Newspaper Page Text
Washington, D.C.—The President's
Message was read hefore both the
\(S;Ye;lellz:ite an;’l (t:he House, following the
T ng of Congress,
as follows: S e
To the Seqate and House of Repre
sentatives:
The financial standinz of the Na
tion at the present time is excelient
and the financial management of thé
Nation’s interests by the Government
during the last seven years has shown
the most satisfactory results. But
our currency system is imperfect, and
it is earnestly to be hoped that the
Currency Commission will be able to
propose a thoroughly good svstem
which will do away with the existing
defects.
The President’s Messaze then
states that during the pastseven years
and three months there has heen a
net surplus of nearly one hundred
millions of receipts over expenditures,
a reduction of the interest bearing
debt by ninety millions, in spite of
the extraordinary expense of the Pan
ama Canal, and a saving of nearly
nine millions on the annual interest
charge. This is an cxceedingly satis
factory showing, especially in view of
the fact that during this period the
Nation has never hesitated to under
take any expenditure that it regarded
as necessary. There have been nn
new tates and no increases of taxes;
on the contrary some taxes have been
taken off; there has been a reduction
of taxation.
As regards the great corporations
engaged in interstate business, and
especially the railroads, I can only
repeat what I have already again and
again said in my messages to the Con
gress. I believe that under the inter
state clause of the Constitution the
United States has complete and para
mount right to control all agencies of
interstate commerce, and I believe
that the National Government alone
can exercise this right with wisdom
and effectiveness so as both to secure
Jjustice from, and to do justice to, the
great corporations which are the most
important factors in modern business.
I believe that it is worse than folly
to attempt to prohibit all combina
tions as ig done by the Sherman anti
trust law, because such a law can be
enforced only imperfectly and une
qually, and its enforcement works al
most as much hardship as good. 1
strongly advocate that instead of an
unwisge effort to prohibit all combina
tions, there shall be substituted a law
which shall expressly permit combin
ations which are in the interest of the
public, but shall at the same time
give to some agency of the National
Government full power of control and
supervision over them. One of the
chief features of this control should
be securing entire publicity in —all
matters which the public has a right
to know. and furthermore, the power,
not by judicial but by executive ac
tion, to prevent or put a stop to every
form of improper favoritism or other
wrongdoing. X
The railways of the country should
be put completely under the Inter
state Commerce Commission and re
moved from the domain of the anti
trust law. The power of the Com
mission should be made thorough
going, so that it could exercise com
plete supervision and control over the
issue of securities as well.as over the
aising and lowering of rates. As re
gards rates, at least, this power
should be summary. The power to
investigate the financial operations
and accounts of the railways has been
one of the most valyable features in
recent legislation. Power to make
combinations and traffic agreements
should he explicitly conferred upon
the railroads, the permission of the
Commission being first gained and
the combination or agreement being
published in all its details. In the
interest of the public the representa
tives of the public sheculd have com
plete power to see that the railroads
do their duty by the public, and as a
matter of course this power should
also be exercised so as to see that no
injustice is done to the railroads. The
shareholders, the employes and the
shippers all have interests that must
be guarded. 1t is to the interest of
all of them that no swindling stock
speculation - should be allowed, and
that there should be no improper
jssuance of securities. The guiding
intelligences necessary for the suec
cessful building and successful man
agement of railroads should receive
ample remuneration, but no man
should be allowed to make money in
connection with railroads out of frau
dulent over-capitalization and Kkin
dred stock gambling performances;
there must be no defrauding of in
vestors, oppression of the farmers
and business men who ship freight,
or callous disregard of the rights and
needs of the employes. In addition
to this the interests of the sharehold
ers, of the employes, and of the ship
pers should all be guarded as against
one another. To give any one of them
undue and improper consideration is
to do injustice to the others. Rates
must he made as low as is compatible
with giving proper returns to all the
employes of the railroad, from the
highest to the lowest, and proper re
turns to the shareholders, but they
must not, for instanee, be reduced in
such fashion as to necessitate a cut in
the wages of the employes or the aho
lition of the proper and legitimate
profits of honest shareholders. :
Telegraph and telephone companies
engaged in interstate husiness should
be put under the jurisdiction of the
Interstate Commerce Commigsion.
1t is very earnestly to be wished
that our people, through their repre
sentatives, should act in this matter.
