MESSAGE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 COMMUNICATED TO THE 
 
 TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 
 
 AT THE 
 
 BEGINNING OF THE THIRD SESSION OF 
 THE FIFTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 1904 
 
Avery Arc hitectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Sfymoi r B. Di rst Old York Library 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/messageofpresideOOunit_0 
 
MESSAGE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 COMMUNICATED TO THE 
 
 TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 
 
 AT THE 
 
 BEGINNING OF THE THIRD SESSION OF 
 THE FIFTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 1904 
 
MESSAGE. 
 
 To the Senate and House of Representatives: • 
 
 The Nation continues to enjoy noteworthy prosperity. Such 
 prosperity is of course primarily due to the high individual average 
 of our citizenship, taken together with our great natural resources; 
 but an important factor therein is the working of our long-continued 
 governmental policies. The people have emphatically expressed 
 their approval of the principles underlying these policies, and their 
 desire that these principles be kept substantially unchanged, although 
 of course applied in a progressive spirit to meet changing conditions. 
 
 The enlargement of scope of the functions of the National Gov- 
 ernment required by our development as a nation involves, of course, 
 increase of expense; and the period of prosperity through which the 
 country is passing justifies expenditures for permanent improve- 
 ments far greater than would be wise in hard 
 
 Caution against times. Battle ships and forts, public buildings, 
 extravagance. ^ . . . ... 
 
 and improved waterways are investments which 
 
 should be made when we have the money; but abundant revenues and 
 
 a large surplus always invite extravagance, and constant care should 
 
 be taken to guard against unnecessary increase of the ordinary 
 
 expenses of government. The cost of doing Goveniment business 
 
 should be regulated with the same rigid scrutiny as the cost of doing 
 
 a private business. 
 
 In the vast and complicated mechanism of our modern civilized 
 
 life the dominant note is the note of industrialism; and the relations 
 
 of capital and labor, and especially of organized 
 Capital and labor. capital and organized labor, to each other and to 
 
 the public at large come second in importance 
 only to the intimate questions of family life. Our peculiar form 
 of government, with its sharp division of authority between the 
 Nation and the several States, has been on the whole far more 
 
2 
 
 ach atanocoiis to our (k'\ cl<)])nK'iit than a more slronoly centralized 
 oo\-ernnient. lUit it is undonbtedh- responsible for nincli of the 
 difficulty of nieetino- with ade(|uate le.^islation the new problems 
 presented by the total change in industrial conditions on this con- 
 tinent during the last half centurw In actual ])ractice it has proved 
 exceedini;l\- difficult, and in many cases impossible, to <^et unan- 
 imity of wise action anionj^- the various States on these subjects. 
 From the very nature of the case this is especially true of the laws 
 affecting; the eniploMuent of capital in hu<^e masses. 
 
 With regard to labor the problem is no less important, but it 
 is simpler. As lono- as the States retain the primary control of 
 the police power the circumstances must be altogether extreme 
 which require interference by the Federal authorities, whether in 
 the way of safeguarding the rights of labor or in the way of seeing 
 that wrong is not done by unrtily persons who shield themselves 
 behind the name of labor. If there is resistance to the Federal 
 courts, interference with the mails, or interstate commerce, or molesta- 
 tion of Federal propert}', or if the State authorities in some crisis 
 wdiich they are unable to face call for help, then the Federal Gov- 
 ernment may interfere; but though such interference may be caused 
 by a condition of things arising out of trouble connected with some 
 question of labor, the interference itself simply takes the form of 
 restoring order wdthout 'regard to the questions which have caused 
 the breach of order — for to keep order is a primary duty and in a 
 time of disorder and violence all other questions sink into abeyance 
 until order has been restored. In the District of Columbia and in 
 the Territories the Federal law covers the entire field of govern- 
 ment; but the labor question is only acute in ^^opulous centers of com- 
 merce, manufactures, or mining. Nevertheless, both in the enactment 
 and in the enforcement of law^ the Federal Government within its 
 restricted sphere shoidd set an example to the State governments, 
 especially in a matter so vital as this affecting labor. I believe that 
 under modern industrial conditions it is often necessary, and even 
 where not necessary it is yet often wise, that there should be organ- 
 ization of labor in order better to secure the rights of the individual 
 wage-worker. All encouragement should be given to any such 
 organization, so long as it is conducted wdth a due and decent 
 regard for the rights of others. There are in this country some 
 labor unions which have habitually, and other labor unions which 
 have often, been among the most effective agents in working for 
 good citizenship and for uplifting the condition of those wdiose 
 welfare should be closest to our hearts. But when any labor union 
 
3 
 
 seeks improper ends, or seeks to achieve proper ends by improper 
 means, all good citizens and more especially all honorable public 
 servants must oppose the wrongdoing as resolutely as they would 
 oppose the wrongdoing of any great corporation. Of course any 
 violence, brutality, or corruption, should not for one moment be toler- 
 ated. Wage-workers have an entire right to organize and by all 
 peaceful and honorable means to endeavor to persuade their fel- 
 lows to join with them in organizations. They have a legal right, 
 which, according to circumstances, may or may not be a moral right, 
 to refuse to work in company with men who decline to join their 
 organizations. They have imder no circumstances the right to 
 commit violence upon those, whether capitalists or wage-workers, 
 who refuse to support their organizations, or who side with those 
 with whom they are at odds; for mob rule is intolerable in any form. 
 
 The wage-workers are peculiarly entitled to the protection and 
 the encouragement of the law. From the very nature of their 
 occupation railroad men, for instance, are liable to be maimed in 
 doing the legitimate work of their profession, unless the railroad 
 companies are required by law to make ample 
 l^^Tt^^r^ provision for their safety. The Administration 
 
 la uty aw. been zealous in enforcing the existing law 
 
 for this purpose. That law should be amended and strengthened. 
 Wherever the National Government has power there should be a 
 stringent employer's liability law, which should apply to the Gov- 
 ernment itself where the Government is an employer of labor. 
 
 In my Message to the Fifty-seventh Congress, at its second session, 
 I urged the passage of an employer's liability law for the District 
 of Columbia. I now renew that recommendation, and further 
 recommend that the Congress appoint a commission to make a 
 comprehensive study of employer's liability with the view of extend- 
 ing the provisions of a great and constitutional law to all employ- 
 ments within the scope of Federal power. 
 
 The Government has recognized heroism upon the water, and 
 bestows medals of honor upon those persons who by extreme and 
 heroic daring have endangered their lives in sav- 
 Medals of honor. ing, or endeavoring to save, lives from the perils 
 of the sea in the waters over which the United 
 States has jurisdiction, or upon an American vessel. This recog- 
 nition should be extended to cover cases of conspicuous bravery 
 and self-sacrifice in the saving of life in private employments under 
 the jurisdiction of the United States, and particularly in the land 
 commerce of the Nation. 
 
4 
 
 The ever-increasing- casualt)- list upon onr railroads is a matter 
 of trrave public concern, and nrj^enth- calls for action by the Con- 
 gress. In the matter of speed and comfort of railway travel our 
 railroads give at least as good service as those of 
 
 Prevention of other nation, and there is no reason whv this 
 
 railroad accidents. ' . , , . . . , , 
 
 service should not also be as sate as human ingenu- 
 ity can make it. Many of our leading roads have been foremost in 
 the adoption of the most approved safeguards for the protection of 
 travelers and employees, yet the list of clearly avoidable accidents 
 continues unduly large. The passage of a law requiring the adop- 
 tion of a block-signal s\-stem has been proposed to the Congress. I 
 earnestly concur in that recommendation, and would also point out 
 to the Congress the urgent need of legislation in the interest of the 
 public safety limiting the hours of labor for railroad employees 
 in train service upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce, and 
 providing that only trained and experienced persons be employed in 
 positions of responsibility connected with the operation of trains. 
 Of course nothing can ever prevent accidents caused by human 
 w^eakness or misconduct; and there should be drastic punishment 
 for any railroad employee, whether officer or man, who by issuance 
 of wrong orders or by disobedience of orders causes disaster. The 
 law of 1 901, requiring interstate railroads to make monthly reports 
 of all accidents to passengers and employees on duty, should also be 
 amended so as to empower the Government to make a personal 
 investigation, through proper officers, of all accidents involving loss 
 of life which seem to require investigation, with a requirement that 
 the results of such investigation be made public. 
 
 The safety-appliance law, as amended by the act of ]\Iarch 2, 
 1903, has proved beneficial to railway employees, and in order that 
 its provisions may be properly carried out, the force of inspectors 
 provided for by appropriation should be largely increased. This 
 service is analogous to the Steamboat-Inspection Service, and deals 
 with even more important interests. It has passed the experimental 
 stage and demonstrated its utility, and should receive generous 
 recognition by the Congress. 
 
 There is no objection to employees of the Government forming 
 or belonging to unions; but the Government can neither discrimi- 
 nate for nor discriminate against nonunion men wdio are in its 
 employment, or wdio seek to be employed under it. ]\Ioreover, it 
 is a very grave impropriety for Government employees to band 
 themselves together for the purpose of extorting improperly high 
 salaries from the Government. Especially is this true of those 
 
5 
 
 within the classified service. The letter carriers, both municipal 
 
 and rural, are as a whole an excellent body of public servants. 
 
 They should be amply paid. But their payment must be obtained 
 
 by arguing their claims fairly and honorably before 
 
 Unions of Congress, and not by banding together for the 
 
 1 defeat of those CongTressmen who refuse to orive 
 
 employees. _ ^ , , 
 
 promises which they can not in conscience give. 
 The Administration has already taken steps to prevent and punish 
 abuses of this nature; but it will be wise for the Congress to sup- 
 plement this action by legislation. 
 
 Much can be done by the Government in labor matters merely 
 by giving publicity to certain conditions. The Bureau of Labor 
 has done excellent work of this kind in many different directions. 
 
 I shall shortly lay before you in a special message 
 Bureau of Labor. the full report of the investigation of the Bureau 
 
 of Labor into the Colorado mining strike, as this 
 is a strike in which certain very evil forces, which are more or 
 less at work ever\'where under the conditions of modern industri- 
 alism, became startlingly prominent. It is greatly to be wished 
 that the Department of Commerce and Labor, through the Labor 
 Bureau, should compile and arrange for the Congress a list of the 
 labor laws of the various States, and should be given the means to 
 investigate and report to the Congress upon the labor conditions 
 in the manufacturing and mining regions throughout the countr}', 
 both as to wages, as to hours of labor, as to the labor of women 
 and children, and as to the effect in the various labor centers of 
 immigration from abroad. In this investigation especial attention 
 should be paid to the conditions of child labor and child-labor leg- 
 islation in the several States. Such an investigation must neces- 
 sarily take into account many of the problems with which this 
 question of child labor is connected. These problems can be act- 
 ually met, in most cases, only by the States themselves; but the 
 lack of proper legislation in one State in such a matter as child 
 labor often renders it excessively difficult to establish protective 
 restriction upon the work in another State having the same indus- 
 tries, so that the worst tends to drag down the better. For this 
 reason, it would be well for the Nation at least to endeavor to secure 
 comprehensive information as to the conditions of labor of children 
 in the different States. Such investigation and publication by the 
 National Government would tend toward the securing of approxi- 
 mately uniform legislation of the proper character among the sev- 
 eral States. 
 
 2 
 
6 
 
 \\'hcn wc come to deal with iL^reat cor])orations the need for the 
 Governineiit to act direct!)- is far ^^reater than in the case of labor, 
 becanse i^reat corporations can become snch onh' by en<4-ao^in(»- in 
 interstate commerce, and interstate commerce is 
 Corporations. ])ecnliarly the field of the General (lovernment. 
 
