will be necessary to give aid and direction to its people to form a
government for themselves. This should be undertaken at the earliest moment
consistent with safety and assured success. It is important that our
relations with this people shall be of the most friendly character and our
commercial relations close and reciprocal. It should be our duty to assist
in every proper way to build up the waste places of the island, encourage
the industry of the people, and assist them to form a government which
shall be free and independent, thus realizing the best aspirations of the
Cuban people.
Spanish rule must be replaced by a just, benevolent, and humane government,
created by the people of Cuba, capable of performing all international
obligations, and which shall encourage thrift, industry, and prosperity and
promote peace and good will among all of the inhabitants, whatever may have
been their relations in the past. Neither revenge nor passion should have a
place in the new government. Until there is complete tranquillity in the
island and a stable government inaugurated military occupation will be
continued.
With the one exception of the rupture with Spain, the intercourse of the
United States with the great family of nations has been marked with
cordiality, and the close of the eventful year finds most of the issues
that necessarily arise in the complex relations of sovereign states
adjusted or presenting no serious obstacle to a just and honorable solution
by amicable agreement.
A long unsettled dispute as to the extended boundary between the Argentine
Republic and Chile, stretching along the Andean crests from the southern
border of the Atacama Desert to Magellan Straits, nearly a third of the
length of the South American continent, assumed an acute stage in the early
part of the year, and afforded to this Government occasion to express the
hope that the resort to arbitration, already contemplated by existing
conventions between the parties, might prevail despite the grave
difficulties arising in its application. I am happy to say that
arrangements to this end have been perfected, the questions of fact upon
which the respective commissioners were unable to agree being in course of
reference to Her Britannic Majesty for determination. A residual difference
touching the northern boundary line across the Atacama Desert, for which
existing treaties provided no adequate adjustment, bids fair to be settled
in like manner by a joint commission, upon which the United States minister
at Buenos Ayres has been invited to serve as umpire in the last resort.
I have found occasion to approach the Argentine Government with a view to
removing differences of rate charges imposed upon the cables of an American
corporation in the transmission between Buenos Ayres and the cities of
Uruguay and Brazil of through messages passing from and to the United
States. Although the matter is complicated by exclusive concessions by
Uruguay and Brazil to foreign companies, there is strong hope that a good
understanding will be reached and that the important channels of commercial
communication between the United States and the Atlantic cities of South
America may be freed from an almost prohibitory discrimination.
In this relation I may be permitted to express my sense of the fitness of
an international agreement whereby the interchange of messages over
connecting cables may be regulated on a fair basis of uniformity. The world
has seen the postal system developed from a congeries of independent and
exclusive services into a well-ordered union, of which all countries enjoy
the manifold benefits. It would be strange were the nations not in time
brought to realize that modern civilization, which owes so much of its
progress to the annihilation of space by the electric force, demands that
this all-important means of communication be a heritage of all peoples, to
be administered and regulated in their common behoof. A step in this
direction was taken when the international convention of 1884 for the
protection of submarine cables was signed, and the day is, I trust, not far
distant when this medium for the transmission of thought from land to land
may be brought within the domain of international concert as completely as
is the material carriage of commerce and correspondence upon the face of
the waters that divide them.
The claim of Thomas Jefferson Page against Argentina, which has been
pending many years, has been adjusted. The sum awarded by the Congress of
Argentina was $4,242.35.
The sympathy of the American people has justly been offered to the ruler
and the people of Austria-Hungary by reason of the affliction that has
lately befallen them in the assassination of the Empress-Queen of that
historic realm.
On the 10th of September, 1897, a conflict took place at Lattimer, Pa.,
between a body of striking miners and the sheriff of Luzerne County and his
deputies, in which 22 miners were killed and 44 wounded, of whom 10 of the
killed and 12 of the wounded were Austrian and Hungarian subjects. This
deplorable event naturally aroused the solicitude of the Austro-Hungarian
Government, which, on the assumption that the killing and wounding involved
the unjustifiable misuse of authority, claimed reparation for the
sufferers. Apart from the searching investigation and peremptory action of
the authorities of Pennsylvania, the Federal Executive took appropriate
steps to learn the merits of the case, in order to be in a position to meet
the urgent complaint of a friendly power. The sheriff and his deputies,
having been indicted for murder, were tried, and acquitted, after
protracted proceedings and the hearing of hundreds of witnesses, on the
ground that the killing was in the line of their official duty to uphold
law and preserve public order in the State. A representative of the
Department of Justice attended the trial and reported its course fully.