It is hard to say whether most dam
age to the country at large would
come from entire failure on the part
of the public to supervise and control
the actions of the great corporations,
i Preminent People.
Rabbi Wise, in his sermon in New
Nork City, denounced the Emmauel
movement.
President Castro arrived at Basse
Terre, Guadeloupe; he said that the
object of his trip to France was to
gsettle diplomatic questions.
Dr. John H. Wright, professor of
Greek at Harvard University, and
Professor George A. Bartlett, for
many years connected with the Ger
man department at Harvard, died at
Cambridge, Mass. .
or from the exercise of the necessary
governmental pewer in a, way which
would do injustice and wrong to the
corporations. Both the preachers of
&n unvestricted individualism and the
preachers of an oppression which
would deny to able men of business
the just reward of their initiative and
business sagacity, are advocating pol
icies that 'would be fraught with the
gravest harm to the whole country.
It is to the interest of all of us that
there should be a premium put upon
individual initiative and individunal
capacity, and an ample reward dor
the great directing intelligences alone
competent to manage the great busi
ness operations of te-day. It is well
to keep in mind that exactly as the
anarchist is the worst enemy of lib
erty and the reactionary the worst
enemy of erder, so the men who de
fend the rights of property have mosat
to fear from the wrongdoers of great
wealth, and the men who are cham
pioning popular rights have most to
fear from the damagogues who in the
bame cf popular rights would do
wrong to oppress honest business
men, henest men of wealth; for the
success of either type of wrongdoer
necessarily invites a violent reaction
against the cause the wrongdoer nom
inally unholds. In point of danger to
the Nation there is nothing to choose
between on the one hand the corrup
tionist, the bribe-giver, the bribe-taik
er, the man who emplovs his great
talent to swindle his fellow-citizens
on a large scale, and. on the other
hand, the preacher of class hatred,
the man who, whether from ignor
ance or from willingness to sacrifice
his country to his ambition, persuades
well meaning but wrong-headed men
to try to destroy the instruments
upon which our prosperity mainiy
rests, Let cach group of men beware
of and guard against the shortcom
ings to which that group is itself
most liable.
The opposition to Government con
trol of these great corporations makes
its most effective effort in the shape
of an appeal to the old doctrine of
States’ rights. Of course there are
many sincere men who now bhelieve
in unrestricted individualism in busi
ness, just as there were formerly
many sincere men who believed in
slavery—that is, in the unrestricted
right of an individual to own another
individual. These men do not by
themselves have great weight, how
ever. The effective fight against ade
quate Government control and super
vision of individual, and especially of
corporate, wealth engaged in inter
state business is chieflyv done under
cover, and esnecially under cover of
an appeal to States’ rights. It is not
at all infrequent to read in the same
speech a denunciation of predatory
wealth fostered by special privilege
and defiant 6f both the public welfare
and law of the land, and a denuncia
tion of centralization in the Central
Government of the power to deai with
this centralized and organized wealth,
Of course the policy set forth in such
twin denunciatioes amounts tb abso
lutely nothing, for the first half is
nullified by the second half. The
chief reascn, among the many sound
and compelling reasong, that led to
the formation of the National Govern
ment, was the absolute need that the
Union, and not the several States,
should deal with interstate and for
eign commerce;,. and the powes to deal
with interstate commerce was granted
‘absolutely and plenarily to. the Can
tral Government, and was exercised
completely as regards the only in
struments of interstate commerce
known in these days—the waterways,
the highroads, as well as the partner
ships of individuals who then’ con
ducted all of what husiness there was.
Interstate commerce is now chiefly
couéucted by railreads, and the great
corporation has su?planted the mass
of small partnerships or individuels.
The propcsal to make the National
Government supreme over, and there
fore to give it complete control over,
the railroads and other instruments
of interstate comimerce is merely a
proposal to carry out_to the letter
one of the prime purposes, if not the
prime purpose, for which the Consti
tution was founded.
We do not object to the concentra
tion 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 publiz
the full bhenefit of the concentrated
adminisiration. We believe that with
concentration in administration there
can come hoth the advantage of a
larger ownership and of a more eguit
able distribution of profits, and at the
same time a better service to the
commonwealth,
Many laws are needed. There
should be regulation by the National
Government of the great interstate
corporationg, including a simpie
method of account keeping, publicity,
supervision of the issue of securities,
abolition of rehates and of special
privileges. There should be "short
time franchises for all corporations
engaged in public business; includ
ing the corporations which get power
from water rights. There should be
National as well as State guardian
ship of mines and foresig.