 It is an absnrdity to expect to eliminate the 
 abnses in oreat cor])orations by State action. It is difficult to be 
 patient with an argument that such matters should be left to the 
 States, because more than one vState pursues the policy of cre- 
 atincr on easy terms corporations which are never operated within 
 that State at all, but in other States whose laws they ignore. The 
 National Government alone can deal adequately with these great 
 corporations. To try to deal with them in an intemperate, destruc- 
 tive, or demagogic spirit would, in all probability, mean that nothing 
 whatever would be accomplished, and, with absolute certainty, that 
 if anything were accomplished it would be of a harmful nature. 
 The American people need to continue to show the xQiy qualities 
 that they have shown — that is, moderation, good sense, the earnest 
 desire to avoid doing any damage, and yet the quiet determination 
 to proceed, step by step, without halt and without hurry, in eliminat- 
 ing or at least in minimizing whatever of mischief or of evil there 
 is to interstate commerce in the conduct of great corporations. 
 They are acting in no spirit of hostility to wealth, either individual 
 or corporate. The}- are not against the rich man au}- more than 
 against the poor man. On the contrary, they are friendly alike 
 toward rich man and toward poor man, provided only that each acts 
 in a spirit of justice and decency toward his fellow\s. Great corpora- 
 tions are necessary, and only men of great and singular mental 
 power can manage such corporations successfulh', and such men 
 must have great rewards. But these corporations should* be man- 
 aged with due regard to the interest of the public as a whole. Where 
 this can be done under the present laws it must be done. Where 
 these laws come short others should be enacted to supplement them. 
 
 Yet we must never forget the determining factor in every kind 
 of work, of head or hand, must be the man's own good sense, cour- 
 age, and kindliness. More important than an\' legislation is the 
 gradual growth of a feeling of responsibility and forbearance among 
 capitalists and wage-workers alike; a feeling of respect on the part 
 of each man for the rights of others; a feeling of broad community 
 of interest, not merely of capitalists among themselves, and of wage- 
 workers among themselves, but of capitalists and wage-workers in 
 their relations to each other, and of both in their relations to their 
 
7 
 
 fellows who with them make up the body politic. There are many 
 captains of industry, many labor leaders, who realize this. A recent 
 speech by the president of one of our great railroad systems to the 
 employees of that system contains sound common sense. It runs in 
 part as follows: 
 
 " It is my belief we can better serve each other, better understand 
 the man as well as his business, when meeting face to face, exchang- 
 ing views, and realizing from personal contact we serve but one 
 interest, that of our mutual prosperit}'. 
 
 "Serious misunderstandings can not occur where personal good 
 will exists and opportunit}' for personal explanation is present. 
 
 "In my early business life I had experience with men of affairs 
 of a character to make me desire to avoid creating a like feeling of 
 resentment to myself and the interests in my charge, should fortune 
 ever place me in authority, and I am solicitous of a measure of con- 
 fidence on the part of the public and our employees that I shall 
 hope may be warranted by the fairness and good fellowship I intend 
 shall prevail in our relationship. 
 
 "But do not feel I am disposed to grant unreasonable requests, 
 spend the money of our company unnecessarily or without value 
 received, nor expect the days of mistakes are disappearing, or that 
 cause for complaint will not continually occur; simply to correct 
 such abuses as may be discovered, to better conditions as fast as 
 reasonably may be expected, constantly striving, with varying suc- 
 cess, for that improvement we all desire, to convince you there is a 
 force at work in the right direction, all the time making progress — 
 is the disposition with which I have come among you, asking your 
 good will and encouragement. 
 
 " The day has gone by when a corporation can be handled suc- 
 cessfully in defiance of the public will, even though that will be 
 unreasonable and wrong. A public may be led, but not driven, and 
 I prefer to go with it and shape or modif}', in a measure, its opinion, 
 rather than be swept from my bearings, with loss to m}'self and the 
 interests in my charge. 
 
 " Violent prejudice exists towards corporate activity and capital 
 to-day, much of it founded in reason, more in apprehension, and a 
 large measure is due to the personal traits of arbitrar}-, unreason- 
 able, incompetent, and offensive men in positions of authority. The 
 accomplishment of results by indirection, the endeavor to thwart 
 the intention, if not the expressed letter of the law (the will of the 
 people), a disregard of the rights of others, a disposition to withhold 
 what is due, to force by main strength or inactivity a result not 
 
8 
 
 justified, (k'})c'n(liii!L^ upon the weakness of tlie claimant and his 
 iu(lis])osition to l)ecouie in\-ol\ed in litii^ation, has created a senti- 
 ment harmful in the extreme and a disposition to consider anything- 
 fair that <^ives t>-ain to the individual at the expense of the company. 
 
 ''If corporations are to continue to do the world's work, as they 
 are l)est fitted to, these (pialities in their rei)resentatives that have 
 resulted in the present prejudice against them must be relegated to 
 the backg-round. The corporations must come out into the open 
 and see and l)e seen. They must take the public into their confi- 
 dence and ask for what the\' want, and no more, and be prepared to 
 explain satisfactorily what adxantage will accrue to the public if 
 they are given their desires; for they are permitted to exist not that 
 they may make money solely, but that they may effectively serve 
 those from whom they derive their power. 
 
 Publicity, and not secrecy, will win hereafter, and laws be con- 
 strued by their intent and not by their letter, otherwise public util- 
 ities will be owned and operated by the public which created them, 
 even though the service be less efficient and the result less satis- 
 factory from a financial standpoint." 
 
 The Bureati of Corporations has made careful preliminary investi- 
 gation of many important corporations. It will make a special 
 report on the beef industr}\ 
 
 The policy of the Btireau is to accomplish the purposes of its 
 
 creation by cooperation, not antagonism; by making constructive 
 
 legislation, not destrtictive prosecution, the imme- 
 
 Bureau of diate object of its inqiiiries; bv conservative inves- 
 
 Corporations. . . . , / . ; , r ^ 
 
 tigation oi law and tact, and by rerusal to issue 
 
 incomplete and hence necessarily inaccurate reports. Its policy- 
 being thus one of open inquiry into, and not attack upon, business, 
 the Bureau has been able to gain not only the confidence, but, better 
 still, the cooperation of men engaged in legitimate business. 
 
 The Bureau offers to the Congress the means of getting at the 
 cost of production of our various great staples of commerce. 
 
 Of necessity the careful investigation of special corporations will 
 afford the Commissioner knowledge of certain business facts, the 
 publication of which might be an improper infringement of private 
 rights. The method of making public the results of these investi- 
 gations affords, under the law, a means for the protection of private 
 rights. The Congress will have all facts except such as w^ould give 
 to another corporation information which would injure the legitimate 
 business of a competitor and destroy the incentive for individual 
 superiority and thrift. 
 
9 
 
 The Bureau has also made exhaustive exaniiuatious into the 
 legal condition under which corporate business is carried on in the 
 various States; into all judicial decisions on the subject; and into 
 the various systems of corporate taxation in use. I call special 
 attention to the report of the chief of the Bureau; and I earnestly 
 ask that the Congress carefully consider the report and recommen- 
 dations of the Commissioner on this subject. 
 
 The business of insurance vitalh* affects the great mass of the 
 people of the United States and is national and not local in its 
 application. It involves a multitude of transac- 
 Insurance. tions among the people of the different States and 
 
 between American companies and foreign govern- 
 ments. I urge that the Congress carefully consider whether the 
 power of the Bureau of Corporations can not constitutionally be 
 extended to cover interstate transactions in insurance. 
 
 Above all else, we must strive to keep the highways of commerce 
 open to all on equal terms; and to do this it is necessary to put a 
 complete stop to all rebates. Whether the shipper or the railroad 
 is to blame makes no difference; the rebate must 
 Rebates. be stopped, the abuses of the private car and pri- 
 
 vate terminal-track and side-track s}'stems must 
 be stopped, and the legislation of the Fift}'-eighth Congress which 
 declares it to be imlawful for any person or corporation to offer, 
 grant, give, solicit, accept, or receive any rebate, concession, or 
 discrimination in respect of the transportation of any property in 
 interstate or foreign commerce whereb}' such property shall by 
 any device whatever he transported at a less rate than that named 
 in the tariffs published by the carrier must be enforced. For some 
 time after the enactment of the Act to Regulate Commerce it 
 remained a mooted question whether that act conferred upon the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission the power, after it had found a 
 challenged rate to be unreasonable, to declare what thereafter should, 
 prima facie, be the reasonable maximum rate for the transportation 
 in dispute. The Supreme Court finally resolved that question in 
 the negative, so that as the law now stands the Commission simply 
 possess the bare power to denounce a particular rate as unreasonable. 
 While I am of the opinion that at present it would be undesirable, 
 if it were not impracticable, finally to clothe the Commission with 
 general authority to fix railroad rates, I do believe that, as a fair 
 security to shippers, the Commission should be vested with the 
 power, where a given rate has been challenged and after full hearing 
 found to be unreasonable, to decide, subject to judicial review, what 
 
lO 
 
 shall be a reasonable rate to take its place; the ruling of the Com- 
 mission to take effect immediately, and to obtain unless and imtil 
 it is reversed by the court of review. The Government must in 
 increasing degree supervise and regulate the workings of the railways 
 engaged in interstate commerce; and such increased super\^ision is 
 the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one 
 hand or a still more radical policy on the other. In my judgment 
 the most important legislative act now needed as regards the regu- 
 lation of corporations is this act to confer on the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission the power to revise rates and regulations, the 
 revised rate to at once go into effect, and to stay in effect unless and 
 until the court of review reverses it. 
 
 Steamship companies engaged in interstate commerce and pro- 
 tected in our coastwise trade, should be held to a strict observance 
 of the interstate commerce act. 
 
 In pursuing the set plan to make the cit}' of Washington an 
 example to other American municipalities several points should be 
 kept in mind by the legislators. In the first place, the people of 
 this country should clearly understand that no 
 City of Washington, amount of industrial prosperity, and above all 
 no leadership in international industrial com- 
 petition, can in any way atone for the sapping of the vitality of 
 those who are usually spoken of as the working classes. The farm- 
 ers, the mechanics, the skilled and unskilled laborers, the small shop 
 keepers, make up the bulk of the population of any country; and 
 upon their well-being, generation after generation, the well-being 
 of the countr}' and the race depends. Rapid development in wealth 
 and industrial leadership is a good thing, but onh' if it goes hand 
 in hand with improvement, and not deterioration, physical and 
 moral. The o\'ercrowding of cities and the draining of country 
 districts are unhealth}' and even dangerous s}-mptoms in our 
 modern life. We should not permit overcrowding in cities. In 
 certain European cities it is provided by law that the population 
 of towns shall not be allowed to exceed a very limited density for 
 a given area, so that the increase in density must be continually 
 pushed back into a broad zone around the center of the town, this 
 zone having great avenues or parks within it. The death-rate 
 statistics show a terrible increase in n^ortality, and especialh' in 
 *nfant mortality, in overcrowded tenements. The poorest families 
 tenement houses live in one room, and it appears that in these 
 room tenements the average death rate for a number of given 
 at home and abroad is about twice what it is in a two-room 
 
1 1 
 
 tenement, fonr times what it is in a three-room tenement, and eight 
 times what it is in a tenement consisting of fonr rooms or over. 
 These figures vary somewhat for different cities, but they approxi- 
 mate in eacli city those given above; and in all cases the increase of 
 mortalitv, and especially of infant mortality, with the decrease in 
 the number of rooms used by the famih" and with the consequent 
 overcrowding is startling. The slum exacts a heavy total of death 
 from those who dwell therein; and this is the case not merely in 
 the great crowded slums of high buildings in New York and Chicago, 
 but in the alle>' slums of Washington. In Washington people can 
 not afford to ignore the harm that this causes. No Christian and 
 civilized community can afford to show a happy-go-lucky lack of 
 concern for the youth of to-day; for, if so, the community will have 
 to pav a terrible penalty of financial burden and social degradation 
 in the to-morrow. There should be severe child-labor and factory- 
 inspection laws. It is very desirable that married women should not 
 work in factories. The prime dut\- of the man is to work, to be the 
 breadwinner; the prime dut}' of the woman is to be the mother, the 
 housewife. All questions of tariff and finance sink into utter insig- 
 nificance wdien compared with the tremendous, the vital importance 
 of tr\-ing to shape conditions so that these two duties of the man and 
 of the woman can be fulfilled under reasonably favorable circum- 
 stances. If a race does not have plenty of children, or if the children 
 do not grow up, or if when the}' grow up the}- are unhealthy in 
 body and stunted or vicious in mind, then that race is decadent, and 
 no heaping up of wealth, no splendor of momentar}- material pros- 
 perity, can avail in au}' degree as offsets. 
 
