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About The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1908)
io - V -5t-, '-' M.--y .,- " ."ir"3 53".' v-jpjtfofe-ir 'V'"-" '? J,.SV.- 'Hj? f" A 'r PRESIDENT TO CONGRESS Message Read to Both Houses of National Assembly LEGISLATION CALLED FOR Financial Standing of the Nation De clared Excellent Control of Cor porations, the President Thinks, Should Be Left to the National Government Labor Leaders Come In for Criticism Respect for Law Vital to the Weil-Being of Country. Washington. The message of Presi dent Roosevelt was read in both hotu-es of congress Tuesday. In sub stance the document was as follows: To the Senate and House of Representative- The financial standing of the nation at the present time is excellent, -mil the Ilnanclal management of the nu f Inn's interests by the government dur injj t!i last seven years has shown tli tno.st satisfactory results. But our cur rency system is imperfect, and it Is ear nestly to Le hoped that the currency lommlsslon will ho able to propone a thoroughly good system which will do sway with the existing defects. Ii:ring the period from July 1, 1901. to M'iiemli-r 30, 11$. there was an increase in the amount of money in circulation of Ya,y.n,WJ. The increase in the per capita timing this period was S7.W. Within this time there, were several occasions when it was necijssary for the treasury de parlnvnt to come to the relirf of the money market hy purchases or redemp tions of United States bonds, by increas ing Oeposits in national banli.s; by stini- - nlating additional issues of national bank note?, and by facilitating importations Jroin abroud of gold. Our imperfect cur rency system has made these proceedings necessary, and they were, effective until the monetary disturbance in the fall of i:W immensely Increased the difficulty of ordinary methods of relief. By the mid dle of November the available working balance in the treasury had been reduced to approximately 55,000.000. Clearing ' house associations throughout the coun try liad been obliged to resort to the expedient of issuing clearing house cer tificates, to be used as money. In this emergency it was determined to invite NUbscrlpUoas for $Ti0.OO0,COO Panama canal bonds, and SlflO.CW.OOO tliree per eent. eertificate of indebtedness author" .ed by the act of June 13. 1898. It was r i used to redepopit in the national bat. .lie proceeds of these issues, and t nit their use us a basis for addition.-: -eu-lating notes of national banks. The moral effect of this procedure was so re:t that it was necessary to issue only H',G31,9S0 of the Panama bonds and $15. tW'OO of the certificates of indebtedness. During Uio period from July 1, 1901. to September 30, 190S, the balance between the net ordinary receipts and the net ordinary expenses of the government showed a surplus in the four years 190i. m:. 1jC. and 1907, and a deficit in the years liiM, IMC, 19GS and a fractional part f the fiscal year 1909. The net result was a surplus of SXt.L'SUlS.Gt. The finan cial operations of the government during this period, based upon these differences between receipts and expenditures, re sulted in a net reduction of the interest bearing debt of the Tinted States from Cr.l.O40 to JS97.253,99i notwithstanding that there had been two sales of Panama eanai bonds Mmounting in the aggregate to ?..4,C31,?S3, and an issue of three per cent, ceitificatea of indebtedness under the act of June 13. 1X." amounting to ;ir.,C,500. Refunding operations of the treasury department under the act of March 1. 1900, resulted In the conver sion into two per cent, consols of 1930 of l'Svm.S bonds bearing higher rates of interest. A decre:ise of $S.GS7.!C In the annual lutiirest charge resulted from these operations. It: sluirt. curing the seven years and three months there lias been a net sur plus of nearly one hundred millions of receipts over expenditures, a reduction of the interest-bearing debt by ninety millions. In spite of the extraordinary 'X pene of the Panama canal, and a saving of nearly nine millions on the annual interest charge. Control of Corporations. As regards the great corporations en gaged in interstate busin- s. and espe cially tiw railroads. 1 can only repeat what I have already again and again said in :uy messages to the congress. I be lieve tliat uudcr the interstate clause of the constitution the United States has complete and paramount right to con trol all agencies of Interstate commerce, and I believe that the national govern ment alon can exercise this right with wisdom and effectiveness so as both to secure justice from, and to do justice to. the great corporations which are the most important factors in modern busl-:ie.-s. J believe that it is worse than folly to attempt to prohibit all com binations as is done by the Sherman anti-trust law. because such a law can lie enforced only imperfectly and un equally, and its enforcement works al most as much, hardship as good. 1 strongly advocate that instead of an tin wise effort to proliibit all combinations, there shall be substituted a law which shall cxprnssly permit combinations wlilc.lt are in the Interest of the public, but shall at tli same time give to some agency in the national government full poncr of control and supervision over them. One of the chief features of this control should be securing entire pub licity In all matters which the public has a right to know, and furthermore, the powur, not by judicial but by execu tive action, to prevent or put a stop to every form of Improper favoritism or other wrongdoing. The railways of the country should be put completely under the interstate com merce commission and removed from the domain of the anti-trust law. The powex of the commission should be made thoroughgoing, so that it could exercise complete supervision and control over the issun of securities as well as over tiie raising and lowering of rates. As regards tales, at least, this power should be summary. . . . Bates must be made as low as is compatible with giving prop er returns to all the employes of the rail road, fuom the highest to the lowest, nnd proper returns to the shareholders, but they must not, for instance, be re duced in such fashion as to necessitate a cut In the wages of the employes or the abolition of the proper and legitimate profits of honest shareholders. Telpgcaph and telephone companies en gaged in interstate business should be put