domain is rapidly falling into private hands. It is certain that in the
transfer the beneficent intention of the Government to supply from its
domain homes to the industrious and worthy home seekers is often
frustrated. Though the speculator, who stands with extortionate purpose
between the land office and those who, with their families, are invited
by the Government to settle on the public lands, is a despicable
character who ought not to be tolerated, yet it is difficult to thwart
his schemes. The recent opening to settlement of the lands in the
Cherokee Outlet, embracing an area of 6,500,000 acres, notwithstanding
the utmost care in framing the regulations governing the selection of
locations and notwithstanding the presence of United States troops,
furnished an exhibition, though perhaps in a modified degree, of the
mad scramble, the violence, and the fraudulent occupation which have
accompanied previous openings of public land.
I concur with the Secretary in the belief that these outrageous
incidents can not be entirely prevented without a change in the laws on
the subject, and I hope his recommendations in that direction will be
favorably considered.
I especially commend to the attention of the Congress the statements
contained in the Secretary's report concerning forestry. The time has
come when efficient measures should be taken for the preservation of
our forests from indiscriminate and remediless destruction.
The report of the Secretary of Agriculture will be found exceedingly
interesting, especially to that large part of our citizens intimately
concerned in agricultural occupations.
On the 7th day of March, 1893, there were upon its pay rolls 2,430
employees. This number has been reduced to 1,850 persons. In view of a
depleted public Treasury and the imperative demand of the people for
economy in the administration of their Government, the Secretary has
entered upon the task of rationally reducing expenditures by the
elimination from the pay rolls of all persons not needed for an
efficient conduct of the affairs of the Department.
During the first quarter of the present year the expenses of the
Department aggregated $345,876.76, as against $402,012.42 for the
corresponding period of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893. The
Secretary makes apparent his intention to continue this rate of
reduction by submitting estimates for the next fiscal year less by
$994,280 than those for the present year.
Among the heads of divisions in this Department the changes have been
exceedingly few. Three vacancies occurring from death and resignations
have been filled by the promotion of assistants in the same divisions.
These promotions of experienced and faithful assistants have not only
been in the interest of efficient work, but have suggested to those in
the Department who look for retention and promotion that merit and
devotion to duty are their best reliance.
The amount appropriated for the Bureau of Animal Industry for the
current fiscal year is $850,000. The estimate for the ensuing year is
$700,000.
The regulations of 1892 concerning Texas fever have been enforced
during the last year and the large stock yards of the country have been
kept free from infection. Occasional local outbreaks have been largely
such as could have been effectually guarded against by the owners of
the affected cattle.
While contagious pleuro-pneumonia in cattle has been eradicated, animal
tuberculosis, a disease widespread and more dangerous to human life
than pleuro-pneumonia, is still prevalent. Investigations have been
made during the past year as to the means of its communication and the
method of its correct diagnosis. Much progress has been made in this
direction by the studies of the division of animal pathology, but work
ought to be extended, in cooperation with local authorities, until the
danger to human life arising from this cause is reduced to a minimum.
The number of animals arriving from Canada during the year and
inspected by Bureau officers was 462,092, and the number from
transatlantic countries was 1,297. No contagious diseases were found
among the imported animals.
The total number of inspections of cattle for export during the past
fiscal year was 611,542. The exports show a falling off of about 25 per
cent from the preceding year, the decrease occurring entirely in the
last half of the year. This suggests that the falling off may have been
largely due to an increase in the price of American export cattle.
During the year ending June 30, 1893, exports of inspected pork
aggregated 10,677,410 pounds, as against 38,152,874 pounds for the
preceding year. The falling off in this export was not confined,
however, to inspected pork, the total quantity exported for 1892 being
665,490,616 pounds, while in 1893 it was only 527,308,695 pounds.
I join the Secretary in recommending that hereafter each applicant for
the position of inspector or assistant inspector in the Bureau of
Animal Industry be required, as a condition precedent to his
appointment, to exhibit to the United States Civil Service Commission
his diploma from an established, regular, and reputable veterinary
college, and that this be supplemented by such an examination in
veterinary science as the Commission may prescribe.
The exports of agricultural products from the United States for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, attained the enormous figure of
$800,000,000, in round numbers, being 78.7 per cent of our total
exports. In the last fiscal year this aggregate was greatly reduced,
but nevertheless reached 615,000,000, being 75.1 per cent of all
American commodities exported.
A review of our agricultural exports with special reference to their
destination will show that in almost every line the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland absorbs by far the largest proportion. Of
cattle the total exports aggregated in value for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1893, $26,000,000, of which Great Britain took considerably
over $25,000,000. Of beef products of all kinds our total exports were
$28,000,000, of which Great Britain took $24,000,000. Of pork products
the total exports were $84,000,000, of which Great Britain took
$53,000,000. In breadstuffs, cotton, and minor products like
proportions sent to the same destination are shown.
