before regimental, garrison, or summary courts-martial without the
authority of the officer competent to order their trial by general
court-martial; nor shall sergeants of the post noncommissioned staff
be reduced, but they may be dishonorably discharged whenever reduction
is included in the limit of punishment. Paragraphs 105 and 254 of the
Regulations, the latter as amended by General Orders, No. 67, series
of 1890, Adjutant-General's Office, are modified accordingly.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
REDFIELD PROCTOR,
_Secretary of War_.
AMENDMENT OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.
MARCH 4, 1891.
Special Departmental Rule No. 1 is hereby amended so as to include
among the places excepted from examination therein the following:
In the Department of Agriculture, in the office of the Secretary: Clerk
to act as appointment clerk.
BENJ. HARRISON.
AMENDMENT OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.
MARCH 16, 1891.
Special Departmental Rule No. 1 is hereby amended so as to include among
the places excepted from examination therein the following:
In the Post-Office Department, office of the First Assistant
Postmaster-General: Assistant superintendent of free delivery.
BENJ. HARRISON.
AMENDMENT OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.
APRIL 3, 1891.
Special Departmental Rule No. 1 is hereby amended so as to include among
the places excepted from examination therein the following:
In the Treasury Department, office of the Secretary: One clerk in the
office of the disbursing clerk.
BENJ. HARRISON.
CIVIL SERVICE--CLASSIFICATION OF INDIAN SERVICE.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, _Washington, April 13, 1891_.
By direction of the President of the United States and in accordance
with the third clause of section 6 of an act entitled "An act to
regulate and improve the civil service of the United States," approved
January 16, 1883--
_It is ordered_, That all physicians, school superintendents and
assistant superintendents, school-teachers, and matrons in the Indian
service be, and they are hereby, arranged in the following classes,
without regard to salary or compensation:
Class 1. Physicians.
Class 2. School superintendents and assistant superintendents.
Class 3. School-teachers.
Class 4. Matrons.
_Provided_, That no person who may be required by law to be appointed
to an office by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and
that no person who may be employed merely as a laborer or workman or in
connection with any contract schools, shall be considered as within this
classification, and no person so employed shall be assigned to the
duties of a classified place.
_It is further ordered_, That no person shall be admitted to any place
not excepted from examination by the civil-service rules in any of
the classes above designated until he or she shall have passed an
appropriate examination under the United States Civil Service Commission
and his or her eligibility has been certified to by said Commission or
the appropriate board of examiners.
JOHN W. NOBLE, _Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 13, 1891_.
The Secretary of the Interior:
I approve of the within classification, and if you see no reason to
suggest any further modification you will please put it in force.
BENJ. HARRISON.
AMENDMENTS OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.
APRIL 13, 1891.
Clause (_c_) of section 2 of General Rule III is hereby revoked, and
clauses (_d_), (_e_), (_f_), (_g_) and (_h_) are lettered, respectively,
(_c_), (_d_), (_e_), (_f_), and (_g_).
BENJ. HARRISON.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
EXECUTIVE ORDER.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 25, 1891_.
_It is hereby ordered_, That the several Executive Departments and the
Government Printing Office be closed on Saturday, the 30th instant, to
enable the employees to participate in the decoration of the graves of
the soldiers and sailors who fell in defense of the Union during the War
of the Rebellion.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., July 6, 1891_.
_To the People of the United States_:
The President, with a profound feeling of sorrow, announces the death of
Hannibal Hamlin, at one time Vice-President of the United States, who
died at Bangor, Me., on the evening of Saturday, July 4.
Few men in this country have filled more important and more
distinguished public positions than Mr. Hamlin, and in recognition of
his many eminent and varied services and as an expression of the great
respect and reverence which are felt for his memory it is ordered that
the national flag be displayed at half-mast upon the public buildings of
the United States on the day of his funeral.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
WILLIAM F. WHARTON,
_Acting Secretary of State_.
AMENDMENTS OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 6, 1891_.
The civil-service rules are hereby amended as follows:
GENERAL RULE II.
In line 1 strike out the word "four" and insert in lieu thereof the word
"five." Add at the end of the rule the following:
5. The classified Indian service.
GENERAL RULE III.
Strike out paragraphs 1 and 2 of section 6 of General Rule III and
insert in lieu thereof the following:
So far as practicable and useful, competitive examinations shall be
established in the classified civil service to test fitness for
promotion, under such regulations as the Commission may make. Until
such regulations have been applied to any part of the classified
service promotions therein shall be made in the manner prescribed
by the rule applicable thereto.
DEPARTMENTAL RULE VI.
Strike out the first sentence of section 6 and transfer the remaining
sentence to section 5. Change the numbers of sections 7, 8, 9, and 10
to 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively.
CUSTOMS RULE III.
Strike out the first sentence of section 5 and transfer the remaining
sentence to section 4. Change the numbers of sections 6, 7, 8, and 9
to 5, 6, 7, and 8, respectively.
POSTAL RULE III.
Strike out the first sentence of section 5 and transfer the remaining
sentence to section 4. Change the numbers of sections 6, 7, 8, and 9
to 5, 6, 7, and 8, respectively.
RAILWAY MAIL RULE III.
Strike out the first sentence of section 7 and transfer the remaining
sentence to section 4. Change the numbers of sections 8, 9, 10, 11, and
12 to 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, respectively.
RAILWAY MAIL RULE II.
Insert an additional clause to section 5, as follows:
(_f_) Transfer clerks at junction points or stations where not more
than two such clerks are employed.
RAILWAY MAIL RULE IV.
Insert an additional proviso at the end of clause (_b_) of section 2, as
follows:
_Provided further_, That on a line on which the service does not
require the full time of a clerk, and one can be employed jointly with
the railroad company, the appointment may be made without examination
and certification, with the consent of the Commission, upon a statement
of the facts by the General Superintendent; but no clerk so appointed
shall be eligible for transfer or appointment to any other place in the
service.
In section 6, line 3, strike out the word "twenty" and insert in lieu
thereof the word "ten."
In section 7, line 6, strike out the word "thirty" and insert in lieu
thereof the word "sixty;" in the same line strike out the word "to" and
insert in lieu thereof the words "in periods of;" in line 7 strike out
the words "who have been in the railway mail service."
BENJ. HARRISON.
CIVIL SERVICE--INDIAN RULES.
INDIAN RULE I.
The classified Indian service shall include all the physicians, school
superintendents, assistant superintendents, school-teachers, and matrons
in that service, classified under the provisions of section 6 of the act
to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States, approved
January 16, 1883.
INDIAN RULE II.
1. To test fitness for admission to the classified Indian service
examinations of a practical character shall be provided on such subjects
as the Commission may direct for physician, superintendent, assistant
superintendent, teachers, and matrons.
2. The following age limitations shall apply to applicants for
examination for the classified Indian service: For physician, not under
25 years of age nor over 45; for superintendent, not under 25 nor over
50; for assistant superintendent and for teacher, not under 20 nor over
50; for matron, not under 25 nor over 55: _Provided_, That these
limitations shall not apply to the wives of superintendents of Indian
schools who apply for the position of matron, nor shall the maximum
limitations apply to persons allowed preference under section 1754,
Revised Statutes, by the Commission.
3. Blank forms of application shall be furnished by the Commission, and
the date of reception and also of approval by the Commission of each
application shall be noted on the application paper.
INDIAN RULE III.
1. The papers of every examination shall be marked under regulations
made by the Commission. Bach competitor shall be graded on a scale of
100, according to the general average determined by the markings.
2. Immediately after the general average shall have been ascertained
each competitor shall be notified that he has passed or has failed to
pass.
3. A competitor who has failed to pass an examination may, with the
consent of the Commission, be allowed reexamination at any time within
six months from the date of failure without filing a new application;
but if he be not allowed reexamination within six months he shall be
required to file a new application before being again examined.
4. No eligible shall be allowed reexamination during the period of his
eligibility unless he shall furnish satisfactory evidence to the
Commission that at the time of his examination, because of illness or
other good cause, he was incapable of doing himself justice; and his
rating on such reexamination shall cancel and be a substitute for his
rating on his former examination.
5. All competitors whose claim to preference under section 1754 of the
Revised Statutes have been allowed by the Commission who attain a
general average of 65 per cent or over, and all other competitors who
attain a general average of 70 per cent or over, shall be eligible for
appointment to the place for which they were examined. The names of all
the competitors thus rendered eligible shall be entered in the order of
grade on the proper register of eligibles.
6. When two or more eligibles are of the same grade, preference in
certification shall be determined by the order in which the application
papers are filed.
7. For the Indian service there shall be four districts and a separate
register of eligibles for each grade of examination for each district,
the names of males and females being listed separately on each register.
The districts shall be comprised as follows: No. 1, of the States of
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South
Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming; No. 2, of the States of Idaho, Washington,
Oregon, Nevada, and that part of California lying north of the
thirty-seventh parallel of latitude, and the Territory of Utah; No. 3,
of that part of California lying south of the thirty-seventh parallel of
latitude, the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, the Indian
Territory, and the States of Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas,
Louisiana, and Texas; No. 4, of all the States of the United States not
embraced in any of the foregoing districts, together with the District
of Columbia. Upon the written request of any eligible his name shall be
entered upon the register of any one or more of the districts other than
that in which he resides: _Provided_, That he shall state in writing his
willingness to accept service wherever assigned in any such district.
8. The period of eligibility to appointment shall be one year from the
date on which the name of the eligible is entered on the register unless
otherwise determined by regulation of the Commission.
INDIAN RULE IV.
1. All vacancies, unless filled by promotion, transfer, or
reappointment, shall be filled in the following manner:
(_a_) The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, through the Secretary of the
Interior, shall, in form and manner to be prescribed by the Commission,
request the certification to him of male or female eligibles from the
district in which the vacancy exists.
(_b_) If fitness for the vacant place is tested by competitive
examination, the Commission shall certify from the proper register of
the district in which the vacancy exists the names of the three
eligibles thereon of the sex called for having the highest averages:
_Provided_, That the eligibles upon any register who have been allowed
preference under section 1754 of the Revised Statutes shall be certified
according to their grade before all other eligibles thereon: _And
provided further_, That if the vacancy is in the grade of matron or
teacher, and the wife of the superintendent of the school in which the
vacancy exists is an eligible, she may be given preference in
certification if the appointing officer so requests.