under the jurisdiction of the inter stale commerce commission. It Is very earnestly to be wished that our people, through their representatives, should act in tlds matter. It is to the interest of all of us that there should be a premium put upon In dividual initiative and individual ca pacity, and an ample reward for the great directing intelligences atone com petent to manage the great business op erations of to-day. It is well to keep in mind that exactly as the anarchist is the worst enemy of liberty and the reaction ary the worst enemy of order, so the men who defend the rights of property have most to fear from the wrongdoers of great wca.lth, and the men who are championing popular rights have most to fear from the demagogues who in the name of popular rights would do wrong to and oppress honest business men. honest men of wealth: for the success of cither type of wrongdoer necessarily in vites a-violent reaction against the cause the wrongdoer nominally upholds. . . . Need' of Centralization. The proposal to make the na tional government supreme over, and therefore to sive it complete control over, the railroads and other instruments of Interstate commerce; is merely a propos al to carry out to the letter one of the prime purposes,-if not the prime purpose, for which the constitution was founded. It does not represent centralization. It represents merely the acknowledgment' of the patent fact that centralization has already come In business. If this irre sponsible outside business power is to be controlled in .the interest of the general public it can only be controlled in one way: 'by giving adequate power of con trol to the one sovereignty capable ,of exr erciKing such power the national govern ment. To abandon the effort for national control means to abandon the effort for all adequate control and yet to render like ly continual bursts of action by state leg islatures, which cannot achieve the pur pose sought for. but which can do a great deal of damage"' to the corporation witliout conferring any real benefit OB the public. Corporations Learning Wisdom. I believe that the more farsighted cor porations arc thcmsel-es coming to rec ognize the unwisdom of the violent hos tility they have displayed during the last few years to regulation and control by the national government of combinations engaged in interstate business. The truth Is that we who believe in this movement of asserting und exercising a genuine control, in the public interest, over these great corporations have to contend against two sets of enemies, who. though, nominally opposed to one another, are' really allies in preventing a proper solution of the problem. There are. first, the big corporation men. and the extreme individualists among busi ne.i men. who genuinely believe in ut- j t.-rly unregulated business that Is, in the reign of plutocracy: and. second, the men who, being blind to the econom ic movements of the day, believe In a movement of repression rather than of regulation of corporations, and who de nounce both the power of the railroads and the exercise of the federal power which alone can really control the rail roads. Those who believe in efficient na tional control, on the other hand, do not in the least object to combinations; do not in the least object to concentration in business administration. On the con trary, they favor both, with the all-important proviso that there shall be such pub licity about their workings, and such thoroughgoing control over them, as to insure their being in the Interest, and not against the interest, of the general public. We do not object to the concen tration of wealth and administration: but we do believe in the distribution of the wealth in profits to the real owners, and in securing to the public the full benefit of the concentrated administration. We believe that with concentration in ad ministration there can come botli the advantage of a larger owneship and of a more equitable distribution of profits, and at the. same time a better service to the commonwealth. We believe that the administration should be for the benefit of the maio" and that greed and ras cality, practiced on a large scale, should be punished as relentlessly as if practiced on a small scale. We do not for a moment believe that the problem will be solved by any short and easy method. The solution will come only by pressing various concurrent remedies. Some of these remedies must lie outside the domain of all government. Some must lie outside the domain of the federal government. But there Is leg islation which the federal government alone can enact and which Is absolutely vital in order to secure the attainment f our purpose. Many laws are needed. There should be regulation by the na tional government of the great interstate corporations, including a simple method of account keeping, publicity, supervision of the Issue of securities, abolition of rebates and of special privileges. There should be short-time franchises for all corporations engaged in public business: including the corporations which get power from water rights. There should lie national as well sis state guardianship of mines and forests. The labor legisla tion hereinafter referred to should con currently be enacted into law. To accomplish this, means a certain in t -ease In the use of not the creation of power, by the central government. The wcr already exists, it does not have . be created: the only question is whether it shall be used or left idle and meanwhile the corporations over which the power ought to be exercised will not lemain idle. The danger to Amer ican democracy lies not in the least in the concentration of administrative power in responsible and accountable hands. It lies in having the poucr Insufficiently concentrated, so that no one can be held responsible to the people for its use. Concentrated power is palpable, visible, responsible, easily reached, quickly held to ac-ount. Democracy is in peril wherever the administration of po litical power is scattered among a variety of men who work In secret, whose very names are un known to the common people. It is not in peril from any man who derives au thority from the people, who exercises it in sight of the people, and who is from time to time compelled to gie an account of its exercise to the people. Legislation fcr Wageworker. There are many matters affecting labor and the status of the wageworker to which 1 should like to draw