Moreover, they take a keen pride in what they are doing; so that,
independent of the reward, they wish to turn out a perfect job. This
is the great secret of our success in competition with the labor of
foreign countries.
The most vital problem with which this country, and for that matter
the whole civilized world, has to deal, is the problem which has for
one side the betterment of social conditions, moral and physical, in
large cities, and for another side the effort to deal with that tangle
of far-reaching questions which we group together when we speak of
“labor.” The chief factor in the success of each man—wage-worker,
farmer, and capitalist alike—must ever be the sum total of his own
individual qualities and abilities. Second only to this comes the
power of acting in combination or association with others. Very great
good has been and will be accomplished by associations or unions of
wage-workers, when managed with forethought, and when they combine
insistence upon their own rights with law-abiding respect for the
rights of others. The display of these qualities in such bodies is
a duty to the nation no less than to the associations themselves.
Finally, there must also in many cases be action by the government
in order to safeguard the rights and interests of all. Under our
Constitution there is much more scope for such action by the State
and the municipality than by the nation. But on points such as those
touched on above the National Government can act.
When all is said and done, the rule of brotherhood remains as the
indispensable prerequisite to success in the kind of national life
for which we strive. Each man must work for himself, and unless he so
works no outside help can avail him; but each man must remember also
that he is indeed his brother’s keeper, and that while no man who
refuses to walk can be carried with advantage to himself or any one
else, yet that each at times stumbles or halts, that each at times
needs to have the helping hand outstretched to him. To be permanently
effective, aid must always take the form of helping a man to help
himself; and we can all best help ourselves by joining together in the
work that is of common interest to all.
Our present immigration laws are unsatisfactory. We need every
honest and efficient immigrant fitted to become an American citizen,
every immigrant who comes here to stay, who brings here a strong
body, a stout heart, a good head, and a resolute purpose to do his
duty well in every way and to bring up his children as law-abiding
and God-fearing members of the community. But there should be a
comprehensive law enacted with the object of working a threefold
improvement over our present system. First, we should aim to exclude
absolutely not only all persons who are known to be believers in
anarchistic principles or members of anarchistic societies, but also
all persons who are of a low moral tendency or of unsavory reputation.
This means that we should require a more thorough system of inspection
abroad and a more rigid system of examination at our immigration
ports, the former being especially necessary.
The second object of a proper immigration law ought to be to secure
by a careful and not merely perfunctory educational test some
intelligent capacity to appreciate American institutions and act
sanely as American citizens. This would not keep out all anarchists,
for many of them belong to the intelligent criminal class. But it
would do what is also in point, that is, tend to decrease the sum
of ignorance, so potent in producing the envy, suspicion, malignant
passion, and hatred of order, out of which anarchistic sentiment
inevitably springs. Finally, all persons should be excluded who are
below a certain standard of economic fitness to enter our industrial
field as competitors with American labor. There should be proper
proof of personal capacity to earn an American living and enough
money to ensure a decent start under American conditions. This would
stop the influx of cheap labor, and the resulting competition which
gives rise to so much of bitterness in American industrial life; and
it would dry up the springs of the pestilential social conditions in
our great cities, where anarchistic organizations have their greatest
possibility of growth.
Both the educational and economic tests in a wise immigration law
should be designed to protect and elevate the general body politic
and social. A very close supervision should be exercised over the
steamship companies which mainly bring over the immigrants, and they
should be held to a strict accountability for any infraction of the
law.
* * * * *
There is general acquiescence in our present tariff system as a
national policy. The first requisite to our prosperity is the
continuity and stability of this economic policy. Nothing could be
more unwise than to disturb the business interests of the country
by any general tariff change at this time. Doubt, apprehension,
uncertainty are exactly what we most wish to avoid in the interest of
our commercial and material well-being. Our experience in the past
has shown that sweeping revisions of the tariff are apt to produce
conditions closely approaching panic in the business world. Yet it
is not only possible, but eminently desirable, to combine with the
stability of our economic system a supplementary system of reciprocal
benefit and obligation with other nations. Such reciprocity is an
incident and result of the firm establishment and preservation of our
present economic policy. It was specially provided for in the present
tariff law.
Reciprocity must be treated as the handmaiden of protection. Our first
duty is to see that the protection granted by the tariff in every case
where it is needed is maintained, and that reciprocity be sought for
so far as it can safely be done without injury to our home industries.