 The Congress has the same power of legislation for the District 
 of Columbia which the State legislatures have for the various 
 States. The problems incident to our highly complex modern 
 industrial civilization, with its manifold and perplexing tendencies 
 both for good and for evil, are far less sharply ac^rentuated in the 
 city of Washington than in most other cities. For this very reason 
 it is easier to deal with the various phases of these problems in Wash 
 ington, and the District of Columbia government should be a mode 
 for the other municipal governments of the Nation, in all such mas- 
 ters as supervision of the housing of the poor, the creation of small 
 parks in the districts inhabited by the poor, in laws affecting labor, 
 in laws providing for the taking care of the children, in truant laws, 
 and in providing schools. 
 
 In the vital matter of taking care of children, much advantage 
 could be gained by a careful study of what has been accomplished 
 
12 
 
 ill sucli States as Illinois and Colorado 1)\- the jiueiiile eourts. The 
 Avork of the jiu'enile court is reall\- a work of character l)iiildinor. 
 It is now t)eiierally reco<^ni/.ed that yoiiii<;' bows and yonii<^- oirls who 
 go wrong should not be treated as criiiiiiials, not even necessarily as 
 needing- reforination, but rather as needing to have their characters 
 formed, and for this end to have them tested and developed by a 
 system of probation. AInch admirable work has been done in many 
 of onr Commonwealths by earnest men and women who have made 
 a special stndy of the needs of those classes of children which 
 fnrnish the greatest nnmber of jnvenile offenders, and therefore 
 the greatest number of adult offenders; and by their aid, and by 
 profiting by the experiences of the different States and cities in 
 these matters, it would be easy to provide a good code for the District 
 of Columbia. 
 
 Several considerations suggest the need for a systematic investi- 
 gation into and improvement of housing conditions in Washington. 
 The hidden residential allevs are breeding- g-rounds of vice and 
 disease, and should be opened into minor streets. For a number of 
 years influential citizens have joined with the District Commission- 
 ers in the vain endeavor to secure law^s permitting the condemnation 
 of insanitary dwellings. The local death rates, especialh' from pre- 
 ventable diseases, are so unduh' high as to suggest that the excep- 
 tional wholesomeness of Washington's better sections is offset by 
 bad conditions in her poorer neighborhoods. A special "Commis- 
 vsion on Housing and Health Conditions in the National Capital " 
 would not only bring about the reformation of existing evils, but 
 would also formulate an appropriate building code to protect the 
 city from mammoth brick tenements and other evils wdiich threaten 
 to develop here as the\' have in other cities. That the Nation's 
 Capital should be made a model for other municipalities is an ideal 
 which appeals to all patriotic citizens everywhere, and such a 
 special Commission might map out and organize the city's future 
 development in lines of civic social service, just as Major L' Enfant 
 and the recent Park Commission planned the arrangement of her 
 streets and parks. 
 
 It is mortifying to remember that Washington has no compulsory 
 school attendance law and that careful inquiries indicate the habitual 
 absence from school of some twenty per cent of all children between 
 the ages of eight and fourteen. It must be evident to all who con- 
 sider the problems of neglected child life or the benefits of compul- 
 sory education in other cities that one of the most urgent needs of 
 the National Capital is a law requiring the school attendance of all 
 
13 
 
 children, this law to be enforced by attendance agents directed by 
 the board of edncation. 
 
 Public play grounds are necessary means for the development of 
 wholesome citizenship in modern cities. It is important that the 
 work inaugurated here through voluntary efforts should be taken 
 up and extended through Congressional appropriation of funds suf- 
 ficient to equip and maintain numerous convenient small play 
 grounds upon land which can be secured without purchase or rental. 
 It is also desirable that small vacant places be purchased and reser\^ed 
 as small-park play grounds in densely settled sections of the city 
 which now have no public open spaces and are destined soon to be 
 built up solidly. All these needs should be met innnediately. To 
 meet them would entail expenses; but a corresponding saving could 
 be made by stopping the building of streets and levelling of ground 
 for purposes largely speculative in outlying parts of the city. 
 
 There are certain offenders, whose criminality takes the shape of 
 brutality and cruelty towards the weak, who need a special type of 
 punishment. The wife-beater, for example, is inadequately pun- 
 ished by imprisonment; for imprisonment may often mean nothing 
 to him, while it may cause hunger and want to the wife and children 
 who have been the victims of his brutality. Probabh- some form of 
 corporal punishment would be the most adequate way of meeting 
 this kind of crime. 
 
 The Department of Agriculture has grown into an educational 
 institution with a facult}' of two thousand specialists making research 
 into all the sciences of production. The Congress appropriates, 
 directly and indirectly, six millions of dollars annually to carr\' on 
 this work. It reaches every State and Territory 
 Agriculture. in the Union and the islands of the sea lately come 
 
 under our flag. Cooperation is had with the State 
 experiment stations, and with many other institutions and individ- 
 uals. The world is carefully searched for new varieties of grains, 
 fruits, grasses, vegetables, trees, and shrubs, suitable to various local- 
 ities in our country; and marked benefit to our producers has resulted. 
 
 The activities of our age in lines of research have reached the 
 tillers of the soil and inspired them with ambition to know more 
 of the principles that govern the forces of nature with which 
 they have to deal. Nearly half of the people of this country 
 devote their energies to growing things from the soil. Until a 
 recent date little has been done to prepare these millions for their 
 life work. In most lines of human activity college-trained men are 
 the leaders. The farmer had no opportunit)- for special training 
 3 
 
14 
 
 until the C()ii<^ivss iiKuk' prox isioii for it fort)- years a<^(). Dnrino- 
 these years pro^fress lias been made and teaehers have been pre- 
 pared. Over five thousand students are in attendance at our vState 
 agricultural colle<^es. The I'ederal Governnient ex])ends ten mil- 
 lions of dollars annually toward this education and for research in 
 Washino-ton and in the se\ eral States and Territories. The Depart- 
 ment of A^^-riculture has given facilities for post-gradtiate work to 
 five hundred youno- men durino- the last seven years, preparino^ them 
 for advanced lines of work in the Department and in the State 
 institutions. 
 
 The facts concerning- meteorology and its relations to plant and 
 animal life are being systematically inquired into. Temperature 
 and moisture are controlling factors in all agricultural operations. 
 The seasons of the cyclones of the Caribbean Sea and their paths 
 are being forecasted with increasing accuracy. The cold winds that 
 come from the north are anticipated and their times and intensity 
 told to farmers, gardeners, and fruiterers in all southern localities. 
 
 We sell two htmdred and fifty million dollars' worth of animals 
 and animal products to foreign countries ever)' }'ear, in addition to 
 supph'ing our own people more cheaph' and abundantly than any 
 other nation is able to provide for its people. Successful manufac- 
 turing depends primarily on cheap food, which accounts to a con- 
 siderable extent for our growth in this direction. The Department 
 of Agriculture, by careful inspection of meats, guards the health of 
 otir people and gives clean bills of health to deserving exports; it 
 is prepared to deal promptly with imported diseases of animals, and 
 maintain the excellence of our flocks and herds in this respect. 
 There should be an annual census of the live stock of the Nation. 
 
 We sell abroad about six hundred million dollars' worth of plants 
 and their products ever}- year. Strenuotis efforts are being made 
 to import from foreign countries such grains as are suitable to our 
 \'arying localities. Seven years ago we bought three-fourths of our 
 rice; by helping the rice growers on the Gulf coast to secure seeds 
 from the Orient stiited to their conditions, and by giving them 
 adequate protection, they now stipply home demand and export to 
 the islands of the Caribbean Sea and to other rice-growing countries. 
 Wheat and other grains have been imported from light-rainfall 
 countries to our lands in the W^est and Southwest that have not 
 grown crops because of light precipitation, resulting in an extensive 
 addition to our cropping area and our home-making territory that 
 can not be irrigated. Ten million bushels of first-class macaroni 
 wheat w^ere grown from these experimental importations last year. 
 
15 
 
 Fruits suitable to our soils and climates are being imported from all 
 the countries of the Old World — the fig from Turkey, the almond 
 from Spain, the date from Algeria, the mango from India. We are 
 helping our fruit growers to get their crops into European markets 
 by studying methods of preservation through refrigeration, packing, 
 and handling, which have been quite successful. We are helping 
 our hop growers by importing varieties that ripen earlier and later 
 than the kinds they have been raising, thereby lengthening the har- 
 vesting season. The cotton crop of the countr}' is threatened with 
 root rot, the bollworm, and the boll weevil. Our pathologists will 
 find immune varieties that will resist the root disease, and the boll- 
 worm can be dealt with, but the boll weevil is a serious menace to 
 the cotton crop. It is a Central American insect that has become 
 acclimated in Texas and has done great damage. A scientist of the 
 Department of Agriculture has found the weevil at home in Guate- 
 mala being kept in check by an ant, which has been brought to our 
 cotton fields for observation. It is hoped that it may serve a good 
 purpose. 
 
 The soils of the country are getting attention from the farmer's 
 standpoint, and interesting results are following. We have dupli- 
 cates of the soils that grow the wrapper tobacco in Sumatra and the 
 filler tobacco in Cuba. It will be only a question of time when the 
 large amounts paid to these countries will be paid to our own peo- 
 ple. The reclamation of alkali lands is progressing, to give object 
 lessons to our people in methods by which worthless lands ma}' be 
 made productive. 
 
 The insect friends and enemies of the farmer are getting attention. 
 The enemy of the San Jose scale was found near the Great Wall of 
 China, and is now^ cleaning up all our orchards. The fig-fertilizing 
 insect imported from Turkey has helped to establish an industry in 
 California that amounts to from fifty to one hundred tons of dried 
 figs annually, and is extending over the Pacific coast. A parasitic 
 fly from South Africa is keeping in subjection the black scale, the 
 worst pest of the orange and lemon industry in California. 
 
 Careful preliminary work is being done towards producing our 
 own silk. The mulberry is being distributed in large numbers, 
 eggs are being imported and distributed, improved reels were 
 imported from Europe last year, and two expert reelers were brought 
 to Washington to reel the crop of cocoons and teach the art to our 
 own people. 
 
 The crop-reporting system of the Department of Agriculture is 
 being brought closer to accurac}- ever}- } ear. It has two hundred 
 
i6 
 
 and fifty thousand reporters selected from peo])le in ei^^ht vocations 
 in life. It has arrantrenients with most Kiiropean countries for inter- 
 chan<;e of estimates, so that our people may know as nearly as pos- 
 sible with what they must compete. 
 
