To the Senate and House of Representatives:

The people of this country continue to enjoy great prosperity.
Undoubtedly there will be ebb and flow in such prosperity, and this ebb
and flow will be felt more or less by all members of the community,
both by the deserving and the undeserving. Against the wrath of the
Lord the wisdom of man cannot avail; in time of flood or drought human
ingenuity can but partially repair the disaster. A general failure of
crops would hurt all of us. Again, if the folly of man mars the general
well-being, then those who are innocent of the folly will have to pay
part of the penalty incurred by those who are guilty of the folly. A
panic brought on by the speculative folly of part of the business
community would hurt the whole business community. But such stoppage of
welfare, though it might be severe, would not be lasting. In the long
run the one vital factor in the permanent prosperity of the country is
the high individual character of the average American worker, the
average American citizen, no matter whether his work be mental or
manual, whether he be farmer or wage-worker, business man or
professional man.

In our industrial and social system the interests of all men are so
closely intertwined that in the immense majority of cases a
straight-dealing man who by his efficiency, by his ingenuity and
industry, benefits himself must also benefit others. Normally the man
of great productive capacity who becomes rich by guiding the labor of
many other men does so by enabling them to produce more than they could
produce without his guidance; and both he and they share in the
benefit, which comes also to the public at large. The superficial fact
that the sharing may be unequal must never blind us to the underlying
fact that there is this sharing, and that the benefit comes in some
degree to each man concerned. Normally the wage-worker, the man of
small means, and the average consumer, as well as the average producer,
are all alike helped by making conditions such that the man of
exceptional business ability receives an exceptional reward for his
ability. Something can be done by legislation to help the general
prosperity; but no such help of a permanently beneficial character can
be given to the less able and less fortunate, save as the results of a
policy which shall inure to the advantage of all industrious and
efficient people who act decently; and this is only another way of
saying that any benefit which comes to the less able and less fortunate
must of necessity come even more to the more able and more fortunate.
If, therefore, the less fortunate man is moved by envy of his more
fortunate brother to strike at the conditions under which they have
both, though unequally, prospered, the result will assuredly be that
while danger may come to the one struck at, it will visit with an even
heavier load the one who strikes the blow. Taken as a whole we must all
go up or down together.

Yet, while not merely admitting, but insisting upon this, it is also
true that where there is no governmental restraint or supervision some
of the exceptional men use their energies not in ways that are for the
common good, but in ways which tell against this common good. The
fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large, and
vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of
necessity to give to the sovereign--that is, to the Government, which
represents the people as a whole--some effective power of supervision
over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and
industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by,
and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its
conduct. I am in no sense hostile to corporations. This is an age of
combination, and any effort to prevent all combination will be not only
useless, but in the end vicious, because of the contempt for law which
the failure to enforce law inevitably produces. We should, moreover,
recognize in cordial and ample fashion the immense good effected by
corporate agencies in a country such as ours, and the wealth of
intellect, energy, and fidelity devoted to their service, and therefore
normally to the service of the public, by their officers and directors.
The corporation has come to stay, just as the trade union has come to
stay. Each can do and has done great good. Each should be favored so
long as it does good. But each should be sharply checked where it acts
against law and justice.

So long as the finances of the Nation are kept upon an honest basis no
other question of internal economy with which the Congress has the
power to deal begins to approach in importance the matter of
endeavoring to secure proper industrial conditions under which the
individuals--and especially the great corporations--doing an interstate
business are to act. The makers of our National Constitution provided
especially that the regulation of interstate commerce should come
within the sphere of the General Government. The arguments in favor of
their taking this stand were even then overwhelming. But they are far
stronger today, in view of the enormous development of great business
agencies, usually corporate in form. Experience has shown conclusively
that it is useless to try to get any adequate regulation and
supervision of these great corporations by State action. Such
regulation and supervision can only be effectively exercised by a
sovereign whose jurisdiction is coextensive with the field of work of
the corporations--that is, by the National Government. I believe that
this regulation and supervision can be obtained by the enactment of law
by the Congress. If this proves impossible, it will certainly be
necessary ultimately to confer in fullest form such power upon the
National Government by a proper amendment of the Constitution. It would
obviously be unwise to endeavor to secure such an amendment until it is
certain that the result cannot be obtained under the Constitution as it
now is. The laws of the Congress and of the several States hitherto, as
passed upon by the courts, have resulted more often in showing that the
States have no power in the matter than that the National Government
has power; so that there at present exists a very unfortunate condition
of things, under which these great corporations doing an interstate
business occupy the position of subjects without a sovereign, neither
any State Government nor the National Government having effective
control over them. Our steady aim should be by legislation, cautiously
and carefully undertaken, but resolutely persevered in, to assert the
sovereignty of the National Government by affirmative action.

This is only in form an innovation. In substance it is merely a
restoration; for from the earliest time such regulation of industrial
activities has been recognized in the action of the lawmaking bodies;
and all that I propose is to meet the changed conditions in such manner
as will prevent the Commonwealth abdicating the power it has always
possessed not only in this country, but also in England before and
since this country became a separate Nation.

It has been a misfortune that the National laws on this subject have
hitherto been of a negative or prohibitive rather than an affirmative
kind, and still more that they have in part sought to prohibit what
could not be effectively prohibited, and have in part in their
prohibitions confounded what should be allowed and what should not be
allowed. It is generally useless to try to prohibit all restraint on
competition, whether this restraint be reasonable or unreasonable; and
where it is not useless it is generally hurtful. Events have shown that
it is not possible adequately to secure the enforcement of any law of
this kind by incessant appeal to the courts. The Department of Justice
has for the last four years devoted more attention to the enforcement
of the anti-trust legislation than to anything else. Much has been
accomplished, particularly marked has been the moral effect of the
prosecutions; but it is increasingly evident that there will be a very
insufficient beneficial result in the way of economic change. The
successful prosecution of one device to evade the law immediately
develops another device to accomplish the same purpose. What is needed
is not sweeping prohibition of every arrangement, good or bad, which
may tend to restrict competition, but such adequate supervision and
regulation as will prevent any restriction of competition from being to
the detriment of the public--as well as such supervision and regulation
as will prevent other abuses in no way connected with restriction of
competition. Of these abuses, perhaps the chief, although by no means
the only one, is overcapitalization--generally itself the result of
dishonest promotion--because of the myriad evils it brings in its
train; for such overcapitalization often means an inflation that
invites business panic; it always conceals the true relation of the
profit earned to the capital actually invested, and it creates a burden
of interest payments which is a fertile cause of improper reduction in
or limitation of wages; it damages the small investor, discourages
thrift, and encourages gambling and speculation; while perhaps worst of
all is the trickiness and dishonesty which it implies--for harm to
morals is worse than any possible harm to material interests, and the
debauchery of politics and business by great dishonest corporations is
far worse than any actual material evil they do the public. Until the
National Government obtains, in some manner which the wisdom of the
Congress may suggest, proper control over the big corporations engaged
in interstate commerce--that is, over the great majority of the big
corporations--it will be impossible to deal adequately with these
evils.

I am well aware of the difficulties of the legislation that I am
suggesting, and of the need of temperate and cautious action in
securing it. I should emphatically protest against improperly radical
or hasty action. The first thing to do is to deal with the great
corporations engaged in the business of interstate transportation. As I
said in my message of December 6 last, the immediate and most pressing
need, so far as legislation is concerned, is the enactment into law of
some scheme to secure to the agents of the Government such supervision
and regulation of the rates charged by the railroads of the country
engaged in interstate traffic as shall summarily and effectively
prevent the imposition of unjust or unreasonable rates. It must include
putting a complete stop to rebates in every shape and form. This power
to regulate rates, like all similar powers over the business world,
should be exercised with moderation, caution, and self-restraint; but
it should exist, so that it can be effectively exercised when the need
arises.

The first consideration to be kept in mind is that the power should be
affirmative and should be given to some administrative body created by
the Congress. If given to the present Interstate Commerce Commission,
or to a reorganized Interstate Commerce Commission, such commission
should be made unequivocally administrative. I do not believe in the
Government interfering with private business more than is necessary. I
do not believe in the Government undertaking any work which can with
propriety be left in private hands. But neither do I believe in the
Government flinching from overseeing any work when it becomes evident
that abuses are sure to obtain therein unless there is governmental
supervision. It is not my province to indicate the exact terms of the
law which should be enacted; but I call the attention of the Congress
to certain existing conditions with which it is desirable to deal, In
my judgment the most important provision which such law should contain
is that conferring upon some competent administrative body the power to
decide, upon the case being brought before it, whether a given rate
prescribed by a railroad is reasonable and just, and if it is found to
be unreasonable and unjust, then, after full investigation of the
complaint, to prescribe the limit of rate beyond which it shall not be
lawful to go--the maximum reasonable rate, as it is commonly
called--this decision to go into effect within a reasonable time and to
obtain from thence onward, subject to review by the courts. It
sometimes happens at present not that a rate is too high but that a
favored shipper is given too low a rate. In such case the commission
would have the right to fix this already established minimum rate as
the maximum; and it would need only one or two such decisions by the
commission to cure railroad companies of the practice of giving
improper minimum rates. I call your attention to the fact that my
proposal is not to give the commission power to initiate or originate
rates generally, but to regulate a rate already fixed or originated by
the roads, upon complaint and after investigation. A heavy penalty
should be exacted from any corporation which fails to respect an order
of the commission. I regard this power to establish a maximum rate as
being essential to any scheme of real reform in the matter of railway
regulation. The first necessity is to secure it; and unless it is
granted to the commission there is little use in touching the subject
at all.

Illegal transactions often occur under the forms of law. It has often
occurred that a shipper has been told by a traffic officer to buy a
large quantity of some commodity and then after it has been bought an
open reduction is made in the rate to take effect immediately, the
arrangement resulting to the profit of one shipper and the one railroad
and to the damage of all their competitors; for it must not be
forgotten that the big shippers are at least as much to blame as any
railroad in the matter of rebates. The law should make it clear so that
nobody can fail to understand that any kind of commission paid on
freight shipments, whether in this form or in the form of fictitious
damages, or of a concession, a free pass, reduced passenger rate, or
payment of brokerage, is illegal. It is worth while considering whether
it would not be wise to confer on the Government the right of civil
action against the beneficiary of a rebate for at least twice the value
of the rebate; this would help stop what is really blackmail. Elevator
allowances should be stopped, for they have now grown to such an extent
that they are demoralizing and are used as rebates.

The best possible regulation of rates would, of course, be that
regulation secured by an honest agreement among the railroads
themselves to carry out the law. Such a general agreement would, for
instance, at once put a stop to the efforts of any one big shipper or
big railroad to discriminate against or secure advantages over some
rival; and such agreement would make the railroads themselves agents
for enforcing the law. The power vested in the Government to put a stop
to agreements to the detriment of the public should, in my judgment, be
accompanied by power to permit, under specified conditions and careful
supervision, agreements clearly in the interest of the public. But, in
my judgment, the necessity for giving this further power is by no means
as great as the necessity for giving the commission or administrative
body the other powers I have enumerated above; and it may well be
inadvisable to attempt to vest this particular power in the commission
or other administrative body until it already possesses and is
exercising what I regard as by far the most important of all the powers
I recommend--as indeed the vitally important power--that to fix a given
maximum rate, which rate, after the lapse of a reasonable time, goes
into full effect, subject to review by the courts.

All private-car lines, industrial roads, refrigerator charges, and the
like should be expressly put under the supervision of the Interstate
Commerce Commission or some similar body so far as rates, and
agreements practically affecting rates, are concerned. The private car
owners and the owners of industrial railroads are entitled to a fair
and reasonable compensation on their investment, but neither private
cars nor industrial railroads nor spur tracks should be utilized as
devices for securing preferential rates. A rebate in icing charges, or
in mileage, or in a division of the rate for refrigerating charges is
just as pernicious as a rebate in any other way. No lower rate should
apply on goods imported than actually obtains on domestic goods from
the American seaboard to destination except in cases where water
competition is the controlling influence. There should be publicity of
the accounts of common carriers; no common carrier engaged in
interstate business should keep any books or memoranda other than those
reported pursuant to law or regulation, and these books or memoranda
should be open to the inspection of the Government. Only in this way
can violations or evasions of the law be surely detected. A system of
examination of railroad accounts should be provided similar to that now
conducted into the National banks by the bank examiners; a few
first-class railroad accountants, if they had proper direction and
proper authority to inspect books and papers, could accomplish much in
preventing willful violations of the law. It would not be necessary for
them to examine into the accounts of any railroad unless for good
reasons they were directed to do so by the Interstate Commerce
Commission. It is greatly to be desired that some way might be found by
which an agreement as to transportation within a State intended to
operate as a fraud upon the Federal interstate commerce laws could be
brought under the jurisdiction of the Federal authorities. At present
it occurs that large shipments of interstate traffic are controlled by
concessions on purely State business, which of course amounts to an
evasion of the law. The commission should have power to enforce fair
treatment by the great trunk lines of lateral and branch lines.

I urge upon the Congress the need of providing for expeditious action
by the Interstate Commerce Commission in all these matters, whether in
regulating rates for transportation or for storing or for handling
property or commodities in transit. The history of the cases litigated
under the present commerce act shows that its efficacy has been to a
great degree destroyed by the weapon of delay, almost the most
formidable weapon in the hands of those whose purpose it is to violate
the law.

