of moderate means. In 14 States the deposits in savings banks as

reported to the Comptroller of the Currency amount to $3,590,245,402,

or 98.4 per cent of the entire deposits, while in the remaining 32

States there are only $70,308,543, or 1.6 per cent, showing

conclusively that there are many localities in the United States where

sufficient opportunity is not given to the people to deposit their

savings. The result is that money is kept in hiding and unemployed. It

is believed that in the aggregate vast sums of money would be brought

into circulation through the instrumentality of the postal savings

banks. While there are only 1,453 savings banks reporting to the

Comptroller there are more than 61,000 post-offices, 40,000 of which

are money order offices. Postal savings banks are now in operation in

practically all of the great civilized countries with the exception of

the United States.



PARCEL POST.



In my last annual message I commended the Postmaster-General's

recommendation for an extension of the parcel post on the rural routes.

The establishment of a local parcel post on rural routes would be to

the mutual benefit of the farmer and the country storekeeper, and it is

desirable that the routes, serving more than 15,000,000 people, should

be utilized to the fullest practicable extent. An amendment was

proposed in the Senate at the last session, at the suggestion of the

Postmaster-General, providing that, for the purpose of ascertaining the

practicability of establishing a special local parcel post system on

the rural routes throughout the United States, the Postmaster-General

be authorized and directed to experiment and report to the Congress the

result of such experiment by establishing a special local parcel post

system on rural delivery routes in not to exceed four counties in the

United States for packages of fourth-class matter originating on a

rural route or at the distributing post office for delivery by rural

carriers. It would seem only proper that such an experiment should be

tried in order to demonstrate the practicability of the proposition,

especially as the Postmaster-General estimates that the revenue derived

from the operation of such a system on all the rural routes would

amount to many million dollars.



EDUCATION.



The share that the National Government should take in the broad work of

education has not received the attention and the care it rightly

deserves. The immediate responsibility for the support and improvement

of our educational systems and institutions rests and should always

rest with the people of the several States acting through their state

and local governments, but the Nation has an opportunity in educational

work which must not be lost and a duty which should no longer be

neglected.



The National Bureau of Education was established more than forty years

ago. Its purpose is to collect and diffuse such information "as shall

aid the people of the United States in the establishment and

maintenance of efficient school systems and otherwise promote the cause

of education throughout the country." This purpose in no way conflicts

with the educational work of the States, but may be made of great

advantage to the States by giving them the fullest, most accurate, and

hence the most helpful information and suggestion regarding the best

educational systems. The Nation, through its broader field of

activities, its wider opportunity for obtaining information from all

the States and from foreign countries, is able to do that which not

even the richest States can do, and with the distinct additional

advantage that the information thus obtained is used for the immediate

benefit of all our people.



With the limited means hitherto provided, the Bureau of Education has

rendered efficient service, but the Congress has neglected to

adequately supply the bureau with means to meet the educational growth

of the country. The appropriations for the general work of the bureau,

outside education in Alaska, for the year 1909 are but $87,500--an

amount less than they were ten years ago, and some of the important

items in these appropriations are less than they were thirty years ago.

It is an inexcusable waste of public money to appropriate an amount

which is so inadequate as to make it impossible properly to do the work

authorized, and it is unfair to the great educational interests of the

country to deprive them of the value of the results which can be

obtained by proper appropriations.



I earnestly recommend that this unfortunate state of affairs as regards

the national educational office be remedied by adequate appropriations.

This recommendation is urged by the representatives of our common

schools and great state universities and the leading educators, who all

unite in requesting favorable consideration and action by the Congress

upon this subject.



CENSUS.



I strongly urge that the request of the Director of the Census in

connection with the decennial work so soon to be begun be complied with

and that the appointments to the census force be placed under the civil

service law, waiving the geographical requirements as requested by the

Director of the Census. The supervisors and enumerators should not be

appointed under the civil service law, for the reasons given by the

Director. I commend to the Congress the careful consideration of the

admirable report of the Director of the Census, and I trust that his

recommendations will be adopted and immediate action thereon taken.



