the effort to extend our foreign commerce. To this end our merchant marine
should be improved and enlarged. We should do our full share of the
carrying trade of the world. We do not do it now. We should be the laggard
no longer. The inferiority of our merchant marine is justly humiliating to
the national pride. The Government by every proper constitutional means,
should aid in making our ships familiar visitors at every commercial port
of the world, thus opening up new and valuable markets to the surplus
products of the farm and the factory.
The efforts which had been made during the two previous years by my
predecessor to secure better protection to the fur seals in the North
Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, were renewed at an early date by this
Administration, and have been pursued with earnestness. Upon my invitation,
the Governments of Japan and Russia sent delegates to Washington, and an
international conference was held during the months of October and November
last, wherein it was unanimously agreed that under the existing regulations
this species of useful animals was threatened with extinction, and that an
international agreement of all the interested powers was necessary for
their adequate protection.
The Government of Great Britain did not see proper to be represented at
this conference, but subsequently sent to Washington, as delegates, the
expert commissioners of Great Britain and Canada who had, during the past
two years, visited the Pribilof Islands, and who met in conference similar
commissioners on the part of the United States. The result of this
conference was an agreement on important facts connected with the condition
of the seal herd, heretofore in dispute, which should place beyond
controversy the duty of the Governments concerned to adopt measures without
delay for the preservation and restoration of the herd. Negotiations to
this end are now in progress, the result of which I hope to be able to
report to Congress at an early day.
International arbitration cannot be omitted from the list of subjects
claiming our consideration. Events have only served to strengthen the
general views on this question expressed in my inaugural address. The best
sentiment of the civilized world is moving toward the settlement of
differences between nations without resorting to the horrors of war.
Treaties embodying these humane principles on broad lines, without in any
way imperiling our interests or our honor, shall have my constant
encouragement.
The acceptance by this Government of the invitation of the Republic of
France to participate in the Universal Exposition of 1900, at Paris, was
immediately followed by the appointment of a special commissioner to
represent the United States in the proposed exposition, with special
reference to the securing of space for an adequate exhibit on behalf of the
United States.
The special commissioner delayed his departure for Paris long enough to
ascertain the probable demand for space by American exhibitors. His
inquiries developed an almost unprecedented interest in the proposed
exposition, and the information thus acquired enabled him to justify an
application for a much larger allotment of space for the American section
than had been reserved by the exposition authorities. The result was
particularly gratifying, in view of the fact that the United States was one
of the last countries to accept the invitation of France.
The reception accorded our special commissioner was most cordial, and he
was given every reasonable assurance that the United States would receive a
consideration commensurate with the proportions of our exhibit. The report
of the special commissioner as to the magnitude and importance of the
coming exposition, and the great demand for space by American exhibitors,
supplies new arguments for a liberal and judicious appropriation by
Congress, to the end that an exhibit fairly representative of the
industries and resources of our country may be made in an exposition which
will illustrate the world's progress during the nineteenth century. That
exposition is intended to be the most important and comprehensive of the
long series of international exhibitions, of which our own at Chicago was a
brilliant example, and it is desirable that the United States should make a
worthy exhibit of American genius and skill and their unrivaled
achievements in every branch of industry.
The present immediately effective force of the Navy consists of four battle
ships of the first class, two of the second, and forty-eight other vessels,
ranging from armored cruisers to torpedo boats. There are under
construction five battle ships of the first class, sixteen torpedo boats,
and one submarine boat. No provision has yet been made for the armor of
three of the five battle ships, as it has been impossible to obtain it at
the price fixed by Congress. It is of great importance that Congress
provide this armor, as until then the ships are of no fighting value.
The present naval force, especially in view of its increase by the ships
now under construction, while not as large as that of a few other powers,
is a formidable force; its vessels are the very best of each type; and with
the increase that should be made to it from time to time in the future, and
careful attention to keeping it in a high state of efficiency and repair,
it is well adapted to the necessities of the country.
The great increase of the Navy which has taken place in recent years was
justified by the requirements for national defense, and has received public
approbation. The time has now arrived, however, when this increase, to
which the country is committed, should, for a time, take the form of
increased facilities commensurate with the increase of our naval vessels.
