The country is to be congratulated on the amount of substantial achievement which has marked the past year both as regards our foreign and as regards our domestic policy. With a nation as with a man the most important things are those of the household, and therefore the country is especially to be congratulated on what has been accomplished in the direction of providing for the exercise of supervision over the great corporations and combinations of corporations engaged in interstate commerce. The Congress has created the Department of Commerce and Labor, including the Bureau of Corporations, with for the first time authority to secure proper publicity of such proceedings of these great corporations as the public has the right to know. It has provided for the expediting of suits for the enforcement of the Federal anti-trust law; and by another law it has secured equal treatment to all producers in the transportation of their goods, thus taking a long stride forward in making effective the work of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The establishment of the Department of Commerce and Labor, with the Bureau of Corporations thereunder, marks a real advance in the direction of doing all that is possible for the solution of the questions vitally affecting capitalists and wage-workers. The act creating Department was approved on February 14, 1903, and two days later the head of the Department was nominated and confirmed by the Senate. Since then the work of organization has been pushed as rapidly as the initial appropriations permitted, and with due regard to thoroughness and the broad purposes which the Department is designed to serve. After the transfer of the various bureaus and branches to the Department at the beginning of the current fiscal year, as provided for in the act, the personnel comprised 1,289 employees in Washington and 8,836 in the country at large. The scope of the Department's duty and authority embraces the commercial and industrial interests of the Nation. It is not designed to restrict or control the fullest liberty of legitimate business action, but to secure exact and authentic information which will aid the Executive in enforcing existing laws, and which will enable the Congress to enact additional legislation, if any should be found necessary, in order to prevent the few from obtaining privileges at the expense of diminished opportunities for the many. The preliminary work of the Bureau of Corporations in the Department has shown the wisdom of its creation. Publicity in corporate affairs will tend to do away with ignorance, and will afford facts upon which intelligent action may be taken. Systematic, intelligent investigation is already developing facts the knowledge of which is essential to a right understanding of the needs and duties of the business world. The corporation which is honestly and fairly organized, whose managers in the conduct of its business recognize their obligation to deal squarely with their stockholders, their competitors, and the public, has nothing to fear from such supervision. The purpose of this Bureau is not to embarrass or assail legitimate business, but to aid in bringing about a better industrial condition--a condition under which there shall be obedience to law and recognition of public obligation by all corporations, great or small. The Department of Commerce and Labor will be not only the clearing house for information regarding the business transactions of the Nation, but the executive arm of the Government to aid in strengthening our domestic and foreign markets, in perfecting our transportation facilities, in building up our merchant marine, in preventing the entrance of undesirable immigrants, in improving commercial and industrial conditions, and in bringing together on common ground those necessary partners in industrial progress--capital and labor. Commerce between the nations is steadily growing in volume, and the tendency of the times is toward closer trade relations. Constant watchfulness is needed to secure to Americans the chance to participate to the best advantage in foreign trade; and we may confidently expect that the new Department will justify the expectation of its creators by the exercise of this watchfulness, as well as by the businesslike administration of such laws relating to our internal affairs as are intrusted to its care. In enacting the laws above enumerated the Congress proceeded on sane and conservative lines. Nothing revolutionary was attempted; but a common-sense and successful effort was made in the direction of seeing that corporations are so handled as to subserve the public good. The legislation was moderate. It was characterized throughout by the idea that we were not attacking corporations, but endeavoring to provide for doing away with any evil in them; that we drew the line against misconduct, not against wealth; gladly recognizing the great good done by the capitalist who alone, or in conjunction with his fellows, does his work along proper and legitimate lines. The purpose of the legislation, which purpose will undoubtedly be fulfilled, was to favor such a man when he does well, and to supervise his action only to prevent him from doing ill. Publicity can do no harm to the honest corporation. The only corporation that has cause to dread it is the corporation which shrinks from the light, and about the welfare of such corporations we need not be oversensitive. The work of the Department of Commerce and Labor has been conditioned upon this theory, of securing fair treatment alike for labor and for capital. The consistent policy of the National Government, so far as it has the power, is to hold in check the unscrupulous man, whether employer or employee; but to refuse to weaken individual initiative or to hamper or cramp the industrial development of the country. We recognize that this is an era of federation and combination, in which great capitalistic corporations and labor unions have become factors of tremendous importance in all industrial centers. Hearty recognition is given the far-reaching, beneficent work which has been accomplished through both corporations and unions, and the line as between different corporations, as between different unions, is drawn as it is between different individuals; that is, it is drawn on conduct, the effort being to treat both organized capital and organized labor alike; asking nothing save that the interest of each shall be brought into harmony with the interest of the general public, and that the conduct of each shall conform to the fundamental rules of obedience to law, of individual freedom, and of justice and fair dealing towards all. Whenever either corporation, labor union, or individual disregards the law or acts in a spirit of arbitrary and tyrannous interference with the rights of others, whether corporations or individuals, then where the Federal Government has jurisdiction, it will see to it that the misconduct is stopped, paying not the slightest heed to the position or power of the corporation, the union or the individual, but only to one vital fact--that is, the question whether or not the conduct of the individual or aggregate of individuals is in accordance with the law of the land. Every man must be guaranteed his liberty and his right to do as he likes with his property or his labor, so long as he does not infringe the rights of others. No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor. We have cause as a nation to be thankful for the steps that have been so successfully taken to put these principles into effect. The progress has been by evolution, not by revolution. Nothing radical has been done; the action has been both moderate and resolute. Therefore the work will stand. There shall be no backward step. If in the working of the laws it proves desirable that they shall at any point be expanded or amplified, the amendment can be made as its desirability is shown. Meanwhile they are being administered with judgment, but with insistence upon obedience to them, and their need has been emphasized in signal fashion by the events of the past year. From all sources, exclusive of the postal service, the receipts of the Government for the last fiscal year aggregated $560,396,674. The expenditures for the same period were $506,099,007, the surplus for the fiscal year being $54,297,667. The indications are that the surplus for the present fiscal year will be very small, if indeed there be any surplus. From July to November the receipts from customs were, approximately, nine million dollars less than the receipts from the same source for a corresponding portion of last year. Should this decrease continue at the same ratio throughout the fiscal year, the surplus would be reduced by, approximately, thirty million dollars. Should the revenue from customs suffer much further decrease during the fiscal year, the surplus would vanish. A large surplus is certainly undesirable. Two years ago the war taxes were taken off with the express intention of equalizing the governmental receipts and expenditures, and though the first year thereafter still showed a surplus, it now seems likely that a substantial equality of revenue and expenditure will be attained. Such being the case it is of great moment both to exercise care and economy in appropriations, and to scan sharply any change in our fiscal revenue system which may reduce our income. The need of strict economy in our expenditures is emphasized by the fact that we can not afford to be parsimonious in providing for what is essential to our national well-being. Careful economy wherever possible will alone prevent our income from falling below the point required in order to meet our genuine needs. The integrity of our currency is beyond question, and under present conditions it would be unwise and unnecessary to attempt a reconstruction of our entire monetary system. The same liberty should be granted the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit customs receipts as is granted him in the deposit of receipts from other sources. In my Message of December 2, 1902, I called attention to certain needs of the financial situation, and I again ask the consideration of the Congress for these questions. During the last session of the Congress at the suggestion of a joint note from the Republic of Mexico and the Imperial Government of China, and in harmony with an act of the Congress appropriating $25,000 to pay the expenses thereof, a commission was appointed to confer with the principal European countries in the hope that some plan might be devised whereby a fixed rate of exchange could be assured between the gold-standard countries and the silver-standard countries. This commission has filed its preliminary report, which has been made public. I deem it important that the commission be continued, and that a sum of money be appropriated sufficient to pay the expenses of its further labors. A majority of our people desire that steps be taken in the interests of American shipping, so that we may once more resume our former position in the ocean carrying trade. But hitherto the differences of opinion as to the proper method of reaching this end have been so wide that it has proved impossible to secure the adoption of any particular scheme. Having in view these facts, I recommend that the Congress direct the Secretary of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, associated with such a representation from the Senate and House of Representatives as the Congress in its wisdom may designate, to serve as a commission for the purpose of investigating and reporting to the Congress at its next session what legislation is desirable or necessary for the development of the American merchant marine and American commerce, and incidentally of a national ocean mail service of adequate auxiliary naval crusiers and naval reserves. While such a measure is desirable in any event, it is especially desirable at this time, in view of the fact that our present governmental contract for ocean mail with the American Line will expire in 1905. Our ocean mail act was passed in 1891. In 1895 our 20-knot transatlantic mail line was equal to any foreign line. Since then the Germans have put on 23-knot, steamers, and the British have contracted for 24-knot steamers. Our service should equal the best. If it does not, the commercial public will abandon it. If we are to stay in the business it ought to be with a full understanding of the advantages to the country on one hand, and on the other with exact knowledge of the cost and proper methods of carrying it on. Moreover, lines of cargo ships are of even more importance than fast mail lines; save so far as the latter can be depended upon to furnish swift auxiliary cruisers in time of war. The establishment of new lines of cargo ships to South America, to Asia, and elsewhere would be much in the interest of our commercial expansion. We can not have too much immigration of the right kind, and we should have none at all of the wrong kind. The need is to devise some system by which undesirable immigrants shall be kept out entirely, while desirable immigrants are properly distributed throughout the country. At present some districts which need immigrants have none; and in others, where the population is already congested, immigrants come in such numbers as to depress the conditions of life for those already there. During the last two years the immigration service at New York has been greatly improved, and the corruption and inefficiency which formerly obtained there have been eradicated. This service has just been investigated by a committee of New York citizens of high standing, Messrs. Arthur V. Briesen, Lee K. Frankel, Eugene A. Philbin, Thomas W. Hynes, and Ralph Trautman. Their report deals with the whole situation at length, and concludes with certain recommendations for administrative and legislative action. It is now receiving the attention of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The special investigation of the subject of naturalization under the direction of the Attorney-General, and the consequent prosecutions reveal a condition of affairs calling for the immediate attention of the Congress. Forgeries and perjuries of shameless and flagrant character have been perpetrated, not only in the dense centers of population, but throughout the country; and it is established beyond doubt that very many so-called citizens of the United States have no title whatever to that right, and are asserting and enjoying the benefits of the same through the grossest frauds. It is never to be forgotten that citizenship is, to quote the words recently used by the Supreme Court of the United States, an "inestimable heritage," whether it proceeds from birth within the country or is obtained by naturalization; and we poison the sources of our national character and strength at the fountain, if the privilege is claimed and exercised without right, and by means of fraud and corruption. The body politic can not be sound and healthy if many of its constituent members claim their standing through the prostitution of the high right and calling of citizenship. It should mean something to become a citizen of the United States; and in the process no loophole whatever should be left open to fraud. The methods by which these frauds--now under full investigation with a view to meting out punishment and providing adequate remedies--are perpetrated, include many variations of procedure by which false certificates of citizenship are forged in their entirety; or genuine certificates fraudulently or collusively obtained in blank are filled in by the criminal conspirators; or certificates are obtained on fraudulent statements as to the time of arrival and residence in this country; or imposition and substitution of another party for the real petitioner occur in court; or certificates are made the subject of barter and sale and transferred from the rightful holder to those not entitled to them; or certificates are forged by erasure of the original names and the insertion of the names of other persons not entitled to the same. It is not necessary for me to refer here at large to the causes leading to this state of affairs. The desire for naturalization is heartily to be commended where it springs from a sincere and permanent intention to become citizens, and a real appreciation of the privilege. But it is a source of untold evil and trouble where it is traceable to selfish and dishonest motives, such as the effort by artificial and improper means, in wholesale fashion to create voters who are ready-made tools of corrupt politicians, or the desire to evade certain labor laws creating discriminations against alien labor. All good citizens, whether naturalized or native born, are equally interested in protecting our citizenship against fraud in any form, and, on the other hand, in affording every facility for naturalization to those who in good faith desire to share alike our privileges and our responsibilities. The Federal grand jury lately in session in New York City dealt with this subject and made a presentment which states the situation briefly and forcibly and contains important suggestions for the consideration of the Congress. This presentment is included as an appendix to the report of the Attorney-General. In my last annual Message, in connection with the subject of the due regulation of combinations of capital which are or may become injurious to the public, I recommend a special appropriation for the better enforcement of the antitrust law as it now stands, to be extended under the direction of the Attorney-General. Accordingly (by the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation act of February 25, 1903, 32 Stat., 854, 904), the Congress appropriated, for the purpose of enforcing the various Federal trust and interstate-commerce laws, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to be expended under the direction of the Attorney-General in the employment of special counsel and agents in the Department of Justice to conduct proceedings and prosecutions under said laws in the courts of the United States. I now recommend, as a matter of the utmost importance and urgency, the extension of the purposes of this appropriation, so that it may be available, under the direction of the Attorney-General, and until used, for the due enforcement of the laws of the United States in general and especially of the civil and criminal laws relating to public lands and the laws relating to postal crimes and offenses and the subject of naturalization. Recent investigations have shown a deplorable state of affairs in these three matters of vital concern. By various frauds and by forgeries and perjuries, thousands of acres of the public domain, embracing lands of different character and extending through various sections of the country, have been dishonestly acquired. It is hardly necessary to urge the importance of recovering these dishonest acquisitions, stolen from the people, and of promptly and duly punishing the offenders. I speak in another part of this Message of the widespread crimes by which the sacred right of citizenship is falsely asserted and that "inestimable heritage" perverted to base ends. By similar means--that is, through frauds, forgeries, and perjuries, and by shameless briberies--the laws relating to the proper conduct of the public service in general and to the due administration of the Post-Office Department have been notoriously violated, and many indictments have been found, and the consequent prosecutions are in course of hearing or on the eve thereof. For the reasons thus indicated, and so that the Government may be prepared to enforce promptly and with the greatest effect the due penalties for such violations of law, and to this end may be furnished with sufficient instrumentalities and competent legal assistance for the investigations and trials which will be necessary at many different points of the country, I urge upon the Congress the necessity of making the said appropriation available for immediate use for all such purposes, to be expended under the direction of the Attorney-General. Steps have been taken by the State Department looking to the making of bribery an extraditable offense with foreign powers. The need of more effective treaties covering this crime is manifest. The exposures and prosecutions of official corruption in St. Louis, Mo., and other cities and States have resulted in a number of givers and takers of bribes becoming fugitives in foreign lands. Bribery has not been included in extradition treaties heretofore, as the necessity for it has not arisen. While there may have been as much official corruption in former years, there has been more developed and brought to light in the immediate past than in the preceding century of our country's history. It should be the policy of the United States to leave no place on earth where a corrupt man fleeing from this country can rest in peace. There is no reason why bribery should not be included in all treaties as extraditable. The recent amended treaty with Mexico, whereby this crime was put in the list of extraditable offenses, has established a salutary precedent in this regard. Under this treaty the State Department has asked, and Mexico has granted, the extradition of one of the St. Louis bribe givers. There can be no crime more serious than bribery. Other offenses violate one law while corruption strikes at the foundation of all law. Under our form of Government all authority is vested in the people and by them delegated to those who represent them in official capacity. There can be no offense heavier than that of him in whom such a sacred trust has been reposed, who sells it for his own gain and enrichment; and no less heavy is the offense of the bribe giver. He is worse than the thief, for the thief robs the individual, while the corrupt official plunders an entire city or State. He is as wicked as the murderer, for the murderer may only take one life against the law, while the corrupt official and the man who corrupts the official alike aim at the assassination of the commonwealth itself. Government of the people, by the people, for the people will perish from the face of the earth if bribery is tolerated. The givers and takers of bribes stand on an evil pre-eminence of infamy. The exposure and punishment of public corruption is an honor to a nation, not a disgrace. The shame lies in toleration, not in correction. No city or State, still less the Nation, can be injured by the enforcement of law. As long as public plunderers when detected can find a haven of refuge in any foreign land and avoid punishment, just so long encouragement is given them to continue their practices. If we fail to do all that in us lies to stamp out corruption we can not escape our share of responsibility for the guilt. The first requisite of successful self-government is unflinching enforcement of the law and the cutting out of corruption. For several years past the rapid development of Alaska and the establishment of growing American interests in regions theretofore unsurveyed and imperfectly known brought into prominence the urgent necessity of a practical demarcation of the boundaries between the jurisdictions of the United States and Great Britain. Although the treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, the provisions of which were copied in the treaty of 1867, whereby Russia conveyed Alaska to the United States, was positive as to the control, first by Russia and later by the United States, of a strip of territory along the continental mainland from the western shore of Portland Canal to Mount St. Elias, following and surrounding the indentations of the coast and including the islands to the westward, its description of the landward margin of the strip was indefinite, resting on the supposed existence of a continuous ridge or range of mountains skirting the coast, as figured in the charts of the early navigators. It had at no time been possible for either party in interest to lay down, under the authority of the treaty, a line so obviously exact according to its provisions as to command the assent of the other. For nearly three-fourths of a century the absence of tangible local interests demanding the exercise of positive jurisdiction on either side of the border left the question dormant. In 1878 questions of revenue administration on the Stikine River led to the establishment of a provisional demarcation, crossing the channel between two high peaks on either side about twenty-four miles above the river mouth. In 1899 similar questions growing out of the extraordinary development of mining interests in the region about the head of Lynn Canal brought about a temporary modus vivendi, by which a convenient separation was made at the watershed divides of the White and Chilkoot passes and to the north of Klukwan, on the Klehini River. These partial and tentative adjustments could not, in the very nature of things, be satisfactory or lasting. A permanent disposition of the matter became imperative. After unavailing attempts to reach an understanding through a Joint High Commission, followed by prolonged negotiations, conducted in an amicable spirit, a convention between the United States and Great Britain was signed, January 24, 1903, providing for an examination of the subject by a mixed tribunal of six members, three on a side, with a view to its final disposition. Ratifications were exchanged on March 3 last, whereupon the two Governments appointed their respective members. Those on behalf of the United States were Elihu Root, Secretary of War, Henry Cabot Lodge, a Senator of the United States, and George Turner, an ex-Senator of the United States, while Great Britain named the Right Honourable Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Louis Amable Jette, K. C. M. G., retired judge of the Supreme Court of Quebec, and A. B. Aylesworth, K. C., of Toronto. This Tribunal met in London on September 3, under the Presidency of Lord Alverstone. The proceedings were expeditious, and marked by a friendly and conscientious spirit. The respective cases, counter cases, and arguments presented the issues clearly and fully. On the 20th of October a majority of the Tribunal reached and signed an agreement on all the questions submitted by the terms of the Convention. By this award the right of the United States to the control of a continuous strip or border of the mainland shore, skirting all the tide-water inlets and sinuosities of the coast, is confirmed; the entrance to Portland Canal (concerning which legitimate doubt appeared) is defined as passing by Tongass Inlet and to the northwestward of Wales and Pearse islands; a line is drawn from the head of Portland Canal to the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude; and the interior border line of the strip is fixed by lines connecting certain mountain summits lying between Portland Canal and Mount St. Elias, and running along the crest of the divide separating the coast slope from the inland watershed at the only part of the frontier where the drainage ridge approaches the coast within the distance of ten marine leagues stipulated by the treaty as the extreme width of the strip around the heads of Lynn Canal and its branches. While the line so traced follows the provisional demarcation of 1878 at the crossing of the Stikine River, and that of 1899 at the summits of the White and Chilkoot passes, it runs much farther inland from the Klehini than the temporary line of the later modus vivendi, and leaves the entire mining district of the Porcupine River and Glacier Creek within the jurisdiction of the United States. The result is satisfactory in every way. It is of great material advantage to our people in the Far Northwest. It has removed from the field of discussion and possible danger a question liable to become more acutely accentuated with each passing year. Finally, it has furnished a signal proof of the fairness and good will with which two friendly nations can approach and determine issues involving national sovereignty and by their nature incapable of submission to a third power for adjudication. The award is self-executing on the vital points. To make it effective as regards the others it only remains for the two Governments to appoint, each on its own behalf, one or more scientific experts, who shall, with all convenient speed, proceed together to lay down the boundary line in accordance with the decision of the majority of the Tribunal. I recommend that the Congress make adequate provision for the appointment, compensation, and expenses of the members to serve on this joint boundary commission on the part of the United States. It will be remembered that during the second session of the last Congress Great Britain, Germany, and Italy formed an alliance for the purpose of blockading the ports of Venezuela and using such other means of pressure as would secure a settlement of claims due, as they alleged, to certain of their subjects. Their employment of force for the collection of these claims was terminated by an agreement brought about through the offices of the diplomatic representatives of the United States at Caracas and the Government at Washington, thereby ending a situation which was bound to cause increasing friction, and which jeoparded the peace of the continent. Under this agreement Venezuela agreed to set apart a certain percentage of the customs receipts of two of her ports to be applied to the payment of whatever obligations might be ascertained by mixed commissions appointed for that purpose to be due from her, not only to the three powers already mentioned, whose proceedings against her had resulted in a state of war, but also to the United States, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, and Mexico, who had not employed force for the collection of the claims alleged to be due to certain of their citizens. A demand was then made by the so-called blockading powers that the sums ascertained to be due to their citizens by such mixed commissions should be accorded payment in full before anything was paid upon the claims of any of the so-called peace powers. Venezuela, on the other hand, insisted that all her creditors should be paid upon a basis of exact equality. During the efforts to adjust this dispute it was suggested by the powers in interest that it should be referred to me for decision, but I was clearly of the opinion that a far wiser course would be to submit the question to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. It seemed to me to offer an admirable opportunity to advance the practice of the peaceful settlement of disputes between nations and to secure for the Hague Tribunal a memorable increase of its practical importance. The nations interested in the controversy were so numerous and in many instances so powerful as to make it evident that beneficent results would follow from their appearance at the same time before the bar of that august tribunal of peace. Our hopes in that regard have been realized. Russia and Austria are represented in the persons of the learned and distinguished jurists who compose the Tribunal, while Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Mexico, the United States, and Venezuela are represented by their respective agents and counsel. Such an imposing concourse of nations presenting their arguments to and invoking the decision of that high court of international justice and international peace can hardly fail to secure a like submission of many future controversies. The nations now appearing there will find it far easier to appear there a second time, while no nation can imagine its just pride will be lessened by following the example now presented. This triumph of the principle of international arbitration is a subject of warm congratulation and offers a happy augury for the peace of the world. There seems good ground for the belief that there has been a real growth among the civilized nations of a sentiment which will permit a gradual substitution of other methods than the method of war in the settlement of disputes. It is not pretended that as yet we are near a position in which it will be possible wholly to prevent war, or that a just regard for national interest and honor will in all cases permit of the settlement of international disputes by arbitration ;. but by a mixture of prudence and firmness with wisdom we think it is possible to do away with much of the provocation and excuse for war, and at least in many cases to substitute some other and more rational method for the settlement of disputes. The Hague Court offers so good an example of what can be done in the direction of such settlement that it should be encouraged in every way. Further steps should be taken. In President McKinley's annual Message of December 5, 1898, he made the following recommendation: "The experiences of the last year bring forcibly home to us a sense of the burdens and the waste of war. We desire in common with most civilized nations, to reduce to the lowest possible point the damage sustained in time of war by peaceable trade and commerce. It is true we may suffer in such cases less than other communities, but all nations are damaged more or less by the state of uneasiness and apprehension into which an outbreak of hostilities throws the entire commercial world. It should be our object, therefore, to minimize, so far as practicable, this inevitable loss and disturbance. This purpose can probably best be accomplished by an international agreement to regard all private property at sea as exempt from capture or destruction by the forces of belligerent powers. The United States Government has for many years advocated this humane and beneficent principle, and is now in a position to recommend it to other powers without the imputation of selfish motives. I therefore suggest for your consideration that the Executive be authorized to correspond with the governments of the principal maritime powers with a view of incorporating into the permanent law of civilized nations the principle of the exemption of all private property at sea, not contraband of war, from capture or destruction by belligerent powers." 