Just how far this is must be determined according to the individual
case, remembering always that every application of our tariff policy
to meet our shifting national needs must be conditioned upon the
cardinal fact that the duties must never be reduced below the point
that will cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad.
The well-being of the wage-worker is a prime consideration of our
entire policy of economic legislation.
Subject to this proviso of the proper protection necessary to our
industrial well-being at home, the principle of reciprocity must
command our hearty support. The phenomenal growth of our export trade
emphasizes the urgency of the need for wider markets and for a liberal
policy in dealing with foreign nations. Whatever is merely petty and
vexatious in the way of trade restrictions should be avoided. The
customers to whom we dispose of our surplus products in the long run,
directly or indirectly, purchase those surplus products by giving us
something in return. Their ability to purchase our products should as
far as possible be secured by so arranging our tariff as to enable
us to take from them those products which we can use without harm to
our own industries and labor, or the use of which will be of marked
benefit to us.
It is most important that we should maintain the high level of our
present prosperity. We have now reached the point in the development
of our interests where we are not only able to supply our own markets
but to produce a constantly growing surplus for which we must find
markets abroad. To secure these markets we can utilize existing
duties in any case where they are no longer needed for the purpose of
protection, or in any case where the article is not produced here and
the duty is no longer necessary for revenue, as giving us something to
offer in exchange for what we ask. The cordial relations with other
nations which are so desirable will naturally be promoted by the
course thus required by our own interests.
The natural line of development for a policy of reciprocity will be
in connection with those of our productions which no longer require
all of the support once needed to establish them upon a sound basis,
and with those others where either because of natural or of economic
causes we are beyond the reach of successful competition.
I ask the attention of the Senate to the reciprocity treaties laid
before it by my predecessor.
* * * * *
The condition of the American merchant marine is such as to call for
immediate remedial action by the Congress. It is discreditable to us
as a nation that our merchant marine should be utterly insignificant
in comparison to that of other nations which we overtop in other forms
of business. We should not longer submit to conditions under which
only a trifling portion of our great commerce is carried in our own
ships. To remedy this state of things would not merely serve to build
up our shipping interests, but it would also result in benefit to all
who are interested in the permanent establishment of a wider market
for American products, and would provide an auxiliary force for the
navy. Ships work for their own countries just as railroads work for
their terminal points. Shipping lines, if established to the principal
countries with which we have dealings, would be of political as well
as commercial benefit. From every standpoint it is unwise for the
United States to continue to rely upon the ships of competing nations
for the distribution of our goods. It should be made advantageous to
carry American goods in American-built ships.
At present American shipping is under certain great disadvantages when
put in competition with the shipping of foreign countries. Many of the
fast foreign steamships, at a speed of fourteen knots or above, are
subsidized; and all our ships, sailing vessels and steamers alike,
cargo carriers of slow speed and mail carriers of high speed, have to
meet the fact that the original cost of building American ships is
greater than is the case abroad; that the wages paid the officers and
seamen are very much higher than those paid the officers and seamen of
foreign competing countries; and that the standard of living on our
ships is far superior to the standard of living on the ships of our
commercial rivals.
Our government should take such action as will remedy these
inequalities. The American merchant marine should be restored to the
ocean.
* * * * *
The Act of March 14, 1900, intended unequivocally to establish gold
as the standard money and to maintain at a parity therewith all forms
of money medium in use with us, has been shown to be timely and
judicious. The price of our government bonds in the world’s market,
when compared with the price of similar obligations issued by other
nations, is a flattering tribute to our public credit. This condition
it is evidently desirable to maintain.
In many respects the National Banking Law furnishes sufficient liberty
for the proper exercise of the banking function; but there seems
to be need of better safeguards against the deranging influence of
commercial crises and financial panics. Moreover, the currency of the
country should be made responsive to the demands of our domestic trade
and commerce.
The collections from duties on imports and internal taxes continue
to exceed the ordinary expenditures of the government, thanks mainly
to the reduced army expenditures. The utmost care should be taken
not to reduce the revenues so that there will be any possibility of
a deficit; but, after providing against any such contingency, means
should be adopted which will bring the revenues more nearly within the
limit of our actual needs. In his report to the Congress the Secretary
of the Treasury considers all these questions at length, and I ask
your attention to the report and recommendations.