With all the facts in its possession, this Government expects to reach a
harmonious understanding on the subject with that of Austria-Hungary,
notwithstanding the renewed claim of the latter, after learning the result
of the trial, for indemnity for its injured subjects.
Despite the brief time allotted for preparation, the exhibits of this
country at the Universal Exposition at Brussels in 1897 enjoyed the
singular distinction of a larger proportion of awards, having regard to the
number and classes of articles entered than those of other countries. The
worth of such a result in making known our national capacity to supply the
world's markets is obvious.
Exhibitions of this international character are becoming more frequent as
the exchanges of commercial countries grow more intimate and varied. Hardly
a year passes that this Government is not invited to national participation
at some important foreign center, but often on too short notice to permit
of recourse to Congress for the power and means to do so. My predecessors
have suggested the advisability of providing by a general enactment and a
standing appropriation for accepting such invitations and for
representation of this country by a commission. This plan has my cordial
approval.
I trust that the Belgian restrictions on the importation of cattle from the
United States, originally adopted as a sanitary precaution, will at an
early day be relaxed as to their present features of hardship and
discrimination, so as to admit live cattle under due regulation of their
slaughter after landing. I am hopeful, too, of favorable change in the
Belgian treatment of our preserved and salted meats. The growth of direct
trade between the two countries, not alone for Belgian consumption and
Belgian products, but by way of transit from and to other continental
states, has been both encouraging and beneficial. No effort will be spared
to enlarge its advantages by seeking the removal of needless impediments
and by arrangements for increased commercial exchanges.
The year's events in Central America deserve more than passing mention.
A menacing rupture between Costa Rica and Nicaragua was happily composed by
the signature of a convention between the parties, with the concurrence of
the Guatemalan representative as a mediator, the act being negotiated and
signed on board the United States steamer Alert, then lying in Central
American waters. It is believed that the good offices of our envoy and of
the commander of that vessel contributed toward this gratifying outcome.
In my last annual message the situation was presented with respect to the
diplomatic representation of this Government in Central America created by
the association of Nicaragua, Honduras, and Salvador under the title of the
Greater Republic of Central America, and the delegation of their
international functions to the Diet thereof. While the representative
character of the Diet was recognized by my predecessor and has been
confirmed during my Administration by receiving its accredited envoy and
granting exequaturs to consuls commissioned under its authority, that
recognition was qualified by the distinct understanding that the
responsibility of each of the component sovereign Republics toward the
United States remained wholly unaffected.
This proviso was needful inasmuch as the compact of the three Republics was
at the outset an association whereby certain representative functions were
delegated to a tripartite commission rather than a federation possessing
centralized powers of government and administration. In this view of their
relation and of the relation of the United States to the several Republics,
a change in the representation of this country in Central America was
neither recommended by the Executive nor initiated by Congress, thus
leaving one of our envoys accredited, as heretofore, separately to two
States of the Greater Republic, Nicaragua and Salvador, and to a third
State, Costa Rica, which was not a party to the compact, while our other
envoy was similarly accredited to a union State, Honduras, and a nonunion
State, Guatemala. The result has been that the one has presented
credentials only to the President of Costa Rica, the other having been
received only by the Government of Guatemala.
Subsequently the three associated Republics entered into negotiations for
taking the steps forecast in the original compact. A convention of their
delegates framed for them a federal constitution under the name of the
United States of Central America, and provided for a central federal
government and legislature. Upon ratification by the constituent States,
the 1st of November last was fixed for the new system to go into operation.
Within a few weeks thereafter the plan was severely tested by revolutionary
movements arising, with a consequent demand for unity of action on the part
of the military power of the federal States to suppress them. Under this
strain the new union seems to have been weakened through the withdrawal of
its more important members. This Government was not officially advised of
the installation of the federation and has maintained an attitude of
friendly expectancy, while in no wise relinquishing the position held from
the outset that the responsibilities of the several States toward us
remained unaltered by their tentative relations among themselves.
The Nicaragua Canal Commission, under the chairmanship of Rear-Admiral John
G. Walker, appointed July 24, 1897, under the authority of a provision in
the sundry civil act of June 4 of that year, has nearly completed its
labors, and the results of its exhaustive inquiry into the proper route,
the feasibility, and the cost of construction of an interoceanic canal by a
Nicaraguan route will be laid before you. In the performance of its task
the commission received all possible courtesy and assistance from the
Governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which thus testified their
appreciation of the importance of giving a speedy and practical outcome to
the great project that has for so many years engrossed the attention of the
respective countries.