I cordially renew this recommendation. The Supreme Court, speaking on December 11. 1899, through Peckham, J., said: 
"It is, we think, historically accurate to say that this Government has always been, in its views, among the most advanced of the governments of the world in favor of mitigating, as to all non-combatants, the hardships and horrors of war. To accomplish that object it has always advocated those rules which would in most cases do away with the right to capture the private property of an enemy on the high seas." I advocate this as a matter of humanity and morals. It is anachronistic when private property is respected on land that it should not be respected at sea. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that shipping represents, internationally speaking, a much more generalized species of private property than is the case with ordinary property on land--that is, property found at sea is much less apt than is the case with property found on land really to belong to any one nation. Under the modern system of corporate ownership the flag of a vessel often differs from the flag which would mark the nationality of the real ownership and money control of the vessel; and the cargo may belong to individuals of yet a different nationality. Much American capital is now invested in foreign ships; and among foreign nations it often happens that the capital of one is largely invested in the shipping of another. Furthermore, as a practical matter, it may be mentioned that while commerce destroying may cause serious loss and great annoyance, it can never be more than a subsidiary factor in bringing to terms a resolute foe. This is now well recognized by all of our naval experts. The fighting ship, not the commerce destroyer, is the vessel whose feats add renown to a nation's history, and establish her place among the great powers of the world. Last year the Interparliamentary Union for International Arbitration met at Vienna, six hundred members of the different legislatures of civilized countries attending. It was provided that the next meeting should be in 1904 at St. Louis, subject to our Congress extending an invitation. Like the Hague Tribunal, this Interparliamentary Union is one of the forces tending towards peace among the nations of the earth, and it is entitled to our support. I trust the invitation can be extended. Early in July, having received intelligence, which happily turned out to be erroneous, of the assassination of our vice-consul at Beirut, I dispatched a small squadron to that port for such service as might be found necessary on arrival. Although the attempt on the life of our vice-consul had not been successful, yet the outrage was symptomatic of a state of excitement and disorder which demanded immediate attention. The arrival of the vessels had the happiest result. A feeling of security at once took the place of the former alarm and disquiet; our officers were cordially welcomed by the consular body and the leading merchants, and ordinary business resumed its activity. The Government of the Sultan gave a considerate hearing to the representations of our minister; the official who was regarded as responsible for the disturbed condition of affairs was removed. Our relations with the Turkish Government remain friendly; our claims rounded on inequitable treatment of some of our schools and missions appear to be in process of amicable adjustment. The signing of a new commercial treaty with China, which took place at Shanghai on the 8th of October, is a cause for satisfaction. This act, the result of long discussion and negotiation, places our commercial relations with the great Oriental Empire on a more satisfactory footing than they have ever heretofore enjoyed. It provides not only for the ordinary rights and privileges of diplomatic and consular officers, but also for an important extension of our commerce by increased facility of access to Chinese ports, and for the relief of trade by the removal of some of the obstacles which have embarrassed it in the past. The Chinese Government engages, on fair and equitable conditions, which will probably be accepted by the principal commercial nations, to abandon the levy of "liken" and other transit dues throughout the Empire, and to introduce other desirable administrative reforms. Larger facilities are to be given to our citizens who desire to carry on mining enterprises in China. We have secured for our missionaries a valuable privilege, the recognition of their right to rent and lease in perpetuity such property as their religious societies may need in all parts of the Empire. And, what was an indispensable condition for the advance and development of our commerce in Manchuria, China, by treaty with us, has opened to foreign commerce the cities of Mukden, the capital of the province of Manchuria, and An-tung, an important port on the Yalu River, on the road to Korea. The full measure of development which our commerce may rightfully expect can hardly be looked for until the settlement of the present abnormal state of things in the Empire; but the foundation for such development has at last been laid. I call your attention to the reduced cost in maintaining the consular service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, as shown in the annual report of the Auditor for the State and other Departments, as compared with the year previous. For the year under consideration the excess of expenditures over receipts on account of the consular service amounted to $26,125.12, as against $96,972.50 for the year ending June 30, 1902, and $147,040.16 for the year ending June 30, 1901. This is the best showing in this respect for the consular service for the past fourteen years, and the reduction in the cost of the service to the Government has been made in spite of the fact that the expenditures for the year in question were more than $20,000 greater than for the previous year. The rural free-delivery service has been steadily extended. The attention of the Congress is asked to the question of the compensation of the letter carriers and clerks engaged in the postal service, especially on the new rural free-delivery routes. More routes have been installed since the first of July last than in any like period in the Department's history. While a due regard to economy must be kept in mind in the establishment of new routes, yet the extension of the rural free-delivery system must be continued, for reasons of sound public policy. No governmental movement of recent years has resulted in greater immediate benefit to the people of the country districts. Rural free delivery, taken in connection with the telephone, the bicycle, and the trolley, accomplishes much toward lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more attractive. In the immediate past the lack of just such facilities as these has driven many of the more active and restless young men and women from the farms to the cities; for they rebelled at loneliness and lack of mental companionship. It is unhealthy and undesirable for the cities to grow at the expense of the country; and rural free delivery is not only a good thing in itself, but is good because it is one of the causes which check this unwholesome tendency towards the urban concentration of our population at the expense of the country districts. It is for the same reason that we sympathize with and approve of the policy of building good roads. The movement for good roads is one fraught with the greatest benefit to the country districts. I trust that the Congress will continue to favor in all proper ways the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. This Exposition commemorates the Louisiana purchase, which was the first great step in the expansion which made us a continental nation. The expedition of Lewis and Clark across the continent followed thereon, and marked the beginning of the process of exploration and colonization which thrust our national boundaries to the Pacific. The acquisition of the Oregon country, including the present States of Oregon and Washington, was a fact of immense importance in our history; first giving us our place on the Pacific seaboard, and making ready the way for our ascendency in the commerce of the greatest of the oceans. The centennial of our establishment upon the western coast by the expedition of Lewis and Clark is to be celebrated at Portland, Oregon, by an exposition in the summer of 1905, and this event should receive recognition and support from the National Government. I call your special attention to the Territory of Alaska. The country is developing rapidly, and it has an assured future. The mineral wealth is great and has as yet hardly been tapped. The fisheries, if wisely handled and kept under national control, will be a business as permanent as any other, and of the utmost importance to the people. The forests if properly guarded will form another great source of wealth. Portions of Alaska are fitted for farming and stock raising, although the methods must be adapted to the peculiar conditions of the country. Alaska is situated in the far north; but so are Norway and Sweden and Finland; and Alaska can prosper and play its part in the New World just as those nations have prospered and played their parts in the Old World. Proper land laws should be enacted; and the survey of the public lands immediately begun. Coal-land laws should be provided whereby the coal-land entryman may make his location and secure patent under methods kindred to those now prescribed for homestead and mineral entrymen. Salmon hatcheries, exclusively under Government control, should be established. The cable should be extended from Sitka westward. Wagon roads and trails should be built, and the building of railroads promoted in all legitimate ways. Light-houses should be built along the coast. Attention should be paid to the needs of the Alaska Indians; provision should be made for an officer, with deputies, to study their needs, relieve their immediate wants, and help them adapt themselves to the new conditions. The commission appointed to investigate, during the season of 1903, the condition and needs of the Alaskan salmon fisheries, has finished its work in the field, and is preparing a detailed report thereon. A preliminary report reciting the measures immediately required for the protection and preservation of the salmon industry has already been submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for his attention and for the needed action. I recommend that an appropriation be made for building light-houses in Hawaii, and taking possession of those already built. The Territory should be reimbursed for whatever amounts it has already expended for light-houses. The governor should be empowered to suspend or remove any official appointed by him, without submitting the matter to the legislature. Of our insular possessions the Philippines and Porto Rico it is gratifying to say that their steady progress has been such as to make it unnecessary to spend much time in discussing them. Yet the Congress should ever keep in mind that a peculiar obligation rests upon us to further in every way the welfare of these communities. The Philippines should be knit closer to us by tariff arrangements. It would, of course, be impossible suddenly to raise the people of the islands to the high pitch of industrial prosperity and of governmental efficiency to which they will in the end by degrees attain; and the caution and moderation shown in developing them have been among the main reasons why this development has hitherto gone on so smoothly. Scrupulous care has been taken in the choice of governmental agents, and the entire elimination of partisan politics from the public service. The condition of the islanders is in material things far better than ever before, while their governmental, intellectual, and moral advance has kept pace with their material advance. No one people ever benefited another people more than we have benefited the Filipinos by taking possession of the islands. The cash receipts of the General Land Office for the last fiscal year were $11,024,743.65, an increase of $4,762,816.47 over the preceding year. Of this sum, approximately, $8,461,493 will go to the credit of the fund for the reclamation of arid land, making the total of this fund, up to the 30th of June, 1903, approximately, $16,191,836. A gratifying disposition has been evinced by those having unlawful inclosures of public land to remove their fences. Nearly two million acres so inclosed have been thrown open on demand. In but comparatively few cases has it been necessary to go into court to accomplish this purpose. This work will be vigorously prosecuted until all unlawful inclosures have been removed. Experience has shown that in the western States themselves, as well as in the rest of the country, there is widespread conviction that certain of the public-land laws and the resulting administrative practice no longer meet the present needs. The character and uses of the remaining public lands differ widely from those of the public lands which Congress had especially in view when these laws were passed. The rapidly increasing rate of disposal of the public lands is not followed by a corresponding increase in home building. There is a tendency to mass in large holdings public lands, especially timber and grazing lands, and thereby to retard settlement. I renew and emphasize my recommendation of last year that so far as they are available for agriculture in its broadest sense, and to whatever extent they may be reclaimed under the national irrigation law, the remaining public lands should be held rigidly for the home builder. The attention of the Congress is especially directed to the timber and stone law, the desert-land law, and the commutation clause of the homestead law, which in their operation have in many respects conflicted with wise public-land policy. The discussions in the Congress and elsewhere have made it evident that there is a wide divergence of opinions between those holding opposite views on these subjects; and that the opposing sides have strong and convinced representatives of weight both within and without the Congress; the differences being not only as to matters of opinion but as to matters of fact. In order that definite information may be available for the use of the Congress, I have appointed a commission composed of W. A. Richards, Commissioner of the General Land Office; Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture, and F. H. Newell, Chief Hydrographer of the Geological Survey, to report at the earliest practicable moment upon the condition, operation, and effect of the present land laws and on the use, condition, disposal, and settlement of the public lands. The commission will report especially what changes in organization, laws, regulations, and practice affecting the public lands are needed to effect the largest practicable disposition of the public lands to actual settlers who will build permanent homes upon them, and to secure in permanence the fullest and most effective use of the resources of the public lands; and it will make such other reports and recommendations as its study of these questions may suggest. The commission is to report immediately upon those points concerning which its judgment is clear; on any point upon which it has doubt it will take the time necessary to make investigation and reach a final judgment. The work of reclamation of the arid lands of the West is progressing steadily and satisfactorily under the terms of the law setting aside the proceeds from the disposal of public lands. The corps of engineers known as the Reclamation Service, which is conducting the surveys and examinations, has been thoroughly organized, especial pains being taken to secure under the civil-service rules a body of skilled, experienced, and efficient men. Surveys and examinations are progressing throughout the arid States and Territories, plans for reclaiming works being prepared and passed upon by boards of engineers before approval by the Secretary of the Interior. In Arizona and Nevada, in localities where such work is pre-eminently needed, construction has already been begun. In other parts of the arid West various projects are well advanced towards the drawing up of contracts, these being delayed in part by necessities of reaching agreements or understanding as regards rights of way or acquisition of real estate. Most of the works contemplated for construction are of national importance, involving interstate questions or the securing of stable, self-supporting communities in the midst of vast tracts of vacant land. The Nation as a whole is of course the gainer by the creation of these homes, adding as they do to the wealth and stability of the country, and furnishing a home market for the products of the East and South. The reclamation law, while perhaps not ideal, appears at present to answer the larger needs for which it is designed. Further legislation is not recommended until the necessities of change are more apparent. The study of the opportunities of reclamation of the vast extent of arid land shows that whether this reclamation is done by individuals, corporations, or the State, the sources of water supply must be effectively protected and the reservoirs guarded by the preservation of the forests at the headwaters of the streams. The engineers making the preliminary examinations continually emphasize this need and urge that the remaining public lands at the headwaters of the important streams of the West be reserved to insure permanency of water supply for irrigation. Much progress in forestry has been made during the past year. The necessity for perpetuating our forest resources, whether in public or private hands, is recognized now as never before. The demand for forest reserves has become insistent in the West, because the West must use the water, wood, and summer range which only such reserves can supply. Progressive lumbermen are striving, through forestry, to give their business permanence. Other great business interests are awakening to the need of forest preservation as a business matter. The Government's forest work should receive from the Congress hearty support, and especially support adequate for the protection of the forest reserves against fire. The forest-reserve policy of the Government has passed beyond the experimental stage and has reached a condition where scientific methods are essential to its successful prosecution. The administrative features of forest reserves are at present unsatisfactory, being divided between three Bureaus of two Departments. It is therefore recommended that all matters pertaining to forest reserves, except those involving or pertaining to land titles, be consolidated in the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture. The cotton-growing States have recently been invaded by a weevil that has done much damage and threatens the entire cotton industry. I suggest to the Congress the prompt enactment of such remedial legislation as its judgment may approve. In granting patents to foreigners the proper course for this country to follow is to give the same advantages to foreigners here that the countries in which these foreigners dwell extend in return to our citizens; that is, to extend the benefits of our patent laws on inventions and the like where in return the articles would be patentable in the foreign countries concerned--where an American could get a corresponding patent in such countries. The Indian agents should not be dependent for their appointment or tenure of office upon considerations of partisan politics; the practice of appointing, when possible, ex-army officers or bonded superintendents to the vacancies that occur is working well. Attention is invited to the widespread illiteracy due to lack of public schools in the Indian Territory. Prompt heed should be paid to the need of education for the children in this Territory. In my last annual Message the attention of the Congress was called to the necessity of enlarging the safety-appliance law, and it is gratifying to note that this law was amended in important respects. With the increasing railway mileage of the country, the greater number of men employed, and the use of larger and heavier equipment, the urgency for renewed effort to prevent the loss of life and limb upon the railroads of the country, particularly to employees, is apparent. For the inspection of water craft and the Life-Saving Service upon the water the Congress has built up an elaborate body of protective legislation and a thorough method of inspection and is annually spending large sums of money. It is encouraging to observe that the Congress is alive to the interests of those who are employed upon our wonderful arteries of commerce--the railroads--who so safely transport millions of passengers and billions of tons of freight. The Federal inspection, of safety appliances, for which the Congress is now making appropriations, is a service analogous to that which the Government has upheld for generations in regard to vessels, and it is believed will prove of great practical benefit, both to railroad employees and the traveling public. As the greater part of commerce is interstate and exclusively under the control of the Congress the needed safety and uniformity must be secured by national legislation. No other class of our citizens deserves so well of the Nation as those to whom the Nation owes its very being, the veterans of the civil war. Special attention is asked to the excellent work of the Pension Bureau in expediting and disposing of pension claims. During the fiscal year ending July 1, 1903, the Bureau settled 251,982 claims, an average of 825 claims for each working day of the year. The number of settlements since July 1, 1903, has been in excess of last year's average, approaching 1,000 claims for each working day, and it is believed that the work of the Bureau will be current at the close of the present fiscal year. During the year ended June 30 last 25,566 persons were appointed through competitive examinations under the civil-service rules. This was 12,672 more than during the preceding year, and 40 per cent of those who passed the examinations. This abnormal growth was largely occasioned by the extension of classification to the rural free-delivery service and the appointment last year of over 9,000 rural carriers. A revision of the civil-service rules took effect on April 15 last, which has greatly improved their operation. The completion of the reform of the civil service is recognized by good citizens everywhere as a matter of the highest public importance, and the success of the merit system largely depends upon the effectiveness of the rules and the machinery provided for their enforcement. A very gratifying spirit of friendly co-operation exists in all the Departments of the Government in the enforcement and uniform observance of both the letter and spirit of the civil-service act. Executive orders of July 3, 1902; March 26, 1903, and July 8, 1903, require that appointments of all unclassified laborers, both in the Departments at Washington and in the field service, shall be made with the assistance of the United States Civil Service Commission, under a system of registration to test the relative fitness of applicants for appointment or employment. This system is competitive, and is open to all citizens of the United States qualified in respect to age, physical ability, moral character, industry, and adaptability for manual labor; except that in case of veterans of the Civil War the element of age is omitted. This system of appointment is distinct from the classified service and does not classify positions of mere laborer under the civil-service act and rules. Regulations in aid thereof have been put in operation in several of the Departments and are being gradually extended in other parts of the service. The results have been very satisfactory, as extravagance has been checked by decreasing the number of unnecessary positions and by increasing the efficiency of the employees remaining. The Congress, as the result of a thorough investigation of the charities and reformatory institutions in the District of Columbia, by a joint select committee of the two Houses which made its report in March, 1898, created in the act approved June 6, 1900, a board of charities for the District of Columbia, to consist of five residents of the District, appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, each for a term of three years, to serve without compensation. President McKinley appointed five men who had been active and prominent in the public charities in Washington, all of whom upon taking office July 1, 1900, resigned from the different charities with which they had been connected. The members of the board have been reappointed in successive years. The board serves under the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. The board gave its first year to a careful and impartial study of the special problems before it, and has continued that study every year in the light of the best practice in public charities elsewhere. Its recommendations in its annual reports to the Congress through the Commissioners of the District of Columbia "for the economical and efficient administration of the charities and reformatories of the District of Columbia," as required by the act creating it, have been based upon the principles commended by the joint select committee of the Congress in its report of March, 1898, and approved by the best administrators of public charities, and make for the desired systematization and improvement of the affairs under its supervision. They are worthy of favorable consideration by the Congress. The effect of the laws providing a General Staff for the Army and for the more effective use of the National Guard has been excellent. Great improvement has been made in the efficiency of our Army in recent years. Such schools as those erected at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley and the institution of fall maneuver work accomplish satisfactory results. The good effect of these maneuvers upon the National Guard is marked, and ample appropriation should be made to enable the guardsmen of the several States to share in the benefit. The Government should as soon as possible secure suitable permanent camp sites for military maneuvers in the various sections of the country. The service thereby rendered not only to the Regular Army, but to the National Guard of the several States, will be so great as to repay many times over the relatively small expense. We should not rest satisfied with what has been done, however. The only people who are contented with a system of promotion by mere seniority are those who are contented with the triumph of mediocrity over excellence. On the other hand, a system which encouraged the exercise of social or political favoritism in promotions would be even worse. But it would surely be easy to devise a method of promotion from grade to grade in which the opinion of the higher officers of the service upon the candidates should be decisive upon the standing and promotion of the latter. Just such a system now obtains at West Point. The quality of each year's work determines the standing of that year's class, the man being dropped or graduated into the next class in the relative position which his military superiors decide to be warranted by his merit. In other words, ability, energy, fidelity, and all other similar qualities determine the rank of a man year after year in West Point, and his standing in the Army when he graduates from West Point; but from that time on, all effort to find which man is best or worst, and reward or punish him accordingly, is abandoned; no brilliancy, no amount of hard work, no eagerness in the performance of duty, can advance him, and no slackness or indifference that falls short of a court-martial offense can retard him. Until this system is changed we can not hope that our officers will be of as high grade as we have a right to expect, considering the material upon which we draw. Moreover, when a man renders such service as Captain Pershing rendered last spring in the Moro campaign, it ought to be possible to reward him without at once jumping him to the grade of brigadier-general. Shortly after the enunciation of that famous principle of American foreign policy now known as the "Monroe Doctrine," President Monroe, in a special Message to Congress on January 30, 1824, spoke as follows: "The Navy is the arm from which our Government will always derive most aid in support of our rights. Every power engaged in war will know the strength of our naval power, the number of our ships of each class, their condition, and the promptitude with which we may bring them into service, and will pay due consideration to that argument." I heartily congratulate the Congress upon the steady progress in building up the American Navy. We can not afford a let-up in this great work. To stand still means to go back. There should be no cessation in adding to the effective units of the fighting strength of the fleet. Meanwhile the Navy Department and the officers of the Navy are doing well their part by providing constant service at sea under conditions akin to those of actual warfare. Our officers and enlisted men are learning to handle the battleships, cruisers, and torpedo boats with high efficiency in fleet and squadron formations, and the standard of marksmanship is being steadily raised. The best work ashore is indispensable, but the highest duty of a naval officer is to exercise command at sea. The establishment of a naval base in the Philippines ought not to be longer postponed. Such a base is desirable in time of peace; in time of war it would be indispensable, and its lack would be ruinous. Without it our fleet would be helpless. Our naval experts are agreed that Subig Bay is the proper place for the purpose. The national interests require that the work of fortification and development of a naval station at Subig Bay be begun at an early date; for under the best conditions it is a work which will consume much time. It is eminently desirable, however, that there should be provided a naval general staff on lines similar to those of the General Staff lately created for the Army. Within the Navy Department itself the needs of the service have brought about a system under which the duties of a general staff are partially performed; for the Bureau of Navigation has under its direction the War College, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Board of Inspection, and has been in close touch with the General Board of the Navy. But though under the excellent officers at their head, these boards and bureaus do good work, they have not the authority of a general staff, and have not sufficient scope to insure a proper readiness for emergencies. We need the establishment by law of a body of trained officers, who shall exercise a systematic control of the military affairs of the Navy, and be authorized advisers of the Secretary concerning it. By the act of June 28, 1902, the Congress authorized the President to enter into treaty with Colombia for the building of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama; it being provided that in the event of failure to secure such treaty after the lapse of a reasonable time, recourse should be had to building a canal through Nicaragua. It has not been necessary to consider this alternative, as I am enabled to lay before the Senate a treaty providing for the building of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama. This was the route which commended itself to the deliberate judgment of the Congress, and we can now acquire by treaty the right to construct the canal over this route. The question now, therefore, is not by which route the isthmian canal shall be built, for that question has been definitely and irrevocably decided. The question is simply whether or not we shall have an isthmian canal. When the Congress directed that we should take the Panama route under treaty with Colombia, the essence of the condition, of course, referred not to the Government which controlled that route, but to the route itself; to the territory across which the route lay, not to the name which for the moment the territory bore on the map. The purpose of the law was to authorize the President to make a treaty with the power in actual control of the Isthmus of Panama. This purpose has been fulfilled. In the year 1846 this Government entered into a treaty with New Granada, the predecessor upon the Isthmus of the Republic of Colombia and of the present Republic of Panama, by which treaty it was provided