I call special attention to the need of strict economy in
expenditures. The fact that our national needs forbid us to be
niggardly in providing whatever is actually necessary to our
well-being, should make us doubly careful to husband our national
resources, as each of us husbands his private resources, by scrupulous
avoidance of anything like wasteful or reckless expenditure. Only by
avoidance of spending money on what is needless or unjustifiable can
we legitimately keep our income to the point required to meet our
needs that are genuine.
* * * * *
In 1887 a measure was enacted for the regulation of interstate
railways, commonly known as the Interstate Commerce Act. The cardinal
provisions of that act were that railway rates should be just and
reasonable and that all shippers, localities, and commodities should
be accorded equal treatment. A commission was created and endowed
with what were supposed to be the necessary powers to execute the
provisions of this act.
That law was largely an experiment. Experience has shown the wisdom
of its purposes, but has also shown, possibly that some of its
requirements are wrong, certainly that the means devised for the
enforcement of its provisions are defective. Those who complain of
the management of the railways allege that established rates are not
maintained; that rebates and similar devices are habitually resorted
to; that these preferences are usually in favor of the large shipper;
that they drive out of business the smaller competitor; that while
many rates are too low, many others are excessive; and that gross
preferences are made, affecting both localities and commodities. Upon
the other hand, the railways assert that the law by its very terms
tends to produce many of these illegal practices by depriving carriers
of that right of concerted action which they claim is necessary to
establish and maintain non-discriminating rates.
The act should be amended. The railway is a public servant. Its rates
should be just to and open to all shippers alike. The government
should see to it that within its jurisdiction this is so and should
provide a speedy, inexpensive, and effective remedy to that end.
At the same time it must not be forgotten that our railways are the
arteries through which the commercial lifeblood of this nation flows.
Nothing could be more foolish than the enactment of legislation which
would unnecessarily interfere with the development and operation of
these commercial agencies. The subject is one of great importance and
calls for the earnest attention of the Congress.
* * * * *
The Department of Agriculture during the past fifteen years has
steadily broadened its work on economic lines, and has accomplished
results of real value in upbuilding domestic and foreign trade. It
has gone into new fields until it is now in touch with all sections
of our country and with two of the island groups that have lately
come under our jurisdiction, whose people must look to agriculture as
a livelihood. It is searching the world for grains, grasses, fruits,
and vegetables specially fitted for introduction into localities in
the several States and Territories where they may add materially to
our resources. By scientific attention to soil survey and possible
new crops, to breeding of new varieties of plants, to experimental
shipments, to animal industry and applied chemistry, very practical
aid has been given our farming and stock-growing interests. The
products of the farm have taken an unprecedented place in our export
trade during the year that has just closed.
* * * * *
Public opinion throughout the United States has moved steadily toward
a just appreciation of the value of forests, whether planted or of
natural growth. The great part played by them in the creation and
maintenance of the national wealth is now more fully realized than
ever before.
Wise forest protection does not mean the withdrawal of forest
resources, whether of wood, water, or grass, from contributing their
full share to the welfare of the people, but, on the contrary, gives
the assurance of larger and more certain supplies. The fundamental
idea of forestry is the perpetuation of forests by use. Forest
protection is not an end of itself; it is a means to increase and
sustain the resources of our country and the industries which depend
upon them. The preservation of our forests is an imperative business
necessity. We have come to see clearly that whatever destroys the
forest, except to make way for agriculture, threatens our well-being.
The practical usefulness of the national forest reserves to the
mining, grazing, irrigation, and other interests of the regions in
which the reserves lie has led to a widespread demand by the people
of the West for their protection and extension. The forest reserves
will inevitably be of still greater use in the future than in the
past. Additions should be made to them whenever practicable, and their
usefulness should be increased by a thoroughly businesslike management.
At present the protection of the forest reserves rests with the
General Land Office, the mapping and description of their timber with
the United States Geological Survey, and the preparation of plans for
their conservative use with the Bureau of Forestry, which is also
charged with the general advancement of practical forestry in the
United States. These various functions should be united in the Bureau
of Forestry, to which they properly belong. The present diffusion
of responsibility is bad from every standpoint. It prevents that
effective co-operation between the government and the men who utilize
the resources of the reserves, without which the interests of both
must suffer. The scientific bureaus generally should be put under the
Department of Agriculture. The President should have by law the power
of transferring lands for use as forest reserves to the Department of
Agriculture. He already has such power in the case of lands needed by
the Departments of War and the Navy.