2. Of the three names certified to him the appointing officer shall
select one, and if at the time of making this selection there are more
vacancies than one he may select more than one: _Provided_, That if the
appointing officer to whom certification has been made shall object in
writing to any eligible named in the certificate, stating that because
of physical incapacity or for other good cause particularly specified
such eligible is not capable of properly performing the duties of the
vacant place, the Commission may, upon investigation and ascertainment
of the fact that the objection made is good and well founded, direct the
certification of another eligible in place of the one objected to.
3. Each person thus designated for appointment shall be notified,
and upon indicating acceptance shall be appointed for a probationary
period--if a physician, for six months, and if a school employee, to
expire at the end of the then current school year--at the end of which
period, if his conduct and capacity be satisfactory to the appointing
officer, he shall receive absolute appointment; but if his conduct and
capacity be not satisfactory to said officer he shall be so notified,
and this notification shall be his discharge from the service:
_Provided_, That any probationer may be discharged during probation for
misconduct or evident unfitness or incapacity.
4. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall require the officer
under whom a probationer may be serving to carefully observe and
report in writing upon the services rendered by and the character and
qualifications of such probationer as to punctuality, industry, habits,
ability, and adaptability. These reports shall be preserved on file, and
the Commission may prescribe the form and manner in which they shall be
made.
5. In case of the sudden occurrence of a vacancy in any school during a
school term which the public interest requires to be immediately filled,
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is authorized, in his discretion,
to provide for the temporary filling of the same until a regular
appointment can be made under the provisions of sections 1, 2, and 3
of this rule, and when such regular appointment is made the temporary
appointment shall terminate. All temporary appointments made under this
authority and their termination shall at once be reported to the
Commission.
INDIAN RULE V.
Until promotion regulations shall have been applied to the classified
Indian service promotions therein may be made upon any test of fitness
determined upon by the promoting officer if not disapproved by the
Commission: _Provided_, That preference in promotion in any school shall
be given to those longest in the service unless there are good reasons
to the contrary; and when such reasons prevail they shall, through the
proper channels, be reported to the Commission: _And provided further_,
That no one shall be promoted to any grade he could not enter by
original appointment under the minimum age limitation applied thereto
by Indian Rule II, section 2, and that no one shall be promoted to the
grade of physician from any other grade.
INDIAN RULE VI.
Subject to the conditions stated in Rule IV, transfers may be made after
absolute appointment from one school to another and from one district to
another under such regulations as the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, may prescribe.
INDIAN RULE VII.
Upon the requisition of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, through
the Secretary of the Interior, the Commission shall certify for
reinstatement in a grade or class no higher than that in which he was
formerly employed any person who within one year next preceding the
date of the requisition has through no delinquency or misconduct
been separated from the classified Indian service: _Provided_, That
certification may be made, subject to the other conditions of this rule,
for the reinstatement of any person who served in the military or naval
service of the United States in the late War of the Rebellion and was
honorably discharged therefrom, without regard to the length of time
he has been separated from the service.
INDIAN RULE VIII.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall report to the Commission--
(_a_) Every probational and every absolute appointment in the classified
Indian service.
(_b_) Every refusal to make an absolute appointment and the reason
therefor, and every refusal to accept an appointment.
(_c_) Every separation from the classified Indian service and the cause
of such separation, whether death, resignation, or dismissal.
(_d_) Every restoration to the classified Indian service.
These rules shall take effect October 1, 1891.
BENJ. HARRISON.
AMENDMENT OF CIVIL SERVICE RULES.
OCTOBER 9, 1891.
General Rule III, clause 6, is hereby amended by striking out the words
"under such regulations as the Commission may make" and substituting
therefor the following: "under regulations to be approved by the
President;" so that as amended the clause will read as follows:
So far as practicable and useful competitive examinations shall be
established in the classified civil service to test fitness for
promotion under regulations to be approved by the President.
BENJ. HARRISON.
Whereas civil-service rules for the Indian service were approved to take
effect October 1, 1891; and
Whereas it is represented to me by the Civil Service Commission in a
communication of this date that no persons have as yet been examined for
appointment to that service, and that it seems probable that complete
arrangements for putting said rules into full effect will not be made
sooner than March 1, 1892:
_It is therefore ordered_, That said Indian rules shall take effect
March 1, 1892, instead of October 1, 1891: _Provided_, That said rules
shall become operative and take effect in any district of the Indian
service as soon as an eligible register for such district shall be
provided, if it shall be prior to the date above fixed.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _October 13, 1891_.
Upon the recommendation of the Commission the foregoing order is
approved.
BENJ. HARRISON.
AMENDMENT OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.
NOVEMBER 24, 1891.
Special Departmental Rule No. 1 is hereby amended so as to include among
the places excepted from examination the following:
In the Department of the Treasury, in the Bureau of Statistics: One
confidential clerk to the Chief of the Bureau.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, December 4, 1891_.
SIR:[21] In my message to the first session of the Fifty-first Congress
I said:
I have suggested to the heads of the Executive Departments that they
consider whether a record might not be kept in each bureau of all those
elements that are covered by the terms "faithfulness" and "efficiency,"
and a rating made showing the relative merits of the clerks of each
class, this rating to be regarded as a test of merit in making
promotions.
In some of the Departments this suggestion has been acted upon in part
at least, and I now direct that in your Department a plan be at once
devised and put in operation for keeping an efficiency record of all
persons within the classified service, with a view to placing promotions
wholly upon the basis of merit.
It is intended to make provision for carrying into effect the
stipulations of the civil-service law in relation to promotions in
the classified service. To that end the rule requiring compulsory
examination has been rescinded. In my opinion the examination for
promotion of those who present themselves should be chiefly, if not
wholly, upon their knowledge of the work of the bureau or Department to
which they belong and the record of efficiency made by them during their
previous service. I think the records of efficiency kept from day to day
should be open to the inspection of the clerks.
Very respectfully, yours,
BENJ. HARRISON.
[Footnote 21: Addressed to the heads of the Executive Departments.]
THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 9, 1891_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
The reports of the heads of the several Executive Departments, required
by law to be submitted to me, which are herewith transmitted, and the
reports of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney-General, made
directly to Congress, furnish a comprehensive view of the administrative
work of the last fiscal year relating to internal affairs. It would be
of great advantage if these reports could have an attentive perusal by
every member of Congress and by all who take an interest in public
affairs. Such a perusal could not fail to excite a higher appreciation
of the vast labor and conscientious effort which are given to the
conduct of our civil administration.
The reports will, I believe, show that every question has been
approached, considered, and decided from the standpoint of public duty
and upon considerations affecting the public interests alone. Again I
invite to every branch of the service the attention and scrutiny of
Congress.
The work of the State Department during the last year has been
characterized by an unusual number of important negotiations and by
diplomatic results of a notable and highly beneficial character. Among
these are the reciprocal trade arrangements which have been concluded,
in the exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the tariff law,
with the Republic of Brazil, with Spain for its West India possessions,
and with Santo Domingo. Like negotiations with other countries have been
much advanced, and it is hoped that before the close of the year further
definitive trade arrangements of great value will be concluded.
In view of the reports which had been received as to the diminution of
the seal herds in the Bering Sea, I deemed it wise to propose to Her
Majesty's Government in February last that an agreement for a closed
season should be made pending the negotiations for arbitration, which
then seemed to be approaching a favorable conclusion. After much
correspondence and delays, for which this Government was not
responsible, an agreement was reached and signed on the 15th of June, by
which Great Britain undertook from that date and until May 1, 1892, to
prohibit the killing by her subjects of seals in the Bering Sea, and the
Government of the United States during the same period to enforce its
existing prohibition against pelagic sealing and to limit the catch by
the fur-seal company upon the islands to 7,500 skins. If this agreement
could have been reached earlier in response to the strenuous endeavors
of this Government, it would have been more effective; but coming even
as late as it did it unquestionably resulted in greatly diminishing the
destruction of the seals by the Canadian sealers.
In my last annual message I stated that the basis of arbitration
proposed by Her Majesty's Government for the adjustment of the
long-pending controversy as to the seal fisheries was not acceptable.
I am glad now to be able to announce that terms satisfactory to this
Government have been agreed upon and that an agreement as to the
arbitrators is all that is necessary to the completion of the
convention. In view of the advanced position which this Government has
taken upon the subject of international arbitration, this renewed
expression of our adherence to this method for the settlement of
disputes such as have arisen in the Bering Sea will, I doubt not, meet
with the concurrence of Congress.
Provision should be made for a joint demarcation of the frontier line
between Canada and the United States wherever required by the increasing
border settlements, and especially for the exact location of the water
boundary in the straits and rivers.
I should have been glad to announce some favorable disposition of the
boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela touching the
western frontier of British Guiana, but the friendly efforts of the
United States in that direction have thus far been unavailing. This
Government will continue to express its concern at any appearance of
foreign encroachment on territories long under the administrative
control of American States. The determination of a disputed boundary
is easily attainable by amicable arbitration where the rights of the
respective parties rest, as here, on historic facts readily
ascertainable.
The law of the last Congress providing a system of inspection for our
meats intended for export, and clothing the President with power to
exclude foreign products from our market in case the country sending
them should perpetuate unjust discriminations against any product of the
United States, placed this Government in a position to effectively urge
the removal of such discriminations against our meats. It is gratifying
to be able to state that Germany, Denmark, Italy, Austria, and France,
in the order named, have opened their ports to inspected American pork
products. The removal of these restrictions in every instance was asked
for and given solely upon the ground that we have now provided a meat
inspection that should be accepted as adequate to the complete removal
of the dangers, real or fancied, which had been previously urged. The
State Department, our ministers abroad, and the Secretary of Agriculture
have cooperated with unflagging and intelligent zeal for the
accomplishment of this great result. The outlines of an agreement have
been reached with Germany looking to equitable trade concessions in
consideration of the continued free importation of her sugars, but the
time has not yet arrived when this correspondence can be submitted to
Congress.
The recent political disturbances in the Republic of Brazil have
excited regret and solicitude. The information we possessed was too
meager to enable us to form a satisfactory judgment of the causes
leading to the temporary assumption of supreme power by President
Fonseca; but this Government did not fail to express to him its anxious
solicitude for the peace of Brazil and for the maintenance of the free
political institutions which had recently been established there, nor to
offer our advice that great moderation should be observed in the clash
of parties and the contest for leadership. These counsels were received
in the most friendly spirit, and the latest information is that
constitutional government has been reestablished without bloodshed.
