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."