difficult to estimate the increase of wealth which will result from the
conversion of these waste lands into farms, but it is more difficult to
estimate the betterment which will result to the families that have
found renewed hope and courage in the ownership of a home and the
assurance of a comfortable subsistence under free and healthful
conditions. It is also gratifying to be able to feel, as we may, that
this work has proceeded upon lines of justice toward the Indian, and
that he may now, if he will, secure to himself the good influences of a
settled habitation, the fruits of industry, and the security of
citizenship.

Early in this Administration a special effort was begun to bring up the
work of the General Land Office. By faithful work the arrearages have
been rapidly reduced. At the end of the last fiscal year only 84,172
final agricultural entries remained undisposed of, and the Commissioner
reports that with the present force the work can be fully brought up by
the end of the next fiscal year.

Your attention is called to the difficulty presented by the Secretary of
the Interior as to the administration of the law of March 3, 1891,
establishing a Court of Private Land Claims. The small holdings intended
to be protected by the law are estimated to be more than 15,000 in
number. The claimants are a most deserving class and their titles are
supported by the strongest equities. The difficulty grows out of the
fact that the lands have largely been surveyed according to our methods,
while the holdings, many of which have been in the same family for
generations, are laid out in narrow strips a few rods wide upon a stream
and running back to the hills for pasturage and timber.. Provision
should be made for numbering these tracts as lots and for patenting them
by such numbers and without reference to section lines.

The administration of the Pension Bureau has been characterized during
the year by great diligence. The total number of pensioners upon the
roll on the 30th day of June, 1891, was 676,160. There were allowed
during the fiscal year ending at that time 250,565 cases. Of this number
102,387 were allowed under the law of June 27, 1890. The issuing of
certificates has been proceeding at the rate of about 30,000 per month,
about 75 per cent of these being cases under the new law. The
Commissioner expresses the opinion that he will be able to carefully
adjudicate and allow 350,000 claims during the present fiscal year. The
appropriation for the payment of pensions for the fiscal year 1890-91
was $127,685,793.89 and the amount expended $118,530,649.25, leaving an
unexpended surplus of $9,155,144.64.

The Commissioner is quite confident that there will be no call this year
for a deficiency appropriation, notwithstanding the rapidity with which
the work is being pushed. The mistake which has been made by many in
their exaggerated estimates of the cost of pensions is in not taking
account of the diminished value of first payments under the recent
legislation. These payments under the general law have been for many
years very large, as the pensions when allowed dated from the time of
filing the claim, and most of these claims had been pending for years.
The first payments under the law of June, 1890, are relatively small,
and as the per cent of these cases increases and that of the old cases
diminishes the annual aggregate of first payments is largely reduced.
The Commissioner, under date of November 13, furnishes me with the
statement that during the last four months 113,175 certificates were
issued, 27,893 under the general law and 85,282 under the act of June
27, 1890. The average first payment during these four months was
$131.85, while the average first payment upon cases allowed during the
year ending June 30, 1891, was $239.33, being a reduction in the average
first payments during these four months of $107.48.

The estimate for pension expenditures for the fiscal year ending June
30, 1893, is $144,956,000, which, after a careful examination of the
subject, the Commissioner is of the opinion will be sufficient. While
these disbursements to the disabled soldiers of the great Civil War are
large, they do not realize the exaggerated estimates of those who oppose
this beneficent legislation. The Secretary of the Interior shows with
great fullness the care that is taken to exclude fraudulent claims, and
also the gratifying fact that the persons to whom these pensions are
going are men who rendered not slight but substantial war service.

The report of the Commissioner of Railroads shows that the total debt of
the subsidized railroads to the United States was on December 31, 1890,
$112,512,613.06. A large part of this debt is now fast approaching
maturity, with no adequate provision for its payment. Some policy for
dealing with this debt with a view to its ultimate collection should be
at once adopted. It is very difficult, well-nigh impossible, for so
large a body as the Congress to conduct the necessary negotiations and
investigations. I therefore recommend that provision be made for the
appointment of a commission to agree upon and report a plan for dealing
with this debt.

The work of the Census Bureau is now far in advance and the great bulk
of the enormous labor involved completed. It will be more strictly a
statistical exhibit and less encumbered by essays than its immediate
predecessors. The methods pursued have been fair, careful, and
intelligent, and have secured the approval of the statisticians who have
followed them with a scientific and nonpartisan interest. The
appropriations necessary to the early completion and publication of the
authorized volumes should be given in time to secure against delays,
which increase the cost and at the same time diminish the value of the
work.

The report of the Secretary exhibits with interesting fullness the
condition of the Territories. They have shared with the States the great
increase in farm products, and are bringing yearly large areas into
cultivation by extending their irrigating canals. This work is being
done by individuals or local corporations and without that system which
a full preliminary survey of the water supply and of the irrigable lands
would enable them to adopt. The future of the Territories of New Mexico,
Arizona, and Utah in their material growth and in the increase,
independence, and happiness of their people is very largely dependent
upon wise and timely legislation, either by Congress or their own
legislatures, regulating the distribution of the water supply furnished
by their streams. If this matter is much longer neglected, private
corporations will have unrestricted control of one of the elements of
life and the patentees of the arid lands will be tenants at will of the
water companies.

The United States should part with its ownership of the water sources
and the sites for reservoirs, whether to the States and Territories or
to individuals or corporations, only upon conditions that will insure to
the settlers their proper water supply upon equal and reasonable terms.
In the Territories this whole subject is under the full control of
Congress, and in the States it is practically so as long as the
Government holds the title to the reservoir sites and water sources and
can grant them upon such conditions as it chooses to impose. The
improvident granting of franchises of enormous value without recompense
to the State or municipality from which they proceed and without proper
protection of the public interests is the most noticeable and flagrant
evil of modern legislation. This fault should not be committed in
dealing with a subject that will before many years affect so vitally
thousands of our people.

The legislation of Congress for the repression of polygamy has, after
years of resistance on the part of the Mormons, at last brought them to
the conclusion that resistance is unprofitable and unavailing. The power
of Congress over this subject should not be surrendered until we have
satisfactory evidence that the people of the State to be created would
exercise the exclusive power of the State over this subject in the same
way. The question is not whether these people now obey the laws of
Congress against polygamy, but rather would they make, enforce, and
maintain such laws themselves if absolutely free to regulate the
subject? We can not afford to experiment with this subject, for when a
State is once constituted the act is final and any mistake
irretrievable. No compact in the enabling act could, in my opinion, be
binding or effective.

I recommend that provision be made for the organization of a simple form
of town government in Alaska, with power to regulate such matters as are
usually in the States under municipal control. These local civil
organizations will give better protection in some matters than the
present skeleton Territorial organization. Proper restrictions as to the
power to levy taxes and to create debt should be imposed.

If the establishment of the Department of Agriculture was regarded by
anyone as a mere concession to the unenlightened demand of a worthy
class of people, that impression has been most effectually removed by
the great results already attained. Its home influence has been very
great in disseminating agricultural and horticultural information, in
stimulating and directing a further diversification of crops, in
detecting and eradicating diseases of domestic animals, and, more than
all, in the close and informal contact which it has established and
maintains with the farmers and stock raisers of the whole country. Every
request for information has had prompt attention and every suggestion
merited consideration. The scientific corps of the Department is of a
high order and is pushing its investigations with method and enthusiasm.

The inspection by this Department of cattle and pork products intended
for shipment abroad has been the basis of the success which has attended
our efforts to secure the removal of the restrictions maintained by the
European Governments.

For ten years protests and petitions upon this subject from the packers
and stock raisers of the United States have been directed against these
restrictions, which so seriously limited our markets and curtailed the
profits of the farm. It is a source of general congratulation that
success has at last been attained, for the effects of an enlarged
foreign market for these meats will be felt not only by the farmer, but
in our public finances and in every branch of trade. It is particularly
fortunate that the increased demand for food products resulting from the
removal of the restrictions upon our meats and from the reciprocal trade
arrangements to which I have referred should have come at a time when
the agricultural surplus is so large. Without the help thus derived
lower prices would have prevailed. The Secretary of Agriculture
estimates that the restrictions upon the importation of our pork
products into Europe lost us a market for $20,000,000 worth of these
products annually.

The grain crop of this year was the largest in our history--50 per cent
greater than that of last year--and yet the new markets that have been
opened and the larger demand resulting from short crops in Europe have
sustained prices to such an extent that the enormous surplus of meats
and breadstuffs will be marketed at good prices, bringing relief and
prosperity to an industry that was much depressed. The value of the
grain crop of the United States is estimated by the Secretary to be this
year $500,000,000 more than last; of meats $150,000,000 more, and of all
products of the farm $700,000,000 more. It is not inappropriate, I
think, here to suggest that our satisfaction in the contemplation of
this marvelous addition to the national wealth is unclouded by any
suspicion of the currency by which it is measured and in which the
farmer is paid for the products of his fields.

The report of the Civil Service Commission should receive the careful
attention of the opponents as well as the friends of this reform. The
Commission invites a personal inspection by Senators and Representatives
of its records and methods, and every fair critic will feel that such an
examination should precede a judgment of condemnation either of the
system or its administration. It is not claimed that either is perfect,
but I believe that the law is being executed with impartiality and that
the system is incomparably better and fairer than that of appointments
upon favor. I have during the year extended the classified service to
include superintendents, teachers, matrons, and physicians in the Indian
service. This branch of the service is largely related to educational
and philanthropic work and will obviously be the better for the change.

The heads of the several Executive Departments have been directed to
establish at once an efficiency record as the basis of a comparative
rating of the clerks within the classified service, with a view to
placing promotions therein upon the basis of merit. I am confident that
such a record, fairly kept and open to the inspection of those
interested, will powerfully stimulate the work of the Departments and
will be accepted by all as placing the troublesome matter of promotions
upon a just basis.

I recommend that the appropriation for the Civil Service Commission be
made adequate to the increased work of the next fiscal year.

I have twice before urgently called the attention of Congress to the
necessity of legislation for the protection of the lives of railroad
employees, but nothing has yet been done. During the year ending June
30, 1890, 369 brakemen were killed and 7,841 maimed while engaged in
coupling cars. The total number of railroad employees killed during the
year was 2,451 and the number injured 22,390. This is a cruel and
largely needless sacrifice. The Government is spending nearly $1,000,000
annually to save the lives of shipwrecked seamen; every steam vessel is
rigidly inspected and required to adopt the most approved safety
appliances. All this is good. But how shall we excuse the lack of
interest and effort in behalf of this army of brave young men who in our
land commerce are being sacrificed every year by the continued use of
antiquated and dangerous appliances? A law requiring of every railroad
engaged in interstate commerce the equipment each year of a given per
cent of its freight cars with automatic couplers and air brakes would
compel an agreement between the roads as to the kind of brakes and
couplers to be used, and would very soon and very greatly reduce the
present fearful death rate among railroad employees.

The method of appointment by the States of electors of President and
Vice-President has recently attracted renewed interest by reason of a
departure by the State of Michigan from the method which had become
uniform in all the States. Prior to 1832 various methods had been used
by the different States, and even by the same State. In some the choice
was made by the legislature; in others electors were chosen by
districts, but more generally by the voters of the whole State upon a
general ticket. The movement toward the adoption of the last-named
method had an early beginning and went steadily forward among the States
until in 1832 there remained but a single State (South Carolina) that
had not adopted it. That State until the Civil War continued to choose
its electors by a vote of the legislature, but after the war changed its
method and conformed to the practice of the other States. For nearly
sixty years all the States save one have appointed their electors by a
popular vote upon a general ticket, and for nearly thirty years this
method was universal.