The lynching at New Orleans in March last of eleven men of Italian
nativity by a mob of citizens was a most deplorable and discreditable
incident. It did not, however, have its origin in any general animosity
to the Italian people, nor in any disrespect to the Government of Italy,
with which our relations were of the most friendly character. The fury
of the mob was directed against these men as the supposed participants
or accessories in the murder of a city officer. I do not allude to this
as mitigating in any degree this offense against law and humanity, but
only as affecting the international questions which grew out of it. It
was at once represented by the Italian minister that several of those
whose lives had been taken by the mob were Italian subjects, and a
demand was made for the punishment of the participants and for an
indemnity to the families of those who were killed. It is to be
regretted that the manner in which these claims were presented was not
such as to promote a calm discussion of the questions involved; but this
may well be attributed to the excitement and indignation which the crime
naturally evoked. The views of this Government as to its obligations to
foreigners domiciled here were fully stated in the correspondence, as
well as its purpose to make an investigation of the affair with a view
to determine whether there were present any circumstances that could
under such rules of duty as we had indicated create an obligation upon
the United States. The temporary absence of a minister plenipotentiary
of Italy at this capital has retarded the further correspondence, but
it is not doubted that a friendly conclusion is attainable.
Some suggestions growing out of this unhappy incident are worthy the
attention of Congress. It would, I believe, be entirely competent for
Congress to make offenses against the treaty rights of foreigners
domiciled in the United States cognizable in the Federal courts. This
has not, however, been done, and the Federal officers and courts have no
power in such cases to intervene, either for the protection of a foreign
citizen or for the punishment of his slayers. It seems to me to follow,
in this state of the law, that the officers of the State charged with
police and judicial powers in such cases must in the consideration of
international questions growing out of such incidents be regarded in
such sense as Federal agents as to make this Government answerable for
their acts in cases where it would be answerable if the United States
had used its constitutional power to define and punish crime against
treaty rights.
The civil war in Chile, which began in January last, was continued, but
fortunately with infrequent and not important armed collisions, until
August 28, when the Congressional forces landed near Valparaiso and
after a bloody engagement captured that city. President Balmaceda at
once recognized that his cause was lost, and a Provisional Government
was speedily established by the victorious party. Our minister was
promptly directed to recognize and put himself in communication with
this Government so soon as it should have established its _de facto_
character, which was done. During the pendency of this civil contest
frequent indirect appeals were made to this Government to extend
belligerent rights to the insurgents and to give audience to their
representatives. This was declined, and that policy was pursued
throughout which this Government when wrenched by civil war so
strenuously insisted upon on the part of European nations. The _Itata_,
an armed vessel commanded by a naval officer of the insurgent fleet,
manned by its sailors and with soldiers on board, was seized under
process of the United States court at San Diego, Cal., for a violation
of our neutrality laws. While in the custody of an officer of the court
the vessel was forcibly wrested from his control and put to sea. It
would have been inconsistent with the dignity and self-respect of this
Government not to have insisted that the _Itata_ should be returned to
San Diego to abide the judgment of the court. This was so clear to the
junta of the Congressional party, established at Iquique, that before
the arrival of the _Itata_ at that port the secretary of foreign
relations of the Provisional Government addressed to Rear-Admiral Brown,
commanding the United States naval forces, a communication, from which
the following is an extract:
The Provisional Government has learned by the cablegrams of the
Associated Press that the transport _Itata_, detained in San Diego by
order of the United States for taking on board munitions of war, and
in possession of the marshal, left the port, carrying on board this
official, who was landed at a point near the coast, and then continued
her voyage. * * * If this news be correct this Government would deplore
the conduct of the _Itata_, and as an evidence that it is not disposed
to support or agree to the infraction of the laws of the United States
the undersigned takes advantage of the personal relations you have been
good enough to maintain with him since your arrival in this port to
declare to you that as soon as she is within reach of our orders his
Government will put the _Itata_, with the arms and munitions she took
on board in San Diego, at the disposition of the United States.
A trial in the district court of the United States for the southern
district of California has recently resulted in a decision holding,
among other things, that inasmuch as the Congressional party had not
been recognized as a belligerent the acts done in its interest could not
be a violation of our neutrality laws. From this judgment the United
States has appealed, not that the condemnation of the vessel is a matter
of importance, but that we may know what the present state of our law
is; for if this construction of the statute is correct there is obvious
necessity for revision and amendment.
During the progress of the war in Chile this Government tendered its
good offices to bring about a peaceful adjustment, and it was at one
time hoped that a good result might be reached; but in this we were
disappointed.
The instructions to our naval officers and to our minister at Santiago
from the first to the last of this struggle enjoined upon them the most
impartial treatment and absolute noninterference. I am satisfied that
these instructions were observed and that our representatives were
always watchful to use their influence impartially in the interest of
humanity, and on more than one occasion did so effectively. We could not
forget, however, that this Government was in diplomatic relations with
the then established Government of Chile, as it is now in such relations
with the successor of that Government. I am quite sure that President
Montt, who has, under circumstances of promise for the peace of Chile,
been installed as President of that Republic, will not desire that in
the unfortunate event of any revolt against his authority the policy
of this Government should be other than that which we have recently
observed. No official complaint of the conduct of our minister or
of our naval officers during the struggle has been presented to this
Government, and it is a matter of regret that so many of our own
people should have given ear to unofficial charges and complaints that
manifestly had their origin in rival interests and in a wish to pervert
the relations of the United States with Chile.
The collapse of the Government of Balmaceda brought about a condition
which is unfortunately too familiar in the history of the Central and
South American States. With the overthrow of the Balmaceda Government
he and many of his councilors and officers became at once fugitives for
their lives, and appealed to the commanding officers of the foreign
naval vessels in the harbor of Valparaiso and to the resident foreign
ministers at Santiago for asylum. This asylum was freely given,
according to my information, by the naval vessels of several foreign
powers and by several of the legations at Santiago. The American
minister as well as his colleagues, acting upon the impulse of humanity,
extended asylum to political refugees whose lives were in peril. I have
not been willing to direct the surrender of such of these persons as are
still in the American legation without suitable conditions.
It is believed that the Government of Chile is not in a position, in
view of the precedents with which it has been connected, to broadly deny
the right of asylum, and the correspondence has not thus far presented
any such denial. The treatment of our minister for a time was such as to
call for a decided protest, and it was very gratifying to observe that
unfriendly measures, which were undoubtedly the result of the prevailing
excitement, were at once rescinded or suitably relaxed.
On the 16th of October an event occurred in Valparaiso so serious and
tragic in its circumstances and results as to very justly excite the
indignation of our people and to call for prompt and decided action on
the part of this Government. A considerable number of the sailors of the
United States steamship _Baltimore_, then in the harbor at Valparaiso,
being upon shore leave and unarmed, were assaulted by armed men nearly
simultaneously in different localities in the city. One petty officer
was killed outright and seven or eight seamen were seriously wounded,
one of whom has since died. So savage and brutal was the assault that
several of our sailors received more than two and one as many as
eighteen stab wounds. An investigation of the affair was promptly made
by a board of officers of the _Baltimore_, and their report shows that
these assaults were unprovoked, that our men were conducting themselves
in a peaceable and orderly manner, and that some of the police of the
city took part in the assault and used their weapons with fatal effect,
while a few others, with some well-disposed citizens, endeavored to
protect our men. Thirty-six of our sailors were arrested, and some of
them while being taken to prison were cruelly beaten and maltreated.
The fact that they were all discharged, no criminal charge being lodged
against any one of them, shows very clearly that they were innocent of
any breach of the peace.
So far as I have yet been able to learn no other explanation of this
bloody work has been suggested than that it had its origin in hostility
to those men as sailors of the United States, wearing the uniform of
their Government, and not in any individual act or personal animosity.
The attention of the Chilean Government was at once called to this
affair, and a statement of the facts obtained by the investigation we
had conducted was submitted, accompanied by a request to be advised of
any other or qualifying facts in the possession of the Chilean
Government that might tend to relieve this affair of the appearance of
an insult to this Government. The Chilean Government was also advised
that if such qualifying facts did not exist this Government would
confidently expect full and prompt reparation.
It is to be regretted that the reply of the secretary for foreign
affairs of the Provisional Government was couched in an offensive tone.
To this no response has been made. This Government is now awaiting the
result of an investigation which has been conducted by the criminal
court at Valparaiso. It is reported unofficially that the investigation
is about completed, and it is expected that the result will soon be
communicated to this Government, together with some adequate and
satisfactory response to the note by which the attention of Chile
was called to this incident. If these just expectations should be
disappointed or further needless delay intervene, I will by a special
message bring this matter again to the attention of Congress for
such action as may be necessary. The entire correspondence with the
Government of Chile will at an early day be submitted to Congress.
I renew the recommendation of my special message dated January 16,
1890,[22] for the adoption of the necessary legislation to enable this
Government to apply in the case of Sweden and Norway the same rule in
respect to the levying of tonnage dues as was claimed and secured to the
shipping of the United States in 1828 under Article VIII of the treaty
of 1827.
The adjournment of the Senate without action on the pending acts for
the suppression of the slave traffic in Africa and for the reform of
the revenue tariff of the Independent State of the Kongo left this
Government unable to exchange those acts on the date fixed, July 2,
1891. A _modus vivendi_ has been concluded by which the power of the
Kongo State to levy duties on imports is left unimpaired, and by
agreement of all the signatories to the general slave trade act the time
for the exchange of ratifications on the part of the United States has
been extended to February 2, 1892.
The late outbreak against foreigners in various parts of the
Chinese Empire has been a cause of deep concern in view of the numerous
establishments of our citizens in the interior of that country. This
Government can do no less than insist upon a continuance of the
protective and punitory measures which the Chinese Government has
heretofore applied. No effort will be omitted to protect our citizens
peaceably sojourning in China, but recent unofficial information
indicates that what was at first regarded as an outbreak of mob violence
against foreigners has assumed the larger form of an insurrection
against public order.
The Chinese Government has declined to receive Mr. Blair as the minister
of the United States on the ground that as a participant while a Senator
in the enactment of the existing legislation against the introduction of
Chinese laborers he has become unfriendly and objectionable to China.