PUBLIC HEALTH.



It is highly advisable that there should be intelligent action on the

part of the Nation on the question of preserving the health of the

country. Through the practical extermination in San Francisco of

disease-bearing rodents our country has thus far escaped the bubonic

plague. This is but one of the many achievements of American health

officers; and it shows what can be accomplished with a better

organization than at present exists. The dangers to public health from

food adulteration and from many other sources, such as the menace to

the physical, mental and moral development of children from child

labor, should be met and overcome. There are numerous diseases, which

are now known to be preventable, which are, nevertheless, not

prevented. The recent International Congress on Tuberculosis has made

us painfully aware of the inadequacy of American public health

legislation. This Nation can not afford to lag behind in the world-wide

battle now being waged by all civilized people with the microscopic

foes of mankind, nor ought we longer to ignore the reproach that this

Government takes more pains to protect the lives of hogs and of cattle

than of human beings.



REDISTRIBUTION OF BUREAUS.



The first legislative step to be taken is that for the concentration of

the proper bureaus into one of the existing departments. I therefore

urgently recommend the passage of a bill which shall authorize a

redistribution of the bureaus which shall best accomplish this end.



GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.



I recommend that legislation be enacted placing under the jurisdiction

of the Department of Commerce and Labor the Government Printing Office.

At present this office is under the combined control, supervision, and

administrative direction of the President and of the Joint Committee on

Printing of the two Houses of the Congress. The advantage of having the

4,069 employees in this office and the expenditure of the $5,761,377.57

appropriated therefor supervised by an executive department is obvious,

instead of the present combined supervision.



SOLDIERS' HOMES.



All Soldiers' Homes should be placed under the complete jurisdiction

and control of the War Department.



INDEPENDENT BUREAUS AND COMMISSIONS.



Economy and sound business policy require that all existing independent

bureaus and commissions should be placed under the jurisdiction of

appropriate executive departments. It is unwise from every standpoint,

and results only in mischief, to have any executive work done save by

the purely executive bodies, under the control of the President; and

each such executive body should be under the immediate supervision of a

Cabinet Minister.



STATEHOOD.



I advocate the immediate admission of New Mexico and Arizona as States.

This should be done at the present session of the Congress. The people

of the two Territories have made it evident by their votes that they

will not come in as one State. The only alternative is to admit them as

two, and I trust that this will be done without delay.



INTERSTATE FISHERIES.



I call the attention of the Congress to the importance of the problem

of the fisheries in the interstate waters. On the Great Lakes we are

now, under the very wise treaty of April 11th of this year, endeavoring

to come to an international agreement for the preservation and

satisfactory use of the fisheries of these waters which can not

otherwise be achieved. Lake Erie, for example, has the richest fresh

water fisheries in the world; but it is now controlled by the statutes

of two Nations, four States, and one Province, and in this Province by

different ordinances in different counties. All these political

divisions work at cross purposes, and in no case can they achieve

protection to the fisheries, on the one hand, and justice to the

localities and individuals on the other. The case is similar in Puget

Sound.



But the problem is quite as pressing in the interstate waters of the

United States. The salmon fisheries of the Columbia River are now but a

fraction of what they were twenty-five years ago, and what they would

be now if the United States Government had taken complete charge of

them by intervening between Oregon and Washington. During these

twenty-five years the fishermen of each State have naturally tried to

take all they could get, and the two legislatures have never been able

to agree on joint action of any kind adequate in degree for the

protection of the fisheries. At the moment the fishing on the Oregon

side is practically closed, while there is no limit on the Washington

side of any kind, and no one can tell what the courts will decide as to

the very statutes under which this action and non-action result.

Meanwhile very few salmon reach the spawning grounds, and probably four

years hence the fisheries will amount to nothing; and this comes from a

struggle between the associated, or gill-net, fishermen on the one

hand, and the owners of the fishing wheels up the river. The fisheries

of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Potomac are also in a bad way.