After a full test of other methods, without important division or
dissent in any State and without any purpose of party advantage, as we
must believe, but solely upon the considerations that uniformity was
desirable and that a general election in territorial divisions not
subject to change was most consistent with the popular character of our
institutions, best preserved the equality of the voters, and perfectly
removed the choice of President from the baneful influence of the
"gerrymander," the practice of all the States was brought into harmony.
That this concurrence should now be broken is, I think, an unfortunate
and even a threatening episode, and one that may well suggest whether
the States that still give their approval to the old and prevailing
method ought not to secure by a constitutional amendment a practice
which has had the approval of all. The recent Michigan legislation
provides for choosing what are popularly known as the Congressional
electors for President by Congressional districts and the two Senatorial
electors by districts created for that purpose. This legislation was, of
course, accompanied by a new Congressional apportionment, and the two
statutes bring the electoral vote of the State under the influence of
the "gerrymander."

These gerrymanders for Congressional purposes are in most cases
buttressed by a gerrymander of the legislative districts, thus making it
impossible for a majority of the legal voters of the State to correct
the apportionment and equalize the Congressional districts. A minority
rule is established that only a political convulsion can overthrow. I
have recently been advised that in one county of a certain State three
districts for the election of members of the legislature are constituted
as follows: One has 65,000 population, one 15,000, and one 10,000, while
in another county detached, noncontiguous sections have been united to
make a legislative district. These methods have already found effective
application to the choice of Senators and Representatives in Congress,
and now an evil start has been made in the direction of applying them to
the choice by the States of electors of President and Vice-President. If
this is accomplished, we shall then have the three great departments of
the Government in the grasp of the "gerrymander," the legislative and
executive directly and the judiciary indirectly through the power of
appointment.

An election implies a body of electors having prescribed qualifications,
each one of whom has an equal value and influence in determining the
result. So when the Constitution provides that "each State shall
appoint" (elect), "in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct,
a number of electors," etc., an unrestricted power was not given to the
legislatures in the selection of the methods to be used. "A republican
form of government" is guaranteed by the Constitution to each State, and
the power given by the same instrument to the legislatures of the States
to prescribe methods for the choice by the State of electors must be
exercised under that limitation. The essential features of such a
government are the right of the people to choose their own officers and
the nearest practicable equality of value in the suffrages given in
determining that choice.

It will not be claimed that the power given to the legislature would
support a law providing that the persons receiving the smallest vote
should be the electors or a law that all the electors should be chosen
by the voters of a single Congressional district. The State is to
choose, and finder the pretense of regulating methods the legislature
can neither vest the right of choice elsewhere nor adopt methods not
conformable to republican institutions. It is not my purpose here to
discuss the question whether a choice by the legislature or by the
voters of equal single districts is a choice by the State, but only to
recommend such regulation of this matter by constitutional amendment as
will secure uniformity and prevent that disgraceful partisan jugglery to
which such a liberty of choice, if it exists, offers a temptation.

Nothing just now is more important than to provide every guaranty for
the absolutely fair and free choice by an equal suffrage within the
respective States of all the officers of the National Government,
whether that suffrage is applied directly, as in the choice of members
of the House of Representatives, or indirectly, as in the choice of
Senators and electors of President. Respect for public officers and
obedience to law will not cease to be the characteristics of our people
until our elections cease to declare the will of majorities fairly
ascertained without fraud, suppression, or gerrymander. If I were called
upon to declare wherein our chief national danger lies, I should say
without hesitation in the overthrow of majority control by the
suppression or perversion of the popular suffrage. That there is a real
danger here all must agree; but the energies of those who see it have
been chiefly expended in trying to fix responsibility upon the opposite
party rather than in efforts to make such practices impossible by either
party.

Is it not possible now to adjourn that interminable and inconclusive
debate while we take by consent one step in the direction of reform by
eliminating the gerrymander, which has been denounced by all parties as
an influence in the selection of electors of President and members of
Congress? All the States have, acting freely and separately, determined
that the choice of electors by a general ticket is the wisest and safest
method, and it would seem there could be no objection to a
constitutional amendment making that method permanent. If a legislature
chosen in one year upon purely local questions should, pending a
Presidential contest, meet, rescind the law for a choice upon a general
ticket, and provide for the choice of electors by the legislature, and
this trick should determine the result, it is not too much to say that
the public peace might be seriously and widely endangered.

I have alluded to the "gerrymander" as affecting the method of selecting
electors of President by Congressional districts, but the primary intent
and effect of this form of political robbery have relation to the
selection of members of the House of Representatives. The power of
Congress is ample to deal with this threatening and intolerable abuse.
The unfailing test of sincerity in election reform will be found in a
willingness to confer as to remedies and to put into force such measures
as will most effectually preserve the right of the people to free and
equal representation.

An attempt was made in the last Congress to bring to bear the
constitutional powers of the General Government for the correction of
fraud against the suffrage. It is important to know whether the
opposition to such measures is really rested in particular features
supposed to be objectionable or includes any proposition to give to the
election laws of the United States adequacy to the correction of grave
and acknowledged evils. I must yet entertain the hope that it is
possible to secure a calm, patriotic consideration of such
constitutional or statutory changes as may be necessary to secure the
choice of the officers of the Government to the people by fair
apportionments and free elections.

I believe it would be possible to constitute a commission, nonpartisan
in its membership and composed of patriotic, wise, and impartial men, to
whom a consideration of the question of the evils connected with our
election system and methods might be committed with a good prospect of
securing unanimity in some plan for removing or mitigating those evils.
The Constitution would permit the selection of the commission to be
vested in the Supreme Court if that method would give the best guaranty
of impartiality. This commission should be charged with the duty of
inquiring into the whole subject of the law of elections as related to
the choice of officers of the National Government, with a view to
securing to every elector a free and unmolested exercise of the suffrage
and as near an approach to an equality of value in each ballot cast as
is attainable.

While the policies of the General Government upon the tariff, upon the
restoration of our merchant marine, upon river and harbor improvements,
and other such matters of grave and general concern are liable to be
turned this way or that by the results of Congressional elections and
administrative policies, sometimes involving issues that tend to peace
or war, to be turned this way or that by the results of a Presidential
election, there is a rightful interest in all the States and in every
Congressional district that will not be deceived or silenced by the
audacious pretense that the question of the right of any body of legal
voters in any State or in any Congressional district to give their
suffrages freely upon these general questions is a matter only of local
concern or control. The demand that the limitations of suffrage shall be
found in the law, and only there, is a just demand, and no just man
should resent or resist it. My appeal is and must continue to be for a
consultation that shall "proceed with candor, calmness, and patience
upon the lines of justice and humanity, not of prejudice and cruelty."

To the consideration of these very grave questions I invite not only the
attention of Congress, but that of all patriotic citizens. We must not
entertain the delusion that our people have ceased to regard a free
ballot and equal representation as the price of their allegiance to laws
and to civil magistrates.

I have been greatly rejoiced to notice many evidences of the increased
unification of our people and of a revived national spirit. The vista
that now opens to us is wider and more glorious than ever before.
Gratification and amazement struggle for supremacy as we contemplate the
population, wealth, and moral strength of our country. A trust momentous
in its influence upon our people and upon the world is for a brief time
committed to us, and we must not be faithless to its first
condition--the defense of the free and equal influence of the people in
the choice of public officers and in the control of public affairs.

BENJ. HARRISON

***

State of the Union Address
Benjamin Harrison
December 6, 1892

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In submitting my annual message to Congress I have great satisfaction in
being able to say that the general conditions affecting the commercial
and industrial interests of the United States are in the highest degree
favorable. A comparison of the existing conditions with those of the
most favored period in the history of the country will, I believe, show
that so high a degree of prosperity and so general a diffusion of the
comforts of life were never before enjoyed by our people.

The total wealth of the country in 1860 was $16,159,616,068. In 1890 it
amounted to $62,610,000,000, an increase of 287 per cent.

The total mileage of railways in the United States in 1860 was 30,626.
In 1890 it was 167,741, an increase of 448 per cent; and it is estimated
that there will be about 4,000 miles of track added by the close of the
year 1892.

The official returns of the Eleventh Census and those of the Tenth
Census for seventy-five leading cities furnish the basis for the
following comparisons:

In 1880 the capital invested in manufacturing was $1,232,839,670.

In 1890 the capital invested in manufacturing was $2,900,735,884.

In 1880 the number of employees was 1,301,388.

In 1890 the number of employees was 2,251,134.

In 1880 the wages earned were $501,965,778.

In 1890 the wages earned were $1,221,170,454.

In 1880 the value of the product was $2,711,579,899.

In 1890 the value of the product was $4,860,286,837.

I am informed by the Superintendent of the Census that the omission of
certain industries in 1880 which were included in 1890 accounts in part
for the remarkable increase thus shown, but after making full allowance
for differences of method and deducting the returns for all industries
not included in the census of 1880 there remain in the reports from
these seventy-five cities an increase in the capital employed of
$1,522,745,604, in the value of the product of $2,024,236,166, in wages
earned of $677,943,929, and in the number of wage earners employed of
856,029. The wage earnings not only show an increased aggregate, but an
increase per capita from $386 in 1880 to $547 in 1890, or 41.71 per
cent.

The new industrial plants established since October 6, 1890, and up to
October 22, 1892, as partially reported in the American Economist,
number 345, and the extension of existing plants 108; the new capital
invested amounts to $40,449,050, and the number of additional employees
to 37,285.

The Textile World for July, 1892, states that during the first six
months of the present calendar year 135 new factories were built, of
which 40 are cotton mills, 48 knitting mills, 26 woolen mills, 15 silk
mills, 4 plush mills, and 2 linen mills. Of the 40 cotton mills 21 have
been built in the Southern States. Mr. A. B. Shepperson, of the New York
Cotton Exchange, estimates the number of working spindles in the United
States on September 1, 1892, at 15,200,000, an increase of 660,000 over
the year 1891. The consumption of cotton by American mills in 1891 was
2,396,000 bales, and in 1892 2,584,000 bales, an increase of 188,000
bales. From the year 1869 to 1892, inclusive, there has been an increase
in the consumption of cotton in Europe of 92 per cent, while during the
same period the increased consumption in the United States has been
about 150 per cent.

The report of Ira Ayer, special agent of the Treasury Department, shows
that at the date of September 30, 1892, there were 32 companies
manufacturing tin and terne plate in the United States and 14 companies
building new works for such manufacture. The estimated investment in
buildings and plants at the close of the fiscal year June 30, 1893, if
existing conditions were to be continued, was $5,000,000 and the
estimated rate of production 200,000,000 pounds per annum. The actual
production for the quarter ending September 30, 1892, was 10,952,725
pounds.

The report of Labor Commissioner Peck, of New York, shows that during
the year 1891, in about 6,000 manufacturing establishments in that State
embraced within the special inquiry made by him, and representing 67
different industries, there was a net increase over the year 1890 of
$30,315,130.68 in the value of the product and of $6,377,925.09 in the
amount of wages paid. The report of the commissioner of labor for the
State of Massachusetts shows that 3,745 industries in that State paid
$129,416,248 in wages during the year 1891, against $126,030,303 in
1890, an increase of $3,335,945, and that there was an increase of
$9,932,490 in the amount of capital and of 7,346 in the number of
persons employed in the same period.

During the last six months of the year 1891 and the first six months of
1892 the total production of pig iron was 9,710,819 tons, as against
9,202,703 tons in the year 1890, which was the largest annual production
ever attained. For the same twelve months of 1891-92 the production of
Bessemer ingots was 3,878,581 tons, an increase of 189,710 gross tons
over the previously unprecedented yearly production of 3,688,871 gross
tons in 1890. The production of Bessemer steel rails for the first six
months of 1892 was 772,436 gross tons, as against 702,080 gross tons
during the last six months of the year 1891.

The total value of our foreign trade (exports and imports of
merchandise) during the last fiscal year was $1,857,680,610, an increase
of $128,283,604 over the previous fiscal year. The average annual value
of our imports and exports of merchandise for the ten fiscal years prior
to 1891 was $1,457,322,019. It will be observed that our foreign trade
for 1892 exceeded this annual average value by $400,358,591, an increase
of 27.47 per cent. The significance and value of this increase are shown
by the fact that the excess in the trade of 1892 over 1891 was wholly in
the value of exports, for there was a decrease in the value of imports
of $17,513,754.