I have felt constrained to point out to the Chinese Government the
untenableness of this position, which seems to rest as much on the
unacceptability of our legislation as on that of the person chosen,
and which if admitted would practically debar the selection of any
representative so long as the existing laws remain in force.
You will be called upon to consider the expediency of making special
provision by law for the temporary admission of some Chinese artisans
and laborers in connection with the exhibit of Chinese industries at the
approaching Columbian Exposition. I regard it as desirable that the
Chinese exhibit be facilitated in every proper way.
A question has arisen with the Government of Spain touching the rights
of American citizens in the Caroline Islands. Our citizens there long
prior to the confirmation of Spain's claim to the islands had secured
by settlement and purchase certain rights to the recognition and
maintenance of which the faith of Spain was pledged. I have had reason
within the past year very strongly to protest against the failure to
carry out this pledge on the part of His Majesty's ministers, which has
resulted in great injustice and injury to the American residents.
The Government and people of Spain propose to celebrate the four
hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by holding an
exposition at Madrid, which will open on the 12th of September and
continue until the 31st of December, 1892. A cordial invitation has
been extended to the United States to take part in this commemoration,
and as Spain was one of the first nations to express the intention to
participate in the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, it would
be very appropriate for this Government to give this invitation its
friendly promotion.
Surveys for the connecting links of the projected intercontinental
railway are in progress, not only in Mexico, but at various points along
the course mapped out. Three surveying parties are now in the field
under the direction of the commission. Nearly 1,000 miles of the
proposed road have been surveyed, including the most difficult part,
that through Ecuador and the southern part of Colombia. The reports of
the engineers are very satisfactory, and show that no insurmountable
obstacles have been met with.
On November 12, 1884, a treaty was concluded with Mexico reaffirming
the boundary between the two countries as described in the treaties of
February 2, 1848, and December 30, 1853. March 1, 1889, a further treaty
was negotiated to facilitate the carrying out of the principles of the
treaty of 1884 and to avoid the difficulties occasioned by reason of the
changes and alterations that take place from natural causes in the Rio
Grande and Colorado rivers in the portions thereof constituting the
boundary line between the two Republics. The International Boundary
Commission provided for by the treaty of 1889 to have exclusive
jurisdiction of any question that may arise has been named by the
Mexican Government. An appropriation is necessary to enable the United
States to fulfill its treaty obligations in this respect.
The death of King Kalakaua in the United States afforded occasion to
testify our friendship for Hawaii by conveying the King's body to his
own land in a naval vessel with all due honors. The Government of his
successor, Queen Liliuokolani, is seeking to promote closer commercial
relations with the United States. Surveys for the much-needed submarine
cable from our Pacific coast to Honolulu are in progress, and this
enterprise should have the suitable promotion of the two Governments.
I strongly recommend that provision be made for improving the harbor
of Pearl River and equipping it as a naval station.
The arbitration treaty formulated by the International American
Conference lapsed by reason of the failure to exchange ratifications
fully within the limit of time provided; but several of the Governments
concerned have expressed a desire to save this important result of
the conference by an extension of the period. It is, in my judgment,
incumbent upon the United States to conserve the influential initiative
it has taken in this measure by ratifying the instrument and by
advocating the proposed extension of the time for exchange. These views
have been made known to the other signatories.
This Government has found occasion to express in a friendly spirit, but
with much earnestness, to the Government of the Czar its serious concern
because of the harsh measures now being enforced against the Hebrews in
Russia. By the revival of antisemitic laws, long in abeyance, great
numbers of those unfortunate people have been constrained to abandon
their homes and leave the Empire by reason of the impossibility of
finding subsistence within the pale to which it is sought to confine
them. The immigration of these people to the United States--many other
countries being closed to them--is largely increasing and is likely
to assume proportions which may make it difficult to find homes and
employment for them here and to seriously affect the labor market. It is
estimated that over 1,000,000 will be forced from Russia within a few
years. The Hebrew is never a beggar; he has always kept the law--life by
toil--often under severe and oppressive civil restrictions. It is also
true that no race, sect, or class has more fully cared for its own than
the Hebrew race. But the sudden transfer of such a multitude under
conditions that tend to strip them of their small accumulations and to
depress their energies and courage is neither good for them nor for us.
The banishment, whether by direct decree or by not less certain indirect
methods, of so large a number of men and women is not a local question.
A decree to leave one country is in the nature of things an order to
enter another--some other. This consideration, as well as the suggestion
of humanity, furnishes ample ground for the remonstrances which we have
presented to Russia, while our historic friendship for that Government
can not fail to give the assurance that our representations are those of
a sincere wellwisher.
The annual report of the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua shows that
much costly and necessary preparatory work has been done during the year
in the construction of shops, railroad tracks, and harbor piers and
breakwaters, and that the work of canal construction has made some
progress.
I deem it to be a matter of the highest concern to the United States
that this canal, connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans and giving to us a short water communication between our ports
upon those two great seas, should be speedily constructed and at the
smallest practicable limit of cost. The gain in freights to the people
and the direct saving to the Government of the United States in the use
of its naval vessels would pay the entire cost of this work within a
short series of years. The report of the Secretary of the Navy shows the
saving in our naval expenditures which would result.
The Senator from Alabama (Mr. Morgan) in his argument upon this subject
before the Senate at the last session did not overestimate the
importance of this work when he said that "the canal is the most
important subject now connected with the commercial growth and progress
of the United States."
If this work is to be promoted by the usual financial methods
and without the aid of this Government, the expenditures in its
interest-bearing securities and stock will probably be twice the actual
cost. This will necessitate higher tolls and constitute a heavy and
altogether needless burden upon our commerce and that of the world.
Every dollar of the bonds and stock of the company should represent a
dollar expended in the legitimate and economical prosecution of the
work. This is only possible by giving to the bonds the guaranty of the
United States Government. Such a guaranty would secure the ready sale at
par of a 3 per cent bond from time to time as the money was needed. I do
not doubt that built upon these business methods the canal would when
fully inaugurated earn its fixed charges and operating expenses. But if
its bonds are to be marketed at heavy discounts and every bond sold is
to be accompanied by a gift of stock, as has come to be expected by
investors in such enterprises, the traffic will be seriously burdened to
pay interest and dividends. I am quite willing to recommend Government
promotion in the prosecution of a work which, if no other means offered
for securing its completion, is of such transcendent interest that the
Government should, in my opinion, secure it by direct appropriations
from its Treasury.
A guaranty of the bonds of the canal company to an amount necessary
to the completion of the canal could, I think, be so given as not to
involve any serious risk of ultimate loss. The things to be carefully
guarded are the completion of the work within the limits of the
guaranty, the subrogation of the United States to the rights of the
first-mortgage bondholders for any amounts it may have to pay, and in
the meantime a control of the stock of the company as a security against
mismanagement and loss. I most sincerely hope that neither party nor
sectional lines will be drawn upon this great American project, so full
of interest to the people of all our States and so influential in its
effects upon the prestige and prosperity of our common country.
The island of Navassa, in the West Indian group, has, under the
provisions of Title VII of the Revised Statutes, been recognized by
the President as appertaining to the United States. It contains guano
deposits, is owned by the Navassa Phosphate Company, and is occupied
solely by its employees. In September, 1889, a revolt took place among
these laborers, resulting in the killing of some of the agents of the
company, caused, as the laborers claimed, by cruel treatment. These men
were arrested and tried in the United States court at Baltimore, under
section 5576 of the statute referred to, as if the offenses had been
committed on board a merchant vessel of the United States on the high
seas. There appeared on the trial and otherwise came to me such
evidences of the bad treatment of the men that in consideration of this
and of the fact that the men had no access to any public officer or
tribunal for protection or the redress of their wrongs I commuted the
death sentences that had been passed by the court upon three of them.
In April last my attention was again called to this island and to the
unregulated condition of things there by a letter from a colored
laborer, who complained that he was wrongfully detained upon the island
by the phosphate company after the expiration of his contract of
service. A naval vessel was sent to examine into the case of this man
and generally into the condition of things on the island. It was found
that the laborer referred to had been detained beyond the contract limit
and that a condition of revolt again existed among the laborers. A board
of naval officers reported, among other things, as follows:
We would desire to state further that the discipline maintained on the
island seems to be that of a convict establishment without its comforts
and cleanliness, and that until more attention is paid to the shipping
of laborers by placing it under Government supervision to prevent
misunderstanding and misrepresentation, and until some amelioration is
shown in the treatment of the laborers, these disorders will be of
constant occurrence.
I recommend legislation that shall place labor contracts upon this and
other islands having the relation that Navassa has to the United States
under the supervision of a court commissioner, and that shall provide
at the expense of the owners an officer to reside upon the island, with
power to judge and adjust disputes and to enforce a just and humane
treatment of the employees. It is inexcusable that American laborers
should be left within our own jurisdiction without access to any
Government officer or tribunal for their protection and the redress of
their wrongs.
International copyright has been secured, in accordance with the
conditions of the act of March 3, 1891, with Belgium, France, Great
Britain and the British possessions, and Switzerland, the laws of those
countries permitting to our citizens the benefit of copyright on
substantially the same basis as to their own citizens or subjects.
With Germany a special convention has been negotiated upon this subject
which will bring that country within the reciprocal benefits of our
legislation.
The general interest in the operations of the Treasury Department has
been much augmented during the last year by reason of the conflicting
predictions, which accompanied and followed the tariff and other
legislation of the last Congress affecting the revenues, as to the
results of this legislation upon the Treasury and upon the country. On
the one hand it was contended that imports would so fall off as to leave
the Treasury bankrupt and that the prices of articles entering into the
living of the people would be so enhanced as to disastrously affect
their comfort and happiness, while on the other it was argued that the
loss to the revenue, largely the result of placing sugar on the free
list, would be a direct gain to the people; that the prices of the
necessaries of life, including those most highly protected, would not be
enhanced; that labor would have a larger market and the products of the
farm advanced prices, while the Treasury surplus and receipts would be
adequate to meet the appropriations, including the large exceptional
expenditures for the refunding to the States of the direct tax and the
redemption of the 4-1/2 per cent bonds.
It is not my purpose to enter at any length into a discussion of
the effects of the legislation to which I have referred; but a brief
examination of the statistics of the Treasury and a general glance at
the state of business throughout the country will, I think, satisfy
any impartial inquirer that its results have disappointed the evil
prophecies of its opponents and in a large measure realized the hopeful
predictions of its friends. Rarely, if ever before, in the history of
the country has there been a time when the proceeds of one day's labor
or the product of one farmed acre would purchase so large an amount of
those things that enter into the living of the masses of the people.
