I cordially renew this recommendation.

The Supreme Court, speaking on December 11. 1899, through Peckham, J.,

said:

"It is, we think, historically accurate to say that this Government has

always been, in its views, among the most advanced of the governments

of the world in favor of mitigating, as to all non-combatants, the

hardships and horrors of war. To accomplish that object it has always

advocated those rules which would in most cases do away with the right

to capture the private property of an enemy on the high seas."

I advocate this as a matter of humanity and morals. It is anachronistic

when private property is respected on land that it should not be

respected at sea. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that shipping

represents, internationally speaking, a much more generalized species

of private property than is the case with ordinary property on

land--that is, property found at sea is much less apt than is the case

with property found on land really to belong to any one nation. Under

the modern system of corporate ownership the flag of a vessel often

differs from the flag which would mark the nationality of the real

ownership and money control of the vessel; and the cargo may belong to

individuals of yet a different nationality. Much American capital is

now invested in foreign ships; and among foreign nations it often

happens that the capital of one is largely invested in the shipping of

another. Furthermore, as a practical matter, it may be mentioned that

while commerce destroying may cause serious loss and great annoyance,

it can never be more than a subsidiary factor in bringing to terms a

resolute foe. This is now well recognized by all of our naval experts.

The fighting ship, not the commerce destroyer, is the vessel whose

feats add renown to a nation's history, and establish her place among

the great powers of the world.

Last year the Interparliamentary Union for International Arbitration

met at Vienna, six hundred members of the different legislatures of

civilized countries attending. It was provided that the next meeting

should be in 1904 at St. Louis, subject to our Congress extending an

invitation. Like the Hague Tribunal, this Interparliamentary Union is

one of the forces tending towards peace among the nations of the earth,

and it is entitled to our support. I trust the invitation can be

extended.

Early in July, having received intelligence, which happily turned out

to be erroneous, of the assassination of our vice-consul at Beirut, I

dispatched a small squadron to that port for such service as might be

found necessary on arrival. Although the attempt on the life of our

vice-consul had not been successful, yet the outrage was symptomatic of

a state of excitement and disorder which demanded immediate attention.

The arrival of the vessels had the happiest result. A feeling of

security at once took the place of the former alarm and disquiet; our

officers were cordially welcomed by the consular body and the leading

merchants, and ordinary business resumed its activity. The Government

of the Sultan gave a considerate hearing to the representations of our

minister; the official who was regarded as responsible for the

disturbed condition of affairs was removed. Our relations with the

Turkish Government remain friendly; our claims rounded on inequitable

treatment of some of our schools and missions appear to be in process

of amicable adjustment.

The signing of a new commercial treaty with China, which took place at

Shanghai on the 8th of October, is a cause for satisfaction. This act,

the result of long discussion and negotiation, places our commercial

relations with the great Oriental Empire on a more satisfactory footing

than they have ever heretofore enjoyed. It provides not only for the

ordinary rights and privileges of diplomatic and consular officers, but

also for an important extension of our commerce by increased facility

of access to Chinese ports, and for the relief of trade by the removal

of some of the obstacles which have embarrassed it in the past. The

Chinese Government engages, on fair and equitable conditions, which

will probably be accepted by the principal commercial nations, to

abandon the levy of "liken" and other transit dues throughout the

Empire, and to introduce other desirable administrative reforms. Larger

facilities are to be given to our citizens who desire to carry on

mining enterprises in China. We have secured for our missionaries a

valuable privilege, the recognition of their right to rent and lease in

perpetuity such property as their religious societies may need in all

parts of the Empire. And, what was an indispensable condition for the

advance and development of our commerce in Manchuria, China, by treaty

with us, has opened to foreign commerce the cities of Mukden, the

capital of the province of Manchuria, and An-tung, an important port on

the Yalu River, on the road to Korea. The full measure of development

which our commerce may rightfully expect can hardly be looked for until

the settlement of the present abnormal state of things in the Empire;

but the foundation for such development has at last been laid.

I call your attention to the reduced cost in maintaining the consular

service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, as shown in the

annual report of the Auditor for the State and other Departments, as

compared with the year previous. For the year under consideration the

excess of expenditures over receipts on account of the consular service

amounted to $26,125.12, as against $96,972.50 for the year ending June

30, 1902, and $147,040.16 for the year ending June 30, 1901. This is

the best showing in this respect for the consular service for the past

fourteen years, and the reduction in the cost of the service to the

Government has been made in spite of the fact that the expenditures for

the year in question were more than $20,000 greater than for the

previous year.

The rural free-delivery service has been steadily extended. The

attention of the Congress is asked to the question of the compensation

of the letter carriers and clerks engaged in the postal service,

especially on the new rural free-delivery routes. More routes have been

installed since the first of July last than in any like period in the

Department's history. While a due regard to economy must be kept in

mind in the establishment of new routes, yet the extension of the rural

free-delivery system must be continued, for reasons of sound public

policy. No governmental movement of recent years has resulted in

greater immediate benefit to the people of the country districts. Rural

free delivery, taken in connection with the telephone, the bicycle, and

the trolley, accomplishes much toward lessening the isolation of farm

life and making it brighter and more attractive. In the immediate past

the lack of just such facilities as these has driven many of the more

active and restless young men and women from the farms to the cities;

for they rebelled at loneliness and lack of mental companionship. It is

unhealthy and undesirable for the cities to grow at the expense of the

country; and rural free delivery is not only a good thing in itself,

but is good because it is one of the causes which check this

unwholesome tendency towards the urban concentration of our population

at the expense of the country districts. It is for the same reason that

we sympathize with and approve of the policy of building good roads.

The movement for good roads is one fraught with the greatest benefit to

the country districts.

I trust that the Congress will continue to favor in all proper ways the

Louisiana Purchase Exposition. This Exposition commemorates the

Louisiana purchase, which was the first great step in the expansion

which made us a continental nation. The expedition of Lewis and Clark

across the continent followed thereon, and marked the beginning of the

process of exploration and colonization which thrust our national

boundaries to the Pacific. The acquisition of the Oregon country,

including the present States of Oregon and Washington, was a fact of

immense importance in our history; first giving us our place on the

Pacific seaboard, and making ready the way for our ascendency in the

commerce of the greatest of the oceans. The centennial of our

establishment upon the western coast by the expedition of Lewis and

Clark is to be celebrated at Portland, Oregon, by an exposition in the

summer of 1905, and this event should receive recognition and support

from the National Government.

I call your special attention to the Territory of Alaska. The country

is developing rapidly, and it has an assured future. The mineral wealth

is great and has as yet hardly been tapped. The fisheries, if wisely

handled and kept under national control, will be a business as

permanent as any other, and of the utmost importance to the people. The

forests if properly guarded will form another great source of wealth.

Portions of Alaska are fitted for farming and stock raising, although

the methods must be adapted to the peculiar conditions of the country.

Alaska is situated in the far north; but so are Norway and Sweden and

Finland; and Alaska can prosper and play its part in the New World just

as those nations have prospered and played their parts in the Old

World. Proper land laws should be enacted; and the survey of the public

lands immediately begun. Coal-land laws should be provided whereby the

coal-land entryman may make his location and secure patent under

methods kindred to those now prescribed for homestead and mineral

entrymen. Salmon hatcheries, exclusively under Government control,

should be established. The cable should be extended from Sitka

westward. Wagon roads and trails should be built, and the building of

railroads promoted in all legitimate ways. Light-houses should be built

along the coast. Attention should be paid to the needs of the Alaska

Indians; provision should be made for an officer, with deputies, to

study their needs, relieve their immediate wants, and help them adapt

themselves to the new conditions.

The commission appointed to investigate, during the season of 1903, the

condition and needs of the Alaskan salmon fisheries, has finished its

work in the field, and is preparing a detailed report thereon. A

preliminary report reciting the measures immediately required for the

protection and preservation of the salmon industry has already been

submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for his attention and

for the needed action.

I recommend that an appropriation be made for building light-houses in

Hawaii, and taking possession of those already built. The Territory

should be reimbursed for whatever amounts it has already expended for

light-houses. The governor should be empowered to suspend or remove any

official appointed by him, without submitting the matter to the

legislature.

Of our insular possessions the Philippines and Porto Rico it is

gratifying to say that their steady progress has been such as to make

it unnecessary to spend much time in discussing them. Yet the Congress

should ever keep in mind that a peculiar obligation rests upon us to

further in every way the welfare of these communities. The Philippines

should be knit closer to us by tariff arrangements. It would, of

course, be impossible suddenly to raise the people of the islands to

the high pitch of industrial prosperity and of governmental efficiency

to which they will in the end by degrees attain; and the caution and

moderation shown in developing them have been among the main reasons

why this development has hitherto gone on so smoothly. Scrupulous care

has been taken in the choice of governmental agents, and the entire

elimination of partisan politics from the public service. The condition

of the islanders is in material things far better than ever before,

while their governmental, intellectual, and moral advance has kept pace

with their material advance. No one people ever benefited another

people more than we have benefited the Filipinos by taking possession

of the islands.

The cash receipts of the General Land Office for the last fiscal year

were $11,024,743.65, an increase of $4,762,816.47 over the preceding

year. Of this sum, approximately, $8,461,493 will go to the credit of

the fund for the reclamation of arid land, making the total of this

fund, up to the 30th of June, 1903, approximately, $16,191,836.