The value of our exports during the fiscal year 1892 reached the highest
figure in the history of the Government, amounting to $1,030,278,148,
exceeding by $145,797,338 the exports of 1891 and exceeding the value of
the imports by $202,875,686. A comparison of the value of our exports
for 1892 with the annual average for the ten years prior to 1891 shows
an excess of $265,142,651, or of 34.65 per cent. The value of our
imports of merchandise for 1892, which was $829,402,462, also exceeded
the annual average value of the ten years prior to 1891 by $135,215,940.
During the fiscal year 1892 the value of imports free of duty amounted
to $457,999,658, the largest aggregate in the history of our commerce.
The value of the imports of merchandise entered free of duty in 1892 was
55.35 per cent of the total value of imports, as compared with 43.35 per
cent in 1891 and 33.66 per cent in 1890.

In our coastwise trade a most encouraging development is in progress,
there having been in the last four years an increase of 16 per cent. In
internal commerce the statistics show that no such period of prosperity
has ever before existed. The freight carried in the coastwise trade of
the Great Lakes in 1890 aggregated 28,295,959 tons. On the Mississippi,
Missouri, and Ohio rivers and tributaries in the same year the traffic
aggregated 29,405,046 tons, and the total vessel tonnage passing through
the Detroit River during that year was 21,684,000 tons. The vessel
tonnage entered and cleared in the foreign trade of London during 1890
amounted to 13,480,767 tons, and of Liverpool 10,941,800 tons, a total
for these two great shipping ports of 24,422,568 tons, only slightly in
excess of the vessel tonnage passing through the Detroit River. And it
should be said that the season for the Detroit River was but 228 days,
while of course in London and Liverpool the season was for the entire
year. The vessel tonnage passing through the St. Marys Canal for the
fiscal year 1892 amounted to 9,828,874 tons, and the freight tonnage of
the Detroit River is estimated for that year at 25,000,000 tons, against
23,209,619 tons in 1891. The aggregate traffic on our railroads for the
year 1891 amounted to 704,398,609 tons of freight, compared with
691,344,437 tons in 1890, an increase of 13,054,172 tons.

Another indication of the general prosperity of the country is found in
the fact that the number of depositors in savings banks increased from
693,870 in 1860 to 4,258,893 in 1890, an increase of 513 per cent, and
the amount of deposits from $149,277,504 in 1860 to $1,524,844,506 in
1890, an increase of 921 per cent. In 1891 the amount of deposits in
savings banks was $1,623,079,749. It is estimated that 90 per cent of
these deposits represent the savings of wage earners. The bank
clearances for nine months ending September 30, 1891, amounted to
$41,049,390,08. For the same months in 1892 they amounted to
$45,189,601,947, an excess for the nine months of $4,140,211,139.

There never has been a time in our history when work was so abundant or
when wages were as high, whether measured by the currency in which they
are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of
life. It is true that the market prices of cotton and wheat have been
low. It is one of the unfavorable incidents of agriculture that the
farmer can not produce upon orders. He must sow and reap in ignorance of
the aggregate production of the year, and is peculiarly subject to the
depreciation which follows overproduction. But while the fact I have
stated is true as to the crops mentioned, the general average of prices
has been such as to give to agriculture a fair participation in the
general prosperity. The value of our total farm products has increased
from $1,363,646,866 in 1860 to $4,500,000,000 in 1891, as estimated by
statisticians, an increase of 230 per cent. The number of hogs January
1, 1891, was 50,625,106 and their value $210,193,925; on January 1,
1892, the number was 52,398,019 and the value $241,031,415. On January
1, 1891, the number of cattle was 36,875,648 and the value $544,127,908;
on January 1 ,1892, the number was 37,651,239 and the value
$570,749,155.

If any are discontented with their state here, if any believe that wages
or prices, the returns for honest toil, are inadequate, they should not
fail to remember that there is no other country in the world where the
conditions that seem to them hard would not be accepted as highly
prosperous. The English agriculturist would be glad to exchange the
returns of his labor for those of the American farmer and the Manchester
workmen their wages for those of their fellows at Fall River.

I believe that the protective system, which has now for something more
than thirty years continuously prevailed in our legislation, has been a
mighty instrument for the development of our national wealth and a most
powerful agency in protecting the homes of our workingmen from the
invasion of want. I have felt a most solicitous interest to preserve to
our working people rates of wages that would not only give daily bread
but supply a comfortable margin for those home attractions and family
comforts and enjoyments without which life is neither hopeful nor sweet.
They are American citizens--a part of the great people for whom our
Constitution and Government were framed and instituted--and it can not
be a perversion of that Constitution to so legislate as to preserve in
their homes the comfort, independence, loyalty, and sense of interest in
the Government which are essential to good citizenship in peace, and
which will bring this stalwart throng, as in 1861, to the defense of the
flag when it is assailed.

It is not my purpose to renew here the argument in favor of a protective
tariff. The result of the recent election must be accepted as having
introduced a new policy. We must assume that the present tariff,
constructed upon the lines of protection, is to be repealed and that
there is to be substituted for it a tariff law constructed solely with
reference to revenue; that no duty is to be higher because the increase
will keep open an American mill or keep up the wages of an American
workman, but that in every case such a rate of duty is to be imposed as
will bring to the Treasury of the United States the largest returns of
revenue. The contention has not been between schedules, but between
principles, and it would be offensive to suggest that the prevailing
party will not carry into legislation the principles advocated by it and
the pledges given to the people. The tariff bills passed by the House of
Representatives at the last session were, as I suppose, even in the
opinion of their promoters, inadequate, and justified only by the fact
that the Senate and House of Representatives were not in accord and that
a general revision could not therefore be undertaken.

I recommend that the whole subject of tariff revision be left to the
incoming Congress. It is matter of regret that this work must be delayed
for at least three months, for the threat of great tariff changes
introduces so much uncertainty that an amount, not easily estimated, of
business inaction and of diminished production will necessarily result.
It is possible also that this uncertainty may result in decreased
revenues from customs duties, for our merchants will make cautious
orders for foreign goods in view of the prospect of tariff reductions
and the uncertainty as to when they will take effect. Those who have
advocated a protective tariff can well afford to have their disastrous
forecasts of a change of policy disappointed. If a system of customs
duties can be framed that will set the idle wheels and looms of Europe
in motion and crowd our warehouses with foreign-made goods and at the
same time keep our own mills busy; that will give us an increased
participation in the "markets of the world" of greater value than the
home market we surrender; that will give increased work to foreign
workmen upon products to be consumed by our people without diminishing
the amount of work to be done here; that will enable the American
manufacturer to pay to his workmen from 50 to 100 per cent more in wages
than is paid in the foreign mill, and yet to compete in our market and
in foreign markets with the foreign producer; that will further reduce
the cost of articles of wear and food without reducing the wages of
those who produce them; that can be celebrated, after its effects have
been realized, as its expectation has been in European as well as in
American cities, the authors and promoters of it will be entitled to the
highest praise. We have had in our history several experiences of the
contrasted effects of a revenue and of a protective tariff, but this
generation has not felt them, and the experience of one generation is
not highly instructive to the next. The friends of the protective system
with undiminished confidence in the principles they have advocated will
await the results of the new experiment.

The strained and too often disturbed relations existing between the
employees and the employers in our great manufacturing establishments
have not been favorable to a calm consideration by the wage earner of
the effect upon wages of the protective system. The facts that his wages
were the highest paid in like callings in the world and that a
maintenance of this rate of wages in the absence of protective duties
upon the product of his labor was impossible were obscured by the
passion evoked by these contests. He may now be able to review the
question in the light of his personal experience under the operation of
a tariff for revenue only. If that experience shall demonstrate that
present rates of wages are thereby maintained or increased, either
absolutely or in their purchasing power, and that the aggregate volume
of work to be done in this country is increased or even maintained, so
that there are more or as many days' work in a year, at as good or
better wages, for the American workmen as has been the case under the
protective system, everyone will rejoice. A general process of wage
reduction can not be contemplated by any patriotic citizen without the
gravest apprehension. It may be, indeed I believe is, possible for the
American manufacturer to compete successfully with his foreign rival in
many branches of production without the defense of protective duties if
the pay rolls are equalized; but the conflict that stands between the
producer and that result and the distress of our working people when it
is attained are not pleasant to contemplate. The Society of the
Unemployed, now holding its frequent and threatening parades in the
streets of foreign cities, should not be allowed to acquire an American
domicile.

The reports of the heads of the several Executive Departments, which are
herewith submitted, have very naturally included a resume of the whole
work of the Administration with the transactions of the last fiscal
year. The attention not only of Congress but of the country is again
invited to the methods of administration which have been pursued and to
the results which have been attained. Public revenues amounting to
$1,414,079,292.28 have been collected and disbursed without loss from
misappropriation, without a single defalcation of such importance as to
attract the public attention, and at a diminished per cent of cost for
collection. The public business has been transacted not only with
fidelity, but progressively and with a view to giving to the people in
the fullest possible degree the benefits of a service established and
maintained for their protection and comfort.

Our relations with other nations are now undisturbed by any serious
controversy. The complicated and threatening differences with Germany
and England relating to Samoan affairs, with England in relation to the
seal fisheries in the Bering Sea, and with Chile growing out of the
Baltimore affair have been adjusted.

There have been negotiated and concluded, under section 3 of the tariff
law, commercial agreements relating to reciprocal trade with the
following countries: Brazil, Dominican Republic, Spain for Cuba and
Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Salvador, the German Empire, Great Britain for
certain West Indian colonies and British Guiana, Nicaragua, Honduras,
and Austria-Hungary.

Of these, those with Guatemala, Salvador, the German Empire, Great
Britain, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Austria-Hungary have been concluded
since my last annual message. Under these trade arrangements a free or
favored admission has been secured in every case for an important list
of American products. Especial care has been taken to secure markets for
farm products, in order to relieve that great underlying industry of the
depression which the lack of an adequate foreign market for our surplus
often brings. An opening has also been made for manufactured products
that will undoubtedly, if this policy is maintained, greatly augment our
export trade. The full benefits of these arrangements can not be
realized instantly. New lines of trade are to be opened. The commercial
traveler must survey the field. The manufacturer must adapt his goods to
the new markets and facilities for exchange must be established. This
work has been well begun, our merchants and manufacturers having entered
the new fields with courage and enterprise. In the case of food
products, and especially with Cuba, the trade did not need to wait, and
the immediate results have been most gratifying. If this policy and
these trade arrangements can be continued in force and aided by the
establishment of American steamship lines, I do not doubt that we shall
within a short period secure fully one-third of the total trade of the
countries of Central and South America, which now amounts to about
$600,000,000 annually. In 1885 we had only 8 per cent of this trade.

The following statistics show the increase in our trade with the
countries with which we have reciprocal trade agreements from the date
when such agreements went into effect up to September 30, 1892, the
increase being in some almost wholly and in others in an important
degree the result of these agreements:

The domestic exports to Germany and Austria-Hungary have increased in
value from $47,673,756 to $57,993,064, an increase of $10,319,308, or
21.63 per cent. With American countries the value of our exports has
increased from $44,160,285 to $54,613,598, an increase of $10,453,313,
or 23.67 per cent. The total increase in the value of exports to all the
countries with which we have reciprocity agreements has been
$20,772,621. This increase is chiefly in wheat, flour, meat, and dairy
products and in manufactures of iron and steel and lumber. There has
been a large increase in the value of imports from all these countries
since the commercial agreements went into effect, amounting to
$74,294,525, but it has been entirely in imports from the American
countries, consisting mostly of sugar, coffee, india rubber, and crude
drugs. The alarmed attention of our European competitors for the South
American market has been attracted to this new American policy and to
our acquisition and their loss of South American trade.

