legislation concerning citizenship and naturalization be revised. We have
treaties with many states providing for the renunciation of citizenship by
naturalized aliens, but no statute is found to give effect to such
engagements, nor any which provides a needed central bureau for the
registration of naturalized citizens.
Experience suggests that our statutes regulating extradition might be
advantageously amended by a provision for the transit across our territory,
now a convenient thoroughfare of travel from one foreign country to
another, of fugitives surrendered by a foreign government to a third state.
Such provisions are not unusual in the legislation of other countries, and
tend to prevent the miscarriage of justice. It is also desirable, in order
to remove present uncertainties, that authority should be conferred on the
Secretary of State to issue a certificate, in case of an arrest for the
purpose of extradition, to the officer before whom the proceeding is
pending, showing that a requisition for the surrender of the person charged
has been duly made. Such a certificate, if required to be received before
the prisoner's examination, would prevent a long and expensive judicial
inquiry into a charge which the foreign government might not desire to
press. I also recommend that express provision be made for the immediate
discharge from custody of persons committed for extradition where the
President is of opinion that surrender should not be made.
The drift of sentiment in civilized communities toward full recognition of
the rights of property in the creations of the human intellect has brought
about the adoption by many important nations of an international copyright
convention, which was signed at Berne on the 18th of September, 1885.
Inasmuch as the Constitution gives to the Congress the power "to promote
the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to
authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and
discoveries," this Government did not feel warranted in becoming a
signatory pending the action of Congress upon measures of international
copyright now before it; but the right of adhesion to the Berne convention
hereafter has been reserved. I trust the subject will receive at your hands
the attention it deserves, and that the just claims of authors, so urgently
pressed, will be duly heeded.
Representations continue to be made to me of the injurious effect upon
American artists studying abroad and having free access to the art
collections of foreign countries of maintaining a discriminating duty
against the introduction of the works of their brother artists of other
countries, and I am induced to repeat my recommendation for the abolition
of that tax.
Pursuant to a provision of the diplomatic and consular appropriation act
approved July 1, 1886, the estimates submitted by the Secretary of State
for the maintenance of the consular service have been recast on the basis
of salaries for all officers to whom such allowance is deemed advisable.
Advantage has been taken of this to redistribute the salaries of the
offices now appropriated for, in accordance with the work performed, the
importance of the representative duties of the incumbent, and the cost of
living at each post. The last consideration has been too often lost sight
of in the allowances heretofore made. The compensation which may suffice
for the decent maintenance of a worthy and capable officer in a position of
onerous and representative trust at a post readily accessible, and where
the necessaries of life are abundant and cheap, may prove an inadequate
pittance in distant lands, where the better part of a year's pay is
consumed in reaching the post of duty, and where the comforts of ordinary
civilized existence can only be obtained with difficulty and at exorbitant
cost. I trust that in considering the submitted schedules no mistaken
theory of economy will perpetuate a system which in the past has virtually
closed to deserving talent many offices where capacity and attainments of a
high order are indispensable, and in not a few instances has brought
discredit on our national character and entailed embarrassment and even
suffering on those deputed to uphold our dignity and interests abroad.
In connection with this subject I earnestly reiterate the practical
necessity of supplying some mode of trustworthy inspection and report of
the manner in which the consulates are conducted. In the absence of such
reliable information efficiency can scarcely be rewarded or its opposite
corrected.
Increasing competition in trade has directed attention to the value of the
consular reports printed by the Department of State, and the efforts of the
Government to extend the practical usefulness of these reports have created
a wider demand for them at home and a spirit of emulation abroad.
Constituting a record at the changes occurring in trade and of the progress
of the arts and invention in foreign countries, they are much sought for by
all interested in the subjects which they embrace.
The report of the Secretary of the Treasury exhibits in detail the
condition of the public finances and of the several branches of the
Government related to his Department. I especially direct the attention of
the Congress to the recommendations contained in this and the last
preceding report of the Secretary touching the simplification and amendment
of the laws relating to the collection of our revenues, and in the interest
of economy and justice to the Government I hope they may be adopted by
appropriate legislation.
The ordinary receipts of the Government for the fiscal year ended June 30,
1886, were $336,439,727.06. Of this amount $192,905,023.41 was received
from customs and $116,805,936.48 from internal revenue. The total receipts,
as here stated, were $13,749,020.68 greater than for the previous year, but
the increase from customs was $11,434,084.10 and from internal revenue
$4,407,210.94, making a gain in these items for the last year of
$15,841,295.04, a falling off in other resources reducing the total
increase to the smaller amount mentioned.