A gratifying disposition has been evinced by those having unlawful

inclosures of public land to remove their fences. Nearly two million

acres so inclosed have been thrown open on demand. In but comparatively

few cases has it been necessary to go into court to accomplish this

purpose. This work will be vigorously prosecuted until all unlawful

inclosures have been removed.

Experience has shown that in the western States themselves, as well as

in the rest of the country, there is widespread conviction that certain

of the public-land laws and the resulting administrative practice no

longer meet the present needs. The character and uses of the remaining

public lands differ widely from those of the public lands which

Congress had especially in view when these laws were passed. The

rapidly increasing rate of disposal of the public lands is not followed

by a corresponding increase in home building. There is a tendency to

mass in large holdings public lands, especially timber and grazing

lands, and thereby to retard settlement. I renew and emphasize my

recommendation of last year that so far as they are available for

agriculture in its broadest sense, and to whatever extent they may be

reclaimed under the national irrigation law, the remaining public lands

should be held rigidly for the home builder. The attention of the

Congress is especially directed to the timber and stone law, the

desert-land law, and the commutation clause of the homestead law, which

in their operation have in many respects conflicted with wise

public-land policy. The discussions in the Congress and elsewhere have

made it evident that there is a wide divergence of opinions between

those holding opposite views on these subjects; and that the opposing

sides have strong and convinced representatives of weight both within

and without the Congress; the differences being not only as to matters

of opinion but as to matters of fact. In order that definite

information may be available for the use of the Congress, I have

appointed a commission composed of W. A. Richards, Commissioner of the

General Land Office; Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Bureau of Forestry

of the Department of Agriculture, and F. H. Newell, Chief Hydrographer

of the Geological Survey, to report at the earliest practicable moment

upon the condition, operation, and effect of the present land laws and

on the use, condition, disposal, and settlement of the public lands.

The commission will report especially what changes in organization,

laws, regulations, and practice affecting the public lands are needed

to effect the largest practicable disposition of the public lands to

actual settlers who will build permanent homes upon them, and to secure

in permanence the fullest and most effective use of the resources of

the public lands; and it will make such other reports and

recommendations as its study of these questions may suggest. The

commission is to report immediately upon those points concerning which

its judgment is clear; on any point upon which it has doubt it will

take the time necessary to make investigation and reach a final

judgment.

The work of reclamation of the arid lands of the West is progressing

steadily and satisfactorily under the terms of the law setting aside

the proceeds from the disposal of public lands. The corps of engineers

known as the Reclamation Service, which is conducting the surveys and

examinations, has been thoroughly organized, especial pains being taken

to secure under the civil-service rules a body of skilled, experienced,

and efficient men. Surveys and examinations are progressing throughout

the arid States and Territories, plans for reclaiming works being

prepared and passed upon by boards of engineers before approval by the

Secretary of the Interior. In Arizona and Nevada, in localities where

such work is pre-eminently needed, construction has already been begun.

In other parts of the arid West various projects are well advanced

towards the drawing up of contracts, these being delayed in part by

necessities of reaching agreements or understanding as regards rights

of way or acquisition of real estate. Most of the works contemplated

for construction are of national importance, involving interstate

questions or the securing of stable, self-supporting communities in the

midst of vast tracts of vacant land. The Nation as a whole is of course

the gainer by the creation of these homes, adding as they do to the

wealth and stability of the country, and furnishing a home market for

the products of the East and South. The reclamation law, while perhaps

not ideal, appears at present to answer the larger needs for which it

is designed. Further legislation is not recommended until the

necessities of change are more apparent.

The study of the opportunities of reclamation of the vast extent of

arid land shows that whether this reclamation is done by individuals,

corporations, or the State, the sources of water supply must be

effectively protected and the reservoirs guarded by the preservation of

the forests at the headwaters of the streams. The engineers making the

preliminary examinations continually emphasize this need and urge that

the remaining public lands at the headwaters of the important streams

of the West be reserved to insure permanency of water supply for

irrigation. Much progress in forestry has been made during the past

year. The necessity for perpetuating our forest resources, whether in

public or private hands, is recognized now as never before. The demand

for forest reserves has become insistent in the West, because the West

must use the water, wood, and summer range which only such reserves can

supply. Progressive lumbermen are striving, through forestry, to give

their business permanence. Other great business interests are awakening

to the need of forest preservation as a business matter. The

Government's forest work should receive from the Congress hearty

support, and especially support adequate for the protection of the

forest reserves against fire. The forest-reserve policy of the

Government has passed beyond the experimental stage and has reached a

condition where scientific methods are essential to its successful

prosecution. The administrative features of forest reserves are at

present unsatisfactory, being divided between three Bureaus of two

Departments. It is therefore recommended that all matters pertaining to

forest reserves, except those involving or pertaining to land titles,

be consolidated in the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of

Agriculture.

The cotton-growing States have recently been invaded by a weevil that

has done much damage and threatens the entire cotton industry. I

suggest to the Congress the prompt enactment of such remedial

legislation as its judgment may approve.

In granting patents to foreigners the proper course for this country to

follow is to give the same advantages to foreigners here that the

countries in which these foreigners dwell extend in return to our

citizens; that is, to extend the benefits of our patent laws on

inventions and the like where in return the articles would be

patentable in the foreign countries concerned--where an American could

get a corresponding patent in such countries.

The Indian agents should not be dependent for their appointment or

tenure of office upon considerations of partisan politics; the practice

of appointing, when possible, ex-army officers or bonded

superintendents to the vacancies that occur is working well. Attention

is invited to the widespread illiteracy due to lack of public schools

in the Indian Territory. Prompt heed should be paid to the need of

education for the children in this Territory.

In my last annual Message the attention of the Congress was called to

the necessity of enlarging the safety-appliance law, and it is

gratifying to note that this law was amended in important respects.

With the increasing railway mileage of the country, the greater number

of men employed, and the use of larger and heavier equipment, the

urgency for renewed effort to prevent the loss of life and limb upon

the railroads of the country, particularly to employees, is apparent.

For the inspection of water craft and the Life-Saving Service upon the

water the Congress has built up an elaborate body of protective

legislation and a thorough method of inspection and is annually

spending large sums of money. It is encouraging to observe that the

Congress is alive to the interests of those who are employed upon our

wonderful arteries of commerce--the railroads--who so safely transport

millions of passengers and billions of tons of freight. The Federal

inspection, of safety appliances, for which the Congress is now making

appropriations, is a service analogous to that which the Government has

upheld for generations in regard to vessels, and it is believed will

prove of great practical benefit, both to railroad employees and the

traveling public. As the greater part of commerce is interstate and

exclusively under the control of the Congress the needed safety and

uniformity must be secured by national legislation.

No other class of our citizens deserves so well of the Nation as those

to whom the Nation owes its very being, the veterans of the civil war.

Special attention is asked to the excellent work of the Pension Bureau

in expediting and disposing of pension claims. During the fiscal year

ending July 1, 1903, the Bureau settled 251,982 claims, an average of

825 claims for each working day of the year. The number of settlements

since July 1, 1903, has been in excess of last year's average,

approaching 1,000 claims for each working day, and it is believed that

the work of the Bureau will be current at the close of the present

fiscal year.

During the year ended June 30 last 25,566 persons were appointed

through competitive examinations under the civil-service rules. This

was 12,672 more than during the preceding year, and 40 per cent of

those who passed the examinations. This abnormal growth was largely

occasioned by the extension of classification to the rural

free-delivery service and the appointment last year of over 9,000 rural

carriers. A revision of the civil-service rules took effect on April 15

last, which has greatly improved their operation. The completion of the

reform of the civil service is recognized by good citizens everywhere

as a matter of the highest public importance, and the success of the

merit system largely depends upon the effectiveness of the rules and

the machinery provided for their enforcement. A very gratifying spirit

of friendly co-operation exists in all the Departments of the

Government in the enforcement and uniform observance of both the letter

and spirit of the civil-service act. Executive orders of July 3, 1902;

March 26, 1903, and July 8, 1903, require that appointments of all

unclassified laborers, both in the Departments at Washington and in the

field service, shall be made with the assistance of the United States

Civil Service Commission, under a system of registration to test the

relative fitness of applicants for appointment or employment. This

system is competitive, and is open to all citizens of the United States

qualified in respect to age, physical ability, moral character,

industry, and adaptability for manual labor; except that in case of

veterans of the Civil War the element of age is omitted. This system of

appointment is distinct from the classified service and does not

classify positions of mere laborer under the civil-service act and

rules. Regulations in aid thereof have been put in operation in several

of the Departments and are being gradually extended in other parts of

the service. The results have been very satisfactory, as extravagance

has been checked by decreasing the number of unnecessary positions and

by increasing the efficiency of the employees remaining.