Let me most earnestly say that these recommendations are not made in
any spirit of hostility to the railroads. On ethical grounds, on
grounds of right, such hostility would be intolerable; and on grounds
of mere National self-interest we must remember that such hostility
would tell against the welfare not merely of some few rich men, but of
a multitude of small investors, a multitude of railway employes, wage
workers, and most severely against the interest of the public as a
whole. I believe that on the whole our railroads have done well and not
ill; but the railroad men who wish to do well should not be exposed to
competition with those who have no such desire, and the only way to
secure this end is to give to some Government tribunal the power to see
that justice is done by the unwilling exactly as it is gladly done by
the willing. Moreover, if some Government body is given increased power
the effect will be to furnish authoritative answer on behalf of the
railroad whenever irrational clamor against it is raised, or whenever
charges made against it are disproved. I ask this legislation not only
in the interest of the public but in the interest of the honest
railroad man and the honest shipper alike, for it is they who are
chiefly jeoparded by the practices of their dishonest competitors. This
legislation should be enacted in a spirit as remote as possible from
hysteria and rancor. If we of the American body politic are true to the
traditions we have inherited we shall always scorn any effort to make
us hate any man because he is rich, just as much as we should scorn any
effort to make us look down upon or treat contemptuously any man
because he is poor. We judge a man by his conduct--that is, by his
character--and not by his wealth or intellect. If he makes his fortune
honestly, there is no just cause of quarrel with him. Indeed, we have
nothing but the kindliest feelings of admiration for the successful
business man who behaves decently, whether he has made his success by
building or managing a railroad or by shipping goods over that
railroad. The big railroad men and big shippers are simply Americans of
the ordinary type who have developed to an extraordinary degree certain
great business qualities. They are neither better nor worse than their
fellow-citizens of smaller means. They are merely more able in certain
lines and therefore exposed to certain peculiarly strong temptations.
These temptations have not sprung newly into being; the exceptionally
successful among mankind have always been exposed to them; but they
have grown amazingly in power as a result of the extraordinary
development of industrialism along new lines, and under these new
conditions, which the law-makers of old could not foresee and therefore
could not provide against, they have become so serious and menacing as
to demand entirely new remedies. It is in the interest of the best type
of railroad man and the best type of shipper no less than of the public
that there should be Governmental supervision and regulation of these
great business operations, for the same reason that it is in the
interest of the corporation which wishes to treat its employes aright
that there should be an effective Employers' Liability act, or an
effective system of factory laws to prevent the abuse of women and
children. All such legislation frees the corporation that wishes to do
well from being driven into doing ill, in order to compete with its
rival, which prefers to do ill. We desire to set up a moral standard.
There can be no delusion more fatal to the Nation than the delusion
that the standard of profits, of business prosperity, is sufficient in
judging any business or political question--from rate legislation to
municipal government. Business success, whether for the individual or
for the Nation, is a good thing only so far as it is accompanied by and
develops a high standard of conduct--honor, integrity, civic courage.
The kind of business prosperity that blunts the standard of honor, that
puts an inordinate value on mere wealth, that makes a man ruthless and
conscienceless in trade, and weak and cowardly in citizenship, is not a
good thing at all, but a very bad thing for the Nation. This Government
stands for manhood first and for business only as an adjunct of
manhood.

The question of transportation lies at the root of all industrial
success, and the revolution in transportation which has taken place
during the last half century has been the most important factor in the
growth of the new industrial conditions. Most emphatically we do not
wish to see the man of great talents refused the reward for his
talents. Still less do we wish to see him penalized but we do desire to
see the system of railroad transportation so handled that the strong
man shall be given no advantage over the weak man. We wish to insure as
fair treatment for the small town as for the big city; for the small
shipper as for the big shipper. In the old days the highway of
commerce, whether by water or by a road on land, was open to all; it
belonged to the public and the traffic along it was free. At present
the railway is this highway, and we must do our best to see that it is
kept open to all on equal terms. Unlike the old highway it is a very
difficult and complex thing to manage, and it is far better that it
should be managed by private individuals than by the Government. But it
can only be so managed on condition that justice is done the public. It
is because, in my judgment, public ownership of railroads is highly
undesirable and would probably in this country entail far-reaching
disaster, but I wish to see such supervision and regulation of them in
the interest of the public as will make it evident that there is no
need for public ownership. The opponents of Government regulation dwell
upon the difficulties to be encountered and the intricate and involved
nature of the problem. Their contention is true. It is a complicated
and delicate problem, and all kinds of difficulties are sure to arise
in connection with any plan of solution, while no plan will bring all
the benefits hoped for by its more optimistic adherents. Moreover,
under any healthy plan, the benefits will develop gradually and not
rapidly. Finally, we must clearly understand that the public servants
who are to do this peculiarly responsible and delicate work must
themselves be of the highest type both as regards integrity and
efficiency. They must be well paid, for otherwise able men cannot in
the long run be secured; and they must possess a lofty probity which
will revolt as quickly at the thought of pandering to any gust of
popular prejudice against rich men as at the thought of anything even
remotely resembling subserviency to rich men. But while I fully admit
the difficulties in the way, I do not for a moment admit that these
difficulties warrant us in stopping in our effort to secure a wise and
just system. They should have no other effect than to spur us on to the
exercise of the resolution, the even-handed justice, and the fertility
of resource, which we like to think of as typically American, and which
will in the end achieve good results in this as in other fields of
activity. The task is a great one and underlies the task of dealing
with the whole industrial problem. But the fact that it is a great
problem does not warrant us in shrinking from the attempt to solve it.
At present we face such utter lack of supervision, such freedom from
the restraints of law, that excellent men have often been literally
forced into doing what they deplored because otherwise they were left
at the mercy of unscrupulous competitors. To rail at and assail the men
who have done as they best could under such conditions accomplishes
little. What we need to do is to develop an orderly system, and such a
system can only come through the gradually increased exercise of the
right of efficient Government control.

In my annual message to the Fifty-eighth Congress, at its third
session, I called attention to the necessity for legislation requiring
the use of block signals upon railroads engaged in interstate commerce.
The number of serious collisions upon unblocked roads that have
occurred within the past year adds force to the recommendation then
made. The Congress should provide, by appropriate legislation, for the
introduction of block signals upon all railroads engaged in interstate
commerce at the earliest practicable date, as a measure of increased
safety to the traveling public.

Through decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and the
lower Federal courts in cases brought before them for adjudication the
safety appliance law has been materially strengthened, and the
Government has been enabled to secure its effective enforcement in
almost all cases, with the result that the condition of railroad
equipment throughout the country is much improved and railroad employes
perform their duties under safer conditions than heretofore. The
Government's most effective aid in arriving at this result has been its
inspection service, and that these improved conditions are not more
general is due to the insufficient number of inspectors employed. The
inspection service has fully demonstrated its usefulness, and in
appropriating for its maintenance the Congress should make provision
for an increase in the number of inspectors.

The excessive hours of labor to which railroad employes in train
service are in many cases subjected is also a matter which may well
engage the serious attention of the Congress. The strain, both mental
and physical, upon those who are engaged in the movement and operation
of railroad trains under modern conditions is perhaps greater than that
which exists in any other industry, and if there are any reasons for
limiting by law the hours of labor in any employment, they certainly
apply with peculiar force to the employment of those upon whose
vigilance and alertness in the performance of their duties the safety
of all who travel by rail depends.

In my annual message to the Fifty-seventh Congress, at its second
session, I recommended the passage of an employers' liability law for
the District of Columbia and in our navy yards. I renewed that
recommendation in my message to the Fifty-eighth Congress, at its
second session, and further suggested the appointment of a commission
to make a comprehensive study of employers' liability, with a view to
the enactment of a wise and Constitutional law covering the subject,
applicable to all industries within the scope of the Federal power. I
hope that such a law will be prepared and enacted as speedily as
possible.

The National Government has, as a rule, but little occasion to deal
with the formidable group of problems connected more or less directly
with what is known as the labor question, for in the great majority of
cases these problems must be dealt with by the State and municipal
authorities, and not by the National Government. The National
Government has control of the District of Columbia, however, and it
should see to it that the City of Washington is made a model city in
all respects, both as regards parks, public playgrounds, proper
regulation of the system of housing, so as to do away with the evils of
alley tenements, a proper system of education, a proper system of
dealing with truancy and juvenile offenders, a proper handling of the
charitable work of the District. Moreover, there should be proper
factory laws to prevent all abuses in the employment of women and
children in the District. These will be useful chiefly as object
lessons, but even this limited amount of usefulness would be of real
National value.

There has been demand for depriving courts of the power to issue
injunctions in labor disputes. Such special limitation of the equity
powers of our courts would be most unwise. It is true that some judges
have misused this power; but this does not justify a denial of the
power any more than an improper exercise of the power to call a strike
by a labor leader would justify the denial of the right to strike. The
remedy is to regulate the procedure by requiring the judge to give due
notice to the adverse parties before granting the writ, the hearing to
be ex parte if the adverse party does not appear at the time and place
ordered. What is due notice must depend upon the facts of the case; it
should not be used as a pretext to permit violation of law or the
jeopardizing of life or property. Of course, this would not authorize
the issuing of a restraining order or injunction in any case in which
it is not already authorized by existing law.

I renew the recommendation I made in my last annual message for an
investigation by the Department of Commerce and Labor of general labor
conditions, especial attention to be paid to the conditions of child
labor and child-labor legislation in the several States. Such an
investigation should take into account the various problems with which
the question of child labor is connected. It is true that these
problems can be actually met in most cases only by the States
themselves, but it would be well for the Nation to endeavor to secure
and publish comprehensive information as to the conditions of the labor
of children in the different States, so as to spur up those that are
behindhand and to secure approximately uniform legislation of a high
character among the several States. In such a Republic as ours the one
thing that we cannot afford to neglect is the problem of turning out
decent citizens. The future of the Nation depends upon the citizenship
of the generations to come; the children of today are those who
tomorrow will shape the destiny of our land, and we cannot afford to
neglect them. The Legislature of Colorado has recommended that the
National Government provide some general measure for the protection
from abuse of children and dumb animals throughout the United States. I
lay the matter before you for what I trust will be your favorable
consideration.

The Department of Commerce and Labor should also make a thorough
investigation of the conditions of women in industry. Over five million
American women are now engaged in gainful occupations; yet there is an
almost complete dearth of data upon which to base any trustworthy
conclusions as regards a subject as important as it is vast and
complicated. There is need of full knowledge on which to base action
looking toward State and municipal legislation for the protection of
working women. The introduction of women into industry is working
change and disturbance in the domestic and social life of the Nation.
The decrease in marriage, and especially in the birth rate, has been
coincident with it. We must face accomplished facts, and the adjustment
of factory conditions must be made, but surely it can be made with less
friction and less harmful effects on family life than is now the case.
This whole matter in reality forms one of the greatest sociological
phenomena of our time; it is a social question of the first importance,
of far greater importance than any merely political or economic
question can be, and to solve it we need ample data, gathered in a sane
and scientific spirit in the course of an exhaustive investigation.

In any great labor disturbance not only are employer and employe
interested, but a third party--the general public. Every considerable
labor difficulty in which interstate commerce is involved should be
investigated by the Government and the facts officially reported to the
public.

The question of securing a healthy, self-respecting, and mutually
sympathetic attitude as between employer and employe, capitalist and
wage-worker, is a difficult one. All phases of the labor problem prove
difficult when approached. But the underlying principles, the root
principles, in accordance with which the problem must be solved are
entirely simple. We can get justice and right dealing only if we put as
of paramount importance the principle of treating a man on his worth as
a man rather than with reference to his social position, his occupation
or the class to which he belongs. There are selfish and brutal men in
all ranks of life. If they are capitalists their selfishness and
brutality may take the form of hard indifference to suffering, greedy
disregard of every moral restraint which interferes with the
accumulation of wealth, and cold-blooded exploitation of the weak; or,
if they are laborers, the form of laziness, of sullen envy of the more
fortunate, and of willingness to perform deeds of murderous violence.
Such conduct is just as reprehensible in one case as in the other, and
all honest and farseeing men should join in warring against it wherever
it becomes manifest. Individual capitalist and individual wage-worker,
corporation and union, are alike entitled to the protection of the law,
and must alike obey the law. Moreover, in addition to mere obedience to
the law, each man, if he be really a good citizen, must show broad
sympathy for his neighbor and genuine desire to look at any question
arising between them from the standpoint of that neighbor no less than
from his own, and to this end it is essential that capitalist and
wage-worker should consult freely one with the other, should each
strive to bring closer the day when both shall realize that they are
properly partners and not enemies. To approach the questions which
inevitably arise between them solely from the standpoint which treats
each side in the mass as the enemy of the other side in the mass is
both wicked and foolish. In the past the most direful among the
influences which have brought about the downfall of republics has ever
been the growth of the class spirit, the growth of the spirit which
tends to make a man subordinate the welfare of the public as a whole to
the welfare of the particular class to which he belongs, the
substitution of loyalty to a class for loyalty to the Nation. This
inevitably brings about a tendency to treat each man not on his merits
as an individual, but on his position as belonging to a certain class
in the community. If such a spirit grows up in this Republic it will
ultimately prove fatal to us, as in the past it has proved fatal to
every community in which it has become dominant. Unless we continue to
keep a quick and lively sense of the great fundamental truth that our
concern is with the individual worth of the individual man, this
Government cannot permanently hold the place which it has achieved
among the nations. The vital lines of cleavage among our people do not
correspond, and indeed run at right angles to, the lines of cleavage
which divide occupation from occupation, which divide wage-workers from
capitalists, farmers from bankers, men of small means from men of large
means, men who live in the towns from men who live in the country; for
the vital line of cleavage is the line which divides the honest man who
tries to do well by his neighbor from the dishonest man who does ill by
his neighbor. In other words, the standard we should establish is the
standard of conduct, not the standard of occupation, of means, or of
social position. It is the man's moral quality, his attitude toward the
great questions which concern all humanity, his cleanliness of life,
his power to do his duty toward himself and toward others, which really
count; and if we substitute for the standard of personal judgment which
treats each man according to his merits, another standard in accordance
with which all men of one class are favored and all men of another
class discriminated against, we shall do irreparable damage to the body
politic. I believe that our people are too sane, too self-respecting,
too fit for self-government, ever to adopt such an attitude. This
Government is not and never shall be government by a plutocracy. This
Government is not and never shall be government by a mob. It shall
continue to be in the future what it has been in the past, a Government
based on the theory that each man, rich or poor, is to be treated
simply and solely on his worth as a man, that all his personal and
property rights are to be safeguarded, and that he is neither to wrong
others nor to suffer wrong from others.

