Georgia Historic Newspapers

    jjflj MESSAGE,
• „+nrt D C. —The President’s
Washing *-' iead before both the
tf essaS< Ld‘the House, following the
S?naf e n Congress. It is, in part,
open ]n
as f llO t n . lt e and House of Itepre-
To the ber . .
standing of the Na-
The /he*present time is excellent,
tscn o , financial management of the
and 1 rPSts by the Government
Ration s i 1 geven years has shown
durlDS JV'satisfactory results. But
the c ' v s vstem is imperfect, and
onr CUl1 ; V s *tiy’ to he hoped that the
it is eal v r o mmission will be able to
Curr p a" thoroughly good system
will do away with the existing
de K!- S ’ President’s Message then
int fh t during the past seven years
Bta i e ?hree months there has been a
aD ? cnmlim of nearly one hundred
Be . h Ic of receipts over expenditures,
® iSSction of the interest bearing
a Ir-nv ninety millions, in spite of
rte trao; ,!inary expense of the Pan
tDe Canal and a saving of nearly
ama millions on the annual interest
‘ Tills is an exceedingly satis
fectorv Showing, especially In view of
!J C ;■ f that during this period the
Ittion lias never hesitated to under
i vp anv expenditure that it regarded
is necessary There have been no
a • taces and no increases of taxes;
DC V l Contrary some taxes have been
takin off: there has been a reduction
ot the great corporations
interstate business, and
especially the railroads. I can only
what 1 have already again and
lain said in my messages to the Con
* i believe that under the inter-
te clause of the Constitution the
rnited States has complete and para
mount right to control all agencies of
interstate commerce, and I believe
tii'Mhe National Government alone
oar exercise this right with wisdom
flI1( j effectiveness so as both to secure
i.:, t joe 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
tn attempt to prohibit all combina
tions as is 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
unwise 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
he 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.
The railways of the country should
he 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
raising 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 valuable features in
recent legislation. Power to make
combinations and traffic agreements
should be 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 should have com
plete power to see that the railroads
do their duty by the public, and as a
matter of course this power should
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. It is to the interest of
a,! of them that no swindling stock
speculation should be allowed, and
uiat there should be no improper
issuance of securities. The guiding
intelligences necessary for the su'c-~
cessful building and successful man
sgement o r railroads should receive
a ,ttip!e remuneration, but no man
®nonld be allowed to make money in
onnection with railroads out of frau-
j Ul °nt over-capitalization and kin
ttire' stock gambling performances;
u>ip must he no defrauding of in
■J ors ' oppression of the farmers
a business men wno ship freight,
. c . a ”°us disregard of the rights and
' 11 3 ° f
h■* sharehold
e of the ship
.ld all be guarded as against
pond a J 10 ' iler : To give any one of them
t V". ai . 1( ! improper consideration is
m,, 0 Justice to the others. R?*es
vVi „. e . ma de as low as is compatible
pmr , gIV:n S proper returns to all the
liighfM 68 ra il roa( *’ from the
t Urn s , lo the lowest, and proper re-
m u?r , the shareholders, but they
Sllc i f not ’. instance, be reduced in
! the. asa i° n as to necessitate a cut in
iitio ag J s °' employes or the abo
srnct , le proper and legitimate
Teif,,? r shareholders.
e Dea gra Ph and telephone companies
be <mr 111 business should
Interest lmf ‘ Gr jurisdiction of the
It i at ? Commerce Commission,
that m Cry earnestly to be wished
s entatiL peo J >le, ,i hroush their re?)re '
It j s j e ! > should act in this matter.
aj e tr ' lo say whether most dam
(oiiip 0 country at large would
tho -?n. en^re faif lire on the part
Ike aAf? u ‘ IC to supervise and control
ns of the great corporations,
~ Prominent People.
! sermon in New
Terre 6 r“ Castro arrived at Basse
object rf l , elou Pe; he said that the
settle i s tri P to France was to
D. r (U 5,1 °niatic questions.
Greek r *ght, professor of
* >r °fessr, , rvard University, and
toany v ,„ George A. Bartlett, for
dL,/, conuec ted with the Ger
tanabri7io Ln ! ent at Harvard, died at
Mass.