There are many matters atfecling
labor and the status of the wage
worker to which I should like to draw
your attention, but an exhaustive dig
cussion of the probiem in all its as
pects is not now necessary. This
adninistration is nearing ifs end;
and, moreover, under our form of
government the solution of the prob-
Jem devends upon the action of the
States as much as unon the action of
the Nation. Neveriheless, there ars
certain considerations which I wish
to set before you, hecause I hope
that our people will more and more
keep them in mind. A blind and ig
norant resistance to every effort for
the reform of abuses and for the read
justment of society to modern indus
trial conditions represents not true
conservatism but an incitement to the
wildest radicalism; for wise radical
ism and wise consgervatism go hand
$500,000 For Hebreéw Charvities.
Almost the entire $500,000 estate
of Theophilus Mare, who died at East
Orange, N. J., September 20 last, is
left to the United Hebrew Charities,
of New York. The will shows only
a few small bequests to relatives and
friends.
e s et e A
Former Ohio Mayor a Suicide.
Former Mayor Adolphus Sebbohm,
of Pomeroy, Ohio, committed suicide
at a hotel at Gallipolis, Ohio, by
sheoting. ’ s
in hand, one bent on progress, the
other bent on see€ing that no change
is made unless in the right direction.
I believe in a sieady eifort, or per
haps it would be more accurate to say
in steady efforts in many different
directions, to bring about a conditien
of affairs under which the men who
werk with hand or brain, the labor
ers, the superintendents, the men
who produce for the market and the
men who find a market for the arti
cles produced, shall own a far great
er share than at present of the weaith
they produce, and be enabled to in
vest 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 advantages con
ferred by machinery, organization,
and division of labor, accompanied
by an effort to bring about a larger
share in the ownership by wage-work
er of railway, mill, and factory. In
farming, this simply means that we
wish to see the farmer own his own
land; we do not wish to sce the farms
so large that they become the prop
erty of absentee landlords who farm
them by tenants, nor yet so small
that the farmer becomes like a Ku
ropean peasant. Again, the deposit
ors in our savings banks now number
over one-tenth of our entire popula
tion. These are all capitalists, who
through the savings banks loan their
money to the workers—that {s, in
many cases to themselves—to carry
on their various industries, The more
we increase their number, the more
we introduce the princivles of co-op
eration into our industry. Every in
crease in the number of small stock
holders in corporations is a good
thing, for the same reasons; aund
where the employes are the stockhol
ders the result is particularly good.
Very much of this movement must
be outside of anything that-ean be
accomplished by legislation; but leg
islation can do a good deal. Postal
savings banks will make it easy for
the poorest to keep their savings in
absolute safety. The regulation of
the national highways must be such
that theyx\%}a]l 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 labor, diminution of woman
labor, shortening of hours of all me
chanical labor; stock watering should
be prohibited, and stock gambling so
far as, possible discouraged. Thera
should be a progressive inheritance
tax on large fortunes. Industrial ed
ucation 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 accrmulating a fortune
long hefore that foriune reaches a
point where it would be seriocusly af
fected by any inheritance tax such as
I propose. It is eminently right that
the Nation should fix the terms upon
which the great fortunes are inherit
ed. They rarely do.good and they of
ten do harm to those who inherit
them in their entirety. %
- The President then devotes a chap
ter to ‘‘protection for wagework
ers.” He says there should be no pal
tering with the question of taking
care of those who become crippled or
worn out in our industrial system.
l!t\-v_vslg G 21)5 attention %'
steps 8~ TTTNLlOviding old-age pen
sions th&t mave been : ””g by man
private industries. He urges :Con
gress to pass a comprehensive em
ployers’ liability law for the District
of Columbia.
The President devotes much space
to the subject of the courts. First he
urges increased pay for our judges
and then says:
It is earnestly to be desired that
some method shiould be devised for
doing away with the long delays
which now obtain in the administra
tion of justice, and which operate
with peculiar s2verity against persons
of small meang, and favor only the
very criminals whom it is most desir
able to punish. These long delays in
the final decisicns of cases make in
the aggregate a crying evil, and a
remedy should be Adevised. Much of
this intolerable delay is due to im
proper regari paid to technicalities
which are a mere hindrance to jus
tice. In some noted recent cases this
over-regard for technicalities has re
sulted in a striking denial of justice.
and flagrant wrong to the body poli
tic.