The expense at the different custom-houses of collecting this increased
customs revenue was less than the expense attending the collection of such
revenue for the preceding year by $490,608, and the increased receipts of
internal revenue were collected at a cost to the Internal-Revenue Bureau
$155,944.99 less than the expense of such collection for the previous
year.
The total ordinary expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1886, were $242,483,138.50, being less by $17,788,797 than such
expenditures for the year preceding, and leaving a surplus in the Treasury
at the close of the last fiscal year of $93,956,588.56, as against
$63,463,771.27 at the close of the previous year, being an increase in such
surplus of $30,492,817.29.
The expenditures are compared with those of the preceding fiscal year and
classified as follows:
For the current year to end June 30, 1887, the ascertained receipts up to
October 1, 1886, with such receipts estimated for the remainder of the
year, amount to $356,000,000.
The expenditures ascertained and estimated for the same period are
$266,000,000, indicating an anticipated surplus at the close of the year of
$90,000,000.
The total value of the exports from the United States to foreign countries
during the fiscal year is stated and compared with the preceding year as
follows:
The value of some of our leading exports during the last fiscal year, as
compared with the value of the same for the year immediately preceding, is
here given, and furnishes information both interesting and suggestive:
Our imports during the last fiscal year, as compared with the previous
year, were as follows:
In my last annual message to the Congress attention was directed to the
fact that the revenues of the Government exceeded its actual needs, and it
was suggested that legislative action should be taken to relieve the people
from the unnecessary burden of taxation thus made apparent.
In view of the pressing importance of the subject I deem it my duty to
again urge its consideration.
The income of the Government, by its increased volume and through economies
in its collection, is now more than ever in excess of public necessities.
The application of the surplus to the payment of such portion of the public
debt as is now at our option subject to extinguishment, if continued at the
rate which has lately prevailed, would retire that class of indebtedness
within less than one year from this date. Thus a continuation of our
present revenue system would soon result in the receipt of an annual income
much greater than necessary to meet Government expenses, with no
indebtedness upon which it could be applied. We should then be confronted
with a vast quantity of money, the circulating medium of the people,
hoarded in the Treasury when it should be in their hands, or we should be
drawn into wasteful public extravagance, with all the corrupting national
demoralization which follows in its train.
But it is not the simple existence of this surplus and its threatened
attendant evils which furnish the strongest argument against our present
scale of Federal taxation. Its worst phase is the exaction of such a
surplus through a perversion of the relations between the people and their
Government and a dangerous departure from the rules which limit the right
of Federal taxation.
Good government, and especially the government of which every American
citizen boasts, has for its objects the protection of every person within
its care in the greatest liberty consistent with the good order of society
and his perfect security in the enjoyment of his earnings with the least
possible diminution for public needs. When more of the people's substance
is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just
obligations of the Government and the expense of its economical
administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of
the fundamental principles of a free government.
The indirect manner in which these exactions are made has a tendency to
conceal their true character and their extent. But we have arrived at a
stage of superfluous revenue which has aroused the people to a realization
of the fact that the amount raised professedly for the support of the
Government is paid by them as absolutely if added to the price of the
things which supply their daily wants as if it was paid at fixed periods
into the hand of the tax gatherer.
Those who toil for daily wages are beginning to understand that capital,
though sometimes vaunting its importance and clamoring for the protection
and favor of the Government, is dull and sluggish till, touched by the
magical hand of labor, it springs into activity, furnishing an occasion for
Federal taxation and gaining the value which enables it to bear its burden.
And the laboring man is thoughtfully inquiring whether in these
circumstances, and considering the tribute he constantly pays into the
public Treasury as he supplies his daily wants, he receives his fair share
of advantages.
There is also a suspicion abroad that the surplus of our revenues indicates
abnormal and exceptional business profits, which, under the system which
produces such surplus, increase without corresponding benefit to the people
at large the vast accumulations of a few among our citizens, whose
fortunes, rivaling the wealth of the most favored in antidemocratic
nations, are not the natural growth of a steady, plain, and industrious
republic.
Our farmers, too, and those engaged directly and indirectly in supplying
the products of agriculture, see that day by day, and as often as the daily
wants of their households recur, they are forced to pay excessive and
needless taxation, while their products struggle in foreign markets with
the competition of nations, which, by allowing a freer exchange of
productions than we permit, enable their people to sell for prices which
distress the American farmer.