that the Government and citizens of the United States should always have free and open right of way or transit across the Isthmus of Panama by any modes of communication that might be constructed, while in turn our Government guaranteed the perfect neutrality of the above-mentioned Isthmus with the view that the free transit from the one to the other sea might not be interrupted or embarrassed. The treaty vested in the United States a substantial property right carved out of the rights of sovereignty and property which New Granada then had and possessed over the said territory. The name of New Granada has passed away and its territory has been divided. Its successor, the Government of Colombia, has ceased to own any property in the Isthmus. A new Republic, that of Panama, which was at one time a sovereign state, and at another time a mere department of the successive confederations known as New Granada and Columbia, has now succeeded to the rights which first one and then the other formerly exercised over the Isthmus. But as long as the Isthmus endures, the mere geographical fact of its existence, and the peculiar interest therein which is required by our position, perpetuate the solemn contract which binds the holders of the territory to respect our right to freedom of transit across it, and binds us in return to safeguard for the Isthmus and the world the exercise of that inestimable privilege. The true interpretation of the obligations upon which the United States entered in this treaty of 1846 has been given repeatedly in the utterances of Presidents and Secretaries of State. Secretary Cuss in 1858 officially stated the position of this Government as follows: "The progress of events has rendered the interoceanic route across the narrow portion of Central America vastly important to the commercial world, and especially to the United States, whose possessions extend along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and demand the speediest and easiest modes of communication. While the rights of sovereignty of the states occupying this region should always be respected, we shall expect that these rights be exercised in a spirit befitting the occasion and the wants and circumstances that have arisen. Sovereignty has its duties as well as its rights, and none of these local governments, even if administered with more regard to the just demands of other nations than they have been, would be permitted, in a spirit of Eastern isolation, to close the gates of intercourse on the great highways of the world, and justify the act by the pretension that these avenues of trade and travel belong to them and that they choose to shut them, or, what is almost equivalent, to encumber them with such unjust relations as would prevent their general use." Seven years later, in 1865, Mr. Seward in different communications took the following position: "The United States have taken and will take no interest in any question of internal revolution in the State of Panama, or any State of the United States of Colombia, but will maintain a perfect neutrality in connection with such domestic altercations. The United States will, nevertheless, hold themselves ready to protect the transit trade across the Isthmus against invasion of either domestic or foreign disturbers of the peace of the State of Panama. Neither the text nor the spirit of the stipulation in that article by which the United States engages to preserve the neutrality of the Isthmus of Panama, imposes an obligation on this Government to comply with the requisition of the President of the United States of Colombia for a force to protect the Isthmus of Panama from a body of insurgents of that country]. The purpose of the stipulation was to guarantee the Isthmus against seizure or invasion by a foreign power only." Attorney-General Speed, under date of November 7, 1865, advised Secretary Seward as follows: "From this treaty it can not be supposed that New Granada invited the United States to become a party to the intestine troubles of that Government, nor did the United States become bound to take sides in the domestic broils of New Granada. The United States did guarantee New Granada in the sovereignty and property over the territory. This was as against other and foreign governments." For four hundred years, ever since shortly after the discovery of this hemisphere, the canal across the Isthmus has been planned. For two score years it has been worked at. When made it is to last for the ages. It is to alter the geography of a continent and the trade routes of the world. We have shown by every treaty we have negotiated or attempted to negotiate with the peoples in control of the Isthmus and with foreign nations in reference thereto our consistent good faith in observing our obligations; on the one hand to the peoples of the Isthmus, and on the other hand to the civilized world whose commercial rights we are safeguarding and guaranteeing by our action. We have done our duty to others in letter and in spirit, and we have shown the utmost forbearance in exacting our own rights. Last spring, under the act above referred to, a treaty concluded between the representatives of the Republic of Colombia and of our Government was ratified by the Senate. This treaty was entered into at the urgent solicitation of the people of Colombia and after a body of experts appointed by our Government especially to go into the matter of the routes across the Isthmus had pronounced unanimously in favor of the Panama route. In drawing up this treaty every concession was made to the people and to the Government of Colombia. We were more than just in dealing with them. Our generosity was such as to make it a serious question whether we had not gone too far in their interest at the expense of our own; for in our scrupulous desire to pay all possible heed, not merely to the real but even to the fancied rights of our weaker neighbor, who already owed so much to our protection and forbearance, we yielded in all possible ways to her desires in drawing up the treaty. Nevertheless the Government of Colombia not merely repudiated the treaty, but repudiated it in such manner as to make it evident by the time the Colombian Congress adjourned that not the scantiest hope remained of ever getting a satisfactory treaty from them. The Government of Colombia made the treaty, and yet when the Colombian Congress was called to ratify it the vote against ratification was unanimous. It does not appear that the Government made any real effort to secure ratification. Immediately after the adjournment of the Congress a revolution broke out in Panama. The people of Panama had long been discontented with the Republic of Colombia, and they had been kept quiet only by the prospect of the conclusion of the treaty, which was to them a matter of vital concern. When it became evident that the treaty was hopelessly lost, the people of Panama rose literally as one man. Not a shot was fired by a single man on the Isthmus in the interest of the Colombian Government. Not a life was lost in the accomplishment of the revolution. The Colombian troops stationed on the Isthmus, who had long been unpaid, made common cause with the people of Panama, and with astonishing unanimity the new Republic was started. The duty of the United States in the premises was clear. In strict accordance with the principles laid down by Secretaries Cass and Seward in the official documents above quoted, the United States gave notice that it would permit the landing of no expeditionary force, the arrival of which would mean chaos and destruction along the line of the railroad and of the proposed Canal, and an interruption of transit as an inevitable consequence. The de facto Government of Panama was recognized in the following telegram to Mr. Ehrman: "The people of Panama have, by apparently unanimous movement, dissolved their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and resumed their independence. When you are satisfied that a de facto government, republican in form and without substantial opposition from its own people, has been established in the State of Panama, you will enter into relations with it as the responsible government of the territory and look to it for all due action to protect the persons and property of citizens of the United States and to keep open the isthmian transit, in accordance with the obligations of existing treaties governing the relations of the United States to that Territory." The Government of Colombia was notified of our action by the following telegram to Mr. Beaupre: "The people of Panama having, by an apparently unanimous movement, dissolved their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and resumed their independence, and having adopted a Government of their own, republican in form, with which the Government of the United States of America has entered into relations, the President of the United States, in accordance with the ties of friendship which have so long and so happily existed between the respective nations, most earnestly commends to the Governments of Colombia and of Panama the peaceful and equitable settlement of all questions at issue between them. He holds that he is bound not merely by treaty obligations, but by the interests of civilization, to see that the peaceful traffic of the world across the Isthmus of Panama shall not longer be disturbed by a constant succession of unnecessary and wasteful civil wars." When these events happened, fifty-seven years had elapsed since the United States had entered into its treaty with New Granada. During that time the Governments of New Granada and of its successor, Colombia, have been in a constant state of flux. The following is a partial list of the disturbances on the Isthmus of Panama during the period in question as reported to us by our consuls. It is not possible to give a complete list, and some of the reports that speak of "revolutions" must mean unsuccessful revolutions. The above is only a partial list of the revolutions, rebellions, insurrections, riots, and other outbreaks that have occurred during the period in question; yet they number 53 for the 57 years. It will be noted that one of them lasted for nearly three years before it was quelled; another for nearly a year. In short, the experience of over half a century has shown Colombia to be utterly incapable of keeping order on the Isthmus. Only the active interference of the United States has enabled her to preserve so much as a semblance of sovereignty. Had it not been for the exercise by the United States of the police power in her interest, her connection with the Isthmus would have been sundered long ago. In 1856, in 1860, in 1873, in 1885, in 1901, and again in 1902, sailors and marines from United States war ships were forced to land in order to patrol the Isthmus, to protect life and property, and to see that the transit across the Isthmus was kept open. In 1861, in 1862, in 1885, and in 1900, the Colombian Government asked that the United States Government would land troops to protect its interests and maintain order on the Isthmus. Perhaps the most extraordinary request is that which has just been received and which runs as follows: "Knowing that revolution has already commenced in Panama [an eminent Colombian] says that if the Government of the United States will land troops to preserve Colombian sovereignty, and the transit, if requested by Colombian charge d'affaires, this Government will declare martial law; and, by virtue of vested constitutional authority, when public order is disturbed, will approve by decree ratification of the canal treaty as signed; or, if the Government of the United States prefers, will call extra session of the Congress--with new and friendly members--next May to approve the treaty. [An eminent Colombian] has the perfect confidence of vice-president, he says, and if it became necessary will go to the Isthmus or send representatives there to adjust matters along above lines to the satisfaction of the people there." This dispatch is noteworthy from two standpoints. Its offer of immediately guaranteeing the treaty to us is in sharp contrast with the positive and contemptuous refusal of the Congress which has just closed its sessions to consider favorably such a treaty; it shows that the Government which made the treaty really had absolute control over the situation, but did not choose to exercise this control. The dispatch further calls on us to restore order and secure Colombian supremacy in the Isthmus from which the Colombian Government has just by its action decided to bar us by preventing the construction of the canal. The control, in the interest of the commerce and traffic of the whole civilized world, of the means of undisturbed transit across the Isthmus of Panama has become of transcendent importance to the United States. We have repeatedly exercised this control by intervening in the course of domestic dissension, and by protecting the territory from foreign invasion. In 1853 Mr. Everett assured the Peruvian minister that we should not hesitate to maintain the neutrality of the Isthmus in the case of war between Peru and Colombia. In 1864 Colombia, which has always been vigilant to avail itself of its privileges conferred by the treaty, expressed its expectation that in the event of war between Peru and Spain the United States would carry into effect the guaranty of neutrality. There have been few administrations of the State Department in which this treaty has not, either by the one side or the other, been used as a basis of more or less important demands. It was said by Mr. Fish in 1871 that the Department of State had reason to believe that an attack upon Colombian sovereignty on the Isthmus had, on several occasions, been averted by warning from this Government. In 1886, when Colombia was under the menace of hostilities from Italy in the Cerruti case, Mr. Bayard expressed the serious concern that the United States could not but feel, that a European power should resort to force against a sister republic of this hemisphere, as to the sovereign and uninterrupted use of a part of whose territory we are guarantors under the solemn faith of a treaty. The above recital of facts establishes beyond question: First, that the United States has for over half a century patiently and in good faith carried out its obligations under the treaty of 1846; second, that when for the first time it became possible for Colombia to do anything in requital of the services thus repeatedly rendered to it for fifty-seven years by the United States, the Colombian Government peremptorily and offensively refused thus to do its part, even though to do so would have been to its advantage and immeasurably to the advantage of the State of Panama, at that time under its jurisdiction; third, that throughout this period revolutions, riots, and factional disturbances of every kind have occurred one after the other in almost uninterrupted succession, some of them lasting for months and even for years, while the central government was unable to put them down or to make peace with the rebels; fourth, that these disturbances instead of showing any sign of abating have tended to grow more numerous and more serious in the immediate past; fifth, that the control of Colombia over the Isthmus of Panama could not be maintained without the armed intervention and assistance of the United States. In other words, the Government of Colombia, though wholly unable to maintain order on the Isthmus, has nevertheless declined to ratify a treaty the conclusion of which opened the only chance to secure its own stability and to guarantee permanent peace on, and the construction of a canal across, the Isthmus. Under such circumstances the Government of the United States would have been guilty of folly and weakness, amounting in their sum to a crime against the Nation, had it acted otherwise than it did when the revolution of November 3 last took place in Panama. This great enterprise of building the interoceanic canal can not be held up to gratify the whims, or out of respect to the governmental impotence, or to the even more sinister and evil political peculiarities, of people who, though they dwell afar off, yet, against the wish of the actual dwellers on the Isthmus, assert an unreal supremacy over the territory. The possession of a territory fraught with such peculiar capacities as the Isthmus in question carries with it obligations to mankind. The course of events has shown that this canal can not be built by private enterprise, or by any other nation than our own; therefore it must be built by the United States. Every effort has been made by the Government of the United States to persuade Colombia to follow a course which was essentially not only to our interests and to the interests of the world, but to the interests of Colombia itself. These efforts have failed; and Colombia, by her persistence in repulsing the advances that have been made, has forced us, for the sake of our own honor, and of the interest and well-being, not merely of our own people, but of the people of the Isthmus of Panama and the people of the civilized countries of the world, to take decisive steps to bring to an end a condition of affairs which had become intolerable. The new Republic of Panama immediately offered to negotiate a treaty with us. This treaty I herewith submit. By it our interests are better safeguarded than in the treaty with Colombia which was ratified by the Senate at its last session. It is better in its terms than the treaties offered to us by the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. At last the right to begin this great undertaking is made available. Panama has done her part. All that remains is for the American Congress to do its part, and forthwith this Republic will enter upon the execution of a project colossal in its size and of well-nigh incalculable possibilities for the good of this country and the nations of mankind. By the provisions of the treaty the United States guarantees and will maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama. There is granted to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of a strip ten miles wide and extending three nautical miles into the sea at either terminal, with all lands lying outside of the zone necessary for the construction of the canal or for its auxiliary works, and with the islands in the Bay of Panama. The cities of Panama and Colon are not embraced in the canal zone, but the United States assumes their sanitation and, in case of need, the maintenance of order therein; the United States enjoys within the granted limits all the rights, power, and authority which it would possess were it the sovereign of the territory to the exclusion of the exercise of sovereign rights by the Republic. All railway and canal property rights belonging to Panama and needed for the canal pass to the United States, including any property of the respective companies in the cities of Panama and Colon; the works, property, and personnel of the canal and railways are exempted from taxation as well in the cities of Panama and Colon as in the canal zone and its dependencies. Free immigration of the personnel and importation of supplies for the construction and operation of the canal are granted. Provision is made for the use of military force and the building of fortifications by the United States for the protection of the transit. In other details, particularly as to the acquisition of the interests of the New Panama Canal Company and the Panama Railway by the United States and the condemnation of private property for the uses of the canal, the stipulations of the Hay-Herran treaty are closely followed, while the compensation to be given for these enlarged grants remains the same, being ten millions of dollars payable on exchange of ratifications; and, beginning nine years from that date, an annual payment of $250,000 during the life of the convention.
The country is to be congratulated on the amount of substantial achievement which has marked the past year both as regards our foreign and as regards our domestic policy. With a nation as with a man the most important things are those of the household, and therefore the country is especially to be congratulated on what has been accomplished in the direction of providing for the exercise of supervision over the great corporations and combinations of corporations engaged in interstate commerce. The Congress has created the Department of Commerce and Labor, including the Bureau of Corporations, with for the first time authority to secure proper publicity of such proceedings of these great corporations as the public has the right to know. It has provided for the expediting of suits for the enforcement of the Federal anti-trust law; and by another law it has secured equal treatment to all producers in the transportation of their goods, thus taking a long stride forward in making effective the work of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The establishment of the Department of Commerce and Labor, with the Bureau of Corporations thereunder, marks a real advance in the direction of doing all that is possible for the solution of the questions vitally affecting capitalists and wage-workers. The act creating Department was approved on February 14, 1903, and two days later the head of the Department was nominated and confirmed by the Senate. Since then the work of organization has been pushed as rapidly as the initial appropriations permitted, and with due regard to thoroughness and the broad purposes which the Department is designed to serve. After the transfer of the various bureaus and branches to the Department at the beginning of the current fiscal year, as provided for in the act, the personnel comprised 1,289 employees in Washington and 8,836 in the country at large. The scope of the Department's duty and authority embraces the commercial and industrial interests of the Nation. It is not designed to restrict or control the fullest liberty of legitimate business action, but to secure exact and authentic information which will aid the Executive in enforcing existing laws, and which will enable the Congress to enact additional legislation, if any should be found necessary, in order to prevent the few from obtaining privileges at the expense of diminished opportunities for the many. The preliminary work of the Bureau of Corporations in the Department has shown the wisdom of its creation. Publicity in corporate affairs will tend to do away with ignorance, and will afford facts upon which intelligent action may be taken. Systematic, intelligent investigation is already developing facts the knowledge of which is essential to a right understanding of the needs and duties of the business world. The corporation which is honestly and fairly organized, whose managers in the conduct of its business recognize their obligation to deal squarely with their stockholders, their competitors, and the public, has nothing to fear from such supervision. The purpose of this Bureau is not to embarrass or assail legitimate business, but to aid in bringing about a better industrial condition--a condition under which there shall be obedience to law and recognition of public obligation by all corporations, great or small. The Department of Commerce and Labor will be not only the clearing house for information regarding the business transactions of the Nation, but the executive arm of the Government to aid in strengthening our domestic and foreign markets, in perfecting our transportation facilities, in building up our merchant marine, in preventing the entrance of undesirable immigrants, in improving commercial and industrial conditions, and in bringing together on common ground those necessary partners in industrial progress--capital and labor. Commerce between the nations is steadily growing in volume, and the tendency of the times is toward closer trade relations. Constant watchfulness is needed to secure to Americans the chance to participate to the best advantage in foreign trade; and we may confidently expect that the new Department will justify the expectation of its creators by the exercise of this watchfulness, as well as by the businesslike administration of such laws relating to our internal affairs as are intrusted to its care. In enacting the laws above enumerated the Congress proceeded on sane and conservative lines. Nothing revolutionary was attempted; but a common-sense and successful effort was made in the direction of seeing that corporations are so handled as to subserve the public good. The legislation was moderate. It was characterized throughout by the idea that we were not attacking corporations, but endeavoring to provide for doing away with any evil in them; that we drew the line against misconduct, not against wealth; gladly recognizing the great good done by the capitalist who alone, or in conjunction with his fellows, does his work along proper and legitimate lines. The purpose of the legislation, which purpose will undoubtedly be fulfilled, was to favor such a man when he does well, and to supervise his action only to prevent him from doing ill. Publicity can do no harm to the honest corporation. The only corporation that has because to dread it is the corporation which shrinks from the light, and about the welfare of such corporations we need not be oversensitive. The work of the Department of Commerce and Labor has been conditioned upon this theory, of securing fair treatment alike for labor and for capital. The consistent policy of the National Government, so far as it has the power, is to hold in check the unscrupulous man, whether employer or employee; but to refuse to weaken individual initiative or to hamper or cramp the industrial development of the country. We recognize that this is an era of federation and combination, in which great capitalistic corporations and labor unions have become factors of tremendous importance in all industrial centers. Hearty recognition is given the far-reaching, beneficent work which has been accomplished through both corporations and unions, and the line as between different corporations, as between different unions, is drawn as it is between different individuals; that is, it is drawn on conduct, the effort being to treat both organized capital and organized labor alike; asking nothing save that the interest of each shall be brought into harmony with the interest of the general public, and that the conduct of each shall conform to the fundamental rules of obedience to law, of individual freedom, and of justice and fair dealing towards all. Whenever either corporation, labor union, or individual disregards the law or acts in a spirit of arbitrary and tyrannous interference with the rights of others, whether corporations or individuals, then where the Federal Government has jurisdiction, it will see to it that the misconduct is stopped, paying not the slightest heed to the position or power of the corporation, the union or the individual, but only to one vital fact--that is, the question whether or not the conduct of the individual or aggregate of individuals is in accordance with the law of the land. Every man must be guaranteed his liberty and his right to do as he likes with his property or his labor, so long as he does not infringe the rights of others. No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor. We have because as a nation to be thankful for the steps that have been so successfully taken to put these principles into effect. The progress has been by evolution, not by revolution. Nothing radical has been done; the action has been both moderate and resolute. Therefore the work will stand. There shall be no backward step. If in the working of the laws it proves desirable that they shall at any point be expanded or amplified, the amendment can be made as its desirability is shown. Meanwhile they are being administered with judgment, but with insistence upon obedience to them, and their need has been emphasized in signal fashion by the events of the past year. From all sources, exclusive of the postal service, the receipts of the Government for the last fiscal year aggregated $560,396,674. The expenditures for the same period were $506,099,007, the surplus for the fiscal year being $54,297,667. The indications are that the surplus for the present fiscal year will be very small, if indeed there be any surplus. From July to November the receipts from customs were, approximately, nine million dollars less than the receipts from the same source for a corresponding portion of last year. Should this decrease continue at the same ratio throughout the fiscal year, the surplus would be reduced by, approximately, thirty million dollars. Should the revenue from customs suffer much further decrease during the fiscal year, the surplus would vanish. A large surplus is certainly undesirable. Two years ago the war taxes were taken off with the express intention of equalizing the governmental receipts and expenditures, and though the first year thereafter still showed a surplus, it now seems likely that a substantial equality of revenue and expenditure will be attained. Such being the case it is of great moment both to exercise care and economy in appropriations, and to scan sharply any change in our fiscal revenue system which may reduce our income. The need of strict economy in our expenditures is emphasized by the fact that we can not afford to be parsimonious in providing for what is essential to our national well-being. Careful economy wherever possible will alone prevent our income from falling below the point required in order to meet our genuine needs. The integrity of our currency is beyond question, and under present conditions it would be unwise and unnecessary to attempt a reconstruction of our entire monetary system. The same liberty should be granted the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit customs receipts as is granted him in the deposit of receipts from other sources. In my Message of December 2, 1902, I called attention to certain needs of the financial situation, and I again ask the consideration of the Congress for these questions. During the last session of the Congress at the suggestion of a joint note from the Republic of Mexico and the Imperial Government of China, and in harmony with an act of the Congress appropriating $25,000 to pay the expenses thereof, a commission was appointed to confer with the principal European countries in the hope that some plan might be devised whereby a fixed rate of exchange could be assured between the gold-standard countries and the silver-standard countries. This commission has filed its preliminary report, which has been made public. I deem it important that the commission be continued, and that a sum of money be appropriated sufficient to pay the expenses of its further labors. A majority of our people desire that steps be taken in the interests of American shipping, so that we may once more resume our former position in the ocean carrying trade. But hitherto the differences of opinion as to the proper method of reaching this end have been so wide that it has proved impossible to secure the adoption of any particular scheme. Having in view these facts, I recommend that the Congress direct the Secretary of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, associated with such a representation from the Senate and House of Representatives as the Congress in its wisdom may designate, to serve as a commission for the purpose of investigating and reporting to the Congress at its next session what legislation is desirable or necessary for the development of the American merchant marine and American commerce, and incidentally of a national ocean mail service of adequate auxiliary naval crusiers and naval reserves. While such a measure is desirable in any event, it is especially desirable at this time, in view of the fact that our present governmental contract for ocean mail with the American Line will expire in 1905. Our ocean mail act was passed in 1891. In 1895 our 20-knot transatlantic mail line was equal to any foreign line. Since then the Germans have put on 23-knot, steamers, and the British have contracted for 24-knot steamers. Our service should equal the best. If it does not, the commercial public will abandon it. If we are to stay in the business it ought to be with a full understanding of the advantages to the country on one hand, and on the other with exact knowledge of the cost and proper methods of carrying it on. Moreover, lines of cargo ships are of even more importance than fast mail lines; save so far as the latter can be depended upon to furnish swift auxiliary cruisers in time of war. The establishment of new lines of cargo ships to South America, to Asia, and elsewhere would be much in the interest of our commercial expansion. We can not have too much immigration of the right kind, and we should have none at all of the wrong kind. The need is to devise some system by which undesirable immigrants shall be kept out entirely, while desirable immigrants are properly distributed throughout the country. At present some districts which need immigrants have none; and in others, where the population is already congested, immigrants come in such numbers as to depress the conditions of life for those already there. During the last two years the immigration service at New York has been greatly improved, and the corruption and inefficiency which formerly obtained there have been eradicated. This service has just been investigated by a committee of New York citizens of high standing, Messrs. Arthur V. Briesen, Lee K. Frankel, Eugene A. Philbin, Thomas W. Hynes, and Ralph Trautman. Their report deals with the whole situation at length, and concludes with certain recommendations for administrative and legislative action. It is now receiving the attention of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The special investigation of the subject of naturalization under the direction of the Attorney-General, and the consequent prosecutions reveal a condition of affairs calling for the immediate attention of the Congress. Forgeries and perjuries of shameless and flagrant character have been perpetrated, not only in the dense centers of population, but throughout the country; and it is established beyond doubt that very many so-called citizens of the United States have no title whatever to that right, and are asserting and enjoying the benefits of the same through the grossest frauds. It is never to be forgotten that citizenship is, to quote the words recently used by the Supreme Court of the United States, an "inestimable heritage," whether it proceeds from birth within the country or is obtained by naturalization; and we poison the sources of our national character and strength at the fountain, if the privilege is claimed and exercised without right, and by means of fraud and corruption. The body politic can not be sound and healthy if many of its constituent members claim their standing through the prostitution of the high right and calling of citizenship. It should mean something to become a citizen of the United States; and in the process no loophole whatever should be left open to fraud. The methods by which these frauds--now under full investigation with a view to meting out punishment and providing adequate remedies--are perpetrated, include many variations of procedure by which false certificates of citizenship are forged in their entirety; or genuine certificates fraudulently or collusively obtained in blank are filled in by the criminal conspirators; or certificates are obtained on fraudulent statements as to the time of arrival and residence in this country; or imposition and substitution of another party for the real petitioner occur in court; or certificates are made the subject of barter and sale and transferred from the rightful holder to those not entitled to them; or certificates are forged by erasure of the original names and the insertion of the names of other persons not entitled to the same. It is not necessary for me to refer here at large to the causes leading to this state of affairs. The desire for naturalization is heartily to be commended where it springs from a sincere and permanent intention to become citizens, and a real appreciation of the privilege. But it is a source of untold evil and trouble where it is traceable to selfish and dishonest motives, such as the effort by artificial and improper means, in wholesale fashion to create voters who are ready-made tools of corrupt politicians, or the desire to evade certain labor laws creating discriminations against alien labor. All good citizens, whether naturalized or native born, are equally interested in protecting our citizenship against fraud in any form, and, on the other hand, in affording every facility for naturalization to those who in good faith desire to share alike our privileges and our responsibilities. The Federal grand jury lately in session in New York City dealt with this subject and made a presentment which states the situation briefly and forcibly and contains important suggestions for the consideration of the Congress. This presentment is included as an appendix to the report of the Attorney-General. In my last annual Message, in connection with the subject of the due regulation of combinations of capital which are or may become injurious to the public, I recommend a special appropriation for the better enforcement of the antitrust law as it now stands, to be extended under the direction of the Attorney-General. Accordingly (by the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation act of February 25, 1903, 32 Stat., 854, 904), the Congress appropriated, for the purpose of enforcing the various Federal trust and interstate-commerce laws, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to be expended under the direction of the Attorney-General in the employment of special counsel and agents in the Department of Justice to conduct proceedings and prosecutions under said laws in the courts of the United States. I now recommend, as a matter of the utmost importance and urgency, the extension of the purposes of this appropriation, so that it may be available, under the direction of the Attorney-General, and until used, for the due enforcement of the laws of the United States in general and especially of the civil and criminal laws relating to public lands and the laws relating to postal crimes and offenses and the subject of naturalization. Recent investigations have shown a deplorable state of affairs in these three matters of vital concern. By various frauds and by forgeries and perjuries, thousands of acres of the public domain, embracing lands of different character and extending through various sections of the country, have been dishonestly acquired. It is hardly necessary to urge the importance of recovering these dishonest acquisitions, stolen from the people, and of promptly and duly punishing the offenders. I speak in another part of this Message of the widespread crimes by which the sacred right of citizenship is falsely asserted and that "inestimable heritage" perverted to base ends. By similar means--that is, through frauds, forgeries, and perjuries, and by shameless briberies--the laws relating to the proper conduct of the public service in general and to the due administration of the Post-Office Department have been notoriously violated, and many indictments have been found, and the consequent prosecutions are in course of hearing or on the eve thereof. For the reasons thus indicated, and so that the Government may be prepared to enforce promptly and with the greatest effect the due penalties for such violations of law, and to this end may be furnished with sufficient instrumentalities and competent legal assistance for the investigations and trials which will be necessary at many different points of the country, I urge upon the Congress the necessity of making the said appropriation available for immediate use for all such purposes, to be expended under the direction of the Attorney-General. Steps have been taken by the State Department looking to the making of bribery an extraditable offense with foreign powers. The need of more effective treaties covering this crime is manifest. The exposures and prosecutions of official corruption in St. Louis, Mo., and other cities and States have resulted in a number of givers and takers of bribes becoming fugitives in foreign lands. Bribery has not been included in extradition treaties heretofore, as the necessity for it has not arisen. While there may have been as much official corruption in former years, there has been more developed and brought to light in the immediate past than in the preceding century of our country's history. It should be the policy of the United States to leave no place on earth where a corrupt man fleeing from this country can rest in peace. There is no reason why bribery should not be included in all treaties as extraditable. The recent amended treaty with Mexico, whereby this crime was put in the list of extraditable offenses, has established a salutary precedent in this regard. Under this treaty the State Department has asked, and Mexico has granted, the extradition of one of the St. Louis bribe givers. There can be no crime more serious than bribery. Other offenses violate one law while corruption strikes at the foundation of all law. Under our form of Government all authority is vested in the people and by them delegated to those who represent them in official capacity. There can be no offense heavier than that of him in whom such a sacred trust has been reposed, who sells it for his own gain and enrichment; and no less heavy is the offense of the bribe giver. He is worse than the thief, for the thief robs the individual, while the corrupt official plunders an entire city or State. He is as wicked as the murderer, for the murderer may only take one life against the law, while the corrupt official and the man who corrupts the official alike aim at the assassination of the commonwealth itself. Government of the people, by the people, for the people will perish from the face of the earth if bribery is tolerated. The givers and takers of bribes stand on an evil pre-eminence of infamy. The exposure and punishment of public corruption is an honor to a nation, not a disgrace. The shame lies in toleration, not in correction. No city or State, still less the Nation, can be injured by the enforcement of law. As long as public plunderers when detected can find a haven of refuge in any foreign land and avoid punishment, just so long encouragement is given them to continue their practices. If we fail to do all that in us lies to stamp out corruption we can not escape our share of responsibility for the guilt. The first requisite of successful self-government is unflinching enforcement of the law and the cutting out of corruption. For several years past the rapid development of Alaska and the establishment of growing American interests in regions theretofore unsurveyed and imperfectly known brought into prominence the urgent necessity of a practical demarcation of the boundaries between the jurisdictions of the United States and Great Britain. Although the treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, the provisions of which were copied in the treaty of 1867, whereby Russia conveyed Alaska to the United States, was positive as to the control, first by Russia and later by the United States, of a strip of territory along the continental mainland from the western shore of Portland Canal to Mount St. Elias, following and surrounding the indentations of the coast and including the islands to the westward, its description of the landward margin of the strip was indefinite, resting on the supposed existence of a continuous ridge or range of mountains skirting the coast, as figured in the charts of the early navigators. It had at no time been possible for either party in interest to lay down, under the authority of the treaty, a line so obviously exact according to its provisions as to command the assent of the other. For nearly three-fourths of a century the absence of tangible local interests demanding the exercise of positive jurisdiction on either side of the border left the question dormant. In 1878 questions of revenue administration on the Stikine River led to the establishment of a provisional demarcation, crossing the channel between two high peaks on either side about twenty-four miles above the river mouth. In 1899 similar questions growing out of the extraordinary development of mining interests in the region about the head of Lynn Canal brought about a temporary modus vivendi, by which a convenient separation was made at the watershed divides of the White and Chilkoot passes and to the north of Klukwan, on the Klehini River. These partial and tentative adjustments could not, in the very nature of things, be satisfactory or lasting. A permanent disposition of the matter became imperative. After unavailing attempts to reach an understanding through a Joint High Commission, followed by prolonged negotiations, conducted in an amicable spirit, a convention between the United States and Great Britain was signed, January 24, 1903, providing for an examination of the subject by a mixed tribunal of six members, three on a side, with a view to its final disposition. Ratifications were exchanged on March 3 last, whereupon the two Governments appointed their respective members. Those on behalf of the United States were Elihu Root, Secretary of War, Henry Cabot Lodge, a Senator of the United States, and George Turner, an ex-Senator of the United States, while Great Britain named the Right Honourable Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Louis Amable Jette, K. C. M. G., retired judge of the Supreme Court of Quebec, and A. B. Aylesworth, K. C., of Toronto. This Tribunal met in London on September 3, under the Presidency of Lord Alverstone. The proceedings were expeditious, and marked by a friendly and conscientious spirit. The respective cases, counter cases, and arguments presented the issues clearly and fully. On the 20th of October a majority of the Tribunal reached and signed an agreement on all the questions submitted by the terms of the Convention. By this award the right of the United States to the control of a continuous strip or border of the mainland shore, skirting all the tide-water inlets and sinuosities of the coast, is confirmed; the entrance to Portland Canal (concerning which legitimate doubt appeared) is defined as passing by Tongass Inlet and to the northwestward of Wales and Pearse islands; a line is drawn from the head of Portland Canal to the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude; and the interior border line of the strip is fixed by lines connecting certain mountain summits lying between Portland Canal and Mount St. Elias, and running along the crest of the divide separating the coast slope from the inland watershed at the only part of the frontier where the drainage ridge approaches the coast within the distance of ten marine leagues stipulated by the treaty as the extreme width of the strip around the heads of Lynn Canal and its branches. While the line so traced follows the provisional demarcation of 1878 at the crossing of the Stikine River, and that of 1899 at the summits of the White and Chilkoot passes, it runs much farther inland from the Klehini than the temporary line of the later modus vivendi, and leaves the entire mining district of the Porcupine River and Glacier Creek within the jurisdiction of the United States. The result is satisfactory in every way. It is of great material advantage to our people in the Far Northwest. It has removed from the field of discussion and possible danger a question liable to become more acutely accentuated with each passing year. Finally, it has furnished a signal proof of the fairness and good will with which two friendly nations can approach and determine issues involving national sovereignty and by their nature incapable of submission to a third power for adjudication. The award is self-executing on the vital points. To make it effective as regards the others it only remains for the two Governments to appoint, each on its own behalf, one or more scientific experts, who shall, with all convenient speed, proceed together to lay down the boundary line in accordance with the decision of the majority of the Tribunal. I recommend that the Congress make adequate provision for the appointment, compensation, and expenses of the members to serve on this joint boundary commission on the part of the United States. It will be remembered that during the second session of the last Congress Great Britain, Germany, and Italy formed an alliance for the purpose of blockading the ports of Venezuela and using such other means of pressure as would secure a settlement of claims due, as they alleged, to certain of their subjects. Their employment of force for the collection of these claims was terminated by an agreement brought about through the offices of the diplomatic representatives of the United States at Caracas and the Government at Washington, thereby ending a situation which was bound to because increasing friction, and which jeoparded the peace of the continent. Under this agreement Venezuela agreed to set apart a certain percentage of the customs receipts of two of her ports to be applied to the payment of whatever obligations might be ascertained by mixed commissions appointed for that purpose to be due from her, not only to the three powers already mentioned, whose proceedings against her had resulted in a state of war, but also to the United States, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, and Mexico, who had not employed force for the collection of the claims alleged to be due to certain of their citizens. A demand was then made by the so-called blockading powers that the sums ascertained to be due to their citizens by such mixed commissions should be accorded payment in full before anything was paid upon the claims of any of the so-called peace powers. Venezuela, on the other hand, insisted that all her creditors should be paid upon a basis of exact equality. During the efforts to adjust this dispute it was suggested by the powers in interest that it should be referred to me for decision, but I was clearly of the opinion that a far wiser course would be to submit the question to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. It seemed to me to offer an admirable opportunity to advance the practice of the peaceful settlement of disputes between nations and to secure for the Hague Tribunal a memorable increase of its practical importance. The nations interested in the controversy were so numerous and in many instances so powerful as to make it evident that beneficent results would follow from their appearance at the same time before the bar of that august tribunal of peace. Our hopes in that regard have been realized. Russia and Austria are represented in the persons of the learned and distinguished jurists who compose the Tribunal, while Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Mexico, the United States, and Venezuela are represented by their respective agents and counsel. Such an imposing concourse of nations presenting their arguments to and invoking the decision of that high court of international justice and international peace can hardly fail to secure a like submission of many future controversies. The nations now appearing there will find it far easier to appear there a second time, while no nation can imagine its just pride will be lessened by following the example now presented. This triumph of the principle of international arbitration is a subject of warm congratulation and offers a happy augury for the peace of the world. There seems good ground for the belief that there has been a real growth among the civilized nations of a sentiment which will permit a gradual substitution of other methods than the method of war in the settlement of disputes. It is not pretended that as yet we are near a position in which it will be possible wholly to prevent war, or that a just regard for national interest and honor will in all cases permit of the settlement of international disputes by arbitration ;. but by a mixture of prudence and firmness with wisdom we think it is possible to do away with much of the provocation and excuse for war, and at least in many cases to substitute some other and more rational method for the settlement of disputes. The Hague Court offers so good an example of what can be done in the direction of such settlement that it should be encouraged in every way. Further steps should be taken. In President McKinley's annual Message of December 5, 1898, he made the following recommendation: "The experiences of the last year bring forcibly home to us a sense of the burdens and the waste of war. We desire in common with most civilized nations, to reduce to the lowest possible point the damage sustained in time of war by peaceable trade and commerce. It is true we may suffer in such cases less than other communities, but all nations are damaged more or less by the state of uneasiness and apprehension into which an outbreak of hostilities throws the entire commercial world. It should be our object, therefore, to minimize, so far as practicable, this inevitable loss and disturbance. This purpose can probably best be accomplished by an international agreement to regard all private property at sea as exempt from capture or destruction by the forces of belligerent powers. The United States Government has for many years advocated this humane and beneficent principle, and is now in a position to recommend it to other powers without the imputation of selfish motives. I therefore suggest for your consideration that the Executive be authorized to correspond with the governments of the principal maritime powers with a view of incorporating into the permanent law of civilized nations the principle of the exemption of all private property at sea, not contraband of war, from capture or destruction by belligerent powers." I cordially renew this recommendation. The Supreme Court, speaking on December 11. 1899, through Peckham, J., said: "It is, we think, historically accurate to say that this Government has always been, in its views, among the most advanced of the governments of the world in favor of mitigating, as to all non-combatants, the hardships and horrors of war. To accomplish that object it has always advocated those rules which would in most cases do away with the right to capture the private property of an enemy on the high seas." I advocate this as a matter of humanity and morals. It is anachronistic when private property is respected on land that it should not be respected at sea. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that shipping represents, internationally speaking, a much more generalized species of private property than is the case with ordinary property on land--that is, property found at sea is much less apt than is the case with property found on land really to belong to any one nation. Under the modern system of corporate ownership the flag of a vessel often differs from the flag which would mark the nationality of the real ownership and money control of the vessel; and the cargo may belong to individuals of yet a different nationality. Much American capital is now invested in foreign ships; and among foreign nations it often happens that the capital of one is largely invested in the shipping of another. Furthermore, as a practical matter, it may be mentioned that while commerce destroying may because serious loss and great annoyance, it can never be more than a subsidiary factor in bringing to terms a resolute foe. This is now well recognized by all of our naval experts. The fighting ship, not the commerce destroyer, is the vessel whose feats add renown to a nation's history, and establish her place among the great powers of the world. Last year the Interparliamentary Union for International Arbitration met at Vienna, six hundred members of the different legislatures of civilized countries attending. It was provided that the next meeting should be in 1904 at St. Louis, subject to our Congress extending an invitation. Like the Hague Tribunal, this Interparliamentary Union is one of the forces tending towards peace among the nations of the earth, and it is entitled to our support. I trust the invitation can be extended. Early in July, having received intelligence, which happily turned out to be erroneous, of the assassination of our vice-consul at Beirut, I dispatched a small squadron to that port for such service as might be found necessary on arrival. Although the attempt on the life of our vice-consul had not been successful, yet the outrage was symptomatic of a state of excitement and disorder which demanded immediate attention. The arrival of the vessels had the happiest result. A feeling of security at once took the place of the former alarm and disquiet; our officers were cordially welcomed by the consular body and the leading merchants, and ordinary business resumed its activity. The Government of the Sultan gave a considerate hearing to the representations of our minister; the official who was regarded as responsible for the disturbed condition of affairs was removed. Our relations with the Turkish Government remain friendly; our claims rounded on inequitable treatment of some of our schools and missions appear to be in process of amicable adjustment. The signing of a new commercial treaty with China, which took place at Shanghai on the 8th of October, is a because for satisfaction. This act, the result of long discussion and negotiation, places our commercial relations with the great Oriental Empire on a more satisfactory footing than they have ever heretofore enjoyed. It provides not only for the ordinary rights and privileges of diplomatic and consular officers, but also for an important extension of our commerce by increased facility of access to Chinese ports, and for the relief of trade by the removal of some of the obstacles which have embarrassed it in the past. The Chinese Government engages, on fair and equitable conditions, which will probably be accepted by the principal commercial nations, to abandon the levy of "liken" and other transit dues throughout the Empire, and to introduce other desirable administrative reforms. Larger facilities are to be given to our citizens who desire to carry on mining enterprises in China. We have secured for our missionaries a valuable privilege, the recognition of their right to rent and lease in perpetuity such property as their religious societies may need in all parts of the Empire. And, what was an indispensable condition for the advance and development of our commerce in Manchuria, China, by treaty with us, has opened to foreign commerce the cities of Mukden, the capital of the province of Manchuria, and An-tung, an important port on the Yalu River, on the road to Korea. The full measure of development which our commerce may rightfully expect can hardly be looked for until the settlement of the present abnormal state of things in the Empire; but the foundation for such development has at last been laid. I call your attention to the reduced cost in maintaining the consular service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, as shown in the annual report of the Auditor for the State and other Departments, as compared with the year previous. For the year under consideration the excess of expenditures over receipts on account of the consular service amounted to $26,125.12, as against $96,972.50 for the year ending June 30, 1902, and $147,040.16 for the year ending June 30, 1901. This is the best showing in this respect for the consular service for the past fourteen years, and the reduction in the cost of the service to the Government has been made in spite of the fact that the expenditures for the year in question were more than $20,000 greater than for the previous year. The rural free-delivery service has been steadily extended. The attention of the Congress is asked to the question of the compensation of the letter carriers and clerks engaged in the postal service, especially on the new rural free-delivery routes. More routes have been installed since the first of July last than in any like period in the Department's history. While a due regard to economy must be kept in mind in the establishment of new routes, yet the extension of the rural free-delivery system must be continued, for reasons of sound public policy. No governmental movement of recent years has resulted in greater immediate benefit to the people of the country districts. Rural free delivery, taken in connection with the telephone, the bicycle, and the trolley, accomplishes much toward lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more attractive. In the immediate past the lack of just such facilities as these has driven many of the more active and restless young men and women from the farms to the cities; for they rebelled at loneliness and lack of mental companionship. It is unhealthy and undesirable for the cities to grow at the expense of the country; and rural free delivery is not only a good thing in itself, but is good because it is one of the causes which check this unwholesome tendency towards the urban concentration of our population at the expense of the country districts. It is for the same reason that we sympathize with and approve of the policy of building good roads. The movement for good roads is one fraught with the greatest benefit to the country districts. I trust that the Congress will continue to favor in all proper ways the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. This Exposition commemorates the Louisiana purchase, which was the first great step in the expansion which made us a continental nation. The expedition of Lewis and Clark across the continent followed thereon, and marked the beginning of the process of exploration and colonization which thrust our national boundaries to the Pacific. The acquisition of the Oregon country, including the present States of Oregon and Washington, was a fact of immense importance in our history; first giving us our place on the Pacific seaboard, and making ready the way for our ascendency in the commerce of the greatest of the oceans. The centennial of our establishment upon the western coast by the expedition of Lewis and Clark is to be celebrated at Portland, Oregon, by an exposition in the summer of 1905, and this event should receive recognition and support from the National Government. I call your special attention to the Territory of Alaska. The country is developing rapidly, and it has an assured future. The mineral wealth is great and has as yet hardly been tapped. The fisheries, if wisely handled and kept under national control, will be a business as permanent as any other, and of the utmost importance to the people. The forests if properly guarded will form another great source of wealth. Portions of Alaska are fitted for farming and stock raising, although the methods must be adapted to the peculiar conditions of the country. Alaska is situated in the far north; but so are Norway and Sweden and Finland; and Alaska can prosper and play its part in the New World just as those nations have prospered and played their parts in the Old World. Proper land laws should be enacted; and the survey of the public lands immediately begun. Coal-land laws should be provided whereby the coal-land entryman may make his location and secure patent under methods kindred to those now prescribed for homestead and mineral entrymen. Salmon hatcheries, exclusively under Government control, should be established. The cable should be extended from Sitka westward. Wagon roads and trails should be built, and the building of railroads promoted in all legitimate ways. Light-houses should be built along the coast. Attention should be paid to the needs of the Alaska Indians; provision should be made for an officer, with deputies, to study their needs, relieve their immediate wants, and help them adapt themselves to the new conditions. The commission appointed to investigate, during the season of 1903, the condition and needs of the Alaskan salmon fisheries, has finished its work in the field, and is preparing a detailed report thereon. A preliminary report reciting the measures immediately required for the protection and preservation of the salmon industry has already been submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for his attention and for the needed action. I recommend that an appropriation be made for building light-houses in Hawaii, and taking possession of those already built. The Territory should be reimbursed for whatever amounts it has already expended for light-houses. The governor should be empowered to suspend or remove any official appointed by him, without submitting the matter to the legislature. Of our insular possessions the Philippines and Porto Rico it is gratifying to say that their steady progress has been such as to make it unnecessary to spend much time in discussing them. Yet the Congress should ever keep in mind that a peculiar obligation rests upon us to further in every way the welfare of these communities. The Philippines should be knit closer to us by tariff arrangements. It would, of course, be impossible suddenly to raise the people of the islands to the high pitch of industrial prosperity and of governmental efficiency to which they will in the end by degrees attain; and the caution and moderation shown in developing them have been among the main reasons why this development has hitherto gone on so smoothly. Scrupulous care has been taken in the choice of governmental agents, and the entire elimination of partisan politics from the public service. The condition of the islanders is in material things far better than ever before, while their governmental, intellectual, and moral advance has kept pace with their material advance. No one people ever benefited another people more than we have benefited the Filipinos by taking possession of the islands. The cash receipts of the General Land Office for the last fiscal year were $11,024,743.65, an increase of $4,762,816.47 over the preceding year. Of this sum, approximately, $8,461,493 will go to the credit of the fund for the reclamation of arid land, making the total of this fund, up to the 30th of June, 1903, approximately, $16,191,836. A gratifying disposition has been evinced by those having unlawful inclosures of public land to remove their fences. Nearly two million acres so inclosed have been thrown open on demand. In but comparatively few cases has it been necessary to go into court to accomplish this purpose. This work will be vigorously prosecuted until all unlawful inclosures have been removed. Experience has shown that in the western States themselves, as well as in the rest of the country, there is widespread conviction that certain of the public-land laws and the resulting administrative practice no longer meet the present needs. The character and uses of the remaining public lands differ widely from those of the public lands which Congress had especially in view when these laws were passed. The rapidly increasing rate of disposal of the public lands is not followed by a corresponding increase in home building. There is a tendency to mass in large holdings public lands, especially timber and grazing lands, and thereby to retard settlement. I renew and emphasize my recommendation of last year that so far as they are available for agriculture in its broadest sense, and to whatever extent they may be reclaimed under the national irrigation law, the remaining public lands should be held rigidly for the home builder. The attention of the Congress is especially directed to the timber and stone law, the desert-land law, and the commutation clause of the homestead law, which in their operation have in many respects conflicted with wise public-land policy. The discussions in the Congress and elsewhere have made it evident that there is a wide divergence of opinions between those holding opposite views on these subjects; and that the opposing sides have strong and convinced representatives of weight both within and without the Congress; the differences being not only as to matters of opinion but as to matters of fact. In order that definite information may be available for the use of the Congress, I have appointed a commission composed of W. A. Richards, Commissioner of the General Land Office; Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture, and F. H. Newell, Chief Hydrographer of the Geological Survey, to report at the earliest practicable moment upon the condition, operation, and effect of the present land laws and on the use, condition, disposal, and settlement of the public lands. The commission will report especially what changes in organization, laws, regulations, and practice affecting the public lands are needed to effect the largest practicable disposition of the public lands to actual settlers who will build permanent homes upon them, and to secure in permanence the fullest and most effective use of the resources of the public lands; and it will make such other reports and recommendations as its study of these questions may suggest. The commission is to report immediately upon those points concerning which its judgment is clear; on any point upon which it has doubt it will take the time necessary to make investigation and reach a final judgment. The work of reclamation of the arid lands of the West is progressing steadily and satisfactorily under the terms of the law setting aside the proceeds from the disposal of public lands. The corps of engineers known as the Reclamation Service, which is conducting the surveys and examinations, has been thoroughly organized, especial pains being taken to secure under the civil-service rules a body of skilled, experienced, and efficient men. Surveys and examinations are progressing throughout the arid States and Territories, plans for reclaiming works being prepared and passed upon by boards of engineers before approval by the Secretary of the Interior. In Arizona and Nevada, in localities where such work is pre-eminently needed, construction has already been begun. In other parts of the arid West various projects are well advanced towards the drawing up of contracts, these being delayed in part by necessities of reaching agreements or understanding as regards rights of way or acquisition of real estate. Most of the works contemplated for construction are of national importance, involving interstate questions or the securing of stable, self-supporting communities in the midst of vast tracts of vacant land. The Nation as a whole is of course the gainer by the creation of these homes, adding as they do to the wealth and stability of the country, and furnishing a home market for the products of the East and South. The reclamation law, while perhaps not ideal, appears at present to answer the larger needs for which it is designed. Further legislation is not recommended until the necessities of change are more apparent. The study of the opportunities of reclamation of the vast extent of arid land shows that whether this reclamation is done by individuals, corporations, or the State, the sources of water supply must be effectively protected and the reservoirs guarded by the preservation of the forests at the headwaters of the streams. The engineers making the preliminary examinations continually emphasize this need and urge that the remaining public lands at the headwaters of the important streams of the West be reserved to insure permanency of water supply for irrigation. Much progress in forestry has been made during the past year. The necessity for perpetuating our forest resources, whether in public or private hands, is recognized now as never before. The demand for forest reserves has become insistent in the West, because the West must use the water, wood, and summer range which only such reserves can supply. Progressive lumbermen are striving, through forestry, to give their business permanence. Other great business interests are awakening to the need of forest preservation as a business matter. The Government's forest work should receive from the Congress hearty support, and especially support adequate for the protection of the forest reserves against fire. The forest-reserve policy of the Government has passed beyond the experimental stage and has reached a condition where scientific methods are essential to its successful prosecution. The administrative features of forest reserves are at present unsatisfactory, being divided between three Bureaus of two Departments. It is therefore recommended that all matters pertaining to forest reserves, except those involving or pertaining to land titles, be consolidated in the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture. The cotton-growing States have recently been invaded by a weevil that has done much damage and threatens the entire cotton industry. I suggest to the Congress the prompt enactment of such remedial legislation as its judgment may approve. In granting patents to foreigners the proper course for this country to follow is to give the same advantages to foreigners here that the countries in which these foreigners dwell extend in return to our citizens; that is, to extend the benefits of our patent laws on inventions and the like where in return the articles would be patentable in the foreign countries concerned--where an American could get a corresponding patent in such countries. The Indian agents should not be dependent for their appointment or tenure of office upon considerations of partisan politics; the practice of appointing, when possible, ex-army officers or bonded superintendents to the vacancies that occur is working well. Attention is invited to the widespread illiteracy due to lack of public schools in the Indian Territory. Prompt heed should be paid to the need of education for the children in this Territory. In my last annual Message the attention of the Congress was called to the necessity of enlarging the safety-appliance law, and it is gratifying to note that this law was amended in important respects. With the increasing railway mileage of the country, the greater number of men employed, and the use of larger and heavier equipment, the urgency for renewed effort to prevent the loss of life and limb upon the railroads of the country, particularly to employees, is apparent. For the inspection of water craft and the Life-Saving Service upon the water the Congress has built up an elaborate body of protective legislation and a thorough method of inspection and is annually spending large sums of money. It is encouraging to observe that the Congress is alive to the interests of those who are employed upon our wonderful arteries of commerce--the railroads--who so safely transport millions of passengers and billions of tons of freight. The Federal inspection, of safety appliances, for which the Congress is now making appropriations, is a service analogous to that which the Government has upheld for generations in regard to vessels, and it is believed will prove of great practical benefit, both to railroad employees and the traveling public. As the greater part of commerce is interstate and exclusively under the control of the Congress the needed safety and uniformity must be secured by national legislation. No other class of our citizens deserves so well of the Nation as those to whom the Nation owes its very being, the veterans of the civil war. Special attention is asked to the excellent work of the Pension Bureau in expediting and disposing of pension claims. During the fiscal year ending July 1, 1903, the Bureau settled 251,982 claims, an average of 825 claims for each working day of the year. The number of settlements since July 1, 1903, has been in excess of last year's average, approaching 1,000 claims for each working day, and it is believed that the work of the Bureau will be current at the close of the present fiscal year. During the year ended June 30 last 25,566 persons were appointed through competitive examinations under the civil-service rules. This was 12,672 more than during the preceding year, and 40 per cent of those who passed the examinations. This abnormal growth was largely occasioned by the extension of classification to the rural free-delivery service and the appointment last year of over 9,000 rural carriers. A revision of the civil-service rules took effect on April 15 last, which has greatly improved their operation. The completion of the reform of the civil service is recognized by good citizens everywhere as a matter of the highest public importance, and the success of the merit system largely depends upon the effectiveness of the rules and the machinery provided for their enforcement. A very gratifying spirit of friendly co-operation exists in all the Departments of the Government in the enforcement and uniform observance of both the letter and spirit of the civil-service act. Executive orders of July 3, 1902; March 26, 1903, and July 8, 1903, require that appointments of all unclassified laborers, both in the Departments at Washington and in the field service, shall be made with the assistance of the United States Civil Service Commission, under a system of registration to test the relative fitness of applicants for appointment or employment. This system is competitive, and is open to all citizens of the United States qualified in respect to age, physical ability, moral character, industry, and adaptability for manual labor; except that in case of veterans of the Civil War the element of age is omitted. This system of appointment is distinct from the classified service and does not classify positions of mere laborer under the civil-service act and rules. Regulations in aid thereof have been put in operation in several of the Departments and are being gradually extended in other parts of the service. The results have been very satisfactory, as extravagance has been checked by decreasing the number of unnecessary positions and by increasing the efficiency of the employees remaining. The Congress, as the result of a thorough investigation of the charities and reformatory institutions in the District of Columbia, by a joint select committee of the two Houses which made its report in March, 1898, created in the act approved June 6, 1900, a board of charities for the District of Columbia, to consist of five residents of the District, appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, each for a term of three years, to serve without compensation. President McKinley appointed five men who had been active and prominent in the public charities in Washington, all of whom upon taking office July 1, 1900, resigned from the different charities with which they had been connected. The members of the board have been reappointed in successive years. The board serves under the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. The board gave its first year to a careful and impartial study of the special problems before it, and has continued that study every year in the light of the best practice in public charities elsewhere. Its recommendations in its annual reports to the Congress through the Commissioners of the District of Columbia "for the economical and efficient administration of the charities and reformatories of the District of Columbia," as required by the act creating it, have been based upon the principles commended by the joint select committee of the Congress in its report of March, 1898, and approved by the best administrators of public charities, and make for the desired systematization and improvement of the affairs under its supervision. They are worthy of favorable consideration by the Congress. The effect of the laws providing a General Staff for the Army and for the more effective use of the National Guard has been excellent. Great improvement has been made in the efficiency of our Army in recent years. Such schools as those erected at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley and the institution of fall maneuver work accomplish satisfactory results. The good effect of these maneuvers upon the National Guard is marked, and ample appropriation should be made to enable the guardsmen of the several States to share in the benefit. The Government should as soon as possible secure suitable permanent camp sites for military maneuvers in the various sections of the country. The service thereby rendered not only to the Regular Army, but to the National Guard of the several States, will be so great as to repay many times over the relatively small expense. We should not rest satisfied with what has been done, however. The only people who are contented with a system of promotion by mere seniority are those who are contented with the triumph of mediocrity over excellence. On the other hand, a system which encouraged the exercise of social or political favoritism in promotions would be even worse. But it would surely be easy to devise a method of promotion from grade to grade in which the opinion of the higher officers of the service upon the candidates should be decisive upon the standing and promotion of the latter. Just such a system now obtains at West Point. The quality of each year's work determines the standing of that year's class, the man being dropped or graduated into the next class in the relative position which his military superiors decide to be warranted by his merit. In other words, ability, energy, fidelity, and all other similar qualities determine the rank of a man year after year in West Point, and his standing in the Army when he graduates from West Point; but from that time on, all effort to find which man is best or worst, and reward or punish him accordingly, is abandoned; no brilliancy, no amount of hard work, no eagerness in the performance of duty, can advance him, and no slackness or indifference that falls short of a court-martial offense can retard him. Until this system is changed we can not hope that our officers will be of as high grade as we have a right to expect, considering the material upon which we draw. Moreover, when a man renders such service as Captain Pershing rendered last spring in the Moro campaign, it ought to be possible to reward him without at once jumping him to the grade of brigadier-general. Shortly after the enunciation of that famous principle of American foreign policy now known as the "Monroe Doctrine," President Monroe, in a special Message to Congress on January 30, 1824, spoke as follows: "The Navy is the arm from which our Government will always derive most aid in support of our rights. Every power engaged in war will know the strength of our naval power, the number of our ships of each class, their condition, and the promptitude with which we may bring them into service, and will pay due consideration to that argument." I heartily congratulate the Congress upon the steady progress in building up the American Navy. We can not afford a let-up in this great work. To stand still means to go back. There should be no cessation in adding to the effective units of the fighting strength of the fleet. Meanwhile the Navy Department and the officers of the Navy are doing well their part by providing constant service at sea under conditions akin to those of actual warfare. Our officers and enlisted men are learning to handle the battleships, cruisers, and torpedo boats with high efficiency in fleet and squadron formations, and the standard of marksmanship is being steadily raised. The best work ashore is indispensable, but the highest duty of a naval officer is to exercise command at sea. The establishment of a naval base in the Philippines ought not to be longer postponed. Such a base is desirable in time of peace; in time of war it would be indispensable, and its lack would be ruinous. Without it our fleet would be helpless. Our naval experts are agreed that Subig Bay is the proper place for the purpose. The national interests require that the work of fortification and development of a naval station at Subig Bay be begun at an early date; for under the best conditions it is a work which will consume much time. It is eminently desirable, however, that there should be provided a naval general staff on lines similar to those of the General Staff lately created for the Army. Within the Navy Department itself the needs of the service have brought about a system under which the duties of a general staff are partially performed; for the Bureau of Navigation has under its direction the War College, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Board of Inspection, and has been in close touch with the General Board of the Navy. But though under the excellent officers at their head, these boards and bureaus do good work, they have not the authority of a general staff, and have not sufficient scope to insure a proper readiness for emergencies. We need the establishment by law of a body of trained officers, who shall exercise a systematic control of the military affairs of the Navy, and be authorized advisers of the Secretary concerning it. By the act of June 28, 1902, the Congress authorized the President to enter into treaty with Colombia for the building of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama; it being provided that in the event of failure to secure such treaty after the lapse of a reasonable time, recourse should be had to building a canal through Nicaragua. It has not been necessary to consider this alternative, as I am enabled to lay before the Senate a treaty providing for the building of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama. This was the route which commended itself to the deliberate judgment of the Congress, and we can now acquire by treaty the right to construct the canal over this route. The question now, therefore, is not by which route the isthmian canal shall be built, for that question has been definitely and irrevocably decided. The question is simply whether or not we shall have an isthmian canal. When the Congress directed that we should take the Panama route under treaty with Colombia, the essence of the condition, of course, referred not to the Government which controlled that route, but to the route itself; to the territory across which the route lay, not to the name which for the moment the territory bore on the map. The purpose of the law was to authorize the President to make a treaty with the power in actual control of the Isthmus of Panama. This purpose has been fulfilled. In the year 1846 this Government entered into a treaty with New Granada, the predecessor upon the Isthmus of the Republic of Colombia and of the present Republic of Panama, by which treaty it was provided that the Government and citizens of the United States should always have free and open right of way or transit across the Isthmus of Panama by any modes of communication that might be constructed, while in turn our Government guaranteed the perfect neutrality of the above-mentioned Isthmus with the view that the free transit from the one to the other sea might not be interrupted or embarrassed. The treaty vested in the United States a substantial property right carved out of the rights of sovereignty and property which New Granada then had and possessed over the said territory. The name of New Granada has passed away and its territory has been divided. Its successor, the Government of Colombia, has ceased to own any property in the Isthmus. A new Republic, that of Panama, which was at one time a sovereign state, and at another time a mere department of the successive confederations known as New Granada and Columbia, has now succeeded to the rights which first one and then the other formerly exercised over the Isthmus. But as long as the Isthmus endures, the mere geographical fact of its existence, and the peculiar interest therein which is required by our position, perpetuate the solemn contract which binds the holders of the territory to respect our right to freedom of transit across it, and binds us in return to safeguard for the Isthmus and the world the exercise of that inestimable privilege. The true interpretation of the obligations upon which the United States entered in this treaty of 1846 has been given repeatedly in the utterances of Presidents and Secretaries of State. Secretary Cuss in 1858 officially stated the position of this Government as follows: "The progress of events has rendered the interoceanic route across the narrow portion of Central America vastly important to the commercial world, and especially to the United States, whose possessions extend along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and demand the speediest and easiest modes of communication. While the rights of sovereignty of the states occupying this region should always be respected, we shall expect that these rights be exercised in a spirit befitting the occasion and the wants and circumstances that have arisen. Sovereignty has its duties as well as its rights, and none of these local governments, even if administered with more regard to the just demands of other nations than they have been, would be permitted, in a spirit of Eastern isolation, to close the gates of intercourse on the great highways of the world, and justify the act by the pretension that these avenues of trade and travel belong to them and that they choose to shut them, or, what is almost equivalent, to encumber them with such unjust relations as would prevent their general use." Seven years later, in 1865, Mr. Seward in different communications took the following position: "The United States have taken and will take no interest in any question of internal revolution in the State of Panama, or any State of the United States of Colombia, but will maintain a perfect neutrality in connection with such domestic altercations. The United States will, nevertheless, hold themselves ready to protect the transit trade across the Isthmus against invasion of either domestic or foreign disturbers of the peace of the State of Panama. Neither the text nor the spirit of the stipulation in that article by which the United States engages to preserve the neutrality of the Isthmus of Panama, imposes an obligation on this Government to comply with the requisition of the President of the United States of Colombia for a force to protect the Isthmus of Panama from a body of insurgents of that country]. The purpose of the stipulation was to guarantee the Isthmus against seizure or invasion by a foreign power only." Attorney-General Speed, under date of November 7, 1865, advised Secretary Seward as follows: "From this treaty it can not be supposed that New Granada invited the United States to become a party to the intestine troubles of that Government, nor did the United States become bound to take sides in the domestic broils of New Granada. The United States did guarantee New Granada in the sovereignty and property over the territory. This was as against other and foreign governments." For four hundred years, ever since shortly after the discovery of this hemisphere, the canal across the Isthmus has been planned. For two score years it has been worked at. When made it is to last for the ages. It is to alter the geography of a continent and the trade routes of the world. We have shown by every treaty we have negotiated or attempted to negotiate with the peoples in control of the Isthmus and with foreign nations in reference thereto our consistent good faith in observing our obligations; on the one hand to the peoples of the Isthmus, and on the other hand to the civilized world whose commercial rights we are safeguarding and guaranteeing by our action. We have done our duty to others in letter and in spirit, and we have shown the utmost forbearance in exacting our own rights. Last spring, under the act above referred to, a treaty concluded between the representatives of the Republic of Colombia and of our Government was ratified by the Senate. This treaty was entered into at the urgent solicitation of the people of Colombia and after a body of experts appointed by our Government especially to go into the matter of the routes across the Isthmus had pronounced unanimously in favor of the Panama route. In drawing up this treaty every concession was made to the people and to the Government of Colombia. We were more than just in dealing with them. Our generosity was such as to make it a serious question whether we had not gone too far in their interest at the expense of our own; for in our scrupulous desire to pay all possible heed, not merely to the real but even to the fancied rights of our weaker neighbor, who already owed so much to our protection and forbearance, we yielded in all possible ways to her desires in drawing up the treaty. Nevertheless the Government of Colombia not merely repudiated the treaty, but repudiated it in such manner as to make it evident by the time the Colombian Congress adjourned that not the scantiest hope remained of ever getting a satisfactory treaty from them. The Government of Colombia made the treaty, and yet when the Colombian Congress was called to ratify it the vote against ratification was unanimous. It does not appear that the Government made any real effort to secure ratification. Immediately after the adjournment of the Congress a revolution broke out in Panama. The people of Panama had long been discontented with the Republic of Colombia, and they had been kept quiet only by the prospect of the conclusion of the treaty, which was to them a matter of vital concern. When it became evident that the treaty was hopelessly lost, the people of Panama rose literally as one man. Not a shot was fired by a single man on the Isthmus in the interest of the Colombian Government. Not a life was lost in the accomplishment of the revolution. The Colombian troops stationed on the Isthmus, who had long been unpaid, made common because with the people of Panama, and with astonishing unanimity the new Republic was started. The duty of the United States in the premises was clear. In strict accordance with the principles laid down by Secretaries Cass and Seward in the official documents above quoted, the United States gave notice that it would permit the landing of no expeditionary force, the arrival of which would mean chaos and destruction along the line of the railroad and of the proposed Canal, and an interruption of transit as an inevitable consequence. The de facto Government of Panama was recognized in the following telegram to Mr. Ehrman: "The people of Panama have, by apparently unanimous movement, dissolved their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and resumed their independence. When you are satisfied that a de facto government, republican in form and without substantial opposition from its own people, has been established in the State of Panama, you will enter into relations with it as the responsible government of the territory and look to it for all due action to protect the persons and property of citizens of the United States and to keep open the isthmian transit, in accordance with the obligations of existing treaties governing the relations of the United States to that Territory." The Government of Colombia was notified of our action by the following telegram to Mr. Beaupre: "The people of Panama having, by an apparently unanimous movement, dissolved their political connection with the Republic of Colombia and resumed their independence, and having adopted a Government of their own, republican in form, with which the Government of the United States of America has entered into relations, the President of the United States, in accordance with the ties of friendship which have so long and so happily existed between the respective nations, most earnestly commends to the Governments of Colombia and of Panama the peaceful and equitable settlement of all questions at issue between them. He holds that he is bound not merely by treaty obligations, but by the interests of civilization, to see that the peaceful traffic of the world across the Isthmus of Panama shall not longer be disturbed by a constant succession of unnecessary and wasteful civil wars." When these events happened, fifty-seven years had elapsed since the United States had entered into its treaty with New Granada. During that time the Governments of New Granada and of its successor, Colombia, have been in a constant state of flux. The following is a partial list of the disturbances on the Isthmus of Panama during the period in question as reported to us by our consuls. It is not possible to give a complete list, and some of the reports that speak of "revolutions" must mean unsuccessful revolutions. The above is only a partial list of the revolutions, rebellions, insurrections, riots, and other outbreaks that have occurred during the period in question; yet they number 53 for the 57 years. It will be noted that one of them lasted for nearly three years before it was quelled; another for nearly a year. In short, the experience of over half a century has shown Colombia to be utterly incapable of keeping order on the Isthmus. Only the active interference of the United States has enabled her to preserve so much as a semblance of sovereignty. Had it not been for the exercise by the United States of the police power in her interest, her connection with the Isthmus would have been sundered long ago. In 1856, in 1860, in 1873, in 1885, in 1901, and again in 1902, sailors and marines from United States war ships were forced to land in order to patrol the Isthmus, to protect life and property, and to see that the transit across the Isthmus was kept open. In 1861, in 1862, in 1885, and in 1900, the Colombian Government asked that the United States Government would land troops to protect its interests and maintain order on the Isthmus. Perhaps the most extraordinary request is that which has just been received and which runs as follows: "Knowing that revolution has already commenced in Panama [an eminent Colombian] says that if the Government of the United States will land troops to preserve Colombian sovereignty, and the transit, if requested by Colombian charge d'affaires, this Government will declare martial law; and, by virtue of vested constitutional authority, when public order is disturbed, will approve by decree ratification of the canal treaty as signed; or, if the Government of the United States prefers, will call extra session of the Congress--with new and friendly members--next May to approve the treaty. [An eminent Colombian] has the perfect confidence of vice-president, he says, and if it became necessary will go to the Isthmus or send representatives there to adjust matters along above lines to the satisfaction of the people there." This dispatch is noteworthy from two standpoints. Its offer of immediately guaranteeing the treaty to us is in sharp contrast with the positive and contemptuous refusal of the Congress which has just closed its sessions to consider favorably such a treaty; it shows that the Government which made the treaty really had absolute control over the situation, but did not choose to exercise this control. The dispatch further calls on us to restore order and secure Colombian supremacy in the Isthmus from which the Colombian Government has just by its action decided to bar us by preventing the construction of the canal. The control, in the interest of the commerce and traffic of the whole civilized world, of the means of undisturbed transit across the Isthmus of Panama has become of transcendent importance to the United States. We have repeatedly exercised this control by intervening in the course of domestic dissension, and by protecting the territory from foreign invasion. In 1853 Mr. Everett assured the Peruvian minister that we should not hesitate to maintain the neutrality of the Isthmus in the case of war between Peru and Colombia. In 1864 Colombia, which has always been vigilant to avail itself of its privileges conferred by the treaty, expressed its expectation that in the event of war between Peru and Spain the United States would carry into effect the guaranty of neutrality. There have been few administrations of the State Department in which this treaty has not, either by the one side or