It is an unfortunate fact that there is only one dock on the Pacific Coast
capable of docking our largest ships, and only one on the Atlantic Coast,
and that the latter has for the last six or seven months been under repair
and therefore incapable of use. Immediate steps should be taken to provide
three or four docks of this capacity on the Atlantic Coast, at least one on
the Pacific Coast, and a floating dock in the Gulf. This is the
recommendation of a very competent Board, appointed to investigate the
subject. There should also be ample provision made for powder and
projectiles, and other munitions of war, and for an increased number of
officers and enlisted men. Some additions are also necessary to our
navy-yards, for the repair and care of our large number of vessels. As
there are now on the stocks five battle ships of the largest class, which
cannot be completed for a year or two, I concur with the recommendation of
the Secretary of the Navy for an appropriation authorizing the construction
of one battle ship for the Pacific Coast, where, at present, there is only
one in commission and one under construction, while on the Atlantic Coast
there are three in commission and four under construction; and also that
several torpedo boats be authorized in connection with our general system
of coast defense.
The Territory of Alaska requires the prompt and early attention of
Congress. The conditions now existing demand material changes in the laws
relating to the Territory. The great influx of population during the past
summer and fall and the prospect of a still larger immigration in the
spring will not permit us to longer neglect the extension of civil
authority within the Territory or postpone the establishment of a more
thorough government.
A general system of public surveys has not yet been extended to Alaska and
all entries thus far made in that district are upon special surveys. The
act of Congress extending to Alaska the mining laws of the United States
contained the reservation that it should not be construed to put in force
the general land laws of the country. By act approved March 3, 1891,
authority was given for entry of lands for town-site purposes and also for
the purchase of not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres then or
thereafter occupied for purposes of trade and manufacture. The purpose of
Congress as thus far expressed has been that only such rights should apply
to that Territory as should be specifically named.
It will be seen how much remains to be done for that vast and remote and
yet promising portion of our country. Special authority was given to the
President by the Act of Congress approved July 24, 1897, to divide that
Territory into two land districts and to designate the boundaries thereof
and to appoint registers and receivers of said land offices, and the
President was also authorized to appoint a surveyor-general for the entire
district. Pursuant to this authority, a surveyor-general and receiver have
been appointed, with offices at Sitka. If in the ensuing year the
conditions justify it, the additional land district authorized by law will
be established, with an office at some point in the Yukon Valley. No
appropriation, however, was made for this purpose, and that is now
necessary to be done for the two land districts into which the Territory is
to be divided.
I concur with the Secretary of War in his suggestions as to the necessity
for a military force in the Territory of Alaska for the protection of
persons and property. Already a small force, consisting of twenty-five men,
with two officers, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Randall, of the
Eighth Infantry, has been sent to St. Michael to establish a military
post.
As it is to the interest of the Government to encourage the development and
settlement of the country and its duty to follow up its citizens there with
the benefits of legal machinery, I earnestly urge upon Congress the
establishment of a system of government with such flexibility as will
enable it to adjust itself to the future areas of greatest population.
The startling though possibly exaggerated reports from the Yukon River
country, of the probable shortage of food for the large number of people
who are wintering there without the means of leaving the country are
confirmed in such measure as to justify bringing the matter to the
attention of Congress. Access to that country in winter can be had only by
the passes from Dyea and vicinity, which is a most difficult and perhaps an
impossible task. However, should these reports of the suffering of our
fellow-citizens be further verified, every effort at any cost should be
made to carry them relief.
For a number of years past it has been apparent that the conditions under
which the Five Civilized Tribes were established in the Indian Territory
under treaty provisions with the United States, with the right of
self-government and the exclusion of all white persons from within their
borders, have undergone so complete a change as to render the continuance
of the system thus inaugurated practically impossible. The total number of
the Five Civilized Tribes, as shown by the last census, is 45,494, and this
number has not materially increased; while the white population is
estimated at from 200,000 to 250,000 which, by permission of the Indian
Government has settled in the Territory. The present area of the Indian
Territory contains 25,694,564 acres, much of which is very fertile land.
The United States citizens residing in the Territory, most of whom have
gone there by invitation or with the consent of the tribal authorities,
have made permanent homes for themselves. Numerous towns have been built in
which from 500 to 5,000 white people now reside. Valuable residences and
business houses have been erected in many of them. Large business
enterprises are carried on in which vast sums of money are employed, and
yet these people, who have invested their capital in the development of the
productive resources of the country, are without title to the land they
occupy, and have no voice whatever in the government either of the Nations
or Tribes. Thousands of their children who were born in the Territory are
of school age, but the doors of the schools of the Nations are shut against
them, and what education they get is by private contribution. No provision
for the protection of the life or property of these white citizens is made
by the Tribal Governments and Courts.