A treaty providing for the arbitration of the dispute between Great
Britain and the United States as to the killing of seals in the Bering
Sea was concluded on the 29th of February last. This treaty was
accompanied by an agreement prohibiting pelagic sealing pending the
arbitration, and a vigorous effort was made during this season to drive
out all poaching sealers from the Bering Sea. Six naval vessels, three
revenue cutters, and one vessel from the Fish Commission, all under the
command of Commander Evans, of the Navy, were sent into the sea, which
was systematically patrolled. Some seizures were made, and it is
believed that the catch in the Bering Sea by poachers amounted to less
than 500 seals. It is true, however, that in the North Pacific, while
the seal herds were on their way to the passes between the Aleutian
Islands, a very large number, probably 35,000, were taken. The existing
statutes of the United States do not restrain our citizens from taking
seals in the Pacific Ocean, and perhaps should not unless the
prohibition can be extended to the citizens of other nations. I
recommend that power be given to the President by proclamation to
prohibit the taking of seals in the North Pacific by American vessels in
case, either as the result of the findings of the Tribunal of
Arbitration or otherwise, the restraints can be applied to the vessels
of all countries. The case of the United States for the Tribunal of
Arbitration has been prepared with great care and industry by the Hon.
John W. Foster, and the counsel who represent this Government express
confidence that a result substantially establishing our claims and
preserving this great industry for the benefit of all nations will be
attained.

During the past year a suggestion was received through the British
minister that the Canadian government would like to confer as to the
possibility of enlarging upon terms of mutual advantage the commercial
exchanges of Canada and of the United States, and a conference was held
at Washington, with Mr. Blaine acting for this Government and the
British minister at this capital and three members of the Dominion
cabinet acting as commissioners on the part of Great Britain. The
conference developed the fact that the Canadian government was only
prepared to offer to the United States in exchange for the concessions
asked the admission of natural products. The statement was frankly made
that favored rates could not be given to the United States as against
the mother country. This admission, which was foreseen, necessarily
terminated the conference upon this question. The benefits of an
exchange of natural products would be almost wholly with the people of
Canada. Some other topics of interest were considered in the conference,
and have resulted in the making of a convention for examining the
Alaskan boundary and the waters of Passamaquoddy Bay adjacent to
Eastport, Me., and in the initiation of an arrangement for the
protection of fish life in the coterminous and neighboring waters of our
northern border.

The controversy as to tolls upon the Welland Canal, which was presented
to Congress at the last session by special message, having failed of
adjustment, I felt constrained to exercise the authority conferred by
the act of July 26, 1892, and to proclaim a suspension of the free use
of St. Marys Falls Canal to cargoes in transit to ports in Canada. The
Secretary of the Treasury established such tolls as were thought to be
equivalent to the exactions unjustly levied upon our commerce in the
Canadian canals.

If, as we must suppose, the political relations of Canada and the
disposition of the Canadian government are to remain unchanged, a
somewhat radical revision of our trade relations should, I think, be
made. Our relations must continue to be intimate, and they should be
friendly. I regret to say, however, that in many of the controversies,
notably those as to the fisheries on the Atlantic, the sealing interests
on the Pacific, and the canal tolls, our negotiations with Great Britain
have continuously been thwarted or retarded by unreasonable and
unfriendly objections and protests from Canada in the matter of the
canal tolls our treaty rights were flagrantly disregarded. It is hardly
too much to say that the Canadian Pacific and other railway lines which
parallel our northern boundary are sustained by commerce having either
its origin or terminus, or both, in the United States. Canadian
railroads compete with those of the United States for our traffic, and
without the restraints of our interstate-commerce act. Their cars pass
almost without detention into and out of our territory.

The Canadian Pacific Railway brought into the United States from China
and Japan via British Columbia during the year ended June 30, 1892,
23,239,689 pounds of freight, and it carried from the United States, to
be shipped to China and Japan via British Columbia, 24,068,346 pounds of
freight. There were also shipped from the United States over this road
from Eastern ports of the United States to our Pacific ports during the
same year 13,912,073 pounds of freight, and there were received over
this road at the United States Eastern ports from ports on the Pacific
Coast 13,293,315 pounds of freight. Mr. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., former chief
of the Bureau of Statistics, when before the Senate Select Committee on
Relations with Canada, April 26, 1890, said that "the value of goods
thus transported between different points in the United States across
Canadian territory probably amounts to $100,000,000 a year."

There is no disposition on the part of the people or Government of the
United States to interfere in the smallest degree with the political
relations of Canada. That question is wholly with her own people. It is
time for us, however, to consider whether, if the present state of
things and trend of things is to continue, our interchanges upon lines
of land transportation should not be put upon a different basis and our
entire independence of Canadian canals and of the St. Lawrence as an
outlet to the sea secured by the construction of an American canal
around the Falls of Niagara and the opening of ship communication
between the Great Lakes and one of our own seaports. We should not
hesitate to avail ourselves of our great natural trade advantages. We
should withdraw the support which is given to the railroads and
steamship lines of Canada by a traffic that properly belongs to us and
no longer furnish the earnings which lighten the otherwise crushing
weight of the enormous public subsidies that have been given to them.
The subject of the power of the Treasury to deal with this matter
without further legislation has been under consideration, but
circumstances have postponed a conclusion. It is probable that a
consideration of the propriety of a modification or abrogation of the
article of the treaty of Washington relating to the transit of goods in
bond is involved in any complete solution of the question.

Congress at the last session was kept advised of the progress of the
serious and for a time threatening difference between the United States
and Chile. It gives me now great gratification to report that the
Chilean Government in a most friendly and honorable spirit has tendered
and paid as an indemnity to the families of the sailors of the Baltimore
who were killed and to those who were injured in the outbreak in the
city of Valparaiso the sum of $75,000. This has been accepted not only
as an indemnity for a wrong done, but as a most gratifying evidence that
the Government of Chile rightly appreciates the disposition of this
Government to act in a spirit of the most absolute fairness and
friendliness in our intercourse with that brave people. A further and
conclusive evidence of the mutual respect and confidence now existing is
furnished by the fact that a convention submitting to arbitration the
mutual claims of the citizens of the respective Governments has been
agreed upon. Some of these claims have been pending for many years and
have been the occasion of much unsatisfactory diplomatic correspondence.

I have endeavored in every way to assure our sister Republics of Central
and South America that the United States Government and its people have
only the most friendly disposition toward them all. We do not covet
their territory. We have no disposition to be oppressive or exacting in
our dealings with any of them, even the weakest. Our interests and our
hopes for them all lie in the direction of stable governments by their
people and of the largest development of their great commercial
resources. The mutual benefits of enlarged commercial exchanges and of a
more familiar and friendly intercourse between our peoples we do desire,
and in this have sought their friendly cooperation.

I have believed, however, while holding these sentiments in the greatest
sincerity, that we must insist upon a just responsibility for any
injuries inflicted upon our official representatives or upon our
citizens. This insistence, kindly and justly but firmly made, will, I
believe, promote peace and mutual respect.

Our relations with Hawaii have been such as to attract an increased
interest, and must continue to do so. I deem it of great importance that
the projected submarine cable, a survey for which has been made, should
be promoted. Both for naval and commercial uses we should have quick
communication with Honolulu. We should before this have availed
ourselves of the concession made many years ago to this Government for a
harbor and naval station at Pearl River. Many evidences of the
friendliness of the Hawaiian Government have been given in the past, and
it is gratifying to believe that the advantage and necessity of a
continuance of very close relations is appreciated.

The friendly act of this Government in expressing to the Government of
Italy its reprobation and abhorrence of the lynching of Italian subjects
in New Orleans by the payment of 125,000 francs, or $24,330.90, was
accepted by the King of Italy with every manifestation of gracious
appreciation, and the incident has been highly promotive of mutual
respect and good will.

In consequence of the action of the French Government in proclaiming a
protectorate over certain tribal districts of the west coast of Africa
eastward of the San Pedro River, which has long been regarded as the
southeastern boundary of Liberia, I have felt constrained to make
protest against this encroachment upon the territory of a Republic which
was rounded by citizens of the United States and toward which this
country has for many years held the intimate relation of a friendly
counselor.

The recent disturbances of the public peace by lawless foreign marauders
on the Mexican frontier have afforded this Government an opportunity to
testify its good will for Mexico and its earnest purpose to fulfill the
obligations of international friendship by pursuing and dispersing the
evil doers. The work of relocating the boundary of the treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo westward from El Paso is progressing favorably.

Our intercourse with Spain continues on a friendly footing. I regret,
however, not to be able to report as yet the adjustment of the claims of
the American missionaries arising from the disorders at Ponape, in the
Caroline Islands, but I anticipate a satisfactory adjustment in view of
renewed and urgent representations to the Government at Madrid.

The treatment of the religious and educational establishments of
American citizens in Turkey has of late called for a more than usual
share of attention. A tendency to curtail the toleration which has so
beneficially prevailed is discernible and has called forth the earnest
remonstrance of this Government. Harassing regulations in regard to
schools and churches have been attempted in certain localities, but not
without due protest and the assertion of the inherent and conventional
rights of our countrymen. Violations of domicile and search of the
persons and effects of citizens of the United States by apparently
irresponsible officials in the Asiatic vilayets have from time to time
been reported. An aggravated instance of injury to the property of an
American missionary at Bourdour, in the province of Konia, called forth
an urgent claim for reparation, which I am pleased to say was promptly
heeded by the Government of the Porte. Interference with the trading
ventures of our citizens in Asia Minor is also reported, and the lack of
consular representation in that region is a serious drawback to instant
and effective protection. I can not believe that these incidents
represent a settled policy, and shall not cease to urge the adoption of
proper remedies.

International copyright has been extended to Italy by proclamation in
conformity with the act of March 3, 1891, upon assurance being given
that Italian law permits to citizens of the United States the benefit of
copyright on substantially the same basis as to subjects of Italy. By a
special convention proclaimed January 15, 1892, reciprocal provisions of
copyright have been applied between the United States and Germany.
Negotiations are in progress with other countries to the same end.

I repeat with great earnestness the recommendation which I have made in
several previous messages that prompt and adequate support be given to
the American company engaged in the construction of the Nicaragua ship
canal. It is impossible to overstate the value from every standpoint of
this great enterprise, and I hope that there may be time, even in this
Congress, to give to it an impetus that will insure the early completion
of the canal and secure to the United States its proper relation to it
when completed.

The Congress has been already advised that the invitations of this
Government for the assembling of an international monetary conference to
consider the question of an enlarged use of silver were accepted by the
nations to which they were addressed. The conference assembled at
Brussels on the 22d of November, and has entered upon the consideration
of this great question. I have not doubted, and have taken occasion to
express that belief as well in the invitations issued for this
conference as in my public messages, that the free coinage of silver
upon an agreed international ratio would greatly promote the interests
of our people and equally those of other nations. It is too early to
predict what results may be accomplished by the conference. If any
temporary check or delay intervenes, I believe that very soon commercial
conditions will compel the now reluctant governments to unite with us in
this movement to secure the enlargement of the volume of coined money
needed for the transaction of the business of the world.

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will attract especial
interest in view of the many misleading statements that have been made
as to the state of the public revenues. Three preliminary facts should
not only be stated but emphasized before looking into details: First,
that the public debt has been reduced since March 4, 1889, $259,074,200,
and the annual interest charge $11,684,469; second, that there have been
paid out for pensions during this Administration up to November 1, 1892,
$432,564,178.70, an excess of $114,466,386.09 over the sum expended
during the period from March 1, 1885, to March 1, 1889; and, third, that
under the existing tariff up to December 1 about $93,000,000 of revenue
which would have been collected upon imported sugars if the duty had
been maintained has gone into the pockets of the people, and not into
the public Treasury, as before. If there are any who still think that
the surplus should have been kept out of circulation by hoarding it in
the Treasury, or deposited in favored banks without interest while the
Government continued to pay to these very banks interest upon the bonds
deposited as security for the deposits, or who think that the extended
pension legislation was a public robbery, or that the duties upon sugar
should have been maintained, I am content to leave the argument where it
now rests while we wait to see whether these criticisms will take the
form of legislation.

The revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, from all sources
were $425,868,260.22, and the expenditures for all purposes were
$415,953,806.56, leaving a balance of $9,914,453.66. There were paid
during the year upon the public debt $40,570,467.98. The surplus in the
Treasury and the bank redemption fund passed by the act of July 14,
1890, to the general fund furnished in large part the cash available and
used for the payments made upon the public debt. Compared with the year
1891, our receipts from customs duties fell off $42,069,241.08, while
our receipts from internal revenue increased $8,284,823.13, leaving the
net loss of revenue from these principal sources $33,784,417.95. The net
loss of revenue from all sources was $32,675,972.81.