The noblest of all forms of government is self-government; but it is
also the most difficult. We who possess this priceless boon, and who
desire to hand it on to our children and our children's children,
should ever bear in mind the thought so finely expressed by Burke: "Men
are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their
disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion
as they are disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good in
preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist unless a
controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the
less of it there be within the more there must be without. It is
ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate
minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."

The great insurance companies afford striking examples of corporations
whose business has extended so far beyond the jurisdiction of the
States which created them as to preclude strict enforcement of
supervision and regulation by the parent States. In my last annual
message I recommended "that the Congress carefully consider whether the
power of the Bureau of Corporations cannot constitutionally be extended
to cover interstate transactions in insurance."

Recent events have emphasized the importance of an early and exhaustive
consideration of this question, to see whether it is not possible to
furnish better safeguards than the several States have been able to
furnish against corruption of the flagrant kind which has been exposed.
It has been only too clearly shown that certain of the men at the head
of these large corporations take but small note of the ethical
distinction between honesty and dishonesty; they draw the line only
this side of what may be called law-honesty, the kind of honesty
necessary in order to avoid falling into the clutches of the law. Of
course the only complete remedy for this condition must be found in an
aroused public conscience, a higher sense of ethical conduct in the
community at large, and especially among business men and in the great
profession of the law, and in the growth of a spirit which condemns all
dishonesty, whether in rich man or in poor man, whether it takes the
shape of bribery or of blackmail. But much can be done by legislation
which is not only drastic but practical. There is need of a far
stricter and more uniform regulation of the vast insurance interests of
this country. The United States should in this respect follow the
policy of other nations by providing adequate national supervision of
commercial interests which are clearly national in character. My
predecessors have repeatedly recognized that the foreign business of
these companies is an important part of our foreign commercial
relations. During the administrations of Presidents Cleveland,
Harrison, and McKinley the State Department exercised its influence,
through diplomatic channels, to prevent unjust discrimination by
foreign countries against American insurance companies. These
negotiations illustrated the propriety of the Congress recognizing the
National character of insurance, for in the absence of Federal
legislation the State Department could only give expression to the
wishes of the authorities of the several States, whose policy was
ineffective through want of uniformity.

I repeat my previous recommendation that the Congress should also
consider whether the Federal Government has any power or owes any duty
with respect to domestic transactions in insurance of an interstate
character. That State supervision has proved inadequate is generally
conceded. The burden upon insurance companies, and therefore their
policy holders, of conflicting regulations of many States, is
unquestioned, while but little effective check is imposed upon any able
and unscrupulous man who desires to exploit the company in his own
interest at the expense of the policy holders and of the public. The
inability of a State to regulate effectively insurance corporations
created under the laws of other States and transacting the larger part
of their business elsewhere is also clear. As a remedy for this evil of
conflicting, ineffective, and yet burdensome regulations there has been
for many years a widespread demand for Federal supervision. The
Congress has already recognized that interstate insurance may be a
proper subject for Federal legislation, for in creating the Bureau of
Corporations it authorized it to publish and supply useful information
concerning interstate corporations, "including corporations engaged in
insurance." It is obvious that if the compilation of statistics be the
limit of the Federal power it is wholly ineffective to regulate this
form of commercial intercourse between the States, and as the insurance
business has outgrown in magnitude the possibility of adequate State
supervision, the Congress should carefully consider whether further
legislation can be bad. What is said above applies with equal force to
fraternal and benevolent organizations which contract for life
insurance.

There is more need of stability than of the attempt to attain an ideal
perfection in the methods of raising revenue; and the shock and strain
to the business world certain to attend any serious change in these
methods render such change inadvisable unless for grave reason. It is
not possible to lay down any general rule by which to determine the
moment when the reasons for will outweigh the reasons against such a
change. Much must depend, not merely on the needs, but on the desires,
of the people as a whole; for needs and desires are not necessarily
identical. Of course, no change can be made on lines beneficial to, or
desired by, one section or one State only. There must be something like
a general agreement among the citizens of the several States, as
represented in the Congress, that the change is needed and desired in
the interest of the people, as a whole; and there should then be a
sincere, intelligent, and disinterested effort to make it in such shape
as will combine, so far as possible, the maximum of good to the people
at large with the minimum of necessary disregard for the special
interests of localities or classes. But in time of peace the revenue
must on the average, taking a series of years together, equal the
expenditures or else the revenues must be increased. Last year there
was a deficit. Unless our expenditures can be kept within the revenues
then our revenue laws must be readjusted. It is as yet too early to
attempt to outline what shape such a readjustment should take, for it
is as yet too early to say whether there will be need for it. It should
be considered whether it is not desirable that the tariff laws should
provide for applying as against or in favor of any other nation maximum
and minimum tariff rates established by the Congress, so as to secure a
certain reciprocity of treatment between other nations and ourselves.
Having in view even larger considerations of policy than those of a
purely economic nature, it would, in my judgment, be well to endeavor
to bring about closer commercial connections with the other peoples of
this continent. I am happy to be able to announce to you that Russia
now treats us on the most-favored-nation basis.

I earnestly recommend to Congress the need of economy and to this end
of a rigid scrutiny of appropriations. As examples merely, I call your
attention to one or two specific matters. All unnecessary offices
should be abolished. The Commissioner of the General Land Office
recommends the abolishment of the office of Receiver of Public Moneys
for the United States Land Office. This will effect a saving of about a
quarter of a million dollars a year. As the business of the Nation
grows, it is inevitable that there should be from time to time a
legitimate increase in the number of officials, and this fact renders
it all the more important that when offices become unnecessary they
should be abolished. In the public printing also a large saving of
public money can be made. There is a constantly growing tendency to
publish masses of unimportant information. It is probably not unfair to
say that many tens of thousands of volumes are published at which no
human being ever looks and for which there is no real demand whatever.

Yet, in speaking of economy, I must in no wise be understood as
advocating the false economy which is in the end the worst
extravagance. To cut down on the navy, for instance, would be a crime
against the Nation. To fail to push forward all work on the Panama
Canal would be as great a folly.

In my message of December 2, 1902, to the Congress I said:

"Interest rates are a potent factor in business activity, and in order
that these rates may be equalized to meet the varying needs of the
seasons and of widely separated communities, and to prevent the
recurrence of financial stringencies, which injuriously affect
legitimate business, it is necessary that there should be an element of
elasticity in our monetary system. Banks are the natural servants of
commerce, and, upon them should be placed, as far as practicable, the
burden of furnishing and maintaining a circulation adequate to supply
the needs of our diversified industries and of our domestic and foreign
commerce; and the issue of this should be so regulated that a
sufficient supply should be always available for the business interests
of the country."

Every consideration of prudence demands the addition of the element of
elasticity to our currency system. The evil does not consist in an
inadequate volume of money, but in the rigidity of this volume, which
does not respond as it should to the varying needs of communities and
of seasons. Inflation must be avoided; but some provision should be
made that will insure a larger volume of money during the Fall and
Winter months than in the less active seasons of the year; so that the
currency will contract against speculation, and will expand for the
needs of legitimate business. At present the Treasury Department is at
irregularly recurring intervals obliged, in the interest of the
business world--that is, in the interests of the American public--to
try to avert financial crises by providing a remedy which should be
provided by Congressional action.

At various times I have instituted investigations into the organization
and conduct of the business of the executive departments. While none of
these inquiries have yet progressed far enough to warrant final
conclusions, they have already confirmed and emphasized the general
impression that the organization of the departments is often faulty in
principle and wasteful in results, while many of their business methods
are antiquated and inefficient. There is every reason why our executive
governmental machinery should be at least as well planned, economical,
and efficient as the best machinery of the great business
organizations, which at present is not the case. To make it so is a
task of complex detail and essentially executive in its nature;
probably no legislative body, no matter how wise and able, could
undertake it with reasonable prospect of success. I recommend that the
Congress consider this subject with a view to provide by legislation
for the transfer, distribution, consolidation, and assignment of duties
and executive organizations or parts of organizations, and for the
changes in business methods, within or between the several departments,
that will best promote the economy, efficiency, and high character of
the Government work.

In my last annual message I said:

"The power of the Government to protect the integrity of the elections
of its own officials is inherent and has been recognized and affirmed
by repeated declarations of the Supreme Court. There is no enemy of
free government more dangerous and none so insidious as the corruption
of the electorate. No one defends or excuses corruption, and it would
seem to follow that none would oppose vigorous measures to eradicate
it. 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 Congress, but it should go as
far as under the Constitution it is possible 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."

I desire to repeat this recommendation. In political campaigns in a
country as large and populous as ours it is inevitable that there
should be much expense of an entirely legitimate kind. This, of course,
means that many contributions, and some of them of large size, must be
made, and, as a matter of fact, in any big political contest such
contributions are always made to both sides. It is entirely proper both
to give and receive them, unless there is an improper motive connected
with either gift or reception. If they are extorted by any kind of
pressure or promise, express or implied, direct or indirect, in the way
of favor or immunity, then the giving or receiving becomes not only
improper but criminal. It will undoubtedly be difficult, as a matter of
practical detail, to shape an act which shall guard with reasonable
certainty against such misconduct; but if it is possible to secure by
law the full and verified publication in detail of all the sums
contributed to and expended by the candidates or committees of any
political parties, the result cannot but be wholesome. All
contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any
political purpose should be forbidden by law; directors should not be
permitted to use stockholders' money for such purposes; and, moreover,
a prohibition of this kind would be, as far as it went, an effective
method of stopping the evils aimed at in corrupt practices acts. Not
only should both the National and the several State Legislatures forbid
any officer of a corporation from using the money of the corporation in
or about any election, but they should also forbid such use of money in
connection with any legislation save by the employment of counsel in
public manner for distinctly legal services.

The first conference of nations held at The Hague in 1899, being unable
to dispose of all the business before it, recommended the consideration
and settlement of a number of important questions by another conference
to be called subsequently and at an early date. These questions were
the following: (1) The rights and duties of neutrals; (2) the
limitation of the armed forces on land and sea, and of military
budgets; (3) the use of new types and calibres of military and naval
guns; (4) the inviolability of private property at sea in times of war;
(5) the bombardment of ports, cities, and villages by naval forces. In
October, 1904, at the instance of the Interparliamentary Union, which,
at a conference held in the United States, and attended by the
lawmakers of fifteen different nations, had reiterated the demand for a
second conference of nations, I issued invitations to all the powers
signatory to The Hague Convention to send delegates to such a
conference, and suggested that it be again held at The Hague. In its
note of December 16, 1904, the United States Government communicated to
the representatives of foreign governments its belief that the
conference could be best arranged under the provisions of the present
Hague treaty.

From all the powers acceptance was received, coupled in some cases with
the condition that we should wait until the end of the war then waging
between Russia and Japan. The Emperor of Russia, immediately after the
treaty of peace which so happily terminated this war, in a note
presented to the President on September 13, through Ambassador Rosen,
took the initiative in recommending that the conference be now called.
The United States Government in response expressed its cordial
acquiescence, and stated that it would, as a matter of course, take
part in the new conference and endeavor to further its aims. We assume
that all civilized governments will support the movement, and that the
conference is now an assured fact. This Government will do everything
in its power to secure the success of the conference, to the end that
substantial progress may be made in the cause of international peace,
justice, and good will.