 Durini^' the two and a half years that have elapsed since the pas- 
 sage of the reclamation act rapid progress has been made in the sur- 
 veys and examinations of the opportunities for reclamation in the 
 
 thirteen States and three Territories of the arid 
 Irrigation. West. Construction has already been begun on 
 
 the largest and most important of the irrigation 
 works, and plans are being completed for works which will utilize 
 the funds now available. The operations are being carried on by 
 the Reclamation Service, a corps of engineers selected through 
 competitive civil-service examinations. This corps includes experi- 
 enced consulting and constructing engineers as well as various experts 
 in mechanical and legal matters, and is composed largely of men 
 who have spent most of their lives in practical affairs connected 
 with irrigation. The larger problems have been sol\-ed and it now 
 remains to execute with care, economy, and thoroughness the work 
 which has been laid out. All important details are being carefully con- 
 sidered by boards of consulting engineers, selected for their thorough 
 knowledge and practical experience. Each project is taken up on 
 the ground hy competeilt men and viewed from the standpoint of 
 the creation of prosperous homes, and of prompth' refunding to the 
 Treasury the cost of 'construction. The reclamation act has been 
 found to be remarkabh' complete and effective, and so broad in its 
 provisions that a wide range of undertakings has been possible 
 under it. At the same time, economy is guaranteed by the fact 
 that the funds must ultimately be returned to be used over again. 
 
 It is the cardinal principle of the forest-reserve policy of this 
 Administration that the reserves are for use. Whatever interferes 
 
 with the use of their resources is to be avoided by 
 Forests. every possible means. But these resources must 
 
 be used in such a w^ay as to make them permanent. 
 The forest policy of the Government is just now a subject of vivid 
 public interest throughout the West and to the people of the United 
 vStates in general. The forest reserves themselves are of extreme 
 value to the present as well as to the future welfare of all the west- 
 ern public-land States. They powerfully affect the use and disposal 
 of the public lands. The>' are of special importance because they 
 preserve the water supply and the supply of timber for domestic 
 purposes, and so promote settlement under the reclamation act. 
 
17 
 
 Indeed, they are essential to the welfare of every one of the great 
 interests of the West. 
 
 Forest reserves are created for two principal pnrposes. The first 
 is to preserve the water supply. This is their most important use. 
 The principal users of the water thus preserved are irrigation 
 ranchers and settlers, cities and towns to whom their municipal 
 water supplies are of the very first importance, users and furnishers 
 of water power, and the users of water for domestic, manufacturing, 
 mining, and other purposes. All these are directly dependent upon 
 the forest reserves. 
 
 The second reason for which forest reserves are created is to pre- 
 serve the timber supply for various classes of wood users. Among 
 the more important of these are settlers under the reclamation act 
 and other acts, for whom a cheap and accessible supply of timber 
 for domestic uses is absolutely necessary; miners and prospectors, 
 who are in serious danger of losing their timber supply by fire or 
 through export by lumber companies when timber lands adjacent 
 to their mines pass into private ownership; lumbermen, transpor- 
 tation companies, builders, and commercial interests in general. 
 
 Although the wisdom of creating forest reserves is nearly every- 
 w^here heartily recognized, yet in a few localities there has been 
 misunderstanding and complaint. The following statement is there- 
 fore desirable: 
 
 The forest-reser\'e polic}' can be successful onh' when it has the 
 full support of the people of the West. It can not safely, and should 
 not in any case, be imposed upon them against their wull. But 
 neither can we accept the views of those whose only interest in the 
 forest is temporary; who are anxious to reap what they have not 
 sown and then move away, leaving desolation behind them. On 
 the contrar}', it is everywhere and always the interest of the perma- 
 nent settler and the permanent business man, the man with a stake 
 in the country, wdiich must be considered and which must decide. 
 
 The making of forest reserves within railroad and wagon-road 
 land-grant limits will hereafter, as for the past three years, be so 
 managed as to prevent the issue, under the act of June 4, 1897, of 
 base for exchange or lieu selection (usually called scrip). In all 
 cases where forest reserves within areas covered by land grants 
 appear to be essential to the prosperity of settlers, miners, or others, 
 the Government lands within such proposed forest reserves will, as 
 in the recent past, be withdrawn from sale or entry pending the 
 completion of such negotiations with the owners of the land grants 
 as will prevent the creation of so-called scrip. 
 
i8 
 
 It was forincrh' the custom to make forest reserves without first 
 Sfcttini>- defiuite aud detailed iuforuiatiou as to tlie cliaracter 
 of land and tind)er within their l)()undaries. This method of 
 action often resulted in badh- chosen ])oundaries and consec{uent 
 injustice to settlers and others. Therefore this Administration 
 adopted the present method of first withdrawing;- the land from 
 dis])osal, followed by careful examination on the t>Tound and the 
 preparation of detailed maps and descriptions, before any forest 
 reserve is created. 
 
 I ha\e repeatedly called attention to the conftision wdiich exists 
 in Government forest matters becatise the work is scattered among 
 three independent organizations. The United States is the only 
 one of the great nations in which the forest w^ork of the Government 
 is not concentrated under one department, in consonance with the 
 plainest dictates of good administration and common sense. The 
 present arrangement is bad from every point of view. Merely to 
 mention it is to prove that it should be terminated at once. As I 
 have repeatedly recommended, all the forest work of the Government 
 should be concentrated in the Department of Agriculture, where the 
 larger part of that work is already done, where practically all of the 
 trained foresters of the Government are employed, wdiere chiefly in 
 Washington there is comprehensive first-hand knowledge of the 
 problems of the reserv^es acquired on the ground, where all problems 
 relating to growth from the soil are already gathered, and wdiere all 
 the sciences auxiliary to forestry- are at hand for prompt and effect- 
 ive cooperation. These reasons are decisive in themselves, but it 
 should be added that the great organizations of citizens whose inter- 
 ests are affected b}- the forest reserves, such as the National Live 
 Stock Association, the National Wool Growers' Association, the 
 American Alining Congress, the National Irrigation Congress, and 
 the National Board of Trade, have tmiformly, emphatically, and 
 most of them repeatedly, expressed themselves in favor of placing 
 all Government forest work in the Department of Agriculture 
 because of the peculiar adaptation of that Department for it. It 
 is true, also, that the forest services of nearly all the great nations 
 of the world are under the respective departments of agriculture, 
 while in but two of the smaller nations and in one colony are they 
 under the department of the interior. This is the result of long 
 and varied experience and it agrees fully with the requirements of 
 good administration in our own case. 
 
 The creation of a forest service in the Department of Agriculture 
 will have for its important results: 
 
19 
 
 First. A better handling of all forest work, becanse it will be under 
 a single head, and because the vast and indispensabre experience of 
 the Department in all matters pertaining to the forest reserves, to 
 forestry in general, and to other forms of production from the soil, 
 will be easily and rapidly accessible. 
 
 Second. The reserves themselves, being handled from the point of 
 view of the man in the field, instead of the man in the office, will 
 be more easily and more widely useful to the people of the West 
 than has been the case hitherto. 
 
 Third. Within a comparatively short time the reserves will become 
 self-supporting. This is important^ because continually and rapidly 
 increasing appropriations will be necessary for the proper care of 
 this exceedingly important interest of the Nation, and the}- can and 
 should be offset by returns from the National forests. Under similar 
 circumstances the forest possessions of other great nations form an 
 important source of revenue to their governments. 
 
 Ever}- administrative officer concerned is convinced of the neces- 
 sity for the proposed consolidation of forest work in the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture, and I myself have urged it more than once in 
 former messages. Again I commend it to the earh' and fa\'orable 
 consideration of the Congress. The interests of the Nation at 
 large and of the West in particular have suffered greatly because of 
 the delay. 
 
 I call the attention of the Congress again to the report and rec- 
 ommendation of the Commission on the Public 
 Public lands. Lands forwarded by me to the second session of 
 
 the present Congress. The Commission has prose- 
 cuted its investigations actively during the past season, and a second 
 report is now in an advanced stage of preparation. 
 
 In connecfion with the work of the forest resen.'es I desire again 
 to urge upon the Congress the importance of authorizing the Presi- 
 dent to set aside certain portions of these reser\-es 
 Game preserves. or other public lands as game refuges for the 
 preservation of the bison, the w^apiti, and other 
 large beasts once so abundant in our woods and mountains and 
 on our great plains, and now tending toward extinction. Every 
 support should be given to the authorities of the Yellowstone Park 
 in their successful efforts at preserving the large creatures therein; 
 and at very little expense portions of the public domain in other 
 regions which are wholly unsuited to agricultural settlement could 
 be similarly utilized. We owe it to future generations to keep alive 
 the noble and beautiful creatures which by their presence add such 
 
20 
 
 distinctive character to the American wilderness. The limits of the 
 Yellowstone l^rk shonld be extended sonthwards. The Canyon of 
 the Colorado shonld be made a national park; and the national-park 
 system shonld inclnde the Yosemite and as man)- as possible of the 
 (proves of j^iant trees in California. 
 
 The veterans of the Civil War have a claim 
 Pensions. npon the Nation snch as no other body of onr 
 
 citizens possess. The Pension Bnrean has never 
 in its history been manao^ed in a more satisfactory manner than is 
 now the case. 
 
 The progress of the Indians toward civilization, thon^^h not rapid, 
 is perhaps all that conld be hoped for in view of the circnnistances. 
 A\'ithin the past year many tribes have shown, in a degree greater 
 
 than ever before, an appreciation of the necessity 
 Indians. of w^ork. This changed attitnde is in part dne to 
 
 the policy recently pnrsned of redncing the amonnt 
 of snbsistence to the Indians, and thus forcing them, through sheer 
 necessity, to work for a livelihood. The policy, though severe, is a 
 useful one, but it is to be exercised onh' with judgment and with. 
 a full understanding of the conditions which exist in each community 
 for which it is intended. On or near the Indian reservations there 
 is usually v-ery little demand for labor, and if the Indians are to earn 
 their living and when work can not be furnished from outside (w^hich 
 is alwa}'s preferable), then it nuist be furnished b}' the Government. 
 Practical instruction of this kind w^ould in a few- years result in 
 the forming of habits of regular industry, which would render the 
 Indian a producer and would effect a great reduction in the cost of 
 his maintenance. 
 
 It is commonly declared that the slow advance of the Indians is 
 due to the unsatisfactory character of the men appointed to take 
 immediate charge of them, and to some extent this is true. While 
 the standard of the employees in the Indian Service shows great 
 improvement over that of bygone years, and while actual corruption 
 or flagrant dishonesty is now the rare exception, it is nevertheless 
 the fact that the salaries paid Indian agents are not large enough to 
 attract the best men to that field of work. To achieve satisfactory 
 results the official in charge of an Indian tribe should possess the 
 high qualifications wdiich are required in the manager of a large 
 business, but only in exceptional cases is it possible to secure men 
 of such a type for these positions. ]\Iuch better service, however, 
 might be obtained from those now holding the places were it prac- 
 ticable to get out of them the best that is in them, and this should 
 
21 
 
 be done by bringing them constantly into closer toncli with their 
 superior officers. An agent who has been content to draw his salary, 
 giving in return the least possible equivalent in effort and serv-ice, 
 may, by proper treatment, by suggestion and encouragement, or per- 
 sistent urging, be stimulated to greater effort and induced to take a 
 more active personal interest in his work. . 
 