The revenues, estimated and actual, for the fiscal year ending June 30,
1893, are placed by the Secretary at $463,336,350.44, and the
expenditures at $461,336,350.44, showing a surplus of receipts over
expenditures of $2,000,000. The cash balance in the Treasury at the end
of the fiscal year it is estimated will be $20,992,377.03. So far as
these figures are based upon estimates of receipts and expenditures for
the remaining months of the current fiscal year, there are not only the
usual elements of uncertainty, but some added elements. New revenue
legislation, or even the expectation of it, may seriously reduce the
public revenues during the period of uncertainty and during the process
of business adjustment to the new conditions when they become known. But
the Secretary has very wisely refrained from guessing as to the effect
of possible changes in our revenue laws, since the scope of those
changes and the time of their taking effect can not in any degree be
forecast or foretold by him. His estimates must be based upon existing
laws and upon a continuance of existing business conditions, except so
far as these conditions may be affected by causes other than new
legislation.

The estimated receipts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, are
$490,121,365.38, and the estimated appropriations $457,261,335.33,
leaving an estimated surplus of receipts over expenditures of
$32,860,030.05. This does not include any payment to the sinking fund.
In the recommendation of the Secretary that the sinking-fund law be
repealed I concur. The redemption of bonds since the passage of the law
to June 30, 1892, has already exceeded the requirements by the sum of
$990,510,681.49. The retirement of bonds in the future before maturity
should be a matter of convenience, not of compulsion. We should not
collect revenue for that purpose, but only use any casual surplus. To
the balance of $32,860,030.05 of receipts over expenditures for the year
1894 should be added the estimated surplus at the beginning of the year,
$20,992,377.03, and from this aggregate there must be deducted, as
stated by the Secretary, about $44,000,000 of estimated unexpended
appropriations.

The public confidence in the purpose and ability of the Government to
maintain the parity of all of our money issues, whether coin or paper,
must remain unshaken. The demand for gold in Europe and the consequent
calls upon us are in a considerable degree the result of the efforts of
some of the European Governments to increase their gold reserves, and
these efforts should be met by appropriate legislation on our part. The
conditions that have created this drain of the Treasury gold are in an
important degree political, and not commercial. In view of the fact that
a general revision of our revenue laws in the near future seems to be
probable, it would be better that any changes should be a part of that
revision rather than of a temporary nature.

During the last fiscal year the Secretary purchased under the act of
July 14, 1890, 54,355,748 ounces of silver and issued in payment
therefor $51,106,608 in notes. The total purchases since the passage of
the act have been 120,479,981 ounces and the aggregate of notes issued
$116,783,590. The average price paid for silver during the year was 94
cents per ounce, the highest price being $1.02 3/4 July 1, 1891, and the
lowest 83 cents March 21, 1892. In view of the fact that the monetary
conference is now sitting and that no conclusion has yet been reached, I
withhold any recommendation as to legislation upon this subject.

The report of the Secretary of War brings again to the attention of
Congress some important suggestions as to the reorganization of the
infantry and artillery arms of the service, which his predecessors have
before urgently presented. Our Army is small, but its organization
should all the more be put upon the most approved modern basis. The
conditions upon what we have called the "frontier" have heretofore
required the maintenance of many small posts, but now the policy of
concentration is obviously the right one. The new posts should have the
proper strategic relations to the only "frontiers" we now have--those of
the seacoast and of our northern and part of our southern boundary. I do
not think that any question of advantage to localities or to States
should determine the location of the new posts. The reorganization and
enlargement of the Bureau of Military Information which the Secretary
has effected is a work the usefulness of which will become every year
more apparent. The work of building heavy guns and the construction of
coast defenses has been well begun and should be carried on without
check.

The report of the Attorney-General is by law submitted directly to
Congress, but I can not refrain from saying that he has conducted the
increasing work of the Department of Justice with great professional
skill. He has in several directions secured from the courts decisions
giving increased protection to the officers of the United States and
bringing some classes of crime that escaped local cognizance and
punishment into the tribunals of the United States, where they could be
tried with impartiality.

The numerous applications for Executive clemency presented in behalf of
persons convicted in United States courts and given penitentiary
sentences have called my attention to a fact referred to by the
Attorney-General in his report, namely, that a time allowance for good
behavior for such prisoners is prescribed by the Federal statutes only
where the State in which the penitentiary is located has made no such
provision. Prisoners are given the benefit of the provisions of the
State law regulating the penitentiary to which they may be sent. These
are various, some perhaps too liberal and some perhaps too illiberal.
The result is that a sentence for five years means one thing if the
prisoner is sent to one State for confinement and quite a different
thing if he is sent to another. I recommend that a uniform credit for
good behavior be prescribed by Congress.

I have before expressed my concurrence in the recommendation of the
Attorney-General that degrees of murder should be recognized in the
Federal statutes, as they are, I believe, in all the States. These
grades are rounded on correct distinctions in crime. The recognition of
them would enable the courts to exercise some discretion in apportioning
punishment and would greatly relieve the Executive of what is coming to
be a very heavy burden--the examination of these cases on application
for commutation.

The aggregate of claims pending against the Government in the Court of
Claims is enormous. Claims to the amount of nearly $400,000,000 for the
taking of or injury to the property of persons claiming to be loyal
during the war are now before that court for examination. When to these
are added the Indian depredation claims and the French spoliation
claims, an aggregate is reached that is indeed startling. In the defense
of all these cases the Government is at great disadvantage. The
claimants have preserved their evidence, whereas the agents of the
Government are sent into the field to rummage for what they can find.
This difficulty is peculiarly great where the fact to be established is
the disloyalty of the claimant during the war. If this great threat
against our revenues is to have no other check, certainly Congress
should supply the Department of Justice with appropriations sufficiently
liberal to secure the best legal talent in the defense of these claims
and to pursue its vague search for evidence effectively.

The report of the Postmaster-General shows a most gratifying increase
and a most efficient and progressive management of the great business of
that Department. The remarkable increase in revenues, in the number of
post-offices, and in the miles of mail carriage furnishes further
evidence of the high state of prosperity which our people are enjoying.
New offices mean new hamlets and towns, new routes mean the extension of
our border settlements, and increased revenues mean an active commerce.
The Postmaster-General reviews the whole period of his administration of
the office and brings some of his statistics down to the month of
November last. The postal revenues have increased during the last year
nearly $5,000,000. The deficit for the year ending June 30, 1892, is
$848,341 less than the deficiency of the preceding year. The deficiency
of the present fiscal year it is estimated will be reduced to
$1,552,423, which will not only be extinguished during the next fiscal
year but a surplus of nearly $1,000,000 should then be shown. In these
calculations the payments to be made under the contracts for ocean mail
service have not been included. There have been added 1,590 new mail
routes during the year, with a mileage of 8,563 miles, and the total
number of new miles of mail trips added during the year is nearly
17,000,000. The number of miles of mail journeys added during the last
four years is about 76,000,000, this addition being 21,000,000 miles
more than were in operation in the whole country in 1861.

The number of post-offices has been increased by 2,790 during the year,
and during the past four years, and up to October 29 last, the total
increase in the number of offices has been nearly 9,000. The number of
free-delivery offices has been nearly doubled in the last four years,
and the number of money-order offices more than doubled within that
time.

For the three years ending June 30, 1892, the postal revenue amounted to
$197,744,359, which was an increase of $52,263,150 over the revenue for
the three years ending June 30, 1888, the increase during the last three
years being more than three and a half times as great as the increase
during the three years ending June 30, 1888. No such increase as that
shown for these three years has ever previously appeared in the revenues
of the Department. The Postmaster-General has extended to the
post-offices in the larger cities the merit system of promotion
introduced by my direction into the Departments here, and it has
resulted there, as in the Departments, in a larger volume of work and
that better done.

Ever since our merchant marine was driven from the sea by the rebel
cruisers during the War of the Rebellion the United States has been
paying an enormous annual tribute to foreign countries in the shape of
freight and passage moneys. Our grain and meats have been taken at our
own docks and our large imports there laid down by foreign shipmasters.
An increasing torrent of American travel to Europe has contributed a
vast sum annually to the dividends of foreign shipowners. The balance of
trade shown by the books of our custom-houses has been very largely
reduced and in many years altogether extinguished by this constant
drain. In the year 1892 only 12.3 per cent of our imports were brought
in American vessels. These great foreign steamships maintained by our
traffic are many of them under contracts with their respective
Governments by which in time of war they will become a part of their
armed naval establishments. Profiting by our commerce in peace, they
will become the most formidable destroyers of our commerce in time of
war. I have felt, and have before expressed the feeling, that this
condition of things was both intolerable and disgraceful. A wholesome
change of policy, and one having in it much promise, as it seems to me,
was begun by the law of March 3, 1891. Under this law contracts have
been made by the Postmaster-General for eleven mail routes. The
expenditure involved by these contracts for the next fiscal year
approximates $954,123.33. As one of the results already reached sixteen
American steamships, of an aggregate tonnage of 57,400 tons, costing
$7,400,000, have been built or contracted to be built in American
shipyards.

The estimated tonnage of all steamships required under existing
contracts is 165,802, and when the full service required by these
contracts is established there will be forty-one mail steamers under the
American flag, with the probability of further necessary additions in
the Brazilian and Argentine service. The contracts recently let for
transatlantic service will result in the construction of five ships of
10,000 tons each, costing $9,000,000 to $10,000,000, and will add, with
the City of New York and City of Paris, to which the Treasury Department
was authorized by legislation at the last session to give American
registry, seven of the swiftest vessels upon the sea to our naval
reserve. The contracts made with the lines sailing to Central and South
American ports have increased the frequency and shortened the time of
the trips, added new ports of call, and sustained some lines that
otherwise would almost certainly have been withdrawn. The service to
Buenos Ayres is the first to the Argentine Republic under the American
flag. The service to Southampton, Boulogne, and Antwerp is also new, and
is to be begun with the steamships City of New York and City of Paris in
February next.

I earnestly urge the continuance of the policy inaugurated by this
legislation, and that the appropriations required to meet the
obligations of the Government under the contracts may be made promptly,
so that the lines that have entered into these engagements may not be
embarrassed. We have had, by reason of connections with the
transcontinental railway lines constructed through our own territory,
some advantages in the ocean trade of the Pacific that we did not
possess on the Atlantic. The construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railway and the establishment under large subventions from Canada and
England of fast steamship service from Vancouver with Japan and China
seriously threaten our shipping interests in the Pacific. This line of
English steamers receives, as is stated by the Commissioner of
Navigation, a direct subsidy of $400,000 annually, or $30,767 per trip
for thirteen voyages, in addition to some further aid from the Admiralty
in connection with contracts under which the vessels may be used for
naval purposes. The competing American Pacific mail line under the act
of March 3, 1891, receives only $6,389 per round trip.

Efforts have been making within the last year, as I am informed, to
establish under similar conditions a line between Vancouver and some
Australian port, with a view of seizing there a trade in which we have
had a large interest. The Commissioner of Navigation states that a very
large per cent of our imports from Asia are now brought to us by English
steamships and their connecting railways in Canada. With a view of
promoting this trade, especially in tea, Canada has imposed a
discriminating duty of 10 per cent upon tea and coffee brought into the
Dominion from the United States. If this unequal contest between
American lines without subsidy, or with diminished subsidies, and the
English Canadian line to which I have referred is to continue, I think
we should at least see that the facilities for customs entry and
transportation across our territory are not such as to make the Canadian
route a favored one, and that the discrimination as to duties to which I
have referred is met by a like discrimination as to the importation of
these articles from Canada.

No subject, I think, more nearly touches the pride, the power, and the
prosperity of our country than this of the development of our merchant
marine upon the sea. If we could enter into conference with other
competitors and all would agree to withhold government aid, we could
perhaps take our chances with the rest; but our great competitors have
established and maintained their lines by government subsidies until
they now have practically excluded us from participation. In my opinion
no choice is left to us but to pursue, moderately at least, the same
lines.