The work of the statistical division of the Department of Agriculture
deals with all that relates to the economics of farming.
The main purpose of its monthly reports is to keep the farmers informed
as fully as possible of all matters having any influence upon the
world's markets, in which their products find sale. Its publications
relate especially to the commercial side of farming.
It is therefore of profound importance and vital concern to the farmers
of the United States, who represent nearly one-half of our population,
and also of direct interest to the whole country, that the work of this
division be efficiently performed and that the information it has
gathered be promptly diffused.
It is a matter for congratulation to know that the Secretary will not
spare any effort to make this part of his work thoroughly useful.
In the year 1839 the Congress appropriated $1,000, to be taken from the
Patent Office funds, for the purpose of collecting and distributing
rare and improved varieties of seeds and for prosecuting agricultural
investigations and procuring agricultural statistics. From this small
beginning the seed division of the Department of Agriculture has grown
to its present unwieldy and unjustifiably extravagant proportions.
During the last fiscal year the cost of seeds purchased was $66,548.61.
The remainder of an appropriation of $135,000 was expended in putting
them up and distributing them. It surely never could have entered the
minds of those who first sanctioned appropriations of public money for
the purchase of new and improved varieties of seeds for gratuitous
distribution that from this would grow large appropriations for the
purchase and distribution by members of Congress of ordinary seeds,
bulbs, and cuttings which are common in all the States and Territories
and everywhere easily obtainable at low prices.
In each State and Territory an agricultural experiment station has been
established. These stations, by their very character and name, are the
proper agencies to experiment with and test new varieties of seeds; and
yet this indiscriminate and wasteful distribution by legislation and
legislators continues, answering no purpose unless it be to remind
constituents that their representatives are willing to remember them
with gratuities at public cost.
Under the sanction of existing legislation there was sent out from the
Agricultural Department during the last fiscal year enough of cabbage
seed to plant 19,200 acres of land, a sufficient quantity of beans to
plant 4,000 acres, beet seed enough to plant 2,500 acres, sweet corn
enough to plant 7,800 acres, sufficient cucumber seed to cover 2,025
acres with vines, and enough muskmelon and watermelon seeds to plant
2,675 acres. The total quantity of flower and vegetable seeds thus
distributed was contained in more than 9,000,000 packages, and they
were sufficient if planted to cover 89,596 acres of land.
In view of these facts this enormous expenditure without legitimate
returns of benefit ought to be abolished. Anticipating a consummation
so manifestly in the interest of good administration, more than
$100,000 has been stricken from the estimate made to cover this object
for the year ending June 30, 1895; and the Secretary recommends that
the remaining $35,000 of the estimate be confined strictly to the
purchase of new and improved varieties of seeds, and that these be
distributed through experiment stations.
Thus the seed will be tested, and after the test has been completed by
the experiment station the propagation of the useful varieties and the
rejection of the valueless may safely be left to the common sense of
the people.
The continued intelligent execution of the civil-service law and the
increasing approval by the people of its operation are most gratifying.
The recent extension of its limitations and regulations to the
employees at free-delivery post-offices, which has been honestly and
promptly accomplished by the Commission, with the hearty cooperation of
the Postmaster-General, is an immensely important advance in the
usefulness of the system.
I am, if possible, more than ever convinced of the incalculable
benefits conferred by the civil-service law, not only in its effect
upon the public service, but also, what is even more important, in its
effect in elevating the tone of political life generally.
The course of civil-service reform in this country instructively and
interestingly illustrates how strong a hold a movement gains upon our
people which has underlying it a sentiment of justice and right and
which at the same time promises better administration of their
Government.
The law embodying this reform found its way to our statute book more
from fear of the popular sentiment existing in its favor than from any
love for the reform itself on the part of legislators, and it has lived
and grown and flourished in spite of the covert as well as open
hostility of spoilsmen and notwithstanding the querulous
impracticability of many self-constituted guardians. Beneath all the
vagaries and sublimated theories which are attracted to it there
underlies this reform a sturdy common-sense principle not only suited
to this mundane sphere, but whose application our people are more and
more recognizing to be absolutely essential to the most successful
operation of their Government, if not to its perpetuity.
It seems to me to be entirely inconsistent with the character of this
reform, as well as with its best enforcement, to oblige the Commission
to rely for clerical assistance upon clerks detailed from other
Departments. There ought not to be such a condition in any Department
that clerks hired to do work there can be spared to habitually work at
another place, and it does not accord with a sensible view of
civil-service reform that persons should be employed on the theory that
their labor is necessary in one Department when in point of fact their
services are devoted to entirely different work in another Department.