As the scope of the recent inquiry embraced the whole subject, with the aim
of making plans and surveys for a canal by the most convenient route, it
necessarily included a review of the results of previous surveys and plans,
and in particular those adopted by the Maritime Canal Company under its
existing concessions from Nicaragua and Costa Rica, so that to this extent
those grants necessarily hold as essential a part in the deliberations and
conclusions of the Canal Commission as they have held and must needs hold
in the discussion of the matter by the Congress. Under these circumstances
and in view of overtures made to the Governments of Nicaragua and Costa
Rica by other parties for a new canal concession predicated on the assumed
approaching lapse of the contracts of the Maritime Canal Company with those
States, I have not hesitated to express my conviction that considerations
of expediency and international policy as between the several governments
interested in the construction and control of an interoceanic canal by this
route require the maintenance of the status quo until the Canal Commission
shall have reported and the United States Congress shall have had the
opportunity to pass finally upon the whole matter during the present
session, without prejudice by reason of any change in the existing
conditions.
Nevertheless, it appears that the Government of Nicaragua, as one of its
last sovereign acts before merging its powers in those of the newly formed
United States of Central America, has granted an optional concession to
another association, to become effective on the expiration of the present
grant. It does not appear what surveys have been made or what route is
proposed under this contingent grant, so that an examination of the
feasibility of its plans is necessarily not embraced in the report of the
Canal Commission. All these circumstances suggest the urgency of some
definite action by the Congress at this session if the labors of the past
are to be utilized and the linking of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a
practical waterway is to be realized. That the construction of such a
maritime highway is now more than ever indispensable to that intimate and
ready intercommunication between our eastern and western seaboards demanded
by the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands and the prospective expansion of
our influence and commerce in the Pacific, and that our national policy now
more imperatively than ever calls for its control by this Government, are
propositions which I doubt not the Congress will duly appreciate and wisely
act upon.
A convention providing for the revival of the late United States and
Chilean Claims Commission and the consideration of claims which were duly
presented to the late commission, but not considered because of the
expiration of the time limited for the duration of the commission, was
signed May 24, 1897, and has remained unacted upon by the Senate. The term
therein fixed for effecting the exchange of ratifications having elapsed,
the convention falls unless the time be extended by amendment, which I am
endeavoring to bring about, with the friendly concurrence of the Chilean
Government.
The United States has not been an indifferent spectator of the
extraordinary events transpiring in the Chinese Empire, whereby portions of
its maritime provinces are passing under the control of various European
powers; but the prospect that the vast commerce which the energy of our
citizens and the necessity of our staple productions for Chinese uses has
built up in those regions may not be prejudiced through any exclusive
treatment by the new occupants has obviated the need of our country
becoming an actor in the scene. Our position among nations, having a large
Pacific coast and a constantly expanding direct trade with the farther
Orient, gives us the equitable claim to consideration and friendly
treatment in this regard, and it will be my aim to subserve our large
interests in that quarter by all means appropriate to the constant policy
of our Government. The territories of Kiao-chow, of Wei-hai-wei, and of
Port Arthur and Talienwan, leased to Germany, Great Britain, and Russia,
respectively, for terms of years, will, it is announced, be open to
international commerce during such alien occupation; and if no
discriminating treatment of American citizens and their trade be found to
exist or be hereafter developed, the desire of this Government would appear
to be realized.
In this relation, as showing the volume and value of our exchanges 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 commercial and industrial conditions in the Chinese Empire and
report as to the opportunities for and 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 late session. I cordially
urge that the recommendation receive at your hands the consideration which
its importance and timeliness merit.
Meanwhile there may be just ground for disquietude in view of the unrest
and revival of the old sentiment of opposition and prejudice to alien
people which pervades certain of the Chinese provinces. As in the case of
the attacks upon our citizens in Szechuen and at Kutien in 1895, the United
States minister has been instructed to secure the fullest measure of
protection, both local and imperial, for any menaced American interests,
and to demand, in case of lawless injury to person or property, instant
reparation appropriate to the case. War ships have been stationed at
Tientsin for more ready observation of the disorders which have invaded
even the Chinese capital, so as to be in a position to act should need
arise, while a guard of marines has been sent to Peking to afford the
minister the same measure of authoritative protection as the
representatives of other nations have been constrained to employ.