At the last election certain leaders
of organized labor made a violent and
sweeping attack upon the 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. It was the kind of attack
ddmirably fitted to prevent any suc:
cessful attempt to reform abuses of
the judiciary, because it gave the
champions of the unjust judge their
cagerly desired opportunity to shift
their ground into a championship of
just judges who were unjustly as
iniled. Last year, before the House
%ommittee on the Judiciary, these
same labor leaders formulated their
demands, specifying the bill that con
tained them, refusing all coerromise,
stating they wished the principle of
that bill or nothing. They insisted
on a provision that in a labor dispule.
no injunction should issue excapt 10
protect a property right, and speciti
cally provided that the right to carry
on business should not be construed
as a property right, and in a second
provigion their hill made legal in a la
bor dispute any act or agreement by
or between two or more persons ihat
would not have been unlawful if dona
by a single person. In other words,
thig bill legalized blacklisting and
boycotting in every form, legalizing,
for instance, those forms of the sec
ondary boycoit which the anthracite
coal strike commigsion soo unreserv
edly condemned; while the rigat 10
News Notes From Mexico.
Mezxico's mail matter in the first
half of 1908 was 90,000,000 pieces,
against 86,000,000 in the first half
of 1907. g
Mexico buys American- mining,
electrical, pumping, power and agri
cultural machinery to the tune of
$17,500,000 gold yearly.
Mexico buys chiefly, in order as
named, from the United States, Ger
many, Great Britain, France, Spain,
Belgium, Italy, Austria-Hungary and
Hindustan b i g e B
{“cmy on a business was expliciily
taken out from under that protection
which the law throws over property.
The demand was made that there
should be trial by jury in contempt
cases, thereby most seriously impair
ing the authority of the courts. Ail
this represented a course of policy
which, if carried out, would mean the
ifinthronement of class privilege in its
erudest and most brutal form, and the
_destruction of one of the most essen
tial function of the judiciary in all
civilized lands.
The wageworkers,the workingman,
the laboring men of the countey by
the way in which they repudiated the
effort to get them to cast their votes
in response to an appeal to class ha
tred, have emphasized their sound
patriotism and Americanism. The
whole country has cause to feel pride
in this attitude of sturdy independ
ence, in this uncompromising insist
ence upon acting simply as good citi
zens, as good Amerijcans, without re
‘gard to fancied—and improper—class
Jinterests. Such an attitude is an ob
;ject lesson in good citizenship g 0 the
entire nation.
‘But the extreme reactionaries, the
persons who blind themselves (o the
wrongs now and then committed by
the courts on laboring men, should
‘also think seriously as to what sush
a movement as this portends. The
judges who have shown themselves
iable‘ and willing effectively to check
the dishonest activity of the very rich
man who works iniquity by the mis
management of corporations, who
have shown themselves alert to do
justice to the wageworker, and syni
pathetic with the needs of the mass
of our people, so that the dweller in
the tenement houses, the man who
practices a dangerous trade, the man
who is crushed by exceéssive hours of
labor, feel that their needs are under
stood by the courts—these judges are
the real bulwark of the courts; these
judges, the judges of the stamp of
the President-elect, who have been
fearless in opposing labor when it has
gone wrong, but fearless also in hold
ing to strict account corporations that
work iniquity, and far sighted in see
ingthatthe workingman getshisrights,
are the men of all others to whom
we owe it that the appeal for such
violent and mistaken legislation has
fg.llen on deaf ears, that the agitation
for its passage vroved to be without
‘substantial basis. The courts are
jeoparded primarily by the action of
these Federal and State judges who
show inability or unwillingness to
put a stop to the wrongdoing or very
rich men under modern industrial
conditions, and inability or unwilling
ness to give relief to men of small
means or wageworkers who are
crusned down by these modern indus
trial conditions; who, in other words,
fail to understand and apply the
needed remedies for the new wrongs
produced by the new and highly com
plex social and industrial civilization
which has grown up in. the last half
century.