The Congress, as the result of a thorough investigation of the

charities and reformatory institutions in the District of Columbia, by

a joint select committee of the two Houses which made its report in

March, 1898, created in the act approved June 6, 1900, a board of

charities for the District of Columbia, to consist of five residents of

the District, appointed by the President of the United States, by and

with the advice and consent of the Senate, each for a term of three

years, to serve without compensation. President McKinley appointed five

men who had been active and prominent in the public charities in

Washington, all of whom upon taking office July 1, 1900, resigned from

the different charities with which they had been connected. The members

of the board have been reappointed in successive years. The board

serves under the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. The board

gave its first year to a careful and impartial study of the special

problems before it, and has continued that study every year in the

light of the best practice in public charities elsewhere. Its

recommendations in its annual reports to the Congress through the

Commissioners of the District of Columbia "for the economical and

efficient administration of the charities and reformatories of the

District of Columbia," as required by the act creating it, have been

based upon the principles commended by the joint select committee of

the Congress in its report of March, 1898, and approved by the best

administrators of public charities, and make for the desired

systematization and improvement of the affairs under its supervision.

They are worthy of favorable consideration by the Congress.

The effect of the laws providing a General Staff for the Army and for

the more effective use of the National Guard has been excellent. Great

improvement has been made in the efficiency of our Army in recent

years. Such schools as those erected at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley

and the institution of fall maneuver work accomplish satisfactory

results. The good effect of these maneuvers upon the National Guard is

marked, and ample appropriation should be made to enable the guardsmen

of the several States to share in the benefit. The Government should as

soon as possible secure suitable permanent camp sites for military

maneuvers in the various sections of the country. The service thereby

rendered not only to the Regular Army, but to the National Guard of the

several States, will be so great as to repay many times over the

relatively small expense. We should not rest satisfied with what has

been done, however. The only people who are contented with a system of

promotion by mere seniority are those who are contented with the

triumph of mediocrity over excellence. On the other hand, a system

which encouraged the exercise of social or political favoritism in

promotions would be even worse. But it would surely be easy to devise a

method of promotion from grade to grade in which the opinion of the

higher officers of the service upon the candidates should be decisive

upon the standing and promotion of the latter. Just such a system now

obtains at West Point. The quality of each year's work determines the

standing of that year's class, the man being dropped or graduated into

the next class in the relative position which his military superiors

decide to be warranted by his merit. In other words, ability, energy,

fidelity, and all other similar qualities determine the rank of a man

year after year in West Point, and his standing in the Army when he

graduates from West Point; but from that time on, all effort to find

which man is best or worst, and reward or punish him accordingly, is

abandoned; no brilliancy, no amount of hard work, no eagerness in the

performance of duty, can advance him, and no slackness or indifference

that falls short of a court-martial offense can retard him. Until this

system is changed we can not hope that our officers will be of as high

grade as we have a right to expect, considering the material upon which

we draw. Moreover, when a man renders such service as Captain Pershing

rendered last spring in the Moro campaign, it ought to be possible

to reward him without at once jumping him to the grade of

brigadier-general.

Shortly after the enunciation of that famous principle of American

foreign policy now known as the "Monroe Doctrine," President Monroe, in

a special Message to Congress on January 30, 1824, spoke as follows:

"The Navy is the arm from which our Government will always derive most

aid in support of our rights. Every power engaged in war will know the

strength of our naval power, the number of our ships of each class,

their condition, and the promptitude with which we may bring them into

service, and will pay due consideration to that argument."

I heartily congratulate the Congress upon the steady progress in

building up the American Navy. We can not afford a let-up in this great

work. To stand still means to go back. There should be no cessation in

adding to the effective units of the fighting strength of the fleet.

Meanwhile the Navy Department and the officers of the Navy are doing

well their part by providing constant service at sea under conditions

akin to those of actual warfare. Our officers and enlisted men are

learning to handle the battleships, cruisers, and torpedo boats with

high efficiency in fleet and squadron formations, and the standard of

marksmanship is being steadily raised. The best work ashore is

indispensable, but the highest duty of a naval officer is to exercise

command at sea.

The establishment of a naval base in the Philippines ought not to be

longer postponed. Such a base is desirable in time of peace; in time of

war it would be indispensable, and its lack would be ruinous. Without

it our fleet would be helpless. Our naval experts are agreed that Subig

Bay is the proper place for the purpose. The national interests require

that the work of fortification and development of a naval station at

Subig Bay be begun at an early date; for under the best conditions it

is a work which will consume much time.

It is eminently desirable, however, that there should be provided a

naval general staff on lines similar to those of the General Staff

lately created for the Army. Within the Navy Department itself the

needs of the service have brought about a system under which the duties

of a general staff are partially performed; for the Bureau of

Navigation has under its direction the War College, the Office of Naval

Intelligence, and the Board of Inspection, and has been in close touch

with the General Board of the Navy. But though under the excellent

officers at their head, these boards and bureaus do good work, they

have not the authority of a general staff, and have not sufficient

scope to insure a proper readiness for emergencies. We need the

establishment by law of a body of trained officers, who shall exercise

a systematic control of the military affairs of the Navy, and be

authorized advisers of the Secretary concerning it.

By the act of June 28, 1902, the Congress authorized the President to

enter into treaty with Colombia for the building of the canal across

the Isthmus of Panama; it being provided that in the event of failure

to secure such treaty after the lapse of a reasonable time, recourse

should be had to building a canal through Nicaragua. It has not been

necessary to consider this alternative, as I am enabled to lay before

the Senate a treaty providing for the building of the canal across the

Isthmus of Panama. This was the route which commended itself to the

deliberate judgment of the Congress, and we can now acquire by treaty

the right to construct the canal over this route. The question now,

therefore, is not by which route the isthmian canal shall be built, for

that question has been definitely and irrevocably decided. The question

is simply whether or not we shall have an isthmian canal.

When the Congress directed that we should take the Panama route under

treaty with Colombia, the essence of the condition, of course, referred

not to the Government which controlled that route, but to the route

itself; to the territory across which the route lay, not to the name

which for the moment the territory bore on the map. The purpose of the

law was to authorize the President to make a treaty with the power in

actual control of the Isthmus of Panama. This purpose has been

fulfilled.

In the year 1846 this Government entered into a treaty with New

Granada, the predecessor upon the Isthmus of the Republic of Colombia

and of the present Republic of Panama, by which treaty it was provided

that the Government and citizens of the United States should always

have free and open right of way or transit across the Isthmus of Panama

by any modes of communication that might be constructed, while in turn

our Government guaranteed the perfect neutrality of the above-mentioned

Isthmus with the view that the free transit from the one to the other

sea might not be interrupted or embarrassed. The treaty vested in the

United States a substantial property right carved out of the rights of

sovereignty and property which New Granada then had and possessed over

the said territory. The name of New Granada has passed away and its

territory has been divided. Its successor, the Government of Colombia,

has ceased to own any property in the Isthmus. A new Republic, that of

Panama, which was at one time a sovereign state, and at another time a

mere department of the successive confederations known as New Granada

and Columbia, has now succeeded to the rights which first one and then

the other formerly exercised over the Isthmus. But as long as the

Isthmus endures, the mere geographical fact of its existence, and the

peculiar interest therein which is required by our position, perpetuate

the solemn contract which binds the holders of the territory to respect

our right to freedom of transit across it, and binds us in return to

safeguard for the Isthmus and the world the exercise of that

inestimable privilege. The true interpretation of the obligations upon

which the United States entered in this treaty of 1846 has been given

repeatedly in the utterances of Presidents and Secretaries of State.

Secretary Cuss in 1858 officially stated the position of this

Government as follows:

"The progress of events has rendered the interoceanic route across the

narrow portion of Central America vastly important to the commercial

world, and especially to the United States, whose possessions extend

along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and demand the speediest and

easiest modes of communication. While the rights of sovereignty of the

states occupying this region should always be respected, we shall

expect that these rights be exercised in a spirit befitting the

occasion and the wants and circumstances that have arisen. Sovereignty

has its duties as well as its rights, and none of these local

governments, even if administered with more regard to the just demands

of other nations than they have been, would be permitted, in a spirit

of Eastern isolation, to close the gates of intercourse on the great

highways of the world, and justify the act by the pretension that these

avenues of trade and travel belong to them and that they choose to shut

them, or, what is almost equivalent, to encumber them with such unjust

relations as would prevent their general use."

Seven years later, in 1865, Mr. Seward in different communications took

the following position:

"The United States have taken and will take no interest in any question

of internal revolution in the State of Panama, or any State of the

United States of Colombia, but will maintain a perfect neutrality in

connection with such domestic altercations. The United States will,

nevertheless, hold themselves ready to protect the transit trade across

the Isthmus against invasion of either domestic or foreign disturbers

of the peace of the State of Panama. Neither the text nor the spirit of

the stipulation in that article by which the United States engages to

preserve the neutrality of the Isthmus of Panama, imposes an obligation

on this Government to comply with the requisition of the President of

the United States of Colombia for a force to protect the Isthmus of

Panama from a body of insurgents of that country. The purpose of the

stipulation was to guarantee the Isthmus against seizure or invasion by

a foreign power only."

Attorney-General Speed, under date of November 7, 1865, advised

Secretary Seward as follows:

"From this treaty it can not be supposed that New Granada invited the

United States to become a party to the intestine troubles of that

Government, nor did the United States become bound to take sides in the

domestic broils of New Granada. The United States did guarantee New

Granada in the sovereignty and property over the territory. This was as

against other and foreign governments."