I believe that a full test will develop the fact that the tariff act of
the Fifty-first Congress is very favorable in its average effect upon
the prices of articles entering into common use.
During the twelve months from October 1, 1890, to September 30, 1891,
the total value of our foreign commerce (imports and exports combined)
was $1,747,806,406, which was the largest of any year in the history of
the United States. The largest in any previous year was in 1890, when
our commerce amounted to $1,647,139,093, and the last year exceeds this
enormous aggregate by over one hundred millions. It is interesting,
and to some will be surprising, to know that during the year ending
September 30, 1891, our imports of merchandise amounted to $824,715,270.
which was an increase of more than $11,000,000 over the value of the
imports of the corresponding months of the preceding year, when the
imports of merchandise were unusually large in anticipation of the
tariff legislation then pending. The average annual value of the imports
of merchandise for the ten years from 1881 to 1890 was $692,186,522, and
during the year ending September 30, 1891, this annual average was
exceeded by $132,528,469.
The value of free imports during the twelve months ending September 30,
1891, was $118,092,387 more than the value of free imports during the
corresponding twelve months of the preceding year, and there was during
the same period a decrease of $106,846,508 in the value of imports of
dutiable merchandise. The percentage of merchandise admitted free of
duty during the year to which I have referred, the first under the new
tariff, was 48.18, while during the preceding twelve months, under the
old tariff, the percentage was 34.27, an increase of 13.91 per cent.
If we take the six months ending September 30 last, which covers the
time during which sugars have been admitted free of duty, the per cent
of value of merchandise imported free of duty is found to be 55.37,
which is a larger percentage of free imports than during any prior
fiscal year in the history of the Government.
If we turn to exports of merchandise, the statistics are full of
gratification. The value of such exports of merchandise for the twelve
months ending September 30, 1891, was $923,091,136, while for the
corresponding previous twelve months it was $860,177,115, an increase
of $62,914,021, which is nearly three times the average annual increase
of exports of merchandise for the preceding twenty years. This exceeds
in amount and value the exports of merchandise during any year in the
history of the Government. The increase in the value of exports of
agricultural products during the year referred to over the corresponding
twelve months of the prior year was $45,846,197, while the increase in
the value of exports of manufactured products was $16,838,240.
There is certainly nothing in the condition of trade, foreign or
domestic, there is certainly nothing in the condition of our people of
any class, to suggest that the existing tariff and revenue legislation
bears oppressively upon the people or retards the commercial development
of the nation. It may be argued that our condition would be better if
tariff legislation were upon a free-trade basis; but it can not be
denied that all the conditions of prosperity and of general contentment
are present in a larger degree than ever before in our history, and
that, too, just when it was prophesied they would be in the worst state.
Agitation for radical changes in tariff and financial legislation can
not help but may seriously impede business, to the prosperity of which
some degree of stability in legislation is essential.
I think there are conclusive evidences that the new tariff has created
several great industries, which will within a few years give employment
to several hundred thousand American working men and women. In view of
the somewhat overcrowded condition of the labor market of the United
States, every patriotic citizen should rejoice at such a result.
The report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows that the total
receipts of the Government from all sources for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1891, were $458,544,233.03, while the expenditures for the same
period were $421,304,470.46, leaving a surplus of $37,239,762.57.
The receipts of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, actual and
estimated, are $433,000,000 and the expenditures $409,000,000. For the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, the estimated receipts are
$455,336,350 and the expenditures $441,300,093.
Under the law of July 14, 1890, the Secretary of the Treasury has
purchased (since August 13) during the fiscal year 48,393,113 ounces of
silver bullion at an average cost of $1.045 per ounce. The highest price
paid during the year was $1.2025 and the lowest $O.9636. In exchange for
this silver bullion there have been issued $50,577,498 of the Treasury
notes authorized by the act. The lowest price of silver reached during
the fiscal year was $O.9636 on April 22, 1891; but on November 1 the
market price was only $O.96, which would give to the silver dollar a
bullion value of 74-1/4 cents.
Before the influence of the prospective silver legislation was felt
in the market silver was worth in New York about $O.955 per ounce.
The ablest advocates of free coinage in the last Congress were most
confident in their predictions that the purchases by the Government
required by the law would at once bring the price of silver to $1.2929
per ounce, which would make the bullion value of a dollar 100 cents and
hold it there. The prophecies of the antisilver men of disasters to
result from the coinage of $2,000,000 per month were not wider of the
mark. The friends of free silver are not agreed, I think, as to the
causes that brought their hopeful predictions to naught. Some facts are
known. The exports of silver from London to India during the first nine
months of this calendar year fell off over 50 per cent, or $17,202,730,
compared with the same months of the preceding year. The exports of
domestic silver bullion from this country, which had averaged for the
last ten years over $17,000,000, fell in the last fiscal year to
$13,797,391, while for the first time in recent years the imports of
silver into this country exceeded the exports by the sum of $2,745,365.
In the previous year the net exports of silver from the United States
amounted to $8,545,455. The production of the United States increased
from 50,000,000 ounces in 1889 to 54,500,000 in 1890. The Government is
now buying and putting aside annually 54,000,000 ounces, which, allowing
for 7,140,000 ounces of new bullion used in the arts, is 6,640,000 more
than our domestic products available for coinage.
I hope the depression in the price of silver is temporary and that a
further trial of this legislation will more favorably affect it. That
the increased volume of currency thus supplied for the use of the people
was needed and that beneficial results upon trade and prices have
followed this legislation I think must be very clear to everyone. Nor
should it be forgotten that for every dollar of these notes issued a
full dollar's worth of silver bullion is at the time deposited in the
Treasury as a security for its redemption. Upon this subject, as upon
the tariff, my recommendation is that the existing laws be given a full
trial and that our business interests be spared the distressing
influence which threats of radical changes always impart. Under existing
legislation it is in the power of the Treasury Department to maintain
that essential condition of national finance as well as of commercial
prosperity--the parity in use of the coined dollars and their paper
representatives. The assurance that these powers would be freely and
unhesitatingly used has done much to produce and sustain the present
favorable business conditions.
I am still of the opinion that the free coinage of silver under existing
conditions would disastrously affect our business interests at home and
abroad. We could not hope to maintain an equality in the purchasing
power of the gold and silver dollar in our own markets, and in foreign
trade the stamp gives no added value to the bullion contained in coins.
The producers of the country, its farmers and laborers, have the highest
interest that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the Government
shall be as good as any other. If there is one less valuable than
another, its sure and constant errand will be to pay them for their
toil and for their crops. The money lender will protect himself by
stipulating for payment in gold, but the laborer has never been able to
do that. To place business upon a silver basis would mean a sudden and
severe contraction of the currency by the withdrawal of gold and gold
notes and such an unsettling of all values as would produce a commercial
panic. I can not believe that a people so strong and prosperous as ours
will promote such a policy.
The producers of silver are entitled to just consideration, but they
should not forget that the Government is now buying and putting out of
the market what is the equivalent of the entire product of our silver
mines. This is more than they themselves thought of asking two years
ago. I believe it is the earnest desire of a great majority of the
people, as it is mine, that a full coin use shall be made of silver
just as soon as the cooperation of other nations can be secured and a
ratio fixed that will give circulation equally to gold and silver. The
business of the world requires the use of both metals; but I do not see
any prospect of gain, but much of loss, by giving up the present system,
in which a full use is made of gold and a large use of silver, for one
in which silver alone will circulate. Such an event would be at once
fatal to the further progress of the silver movement. Bimetallism is
the desired end, and the true friends of silver will be careful not to
overrun the goal and bring in silver monometallism with its necessary
attendants--the loss of our gold to Europe and the relief of the
pressure there for a larger currency. I have endeavored by the use of
official and unofficial agencies to keep a close observation of the
state of public sentiment in Europe upon this question and have not
found it to be such as to justify me in proposing an international
conference. There is, however, I am sure, a growing sentiment in Europe
in favor of a larger use of silver, and I know of no more effectual way
of promoting this sentiment than by accumulating gold here. A scarcity
of gold in the European reserves will be the most persuasive argument
for the use of silver.
The exports of gold to Europe, which began in February last and
continued until the close of July, aggregated over $70,000,000. The net
loss of gold during the fiscal year was nearly $68,000,000. That no
serious monetary disturbance resulted was most gratifying and gave to
Europe fresh evidence of the strength and stability of our financial
institutions. With the movement of crops the outflow of gold was
speedily stopped and a return set in. Up to December 1 we had recovered
of our gold lost at the port of New York $27,854,000, and it is
confidently believed that during the winter and spring this aggregate
will be steadily and largely increased.
The presence of a large cash surplus in the Treasury has for many years
been the subject of much unfavorable criticism, and has furnished an
argument to those who have desired to place the tariff upon a purely
revenue basis. It was agreed by all that the withdrawal from circulation
of so large an amount of money was an embarrassment to the business of
the country and made necessary the intervention of the Department at
frequent intervals to relieve threatened monetary panics. The surplus on
March 1, 1889, was $183,827,190.29. The policy of applying this surplus
to the redemption of the interest-bearing securities of the United
States was thought to be preferable to that of depositing it without
interest in selected national banks. There have been redeemed since
the date last mentioned of interest-bearing securities $259,079,350,
resulting in a reduction of the annual interest charge of $11,684,675.
The money which had been deposited in banks without interest has been
gradually withdrawn and used in the redemption of bonds.
The result of this policy, of the silver legislation, and of the
refunding of the 4-1/2 per cent bonds has been a large increase of
the money in circulation. At the date last named the circulation was
$1,404,205,896, or $23.03 per capita, while on the 1st day of December,
1891, it had increased to $1,577,262,070, or $24.38 per capita. The
offer of the Secretary of the Treasury to the holders of the 4-1/2 per
cent bonds to extend the time of redemption, at the option of the
Government, at an interest of 2 per cent, was accepted by the holders of
about one-half the amount, and the unextended bonds are being redeemed
on presentation.
