the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. This Exposition commemorates the
Louisiana Purchase, which was the first great step in the expansion
which made us a continental nation. The expedition of Lewis and Clark
across the continent followed thereon, and marked the beginning of
the process of exploration and colonization which thrust our national
boundaries to the Pacific. The acquisition of the Oregon country,
including the present States of Oregon and Washington, was a fact
of immense importance in our history; first giving us our place on
the Pacific seaboard, and making ready the way for our ascendency in
the commerce of the greatest of the oceans. The centennial of our
establishment upon the western coast by the expedition of Lewis and
Clark is to be celebrated at Portland, Oregon, by an exposition in the
summer of 1905, and this event should receive recognition and support
from the National Government.
* * * * *
I call your special attention to the Territory of Alaska. The country
is developing rapidly, and it has an assured future. The mineral
wealth is great and has as yet hardly been tapped. The fisheries, if
wisely handled and kept under national control, will be a business as
permanent as any other, and of the utmost importance to the people.
The forests if properly guarded will form another great source of
wealth. Portions of Alaska are fitted for farming and stock-raising,
although the methods must be adapted to the peculiar conditions of
the country. Alaska is situated in the far north; but so are Norway
and Sweden and Finland; and Alaska can prosper and play its part in
the New World just as those nations have prospered and played their
parts in the Old World. Proper land laws should be enacted; and the
survey of the public lands immediately begun. Coal-land laws should
be provided whereby the coal-land entryman may make his location
and secure patent under methods kindred to those now prescribed
for homestead and mineral entrymen. Salmon hatcheries, exclusively
under government control, should be established. The cable should
be extended from Sitka westward. Wagon roads and trails should be
built, and the building of railroads promoted in all legitimate ways.
Light-houses should be built along the coast. Attention should be paid
to the needs of the Alaska Indians; provision should be made for an
officer, with deputies, to study their needs, relieve their immediate
wants, and help them adapt themselves to the new conditions.
The commission appointed to investigate, during the season of 1903,
the condition and needs of the Alaskan salmon fisheries, has finished
its work in the field, and is preparing a detailed report thereon. A
preliminary report reciting the measures immediately required for the
protection and preservation of the salmon industry has already been
submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for his attention and
for the needed action.
* * * * *
I recommend that an appropriation be made for building light-houses in
Hawaii, and taking possession of those already built. The Territory
should be reimbursed for whatever amounts it has already expended for
light-houses. The Governor should be empowered to suspend or remove
any official appointed by him, without submitting the matter to the
legislature.
Of our insular possessions, the Philippines and Porto Rico, it is
gratifying to say that their steady progress has been such as to make
it unnecessary to spend much time in discussing them. Yet the Congress
should ever keep in mind that a peculiar obligation rests upon us to
further in every way the welfare of these communities. The Philippines
should be knit closer to us by tariff arrangements. It would, of
course, be impossible suddenly to raise the people of the islands to
the high pitch of industrial prosperity and of governmental efficiency
to which they will in the end by degrees attain; and the caution and
moderation shown in developing them have been among the main reasons
why this development has hitherto gone on so smoothly.
Scrupulous care has been taken in the choice of governmental agents,
and the entire elimination of partisan politics from the public
service. The condition of the islanders is in material things far
better than ever before, while their governmental, intellectual,
and moral advance has kept pace with their material advance. No one
people ever benefited another people more than we have benefited the
Filipinos by taking possession of the islands.
* * * * *
The cash receipts of the General Land Office for the last fiscal year
were $11,024,743.65, an increase of $4,762,816.47 over the preceding
year. Of this sum, approximately, $8,461,493 will go to the credit of
the fund for the reclamation of arid land, making the total of this
fund, up to the 30th of June, 1903, approximately, $16,191,836.
A gratifying disposition has been evinced by those having unlawful
inclosures of public land to remove their fences. Nearly two
million acres so inclosed have been thrown open on demand. In but
comparatively few cases has it been necessary to go into court to
accomplish this purpose. This work will be vigorously prosecuted until
all unlawful inclosures have been removed.
