There is one fundamental proposition which can be laid down as regards

all these matters, namely: While honesty by itself will not solve the

problem, yet the insistence upon honesty--not merely technical honesty,

but honesty in purpose and spirit--is an essential element in arriving

at a right conclusion. Vice in its cruder and more archaic forms shocks

everybody; but there is very urgent need that public opinion should be

just as severe in condemnation of the vice which hides itself behind

class or professional loyalty, or which denies that it is vice if it

can escape conviction in the courts. The public and the representatives

of the public, the high officials, whether on the bench or in executive

or legislative positions, need to remember that often the most

dangerous criminals, so far as the life of the Nation is concerned, are

not those who commit the crimes known to and condemned by the popular

conscience for centuries, but those who commit crimes only rendered

possible by the complex conditions of our modern industrial life. It

makes not a particle of difference whether these crimes are committed

by a capitalist or by a laborer, by a leading banker or manufacturer or

railroad man, or by a leading representative of a labor union.

Swindling in stocks, corrupting legislatures, making fortunes by the

inflation of securities, by wrecking railroads, by destroying

competitors through rebates--these forms of wrongdoing in the

capitalist, are far more infamous than any ordinary form of

embezzlement or forgery; yet it is a matter of extreme difficulty to

secure the punishment of the man most guilty of them, most responsible

for them. The business man who condones such conduct stands on a level

with the labor man who deliberately supports a corrupt demagogue and

agitator, whether head of a union or head of some municipality, because

he is said to have "stood by the union." The members of the business

community, the educators, or clergymen, who condone and encourage the

first kind of wrongdoing, are no more dangerous to the community, but

are morally even worse, than the labor men who are guilty of the second

type of wrongdoing, because less is to be pardoned those who have no

such excuse as is furnished either by ignorance or by dire need. When

the Department of Agriculture was founded there was much sneering as to

its usefulness. No Department of the Government, however, has more

emphatically vindicated its usefulness, and none save the Post-Office

Department comes so continually and intimately into touch with the

people. The two citizens whose welfare is in the aggregate most vital

to the welfare of the Nation, and therefore to the welfare of all other

citizens, are the wage-worker who does manual labor and the tiller of

the soil, the farmer. There are, of course, kinds of labor where the

work must be purely mental, and there are other kinds of labor where,

under existing conditions, very little demand indeed is made upon the

mind, though I am glad to say that the proportion of men engaged in

this kind of work is diminishing. But in any community with the solid,

healthy qualities which make up a really great nation the bulk of the

people should do work which calls for the exercise of both body and

mind. Progress can not permanently exist in the abandonment of physical

labor, but in the development of physical labor, so that it shall

represent more and more the work of the trained mind in the trained

body. Our school system is gravely defective in so far as it puts a

premium upon mere literary training and tends therefore to train the

boy away from the farm and the workshop. Nothing is more needed than

the best type of industrial school, the school for mechanical

industries in the city, the school for practically teaching agriculture

in the country. The calling of the skilled tiller of the soil, the

calling of the skilled mechanic, should alike be recognized as

professions, just as emphatically as the callings of lawyer, doctor,

merchant, or clerk. The schools recognize this fact and it should

equally be recognized in popular opinion. The young man who has the

farsightedness and courage to recognize it and to get over the idea

that it makes a difference whether what he earns is called salary or

wages, and who refuses to enter the crowded field of the so-called

professions, and takes to constructive industry instead, is reasonably

sure of an ample reward in earnings, in health, in opportunity to marry

early, and to establish a home with a fair amount of freedom from

worry. It should be one of our prime objects to put both the farmer and

the mechanic on a higher plane of efficiency and reward, so as to

increase their effectiveness in the economic world, and therefore the

dignity, the remuneration, and the power of their positions in the

social world.

No growth of cities, no growth of wealth, can make up for any loss in

either the number or the character of the farming population. We of the

United States should realize this above almost all other peoples. We

began our existence as a nation of farmers, and in every great crisis

of the past a peculiar dependence has had to be placed upon the farming

population; and this dependence has hitherto been justified. But it can

not be justified in the future if agriculture is permitted to sink in

the scale as compared with other employments. We can not afford to lose

that preeminently typical American, the farmer who owns his own

medium-sized farm. To have his place taken by either a class of small

peasant proprietors, or by a class of great landlords with

tenant-farmed estates would be a veritable calamity. The growth of our

cities is a good thing but only in so far as it does not mean a growth

at the expense of the country farmer. We must welcome the rise of

physical sciences in their application to agricultural practices, and

we must do all we can to render country conditions more easy and

pleasant. There are forces which now tend to bring about both these

results, but they are, as yet, in their infancy. The National

Government through the Department of Agriculture should do all it can

by joining with the State governments and with independent associations

of farmers to encourage the growth in the open farming country of such

institutional and social movements as will meet the demand of the best

type of farmers, both for the improvement of their farms and for the

betterment of the life itself. The Department of Agriculture has in

many places, perhaps especially in certain districts of the South,

accomplished an extraordinary amount by cooperating with and teaching

the farmers through their associations, on their own soil, how to

increase their income by managing their farms better than they were

hitherto managed. The farmer must not lose his independence, his

initiative, his rugged self-reliance, yet he must learn to work in the

heartiest cooperation with his fellows, exactly as the business man has

learned to work; and he must prepare to use to constantly better

advantage the knowledge that can be obtained from agricultural

colleges, while he must insist upon a practical curriculum in the

schools in which his children are taught. The Department of Agriculture

and the Department of Commerce and Labor both deal with the fundamental

needs of our people in the production of raw material and its

manufacture and distribution, and, therefore, with the welfare of those

who produce it in the raw state, and of those who manufacture and

distribute it. The Department of Commerce and Labor has but recently

been founded but has already justified its existence; while the

Department of Agriculture yields to no other in the Government in the

practical benefits which it produces in proportion to the public money

expended. It must continue in the future to deal with growing crops as

it has dealt in the past, but it must still further extend its field of

usefulness hereafter by dealing with live men, through a far-reaching

study and treatment of the problems of farm life alike from the

industrial and economic and social standpoint. Farmers must cooperate

with one another and with the Government, and the Government can best

give its aid through associations of farmers, so as to deliver to the

farmer the large body of agricultural knowledge which has been

accumulated by the National and State governments and by the

agricultural colleges and schools.

The grain producing industry of the country, one of the most important

in the United States, deserves special consideration at the hands of

the Congress. Our grain is sold almost exclusively by grades. To secure

satisfactory results in our home markets and to facilitate our trade

abroad, these grades should approximate the highest degree of

uniformity and certainty. The present diverse methods of inspection and

grading throughout the country under different laws and boards, result

in confusion and lack of uniformity, destroying that confidence which

is necessary for healthful trade. Complaints against the present

methods have continued for years and they are growing in volume and

intensity, not only in this country but abroad. I therefore suggest to

the Congress the advisability of a National system of inspection and

grading of grain entering into interstate and foreign commerce as a

remedy for the present evils.

The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use

constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other

problem of our National life. We must maintain for our civilization the

adequate material basis without which that civilization can not exist.

We must show foresight, we must look ahead. As a nation we not only

enjoy a wonderful measure of present prosperity but if this prosperity

is used aright it is an earnest of future success such as no other

nation will have. The reward of foresight for this Nation is great and

easily foretold. But there must be the look ahead, there must be a

realization of the fact that to waste, to destroy, our natural

resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to

increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our

children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to

them amplified and developed. For the last few years, through several

agencies, the Government has been endeavoring to get our people to look

ahead and to substitute a planned and orderly development of our

resources in place of a haphazard striving for immediate profit. Our

great river systems should be developed as National water highways, the

Mississippi, with its tributaries, standing first in importance, and

the Columbia second, although there are many others of importance on

the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf slopes. The National Government

should undertake this work, and I hope a beginning will be made in the

present Congress; and the greatest of all our rivers, the Mississippi,

should receive especial attention. From the Great Lakes to the mouth of

the Mississippi there should be a deep waterway, with deep waterways

leading from it to the East and the West. Such a waterway would

practically mean the extension of our coast line into the very heart of

our country. It would be of incalculable benefit to our people. If

begun at once it can be carried through in time appreciably to relieve

the congestion of our great freight-carrying lines of railroads. The

work should be systematically and continuously carried forward in

accordance with some well-conceived plan. The main streams should be

improved to the highest point of efficiency before the improvement of

the branches is attempted; and the work should be kept free from every

faint of recklessness or jobbery. The inland waterways which lie just

back of the whole eastern and southern coasts should likewise be

developed. Moreover, the development of our waterways involves many

other important water problems, all of which should be considered as

part of the same general scheme. The Government dams should be used to

produce hundreds of thousands of horsepower as an incident to improving

navigation; for the annual value of the unused water-power of the

United States perhaps exceeds the annual value of the products of all

our mines. As an incident to creating the deep waterways down the

Mississippi, the Government should build along its whole lower length

levees which taken together with the control of the headwaters, will at

once and forever put a complete stop to all threat of floods in the

immensely fertile Delta region. The territory lying adjacent to the

Mississippi along its lower course will thereby become one of the most

prosperous and populous, as it already is one of the most fertile,

farming regions in all the world. I have appointed an Inland Waterways

Commission to study and outline a comprehensive scheme of development

along all the lines indicated. Later I shall lay its report before the

Congress.