For four hundred years, ever since shortly after the discovery of this

hemisphere, the canal across the Isthmus has been planned. For two

score years it has been worked at. When made it is to last for the

ages. It is to alter the geography of a continent and the trade routes

of the world. We have shown by every treaty we have negotiated or

attempted to negotiate with the peoples in control of the Isthmus and

with foreign nations in reference thereto our consistent good faith in

observing our obligations; on the one hand to the peoples of the

Isthmus, and on the other hand to the civilized world whose commercial

rights we are safeguarding and guaranteeing by our action. We have done

our duty to others in letter and in spirit, and we have shown the

utmost forbearance in exacting our own rights.

Last spring, under the act above referred to, a treaty concluded

between the representatives of the Republic of Colombia and of our

Government was ratified by the Senate. This treaty was entered into at

the urgent solicitation of the people of Colombia and after a body of

experts appointed by our Government especially to go into the matter of

the routes across the Isthmus had pronounced unanimously in favor of

the Panama route. In drawing up this treaty every concession was made

to the people and to the Government of Colombia. We were more than just

in dealing with them. Our generosity was such as to make it a serious

question whether we had not gone too far in their interest at the

expense of our own; for in our scrupulous desire to pay all possible

heed, not merely to the real but even to the fancied rights of our

weaker neighbor, who already owed so much to our protection and

forbearance, we yielded in all possible ways to her desires in drawing

up the treaty. Nevertheless the Government of Colombia not merely

repudiated the treaty, but repudiated it in such manner as to make it

evident by the time the Colombian Congress adjourned that not the

scantiest hope remained of ever getting a satisfactory treaty from

them. The Government of Colombia made the treaty, and yet when the

Colombian Congress was called to ratify it the vote against

ratification was unanimous. It does not appear that the Government made

any real effort to secure ratification.

Immediately after the adjournment of the Congress a revolution broke

out in Panama. The people of Panama had long been discontented with the

Republic of Colombia, and they had been kept quiet only by the prospect

of the conclusion of the treaty, which was to them a matter of vital

concern. When it became evident that the treaty was hopelessly lost,

the people of Panama rose literally as one man. Not a shot was fired by

a single man on the Isthmus in the interest of the Colombian

Government. Not a life was lost in the accomplishment of the

revolution. The Colombian troops stationed on the Isthmus, who had long

been unpaid, made common cause with the people of Panama, and with

astonishing unanimity the new Republic was started. The duty of the

United States in the premises was clear. In strict accordance with the

principles laid down by Secretaries Cass and Seward in the official

documents above quoted, the United States gave notice that it would

permit the landing of no expeditionary force, the arrival of which

would mean chaos and destruction along the line of the railroad and of

the proposed Canal, and an interruption of transit as an inevitable

consequence. The de facto Government of Panama was recognized in the

following telegram to Mr. Ehrman:

"The people of Panama have, by apparently unanimous movement, dissolved

their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and resumed

their independence. When you are satisfied that a de facto government,

republican in form and without substantial opposition from its own

people, has been established in the State of Panama, you will enter

into relations with it as the responsible government of the territory

and look to it for all due action to protect the persons and property

of citizens of the United States and to keep open the isthmian transit,

in accordance with the obligations of existing treaties governing the

relations of the United States to that Territory."

The Government of Colombia was notified of our action by the following

telegram to Mr. Beaupre:

"The people of Panama having, by an apparently unanimous movement,

dissolved their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and

resumed their independence, and having adopted a Government of their

own, republican in form, with which the Government of the United States

of America has entered into relations, the President of the United

States, in accordance with the ties of friendship which have so long

and so happily existed between the respective nations, most earnestly

commends to the Governments of Colombia and of Panama the peaceful and

equitable settlement of all questions at issue between them. He holds

that he is bound not merely by treaty obligations, but by the interests

of civilization, to see that the peaceful traffic of the world across

the Isthmus of Panama shall not longer be disturbed by a constant

succession of unnecessary and wasteful civil wars."

When these events happened, fifty-seven years had elapsed since the

United States had entered into its treaty with New Granada. During that

time the Governments of New Granada and of its successor, Colombia,

have been in a constant state of flux. The following is a partial list

of the disturbances on the Isthmus of Panama during the period in

question as reported to us by our consuls. It is not possible to give a

complete list, and some of the reports that speak of "revolutions" must

mean unsuccessful revolutions. May 22, 1850.--Outbreak; two Americans

killed. War vessel demanded to quell outbreak. October,

1850.--Revolutionary plot to bring about independence of the Isthmus.

July 22, 1851.--Revolution in four southern provinces. November 14,

1851.--Outbreak at Chagres. Man-of-war requested for Chagres. June 27,

1853.--Insurrection at Bogota, and consequent disturbance on Isthmus.

War vessel demanded. May 23, 1854--Political disturbances; war vessel

requested. June 28, 1854.--Attempted revolution. October 24,

1854.--Independence of Isthmus demanded by provincial legislature.

April, 1856.--Riot, and massacre of Americans. May 4, 1856.--Riot. May

18, 1856.--Riot. June 3, 1856.--Riot. October 2, 1856.--Conflict

between two native parties. United States forces landed. December 18,

1858.--Attempted secession of Panama. April, 1859.--Riots. September,

1860.--Outbreak. October 4, 1860.--Landing of United States forces in

consequence. May 23, 1861.--Intervention of the United States forces

required by intendente. October 2, 1861.--Insurrection and civil war.

April 4, 1862.--Measures to prevent rebels crossing Isthmus. June 13,

1862.--Mosquera's troops refused admittance to Panama. March,

1865.--Revolution, and United States troops landed. August,

1865.--Riots; unsuccessful attempt to invade Panama. March,

1866.--Unsuccessful revolution. April, 1867.--Attempt to overthrow

Government. August, 1867.--Attempt at revolution. July 5,

1868.--Revolution; provisional government inaugurated. August 29,

1868.--Revolution; provisional government overthrown. April,

1871.--Revolution; followed apparently by counter revolution. April,

1873.--Revolution and civil war which lasted to October, 1875. August,

1876.--Civil war which lasted until April, 1877. July,

1878.--Rebellion. December, 1878.--Revolt. April, 1879.--Revolution.

June, 1879.--Revolution. March, 1883.--Riot. May, 1883.--Riot. June,

1884.--Revolutionary attempt. December, 1884.--Revolutionary attempt.

January, 1885.--Revolutionary disturbances. March, 1885.--Revolution.

April, 1887.--Disturbance on Panama Railroad. November,

1887.--Disturbance on line of canal. January, 1889.--Riot. January,

1895.--Revolution which lasted until April. March, 1895.--Incendiary

attempt. October, 1899.--Revolution. February, 1900, to July,

1900.--Revolution. January, 1901--Revolution. July,

1901.--Revolutionary disturbances. September, 1901.--City of Colon

taken by rebels. March, 1902.--Revolutionary disturbances. July,

1902.--Revolution. The above is only a partial list of the revolutions,

rebellions, insurrections, riots, and other outbreaks that have

occurred during the period in question; yet they number 53 for the 57

years. It will be noted that one of them lasted for nearly three years

before it was quelled; another for nearly a year. In short, the

experience of over half a century has shown Colombia to be utterly

incapable of keeping order on the Isthmus. Only the active interference

of the United States has enabled her to preserve so much as a semblance

of sovereignty. Had it not been for the exercise by the United States

of the police power in her interest, her connection with the Isthmus

would have been sundered long ago. In 1856, in 1860, in 1873, in 1885,

in 1901, and again in 1902, sailors and marines from United States war

ships were forced to land in order to patrol the Isthmus, to protect

life and property, and to see that the transit across the Isthmus was

kept open. In 1861, in 1862, in 1885, and in 1900, the Colombian

Government asked that the United States Government would land troops to

protect its interests and maintain order on the Isthmus. Perhaps the

most extraordinary request is that which has just been received and

which runs as follows:

"Knowing that revolution has already commenced in Panama [an eminent

Colombian] says that if the Government of the United States will land

troops to preserve Colombian sovereignty, and the transit, if requested

by Colombian charge d'affaires, this Government will declare martial

law; and, by virtue of vested constitutional authority, when public

order is disturbed, will approve by decree ratification of the canal

treaty as signed; or, if the Government of the United States prefers,

will call extra session of the Congress--with new and friendly

members--next May to approve the treaty. [An eminent Colombian] has the

perfect confidence of vice-president, he says, and if it became

necessary will go to the Isthmus or send representatives there to

adjust matters along above lines to the satisfaction of the people

there."

This dispatch is noteworthy from two standpoints. Its offer of

immediately guaranteeing the treaty to us is in sharp contrast with the

positive and contemptuous refusal of the Congress which has just closed

its sessions to consider favorably such a treaty; it shows that the

Government which made the treaty really had absolute control over the

situation, but did not choose to exercise this control. The dispatch

further calls on us to restore order and secure Colombian supremacy in

the Isthmus from which the Colombian Government has just by its action

decided to bar us by preventing the construction of the canal.

The control, in the interest of the commerce and traffic of the whole

civilized world, of the means of undisturbed transit across the Isthmus

of Panama has become of transcendent importance to the United States.