 Under existing conditions an Indian agent in the distant West 
 may be wholly out of touch with the office of the Indian Bureau. 
 He may very well feel that no one takes a personal interest in him 
 or his efforts. Certain routine duties in the way of reports and 
 accounts are required of him, but there is no one with whom he 
 may intelligently consult on matters vital to his work, except after 
 long delay. Such a man would be greatly encouraged and aided by 
 personal contact with some one whose interest in Indian affairs and 
 whose authority in the Indian Bureau were greater than his own, 
 and such contact would be certain to arouse and constantly increase 
 the interest he takes in his work. 
 
 The distance which separates the agents — the workers in the 
 field — from the Indian Office in Washington is a chief obstacle to 
 Indian progress. Whatever shall more closely unite these two 
 branches of the Indian Service, and shall enable them to cooperate 
 more heartily and more effectively, will be for the increased efficiency 
 of the work and the betterment of the race for whose improvement 
 the Indian Bureau was established. The appointment of a field 
 assistant to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs would be certain to 
 insure this good end. Such an official, if possessed of the requisite 
 energy and deep interest in the work, would be a most efficient 
 factor in bringing into closer relationship and a more direct union 
 of effort the Bureau in Washington and its agents in the field; and 
 with the cooperation of its branches thus secured the Indian Bureau 
 w^ould, in measure fuller than ever before, lift up the savage toward 
 that self-help and self-reliance which constitute the man. 
 
 In 1907 there will be held at Hampton Roads the tricentennial 
 
 celebration of the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, with which 
 
 the histor}' of what has now become the United 
 
 Jamestown States reallv beo-ins. I commend this to vour 
 
 1 ncentennial. . ^ . c ' • 
 
 lavorable consideration. It is an event 01 prime 
 
 historic significance, in which all the people of the United States 
 should feel, and should show, great and general interest. 
 
 In the Post-Office Department the service has increased inefficiency, 
 and conditions as to revenue and expenditure continue satisfac- 
 tory. The increase of revenue during the year was $9,358,181.10, 
 
22 
 
 or 6.9 per cent, the total receipts aiiiountino- to $143,382,624.34. 
 The expenditures ^vere i^i 52,362,1 1 6.70, an increase of abont 9 per 
 cent over the previons year, beino- thns $8,979,492.36 in excess of 
 the cnrrent re\enue. Inclnded in these expenditnres was a total 
 appropriation of $12,956,637.35 for the continnation and extension 
 of the.rnral free-delivery service, which was an 
 Postal service. increase of $4,902,237.35 over the anionnt ex- 
 
 pended for this purpose in the precedin^^ fiscal 
 year. Large as this expenditure has been the l)eneficent results 
 attained in extending the free distribution of mails to the residents 
 of rural districts have justified the wisdom of the outlay. Statistics 
 brought down to the ist of October, 1904, show that on that date 
 there were 27,138 rural routes established, serving approximately 
 12,000,000 of people in rural districts remote from post-offices, and 
 that there were pending at that time 3,859 petitions for the estab- 
 lishment of new rural routes. Unquestionably some part of the 
 general increase in receipts is due to the increased postal facilities 
 wdiich the rural service has afforded. The revenues have also been 
 aided greatly by amendments in the classification of mail matter, 
 and the curtailment of abuses of the second-class mailing privilege. 
 The average increase in the volume of mail matter for the period 
 beginning with 1902 and ending June, 1905 (that portion for 1905 
 being estimated), is 40.-47 per cent, as compared with 25.46 per cent 
 for the period immediately preceding, and 15.92 for the four-year 
 period immediately preceding that. 
 
 Our consular system needs improvement. Salaries should be 
 substituted for fees, and the proper classification, grading, and trans- 
 fer of consular officers should be provided. I am not prepared to 
 sa}' that a competitive s}\stem of examinations 
 Consular service. for appointment would work well; but by law^ 
 it should be provided that consuls should be 
 familiar, according to places for which they apply, wath the French, 
 German, or Spanish languages, and should possess acquaintance with 
 the resources of the United States. 
 
 The collection of objects of art contemplated in section 5586 of 
 the Revised Statutes should be designated and 
 National Gallery established as a National Gallery of Art; and the 
 Smithsonian Institution should be authorized to 
 accept any additions to said collection that may be received by 
 gift, bequest, or devise. 
 
 It is desirable to enact a proper National quarantine law. It is 
 most undesirable that a State should on its ow^n initiative enforce 
 
23 
 
 quarantine regulations which are in effect a restriction upon inter- 
 state and international commerce. The question should properly 
 be assumed by the Government alone. The 
 
 National Suro-eon-General of the National Public Health 
 
 quarantine law. , . . . ^ . , , 
 
 and Marnie-Hospital Service lias repeatedly and 
 
 convinciiig-ly set forth the need for such legislation. 
 
 I call your attention to the great extravagance in printing and 
 
 binding Government publications, and especially to the fact that 
 
 altogether too many of these publications are printed. There is a 
 
 constant tendenc}' to increase their number and their volume. It 
 
 is an understatement to sa}' that no appreciable 
 
 Extravagance harm would be caused bv, and substantial benefit 
 
 in printing. ' . ^ , 
 
 would accrue irom, decreasing the amount oi 
 
 printing now done by at least one-half. Probably the great majorit}' 
 of the Go\'ernnieiit reports and the like now printed are never read 
 at all, and furthermore the printing of much of the material con- 
 tained in many of the remaining ones serves no useful purpose 
 whatever. 
 
 The attention of the Congress should be especially given to the 
 currency question, and that the standing committees on the matter 
 
 in the two Houses charged with the duty, take 
 Currency. up the matter of our currency and see whether it 
 
 is not possible to secure an agreement in the busi- 
 ness world for bettering the system; the committees should consider 
 the question of the retirement of the greenbacks and the problem 
 of securing in our currenc}- such elasticity as is consistent with 
 safety. Ever}' silver dollar should be made by law redeemable in 
 gold at the option of the holder. 
 
 I especiallv commend to vour immediate atten- 
 Merchant marine. ^- ^i ' ^ r ' i ^ 
 
 tion tlie encouragement oi our merchant marine 
 
 by appropriate legislation. 
 
 The growing importance of the Orient as a field for American 
 exports drew^ from my predecessor, President McKinley, an urgent 
 request for its special consideration by the Con- 
 Oriental markets. gress. In his message of 1898 he stated: 
 
 " In this relation, as showing the peculiar vol- 
 ume and value of our trade with China and the peculiarly favorable 
 conditions which exist for their expansion in the normal course of 
 trade, I refer to the communication addressed to the Speaker of the 
 House of Represeiitati\-es by the Secretary of the Treasury on the 
 I4tli of last June, with its accompanying letter of the Secretary of 
 State, recoiiiiiieiidiiig an appropriation for a commission to study 
 
24 
 
 the indnslrial and coiinncrcial conditions in tlic Chinese Knipire 
 and to report as to the opportnnities for and the obstacles to the 
 enlaro^enient of markets in China for the raw prodncts and niann- 
 factnres of the United States. Action was not taken thereon dnrin.i^^ 
 the last session. I cordially nr^^c that the reconinicndation receive 
 at yonr hands the consideration which its importance and timeliness 
 merit/'* 
 
 In his annual messao;e of 1899 he attain called attention to this 
 recommendation, quotin^^^ it, and stated further: 
 
 ''I now renew this recommendation, as the importance of the 
 subject has steadih' grown since it was first submitted to yon, and 
 no time should be lost in studyino; for ourselves the resources of 
 this great field for American trade and enterprise. 
 
 The importance of securing proper information and data with a 
 view to the enlargement of our trade with Asia is undiminished. 
 Our consular representatives in China have strongly urged a place 
 for permanent display of American products in some prominent 
 trade center of that Empire, under Government control and manage- 
 ment, as an effective means of advancing our export trade therein. 
 I call the attention of the Congress to the desirability of carrying 
 out these suggestions. 
 
 In dealing with the questions of immigration and naturalization 
 it is indispensable to keep certain facts ever before the minds of 
 those who share in enacting the laws. First and foremost, let us 
 remember that the question of being a good Amer- 
 Immigration and ^^^^^ j^^^ nothing whatever to do with a man's 
 naturalization. . . , , , . , , • 1 1 • 
 
 birthplace any more than it has to do with his 
 
 creed. In every generation from the time this Government was 
 founded men of foreign birth have stood in the ver)- foremost 
 rank of good citizenship, and that not merely in one but in every 
 field of American activity; while to try to draw a distinction 
 between the man whose parents came to this country and the 
 man whose ancestors came to it several generations back is a mere 
 absurdity. Good Americanism is a matter of heart, of conscience, 
 of loft}- aspiration, of sound common sense, but not of birthplace 
 or of creed. The medal of honor, the highest prize to be won 
 by those who serve in the Army and the Navy of the United States 
 decorates men born here, and it also decorates men born in Great 
 Britain and Ireland, in Germany, in Scandinavia, in France, and 
 doubtless in other countries also. In the field of statesmanship, 
 in the field of business, in the field of philanthropic endeavor, it is 
 equally true that among the men of whom we are most proud as 
 
25 
 
 Americans no distinction whatever can be drawn between those 
 who themselves or whose parents came over in sailing ship or 
 steamer from across the water and those whose ancestors stepped 
 ashore into the wooded wilderness at Plymonth or at the month of 
 the Hndson, the Delaware, or the James nearly three centuries ago. 
 No fellow-citizen of ours is entitled to any peculiar regard because 
 of the wa}' in which he worships his INIaker, or because of the birth- 
 place of himself or his parents, nor should he be in any way dis- 
 criminated against therefor. Each must stand on his worth as a 
 man and each is entitled to be judged solely thereby. 
 
 There is no danger of having too man}- immigrants of the right 
 kind. It makes no difference from what country they come. If 
 they are sound in body and in mind, and, above all, if they are of 
 good character, so that we can rest assured that their children and 
 grandchildren will be worthy fellow-citizens of our children and 
 grandchildren, then we should welcome them with cordial hos- 
 pitality. 
 
 But the citizenship of this country should not be debased. It 
 is vital that we should keep high the standard of well-being among 
 our wage-workers, and therefore we should not admit masses of 
 men whose standards of living and whose personal customs and 
 habits are such that the}' tend to lower the level of the Amer- 
 ican wage-worker; and above all we should not admit any man 
 of an unworth}' type, an}' man concerning whom we can sa}' that 
 he will himself be a bad citizen, or that his children and grand- 
 children will detract from instead of adding to the sum of the good 
 citizenship of the country. Similarly we should take the greatest 
 care about naturalization. Fraudulent naturalization, the naturali- 
 zation of improper persons, is a curse to our Government; and it is 
 the affair of every honest voter, wherever born, to see that no fraud- 
 ulent voting is allowed, that no fraud in connection with naturali- 
 zation is permitted. 
 
 In the past }'ear the cases of false, fraudulent, and improper natu- 
 ralization of aliens coming to the attention of the executive branches 
 of the Government have increased to an alarming degree. Exten- 
 sive sales of forged certificates of naturalization have been discovered, 
 as well as many cases of naturalization secured b}' perjur}' and fraud; 
 and in addition, instances have accumulated showing that many 
 courts issue certificates of naturalization careless!}' and upon insuffi- 
 cient evidence. 
 
 Under the Constitution it is in the power of the Congress ''to 
 establish a uniform rule of naturalization," and numerous laws have 
 
26 
 
 from time to time l)eeii enacted for that '])nr|)ose, wliicli have l)eeii 
 supplemented in a few States by State laws liavino^ special applica- 
 tion. The Federal statutes permit naturalization by anv court of 
 record in the United vStates luwino- common-law jiu'isdiction and a 
 seal and clerk, except the police court of the District of Columbia, 
 and nearh- all these courts exercise this important function. It 
 results that where so many courts of such var\'in(^ g-radcs ha\e 
 jurisdiction, there is lack of uniformity in the rules applied in con- 
 ferring naturalization. Some cotirts are strict and others lax. An 
 alien who may secure naturalization in one place mio;ht be denied 
 it in another, and the intent of the constitutional provision is in fact 
 defeated. Furthermore, the certificates of naturalization issued by 
 the courts differ widely in wording and appearance, and when they 
 are brought into use in foreign countries, are freqtienth' stibject to 
 suspicion. 
 