The report of the Secretary of the Navy exhibits great progress in the
construction of our new Navy. When the present Secretary entered upon
his duties, only 3 modern steel vessels were in commission. The vessels
since put in commission and to be put in commission during the winter
will make a total of 19 during his administration of the Department.
During the current year 10 war vessels and 3 navy tugs have been
launched, and during the four years 25 vessels will have been launched.
Two other large ships and a torpedo boat are under contract and the work
upon them well advanced, and the 4 monitors are awaiting only the
arrival of their armor, which has been unexpectedly delayed, or they
would have been before this in commission.

Contracts have been let during this Administration, under the
appropriations for the increase of the Navy, including new vessels and
their appurtenances, to the amount of $35,000,000, and there has been
expended during the same period for labor at navy-yards upon similar
work $8,000,000 without the smallest scandal or charge of fraud or
partiality. The enthusiasm and interest of our naval officers, both of
the staff and line, have been greatly kindled. They have responded
magnificently to the confidence of Congress and have demonstrated to the
world an unexcelled capacity in construction, in ordnance, and in
everything involved in the building, equipping, and sailing of great war
ships.

At the beginning of Secretary Tracy's administration several difficult
problems remained to be grappled with and solved before the efficiency
in action of our ships could be secured. It is believed that as the
result of new processes in the construction of armor plate our later
ships will be clothed with defensive plates of higher resisting power
than are found on any war vessels afloat. We were without torpedoes.
Tests have been made to ascertain the relative efficiency of different
constructions, a torpedo has been adopted, and the work of construction
is now being carried on successfully. We were without armor-piercing
shells and without a shop instructed and equipped for the construction
of them. We are now making what is believed to be a projectile superior
to any before in use. A smokeless powder has been developed and a
slow-burning powder for guns of large caliber. A high explosive capable
of use in shells fired from service guns has been found, and the
manufacture of gun cotton has been developed so that the question of
supply is no longer in doubt.

The development of a naval militia, which has been organized in eight
States and brought into cordial and cooperative relations with the Navy,
is another important achievement. There are now enlisted in these
organizations 1,800 men, and they are likely to be greatly extended. I
recommend such legislation and appropriations as will encourage and
develop this movement. The recommendations of the Secretary will, I do
not doubt, receive the friendly consideration of Congress, for he has
enjoyed, as he has deserved, the confidence of all those interested in
the development of our Navy, without any division upon partisan lines. I
earnestly express the hope that a work which has made such noble
progress may not now be stayed. The wholesome influence for peace and
the increased sense of security which our citizens domiciled in other
lands feel when these magnificent ships under the American flag appear
is already most gratefully apparent. The ships from our Navy which will
appear in the great naval parade next April in the harbor of New York
will be a convincing demonstration to the world that the United States
is again a naval power.

The work of the Interior Department, always very burdensome, has been
larger than ever before during the administration of Secretary Noble.
The disability-pension law, the taking of the Eleventh Census, the
opening of vast areas of Indian lands to settlement, the organization of
Oklahoma, and the negotiations for the cession of Indian lands furnish
some of the particulars of the increased work, and the results achieved
testify to the ability, fidelity, and industry of the head of the
Department and his efficient assistants.

Several important agreements for the cession of Indian lands negotiated
by the commission appointed under the act of March 2, 1889, are awaiting
the action of Congress. Perhaps the most important of these is that for
the cession of the Cherokee Strip. This region has been the source of
great vexation to the executive department and of great friction and
unrest between the settlers who desire to occupy it and the Indians who
assert title. The agreement which has been made by the commission is
perhaps the most satisfactory that could have been reached. It will be
noticed that it is conditioned upon its ratification by Congress before
March 4, 1893. The Secretary of the Interior, who has given the subject
very careful thought, recommends the ratification of the agreement, and
I am inclined to follow his recommendation. Certain it is that some
action by which this controversy shall be brought to an end and these
lands opened to settlement is urgent.

The form of government provided by Congress on May 17, 1884, for Alaska
was in its frame and purpose temporary. The increase of population and
the development of some important mining and commercial interests make
it imperative that the law should be revised and better provision made
for the arrest and punishment of criminals.

The report of the Secretary shows a very gratifying state of facts as to
the condition of the General Land Office. The work of issuing
agricultural patents, which seemed to be hopelessly in arrear when the
present Secretary undertook the duties of his office, has been so
expedited that the bureau is now upon current business. The relief thus
afforded to honest and worthy settlers upon the public lands by giving
to them an assured title to their entries has been of incalculable
benefit in developing the new States and the Territories.

The Court of Private Land Claims, established by Congress for the
promotion of this policy of speedily settling contested land titles, is
making satisfactory progress in its work, and when the work is completed
a great impetus will be given to the development of those regions where
unsettled claims under Mexican grants have so long exercised their
repressive influence. When to these results are added the enormous
cessions of Indian lands which have been opened to settlement,
aggregating during this Administration nearly 26,000,000 acres, and the
agreements negotiated and now pending in Congress for ratification by
which about 10,000,000 additional acres will be opened to settlement, it
will be seen how much has been accomplished.

The work in the Indian Bureau in the execution of the policy of recent
legislation has been largely directed to two chief purposes: First, the
allotment of lands in severalty to the Indians and the cession to the
United States of the surplus lands, and, secondly, to the work of
educating the Indian for his own protection in his closer contact with
the white man and for the intelligent exercise of his new citizenship.
Allotments have been made and patents issued to 5,900 Indians under the
present Secretary and Commissioner, and 7,600 additional allotments have
been made for which patents are now in process of preparation. The
school attendance of Indian children has been increased during that time
over 13 per cent, the enrollment for 1892 being nearly 20,000. A uniform
system of school text-books and of study has been adopted and the work
in these national schools brought as near as may be to the basis of the
free common schools of the States. These schools can be transferred and
merged into the common-school systems of the States when the Indian has
fully assumed his new relation to the organized civil community in which
he resides and the new States are able to assume the burden. I have
several times been called upon to remove Indian agents appointed by me,
and have done so promptly upon every sustained complaint of unfitness or
misconduct. I believe, however, that the Indian service at the agencies
has been improved and is now administered on the whole with a good
degree of efficiency. If any legislation is possible by which the
selection of Indian agents can be wholly removed from all partisan
suggestions or considerations, I am sure it would be a great relief to
the Executive and a great benefit to the service. The appropriation for
the subsistence of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians made at the last
session of Congress was inadequate. This smaller appropriation was
estimated for by the Commissioner upon the theory that the large fund
belonging to the tribe in the public Treasury could be and ought to be
used for their support. In view, however, of the pending depredation
claims against this fund and other considerations, the Secretary of the
Interior on the 12th of April last submitted a supplemental estimate for
$50,000. This appropriation was not made, as it should have been, and
the oversight ought to be remedied at the earliest possible date.

In a special message to this Congress at the last session, I stated the
reasons why I had not approved the deed for the release to the United
States by the Choctaws and Chickasaws of the lands formerly embraced in
the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation and remaining after allotments to
that tribe. A resolution of the Senate expressing the opinion of that
body that notwithstanding the facts stated in my special message the
deed should be approved and the money, $2,991,450, paid over was
presented to me May 10, 1892. My special message was intended to call
the attention of Congress to the subject, and in view of the fact that
it is conceded that the appropriation proceeded upon a false basis as to
the amount of lands to be paid for and is by $50,000 in excess of the
amount they are entitled to (even if their claim to the land is given
full recognition at the rate agreed upon), I have not felt willing to
approve the deed, and shall not do so, at least until both Houses of
Congress have acted upon the subject. It has been informally proposed by
the claimants to release this sum of $50,000, but I have no power to
demand or accept such a release, and such an agreement would be without
consideration and void.

I desire further to call the attention of Congress to the fact that the
recent agreement concluded with the Kiowas and Comanches relates to
lands which were a part of the "leased district," and to which the claim
of the Choctaws and Chickasaws is precisely that recognized by Congress
in the legislation I have referred to. The surplus lands to which this
claim would attach in the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation is 2,500,000
acres, and at the same rate the Government will be called upon to pay to
the Choctaws and Chickasaws for these lands $3,125,000. This sum will be
further augmented, especially if the title of the Indians to the tract
now Greet County, Tex., is established. The duty devolved upon me in
this connection was simply to pass upon the form of the deed; but as in
my opinion the facts mentioned in my special message were not adequately
brought to the attention of Congress in connection with the legislation,
I have felt that I would not be justified in acting without some new
expression of the legislative will.

The report of the Commissioner of Pensions, to which extended notice is
given by the Secretary of the Interior in his report, will attract great
attention. Judged by the aggregate amount of work done, the last year
has been the greatest in the history of the office. I believe that the
organization of the office is efficient and that the work has been done
with fidelity. The passage of what is known as the disability bill has,
as was foreseen, very largely increased the annual disbursements to the
disabled veterans of the Civil War. The estimate for this fiscal year
was $144,956,000, and that amount was appropriated. A deficiency
amounting to $10,508,621 must be provided for at this session. The
estimate for pensions for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, is
$165,000,000. The Commissioner of Pensions believes that if the present
legislation and methods are maintained and further additions to the
pension laws are not made the maximum expenditure for pensions will be
reached June 30, 1894, and will be at the highest point $188,000,000 per
annum.

I adhere to the views expressed in previous messages that the care of
the disabled soldiers of the War of the Rebellion is a matter of
national concern and duty. Perhaps no emotion cools sooner than that of
gratitude, but I can not believe that this process has yet reached a
point with our people that would sustain the policy of remitting the
care of these disabled veterans to the inadequate agencies provided by
local laws. The parade on the 20th of September last upon the streets of
this capital of 60,000 of the surviving Union veterans of the War of the
Rebellion was a most touching and thrilling episode, and the rich and
gracious welcome extended to them by the District of Columbia and the
applause that greeted their progress from tens of thousands of people
from all the States did much to revive the glorious recollections of the
Grand Review when these men and many thousand others now in their graves
were welcomed with grateful joy as victors in a struggle in which the
national unity, honor, and wealth were all at issue.

In my last annual message I called attention to the fact that some
legislative action was necessary in order to protect the interests of
the Government in its relations with the Union Pacific Railway. The
Commissioner of Railroads has submitted a very full report, giving exact
information as to the debt, the liens upon the company's property, and
its resources. We must deal with the question as we find it and take
that course which will under existing conditions best secure the
interests of the United States. I recommended in my last annual message
that a commission be appointed to deal with this question, and I renew
that recommendation and suggest that the commission be given full power.

The report of the Secretary of Agriculture contains not only a most
interesting statement of the progressive and valuable work done under
the administration of Secretary Rusk, but many suggestions for the
enlarged usefulness of this important Department. In the successful
efforts to break down the restrictions to the free introduction of our
meat products in the countries of Europe the Secretary has been untiring
from the first, stimulating and aiding all other Government officers at
home and abroad whose official duties enabled them to participate in the
work. The total trade in hog products with Europe in May, 1892, amounted
to 82,000,000 pounds, against 46,900,000 in the same month of 1891; in
June, 1892, the export aggregated 85,700,000 pounds, against 46,500,000
pounds in the same month of the previous year; in July there was an
increase of 41 per cent and in August of 55 per cent over the
corresponding months of 1891. Over 40,000,000 pounds of inspected pork
have been exported since the law was put into operation, and a
comparison of the four months of May, June, July, and August, 1892, with
the same months of 1891 shows an increase in the number of pounds of our
export of pork products of 62 per cent and an increase in value of 66
1/2 per cent. The exports of dressed beef increased from 137,900,000
pounds in 1889 to 220,500,000 pounds in 1892 or about 60 per cent.
During the past year there have been exported 394,607 head of live
cattle, as against 205,786 exported in 1889. This increased exportation
has been largely promoted by the inspection authorized by law and the
faithful efforts of the Secretary and his efficient subordinates to make
that inspection thorough and to carefully exclude from all cargoes
diseased or suspected cattle. The requirement of the English regulations
that live cattle arriving from the United States must be slaughtered at
the docks had its origin in the claim that pleuro-pneumonia existed
among American cattle and that the existence of the disease could only
certainly be determined by a post mortem inspection.