Following close upon the rendition of the award of my predecessor as
arbitrator of the claim of the Italian subject Cerruti against the Republic
of Colombia, differences arose between the parties to the arbitration in
regard to the scope and extension of the award, of which certain articles
were contested by Colombia, while Italy claimed their literal fulfillment.
The award having been made by the President of the United States, as an act
of friendly consideration and with the sole view to an impartial
composition of the matter in dispute, I could not but feel deep concern at
such a miscarriage, and while unable to accept the Colombian theory that I,
in my official capacity, possessed continuing functions as arbitrator, with
power to interpret or revise the terms of the award, my best efforts were
lent to bring the parties to a harmonious agreement as to the execution of
its provisions.
A naval demonstration by Italy resulted in an engagement to pay the
liabilities claimed upon their ascertainment; but this apparent disposition
of the controversy was followed by a rupture of diplomatic intercourse
between Colombia and Italy, which still continues, although, fortunately,
without acute symptoms having supervened. Notwithstanding this, efforts are
reported to be continuing for the ascertainment of Colombia's contingent
liability on account of Cerruti's debts under the fifth article of the
award.
A claim of an American citizen against the Dominican Republic for a public
bridge over the Ozama River, which has been in diplomatic controversy for
several years, has been settled by expert arbitration and an award in favor
of the claimant amounting to about $90,000. It, however, remains unpaid,
despite urgent demands for its settlement according to the terms of the
compact.
There is now every prospect that the participation of the United States in
the Universal Exposition to be held in Paris in 1900 will be on a scale
commensurate with the advanced position held by our products and industries
in the world's chief marts.
The preliminary report of Mr. Moses P. Handy, who, under the act approved
July 19, 1897, was appointed special commissioner with a view to securing
all attainable information necessary to a full and complete understanding
by Congress in regard to the participation of this Government in the Paris
Exposition, was laid before you by my message of December 6, 1897, and
showed the large opportunities opened to make known our national progress
in arts, science, and manufactures, as well as the urgent need of immediate
and adequate provision to enable due advantage thereof to be taken. Mr.
Handy's death soon afterwards rendered it necessary for another to take up
and complete his unfinished work, and on January 11 last Mr. Thomas W.
Cridler, Third Assistant Secretary of State, was designated to fulfill that
task. His report was laid before you by my message of June 14, 1898, with
the gratifying result of awakening renewed interest in the projected
display. By a provision in the sundry civil appropriation act of July 1,
1898, a sum not to exceed $650,000 was allotted for the organization of a
commission to care for the proper preparation and installation of American
exhibits and for the display of suitable exhibits by the several Executive
Departments, particularly by the Department of Agriculture, the Fish
Commission, and the Smithsonian Institution, in representation of the
Government of the United States.
Pursuant to that enactment I appointed Mr. Ferdinand W. Peck, of Chicago,
commissioner-general, with an assistant commissioner-general and a
secretary. Mr. Peck at once proceeded to Paris, where his success in
enlarging the scope and variety of the United States exhibit has been most
gratifying. Notwithstanding the comparatively limited area of the
exposition site--less than one-half that of the World's Fair at
Chicago--the space assigned to the United States has been increased from
the absolute allotment of 157,403 square feet reported by Mr. Handy to some
202,000 square feet, with corresponding augmentation of the field for a
truly characteristic representation of the various important branches of
our country's development. Mr. Peck's report will be laid before you. In my
judgment its recommendations will call for your early consideration,
especially as regards an increase of the appropriation to at least one
million dollars in all, so that not only may the assigned space be fully
taken up by the best possible exhibits in every class, but the preparation
and installation be on so perfect a scale as to rank among the first in
that unparalleled competition of artistic and inventive production, and
thus counterbalance the disadvantage with which we start as compared with
other countries whose appropriations are on a more generous scale and whose
preparations are in a state of much greater forwardness than our own.
Where our artisans have the admitted capacity to excel, where our inventive
genius has initiated many of the grandest discoveries of these later days
of the century, and where the native resources of our land are as limitless
as they are valuable to supply the world's needs, it is our province, as it
should be our earnest care, to lead in the march of human progress, and not
rest content with any secondary place. Moreover, if this be due to
ourselves, it is no less due to the great French nation whose guests we
become, and which has in so many ways testified its wish and hope that our
participation shall befit the place the two peoples have won in the field
of universal development.