or from the exercise of the necessary
governmental power in * * av : S\ y
would do injustice and wrong t * h £
corporations. Both the preachers of
pre U a“ iC o f ed a n diVidUa,i : m and’the
would deny to able'men^of"biiskie
the just reward of their initiative and
business sagacity, are advocating nol
ices that would be fraught wUh the'
the who!e country
.. 11 Is !° b he interest of all of us that
there should be a premium put upon
capacity fl nl UiatiVe and individ "a>
Rapacity, and an ample reward or
coni net enf d i re< ' tins !nte,li S e! >ces alone
ompetent to manage the great busi
ness operations of to-day. It is well
to keep in mind that exactly as the
anaicmst is the worst enemv of lib
erty and the reactionary tile worst
enemy of order, so the men who de
fend the rights of property have most
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
name of popular rights would do
wrong to oppress honest business
men, honest men of wealth; for the
success of either type of wrongdoer
necessarily invites a violent reaction
against the cause the wrongdoer nom
inally upholds. In point of danger to
the Nation there is nothing to choose
between on the one band the corrup
tionist, the bribe-giver, the bribe-tak
er, the man who employs 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 mainly
rests. Let each 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 believe
in unrestricted individualism in busi
ness, just as there were formerly
many sincere men w r ho 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 chiefly done under
cover, and especially 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 of both the public welfare
and law of the land, and a denuncia
tion of centralization in the Central
Government of the power to deal with
this centralized and organized wealth.
Of course the policy set forth in such
twin denunciations amounts to abso
lutely nothing, for the first half is
nullified by the second half. The
chief reason, among the many sound
and compelling reasons, 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 power to deal
with interstate commerce was granted
absolutely and plenarily to the Cen
tral Government, and was exercised
completely as regards the only in
struments of interstate commerce
known in those days—the waterways,
the highroads, as well as the partner
ships of individuals who then con
ducted all of what business there was.
Interstate commerce is now chiefly
conducted by railroads, and the great
corporation has supplanted the mass
of small partnerships or individuals.
The proposal to make the National
Government supreme over, and there
fore to give it complete control over,
the railroads and other instruments
of interstate commerce 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;
hut we do believe in the distribution
of the wealth in profits to the real
in securing to the public
the fuirStnefit of, the concentrated
administraTfon. We believe that with
concentration in administration there
can come both the advantage of a
larger ov/nership and of a more equit
able distribution of profits, and at the
same time a better service to the
commonwealth.
Many lav/s are needed. There
should be regulation by the National
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; includ
ing the corporations which get power
from water rights. There should he
National as well as State guardian
ship of mines and forests.
There are many matters affecting
labor and the status of the wage
worker to which I should like to draw
your attention, but an exhaustive dis
cussion of the problem in all its as
pects is not now necessary. This
administration is nearing its end;
and, moreover, under our form of
government the solution of the prob
lem depends upon the action of the
States as much as upon the action of
the Nation. Nevertheless, there are
certain considerations which I wish
to set before you. because 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 conservatism go hand
$500,000 For Hebrew Charities.
Almost the entire $500,000 estate
of Tiieophilus Marc, 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.
Former Ohio Mayor a Suicide.
Former Mayor Adolphus Sebbohm,
of Pomeroy, Ohio, committed suicide
at a hotel at Gallipolis, Ohio, by
shooting.
in hand, ope bent on progress, the
other bent on seeing that no change
is made unless in the right direction.
I believe in a steady effort, or per
haps it would he more accurate to say
in steady efforts in many different
directions, to bring about a condition
of affairs under which the men who
work 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 wealth
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
sharp 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 see 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 Eu
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 is, in
many cases to themselves—to carry
on their various industries. The more
we increase their number, the more
we introduce the principles 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; and
where the employes are the stockhol
ders the result is particularly good.
Very much of this movement must
be outside of anything that can he
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 iu
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 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. There
should he 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, hut
these qualities cease to he the main
factors in accumulating a fortune
long before that fortune reaches a
point where it would be seriously 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.
He urges proper employers’ liability
laws. He also calls attention to the
steps toward providing old-age le
sions that have been taken by rJrany
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 lie
urges increased pay for our judges
and then says:
It is earnestly to be desired that
some method should be devised for
doing away with the long delays
which now obtain in the administra
tion of justice, and which operate
with peculiar severity against persons
of small means, and favor only the
very criminals whom it is most desir
able to punish. These long delays in
the final decisions of cases make in
the aggregate a crying evil, and a
remedy should be devised. Much of
this intolerable delay is due to im
proper regard 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
admirably fitted to prevent any sue •
cessful attempt to reform abuses of
the judiciary, because it gave the
champions of the unjust judge theii
eagerly desired opportunity to shift
their ground into a championship of
just judges 'who were unjustly as
sailed. Last year, before the House
Committee on the Judiciary, these
same labor leaders formulated their
demands, specifying the bill that con
tained them, refusing all compromise,
stating they wished the principle of
that hill or nothing. They insisted
on a provision that in a labor dispute
no injunction should issue except to
protect a property right, and specifi
cally provided that the right to c..iiy
on business should not be construed
as a property right, and in a second
provision their hill made legal in a la
bor dispute any act or agreement by
or between two or more persons Inat
would not have been unlawful if done
by a single person. In other woras.
this hill legalized blacklisting and
boycotting in every form, legalizing,
for instance, those forms of the sec
ondary boycott which the anthracite
coal strike commission so unreserv
edly condemned; while the ngnt to
News Notes From Mexico.