The Secretary of the Interior reports that leading Indians have absorbed
great tracts of land to the exclusion of the common people, and government
by an Indian aristocracy has been practically established, to the detriment
of the people. It has been found impossible for the United States to keep
its citizens out of the Territory, and the executory conditions contained
in the treaties with these Nations have for the most part become impossible
of execution. Nor has it been possible for the Tribal Governments to secure
to each individual Indian his full enjoyment in common with Other Indians
of the common property of the Nations. Friends of the Indians have long
believed that the best interests of the Indians of the Five Civilized
Tribes would be found in American citizenship, with all the rights and
privileges which belong to that condition.
By section 16, of the act of March 3, 1893, the President was authorized to
appoint three commissioners to enter into negotiations with the Cherokee,
Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (or Creek), and Seminole Nations, commonly
known as the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory. Briefly, the
purposes of the negotiations were to be: The extinguishment of Tribal
titles to any lands within that Territory now held by any and all such
Nations or Tribes, either by cession of the same or some part thereof to
the United States, or by allotment and division of the same in severalty
among the Indians of such Nations or Tribes respectively as may be entitled
to the same, or by such other method as may be agreed upon between the
several Nations and Tribes aforesaid, or each of them, with the United
States, with a view to such an adjustment upon the basis of justice and
equity as may, with the consent of the said Nations of Indians so far as
may be necessary, be requisite and suitable to enable the ultimate creation
of a State or States of the Union which shall embrace the lands within said
Indian Territory.
The Commission met much opposition from the beginning. The Indians were
very slow to act, and those in control manifested a decided disinclination
to meet with favor the propositions submitted to them. A little more than
three years after this organization the Commission effected an agreement
with the Choctaw Nation alone. The Chickasaws, however, refused to agree to
its terms, and as they have a common interest with the Choctaws in the
lands of said Nations, the agreement with the latter Nation could have no
effect without the consent of the former. On April 23, 1897, the Commission
effected an agreement with both tribes--the Choctaws and Chickasaws. This
agreement, it is understood, has been ratified by the constituted
authorities of the respective Tribes or Nations parties thereto, and only
requires ratification by Congress to make it binding.
On the 27th of September, 1897, an agreement was effected with the Creek
Nation, but it is understood that the National Council of said Nation has
refused to ratify the same. Negotiations are yet to be had with the
Cherokees, the most populous of the Five Civilized Tribes, and with the
Seminoles, the smallest in point of numbers and territory.
The provision in the Indian Appropriation Act, approved June 10, 1896,
makes it the duty of the Commission to investigate and determine the rights
of applicants for citizenship in the Five Civilized Tribes, and to make
complete census rolls of the citizens of said Tribes. The Commission is at
present engaged in this work among the Creeks, and has made appointments
for taking the census of these people up to and including the 30th of the
present month.
Should the agreement between the Choctaws and Chickasaws be ratified by
Congress and should the other Tribes fail to make an agreement with the
Commission, then it will be necessary that some legislation shall be had by
Congress, which, while just and honorable to the Indians, shall be
equitable to the white people who have settled upon these lands by
invitation of the Tribal Nations.
Hon. Henry L. Dawes, Chairman of the Commission, in a letter to the
Secretary of the Interior, under date of October 11, 1897, says:
"Individual ownership is, in their (the Commission's) opinion, absolutely
essential to any permanent improvement in present conditions, and the lack
of it is the root of nearly all the evils which so grievously afflict these
people. Allotment by agreement is the only possible method, unless the
United States Courts are clothed with the authority to apportion the lands
among the citizen Indians for whose use it was originally granted."
I concur with the Secretary of the Interior that there can be no cure for
the evils engendered by the perversion of these great trusts, excepting by
their resumption by the Government which created them.
The recent prevalence of yellow fever in a number of cities and towns
throughout the South has resulted in much disturbance of commerce, and
demonstrated the necessity of such amendments to our quarantine laws as
will make the regulations of the national quarantine authorities paramount.
The Secretary of the Treasury, in the portion of his report relating to the
operation of the Marine Hospital Service, calls attention to the defects in
the present quarantine laws, and recommends amendments thereto which will
give the Treasury Department the requisite authority to prevent the
invasion of epidemic diseases from foreign countries, and in times of
emergency, like that of the past summer, will add to the efficiency of the
sanitary measures for the protection of the people, and at the same time
prevent unnecessary restriction of commerce. I concur in his
recommendation.
In further effort to prevent the invasion of the United States by yellow
fever, the importance of the discovery of the exact cause of the disease,
which up to the present time has been undetermined, is obvious, and to this
end a systematic bacteriological investigation should be made. I therefore
recommend that Congress authorize the appointment of a commission by the
President, to consist of four expert bacteriologists, one to be selected
from the medical officers of the Marine Hospital Service, one to be
appointed from civil life, one to be detailed from the medical officers of
the Army, and one from the medical officers of the Navy.