your atten tion, but an exhaustive discussion of the problem in all Its aspects is not now nec essary. I believe in a steady ef fort, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say in steady efforts in many different directions, to bring about a condition of affairs under which tlie men who work with hand or with brain, the laborers, the superintendents, the men who produce the market and the men who find a marl.et for the articles produced, shall own a far greater share than at present of the wealth they pro duce, and be enabled to invest it In the tools and instruments by which all work Is carried on. As far as possible I hope to see a frank recognition of the advan tages conferred by machinery, organiza tion and division of labor, accompanied by an effort to bring about a larger share in the ownership by wage-worker of rail way, mill and factory. Postal Savings banks will make It easy for the poorest to keep their sav ings In absolute safety. The regulation of the national highways must be such that they shall serve all people with equal justice. Corporate finances must be supervised so as to make it far safer than at present for the man of small means to Invest his money in stocks. There must be prohibition of child la bor, v-.mlnution of women labor, short ening of hours of all mechanical labor; stock watering should be prohibited, and stock gambling so far as is possi ble discouraged. There should be a progressive inheritance tax on large fortunes. Industrial education should be encouraged. As far as possible we should lighten the burden of taxation on the small man. We should put a premium upon thrift, hard- work, and business energy; but these qualities cease to be the main factors in accu mulating a fortune long before that fortune reaches a point where it would be seriously affected by any inheri Tance tax such as I propose. It is emi nently right that the nation should fix the terms upon which the great for tunes are inherited. They rarely do good and they often do harm to those who inherit them In their entirety. There should no long r be any palter ing with the question of taking care of the wageworkers -who. under our pres ent industrial system, become killed, crippled, or worn out as part of the regular incidents of a given busi ness. As far as concerns those who have been worn out. I call your attention to the fact that definite steps toward prlding old-age pen sions have been taken In many of our private , industries. These may be in definitely extended through voluntary association and contributory schemes, or through the agency of savings banks, as under the Massachusetts plan. Urgent Need of Reform. Our present system, or rather no sys tem. works dreadful wrong, and Is of benefit to only one class of people the lawyers. When a workman is injured what he needs is not an expensive and doubtful lawsuit, but the certainty of relief through Immediate administra tive action. No academic theory about "freedom of ccniract" or "consti tutional liberty, to contract" should be permitted to. interfere with this and similar movements Pending a thoroughgoing Investiga tion and action there is certain legis lation which should be enacted at once. The law. passed at the last session of the congress .granting compensation to certain classes of 'employes of the gov ernment .should be extended to include all employes of the government and should be made more liberal in its terms. There is no good ground for the distinction made in the ''law be tween those engaged in hazardous oc cupations and those . not - so en gaged.' The terms of the act pro viding compensation should be made more liberal than .in the present act. A year's compensation is not ade quate for a wage-earner's family in the event of his death by accident in the course of his employment. And in the event of death occurring, say. ten or. eleven months after the accident, the family would only receive as compen sation the equivalent of one ,or two months' earnings. In this respect the generosity of the United States towards its employes compares most unfavora bly with that of every country, in Eu rope even the poorest. The terms of the act are also a hard ship in prohibiting payment In cases where the accident is in any way due to the negligence of the employe. It is inevitable that dally familiarity with danger will lead men to take chances that can be construed into negligence. So well is this recognized that in (prac tically all countries in the civilized world, except the United States, only a great degree of negligence acts as a bar to securing compensation. Proba bly in no other respect is our legisla tion, both state and national, so far be hind practically the entire civilized world as in the matter of liability and compensation for accidents In industry. It is humiliating that at European in ternational congresses on accidents the United States should be singled out as the most belated among the nations in respect to emp' iyers' liability legisla tion. This government is itself a large employer of labor .and in its dealings with its employes it should set a stan dard in this country which would place it on a par with the most progressive countries in Europe. The laws of the United States in this respect and the laws of European countries have been summarized In a recent bulletin of the bureau of labor, and no American who reads this summary can fail to be struck by the great contrast between our practices and theirs a contrast not in any sense to our credit. I renew my recommendation made in a previous message that half-holidays be granted during summer to all wage workers in government employ . I also renew my recommendation that the principle of the eight-hour day should as rapidly and as far as practi cable be extended to the entire work being carried on by the government: the present law should be amended to embrace contracts on those public works which the present wording of the net seems to exclude. Would Double Salaries of Judges. I most earnestly urge upon the con gress the duty of Increasing the totally inadequate salaries now given to our judges. On the whole there is no body of public servants who do as valuable work, nor whose moneyed reward is so inadequate compared to their work. Be ginning with the supreme court the judges should have their salaries dou bled. It is not befitting the dignity of tho nation that its most honored public servants should be paid sums