For this there is no remedy except for the United States to control and

legislate for the interstate fisheries as part of the business of

interstate commerce. In this case the machinery for scientific

investigation and for control already exists in the United States

Bureau of Fisheries. In this as in similar problems the obvious and

simple rule should be followed of having those matters which no

particular State can manage taken in hand by the United States;

problems which in the seesaw of conflicting State legislatures are

absolutely unsolvable are easy enough for Congress to control.



FISHERIES AND FUR SEALS.



The federal statute regulating interstate traffic in game should be

extended to include fish. New federal fish hatcheries should be

established. The administration of the Alaskan fur-seal service should

be vested in the Bureau of Fisheries.



FOREIGN AFFAIRS.



This Nation's foreign policy is based on the theory that right must be

done between nations precisely as between individuals, and in our

actions for the last ten years we have in this matter proven our faith

by our deeds. We have behaved, and are behaving, towards other nations

as in private life an honorable man would behave towards his fellows.



LATIN-AMERICAN REPUBLICS.



The commercial and material progress of the twenty Latin-American

Republics is worthy of the careful attention of the Congress. No other

section of the world has shown a greater proportionate development of

its foreign trade during the last ten years and none other has more

special claims on the interest of the United States. It offers to-day

probably larger opportunities for the legitimate expansion of our

commerce than any other group of countries. These countries will want

our products in greatly increased quantities, and we shall

correspondingly need theirs. The International Bureau of the American

Republics is doing a useful work in making these nations and their

resources better known to us, and in acquainting them not only with us

as a people and with our purposes towards them, but with what we have

to exchange for their goods. It is an international institution

supported by all the governments of the two Americas.



PANAMA CANAL.



The work on the Panama Canal is being done with a speed, efficiency and

entire devotion to duty which make it a model for all work of the kind.

No task of such magnitude has ever before been undertaken by any

nation; and no task of the kind has ever been better performed. The men

on the isthmus, from Colonel Goethals and his fellow commissioners

through the entire list of employees who are faithfully doing their

duty, have won their right to the ungrudging respect and gratitude of

the American people.



OCEAN MAIL LINERS.



I again recommend the extension of the ocean mail act of 1891 so that

satisfactory American ocean mail lines to South America, Asia, the

Philippines, and Australasia may be established. The creation of such

steamship lines should be the natural corollary of the voyage of the

battle fleet. It should precede the opening of the Panama Canal. Even

under favorable conditions several years must elapse before such lines

can be put into operation. Accordingly I urge that the Congress act

promptly where foresight already shows that action sooner or later will

be inevitable.



HAWAII.



I call particular attention to the Territory of Hawaii. The importance

of those islands is apparent, and the need of improving their condition

and developing their resources is urgent. In recent years industrial

conditions upon the islands have radically changed, The importation of

coolie labor has practically ceased, and there is now developing such a

diversity in agricultural products as to make possible a change in the

land conditions of the Territory, so that an opportunity may be given

to the small land owner similar to that on the mainland. To aid these

changes, the National Government must provide the necessary harbor

improvements on each island, so that the agricultural products can be

carried to the markets of the world. The coastwise shipping laws should

be amended to meet the special needs of the islands, and the alien

contract labor law should be so modified in its application to Hawaii

as to enable American and European labor to be brought thither.



We have begun to improve Pearl Harbor for a naval base and to provide

the necessary military fortifications for the protection of the

islands, but I can not too strongly emphasize the need of

appropriations for these purposes of such an amount as will within the

shortest possible time make those islands practically impregnable. It

is useless to develop the industrial conditions of the islands and

establish there bases of supply for our naval and merchant fleets

unless we insure, as far as human ingenuity can, their safety from

foreign seizure.



One thing to be remembered with all our fortifications is that it is

almost useless to make them impregnable from the sea if they are left

open to land attack. This is true even of our own coast, but it is

doubly true of our insular possessions. In Hawaii, for instance, it is

worse than useless to establish a naval station unless we establish it

behind fortifications so strong that no landing force can take them

save by regular and long-continued siege operations.



THE PHILIPPINES.