Irrigation should be far more extensively developed than at present,

not only in the States of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, but

in many others, as, for instance, in large portions of the South

Atlantic and Gulf States, where it should go hand in hand with the

reclamation of swamp land. The Federal Government should seriously

devote itself to this task, realizing that utilization of waterways and

water-power, forestry, irrigation, and the reclamation of lands

threatened with overflow, are all interdependent parts of the same

problem. The work of the Reclamation Service in developing the larger

opportunities of the western half of our country for irrigation is more

important than almost any other movement. The constant purpose of the

Government in connection with the Reclamation Service has been to use

the water resources of the public lands for the ultimate greatest good

of the greatest number; in other words, to put upon the land permanent

home-makers, to use and develop it for themselves and for their

children and children's children. There has been, of course, opposition

to this work; opposition from some interested men who desire to exhaust

the land for their own immediate profit without regard to the welfare

of the next generation, and opposition from honest and well-meaning men

who did not fully understand the subject or who did not look far enough

ahead. This opposition is, I think, dying away, and our people are

understanding that it would be utterly wrong to allow a few individuals

to exhaust for their own temporary personal profit the resources which

ought to be developed through use so as to be conserved for the

permanent common advantage of the people as a whole.

The effort of the Government to deal with the public land has been

based upon the same principle as that of the Reclamation Service. The

land law system which was designed to meet the needs of the fertile and

well-watered regions of the Middle West has largely broken down when

applied to the dryer regions of the Great Plains, the mountains, and

much of the Pacific slope, where a farm of 160 acres is inadequate for

self-support. In these regions the system lent itself to fraud, and

much land passed out of the hands of the Government without passing

into the hands of the home-maker. The Department of the Interior and

the Department of Justice joined in prosecuting the offenders against

the law; and they have accomplished much, while where the

administration of the law has been defective it has been changed. But

the laws themselves are defective. Three years ago a public lands

commission was appointed to scrutinize the law, and defects, and

recommend a remedy. Their examination specifically showed the existence

of great fraud upon the public domain, and their recommendations for

changes in the law were made with the design of conserving the natural

resources of every part of the public lands by putting it to its best

use. Especial attention was called to the prevention of settlement by

the passage of great areas of public land into the hands of a few men,

and to the enormous waste caused by unrestricted grazing upon the open

range. The recommendations of the Public Lands Commission are sound,

for they are especially in the interest of the actual homemaker; and

where the small home-maker can not at present utilize the land they

provide that the Government shall keep control of it so that it may not

be monopolized by a few men. The Congress has not yet acted upon these

recommendations; but they are so just and proper, so essential to our

National welfare, that I feel confident, if the Congress will take time

to consider them, that they will ultimately be adopted.

Some such legislation as that proposed is essential in order to

preserve the great stretches of public grazing land which are unfit for

cultivation under present methods and are valuable only for the forage

which they supply. These stretches amount in all to some 300,000,000

acres, and are open to the free grazing of cattle, sheep, horses and

goats, without restriction. Such a system, or lack of system, means

that the range is not so much used as wasted by abuse. As the West

settles the range becomes more and more over-grazed. Much of it can not

be used to advantage unless it is fenced, for fencing is the only way

by which to keep in check the owners of nomad flocks which roam hither

and thither, utterly destroying the pastures and leaving a waste behind

so that their presence is incompatible with the presence of

home-makers. The existing fences are all illegal. Some of them

represent the improper exclusion of actual settlers, actual

home-makers, from territory which is usurped by great cattle companies.

Some of them represent what is in itself a proper effort to use the

range for those upon the land, and to prevent its use by nomadic

outsiders. All these fences, those that are hurtful and those that are

beneficial, are alike illegal and must come down. But it is an outrage

that the law should necessitate such action on the part of the

Administration. The unlawful fencing of public lands for private

grazing must be stopped, but the necessity which occasioned it must be

provided for. The Federal Government should have control of the range,

whether by permit or lease, as local necessities may determine. Such

control could secure the great benefit of legitimate fencing, while at

the same time securing and promoting the settlement of the country. In

some places it may be that the tracts of range adjacent to the

homesteads of actual settlers should be allotted to them severally or

in common for the summer grazing of their stock. Elsewhere it may be

that a lease system would serve the purpose; the leases to be temporary

and subject to the rights of settlement, and the amount charged being

large enough merely to permit of the efficient and beneficial control

of the range by the Government, and of the payment to the county of the

equivalent of what it would otherwise receive in taxes. The destruction

of the public range will continue until some such laws as these are

enacted. Fully to prevent the fraud in the public lands which, through

the joint action of the Interior Department and the Department of

Justice, we have been endeavoring to prevent, there must be further

legislation, and especially a sufficient appropriation to permit the

Department of the Interior to examine certain classes of entries on the

ground before they pass into private ownership. The Government should

part with its title only to the actual home-maker, not to the

profit-maker who does not care to make a home. Our prime object is to

secure the rights and guard the interests of the small ranchman, the

man who plows and pitches hay for himself. It is this small ranchman,

this actual settler and homemaker, who in the long run is most hurt by

permitting thefts of the public land in whatever form.

Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess it

becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this

country as inexhaustible; this is not so. The mineral wealth of the

country, the coal, iron, oil, gas, and the like, does not reproduce

itself, and therefore is certain to be exhausted ultimately; and

wastefulness in dealing with it to-day means that our descendants will

feel the exhaustion a generation or two before they otherwise would.

But there are certain other forms of waste which could be entirely

stopped--the waste of soil by washing, for instance, which is among the

most dangerous of all wastes now in progress in the United States, is

easily preventable, so that this present enormous loss of fertility is

entirely unnecessary. The preservation or replacement of the forests is

one of the most important means of preventing this loss. We have made a

beginning in forest preservation, but it is only a beginning. At

present lumbering is the fourth greatest industry in the United States;

and yet, so rapid has been the rate of exhaustion of timber in the

United States in the past, and so rapidly is the remainder being

exhausted, that the country is unquestionably on the verge of a timber

famine which will be felt in every household in the land. There has

already been a rise in the price of lumber, but there is certain to be

a more rapid and heavier rise in the future. The present annual

consumption of lumber is certainly three times as great as the annual

growth; and if the consumption and growth continue unchanged,

practically all our lumber will be exhausted in another generation,

while long before the limit to complete exhaustion is reached the

growing scarcity will make itself felt in many blighting ways upon our

National welfare. About 20 per cent of our forested territory is now

reserved in National forests; but these do not include the most

valuable timber lauds, and in any event the proportion is too small to

expect that the reserves can accomplish more than a mitigation of the

trouble which is ahead for the nation. Far more drastic action is

needed. Forests can be lumbered so as to give to the public the full

use of their mercantile timber without the slightest detriment to the

forest, any more than it is a detriment to a farm to furnish a harvest;

so that there is no parallel between forests and mines, which can only

be completely used by exhaustion. But forests, if used as all our

forests have been used in the past and as most of them are still used,

will be either wholly destroyed, or so damaged that many decades have

to pass before effective use can be made of them again. All these facts

are so obvious that it is extraordinary that it should be necessary to

repeat them. Every business man in the land, every writer in the

newspapers, every man or woman of an ordinary school education, ought

to be able to see that immense quantities of timber are used in the

country, that the forests which supply this timber are rapidly being

exhausted, and that, if no change takes place, exhaustion will come

comparatively soon, and that the effects of it will be felt severely in

the every-day life of our people. Surely, when these facts are so

obvious, there should be no delay in taking preventive measures. Yet we

seem as a nation to be willing to proceed in this matter with

happy-go-lucky indifference even to the immediate future. It is this

attitude which permits the self-interest of a very few persons to weigh

for more than the ultimate interest of all our people. There are

persons who find it to their immense pecuniary benefit to destroy the

forests by lumbering. They are to be blamed for thus sacrificing the

future of the Nation as a whole to their own self-interest of the

moment; but heavier blame attaches to the people at large for

permitting such action, whether in the White Mountains, in the southern

Alleghenies, or in the Rockies and Sierras. A big lumbering company,

impatient for immediate returns and not caring to look far enough

ahead, will often deliberately destroy all the good timber in a region,

hoping afterwards to move on to some new country. The shiftless man of

small means, who does not care to become an actual home-maker but would

like immediate profit, will find it to his advantage to take up timber

land simply to turn it over to such a big company, and leave it

valueless for future settlers. A big mine owner, anxious only to

develop his mine at the moment, will care only to cut all the timber

that he wishes without regard to the future--probably net looking ahead

to the condition of the country when the forests are exhausted, any

more than he does to the condition when the mine is worked out. I do

not blame these men nearly as much as I blame the supine public

opinion, the indifferent public opinion, which permits their action to

go unchecked. Of course to check the waste of timber means that there

must be on the part of the public the acceptance of a temporary

restriction in the lavish use of the timber, in order to prevent the

total loss of this use in the future. There are plenty of men in public

and private life who actually advocate the continuance of the present

system of unchecked and wasteful extravagance, using as an argument the

fact that to check it will of course mean interference with the ease

and comfort of certain people who now get lumber at less cost than they

ought to pay, at the expense of the future generations. Some of these

persons actually demand that the present forest reserves be thrown open

to destruction, because, forsooth, they think that thereby the price of

lumber could be put down again for two or three or more years. Their

attitude is precisely like that of an agitator protesting against the

outlay of money by farmers on manure and in taking care of their farms

generally. Undoubtedly, if the average farmer were content absolutely

to ruin his farm, he could for two or three years avoid spending any

money on it, and yet make a good deal of money out of it. But only a

savage would, in his private affairs, show such reckless disregard of

the future; yet it is precisely this reckless disregard of the future

which the opponents of the forestry system are now endeavoring to get

the people of the United States to show. The only trouble with the

movement for the preservation of our forests is that it has not gone

nearly far enough, and was not begun soon enough. It is a most

fortunate thing, however, that we began it when we did. We should

acquire in the Appalachian and White Mountain regions all the forest

lands that it is possible to acquire for the use of the Nation. These

lands, because they form a National asset, are as emphatically national

as the rivers which they feed, and which flow through so many States

before they reach the ocean.