so small compared to what they would earn in private life that the performance of public service by them implies an ex ceedingly heavy pecuniary sacrifice. It Is earnestly to be desired that some method should be devised for doing away with the long delays which now obtain in the administration of justice, and which operate with peculiar sever ity against persons of small means, and favor only the very criminals whom it is most desirable to punish. These long delays in the final decisions of cases make in the aggregate a crying evil: and a remedy shou.J be devised. Much of this intolerable delay Is due to improper regard paid to technicali ties which are a mere hinderance to Justice. In some noted recent cases this over-regard for technicalities has re sulted in a striking denial of justice, and liagrant wrong to tlie body politic. Labor Leaders Criticised. At the last election certain leaders of organized labor made a violent and sweeping attack upon tlie entire judi ciary of the country, an attack couched in such terms as to include the most upright, honest and broad-minded judges, no less than those of narrower- mind and more restricted outlook. Iast year, before tho house com mittee on judiciary. these ssnu labor leaders formulated their de mands, specifying the bill that contained them, refusing all compro mise, stating they wished the principle of that bill or nothing. They insisted on a provision that in a labor dispute no injunction should issue except to protect a property right, and specifical ly provided that the right to carry on business should not be construed as a property right: and in a second provis ion their bill made legal in a labor dis pute any act or agreement by or be tween two or more persons that would not have been unlawful if done by a single person. In other words, this bill legalized blacklisting and boycotting in every form, legalizing, for instance, those forms of the secondary boycott which the anthracite coal strike com mission so unreservedly condemned; while the right to carry on a business was explicitly taken out from under that protection wliich the law throws over property. The demand was made that there should be trial by jury In contempt cases, thereby most seriously impairing the authority of the courts. All this represented a course of policy which. If carried out. would mean the enthronement of class privilege in its crudest and most brutal form, and the destruction of one of the most essen tial functions of the judiicaryin all civ ilized lands. The violence of the crusade for this legislation, and its complete failure, illustrate two truths which It is essen tial our people should learn. In the first place, they ought to teach the workingman. the laborer, the wage worker, that by demanding what is im proper and impossible he plays into the hands of his foes. Such a crude and vicious attack upon the courts, even if it were temporarily successful, would inevitably in the end cause a violent reaction and would band the great mass of citizens together, forcing them to stand by all the judges, competent and incompetent alike, rather than to see the wheels of justice stopped. The wageworkers, the workingmen, the laboring men of the country by the way in which they repudiated the ef fort to get them to cast their votes in response to an appeal to class hatred, have emphasized their sound patriotism and Americanism. Such ' an, attitude is an object lesson in good citizenship .to the entire nation. Judicial System Sound. Our judicial system is sound and effective at core, and it remains, and must ever be maintained, as tlie safeguard of those principles of lib erty and justice which stand at the foundation of American institutions; for. as Burke finely said, when liberty and justice are separated, neither is safe. There are, however, some members of the judicial body who have lagged be hind in their understanding of these great and vital changes in tho body politic, whose minds have never been opened to the new applications of the old principles made necessary by the new conditions. Judges of this stamp do last ing harm by their decisions, because they convince poor men in need of protection that the courts of the land are pro foundly ignorant of andout of sympathy with their needs, and profoundly Ignorant or hostile to any proposed remedy. To such men it seems a cruel mockery to have any court decide against them on the ground that it desires to preserve "liberty" in a purely technical form, by withholding liberty in any real and con structive sense. There are certain decisions by various courts which have been exceedingly det rimental to the rights of wage-workers. This is true of all decisions that decide that men are, by the constitution, "guar anteed their liberty" to contract to enter a dangerous occupation, or to work as undesirable or improper number-of hours, or to work in unhealthy surroundings; and therefore cannot recover damages when maimed in that occupation, and cannot be forbidden to work what the legislature decides is an excessive num ber of hours, or to carry on the work under conditions which tlie legislature decides to be unhealthy. Decisions such as those nullify the legislative effort to protect the wage-workers who most need protection from those employ ers who take advantage of their grind ing need. They halt or hamper the move ment for securing better and more equi table conditions of labor. There Is also, I think, ground for the belief that substantial injustice is often suffered by employes in consequence of the custom of courts issuing temporary injunctions without notice to them, and punishing them for contempt of court in instances where, as a matter of fact, they have no knowledge of any proceed ings. Organized labor is chafing under the unjust restraint which comes from repeated resort to this plan of procedure. Its discontent has been unwisely expressed, and often improperly expressed, but there is a sound basis for It. and the or derly and law-abiding people of a com munity would be in a far stronger posi tion for upholding the courts if the un doubtedly existing abuses could be pro vided against. Matters for Thought for Labor. 