' . There are certain decisions by va
rious courts which have been exceed
ingly detrimental to the rights of
‘wageworkers, This is true of all the
lj;i;!ie,cisions that decide that men and
‘women., are, by the Constitution,
f"“gl,uarafiteed their liberty,” to con
tract to enter a dangerous occupation,
or to work an undesirable or impro
per number of hours, or to work in
g;; la!ngmaflm%‘ ngs, and ,mfil. TB~
nfaimed in that occupation, and can
not be forbidden to work what
the Legislature decides is an excessive
number of hours, or to carry on the
work under conditions which the
Legislature decides to be unhealthy.
There is also, I think, ground for
the belief that substantial injustice is
often suffered by employes in conse-
Guence cf the cusiom of courts issu
ing 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 proceedings.
Outside of organized labor there is a
widespread feeling that this system
often works great Injustice so wage
workers when their efforts to better
their working condition results in in
dustrial disputes. A temporary in
junction procured ex parte may as a
matter of fact have all the effect of a
permanent injunction in causing dis
aster to the wageaworkers’ side in
such a dispute. Organized labhor is
chafing under the unjust restraint
which comes from repeated resort to
this plan of procedure. lis discontent
has heen unwisely expressed, and of
ten improperly einressed, but there
is a sound bhasis for it, and the orderly
and law abiding peovle of a commu
nity would be in a far stronger pcsi
tion for upholding the courts if the
undoubtedly existing abuses could be
provided against.
The power of injunction is a great
equitable remedy, which should en no
account be destroyed. But safezuards
should be erected against its abuse.
For many of the shor.comings of
justice in our country our people as a
whole are 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 diffi
culty in convicting murderers, or in
bringing to justice men who as pub
lic servants have been guilty of cor
ruption., or who have profited by the
corruption of public servants, The
result is equally unforiunate, whether
due to hair-splitting technicalities in
the interpretation of law by judges,
to sentimentality and ciags censcious
ness on the part of juries, or to hyvs
teria and sensationalism 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 can not
shift the responsibility from our own
shoulders, But there is an important
part of the failure which has specially
to do with inability to hold to proper
account men of wealth who hehave
badly.
SIO,OOO Fine For Taking Rebhates,
Judge Knappen in the United
States District Court, Grand Rapids,
Mich,, fined the Stearns SBalt and
Lumber Company, of Ludington,
810,000 for accepting rebates from
the Pere Marquette on ghipmenis
from Ludington t 6 Toledo.
Germany Adopts Submarine,
The German Admiralty has deter
mined to go into the submarine
branch of naval construction heavily
Wwith a type that is the result of three
years’ experiments at Kiel, .
The chief breakdown is in dealing
with the new relations that arise
from the mutualism, the interdepen
dence of our time. Every new social
relation begets a new type of wrong
doing —of sin, to use an old-fash
ioned word-—and many years always
elapse before society is able to turn
this ¢in into crime which can be ef
fectively punished at law. During
the lifetime of the older men now
alive tbe social relations have
changed far more rapidly than,in the
preceding two centuries. The im
mense growth of ' corporations, of
business done by assceiations, and the
extreme strain and pressure of mod
ern life, have produced conditions
which render the public confused as
to who its really dangerous foes are;
and among the public servants who
have not only sghared this confusion,
but by some of their acts have in
creased it, are certain judges. Marked
inefficiency has been shown in dealing
with ecorporations and in re-settling
the proper attitude to be taken by the
public not only toward corporations,
but toward labor, and toward tae so
cial questions arising out of the fac
tory system, and the enormous
growth of our great cities.
The huge wealth that has been ac
cumulated by a few individuals of re
cent vears, in what has amounted to
a social and industrial revolutioxi has
been as regards some of these indi
viduals made pogsible only by the im
proper use of the modern "corpofation.
A certain type of modern corpora
tion, with its officers and agents, its
many issues of securities, and {t§ cons=]
stant congolidation with allied finder
takings, finally becomes an instru
ment so complex as to ~ontain a
greater number of elements that, un
der various judicial decisions, lend
themselves to fraud and oppression
than any device yet evolved in the hu- |
man brain. Corporations are neces
sary instruments of modern business.
They have been permitted to become
a menace largely because the govern
mental representatives of the people
<have worked slowly in providing for
adequate control over them.