This renders it proper at this time to say something as to the general
attitude of this Government toward peace. More and more war is coming
to be looked upon as in itself a lamentable and evil thing. A wanton or
useless war, or a war of mere aggression--in short, any war begun or
carried on in a conscienceless spirit, is to be condemned as a
peculiarly atrocious crime against all humanity. We can, however, do
nothing of permanent value for peace unless we keep ever clearly in
mind the ethical element which lies at the root of the problem. Our aim
is righteousness. Peace is normally the hand-maiden of rightousness;
but when peace and righteousness conflict then a great and upright
people can never for a moment hesitate to follow the path which leads
toward righteousness, even though that path also leads to war. There
are persons who advocate peace at any price; there are others who,
following a false analogy, think that because it is no longer necessary
in civilized countries for individuals to protect their rights with a
strong hand, it is therefore unnecessary for nations to be ready to
defend their rights. These persons would do irreparable harm to any
nation that adopted their principles, and even as it is they seriously
hamper the cause which they advocate by tending to render it absurd in
the eyes of sensible and patriotic men. There can be no worse foe of
mankind in general, and of his own country in particular, than the
demagogue of war, the man who in mere folly or to serve his own selfish
ends continually rails at and abuses other nations, who seeks to excite
his countrymen against foreigners on insufficient pretexts, who excites
and inflames a perverse and aggressive national vanity, and who may on
occasions wantonly bring on conflict between his nation and some other
nation. But there are demagogues of peace just as there are demagogues
of war, and in any such movement as this for The Hague conference it is
essential not to be misled by one set of extremists any more than by
the other. Whenever it is possible for a nation or an individual to
work for real peace, assuredly it is failure of duty not so to strive,
but if war is necessary and righteous then either the man or the nation
shrinking from it forfeits all title to self-respect. We have scant
sympathy with the sentimentalist who dreads oppression less than
physical suffering, who would prefer a shameful peace to the pain and
toil sometimes lamentably necessary in order to secure a righteous
peace. As yet there is only a partial and imperfect analogy between
international law and internal or municipal law, because there is no
sanction of force for executing the former while there is in the case
of the latter. The private citizen is protected in his rights by the
law, because the law rests in the last resort upon force exercised
through the forms of law. A man does not have to defend his rights with
his own hand, because he can call upon the police, upon the sheriff's
posse, upon the militia, or in certain extreme cases upon the army, to
defend him. But there is no such sanction of force for international
law. At present there could be no greater calamity than for the free
peoples, the enlightened, independent, and peace-loving peoples, to
disarm while yet leaving it open to any barbarism or despotism to
remain armed. So long as the world is as unorganized as now the armies
and navies of those peoples who on the whole stand for justice, offer
not only the best, but the only possible, security for a just peace.
For instance, if the United States alone, or in company only with the
other nations that on the whole tend to act justly, disarmed, we might
sometimes avoid bloodshed, but we would cease to be of weight in
securing the peace of justice--the real peace for which the most
law-abiding and high-minded men must at times be willing to fight. As
the world is now, only that nation is equipped for peace that knows how
to fight, and that will not shrink from fighting if ever the conditions
become such that war is demanded in the name of the highest morality.

So much it is emphatically necessary to say in order both that the
position of the United States may not be misunderstood, and that a
genuine effort to bring nearer the day of the peace of justice among
the nations may not be hampered by a folly which, in striving to
achieve the impossible, would render it hopeless to attempt the
achievement of the practical. But, while recognizing most clearly all
above set forth, it remains our clear duty to strive in every
practicable way to bring nearer the time when the sword shall not be
the arbiter among nations. At present the practical thing to do is to
try to minimize the number of cases in which it must be the arbiter,
and to offer, at least to all civilized powers, some substitute for war
which will be available in at least a considerable number of instances.
Very much can be done through another Hague conference in this
direction, and I most earnestly urge that this Nation do all in its
power to try to further the movement and to make the result of the
decisions of The Hague conference effective. I earnestly hope that the
conference may be able to devise some way to make arbitration between
nations the customary way of settling international disputes in all
save a few classes of cases, which should themselves be as sharply
defined and rigidly limited as the present governmental and social
development of the world will permit. If possible, there should be a
general arbitration treaty negotiated among all the nations represented
at the conference. Neutral rights and property should be protected at
sea as they are protected on land. There should be an international
agreement to this purpose and a similar agreement defining contraband
of war.

During the last century there has been a distinct diminution in the
number of wars between the most civilized nations. International
relations have become closer and the development of The Hague tribunal
is not only a symptom of this growing closeness of relationship, but is
a means by which the growth can be furthered. Our aim should be from
time to time to take such steps as may be possible toward creating
something like an organization of the civilized nations, because as the
world becomes more highly organized the need for navies and armies will
diminish. It is not possible to secure anything like an immediate
disarmament, because it would first be necessary to settle what peoples
are on the whole a menace to the rest of mankind, and to provide
against the disarmament of the rest being turned into a movement which
would really chiefly benefit these obnoxious peoples; but it may be
possible to exercise some check upon the tendency to swell indefinitely
the budgets for military expenditure. Of course such an effort could
succeed only if it did not attempt to do too much; and if it were
undertaken in a spirit of sanity as far removed as possible from a
merely hysterical pseudo-philanthropy. It is worth while pointing out
that since the end of the insurrection in the Philippines this Nation
has shown its practical faith in the policy of disarmament by reducing
its little army one-third. But disarmament can never be of prime
importance; there is more need to get rid of the causes of war than of
the implements of war.

I have dwelt much on the dangers to be avoided by steering clear of any
mere foolish sentimentality because my wish for peace is so genuine and
earnest; because I have a real and great desire that this second Hague
conference may mark a long stride forward in the direction of securing
the peace of justice throughout the world. No object is better worthy
the attention of enlightened statesmanship than the establishment of a
surer method than now exists of securing justice as between nations,
both for the protection of the little nations and for the prevention of
war between the big nations. To this aim we should endeavor not only to
avert bloodshed, but, above all, effectively to strengthen the forces
of right. The Golden Rule should be, and as the world grows in morality
it will be, the guiding rule of conduct among nations as among
individuals; though the Golden Rule must not be construed, in fantastic
manner, as forbidding the exercise of the police power. This mighty and
free Republic should ever deal with all other States, great or small,
on a basis of high honor, respecting their rights as jealously as it
safeguards its own.

One of the most effective instruments for peace is the Monroe Doctrine
as it has been and is being gradually developed by this Nation and
accepted by other nations. No other policy could have been as efficient
in promoting peace in the Western Hemisphere and in giving to each
nation thereon the chance to develop along its own lines. If we had
refused to apply the doctrine to changing conditions it would now be
completely outworn, would not meet any of the needs of the present day,
and, indeed, would probably by this time have sunk into complete
oblivion. It is useful at home, and is meeting with recognition abroad
because we have adapted our application of it to meet the growing and
changing needs of the hemisphere. When we announce a policy such as the
Monroe Doctrine we thereby commit ourselves to the consequences of the
policy, and those consequences from time to time alter. It is out of
the question to claim a right and yet shirk the responsibility for its
exercise. Not only we, but all American republics who are benefited by
the existence of the doctrine, must recognize the obligations each
nation is under as regards foreign peoples no less than its duty to
insist upon its own rights.

That our rights and interests are deeply concerned in the maintenance
of the doctrine is so clear as hardly to need argument. This is
especially true in view of the construction of the Panama Canal. As a
mere matter of self-defense we must exercise a close watch over the
approaches to this canal; and this means that we must be thoroughly
alive to our interests in the Caribbean Sea.

There are certain essential points which must never be forgotten as
regards the Monroe Doctrine. In the first place we must as a Nation
make it evident that we do not intend to treat it in any shape or way
as an excuse for aggrandizement on our part at the expense of the
republics to the south. We must recognize the fact that in some South
American countries there has been much suspicion lest we should
interpret the Monroe Doctrine as in some way inimical to their
interests, and we must try to convince all the other nations of this
continent once and for all that no just and orderly Government has
anything to fear from us. There are certain republics to the south of
us which have already reached such a point of stability, order, and
prosperity that they themselves, though as yet hardly consciously, are
among the guarantors of this doctrine. These republics we now meet not
only on a basis of entire equality, but in a spirit of frank and
respectful friendship, which we hope is mutual. If all of the republics
to the south of us will only grow as those to which I allude have
already grown, all need for us to be the especial champions of the
doctrine will disappear, for no stable and growing American Republic
wishes to see some great non-American military power acquire territory
in its neighborhood. All that this country desires is that the other
republics on this continent shall be happy and prosperous; and they
cannot be happy and prosperous unless they maintain order within their
boundaries and behave with a just regard for their obligations toward
outsiders. It must be understood that under no circumstances will the
United States use the Monroe Doctrine as a cloak for territorial
aggression. We desire peace with all the world, but perhaps most of all
with the other peoples of the American Continent. There are, of course,
limits to the wrongs which any self-respecting nation can endure. It is
always possible that wrong actions toward this Nation, or toward
citizens of this Nation, in some State unable to keep order among its
own people, unable to secure justice from outsiders, and unwilling to
do justice to those outsiders who treat it well, may result in our
having to take action to protect our rights; but such action will not
be taken with a view to territorial aggression, and it will be taken at
all only with extreme reluctance and when it has become evident that
every other resource has been exhausted.

Moreover, we must make it evident that we do not intend to permit the
Monroe Doctrine to be used by any nation on this Continent as a shield
to protect it from the consequences of its own misdeeds against foreign
nations. If a republic to the south of us commits a tort against a
foreign nation, such as an outrage against a citizen of that nation,
then the Monroe Doctrine does not force us to interfere to prevent
punishment of the tort, save to see that the punishment does not assume
the form of territorial occupation in any shape. The case is more
difficult when it refers to a contractual obligation. Our own
Government has always refused to enforce such contractual obligations
on behalf, of its citizens by an appeal to arms. It is much to be
wished that all foreign governments would take the same view. But they
do not; and in consequence we are liable at any time to be brought face
to face with disagreeable alternatives. On the one hand, this country
would certainly decline to go to war to prevent a foreign government
from collecting a just debt; on the other hand, it is very inadvisable
to permit any foreign power to take possession, even temporarily, of
the custom houses of an American Republic in order to enforce the
payment of its obligations; for such temporary occupation might turn
into a permanent occupation. The only escape from these alternatives
may at any time be that we must ourselves undertake to bring about some
arrangement by which so much as possible of a just obligation shall be
paid. It is far better that this country should put through such an
arrangement, rather than allow any foreign country to undertake it. To
do so insures the defaulting republic from having to pay debt of an
improper character under duress, while it also insures honest creditors
of the republic from being passed by in the interest of dishonest or
grasping creditors. Moreover, for the United States to take such a
position offers the only possible way of insuring us against a clash
with some foreign power. The position is, therefore, in the interest of
peace as well as in the interest of justice. It is of benefit to our
people; it is of benefit to foreign peoples; and most of all it is
really of benefit to the people of the country concerned.

This brings me to what should be one of the fundamental objects of the
Monroe Doctrine. We must ourselves in good faith try to help upward
toward peace and order those of our sister republics which need such
help. Just as there has been a gradual growth of the ethical element in
the relations of one individual to another, so we are, even though
slowly, more and more coming to recognize the duty of bearing one
another's burdens, not only as among individuals, but also as among
nations.

Santo Domingo, in her turn, has now made an appeal to us to help her,
and not only every principle of wisdom but every generous instinct
within us bids us respond to the appeal. It is not of the slightest
consequence whether we grant the aid needed by Santo Domingo as an
incident to the wise development of the Monroe Doctrine or because we
regard the case of Santo Domingo as standing wholly by itself, and to
be treated as such, and not on general principles or with any reference
to the Monroe Doctrine. The important point is to give the needed aid,
and the case is certainly sufficiently peculiar to deserve to be judged
purely on its own merits. The conditions in Santo Domingo have for a
number of years grown from bad to worse until a year ago all society
was on the verge of dissolution. Fortunately, just at this time a ruler
sprang up in Santo Domingo, who, with his colleagues, saw the dangers
threatening their country and appealed to the friendship of the only
great and powerful neighbor who possessed the power, and as they hoped
also the will to help them. There was imminent danger of foreign
intervention. The previous rulers of Santo Domingo had recklessly
incurred debts, and owing to her internal disorders she had ceased to
be able to provide means of paying the debts. The patience of her
foreign creditors had become exhausted, and at least two foreign
nations were on the point of intervention, and were only prevented from
intervening by the unofficial assurance of this Government that it
would itself strive to help Santo Domingo in her hour of need. In the
case of one of these nations, only the actual opening of negotiations
to this end by our Government prevented the seizure of territory in
Santo Domingo by a European power. Of the debts incurred some were
just, while some were not of a character which really renders it
obligatory on or proper for Santo Domingo to pay them in full. But she
could not pay any of them unless some stability was assured her
Government and people.

Accordingly, the Executive Department of our Government negotiated a
treaty under which we are to try to help the Dominican people to
straighten out their finances. This treaty is pending before the
Senate. In the meantime a temporary arrangement has been made which
will last until the Senate has had time to take action upon the treaty.
Under this arrangement the Dominican Government has appointed Americans
to all the important positions in the customs service and they are
seeing to the honest collection of the revenues, turning over 45 per
cent. to the Government for running expenses and putting the other 55
per cent. into a safe depository for equitable division in case the
treaty shall be ratified, among the various creditors, whether European
or American.

The Custom Houses offer well-nigh the only sources of revenue in Santo
Domingo, and the different revolutions usually have as their real aim
the obtaining of these Custom Houses. The mere fact that the Collectors
of Customs are Americans, that they are performing their duties with
efficiency and honesty, and that the treaty is pending in the Senate
gives a certain moral power to the Government of Santo Domingo which it
has not had before. This has completely discouraged all revolutionary
movement, while it has already produced such an increase in the
revenues that the Government is actually getting more from the 45 per
cent. that the American Collectors turn over to it than it got formerly
when it took the entire revenue. It is enabling the poor, harassed
people of Santo Domingo once more to turn their attention to industry
and to be free from the cure of interminable revolutionary disturbance.
It offers to all bona-fide creditors, American and European, the only
really good chance to obtain that to which they are justly entitled,
while it in return gives to Santo Domingo the only opportunity of
defense against claims which it ought not to pay, for now if it meets
the views of the Senate we shall ourselves thoroughly examine all these
claims, whether American or foreign, and see that none that are
improper are paid. There is, of course, opposition to the treaty from
dishonest creditors, foreign and American, and from the professional
revolutionists of the island itself. We have already reason to believe
that some of the creditors who do not dare expose their claims to
honest scrutiny are endeavoring to stir up sedition in the island and
opposition to the treaty. In the meantime, I have exercised the
authority vested in me by the joint resolution of the Congress to
prevent the introduction of arms into the island for revolutionary
purposes.