8uich proposals as those' mentioned above as advocated by the extreme labor leaders, contain the vital error of being class legislation of the most offensive kind, and even if enacted into law I be lieve that the law would rightly be held unconstitutional. Moreover, the labor people are themselves now beginning to invoke the use of the power of injunc tion. During the last ten years, and within my own knowledge, at least fifty Injunctions have been obtained by labor unions in New York city alone, most of them being to protect the union label (a "property right"), but some being ob tained for other reasons against employ ers. Injunction Must Remain. The power of injunction is a great equitable remedy, which should on no account be destroyed. But safeguards should be erected against its abuse. In substance, provision should be made that no injunction or temporary re straining order issue otherwise 'than on notice, except where irreparable injury would otherwise result; and in such case a hearing oti the merits of the order should be had within a short fixed pe riod, and, if not then continued after hearing. It should forthwith lapse. De cisions should be rendered immediately, and the chance of delay minimized In every way. Moreover. I believe that the procedure should be sharply defined, and the judge required minutely to state the particulars both of Ids action and of his reasons therefor, so that the congress can If it desires examine and Investigate the same. For many of the shortcomings of justice in our country our people as a whole arc themselves to blame, and the judges and juries merely bear their share together with the public as a whole. It is discreditable to us as a people that there should be difficulty In convicting murderers, or in bringing to justice men who as public servants have been guilty of corruption, or who have profited by the corruption of public servants. The result is equally unfortunate, whether due to hairsplit ting technicalities in the interpretation" of law by judges, to sentimentality and class consciousness on the part of juries, or to hysteria and sensational ism in the daily press. For much of this failure of justice no responsibility whatever lies on rich men as such. We who make up the mass of the people cannot shift the responsibility from our own shoulders. But there is an impor tant part of the failure wuich has spe cially to do with inability to hold to proper account men of wealth who behave badly. The Modern Corporation. The huge wealth that has been accu mulated by a few individuals of recent years, in what has amounted to a so cial and industrial revolution, has been as regards some of these individuals made possible only by the improper use of the modern corporation. A certain type of modern corporation, with its officers and agents, its many issues of securities, and its constant consolida tion with allied undertakings, finally becomes an instrument so complex as to contain a greater number of ele ments that, under various judicial de cisions, lend themselves to fraud and oppression than any device yet evolved in the human brain. Corporations are necessary instruments of modern busi ness. They have been permitted to become a menace largely because tho governmental representatives of the people have worked slowly in provid ing for adequate control over them. Our great clusters of corpora tions, huge trusts and fabulously wealthy multimillionaires, employ the very best lawyers they can obtain to pick flaws in statutes after their passage; but they also employ a class of secret agents who seek, under the advice of experts, to render hostile legisla.ion innocuous by making it un constitutional, often through the inser tion of what appear on their face to be drastic and sweeping provisions against the interests of the parties inspiring them; while the demagogues, the cor rupt creatures who introduce black mailing schemes to "strike" corpora tions, and all who demand extreme, and undesirably radical. measures, show themselves to be the worst ene mies of the very public whose loud mouthed champions they profess to be. Real damage has been done by the manifold and conflicting interpretations ot the interstate commerce law. Con trol over the great corporations doing interstate business can be effective only if it is vested with full power in an administrative department, a branch of the federal executive, carrying out a federal law; it can never be effective if a divided responsibility is left in both the states and the nation; It can never be effective if left in the hands of. the courts to be decided by lawsuits. Respect for Law Must Be Upheld. The courts hold a piace of peculiar and deserved sanctity under our form of gov ernment. Respect for the law is essen tial to the permanence of our institu tions; and respect for the law is largely conditioned upon respect for the courts. It is an offense against the republic to say anything which can weaken this re spect, save for the gravest reason and in the most carefully guarded manner. In no other nation in the world do .'the courts wield such vast and far-reaching power as in the United States. All that Is nec essary is that the courts as a whole should exercise this power with the far sighted wisdom already shown by those judges who scan the future while they act in the present. Let them exercise this great power not only honestly and bravely, but with wise insight into the needs and fixed purposes of the people, so that they may do Justice, and work equity, so that they may protect all per sons In their rights, and yet break down the barriers of privilege, which is the foe of right. Forest Preservation. If there is any one duty which morn than another we owe it to our children to perform at once, it is to save the for ests of this country, for they constitute the first and most important element in the conservation of the natural re sources of the country. . . . Just as a farmer, after all his life making his living from his farm, will, If he is an ex pert farmer, leave It as an asset of in creased value to Ids son, so we should leave our national domain to our chil dren, increased in value and not worn out. There are small sections of our own country, in the east and in the west, in the Adirondack;?, the White mountains and the Appalachians, and in the Rocky mountains, where we can already sec for ourselves the damage In the shape 'of permanent injury to the soil and the river systems which, comes from reckless deforestation. It matters not whether this deforestation is due to the actual reckless cutting of timber, to the fires that Inevitably follow such reckless cut ting of timber, or to reckless and uncon trolled