There should be no tariff on any forest product grown in this country;

and, in especial, there should be no tariff on wood pulp; due notice of

the change being of course given to those engaged in the business so as

to enable them to adjust themselves to the new conditions. The repeal

of the duty on wood pulp should if possible be accompanied by an

agreement with Canada that there shall be no export duty on Canadian

pulp wood.

In the eastern United States the mineral fuels have already passed into

the hands of large private owners, and those of the West are rapidly

following. It is obvious that these fuels should be conserved and not

wasted, and it would be well to protect the people against unjust and

extortionate prices, so far as that can still be done. What has been

accomplished in the great oil fields of the Indian Territory by the

action of the Administration, offers a striking example of the good

results of such a policy. In my judgment the Government should have the

right to keep the fee of the coal, oil, and gas fields in its own

possession and to lease the rights to develop them under proper

regulations; or else, if the Congress will not adopt this method, the

coal deposits should be sold under limitations, to conserve them as

public utilities, the right to mine coal being separated from the title

to the soil. The regulations should permit coal lands to be worked in

sufficient quantity by the several corporations. The present

limitations have been absurd, excessive, and serve no useful purpose,

and often render it necessary that there should be either fraud or

close abandonment of the work of getting out the coal.

Work on the Panama Canal is proceeding in a highly satisfactory manner.

In March last, John F. Stevens, chairman of the Commission and chief

engineer, resigned, and the Commission was reorganized and constituted

as follows: Lieut. Col. George W. Goethals, Corps. of Engineers, U. S.

Army, chairman and chief engineer; Maj. D. D. Gall-lard, Corps of

Engineers, U. S. Army; Maj. William L. Sibert, Corps of Engineers, U.

S. Army; Civil Engineer H. H. Rousseau, U. S. Navy; Mr. J. C. S.

Blackburn; Col. W. C. Gorgas, U. S. Army, and Mr. Jackson Smith,

Commissioners. This change of authority and direction went into effect

on April 1, without causing a perceptible check to the progress of the

work. In March the total excavation in the Culebra Cut, where effort

was chiefly concentrated, was 815,270 cubic yards. In April this was

increased to 879,527 cubic yards. There was a considerable decrease in

the output for May and June owing partly to the advent of the rainy

season and partly to temporary trouble with the steam shovel men over

the question of wages. This trouble was settled satisfactorily to all

parties and in July the total excavation advanced materially and in

August the grand total from all points in the canal prism by steam

shovels and dredges exceeded all previous United States records,

reaching 1,274,404 cubic yards. In September this record was eclipsed

and a total of 1,517,412 cubic yards was removed. Of this amount

1,481,307 cubic yards were from the canal prism and 36,105 cubic yards

were from accessory works. These results were achieved in the rainy

season with a rainfall in August of 11.89 inches and in September of

11.65 inches. Finally, in October, the record was again eclipsed, the

total excavation being 1,868,729 cubic yards; a truly extraordinary

record, especially in view of the heavy rainfall, which was 17.1

inches. In fact, experience during the last two rainy seasons

demonstrates that the rains are a less serious obstacle to progress

than has hitherto been supposed.

Work on the locks and dams at Gatun, which began actively in March

last, has advanced so far that it is thought that masonry work on the

locks can be begun within fifteen months. In order to remove all doubt

as to the satisfactory character of the foundations for the locks of

the Canal, the Secretary of War requested three eminent civil

engineers, of special experience in such construction, Alfred Noble,

Frederic P. Stearns and John R. Freeman, to visit the Isthmus and make

thorough personal investigations of the sites. These gentlemen went to

the Isthmus in April and by means of test pits which had been dug for

the purpose, they inspected the proposed foundations, and also examined

the borings that had been made. In their report to the Secretary of

War, under date of May 2, 1907, they said: "We found that all of the

locks, of the dimensions now proposed, will rest upon rock of such

character that it will furnish a safe and stable foundation."

Subsequent new borings, conducted by the present Commission, have fully

confirmed this verdict. They show that the locks will rest on rock for

their entire length. The cross section of the dam and method of

construction will be such as to insure against any slip or sloughing

off. Similar examination of the foundations of the locks and dams on

the Pacific side are in progress. I believe that the locks should be

made of a width of 120 feet.

Last winter bids were requested and received for doing the work of

canal construction by contract. None of them was found to be

satisfactory and all were rejected. It is the unanimous opinion of the

present Commission that the work can be done better, more cheaply, and

more quickly by the Government than by private contractors. Fully 80

per cent of the entire plant needed for construction has been purchased

or contracted for; machine shops have been erected and equipped for

making all needed repairs to the plant; many thousands of employees

have been secured; an effective organization has been perfected; a

recruiting system is in operation which is capable of furnishing more

labor than can be used advantageously; employees are well sheltered and

well fed; salaries paid are satisfactory, and the work is not only

going forward smoothly, but it is producing results far in advance of

the most sanguine anticipations. Under these favorable conditions, a

change in the method of prosecuting the work would be unwise and

unjustifiable, for it would inevitably disorganize existing conditions,

check progress, and increase the cost and lengthen the time of

completing the Canal.

The chief engineer and all his professional associates are firmly

convinced that the 85 feet level lock canal which they are constructing

is the best that could be desired. Some of them had doubts on this

point when they went to the Isthmus. As the plans have developed under

their direction their doubts have been dispelled. While they may decide

upon changes in detail as construction advances they are in hearty

accord in approving the general plan. They believe that it provides a

canal not only adequate to all demands that will be made upon it but

superior in every way to a sea level canal. I concur in this belief.

I commend to the favorable consideration of the Congress a postal

savings bank system, as recommended by the Postmaster-General. The

primary object is to encourage among our people economy and thrift and

by the use of postal savings banks to give them an opportunity to

husband their resources, particularly those who have not the facilities

at hand for depositing their money in savings banks. Viewed, however,

from the experience of the past few weeks, it is evident that the

advantages of such an institution are till more far-reaching. Timid

depositors have withdrawn their savings for the time being from

national banks, trust companies, and savings banks; individuals have

hoarded their cash and the workingmen their earnings; all of which

money has been withheld and kept in hiding or in safe deposit box to

the detriment of prosperity. Through the agency of the postal savings

banks such money would be restored to the channels of trade, to the

mutual benefit of capital and labor.

I further commend to the Congress the consideration of the

Postmaster-General's recommendation for an extension of the parcel

post, especially on the rural routes. There are now 38,215 rural

routes, serving nearly 15,000,000 people who do not have the advantages

of the inhabitants of cities in obtaining their supplies. These

recommendations have been drawn up to benefit the farmer and the

country storekeeper; otherwise, I should not favor them, for I believe

that it is good policy for our Government to do everything possible to

aid the small town and the country district. It is desirable that the

country merchant should not be crushed out.

The fourth-class postmasters' convention has passed a very strong

resolution in favor of placing the fourth-class postmasters under the

civil-service law. The Administration has already put into effect the

policy of refusing to remove any fourth-class postmasters save for

reasons connected with the good of the service; and it is endeavoring

so far as possible to remove them from the domain of partisan politics.

It would be a most desirable thing to put the fourth-class postmasters

in the classified service. It is possible that this might be done

without Congressional action, but, as the matter is debatable, I

earnestly recommend that the Congress enact a law providing that they

be included under the civil-service law and put in the classified

service.

Oklahoma has become a State, standing on a full equality with her elder

sisters, and her future is assured by her great natural resources. The

duty of the National Government to guard the personal and property

rights of the Indians within her borders remains of course unchanged.

I reiterate my recommendations of last year as regards Alaska. Some

form of local self-government should be provided, as simple and

inexpensive as possible; it is impossible for the Congress to devote

the necessary time to all the little details of necessary Alaskan

legislation. Road building and railway building should be encouraged.

The Governor of Alaska should be given an ample appropriation wherewith

to organize a force to preserve the public peace. Whisky selling to the

natives should be made a felony. The coal land laws should be changed

so as to meet the peculiar needs of the Territory. This should be

attended to at once; for the present laws permit individuals to locate

large areas of the public domain for speculative purposes; and cause an

immense amount of trouble, fraud, and litigation. There should be

another judicial division established. As early as possible lighthouses

and buoys should be established as aids to navigation, especially in

and about Prince William Sound, and the survey of the coast completed.

There is need of liberal appropriations for lighting and buoying the

southern coast and improving the aids to navigation in southeastern

Alaska. One of the great industries of Alaska, as of Puget Sound and

the Columbia, is salmon fishing. Gradually, by reason of lack of proper

laws, this industry is being ruined; it should now be taken in charge,

and effectively protected, by the United States Government.

The courage and enterprise of the citizens of the far north-west in

their projected Alaskan-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, to be held in 1909,

should receive liberal encouragement. This exposition is not

sentimental in its conception, but seeks to exploit the natural

resources of Alaska and to promote the commerce, trade, and industry of

the Pacific States with their neighboring States and with our insular

possessions and the neighboring countries of the Pacific. The

exposition asks no loan from the Congress but seeks appropriations for

National exhibits and exhibits of the western dependencies of the

General Government. The State of Washington and the city of Seattle

have shown the characteristic western enterprise in large donations for

the conduct of this exposition in which other States are lending

generous assistance.