The Department of Agriculture has labored with great energy and
faithfulness to extirpate this disease, and on the 26th day of September
last a public announcement was made by the Secretary that the disease no
longer existed anywhere within the United States. He is entirely
satisfied after the most searching inquiry that this statement was
justified, and that by a continuance of the inspection and quarantine
now required of cattle brought into this country the disease can be
prevented from again getting any foothold. The value to the cattle
industry of the United States of this achievement can hardly be
estimated. We can not, perhaps, at once insist that this evidence shall
be accepted as satisfactory by other countries; but if the present
exemption from the disease is maintained and the inspection of our
cattle arriving at foreign ports, in which our own veterinarians
participate, confirms it, we may justly expect that the requirement that
our cattle shall be slaughtered at the docks will be revoked, as the
sanitary restrictions upon our pork products have been. If our cattle
can be taken alive to the interior, the trade will be enormously
increased.

Agricultural products constituted 78.1 per cent of our unprecedented
exports for the fiscal year which closed June 30, 1892, the total
exports being $1,030,278,030 and the value of the agricultural products
$793,717,676, which exceeds by more than $150,000,000 the shipment of
agricultural products in any previous year.

An interesting and a promising work for the benefit of the American
farmer has been begun through agents of the Agricultural Department in
Europe, and consists in efforts to introduce the various products of
Indian corn as articles of human food. The high price of rye offered a
favorable opportunity for the experiment in Germany of combining corn
meal with rye to produce a cheaper bread. A fair degree of success has
been attained, and some mills for grinding corn for food have been
introduced. The Secretary is of the opinion that this new use of the
products of corn has already stimulated exportations, and that if
diligently prosecuted large and important markets can presently be
opened for this great American product.

The suggestions of the Secretary for an enlargement of the work of the
Department are commended to your favorable consideration. It may, I
think, be said without challenge that in no corresponding period has so
much been done as during the last four years for the benefit of American
agriculture.

The subject of quarantine regulations, inspection, and control was
brought suddenly to my attention by the arrival at our ports in August
last of vessels infected with cholera. Quarantine regulations should be
uniform at all our ports. Under the Constitution they are plainly within
the exclusive Federal jurisdiction when and so far as Congress shall
legislate. In my opinion the whole subject should be taken into national
control and adequate power given to the Executive to protect our people
against plague invasions. On the 1st of September last I approved
regulations establishing a twenty-day quarantine for all vessels
bringing immigrants from foreign ports. This order will be continued in
force. Some loss and suffering have resulted to passengers, but a due
care for the homes of our people justifies in such cases the utmost
precaution. There is danger that with the coming of spring cholera will
again appear, and a liberal appropriation should be made at this session
to enable our quarantine and port officers to exclude the deadly plague.

But the most careful and stringent quarantine regulations may not be
sufficient absolutely to exclude the disease. The progress of medical
and sanitary science has been such, however, that if approved
precautions are taken at once to put all of our cities and towns in the
best sanitary condition, and provision is made for isolating any
sporadic cases and for a thorough disinfection, an epidemic can, I am
sure, be avoided. This work appertains to the local authorities, and the
responsibility and the penalty will be appalling if it is neglected or
unduly delayed.

We are peculiarly subject in our great ports to the spread of infectious
diseases by reason of the fact that unrestricted immigration brings to
us out of European cities, in the overcrowded steerages of great
steamships, a large number of persons whose surroundings make them the
easy victims of the plague. This consideration, as well as those
affecting the political, moral, and industrial interests of our country,
leads me to renew the suggestion that admission to our country and to
the high privileges of its citizenship should be more restricted and
more careful. We have, I think, a right and owe a duty to our own
people, and especially to our working people, not only to keep out the
vicious, the ignorant, the civil disturber, the pauper, and the contract
laborer, but to check the too great flow of immigration now coming by
further limitations.

The report of the World's Columbian Exposition has not yet been
submitted. That of the board of management of the Government exhibit has
been received and is herewith transmitted. The work of construction and
of preparation for the opening of the exposition in May next has
progressed most satisfactorily and upon a scale of liberality and
magnificence that will worthily sustain the honor of the United States.

The District of Columbia is left by a decision of the supreme court of
the District without any law regulating the liquor traffic. An old
statute of the legislature of the District relating to the licensing of
various vocations has hitherto been treated by the Commissioners as
giving them power to grant or refuse licenses to sell intoxicating
liquors and as subjecting those who sold without licenses to penalties;
but in May last the supreme court of the District held against this view
of the powers of the Commissioners. It is of urgent importance,
therefore, that Congress should supply, either by direct enactment or by
conferring discretionary powers upon the Commissioners, proper
limitations and restraints upon the liquor traffic in the District. The
District has suffered in its reputation by many crimes of violence, a
large per cent of them resulting from drunkenness and the liquor
traffic. The capital of the nation should be freed from this reproach by
the enactment of stringent restrictions and limitations upon the
traffic.

In renewing the recommendation which I have made in three preceding
annual messages that Congress should legislate for the protection of
railroad employees against the dangers incident to the old and
inadequate methods of braking and coupling which are still in use upon
freight trains, I do so with the hope that this Congress may take action
upon the subject. Statistics furnished by the Interstate Commerce
Commission show that during the year ending June 30, 1891, there were
forty-seven different styles of car couplers reported to be in use, and
that during the same period there were 2,660 employees killed and 26,140
injured. Nearly 16 per cent of the deaths occurred in the coupling and
uncoupling of cars and over 36 per cent of the injuries had the same
origin.

The Civil Service Commission ask for an increased appropriation for
needed clerical assistance, which I think should be given. I extended
the classified service March 1, 1892, to include physicians,
superintendents, assistant superintendents, school-teachers, and matrons
in the Indian service, and have had under consideration the subject of
some further extensions, but have not as yet fully determined the lines
upon which extensions can most properly and usefully be made.

I have in each of the three annual messages which it has been my duty to
submit to Congress called attention to the evils and dangers connected
with our election methods and practices as they are related to the
choice of officers of the National Government. In my last annual message
I endeavored to invoke serious attention to the evils of unfair
apportionments for Congress. I can not close this message without again
calling attention to these grave and threatening evils. I had hoped that
it was possible to secure a nonpartisan inquiry by means of a commission
into evils the existence of which is known to all, and that out of this
might grow legislation from which all thought of partisan advantage
should be eliminated and only the higher thought appear of maintaining
the freedom and purity of the ballot and the equality of the elector,
without the guaranty of which the Government could never have been
formed and without the continuance of which it can not continue to exist
in peace and prosperity.

It is time that mutual charges of unfairness and fraud between the great
parties should cease and that the sincerity of those who profess a
desire for pure and honest elections should be brought to the test of
their willingness to free our legislation and our election methods from
everything that tends to impair the public confidence in the announced
result. The necessity for an inquiry and for legislation by Congress
upon this subject is emphasized by the fact that the tendency of the
legislation in some States in recent years has in some important
particulars been away from and not toward free and fair elections and
equal apportionments. Is it not time that we should come together upon
the high plane of patriotism while we devise methods that shall secure
the right of every man qualified by law to cast a free ballot and give
to every such ballot an equal value in choosing our public officers and
in directing the policy of the Government?

Lawlessness is not less such, but more, where it usurps the functions of
the peace officer and of the courts. The frequent lynching of colored
people accused of crime is without the excuse, which has sometimes been
urged by mobs for a failure to pursue the appointed methods for the
punishment of crime, that the accused have an undue influence over
courts and juries. Such acts are a reproach to the community where they
occur, and so far as they can be made the subject of Federal
jurisdiction the strongest repressive legislation is demanded. A public
sentiment that will sustain the officers of the law in resisting mobs
and in protecting accused persons in their custody should be promoted by
every possible means. The officer who gives his life in the brave
discharge of this duty is worthy of special honor. No lesson needs to be
so urgently impressed upon our people as this, that no worthy end or
cause can be promoted by lawlessness.

This exhibit of the work of the Executive Departments is submitted to
Congress and to the public in the hope that there will be found in it a
due sense of responsibility and an earnest purpose to maintain the
national honor and to promote the happiness and prosperity of all our
people, and this brief exhibit of the growth and prosperity of the
country will give us a level from which to note the increase or
decadence that new legislative policies may bring to us. There is no
reason why the national influence, power, and prosperity should not
observe the same rates of increase that have characterized the past
thirty years. We carry the great impulse and increase of these years
into the future. There is no reason why in many lines of production we
should not surpass all other nations, as we have already done in some.
There are no near frontiers to our possible development. Retrogression
would be a crime.

BENJ. HARRISON

***

State of the Union Address
by Grover Cleveland
December 4, 1893.

To the Congress of the United States:

The constitutional duty which requires the President from time to time
to give to the Congress information of the state of the Union and
recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient is fittingly entered upon by commending to the
Congress a careful examination of the detailed statements and
well-supported recommendations contained in the reports of the heads of
Departments, who are chiefly charged with the executive work of the
Government. In an effort to abridge this communication as much as is
consistent with its purpose I shall supplement a brief reference to the
contents of these departmental reports by the mention of such executive
business and incidents as are not embraced therein and by such
recommendations as appear to be at this particular time appropriate.

While our foreign relations have not at all times during the past year
been entirely free from perplexity, no embarrassing situation remains
that will not yield to the spirit of fairness and love of justice which,
joined with consistent firmness, characterize a truly American foreign
policy.

My predecessor having accepted the office of arbitrator of the
long-standing Missions boundary dispute, tendered to the President by the
Argentine Republic and Brazil, it has been my agreeable duty to receive
the special envoys commissioned by those States to lay before me
evidence and arguments in behalf of their respective Governments.

The outbreak of domestic hostilities in the Republic of Brazil found
the United States alert to watch the interests of our citizens in that
country, with which we carry on important commerce. Several vessels of
our new Navy are now and for some time have been stationed at Rio de
Janeiro. The struggle being between the established Government, which
controls the machinery of administration, and with which we maintain
friendly relations, and certain officers of the navy employing the
vessels of their command in an attack upon the national capital and
chief seaport, and lacking as it does the elements of divided
administration, I have failed to see that the insurgents can reasonably
claim recognition as belligerents.

Thus far the position of our Government has been that of an attentive
but impartial observer of the unfortunate conflict. Emphasizing our
fixed policy of impartial neutrality in such a condition of affairs as
now exists, I deemed it necessary to disavow in a manner not to be
misunderstood the unauthorized action of our late naval commander in
those waters in saluting the revolted Brazilian admiral, being
indisposed to countenance an act calculated to give gratuitous sanction
to the local insurrection.

The convention between our Government and Chile having for its object
the settlement and adjustment of the demand of the two countries
against each other has been made effective by he organization of the
claims commission provided for. The two Governments failing to agree
upon the third member of the commission, the good offices of the
President of the Swiss Republic were invoked, as provided in the treaty,
and the selection of the Swiss representative in this country to
complete the organization was gratifying alike to the United States and
Chile.

The vexatious question of so-called legation asylum for offenders
against the state and its laws was presented anew in Chile by the
unauthorized action of the late United States minister in receiving
into his official residence two persons who had just failed in an
attempt at revolution and against whom criminal charges were pending
growing out of a former abortive disturbance. The doctrine of asylum as
applied to this case is not sanctioned by the best precedents, and when
allowed tends to encourage sedition and strife. Under no circumstances
can the representatives of this Government be permitted, under the
ill-defined fiction of extraterritoriality, to interrupt the administration
of criminal justice in the countries to which they are accredited. A
temperate demand having been made by the Chilean Government for the
correction of this conduct in the instance mentioned, the minister was
instructed no longer to harbor the offenders.