 There should be a comprehensive revision of the nattiralization 
 laws. The courts having powder to naturalize should be definiteh* 
 named by national authority; the testimony upon which naturaliza- 
 tion ma}' be conferred should be definitely pre- 
 Naturahzation laws scribed; publication of impending naturalization 
 should be revised. i • • 1111 • -1 • -1 r 1 • 
 
 applications should be required m advance or their 
 
 hearing in court; the form and wording of all certificates issued 
 should be uniform throughout the couiitr}-, and the courts should 
 be required to make returns to the Secretary of State at stated 
 periods of all naturalizations conferred. 
 
 Not only are the laws relating to naturalization now defective, 
 but those relating to citizenship of the United States ought also to 
 be made the subject of scientific inquiry with a vie\v to probable 
 further legislation. By what acts expatriation 
 Laws concerning ^^^^^^ -^^ assumed to have been accomplished, how 
 long an American citizen mav reside abroad and 
 receive the protection of our passport, whether any degree of pro- 
 tection should be extended to one who has made the declaration of 
 intention to become a citizen of the United States but has not secured 
 naturalization, are questions of serious import, involving personal 
 rights and often producing friction betw^eeii this Government and 
 foreign governments. Yet upon these questions our laws are silent. 
 I recommend that an examination be made into the subjects of 
 citizenship, expatriation, and protection of Americans abroad, with 
 a view to appropriate legislation. 
 
 The power of the Government to protect the integrity of the 
 elections of its own officials is inherent and has been recognized 
 
27 
 
 and affirmed b}' repeated declarations of the Supreme Court. There 
 is no eneni}' of free government more dangerous and none so insid- 
 ious as the corruption of the electorate. No one defends or excuses 
 corruption, and it would seem to follow that none 
 
 Protection of would oppose vigorous measures to eradicate it. 
 
 elections. 
 
 I recommend the enactment of a law directed 
 against bribery and corruption in Federal elections. The details 
 of such a law may be safely left to the wise discretion of the Con- 
 gress, but it should go as far as under the Constitution it is pos- 
 sible to go, and should include severe penalties against him who 
 gives or receives a bribe intended to influence his act or opinion as 
 an elector; and provisions for the publication not only of the 
 expenditures for nominations and elections of all candidates but 
 also of all contributions received and expenditures made by political 
 committees. 
 
 No subject is better worthy the attention of the Congress than 
 
 that portion of the report of the Attorney-General dealing with the 
 
 long delays and the great obstruction to justice experienced in the 
 
 cases of Beavers, Green and Gaynor, and Benson. 
 
 Delays in criminal Were these isolated and special cases, I should not 
 prosecutions. . / , 
 
 call your attention to them; but the dimculties 
 
 encountered as regards these men who have been indicted for crim- 
 inal practices are not exceptional; they are precisely similar in kind 
 to what occurs again and again in the case of criminals who have 
 sufficient means to enable them to take advantage of a system of 
 procedure which has grown up in the Federal courts and which 
 amounts in effect to making the law easy of enforcement against the 
 man who has no money,* and difficult of enforcement, even to the 
 point of sometimes securing immunit}', as regards the man who 
 has money. In criminal cases the writ of the United States 
 should run throughout its borders. The wheels of justice should 
 not be clogged, as they have been clogged in the cases above 
 mentioned, where it has proved absolutely impossible to bring 
 the accused to the place appointed by the Constitution for his 
 trial. Of recent years there has been grave and increasing 
 complaint of the difficulty of bringing to justice those criminals 
 whose criminalit}', instead of being against one person in the 
 Republic, is against all persons in the Republic, because it is 
 against the Republic itself. Under any circumstance and from 
 the very nature of the case it is often exceedingly difficult to secure 
 proper punishment of those who have been guilty of wrongdoing 
 against the Government. By the time the offender can be brought 
 
28 
 
 into court the popular wrath a^^ainst liiui has jrcnerally subsided; 
 and there is in most instances very sli<^"ht danger indeed of any 
 prejudice existing in the minds of the jury a^^ainst him. At pres- 
 ent the interests of the innocent man are amply safe<^uarded; but 
 the interests of the Government, that is, the interests of honest 
 administration, that is the interests of the people, are not reco^^^- 
 nized as they should be. No subject better warrants the attention 
 of the Cono^ress. Indeed, no subject better warrants the attention 
 of the bench and the bar throui^hout the United States. 
 
 Alaska, like all our Territorial acquisitions, has proved resourceful 
 beyond the expectations of those wdio made the purchase. It has 
 become the home of many hardy, industrious, and thrifty American 
 citizens. Towns of a permanent character have 
 Alaska. been built. The extent of its wealth in minerals, 
 
 timber, fisheries, and ac^riculture, while great, is 
 probabh' not comprehended yet in any just measure by our people. 
 We do know, how^ever, that from a very small beginning its products 
 have grown until they are a steady and material contribution to 
 the wealth of the Nation. Owing to the immensity of Alaska and 
 its location in the far north, it is a difficult matter to provide many 
 things essential to its grow^th and to the happiness and comfort of 
 its people by private enterprise alone. It should, therefore, receive 
 reasonable aid from the -Government. The Government has already 
 done excellent work for Alaska in laying cables and building 
 telegraph lines. This w^ork has been done in the most economical 
 and efficient w^ay by the Signal Corps of the Army. 
 
 In some respects it has outgrow^n its present laws, while in others 
 those laws have been found to be inadequate. In order to obtain 
 information upon which I could rely I caused an official of the 
 Department of Justice, in whose judgment I have confidence, to 
 visit Alaska during the past summer for the purpose of ascertaining 
 how government is administered there and what legislation is actually 
 needed at present. A statement of the conditions found to exist, 
 together with some recommendations and the reasons therefor, in 
 which I strongly concur, will be found in the annual report of the 
 Attorney-General. In some instances I feel that the legislation 
 suggested is so imperatively needed that I am moved briefly to 
 emphasize the Attorney-General's proposals. 
 
 Under the Code of Alaska as it now stands many purely adminis- 
 trative powders and duties, including by far the most important, 
 devolve upon the district judges or upon the clerks of the district 
 court acting under the direction of the judges, wdiile the governor, 
 
29 
 
 upon whom these powers and duties should log-ically fall, has noth- 
 ing specific to do except to make annual reports, issue Thanksgiving 
 Day proclamations, and appoint Indian policemen and notaries 
 public. I believe it essential to good government in Alaska, and 
 therefore recommend, that the Congress divest the district judges 
 and the clerks of their courts of the administrative or executive 
 functions that they now exercise and cast them upon the governor. 
 This would not be an innovation; it would simply conform the 
 government of Alaska to fundamental principles, making the gov- 
 ernorship a real instead of a mereh' nominal office, and leaving the 
 judges free to give their entire attention to their judicial duties and 
 at the same time removing them from a great deal of the strife that 
 now embarrasses the judicial office in Alaska. 
 
 I also recommend that the salaries of the district judges and dis- 
 trict attorneys in Alaska be increased so as to make them equal to 
 those received by corresponding officers in the United States after 
 deducting the difference in the cost of living; that the district 
 attorneys should be prohibited from engaging in private practice; 
 that United States commissioners be appointed by the governor of 
 the Territor}- instead of by the district judges, and that a fixed salary 
 be provided for them to take the place of the discredited "fee sys- 
 tem," which should be abolished in all offices; that a mounted con- 
 stabulary be created to police the territory outside the limits of 
 incorporated towns — a vast section now w^holh' without police pro- 
 tection; and that some provision be made to at least lessen the 
 oppressive delays and costs that now attend the prosecution of 
 appeals from the district court of Alaska. There should be a divi- 
 sion of the existing judicial districts, and an increase in the number 
 of judges. 
 
 Alaska should have a Delegate in the Congress. Where possible, 
 the Congress should aid in the construction of needed w^agon roads. 
 Additional light-houses should be provided. In my judgment, it is 
 especially important to aid in such manner as seems just and feasible 
 in the construction of a trunk line of railway to connect the Gulf 
 of Alaska with the Yukon River through xAmerican territor\'. This 
 w^ould be most beneficial to the development of the resources of the 
 Territory, and to the comfort and w^elfare of its people. 
 
 Salmon hatcheries should be established in many different streams, 
 so as to secure the preser\'ation of this valuable food fish. Salmon 
 fisheries and canneries should be prohibited on certain of the rivers 
 where the mass of those Indians dwell who live almost exclusively 
 on fish. 
 
30 
 
 Tlic Alaskan natives arc kindly, inlclli^cnt, anxions to learn, and 
 \villin!^ to work. Those who ha\c conic nndcr the inOucncc of 
 cix ilizalion, even for a limited period, have i)roved their ca])al)ility 
 of beconiino- self-snpportino;, self-respectino; citizens, and ask onlv 
 for the jnst enforcement of law and intellio;-ent instrnction and 
 supervision. Others, living- in more remote reg-ions, primitive^ 
 sinlple hunters and fisher folk, who know only the life of the woods 
 and the waters, are daily bein^^ confronted with twcntieth-centurv 
 ci\ ilization with all of its complexities. Their conntrv is beino^ 
 overrun by strangers, the game slaughtered and driven awa\-, the 
 streams depleted of fish, and hitherto unknown and fatal diseases 
 brought to them, all of which combine to produce a state of abject 
 poverty and want which must result in their extinction. Action in 
 their interest is demanded by every consideration of justice and 
 humanity. 
 
 The needs of these people are: 
 
 The abolition of the present fee system, wdiereb)' the native is 
 degraded, imposed upon, and taught the injustice of law. 
 
 The establishment of hospitals at central points, so that contagious 
 diseases that are brousfht to them continuallv bv incoming^ whites 
 may be localized and not allowed to become epidemic, to spread 
 death and destitution over great areas. 
 
 The development of 'the educational system in the form of prac- 
 tical training in such industries as will assure the Indians self-stip- 
 port under the changed conditions in wdiich they will have to live. 
 
 The duties of the office of the governor should be extended to 
 include the supervision of Indian affairs, wnth necessary assistants 
 in different districts. He should be provided with the means and 
 the power to protect and advise the native people, to furnish med- 
 ical treatment in time of epidemics, and to extend material relief in 
 periods of famifie and extreme destitution. 
 
 The Alaskan natives should be given the right to acquire, hold, 
 
 and dispose of property upon the same conditions 
 
 Hawaii and criven other inhabitants; and the privileg-e of 
 
 Porto Rico. . ."^ , . . . , , . ' , ^ 111 
 
 citizenship should be given to stich as may be able 
 
 to meet certain definite requirements. In Hawaii Congress should 
 give the governor power to remove all the officials appointed under 
 him. The harbor of Honolulu should be dredged. The ]\Iarine- 
 Hospital Service shotild be empowered to sttidy lepros\- in the 
 islands. I ask special consideration for the report and recommen- 
 dations of the governor of Porto Rico. 
 