The unfortunate failure of the shipping bill at the last session of the

last Congress was followed by the taking off of certain Pacific

steamships, which has greatly hampered the movement of passengers

between Hawaii and the mainland. Unless the Congress is prepared by

positive encouragement to secure proper facilities in the way of

shipping between Hawaii and the mainland, then the coastwise shipping

laws should be so far relaxed as to prevent Hawaii suffering as it is

now suffering. I again call your attention to the capital importance

from every standpoint of making Pearl Harbor available for the largest

deep water vessels, and of suitably fortifying the island.

The Secretary of War has gone to the Philippines. On his return I shall

submit to you his report on the islands.

I again recommend that the rights of citizenship be conferred upon the

people of Porto Rico.

A bureau of mines should be created under the control and direction of

the Secretary of the Interior; the bureau to have power to collect

statistics and make investigations in all matters pertaining to mining

and particularly to the accidents and dangers of the industry. If this

can not now be done, at least additional appropriations should be given

the Interior Department to be used for the study of mining conditions,

for the prevention of fraudulent mining schemes, for carrying on the

work of mapping the mining districts, for studying methods for

minimizing the accidents and dangers in the industry; in short, to aid

in all proper ways the development of the mining industry.

I strongly recommend to the Congress to provide funds for keeping up

the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson; these funds to be used

through the existing Hermitage Association for the preservation of a

historic building which should ever be dear to Americans.

I further recommend that a naval monument be established in the

Vicksburg National Park. This national park gives a unique opportunity

for commemorating the deeds of those gallant men who fought on water,

no less than of those who fought on land, in the great civil War.

Legislation should be enacted at the present session of the Congress

for the Thirteenth Census. The establishment of the permanent Census

Bureau affords the opportunity for a better census than we have ever

had, but in order to realize the full advantage of the permanent

organization, ample time must be given for preparation.

There is a constantly growing interest in this country in the question

of the public health. At last the public mind is awake to the fact that

many diseases, notably tuberculosis, are National scourges. The work of

the State and city boards of health should be supplemented by a

constantly increasing interest on the part of the National Government.

The Congress has already provided a bureau of public health and has

provided for a hygienic laboratory. There are other valuable laws

relating to the public health connected with the various departments.

This whole branch of the Government should be strengthened and aided in

every way.

I call attention to two Government commissions which I have appointed

and which have already done excellent work. The first of these has to

do with the organization of the scientific work of the Government,

which has grown up wholly without plan and is in consequence so

unwisely distributed among the Executive Departments that much of its

effect is lost for the lack of proper coordination. This commission's

chief object is to introduce a planned and orderly development and

operation in the place of the ill-assorted and often ineffective

grouping and methods of work which have prevailed. This can not be done

without legislation, nor would it be feasible to deal in detail with so

complex an administrative problem by specific provisions of law. I

recommend that the President be given authority to concentrate related

lines of work and reduce duplication by Executive order through

transfer and consolidation of lines of work.

The second committee, that on Department methods, was instructed to

investigate and report upon the changes needed to place the conduct of

the executive force of the Government on the most economical and

effective basis in the light of the best modern business practice. The

committee has made very satisfactory progress. Antiquated practices and

bureaucratic ways have been abolished, and a general renovation of

departmental methods has been inaugurated. All that can be done by

Executive order has already been accomplished or will be put into

effect in the near future. The work of the main committee and its

several assistant committees has produced a wholesome awakening on the

part of the great body of officers and employees engaged in Government

work. In nearly every Department and office there has been a careful

self-inspection for the purpose of remedying any defects before they

could be made the subject of adverse criticism. This has led

individuals to a wider study of the work on which they were engaged,

and this study has resulted in increasing their efficiency in their

respective lines of work. There are recommendations of special

importance from the committee on the subject of personnel and the

classification of salaries which will require legislative action before

they can be put into effect. It is my intention to submit to the

Congress in the near future a special message on those subjects.

Under our form of government voting is not merely a right but a duty,

and, moreover, a fundamental and necessary duty if a man is to be a

good citizen. It is well to provide that corporations shall not

contribute to Presidential or National campaigns, and furthermore to

provide for the publication of both contributions and expenditures.

There is, however, always danger in laws of this kind, which from their

very nature are difficult of enforcement; the danger being lest they be

obeyed only by the honest, and disobeyed by the unscrupulous, so as to

act only as a penalty upon honest men. Moreover, no such law would

hamper an unscrupulous man of unlimited means from buying his own way

into office. There is a very radical measure which would, I believe,

work a substantial improvement in our system of conducting a campaign,

although I am well aware that it will take some time for people so to

familiarize themselves with such a proposal as to be willing to

consider its adoption. The need for collecting large campaign funds

would vanish if Congress provided an appropriation for the proper and

legitimate expenses of each of the great national parties, an

appropriation ample enough to meet the necessity for thorough

organization and machinery, which requires a large expenditure of

money. Then the stipulation should be made that no party receiving

campaign funds from the Treasury should accept more than a fixed amount

from any individual subscriber or donor; and the necessary publicity

for receipts and expenditures could without difficulty be provided.

There should be a National gallery of art established in the capital

city of this country. This is important not merely to the artistic but

to the material welfare of the country; and the people are to be

congratulated on the fact that the movement to establish such a gallery

is taking definite form under the guidance of the Smithsonian

Institution. So far from there being a tariff on works of art brought

into the country, their importation should be encouraged in every way.

There have been no sufficient collections of objects of art by the

Government, and what collections have been acquired are scattered and

are generally placed in unsuitable and imperfectly lighted galleries.

The Biological Survey is quietly working for the good of our

agricultural interests, and is an excellent example of a Government

bureau which conducts original scientific research the findings of

which are of much practical utility. For more than twenty years it has

studied the food habits of birds and mammals that are injurious or

beneficial to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry; has distributed

illustrated bulletins on the subject, and has labored to secure

legislative protection for the beneficial species. The cotton

boll-weevil, which has recently overspread the cotton belt of Texas and

is steadily extending its range, is said to cause an annual loss of

about $3,000,000. The Biological Survey has ascertained and gives wide

publicity to the fact that at least 43 kinds of birds prey upon this

destructive insect. It has discovered that 57 species of birds feed

upon scale-insects--dreaded enemies of the fruit grower. It has shown

that woodpeckers as a class, by destroying the larvae of wood-boring

insects, are so essential to tree life that it is doubtful if our

forests could exist without them. It has shown that cuckoos and orioles

are the natural enemies of the leaf-eating caterpillars that destroy

our shade and fruit trees; that our quails and sparrows consume

annually hundreds of tons of seeds of noxious weeds; that hawks and

owls as a class (excepting the few that kill poultry and game birds)

are markedly beneficial, spending their lives in catching grasshoppers,

mice, and other pests that prey upon the products of husbandry. It has

conducted field experiments for the purpose of devising and perfecting

simple methods for holding in check the hordes of destructive

rodents--rats, mice, rabbits, gophers, prairie dogs, and ground

squirrels--which annually destroy crops worth many millions of dollars;

and it has published practical directions for the destruction of wolves

and coyotes on the stock ranges of the West, resulting during the past

year in an estimated saving of cattle and sheep valued at upwards of a

million dollars.

It has inaugurated a system of inspection at the principal ports of

entry on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts by means of which the

introduction of noxious mammals and birds is prevented, thus keeping

out the mongoose and certain birds which are as much to be dreaded as

the previously introduced English sparrow and the house rats and mice.

In the interest of game protection it has cooperated with local

officials in every State in the Union, has striven to promote uniform

legislation in the several States, has rendered important service in

enforcing the Federal law regulating interstate traffic in game, and

has shown how game protection may be made to yield a large revenue to

the State--a revenue amounting in the case of Illinois to $128,000 in a

single year.

The Biological Survey has explored the faunas and floras of America

with reference to the distribution of animals and plants; it has

defined and mapped the natural life areas--areas in which, by reason of

prevailing climatic conditions, certain kinds of animals and plants

occur--and has pointed out the adaptability of these areas to the

cultivation of particular crops. The results of these investigations

are not only of high educational value but are worth each year to the

progressive farmers of the country many times the cost of maintaining

the Survey, which, it may be added, is exceedingly small. I recommend

to Congress that this bureau, whose usefulness is seriously handicapped

by lack of funds, be granted an appropriation in some degree

commensurate with the importance of the work it is doing.

I call your especial attention to the unsatisfactory condition of our

foreign mail service, which, because of the lack of American steamship

lines is now largely done through foreign lines, and which,

particularly so far as South and Central America are concerned, is done

in a manner which constitutes a serious barrier to the extension of our

commerce.

The time has come, in my judgment, to set to work seriously to make our

ocean mail service correspond more closely with our recent commercial

and political development. A beginning was made by the ocean mail act

of March 3, 1891, but even at that time the act was known to be

inadequate in various particulars. Since that time events have moved

rapidly in our history. We have acquired Hawaii, the Philippines, and

lesser islands in the Pacific. We are steadily prosecuting the great

work of uniting at the Isthmus the waters of the Atlantic and the

Pacific. To a greater extent than seemed probable even a dozen years

ago, we may look to an American future on the sea worthy of the

traditions of our past. As the first step in that direction, and the

step most feasible at the present time, I recommend the extension of

the ocean mail act of 1891. This act has stood for some years free from

successful criticism of its principle and purpose. It was based on

theories of the obligations of a great maritime nation, undisputed in

our own land and followed by other nations since the beginning of steam

navigation. Briefly those theories are, that it is the duty of a

first-class Power so far as practicable to carry its ocean mails under

its own flag; that the fast ocean steamships and their crews, required

for such mail service, are valuable auxiliaries to the sea power of a

nation. Furthermore, the construction of such steamships insures the

maintenance in an efficient condition of the shipyards in which our

battleships must be built.