The legislation of last year known as the Geary law, requiring the
registration of all Chinese laborers entitled to residence in the
United States and the deportation of all not complying with the
provisions of the act within the time prescribed, met with much
opposition from Chinamen in this country. Acting upon the advice of
eminent counsel that the law was unconstitutional, the great mass of
Chinese laborers, pending judicial inquiry as to its validity, in good
faith declined to apply for the certificates required by its provisions.
A test case upon proceeding by habeas corpus was brought before the
Supreme Court, and on May 15, 1893, a decision was made by that
tribunal sustaining the law.

It is believed that under the recent amendment of the act extending the
time for registration the Chinese laborers thereto entitled who desire
to reside in this country will now avail themselves of the renewed
privilege thus afforded of establishing by lawful procedure their right
to remain, and that thereby the necessity of enforced deportation may
to a great degree be avoided.

It has devolved upon the United States minister at Peking, as dean of
the diplomatic body, and in the absence of a representative of Sweden
and Norway, to press upon the Chinese Government reparation for the
recent murder of Swedish missionaries at Sung-pu. This question is of
vital interest to all countries whose citizens engage in missionary
work in the interior.

By Article XII of the general act of Brussels, signed July 2, 1890, for
the suppression of the slave trade and the restriction of certain
injurious commerce in the Independent State of the Kongo and in the
adjacent zone of central Africa, the United States and the other
signatory powers agreed to adopt appropriate means for the punishment
of persons selling arms and ammunition to the natives and for the
confiscation of the inhibited articles. It being the plain duty of this
Government to aid in suppressing the nefarious traffic, impairing as it
does the praiseworthy and civilizing efforts now in progress in that
region, I recommend that an act be passed prohibiting the sale of arms
and intoxicants to natives in the regulated zone by our citizens.

Costa Rica has lately testified its friendliness by surrendering to the
United States, in the absence of a convention of extradition, but upon
duly submitted evidence of criminality, a noted fugitive from justice.
It is trusted that the negotiation of a treaty with that country to
meet recurring cases of this kind will soon be accomplished. In my
opinion treaties for reciprocal extradition should be concluded with
all those countries with which the United States has not already
conventional arrangements of that character.

I have deemed it fitting to express to the Governments of Costa Rica
and Colombia the kindly desire of the United States to see their
pending boundary dispute finally closed by arbitration in conformity
with the spirit of the treaty concluded between them some years ago.

Our relations with the French Republic continue to be intimate and
cordial. I sincerely hope that the extradition treaty with that country,
as amended by the Senate, will soon be operative.

While occasional questions affecting our naturalized citizens returning
to the land of their birth have arisen in our intercourse with Germany,
our relations with that country continue satisfactory.

The questions affecting our relations with Great Britain have been
treated in a spirit of friendliness.

Negotiations are in progress between the two Governments with a view to
such concurrent action as will make the award and regulations agreed
upon by the Bering Sea Tribunal of Arbitration practically effective,
and it is not doubted that Great Britain will cooperate freely with
this country for the accomplishment of that purpose.

The dispute growing out of the discriminating tolls imposed in the
Welland Canal upon cargoes of cereals bound to and from the lake ports
of the United States was adjusted by the substitution of a more
equitable schedule of charges, and my predecessor thereupon suspended
his proclamation imposing discriminating tolls upon British transit
through our canals.

A request for additions to the list of extraditable offenses covered by
the existing treaty between the two countries is under consideration.

During the past year an American citizen employed in a subordinate
commercial position in Hayti, after suffering a protracted imprisonment
on an unfounded charge of smuggling, was finally liberated on judicial
examination. Upon urgent representation to the Haytian Government a
suitable indemnity was paid to the sufferer.

By a law of Hayti a sailing vessel, having discharged her cargo, is
refused clearance until the duties on such cargo have been paid. The
hardship of this measure upon American shipowners, who conduct the bulk
of the carrying trade of that country, has been insisted on with a view
of securing the removal of this cause of complaint.

Upon receiving authentic information of the firing upon an American
mail steamer touching at the port of Amapala because her captain
refused to deliver up a passenger in transit from Nicaragua to
Guatemala upon demand of the military authorities of Honduras, our
minister to that country, under instructions, protested against the
wanton act and demanded satisfaction. The Government of Honduras,
actuated by a sense of justice and in a spirit of the utmost friendship,
promptly disavowed the illegal conduct of its officers and expressed
sincere regret for the occurrence.

It is confidently anticipated that a satisfactory adjustment will soon
be reached of the questions arising out of the seizure and use of
American vessels by insurgents in Honduras and the subsequent denial by
the successful Government of commercial privileges to those vessels on
that account.

A notable part of the southeasterly coast of Liberia between the
Cavally and San Pedro rivers, which for nearly half a century has been
generally recognized as belonging to that Republic by cession and
purchase, has been claimed to be under the protectorate of France in
virtue of agreements entered into by the native tribes, over whom
Liberia's control has not been well maintained.

More recently negotiations between the Liberian representative and the
French Government resulted in the signature at Paris of a treaty
whereby as an adjustment certain Liberian territory is ceded to France.
This convention at last advices had not been ratified by the Liberian
Legislature and Executive.

Feeling a sympathetic interest in the fortunes of the little
Commonwealth, the establishment and development of which were largely
aided by the benevolence of our countrymen, and which constitutes the
only independently sovereign state on the west coast of Africa, this
Government has suggested to the French Government its earnest concern
lest territorial impairment in Liberia should take place without her
unconstrained consent.

Our relations with Mexico continue to be of that close and friendly
nature which should always characterize the intercourse of two
neighboring republics.

The work of relocating the monuments marking the boundary between the
two countries from Paso del Norte to the Pacific is now nearly
completed.

The commission recently organized under the conventions of 1884 and
1889 it is expected will speedily settle disputes growing out of the
shifting currents of the Rio Grande River east of El Paso.

Nicaragua has recently passed through two revolutions, the party at
first successful having in turn been displaced by another. Our newly
appointed minister by his timely good offices aided in a peaceful
adjustment of the controversy involved in the first conflict. The large
American interests established in that country in connection with the
Nicaragua Canal were not molested.

The canal company has unfortunately become financially seriously
embarrassed, but a generous treatment had been extended to it by the
Government of Nicaragua. The United States are especially interested in
the successful achievement of the vast undertaking this company has in
charge. That it should be accomplished under distinctively American
auspices, and its enjoyment assured not only to the vessels of this
country as a channel of communication between our Atlantic and Pacific
sea-boards, but to the ships of the world in the interests of
civilization, is a proposition which, in my judgment, does not admit of
question.

Guatemala has also been visited by the political vicissitudes which
have afflicted her Central American neighbors, but the dissolution of
its Legislature and the proclamation of a dictatorship have been
unattended with civil war.

An extradition treaty with Norway has recently been exchanged and
proclaimed.

The extradition treaty with Russia signed in March, 1887, and amended
and confirmed by the Senate in February last, was duly proclaimed last
June.

Led by a desire to compose differences and contribute to the
restoration of order in Samoa, which for some years previous had been
the scene of conflicting foreign pretensions and native strife, the
United States, departing from its policy consecrated by a century of
observance, entered four years ago into the treaty of Berlin, thereby
becoming jointly bound with England and Germany to establish and
maintain Malietoa Laupepa as King of Samoa. The treaty provided for a
foreign court of justice; a municipal council for the district of Apia,
with a foreign president thereof, authorized to advise the King; a
tribunal for the settlement of native and foreign land titles, and a
revenue system for the Kingdom. It entailed upon the three powers that
part of the cost of the new Government not met by the revenue of the
islands.

Early in the life of this triple protectorate the native dissensions it
was designed to quell revived. Rivals defied the authority of the new
King, refusing to pay taxes and demanding the election of a ruler by
native suffrage. Mataafa, an aspirant to the throne, and a large number
of his native adherents were in open rebellion on one of the islands.
Quite lately, at the request of the other powers and in fulfillment of
its treaty obligation, this Government agreed to unite in a joint
military movement of such dimensions as would probably secure the
surrender of the insurgents without bloodshed.

The war ship Philadelphia was accordingly put under orders for Samoa,
but before she arrived the threatened conflict was precipitated by King
Malietoa's attack upon the insurgent camp. Mataafa was defeated and a
number of his men killed. The British and German naval vessels present
subsequently secured the surrender of Mataafa and his adherents. The
defeated chief and ten of his principal supporters were deported to a
German island of the Marshall group, where they are held as prisoners
under the joint responsibility and cost of the three powers.

This incident and the events leading up to it signally illustrate the
impolicy of entangling alliances with foreign powers.

More than fifteen years ago this Government preferred a claim against
Spain in behalf of one of our citizens for property seized and
confiscated in Cuba. In 1886 the claim was adjusted, Spain agreeing to
pay unconditionally, as a fair indemnity, $1,500,000. A respectful but
earnest note was recently addressed to the Spanish Government insisting
upon prompt fulfillment of its long-neglected obligation.

Other claims preferred by the United States against Spain in behalf of
American citizens for property confiscated in Cuba have been pending
for many years.

At the time Spain's title to the Caroline Islands was confirmed by
arbitration that Government agreed that the rights which had been
acquired there by American missionaries should be recognized and
respected. It is sincerely hoped that this pledge will be observed by
allowing our missionaries, who were removed from Ponape to a place of
safety by a United States war ship during the late troubles between the
Spanish garrison and the natives, to return to their field of
usefulness.

The reproduced caravel Santa Maria, built by Spain and sent to the
Columbian Exposition, has been presented to the United States in token
of amity and in commemoration of the event it was designed to celebrate.
I recommend that in accepting this gift Congress make grateful
recognition of the sincere friendship which prompted it.

Important matters have demanded attention in our relations with the
Ottoman Porte.

The firing and partial destruction by an unrestrained mob of one of the
school buildings of Anatolia College, established by citizens of the
United States at Marsovan, and the apparent indifference of the Turkish
Government to the outrage, notwithstanding the complicity of some of
its officials, called for earnest remonstrance, which was followed by
promise of reparation and punishment of the offenders.

Indemnity for the injury to the buildings has already been paid,
permission to rebuild given, registration of the school property in the
name of the American owners secured, and efficient protection
guaranteed.

Information received of maltreatment suffered by an inoffensive
American woman engaged in missionary work in Turkish Koordistan was
followed by such representations to the Porte as resulted in the
issuance of orders for the punishment of her assailants, the removal of
a delinquent official, and the adoption of measures for the protection
of our citizens engaged in mission and other lawful work in that
quarter.

Turkey complains that her Armenian subjects obtain citizenship in this
country not to identify themselves in good faith with our people, but
with the intention of returning to the land of their birth and there
engaging in sedition. This complaint is not wholly without foundation.
A journal published in this country in the Armenian language openly
counsels its readers to arm, organize, and participate in movements for
the subversion of Turkish authority in the Asiatic provinces. The
Ottoman Government has announced its intention to expel from its
dominions Armenians who have obtained naturalization in the United
States since 1868.

The right to exclude any or all classes of aliens is an attribute of
sovereignty. It is a right asserted and, to a limited extent, enforced
by the United States, with the sanction of our highest court. There
being no naturalization treaty between the United States and Turkey,
our minister at Constantinople has been instructed that, while
recognizing the right of that Government to enforce its declared policy
against naturalized Armenians, he is expected to protect them from
unnecessary harshness of treatment.

In view of the impaired financial resources of Venezuela consequent
upon the recent revolution there, a modified arrangement for the
satisfaction of the awards of the late revisory claims commission, in
progressive installments, has been assented to, and payments are being
regularly made thereunder.

The boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana is yet
unadjusted. A restoration of diplomatic intercourse between that
Republic and Great Britain and reference of the question to impartial
arbitration would be a most gratifying consummation.

The ratification by Venezuela of the convention for the arbitration of
the long-deferred claim of the Venezuelan Transportation Company is
awaited.

It is hardly necessary for me to state that the questions arising from
our relations with Hawaii have caused serious embarrassment. Just prior
to the installation of the present Administration the existing
Government of Hawaii had been suddenly overthrown and a treaty of
annexation had been negotiated between the Provisional Government of