As every patriotic citizen rejoices in the constantly increasing pride of
our people in American citizenship and in the glory of our national
achievements and progress, a sentiment prevails that the leading strings
useful to a nation in its infancy may well be to a great extent discarded
in the present stage of American ingenuity, courage, and fearless
self-reliance; and for the privilege of indulging this sentiment with true
American enthusiasm our citizens are quite willing to forego an idle
surplus in the public Treasury.
And all the people know that the average rate of Federal taxation upon
imports is to-day, in time of peace, but little less, while upon some
articles of necessary consumption it is actually more, than was imposed by
the grievous burden willingly borne at a time when the Government needed
millions to maintain by war the safety and integrity of the Union.
It has been the policy of the Government to collect the principal part of
its revenues by a tax upon imports, and no change in this policy is
desirable. But the present condition of affairs constrains our people to
demand that by a revision of our revenue laws the receipts of the
Government shall be reduced to the necessary expense of its economical
administration; and this demand should be recognized and obeyed by the
people's representatives in the legislative branch of the Government.
In readjusting the burdens of Federal taxation a sound public policy
requires that such of our citizens as have built up large and important
industries under present conditions should not be suddenly and to their
injury deprived of advantages to which they have adapted their business;
but if the public good requires it they should be content with such
consideration as shall deal fairly and cautiously with their interests,
while the just demand of the people for relief from needless taxation is
honestly answered.
A reasonable and timely submission to such a demand should certainly be
possible without disastrous shock to any interest; and a cheerful
concession sometimes averts abrupt and heedless action, often the outgrowth
of impatience and delayed justice.
Due regard should be also accorded in any proposed readjustment to the
interests of American labor so far as they are involved. We congratulate
ourselves that there is among us no laboring class fixed within unyielding
bounds and doomed under all conditions to the inexorable fate of daily
toil. We recognize in labor a chief factor in the wealth of the Republic,
and we treat those who have it in their keeping as citizens entitled to the
most careful regard and thoughtful attention. This regard and attention
should be awarded them, not only because labor is the capital of our
workingmen, justly entitled to its share of Government favor, but for the
further and not less important reason that the laboring man, surrounded by
his family in his humble home, as a consumer is vitally interested in all
that cheapens the cost of living and enables him to bring within his
domestic circle additional comforts and advantages.
This relation of the workingman to the revenue laws of the country and the
manner in which it palpably influences the question of wages should not be
forgotten in the justifiable prominence given to the proper maintenance of
the supply and protection of well-paid labor. And these considerations
suggest such an arrangement of Government revenues as shall reduce the
expense of living, while it does not curtail the opportunity for work nor
reduce the compensation of American labor and injuriously affect its
condition and the dignified place it holds in the estimation of our
people.
But our farmers and agriculturists--those who from the soil produce the
things consumed by all--are perhaps more directly and plainly concerned
than any other of our citizens in a just and careful system of Federal
taxation. Those actually engaged in and more remotely connected with this
kind of work number nearly one-half of our population. None labor harder or
more continuously than they. No enactments limit their hours of toil and no
interposition of the Government enhances to any great extent the value of
their products. And yet for many of the necessaries and comforts of life,
which the most scrupulous economy enables them to bring into their homes,
and for their implements of husbandry, they are obliged to pay a price
largely increased by an unnatural profit, which by the action of the
Government is given to the more favored manufacturer.
I recommend that, keeping in view all these considerations, the increasing
and unnecessary surplus of national income annually accumulating be
released to the people by an amendment to our revenue laws which shall
cheapen the price of the necessaries of life and give freer entrance to
such imported materials as by American labor may be manufactured into
marketable commodities.
Nothing can be accomplished, however, in the direction of this much-needed
reform unless the subject is approached in a patriotic spirit of devotion
to the interests of the entire country and with a willingness to yield
something for the public good.
The sum paid upon the public debt during the fiscal year ended June 30,
1886, was $44,551,043.36.
During the twelve months ended October 31,1886, 3 per cent bonds were
called for redemption amounting to $127,283,100, of which $80,643,200 was
so called to answer the requirements of the law relating to the sinking
fund and $46,639,900 for the purpose of reducing the public debt by
application of a part of the surplus in the Treasury to that object. Of the
bonds thus called $102,269,450 became subject under such calls to
redemption prior to November 1, 1886. The remainder, amounting
to $25,013,650, matured under the calls after that date.