I earnestly urge that the clerks necessary to carry on the work of the
Commission be regularly put upon its roster and that the system of
obliging the Commissioners to rely upon the services of clerks
belonging to other Departments be discontinued. This ought not to
increase the expense to the Government, while it would certainly be
more consistent and add greatly to the efficiency of the Commission.
Economy in public expenditure is a duty that can not innocently be
neglected by those intrusted with the control of money drawn from the
people for public uses. It must be confessed that our apparently
endless resources, the familiarity of our people with immense
accumulations of wealth, the growing sentiment among them that the
expenditure of public money should in some manner be to their immediate
and personal advantage, the indirect and almost stealthy manner in
which a large part of our taxes is exacted, and a degenerated sense of
official accountability have led to growing extravagance in
governmental appropriations.
At this time, when a depleted public Treasury confronts us, when many
of our people are engaged in a hard struggle for the necessaries of
life, and when enforced economy is pressing upon the great mass of our
countrymen, I desire to urge with all the earnestness at my command
that Congressional legislation be so limited by strict economy as to
exhibit an appreciation of the condition of the Treasury and a sympathy
with the straitened circumstances of our fellow-citizens.
The duty of public economy is also of immense importance in its
intimate and necessary relation to the task now in hand of providing
revenue to meet Government expenditures and yet reducing the people's
burden of Federal taxation.
After a hard struggle tariff reform is directly before us. Nothing so
important claims our attention and nothing so clearly presents itself
as both an opportunity and a duty--an opportunity to deserve the
gratitude of our fellow-citizens and a duty imposed upon us by our
oft-repeated professions and by the emphatic mandate of the people.
After full discussion our countrymen have spoken in favor of this
reform, and they have confided the work of its accomplishment to the
hands of those who are solemnly pledged to it.
If there is anything in the theory of a representation in public places
of the people and their desires, if public officers are really the
servants of the people, and if political promises and professions have
any binding force, our failure to give the relief so long awaited will
be sheer recreancy. Nothing should intervene to distract our attention
or disturb our effort until this reform is accomplished by wise and
careful legislation.
While we should stanchly adhere to the principle that only the
necessity of revenue justifies the imposition of tariff duties and
other Federal taxation and that they should be limited by strict
economy, we can not close our eyes to the fact that conditions have
grown up among us which in justice and fairness call for discriminating
care in the distribution of such duties and taxation as the emergencies
of our Government actually demand.
Manifestly if we are to aid the people directly through tariff reform,
one of its most obvious features should be a reduction in present
tariff charges upon the necessaries of life. The benefits of such a
reduction would be palpable and substantial, seen and felt by thousands
who would be better fed and better clothed and better sheltered. These
gifts should be the willing benefactions of a Government whose highest
function is the promotion of the welfare of the people.
Not less closely related to our people's prosperity and well-being is
the removal of restrictions upon the importation of the raw materials
necessary to our manufactures. The world should be open to our national
ingenuity and enterprise. This can not be while Federal legislation
through the imposition of high tariff forbids to American manufacturers
as cheap materials as those used by their competitors. It is quite
obvious that the .enhancement of the price of our manufactured products
resulting from this policy not only confines the market for these
products within our own borders, to the direct disadvantage of our
manufacturers, but also increases their cost to our citizens.
The interests of labor are certainly, though indirectly, involved in
this feature of our tariff system. The sharp competition and active
struggle among our manufacturers to supply the limited demand for their
goods soon fill the narrow market to which they are confined. Then
follows a suspension of work in mills and factories, a discharge of
employees, and distress in the homes of our workingmen.
Even if the often-disproved assertion could be made good that a lower
rate of wages would result from free raw materials and low tariff
duties, the intelligence of our workmen leads them quickly to discover
that their steady employment, permitted by free raw materials, is the
most important factor in their relation to tariff legislation.
A measure has been prepared by the appropriate Congressional committee
embodying tariff reform on the lines herein suggested, which will be
promptly submitted for legislative action. It is the result of much
patriotic and unselfish work, and I believe it deals with its subject
consistently and as thoroughly as existing conditions permit.
I am satisfied that the reduced tariff duties provided for in the
proposed legislation, added to existing internal-revenue taxation, will
in the near future, though perhaps not immediately, produce sufficient
revenue to meet the needs of the Government.
The committee, after full consideration and to provide against a
temporary deficiency which may exist before the business of the country
adjusts itself to the new tariff schedules, have wisely embraced in
their plan a few additional internal-revenue taxes, including a small
tax upon incomes derived from certain corporate investments.