Real progress toward self-government is being made in the Philippine

Islands. The gathering of a Philippine legislative body and Philippine

assembly marks a process absolutely new in Asia, not only as regards

Asiatic colonies of European powers but as regards Asiatic possessions

of other Asiatic powers; and, indeed, always excepting the striking and

wonderful example afforded by the great Empire of Japan, it opens an

entirely new departure when compared with anything which has happened

among Asiatic powers which are their own masters. Hitherto this

Philippine legislature has acted with moderation and self-restraint,

and has seemed in practical fashion to realize the eternal truth that

there must always be government, and that the only way in which any

body of individuals can escape the necessity of being governed by

outsiders is to show that they are able to restrain themselves, to keep

down wrongdoing and disorder. The Filipino people, through their

officials, are therefore making real steps in the direction of

self-government. I hope and believe that these steps mark the beginning

of a course which will continue till the Filipinos become fit to decide

for themselves whether they desire to be an independent nation. But it

is well for them (and well also for those Americans who during the past

decade have done so much damage to the Filipinos by agitation for an

immediate independence for which they were totally unfit) to remember

that self-government depends, and must depend, upon the Filipinos

themselves. All we can do is to give them the opportunity to develop

the capacity for self-government. If we had followed the advice of the

foolish doctrinaires who wished us at any time during the last ten

years to turn the Filipino people adrift, we should have shirked the

plainest possible duty and have inflicted a lasting wrong upon the

Filipino people. We have acted in exactly the opposite spirit. We have

given the Filipinos constitutional government--a government based upon

justice--and we have shown that we have governed them for their good

and not for our aggrandizement. At the present time, as during the past

ten years, the inexorable logic of facts shows that this government

must be supplied by us and not by them. We must be wise and generous;

we must help the Filipinos to master the difficult art of self-control,

which is simply another name for self-government. But we can not give

them self-government save in the sense of governing them so that

gradually they may, if they are able, learn to govern themselves. Under

the present system of just laws and sympathetic administration, we have

every reason to believe that they are gradually acquiring the character

which lies at the basis of self-government, and for which, if it be

lacking, no system of laws, no paper constitution, will in any wise

serve as a substitute. Our people in the Philippines have achieved what

may legitimately be called a marvelous success in giving to them a

government which marks on the part of those in authority both the

necessary understanding of the people and the necessary purpose to

serve them disinterestedly and in good faith. I trust that within a

generation the time will arrive when the Philippines can decide for

themselves whether it is well for them to become independent, or to

continue under the protection of a strong and disinterested power, able

to guarantee to the islands order at home and protection from foreign

invasion. But no one can prophesy the exact date when it will be wise

to consider independence as a fixed and definite policy. It would be

worse than folly to try to set down such a date in advance, for it must

depend upon the way in which the Philippine people themselves develop

the power of self-mastery.



PORTO RICO.



I again recommend that American citizenship be conferred upon the

people of Porto Rico.



CUBA.



In Cuba our occupancy will cease in about two months' time, the Cubans

have in orderly manner elected their own governmental authorities, and

the island will be turned over to them. Our occupation on this occasion

has lasted a little over two years, and Cuba has thriven and prospered

under it. Our earnest hope and one desire is that the people of the

island shall now govern themselves with justice, so that peace and

order may be secure. We will gladly help them to this end; but I would

solemnly warn them to remember the great truth that the only way a

people can permanently avoid being governed from without is to show

that they both can and will govern themselves from within.



JAPANESE EXPOSITION.



The Japanese Government has postponed until 1917 the date of the great

international exposition, the action being taken so as to insure ample

time in which to prepare to make the exposition all that it should be

made. The American commissioners have visited Japan and the

postponement will merely give ampler opportunity for America to be

represented at the exposition. Not since the first international

exposition has there been one of greater importance than this will be,

marking as it does the fiftieth anniversary of the ascension to the

throne of the Emperor of Japan. The extraordinary leap to a foremost

place among the nations of the world made by Japan during this half

century is something unparalleled in all previous history. This

exposition will fitly commemorate and signalize the giant progress that

has been achieved. It is the first exposition of its kind that has ever

been held in Asia. The United States, because of the ancient friendship

between the two peoples, because each of us fronts on the Pacific, and

because of the growing commercial relations between this country and

Asia, takes a peculiar interest in seeing the exposition made a success

in every way.