We have repeatedly exercised this control by intervening in the course

of domestic dissension, and by protecting the territory from foreign

invasion. In 1853 Mr. Everett assured the Peruvian minister that we

should not hesitate to maintain the neutrality of the Isthmus in the

case of war between Peru and Colombia. In 1864 Colombia, which has

always been vigilant to avail itself of its privileges conferred by the

treaty, expressed its expectation that in the event of war between Peru

and Spain the United States would carry into effect the guaranty of

neutrality. There have been few administrations of the State Department

in which this treaty has not, either by the one side or the other, been

used as a basis of more or less important demands. It was said by Mr.

Fish in 1871 that the Department of State had reason to believe that an

attack upon Colombian sovereignty on the Isthmus had, on several

occasions, been averted by warning from this Government. In 1886, when

Colombia was under the menace of hostilities from Italy in the Cerruti

case, Mr. Bayard expressed the serious concern that the United States

could not but feel, that a European power should resort to force

against a sister republic of this hemisphere, as to the sovereign and

uninterrupted use of a part of whose territory we are guarantors under

the solemn faith of a treaty.

The above recital of facts establishes beyond question: First, that the

United States has for over half a century patiently and in good faith

carried out its obligations under the treaty of 1846; second, that when

for the first time it became possible for Colombia to do anything in

requital of the services thus repeatedly rendered to it for fifty-seven

years by the United States, the Colombian Government peremptorily and

offensively refused thus to do its part, even though to do so would

have been to its advantage and immeasurably to the advantage of the

State of Panama, at that time under its jurisdiction; third, that

throughout this period revolutions, riots, and factional disturbances

of every kind have occurred one after the other in almost uninterrupted

succession, some of them lasting for months and even for years, while

the central government was unable to put them down or to make peace

with the rebels; fourth, that these disturbances instead of showing any

sign of abating have tended to grow more numerous and more serious in

the immediate past; fifth, that the control of Colombia over the

Isthmus of Panama could not be maintained without the armed

intervention and assistance of the United States. In other words, the

Government of Colombia, though wholly unable to maintain order on the

Isthmus, has nevertheless declined to ratify a treaty the conclusion of

which opened the only chance to secure its own stability and to

guarantee permanent peace on, and the construction of a canal across,

the Isthmus.

Under such circumstances the Government of the United States would have

been guilty of folly and weakness, amounting in their sum to a crime

against the Nation, had it acted otherwise than it did when the

revolution of November 3 last took place in Panama. This great

enterprise of building the interoceanic canal can not be held up to

gratify the whims, or out of respect to the governmental impotence, or

to the even more sinister and evil political peculiarities, of people

who, though they dwell afar off, yet, against the wish of the actual

dwellers on the Isthmus, assert an unreal supremacy over the territory.

The possession of a territory fraught with such peculiar capacities as

the Isthmus in question carries with it obligations to mankind. The

course of events has shown that this canal can not be built by private

enterprise, or by any other nation than our own; therefore it must be

built by the United States.

Every effort has been made by the Government of the United States to

persuade Colombia to follow a course which was essentially not only to

our interests and to the interests of the world, but to the interests

of Colombia itself. These efforts have failed; and Colombia, by her

persistence in repulsing the advances that have been made, has forced

us, for the sake of our own honor, and of the interest and well-being,

not merely of our own people, but of the people of the Isthmus of

Panama and the people of the civilized countries of the world, to take

decisive steps to bring to an end a condition of affairs which had

become intolerable. The new Republic of Panama immediately offered to

negotiate a treaty with us. This treaty I herewith submit. By it our

interests are better safeguarded than in the treaty with Colombia which

was ratified by the Senate at its last session. It is better in its

terms than the treaties offered to us by the Republics of Nicaragua and

Costa Rica. At last the right to begin this great undertaking is made

available. Panama has done her part. All that remains is for the

American Congress to do its part, and forthwith this Republic will

enter upon the execution of a project colossal in its size and of

well-nigh incalculable possibilities for the good of this country and

the nations of mankind.

By the provisions of the treaty the United States guarantees and will

maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama. There is granted

to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of

a strip ten miles wide and extending three nautical miles into the sea

at either terminal, with all lands lying outside of the zone necessary

for the construction of the canal or for its auxiliary works, and with

the islands in the Bay of Panama. The cities of Panama and Colon are

not embraced in the canal zone, but the United States assumes their

sanitation and, in case of need, the maintenance of order therein; the

United States enjoys within the granted limits all the rights, power,

and authority which it would possess were it the sovereign of the

territory to the exclusion of the exercise of sovereign rights by the

Republic. All railway and canal property rights belonging to Panama and

needed for the canal pass to the United States, including any property

of the respective companies in the cities of Panama and Colon; the

works, property, and personnel of the canal and railways are exempted

from taxation as well in the cities of Panama and Colon as in the canal

zone and its dependencies. Free immigration of the personnel and

importation of supplies for the construction and operation of the canal

are granted. Provision is made for the use of military force and the

building of fortifications by the United States for the protection of

the transit. In other details, particularly as to the acquisition of

the interests of the New Panama Canal Company and the Panama Railway by

the United States and the condemnation of private property for the uses

of the canal, the stipulations of the Hay-Herran treaty are closely

followed, while the compensation to be given for these enlarged grants

remains the same, being ten millions of dollars payable on exchange of

ratifications; and, beginning nine years from that date, an annual

payment of $250,000 during the life of the convention.

***

State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 6, 1904

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

The Nation continues to enjoy noteworthy prosperity. Such prosperity is

of course primarily due to the high individual average of our

citizenship, taken together with our great natural resources; but an

important factor therein is the working of our long-continued

governmental policies. The people have emphatically expressed their

approval of the principles underlying these policies, and their desire

that these principles be kept substantially unchanged, although of

course applied in a progressive spirit to meet changing conditions.

The enlargement of scope of the functions of the National Government

required by our development as a nation involves, of course, increase

of expense; and the period of prosperity through which the country is

passing justifies expenditures for permanent improvements far greater

than would be wise in hard times. Battle ships and forts, public

buildings, and improved waterways are investments which should be made

when we have the money; but abundant revenues and a large surplus

always invite extravagance, and constant care should be taken to guard

against unnecessary increase of the ordinary expenses of government.

The cost of doing Government business should be regulated with the same

rigid scrutiny as the cost of doing a private business.

In the vast and complicated mechanism of our modern civilized life the

dominant note is the note of industrialism; and the relations of

capital and labor, and especially of organized capital and organized

labor, to each other and to the public at large come second in

importance only to the intimate questions of family life. Our peculiar

form of government, with its sharp division of authority between the

Nation and the several States, has been on the whole far more

advantageous to our development than a more strongly centralized

government. But it is undoubtedly responsible for much of the

difficulty of meeting with adequate legislation the new problems

presented by the total change in industrial conditions on this

continent during the last half century. In actual practice it has

proved exceedingly difficult, and in many cases impossible, to get

unanimity of wise action among the various States on these subjects.

From the very nature of the case this is especially true of the laws

affecting the employment of capital in huge masses.

With regard to labor the problem is no less important, but it is

simpler. As long as the States retain the primary control of the police

power the circumstances must be altogether extreme which require

interference by the Federal authorities, whether in the way of

safeguarding the rights of labor or in the way of seeing that wrong is

not done by unruly persons who shield themselves behind the name of

labor. If there is resistance to the Federal courts, interference with

the mails, or interstate commerce, or molestation of Federal property,

or if the State authorities in some crisis which they are unable to

face call for help, then the Federal Government may interfere; but

though such interference may be caused by a condition of things arising

out of trouble connected with some question of labor, the interference

itself simply takes the form of restoring order without regard to the

questions which have caused the breach of order--for to keep order is a

primary duty and in a time of disorder and violence all other questions

sink into abeyance until order has been restored. In the District of

Columbia and in the Territories the Federal law covers the entire field

of government; but the labor question is only acute in populous centers

of commerce, manufactures, or mining. Nevertheless, both in the

enactment and in the enforcement of law the Federal Government within

its restricted sphere should set an example to the State governments,

especially in a matter so vital as this affecting labor. I believe that

under modern industrial conditions it is often necessary, and even

where not necessary it is yet often wise, that there should be

organization of labor in order better to secure the rights of the

individual wage-worker. All encouragement should be given to any such

organization so long as it is conducted with a due and decent regard

for the rights of others. There are in this country some labor unions

which have habitually, and other labor unions which have often, been

among the most effective agents in working for good citizenship and for

uplifting the condition of those whose welfare should be closest to our

hearts. But when any labor union seeks improper ends, or seeks to

achieve proper ends by improper means, all good citizens and more

especially all honorable public servants must oppose the wrongdoing as

resolutely as they would oppose the wrongdoing of any great

corporation. Of course any violence, brutality, or corruption, should

not for one moment be tolerated. Wage-workers have an entire right to

organize and by all peaceful and honorable means to endeavor to

persuade their fellows to join with them in organizations. They have a

legal right, which, according to circumstances, may or may not be a

moral right, to refuse to work in company with men who decline to join

their organizations. They have under no circumstances the right to

commit violence upon these, whether capitalists or wage-workers, who

refuse to support their organizations, or who side with those with whom

they are at odds; for mob rule is intolerable in any form.