The Union Pacific Railway, Main Line, was sold under the decree of the
United States Court for the District of Nebraska, on the 1st and 2d of
November of this year. The amount due the Government consisted of the
principal of the subsidy bonds, $27,236,512, and the accrued interest
thereon, $31,211,711.75, making the total indebtedness, $58,448,223.75. The
bid at the sale covered the first mortgage lien and the entire mortgage
claim of the Government, principal and interest.
The sale of the subsidized portion of the Kansas Pacific Line, upon which
the Government holds a second mortgage lien, has been postponed at the
instance of the Government to December 16, 1897. The debt of this division
of the Union Pacific Railway to the Government on November 1, 1897, was the
principal of the subsidy bonds, $6,303,000, and the unpaid and accrued
interest thereon, $6,626,690.33, making a total of $12,929,690.33.
The sale of this road was originally advertised for November 4, but for the
purpose of securing the utmost public notice of the event it was postponed
until December 16, and a second advertisement of the sale was made. By the
decree of the Court, the upset price on the sale of the Kansas Pacific will
yield to the Government the sum of $2,500,000 over all prior liens, costs,
and charges. If no other or better bid is made, this sum is all that the
Government will receive on its claim of nearly $13,000,000. The Government
has no information as to whether there will be other bidders or a better
bid than the minimum amount herein stated. The question presented therefore
is: Whether the Government shall, under the authority given it by the act
of March 3, 1887, purchase or redeem the road in the event that a bid is
not made by private parties covering the entire Government claim. To
qualify the Government to bid at the sales will require a deposit of
$900,000, as follows: In the Government cause $500,000 and in each of the
first mortgage causes $200,000, and in the latter the deposit must be in
cash. Payments at the sale are as follows: Upon the acceptance of the bid a
sum which with the amount already deposited shall equal fifteen per cent of
the bid; the balance in installments of twenty-five per cent thirty, forty,
and fifty days after the confirmation of the sale. The lien on the Kansas
Pacific prior to that of the Government on the 30th July, 1897, principal
and interest, amounted to $7,281,048.11. The Government, therefore, should
it become the highest bidder, will have to pay the amount of the first
mortgage lien.
I believe that under the act of 1887 it has the authority to do this and in
absence of any action by Congress I shall direct the Secretary of the
Treasury to make the necessary deposit as required by the Court's decree to
qualify as a bidder and to bid at the sale a sum which will at least equal
the principal of the debt due to the Government; but suggest in order to
remove all controversy that an amendment of the law be immediately passed
explicitly giving such powers and appropriating in general terms whatever
sum is sufficient therefor.
In so important a matter as the Government becoming the possible owner of
railroad property which it perforce must conduct and operate, I feel
constrained to lay before Congress these facts for its consideration and
action before the consummation of the sale. It is clear to my mind that the
Government should not permit the property to be sold at a price which will
yield less than one-half of the principal of its debt and less than
one-fifth of its entire debt, principal and interest. But whether the
Government, rather than accept less than its claim, should become a bidder
and thereby the owner of the property, I submit to the Congress for
action.
The Library building provided for by the act of Congress approved April 15,
1886, has been completed and opened to the public. It should be a matter of
congratulation that through the foresight and munificence of Congress the
nation possesses this noble treasure-house of knowledge. It is earnestly to
be hoped that having done so much toward the cause of education, Congress
will continue to develop the Library in every phase of research to the end
that it may be not only one of the most magnificent but among the richest
and most useful libraries in the world.
The important branch of our Government known as the Civil Service, the
practical improvement of which has long been a subject of earnest
discussion, has of late years received increased legislative and Executive
approval. During the past few months the service has been placed upon a
still firmer basis of business methods and personal merit. While the right
of our veteran soldiers to reinstatement in deserving cases has been
asserted, dismissals for merely political reasons have been carefully
guarded against, the examinations for admittance to the service enlarged
and at the same time rendered less technical and more practical; and a
distinct advance has been made by giving a hearing before dismissal upon
all cases where incompetency is charged or demand made for the removal of
officials in any of the Departments. This order has been made to give to
the accused his right to be heard but without in anyway impairing the power
of removal, which should always be exercised in cases of inefficiency and
incompetency, and which is one of the vital safeguards of the civil service
reform system, preventing stagnation and deadwood and keeping every
employee keenly alive to the fact that the security of his tenure depends
not on favor but on his own tested and carefully watched record of
service.