The expenditure of public money for the Performance of such necessary

functions of government is certainly warranted, nor is it necessary to

dwell upon the incidental benefits to our foreign commerce, to the

shipbuilding industry, and to ship owning and navigation which will

accompany the discharge of these urgent public duties, though they,

too, should have weight.

The only serious question is whether at this time we can afford to

improve our ocean mail service as it should be improved. All doubt on

this subject is removed by the reports of the Post-Office Department.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1907, that Department estimates that

the postage collected on the articles exchanged with foreign countries

other than Canada and Mexico amounted to $6,579,043.48, or

$3,637,226.81 more than the net cost of the service exclusive of the

cost of transporting the articles between the United States exchange

post-offices and the United States post-offices at which they were

mailed or delivered. In other words, the Government of the United

States, having assumed a monopoly of carrying the mails for the people,

making a profit of over $3,600,000 by rendering a cheap and inefficient

service. That profit I believe should be devoted to strengthening

maritime power in those directions where it will best promote our

prestige. The country is familiar with the facts of our maritime

impotence in the harbors of the great and friendly Republics of South

America. Following the failure of the shipbuilding bill we lost our

only American line of steamers to Australasia, and that loss on the

Pacific has become a serious embarrassment to the people of Hawaii, and

has wholly cut off the Samoan islands from regular communication with

the Pacific coast. Puget Sound, in the year, has lost over half (four

out of seven) of its American steamers trading with the Orient.

We now pay under the act of 1891 $4 a statute mile outward to 20-knot

American mail steamships, built according to naval plans, available as

cruisers, and manned by Americans. Steamships of that speed are

confined exclusively to trans-Atlantic trade with New York. To

steamships of 16 knots or over only $2 a mile can be paid, and it is

steamships of this speed and type which are needed to meet the

requirements of mail service to South America, Asia (including the

Philippines), and Australia. I strongly recommend, therefore, a simple

amendment to the ocean mail act of 1891 which shall authorize the

Postmaster-General in his discretion to enter into contracts for the

transportation of mails to the Republics of South America, to Asia, the

Philippines, and Australia at a rate not to exceed $4 a mile for

steamships of 16 knots speed or upwards, subject to the restrictions

and obligations of the act of 1891. The profit of $3,600,000 which has

been mentioned will fully cover the maximum annual expenditure involved

in this recommendation, and it is believed will in time establish the

lines so urgently needed. The proposition involves no new principle,

but permits the efficient discharge of public functions now

inadequately performed or not performed at all.

Not only there is not now, but there never has been, any other nation

in the world so wholly free from the evils of militarism as is ours.

There never has been any other large nation, not even China, which for

so long a period has had relatively to its numbers so small a regular

army as has ours. Never at any time in our history has this Nation

suffered from militarism or been in the remotest danger of suffering

from militarism. Never at any time of our history has the Regular Army

been of a size which caused the slightest appreciable tax upon the

tax-paying citizens of the Nation. Almost always it has been too small

in size and underpaid. Never in our entire history has the Nation

suffered in the least particular because too much care has been given

to the Army, too much prominence given it, too much money spent upon

it, or because it has been too large. But again and again we have

suffered because enough care has not been given to it, because it has

been too small, because there has not been sufficient preparation in

advance for possible war. Every foreign war in which we have engaged

has cost us many times the amount which, if wisely expended during the

preceding years of peace on the Regular Army, would have insured the

war ending in but a fraction of the time and but for a fraction of the

cost that was actually the case. As a Nation we have always been

shortsighted in providing for the efficiency of the Army in time of

peace. It is nobody's especial interest to make such provision and no

one looks ahead to war at any period, no matter how remote, as being a

serious possibility; while an improper economy, or rather

niggardliness, can be practiced at the expense of the Army with the

certainty that those practicing it will not be called to account

therefor, but that the price will be paid by the unfortunate persons

who happen to be in office when a war does actually come.

I think it is only lack of foresight that troubles us, not any

hostility to the Army. There are, of course, foolish people who

denounce any care of the Army or Navy as "militarism," but I do not

think that these people are numerous. This country has to contend now,

and has had to contend in the past, with many evils, and there is ample

scope for all who would work for reform. But there is not one evil that

now exists, or that ever has existed in this country, which is, or ever

has been, owing in the smallest part to militarism. Declamation against

militarism has no more serious place in an earnest and intelligent

movement for righteousness in this country than declamation against the

worship of Baal or Astaroth. It is declamation against a non-existent

evil, one which never has existed in this country, and which has not

the slightest chance of appearing here. We are glad to help in any

movement for international peace, but this is because we sincerely

believe that it is our duty to help all such movements provided they

are sane and rational, and not because there is any tendency toward

militarism on our part which needs to be cured. The evils we have to

fight are those in connection with industrialism, not militarism.

Industry is always necessary, just as war is sometimes necessary. Each

has its price, and industry in the United States now exacts, and has

always exacted, a far heavier toll of death than all our wars put

together. The statistics of the railroads of this country for the year

ended June 30, 1906, the last contained in the annual statistical

report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, show in that one year a

total of 108,324 casualties to persons, of which 10,618 represent the

number of persons killed. In that wonderful hive of human activity,

Pittsburg, the deaths due to industrial accidents in 1906 were 919, all

the result of accidents in mills, mines or on railroads. For the entire

country, therefore, it is safe to say that the deaths due to industrial

accidents aggregate in the neighborhood of twenty thousand a year. Such

a record makes the death rate in all our foreign wars utterly trivial

by comparison. The number of deaths in battle in all the foreign wars

put together, for the last century and a quarter, aggregate

considerably less than one year's death record for our industries. A

mere glance at these figures is sufficient to show the absurdity of the

outcry against militarism.

But again and again in the past our little Regular Army has rendered

service literally vital to the country, and it may at any time have to

do so in the future. Its standard of efficiency and instruction is

higher now than ever in the past. But it is too small. There are not

enough officers; and it is impossible to secure enough enlisted men. We

should maintain in peace a fairly complete skeleton of a large army. A

great and long-continued war would have to be fought by volunteers. But

months would pass before any large body of efficient volunteers could

be put in the field, and our Regular Army should be large enough to

meet any immediate need. In particular it is essential that we should

possess a number of extra officers trained in peace to perform

efficiently the duties urgently required upon the breaking out of war.

The Medical Corps should be much larger than the needs of our Regular

Army in war. Yet at present it is smaller than the needs of the service

demand even in peace. The Spanish war occurred less than ten years ago.

The chief loss we suffered in it was by disease among the regiments

which never left the country. At the moment the Nation seemed deeply

impressed by this fact; yet seemingly it has already been forgotten,

for not the slightest effort has been made to prepare a medical corps

of sufficient size to prevent the repetition of the same disaster on a

much larger scale if we should ever be engaged in a serious conflict.

The trouble in the Spanish war was not with the then existing officials

of the War Department; it was with the representatives of the people as

a whole who, for the preceding thirty years, had declined to make the

necessary provision for the Army. Unless ample provision is now made by

Congress to put the Medical Corps where it should be put disaster in

the next war is inevitable, and the responsibility will not lie with

those then in charge of the War Department, but with those who now

decline to make the necessary provision. A well organized medical

corps, thoroughly trained before the advent of war in all the important

administrative duties of a military sanitary corps, is essential to the

efficiency of any large army, and especially of a large volunteer army.

Such knowledge of medicine and surgery as is possessed by the medical

profession generally will not alone suffice to make an efficient

military surgeon. He must have, in addition, knowledge of the

administration and sanitation of large field hospitals and camps, in

order to safeguard the health and lives of men intrusted in great

numbers to his care. A bill has long been pending before the Congress

for the reorganization of the Medical Corps; its passage is urgently

needed.

But the Medical Department is not the only department for which

increased provision should be made. The rate of pay for the officers

should be greatly increased; there is no higher type of citizen than

the American regular officer, and he should have a fair reward for his

admirable work. There should be a relatively even greater increase in

the pay for the enlisted men. In especial provision should be made for

establishing grades equivalent to those of warrant officers in the Navy

which should be open to the enlisted men who serve sufficiently long

and who do their work well. Inducements should be offered sufficient to

encourage really good men to make the Army a life occupation. The prime

needs of our present Army is to secure and retain competent

noncommissioned officers. This difficulty rests fundamentally on the

question of pay. The noncommissioned officer does not correspond with

an unskilled laborer; he corresponds to the best type of skilled

workman or to the subordinate official in civil institutions. Wages

have greatly increased in outside occupations in the last forty years

and the pay of the soldier, like the pay of the officers, should be

proportionately increased. The first sergeant of a company, if a good

man, must be one of such executive and administrative ability, and such

knowledge of his trade, as to be worth far more than we at present pay

him. The same is true of the regimental sergeant major. These men

should be men who had fully resolved to make the Army a life occupation

and they should be able to look forward to ample reward; while only men

properly qualified should be given a chance to secure these final

rewards. The increase over the present pay need not be great in the

lower grades for the first one or two enlistments, but the increase

should be marked for the noncommissioned officers of the upper grades

who serve long enough to make it evident that they intend to stay

permanently in the Army, while additional pay should be given for high

qualifications in target practice. The position of warrant officer

should be established and there should be not only an increase of pay,

but an increase of privileges and allowances and dignity, so as to make

the grade open to noncommissioned officers capable of filling them

desirably from every standpoint. The rate of desertion in our Army now

in time of peace is alarming. The deserter should be treated by public

opinion as a man guilty of the greatest crime; while on the other hand

the man who serves steadily in the Army should be treated as what he

is, that is, as preeminently one of the best citizens of this Republic.