Under the course taken, stability and order and all the benefits of
peace are at last coming to Santo Domingo, danger of foreign
intervention has been suspended, and there is at last a prospect that
all creditors will get justice, no more and no less. If the arrangement
is terminated by the failure of the treaty chaos will follow; and if
chaos follows, sooner or later this Government may be involved in
serious difficulties with foreign Governments over the island, or else
may be forced itself to intervene in the island in some unpleasant
fashion. Under the proposed treaty the independence of the island is
scrupulously respected, the danger of violation of the Monroe Doctrine
by the intervention of foreign powers vanishes, and the interference of
our Government is minimized, so that we shall only act in conjunction
with the Santo Domingo authorities to secure the proper administration
of the customs, and therefore to secure the payment of just debts and
to secure the Dominican Government against demands for unjust debts.
The proposed method will give the people of Santo Domingo the same
chance to move onward and upward which we have already given to the
people of Cuba. It will be doubly to our discredit as a Nation if we
fail to take advantage of this chance; for it will be of damage to
ourselves, and it will be of incalculable damage to Santo Domingo.
Every consideration of wise policy, and, above all, every consideration
of large generosity, bids us meet the request of Santo Domingo as we
are now trying to meet it.

We cannot consider the question of our foreign policy without at the
same time treating of the Army and the Navy. We now have a very small
army indeed, one well-nigh infinitesimal when compared With the army of
any other large nation. Of course the army we do have should be as
nearly perfect of its kind and for its size as is possible. I do not
believe that any army in the world has a better average of enlisted men
or a better type of junior officer; but the army should be trained to
act effectively in a mass. Provision should be made by sufficient
appropriations for manoeuvers of a practical kind, so that the troops
may learn how to take care of themselves under actual service
conditions; every march, for instance, being made with the soldier
loaded exactly as he would be in active campaign. The Generals and
Colonels would thereby have opportunity of handling regiments,
brigades, and divisions, and the commissary and medical departments
would be tested in the field. Provision should be made for the exercise
at least of a brigade and by preference of a division in marching and
embarking at some point on our coast and disembarking at some other
point and continuing its march. The number of posts in which the army
is kept in time of peace should be materially diminished and the posts
that are left made correspondingly larger. No local interests should be
allowed to stand in the way of assembling the greater part of the
troops which would at need form our field armies in stations of such
size as will permit the best training to be given to the personnel of
all grades, including the high officers and staff officers. To
accomplish this end we must have not company or regimental garrisons,
but brigade and division garrisons. Promotion by mere seniority can
never result in a thoroughly efficient corps of officers in the higher
ranks unless there accompanies it a vigorous weeding-out process. Such
a weeding-out process--that is, such a process of selection--is a chief
feature of the four years' course of the young officer at West Point.
There is no good reason why it should stop immediately upon his
graduation. While at West Point he is dropped unless he comes up to a
certain standard of excellence, and when he graduates he takes rank in
the army according to his rank of graduation. The results are good at
West Point; and there should be in the army itself something that will
achieve the same end. After a certain age has been reached the average
officer is unfit to do good work below a certain grade. Provision
should be made for the promotion of exceptionally meritorious men over
the heads of their comrades and for the retirement of all men who have
reached a given age without getting beyond a given rank; this age of
retirement of course changing from rank to rank. In both the army and
the navy there should be some principle of selection, that is, of
promotion for merit, and there should be a resolute effort to eliminate
the aged officers of reputable character who possess no special
efficiency.

There should be an increase in the coast artillery force, so that our
coast fortifications can be in some degree adequately manned. There is
special need for an increase and reorganization of the Medical
Department of the army. In both the army and navy there must be the
same thorough training for duty in the staff corps as in the fighting
line. Only by such training in advance can we be sure that in actual
war field operations and those at sea will be carried on successfully.
The importance of this was shown conclusively in the Spanish-American
and the Russo-Japanese wars. The work of the medical departments in the
Japanese army and navy is especially worthy of study. I renew my
recommendation of January 9, 1905, as to the Medical Department of the
army and call attention to the equal importance of the needs of the
staff corps of the navy. In the Medical Department of the navy the
first in importance is the reorganization of the Hospital Corps, on the
lines of the Gallinger bill, (S. 3,984, February 1, 1904), and the
reapportionment of the different grades of the medical officers to meet
service requirements. It seems advisable also that medical officers of
the army and navy should have similar rank and pay in their respective
grades, so that their duties can be carried on without friction when
they are brought together. The base hospitals of the navy should be put
in condition to meet modern requirements and hospital ships be
provided. Unless we now provide with ample forethought for the medical
needs of the army and navy appalling suffering of a preventable kind is
sure to occur if ever the country goes to war. It is not reasonable to
expect successful administration in time of war of a department which
lacks a third of the number of officers necessary to perform the
medical service in time of peace. We need men who are not merely
doctors; they must be trained in the administration of military medical
service.

Our navy must, relatively to the navies of other nations, always be of
greater size than our army. We have most wisely continued for a number
of years to build up our navy, and it has now reached a fairly high
standard of efficiency. This standard of efficiency must not only be
maintained, but increased. It does not seem to be necessary, however,
that the navy should--at least in the immediate future--be increased
beyond the present number of units. What is now clearly necessary is to
substitute efficient for inefficient units as the latter become worn
out or as it becomes apparent that they are useless. Probably the
result would be attained by adding a single battleship to our navy each
year, the superseded or outworn vessels being laid up or broken up as
they are thus replaced. The four single-turret monitors built
immediately after the close of the Spanish war, for instance, are
vessels which would be of but little use in the event of war. The money
spent upon them could have been more usefully spent in other ways. Thus
it would have been far better never to have built a single one of these
monitors and to have put the money into an ample supply of reserve
guns. Most of the smaller cruisers and gunboats, though they serve a
useful purpose so far as they are needed for international police work,
would not add to the strength of our navy in a conflict with a serious
foe. There is urgent need of providing a large increase in the number
of officers, and especially in the number of enlisted men.

Recent naval history has emphasized certain lessons which ought not to,
but which do, need emphasis. Seagoing torpedo boats or destroyers are
indispensable, not only for making night attacks by surprise upon an
enemy, but even in battle for finishing already crippled ships. Under
exceptional circumstances submarine boats would doubtless be of use.
Fast scouts are needed. The main strength of the navy, however, lies,
and can only lie, in the great battleships, the heavily armored,
heavily gunned vessels which decide the mastery of the seas.
Heavy-armed cruisers also play a most useful part, and unarmed
cruisers, if swift enough, are very useful as scouts. Between
antagonists of approximately equal prowess the comparative perfection
of the instruments of war will ordinarily determine the fight. But it
is, of course, true that the man behind the gun, the man in the engine
room, and the man in the conning tower, considered not only
individually, but especially with regard to the way in which they work
together, are even more important than the weapons with which they
work. The most formidable battleship is, of course, helpless against
even a light cruiser if the men aboard it are unable to hit anything
with their guns, and thoroughly well-handled cruisers may count
seriously in an engagement with much superior vessels, if the men
aboard the latter are ineffective, whether from lack of training or
from any other cause. Modern warships are most formidable mechanisms
when well handled, but they are utterly useless when not well handled,
and they cannot be handled at all without long and careful training.
This training can under no circumstance be given when once war has
broken out. No fighting ship of the first class should ever be laid up
save for necessary repairs, and her crew should be kept constantly
exercised on the high seas, so that she may stand at the highest point
of perfection. To put a new and untrained crew upon the most powerful
battleship and send it out to meet a formidable enemy is not only to
invite, but to insure, disaster and disgrace. To improvise crews at the
outbreak of a war, so far as the serious fighting craft are concerned,
is absolutely hopeless. If the officers and men are not thoroughly
skilled in, and have not been thoroughly trained to, their duties, it
would be far better to keep the ships in port during hostilities than
to send them against a formidable opponent, for the result could only
be that they would be either sunk or captured. The marksmanship of our
navy is now on the whole in a gratifying condition, and there has been
a great improvement in fleet practice. We need additional seamen; we
need a large store of reserve guns; we need sufficient money for ample
target practice, ample practice of every kind at sea. We should
substitute for comparatively inefficient types--the old third-class
battleship Texas, the single-turreted monitors above mentioned, and,
indeed, all the monitors and some of the old cruisers--efficient,
modern seagoing vessels. Seagoing torpedo-boat destroyers should be
substituted for some of the smaller torpedo boats. During the present
Congress there need be no additions to the aggregate number of units of
the navy. Our navy, though very small relatively to the navies of other
nations, is for the present sufficient in point of numbers for our
needs, and while we must constantly strive to make its efficiency
higher, there need be no additions to the total of ships now built and
building, save in the way of substitution as above outlined. I
recommend the report of the Secretary of the Navy to the careful
consideration of the Congress, especially with a view to the
legislation therein advocated.

During the past year evidence has accumulated to confirm the
expressions contained in my last two annual messages as to the
importance of revising by appropriate legislation our system of
naturalizing aliens. I appointed last March a commission to make a
careful examination of our naturalization laws, and to suggest
appropriate measures to avoid the notorious abuses resulting from the
improvident of unlawful granting of citizenship. This commission,
composed of an officer of the Department of State, of the Department of
Justice, and of the Department of Commerce and Labor, has discharged
the duty imposed upon it, and has submitted a report, which will be
transmitted to the Congress for its consideration, and, I hope, for its
favor, able action.

The distinguishing recommendations of the commission are:

First--A Federal Bureau of Naturalization, to be established in the
Department of Commerce and Labor, to supervise the administration of
the naturalization laws and to receive returns of naturalizations
pending and accomplished.

Second--Uniformity of naturalization certificates, fees to be charged,
and procedure.

Third--More exacting qualifications for citizenship.

Fourth--The preliminary declaration of intention to be abolished and no
alien to be naturalized until at least ninety days after the filing of
his petition.

Fifth--Jurisdiction to naturalize aliens to be confined to United
States district courts and to such State courts as have jurisdiction in
civil actions in which the amount in controversy is unlimited; in
cities of over 100,000 inhabitants the United States district courts to
have exclusive jurisdiction in the naturalization of the alien
residents of such cities.

In my last message I asked the attention of the Congress to the urgent
need of action to make our criminal law more effective; and I most
earnestly request that you pay heed to the report of the Attorney
General on this subject. Centuries ago it was especially needful to
throw every safeguard round the accused. The danger then was lest he
should be wronged by the State. The danger is now exactly the reverse.
Our laws and customs tell immensely in favor of the criminal and
against the interests of the public he has wronged. Some antiquated and
outworn rules which once safeguarded the threatened rights of private
citizens, now merely work harm to the general body politic. The
criminal law of the United States stands in urgent need of revision.
The criminal process of any court of the United States should run
throughout the entire territorial extent of our country. The delays of
the criminal law, no less than of the civil, now amount to a very great
evil.

There seems to be no statute of the United States which provides for
the punishment of a United States Attorney or other officer of the
Government who corruptly agrees to wrongfully do or wrongfully refrain
from doing any act when the consideration for such corrupt agreement is
other than one possessing money value. This ought to be remedied by
appropriate legislation. Legislation should also be enacted to cover
explicitly, unequivocally, and beyond question breach of trust in the
shape of prematurely divulging official secrets by an officer or
employe of the United States, and to provide a suitable penalty
therefor. Such officer or employe owes the duty to the United States to
guard carefully and not to divulge or in any manner use, prematurely,
information which is accessible to the officer or employe by reason of
his official position. Most breaches of public trust are already
covered by the law, and this one should be. It is impossible, no matter
how much care is used, to prevent the occasional appointment to the
public service of a man who when tempted proves unfaithful; but every
means should be provided to detect and every effort made to punish the
wrongdoer. So far as in my power see each and every such wrongdoer
shall be relentlessly hunted down; in no instance in the past has he
been spared; in no instance in the future shall he be spared. His crime
is a crime against every honest man in the Nation, for it is a crime
against the whole body politic. Yet in dwelling on such misdeeds it is
unjust not to add that they are altogether exceptional, and that on the
whole the employes of the Government render upright and faithful
service to the people. There are exceptions, notably in one or two
branches of the service, but at no time in the Nation's history has the
public service of the Nation taken as a whole stood on a higher plane
than now, alike as regards honesty and as regards efficiency.

Once again I call your attention to the condition of the public land
laws. Recent developments have given new urgency to the need for such
changes as will fit these laws to actual present conditions. The honest
disposal and right use of the remaining public lands is of fundamental
importance. The iniquitous methods by which the monopolizing of the
public lands is being brought about under the present laws are becoming
more generally known, but the existing laws do not furnish effective
remedies. The recommendations of the Public Lands Commission upon this
subject are wise and should be given effect.

The creation of small irrigated farms under the Reclamation act is a
powerful offset to the tendency of certain other laws to foster or
permit monopoly of the land. Under that act the construction of great
irrigation works has been proceeding rapidly and successfully, the
lands reclaimed are eagerly taken up, and the prospect that the policy
of National irrigation will accomplish all that was expected of it is
bright. The act should be extended to include the State of Texas.