Experience has shown that in the Western States themselves, as well
as in the rest of the country, there is widespread conviction that
certain of the public-land laws and the resulting administrative
practice no longer meet the present needs. The character and uses of
the remaining public lands differ widely from those of the public
lands which Congress had especially in view when these laws were
passed. The rapidly increasing rate of disposal of the public lands is
not followed by a corresponding increase in home building. There is a
tendency to mass in large holdings public lands, especially timber and
grazing lands, and thereby to retard settlement. I renew and emphasize
my recommendation of last year that so far as they are available for
agriculture in its broadest sense, and to whatever extent they may
be reclaimed under the national irrigation law, the remaining public
lands should be held rigidly for the home builder. The attention of
the Congress is especially directed to the timber and stone law, the
desert-land law, and the commutation clause of the homestead law,
which in their operation have in many respects conflicted with wise
public-land policy. The discussions in the Congress and elsewhere have
made it evident that there is a wide divergence of opinions between
those holding opposite views on these subjects; and that the opposing
sides have strong and convinced representatives of weight both within
and without the Congress; the differences being not only as to
matters of opinion but as to matters of fact. In order that definite
information may be available for the use of the Congress, I have
appointed a commission composed of W. A. Richards, Commissioner of the
General Land Office; Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Bureau of Forestry
of the Department of Agriculture, and F. H. Newell, Chief Hydrographer
of the Geological Survey, to report at the earliest practicable moment
upon the condition, operation, and effect of the present land laws and
on the use, condition, disposal, and settlement of the public lands.
The commission will report especially what changes in organization,
laws, regulations, and practice affecting the public lands are needed
to effect the largest practicable disposition of the public lands
to actual settlers who will build permanent homes upon them, and
to secure in permanence the fullest and most effective use of the
resources of the public lands; and it will make such other reports
and recommendations as its study of these questions may suggest. The
commission is to report immediately upon those points concerning
which its judgment is clear; on any point upon which it has doubt it
will take the time necessary to make investigation and reach a final
judgment.
The work of reclamation of the arid lands of the West is progressing
steadily and satisfactorily under the terms of the law setting
aside the proceeds from the disposal of public lands. The corps of
engineers known as the Reclamation Service, which is conducting the
surveys and examinations, has been thoroughly organized, especial
pains being taken to secure under the civil-service rules a body of
skilled, experienced, and efficient men. Surveys and examinations
are progressing throughout the arid States and Territories, plans
for reclaiming works being prepared and passed upon by boards of
engineers before approval by the Secretary of the Interior. In Arizona
and Nevada, in localities where such work is pre-eminently needed,
construction has already been begun. In other parts of the arid West
various projects are well advanced toward the drawing up of contracts,
these being delayed in part by necessities of reaching agreements or
understanding as regards rights of way or acquisition of real estate.
Most of the works contemplated for construction are of national
importance, involving interstate questions or the securing of stable,
self-supporting communities in the midst of vast tracts of vacant
land. The Nation as a whole is of course the gainer by the creation
of these homes, adding as they do to the wealth and stability of the
country, and furnishing a home market for the products of the East
and South. The reclamation law, while perhaps not ideal, appears at
present to answer the larger needs for which it is designed. Further
legislation is not recommended until the necessities of change are
more apparent.
The study of the opportunities of reclamation of the vast extent of
arid land shows that whether this reclamation is done by individuals,
corporations, or the State, the sources of water supply must be
effectively protected and the reservoirs guarded by the preservation
of the forests at the headwaters of the streams. The engineers making
the preliminary examinations continually emphasize this need and urge
that the remaining public lands at the headwaters of the important
streams of the West be reserved to insure permanency of water supply
for irrigation. Much progress in forestry has been made during the
past year. The necessity for perpetuating our forest resources,
whether in public or private hands, is recognized now as never before.
The demand for forest reserves has become insistent in the West,
because the West must use the water, wood, and summer range which
only such reserves can supply. Progressive lumbermen are striving,
through forestry, to give their business permanence. Other great
business interests are awakening to the need of forest preservation as
a business matter. The Government’s forest work should receive from
the Congress hearty support, and especially support adequate for the
protection of the forest reserves against fire. The forest reserve
policy of the Government has passed beyond the experimental stage and
has reached a condition where scientific methods are essential to its
successful prosecution. The administration features of forest reserves
are at present unsatisfactory, being divided between three Bureaus
of two Departments. It is therefore recommended that all matters
pertaining to forest reserves, except those involving or pertaining
to land titles, be consolidated in the Bureau of Forestry of the
Department of Agriculture.
* * * * *
The cotton-growing States have recently been invaded by a weevil
that has done much damage and threatens the entire cotton industry.
I suggest to the Congress the prompt enactment of such remedial
legislation as its judgment may approve.
* * * * *
In granting patents to foreigners the proper course for this country
to follow is to give the same advantages to foreigners here that
the countries in which these foreigners dwell extend in return to
our citizens; that is, to extend the benefits of our patent laws
on inventions and the like where in return the articles would be
patentable in the foreign countries concerned—where an American could
get a corresponding patent in such countries.