After twelve years' service in the Army, my own belief is that the man

should be given a preference according to his ability for certain types

of office over all civilian applicants without examination. This should

also apply, of course, to the men who have served twelve years in the

Navy. A special corps should be provided to do the manual labor now

necessarily demanded of the privates themselves.

Among the officers there should be severe examinations to weed out the

unfit up to the grade of major. From that position on appointments

should be solely by selection and it should be understood that a man of

merely average capacity could never get beyond the position of major,

while every man who serves in any grade a certain length of time prior

to promotion to the next grade without getting the promotion to the

next grade should be forthwith retired. The practice marches and field

maneuvers of the last two or three years have been invaluable to the

Army. They should be continued and extended. A rigid and not a

perfunctory examination of physical capacity has been provided for the

higher grade officers. This will work well. Unless an officer has a

good physique, unless he can stand hardship, ride well, and walk

fairly, he is not fit for any position, even after he has become a

colonel. Before he has become a colonel the need for physical fitness

in the officers is almost as great as in the enlisted man. I hope

speedily to see introduced into the Army a far more rigid and

thoroughgoing test of horsemanship for all field officers than at

present. There should be a Chief of Cavalry just as there is a Chief of

Artillery.

Perhaps the most important of all legislation needed for the benefit of

the Army is a law to equalize and increase the pay of officers and

enlisted men of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Revenue-Cutter

Service. Such a bill has been prepared, which it is hoped will meet

with your favorable consideration. The next most essential measure is

to authorize a number of extra officers as mentioned above. To make the

Army more attractive to enlisted men, it is absolutely essential to

create a service corps, such as exists in nearly every modern army in

the world, to do the skilled and unskilled labor, inseparably connected

with military administration, which is now exacted, without just

compensation, of enlisted men who voluntarily entered the Army to do

service of an altogether different kind. There are a number of other

laws necessary to so organize the Army as to promote its efficiency and

facilitate its rapid expansion in time of war; but the above are the

most important.

It was hoped The Hague Conference might deal with the question of the

limitation of armaments. But even before it had assembled informal

inquiries had developed that as regards naval armaments, the only ones

in which this country had any interest, it was hopeless to try to

devise any plan for which there was the slightest possibility of

securing the assent of the nations gathered at The Hague. No plan was

even proposed which would have had the assent of more than one first

class Power outside of the United States. The only plan that seemed at

all feasible, that of limiting the size of battleships, met with no

favor at all. It is evident, therefore, that it is folly for this

Nation to base any hope of securing peace on any international

agreement as to the limitations of armaments. Such being the fact it

would be most unwise for us to stop the upbuilding of our Navy. To

build one battleship of the best and most advanced type a year would

barely keep our fleet up to its present force. This is not enough. In

my judgment, we should this year provide for four battleships. But it

is idle to build battleships unless in addition to providing the men,

and the means for thorough training, we provide the auxiliaries for

them, unless we provide docks, the coaling stations, the colliers and

supply ships that they need. We are extremely deficient in coaling

stations and docks on the Pacific, and this deficiency should not

longer be permitted to exist. Plenty of torpedo boats and destroyers

should be built. Both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts,

fortifications of the best type should be provided for all our greatest

harbors.

We need always to remember that in time of war the Navy is not to be

used to defend harbors and sea-coast cities; we should perfect our

system of coast fortifications. The only efficient use for the Navy is

for offense. The only way in which it can efficiently protect our own

coast against the possible action of a foreign navy is by destroying

that foreign navy. For defense against a hostile fleet which actually

attacks them, the coast cities must depend upon their forts, mines,

torpedoes, submarines, and torpedo boats and destroyers. All of these

together are efficient for defensive purposes, but they in no way

supply the place of a thoroughly efficient navy capable of acting on

the offensive; for parrying never yet won a fight. It can only be won

by hard hitting, and an aggressive sea-going navy alone can do this

hard hitting of the offensive type. But the forts and the like are

necessary so that the Navy may be footloose. In time of war there is

sure to be demand, under pressure, of fright, for the ships to be

scattered so as to defend all kind of ports. Under penalty of terrible

disaster, this demand must be refused. The ships must be kept together,

and their objective made the enemies' fleet. If fortifications are

sufficiently strong, no modern navy will venture to attack them, so

long as the foe has in existence a hostile navy of anything like the

same size or efficiency. But unless there exists such a navy then the

fortifications are powerless by themselves to secure the victory. For

of course the mere deficiency means that any resolute enemy can at his

leisure combine all his forces upon one point with the certainty that

he can take it.

Until our battle fleet is much larger than at present it should never

be split into detachments so far apart that they could not in event of

emergency be speedily united. Our coast line is on the Pacific just as

much as on the Atlantic. The interests of California, Oregon, and

Washington are as emphatically the interests of the whole Union as

those of Maine and New York, of Louisiana and Texas. The battle fleet

should now and then be moved to the Pacific, just as at other times it

should be kept in the Atlantic. When the Isthmian Canal is built the

transit of the battle fleet from one ocean to the other will be

comparatively easy. Until it is built I earnestly hope that the battle

fleet will be thus shifted between the two oceans every year or two.

The marksmanship on all our ships has improved phenomenally during the

last five years. Until within the last two or three years it was not

possible to train a battle fleet in squadron maneuvers under service

conditions, and it is only during these last two or three years that

the training under these conditions has become really effective.

Another and most necessary stride in advance is now being taken. The

battle fleet is about starting by the Straits of Magellan to visit the

Pacific coast.. Sixteen battleships are going under the command of

Rear-Admiral Evans, while eight armored cruisers and two other

battleships will meet him at San Francisco, whither certain torpedo

destroyers are also going. No fleet of such size has ever made such a

voyage, and it will be of very great educational use to all engaged in

it. The only way by which to teach officers and men how to handle the

fleet so as to meet every possible strain and emergency in time of war

is to have them practice under similar conditions in time of peace.

Moreover, the only way to find out our actual needs is to perform in

time of peace whatever maneuvers might be necessary in time of war.

After war is declared it is too late to find out the needs; that means

to invite disaster. This trip to the Pacific will show what some of our

needs are and will enable us to provide for them. The proper place for

an officer to learn his duty is at sea, and the only way in which a

navy can ever be made efficient is by practice at sea, under all the

conditions which would have to be met if war existed.

I bespeak the most liberal treatment for the officers and enlisted men

of the Navy. It is true of them, as likewise of the officers and

enlisted men of the Army, that they form a body whose interests should

be close to the heart of every good American. In return the most rigid

performance of duty should be exacted from them. The reward should be

ample when they do their best; and nothing less than their best should

be tolerated. It is idle to hope for the best results when the men in

the senior grades come to those grades late in life and serve too short

a time in them. Up to the rank of lieutenant-commander promotion in the

Navy should be as now, by seniority, subject, however, to such

rigid tests as would eliminate the unfit. After the grade of

lieutenant-commander, that is, when we come to the grade of command

rank, the unfit should be eliminated in such manner that only the

conspicuously fit would remain, and sea service should be a principal

test of fitness. Those who are passed by should, after a certain length

of service in their respective grades, be retired. Of a given number of

men it may well be that almost all would make good lieutenants and most

of them good lieutenant-commanders, while only a minority be fit to be

captains, and but three or four to be admirals. Those who object to

promotion otherwise than by mere seniority should reflect upon the

elementary fact that no business in private life could be successfully

managed if those who enter at the lowest rungs of the ladder should

each in turn, if he lived, become the head of the firm, its active

director, and retire after he had held the position a few months. On

its face such a scheme is an absurdity. Chances for improper favoritism

can be minimized by a properly formed board; such as the board of last

June, which did such conscientious and excellent work in elimination.

If all that ought to be done can not now be done, at least let a

beginning be made. In my last three annual Messages, and in a special

Message to the last Congress, the necessity for legislation that will

cause officers of the line of the Navy to reach the grades of captain

and rear-admiral at less advanced ages and which will cause them to

have more sea training and experience in the highly responsible duties

of those grades, so that they may become thoroughly skillful in

handling battleships, divisions, squadrons, and fleets in action, has

been fully explained and urgently recommended. Upon this subject the

Secretary of the Navy has submitted detailed and definite

recommendations which have received my approval, and which, if enacted

into law, will accomplish what is immediately necessary, and will, as

compared with existing law, make a saving of more than five millions of

dollars during the next seven years. The navy personnel act of 1899 has

accomplished all that was expected of it in providing satisfactory

periods of service in the several subordinate grades, from the grade of

ensign to the grade of lieutenant-commander, but the law is inadequate

in the upper grades and will continue to be inadequate on account of

the expansion of the personnel since its enactment. Your attention is

invited to the following quotations from the report of the personnel

board of 1906, of which the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was

president:

"Congress has authorized a considerable increase in the number of

midshipmen at the Naval Academy, and these midshipmen upon graduation

are promoted to ensign and lieutenant (junior-grade). But no provision

has been made for a corresponding increase in the upper grades, the

result being that the lower grades will become so congested that a

midshipman now in one of the lowest classes at Annapolis may possibly

not be promoted to lieutenant until he is between 45 and 50 years of

age. So it will continue under the present law, congesting at the top

and congesting at the bottom. The country fails to get from the

officers of the service the best that is in them by not providing

opportunity for their normal development and training. The board

believes that this works a serious detriment to the efficiency of the

Navy and is a real menace to the public safety."