The Reclamation act derives much of its value from the fact that it
tends to secure the greatest possible number of homes on the land, and
to create communities of freeholders, in part by settlement on public
lands, in part by forcing the subdivision of large private holdings
before they can get water from Government irrigation works. The law
requires that no right to the use of water for land in private
ownership shall be sold for a tract exceeding 160 acres to any one land
owner. This provision has excited active and powerful hostility, but
the success of the law itself depends on the wise and firm enforcement
of it. We cannot afford to substitute tenants for freeholders on the
public domain.

The greater part of the remaining public lands can not be irrigated.
They are at present and will probably always be of greater value for
grazing than for any other purpose. This fact has led to the grazing
homestead of 640 acres in Nebraska and to the proposed extension of it
to other States. It is argued that a family can not be supported on 160
acres of arid grazing land. This is obviously true, but neither can a
family be supported on 640 acres of much of the land to which it is
proposed to apply the grazing homestead. To establish universally any
such arbitrary limit would be unwise at the present time. It would
probably result on the one hand in enlarging the holdings of some of
the great land owners, and on the other in needless suffering and
failure on the part of a very considerable proportion of the bona fide
settlers who give faith to the implied assurance of the Government that
such an area is sufficient. The best use of the public grazing lands
requires the careful examination and classification of these lands in
order to give each settler land enough to support his family and no
more. While this work is being done, and until the lands are settled,
the Government should take control of the open range, under reasonable
regulations suited to local needs, following the general policy already
in successful operation on the forest reserves. It is probable that the
present grazing value of the open public range is scarcely more than
half what it once was or what it might easily be again under careful
regulation.

The forest policy of the Administration appears to enjoy the unbroken
support of the people. The great users of timber are themselves
forwarding the movement for forest preservation. All organized
opposition to the forest preserves in the West has disappeared. Since
the consolidation of all Government forest work in the National Forest
Service there has been a rapid and notable gain in the usefulness of
the forest reserves to the people and in public appreciation of their
value. The National parks within or adjacent to forest reserves should
be transferred to the charge of the Forest Service also.

The National Government already does something in connection with the
construction and maintenance of the great system of levees along the
lower course of the Mississippi; in my judgment it should do much more.

To the spread of our trade in peace and the defense of our flag in war
a great and prosperous merchant marine is indispensable. We should have
ships of our own and seamen of our own to convey our goods to neutral
markets, and in case of need to reinforce our battle line. It cannot
but be a source of regret and uneasiness to us that the lines of
communication with our sister republics of South America should be
chiefly under foreign control. It is not a good thing that American
merchants and manufacturers should have to send their goods and letters
to South America via Europe if they wish security and dispatch. Even on
the Pacific, where our ships have held their own better than on the
Atlantic, our merchant flag is now threatened through the liberal aid
bestowed by other Governments on their own steam lines. I ask your
earnest consideration of the report with which the Merchant Marine
Commission has followed its long and careful inquiry.

I again heartily commend to your favorable consideration the
tercentennial celebration at Jamestown, Va. Appreciating the
desirability of this commemoration, the Congress passed an act, March
3, 1905, authorizing in the year 1907, on and near the waters of
Hampton Roads, in the State of Virginia, an international naval,
marine, and military celebration in honor of this event. By the
authority vested in me by this act, I have made proclamation of said
celebration, and have issued, in conformity with its instructions,
invitations to all the nations of the earth to participate, by sending
their naval vessels and such military organizations as may be
practicable. This celebration would fail of its full purpose unless it
were enduring in its results and commensurate with the importance of
the event to be celebrated, the event from which our Nation dates its
birth. I earnestly hope that this celebration, already indorsed by the
Congress of the United States, and by the Legislatures of sixteen
States since the action of the Congress, will receive such additional
aid at your hands as will make it worthy of the great event it is
intended to celebrate, and thereby enable the Government of the United
States to make provision for the exhibition of its own resources, and
likewise enable our people who have undertaken the work of such a
celebration to provide suitable and proper entertainment and
instruction in the historic events of our country for all who may visit
the exposition and to whom we have tendered our hospitality.

It is a matter of unmixed satisfaction once more to call attention to
the excellent work of the Pension Bureau; for the veterans of the civil
war have a greater claim upon us than any other class of our citizens.
To them, first of all among our people, honor is due.

Seven years ago my lamented predecessor, President McKinley, stated
that the time had come for the Nation to care for the graves of the
Confederate dead. I recommend that the Congress take action toward this
end. The first need is to take charge of the graves of the Confederate
dead who died in Northern prisons.

The question of immigration is of vital interest to this country. In
the year ending June 30, 1905, there came to the United States
1,026,000 alien immigrants. In other words, in the single year that has
just elapsed there came to this country a greater number of people than
came here during the one hundred and sixty-nine years of our Colonial
life which intervened between the first landing at Jamestown and the
Declaration of Independence. It is clearly shown in the report of the
Commissioner General of Immigration that while much of this enormous
immigration is undoubtedly healthy and natural, a considerable
proportion is undesirable from one reason or another; moreover, a
considerable proportion of it, probably a very large proportion,
including most of the undesirable class, does not come here of its own
initiative, but because of the activity of the agents of the great
transportation companies. These agents are distributed throughout
Europe, and by the offer of all kinds of inducements they wheedle and
cajole many immigrants, often against their best interest, to come
here. The most serious obstacle we have to encounter in the effort to
secure a proper regulation of the immigration to these shores arises
from the determined opposition of the foreign steamship lines who have
no interest whatever in the matter save to increase the returns on
their capital by carrying masses of immigrants hither in the steerage
quarters of their ships.

As I said in my last message to the Congress, we cannot have too much
immigration of the right sort and we should have none whatever of the
wrong sort. Of course, it is desirable that even the right kind of
immigration should be properly distributed in this country. We need
more of such immigration for the South; and special effort should be
made to secure it. Perhaps it would be possible to limit the number of
immigrants allowed to come in any one year to New York and other
Northern cities, while leaving unlimited the number allowed to come to
the South; always provided, however, that a stricter effort is made to
see that only immigrants of the right kind come to our country
anywhere. In actual practice it has proved so difficult to enforce the
migration laws where long stretches of frontier marked by an imaginary
line alone intervene between us and our neighbors that I recommend that
no immigrants be allowed to come in from Canada and Mexico save natives
of the two countries themselves. As much as possible should be done to
distribute the immigrants upon the land and keep them away from the
contested tenement-house districts of the great cities. But
distribution is a palliative, not a cure. The prime need is to keep out
all immigrants who will not make good American citizens. The laws now
existing for the exclusion of undesirable immigrants should be
strengthened. Adequate means should be adopted, enforced by sufficient
penalties, to compel steamship companies engaged in the passenger
business to observe in good faith the law which forbids them to
encourage or solicit immigration to the United States. Moreover, there
should be a sharp limitation imposed upon all vessels coming to our
ports as to the number of immigrants in ratio to the tonnage which each
vessel can carry. This ratio should be high enough to insure the coming
hither of as good a class of aliens as possible. Provision should be
made for the surer punishment of those who induce aliens to come to
this country under promise or assurance of employment. It should be
made possible to inflict a sufficiently heavy penalty on any employer
violating this law to deter him from taking the risk. It seems to me
wise that there should be an international conference held to deal with
this question of immigration, which has more than a merely National
significance; such a conference could, among other things, enter at
length into the method for securing a thorough inspection of would-be
immigrants at the ports from which they desire to embark before
permitting them to embark.

In dealing with this question it is unwise to depart from the old
American tradition and to discriminate for or against any man who
desires to come here and become a citizen, save on the ground of that
man's fitness for citizenship. It is our right and duty to consider his
moral and social quality. His standard of living should be such that he
will not, by pressure of competition, lower the standard of living of
our own wage-workers; for it must ever be a prime object of our
legislation to keep high their standard of living. If the man who seeks
to come here is from the moral and social standpoint of such a
character as to bid fair to add value to the community he should be
heartily welcomed. We cannot afford to pay heed to whether he is of one
creed or another, of one nation, or another. We cannot afford to
consider whether he is Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile; whether
he is Englishman or Irishman, Frenchman or German, Japanese, Italian,
Scandinavian, Slav, or Magyar. What we should desire to find out is the
individual quality of the individual man. In my judgment, with this end
in view, we shall have to prepare through our own agents a far more
rigid inspection in the countries from which the immigrants come. It
will be a great deal better to have fewer immigrants, but all of the
right kind, than a great number of immigrants, many of whom are
necessarily of the wrong kind. As far as possible we wish to limit the
immigration to this country to persons who propose to become citizens
of this country, and we can well afford to insist upon adequate
scrutiny of the character of those who are thus proposed for future
citizenship. There should be an increase in the stringency of the laws
to keep out insane, idiotic, epileptic, and pauper immigrants. But this
is by no means enough. Not merely the Anarchist, but every man of
Anarchistic tendencies, all violent and disorderly people, all people
of bad character, the incompetent, the lazy, the vicious, the
physically unfit, defective, or degenerate should be kept out. The
stocks out of which American citizenship is to be built should be
strong and healthy, sound in body, mind, and character. If it be
objected that the Government agents would not always select well, the
answer is that they would certainly select better than do the agents
and brokers of foreign steamship companies, the people who now do
whatever selection is done.

The questions arising in connection with Chinese immigration stand by
themselves. The conditions in China are such that the entire Chinese
coolie class, that is, the class of Chinese laborers, skilled and
unskilled, legitimately come under the head of undesirable immigrants
to this country, because of their numbers, the low wages for which they
work, and their low standard of living. Not only is it to the interest
of this country to keep them out, but the Chinese authorities do not
desire that they should be admitted. At present their entrance is
prohibited by laws amply adequate to accomplish this purpose. These
laws have been, are being, and will be, thoroughly enforced. The
violations of them are so few in number as to be infinitesimal and can
be entirely disregarded. This is no serious proposal to alter the
immigration law as regards the Chinese laborer, skilled or unskilled,
and there is no excuse for any man feeling or affecting to feel the
slightest alarm on the subject.

But in the effort to carry out the policy of excluding Chinese
laborers, Chinese coolies, grave injustice and wrong have been done by
this Nation to the people of China, and therefore ultimately to this
Nation itself. Chinese students, business and professional men of all
kinds--not only merchants, but bankers, doctors, manufacturers,
professors, travelers, and the like--should be encouraged to come here,
and treated on precisely the same footing that we treat students,
business men, travelers, and the like of other nations. Our laws and
treaties should be framed, not so as to put these people in the
excepted classes, but to state that we will admit all Chinese, except
Chinese of the coolie class, Chinese skilled or unskilled laborers.
There would not be the least danger that any such provision would
result in any relaxation of the law about laborers. These will, under
all conditions, be kept out absolutely. But it will be more easy to see
that both justice and courtesy are shown, as they ought to be shown, to
other Chinese, if the law or treaty is framed as above suggested.
Examinations should be completed at the port of departure from China.
For this purpose there should be provided a more adequate Consular
Service in China than we now have. The appropriations both for the
offices of the Consuls and for the office forces in the consulates
should be increased.

As a people we have talked much of the open door in China, and we
expect, and quite rightly intend to insist upon, justice being shown us
by the Chinese. But we cannot expect to receive equity unless we do
equity. We cannot ask the Chinese to do to us what we are unwilling to
do to them. They would have a perfect right to exclude our laboring men
if our laboring men threatened to come into their country in such
numbers as to jeopardize the well-being of the Chinese population; and
as, mutatis mutandis, these were the conditions with which Chinese
immigration actually brought this people face to face, we had and have
a perfect right, which the Chinese Government in no way contests, to
act as we have acted in the matter of restricting coolie immigration.
That this right exists for each country was explicitly acknowledged in
the last treaty between the two countries. But we must treat the
Chinese student, traveler, and business man in a spirit of the broadest
justice and courtesy if we expect similar treatment to be accorded to
our own people of similar rank who go to China. Much trouble has come
during the past Summer from the organized boycott against American
goods which has been started in China. The main factor in producing
this boycott has been the resentment felt by the students and business
people of China, by all the Chinese leaders, against the harshness of
our law toward educated Chinamen of the professional and business
classes.  This Government has the friendliest feeling for China and
desires China's well-being. We cordially sympathize with the announced
purpose of Japan to stand for the integrity of China. Such an attitude
tends to the peace of the world.

The civil service law has been on the statute books for twenty-two
years. Every President and a vast majority of heads of departments who
have been in office during that period have favored a gradual extension
of the merit system. The more thoroughly its principles have been
understood, the greater has been the favor with which the law has been
regarded by administration officers. Any attempt to carry on the great
executive departments of the Government without this law would
inevitably result in chaos. The Civil Service Commissioners are doing
excellent work, and their compensation is inadequate considering the
service they perform.

The statement that the examinations are not practical in character is
based on a misapprehension of the practice of the Commission. The
departments are invariably consulted as to the requirements desired and
as to the character of questions that shall be asked. General
invitations are frequently sent out to all heads of departments asking
whether any changes in the scope or character of examinations are
required. In other words, the departments prescribe the requirements
and qualifications desired, and the Civil Service Commission
co-operates with them in securing persons with these qualifications and
insuring open and impartial competition. In a large number of
examinations (as, for example, those for trades positions), there are
no educational requirements whatever, and a person who can neither read
nor write may pass with a high average. Vacancies in the service are
filled with reasonable expedition, and the machinery of the Commission,
which reaches every part of the country, is the best agency that has
yet been devised for finding people with the most suitable
qualifications for the various offices to be filled. Written
competitive examinations do not make an ideal method for filling
positions, but they do represent an immeasurable advance upon the
"spoils" method, under which outside politicians really make the
appointments nominally made by the executive officers, the appointees
being chosen by the politicians in question, in the great majority of
cases, for reasons totally unconnected with the needs of the service or
of the public.