* * * * *
The Indian agents should not be dependent for their appointment
or tenure of office upon considerations of partisan politics; the
practice of appointing, when possible, ex-army officers or bonded
superintendents to the vacancies that occur is working well.
Attention is invited to the widespread illiteracy due to lack of
public schools in the Indian Territory. Prompt heed should be paid to
the need of education for the children in this Territory.
* * * * *
In my last annual Message the attention of the Congress was called
to the necessity of enlarging the safety-appliance law, and it is
gratifying to note that this law was amended in important respects.
With the increasing railway mileage of the country, the greater number
of men employed, and the use of larger and heavier equipment, the
urgency for renewed effort to prevent the loss of life and limb upon
the railroads of the country, particularly to employees, is apparent.
For the inspection of water craft and the Life-Saving Service upon
the water the Congress has built up an elaborate body of protective
legislation and a thorough method of inspection and is annually
spending large sums of money. It is encouraging to observe that the
Congress is alive to the interests of those who are employed upon our
wonderful arteries of commerce—the railroads—who so safely transport
millions of passengers and billions of tons of freight. The Federal
inspection of safety appliances, for which the Congress is now making
appropriations, is a service analogous to that which the Government
has upheld for generations in regard to vessels, and it is believed
will prove of great practical benefit, both to railroad employees and
the traveling public. As the greater part of commerce is interstate
and exclusively under the control of the Congress the needed safety
and uniformity must be secured by national legislation.
* * * * *
No other class of our citizens deserves so well of the Nation as those
to whom the Nation owes its very being, the veterans of the Civil War.
Special attention is asked to the excellent work of the Pension Bureau
in expediting and disposing of pension claims. During the fiscal year
ending July 1, 1903, the Bureau settled 251,982 claims, an average of
825 claims for each working day of the year. The number of settlements
since July 1, 1903, has been in excess of last year’s average,
approaching 1,000 claims for each working day, and it is believed that
the work of the Bureau will be current at the close of the present
fiscal year.
* * * * *
During the year ended June 30 last 25,566 persons were appointed
through competitive examinations under the civil-service rules.
This was 12,672 more than during the preceding year, and 40 per
cent of those who passed the examinations. This abnormal growth was
largely occasioned by the extension of classification to the rural
free-delivery service and the appointment last year of over 9,000
rural carriers.
A revision of the civil-service rules took effect on April 15 last,
which has greatly improved their operation. The completion of the
reform of the civil service is recognized by good citizens everywhere
as a matter of the highest public importance, and the success of
the merit system largely depends upon the effectiveness of the rules
and the machinery provided for their enforcement. A very gratifying
spirit of friendly co-operation exists in all the Departments of the
Government in the enforcement and uniform observance of both the
letter and spirit of the civil-service act. Executive orders of July
3, 1902, March 26, 1903, and July 8, 1903, require that appointments
of all unclassified laborers, both in the Departments at Washington
and in the field service, shall be made with the assistance of the
United States Civil Service Commission, under a system of registration
to test the relative fitness of applicants for appointment or
employment. This system is competitive, and is open to all citizens of
the United States qualified in respect to age, physical ability, moral
character, industry, and adaptability for manual labor; except that in
case of veterans of the Civil War the element of age is omitted. This
system of appointment is distinct from the classified service and does
not classify positions of mere laborer under the civil-service act
and rules. Regulations in aid thereof have been put in operation in
several of the Departments and are being gradually extended in other
parts of the service. The results have been very satisfactory, as
extravagance has been checked by decreasing the number of unnecessary
positions and by increasing the efficiency of the employees remaining.
* * * * *
The Congress, as the result of a thorough investigation of the
charities and reformatory institutions in the District of Columbia,
by a joint select committee of the two Houses which made its report
in March, 1898, created in the act approved June 6, 1900, a board of
charities for the District of Columbia, to consist of five residents
of the District, appointed by the President of the United States,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, each for a term
of three years, to serve without compensation. President McKinley
appointed five men who had been active and prominent in the public
charities of Washington, all of whom upon taking office July 1,
1900, resigned from the different charities with which they had
been connected. The members of the board have been reappointed in
successive years. The board serves under the Commissioners of the
District of Columbia. The board gave its first year to a careful and
impartial study of the special problems before it, and has continued
that study every year in the light of the best practice in public
charities elsewhere. Its recommendations in its annual reports to the
Congress through the Commissions of the District of Columbia “for
the economical and efficient administration of the charities and
reformatories of the District of Columbia,” as required by the act
creating it, have been based upon the principles commended by the
joint select committee of the Congress in its report of March, 1898,
and approved by the best administrators of public charities, and make
for the desired systematization and improvement of the affairs under
its supervision. They are worthy of favorable consideration by the
Congress.