In addition to the amount subject to payment and cancellation prior to
November 1, there were also paid before that day certain of these bonds,
with the interest thereon, amounting to $5,072,350, which were anticipated
as to their maturity, of which $2,664,850 had not been called, Thus
$107,341,800 had been actually applied prior to the 1st of November, 1886,
to the extinguishment of our bonded and interest-bearing debt, leaving on
that day still outstanding the sum of $1,153,443,112. Of this amount
$86,848,700 were still represented by 3 per cent bonds. They however, have
been since November 1, or will at once be, further reduced by $22,606,150,
being bonds which have been called, as already stated, but not redeemed and
canceled before the latter date.
During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1886, there were coined, under the
compulsory silver-coinage act of 1878,29,838,905 silver dollars, and the
cost of the silver used in such coinage was $23,448,960.01. There had been
coined up to the close of the previous fiscal year under the provisions of
the law 203,882,554 silver dollars, and on the 1st day of December, 1886,
the total amount of such coinage was $247,131,549.
The Director of the Mint reports that at the time of the passage of the law
of 1878 directing this coinage the intrinsic value of the dollars thus
coined was 94 1/4 cents each, and that on the 31st day of July, 1886, the
price of silver reached the lowest stage ever known, so that the intrinsic
or bullion price of our standard silver dollar at that date was less than
72 cents. The price of silver on the 30th day of November last was such as
to make these dollars intrinsically worth 78 cents each.
These differences in value of the coins represent the fluctuations in the
price of silver, and they certainly do not indicate that compulsory coinage
by the Government enhances the price of that commodity or secures
uniformity in its value.
Every fair and legal effort has been made by the Treasury Department to
distribute this currency among the people. The withdrawal of United States
Treasury notes of small denominations and the issuing of small silver
certificates have been resorted to in the endeavor to accomplish this
result, in obedience to the will and sentiments of the representatives of
the people in the Congress. On the 27th day of November, 1886, the people
held of these coins, or certificates representing them, the nominal sum of
$166,873,041, and we still had $79,464,345 in the Treasury as against about
$142,894,055 so in the hands of the people and $72,865,376 remaining in the
Treasury one year ago. The Director of the Mint again urges the necessity
of more vault room for the purpose of storing these silver dollars which
are not needed for circulation by the people.
I have seen no reason to change the views expressed in my last annual
message on the subject of this compulsory coinage, and I again urge its
suspension on all the grounds contained in my former recommendation,
reenforced by the significant increase of our gold exportations during the
last year, as appears by the comparative statement herewith presented, and
for the further reasons that the more this currency is distributed among
the people the greater becomes our duty to protect it from disaster, that
we now have abundance for all our needs, and that there seems but little
propriety in building vaults to store such currency when the only pretense
for its coinage is the necessity of its use by the people as a circulating
medium.
The great number of suits now pending in the United States courts for the
southern district of New York growing out of the collection of customs
revenue at the port of New York and the number of such suits that are
almost daily instituted are certainly worthy the attention of the Congress.
These legal controversies, based upon conflicting views by importers and
the collector as to the interpretation of our present complex and
indefinite revenue laws, might be largely obviated by an amendment of those
laws.
But pending such amendment the present condition of this litigation should
be relieved. There are now pending about 2,500 of these suits. More than
1,100 have been commenced within the past eighteen months, and many of the
others have been at issue for more than twenty-five years. These delays
subject the Government to loss of evidence and prevent the preparation
necessary to defeat unjust and fictitious claims, while constantly accruing
interest threatens to double the demands involved.
In the present condition of the dockets of the courts, well filled with
private suits, and of the force allowed the district attorney, no greater
than is necessary for the ordinary and current business of his office,
these revenue litigations can not be considered.
In default of the adoption by the Congress of a plan for the general
reorganization of the Federal courts, as has been heretofore recommended, I
urge the propriety of passing a law permitting the appointment of an
additional Federal judge in the district where these Government suits have
accumulated, so that by continuous sessions of the courts devoted to the
trial of these cases they may be determined.
It is entirely plain that a great saving to the Government would be
accomplished by such a remedy, and the suitors who have honest claims would
not be denied justice through delay.
The report of the Secretary of War gives a detailed account of the
administration of his Department and contains sundry recommendations for
the improvement of the service, which I fully approve.
The Army consisted at the date of the last consolidated return of 2,103
officers and 24,946 enlisted men.
The expenses of the Department for the last fiscal year were
$36,990,903.38, including $6,294,305.43 for public works and river and
harbor improvements.
I especially direct the attention of the Congress to the recommendation
that officers be required to submit to an examination as a preliminary to
their promotion. I see no objection, but many advantages, in adopting this
feature, which has operated so beneficially in our Navy Department, as well
as in some branches of the Army.