The report of the Secretary of War exhibits the results of an
intelligent, progressive, and businesslike administration of a
Department which has been too much regarded as one of mere routine. The
separation of Secretary Proctor from the Department by reason of his
appointment as a Senator from the State of Vermont is a source of great
regret to me and to his colleagues in the Cabinet, as I am sure it will
be to all those who have had business with the Department while under
his charge.
In the administration of army affairs some especially good work has
been accomplished. The efforts of the Secretary to reduce the percentage
of desertions by removing the causes that promoted it have been so
successful as to enable him to report for the last year a lower
percentage of desertion than has been before reached in the history
of the Army. The resulting money saving is considerable, but the
improvement in the morale of the enlisted men is the most valuable
incident of the reforms which have brought about this result.
The work of securing sites for shore batteries for harbor defense and
the manufacture of mortars and guns of high power to equip them have
made good progress during the year. The preliminary work of tests and
plans which so long delayed a start is now out of the way. Some guns
have been completed, and with an enlarged shop and a more complete
equipment at Watervliet the Army will soon be abreast of the Navy in gun
construction. Whatever unavoidable causes of delay may arise, there
should be none from delayed or insufficient appropriations. We shall be
greatly embarrassed in the proper distribution and use of naval vessels
until adequate shore defenses are provided for our harbors.
I concur in the recommendation of the Secretary that the three-battalion
organization be adopted for the infantry. The adoption of a smokeless
powder and of a modern rifle equal in range, precision, and rapidity of
fire to the best now in use will, I hope, not be longer delayed.
The project of enlisting Indians and organizing them into separate
companies upon the same basis as other soldiers was made the subject
of very careful study by the Secretary and received my approval. Seven
companies have been completely organized and seven more are in process
of organization. The results of six months' training have more than
realized the highest anticipations. The men are readily brought under
discipline, acquire the drill with facility, and show great pride in the
right discharge of their duty and perfect loyalty to their officers,
who declare that they would take them into action with confidence. The
discipline, order, and cleanliness of the military posts will have a
wholesome and elevating influence upon the men enlisted, and through
them upon their tribes, while a friendly feeling for the whites and
a greater respect for the Government will certainly be promoted.
The great work done in the Record and Pension Division of the War
Department by Major Ainsworth, of the Medical Corps, and the clerks
under him is entitled to honorable mention. Taking up the work with
nearly 41,000 cases behind, he closed the last fiscal year without a
single case left over, though the new cases had increased 52 per cent
in number over the previous year by reason of the pension legislation
of the last Congress.
I concur in the recommendation of the Attorney-General that the right in
felony cases to a review by the Supreme Court be limited. It would seem
that personal liberty would have a safe guaranty if the right of review
in cases involving only fine and imprisonment were limited to the
circuit court of appeals, unless a constitutional question should in
some way be involved.
The judges of the Court of Private Land Claims, provided for by the act
of March 3, 1891, have been appointed and the court organized. It is now
possible to give early relief to communities long repressed in their
development by unsettled land titles and to establish the possession and
right of settlers whose lands have been rendered valueless by adverse
and unfounded claims.
The act of July 9, 1888, provided for the incorporation and management
of a reform school for girls in the District of Columbia; but it has
remained inoperative for the reason that no appropriation has been made
for construction or maintenance. The need of such an institution is very
urgent. Many girls could be saved from depraved lives by the wholesome
influences and restraints of such a school. I recommend that the
necessary appropriation be made for a site and for construction.
The enforcement by the Treasury Department of the law prohibiting the
coming of Chinese to the United States has been effective as to such as
seek to land from vessels entering our ports. The result has been to
divert the travel to vessels entering the ports of British Columbia,
whence passage into the United States at obscure points along the
Dominion boundary is easy. A very considerable number of Chinese
laborers have during the past year entered the United States from
Canada and Mexico.
The officers of the Treasury Department and of the Department of Justice
have used every means at their command to intercept this immigration;
but the impossibility of perfectly guarding our extended frontier is
apparent. The Dominion government collects a head tax of $50 from every
Chinaman entering Canada, and thus derives a considerable revenue from
those who only use its ports to reach a position of advantage to evade
our exclusion laws. There seems to be satisfactory evidence that the
business of passing Chinamen through Canada to the United States is
organized and quite active. The Department of Justice has construed the
laws to require the return of any Chinaman found to be unlawfully in
this country to China as the country from which he came, notwithstanding
the fact that he came by way of Canada; but several of the district
courts have in cases brought before them overruled this view of the
law and decided that such persons must be returned to Canada. This
construction robs the law of all effectiveness, even if the decrees
could be executed, for the men returned can the next day recross our
border. But the only appropriation made is for sending them back to
China, and the Canadian officials refuse to allow them to reenter
Canada without the payment of the fifty-dollar head tax. I recommend
such legislation as will remedy these defects in the law.
In previous messages I have called the attention of Congress to the
necessity of so extending the jurisdiction of the United States courts
as to make triable therein any felony committed while in the act of
violating a law of the United States. These courts can not have that
independence and effectiveness which the Constitution contemplates so
long as the felonious killing of court officers, jurors, and witnesses
in the discharge of their duties or by reason of their acts as
such is only cognizable in the State courts. The work done by the
Attorney-General and the officers of his Department, even under the
present inadequate legislation, has produced some notable results in
the interest of law and order.
The Attorney-General and also the Commissioners of the District of
Columbia call attention to the defectiveness and inadequacy of the
laws relating to crimes against chastity in the District of Columbia.
A stringent code upon this subject has been provided by Congress for
Utah, and it is a matter of surprise that the needs of this District
should have been so long overlooked.
In the report of the Postmaster-General some very gratifying results are
exhibited and many betterments of the service suggested. A perusal of
the report gives abundant evidence that the supervision and direction
of the postal system have been characterized by an intelligent and
conscientious desire to improve the service. The revenues of the
Department show an increase of over $5,000,000, with a deficiency for
the year 1892 of less than $4,000,000, while the estimate for the year
1893 shows a surplus of receipts over expenditures.
Ocean mail post offices have been established upon the steamers of the
North German Lloyd and Hamburg lines, saving by the distribution on
shipboard from two to fourteen hours' time in the delivery of mail at
the port of entry and often much more than this in the delivery at
interior places. So thoroughly has this system, initiated by Germany and
the United States, evidenced its usefulness that it can not be long
before it is installed upon all the great ocean mail-carrying
steamships.
Eight thousand miles of new postal service has been established upon
railroads, the car distribution to substations in the great cities has
been increased about 12 per cent, while the percentage of errors in
distribution has during the past year been reduced over one-half. An
appropriation was given by the last Congress for the purpose of making
some experiments in free delivery in the smaller cities and towns.
The results of these experiments have been so satisfactory that the
Postmaster-General recommends, and I concur in the recommendation,
that the free-delivery system be at once extended to towns of 5,000
population. His discussion of the inadequate facilities extended under
our present system to rural communities and his suggestions with a view
to give these communities a fuller participation in the benefits of the
postal service are worthy of your careful consideration. It is not just
that the farmer, who receives his mail at a neighboring town, should
not only be compelled to send to the post-office for it, but to pay a
considerable rent for a box in which to place it or to wait his turn at
a general-delivery window, while the city resident has his mail brought
to his door. It is stated that over 54,000 neighborhoods are under the
present system receiving mail at post-offices where money orders and
postal notes are not issued. The extension of this system to these
communities is especially desirable, as the patrons of such offices
are not possessed of the other facilities offered in more populous
communities for the transmission of small sums of money.
I have in a message to the preceding Congress expressed my views
as to a modified use of the telegraph in connection with the postal
service.[23] In pursuance of the ocean mail law of March 3, 1891, and
after a most careful study of the whole subject and frequent conferences
with shipowners, boards of trade, and others, advertisements were issued
by the Postmaster-General for 53 lines of ocean mail service--10 to
Great Britain and the Continent, 27 to South America, 3 to China and
Japan, 4 to Australia and the Pacific islands, 7 to the West Indies,
and 2 to Mexico. It was not, of course, expected that bids for all
these lines would be received or that service upon them all would be
contracted for. It was intended, in furtherance of the act, to secure as
many new lines as possible, while including in the list most or all of
the foreign lines now occupied by American ships. It was hoped that a
line to England and perhaps one to the Continent would be secured; but
the outlay required to equip such lines wholly with new ships of the
first class and the difficulty of establishing new lines in competition
with those already established deterred bidders whose interest had been
enlisted. It is hoped that a way may yet be found of overcoming these
difficulties.
The Brazil Steamship Company, by reason of a miscalculation as to
the speed of its vessels, was not able to bid under the terms of the
advertisement. The policy of the Department was to secure from the
established lines an improved service as a condition of giving to them
the benefits of the law. This in all instances has been attained. The
Postmaster-General estimates that an expenditure in American shipyards
of about $10,000,000 will be necessary to enable the bidders to
construct the ships called for by the service which they have accepted.
I do not think there is any reason for discouragement or for any turning
back from the policy of this legislation. Indeed, a good beginning has
been made, and as the subject is further considered and understood by
capitalists and shipping people new lines will be ready to meet future
proposals, and we may date from the passage of this law the revival of
American shipping interests and the recovery of a fair share of the
carrying trade of the world. We were receiving for foreign postage
nearly $2,000,000 under the old system, and the outlay for ocean mail
service did not exceed $600,000 per annum. It is estimated by the
Postmaster-General that if all the contracts proposed are completed it
will require $247,354 for this year in addition to the appropriation for
sea and inland postage already in the estimates, and that for the next
fiscal year, ending June 30, 1893, there would probably be needed about
$560,000.
The report of the Secretary of the Navy shows a gratifying increase of
new naval vessels in commission. The _Newark, Concord, Bennington_, and
_Miantonomoh_ have been added during the year, with an aggregate of
something more than 11,000 tons. Twenty-four warships of all classes are
now under construction in the navy-yards and private shops; but while
the work upon them is going forward satisfactorily, the completion of
the more important vessels will yet require about a year's time. Some
of the vessels now under construction, it is believed, will be triumphs
of naval engineering. When it is recollected that the work of building
a modern navy was only initiated in the year 1883, that our naval
constructors and shipbuilders were practically without experience in the
construction of large iron or steel ships, that our engine shops were
unfamiliar with great marine engines, and that the manufacture of steel
forgings for guns and plates was almost wholly a foreign industry,
the progress that has been made is not only highly satisfactory, but
furnishes the assurance that the United States will before long attain
in the construction of such vessels, with their engines and armaments,
the same preeminence which it attained when the best instrument of ocean
commerce was the clipper ship and the most impressive exhibit of naval
power the old wooden three-decker man-of-war. The officers of the Navy
and the proprietors and engineers of our great private shops have
responded with wonderful intelligence and professional zeal to the
confidence expressed by Congress in its liberal legislation. We have now
at Washington a gun shop, organized and conducted by naval officers,
that in its system, economy, and product is unexcelled. Experiments with
armor plate have been conducted during the year with most important
results. It is now believed that a plate of higher resisting power than
any in use has been found and that the tests have demonstrated that
cheaper methods of manufacture than those heretofore thought necessary
can be used.