These new adjustments are not only absolutely just and easily borne,
but they have the further merit of being such as can be remitted
without unfavorable business disturbance whenever the necessity of
their imposition no longer exists.
In my great desire for the success of this measure I can not restrain
the suggestion that its success can only be attained by means of
unselfish counsel on the part of the friends of tariff reform and as a
result of their willingness to subordinate personal desires and
ambitions to the general good. The local interests affected by the
proposed reform are so numerous and so varied that if all are insisted
upon the legislation embodying the reform must inevitably fail.
In conclusion my intense feeling of responsibility impels me to invoke
for the manifold interests of a generous and confiding people the most
scrupulous care and to pledge my willing support to every legislative
effort for the advancement of the greatness and prosperity of our
beloved country.
GROVER CLEVELAND
***
State of the Union Address
Grover Cleveland
December 3, 1894
To the Congress of the United States:
The assemblage within the nation's legislative halls of those charged
with the duty of making laws for the benefit of a generous and free
people impressively suggests the exacting obligation and inexorable
responsibility involved in their task. At the threshold of such labor
now to be undertaken by the Congress of the United States, and in the
discharge of an executive duty enjoined by the Constitution, I submit
this communication, containing a brief statement of the condition of
our national affairs and recommending such legislation as seems to me
necessary and expedient.
The history of our recent dealings with other nations and our peaceful
relations with them at this time additionally demonstrate the advantage
of consistently adhering to a firm but just foreign policy, free from
envious or ambitious national schemes and characterized by entire
honesty and sincerity.
During the past year, pursuant to a law of Congress, commissioners were
appointed to the Antwerp Industrial Exposition. Though the
participation of American exhibitors fell far short of completely
illustrating our national ingenuity and industrial achievements, yet it
was quite creditable in view of the brief time allowed for preparation.
I have endeavored to impress upon the Belgian Government the
heedlessness and positive harmfulness of its restrictions upon the
importation of certain of our food products, and have strongly urged
that the rigid supervision and inspection under our laws are amply
sufficient to prevent the exportation from this country of diseased
cattle and unwholesome meat.
The termination of the civil war in Brazil has been followed by the
general prevalence of peace and order. It appearing at an early stage
of the insurrection that its course would call for unusual watchfulness
on the part of this Government, our naval force in the harbor of Rio de
Janeiro was strengthened. This precaution, I am satisfied, tended to
restrict the issue to a simple trial of strength between the Brazilian
Government and the insurgents and to avert complications which at times
seemed imminent. Our firm attitude of neutrality was maintained to the
end. The insurgents received no encouragement of eventual asylum from
our commanders, and such opposition as they encountered was for the
protection of our commerce and was clearly justified by public law.
A serious tension of relations having arisen at the close of the war
between Brazil and Portugal by reason of the escape of the insurgent
admiral Da Gama and his followers, the friendly offices of our
representatives to those countries were exerted for the protection of
the subjects of either within the territory of the other.
Although the Government of Brazil was duly notified that the commercial
arrangement existing between the United States and that country based
on the third section of the tariff act of 1890 was abrogated on August
28, 1894, by the taking effect of the tariff law now in force, that
Government subsequently notified us of its intention to terminate such
arrangement on the 1st day of January, 1895, in the exercise of the
right reserved in the agreement between the two countries. I invite
attention to the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the
Brazilian minister on this subject.
The commission organized under the convention which we had entered into
with Chile for the settlement of the outstanding claims of each
Government against the other adjourned at the end of the period
stipulated for its continuance leaving undetermined a number of
American cases which had been duly presented. These claims are not
barred, and negotiations are in progress for their submission to a new
tribunal.
On the 17th of March last a new treaty with China in further regulation
of emigration was signed at Washington, and on August 13 it received
the sanction of the Senate. Ratification on the part of China and
formal exchange are awaited to give effect to this mutually beneficial
convention.
A gratifying recognition of the uniform impartiality of this country
toward all foreign states was manifested by the coincident request of
the Chinese and Japanese Governments that the agents of the United
States should within proper limits afford protection to the subjects of
the other during the suspension of diplomatic relations due to a state
of war. This delicate office was accepted, and a misapprehension which
gave rise to the belief that in affording this kindly unofficial
protection our agents would exercise the same authority which the
withdrawn agents of the belligerents had exercised was promptly
corrected. Although the war between China and Japan endangers no policy
of the United States, it deserves our gravest consideration by reason
of its disturbance of our growing commercial interests in the two
countries and the increased dangers which may result to our citizens
domiciled or sojourning in the interior of China.