The wise administration of the forest reserves will be not less
helpful to the interests which depend on water than to those which
depend on wood and grass. The water supply itself depends upon the
forest. In the arid region it is water, not land, which measures
production. The western half of the United States would sustain a
population greater than that of our whole country to-day if the waters
that now run to waste were saved and used for irrigation. The forest
and water problems are perhaps the most vital internal questions of
the United States.
Certain of the forest reserves should also be made preserves for the
wild forest creatures. All of the reserves should be better protected
from fires. Many of them need special protection because of the great
injury done by live stock, above all by sheep. The increase in deer,
elk, and other animals in the Yellowstone Park shows what may be
expected when other mountain forests are properly protected by law
and properly guarded. Some of these areas have been so denuded of
surface vegetation by over-grazing that the ground breeding birds,
including grouse and quail, and many mammals, including deer, have
been exterminated or driven away. At the same time the water-storing
capacity of the surface has been decreased or destroyed, thus
promoting floods in times of rain and diminishing the flow of streams
between rains.
In cases where natural conditions have been restored for a few
years, vegetation has again carpeted the ground, birds and deer are
coming back, and hundreds of persons, especially from the immediate
neighborhood, come each summer to enjoy the privilege of camping. Some
at least of the forest reserves should afford perpetual protection
to the native fauna and flora, safe havens of refuge to our rapidly
diminishing wild animals of the larger kinds, and free camping grounds
for the ever-increasing numbers of men and women who have learned
to find rest, health, and recreation in the splendid forests and
flower-clad meadows of our mountains. The forest reserves should be
set apart forever for the use and benefit of our people as a whole
and not sacrificed to the shortsighted greed of a few.
* * * * *
The forests are natural reservoirs. By restraining the streams in
flood and replenishing them in drought they make possible the use
of waters otherwise wasted. They prevent the soil from washing, and
so protect the storage reservoirs from filling up with silt. Forest
conservation is therefore an essential condition of water conservation.
The forests alone can not, however, fully regulate and conserve the
waters of the arid region. Great storage works are necessary to
equalize the flow of streams and to save the flood waters. Their
construction has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast
for private effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual
States acting alone. Far-reaching interstate problems are involved;
and the resources of single States would often be inadequate. It is
properly a national function, at least in some of its features. It is
as right for the National Government to make the streams and rivers of
the arid region useful by engineering works for water storage as to
make useful the rivers and harbors of the humid region by engineering
works of another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the
headwaters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy
of river control, under which levees are built on the lower reaches of
the same streams.
The Government should construct and maintain these reservoirs as it
does other public works. Where their purpose is to regulate the flow
of streams, the water should be turned freely into the channels in the
dry season to take the same course under the same laws as the natural
flow.
The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents a
different problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the flow of
streams. The object of the government is to dispose of the land to
settlers who will build homes upon it. To accomplish this object water
must be brought within their reach.
The pioneer settlers on the arid public domain chose their homes along
streams from which they could themselves divert the water to reclaim
their holdings. Such opportunities are practically gone. There remain,
however, vast areas of public land which can be made available for
homestead settlement, but only by reservoirs and main-line canals
impracticable for private enterprise. These irrigation works should
be built by the National Government. The lands reclaimed by them
should be reserved by the Government for actual settlers, and the
cost of construction should so far as possible be repaid by the
land reclaimed. The distribution of the water, the division of the
streams among irrigators, should be left to the settlers themselves in
conformity with State laws and without interference with those laws or
with vested rights. The policy of the National Government should be to
aid irrigation in the several States and Territories in such manner as
will enable the people in the local communities to help themselves,
and as will stimulate needed reforms in the State laws and regulations
governing irrigation.
The reclamation and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every
portion of our country, just as the settlement of the Ohio and
Mississippi Valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic States. The
increased demand for manufactured articles will stimulate industrial
production, while wider home markets and the trade of Asia will
consume the larger food supplies and effectually prevent Western
competition with Eastern agriculture. Indeed, the products of
irrigation will be consumed chiefly in upbuilding local centres of
mining and other industries, which would otherwise not come into
existence at all. Our people as a whole will profit, for successful
home-making is but another name for the upbuilding of the Nation.