I commend to your favorable consideration the recommendations of the
Secretary, who has, I am sure, given to them the most conscientious
study. There should be no hesitation in promptly completing a navy of
the best modern type large enough to enable this country to display its
flag in all seas for the protection of its citizens and of its extending
commerce. The world needs no assurance of the peaceful purposes of the
United States, but we shall probably be in the future more largely a
competitor in the commerce of the world, and it is essential to the
dignity of this nation and to that peaceful influence which it should
exercise on this hemisphere that its Navy should be adequate both upon
the shores of the Atlantic and of the Pacific.
The report of the Secretary of the Interior shows that a very gratifying
progress has been made in all of the bureaus which make up that complex
and difficult Department.
The work in the Bureau of Indian Affairs was perhaps never so large as
now, by reason of the numerous negotiations which have been proceeding
with the tribes for a reduction of the reservations, with the incident
labor of making allotments, and was never more carefully conducted.
The provision of adequate school facilities for Indian children and the
locating of adult Indians upon farms involve the solution of the "Indian
question." Everything else--rations, annuities, and tribal negotiations,
with the agents, inspectors, and commissioners who distribute and
conduct them--must pass away when the Indian has become a citizen,
secure in the individual ownership of a farm from which he derives his
subsistence by his own labor, protected by and subordinate to the laws
which govern the white man, and provided by the General Government or
by the local communities in which he lives with the means of educating
his children. When an Indian becomes a citizen in an organized State
or Territory, his relation to the General Government ceases in great
measure to be that of a ward; but the General Government ought not at
once to put upon the State or Territory the burden of the education of
his children.
It has been my thought that the Government schools and school buildings
upon the reservations would be absorbed by the school systems of the
States and Territories; but as it has been found necessary to protect
the Indian against the compulsory alienation of his land by exempting
him from taxation for a period of twenty-five years, it would seem to
be right that the General Government, certainly where there are tribal
funds in its possession, should pay to the school fund of the State what
would be equivalent to the local school tax upon the property of the
Indian. It will be noticed from the report of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs that already some contracts have been made with district schools
for the education of Indian children. There is great advantage, I think,
in bringing the Indian children into mixed schools. This process will
be gradual, and in the meantime the present educational provisions and
arrangements, the result of the best experience of those who have been
charged with this work, should be continued. This will enable those
religious bodies that have undertaken the work of Indian education with
so much zeal and with results so restraining and beneficent to place
their institutions in new and useful relations to the Indian and to his
white neighbors.
The outbreak among the Sioux which occurred in December last is as to
its causes and incidents fully reported upon by the War Department
and the Department of the Interior. That these Indians had some
just complaints, especially in the matter of the reduction of the
appropriation for rations and in the delays attending the enactment of
laws to enable the Department to perform the engagements entered into
with them, is probably true; but the Sioux tribes are naturally warlike
and turbulent, and their warriors were excited by their medicine men
and chiefs, who preached the coming of an Indian messiah who was to
give them power to destroy their enemies. In view of the alarm that
prevailed among the white settlers near the reservation and of the fatal
consequences that would have resulted from an Indian incursion, I placed
at the disposal of General Miles, commanding the Division of the
Missouri, all such forces as were thought by him to be required. He
is entitled to the credit of having given thorough protection to the
settlers and of bringing the hostiles into subjection with the least
possible loss of life.
The appropriation of $2,991,450 for the Choctaws and Chickasaws
contained in the general Indian appropriation bill of March 3, 1891, has
not been expended, for the reason that I have not yet approved a release
(to the Government) of the Indian claim to the lands mentioned. This
matter will be made the subject of a special message, placing before
Congress all the facts which have come to my knowledge.
The relation of the Five Civilized Tribes now occupying the Indian
Territory to the United States is not, I believe, that best calculated
to promote the highest advancement of these Indians. That there should
be within our borders five independent states having no relations,
except those growing out of treaties, with the Government of the United
States, no representation in the National Legislature, its people not
citizens, is a startling anomaly.
It seems to me to be inevitable that there shall be before long some
organic changes in the relation of these people to the United States.
What form these changes should take I do not think it desirable now to
suggest, even if they were well defined in my own mind. They should
certainly involve the acceptance of citizenship by the Indians and a
representation in Congress. These Indians should have opportunity to
present their claims and grievances upon the floor rather than, as now,
in the lobby. If a commission could be appointed to visit these tribes
to confer with them in a friendly spirit upon this whole subject, even
if no agreement were presently reached the feeling of the tribes upon
this question would be developed, and discussion would prepare the way
for changes which must come sooner or later.
The good work of reducing the larger Indian reservations by allotments
in severalty to the Indians and the cession of the remaining lands to
the United States for disposition under the homestead law has been
prosecuted during the year with energy and success. In September last I
was enabled to open to settlement in the Territory of Oklahoma 900,000
acres of land, all of which was taken up by settlers in a single day.
The rush for these lands was accompanied by a great deal of excitement,
but was happily free from incidents of violence.
It was a source of great regret that I was not able to open at the
same time the surplus lands of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation,
amounting to about 3,000,000 acres, by reason of the insufficiency of
the appropriation for making the allotments. Deserving and impatient
settlers are waiting to occupy these lands, and I urgently recommend
that a special deficiency appropriation be promptly made of the small
amount needed, so that the allotments may be completed and the surplus
lands opened in time to permit the settlers to get upon their homesteads
in the early spring.
During the past summer the Cherokee Commission have completed
arrangements with the Wichita, Kickapoo, and Tonkawa tribes whereby, if
the agreements are ratified by Congress, over 800,000 additional acres
will be opened to settlement in Oklahoma.
The negotiations for the release by the Cherokees of their claim to
the Cherokee Strip have made no substantial progress so far as the
Department is officially advised, but it is still hoped that the cession
of this large and valuable tract may be secured. The price which the
commission was authorized to offer--$1.25 per acre--is, in my judgment,
when all the circumstances as to title and the character of the lands
are considered, a fair and adequate one, and should have been accepted
by the Indians.
Since March 4, 1889, about 23,000,000 acres have been separated from
Indian reservations and added to the public domain for the use of those
who desired to secure free homes under our beneficent laws. It is
difficult to estimate the increase of wealth which will result from the
conversion of these waste lands into farms, but it is more difficult
to estimate the betterment which will result to the families that have
found renewed hope and courage in the ownership of a home and the
assurance of a comfortable subsistence under free and healthful
conditions. It is also gratifying to be able to feel, as we may, that
this work has proceeded upon lines of justice toward the Indian, and
that he may now, if he will, secure to himself the good influences of
a settled habitation, the fruits of industry, and the security of
citizenship.
Early in this Administration a special effort was begun to bring up the
work of the General Land Office. By faithful work the arrearages have
been rapidly reduced. At the end of the last fiscal year only 84,172
final agricultural entries remained undisposed of, and the Commissioner
reports that with the present force the work can be fully brought up by
the end of the next fiscal year.
Your attention is called to the difficulty presented by the Secretary
of the Interior as to the administration of the law of March 3, 1891,
establishing a Court of Private Land Claims. The small holdings intended
to be protected by the law are estimated to be more than 15,000 in
number. The claimants are a most deserving class and their titles are
supported by the strongest equities. The difficulty grows out of the
fact that the lands have largely been surveyed according to our methods,
while the holdings, many of which have been in the same family for
generations, are laid out in narrow strips a few rods wide upon a stream
and running back to the hills for pasturage and timber. Provision should
be made for numbering these tracts as lots and for patenting them by
such numbers and without reference to section lines.
The administration of the Pension Bureau has been characterized during
the year by great diligence. The total number of pensioners upon the
roll on the 30th day of June, 1891, was 676,160. There were allowed
during the fiscal year ending at that time 250,565 cases. Of this number
102,387 were allowed under the law of June 27, 1890. The issuing of
certificates has been proceeding at the rate of about 30,000 per month,
about 75 per cent of these being cases under the new law. The
Commissioner expresses the opinion that he will be able to carefully
adjudicate and allow 350,000 claims during the present fiscal year. The
appropriation for the payment of pensions for the fiscal year 1890-91
was $127,685,793.89 and the amount expended $118,530,649.25, leaving an
unexpended surplus of $9,155,144.64.
The Commissioner is quite confident that there will be no call this year
for a deficiency appropriation, notwithstanding the rapidity with which
the work is being pushed. The mistake which has been made by many in
their exaggerated estimates of the cost of pensions is in not taking
account of the diminished value of first payments under the recent
legislation. These payments under the general law have been for many
years very large, as the pensions when allowed dated from the time of
filing the claim, and most of these claims had been pending for years.
The first payments under the law of June, 1890, are relatively small,
and as the per cent of these cases increases and that of the old cases
diminishes the annual aggregate of first payments is largely reduced.
The Commissioner, under date of November 13, furnishes me with the
statement that during the last four months 113,175 certificates were
issued, 27,893 under the general law and 85,282 under the act of June
27, 1890. The average first payment during these four months was
$131.85, while the average first payment upon cases allowed during the
year ending June 30, 1891, was $239.33, being a reduction in the average
first payments during these four months of $107.48.
The estimate for pension expenditures for the fiscal year ending June
30, 1893, is $144,956,000, which, after a careful examination of the
subject, the Commissioner is of the opinion will be sufficient. While
these disbursements to the disabled soldiers of the great Civil War are
large, they do not realize the exaggerated estimates of those who oppose
this beneficent legislation. The Secretary of the Interior shows with
great fullness the care that is taken to exclude fraudulent claims, and
also the gratifying fact that the persons to whom these pensions are
going are men who rendered not slight but substantial war service.