As stated in my special Message to the last Congress: "I am firmly of

the opinion that unless the present conditions of the higher

commissioned personnel is rectified by judicious legislation the future

of our Navy will be gravely compromised." It is also urgently necessary

to increase the efficiency of the Medical Corps of the Navy. Special

legislation to this end has already been proposed; and I trust it may

be enacted without delay.

It must be remembered that everything done in the Navy to fit it to do

well in time of war must be done in time of peace. Modern wars are

short; they do not last the length of time requisite to build a

battleship; and it takes longer to train the officers and men to do

well on a battleship than it takes to build it. Nothing effective can

be done for the Navy once war has begun, and the result of the war, if

the combatants are otherwise equally matched, will depend upon which

power has prepared best in time of peace. The United States Navy is the

best guaranty the Nation has that its honor and interest will not be

neglected; and in addition it offers by far the best insurance for

peace that can by human ingenuity be devised.

I call attention to the report of the official Board of Visitors to the

Naval Academy at Annapolis which has been forwarded to the Congress.

The report contains this paragraph:

"Such revision should be made of the courses of study and methods of

conducting and marking examinations as will develop and bring out the

average all-round ability of the midshipman rather than to give him

prominence in any one particular study. The fact should be kept in mind

that the Naval Academy is not a university but a school, the primary

object of which is to educate boys to be efficient naval officers.

Changes in curriculum, therefore, should be in the direction of making

the course of instruction less theoretical and more practical. No

portion of any future class should be graduated in advance of the full

four years' course, and under no circumstances should the standard of

instruction be lowered. The Academy in almost all of its departments is

now magnificently equipped, and it would be very unwise to make the

course of instruction less exacting than it is to-day."

Acting upon this suggestion I designated three seagoing officers, Capt.

Richard Wainwright, Commander Robert S. Griffin, and Lieut. Commander

Albert L. Key, all graduates of the Academy, to investigate conditions

and to recommend to me the best method of carrying into effect this

general recommendation. These officers performed the duty promptly and

intelligently, and, under the personal direction of Capt. Charles J.

Badger, Superintendent of the Academy, such of the proposed changes as

were deemed to be at present advisable were put into effect at the

beginning of the academic year, October 1, last. The results, I am

confident, will be most beneficial to the Academy, to the midshipmen,

and to the Navy.

In foreign affairs this country's steady policy is to behave toward

other nations as a strong and self-respecting man should behave toward

the other men with whom he is brought into contact. In other words, our

aim is disinterestedly to help other nations where such help can be

wisely given without the appearance of meddling with what does not

concern us; to be careful to act as a good neighbor; and at the same

time, in good-natured fashion, to make it evident that we do not intend

to be imposed upon.

The Second International Peace Conference was convened at The Hague on

the 15th of June last and remained in session until the 18th of

October. For the first time the representatives of practically all the

civilized countries of the world united in a temperate and kindly

discussion of the methods by which the causes of war might be narrowed

and its injurious effects reduced.

Although the agreements reached in the Conference did not in any

direction go to the length hoped for by the more sanguine, yet in many

directions important steps were taken, and upon every subject on the

programme there was such full and considerate discussion as to justify

the belief that substantial progress has been made toward further

agreements in the future. Thirteen conventions were agreed upon

embodying the definite conclusions which had been reached, and

resolutions were adopted marking the progress made in matters upon

which agreement was not yet sufficiently complete to make conventions

practicable.

The delegates of the United States were instructed to favor an

agreement for obligatory arbitration, the establishment of a permanent

court of arbitration to proceed judicially in the hearing and decision

of international causes, the prohibition of force for the collection of

contract debts alleged to be due from governments to citizens of other

countries until after arbitration as to the justice and amount of the

debt and the time and manner of payment, the immunity of private

property at sea, the better definition of the rights of neutrals, and,

in case any measure to that end should be introduced, the limitation of

armaments.

In the field of peaceful disposal of international differences several

important advances were made. First, as to obligatory arbitration.

Although the Conference failed to secure a unanimous agreement upon the

details of a convention for obligatory arbitration, it did resolve as

follows;

"It is unanimous: (1) In accepting the principle for obligatory

arbitration; (2) In declaring that certain differences, and notably

those relating to the interpretation and application of international

conventional stipulations are susceptible of being submitted to

obligatory arbitration without any restriction."

In view of the fact that as a result of the discussion the vote upon

the definite treaty of obligatory arbitration, which was proposed,

stood 32 in favor to 9 against the adoption of the treaty, there can be

little doubt that the great majority of the countries of the world have

reached a point where they are now ready to apply practically the

principles thus unanimously agreed upon by the Conference.

The second advance, and a very great one, is the agreement which

relates to the use of force for the collection of contract debts. Your

attention is invited to the paragraphs upon this subject in my Message

of December, 1906, and to the resolution of the Third American

Conference at Rio in the summer of 1906. The convention upon this

subject adopted by the Conference substantially as proposed by the

American delegates is as follows:

"In order to avoid between nations armed conflicts of a purely

pecuniary origin arising from contractual debts claimed of the

government of one country by the government of another country to be

due to its nationals, the signatory Powers agree not to have recourse

to armed force for the collection of such contractual debts.

"However, this stipulation shall not be applicable when the debtor

State refuses or leaves unanswered an offer to arbitrate, or, in case

of acceptance, makes it impossible to formulate the terms of

submission, or, after arbitration, fails to comply with the award

rendered.

"It is further agreed that arbitration here contemplated shall be in

conformity, as to procedure, with Chapter III of the Convention for the

Pacific Settlement of International Disputes adopted at The Hague, and

that it shall determine, in so far as there shall be no agreement

between the parties, the justice and the amount of the debt, the time

and mode of payment thereof."

Such a provision would have prevented much injustice and extortion in

the past, and I cannot doubt that its effect in the future will be most

salutary.

A third advance has been made in amending and perfecting the convention

of 1899 for the voluntary settlement of international disputes, and

particularly the extension of those parts of that convention which

relate to commissions of inquiry. The existence of those provisions

enabled the Governments of Great Britain and Russia to avoid war,

notwithstanding great public excitement, at the time of the Dogger Bank

incident, and the new convention agreed upon by the Conference gives

practical effect to the experience gained in that inquiry.

Substantial progress was also made towards the creation of a permanent

judicial tribunal for the determination of international causes. There

was very full discussion of the proposal for such a court and a general

agreement was finally reached in favor of its creation. The Conference

recommended to the signatory Powers the adoption of a draft upon which

it agreed for the organization of the court, leaving to be determined

only the method by which the judges should be selected. This remaining

unsettled question is plainly one which time and good temper will

solve.

A further agreement of the first importance was that for the creation

of an international prize court. The constitution, organization and

procedure of such a tribunal were provided for in detail. Anyone who

recalls the injustices under which this country suffered as a neutral

power during the early part of the last century can not fail to see in

this provision for an international prize court the great advance which

the world is making towards the substitution of the rule of reason and

justice in place of simple force. Not only will the international prize

court be the means of protecting the interests of neutrals, but it is

in itself a step towards the creation of the more general court for the

hearing of international controversies to which reference has just been

made. The organization and action of such a prize court can not fail to

accustom the different countries to the submission of international

questions to the decision of an international tribunal, and we may

confidently expect the results of such submission to bring about a

general agreement upon the enlargement of the practice.

Numerous provisions were adopted for reducing the evil effects of war

and for defining the rights and duties of neutrals.

The Conference also provided for the holding of a third Conference

within a period similar to that which elapsed between the First and

Second Conferences.

The delegates of the United States worthily represented the spirit of

the American people and maintained with fidelity and ability the policy

of our Government upon all the great questions discussed in the

Conference.

The report of the delegation, together with authenticated copies of the

conventions signed, when received, will be laid before the Senate for

its consideration.

When we remember how difficult it is for one of our own legislative

bodies, composed of citizens of the same country, speaking the same

language, living under the same laws, and having the same customs, to

reach an agreement, or even to secure a majority upon any difficult and

important subject which is proposed for legislation, it becomes plain

that the representatives of forty-five different countries, speaking

many different languages, accustomed to different methods of procedure,

with widely diverse interests, who discussed so many different subjects

and reached agreements upon so many, are entitled to grateful

appreciation for the wisdom, patience, and moderation with which they

have discharged their duty. The example of this temperate discussion,

and the agreements and the efforts to agree, among representatives of

all the nations of the earth, acting with universal recognition of the

supreme obligation to promote peace, can not fail to be a powerful

influence for good in future international relations.

A year ago in consequence of a revolutionary movement in Cuba which

threatened the immediate return to chaos of the island, the United

States intervened, sending down an army and establishing a provisional

government under Governor Magoon. Absolute quiet and prosperity have

returned to the island because of this action. We are now taking steps

to provide for elections in the island and our expectation is within

the coming year to be able to turn the island over again to government

chosen by the people thereof. Cuba is at our doors. It is not possible

that this Nation should permit Cuba again to sink into the condition

from which we rescued it. All that we ask of the Cuban people is that

they be prosperous, that they govern themselves so as to bring content,

order and progress to their island, the Queen of the Antilles; and our

only interference has been and will be to help them achieve these

results.