grazing, especially by the great migratory bands of sheep, the un checked wandering of which over the country means destruction to forests and disaster to. the small home-makers, tfee settlers of "limited meana Thanks to our own recklessness In the use "Of our splendid forests, we have already crossed the verge of a timber famine in thts country, and" no measures that we now take can. at least for many years, undo the mischief that has already been done. But we can pre vent further mischief being done; and it would be in the highest degree reprehen sible to. let any consideration of tem porary convenience or temporary cost Interfere with such action, especially as regards the national forests which the nation can now. at this very moment, control. The lesson of deforestation in China is a lesson which mankind should have learned many times already from what has occurred in other places. Denuda tion leaves naked soil: then gullying cuts down to the bare rock; and mean while the rock-waste buries the bottom lands. When the soil is gone, men must go; and the process does not-take long. Plea for Inland Waterways. Action should be begun forthwith, dur ing the present session of the congress, for- the improvement of our inland water waysaction which will result in giving us . not only navigable but navigated rivers. Until the work of river Improvement is undertaken in a modern way it can not have results that will meet the needs of this modern nation. The plan which promises the best and quick est results is that of a per manent commission authorized to co-ordinate the work of all the government departments relating to waterways, and to frame and supervise the execution of a comprehensive plan. Under such a commission the actual work of construc tion might be entrusted to the reclama tion service; or to the military engineers acting with a sufficient number of civili ans to continue the work in time of war; or it might be divided letween the rec lamation service and the corps of en gineers. Funds should be provided from current revenues if it is deemed wise otherwise from the sale of bonds. The .essential thing Is that the work should go forward under the best possible plan, and with the least possible delay. The time for playing with our waterways is past. Tlie country demands results. The president urges that national parks adjacent to national forests be placed under the control of the forest service of the agricultural depart ment; he also points out the benefits derived from pure food legislation. The message continues: Needs of the Secret Service. Last year an amendment was incor porated in the measure providing for the secret service, which provided that there should be no detail from the secret serv ice and no transfer therefrom. The amendment in question was of benefit to no one excepting to criminals, and it seriously hampers tlie government in the detection of crime and the securing of justice. The chief argument in favor of the provision was that the congressmen did not them selves wish to be investigated by the secret service men. Very little of such investigation has been done in the past; but it is true that the work of the secret service agents was partly responsible for the indictment and conviction of a sen ator and a congressman for land frauds in Oregon. I do not believe that it is in the public interest to protect criminals in any branch of the public service, and exactly as we have again and again dur ing the past seven years prosecuted and convicted such criminals who were in the executive branch of the government. so in my belief we should be given ample J means to prosecute them if found in the legislative branch. But if this is not considered desirable a special exception could be made in the law prohibiting the use of the secret service force in inves tigating members of the congress. Postal Savings Banks. I again renew my recommendation for postal savings banks, for deposit ing savings with the security of the government behind them. The object is to encourage thrift and economy In the wage-earner and person of mod erate means. It is believed that in tho aggregate vast sums of money would lie brought into circulation through the In strumentality of the postal savings banks. Parcel Post. In my last annual message I com mended the postmaster-general's recommendation for an extension of the parcel post on the rural routes. The establishment of a local parcel post on rural routes would he to the mutual benefit of the farmer and tlie country storekeeper, and it is desirable that the routes, serving more than 15.000.000 people, should be utilized to the fullest practicable extent. Education. "With the limited means hitherto pro vided, the bureau of e ducation has rendered efficient service, but the con gress has neglected to adequately sup ply the bureau with means to meet the educational growth of the country. I earnestly recommend that this tin fortunate state of affairs as regards the national educational office be reme died by adequate appropriations. This recommendation is urged by the repre sentatives of our common schools and great state universities and tlie leading educators, who all unite in requesting favorable consideration and action by the congress upon this subject. The president points out the neces sity of better organization of the vari ous bureaus responsible for the public health, and urges the placing of all soldiers' homes under the jurisdiction of the war department. Statehood. On the question of statehood the president says: I advocate the immediate admission of New Mexico and Arizona as states. This should be done at the present session of the congress. The people of the two ter ritories have made it evident by their votes that they will not come in as one state. The only alternative is to admit them as two, and I trust that this will be done without delav. Interstate Fisheries. I call the attention of the congress to the importance of tlie problem of the fisheries in the interstate waters. On the Great Lakes we are now, under the vers wise treaty of April 11 of this year, en deavoring to come to an international agreement for the preservation and sat isfactory use of the fisheries of these wa ters which can not otherwise be achieved. Lake Erie, for example, has the richest fresh water fisheries In the world: but it Is now controlled by the statutes of two nations, four states, and one province, and this province by two