 In treating of our foreign policy and of the attitude that this 
 
31 
 
 great Nation should assume in the world at large, it is absolutely 
 necessary to consider the Arni\- and the Nav}-, and the Congress, 
 
 through which the thought of the Nation finds its 
 Foreign policy. expression, should keep ever vividly in mind the 
 
 fundamental fact that it is impossible to treat 
 our foreign policy, whether this policy takes shape in the effort to 
 secure justice for others or justice for ourselves, save as condi- 
 tioned upon the attitude we are willing to take toward our Army, 
 and especially toward our Navy. It is not merely unwise, it is 
 contemptible, for a nation, as for an individual, to use high-sounding 
 language to proclaim its purposes, or to take positions which are 
 ridiculous if unsupported by potential force, and then to refuse to 
 provide this force. If there is no intention of providing and of keep- 
 ing the force necessary to back up a strong attitude, then it is far 
 better not to assume such an attitude. 
 
 The steady aim of this Nation, as of all enlightened nations, should 
 be to strive to bring ever nearer the day when there shall prevail 
 throughout the world the peace of justice. There are kinds of peace 
 which are highh' undesirable, which are in the long run as destruc- 
 tive as any war. T}'rants and oppressors have man}' times made a 
 wilderness and called it peace. ]\Iany times peoples who were 
 slothful or timid or shortsighted, who had been enervated by ease or 
 by luxury, or misled by false teachings, have shrunk in unmanly 
 fashion from doing duty that was stern and that needed self-sacrifice, 
 and have sought to hide from their own minds their shortcomings, 
 their ignoble motives, by calling them love of peace. The peace of 
 tyrannous terror, the peace of craven weakness, the peace of injustice, 
 all these should be shunned as we shun unrighteous war. The goal 
 to set before us as a nation, the goal which should be set before all 
 mankind, is the attainment of the peace of justice, of the peace which 
 comes when each nation is not mereU' safe-guarded in its own rights, 
 but scrupulously recognizes and performs its duty toward others. 
 Generally peace tells for righteousness; but if there is conflict between 
 the two, then our fealt\' is due first to the cause of righteousness. 
 Unrighteous wars are common, and unrighteous peace is rare; but 
 both should be shunned. The right of freedom and the responsi- 
 bility for the exercise of that right can not be di\-orced. One of 
 our great poets has well and finely said that freedom is not a gift 
 that tarries long in the hands of cowards. Neither does it tarry 
 long in the hands of those too slothful, too dishonest, or too unin- 
 telligent to exercise it. The eternal vigilance which is the price of 
 liberty must be exercised, sometimes to guard against outside foes; 
 
32 
 
 altlu)U,!^h of course far more often to j^uard against onr own selfish 
 or thou^^htless shortcoinin^^s. 
 
 If these self-evident truths are kept before us, and only if they are 
 so kept before us, we shall ha\ e a clear idea of what our forei<i^n 
 policy in its lar^^er as])ects should be. It is our (lut\- to remember 
 that a nation has no more ri^ht to do injustice to another nation, 
 strong- or weak, than an individual has to do injustice to another 
 individual; that the same moral law applies in one case as in the 
 other. But we must also remember that it is as much the duty of 
 the Nation to ouard its own ritrhts and its own interests as it is the 
 duty of the individual so to do. Within the Nation the individual 
 has now delecrated this rio-ht to the State, that is, to the represent- 
 ative of all the individuals, and it is a maxim of the law^ that for 
 every wrong there is a remedy. But in international law we have not 
 advanced by any means as far as we have advanced in municipal \sl\\\ 
 There is as }'et no judicial wa\- of enforcing a right in international 
 law. \Mien one nation w^rongs another or wrongs many others, there 
 is no tribunal before which the wrongdoer can be brought. Either 
 it is necessary supinely to acquiesce in the wTong, and thus put a 
 premium upon brutality and aggression, or else it is necessary for 
 the aggrieved nation valiantly to stand up for its rights. Until 
 some method is devised by wdiicli there shall be a degree of inter- 
 national control over offending nations, it would be a wicked thing 
 for the most ci\'ilized powers, for those with most sense of inter- 
 national obligations and with keenest and most generous apprecia- 
 tion of the difference between right and wrong, to disarm. If the 
 great civilized nations of the present day should completely disarm, 
 the result w^ould mean an immediate recrudescence of barbarism in 
 one form or another. Under any circumstances a sufhcient armament 
 w^ould have to be kept up to serve the purposes of international 
 police; and until international cohesion and the sense of international 
 duties and rights are far more advanced than at present, a nation 
 desirous both of sectiring respect for itself and of doing good to 
 others must have a force adequate for the work wdiich it feels is 
 allotted to it as its part of the general w^orld duty. Therefore it 
 follow^s that a self-respecting, just, and far-seeing nation should on 
 the one hand endeavor by every means to aid in the development 
 of the various movements which tend to provide substitutes for 
 war, which tend to render nations in their actions tow^ard one 
 another, and indeed toward their own peoples, more responsive 
 to the general sentiment of humane and civilized mankind; and 
 on the other hand that it should keep prepared, while scrupu- 
 
33 
 
 lously avoiding wrongdoing itself, to repel any wrong, and in 
 exceptional cases to take action which in a more advanced 
 stage of international relations would come under the head of the 
 exercise of the international police. A great free people owes it to 
 itself and to all mankind not to sink into helplessness before the 
 powers of evil. 
 
 We are in every way endeavoring to help on, with cordial good 
 will, every movement which will tend to bring lis into more friendly 
 relations with the rest of mankind. In pnrsnance of this policy I 
 
 shall shortly lay before the Senate treaties of arbi- 
 Arbitration treaties, tration with all powers which are willing to enter 
 
 into these treaties with ns. It is not possible at 
 this period of the world's development to agree to arbitrate all 
 matters, but there are many matters of possible difference between 
 us and other nations which can be thus arbitrated. Furthermore, 
 at the request of the Interparliamentary Union, an eminent body 
 
 composed of practical statesmen from all countries, 
 
 Second Hague j ^^^.^ asked the Powers to join with this Govern- 
 conrerence. 
 
 ment in a second Hague conference, at which it is 
 hoped that the work alread}' so happily begun at The Hague may 
 be carried some steps further toward completion. This carries out 
 the desire expressed by the first Hague conference itself. 
 
 It is not true that the United States feels any land hunger or 
 entertains any projects as regards the other nations of the Western 
 Hemisphere save such as are for their welfare. All that this 
 
 country desires is to see the neighboring countries 
 
 Policy toward other stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country 
 nations or Western -, i i ^ ^i i n 
 
 Hemisphere whose people conduct themselves well can count 
 
 upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows 
 that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in 
 social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, 
 it need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrong- 
 doing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the 
 ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately 
 require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western 
 Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Alonroe Doc- 
 trine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant 
 cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an inter- 
 national police power. If every country washed by the Caribbean 
 Sea would show the progress in stable and just civilization which 
 with the aid of the Piatt amendment Cuba has shown since our 
 troops left the island, and which so many of the republics in both 
 
34 
 
 AiiR-ricas are constantly and l)rilliantly showing-, all qncstion of 
 interference by this Nation with their affairs wonld be at an end. 
 Onr interests and those of onr sonthern neio^hbors are in reality 
 identical. They have i^reat natnral riches, and if within their 
 borders the reign of law and jnstice obtains, prosperity is snre to 
 come to them. While they thns obey the primary laws of civilized 
 society the>- ma)' rest assnred that they will be treated by ns in a 
 spirit of cordial and helpfnl sympathy. We would interfere with 
 them only in the last resort, and then onh' if it became evident that 
 their inability or nnwillino^ness to do justice at home and abroad 
 had violated the rio^hts of the United States or had invited foreio^n 
 aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations. 
 It is a mere truism to say that every nation, whether in America or 
 any where else, wdiich desires to maintain its freedom, its indepen- 
 dence, must ultimately realize that the right of such independence 
 can not be separated from the responsibility of making good use of it. 
 
 In asserting the Monroe Doctrine, in taking such steps as w^e have 
 taken in regard to Cuba, Venezuela, and Panama, and in endeavoring 
 to circumscribe the theater of war in the Far East, and to secure the 
 open door in China, we have acted in our owai interest as well as in 
 the interest of humanity at large. There are, how^ever, cases in 
 wdiich, wdiile our owai interests are not greatly involved, strong 
 appeal is made to our sympathies. Ordinarily it is"very much wiser 
 and more useful for us to concern ourselves with striving for our 
 own moral and material betterment here at home than to concern 
 ourselves with tr}'ing to better the condition of things in other 
 nations. We have plenty of sins of our own to w^ar against, and 
 imder ordinary circumstances w^e can do more for the general uplift- 
 ing of humanit}- by striving with heart and soul to put a stop to 
 civic corruption, to brutal lawlessness and violent race prejudices 
 here at home than by passing resolutions about wrongdoing else- 
 where. Nevertheless there are occasional crimes committed on so 
 vast a scale and of such peculiar horror as to make us doubt wdiether 
 it is not our manifest duty to endeavor at least to show our disap- 
 proval of the deed and our sympathy with those who have suf- 
 fered by it. The cases must be extreme in which such a course is 
 justifiable. There must be no effort made to remove the mote from 
 our brother's eye if we refuse to remove the beam from our own. 
 But in extreme cases action may be justifiable and proper. What 
 form the action shall take must depend upon the circumstances 
 of the case; that is, upon the degree of the atrocity and upon our 
 power to remedy it. The cases in wdiich we could interfere by 
 
35 
 
 force of arms as we interfered to put a stop to intolerable condi- 
 tions in Cuba are necessaril}- very few. Yet it is not to be 
 expected that a people like ours, which in spite of certain very 
 obvious shortcomings, nevertheless as a whole shows by its con- 
 sistent practice its belief in the principles of civil and religious 
 liberty and of orderly freedom, a people among whom even the 
 worst crime, like the crime of lynching, is never more than sporadic, 
 so that individuals and not classes are molested in their funda- 
 mental rights — it is inevitable that such a nation should desire 
 eagerly to give expression to its horror on an occasion like that of 
 the massacre of the Jews in Kishenef, or when it w^itnesses such 
 systematic and long-extended cruelty and oppression as the cruelty 
 and oppression of which the iVrmenians have been the victims, and 
 which have won for them the indignant pity of the civilized world. 
 
 Even where it is not possible to secure in other nations the 
 observance of the principles which we accept as axiomatic, it is 
 necessary for us firmly to insist upon the rights of our own citizens 
 without regard to their creed or race; without 
 
 Rights of American j-^g-ard to whether the}^ were born here or born 
 citizens abroad. , ^ ^ , ^ , . „ , 
 
 abroad. It has proved very dimcult to secure 
 
 from Russia the right for our Jewish fellow-citizens to receive pass- 
 ports and travel through Russian territory. Such conduct is not 
 only unjust and irritating toward us, but it is difficult to see its wis- 
 dom from Russia's standpoint. No conceivable good is accomplished 
 by it. If an American Jew or an American Christian misbehaves 
 himself in Russia he can at once be driven out; but the ordinary 
 American Jew, like the ordinary American Christian, would behave 
 just about as he behaves here, that is, behave as any good citizen ought 
 to behave ; and where this is the case it is a wrong against which 
 we are entitled to protest to refuse him his passport without regard 
 to his conduct and character, merely on racial and religious grounds. 
 In Turkey our difficulties arise less from the way in which our 
 citizens are sometimes treated than from the indignation inevitably 
 excited in seeing such fearful misrule as has been witnessed both in 
 Armenia and Macedonia. 
 