An invitation has been extended by Japan to the Government and people

of the United States to participate in a great national exposition to

be held at Tokyo from April 1 to October 31, 1912, and in which the

principal countries of the world are to be invited to take part. This

is an occasion of special interest to all the nations of the world, and

peculiarly so to us; for it is the first instance in which such a great

national exposition has been held by a great power dwelling on the

Pacific; and all the nations of Europe and America will, I trust, join

in helping to success this first great exposition ever held by a great

nation of Asia. The geographical relations of Japan and the United

States as the possessors of such large portions of the coasts of the

Pacific, the intimate trade relations already existing between the two

countries, the warm friendship which has been maintained between them

without break since the opening of Japan to intercourse with the

western nations, and her increasing wealth and production, which we

regard with hearty goodwill and wish to make the occasion of mutually

beneficial commerce, all unite in making it eminently desirable that

this invitation should be accepted. I heartily recommend such

legislation as will provide in generous fashion for the representation

of this Government and its people in the proposed exposition. Action

should be taken now. We are apt to underestimate the time necessary for

preparation in such cases. The invitation to the French Exposition of

1900 was brought to the attention of the Congress by President

Cleveland in December, 1895; and so many are the delays necessary to

such proceedings that the period of font years and a half which then

intervened before the exposition proved none too long for the proper

preparation of the exhibits.

The adoption of a new tariff by Germany, accompanied by conventions for

reciprocal tariff concessions between that country and most of the

other countries of continental Europe, led the German Government to

give the notice necessary to terminate the reciprocal commercial

agreement with this country proclaimed July 13, 1900. The notice was to

take effect on the 1st of March, 1906, and in default of some other

arrangements this would have left the exports from the United States to

Germany subject to the general German tariff duties, from 25 to 50 per

cent higher than the conventional duties imposed upon the goods of most

of our competitors for German trade.

Under a special agreement made between the two Governments in February,

1906, the German Government postponed the operation of their notice

until the 30th of June, 1907. In the meantime, deeming it to be my duty

to make every possible effort to prevent a tariff war between the

United States and Germany arising from misunderstanding by either

country of the conditions existing in the other, and acting upon the

invitation of the German Government, I sent to Berlin a commission

composed of competent experts in the operation and administration of

the customs tariff, from the Departments of the Treasury and Commerce

and Labor. This commission was engaged for several mouths in conference

with a similar commission appointed by the German Government, under

instructions, so far as practicable, to reach a common understanding as

to all the facts regarding the tariffs of the United States and Germany

material and relevant to the trade relations between the two countries.

The commission reported, and upon the basis of the report, a further

temporary commercial agreement was entered into by the two countries,

pursuant to which, in the exercise of the authority conferred upon the

President by the third section of the tariff act of July 24, 1897, I

extended the reduced tariff rates provided for in that section to

champagne and all other sparkling wines, and pursuant to which the

German conventional or minimum tariff rates were extended to about 96

1/2 per cent of all the exports from the United States to Germany. This

agreement is to remain in force until the 30th of June, 1908, and until

six months after notice by either party to terminate it.

The agreement and the report of the commission on which it is based

will be laid before the Congress for its information.

This careful examination into the tariff relations between the United

States and Germany involved an inquiry into certain of our methods of

administration which had been the cause of much complaint on the part

of German exporters. In this inquiry I became satisfied that certain

vicious and unjustifiable practices had grown up in our customs

administration, notably the practice of determining values of imports

upon detective reports never disclosed to the persons whose interests

were affected. The use of detectives, though often necessary, tends

towards abuse, and should be carefully guarded. Under our practice as I

found it to exist in this case, the abuse had become gross and

discreditable. Under it, instead of seeking information as to the

market value of merchandise from the well-known and respected members

of the commercial community in the country of its production, secret

statements were obtained from informers and discharged employees and

business rivals, and upon this kind of secret evidence the values of

imported goods were frequently raised and heavy penalties were

frequently imposed upon importers who were never permitted to know what

the evidence was and who never had an opportunity to meet it. It is

quite probable that this system tended towards an increase of the

duties collected upon imported goods, but I conceive it to be a

violation of law to exact more duties than the law provides, just as it

is a violation to admit goods upon the payment of less than the legal

rate of duty. This practice was repugnant to the spirit of American law

and to American sense of justice. In the judgment of the most competent

experts of the Treasury Department and the Department of Commerce and

Labor it was wholly unnecessary for the due collection of the customs

revenues, and the attempt to defend it merely illustrates the

demoralization which naturally follows from a long continued course of

reliance upon such methods. I accordingly caused the regulations

governing this branch of the customs service to be modified so that

values are determined upon a hearing in which all the parties

interested have an opportunity to be heard and to know the evidence

against them. Moreover our Treasury agents are accredited to the

government of the country in which they seek information, and in

Germany receive the assistance of the quasi-official chambers of

commerce in determining the actual market value of goods, in accordance

with what I am advised to be the true construction of the law.

These changes of regulations were adapted to the removal of such

manifest abuses that I have not felt that they ought to be confined to

our relations with Germany; and I have extended their operation to all

other countries which have expressed a desire to enter into similar

administrative relations.

I ask for authority to reform the agreement with China under which the

indemnity of 1900 was fixed, by remitting and cancelling the obligation

of China for the payment of all that part of the stipulated indemnity

which is in excess of the sum of eleven million, six hundred and

fifty-five thousand, four hundred and ninety-two dollars and sixty-nine

cents, and interest at four per cent. After the rescue of the foreign

legations in Peking during the Boxer troubles in 1900 the Powers

required from China the payment of equitable indemnities to the several

nations, and the final protocol under which the troops were withdrawn,

signed at Peking, September 7, 1901, fixed the amount of this indemnity

allotted to the United States at over $20,000,000, and China paid, up

to and including the 1st day of June last, a little over $6,000,000. It

was the first intention of this Government at the proper time, when all

claims had been presented and all expenses ascertained as fully as

possible, to revise the estimates and account, and as a proof of

sincere friendship for China voluntarily to release that country from

its legal liability for all payments in excess of the sum which should

prove to be necessary for actual indemnity to the United States and its

citizens.

This Nation should help in every practicable way in the education of

the Chinese people, so that the vast and populous Empire of China may

gradually adapt itself to modern conditions. One way of doing this is

by promoting the coming of Chinese students to this country and making

it attractive to them to take courses at our universities and higher

educational institutions. Our educators should, so far as possible,

take concerted action toward this end.

On the courteous invitation of the President of Mexico, the Secretary

of State visited that country in September and October and was received

everywhere with the greatest kindness and hospitality.

He carried from the Government of the United States to our southern

neighbor a message of respect and good will and of desire for better

acquaintance and increasing friendship. The response from the

Government and the people of Mexico was hearty and sincere. No pains

were spared to manifest the most friendly attitude and feeling toward

the United States.

In view of the close neighborhood of the two countries the relations

which exist between Mexico and the United States are just cause for

gratification. We have a common boundary of over 1,500 miles from the

Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. Much of it is marked only by the

shifting waters of the Rio Grande. Many thousands of Mexicans are

residing upon our side of the line and it is estimated that over 40,000

Americans are resident in Mexican territory and that American

investments in Mexico amount to over seven hundred million dollars. The

extraordinary industrial and commercial prosperity of Mexico has been

greatly promoted by American enterprise, and Americans are sharing

largely in its results. The foreign trade of the Republic already

exceeds $240,000,000 per annum, and of this two-thirds both of exports

and imports are exchanged with the United States. Under these

circumstances numerous questions necessarily arise between the two

countries. These questions are always approached and disposed of in a

spirit of mutual courtesy and fair dealing. Americans carrying on

business in Mexico testify uniformly to the kindness and consideration

with which they are treated and their sense of the security of their

property and enterprises under the wise administration of the great

statesman who has so long held the office of Chief Magistrate of that

Republic.

The two Governments have been uniting their efforts for a considerable

time past to aid Central America in attaining the degree of peace and

order which have made possible the prosperity of the northern ports of

the Continent. After the peace between Guatemala, Honduras, and

Salvador, celebrated under the circumstances described in my last

Message, a new war broke out between the Republics of Nicaragua,

Honduras, and Salvador. The effort to compose this new difficulty has

resulted in the acceptance of the joint suggestion of the Presidents of

Mexico and of the United States for a general peace conference between

all the countries of Central America. On the 17th day of September last

a protocol was signed between the representatives of the five Central

American countries accredited to this Government agreeing upon a

conference to be held in the City of Washington "in order to devise the

means of preserving the good relations among said Republics and

bringing about permanent peace in those countries." The protocol

includes the expression of a wish that the Presidents of the United

States and Mexico should appoint "representatives to lend their good

and impartial offices in a purely friendly way toward the realization

of the objects of the conference." The conference is now in session and

will have our best wishes and, where it is practicable, our friendly

assistance.

One of the results of the Pan American Conference at Rio Janeiro in the

summer of 1906 has been a great increase in the activity and usefulness

of the International Bureau of American Republics. That institution,

which includes all the American Republics in its membership and brings

all their representatives together, is doing a really valuable work in

informing the people of the United States about the other Republics and

in making the United States known to them. Its action is now limited by

appropriations determined when it was doing a work on a much smaller

scale and rendering much less valuable service. I recommend that the

contribution of this Government to the expenses of the Bureau be made

commensurate with its increased work.

***

State of the Union Address

Theodore Roosevelt

December 8, 1908

To the Senate and House of Representatives: