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, cal1ed 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.
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, cal1ed 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 because 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.
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 in 1890 it amounted to an increase of 287 per cent the total mileage of railways in the united states in 1860 was in 1890 it was an increase of 448 per cent and it is estimated that there will be about 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 leading cities furnish the basis for the following comparisons in 1880 the capital invested in manufacturing was in 1890 the capital invested in manufacturing was in 1880 the number of employees was in 1890 the number of employees was in 1880 the wages earned were in 1890 the wages earned were in 1880 the value of the product was in 1890 the value of the product was 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 cities an increase in the capital employed of in the value of the product of in wages earned of and in the number of wage earners employed of the wage earnings not only show an increased aggregate but an increase per capita from 386 in 1880 to 547 in 1890 or 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 and the number of additional employees to 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 a shepperson of the new york cotton exchange estimates the number of working spindles in the united states on september 1 1892 at an increase of over the year 1891 the consumption of cotton by american mills in 1891 was bales and in 1892 bales an increase of 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 and the estimated rate of production pounds per annum the actual production for the quarter ending september 30 1892 was pounds the report of labor commissioner peck of new york shows that during the year 1891 in about 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 in the value of the product and of in the amount of wages paid the report of the commissioner of labor for the state of massachusetts shows that industries in that state paid in wages during the year 1891 against in 1890 an increase of and that there was an increase of in the amount of capital and of 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 tons as against tons in the year 1890 which was the largest annual production ever attained for the same twelve months of the production of bessemer ingots was tons an increase of gross tons over the previously unprecedented yearly production of gross tons in 1890 the production of bessemer steel rails for the first six months of 1892 was gross tons as against 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 an increase of 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 it will be observed that our foreign trade for 1892 exceeded this annual average value by an increase of 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 the value of our exports during the fiscal year 1892 reached the highest figure in the history of the government amounting to exceeding by the exports of 1891 and exceeding the value of the imports by 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 or of per cent the value of our imports of merchandise for 1892 which was also exceeded the annual average value of the ten years prior to 1891 by during the fiscal year 1892 the value of imports free of duty amounted to the largest aggregate in the history of our commerce the value of the imports of merchandise entered free of duty in 1892 was per cent of the total value of imports as compared with per cent in 1891 and 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 tons on the mississippi missouri and ohio rivers and tributaries in the same year the traffic aggregated tons and the total vessel tonnage passing through the detroit river during that year was tons the vessel tonnage entered and cleared in the foreign trade of london during 1890 amounted to tons and of liverpool tons a total for these two great shipping ports of 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 marys canal for the fiscal year 1892 amounted to tons and the freight tonnage of the detroit river is estimated for that year at tons against tons in 1891 the aggregate traffic on our railroads for the year 1891 amounted to tons of freight compared with tons in 1890 an increase of 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 in 1860 to in 1890 an increase of 513 per cent and the amount of deposits from in 1860 to in 1890 an increase of 921 per cent in 1891 the amount of deposits in savings banks was 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 for the same months in 1892 they amounted to an excess for the nine months of 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 in 1860 to in 1891 as estimated by statisticians an increase of 230 per cent the number of hogs january 1 1891 was and their value on january 1 1892 the number was and the value on january 1 1891 the number of cattle was and the value on january 1 the number was and the value 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 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 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 of these those with guatemala salvador the german empire great britain nicaragua honduras and 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 of the total trade of the countries of central and south america which now amounts to about 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 have increased in value from to an increase of or per cent with american countries the value of our exports has increased from to an increase of or per cent the total increase in the value of exports to all the countries with which we have reciprocity agreements has been 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 pounds of freight and it carried from the united states to be shipped to china and japan via british columbia 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 pounds of freight and there were received over this road at the united states eastern ports from ports on the pacific coast pounds of freight joseph nimmo 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 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 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 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 francs or 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 cal1ed 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 and the annual interest charge second that there have been paid out for pensions during this administration up to november 1 1892 an excess of 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 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 and the expenditures for all purposes were leaving a balance of there were paid during the year upon the public debt 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 while our receipts from internal revenue increased leaving the net loss of revenue from these principal sources the net loss of revenue from all sources was the revenues estimated and actual for the fiscal year ending june 30 1893 are placed by the secretary at and the expenditures at showing a surplus of receipts over expenditures of the cash balance in the treasury at the end of the fiscal year it is estimated will be 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 and the estimated appropriations leaving an estimated surplus of receipts over expenditures of this does not include any payment to the sinking fund in the recommendation of the secretary that the 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 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 of receipts over expenditures for the year 1894 should be added the estimated surplus at the beginning of the year and from this aggregate there must be deducted as stated by the secretary about 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 ounces of silver and issued in payment therefor in notes the total purchases since the passage of the act have been ounces and the aggregate of notes issued the average price paid for silver during the year was 94 cents per ounce the highest price being 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 the deficit for the year ending june 30 1892 is less than the deficiency of the preceding year the deficiency of the present fiscal year it is estimated will be reduced to which will not only be extinguished during the next fiscal year but a surplus of nearly 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 new mail routes during the year with a mileage of miles and the total number of new miles of mail trips added during the year is nearly the number of miles of mail journeys added during the last four years is about this addition being miles more than were in operation in the whole country in 1861 the number of has been increased by 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 the number of offices has been nearly doubled in the last four years and the number of offices more than doubled within that time for the three years ending june 30 1892 the postal revenue amounted to which was an increase of 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 has extended to the 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 has been very largely reduced and in many years altogether extinguished by this constant drain in the year 1892 only 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 for eleven mail routes the expenditure involved by these contracts for the next fiscal year approximates as one of the results already reached sixteen american steamships of an aggregate tonnage of tons costing have been built or contracted to be built in american shipyards the estimated tonnage of all steamships required under existing contracts is and when the full service required by these contracts is established there will be 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 tons each costing to 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 annually or 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 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 and there has been expended during the same period for labor at upon similar work 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 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 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 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 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 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 acres and the agreements negotiated and now pending in congress for ratification by which about 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 indians under the present secretary and commissioner and 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 a uniform system of school 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 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 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 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 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 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 acres and at the same rate the government will be called upon to pay to the choctaws and chickasaws for these lands this sum will be further augmented especially if the title of the indians to the tract now greet county 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 and that amount was appropriated a deficiency amounting to must be provided for at this session the estimate for pensions for the fiscal year ending june 30 1894 is 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 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 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 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 pounds against in the same month of 1891 in june 1892 the export aggregated pounds against 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 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 per cent the exports of dressed beef increased from pounds in 1889 to pounds in 1892 or about 60 per cent during the past year there have been exported head of live cattle as against 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 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 per cent of our unprecedented exports for the fiscal year which closed june 30 1892 the total exports being and the value of the agricultural products which exceeds by more than 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 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 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 different styles of car couplers reported to be in use and that during the same period there were employees killed and 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 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 because 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
submitting annual message congress great satisfaction able say general conditions affecting commercial industrial interests united states highest degree favorable comparison existing conditions favored period history country believe show high degree prosperity general diffusion comforts life never enjoyed people total wealth country 1860 1890 amounted increase 287 per cent total mileage railways united states 1860 1890 increase 448 per cent estimated miles track added close year 1892 official returns eleventh census tenth census leading cities furnish basis following comparisons 1880 capital invested manufacturing 1890 capital invested manufacturing 1880 number employees 1890 number employees 1880 wages earned 1890 wages earned 1880 value product 1890 value product informed superintendent census omission certain industries 1880 included 1890 accounts part remarkable increase thus shown making full allowance differences method deducting returns industries included census 1880 remain reports cities increase capital employed value product wages earned number wage earners employed wage earnings show increased aggregate increase per capita 386 1880 547 1890 per cent new industrial plants established since october 6 1890 october 22 1892 partially reported american economist number 345 extension existing plants 108 new capital invested amounts number additional employees textile world july 1892 states first six months present calendar year 135 new factories built 40 cotton mills 48 knitting mills 26 woolen mills 15 silk mills 4 plush mills 2 linen mills 40 cotton mills 21 built southern states shepperson new york cotton exchange estimates number working spindles united states september 1 1892 increase year 1891 consumption cotton american mills 1891 bales 1892 bales increase bales year 1869 1892 inclusive increase consumption cotton europe 92 per cent period increased consumption united states 150 per cent report ira ayer special agent treasury department shows date september 30 1892 32 companies manufacturing tin terne plate united states 14 companies building new works manufacture estimated investment buildings plants close fiscal year june 30 1893 existing conditions continued estimated rate production pounds per annum actual production quarter ending september 30 1892 pounds report labor commissioner peck new york shows year 1891 manufacturing establishments state embraced within special inquiry made representing 67 different industries net increase year 1890 value product amount wages paid report commissioner labor state massachusetts shows industries state paid wages year 1891 1890 increase increase amount capital number persons employed period last six months year 1891 first six months 1892 total production pig iron tons tons year 1890 largest annual production ever attained twelve months production bessemer ingots tons increase gross tons previously unprecedented yearly production gross tons 1890 production bessemer steel rails first six months 1892 gross tons gross tons last six months year 1891 total value foreign trade exports imports merchandise last fiscal year increase previous fiscal year average annual value imports exports merchandise ten fiscal years prior 1891 observed foreign trade 1892 exceeded annual average value increase per cent significance value increase shown fact excess trade 1892 1891 wholly value exports decrease value imports value exports fiscal year 1892 reached highest figure history government amounting exceeding exports 1891 exceeding value imports comparison value exports 1892 annual average ten years prior 1891 shows excess per cent value imports merchandise 1892 also exceeded annual average value ten years prior 1891 fiscal year 1892 value imports free duty amounted largest aggregate history commerce value imports merchandise entered free duty 1892 per cent total value imports compared per cent 1891 per cent 1890 coastwise trade encouraging development progress last four years increase 16 per cent internal commerce statistics show period prosperity ever existed freight carried coastwise trade great lakes 1890 aggregated tons mississippi missouri ohio rivers tributaries year traffic aggregated tons total vessel tonnage passing detroit river year tons vessel tonnage entered cleared foreign trade london 1890 amounted tons liverpool tons total two great shipping ports tons slightly excess vessel tonnage passing detroit river said season detroit river 228 days course london liverpool season entire year vessel tonnage passing marys canal fiscal year 1892 amounted tons freight tonnage detroit river estimated year tons tons 1891 aggregate traffic railroads year 1891 amounted tons freight compared tons 1890 increase tons another indication general prosperity country found fact number depositors savings banks increased 1860 1890 increase 513 per cent amount deposits 1860 1890 increase 921 per cent 1891 amount deposits savings banks estimated 90 per cent deposits represent savings wage earners bank clearances nine months ending september 30 1891 amounted months 1892 amounted excess nine months never time history work abundant wages high whether measured currency paid power supply necessaries comforts life true market prices cotton wheat low one unfavorable incidents agriculture farmer produce upon orders must sow reap ignorance aggregate production year peculiarly subject depreciation follows overproduction fact stated true crops mentioned general average prices give agriculture fair participation general prosperity value total farm products increased 1860 1891 estimated statisticians increase 230 per cent number hogs january 1 1891 value january 1 1892 number value january 1 1891 number cattle value january 1 number value discontented state believe wages prices returns honest toil inadequate fail remember country world conditions seem hard would accepted highly prosperous english agriculturist would glad exchange returns labor american farmer manchester workmen wages fellows fall river believe protective system something thirty years continuously prevailed legislation mighty instrument development national wealth powerful agency protecting homes workingmen invasion want felt solicitous interest preserve working people rates wages would give daily bread supply comfortable margin home attractions family comforts enjoyments without life neither hopeful sweet american citizens part great people constitution government framed instituted perversion constitution legislate preserve homes comfort independence loyalty sense interest government essential good citizenship peace bring stalwart throng 1861 defense flag assailed purpose renew argument favor protective tariff result recent election must accepted introduced new policy must assume present tariff constructed upon lines protection repealed substituted tariff law constructed solely reference revenue duty higher increase keep open american mill keep wages american workman every case rate duty imposed bring treasury united states largest returns revenue contention schedules principles would offensive suggest prevailing party carry legislation principles advocated pledges given people tariff bills passed house representatives last session suppose even opinion promoters inadequate justified fact senate house representatives accord general revision could therefore undertaken recommend whole subject tariff revision left incoming congress matter regret work must delayed least three months threat great tariff changes introduces much uncertainty amount easily estimated business inaction diminished production necessarily result possible also uncertainty may result decreased revenues customs duties merchants make cautious orders foreign goods view prospect tariff reductions uncertainty take effect advocated protective tariff well afford disastrous forecasts change policy disappointed system customs duties framed set idle wheels looms europe motion crowd warehouses goods time keep mills busy give us increased participation markets world greater value home market surrender give increased work foreign workmen upon products consumed people without diminishing amount work done enable american manufacturer pay workmen 50 100 per cent wages paid foreign mill yet compete market foreign markets foreign producer reduce cost articles wear food without reducing wages produce celebrated effects realized expectation european well american cities authors promoters entitled highest praise history several experiences contrasted effects revenue protective tariff generation felt experience one generation highly instructive next friends protective system undiminished confidence principles advocated await results new experiment strained often disturbed relations existing employees employers great manufacturing establishments favorable calm consideration wage earner effect upon wages protective system facts wages highest paid like callings world maintenance rate wages absence protective duties upon product labor impossible obscured passion evoked contests may able review question light personal experience operation tariff revenue experience shall demonstrate present rates wages thereby maintained increased either absolutely purchasing power aggregate volume work done country increased even maintained many days work year good better wages american workmen case protective system everyone rejoice general process wage reduction contemplated patriotic citizen without gravest apprehension may indeed believe possible american manufacturer compete successfully foreign rival many branches production without defense protective duties pay rolls equalized conflict stands producer result distress working people attained pleasant contemplate society unemployed holding frequent threatening parades streets foreign cities allowed acquire american domicile reports heads several executive departments herewith submitted naturally included resume whole work administration transactions last fiscal year attention congress country invited methods administration pursued results attained public revenues amounting collected disbursed without loss misappropriation without single defalcation importance attract public attention diminished per cent cost collection public business transacted fidelity progressively view giving people fullest possible degree benefits service established maintained protection comfort relations nations undisturbed serious controversy complicated threatening differences germany england relating samoan affairs england relation seal fisheries bering sea chile growing baltimore affair adjusted negotiated concluded section 3 tariff law commercial agreements relating reciprocal trade following countries brazil dominican republic spain cuba puerto rico guatemala salvador german empire great britain certain west indian colonies british guiana nicaragua honduras guatemala salvador german empire great britain nicaragua honduras concluded since last annual message trade arrangements free favored admission secured every case important list american products especial care taken secure markets farm products order relieve great underlying industry depression lack adequate foreign market surplus often brings opening also made manufactured products undoubtedly policy maintained greatly augment export trade full benefits arrangements realized instantly new lines trade opened commercial traveler must survey field manufacturer must adapt goods new markets facilities exchange must established work well begun merchants manufacturers entered new fields courage enterprise case food products especially cuba trade need wait immediate results gratifying policy trade arrangements continued force aided establishment american steamship lines doubt shall within short period secure fully total trade countries central south america amounts annually 1885 8 per cent trade following statistics show increase trade countries reciprocal trade agreements date agreements went effect september 30 1892 increase almost wholly others important degree result agreements domestic exports germany increased value increase per cent american countries value exports increased increase per cent total increase value exports countries reciprocity agreements increase chiefly wheat flour meat dairy products manufactures iron steel lumber large increase value imports countries since commercial agreements went effect amounting entirely imports american countries consisting mostly sugar coffee india rubber crude drugs alarmed attention european competitors south american market attracted new american policy acquisition loss south american trade treaty providing arbitration dispute great britain united states killing seals bering sea concluded 29th february last treaty accompanied agreement prohibiting pelagic sealing pending arbitration vigorous effort made season drive poaching sealers bering sea six naval vessels three revenue cutters one vessel fish commission command commander evans navy sent sea systematically patrolled seizures made believed catch bering sea poachers amounted less 500 seals true however north pacific seal herds way passes aleutian islands large number probably taken existing statutes united states restrain citizens taking seals pacific ocean perhaps unless prohibition extended citizens nations recommend power given president proclamation prohibit taking seals north pacific american vessels case either result findings tribunal arbitration otherwise restraints applied vessels countries case united states tribunal arbitration prepared great care industry hon john foster counsel represent government express confidence result substantially establishing claims preserving great industry benefit nations attained past year suggestion received british minister canadian government would like confer possibility enlarging upon terms mutual advantage commercial exchanges canada united states conference held washington blaine acting government british minister capital three members dominion cabinet acting commissioners part great britain conference developed fact canadian government prepared offer united states exchange concessions asked admission natural products statement frankly made favored rates could given united states mother country admission foreseen necessarily terminated conference upon question benefits exchange natural products would almost wholly people canada topics interest considered conference resulted making convention examining alaskan boundary waters passamaquoddy bay adjacent eastport initiation arrangement protection fish life coterminous neighboring waters northern border controversy tolls upon welland canal presented congress last session special message failed adjustment felt constrained exercise authority conferred act july 26 1892 proclaim suspension free use marys falls canal cargoes transit ports canada secretary treasury established tolls thought equivalent exactions unjustly levied upon commerce canadian canals must suppose political relations canada disposition canadian government remain unchanged somewhat radical revision trade relations think made relations must continue intimate friendly regret say however many controversies notably fisheries atlantic sealing interests pacific canal tolls negotiations great britain continuously thwarted retarded unreasonable unfriendly objections protests canada matter canal tolls treaty rights flagrantly disregarded hardly much say canadian pacific railway lines parallel northern boundary sustained commerce either origin terminus united states canadian railroads compete united states traffic without restraints act cars pass almost without detention territory canadian pacific railway brought united states china japan via british columbia year ended june 30 1892 pounds freight carried united states shipped china japan via british columbia pounds freight also shipped united states road eastern ports united states pacific ports year pounds freight received road united states eastern ports ports pacific coast pounds freight joseph nimmo former chief bureau statistics senate select committee relations canada april 26 1890 said value goods thus transported different points united states across canadian territory probably amounts year disposition part people government united states interfere smallest degree political relations canada question wholly people time us however consider whether present state things trend things continue interchanges upon lines land transportation put upon different basis entire independence canadian canals lawrence outlet sea secured construction american canal around falls niagara opening ship communication great lakes one seaports hesitate avail great natural trade advantages withdraw support given railroads steamship lines canada traffic properly belongs us longer furnish earnings lighten otherwise crushing weight enormous public subsidies given subject power treasury deal matter without legislation consideration circumstances postponed conclusion probable consideration propriety modification abrogation article treaty washington relating transit goods bond involved complete solution question congress last session kept advised progress serious time threatening difference united states chile gives great gratification report chilean government friendly honorable spirit tendered paid indemnity families sailors baltimore killed injured outbreak city valparaiso sum accepted indemnity wrong done gratifying evidence government chile rightly appreciates disposition government act spirit absolute fairness friendliness intercourse brave people conclusive evidence mutual respect confidence existing furnished fact convention submitting arbitration mutual claims citizens respective governments agreed upon claims pending many years occasion much unsatisfactory diplomatic correspondence endeavored every way assure sister republics central south america united states government people friendly disposition toward covet territory disposition oppressive exacting dealings even weakest interests hopes lie direction stable governments people largest development great commercial resources mutual benefits enlarged commercial exchanges familiar friendly intercourse peoples desire sought friendly cooperation believed however holding sentiments greatest sincerity must insist upon responsibility injuries inflicted upon official representatives upon citizens insistence kindly justly firmly made believe promote peace mutual respect relations hawaii attract increased interest must continue deem great importance projected submarine cable survey made promoted naval commercial uses quick communication honolulu availed concession made many years ago government harbor naval station pearl river many evidences friendliness hawaiian government given past gratifying believe advantage necessity continuance close relations appreciated friendly act government expressing government italy reprobation abhorrence lynching italian subjects new orleans payment francs accepted king italy every manifestation gracious appreciation incident highly promotive mutual respect good consequence action french government proclaiming protectorate certain tribal districts west coast africa eastward san pedro river long regarded southeastern boundary liberia felt constrained make protest encroachment upon territory republic rounded citizens united states toward country many years held intimate relation friendly counselor recent disturbances public peace lawless foreign marauders mexican frontier afforded government opportunity testify good mexico earnest purpose fulfill obligations international friendship pursuing dispersing evil doers work relocating boundary treaty guadalupe hidalgo westward el paso progressing favorably intercourse spain continues friendly footing regret however able report yet adjustment claims american missionaries arising disorders ponape caroline islands anticipate satisfactory adjustment view renewed urgent representations government madrid treatment religious educational establishments american citizens turkey late called usual share attention tendency curtail toleration beneficially prevailed discernible called forth earnest remonstrance government harassing regulations regard schools churches attempted certain localities without due protest assertion inherent conventional rights countrymen violations domicile search persons effects citizens united states apparently irresponsible officials asiatic vilayets time time reported aggravated instance injury property american missionary bourdour province konia cal1ed forth urgent claim reparation pleased say promptly heeded government porte interference trading ventures citizens asia minor also reported lack consular representation region serious drawback instant effective protection believe incidents represent settled policy shall cease urge adoption proper remedies international copyright extended italy proclamation conformity act march 3 1891 upon assurance given italian law permits citizens united states benefit copyright substantially basis subjects italy special convention proclaimed january 15 1892 reciprocal provisions copyright applied united states germany negotiations progress countries end repeat great earnestness recommendation made several previous messages prompt adequate support given american company engaged construction nicaragua ship canal impossible overstate value every standpoint great enterprise hope may time even congress give impetus insure early completion canal secure united states proper relation completed congress already advised invitations government assembling international monetary conference consider question enlarged use silver accepted nations addressed conference assembled brussels 22d november entered upon consideration great question doubted taken occasion express belief well invitations issued conference public messages free coinage silver upon agreed international ratio would greatly promote interests people equally nations early predict results may accomplished conference temporary check delay intervenes believe soon commercial conditions compel reluctant governments unite us movement secure enlargement volume coined money needed transaction business world report secretary treasury attract especial interest view many misleading statements made state public revenues three preliminary facts stated emphasized looking details first public debt reduced since march 4 1889 annual interest charge second paid pensions administration november 1 1892 excess sum expended period march 1 1885 march 1 1889 third existing tariff december 1 revenue would collected upon imported sugars duty maintained gone pockets people public treasury still think surplus kept circulation hoarding treasury deposited favored banks without interest government continued pay banks interest upon bonds deposited security deposits think extended pension legislation public robbery duties upon sugar maintained content leave argument rests wait see whether criticisms take form legislation revenues fiscal year ending june 30 1892 sources expenditures purposes leaving balance paid year upon public debt surplus treasury bank redemption fund passed act july 14 1890 general fund furnished large part cash available used payments made upon public debt compared year 1891 receipts customs duties fell receipts internal revenue increased leaving net loss revenue principal sources net loss revenue sources revenues estimated actual fiscal year ending june 30 1893 placed secretary expenditures showing surplus receipts expenditures cash balance treasury end fiscal year estimated far figures based upon estimates receipts expenditures remaining months current fiscal year usual elements uncertainty added elements new revenue legislation even expectation may seriously reduce public revenues period uncertainty process business adjustment new conditions become known secretary wisely refrained guessing effect possible changes revenue laws since scope changes time taking effect degree forecast foretold estimates must based upon existing laws upon continuance existing business conditions except far conditions may affected causes new legislation estimated receipts fiscal year ending june 30 1894 estimated appropriations leaving estimated surplus receipts expenditures include payment sinking fund recommendation secretary law repealed concur redemption bonds since passage law june 30 1892 already exceeded requirements sum retirement bonds future maturity matter convenience compulsion collect revenue purpose use casual surplus balance receipts expenditures year 1894 added estimated surplus beginning year aggregate must deducted stated secretary estimated unexpended appropriations public confidence purpose ability government maintain parity money issues whether coin paper must remain unshaken demand gold europe consequent calls upon us considerable degree result efforts european governments increase gold reserves efforts met appropriate legislation part conditions created drain treasury gold important degree political commercial view fact general revision revenue laws near future seems probable would better changes part revision rather temporary nature last fiscal year secretary purchased act july 14 1890 ounces silver issued payment therefor notes total purchases since passage act ounces aggregate notes issued average price paid silver year 94 cents per ounce highest price july 1 1891 lowest 83 cents march 21 1892 view fact monetary conference sitting conclusion yet reached withhold recommendation legislation upon subject report secretary war brings attention congress important suggestions reorganization infantry artillery arms service predecessors urgently presented army small organization put upon approved modern basis conditions upon called frontier heretofore required maintenance many small posts policy concentration obviously right one new posts proper strategic relations frontiers seacoast northern part southern boundary think question advantage localities states determine location new posts reorganization enlargement bureau military information secretary effected work usefulness become every year apparent work building heavy guns construction coast defenses well begun carried without check report law submitted directly congress refrain saying conducted increasing work department justice great professional skill several directions secured courts decisions giving increased protection officers united states bringing classes crime escaped local cognizance punishment tribunals united states could tried impartiality numerous applications executive clemency presented behalf persons convicted united states courts given penitentiary sentences called attention fact referred report namely time allowance good behavior prisoners prescribed federal statutes state penitentiary located made provision prisoners given benefit provisions state law regulating penitentiary may sent various perhaps liberal perhaps illiberal result sentence five years means one thing prisoner sent one state confinement quite different thing sent another recommend uniform credit good behavior prescribed congress expressed concurrence recommendation degrees murder recognized federal statutes believe states grades rounded correct distinctions crime recognition would enable courts exercise discretion apportioning punishment would greatly relieve executive coming heavy burden examination cases application commutation aggregate claims pending government court claims enormous claims amount nearly taking injury property persons claiming loyal war court examination added indian depredation claims french spoliation claims aggregate reached indeed startling defense cases government great disadvantage claimants preserved evidence whereas agents government sent field rummage find difficulty peculiarly great fact established disloyalty claimant war great threat revenues check certainly congress supply department justice appropriations sufficiently liberal secure best legal talent defense claims pursue vague search evidence effectively report shows gratifying increase efficient progressive management great business department remarkable increase revenues number miles mail carriage furnishes evidence high state prosperity people enjoying new offices mean new hamlets towns new routes mean extension border settlements increased revenues mean active commerce reviews whole period administration office brings statistics month november last postal revenues increased last year nearly deficit year ending june 30 1892 less deficiency preceding year deficiency present fiscal year estimated reduced extinguished next fiscal year surplus nearly shown calculations payments made contracts ocean mail service included added new mail routes year mileage miles total number new miles mail trips added year nearly number miles mail journeys added last four years addition miles operation whole country 1861 number increased year past four years october 29 last total increase number offices nearly number offices nearly doubled last four years number offices doubled within time three years ending june 30 1892 postal revenue amounted increase revenue three years ending june 30 1888 increase last three years three half times great increase three years ending june 30 1888 increase shown three years ever previously appeared revenues department extended larger cities merit system promotion introduced direction departments resulted departments larger volume work better done ever since merchant marine driven sea rebel cruisers war rebellion united states paying enormous annual tribute foreign countries shape freight passage moneys grain meats taken docks large imports laid foreign shipmasters increasing torrent american travel europe contributed vast sum annually dividends foreign shipowners balance trade shown books largely reduced many years altogether extinguished constant drain year 1892 per cent imports brought american vessels great foreign steamships maintained traffic many contracts respective governments time war become part armed naval establishments profiting commerce peace become formidable destroyers commerce time war felt expressed feeling condition things intolerable disgraceful wholesome change policy one much promise seems begun law march 3 1891 law contracts made eleven mail routes expenditure involved contracts next fiscal year approximates one results already reached sixteen american steamships aggregate tonnage tons costing built contracted built american shipyards estimated tonnage steamships required existing contracts full service required contracts established mail steamers american flag probability necessary additions brazilian argentine service contracts recently let transatlantic service result construction five ships tons costing add city new york city paris treasury department authorized legislation last session give american registry seven swiftest vessels upon sea naval reserve contracts made lines sailing central south american ports increased frequency shortened time trips added new ports call sustained lines otherwise would almost certainly withdrawn service buenos ayres first argentine republic american flag service southampton boulogne antwerp also new begun steamships city new york city paris february next earnestly urge continuance policy inaugurated legislation appropriations required meet obligations government contracts may made promptly lines entered engagements may embarrassed reason connections transcontinental railway lines constructed territory advantages ocean trade pacific possess atlantic construction canadian pacific railway establishment large subventions canada england fast steamship service vancouver japan china seriously threaten shipping interests pacific line english steamers receives stated commissioner navigation direct subsidy annually per trip thirteen voyages addition aid admiralty connection contracts vessels may used naval purposes competing american pacific mail line act march 3 1891 receives per round trip efforts making within last year informed establish similar conditions line vancouver australian port view seizing trade large interest commissioner navigation states large per cent imports asia brought us english steamships connecting railways canada view promoting trade especially tea canada imposed discriminating duty 10 per cent upon tea coffee brought dominion united states unequal contest american lines without subsidy diminished subsidies english canadian line referred continue think least see facilities customs entry transportation across territory make canadian route favored one discrimination duties referred met like discrimination importation articles canada subject think nearly touches pride power prosperity country development merchant marine upon sea could enter conference competitors would agree withhold government aid could perhaps take chances rest great competitors established maintained lines government subsidies practically excluded us participation opinion choice left us pursue moderately least lines report secretary navy exhibits great progress construction new navy present secretary entered upon duties 3 modern steel vessels commission vessels since put commission put commission winter make total 19 administration department current year 10 war vessels 3 navy tugs launched four years 25 vessels launched two large ships torpedo boat contract work upon well advanced 4 monitors awaiting arrival armor unexpectedly delayed would commission contracts let administration appropriations increase navy including new vessels appurtenances amount expended period labor upon similar work without smallest scandal charge fraud partiality enthusiasm interest naval officers staff line greatly kindled responded magnificently confidence congress demonstrated world unexcelled capacity construction ordnance everything involved building equipping sailing great war ships beginning secretary tracy administration several difficult problems remained grappled solved efficiency action ships could secured believed result new processes construction armor plate later ships clothed defensive plates higher resisting power found war vessels afloat without torpedoes tests made ascertain relative efficiency different constructions torpedo adopted work construction carried successfully without shells without shop instructed equipped construction making believed projectile superior use smokeless powder developed powder guns large caliber high explosive capable use shells fired service guns found manufacture gun cotton developed question supply longer doubt development naval militia organized eight states brought cordial cooperative relations navy another important achievement enlisted organizations men likely greatly extended recommend legislation appropriations encourage develop movement recommendations secretary doubt receive friendly consideration congress enjoyed deserved confidence interested development navy without division upon partisan lines earnestly express hope work made noble progress may stayed wholesome influence peace increased sense security citizens domiciled lands feel magnificent ships american flag appear already gratefully apparent ships navy appear great naval parade next april harbor new york convincing demonstration world united states naval power work interior department always burdensome larger ever administration secretary noble law taking eleventh census opening vast areas indian lands settlement organization oklahoma negotiations cession indian lands furnish particulars increased work results achieved testify ability fidelity industry head department efficient assistants several important agreements cession indian lands negotiated commission appointed act march 2 1889 awaiting action congress perhaps important cession cherokee strip region source great vexation executive department great friction unrest settlers desire occupy indians assert title agreement made commission perhaps satisfactory could reached noticed conditioned upon ratification congress march 4 1893 secretary interior given subject careful thought recommends ratification agreement inclined follow recommendation certain action controversy shall brought end lands opened settlement urgent form government provided congress may 17 1884 alaska frame purpose temporary increase population development important mining commercial interests make imperative law revised better provision made arrest punishment criminals report secretary shows gratifying state facts condition general land office work issuing agricultural patents seemed hopelessly arrear present secretary undertook duties office expedited bureau upon current business relief thus afforded honest worthy settlers upon public lands giving assured title entries incalculable benefit developing new states territories court private land claims established congress promotion policy speedily settling contested land titles making satisfactory progress work work completed great impetus given development regions unsettled claims mexican grants long exercised repressive influence results added enormous cessions indian lands opened settlement aggregating administration nearly acres agreements negotiated pending congress ratification additional acres opened settlement seen much accomplished work indian bureau execution policy recent legislation largely directed two chief purposes first allotment lands severalty indians cession united states surplus lands secondly work educating indian protection closer contact white man intelligent exercise new citizenship allotments made patents issued indians present secretary commissioner additional allotments made patents process preparation school attendance indian children increased time 13 per cent enrollment 1892 nearly uniform system school study adopted work national schools brought near may basis free common schools states schools transferred merged systems states indian fully assumed new relation organized civil community resides new states able assume burden several times called upon remove indian agents appointed done promptly upon every sustained complaint unfitness misconduct believe however indian service agencies improved administered whole good degree efficiency legislation possible selection indian agents wholly removed partisan suggestions considerations sure would great relief executive great benefit service appropriation subsistence cheyenne arapahoe indians made last session congress inadequate smaller appropriation estimated commissioner upon theory large fund belonging tribe public treasury could ought used support view however pending depredation claims fund considerations secretary interior 12th april last submitted supplemental estimate appropriation made oversight ought remedied earliest possible date special message congress last session stated reasons approved deed release united states choctaws chickasaws lands formerly embraced cheyenne arapahoe reservation remaining allotments tribe resolution senate expressing opinion body notwithstanding facts stated special message deed approved money paid presented may 10 1892 special message intended call attention congress subject view fact conceded appropriation proceeded upon false basis amount lands paid excess amount entitled even claim land given full recognition rate agreed upon felt willing approve deed shall least houses congress acted upon subject informally proposed claimants release sum power demand accept release agreement would without consideration void desire call attention congress fact recent agreement concluded kiowas comanches relates lands part leased district claim choctaws chickasaws precisely recognized congress legislation referred surplus lands claim would attach kiowa comanche reservation acres rate government called upon pay choctaws chickasaws lands sum augmented especially title indians tract greet county established duty devolved upon connection simply pass upon form deed opinion facts mentioned special message adequately brought attention congress connection legislation felt would justified acting without new expression legislative report commissioner pensions extended notice given secretary interior report attract great attention judged aggregate amount work done last year greatest history office believe organization office efficient work done fidelity passage known disability bill foreseen largely increased annual disbursements disabled veterans civil war estimate fiscal year amount appropriated deficiency amounting must provided session estimate pensions fiscal year ending june 30 1894 commissioner pensions believes present legislation methods maintained additions pension laws made maximum expenditure pensions reached june 30 1894 highest point per annum adhere views expressed previous messages care disabled soldiers war rebellion matter national concern duty perhaps emotion cools sooner gratitude believe process yet reached point people would sustain policy remitting care disabled veterans inadequate agencies provided local laws parade 20th september last upon streets capital surviving union veterans war rebellion touching thrilling episode rich gracious welcome extended district columbia applause greeted progress tens thousands people states much revive glorious recollections grand review men many thousand others graves welcomed grateful joy victors struggle national unity honor wealth issue last annual message called attention fact legislative action necessary order protect interests government relations union pacific railway commissioner railroads submitted full report giving exact information debt liens upon company property resources must deal question find take course existing conditions best secure interests united states recommended last annual message commission appointed deal question renew recommendation suggest commission given full power report secretary agriculture contains interesting statement progressive valuable work done administration secretary rusk many suggestions enlarged usefulness important department successful efforts break restrictions free introduction meat products countries europe secretary untiring first stimulating aiding government officers home abroad whose official duties enabled participate work total trade hog products europe may 1892 amounted pounds month 1891 june 1892 export aggregated pounds pounds month previous year july increase 41 per cent august 55 per cent corresponding months 1891 pounds inspected pork exported since law put operation comparison four months may june july august 1892 months 1891 shows increase number pounds export pork products 62 per cent increase value 66 per cent exports dressed beef increased pounds 1889 pounds 1892 60 per cent past year exported head live cattle exported 1889 increased exportation largely promoted inspection authorized law faithful efforts secretary efficient subordinates make inspection thorough carefully exclude cargoes diseased suspected cattle requirement english regulations live cattle arriving united states must slaughtered docks origin claim existed among american cattle existence disease could certainly determined post mortem inspection department agriculture labored great energy faithfulness extirpate disease 26th day september last public announcement made secretary disease longer existed anywhere within united states entirely satisfied searching inquiry statement justified continuance inspection quarantine required cattle brought country disease prevented getting foothold value cattle industry united states achievement hardly estimated perhaps insist evidence shall accepted satisfactory countries present exemption disease maintained inspection cattle arriving foreign ports veterinarians participate confirms may justly expect requirement cattle shall slaughtered docks revoked sanitary restrictions upon pork products cattle taken alive interior trade enormously increased agricultural products constituted per cent unprecedented exports fiscal year closed june 30 1892 total exports value agricultural products exceeds shipment agricultural products previous year interesting promising work benefit american farmer begun agents agricultural department europe consists efforts introduce various products indian corn articles human food high price rye offered favorable opportunity experiment germany combining corn meal rye produce cheaper bread fair degree success attained mills grinding corn food introduced secretary opinion new use products corn already stimulated exportations diligently prosecuted large important markets presently opened great american product suggestions secretary enlargement work department commended favorable consideration may think said without challenge corresponding period much done last four years benefit american agriculture subject quarantine regulations inspection control brought suddenly attention arrival ports august last vessels infected cholera quarantine regulations uniform ports constitution plainly within exclusive federal jurisdiction far congress shall legislate opinion whole subject taken national control adequate power given executive protect people plague invasions 1st september last approved regulations establishing quarantine vessels bringing immigrants foreign ports order continued force loss suffering resulted passengers due care homes people justifies cases utmost precaution danger coming spring cholera appear liberal appropriation made session enable quarantine port officers exclude deadly plague careful stringent quarantine regulations may sufficient absolutely exclude disease progress medical sanitary science however approved precautions taken put cities towns best sanitary condition provision made isolating sporadic cases thorough disinfection epidemic sure avoided work appertains local authorities responsibility penalty appalling neglected unduly delayed peculiarly subject great ports spread infectious diseases reason fact unrestricted immigration brings us european cities overcrowded steerages great steamships large number persons whose surroundings make easy victims plague consideration well affecting political moral industrial interests country leads renew suggestion admission country high privileges citizenship restricted careful think right owe duty people especially working people keep vicious ignorant civil disturber pauper contract laborer check great flow immigration coming limitations report world columbian exposition yet submitted board management government exhibit received herewith transmitted work construction preparation opening exposition may next progressed satisfactorily upon scale liberality magnificence worthily sustain honor united states district columbia left decision supreme court district without law regulating liquor traffic old statute legislature district relating licensing various vocations hitherto treated commissioners giving power grant refuse licenses sell intoxicating liquors subjecting sold without licenses penalties may last supreme court district held view powers commissioners urgent importance therefore congress supply either direct enactment conferring discretionary powers upon commissioners proper limitations restraints upon liquor traffic district district suffered reputation many crimes violence large per cent resulting drunkenness liquor traffic capital nation freed reproach enactment stringent restrictions limitations upon traffic renewing recommendation made three preceding annual messages congress legislate protection railroad employees dangers incident old inadequate methods braking coupling still use upon freight trains hope congress may take action upon subject statistics furnished interstate commerce commission show year ending june 30 1891 different styles car couplers reported use period employees killed injured nearly 16 per cent deaths occurred coupling uncoupling cars 36 per cent injuries origin civil service commission ask increased appropriation needed clerical assistance think given extended classified service march 1 1892 include physicians superintendents assistant superintendents matrons indian service consideration subject extensions yet fully determined lines upon extensions properly usefully made three annual messages duty submit congress called attention evils dangers connected election methods practices related choice officers national government last annual message endeavored invoke serious attention evils unfair apportionments congress close message without calling attention grave threatening evils hoped possible secure nonpartisan inquiry means commission evils existence known might grow legislation thought partisan advantage eliminated higher thought appear maintaining freedom purity ballot equality elector without guaranty government could never formed without continuance continue exist peace prosperity time mutual charges unfairness fraud great parties cease sincerity profess desire pure honest elections brought test willingness free legislation election methods everything tends impair public confidence announced result necessity inquiry legislation congress upon subject emphasized fact tendency legislation states recent years important particulars away toward free fair elections equal apportionments time come together upon high plane patriotism devise methods shall secure right every man qualified law cast free ballot give every ballot equal value choosing public officers directing policy government lawlessness less usurps functions peace officer courts frequent lynching colored people accused crime without excuse sometimes urged mobs failure pursue appointed methods punishment crime accused undue influence courts juries acts reproach community occur far made subject federal jurisdiction strongest repressive legislation demanded public sentiment sustain officers law resisting mobs protecting accused persons custody promoted every possible means officer gives life brave discharge duty worthy special honor lesson needs urgently impressed upon people worthy end promoted lawlessness exhibit work executive departments submitted congress public hope found due sense responsibility earnest purpose maintain national honor promote happiness prosperity people brief exhibit growth prosperity country give us level note increase decadence new legislative policies may bring us reason national influence power prosperity observe rates increase characterized past thirty years carry great impulse increase years future reason many lines production surpass nations already done near frontiers possible development retrogression would crime
submit annual message congress great satisfaction able say general condition affect commercial industrial interest unite state high degree favorable comparison exist condition favored period history country believe show high degree prosperity general diffusion comfort life never enjoy people total wealth country 1860 1890 amount increase 287 per cent total mileage railway unite state 1860 1890 increase 448 per cent estimate mile track add close year 1892 official return eleventh census tenth census lead city furnish basis follow comparison 1880 capital invest manufacturing 1890 capital invest manufacturing 1880 number employee 1890 number employee 1880 wage earn 1890 wage earn 1880 value product 1890 value product inform superintendent census omission certain industry 1880 include 1890 account part remarkable increase thus show make full allowance difference method deduct return industry include census 1880 remain report city increase capital employ value product wage earn number wage earner employ wage earnings show increase aggregate increase per caput 386 1880 547 1890 per cent new industrial plant establish since october 6 1890 october 22 1892 partially report american economist number 345 extension exist plant 108 new capital invest amount number additional employee textile world july 1892 state first six month present calendar year 135 new factory build 40 cotton mill 48 knit mill 26 woolen mill 15 silk mill 4 plush mill 2 linen mill 40 cotton mill 21 build southern state shepperson new york cotton exchange estimate number work spindle united state september 1 1892 increase year 1891 consumption cotton american mill 1891 bale 1892 bale increase bale year 1869 1892 inclusive increase consumption cotton europe 92 per cent period increase consumption united state 150 per cent report ira ayer special agent treasury department show date september 30 1892 32 company manufacture tin terne plate unite state 14 company build new work manufacture estimate investment building plant close fiscal year june 30 1893 exist condition continue estimate rate production pound per annum actual production quarter end september 30 1892 pound report labor commissioner peck new york show year 1891 manufacturing establishment state embrace within special inquiry make represent 67 different industry net increase year 1890 value product amount wage pay report commissioner labor state massachusetts show industry state pay wage year 1891 1890 increase increase amount capital number person employ period last six month year 1891 first six month 1892 total production pig iron ton ton year 1890 large annual production ever attain twelve month production bessemer ingot ton increase gross ton previously unprecedented yearly production gross ton 1890 production bessemer steel rail first six month 1892 gross ton gross ton last six month year 1891 total value foreign trade export import merchandise last fiscal year increase previous fiscal year average annual value import export merchandise ten fiscal year prior 1891 observe foreign trade 1892 exceed annual average value increase per cent significance value increase show fact excess trade 1892 1891 wholly value export decrease value import value export fiscal year 1892 reach high figure history government amount exceed export 1891 exceed value import comparison value export 1892 annual average ten year prior 1891 show excess per cent value import merchandise 1892 also exceed annual average value ten year prior 1891 fiscal year 1892 value import free duty amount large aggregate history commerce value import merchandise enter free duty 1892 per cent total value import compare per cent 1891 per cent 1890 coastwise trade encourage development progress last four year increase 16 per cent internal commerce statistic show period prosperity ever exist freight carry coastwise trade great lakes 1890 aggregate ton mississippi missouri ohio river tributary year traffic aggregate ton total vessel tonnage pass detroit river year ton vessel tonnage enter cleared foreign trade london 1890 amount ton liverpool ton total two great ship port ton slightly excess vessel tonnage pass detroit river say season detroit river 228 day course london liverpool season entire year vessel tonnage pass marys canal fiscal year 1892 amount ton freight tonnage detroit river estimate year ton ton 1891 aggregate traffic railroad year 1891 amount ton freight compare ton 1890 increase ton another indication general prosperity country find fact number depositor savings bank increase 1860 1890 increase 513 per cent amount deposit 1860 1890 increase 921 per cent 1891 amount deposit saving bank estimate 90 per cent deposit represent saving wage earner bank clearance nine month end september 30 1891 amount month 1892 amount excess nine month never time history work abundant wage high whether measured currency pay power supply necessary comfort life true market price cotton wheat low one unfavorable incident agriculture farmer produce upon order must sow reap ignorance aggregate production year peculiarly subject depreciation follow overproduction fact state true crop mention general average price give agriculture fair participation general prosperity value total farm product increase 1860 1891 estimate statistician increase 230 per cent number hog january 1 1891 value january 1 1892 number value january 1 1891 number cattle value january 1 number value discontent state believe wage price return honest toil inadequate fail remember country world condition seem hard would accept highly prosperous english agriculturist would glad exchange return labor american farmer manchester workman wage fellows fall river believe protective system something thirty year continuously prevail legislation mighty instrument development national wealth powerful agency protect home workingman invasion want felt solicitous interest preserve work people rate wage would give daily bread supply comfortable margin home attraction family comfort enjoyment without life neither hopeful sweet american citizen part great people constitution government frame instituted perversion constitution legislate preserve home comfort independence loyalty sense interest government essential good citizenship peace bring stalwart throng 1861 defense flag assail purpose renew argument favor protective tariff result recent election must accept introduced new policy must assume present tariff construct upon line protection repeal substitute tariff law construct solely reference revenue duty high increase keep open american mill keep wage american workman every case rate duty impose bring treasury united state large return revenue contention schedule principle would offensive suggest prevail party carry legislation principle advocate pledge give people tariff bill pass house representative last session suppose even opinion promoter inadequate justify fact senate house representative accord general revision could therefore undertaken recommend whole subject tariff revision leave incoming congress matter regret work must delay least three month threat great tariff change introduces much uncertainty amount easily estimate business inaction diminish production necessarily result possible also uncertainty may result decreased revenue custom duty merchant make cautious order foreign good view prospect tariff reduction uncertainty take effect advocate protective tariff well afford disastrous forecast change policy disappointed system custom duty frame set idle wheel loom europe motion crowd warehouse good time keep mill busy give u increased participation market world great value home market surrender give increased work foreign workman upon product consume people without diminish amount work do enable american manufacturer pay workman 50 100 per cent wage pay foreign mill yet compete market foreign market foreign producer reduce cost article wear food without reduce wage produce celebrated effect realize expectation european well american city author promoter entitle high praise history several experience contrast effect revenue protective tariff generation felt experience one generation highly instructive next friend protective system undiminished confidence principle advocate await result new experiment strain often disturbed relation exist employee employer great manufacture establishment favorable calm consideration wage earner effect upon wage protective system fact wag high pay like calling world maintenance rate wage absence protective duty upon product labor impossible obscured passion evoke contest may able review question light personal experience operation tariff revenue experience shall demonstrate present rate wage thereby maintain increase either absolutely purchase power aggregate volume work do country increase even maintain many day work year good good wage american workman case protective system everyone rejoice general process wage reduction contemplate patriotic citizen without grave apprehension may indeed believe possible american manufacturer compete successfully foreign rival many branch production without defense protective duty pay roll equalize conflict stand producer result distress work people attain pleasant contemplate society unemployed hold frequent threaten parade street foreign city allow acquire american domicile report head several executive department herewith submit naturally include resume whole work administration transaction last fiscal year attention congress country invite method administration pursue result attain public revenue amount collect disburse without loss misappropriation without single defalcation importance attract public attention diminish per cent cost collection public business transact fidelity progressively view give people full possible degree benefit service establish maintain protection comfort relation nation undisturbed serious controversy complicate threatening difference germany england relate samoan affair england relation seal fishery bering sea chile grow baltimore affair adjust negotiate concluded section 3 tariff law commercial agreement relate reciprocal trade follow country brazil dominican republic spain cuba puerto rico guatemala salvador german empire great britain certain west indian colony british guiana nicaragua honduras guatemala salvador german empire great britain nicaragua honduras conclude since last annual message trade arrangement free favor admission secure every case important list american product especial care take secure market farm product order relieve great underlying industry depression lack adequate foreign market surplus often bring open also make manufacture product undoubtedly policy maintain greatly augment export trade full benefit arrangement realize instantly new line trade open commercial traveler must survey field manufacturer must adapt good new market facility exchange must establish work well begin merchant manufacturer enter new field courage enterprise case food product especially cuba trade need wait immediate result gratify policy trade arrangement continue force aid establishment american steamship line doubt shall within short period secure fully total trade country central south america amount annually 1885 8 per cent trade follow statistic show increase trade country reciprocal trade agreement date agreement go effect september 30 1892 increase almost wholly others important degree result agreement domestic export germany increase value increase per cent american country value export increase increase per cent total increase value export country reciprocity agreement increase chiefly wheat flour meat dairy product manufacture iron steel lumber large increase value import country since commercial agreement go effect amount entirely import american country consist mostly sugar coffee india rubber crude drug alarm attention european competitor south american market attract new american policy acquisition loss south american trade treaty provide arbitration dispute great britain united state kill seal bering sea conclude 29th february last treaty accompany agreement prohibit pelagic seal pending arbitration vigorous effort make season drive poach sealer bering sea six naval vessel three revenue cutter one vessel fish commission command commander evans navy send sea systematically patrol seizure make believe catch bering sea poacher amount less 500 seal true however north pacific seal herd way pass aleutian island large number probably take exist statute united state restrain citizen take seal pacific ocean perhaps unless prohibition extend citizen nation recommend power give president proclamation prohibit take seal north pacific american vessel case either result finding tribunal arbitration otherwise restraint apply vessel country case united state tribunal arbitration prepare great care industry hon john foster counsel represent government express confidence result substantially establish claim preserve great industry benefit nation attain past year suggestion receive british minister canadian government would like confer possibility enlarge upon term mutual advantage commercial exchange canada united state conference hold washington blaine act government british minister capital three member dominion cabinet act commissioner part great britain conference develop fact canadian government prepare offer united state exchange concession ask admission natural product statement frankly make favor rate could give united state mother country admission foreseen necessarily terminate conference upon question benefit exchange natural product would almost wholly people canada topic interest consider conference result make convention examine alaskan boundary water passamaquoddy bay adjacent eastport initiation arrangement protection fish life coterminous neighbor water northern border controversy toll upon welland canal present congress last session special message fail adjustment felt constrain exercise authority confer act july 26 1892 proclaim suspension free use mary fall canal cargo transit port canada secretary treasury establish toll think equivalent exaction unjustly levy upon commerce canadian canal must suppose political relation canada disposition canadian government remain unchanged somewhat radical revision trade relation think make relation must continue intimate friendly regret say however many controversy notably fishery atlantic sealing interest pacific canal toll negotiation great britain continuously thwart retard unreasonable unfriendly objection protest canada matter canal toll treaty right flagrantly disregard hardly much say canadian pacific railway line parallel northern boundary sustain commerce either origin terminus united state canadian railroad compete united state traffic without restraint act car pass almost without detention territory canadian pacific railway bring united state china japan via british columbia year end june 30 1892 pound freight carry united state ship china japan via british columbia pound freight also ship united state road eastern port united state pacific port year pound freight receive road united state eastern port port pacific coast pound freight joseph nimmo former chief bureau statistic senate select committee relation canada april 26 1890 say value good thus transport different point united state across canadian territory probably amount year disposition part people government united state interfere smallest degree political relation canada question wholly people time u however consider whether present state thing trend thing continue interchange upon line land transportation put upon different basis entire independence canadian canal lawrence outlet sea secure construction american canal around fall niagara open ship communication great lakes one seaport hesitate avail great natural trade advantage withdraw support give railroad steamship line canada traffic properly belong u long furnish earnings lighten otherwise crush weight enormous public subsidy give subject power treasury deal matter without legislation consideration circumstance postpone conclusion probable consideration propriety modification abrogation article treaty washington relate transit good bond involved complete solution question congress last session keep advised progress serious time threaten difference united state chile give great gratification report chilean government friendly honorable spirit tender pay indemnity family sailor baltimore kill injured outbreak city valparaiso sum accept indemnity wrong do gratify evidence government chile rightly appreciate disposition government act spirit absolute fairness friendliness intercourse brave people conclusive evidence mutual respect confidence exist furnish fact convention submit arbitration mutual claim citizen respective government agree upon claim pending many year occasion much unsatisfactory diplomatic correspondence endeavor every way assure sister republic central south america unite states government people friendly disposition toward covet territory disposition oppressive exacting dealing even weak interest hop lie direction stable government people large development great commercial resource mutual benefit enlarge commercial exchange familiar friendly intercourse people desire seek friendly cooperation believe however hold sentiment great sincerity must insist upon responsibility injury inflict upon official representative upon citizen insistence kindly justly firmly make believe promote peace mutual respect relation hawaii attract increase interest must continue deem great importance project submarine cable survey make promoted naval commercial us quick communication honolulu avail concession make many year ago government harbor naval station pearl river many evidence friendliness hawaiian government give past gratify believe advantage necessity continuance close relation appreciate friendly act government express government italy reprobation abhorrence lynch italian subject new orleans payment franc accept king italy every manifestation gracious appreciation incident highly promotive mutual respect good consequence action french government proclaim protectorate certain tribal district west coast africa eastward san pedro river long regarded southeastern boundary liberia felt constrained make protest encroachment upon territory republic round citizen united state toward country many year hold intimate relation friendly counselor recent disturbance public peace lawless foreign marauder mexican frontier afford government opportunity testify good mexico earnest purpose fulfill obligation international friendship pursue disperse evil doer work relocate boundary treaty guadalupe hidalgo westward el paso progress favorably intercourse spain continue friendly footing regret however able report yet adjustment claim american missionary arise disorder ponape caroline island anticipate satisfactory adjustment view renew urgent representation government madrid treatment religious educational establishment american citizen turkey late call usual share attention tendency curtail toleration beneficially prevail discernible call forth earnest remonstrance government harass regulation regard school church attempt certain locality without due protest assertion inherent conventional right countryman violation domicile search person effect citizen united state apparently irresponsible official asiatic vilayets time time report aggravated instance injury property american missionary bourdour province konia cal1ed forth urgent claim reparation please say promptly heeded government porte interference trading venture citizens asia minor also report lack consular representation region serious drawback instant effective protection believe incident represent settle policy shall cease urge adoption proper remedy international copyright extend italy proclamation conformity act march 3 1891 upon assurance give italian law permit citizen united state benefit copyright substantially basis subject italy special convention proclaim january 15 1892 reciprocal provision copyright apply united state germany negotiation progress country end repeat great earnestness recommendation make several previous message prompt adequate support give american company engage construction nicaragua ship canal impossible overstate value every standpoint great enterprise hope may time even congress give impetus insure early completion canal secure united state proper relation complete congress already advise invitation government assemble international monetary conference consider question enlarge use silver accept nation address conference assemble brussels 22d november enter upon consideration great question doubt take occasion express belief well invitation issue conference public message free coinage silver upon agree international ratio would greatly promote interest people equally nation early predict result may accomplish conference temporary check delay intervenes believe soon commercial condition compel reluctant government unite u movement secure enlargement volume coin money need transaction business world report secretary treasury attract especial interest view many misleading statement make state public revenue three preliminary fact state emphasize look detail first public debt reduce since march 4 1889 annual interest charge second pay pension administration november 1 1892 excess sum expend period march 1 1885 march 1 1889 third exist tariff december 1 revenue would collect upon imported sugar duty maintain go pocket people public treasury still think surplus kept circulation hoard treasury deposit favored bank without interest government continue pay bank interest upon bond deposited security deposit think extend pension legislation public robbery duty upon sugar maintain content leave argument rest wait see whether criticism take form legislation revenue fiscal year end june 30 1892 source expenditures purpose leave balance pay year upon public debt surplus treasury bank redemption fund pass act july 14 1890 general fund furnish large part cash available used payment make upon public debt compare year 1891 receipt custom duty fell receipt internal revenue increase leaving net loss revenue principal source net loss revenue source revenue estimate actual fiscal year end june 30 1893 place secretary expenditure show surplus receipt expenditures cash balance treasury end fiscal year estimate far figure base upon estimate receipt expenditures remain month current fiscal year usual element uncertainty add element new revenue legislation even expectation may seriously reduce public revenue period uncertainty process business adjustment new condition become know secretary wisely refrain guess effect possible change revenue law since scope change time take effect degree forecast foretold estimate must base upon exist law upon continuance exist business condition except far condition may affect cause new legislation estimate receipt fiscal year end june 30 1894 estimated appropriation leave estimated surplus receipt expenditures include payment sinking fund recommendation secretary law repeal concur redemption bond since passage law june 30 1892 already exceeded requirement sum retirement bond future maturity matter convenience compulsion collect revenue purpose use casual surplus balance receipt expenditures year 1894 add estimate surplus begin year aggregate must deduct state secretary estimate unexpended appropriation public confidence purpose ability government maintain parity money issue whether coin paper must remain unshaken demand gold europe consequent call upon u considerable degree result effort european government increase gold reserve effort meet appropriate legislation part condition create drain treasury gold important degree political commercial view fact general revision revenue law near future seem probable would better change part revision rather temporary nature last fiscal year secretary purchase act july 14 1890 ounce silver issue payment therefor note total purchase since passage act ounce aggregate note issue average price pay silver year 94 cent per ounce high price july 1 1891 low 83 cent march 21 1892 view fact monetary conference sit conclusion yet reach withhold recommendation legislation upon subject report secretary war bring attention congress important suggestion reorganization infantry artillery arm service predecessor urgently present army small organization put upon approved modern basis condition upon call frontier heretofore require maintenance many small post policy concentration obviously right one new post proper strategic relation frontier seacoast northern part southern boundary think question advantage localities state determine location new post reorganization enlargement bureau military information secretary effect work usefulness become every year apparent work build heavy gun construction coast defense well begin carry without check report law submit directly congress refrain say conduct increase work department justice great professional skill several direction secure court decision give increased protection officer united state bring class crime escape local cognizance punishment tribunal united state could try impartiality numerous application executive clemency present behalf person convict united state court give penitentiary sentence call attention fact refer report namely time allowance good behavior prisoner prescribe federal statute state penitentiary locate make provision prisoner give benefit provision state law regulate penitentiary may send various perhaps liberal perhaps illiberal result sentence five year mean one thing prisoner send one state confinement quite different thing send another recommend uniform credit good behavior prescribe congress express concurrence recommendation degree murder recognize federal statute believe state grade round correct distinction crime recognition would enable court exercise discretion apportion punishment would greatly relieve executive come heavy burden examination case application commutation aggregate claim pending government court claim enormous claim amount nearly take injury property person claim loyal war court examination add indian depredation claim french spoliation claim aggregate reach indeed startle defense case government great disadvantage claimant preserve evidence whereas agent government send field rummage find difficulty peculiarly great fact establish disloyalty claimant war great threat revenue check certainly congress supply department justice appropriation sufficiently liberal secure best legal talent defense claim pursue vague search evidence effectively report show gratify increase efficient progressive management great business department remarkable increase revenue number mile mail carriage furnishes evidence high state prosperity people enjoy new office mean new hamlet towns new route mean extension border settlement increase revenue mean active commerce review whole period administration office bring statistic month november last postal revenue increase last year nearly deficit year end june 30 1892 less deficiency precede year deficiency present fiscal year estimate reduce extinguished next fiscal year surplus nearly show calculation payment make contract ocean mail service include added new mail route year mileage mile total number new mile mail trip add year nearly number mile mail journey add last four year addition mile operation whole country 1861 number increase year past four year october 29 last total increase number office nearly number office nearly double last four year number office double within time three year end june 30 1892 postal revenue amount increase revenue three year end june 30 1888 increase last three year three half time great increase three year end june 30 1888 increase show three year ever previously appear revenue department extend large city merit system promotion introduce direction department result department large volume work well do ever since merchant marine drive sea rebel cruiser war rebellion unite state pay enormous annual tribute foreign country shape freight passage money grain meat take dock large import lay foreign shipmasters increase torrent american travel europe contribute vast sum annually dividend foreign shipowner balance trade show book largely reduce many year altogether extinguish constant drain year 1892 per cent import bring american vessel great foreign steamship maintain traffic many contract respective government time war become part armed naval establishment profit commerce peace become formidable destroyer commerce time war felt expressed feeling condition thing intolerable disgraceful wholesome change policy one much promise seem begin law march 3 1891 law contract make eleven mail route expenditure involve contract next fiscal year approximate one result already reach sixteen american steamship aggregate tonnage ton cost built contract built american shipyard estimate tonnage steamship require exist contract full service require contract establish mail steamer american flag probability necessary addition brazilian argentine service contract recently let transatlantic service result construction five ship ton cost add city new york city paris treasury department authorize legislation last session give american registry seven swift vessel upon sea naval reserve contract make line sail central south american port increase frequency shorten time trip add new port call sustain line otherwise would almost certainly withdrawn service buenos ayres first argentine republic american flag service southampton boulogne antwerp also new begin steamship city new york city paris february next earnestly urge continuance policy inaugurate legislation appropriation require meet obligations government contract may make promptly line enter engagement may embarrass reason connection transcontinental railway line construct territory advantage ocean trade pacific possess atlantic construction canadian pacific railway establishment large subvention canada england fast steamship service vancouver japan china seriously threaten shipping interest pacific line english steamer receives state commissioner navigation direct subsidy annually per trip thirteen voyage addition aid admiralty connection contract vessel may use naval purpose compete american pacific mail line act march 3 1891 receives per round trip effort make within last year inform establish similar condition line vancouver australian port view seize trade large interest commissioner navigation state large per cent import asia brought u english steamship connect railway canada view promote trade especially tea canada impose discriminate duty 10 per cent upon tea coffee bring dominion united state unequal contest american line without subsidy diminish subsidy english canadian line refer continue think least see facility custom entry transportation across territory make canadian route favor one discrimination duty refer meet like discrimination importation article canada subject think nearly touch pride power prosperity country development merchant marine upon sea could enter conference competitor would agree withhold government aid could perhaps take chance rest great competitor establish maintain line government subsidy practically exclude u participation opinion choice leave u pursue moderately least line report secretary navy exhibit great progress construction new navy present secretary enter upon duty 3 modern steel vessel commission vessel since put commission put commission winter make total 19 administration department current year 10 war vessel 3 navy tug launch four year 25 vessel launch two large ship torpedo boat contract work upon well advanced 4 monitor await arrival armor unexpectedly delay would commission contract let administration appropriation increase navy include new vessel appurtenance amount expend period labor upon similar work without small scandal charge fraud partiality enthusiasm interest naval officer staff line greatly kindle respond magnificently confidence congress demonstrate world unexcelled capacity construction ordnance everything involve building equip sail great war ship begin secretary tracy administration several difficult problem remain grappled solved efficiency action ship could secure believe result new process construction armor plate later ship clothe defensive plate higher resist power find war vessel afloat without torpedo test make ascertain relative efficiency different construction torpedo adopt work construction carry successfully without shell without shop instruct equipped construction make believe projectile superior use smokeless powder develop powder gun large caliber high explosive capable use shell fire service gun find manufacture gun cotton develop question supply longer doubt development naval militia organize eight state bring cordial cooperative relation navy another important achievement enlist organization men likely greatly extend recommend legislation appropriation encourage develop movement recommendation secretary doubt receive friendly consideration congress enjoy deserve confidence interested development navy without division upon partisan line earnestly express hope work make noble progress may stay wholesome influence peace increase sense security citizen domicile land feel magnificent ship american flag appear already gratefully apparent ship navy appear great naval parade next april harbor new york convincing demonstration world united state naval power work interior department always burdensome large ever administration secretary noble law take eleventh census open vast area indian land settlement organization oklahoma negotiation cession indian land furnish particular increase work result achieve testify ability fidelity industry head department efficient assistant several important agreement cession indian land negotiate commission appoint act march 2 1889 await action congress perhaps important cession cherokee strip region source great vexation executive department great friction unrest settler desire occupy indian assert title agreement make commission perhaps satisfactory could reach noticed condition upon ratification congress march 4 1893 secretary interior give subject careful thought recommend ratification agreement incline follow recommendation certain action controversy shall bring end land open settlement urgent form government provide congress may 17 1884 alaska frame purpose temporary increase population development important mining commercial interest make imperative law revise good provision make arrest punishment criminal report secretary show gratify state fact condition general land office work issue agricultural patent seem hopelessly arrear present secretary undertook duty office expedite bureau upon current business relief thus afford honest worthy settler upon public land give assure title entry incalculable benefit develop new state territory court private land claim establish congress promotion policy speedily settle contest land title make satisfactory progress work work complete great impetus give development region unsettle claim mexican grant long exercise repressive influence result add enormous cession indian land open settlement aggregate administration nearly acres agreement negotiate pending congress ratification additional acre open settlement see much accomplish work indian bureau execution policy recent legislation largely direct two chief purpose first allotment land severalty indians cession united state surplus land secondly work educate indian protection closer contact white man intelligent exercise new citizenship allotment make patent issue indians present secretary commissioner additional allotment make patent process preparation school attendance indian child increase time 13 per cent enrollment 1892 nearly uniform system school study adopt work national school bring near may basis free common school state school transfer merged system state indian fully assume new relation organize civil community reside new state able assume burden several time call upon remove indian agent appoint do promptly upon every sustain complaint unfitness misconduct believe however indian service agency improve administered whole good degree efficiency legislation possible selection indian agent wholly remove partisan suggestion consideration sure would great relief executive great benefit service appropriation subsistence cheyenne arapahoe indian make last session congress inadequate small appropriation estimate commissioner upon theory large fund belonging tribe public treasury could ought use support view however pending depredation claim fund consideration secretary interior 12th april last submit supplemental estimate appropriation make oversight ought remedied early possible date special message congress last session state reason approve deed release united state choctaws chickasaws land formerly embrace cheyenne arapahoe reservation remain allotment tribe resolution senate express opinion body notwithstanding fact state special message deed approve money pay present may 10 1892 special message intend call attention congress subject view fact concede appropriation proceed upon false basis amount land pay excess amount entitle even claim land give full recognition rate agree upon felt willing approve deed shall least house congress act upon subject informally propose claimant release sum power demand accept release agreement would without consideration void desire call attention congress fact recent agreement conclude kiowa comanche relate land part lease district claim choctaw chickasaws precisely recognize congress legislation refer surplus land claim would attach kiowa comanche reservation acre rate government call upon pay choctaw chickasaws land sum augment especially title indian tract greet county establish duty devolve upon connection simply pass upon form deed opinion fact mention special message adequately bring attention congress connection legislation felt would justify act without new expression legislative report commissioner pension extend notice give secretary interior report attract great attention judge aggregate amount work do last year great history office believe organization office efficient work do fidelity passage know disability bill foreseen largely increased annual disbursement disabled veteran civil war estimate fiscal year amount appropriate deficiency amount must provide session estimate pension fiscal year end june 30 1894 commissioner pension believe present legislation method maintain addition pension law make maximum expenditure pension reach june 30 1894 high point per annum adhere view express previous message care disabled soldier war rebellion matter national concern duty perhaps emotion cool sooner gratitude believe process yet reach point people would sustain policy remit care disabled veteran inadequate agency provide local law parade 20th september last upon street capital survive union veteran war rebellion touch thrill episode rich gracious welcome extend district columbia applause greeted progress ten thousand people state much revive glorious recollection grand review men many thousand others graf welcome grateful joy victor struggle national unity honor wealth issue last annual message call attention fact legislative action necessary order protect interest government relation union pacific railway commissioner railroad submit full report give exact information debt liens upon company property resource must deal question find take course exist condition best secure interest unite state recommend last annual message commission appoint deal question renew recommendation suggest commission give full power report secretary agriculture contain interesting statement progressive valuable work do administration secretary rusk many suggestion enlarge usefulness important department successful effort break restriction free introduction meat product country europe secretary untiring first stimulate aid government officer home abroad whose official duty enable participate work total trade hog product europe may 1892 amount pound month 1891 june 1892 export aggregate pound pound month previous year july increase 41 per cent august 55 per cent correspond month 1891 pound inspect pork export since law put operation comparison four month may june july august 1892 month 1891 show increase number pound export pork product 62 per cent increase value 66 per cent export dress beef increase pound 1889 pound 1892 60 per cent past year export head live cattle exported 1889 increase exportation largely promoted inspection authorize law faithful effort secretary efficient subordinate make inspection thorough carefully exclude cargo diseased suspected cattle requirement english regulation live cattle arrive united state must slaughter dock origin claim exist among american cattle existence disease could certainly determine post mortem inspection department agriculture labor great energy faithfulness extirpate disease 26th day september last public announcement make secretary disease longer exist anywhere within united state entirely satisfy search inquiry statement justify continuance inspection quarantine require cattle bring country disease prevent get foothold value cattle industry unite state achievement hardly estimate perhaps insist evidence shall accept satisfactory country present exemption disease maintain inspection cattle arrive foreign port veterinarian participate confirms may justly expect requirement cattle shall slaughter dock revoke sanitary restriction upon pork product cattle take alive interior trade enormously increase agricultural product constitute per cent unprecedented export fiscal year close june 30 1892 total export value agricultural product exceed shipment agricultural product previous year interest promising work benefit american farmer begin agent agricultural department europe consist effort introduce various product indian corn article human food high price rye offer favorable opportunity experiment germany combine corn meal rye produce cheap bread fair degree success attain mill grind corn food introduce secretary opinion new use product corn already stimulate exportation diligently prosecute large important market presently open great american product suggestion secretary enlargement work department commend favorable consideration may think say without challenge correspond period much do last four year benefit american agriculture subject quarantine regulation inspection control bring suddenly attention arrival port august last vessel infect cholera quarantine regulation uniform port constitution plainly within exclusive federal jurisdiction far congress shall legislate opinion whole subject take national control adequate power give executive protect people plague invasion 1st september last approved regulation establish quarantine vessel bring immigrant foreign port order continue force loss suffering result passenger due care home people justifies case utmost precaution danger come spring cholera appear liberal appropriation make session enable quarantine port officer exclude deadly plague careful stringent quarantine regulation may sufficient absolutely exclude disease progress medical sanitary science however approve precaution take put city towns best sanitary condition provision make isolate sporadic case thorough disinfection epidemic sure avoid work appertains local authority responsibility penalty appal neglect unduly delay peculiarly subject great port spread infectious disease reason fact unrestricted immigration bring u european city overcrowd steerage great steamship large number person whose surroundings make easy victim plague consideration well affect political moral industrial interest country lead renew suggestion admission country high privilege citizenship restrict careful think right owe duty people especially work people keep vicious ignorant civil disturber pauper contract laborer check great flow immigration come limitation report world columbian exposition yet submit board management government exhibit receive herewith transmitted work construction preparation open exposition may next progressed satisfactorily upon scale liberality magnificence worthily sustain honor united state district columbia leave decision supreme court district without law regulate liquor traffic old statute legislature district relate license various vocation hitherto treated commissioner give power grant refuse license sell intoxicate liquor subject sell without license penalty may last supreme court district hold view power commissioner urgent importance therefore congress supply either direct enactment confer discretionary power upon commissioner proper limitation restraint upon liquor traffic district district suffer reputation many crime violence large per cent result drunkenness liquor traffic capital nation free reproach enactment stringent restriction limitation upon traffic renew recommendation make three precede annual message congress legislate protection railroad employee danger incident old inadequate method brake couple still use upon freight train hope congress may take action upon subject statistic furnished interstate commerce commission show year end june 30 1891 different style car coupler report use period employee kill injured nearly 16 per cent death occur couple uncouple car 36 per cent injury origin civil service commission ask increase appropriation need clerical assistance think give extend classified service march 1 1892 include physician superintendent assistant superintendent matron indian service consideration subject extension yet fully determine line upon extension properly usefully make three annual message duty submit congress call attention evils danger connect election method practice related choice officer national government last annual message endeavor invoke serious attention evil unfair apportionment congress close message without call attention grave threaten evil hop possible secure nonpartisan inquiry mean commission evil existence know might grow legislation think partisan advantage eliminate high thought appear maintain freedom purity ballot equality elector without guaranty government could never form without continuance continue exist peace prosperity time mutual charge unfairness fraud great party cease sincerity profess desire pure honest election bring test willingness free legislation election method everything tend impair public confidence announce result necessity inquiry legislation congress upon subject emphasize fact tendency legislation state recent year important particular away toward free fair election equal apportionment time come together upon high plane patriotism devise method shall secure right every man qualify law cast free ballot give every ballot equal value choose public officer direct policy government lawlessness less usurps function peace officer court frequent lynch colored people accuse crime without excuse sometimes urge mobs failure pursue appoint method punishment crime accuse undue influence court jury act reproach community occur far make subject federal jurisdiction strong repressive legislation demand public sentiment sustain officer law resist mob protect accused person custody promote every possible mean officer give life brave discharge duty worthy special honor lesson need urgently impress upon people worthy end promote lawlessness exhibit work executive department submit congress public hope find due sense responsibility earnest purpose maintain national honor promote happiness prosperity people brief exhibit growth prosperity country give u level note increase decadence new legislative policy may bring u reason national influence power prosperity observe rate increase characterize past thirty year carry great impulse increase year future reason many line production surpass nation already do near frontier possible development retrogression would crime