* * * * *
The effect of the laws providing a General Staff for the army and
for the more effective use of the National Guard has been excellent.
Great improvement has been made in the efficiency of our army in
recent years. Such schools as those erected at Fort Leavenworth and
Fort Riley and the institution of fall manœuvre work accomplish
satisfactory results. The good effect of these manœuvres upon the
National Guard is marked, and ample appropriation should be made to
enable the guardsmen of the several States to share in the benefit.
The Government should as soon as possible secure suitable permanent
camp sites for military manœuvres in the various sections of the
country. The service thereby rendered not only to the Regular Army,
but to the National Guard of the several States, will be so great as
to repay many times over the relatively small expense. We should not
rest satisfied with what has been done, however. The only people who
are contented with a system of promotion by mere seniority are those
who are contented with the triumph of mediocrity over excellence. On
the other hand a system which encouraged the exercise of social or
political favoritism in promotions would be even worse. But it would
surely be easy to devise a method of promotion from grade to grade
in which the opinion of the higher officers of the service upon the
candidates should be decisive upon the standing and promotion of the
latter. Just such a system now obtains at West Point. The quality of
each year’s work determines the standing of that year’s class, the
man being dropped or graduated into the next class in the relative
position which his military superiors decide to be warranted by his
merit. In other words, ability, energy, fidelity, and all other
similar qualities determine the rank of a man year after year in West
Point, and his standing in the army when he graduates from West Point;
but from that time on, all effort to find which man is best or worst,
and reward or punish him accordingly, is abandoned; no brilliancy,
no amount of hard work, no eagerness in the performance of duty, can
advance him, and no slackness or indifference that falls short of a
court-martial offence can retard him. Until this system is changed
we can not hope that our officers will be of as high grade as we
have a right to expect, considering the material upon which we draw.
Moreover, when a man renders such service as Captain Pershing rendered
last spring in the Moro campaign, it ought to be possible to reward
him without at once jumping him to the grade of brigadier-general.
* * * * *
Shortly after the enunciation of that famous principle of American
foreign policy now known as the “Monroe Doctrine,” President Monroe,
in a special Message to Congress on January 30, 1824, spoke as
follows: “The navy is the arm from which our Government will always
derive most aid in support of our ... rights. Every power engaged in
war will know the strength of our naval power, the number of our ships
of each class, their condition, and the promptitude with which we
may bring them into service, and will pay due consideration to that
argument.”
I heartily congratulate the Congress upon the steady progress in
building up the American Navy. We can not afford a let-up in this
great work. To stand still means to go back. There should be no
cessation in adding to the effective units of the fighting strength of
the fleet. Meanwhile the Navy Department and the officers of the navy
are doing well their part by providing constant service at sea under
conditions akin to those of actual warfare. Our officers and enlisted
men are learning to handle the battleships, cruisers, and torpedo
boats with high efficiency in fleet and squadron formations, and the
standard of marksmanship is being steadily raised. The best work
ashore is indispensable, but the highest duty of a naval officer is to
exercise command at sea.
The establishment of a naval base in the Philippines ought not to
be longer postponed. Such a base is desirable in time of peace; in
time of war it would be indispensable, and its lack would be ruinous.
Without it our fleet would be helpless. Our naval experts are agreed
that Subig Bay is the proper place for the purpose. The national
interests require that the work of fortification and development of
a naval station at Subig Bay be begun at an early date; for under the
best conditions it is a work which will consume much time.
It is eminently desirable, however, that there should be provided a
naval general staff on lines similar to those of the General Staff
lately created for the army. Within the Navy Department itself the
needs of the service have brought about a system under which the
duties of a general staff are partially performed; for the Bureau
of Navigation has under its direction the War College, the Office
of Naval Intelligence, and the Board of Inspection, and has been in
close touch with the General Board of the navy. But though under the
excellent officers at their head these boards and bureaus do good
work, they have not the authority of a general staff, and have not
sufficient scope to ensure a proper readiness for emergencies. We need
the establishment by law of a body of trained officers, who shall
exercise a systematic control of the military affairs of the navy, and
be authorized advisers of the Secretary concerning it.
* * * * *