I take this opportunity publicly to state my appreciation of the way in

which in Japan, in Australia, in New Zealand, and in all the States of

South America, the battle fleet has been received on its practice

voyage around the world. The American Government can not too strongly

express its appreciation of the abounding and generous hospitality

shown our ships in every port they visited.



THE ARMY.



As regards the Army I call attention to the fact that while our junior

officers and enlisted men stand very high, the present system of

promotion by seniority results in bringing into the higher grades many

men of mediocre capacity who have but a short time to serve. No man

should regard it as his vested right to rise to the highest rank in the

Army any more than in any other profession. It is a curious and by no

means creditable fact that there should be so often a failure on the

part of the public and its representatives to understand the great

need, from the standpoint of the service and the Nation, of refusing to

promote respectable, elderly incompetents. The higher places should be

given to the most deserving men without regard to seniority; at least

seniority should be treated as only one consideration. In the stress of

modern industrial competition no business firm could succeed if those

responsible for its management were chosen simply on the ground that

they were the oldest people in its employment; yet this is the course

advocated as regards the Army, and required by law for all grades

except those of general officer. As a matter of fact, all of the best

officers in the highest ranks of the Army are those who have attained

their present position wholly or in part by a process of selection.



The scope of retiring boards should be extended so that they could

consider general unfitness to command for any cause, in order to secure

a far more rigid enforcement than at present in the elimination of

officers for mental, physical or temperamental disabilities. But this

plan is recommended only if the Congress does not see fit to provide

what in my judgment is far better; that is, for selection in promotion,

and for elimination for age. Officers who fail to attain a certain rank

by a certain age should be retired--for instance, if a man should not

attain field rank by the time he is 45 he should of course be placed on

the retired list. General officers should be selected as at present,

and one-third of the other promotions should be made by selection, the

selection to be made by the President or the Secretary of War from a

list of at least two candidates proposed for each vacancy by a board of

officers from the arm of the service from which the promotion is to be

made. A bill is now before the Congress having for its object to secure

the promotion of officers to various grades at reasonable ages through

a process of selection, by boards of officers, of the least efficient

for retirement with a percentage of their pay depending upon length of

service. The bill, although not accomplishing all that should be done,

is a long step in the right direction; and I earnestly recommend its

passage, or that of a more completely effective measure.



The cavalry arm should be reorganized upon modern lines. This is an arm

in which it is peculiarly necessary that the field officers should not

be old. The cavalry is much more difficult to form than infantry, and

it should be kept up to the maximum both in efficiency and in strength,

for it can not be made in a hurry. At present both infantry and

artillery are too few in number for our needs. Especial attention

should be paid to development of the machine gun. A general service

corps should be established. As things are now the average soldier has

far too much labor of a nonmilitary character to perform.



NATIONAL GUARD.



Now that the organized militia, the National Guard, has been

incorporated with the Army as a part of the national forces, it

behooves the Government to do every reasonable thing in its power to

perfect its efficiency. It should be assisted in its instruction and

otherwise aided more liberally than heretofore. The continuous services

of many well-trained regular officers will be essential in this

connection. Such officers must be specially trained at service schools

best to qualify them as instructors of the National Guard. But the

detailing of officers for training at the service schools and for duty

with the National Guard entails detaching them from their regiments

which are already greatly depleted by detachment of officers for

assignment to duties prescribed by acts of the Congress.



A bill is now pending before the Congress creating a number of extra

officers in the Army, which if passed, as it ought to be, will enable

more officers to be trained as instructors of the National Guard and

assigned to that duty. In case of war it will be of the utmost

importance to have a large number of trained officers to use for

turning raw levies into good troops.