the other, been used as a basis of more or less important demands. It was said by Mr. Fish in 1871 that the Department of State had reason to believe that an attack upon Colombian sovereignty on the Isthmus had, on several occasions, been averted by warning from this Government. In 1886, when Colombia was under the menace of hostilities from Italy in the Cerruti case, Mr. Bayard expressed the serious concern that the United States could not but feel, that a European power should resort to force against a sister republic of this hemisphere, as to the sovereign and uninterrupted use of a part of whose territory we are guarantors under the solemn faith of a treaty. The above recital of facts establishes beyond question: First, that the United States has for over half a century patiently and in good faith carried out its obligations under the treaty of 1846; second, that when for the first time it became possible for Colombia to do anything in requital of the services thus repeatedly rendered to it for fifty-seven years by the United States, the Colombian Government peremptorily and offensively refused thus to do its part, even though to do so would have been to its advantage and immeasurably to the advantage of the State of Panama, at that time under its jurisdiction; third, that throughout this period revolutions, riots, and factional disturbances of every kind have occurred one after the other in almost uninterrupted succession, some of them lasting for months and even for years, while the central government was unable to put them down or to make peace with the rebels; fourth, that these disturbances instead of showing any sign of abating have tended to grow more numerous and more serious in the immediate past; fifth, that the control of Colombia over the Isthmus of Panama could not be maintained without the armed intervention and assistance of the United States. In other words, the Government of Colombia, though wholly unable to maintain order on the Isthmus, has nevertheless declined to ratify a treaty the conclusion of which opened the only chance to secure its own stability and to guarantee permanent peace on, and the construction of a canal across, the Isthmus. Under such circumstances the Government of the United States would have been guilty of folly and weakness, amounting in their sum to a crime against the Nation, had it acted otherwise than it did when the revolution of November 3 last took place in Panama. This great enterprise of building the interoceanic canal can not be held up to gratify the whims, or out of respect to the governmental impotence, or to the even more sinister and evil political peculiarities, of people who, though they dwell afar off, yet, against the wish of the actual dwellers on the Isthmus, assert an unreal supremacy over the territory. The possession of a territory fraught with such peculiar capacities as the Isthmus in question carries with it obligations to mankind. The course of events has shown that this canal can not be built by private enterprise, or by any other nation than our own; therefore it must be built by the United States. Every effort has been made by the Government of the United States to persuade Colombia to follow a course which was essentially not only to our interests and to the interests of the world, but to the interests of Colombia itself. These efforts have failed; and Colombia, by her persistence in repulsing the advances that have been made, has forced us, for the sake of our own honor, and of the interest and well-being, not merely of our own people, but of the people of the Isthmus of Panama and the people of the civilized countries of the world, to take decisive steps to bring to an end a condition of affairs which had become intolerable. The new Republic of Panama immediately offered to negotiate a treaty with us. This treaty I herewith submit. By it our interests are better safeguarded than in the treaty with Colombia which was ratified by the Senate at its last session. It is better in its terms than the treaties offered to us by the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. At last the right to begin this great undertaking is made available. Panama has done her part. All that remains is for the American Congress to do its part, and forthwith this Republic will enter upon the execution of a project colossal in its size and of well-nigh incalculable possibilities for the good of this country and the nations of mankind. By the provisions of the treaty the United States guarantees and will maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama. There is granted to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of a strip ten miles wide and extending three nautical miles into the sea at either terminal, with all lands lying outside of the zone necessary for the construction of the canal or for its auxiliary works, and with the islands in the Bay of Panama. The cities of Panama and Colon are not embraced in the canal zone, but the United States assumes their sanitation and, in case of need, the maintenance of order therein; the United States enjoys within the granted limits all the rights, power, and authority which it would possess were it the sovereign of the territory to the exclusion of the exercise of sovereign rights by the Republic. All railway and canal property rights belonging to Panama and needed for the canal pass to the United States, including any property of the respective companies in the cities of Panama and Colon; the works, property, and personnel of the canal and railways are exempted from taxation as well in the cities of Panama and Colon as in the canal zone and its dependencies. Free immigration of the personnel and importation of supplies for the construction and operation of the canal are granted. Provision is made for the use of military force and the building of fortifications by the United States for the protection of the transit. In other details, particularly as to the acquisition of the interests of the New Panama Canal Company and the Panama Railway by the United States and the condemnation of private property for the uses of the canal, the stipulations of the Hay-Herran treaty are closely followed, while the compensation to be given for these enlarged grants remains the same, being ten millions of dollars payable on exchange of ratifications; and, beginning nine years from that date, an annual payment of $250,000 during the life of the convention.
the country is to be congratulated on the amount of substantial achievement which has marked the past year both as regards our foreign and as regards our domestic policy with a nation as with a man the most important things are those of the household and therefore the country is especially to be congratulated on what has been accomplished in the direction of providing for the exercise of supervision over the great corporations and combinations of corporations engaged in interstate commerce the congress has created the department of commerce and labor including the bureau of corporations with for the first time authority to secure proper publicity of such proceedings of these great corporations as the public has the right to know it has provided for the expediting of suits for the enforcement of the federal law and by another law it has secured equal treatment to all producers in the transportation of their goods thus taking a long stride forward in making effective the work of the interstate commerce commission the establishment of the department of commerce and labor with the bureau of corporations thereunder marks a real advance in the direction of doing all that is possible for the solution of the questions vitally affecting capitalists and the act creating department was approved on february 14 1903 and two days later the head of the department was nominated and confirmed by the senate since then the work of organization has been pushed as rapidly as the initial appropriations permitted and with due regard to thoroughness and the broad purposes which the department is designed to serve after the transfer of the various bureaus and branches to the department at the beginning of the current fiscal year as provided for in the act the personnel comprised employees in washington and in the country at large the scope of the department duty and authority embraces the commercial and industrial interests of the nation it is not designed to restrict or control the fullest liberty of legitimate business action but to secure exact and authentic information which will aid the executive in enforcing existing laws and which will enable the congress to enact additional legislation if any should be found necessary in order to prevent the few from obtaining privileges at the expense of diminished opportunities for the many the preliminary work of the bureau of corporations in the department has shown the wisdom of its creation publicity in corporate affairs will tend to do away with ignorance and will afford facts upon which intelligent action may be taken systematic intelligent investigation is already developing facts the knowledge of which is essential to a right understanding of the needs and duties of the business world the corporation which is honestly and fairly organized whose managers in the conduct of its business recognize their obligation to deal squarely with their stockholders their competitors and the public has nothing to fear from such supervision the purpose of this bureau is not to embarrass or assail legitimate business but to aid in bringing about a better industrial condition a condition under which there shall be obedience to law and recognition of public obligation by all corporations great or small the department of commerce and labor will be not only the clearing house for information regarding the business transactions of the nation but the executive arm of the government to aid in strengthening our domestic and foreign markets in perfecting our transportation facilities in building up our merchant marine in preventing the entrance of undesirable immigrants in improving commercial and industrial conditions and in bringing together on common ground those necessary partners in industrial progress capital and labor commerce between the nations is steadily growing in volume and the tendency of the times is toward closer trade relations constant watchfulness is needed to secure to americans the chance to participate to the best advantage in foreign trade and we may confidently expect that the new department will justify the expectation of its creators by the exercise of this watchfulness as well as by the businesslike administration of such laws relating to our internal affairs as are intrusted to its care in enacting the laws above enumerated the congress proceeded on sane and conservative lines nothing revolutionary was attempted but a and successful effort was made in the direction of seeing that corporations are so handled as to subserve the public good the legislation was moderate it was characterized throughout by the idea that we were not attacking corporations but endeavoring to provide for doing away with any evil in them that we drew the line against misconduct not against wealth gladly recognizing the great good done by the capitalist who alone or in conjunction with his fellows does his work along proper and legitimate lines the purpose of the legislation which purpose will undoubtedly be fulfilled was to favor such a man when he does well and to supervise his action only to prevent him from doing ill publicity can do no harm to the honest corporation the only corporation that has because to dread it is the corporation which shrinks from the light and about the welfare of such corporations we need not be oversensitive the work of the department of commerce and labor has been conditioned upon this theory of securing fair treatment alike for labor and for capital the consistent policy of the national government so far as it has the power is to hold in check the unscrupulous man whether employer or employee but to refuse to weaken individual initiative or to hamper or cramp the industrial development of the country we recognize that this is an era of federation and combination in which great capitalistic corporations and labor unions have become factors of tremendous importance in all industrial centers hearty recognition is given the beneficent work which has been accomplished through both corporations and unions and the line as between different corporations as between different unions is drawn as it is between different individuals that is it is drawn on conduct the effort being to treat both organized capital and organized labor alike asking nothing save that the interest of each shall be brought into harmony with the interest of the general public and that the conduct of each shall conform to the fundamental rules of obedience to law of individual freedom and of justice and fair dealing towards all whenever either corporation labor union or individual disregards the law or acts in a spirit of arbitrary and tyrannous interference with the rights of others whether corporations or individuals then where the federal government has jurisdiction it will see to it that the misconduct is stopped paying not the slightest heed to the position or power of the corporation the union or the individual but only to one vital fact that is the question whether or not the conduct of the individual or aggregate of individuals is in accordance with the law of the land every man must be guaranteed his liberty and his right to do as he likes with his property or his labor so long as he does not infringe the rights of others no man is above the law and no man is below it nor do we ask any man permission when we require him to obey it obedience to the law is demanded as a right not asked as a favor we have because as a nation to be thankful for the steps that have been so successfully taken to put these principles into effect the progress has been by evolution not by revolution nothing radical has been done the action has been both moderate and resolute therefore the work will stand there shall be no backward step if in the working of the laws it proves desirable that they shall at any point be expanded or amplified the amendment can be made as its desirability is shown meanwhile they are being administered with judgment but with insistence upon obedience to them and their need has been emphasized in signal fashion by the events of the past year from all sources exclusive of the postal service the receipts of the government for the last fiscal year aggregated the expenditures for the same period were the surplus for the fiscal year being the indications are that the surplus for the present fiscal year will be very small if indeed there be any surplus from july to november the receipts from customs were approximately nine million dollars less than the receipts from the same source for a corresponding portion of last year should this decrease continue at the same ratio throughout the fiscal year the surplus would be reduced by approximately thirty million dollars should the revenue from customs suffer much further decrease during the fiscal year the surplus would vanish a large surplus is certainly undesirable two years ago the war taxes were taken off with the express intention of equalizing the governmental receipts and expenditures and though the first year thereafter still showed a surplus it now seems likely that a substantial equality of revenue and expenditure will be attained such being the case it is of great moment both to exercise care and economy in appropriations and to scan sharply any change in our fiscal revenue system which may reduce our income the need of strict economy in our expenditures is emphasized by the fact that we can not afford to be parsimonious in providing for what is essential to our national careful economy wherever possible will alone prevent our income from falling below the point required in order to meet our genuine needs the integrity of our currency is beyond question and under present conditions it would be unwise and unnecessary to attempt a reconstruction of our entire monetary system the same liberty should be granted the secretary of the treasury to deposit customs receipts as is granted him in the deposit of receipts from other sources in my message of december 2 1902 i called attention to certain needs of the financial situation and i again ask the consideration of the congress for these questions during the last session of the congress at the suggestion of a joint note from the republic of mexico and the imperial government of china and in harmony with an act of the congress appropriating to pay the expenses thereof a commission was appointed to confer with the principal european countries in the hope that some plan might be devised whereby a fixed rate of exchange could be assured between the countries and the countries this commission has filed its preliminary report which has been made public i deem it important that the commission be continued and that a sum of money be appropriated sufficient to pay the expenses of its further labors a majority of our people desire that steps be taken in the interests of american shipping so that we may once more resume our former position in the ocean carrying trade but hitherto the differences of opinion as to the proper method of reaching this end have been so wide that it has proved impossible to secure the adoption of any particular scheme having in view these facts i recommend that the congress direct the secretary of the navy the and the secretary of commerce and labor associated with such a representation from the senate and house of representatives as the congress in its wisdom may designate to serve as a commission for the purpose of investigating and reporting to the congress at its next session what legislation is desirable or necessary for the development of the american merchant marine and american commerce and incidentally of a national ocean mail service of adequate auxiliary naval crusiers and naval reserves while such a measure is desirable in any event it is especially desirable at this time in view of the fact that our present governmental contract for ocean mail with the american line will expire in 1905 our ocean mail act was passed in 1891 in 1895 our transatlantic mail line was equal to any foreign line since then the germans have put on steamers and the british have contracted for steamers our service should equal the best if it does not the commercial public will abandon it if we are to stay in the business it ought to be with a full understanding of the advantages to the country on one hand and on the other with exact knowledge of the cost and proper methods of carrying it on moreover lines of cargo ships are of even more importance than fast mail lines save so far as the latter can be depended upon to furnish swift auxiliary cruisers in time of war the establishment of new lines of cargo ships to south america to asia and elsewhere would be much in the interest of our commercial expansion we can not have too much immigration of the right kind and we should have none at all of the wrong kind the need is to devise some system by which undesirable immigrants shall be kept out entirely while desirable immigrants are properly distributed throughout the country at present some districts which need immigrants have none and in others where the population is already congested immigrants come in such numbers as to depress the conditions of life for those already there during the last two years the immigration service at new york has been greatly improved and the corruption and inefficiency which formerly obtained there have been eradicated this service has just been investigated by a committee of new york citizens of high standing arthur briesen lee frankel eugene philbin thomas hynes and ralph trautman their report deals with the whole situation at length and concludes with certain recommendations for administrative and legislative action it is now receiving the attention of the secretary of commerce and labor the special investigation of the subject of naturalization under the direction of the and the consequent prosecutions reveal a condition of affairs calling for the immediate attention of the congress forgeries and perjuries of shameless and flagrant character have been perpetrated not only in the dense centers of population but throughout the country and it is established beyond doubt that very many citizens of the united states have no title whatever to that right and are asserting and enjoying the benefits of the same through the grossest frauds it is never to be forgotten that citizenship is to quote the words recently used by the supreme court of the united states an inestimable heritage whether it proceeds from birth within the country or is obtained by naturalization and we poison the sources of our national character and strength at the fountain if the privilege is claimed and exercised without right and by means of fraud and corruption the body politic can not be sound and healthy if many of its constituent members claim their standing through the prostitution of the high right and calling of citizenship it should mean something to become a citizen of the united states and in the process no loophole whatever should be left open to fraud the methods by which these frauds now under full investigation with a view to meting out punishment and providing adequate remedies are perpetrated include many variations of procedure by which false certificates of citizenship are forged in their entirety or genuine certificates fraudulently or collusively obtained in blank are filled in by the criminal conspirators or certificates are obtained on fraudulent statements as to the time of arrival and residence in this country or imposition and substitution of another party for the real petitioner occur in court or certificates are made the subject of barter and sale and transferred from the rightful holder to those not entitled to them or certificates are forged by erasure of the original names and the insertion of the names of other persons not entitled to the same it is not necessary for me to refer here at large to the causes leading to this state of affairs the desire for naturalization is heartily to be commended where it springs from a sincere and permanent intention to become citizens and a real appreciation of the privilege but it is a source of untold evil and trouble where it is traceable to selfish and dishonest motives such as the effort by artificial and improper means in wholesale fashion to create voters who are tools of corrupt politicians or the desire to evade certain labor laws creating discriminations against alien labor all good citizens whether naturalized or native born are equally interested in protecting our citizenship against fraud in any form and on the other hand in affording every facility for naturalization to those who in good faith desire to share alike our privileges and our responsibilities the federal grand jury lately in session in new york city dealt with this subject and made a presentment which states the situation briefly and forcibly and contains important suggestions for the consideration of the congress this presentment is included as an appendix to the report of the in my last annual message in connection with the subject of the due regulation of combinations of capital which are or may become injurious to the public i recommend a special appropriation for the better enforcement of the antitrust law as it now stands to be extended under the direction of the accordingly by the legislative executive and judicial appropriation act of february 25 1903 32 854 904 the congress appropriated for the purpose of enforcing the various federal trust and laws the sum of five hundred thousand dollars to be expended under the direction of the in the employment of special counsel and agents in the department of justice to conduct proceedings and prosecutions under said laws in the courts of the united states i now recommend as a matter of the utmost importance and urgency the extension of the purposes of this appropriation so that it may be available under the direction of the and until used for the due enforcement of the laws of the united states in general and especially of the civil and criminal laws relating to public lands and the laws relating to postal crimes and offenses and the subject of naturalization recent investigations have shown a deplorable state of affairs in these three matters of vital concern by various frauds and by forgeries and perjuries thousands of acres of the public domain embracing lands of different character and extending through various sections of the country have been dishonestly acquired it is hardly necessary to urge the importance of recovering these dishonest acquisitions stolen from the people and of promptly and duly punishing the offenders i speak in another part of this message of the widespread crimes by which the sacred right of citizenship is falsely asserted and that inestimable heritage perverted to base ends by similar means that is through frauds forgeries and perjuries and by shameless briberies the laws relating to the proper conduct of the public service in general and to the due administration of the department have been notoriously violated and many indictments have been found and the consequent prosecutions are in course of hearing or on the eve thereof for the reasons thus indicated and so that the government may be prepared to enforce promptly and with the greatest effect the due penalties for such violations of law and to this end may be furnished with sufficient instrumentalities and competent legal assistance for the investigations and trials which will be necessary at many different points of the country i urge upon the congress the necessity of making the said appropriation available for immediate use for all such purposes to be expended under the direction of the steps have been taken by the state department looking to the making of bribery an extraditable offense with foreign powers the need of more effective treaties covering this crime is manifest the exposures and prosecutions of official corruption in louis and other cities and states have resulted in a number of givers and takers of bribes becoming fugitives in foreign lands bribery has not been included in extradition treaties heretofore as the necessity for it has not arisen while there may have been as much official corruption in former years there has been more developed and brought to light in the immediate past than in the preceding century of our country history it should be the policy of the united states to leave no place on earth where a corrupt man fleeing from this country can rest in peace there is no reason why bribery should not be included in all treaties as extraditable the recent amended treaty with mexico whereby this crime was put in the list of extraditable offenses has established a salutary precedent in this regard under this treaty the state department has asked and mexico has granted the extradition of one of the louis bribe givers there can be no crime more serious than bribery other offenses violate one law while corruption strikes at the foundation of all law under our form of government all authority is vested in the people and by them delegated to those who represent them in official capacity there can be no offense heavier than that of him in whom such a sacred trust has been reposed who sells it for his own gain and enrichment and no less heavy is the offense of the bribe giver he is worse than the thief for the thief robs the individual while the corrupt official plunders an entire city or state he is as wicked as the murderer for the murderer may only take one life against the law while the corrupt official and the man who corrupts the official alike aim at the assassination of the commonwealth itself government of the people by the people for the people will perish from the face of the earth if bribery is tolerated the givers and takers of bribes stand on an evil of infamy the exposure and punishment of public corruption is an honor to a nation not a disgrace the shame lies in toleration not in correction no city or state still less the nation can be injured by the enforcement of law as long as public plunderers when detected can find a haven of refuge in any foreign land and avoid punishment just so long encouragement is given them to continue their practices if we fail to do all that in us lies to stamp out corruption we can not escape our share of responsibility for the guilt the first requisite of successful is unflinching enforcement of the law and the cutting out of corruption for several years past the rapid development of alaska and the establishment of growing american interests in regions theretofore unsurveyed and imperfectly known brought into prominence the urgent necessity of a practical demarcation of the boundaries between the jurisdictions of the united states and great britain although the treaty of 1825 between great britain and russia the provisions of which were copied in the treaty of 1867 whereby russia conveyed alaska to the united states was positive as to the control first by russia and later by the united states of a strip of territory along the continental mainland from the western shore of portland canal to mount elias following and surrounding the indentations of the coast and including the islands to the westward its description of the landward margin of the strip was indefinite resting on the supposed existence of a continuous ridge or range of mountains skirting the coast as figured in the charts of the early navigators it had at no time been possible for either party in interest to lay down under the authority of the treaty a line so obviously exact according to its provisions as to command the assent of the other for nearly of a century the absence of tangible local interests demanding the exercise of positive jurisdiction on either side of the border left the question dormant in 1878 questions of revenue administration on the stikine river led to the establishment of a provisional demarcation crossing the channel between two high peaks on either side about miles above the river mouth in 1899 similar questions growing out of the extraordinary development of mining interests in the region about the head of lynn canal brought about a temporary modus vivendi by which a convenient separation was made at the watershed divides of the white and chilkoot passes and to the north of klukwan on the klehini river these partial and tentative adjustments could not in the very nature of things be satisfactory or lasting a permanent disposition of the matter became imperative after unavailing attempts to reach an understanding through a joint high commission followed by prolonged negotiations conducted in an amicable spirit a convention between the united states and great britain was signed january 24 1903 providing for an examination of the subject by a mixed tribunal of six members three on a side with a view to its final disposition ratifications were exchanged on march 3 last whereupon the two governments appointed their respective members those on behalf of the united states were elihu root secretary of war henry cabot lodge a senator of the united states and george turner an of the united states while great britain named the right honourable lord alverstone lord chief justice of england sir louis amable jette retired judge of the supreme court of quebec and a aylesworth of toronto this tribunal met in london on september 3 under the presidency of lord alverstone the proceedings were expeditious and marked by a friendly and conscientious spirit the respective cases counter cases and arguments presented the issues clearly and fully on the 20th of october a majority of the tribunal reached and signed an agreement on all the questions submitted by the terms of the convention by this award the right of the united states to the control of a continuous strip or border of the mainland shore skirting all the inlets and sinuosities of the coast is confirmed the entrance to portland canal concerning which legitimate doubt appeared is defined as passing by tongass inlet and to the northwestward of wales and pearse islands a line is drawn from the head of portland canal to the degree of north latitude and the interior border line of the strip is fixed by lines connecting certain mountain summits lying between portland canal and mount elias and running along the crest of the divide separating the coast slope from the inland watershed at the only part of the frontier where the drainage ridge approaches the coast within the distance of ten marine leagues stipulated by the treaty as the extreme width of the strip around the heads of lynn canal and its branches while the line so traced follows the provisional demarcation of 1878 at the crossing of the stikine river and that of 1899 at the summits of the white and chilkoot passes it runs much farther inland from the klehini than the temporary line of the later modus vivendi and leaves the entire mining district of the porcupine river and glacier creek within the jurisdiction of the united states the result is satisfactory in every way it is of great material advantage to our people in the far northwest it has removed from the field of discussion and possible danger a question liable to become more acutely