The chief offender in any given
case may be an executive, a Legislat
‘ure or a judge. Every executive head
‘who advises violent, instead of grad
ual, action, or who advocates ill-con
sidered and sweeping measures of re
iform (especially il they are tainted
‘with vindictiveness, and disregard for
‘the rights of the minority) is particu-
Jarly blameworthy. The several leg
islatures are responsible for the fact
that our laws are often prepared with
slovenly haste and lack of considera
tion. Moreover, they are often pre
pared, and still more frequently
amended during passage, at the sug
gestion of the very parties against
whom they are afterward enforced.
Our great clusters of cm-porations.‘
huge trusts and fabulously wealthy |
‘multimillionaires, employ the very
‘best lawyers they can obtain to pick
flaws in thess statutes after their
‘passage, but they also employ a class
[or secret agents who seek, under the
advice of experts, to render hostile
legislation innocuous by making it
unconsgtitutional, often through the
ingertion of what appear on their face
to be drastic and sweeping provisions
against the interests of the parties
inspiring them; while the dema
gogues, the corrupt creatures who in
troduce blackmailing schemes {0
“strike” corporations, and all who de
‘ immrem;;u’d ufineni.rayly{a&;
cal, méasures;-saowW. . lves ‘to be
the worst enemies om%u%ue
whose loud mouthed champions they
profess to be. i
Real damage has been done by the
‘'manifold and conflicting interpreta
tions of the interstate commerce law.
Control over the great corporations
doing interstate business can be ef
fective only if it fs vested with full
power in an administrative depart-i
ment, a branch of the Federal execu
tive, carrying out a IFederal law; it
‘can never be effective if a divided re
‘gponsibility is left in both the States
‘and the Nation; it can never be ef
fective if left in the hands of the
courts to be decided by lawsuits. \
~ 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 necessary is that
‘the courts as a whole should exercise
this power with the far sighted wis
‘dom already shown by those judges
‘who gecan 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 fizxed purposes of the
people, so that they may do justice,
and work equity, so that they may
protect all pergons fn their rights,
‘and vet break down the barriers of
privilegze, which is the foe of right.
The President devotes a long chap
ter to the subject of foresig, declaring
that if there is one duty which more
than another we owe to our children
and ocur children’s childrer, it i 3 to
save the forests of this country, for
they constitute the first and most im
poriant element in the congervation
of our natural rescurces.
The Mesgage then turns to inland
waterways and maintainsg that action
for their improvement shonld hegin
forthwith. It is also urged that all
our National parks adjacent to Na
tional forests be placed under the con
trol of the forest service of the Agri
cultural Dapartment. lam hanppy to
say, continues Mr, Roosevelt, that I
have bezen able to get aside in various
parts of the country -small, well
chogen tracis of ground to serve as
sanctuaries and nurseries for wild
creatures. |
The Message announces that the
uze in the arts and industries of de
natured alcohol i 3 making fair
progress and the law making it poz
sible is entitled to further support
from the Congress. According to the
President, the pure food legislation
has already worked a benefit difficult
to overestimate. In the paragraph on
the Indian service the Mesgage tells
how it hag been completely removed
Women in the Day's News,
Miss Ruth H. Northrop, of Nor
wich, Conn., has won the scholarship
oftered by the Norwich Art Students’
Assoclation, ‘
Members of Dr. Parkhurst's con
gregation in New York City approved
the doctor's objections to ‘Merry
Widow” hatg in church,
A men’s league for women suff
rage has been formed in Holland, and
the Lutheran Church in that country
has given women a vote in all church
affairs. ;
from the atmosphere of poiitical ae
tivity and the ground cleared for
larger construective work to prepare
the Indians for responsible citizen
ship. .
The President regrets that an
amendment was incorporated in the
measure providing for the Secret Ser
vice forbidding details and transfers
therefrom, He declares it is of ben=
efit only to the eriminal classes. He
renews his recommendations for pos<
tal savings banks and urges an exten
tion of the parcel post on the rural
routes. He declaves that the unfor
tunate state of affairgs as regards the
National educational office be reme
died by adequate approprigtions. He
strongly urges that the supervisors
and enumerators for the approaching
Census be not appointed under the
Civil Service law, but that appoint
ments to the force be done under that
law, geographical reguirements be
ing waived. The DPresident main
tains that there should bo intelligent
‘action on the question of proeerving
'the health of the country and sug
gasts a redisiribution of the health
bureaus. He recommends the plac
ing of the Government Printing Office
under the Department of Commerce
and Labor and the various Soldiers’
Homes under the War Department.