Statistics gathered by the Census Bureau show that the tenure of office
in the Government service does not differ materially from that enjoyed
by employes of large business corporations. Heads of executive
departments and members of the Commission have called my attention to
the fact that the rule requiring a filing of charges and three days'
notice before an employe could be separated from the service for
inefficiency has served no good purpose whatever, because that is not a
matter upon which a hearing of the employe found to be inefficient can
be of any value, and in practice the rule providing for such notice and
hearing has merely resulted in keeping in a certain number of
incompetents, because of the reluctance of the heads of departments and
bureau chiefs to go through the required procedure. Experience has
shown that this rule is wholly ineffective to save any man, if a
superior for improper reasons wishes to remove him, and is mischievous
because it sometimes serves to keep in the service incompetent men not
guilty of specific wrongdoing. Having these facts in view the rule has
been amended by providing that where the inefficiency or incapacity
comes within the personal knowledge of the head of a department the
removal may be made without notice, the reasons therefor being filed
and made a record of the department. The absolute right of the removal
rests where it always has rested, with the head of a department; any
limitation of this absolute right results in grave injury to the public
service. The change is merely one of procedure; it was much needed, and
it is producing good results.

The civil service law is being energetically and impartially enforced,
and in the large majority of cases complaints of violations of either
the law or rules are discovered to be unfounded. In this respect this
law compares very favorably with any other Federal statute. The
question of politics in the appointment and retention of the men
engaged in merely ministerial work has been practically eliminated in
almost the entire field of Government employment covered by the civil
service law. The action of the Congress in providing the commission
with its own force instead of requiring it to rely on detailed clerks
has been justified by the increased work done at a smaller cost to the
Government. I urge upon the Congress a careful consideration of the
recommendations contained in the annual report of the commission.

Our copyright laws urgently need revision. They are imperfect in
definition, confused and inconsistent in expression; they omit
provision for many articles which, under modern reproductive processes
are entitled to protection; they impose hardships upon the copyright
proprietor which are not essential to the fair protection of the
public; they are difficult for the courts to interpret and impossible
for the Copyright Office to administer with satisfaction to the public.
Attempts to improve them by amendment have been frequent, no less than
twelve acts for the purpose having been passed since the Revised
Statutes. To perfect them by further amendment seems impracticable. A
complete revision of them is essential. Such a revision, to meet modern
conditions, has been found necessary in Germany, Austria, Sweden, and
other foreign countries, and bills embodying it are pending in England
and the Australian colonies. It has been urged here, and proposals for
a commission to undertake it have, from time to time, been pressed upon
the Congress. The inconveniences of the present conditions being so
great, an attempt to frame appropriate legislation has been made by the
Copyright Office, which has called conferences of the various interests
especially and practically concerned with the operation of the
copyright laws. It has secured from them suggestions as to the changes
necessary; it has added from its own experience and investigations, and
it has drafted a bill which embodies such of these changes and
additions as, after full discussion and expert criticism, appeared to
be sound and safe. In form this bill would replace the existing
insufficient and inconsistent laws by one general copyright statute. It
will be presented to the Congress at the coming session. It deserves
prompt consideration.

I recommend that a law be enacted to regulate inter-State commerce in
misbranded and adulterated foods, drinks, and drugs. Such law would
protect legitimate manufacture and commerce, and would tend to secure
the health and welfare of the consuming public. Traffic in food-stuffs
which have been debased or adulterated so as to injure health or to
deceive purchasers should be forbidden.

The law forbidding the emission of dense black or gray smoke in the
city of Washington has been sustained by the courts. Something has been
accomplished under it, but much remains to be done if we would preserve
the capital city from defacement by the smoke nuisance. Repeated
prosecutions under the law have not had the desired effect. I recommend
that it be made more stringent by increasing both the minimum and
maximum fine; by providing for imprisonment in cases of repeated
violation, and by affording the remedy of injunction against the
continuation of the operation of plants which are persistent offenders.
I recommend, also, an increase in the number of inspectors, whose duty
it shall be to detect violations of the act.

I call your attention to the generous act of the State of California in
conferring upon the United States Government the ownership of the
Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove. There should be no
delay in accepting the gift, and appropriations should be made for the
including thereof in the Yosemite National Park, and for the care and
policing of the park. California has acted most wisely, as well as with
great magnanimity, in the matter. There are certain mighty natural
features of our land which should be preserved in perpetuity for our
children and our children's children. In my judgment, the Grand Canyon
of the Colorado should be made into a National park. It is greatly to
be wished that the State of New York should copy as regards Niagara
what the State of California has done as regards the Yosemite. Nothing
should be allowed to interfere with the preservation of Niagara Falls
in all their beauty and majesty. If the State cannot see to this, then
it is earnestly to be wished that she should be willing to turn it over
to the National Government, which should in such case (if possible, in
conjunction with the Canadian Government) assume the burden and
responsibility of preserving unharmed Niagara Falls; just as it should
gladly assume a similar burden and responsibility for the Yosemite
National Park, and as it has already assumed them for the Yellowstone
National Park. Adequate provision should be made by the Congress for
the proper care and supervision of all these National parks. The
boundaries of the Yellowstone National Park should be extended to the
south and east, to take in such portions of the abutting forest
reservations as will enable the Government to protect the elk on their
Winter range.

The most characteristic animal of the Western plains was the great,
shaggy-maned wild ox, the bison, commonly known as buffalo. Small
fragments of herds exist in a domesticated state here and there, a few
of them in the Yellowstone Park. Such a herd as that on the Flat-head
Reservation should not be allowed to go out of existence. Either on
some reservation or on some forest reserve like the Wichita reserve and
game refuge provision should be made for the preservation of such a
herd. I believe that the scheme would be of economic advantage, for the
robe of the buffalo is of high market value, and the same is true of
the robe of the crossbred animals.

I call your especial attention to the desirability of giving to the
members of the Life Saving Service pensions such as are given to
firemen and policemen in all our great cities. The men in the Life
Saving Service continually and in the most matter of fact way do deeds
such as make Americans proud of their country. They have no political
influence, and they live in such remote places that the really heroic
services they continually render receive the scantiest recognition from
the public. It is unjust for a great nation like this to permit these
men to become totally disabled or to meet death in the performance of
their hazardous duty and yet to give them no sort of reward. If one of
them serves thirty years of his life in such a position he should
surely be entitled to retire on half pay, as a fireman or policeman
does, and if he becomes totally incapacitated through accident or
sickness, or loses his health in the discharge of his duty, he or his
family should receive a pension just as any soldier should. I call your
attention with especial earnestness to this matter because it appeals
not only to our judgment but to our sympathy; for the people on whose
behalf I ask it are comparatively few in number, render incalculable
service of a particularly dangerous kind, and have no one to speak for
them.

During the year just past, the phase of the Indian question which has
been most sharply brought to public attention is the larger legal
significance of the Indian's induction into citizenship. This has made
itself manifest not only in a great access of litigation in which the
citizen Indian figures as a party defendant and in a more widespread
disposition to levy local taxation upon his personalty, but in a
decision of the United States Supreme Court which struck away the main
prop on which has hitherto rested the Government's benevolent effort to
protect him against the evils of intemperance. The court holds, in
effect, that when an Indian becomes, by virtue of an allotment of land
to him, a citizen of the State in which his land is situated, he passes
from under Federal control in such matters as this, and the acts of the
Congress prohibiting the sale or gift to him of intoxicants become
substantially inoperative. It is gratifying to note that the States and
municipalities of the West which have most at stake in the welfare of
the Indians are taking up this subject and are trying to supply, in a
measure at least, the abdication of its trusteeship forced upon the
Federal Government. Nevertheless, I would urgently press upon the
attention of the Congress the question whether some amendment of the
internal revenue laws might not be of aid in prosecuting those
malefactors, known in the Indian country as "bootleggers," who are
engaged at once in defrauding the United States Treasury of taxes and,
what is far more important, in debauching the Indians by carrying
liquors illicitly into territory still completely under Federal
jurisdiction.

Among the crying present needs of the Indians are more day schools
situated in the midst of their settlements, more effective instruction
in the industries pursued on their own farms, and a more liberal
tension of the field-matron service, which means the education of the
Indian women in the arts of home making. Until the mothers are well
started in the right direction we cannot reasonably expect much from
the children who are soon to form an integral part of our American
citizenship. Moreover the excuse continually advanced by male adult
Indians for refusing offers of remunerative employment at a distance
from their homes is that they dare not leave their families too long
out of their sight. One effectual remedy for this state of things is to
employ the minds and strengthen the moral fibre of the Indian
women--the end to which the work of the field matron is especially
directed. I trust that the Congress will make its appropriations for
Indian day schools and field matrons as generous as may consist with
the other pressing demands upon its providence.

During the last year the Philippine Islands have been slowly recovering
from the series of disasters which, since American occupation, have
greatly reduced the amount of agricultural products below what was
produced in Spanish times. The war, the rinderpest, the locusts, the
drought, and the cholera have been united as causes to prevent a return
of the prosperity much needed in the islands. The most serious is the
destruction by the rinderpest of more than 75 per cent of the draught
cattle, because it will take several years of breeding to restore the
necessary number of these indispensable aids to agriculture. The
commission attempted to supply by purchase from adjoining countries the
needed cattle, but the experiments made were unsuccessful. Most of the
cattle imported were unable to withstand the change of climate and the
rigors of the voyage and died from other diseases than rinderpest.

The income of the Philippine Government has necessarily been reduced by
reason of the business and agricultural depression in the islands, and
the Government has been obliged to exercise great economy to cut down
its expenses, to reduce salaries, and in every way to avoid a deficit.
It has adopted an internal revenue law, imposing taxes on cigars,
cigarettes, and distilled liquors, and abolishing the old Spanish
industrial taxes. The law has not operated as smoothly as was hoped,
and although its principle is undoubtedly correct, it may need
amendments for the purpose of reconciling the people to its provisions.
The income derived from it has partly made up for the reduction in
customs revenue.

There has been a marked increase in the number of Filipinos employed in
the civil service, and a corresponding decrease in the number of
Americans. The Government in every one of its departments has been
rendered more efficient by elimination of undesirable material and the
promotion of deserving public servants.

Improvements of harbors, roads, and bridges continue, although the
cutting down of the revenue forbids the expenditure of any great amount
from current income for these purposes. Steps are being taken, by
advertisement for competitive bids, to secure the construction and
maintenance of 1,000 miles of railway by private corporations under the
recent enabling legislation of the Congress. The transfer of the friar
lands, in accordance with the contract made some two years ago, has
been completely effected, and the purchase money paid. Provision has
just been made by statute for the speedy settlement in a special
proceeding in the Supreme Court of controversies over the possession
and title of church buildings and rectories arising between the Roman
Catholic Church and schismatics claiming under ancient municipalities.
Negotiations and hearings for the settlement of the amount due to the
Roman Catholic Church for rent and occupation of churches and rectories
by the army of the United States are in progress, and it is hoped a
satisfactory conclusion may be submitted to the Congress before the end
of the session.

Tranquillity has existed during the past year throughout the
Archipelago, except in the Province of Cavite, the Province of Batangas
and the Province of Samar, and in the Island of Jolo among the Moros.
The Jolo disturbance was put an end to by several sharp and short
engagements, and now peace prevails in the Moro Province, Cavite, the
mother of ladrones in the Spanish times, is so permeated with the
traditional sympathy of the people for ladronism as to make it
difficult to stamp out the disease. Batangas was only disturbed by
reason of the fugitive ladrones from Cavite, Samar was thrown into
disturbance by the uneducated and partly savage peoples living in the
mountains, who, having been given by the municipal code more power than
they were able to exercise discreetly, elected municipal officers who
abused their trusts, compelled the people raising hemp to sell it at a
much less price than it was worth, and by their abuses drove their
people into resistance to constituted authority. Cavite and Samar are
instances of reposing too much confidence in the self-governing power
of a people. The disturbances have all now been suppressed, and it is
hoped that with these lessons local governments can be formed which
will secure quiet and peace to the deserving inhabitants. The incident
is another proof of the fact that if there has been any error as
regards giving self-government in the Philippines it has been in the
direction of giving it too quickly, not too slowly. A year from next
April the first legislative assembly for the islands will be held. On
the sanity and self-restraint of this body much will depend so far as
the future self-government of the islands is concerned.

The most encouraging feature of the whole situation has been the very
great interest taken by the common people in education and the great
increase in the number of enrolled students in the public schools. The
increase was from 300,000 to half a million pupils. The average
attendance is about 70 per cent. The only limit upon the number of
pupils seems to be the capacity of the government to furnish teachers
and school houses.

The agricultural conditions of the islands enforce more strongly than
ever the argument in favor of reducing the tariff on the products of
the Philippine Islands entering the United States. I earnestly
recommend that the tariff now imposed by the Dingley bill upon the
products of the Philippine Islands be entirely removed, except the
tariff on sugar and tobacco, and that that tariff be reduced to 25 per
cent of the present rates under the Dingley act; that after July 1,
1909, the tariff upon tobacco and sugar produced in the Philippine
Islands be entirely removed, and that free trade between the islands
and the United States in the products of each country then be provided
for by law.