The report of the Commissioner of Railroads shows that the total debt of
the subsidized railroads to the United States was on December 31, 1890,
$112,512,613.06. A large part of this debt is now fast approaching
maturity, with no adequate provision for its payment. Some policy for
dealing with this debt with a view to its ultimate collection should be
at once adopted. It is very difficult, well-nigh impossible, for so
large a body as the Congress to conduct the necessary negotiations and
investigations. I therefore recommend that provision be made for the
appointment of a commission to agree upon and report a plan for dealing
with this debt.
The work of the Census Bureau is now far in advance and the great bulk
of the enormous labor involved completed. It will be more strictly a
statistical exhibit and less encumbered by essays than its immediate
predecessors. The methods pursued have been fair, careful, and
intelligent, and have secured the approval of the statisticians who
have followed them with a scientific and nonpartisan interest. The
appropriations necessary to the early completion and publication of the
authorized volumes should be given in time to secure against delays,
which increase the cost and at the same time diminish the value of
the work.
The report of the Secretary exhibits with interesting fullness the
condition of the Territories. They have shared with the States the great
increase in farm products, and are bringing yearly large areas into
cultivation by extending their irrigating canals. This work is being
done by individuals or local corporations and without that system which
a full preliminary survey of the water supply and of the irrigable lands
would enable them to adopt. The future of the Territories of New Mexico,
Arizona, and Utah in their material growth and in the increase,
independence, and happiness of their people is very largely dependent
upon wise and timely legislation, either by Congress or their own
legislatures, regulating the distribution of the water supply furnished
by their streams. If this matter is much longer neglected, private
corporations will have unrestricted control of one of the elements of
life and the patentees of the arid lands will be tenants at will of the
water companies.
The United States should part with its ownership of the water sources
and the sites for reservoirs, whether to the States and Territories or
to individuals or corporations, only upon conditions that will insure to
the settlers their proper water supply upon equal and reasonable terms.
In the Territories this whole subject is under the full control of
Congress, and in the States it is practically so as long as the
Government holds the title to the reservoir sites and water sources
and can grant them upon such conditions as it chooses to impose. The
improvident granting of franchises of enormous value without recompense
to the State or municipality from which they proceed and without proper
protection of the public interests is the most noticeable and flagrant
evil of modern legislation. This fault should not be committed in
dealing with a subject that will before many years affect so vitally
thousands of our people.
The legislation of Congress for the repression of polygamy has, after
years of resistance on the part of the Mormons, at last brought them to
the conclusion that resistance is unprofitable and unavailing. The power
of Congress over this subject should not be surrendered until we have
satisfactory evidence that the people of the State to be created would
exercise the exclusive power of the State over this subject in the same
way. The question is not whether these people now obey the laws of
Congress against polygamy, but rather would they make, enforce, and
maintain such laws themselves if absolutely free to regulate the
subject? We can not afford to experiment with this subject, for
when a State is once constituted the act is final and any mistake
irretrievable. No compact in the enabling act could, in my opinion,
be binding or effective.
I recommend that provision be made for the organization of a simple form
of town government in Alaska, with power to regulate such matters as
are usually in the States under municipal control. These local civil
organizations will give better protection in some matters than the
present skeleton Territorial organization. Proper restrictions as to
the power to levy taxes and to create debt should be imposed.
If the establishment of the Department of Agriculture was regarded by
anyone as a mere concession to the unenlightened demand of a worthy
class of people, that impression has been most effectually removed by
the great results already attained. Its home influence has been very
great in disseminating agricultural and horticultural information,
in stimulating and directing a further diversification of crops, in
detecting and eradicating diseases of domestic animals, and, more than
all, in the close and informal contact which it has established and
maintains with the farmers and stock raisers of the whole country. Every
request for information has had prompt attention and every suggestion
merited consideration. The scientific corps of the Department is of a
high order and is pushing its investigations with method and enthusiasm.
The inspection by this Department of cattle and pork products intended
for shipment abroad has been the basis of the success which has attended
our efforts to secure the removal of the restrictions maintained by the
European Governments.
For ten years protests and petitions upon this subject from the packers
and stock raisers of the United States have been directed against these
restrictions, which so seriously limited our markets and curtailed the
profits of the farm. It is a source of general congratulation that
success has at last been attained, for the effects of an enlarged
foreign market for these meats will be felt not only by the farmer, but
in our public finances and in every branch of trade. It is particularly
fortunate that the increased demand for food products resulting from the
removal of the restrictions upon our meats and from the reciprocal trade
arrangements to which I have referred should have come at a time when
the agricultural surplus is so large. Without the help thus derived
lower prices would have prevailed. The Secretary of Agriculture
estimates that the restrictions upon the importation of our pork
products into Europe lost us a market for $20,000,000 worth of these
products annually.
The grain crop of this year was the largest in our history--50 per cent
greater than that of last year--and yet the new markets that have been
opened and the larger demand resulting from short crops in Europe have
sustained prices to such an extent that the enormous surplus of meats
and breadstuffs will be marketed at good prices, bringing relief and
prosperity to an industry that was much depressed. The value of the
grain crop of the United States is estimated by the Secretary to be
this year $500,000,000 more than last; of meats $150,000,000 more, and
of all products of the farm $700,000,000 more. It is not inappropriate,
I think, here to suggest that our satisfaction in the contemplation of
this marvelous addition to the national wealth is unclouded by any
suspicion of the currency by which it is measured and in which the
farmer is paid for the products of his fields.
The report of the Civil Service Commission should receive the careful
attention of the opponents as well as the friends of this reform. The
Commission invites a personal inspection by Senators and Representatives
of its records and methods, and every fair critic will feel that such
an examination should precede a judgment of condemnation either of the
system or its administration. It is not claimed that either is perfect,
but I believe that the law is being executed with impartiality and that
the system is incomparably better and fairer than that of appointments
upon favor. I have during the year extended the classified service to
include superintendents, teachers, matrons, and physicians in the Indian
service. This branch of the service is largely related to educational
and philanthropic work and will obviously be the better for the change.
The heads of the several Executive Departments have been directed to
establish at once an efficiency record as the basis of a comparative
rating of the clerks within the classified service, with a view to
placing promotions therein upon the basis of merit. I am confident
that such a record, fairly kept and open to the inspection of those
interested, will powerfully stimulate the work of the Departments and
will be accepted by all as placing the troublesome matter of promotions
upon a just basis.
I recommend that the appropriation for the Civil Service Commission be
made adequate to the increased work of the next fiscal year.
I have twice before urgently called the attention of Congress to the
necessity of legislation for the protection of the lives of railroad
employees, but nothing has yet been done. During the year ending June
30, 1890, 369 brakemen were killed and 7,841 maimed while engaged in
coupling cars. The total number of railroad employees killed during
the year was 2,451 and the number injured 22,390. This is a cruel and
largely needless sacrifice. The Government is spending nearly $1,000,000
annually to save the lives of shipwrecked seamen; every steam vessel
is rigidly inspected and required to adopt the most approved safety
appliances. All this is good. But how shall we excuse the lack of
interest and effort in behalf of this army of brave young men who in our
land commerce are being sacrificed every year by the continued use of
antiquated and dangerous appliances? A law requiring of every railroad
engaged in interstate commerce the equipment each year of a given per
cent of its freight cars with automatic couplers and air brakes would
compel an agreement between the roads as to the kind of brakes and
couplers to be used, and would very soon and very greatly reduce the
present fearful death rate among railroad employees.
The method of appointment by the States of electors of President and
Vice-President has recently attracted renewed interest by reason of a
departure by the State of Michigan from the method which had become
uniform in all the States. Prior to 1832 various methods had been
used by the different States, and even by the same State. In some the
choice was made by the legislature; in others electors were chosen by
districts, but more generally by the voters of the whole State upon a
general ticket. The movement toward the adoption of the last-named
method had an early beginning and went steadily forward among the States
until in 1832 there remained but a single State (South Carolina) that
had not adopted it. That State until the Civil War continued to choose
its electors by a vote of the legislature, but after the war changed its
method and conformed to the practice of the other States. For nearly
sixty years all the States save one have appointed their electors by
a popular vote upon a general ticket, and for nearly thirty years this
method was universal.
After a full test of other methods, without important division or
dissent in any State and without any purpose of party advantage, as
we must believe, but solely upon the considerations that uniformity
was desirable and that a general election in territorial divisions not
subject to change was most consistent with the popular character of our
institutions, best preserved the equality of the voters, and perfectly
removed the choice of President from the baneful influence of the
"gerrymander," the practice of all the States was brought into harmony.
That this concurrence should now be broken is, I think, an unfortunate
and even a threatening episode, and one that may well suggest whether
the States that still give their approval to the old and prevailing
method ought not to secure by a constitutional amendment a practice
which has had the approval of all. The recent Michigan legislation
provides for choosing what are popularly known as the Congressional
electors for President by Congressional districts and the two Senatorial
electors by districts created for that purpose. This legislation was, of
course, accompanied by a new Congressional apportionment, and the two
statutes bring the electoral vote of the State under the influence of
the "gerrymander."
These gerrymanders for Congressional purposes are in most cases
buttressed by a gerrymander of the legislative districts, thus making it
impossible for a majority of the legal voters of the State to correct
the apportionment and equalize the Congressional districts. A minority
rule is established that only a political convulsion can overthrow. I
have recently been advised that in one county of a certain State three
districts for the election of members of the legislature are constituted
as follows: One has 65,000 population, one 15,000, and one 10,000, while
in another county detached, noncontiguous sections have been united to
make a legislative district. These methods have already found effective
application to the choice of Senators and Representatives in Congress,
and now an evil start has been made in the direction of applying them to
the choice by the States of electors of President and Vice-President. If
this is accomplished, we shall then have the three great departments of
the Government in the grasp of the "gerrymander," the legislative and
executive directly and the judiciary indirectly through the power of
appointment.
An election implies a body of electors having prescribed qualifications,
each one of whom has an equal value and influence in determining the
result. So when the Constitution provides that "each State shall
appoint" (elect), "in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct,
a number of electors," etc., an unrestricted power was not given to the
legislatures in the selection of the methods to be used. "A republican
form of government" is guaranteed by the Constitution to each State, and
the power given by the same instrument to the legislatures of the States
to prescribe methods for the choice by the State of electors must be
exercised under that limitation. The essential features of such a
government are the right of the people to choose their own officers and
the nearest practicable equality of value in the suffrages given in
determining that choice.