Mexico’s mail matter in the first
half of 1908 was 90,000,000 Pieces
against 86,000,000 in the first baL
of 1907. . .
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 * s _
named, from the United States, -
manv, Great Britain, France, Spam.
Belgium, Italy, Austria-Hungary and
Hindustan - -- -
carry on a business was explicitly
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. 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 function of the judiciary in all
civilized lands.
The wageworkers,the workingmen,
the laboring men of the country 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 Americans, without re
gard to fancied—and improper—class
interests. Such an attitude is an ob
ject lesson in good citizenship to the
entire nation.
But the extreme reactionaries, the
persons who blind themselves to the
wrongs now and then committed by
the courts on laboring men, should
also think seriously as to what such
a movement as this portends. The
judges who have shown themselves
able 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 sym
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 excessive 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
ing that the workingman gets his rights,
are the men of all others to whom
we owe it that the appeal for such
violent and mistaken legislation has
fallen on deaf ears, that the agitation
for its passage Droved to he 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
crushed 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
decisions that decide that men and
women are, by the Constitution,
“guaranteed 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
unhealthy surroundings, and there
fore can not recover damages when
maimed 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
quence of the custom or 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 to 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 wageworkers’ side in
such a dispute. 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 of
ten improperly expressed, but there
is a sound basis for it, and the orderly
and law abiding people of a commu
nity would be in a far stronger posi
tion for unholding the courts if the
undoubtedly existing abuses could be
provided against.
The power of injunction is a great
equitable remedy, which should on no
account be destroyed.
should be erected agai^^wKibuse.
For many of of
justice in om btfftmtry our people as a
whole are themselves to blame, and
the judges and juries merely hear
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 unfortunate, whether
due to hair-splitting technicaliHes in
the interpretation of law by judges,
to sentimentality and class conscious
ness on the part of juries, or to hys
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 th / 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 behave
badly.
SIO,OOO Fine For Taking Rebates.
Judge Knappen in the United
States District Court, Grand Rapids,
Mich., fined the Stearns Salt and
Lumber Company, of Ludington,
SIO,OOO for accepting rebates from
the Pere Ma v Jtuette on shipments
from Ludingtoi*o Toledo.
Germany Adopts Submarine. •
The German Admiralty has deter
mined to gqj into the submarine
branch of ’jjßal construction heavily
with a ty T J mmat is the result of three
years’ ey 'jßments 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 anew 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 sin into crime which can.be ef
fectively punished at law. During
the lifetime of the older men now
alive the social relations have
changed far more rapidly than in the
preceding two centuries. The im
mense growth of corporations, of
business done by associations, 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 shared thi3 confusion,
but by some of their acts have in
creased it, are certain judges. Marked
inefficiency has been shown in dealing
with corporations and in re-settling
the proper attitude to be taken by the
public not only toward corporations,
but toward labor, and toward the 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 years, in what bas amounted to
a social and industrial revolution, has
been as regards some of these indi
viduals made possible only by the im
proper use of the modern corporation.
A certain type of modern corpora
tion, with its officers and agents, its
many issues of securities, and its con
stant consolidation with allied under
takings, finally becomes an instru
ment so complex as to contain 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
form (especially if they are tainted
with vindictiveness, and disregard for
the rights of the minority) is particu
larly 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 corporations,
huge trusts and fabulously wealthy
multimillionaires, employ the very
best lawyers they can obtain to pick
flaws in these statutes after their
passage, but they also employ a class
of secret agents who seek, under the
advice of experts, to render hostile
legislation innocuous by making it
unconstitutional, often through the
insertion 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 to
“strike” corporations, and all who de
mand extreme, and undesirably radi
cal, measures, show themselves to be
the worst enemies of the very public
whose loud mouthed champions they
profess to be.
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 is vested with full
power in an administrative depart
ment, a branch of the Federal execu
tive, carrying out a Federal law; it
can never be effective if a divided re
sponsibility 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 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 persons in their rights,
and yet break down the barriers of
privilege, which is the foe of right.