different ordi nances In different counties. All these political divisions work at cross pur poses, and in no case can they achieve protection to the fisheries, on the one hand, and justice to the localities and in dividuals on the other. Foreign Affairs. This nation's foreign policy is based on the theory that right must be done between nations precisely as between individuals, and in our actions for the last ten years we have in this matter proven our faith by our deeds. We have behaved, and are behaving, to wards'other nations, sis in private life an honorable man would behave to wards his fellows. Latin-American Republics. The commercial and material prog ress of the 20 Latin-American republics is worthy of the careful attention of the congress. The International Bureau of the American Republics is doing a useful work in making these nations and their resources better known to us, and in acquainting them not only with us as a people and with our pur poses towards them, but with what we have to exchange for their goods. Panama Canal. The work on the Panama canal is be ing done with a speed, efficiency and entire devotion to duty, which make it a model for all work of the kind. The men on the Isthmus, from Col. Goethals and "his fellow commissioners through the entire list of employes who are faithfully doing their duty, have won their right to the ungrudging respect and acTAtituda at Iba AJiaariiuua nonnlo. I again recosuneae the exteaaloa at the ocean mail act of 1891 so that satis factory American ocean mall Ifaes to South America. Asia, the Philippines, and Australasia may be established. Hawaii. I call particular attention to the Ter ritory of Hawaii. The importance of those islands is apparent, and the aeed of improving their condltioa and de veloping their resources is urgent. The Philippines. Real progress toward self-government is being made In the Philippine islands. I trust that within a generation the time will. arrive when the Philippines can decide for themselves whether It la well for them to become independent, of to continue under the protection of s strong and disinterested power, able tc guarantee to the islands order at home and protection from foreign invasion. Porto Rice. I again recommend that American cit izenship be conferred upon the people ol Porto Rico. Cuba. In Cuba our occupancy will cease la about two months' time; the Cubans have in orderly manner elected their .own governmental authorities, and the island will be turned over to them. Our occu pation on this occasion has lasted a lit tle over two years, and Cuba has thriv en and prospered under it. Our earnest hope and one desire is that the peopfc of the island shall now govern them selves with justice, so that peace and or der may be secure. Japanese Exposition. The Japanese government has post poned until 191? the date of the great international exposition, the action be ing taken so as to insure ample tim in which to prepare to make the expo sition all that it should be made. The American commissioners have visited Japan and the postponement will mere ly give ampler opportunity for Ameri ca to be represented at the exposition. Not since tlie first international expo sition has there been one of greater importance than this will be. marking, as it does, the fiftieth anniversary' of the ascension to the throne of the em peror of Japan. The extraordinary leap to the foremost place among tho nations of the world made by Japan during this half century is something unparalleled in all previous history. I take this opportunity publicly to state my appreciation of tho way in which in Japan, 'in Australia, in New Zealand, and in all the states of South America, the battle fleet has been re-1 ceived on its practice voyage around the world. The American government can not too strongly express its appre ciation of the abounding and generous hospitality shown our ships in every port they visited. The Army. As regards the army I call attention to the fact that while our junior offi cers and enlisted men-stand very high, the present system of promotion by seniority results in bringing into the higher grades many men of mediocre capacity who have but a short time to serve. No man should regard it as his vested right to rise to the highest rank in the army any more than in any other profession. It is a curious and by no means creditable fact that there should be so often a failure on the part of the public and its representa tives to understand the great need, from the standpoint of the service and the nation, of refusing to promote re spectable, elderly incompetents. The higher places should be given to the most deserving men without regard to seniority; at least seniority should be treated as only one consideration. In the stress of modern industrial com petition no business firm could succeed if those responsible for Its management wore chosen simply on the ground that they were the oldest people in its em ployment; yet this is the course advo cated as regards the army, and re quired by law for all grades except those of general officer. As a matter of fact all of the best officers in the highest ranks of the army are those who have attained their present posi tion wholly or in part by a process of selection. The scope of retiring boards should be extended so that they could con sider general unfitness to command for any cause, in order to secure a far more rigid enforcement than at present in the elimination of officers for mental, physical or temperamental disabilities. But this plan is recommended only if the congress does not see fit to provide what in my judgment is far better, that is, for selection in promotion, and for elimination for age. Officers who fail to attain a certain rank by a cer tain age. should be retired for In stance, if a man should not attain field rank by the time he is 45 he should of course be placed on the re tired list. General officers should bo selected as at present, and one-third of the other promotions should be made by selection, the selection to be made by the president or secretary of war from a list of at least two candi dates proposed for each vacancy by a board of officers from the arm of the service from which tlie promotion is to be made. A bill is now before the congress having for its object to se cure the promotion of officers to vari ous grades at reasonable ages through a process of selection, by boards of of ficers, of tlie least