 The strong arm of the Government in enforcing respect for its 
 
 just rights in international matters is the Navy of 
 The Navy. the United States. I most earnesth' recommend 
 
 that there be no halt in the work of upbuilding 
 the American Navy. There is no more patriotic duty before us 
 as a people than to keep the Navy adequate to the needs of this 
 country's position. We have undertaken to build the Isthmian 
 
36 
 
 Canal. W'c haw undertaken to secure for ourselves our just share 
 in the trade of the Orient. We have undertaken to protect our 
 citizens from improper treatment in foreio;n lands. We continue 
 steadily to insist on the application of the Monroe Doctrine to 
 the Western Hemisphere. Unless our attitude in these and all 
 similar matters is to be a mere boastful sham we can not afford to 
 abandon our naval programme. Our voice is now potent for peace, 
 and is so potent because we are not afraid of war. But our protes- 
 tations upon behalf of peace would neither receive nor deserve the 
 slightest attention if we were impotent to make them good. 
 
 The war which now unfortunately rages in the far East has 
 emphasized in striking fashion the new possibilities of naval war- 
 fare. The lessons taught are both strategic and tactical, and are 
 political as well as military. The experiences of the war have 
 shown in conclusive fashion that while sea-going and sea-keeping 
 torpedo destroyers are indispensable, and fast lightly armed and 
 armored cruisers very useful, yet that the main reliance, the main 
 standb}', in any navy worthy the name must be the great battle ships, 
 heavily armored and heavily gunned. Not a Russian or Japanese 
 battle ship has been sunk by a torpedo boat, or by gunfire, while 
 among the less protected ships, cruiser after cruiser has been destro}'ed 
 whenever the hostile squadrons have gotten within range of one 
 another's weapons. Tl>ere will ahvays be a large field of usefulness 
 for cruisers, especially of the more formidable type. We need to 
 increase the number of torpedo-boat destroyers, paying less heed to 
 their having a knot or two extra speed than to their capacit}^ to keep 
 the seas for wrecks, and, if necessary, for months at a time. It is wise 
 to build submarine torpedo boats, as under certain circumstances they 
 might be very useful. But most of all we need to continue building 
 our fleet of battle ships, or ships so pow^erfully armed that the\- can 
 inflict the maximum of damage upon our opponents, and so well 
 protected that the\' can suffer a severe hammering in return without 
 fatal impairment of their ability to fight and maneuver. Of course 
 ample means must be provided for enabling the personnel of the 
 Navy to be brought to the highest point of efficiency. Our great 
 fighting ships and torpedo boats must be ceaselessly trained and 
 maneuvered in squadrons. The officers and men can only learn 
 their trade thoroughly by ceaseless practice on the high seas. In 
 the event of war it would be far better to have no ships at all than 
 to have ships of a poor and ineffective t}'pe, or ships which, however 
 good, were yet manned by untrained and unskillful crews. The 
 best officers and men in a poor ship could do nothing against fairly 
 
37 
 
 good opponents; and on the other hand a modern war ship is nseless 
 unless the officers and men aboard her have become adepts in their 
 duties. The marksmanship in our Navy has improved in an extraor- 
 dinary degree during the last three years, and on the whole the types 
 of our battle ships are improving; but much remains to be done. 
 Sooner or later we shall have to provide for some method by which 
 there will be promotions for merit as well as for seniority, or eke 
 retirement of all those who after a certain age have not advanced 
 beyond a certain grade; while no effort must be spared to make the 
 service attractive to the enlisted men in order that they may be kept 
 as long as possible in it. Reservation public schools should be 
 provided wherever there are navy-yards. 
 
 Within the last three years the United States has set an example in 
 disarmament where disarmament was proper. By law our Army is 
 fixed at a maximum of one hundred thousand and a minimum of 
 
 sixty thousand men. When there w^as insurrec- 
 The Army. tion in the Philippines we kept the Army at the 
 
 maximum. Peace came in the Philippines, and 
 now our Army has been reduced to the minimum at which it is 
 possible to keep it with due regard to its efficiency. The guns 
 now mounted require twenty-eight thousand men, if the coast for- 
 tifications are to be adequately manned. Relatively to the Nation, 
 it is not now so large as the police force of New York or Chicago 
 relatively to the population of either city. We need more officers; 
 there are not enough to perform the regular army work. It is very 
 important that the officers of the Army should be accustomed to 
 handle their men in masses, as it is also important that the National 
 Guard of the several States should be accustomed to actual field 
 maneuvering, especially in connection with the regulars. For this 
 reason we are to be congratulated upon the success of the field 
 maneuvers at Manassas last fall, maneuvers in which a larger num- 
 ber of Regulars and National Guard took part than was ever before 
 assembled together in time of peace. No other civilized nation has, 
 relatively to its population, such a diminutive Army as ours; and 
 while the Army is so small we are not to be excused if we fail to 
 keep it at a very high grade of proficiency. It must be incessantly 
 practiced; the standard for the enlisted men should be kept very 
 high, while at the same time the service should be made as attractive 
 as possible; and the standard for the officers should be kept even 
 higher — which, as regards the upper ranks, can best be done b}' intro- 
 ducing some system of selection and rejection into the promotions. 
 We should be able, in the event of some sudden emergency, to put 
 
38 
 
 into the field one first-class army corps, which should be, as a whole, 
 at least the equal of any body of troops of like number belon^^ino^ 
 to any other nation. 
 
 Great progress has been made in protecting- our coasts by adequate 
 fortifications with sufficient <^\\us. We should, however, pay much 
 more heed than at present to the development of an extensive system 
 of floating mines for use in all our more important harbors. These 
 mines have been proved to be a most formidable safeguard against 
 hostile fleets. 
 
 I earnestly call the attention of the Congress to the need of amend- 
 ing the existing law relating to the award of Congressional medals 
 of honor in the Navy so as to provide that they may be awarded to 
 commissioned officers and w^arrant officers as well 
 
 Medals of honor enlisted men. These justly prized medals 
 
 in the Navy. . ... \^ ^ 
 
 are given m the Army alike to the officers and 
 
 the enlisted men, and it is most unjust that the commissioned offi- 
 cers and warrant officers of the Navy should not in this respect 
 have the same rights as their brethren in the Ami}' and as the 
 enlisted men of the Navy. 
 
 In the Philippine Islands there has been during the past year 
 a continuation of the steady progress which has obtained ever since 
 our troops definiteh' got the upper hand of the insurgents. The 
 Philippine people, or, to speak more accurately, the many tribes, 
 
 and even races, sundered from one another more 
 The Philippines. or less sharply, who go to make up the people 
 
 of the Philippine Islands, contain many elements 
 of good, and some elements w^hich we have a right to hope stand 
 for progress. At present they are utterly incapable of existing in 
 independence at all or of building up a civilization of their own. 
 I firmly believe that we can help them to rise higher and higher 
 in the scale of civilization and of capacity for self-government, and 
 I most earnCvStly hope that in the end they will be able to stand, 
 if not entirely alone, yet in some such relation to the United 
 States as Cuba now stands. This end is not yet in sight, and it 
 may be indefinitely postponed if our people are foolish enough to 
 turn the attention of the Filipinos away from the problems of achiev- 
 ing moral and material prosperity, of working for a stable, orderly, 
 and just government, and tow^ard foolish and dangerous intrigues for 
 a complete independence for wdiich they are as yet totally unfit. 
 
 On the other hand our people must keep steadily before their 
 minds the fact that the justification for our stay in the Philippines 
 must ultimately rest chiefly upon the good we are able to do in the 
 
39 
 
 islands. I do not overlook the fact that in the development of onr 
 interests in the Pacific Ocean and along its coasts, the Philippines 
 have played and will play an important part, and that onr interests 
 have been served in more than one way by the possession of the 
 islands. But our chief reason for continuing to hold them must be 
 that we ought in good faith to try to do our share of the world's 
 work, and this particular piece of work has been imposed upon us 
 by the results of the war with Spain. The problem presented to 
 us in the Philippine Islands is akin to, but not exactly like, the 
 problems presented to the other great civilized powers which have 
 possessions in the Orient. There are points of resemblance in our 
 work to the work which is being done by the British in India and 
 Egypt, by the French in Algiers, by the Dutch in Java, by the Rus- 
 sians in Turkestan, by the Japanese in Formosa; but more distinctly 
 than any of these powers we are endeavoring to develop the natives 
 themselves so that they shall take an ever-increasing share in their 
 own government, and as far as is prudent we are already admitting 
 their representatives to a governmental equality with our own. 
 There are commissioners, judges, and governors in the islands who 
 are Filipinos and who have exactly the same share in the government 
 of the islands as have their colleagues who are Americans, while 
 in the lower ranks, of course, the great majority of the public 
 servants are Filipinos. Within two years we shall be trying the 
 experiment of an elective lower house in the Philippine legislature. 
 It ma}^ be that the Filipinos will misuse this legislature, and they 
 certainly will misuse it if they are misled by foolish persons here 
 at home into starting an agitation for their own independence or 
 into any factious or improper action. In such case they will do 
 themselves no good and will stop for the time being all further 
 effort to advance them and give them a greater share in their own 
 government. But if they act with wisdom and self-restraint, if they 
 show that they are capable of electing a legislature which in its turn 
 is capable of taking a sane and efficient part in the actual work of 
 government, they can rest assured that a full and increasing measure 
 of recognition will be given them. Above all they should remember 
 that their prime needs are moral and industrial, not political. It is 
 a good thing to try the experiment of giving them a legislature; but 
 it is a far better thing to give them schools, good roads, railroads 
 which will enable them to get their products to market, honest 
 courts, an honest and efficient constabulary, and all that tends to 
 produce order, peace, fair dealing as between man and man, and 
 habits of intelligent industry- and thrift. If they are safeguarded 
 
40 
 
 against oppression, and if their real wants, material and spiritual, 
 are studied intelligently and in a spirit of friendly sympathy, much 
 more good will be done them than by any effort to give them jKjliti- 
 cal power, though this effort may in its own proper time and i)lace 
 be proper enough. 
 
 ^Meanwhile our own people should remember that there is need 
 for the highest standard of conduct among the Americans sent 
 to the Philippine Islands, not only among the public servants but 
 among the private individuals who go to them. It is because I feel 
 this so deeply that in the administration of these islands I have 
 positively refused to permit any discrimination whatsoever for 
 political reasons and have insisted that in choosing the public 
 ser\'ants consideration should be paid solely to the w^orth of the 
 men chosen and to the needs of the islands. There is no hio-her 
 body of men in our public ser^dce than we have in the Philip- 
 pine Islands Under Governor Wright and his associates. So far as 
 possible these men should be given a free hand, and their sugges- 
 tions should receive the heart}' backing both of the Executive 
 and of the Congress. There is need of a vigilant and disinterested 
 support of our public servants in the Philippines by good citizens 
 here in the United States. Unfortunately hitherto those of our 
 people here at home who have specially claimed to be the cham- 
 pions of the Filipinos' have in reality been their worst enemies. 
 This will continue to be the case as long as they strive to make the 
 Filipinos independent, and stop all industrial development of the 
 islands b}' crying out against the law^s wdiich would bring it on the 
 ground that capitalists must not "exploit" the islands. Such pro- 
 ceedings are not only unwise, but are most harmful to the Filipinos, 
 who do not need independence at all, but wdio do need good laws, 
 good public ser\'ants, and the industrial development that can only 
 come if the investment of American and foreign capital in the 
 islands is favored in all legitimate ways. 
 
 Every measure taken concerning the islands should be taken pri- 
 marily with a view^ to their advantage. We should certainly give 
 them low^er tarifT rates on their exports to the United States; if this 
 is not done it will be a wrong to extend our shipping laws to them. 
 I earnestly hope for the immediate enactment into law of the legis- 
 lation now pending to encourage American capital to seek invest- 
 ment in the islands in railroads, in factories, in plantations, and in 
 lumbering and mining. 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 The White House, 
 
 December 6, 1^04.