The President devotes a long chap
ter to the subject of forests, declaring
that if there is one duty which more
than another we owe to our children
and our children’s children, it is to
save the forests of this country, for
they constitute the first and most im
portant element in the conservation
of our natural resources.
Message then turns to inland
and maintains that action
for their imnrovement should begin
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 ot the Agri
cultural Department. lam happy to
say, continues Mr. Roosevelt, that I
have been able to set aside in various
parts of the country small, well
chosen tracts of ground to serve as
sanctuaries and nurseries for wild
creatures.
The Message announces that the
use in the arts and industries of de
natured alcohol is making fair
progress and the law making it pos
sible is entitled to further support
from the Congress. According to the
President, the pure food legislation
has already worked a
to overestimate. In the on
the Indian service the Message tells
how it has been completely removed
M’omrn in the Day’s News.
MiSs Ruth H. Northrop, of Nor
wich, Conn., has won the scholarship
offered by the Norwich Art Students'
Association.
Members of Dr. Parkhurst’s con
gregation in New York City approved
the doctor’s objections to “Merry
Widow” hats iu church.
A men's league for women suff
rage has been formed in Hollahd, and
the Lutheran Church in that country
lias given women a vote in ail church
affairs.
from the atmosphere oT political ac
tivity and the ground cleared for
larger constructive work to prepare
the Indians for responsible citizen
ship.
The President regrets that an
amendment was incorporated in the
measure providing for the Secret §6r
vice forbidding details and transfers
therefrom. He declares it is of ben
efit only to the criminal classes. He
renews his recommendations for pos
tal savings banks and urges an excep
tion of the parcel post on the rural
routes. He declares that thv. unfor
tunate state of affairs as regards the
National educational office be reme
died by adequate appropriations, lie
strongly urges that the supervisors
and enumerators for the approaching
Census he not appointed under the
Civil Service law, but. that apspipt
ments to the force be done under that
law, geographical requirements be
ing waived. The President main
tains that there should be intelligent
action on the question of preserving
the health of the country and sug
gests a redistribution of the health
bureaus. He recommends the plac
ing of the Government Printing Office
under the Department of Commerce
and Labor anu the various Soldiers*
Homes under the War Department.
He advocates the immediate admis
sion of New Mexico and Arizona as
separate 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
regarding game should include fish,
and the fur-seal service should be
vested in the Bureau of Fisheries.
In regard to our foreign policy he
announces that it is based on the
theory that right must prevail be
tween nations as between individuals
and then urges the special claims of
Latin-American 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, tho
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 Laval base with
the necessary military fortfications.
Real progress, the President contin
ues, toward self-government is being
made in the 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 citizenship be conferred
upon the people of Porto 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 Ex
position of '1917 a success and then
thanks Japan, Australia, New Zealand
and the States of South America for
their hospitality to the battle fleet.
Mr. Roosevelt urges the passage of
the bill to promote army 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 bo
centred on the machine gun. A gen
eral service corps should be estab
lished. It behooves the Government
to perfect the efficiency of the Na
tional Guard as a part of the National
forces and Congressional aid should
be extended to those who are pro
moting rifle practice—teaching our
men to shoot.
In regards to the navy, the Presi
dent recommends the increase sug
gested by the General Board and
thinks the General Board should 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 cruise 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 cruise, and in view
of the improvement the cruise ha3
worked in this already high condi
tion. I do not believe that there is
any other service in the world in
which the average of character and
efficiency 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 officers, taken as a
whole; but there must be a reserva
tion made in regard to those in the
highest ranks —as to which I have
already spoken—and in regard to
those who have just entered the ser
vice; because we do not now get full
benefit from our excellent naval
school at Annapolis. It is absurd not
to graduate the midshipmen as en
signs; to keep them for two years in
such an anomalous position as at
present the law requires is detri
mental to them and to the service. In
the academy itself, every first class
man should be required in turn to
serve as petty officer and officer; his
ability to discharge his duties as such
should be a prerequisite to his going
into the line, and his success in com
manding determine his
standing at The Board
of Visitors should be ml in
January, and each member should bo
required tc give at least six days’
service, only from one to three days*
to be performed during week,
which is the least desirable time for
the board to be at Annapolis so far as
benefiting the navy by their observa
tions is concerned.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
The White House,
The Field of Labor.
The building trades unions of Syd
ney, Australia, are taking steps to
federate.
The report of the Amalgamated So
ciety of Carpenters and Joiners shojvs
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 scale of ordinary diet twice
a week afterward. The prisons are
said to be emptying fast.