The wage-workers are peculiarly entitled to the protection and the

encouragement of the law. From the very nature of their occupation

railroad men, for instance, are liable to be maimed in doing the

legitimate work of their profession, unless the railroad companies are

required by law to make ample provision for their safety. The

Administration has been zealous in enforcing the existing law for this

purpose. That law should be amended and strengthened. Wherever the

National Government has power there should be a stringent employer's

liability law, which should apply to the Government itself where the

Government is an employer of labor.

In my Message to the Fifty-seventh Congress, at its second session, I

urged the passage of an employer's liability law for the District of

Columbia. I now renew that recommendation, and further recommend that

the Congress appoint a commission to make a comprehensive study of

employer's liability with the view of extending the provisions of a

great and constitutional law to all employments within the scope of

Federal power.

The Government has recognized heroism upon the water, and bestows

medals of honor upon those persons who by extreme and heroic daring

have endangered their lives in saving, or endeavoring to save, lives

from the perils of the sea in the waters over which the United States

has jurisdiction, or upon an American vessel. This recognition should

be extended to cover cases of conspicuous bravery and self-sacrifice in

the saving of life in private employments under the jurisdiction of the

United States, and particularly in the land commerce of the Nation.

The ever-increasing casualty list upon our railroads is a matter of

grave public concern, and urgently calls for action by the Congress. In

the matter of speed and comfort of railway travel our railroads give at

least as good service as those of any other nation, and there is no

reason why this service should not also be as safe as human ingenuity

can make it. Many of our leading roads have been foremost in the

adoption of the most approved safeguards for the protection of

travelers and employees, yet the list of clearly avoidable accidents

continues unduly large. The passage of a law requiring the adoption of

a block-signal system has been proposed to the Congress. I earnestly

concur in that recommendation, and would also point out to the Congress

the urgent need of legislation in the interest of the public safety

limiting the hours of labor for railroad employees in train service

upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce, and providing that only

trained and experienced persons be employed in positions of

responsibility connected with the operation of trains. Of course

nothing can ever prevent accidents caused by human weakness or

misconduct; and there should be drastic punishment for any railroad

employee, whether officer or man, who by issuance of wrong orders or by

disobedience of orders causes disaster. The law of 1901, requiring

interstate railroads to make monthly reports of all accidents to

passengers and employees on duty, should also be amended so as to

empower the Government to make a personal investigation, through proper

officers, of all accidents involving loss of life which seem to require

investigation, with a requirement that the results of such

investigation be made public.

The safety-appliance law, as amended by the act of March 2, 1903, has

proved beneficial to railway employees, and in order that its

provisions may be properly carried out, the force of inspectors

provided for by appropriation should be largely increased. This service

is analogous to the Steamboat-Inspection Service, and deals with even

more important interests. It has passed the experimental stage and

demonstrated its utility, and should receive generous recognition by

the Congress.

There is no objection to employees of the Government forming or

belonging to unions; but the Government can neither discriminate for

nor discriminate against nonunion men who are in its employment, or who

seek to be employed under it. Moreover, it is a very grave impropriety

for Government employees to band themselves together for the purpose of

extorting improperly high salaries from the Government. Especially is

this true of those within the classified service. The letter carriers,

both municipal and rural, are as a whole an excellent body of public

servants. They should be amply paid. But their payment must be obtained

by arguing their claims fairly and honorably before the Congress, and

not by banding together for the defeat of those Congressmen who refuse

to give promises which they can not in conscience give. The

Administration has already taken steps to prevent and punish abuses of

this nature; but it will be wise for the Congress to supplement this

action by legislation.

Much can be done by the Government in labor matters merely by giving

publicity to certain conditions. The Bureau of Labor has done excellent

work of this kind in many different directions. I shall shortly lay

before you in a special message the full report of the investigation of

the Bureau of Labor into the Colorado mining strike, as this was a

strike in which certain very evil forces, which are more or less at

work everywhere under the conditions of modern industrialism, became

startlingly prominent. It is greatly to be wished that the Department

of Commerce and Labor, through the Labor Bureau, should compile and

arrange for the Congress a list of the labor laws of the various

States, and should be given the means to investigate and report to the

Congress upon the labor conditions in the manufacturing and mining

regions throughout the country, both as to wages, as to hours of labor,

as to the labor of women and children, and as to the effect in the

various labor centers of immigration from abroad. In this investigation

especial attention should be paid to the conditions of child labor and

child-labor legislation in the several States. Such an investigation

must necessarily take into account many of the problems with which this

question of child labor is connected. These problems can be actually

met, in most cases, only by the States themselves; but the lack of

proper legislation in one State in such a matter as child labor often

renders it excessively difficult to establish protective restriction

upon the work in another State having the same industries, so that the

worst tends to drag down the better. For this reason, it would be well

for the Nation at least to endeavor to secure comprehensive information

as to the conditions of labor of children in the different States. Such

investigation and publication by the National Government would tend

toward the securing of approximately uniform legislation of the proper

character among the several States.

When we come to deal with great corporations the need for the

Government to act directly is far greater than in the case of labor,

because great corporations can become such only by engaging in

interstate commerce, and interstate commerce is peculiarly the field of

the General Government. It is an absurdity to expect to eliminate the

abuses in great corporations by State action. It is difficult to be

patient with an argument that such matters should be left to the States

because more than one State pursues the policy of creating on easy

terms corporations which are never operated within that State at all,

but in other States whose laws they ignore. The National Government

alone can deal adequately with these great corporations. To try to deal

with them in an intemperate, destructive, or demagogic spirit would, in

all probability, mean that nothing whatever would be accomplished, and,

with absolute certainty, that if anything were accomplished it would be

of a harmful nature. The American people need to continue to show the

very qualities that they have shown--that is, moderation, good sense,

the earnest desire to avoid doing any damage, and yet the quiet

determination to proceed, step by step, without halt and without hurry,

in eliminating or at least in minimizing whatever of mischief or evil

there is to interstate commerce in the conduct of great corporations.

They are acting in no spirit of hostility to wealth, either individual

or corporate. They are not against the rich man any more than against

the poor man. On the contrary, they are friendly alike toward rich man

and toward poor man, provided only that each acts in a spirit of

justice and decency toward his fellows. Great corporations are

necessary, and only men of great and singular mental power can manage

such corporations successfully, and such men must have great rewards.

But these corporations should be managed with due regard to the

interest of the public as a whole. Where this can be done under the

present laws it must be done. Where these laws come short others should

be enacted to supplement them.

Yet we must never forget the determining factor in every kind of work,

of head or hand, must be the man's own good sense, courage, and

kindliness. More important than any legislation is the gradual growth

of a feeling of responsibility and forbearance among capitalists, and

wage-workers alike; a feeling of respect on the part of each man for

the rights of others; a feeling of broad community of interest, not

merely of capitalists among themselves, and of wage-workers among

themselves, but of capitalists and wage-workers in their relations to

each other, and of both in their relations to their fellows who with

them make up the body politic. There are many captains of industry,

many labor leaders, who realize this. A recent speech by the president

of one of our great railroad systems to the employees of that system

contains sound common sense. It rims in part as follows:

"It is my belief we can better serve each other, better understand the

man as well as his business, when meeting face to face, exchanging

views, and realizing from personal contact we serve but one interest,

that of our mutual prosperity.

"Serious misunderstandings can not occur where personal good will

exists and opportunity for personal explanation is present.

"In my early business life I had experience with men of affairs of a

character to make me desire to avoid creating a like feeling of

resentment to myself and the interests in my charge, should fortune

ever place me in authority, and I am solicitous of a measure of

confidence on the part of the public and our employees that I shall

hope may be warranted by the fairness and good fellowship I intend

shall prevail in our relationship.

"But do not feel I am disposed to grant unreasonable requests, spend

the money of our company unnecessarily or without value received, nor

expect the days of mistakes are disappearing, or that cause for

complaint will not continually occur; simply to correct such abuses as

may be discovered, to better conditions as fast as reasonably may be

expected, constantly striving, with varying success, for that

improvement we all desire, to convince you there is a force at work in

the right direction, all the time making progress--is the disposition

with which I have come among you, asking your good will and

encouragement.

"The day has gone by when a corporation can be handled successfully in

defiance of the public will, even though that will be unreasonable and

wrong. A public may be led, but not driven, and I prefer to go with it

and shape or modify, in a measure, its opinion, rather than be swept

from my bearings, with loss to myself and the interests in my charge.

"Violent prejudice exists towards corporate activity and capital today,

much of it founded in reason, more in apprehension, and a large measure

is due to the personal traits of arbitrary, unreasonable, incompetent,

and offensive men in positions of authority. The accomplishment of

results by indirection, the endeavor to thwart the intention, if not

the expressed letter of the law (the will of the people), a disregard

of the rights of others, a disposition to withhold what is due, to

force by main strength or inactivity a result not justified, depending

upon the weakness of the claimant and his indisposition to become

involved in litigation, has created a sentiment harmful in the extreme

and a disposition to consider anything fair that gives gain to the

individual at the expense of the company.

"If corporations are to continue to do the world's work, as they are

best fitted to, these qualities in their representatives that have

resulted in the present prejudice against them must be relegated to the

background. The corporations must come out into the open and see and be

seen. They must take the public into their confidence and ask for what

they want, and no more, and be prepared to explain satisfactorily what

advantage will accrue to the public if they are given their desires;

for they are permitted to exist not that they may make money solely,

but that they may effectively serve those from whom they derive their

power.