accentuated with each passing year finally it has furnished a signal proof of the fairness and good will with which two friendly nations can approach and determine issues involving national sovereignty and by their nature incapable of submission to a third power for adjudication the award is on the vital points to make it effective as regards the others it only remains for the two governments to appoint each on its own behalf one or more scientific experts who shall with all convenient speed proceed together to lay down the boundary line in accordance with the decision of the majority of the tribunal i recommend that the congress make adequate provision for the appointment compensation and expenses of the members to serve on this joint boundary commission on the part of the united states it will be remembered that during the second session of the last congress great britain germany and italy formed an alliance for the purpose of blockading the ports of venezuela and using such other means of pressure as would secure a settlement of claims due as they alleged to certain of their subjects their employment of force for the collection of these claims was terminated by an agreement brought about through the offices of the diplomatic representatives of the united states at caracas and the government at washington thereby ending a situation which was bound to because increasing friction and which jeoparded the peace of the continent under this agreement venezuela agreed to set apart a certain percentage of the customs receipts of two of her ports to be applied to the payment of whatever obligations might be ascertained by mixed commissions appointed for that purpose to be due from her not only to the three powers already mentioned whose proceedings against her had resulted in a state of war but also to the united states france spain belgium the netherlands sweden and norway and mexico who had not employed force for the collection of the claims alleged to be due to certain of their citizens a demand was then made by the blockading powers that the sums ascertained to be due to their citizens by such mixed commissions should be accorded payment in full before anything was paid upon the claims of any of the peace powers venezuela on the other hand insisted that all her creditors should be paid upon a basis of exact equality during the efforts to adjust this dispute it was suggested by the powers in interest that it should be referred to me for decision but i was clearly of the opinion that a far wiser course would be to submit the question to the permanent court of arbitration at the hague it seemed to me to offer an admirable opportunity to advance the practice of the peaceful settlement of disputes between nations and to secure for the hague tribunal a memorable increase of its practical importance the nations interested in the controversy were so numerous and in many instances so powerful as to make it evident that beneficent results would follow from their appearance at the same time before the bar of that august tribunal of peace our hopes in that regard have been realized russia and austria are represented in the persons of the learned and distinguished jurists who compose the tribunal while great britain germany france spain italy belgium the netherlands sweden and norway mexico the united states and venezuela are represented by their respective agents and counsel such an imposing concourse of nations presenting their arguments to and invoking the decision of that high court of international justice and international peace can hardly fail to secure a like submission of many future controversies the nations now appearing there will find it far easier to appear there a second time while no nation can imagine its just pride will be lessened by following the example now presented this triumph of the principle of international arbitration is a subject of warm congratulation and offers a happy augury for the peace of the world there seems good ground for the belief that there has been a real growth among the civilized nations of a sentiment which will permit a gradual substitution of other methods than the method of war in the settlement of disputes it is not pretended that as yet we are near a position in which it will be possible wholly to prevent war or that a just regard for national interest and honor will in all cases permit of the settlement of international disputes by arbitration but by a mixture of prudence and firmness with wisdom we think it is possible to do away with much of the provocation and excuse for war and at least in many cases to substitute some other and more rational method for the settlement of disputes the hague court offers so good an example of what can be done in the direction of such settlement that it should be encouraged in every way further steps should be taken in president mckinley annual message of december 5 1898 he made the following recommendation the experiences of the last year bring forcibly home to us a sense of the burdens and the waste of war we desire in common with most civilized nations to reduce to the lowest possible point the damage sustained in time of war by peaceable trade and commerce it is true we may suffer in such cases less than other communities but all nations are damaged more or less by the state of uneasiness and apprehension into which an outbreak of hostilities throws the entire commercial world it should be our object therefore to minimize so far as practicable this inevitable loss and disturbance this purpose can probably best be accomplished by an international agreement to regard all private property at sea as exempt from capture or destruction by the forces of belligerent powers the united states government has for many years advocated this humane and beneficent principle and is now in a position to recommend it to other powers without the imputation of selfish motives i therefore suggest for your consideration that the executive be authorized to correspond with the governments of the principal maritime powers with a view of incorporating into the permanent law of civilized nations the principle of the exemption of all private property at sea not contraband of war from capture or destruction by belligerent powers i cordially renew this recommendation the supreme court speaking on december 11 1899 through peckham said it is we think historically accurate to say that this government has always been in its views among the most advanced of the governments of the world in favor of mitigating as to all the hardships and horrors of war to accomplish that object it has always advocated those rules which would in most cases do away with the right to capture the private property of an enemy on the high seas i advocate this as a matter of humanity and morals it is anachronistic when private property is respected on land that it should not be respected at sea moreover it should be borne in mind that shipping represents internationally speaking a much more generalized species of private property than is the case with ordinary property on land that is property found at sea is much less apt than is the case with property found on land really to belong to any one nation under the modern system of corporate ownership the flag of a vessel often differs from the flag which would mark the nationality of the real ownership and money control of the vessel and the cargo may belong to individuals of yet a different nationality much american capital is now invested in foreign ships and among foreign nations it often happens that the capital of one is largely invested in the shipping of another furthermore as a practical matter it may be mentioned that while commerce destroying may because serious loss and great annoyance it can never be more than a subsidiary factor in bringing to terms a resolute foe this is now well recognized by all of our naval experts the fighting ship not the commerce destroyer is the vessel whose feats add renown to a nation history and establish her place among the great powers of the world last year the interparliamentary union for international arbitration met at vienna six hundred members of the different legislatures of civilized countries attending it was provided that the next meeting should be in 1904 at louis subject to our congress extending an invitation like the hague tribunal this interparliamentary union is one of the forces tending towards peace among the nations of the earth and it is entitled to our support i trust the invitation can be extended early in july having received intelligence which happily turned out to be erroneous of the assassination of our at beirut i dispatched a small squadron to that port for such service as might be found necessary on arrival although the attempt on the life of our had not been successful yet the outrage was symptomatic of a state of excitement and disorder which demanded immediate attention the arrival of the vessels had the happiest result a feeling of security at once took the place of the former alarm and disquiet our officers were cordially welcomed by the consular body and the leading merchants and ordinary business resumed its activity the government of the sultan gave a considerate hearing to the representations of our minister the official who was regarded as responsible for the disturbed condition of affairs was removed our relations with the turkish government remain friendly our claims rounded on inequitable treatment of some of our schools and missions appear to be in process of amicable adjustment the signing of a new commercial treaty with china which took place at shanghai on the 8th of october is a because for satisfaction this act the result of long discussion and negotiation places our commercial relations with the great oriental empire on a more satisfactory footing than they have ever heretofore enjoyed it provides not only for the ordinary rights and privileges of diplomatic and consular officers but also for an important extension of our commerce by increased facility of access to chinese ports and for the relief of trade by the removal of some of the obstacles which have embarrassed it in the past the chinese government engages on fair and equitable conditions which will probably be accepted by the principal commercial nations to abandon the levy of liken and other transit dues throughout the empire and to introduce other desirable administrative reforms larger facilities are to be given to our citizens who desire to carry on mining enterprises in china we have secured for our missionaries a valuable privilege the recognition of their right to rent and lease in perpetuity such property as their religious societies may need in all parts of the empire and what was an indispensable condition for the advance and development of our commerce in manchuria china by treaty with us has opened to foreign commerce the cities of mukden the capital of the province of manchuria and an important port on the yalu river on the road to korea the full measure of development which our commerce may rightfully expect can hardly be looked for until the settlement of the present abnormal state of things in the empire but the foundation for such development has at last been laid i call your attention to the reduced cost in maintaining the consular service for the fiscal year ending june 30 1903 as shown in the annual report of the auditor for the state and other departments as compared with the year previous for the year under consideration the excess of expenditures over receipts on account of the consular service amounted to as against for the year ending june 30 1902 and for the year ending june 30 1901 this is the best showing in this respect for the consular service for the past fourteen years and the reduction in the cost of the service to the government has been made in spite of the fact that the expenditures for the year in question were more than greater than for the previous year the rural service has been steadily extended the attention of the congress is asked to the question of the compensation of the letter carriers and clerks engaged in the postal service especially on the new rural routes more routes have been installed since the first of july last than in any like period in the department history while a due regard to economy must be kept in mind in the establishment of new routes yet the extension of the rural system must be continued for reasons of sound public policy no governmental movement of recent years has resulted in greater immediate benefit to the people of the country districts rural free delivery taken in connection with the telephone the bicycle and the trolley accomplishes much toward lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more attractive in the immediate past the lack of just such facilities as these has driven many of the more active and restless young men and women from the farms to the cities for they rebelled at loneliness and lack of mental companionship it is unhealthy and undesirable for the cities to grow at the expense of the country and rural free delivery is not only a good thing in itself but is good because it is one of the causes which check this unwholesome tendency towards the urban concentration of our population at the expense of the country districts it is for the same reason that we sympathize with and approve of the policy of building good roads the movement for good roads is one fraught with the greatest benefit to the country districts i trust that the congress will continue to favor in all proper ways the louisiana purchase exposition this exposition commemorates the louisiana purchase which was the first great step in the expansion which made us a continental nation the expedition of lewis and clark across the continent followed thereon and marked the beginning of the process of exploration and colonization which thrust our national boundaries to the pacific the acquisition of the oregon country including the present states of oregon and washington was a fact of immense importance in our history first giving us our place on the pacific seaboard and making ready the way for our ascendency in the commerce of the greatest of the oceans the centennial of our establishment upon the western coast by the expedition of lewis and clark is to be celebrated at portland oregon by an exposition in the summer of 1905 and this event should receive recognition and support from the national government i call your special attention to the territory of alaska the country is developing rapidly and it has an assured future the mineral wealth is great and has as yet hardly been tapped the fisheries if wisely handled and kept under national control will be a business as permanent as any other and of the utmost importance to the people the forests if properly guarded will form another great source of wealth portions of alaska are fitted for farming and stock raising although the methods must be adapted to the peculiar conditions of the country alaska is situated in the far north but so are norway and sweden and finland and alaska can prosper and play its part in the new world just as those nations have prospered and played their parts in the old world proper land laws should be enacted and the survey of the public lands immediately begun laws should be provided whereby the entryman may make his location and secure patent under methods kindred to those now prescribed for homestead and mineral entrymen salmon hatcheries exclusively under government control should be established the cable should be extended from sitka westward wagon roads and trails should be built and the building of railroads promoted in all legitimate ways should be built along the coast attention should be paid to the needs of the alaska indians provision should be made for an officer with deputies to study their needs relieve their immediate wants and help them adapt themselves to the new conditions the commission appointed to investigate during the season of 1903 the condition and needs of the alaskan salmon fisheries has finished its work in the field and is preparing a detailed report thereon a preliminary report reciting the measures immediately required for the protection and preservation of the salmon industry has already been submitted to the secretary of commerce and labor for his attention and for the needed action i recommend that an appropriation be made for building in hawaii and taking possession of those already built the territory should be reimbursed for whatever amounts it has already expended for the governor should be empowered to suspend or remove any official appointed by him without submitting the matter to the legislature of our insular possessions the philippines and porto rico it is gratifying to say that their steady progress has been such as to make it unnecessary to spend much time in discussing them yet the congress should ever keep in mind that a peculiar obligation rests upon us to further in every way the welfare of these communities the philippines should be knit closer to us by tariff arrangements it would of course be impossible suddenly to raise the people of the islands to the high pitch of industrial prosperity and of governmental efficiency to which they will in the end by degrees attain and the caution and moderation shown in developing them have been among the main reasons why this development has hitherto gone on so smoothly scrupulous care has been taken in the choice of governmental agents and the entire elimination of partisan politics from the public service the condition of the islanders is in material things far better than ever before while their governmental intellectual and moral advance has kept pace with their material advance no one people ever benefited another people more than we have benefited the filipinos by taking possession of the islands the cash receipts of the general land office for the last fiscal year were an increase of over the preceding year of this sum approximately will go to the credit of the fund for the reclamation of arid land making the total of this fund up to the 30th of june 1903 approximately a gratifying disposition has been evinced by those having unlawful inclosures of public land to remove their fences nearly two million acres so inclosed have been thrown open on demand in but comparatively few cases has it been necessary to go into court to accomplish this purpose this work will be vigorously prosecuted until all unlawful inclosures have been removed experience has shown that in the western states themselves as well as in the rest of the country there is widespread conviction that certain of the laws and the resulting administrative practice no longer meet the present needs the character and uses of the remaining public lands differ widely from those of the public lands which congress had especially in view when these laws were passed the rapidly increasing rate of disposal of the public lands is not followed by a corresponding increase in home building there is a tendency to mass in large holdings public lands especially timber and grazing lands and thereby to retard settlement i renew and emphasize my recommendation of last year that so far as they are available for agriculture in its broadest sense and to whatever extent they may be reclaimed under the national irrigation law the remaining public lands should be held rigidly for the home builder the attention of the congress is especially directed to the timber and stone law the law and the commutation clause of the homestead law which in their operation have in many respects conflicted with wise policy the discussions in the congress and elsewhere have made it evident that there is a wide divergence of opinions between those holding opposite views on these subjects and that the opposing sides have strong and convinced representatives of weight both within and without the congress the differences being not only as to matters of opinion but as to matters of fact in order that definite information may be available for the use of the congress i have appointed a commission composed of richards commissioner of the general land office gifford pinchot chief of the bureau of forestry of the department of agriculture and newell chief hydrographer of the geological survey to report at the earliest practicable moment upon the condition operation and effect of the present land laws and on the use condition disposal and settlement of the public lands the commission will report especially what changes in organization laws regulations and practice affecting the public lands are needed to effect the largest practicable disposition of the public lands to actual settlers who will build permanent homes upon them and to secure in permanence the fullest and most effective use of the resources of the public lands and it will make such other reports and recommendations as its study of these questions may suggest the commission is to report immediately upon those points concerning which its judgment is clear on any point upon which it has doubt it will take the time necessary to make investigation and reach a final judgment the work of reclamation of the arid lands of the west is progressing steadily and satisfactorily under the terms of the law setting aside the proceeds from the disposal of public lands the corps of engineers known as the reclamation service which is conducting the surveys and examinations has been thoroughly organized especial pains being taken to secure under the rules a body of skilled experienced and efficient men surveys and examinations are progressing throughout the arid states and territories plans for reclaiming works being prepared and passed upon by boards of engineers before approval by the secretary of the interior in arizona and nevada in localities where such work is needed construction has already been begun in other parts of the arid west various projects are well advanced towards the drawing up of contracts these being delayed in part by necessities of reaching agreements or understanding as regards rights of way or acquisition of real estate most of the works contemplated for construction are of national importance involving interstate questions or the securing of stable communities in the midst of vast tracts of vacant land the nation as a whole is of course the gainer by the creation of these homes adding as they do to the wealth and stability of the country and furnishing a home market for the products of the east and south the reclamation law while perhaps not ideal appears at present to answer the larger needs for which it is designed further legislation is not recommended until the necessities of change are more apparent the study of the opportunities of reclamation of the vast extent of arid land shows that whether this reclamation is done by individuals corporations or the state the sources of water supply must be effectively protected and the reservoirs guarded by the preservation of the forests at the headwaters of the streams the engineers making the preliminary examinations continually emphasize this need and urge that the remaining public lands at the headwaters of the important streams of the west be reserved to insure permanency of water supply for irrigation much progress in forestry has been made during the past year the necessity for perpetuating our forest resources whether in public or private hands is recognized now as never before the demand for forest reserves has become insistent in the west because the west must use the water wood and summer range which only such reserves can supply progressive lumbermen are striving through forestry to give their business permanence other great business interests are awakening to the need of forest preservation as a business matter the government forest work should receive from the congress hearty support and especially support adequate for the protection of the forest reserves against fire the policy of the government has passed beyond the experimental stage and has reached a condition where scientific methods are essential to its successful prosecution the administrative features of forest reserves are at present unsatisfactory being divided between three bureaus of two departments it is therefore recommended that all matters pertaining to forest reserves except those involving or pertaining to land titles be consolidated in the bureau of forestry of the department of agriculture the states have recently been invaded by a weevil that has done much damage and threatens the entire cotton industry i suggest to the congress the prompt enactment of such remedial legislation as its judgment may approve in granting patents to foreigners the proper course for this country to follow is to give the same advantages to foreigners here that the countries in which these foreigners dwell extend in return to our citizens that is to extend the benefits of our patent laws on inventions and the like where in return the articles would be patentable in the foreign countries concerned where an american could get a corresponding patent in such countries the indian agents should not be dependent for their appointment or tenure of office upon considerations of partisan politics the practice of appointing when possible officers or bonded superintendents to the vacancies that occur is working well attention is invited to the widespread illiteracy due to lack of public schools in the indian territory prompt heed should be paid to the need of education for the children in this territory in my last annual message the attention of the congress was called to the necessity of enlarging the law and it is gratifying to note that this law was amended in important respects with the increasing railway mileage of the country the greater number of men employed and the use of larger and heavier equipment the urgency for renewed effort to prevent the loss of life and limb upon the railroads of the country particularly to employees is apparent for the inspection of water craft and the service upon the water the congress has built up an elaborate body of protective legislation and a thorough method of inspection and is annually spending large sums of money it is encouraging to observe that the congress is alive to the interests of those who are employed upon our wonderful arteries of commerce the railroads who so safely transport millions of passengers and billions of tons of freight the federal inspection of safety appliances for which the congress is now making appropriations is a service analogous to that which the government has upheld for generations in regard to vessels and it is believed will prove of great practical benefit both to railroad employees and the traveling public as the greater part of commerce is interstate and exclusively under the control of the congress the needed safety and uniformity must be secured by national legislation no other class of our citizens deserves so well of the nation as those to whom the nation owes its very being the veterans of the civil war special attention is asked to the excellent work of the pension bureau in expediting and disposing of pension claims during the fiscal year ending july 1 1903 the bureau settled claims an average of 825 claims for each working day of the year the number of settlements since july 1 1903 has been in excess of last year average approaching claims for each working day and it is believed that the work of the bureau will be current at the close of the present fiscal year during the year ended june 30 last persons were appointed through competitive examinations under the rules this was more than during the preceding year and 40 per cent of those who passed the examinations this abnormal growth was largely occasioned by the extension of classification to the rural service and the appointment last year of over rural carriers a revision of the rules took effect on april 15 last which has greatly improved their operation the completion of the reform of the civil service is recognized by good citizens everywhere as a matter of the highest public importance and the success of the merit system largely depends upon the effectiveness of the rules and the machinery provided for their enforcement a very gratifying spirit of friendly exists in all the departments of the government in the enforcement and uniform observance of both the letter and spirit of the act executive orders of july 3 1902 march 26 1903 and july 8 1903 require that appointments of all unclassified laborers both in the departments at washington and in the field service shall be made with the assistance of the united states civil service commission under a system of registration to test the relative fitness of applicants for appointment or employment this system is competitive and is open to all citizens of the united states qualified in respect to age physical ability moral character industry and adaptability for manual labor except that in case of veterans of the civil war the element of age is omitted this system of appointment is distinct from the classified service and does not classify positions of mere laborer under the act and rules regulations in aid thereof have been put in operation in several of the departments and are being gradually extended in other parts of the service the results have been very satisfactory as extravagance has been checked by decreasing the number of unnecessary positions and by increasing the efficiency of the employees remaining the congress as the result of a thorough investigation of the charities and reformatory institutions in the district of columbia by a joint select committee of the two houses which made its report in march 1898 created in the act approved june 6 1900 a board of charities for the district of columbia to consist of five residents of the district appointed by the president of the united states by and with the advice and consent of the senate each for a term of three years to serve without compensation president mckinley appointed five men who had been active and prominent in the public charities in washington all of whom upon taking office july 1 1900 resigned from the different charities with which they had been connected the members of the board have been reappointed in successive years the board serves under the commissioners of the district of columbia the board gave its first year to a careful and impartial study of the special problems before it and has continued that study every year in the light of the best practice in public charities elsewhere its recommendations in its annual reports to the congress through the commissioners of the district of columbia for the economical and efficient administration of the charities and reformatories of the district of columbia as required by the act creating it have been based upon the principles commended by the joint select committee of the congress in its report of march 1898 and approved by the best administrators of public charities and make for the desired systematization and improvement of the affairs under its supervision they are worthy of favorable consideration by the congress the effect of the laws providing a general staff for the army and for the more effective use of the national guard has been excellent great improvement has been made in the efficiency of our army in recent years such schools as those erected at fort leavenworth and fort riley and the institution of fall maneuver work accomplish satisfactory results the good effect of these maneuvers upon the national guard is marked and ample appropriation should be made to enable the guardsmen of the several states to share in the benefit the government should as soon as possible secure suitable permanent camp sites for military maneuvers in the various sections of the country the service thereby rendered not only to the regular army but to the national guard of the several states will be so great as to repay many times over the relatively small expense we should not rest satisfied with what has been done however the only people who are contented with a system of promotion by mere seniority are those who are contented with the triumph of mediocrity over excellence on the other hand a system which encouraged the exercise of social or political favoritism in promotions would be even worse but it would surely be easy to devise a method of promotion from grade to grade in which the opinion of the higher officers of the service upon the candidates should be decisive upon the standing and promotion of the latter just such a system now obtains at west point the quality of each year work determines the standing of that year class the man being dropped or graduated into the next class in the relative position which his military superiors decide to be warranted by his merit in other words ability energy fidelity and all other similar qualities determine the rank of a man year after year in west point and his standing in the army when he graduates from west point but from that time on all effort to find which man is best or worst and reward or punish him accordingly is abandoned no brilliancy no amount of hard work no eagerness in the performance of duty can advance him and no slackness or indifference that falls short of a offense can retard him until this system is changed we can not hope that our officers will be of as high grade as we have a right to expect considering the material upon which we draw moreover when a man renders such service as captain pershing rendered last spring in the moro campaign it