efficient for retire ment with a percentage of their pay depending upon length of service. The bll. although not accomplishing all that should be done, is a long step in tho right direction; and I earnestly recommend its passage, or that of a more completely effective measure. National Guard. Now that the organized militia, the National Guard, has been incorporated with the army as a part of the national lorces, it Denooves ine government to do every reasonable thing in its power to perfect its efficiency. It should be assisted in its instruction and other wise aided more liberally than hereto fore. The continuous services of many well-trained . regular officers will be essential in this connection. A bill is now pending before the congress creating a number of extra officers in the army, which if passed, as it ought to be, will enable more officers to be trained as instructors of National Guard and assigned to that duty. In case of war it will be of the utmost Importance to liave a large number of trained officers to use for turning raw levies into good troops. The Navy. I approve the recommendations of the general board for the in crease of the navy, calling especial attention to the need of addi tional destroyers and colliers, and above all, of the four battleships. It to desir able to complete as soon as possible a squadron of eight battleships of the best existing type. I most earnestly recommend that the general board be by law turned into a general staff. There Is literally no ex cuse whatever for continuing the pres ent bureau organization of the navy. The navy should be treated as a purely mill-tar- organization, and everything should be subordinated to the one object of se curing military efficiency. A system of nromotion bv merit, either bv selec tion or by exclusion, or by both S processes, should be Introduced. It is out J of the question, if the present principle , oi promo nun uy mere seniority is Kept, to exnect to ret the best results from th higher officers. Our men come too old, J und stay for too short a time, in the high command positions. Nothing better for the navy from every standpoint has ever occurred than the cruise of the battle fleet around the world. The improvement cf the ships in every way has been extraordinary, and they have gained far more experience in battle tactics than they would have gained if they had stayed in tlie Atlantic waters. The American people have cause for profound gratification, both in 'view of the excellent condition of the fleet as shown by this cruise, and In view of the improvement the: cruise has worked in this already high condition. I do not believe that there is any other service In the world in which tlie average of char acter and efficiency In the enlisted men ta.zut tiljrh mt f noir thA rafut In mi ntrn THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 1 Te White House, Tuesday, December ' 8. 1903. TO CURE A COUQH Or Break a CaW in 24 Haws Mix two onjweajBf Gljoerute 9, half once of Vlrgia Oil of P1m eats pound pure with a half plat of 'Sfrasjat Whisky. Shake welTaad take a tea spooaful every foar hoara. The genatie Vlrgia Oil of Pfcae oaav pound pare Is prepared oary ay The Leach Chemical Co., CMciaaatiL Ofcfte, and Is pot ap only la half-oaace itala, each vial aecarery sealed la a roaad woodea case te iaaure its freahaesa aad parity. AMONGST THE BULL-RUaHES. Lazy Larry Woof! Jest to think, with all this wasted effort, I could have won the Marathon race! Expert Packet-Picking. An old lady was accosted in a Loa don street by a well-dressed and refined-looking stranger, who effusively claimed her as a friend. "I really don't believe yoa .remember me!" she exclaimed, .reproachfully, and the old lady, never doubting that her saemory was at fault, confessed that she could not quite recall the name. "Ah, but I have changed it since you knew sae. said her interlocutor, gayly, and after a few more lively speeches she passed on, having possessed herself mean while of the old lady's purse. ' Sheer white goods. In fact, any Una wash goods when new, owe saach of their attractiveness to the way they are laundered, this being done In a manner to enhance their textile beau ty. Home laundering would be equal ly satisfactory if proper atteation was given to starching, the first essential being good Starch, which has sufficient strength to stiffen, without thickening the goods. Try Defiance Starch aad you will be pleasantly surprised at the improved appearance of your work- Lachrymose. "Pa, Mary's upstairs crying again." "What's the matter this time, ma?" "I can't just make out whether it'a because she's afraid Jim wont ask her to go to the theater to-night or whether she hasn't anything fit to wear, if he should." Detroit free Press. UNITED STATES SENATOR ' FROM SOUTH CAROLINA PRAISES PE-RU-NA. Ex-Senator M. C. BaUcr. Dysfcfisials Often Causedby Catarrh of the Stomach Peruna Relieves Ca tarrh of the Stomach aad Is Therefore a Remedy for Dyspcfsia. Hon. M. C. Itntler, U. S Senator I from south Carolina for two terms. 1 1 in a letter from V ashingron. D. C, writes to tlie renraa medicine Co., as follows: "I can recommend Perama tor , dyspepsia and stomach trouble, I have been using your medicine fori ; a snort pertoa ana i tea very mucm f ' relieved. It Is Indeed a wonderful k , medicine, besides a good tonic" CATARRH of the stomach is the cor i rect name for most cases of dyspep sia. Only an internal catarrh rem edy, such as Peruna, is available, Peraaa Tablets caa new be erecared. Ask your Druggist for a Free Permma Almanac for 1909. Omaha Directory X 0 Furs1 Aulabautfh's complete catalogue -will show you what you wsant. G. N. AULABAUtH r0V"to aaV bwVb VvMbpUS 9aVs WsWstJJsV sSLf""""" ' i Afc5 SSf aaaasawlaa9 mnpm RUBBER GOODS i by mail at cut prices. Send for free eatalofrae. MYERS-DILLON DRUG CO.. OMAHA; HEM. Time ncvTii annuo -" I ftl I O ULrl 1 ML nUUPJd 1517 DHglas St., GHANA, NEB. Reliable Dentistry at Macerate Prices. 7e2ti1 mi . W f I MrVil in (-sRi wiT2l --sSBalBssif H Keep It on Hand! H m Coosia tin) edit ear icx ary H BJM SKxbcr c! the farJy acy tlice. ISH HB A&uymtudccldbssbeeaarcUd Ufifl KXl aad each acbieai acd idlamz aWM Vg-9 fctxen Mved brtfi-preset cas SI cffWaCcre. Theiiccj (5ffl HQ KleittoIaeakapceBd'jasdcctdi. B9 nan There it no brcarfiil or Lag BH Ufcl pcl!e tfut it viil net tetcve. B J Free froza elites or rueful ia BH fj AtaBlrBgsaaV.2Scaw J . -.--i,' j -. w. v NT -Uy. I me -Cf. - y