"Publicity, and not secrecy, will win hereafter, and laws be construed

by their intent and not by their letter, otherwise public utilities

will be owned and operated by the public which created them, even

though the service be less efficient and the result less satisfactory

from a financial standpoint."

The Bureau of Corporations has made careful preliminary investigation

of many important corporations. It will make a special report on the

beef industry.

The policy of the Bureau is to accomplish the purposes of its creation

by co-operation, not antagonism; by making constructive legislation,

not destructive prosecution, the immediate object of its inquiries; by

conservative investigation of law and fact, and by refusal to issue

incomplete and hence necessarily inaccurate reports. Its policy being

thus one of open inquiry into, and not attack upon, business, the

Bureau has been able to gain not only the confidence, but, better

still, the cooperation of men engaged in legitimate business.

The Bureau offers to the Congress the means of getting at the cost of

production of our various great staples of commerce.

Of necessity the careful investigation of special corporations will

afford the Commissioner knowledge of certain business facts, the

publication of which might be an improper infringement of private

rights. The method of making public the results of these investigations

affords, under the law, a means for the protection of private rights.

The Congress will have all facts except such as would give to another

corporation information which would injure the legitimate business of a

competitor and destroy the incentive for individual superiority and

thrift.

The Bureau has also made exhaustive examinations into the legal

condition under which corporate business is carried on in the various

States; into all judicial decisions on the subject; and into the

various systems of corporate taxation in use. I call special attention

to the report of the chief of the Bureau; and I earnestly ask that the

Congress carefully consider the report and recommendations of the

Commissioner on this subject.

The business of insurance vitally affects the great mass of the people

of the United States and is national and not local in its application.

It involves a multitude of transactions among the people of the

different States and between American companies and foreign

governments. I urge that the Congress carefully consider whether the

power of the Bureau of Corporations can not constitutionally be

extended to cover interstate transactions in insurance.

Above all else, we must strive to keep the highways of commerce open to

all on equal terms; and to do this it is necessary to put a complete

stop to all rebates. Whether the shipper or the railroad is to blame

makes no difference; the rebate must be stopped, the abuses of the

private car and private terminal-track and side-track systems must be

stopped, and the legislation of the Fifty-eighth Congress which

declares it to be unlawful for any person or corporation to offer,

grant, give, solicit, accept, or receive any rebate, concession, or

discrimination in respect of the transportation of any property in

interstate or foreign commerce whereby such property shall by any

device whatever be transported at a less rate than that named in the

tariffs published by the carrier must be enforced. For some time after

the enactment of the Act to Regulate Commerce it remained a mooted

question whether that act conferred upon the Interstate Commerce

Commission the power, after it had found a challenged rate to be

unreasonable, to declare what thereafter should, prima facie, be the

reasonable maximum rate for the transportation in dispute. The Supreme

Court finally resolved that question in the negative, so that as the

law now stands the Commission simply possess the bare power to denounce

a particular rate as unreasonable. While I am of the opinion that at

present it would be undesirable, if it were not impracticable, finally

to clothe the Commission with general authority to fix railroad rates,

I do believe that, as a fair security to shippers, the Commission

should be vested with the power, where a given rate has been challenged

and after full hearing found to be unreasonable, to decide, subject to

judicial review, what shall be a reasonable rate to take its place; the

ruling of the Commission to take effect immediately, and to obtain

unless and until it is reversed by the court of review. The Government

must in increasing degree supervise and regulate the workings of the

railways engaged in interstate commerce; and such increased supervision

is the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one

hand or a still more radical policy on the other. In my judgment the

most important legislative act now needed as regards the regulation of

corporations is this act to confer on the Interstate Commerce

Commission the power to revise rates and regulations, the revised rate

to at once go into effect, and stay in effect unless and until the

court of review reverses it.

Steamship companies engaged in interstate commerce and protected in our

coastwise trade should be held to a strict observance of the interstate

commerce act.

In pursuing the set plan to make the city of Washington an example to

other American municipalities several points should be kept in mind by

the legislators. In the first place, the people of this country should

clearly understand that no amount of industrial prosperity, and above

all no leadership in international industrial competition, can in any

way atone for the sapping of the vitality of those who are usually

spoken of as the working classes. The farmers, the mechanics, the

skilled and unskilled laborers, the small shop keepers, make up the

bulk of the population of any country; and upon their well-being,

generation after generation, the well-being of the country and the race

depends. Rapid development in wealth and industrial leadership is a

good thing, but only if it goes hand in hand with improvement, and not

deterioration, physical and moral. The over-crowding of cities and the

draining of country districts are unhealthy and even dangerous symptoms

in our modern life. We should not permit overcrowding in cities. In

certain European cities it is provided by law that the population of

towns shall not be allowed to exceed a very limited density for a given

area, so that the increase in density must be continually pushed back

into a broad zone around the center of the town, this zone having great

avenues or parks within it. The death-rate statistics show a terrible

increase in mortality, and especially in infant mortality, in

overcrowded tenements. The poorest families in tenement houses live in

one room, and it appears that in these one-room tenements the average

death rate for a number of given cities at home and abroad is about

twice what it is in a two-room tenement, four times what it is in a

three-room tenement, and eight times what it is in a tenement

consisting of four rooms or over. These figures vary somewhat for

different cities, but they approximate in each city those given above;

and in all cases the increase of mortality, and especially of infant

mortality, with the decrease in the number of rooms used by the family

and with the consequent overcrowding is startling. The slum exacts a

heavy total of death from those who dwell therein; and this is the case

not merely in the great crowded slums of high buildings in New York and

Chicago, but in the alley slums of Washington. In Washington people can

not afford to ignore the harm that this causes. No Christian and

civilized community can afford to show a happy-go-lucky lack of concern

for the youth of to-day; for, if so, the community will have to pay a

terrible penalty of financial burden and social degradation in the

to-morrow. There should be severe child-labor and factory-inspection

laws. It is very desirable that married women should not work in

factories. The prime duty of the man is to work, to be the breadwinner;

the prime duty of the woman is to be the mother, the housewife. All

questions of tariff and finance sink into utter insignificance when

compared with the tremendous, the vital importance of trying to shape

conditions so that these two duties of the man and of the woman can be

fulfilled under reasonably favorable circumstances. If a race does not

have plenty of children, or if the children do not grow up, or if when

they grow up they are unhealthy in body and stunted or vicious in mind,

then that race is decadent, and no heaping up of wealth, no splendor of

momentary material prosperity, can avail in any degree as offsets. The

Congress has the same power of legislation for the District of Columbia

which the State legislatures have for the various States. The problems

incident to our highly complex modern industrial civilization, with its

manifold and perplexing tendencies both for good and for evil, are far

less sharply accentuated in the city of Washington than in most other

cities. For this very reason it is easier to deal with the various

phases of these problems in Washington, and the District of Columbia

government should be a model for the other municipal governments of the

Nation, in all such matters as supervision of the housing of the poor,

the creation of small parks in the districts inhabited by the poor, in

laws affecting labor, in laws providing for the taking care of the

children, in truant laws, and in providing schools.

In the vital matter of taking care of children, much advantage could be

gained by a careful study of what has been accomplished in such States

as Illinois and Colorado by the juvenile courts. The work of the

juvenile court is really a work of character building. It is now

generally recognized that young boys and young girls who go wrong

should not be treated as criminals, not even necessarily as needing

reformation, but rather as needing to have their characters formed, and

for this end to have them tested and developed by a system of

probation. Much admirable work has been done in many of our

Commonwealths by earnest men and women who have made a special study of

the needs of those classes of children which furnish the greatest

number of juvenile offenders, and therefore the greatest number of

adult offenders; and by their aid, and by profiting by the experiences

of the different States and cities in these matters, it would be easy

to provide a good code for the District of Columbia.

Several considerations suggest the need for a systematic investigation

into and improvement of housing conditions in Washington. The hidden

residential alleys are breeding grounds of vice and disease, and should

be opened into minor streets. For a number of years influential

citizens have joined with the District Commissioners in the vain

endeavor to secure laws permitting the condemnation of insanitary

dwellings. The local death rates, especially from preventable diseases,

are so unduly high as to suggest that the exceptional wholesomeness of

Washington's better sections is offset by bad conditions in her poorer

neighborhoods. A special "Commission on Housing and Health Conditions

in the National Capital" would not only bring about the reformation of

existing evils, but would also formulate an appropriate building code

to protect the city from mammoth brick tenements and other evils which

threaten to develop here as they have in other cities. That the

Nation's Capital should be made a model for other municipalities is an

ideal which appeals to all patriotic citizens everywhere, and such a

special Commission might map out and organize the city's future

development in lines of civic social service, just as Major L'Enfant

and the recent Park Commission planned the arrangement of her streets

and parks.

It is mortifying to remember that Washington has no compulsory school

attendance law and that careful inquiries indicate the habitual absence

from school of some twenty per cent of all children between the ages of

eight and fourteen. It must be evident to all who consider the problems

of neglected child life or the benefits of compulsory education in

other cities that one of the most urgent needs of the National Capital

is a law requiring the school attendance of all children, this law to

be enforced by attendance agents directed by the board of education.

