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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