There should be legislation to provide a complete plan for organizing

the great body of volunteers behind the Regular Army and National Guard

when war has come. Congressional assistance should be given those who

are endeavoring to promote rifle practice so that our men, in the

services or out of them, may know how to use the rifle. While teams

representing the United States won the rifle and revolver championships

of the world against all comers in England this year, it is

unfortunately true that the great body of our citizens shoot less and

less as time goes on. To meet this we should encourage rifle practice

among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the

military services, by every means in our power. Thus, and not

otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving the peace of the

world. Fit to hold our own against the strong nations of the earth, our

voice for peace will carry to the ends of the earth. Unprepared, and

therefore unfit, we must sit dumb and helpless to defend ourselves,

protect others, or preserve peace. The first step--in the direction of

preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it

should come--is to teach our men to shoot.



THE NAVY.



I approve the recommendations of the General Board for the increase of

the Navy, calling especial attention to the need of additional

destroyers and colliers, and above all, of the four battleships. It is

desirable to complete as soon as possible a squadron of eight

battleships of the best existing type. The North Dakota, Delaware,

Florida, and Utah will form the first division of this squadron. The

four vessels proposed will form the second division. It will be an

improvement on the first, the ships being of the heavy, single caliber,

all big gun type. All the vessels should have the same tactical

qualities--that is, speed and turning circle--and as near as possible

these tactical qualities should be the same as in the four vessels

before named now being built.



I most earnestly recommend that the General Board be by law turned into

a General Staff. There is literally no excuse whatever for continuing

the present bureau organization of the Navy. The Navy should be treated

as a purely military organization, and everything should be

subordinated to the one object of securing military efficiency. Such

military efficiency can only be guaranteed in time of war if there is

the most thorough previous preparation in time of peace--a preparation,

I may add, which will in all probability prevent any need of war. The

Secretary must be supreme, and he should have as his official advisers

a body of line officers who should themselves have the power to pass

upon and coordinate all the work and all the proposals of the several

bureaus. A system of promotion by merit, either by selection or by

exclusion, or by both processes, should be introduced. It is out of the

question, if the present principle of promotion by mere seniority is

kept, to expect to get the best results from the higher officers. Our

men come too old, and stay for too short a time, in the high command

positions.



Two hospital ships should be provided. The actual experience of the

hospital ship with the fleet in the Pacific has shown the invaluable

work which such a ship does, and has also proved that it is well to

have it kept under the command of a medical officer. As was to be

expected, all of the anticipations of trouble from such a command have

proved completely baseless. It is as absurd to put a hospital ship

under a line officer as it would be to put a hospital on shore under

such a command. This ought to have been realized before, and there is

no excuse for failure to realize it now.



Nothing better for the Navy from every standpoint has ever occurred

than the cruise of the battle fleet around the world. The improvement

of the ships in every way has been extraordinary, and they have gained

far more experience in battle tactics than they would have gained if

they had stayed in the Atlantic waters. The American people have cause

for profound gratification, both in view of the excellent condition of

the fleet as shown by this cruise, and in view of the improvement the

cruise has worked in this already high condition. I do not believe that

there is any other service in the world in which the average of

character and efficiency in the enlisted men is as high as is now the

case in our own. I believe that the same statement can be made as to

our officers, taken as a whole; but there must be a reservation made in

regard to those in the highest ranks--as to which I have already

spoken--and in regard to those who have just entered the service;

because we do not now get full benefit from our excellent naval school

at Annapolis. It is absurd not to graduate the midshipmen as ensigns;

to keep them for two years in such an anomalous position as at present

the law requires is detrimental to them and to the service. In the

academy itself, every first classman should be required in turn to

serve as petty officer and officer; his ability to discharge his duties

as such should be a prerequisite to his going into the line, and his

success in commanding should largely determine his standing at

graduation. The Board of Visitors should be appointed in January, and

each member should be required to give at least six days' service, only

from one to three days' to be performed during June week, which is the

least desirable time for the board to be at Annapolis so far as

benefiting the Navy by their observations is concerned.



THE WHITE HOUSE,



Tuesday, December 8, 1908.