He advocates the immediate admis
gion "of New. Mexico and Arizona as
geparate States. Mr. Roosevelt then
writes of the interstate fisheries prob
lem, saying that those matters which
no particular State can control Con
gress ought to control. The statute
fegarding game should include sigh,
'%r_ld the fur-seal service should be
vested in the Bureau of Fisheries.
~‘;,'f-!n regard to our foreign policy he
apfounces that it is based on the
‘t&lequut‘nat right must prevail be
tween nations as hetween individuals
zx‘%(‘x“'then‘ urges the special claims of
Letlin-Anierican Republics to our at
tention. »The Message states that the
Panama “Canal is being dug with
speed and efficiency and then recom
mends the extension of ocean mail
lines to South America, ,Asia, the
Philippines and Australasia. Atten
tion is called to the admirable condi
tion of Hawaii, where coolie labor
has practically ceased and Pearl Har
bor is being made a raval base with
the necessary military fortfications.
Real progress, the President gontin
ues, toward sel’-government is being
made m};he Philippines, but it would
be worse than folly to prophesy the
exact date when it will be wise to
consider independence as a fixed and
definite policy. It is recommended that
American citizengshin be conferred
upon the people of Porio Rico and
announcement is made that our occu
pancy of Cuba will end in about two
months’ time. The Cubans are
warned that they must govern them
selves within in order to avoid gov
ernment from without. The Presi
dent hopes Americans will do what
is possible to make the Japanese Hx
position of 1917 a success and then
thanks Japan, Australia, New Zealand
and the States of South America for
their hosgpitality to the battle fleet,
Mr. Rooseveit urges the passage of
the bill to promote zrimy officers at
reasonable ages through a process of
selection and declares the cavalry arm
should be reorganized upon modern
lines. We have not enough infantry
and artillery and attention should be
centred on the machine gun. A gen
eral servica corps should be estab
| lished. It behooves the Government.
‘to perfect the efficiency of the Na
tional Guard as a part of the Natfonal
forces and Congressional aid slo 1d
be extended to thogse who are pro
moting rifle practlce-—-tenchlng;ouré
men to shoot. %
In regards to the navy, the Presie
dent recommends the increase sug
gested by the General Board and
thinks the General Board ghould be
turned into a General Staff. He urges
that two hospital ships be provided
and then concludes his Message as
follows: / /
Nothing better for the Navy from
every standpoint has ever occurred
than the cruige of the battle fleet
around the world. The improvement
of 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 the Atlantic waters.
The American people have cause for
profound gratification, both in view
of the excellent condition of the fleet
as shown by this cruige, and in view
lof the improvement the cruise has
worked in this already high condi
tion. [do not believe that there is
any otier service in the world in
which the average of character and
efliciency in the enlisted men is as
high as is now the case in our own.
I believe that the same statement can
be made as to our omgers, taken as a
whole; but there muét be a reserva
tion made in regard to those in the
highest ranks—as to which I have
already spoken-—and in regard to
i those who have just entered the ser
vice; because we do not now get full
l henefit from our excellent naval
school at Annapolis. It {s absurd not
to graduate the midshipmen as ens
signs; to keep them for two years in
such oan anomalous position as at
present the law requires is ' detris
mental to them and to the service.. In
the academy itself, every first class
man should be required in turn to
gerve as petty officer and officer; his
ability io discharge his duties as such
snhould he a prerequigite to his going
into the line, and his success in com
| manding should largely determine his
gtanding at graduation, The Board
in[ Visitors should be appointed in
January, and each member snould he
irr:quimd to give at leasgt six days’
is::rvicu, only from one to three days’
to be performed during June week,
lwhich is the least degirable time for
the board to he at Annapolis so far as
|l)r:nr~fit.ing the navy by their observae
| tions is coneerned.
’ THEODORE ROOSEVELT, °
‘ The White House,
The Field of Labor.
The building trades unions of Syd
ney, Australia, ace taking steps to
federate,
The report of the Amalgamated So
ciety of Carpenters and Joiners shows
a total membership of 65,310,
The Luxemburg Government is
treating incorrigible vagabonds to
bread and water for the first four
days of their imprisonment, and to
the lowest gcale of ordinary diet twice
a week afterward. The prisons are
said to be emptying fast. Lo