Public play grounds are necessary means for the development of

wholesome citizenship in modern cities. It is important that the work

inaugurated here through voluntary efforts should be taken up and

extended through Congressional appropriation of funds sufficient to

equip and maintain numerous convenient small play grounds upon land

which can be secured without purchase or rental. It is also desirable

that small vacant places be purchased and reserved as small-park play

grounds in densely settled sections of the city which now have no

public open spaces and are destined soon to be built up solidly. All

these needs should be met immediately. To meet them would entail

expenses; but a corresponding saving could be made by stopping the

building of streets and levelling of ground for purposes largely

speculative in outlying parts of the city.

There are certain offenders, whose criminality takes the shape of

brutality and cruelty towards the weak, who need a special type of

punishment. The wife-beater, for example, is inadequately punished by

imprisonment; for imprisonment may often mean nothing to him, while it

may cause hunger and want to the wife and children who have been the

victims of his brutality. Probably some form of corporal punishment

would be the most adequate way of meeting this kind of crime.

The Department of Agriculture has grown into an educational institution

with a faculty of two thousand specialists making research into all the

sciences of production. The Congress appropriates, directly and

indirectly, six millions of dollars annually to carry on this work. It

reaches every State and Territory in the Union and the islands of the

sea lately come under our flag. Co-operation is had with the State

experiment stations, and with many other institutions and individuals.

The world is carefully searched for new varieties of grains, fruits,

grasses, vegetables, trees, and shrubs, suitable to various localities

in our country; and marked benefit to our producers has resulted.

The activities of our age in lines of research have reached the tillers

of the soil and inspired them with ambition to know more of the

principles that govern the forces of nature with which they have to

deal. Nearly half of the people of this country devote their energies

to growing things from the soil. Until a recent date little has been

done to prepare these millions for their life work. In most lines of

human activity college-trained men are the leaders. The farmer had no

opportunity for special training until the Congress made provision for

it forty years ago. During these years progress has been made and

teachers have been prepared. Over five thousand students are in

attendance at our State agricultural colleges. The Federal Government

expends ten millions of dollars annually toward this education and for

research in Washington and in the several States and Territories. The

Department of Agriculture has given facilities for post-graduate work

to five hundred young men during the last seven years, preparing them

for advance lines of work in the Department and in the State

institutions.

The facts concerning meteorology and its relations to plant and animal

life are being systematically inquired into. Temperature and moisture

are controlling factors in all agricultural operations. The seasons of

the cyclones of the Caribbean Sea and their paths are being forecasted

with increasing accuracy. The cold winds that come from the north are

anticipated and their times and intensity told to farmers, gardeners,

and fruiterers in all southern localities.

We sell two hundred and fifty million dollars' worth of animals and

animal products to foreign countries every year, in addition to

supplying our own people more cheaply and abundantly than any other

nation is able to provide for its people. Successful manufacturing

depends primarily on cheap food, which accounts to a considerable

extent for our growth in this direction. The Department of Agriculture,

by careful inspection of meats, guards the health of our people and

gives clean bills of health to deserving exports; it is prepared to

deal promptly with imported diseases of animals, and maintain the

excellence of our flocks and herds in this respect. There should be an

annual census of the live stock of the Nation.

We sell abroad about six hundred million dollars' worth of plants and

their products every year. Strenuous efforts are being made to import

from foreign countries such grains as are suitable to our varying

localities. Seven years ago we bought three-fourths of our rice; by

helping the rice growers on the Gulf coast to secure seeds from the

Orient suited to their conditions, and by giving them adequate

protection, they now supply home demand and export to the islands of

the Caribbean Sea and to other rice-growing countries. Wheat and other

grains have been imported from light-rainfall countries to our lands in

the West and Southwest that have not grown crops because of light

precipitation, resulting in an extensive addition to our cropping area

and our home-making territory that can not be irrigated. Ten million

bushels of first-class macaroni wheat were grown from these

experimental importations last year. Fruits suitable to our soils and

climates are being imported from all the countries of the Old

World--the fig from Turkey, the almond from Spain, the date from

Algeria, the mango from India. We are helping our fruit growers to get

their crops into European markets by studying methods of preservation

through refrigeration, packing, and handling, which have been quite

successful. We are helping our hop growers by importing varieties that

ripen earlier and later than the kinds they have been raising, thereby

lengthening the harvesting season. The cotton crop of the country is

threatened with root rot, the bollworm, and the boll weevil. Our

pathologists will find immune varieties that will resist the root

disease, and the bollworm can be dealt with, but the boll weevil is a

serious menace to the cotton crop. It is a Central American insect that

has become acclimated in Texas and has done great damage. A scientist

of the Department of Agriculture has found the weevil at home in

Guatemala being kept in check by an ant, which has been brought to our

cotton fields for observation. It is hoped that it may serve a good

purpose.

The soils of the country are getting attention from the farmer's

standpoint, and interesting results are following. We have duplicates

of the soils that grow the wrapper tobacco in Sumatra and the filler

tobacco in Cuba. It will be only a question of time when the large

amounts paid to these countries will be paid to our own people. The

reclamation of alkali lands is progressing, to give object lessons to

our people in methods by which worthless lands may be made productive.

The insect friends and enemies of the farmer are getting attention. The

enemy of the San Jose scale was found near the Great Wall of China, and

is now cleaning up all our orchards. The fig-fertilizing insect

imported from Turkey has helped to establish an industry in California

that amounts to from fifty to one hundred tons of dried figs annually,

and is extending over the Pacific coast. A parasitic fly from South

Africa is keeping in subjection the black scale, the worst pest of the

orange and lemon industry in California.

Careful preliminary work is being done towards producing our own silk.

The mulberry is being distributed in large numbers, eggs are being

imported and distributed, improved reels were imported from Europe last

year, and two expert reelers were brought to Washington to reel the

crop of cocoons and teach the art to our own people.

The crop-reporting system of the Department of Agriculture is being

brought closer to accuracy every year. It has two hundred and fifty

thousand reporters selected from people in eight vocations in life. It

has arrangements with most European countries for interchange of

estimates, so that our people may know as nearly as possible with what

they must compete.

During the two and a half years that have elapsed since the passage of

the reclamation act rapid progress has been made in the surveys and

examinations of the opportunities for reclamation in the thirteen

States and three Territories of the arid West. Construction has already

been begun on the largest and most important of the irrigation works,

and plans are being completed for works which will utilize the funds

now available. The operations are being carried on by the Reclamation

Service, a corps of engineers selected through competitive

civil-service examinations. This corps includes experienced consulting

and constructing engineers as well as various experts in mechanical and

legal matters, and is composed largely of men who have spent most of

their lives in practical affairs connected with irrigation. The larger

problems have been solved and it now remains to execute with care,

economy, and thoroughness the work which has been laid out. All

important details are being carefully considered by boards of

consulting engineers, selected for their thorough knowledge and

practical experience. Each project is taken up on the ground by

competent men and viewed from the standpoint of the creation of

prosperous homes, and of promptly refunding to the Treasury the cost of

construction. The reclamation act has been found to be remarkably

complete and effective, and so broad in its provisions that a wide

range of undertakings has been possible under it. At the same time,

economy is guaranteed by the fact that the funds must ultimately be

returned to be used over again.

It is the cardinal principle of the forest-reserve policy of this

Administration that the reserves are for use. Whatever interferes with

the use of their resources is to be avoided by every possible means.

But these resources must be used in such a way as to make them

permanent.

The forest policy of the Government is just now a subject of vivid

public interest throughout the West and to the people of the United

States in general. The forest reserves themselves are of extreme value

to the present as well as to the future welfare of all the western

public-land States. They powerfully affect the use and disposal of the

public lands. They are of special importance because they preserve the

water supply and the supply of timber for domestic purposes, and so

promote settlement under the reclamation act. Indeed, they are

essential to the welfare of every one of the great interests of the

West.

Forest reserves are created for two principal purposes. The first is to

preserve the water supply. This is their most important use. The

principal users of the water thus preserved are irrigation ranchers and

settlers, cities and towns to whom their municipal water supplies are

of the very first importance, users and furnishers of water power, and

the users of water for domestic, manufacturing, mining, and other

purposes. All these are directly dependent upon the forest reserves.

The second reason for which forest reserves are created is to preserve

the timber supply for various classes of wood users. Among the more

important of these are settlers under the reclamation act and other

acts, for whom a cheap and accessible supply of timber for domestic

uses is absolutely necessary; miners and prospectors, who are in

serious danger of losing their timber supply by fire or through export

by lumber companies when timber lands adjacent to their mines pass into

private ownership; lumbermen, transportation companies, builders, and

commercial interests in general.

Although the wisdom of creating forest reserves is nearly everywhere

heartily recognized, yet in a few localities there has been

misunderstanding and complaint. The following statement is therefore

desirable:

The forest reserve policy can be successful only when it has the full

support of the people of the West. It can not safely, and should not in

any case, be imposed upon them against their will. But neither can we

accept the views of those whose only interest in the forest is

temporary; who are anxious to reap what they have not sown and then

move away, leaving desolation behind them. On the contrary, it is

everywhere and always the interest of the permanent settler and the

permanent business man, the man with a stake in the country, which must

be considered and which must decide.