A statute in force, enacted April 15, 1904, suspends the operation of
the coastwise laws of the United States upon the trade between the
Philippine Islands and the United States until July 1, 1906. I
earnestly recommend that this suspension be postponed until July 1,
1909. I think it of doubtful utility to apply the coastwise laws to the
trade between the United States and the Philippines under any
circumstances, because I am convinced that it will do no good whatever
to American bottoms, and will only interfere and be an obstacle to the
trade between the Philippines and the United States, but if the
coastwise law must be thus applied, certainly it ought not to have
effect until free trade is enjoyed between the people of the United
States and the people of the Philippine Islands in their respective
products.

I do not anticipate that free trade between the islands and the United
States will produce a revolution in the sugar and tobacco production of
the Philippine Islands. So primitive are the methods of agriculture in
the Philippine Islands, so slow is capital in going to the islands, so
many difficulties surround a large agricultural enterprise in the
islands, that it will be many, many years before the products of those
islands will have any effect whatever upon the markets of the United
States. The problem of labor is also a formidable one with the sugar
and tobacco producers in the islands. The best friends of the Filipino
people and the people themselves are utterly opposed to the admission
of Chinese coolie labor. Hence the only solution is the training of
Filipino labor, and this will take a long time. The enactment of a law
by the Congress of the United States making provision for free trade
between the islands and the United States, however, will be of great
importance from a political and sentimental standpoint; and, while its
actual benefit has doubtless been exaggerated by the people of the
islands, they will accept this measure of justice as an indication that
the people of the United States are anxious to aid the people of the
Philippine Islands in every way, and especially in the agricultural
development of their archipelago. It will aid the Filipinos without
injuring interests in America.

In my judgment immediate steps should be taken for the fortification of
Hawaii. This is the most important point in the Pacific to fortify in
order to conserve the interests of this country. It would be hard to
overstate the importance of this need. Hawaii is too heavily taxed.
Laws should be enacted setting aside for a period of, say, twenty years
75 per cent of the internal revenue and customs receipts from Hawaii as
a special fund to be expended in the islands for educational and public
buildings, and for harbor improvements and military and naval defenses.
It cannot be too often repeated that our aim must be to develop the
territory of Hawaii on traditional American lines. That territory has
serious commercial and industrial problems to reckon with; but no
measure of relief can be considered which looks to legislation
admitting Chinese and restricting them by statute to field labor and
domestic service. The status of servility can never again be tolerated
on American soil. We cannot concede that the proper solution of its
problems is special legislation admitting to Hawaii a class of laborers
denied admission to the other States and Territories. There are
obstacles, and great obstacles, in the way of building up a
representative American community in the Hawaiian Islands; but it is
not in the American character to give up in the face of difficulty.
Many an American Commonwealth has been built up against odds equal to
those that now confront Hawaii.

No merely half-hearted effort to meet its problems as other American
communities have met theirs can be accepted as final. Hawaii shall
never become a territory in which a governing class of rich planters
exists by means of coolie labor. Even if the rate of growth of the
Territory is thereby rendered slower, the growth must only take place
by the admission of immigrants fit in the end to assume the duties and
burdens of full American citizenship. Our aim must be to develop the
Territory on the same basis of stable citizenship as exists on this
continent.

I earnestly advocate the adoption of legislation which will explicitly
confer American citizenship on all citizens of Porto Rico. There is, in
my judgment, no excuse for failure to do this. The harbor of San Juan
should be dredged and improved. The expenses of the Federal Court of
Porto Rico should be met from the Federal Treasury and not from the
Porto Rican treasury. The elections in Porto Rico should take place
every four years, and the Legislature should meet in session every two
years. The present form of government in Porto Rico, which provides for
the appointment by the President of the members of the Executive
Council or upper house of the Legislature, has proved satisfactory and
has inspired confidence in property owners and investors. I do not deem
it advisable at the present time to change this form in any material
feature. The problems and needs of the island are industrial and
commercial rather than political.

I wish to call the attention of the Congress to one question which
affects our insular possessions generally; namely, the need of an
increased liberality in the treatment of the whole franchise question
in these islands. In the proper desire to prevent the islands being
exploited by speculators and to have them develop in the interests of
their own people an error has been made in refusing to grant
sufficiently liberal terms to induce the investment of American capital
in the Philippines and in Porto Rico. Elsewhere in this message I have
spoken strongly against the jealousy of mere wealth, and especially of
corporate wealth as such. But it is particularly regrettable to allow
any such jealousy to be developed when we are dealing either with our
insular or with foreign affairs. The big corporation has achieved its
present position in the business world simply because it is the most
effective instrument in business competition. In foreign affairs we
cannot afford to put our people at a disadvantage with their
competitors by in any way discriminating against the efficiency of our
business organizations. In the same way we cannot afford to allow our
insular possessions to lag behind in industrial development from any
twisted jealousy of business success. It is, of course, a mere truism
to say that the business interests of the islands will only be
developed if it becomes the financial interest of somebody to develop
them. Yet this development is one of the things most earnestly to be
wished for in the interest of the islands themselves. We have been
paying all possible heed to the political and educational interests of
the islands, but, important though these objects are, it is not less
important that we should favor their industrial development. The
Government can in certain ways help this directly, as by building good
roads; but the fundamental and vital help must be given through the
development of the industries of the islands, and a most efficient
means to this end is to encourage big American corporations to start
industries in them, and this means to make it advantageous for them to
do so. To limit the ownership of mining claims, as has been done in the
Philippines, is absurd. In both the Philippines and Porto Rico the
limit of holdings of land should be largely raised.

I earnestly ask that Alaska be given an elective delegate. Some person
should be chosen who can speak with authority of the needs of the
Territory. The Government should aid in the construction of a railroad
from the Gulf of Alaska to the Yukon River, in American territory. In
my last two messages I advocated certain additional action on behalf of
Alaska. I shall not now repeat those recommendations, but I shall lay
all my stress upon the one recommendation of giving to Alaska some one
authorized to speak for it. I should prefer that the delegate was made
elective, but if this is not deemed wise, then make him appointive. At
any rate, give Alaska some person whose business it shall be to speak
with authority on her behalf to the Congress. The natural resources of
Alaska are great. Some of the chief needs of the peculiarly energetic,
self-reliant, and typically American white population of Alaska were
set forth in my last message. I also earnestly ask your attention to
the needs of the Alaskan Indians. All Indians who are competent should
receive the full rights of American citizenship. It is, for instance, a
gross and indefensible wrong to deny to such hard-working,
decent-living Indians as the Metlakahtlas the right to obtain licenses
as captains, pilots, and engineers; the right to enter mining claims,
and to profit by the homestead law. These particular Indians are
civilized and are competent and entitled to be put on the same basis
with the white men round about them.

I recommend that Indian Territory and Oklahoma be admitted as one State
and that New Mexico and Arizona be admitted as one State. There is no
obligation upon us to treat territorial subdivisions, which are matters
of convenience only, as binding us on the question of admission to
Statehood. Nothing has taken up more time in the Congress during the
past few years than the question as to the Statehood to be granted to
the four Territories above mentioned, and after careful consideration
of all that has been developed in the discussions of the question, I
recommend that they be immediately admitted as two States. There is no
justification for further delay; and the advisability of making the
four Territories into two States has been clearly established.

In some of the Territories the legislative assemblies issue licenses
for gambling. The Congress should by law forbid this practice, the
harmful results of which are obvious at a glance.

The treaty between the United States and the Republic of Panama, under
which the construction of the Panama Canal was made possible, went into
effect with its ratification by the United States Senate on February
23, 1904. The canal properties of the French Canal Company were
transferred to the United States on April 23, 1904, on payment of
$40,000,000 to that company. On April 1, 1905, the Commission was
reorganized, and it now consists of Theodore P. Shonts, Chairman;
Charles E. Magoon, Benjamin M. Harrod, Rear Admiral Mordecai T.
Endicott, Brig. Gen. Peter C. Hains, and Col. Oswald H. Ernst. John F.
Stevens was appointed Chief Engineer on July 1 last. Active work in
canal construction, mainly preparatory, has been in progress for less
than a year and a half. During that period two points about the canal
have ceased to be open to debate: First, the question of route; the
canal will be built on the Isthmus of Panama. Second, the question of
feasibility; there are no physical obstacles on this route that
American engineering skill will not be able to overcome without serious
difficulty, or that will prevent the completion of the canal within a
reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. This is virtually the
unanimous testimony of the engineers who have investigated the matter
for the Government.

The point which remains unsettled is the question of type, whether the
canal shall be one of several locks above sea level, or at sea level
with a single tide lock. On this point I hope to lay before the
Congress at an early day the findings of the Advisory Board of American
and European Engineers, that at my invitation have been considering the
subject, together with the report of the Commission thereon, and such
comments thereon or recommendations in reference thereto as may seem
necessary.

The American people is pledged to the speediest possible construction
of a canal adequate to meet the demands which the commerce of the world
will make upon it, and I appeal most earnestly to the Congress to aid
in the fulfillment of the pledge. Gratifying progress has been made
during the past year, and especially during the past four months. The
greater part of the necessary preliminary work has been done. Actual
work of excavation could be begun only on a limited scale till the
Canal Zone was made a healthful place to live in and to work in. The
Isthmus had to be sanitated first. This task has been so thoroughly
accomplished that yellow fever has been virtually extirpated from the
Isthmus and general health conditions vastly improved. The same methods
which converted the island of Cuba from a pest hole, which menaced the
health of the world, into a healthful place of abode, have been applied
on the Isthmus with satisfactory results. There is no reason to doubt
that when the plans for water supply, paving, and sewerage of Panama
and Colon and the large labor camps have been fully carried out, the
Isthmus will be, for the tropics, an unusually healthy place of abode.
The work is so far advanced now that the health of all those employed
in canal work is as well guarded as it is on similar work in this
country and elsewhere.

In addition to sanitating the Isthmus, satisfactory quarters are being
provided for employes and an adequate system of supplying them with
wholesome food at reasonable prices has been created. Hospitals have
been established and equipped that are without their superiors of their
kind anywhere. The country has thus been made fit to work in, and
provision has been made for the welfare and comfort of those who are to
do the work. During the past year a large portion of the plant with
which the work is to be done has been ordered. It is confidently
believed that by the middle of the approaching year a sufficient
proportion of this plant will have been installed to enable us to
resume the work of excavation on a large scale.

What is needed now and without delay is an appropriation by the
Congress to meet the current and accruing expenses of the commission.
The first appropriation of $10,000,000, out of the $135,000,000
authorized by the Spooner act, was made three years ago. It is nearly
exhausted. There is barely enough of it remaining to carry the
commission to the end of the year. Unless the Congress shall
appropriate before that time all work must cease. To arrest progress
for any length of time now, when matters are advancing so
satisfactorily, would be deplorable. There will be no money with which
to meet pay roll obligations and none with which to meet bills coming
due for materials and supplies; and there will be demoralization of the
forces, here and on the Isthmus, now working so harmoniously and
effectively, if there is delay in granting an emergency appropriation.
Estimates of the amount necessary will be found in the accompanying
reports of the Secretary of War and the commission.

I recommend more adequate provision than has been made heretofore for
the work of the Department of State. Within a few years there has been
a very great increase in the amount and importance of the work to be
done by that department, both in Washington and abroad. This has been
caused by the great increase of our foreign trade, the increase of
wealth among our people, which enables them to travel more generally
than heretofore, the increase of American capital which is seeking
investment in foreign countries, and the growth of our power and weight
in the councils of the civilized world. There has been no corresponding
increase of facilities for doing the work afforded to the department
having charge of our foreign relations.

Neither at home nor abroad is there a sufficient working force to do
the business properly. In many respects the system which was adequate
to the work of twenty-five years or even ten years ago, is inadequate
now, and should be changed. Our Consular force should be classified,
and appointments should be made to the several classes, with authority
to the Executive to assign the members of each class to duty at such
posts as the interests of the service require, instead of the
appointments being made as at present to specified posts. There should
be an adequate inspection service, so that the department may be able
to inform itself how the business of each Consulate is being done,
instead of depending upon casual private information or rumor. The fee
system should be entirely abolished, and a due equivalent made in
salary to the officers who now eke out their subsistence by means of
fees. Sufficient provision should be made for a clerical force in every
Consulate composed entirely of Americans, instead of the insufficient
provision now made, which compels the employment of great numbers of
citizens of foreign countries whose services can be obtained for less
money. At a large part of our Consulates the office quarters and the
clerical force are inadequate to the performance of the onerous duties
imposed by the recent provisions of our immigration laws as well as by
our increasing trade. In many parts of the world the lack of suitable
quarters for our embassies, legations, and Consulates detracts from the
respect in which our officers ought to be held, and seriously impairs
their weight and influence.

Suitable provision should be made for the expense of keeping our
diplomatic officers more fully informed of what is being done from day
to day in the progress of our diplomatic affairs with other countries.
The lack of such information, caused by insufficient appropriations
available for cable tolls and for clerical and messenger service,
frequently puts our officers at a great disadvantage and detracts from
their usefulness. The salary list should be readjusted. It does not now
correspond either to the importance of the service to be rendered and
the degrees of ability and experience required in the different
positions, or to the differences in the cost of living. In many cases
the salaries are quite inadequate.