ought to be possible to reward him without at once jumping him to the grade of shortly after the enunciation of that famous principle of american foreign policy now known as the monroe doctrine president monroe in a special message to congress on january 30 1824 spoke as follows the navy is the arm from which our government will always derive most aid in support of our rights every power engaged in war will know the strength of our naval power the number of our ships of each class their condition and the promptitude with which we may bring them into service and will pay due consideration to that argument i heartily congratulate the congress upon the steady progress in building up the american navy we can not afford a in this great work to stand still means to go back there should be no cessation in adding to the effective units of the fighting strength of the fleet meanwhile the navy department and the officers of the navy are doing well their part by providing constant service at sea under conditions akin to those of actual warfare our officers and enlisted men are learning to handle the battleships cruisers and torpedo boats with high efficiency in fleet and squadron formations and the standard of marksmanship is being steadily raised the best work ashore is indispensable but the highest duty of a naval officer is to exercise command at sea the establishment of a naval base in the philippines ought not to be longer postponed such a base is desirable in time of peace in time of war it would be indispensable and its lack would be ruinous without it our fleet would be helpless our naval experts are agreed that subig bay is the proper place for the purpose the national interests require that the work of fortification and development of a naval station at subig bay be begun at an early date for under the best conditions it is a work which will consume much time it is eminently desirable however that there should be provided a naval general staff on lines similar to those of the general staff lately created for the army within the navy department itself the needs of the service have brought about a system under which the duties of a general staff are partially performed for the bureau of navigation has under its direction the war college the office of naval intelligence and the board of inspection and has been in close touch with the general board of the navy but though under the excellent officers at their head these boards and bureaus do good work they have not the authority of a general staff and have not sufficient scope to insure a proper readiness for emergencies we need the establishment by law of a body of trained officers who shall exercise a systematic control of the military affairs of the navy and be authorized advisers of the secretary concerning it by the act of june 28 1902 the congress authorized the president to enter into treaty with colombia for the building of the canal across the isthmus of panama it being provided that in the event of failure to secure such treaty after the lapse of a reasonable time recourse should be had to building a canal through nicaragua it has not been necessary to consider this alternative as i am enabled to lay before the senate a treaty providing for the building of the canal across the isthmus of panama this was the route which commended itself to the deliberate judgment of the congress and we can now acquire by treaty the right to construct the canal over this route the question now therefore is not by which route the isthmian canal shall be built for that question has been definitely and irrevocably decided the question is simply whether or not we shall have an isthmian canal when the congress directed that we should take the panama route under treaty with colombia the essence of the condition of course referred not to the government which controlled that route but to the route itself to the territory across which the route lay not to the name which for the moment the territory bore on the map the purpose of the law was to authorize the president to make a treaty with the power in actual control of the isthmus of panama this purpose has been fulfilled in the year 1846 this government entered into a treaty with new granada the predecessor upon the isthmus of the republic of colombia and of the present republic of panama by which treaty it was provided that the government and citizens of the united states should always have free and open right of way or transit across the isthmus of panama by any modes of communication that might be constructed while in turn our government guaranteed the perfect neutrality of the isthmus with the view that the free transit from the one to the other sea might not be interrupted or embarrassed the treaty vested in the united states a substantial property right carved out of the rights of sovereignty and property which new granada then had and possessed over the said territory the name of new granada has passed away and its territory has been divided its successor the government of colombia has ceased to own any property in the isthmus a new republic that of panama which was at one time a sovereign state and at another time a mere department of the successive confederations known as new granada and columbia has now succeeded to the rights which first one and then the other formerly exercised over the isthmus but as long as the isthmus endures the mere geographical fact of its existence and the peculiar interest therein which is required by our position perpetuate the solemn contract which binds the holders of the territory to respect our right to freedom of transit across it and binds us in return to safeguard for the isthmus and the world the exercise of that inestimable privilege the true interpretation of the obligations upon which the united states entered in this treaty of 1846 has been given repeatedly in the utterances of presidents and secretaries of state secretary cuss in 1858 officially stated the position of this government as follows the progress of events has rendered the interoceanic route across the narrow portion of central america vastly important to the commercial world and especially to the united states whose possessions extend along the atlantic and pacific coasts and demand the speediest and easiest modes of communication while the rights of sovereignty of the states occupying this region should always be respected we shall expect that these rights be exercised in a spirit befitting the occasion and the wants and circumstances that have arisen sovereignty has its duties as well as its rights and none of these local governments even if administered with more regard to the just demands of other nations than they have been would be permitted in a spirit of eastern isolation to close the gates of intercourse on the great highways of the world and justify the act by the pretension that these avenues of trade and travel belong to them and that they choose to shut them or what is almost equivalent to encumber them with such unjust relations as would prevent their general use seven years later in 1865 seward in different communications took the following position the united states have taken and will take no interest in any question of internal revolution in the state of panama or any state of the united states of colombia but will maintain a perfect neutrality in connection with such domestic altercations the united states will nevertheless hold themselves ready to protect the transit trade across the isthmus against invasion of either domestic or foreign disturbers of the peace of the state of panama neither the text nor the spirit of the stipulation in that article by which the united states engages to preserve the neutrality of the isthmus of panama imposes an obligation on this government to comply with the requisition of the president of the united states of colombia for a force to protect the isthmus of panama from a body of insurgents of that country the purpose of the stipulation was to guarantee the isthmus against seizure or invasion by a foreign power only speed under date of november 7 1865 advised secretary seward as follows from this treaty it can not be supposed that new granada invited the united states to become a party to the intestine troubles of that government nor did the united states become bound to take sides in the domestic broils of new granada the united states did guarantee new granada in the sovereignty and property over the territory this was as against other and foreign governments for four hundred years ever since shortly after the discovery of this hemisphere the canal across the isthmus has been planned for two score years it has been worked at when made it is to last for the ages it is to alter the geography of a continent and the trade routes of the world we have shown by every treaty we have negotiated or attempted to negotiate with the peoples in control of the isthmus and with foreign nations in reference thereto our consistent good faith in observing our obligations on the one hand to the peoples of the isthmus and on the other hand to the civilized world whose commercial rights we are safeguarding and guaranteeing by our action we have done our duty to others in letter and in spirit and we have shown the utmost forbearance in exacting our own rights last spring under the act above referred to a treaty concluded between the representatives of the republic of colombia and of our government was ratified by the senate this treaty was entered into at the urgent solicitation of the people of colombia and after a body of experts appointed by our government especially to go into the matter of the routes across the isthmus had pronounced unanimously in favor of the panama route in drawing up this treaty every concession was made to the people and to the government of colombia we were more than just in dealing with them our generosity was such as to make it a serious question whether we had not gone too far in their interest at the expense of our own for in our scrupulous desire to pay all possible heed not merely to the real but even to the fancied rights of our weaker neighbor who already owed so much to our protection and forbearance we yielded in all possible ways to her desires in drawing up the treaty nevertheless the government of colombia not merely repudiated the treaty but repudiated it in such manner as to make it evident by the time the colombian congress adjourned that not the scantiest hope remained of ever getting a satisfactory treaty from them the government of colombia made the treaty and yet when the colombian congress was called to ratify it the vote against ratification was unanimous it does not appear that the government made any real effort to secure ratification immediately after the adjournment of the congress a revolution broke out in panama the people of panama had long been discontented with the republic of colombia and they had been kept quiet only by the prospect of the conclusion of the treaty which was to them a matter of vital concern when it became evident that the treaty was hopelessly lost the people of panama rose literally as one man not a shot was fired by a single man on the isthmus in the interest of the colombian government not a life was lost in the accomplishment of the revolution the colombian troops stationed on the isthmus who had long been unpaid made common because with the people of panama and with astonishing unanimity the new republic was started the duty of the united states in the premises was clear in strict accordance with the principles laid down by secretaries cass and seward in the official documents above quoted the united states gave notice that it would permit the landing of no expeditionary force the arrival of which would mean chaos and destruction along the line of the railroad and of the proposed canal and an interruption of transit as an inevitable consequence the de facto government of panama was recognized in the following telegram to ehrman the people of panama have by apparently unanimous movement dissolved their political connection with the republic of colombia and resumed their independence when you are satisfied that a de facto government republican in form and without substantial opposition from its own people has been established in the state of panama you will enter into relations with it as the responsible government of the territory and look to it for all due action to protect the persons and property of citizens of the united states and to keep open the isthmian transit in accordance with the obligations of existing treaties governing the relations of the united states to that territory the government of colombia was notified of our action by the following telegram to beaupre the people of panama having by an apparently unanimous movement dissolved their political connection with the republic of colombia and resumed their independence and having adopted a government of their own republican in form with which the government of the united states of america has entered into relations the president of the united states in accordance with the ties of friendship which have so long and so happily existed between the respective nations most earnestly commends to the governments of colombia and of panama the peaceful and equitable settlement of all questions at issue between them he holds that he is bound not merely by treaty obligations but by the interests of civilization to see that the peaceful traffic of the world across the isthmus of panama shall not longer be disturbed by a constant succession of unnecessary and wasteful civil wars when these events happened years had elapsed since the united states had entered into its treaty with new granada during that time the governments of new granada and of its successor colombia have been in a constant state of flux the following is a partial list of the disturbances on the isthmus of panama during the period in question as reported to us by our consuls it is not possible to give a complete list and some of the reports that speak of revolutions must mean unsuccessful revolutions the above is only a partial list of the revolutions rebellions insurrections riots and other outbreaks that have occurred during the period in question yet they number 53 for the 57 years it will be noted that one of them lasted for nearly three years before it was quelled another for nearly a year in short the experience of over half a century has shown colombia to be utterly incapable of keeping order on the isthmus only the active interference of the united states has enabled her to preserve so much as a semblance of sovereignty had it not been for the exercise by the united states of the police power in her interest her connection with the isthmus would have been sundered long ago in 1856 in 1860 in 1873 in 1885 in 1901 and again in 1902 sailors and marines from united states war ships were forced to land in order to patrol the isthmus to protect life and property and to see that the transit across the isthmus was kept open in 1861 in 1862 in 1885 and in 1900 the colombian government asked that the united states government would land troops to protect its interests and maintain order on the isthmus perhaps the most extraordinary request is that which has just been received and which runs as follows knowing that revolution has already commenced in panama an eminent colombian says that if the government of the united states will land troops to preserve colombian sovereignty and the transit if requested by colombian charge this government will declare martial law and by virtue of vested constitutional authority when public order is disturbed will approve by decree ratification of the canal treaty as signed or if the government of the united states prefers will call extra session of the congress with new and friendly members next may to approve the treaty an eminent colombian has the perfect confidence of he says and if it became necessary will go to the isthmus or send representatives there to adjust matters along above lines to the satisfaction of the people there this dispatch is noteworthy from two standpoints its offer of immediately guaranteeing the treaty to us is in sharp contrast with the positive and contemptuous refusal of the congress which has just closed its sessions to consider favorably such a treaty it shows that the government which made the treaty really had absolute control over the situation but did not choose to exercise this control the dispatch further calls on us to restore order and secure colombian supremacy in the isthmus from which the colombian government has just by its action decided to bar us by preventing the construction of the canal the control in the interest of the commerce and traffic of the whole civilized world of the means of undisturbed transit across the isthmus of panama has become of transcendent importance to the united states we have repeatedly exercised this control by intervening in the course of domestic dissension and by protecting the territory from foreign invasion in 1853 everett assured the peruvian minister that we should not hesitate to maintain the neutrality of the isthmus in the case of war between peru and colombia in 1864 colombia which has always been vigilant to avail itself of its privileges conferred by the treaty expressed its expectation that in the event of war between peru and spain the united states would carry into effect the guaranty of neutrality there have been few administrations of the state department in which this treaty has not either by the one side or the other been used as a basis of more or less important demands it was said by mr fish in 1871 that the department of state had reason to believe that an attack upon colombian sovereignty on the isthmus had on several occasions been averted by warning from this government in 1886 when colombia was under the menace of hostilities from italy in the cerruti case bayard expressed the serious concern that the united states could not but feel that a european power should resort to force against a sister republic of this hemisphere as to the sovereign and uninterrupted use of a part of whose territory we are guarantors under the solemn faith of a treaty the above recital of facts establishes beyond question first that the united states has for over half a century patiently and in good faith carried out its obligations under the treaty of 1846 second that when for the first time it became possible for colombia to do anything in requital of the services thus repeatedly rendered to it for years by the united states the colombian government peremptorily and offensively refused thus to do its part even though to do so would have been to its advantage and immeasurably to the advantage of the state of panama at that time under its jurisdiction third that throughout this period revolutions riots and factional disturbances of every kind have occurred one after the other in almost uninterrupted succession some of them lasting for months and even for years while the central government was unable to put them down or to make peace with the rebels fourth that these disturbances instead of showing any sign of abating have tended to grow more numerous and more serious in the immediate past fifth that the control of colombia over the isthmus of panama could not be maintained without the armed intervention and assistance of the united states in other words the government of colombia though wholly unable to maintain order on the isthmus has nevertheless declined to ratify a treaty the conclusion of which opened the only chance to secure its own stability and to guarantee permanent peace on and the construction of a canal across the isthmus under such circumstances the government of the united states would have been guilty of folly and weakness amounting in their sum to a crime against the nation had it acted otherwise than it did when the revolution of november 3 last took place in panama this great enterprise of building the interoceanic canal can not be held up to gratify the whims or out of respect to the governmental impotence or to the even more sinister and evil political peculiarities of people who though they dwell afar off yet against the wish of the actual dwellers on the isthmus assert an unreal supremacy over the territory the possession of a territory fraught with such peculiar capacities as the isthmus in question carries with it obligations to mankind the course of events has shown that this canal can not be built by private enterprise or by any other nation than our own therefore it must be built by the united states every effort has been made by the government of the united states to persuade colombia to follow a course which was essentially not only to our interests and to the interests of the world but to the interests of colombia itself these efforts have failed and colombia by her persistence in repulsing the advances that have been made has forced us for the sake of our own honor and of the interest and not merely of our own people but of the people of the isthmus of panama and the people of the civilized countries of the world to take decisive steps to bring to an end a condition of affairs which had become intolerable the new republic of panama immediately offered to negotiate a treaty with us this treaty i herewith submit by it our interests are better safeguarded than in the treaty with colombia which was ratified by the senate at its last session it is better in its terms than the treaties offered to us by the republics of nicaragua and costa rica at last the right to begin this great undertaking is made available panama has done her part all that remains is for the american congress to do its part and forthwith this republic will enter upon the execution of a project colossal in its size and of incalculable possibilities for the good of this country and the nations of mankind by the provisions of the treaty the united states guarantees and will maintain the independence of the republic of panama there is granted to the united states in perpetuity the use occupation and control of a strip ten miles wide and extending three nautical miles into the sea at either terminal with all lands lying outside of the zone necessary for the construction of the canal or for its auxiliary works and with the islands in the bay of panama the cities of panama and colon are not embraced in the canal zone but the united states assumes their sanitation and in case of need the maintenance of order therein the united states enjoys within the granted limits all the rights power and authority which it would possess were it the sovereign of the territory to the exclusion of the exercise of sovereign rights by the republic all railway and canal property rights belonging to panama and needed for the canal pass to the united states including any property of the respective companies in the cities of panama and colon the works property and personnel of the canal and railways are exempted from taxation as well in the cities of panama and colon as in the canal zone and its dependencies free immigration of the personnel and importation of supplies for the construction and operation of the canal are granted provision is made for the use of military force and the building of fortifications by the united states for the protection of the transit in other details particularly as to the acquisition of the interests of the new panama canal company and the panama railway by the united states and the condemnation of private property for the uses of the canal the stipulations of the treaty are closely followed while the compensation to be given for these enlarged grants remains the same being ten millions of dollars payable on exchange of ratifications and beginning nine years from that date an annual payment of during the life of the convention
country congratulated amount substantial achievement marked past year regards foreign regards domestic policy nation man important things household therefore country especially congratulated accomplished direction providing exercise supervision great corporations combinations corporations engaged interstate commerce congress created department commerce labor including bureau corporations first time authority secure proper publicity proceedings great corporations public right know provided expediting suits enforcement federal law another law secured equal treatment producers transportation goods thus taking long stride forward making effective work interstate commerce commission establishment department commerce labor bureau corporations thereunder marks real advance direction possible solution questions vitally affecting capitalists act creating department approved february 14 1903 two days later head department nominated confirmed senate since work organization pushed rapidly initial appropriations permitted due regard thoroughness broad purposes department designed serve transfer various bureaus branches department beginning current fiscal year provided act personnel comprised employees washington country large scope department duty authority embraces commercial industrial interests nation designed restrict control fullest liberty legitimate business action secure exact authentic information aid executive enforcing existing laws enable congress enact additional legislation found necessary order prevent obtaining privileges expense diminished opportunities many preliminary work bureau corporations department shown wisdom creation publicity corporate affairs tend away ignorance afford facts upon intelligent action may taken systematic intelligent investigation already developing facts knowledge essential right understanding needs duties business world corporation honestly fairly organized whose managers conduct business recognize obligation deal squarely stockholders competitors public nothing fear supervision purpose bureau embarrass assail legitimate business aid bringing better industrial condition condition shall obedience law recognition public obligation corporations great small department commerce labor clearing house information regarding business transactions nation executive arm government aid strengthening domestic foreign markets perfecting transportation facilities building merchant marine preventing entrance undesirable immigrants improving commercial industrial conditions bringing together common ground necessary partners industrial progress capital labor commerce nations steadily growing volume tendency times toward closer trade relations constant watchfulness needed secure americans chance participate best advantage foreign trade may confidently expect new department justify expectation creators exercise watchfulness well businesslike administration laws relating internal affairs intrusted care enacting laws enumerated congress proceeded sane conservative lines nothing revolutionary attempted successful effort made direction seeing corporations handled subserve public good legislation moderate characterized throughout idea attacking corporations endeavoring provide away evil drew line misconduct wealth gladly recognizing great good done capitalist alone conjunction fellows work along proper legitimate lines purpose legislation purpose undoubtedly fulfilled favor man well supervise action prevent ill publicity harm honest corporation corporation dread corporation shrinks light welfare corporations need oversensitive work department commerce labor conditioned upon theory securing fair treatment alike labor capital consistent policy national government far power hold check unscrupulous man whether employer employee refuse weaken individual initiative hamper cramp industrial development country recognize era federation combination great capitalistic corporations labor unions become factors tremendous importance industrial centers hearty recognition given beneficent work accomplished corporations unions line different corporations different unions drawn different individuals drawn conduct effort treat organized capital organized labor alike asking nothing save interest shall brought harmony interest general public conduct shall conform fundamental rules obedience law individual freedom justice fair dealing towards whenever either corporation labor union individual disregards law acts spirit arbitrary tyrannous interference rights others whether corporations individuals federal government jurisdiction see misconduct stopped paying slightest heed position power corporation union individual one vital fact question whether conduct individual aggregate individuals accordance law land every man must guaranteed liberty right likes property labor long infringe rights others man law man ask man permission require obey obedience law demanded right asked favor nation thankful steps successfully taken put principles effect progress evolution revolution nothing radical done action moderate resolute therefore work stand shall backward step working laws proves desirable shall point expanded amplified amendment made desirability shown meanwhile administered judgment insistence upon obedience need emphasized signal fashion events past year sources exclusive postal service receipts government last fiscal year aggregated expenditures period surplus fiscal year indications surplus present fiscal year small indeed surplus july november receipts customs approximately nine million dollars less receipts source corresponding portion last year decrease continue ratio throughout fiscal year surplus would reduced approximately thirty million dollars revenue customs suffer much decrease fiscal year surplus would vanish large surplus certainly undesirable two years ago war taxes taken express intention equalizing governmental receipts expenditures though first year thereafter still showed surplus seems likely substantial equality revenue expenditure attained case great moment exercise care economy appropriations scan sharply change fiscal revenue system may reduce income need strict economy expenditures emphasized fact afford parsimonious providing essential national careful economy wherever possible alone prevent income falling point required order meet genuine needs integrity currency beyond question present conditions would unwise unnecessary attempt reconstruction entire monetary system liberty granted secretary treasury deposit customs receipts granted deposit receipts sources message december 2 1902 called attention certain needs financial situation ask consideration congress questions last session congress suggestion joint note republic mexico imperial government china harmony act congress appropriating pay expenses thereof commission appointed confer principal european countries hope plan might devised whereby fixed rate exchange could assured countries countries commission filed preliminary report made public deem important commission continued sum money appropriated sufficient pay expenses labors majority people desire steps taken interests american shipping may resume former position ocean carrying trade hitherto differences opinion proper method reaching end wide proved impossible secure adoption particular scheme view facts recommend congress direct secretary navy secretary commerce labor associated representation senate house representatives congress wisdom may designate serve commission purpose investigating reporting congress next session legislation desirable necessary development american merchant marine american commerce incidentally national ocean mail service adequate auxiliary naval crusiers naval reserves measure desirable event especially desirable time view fact present governmental contract ocean mail american line expire 1905 ocean mail act passed 1891 1895 transatlantic mail line equal foreign line since germans put steamers british contracted steamers service equal best commercial public abandon stay business ought full understanding advantages country one hand exact knowledge cost proper methods carrying moreover lines cargo ships even importance fast mail lines save far latter depended upon furnish swift auxiliary cruisers time war establishment new lines cargo ships south america asia elsewhere would much interest commercial expansion much immigration right kind none wrong kind need devise system undesirable immigrants shall kept entirely desirable immigrants properly distributed throughout country present districts need immigrants none others population already congested immigrants come numbers depress conditions life already last two years immigration service new york greatly improved corruption inefficiency formerly obtained eradicated service investigated committee new york citizens high standing arthur briesen lee frankel eugene philbin thomas hynes ralph trautman report deals whole situation length concludes certain recommendations administrative legislative action receiving attention secretary commerce labor special investigation subject naturalization direction consequent prosecutions reveal condition affairs calling immediate attention congress forgeries perjuries shameless flagrant character perpetrated dense centers population throughout country established beyond doubt many citizens united states title whatever right asserting enjoying benefits grossest frauds never forgotten citizenship quote words recently used supreme court united states inestimable heritage whether proceeds birth within country obtained naturalization poison sources national character strength fountain privilege claimed exercised without right means fraud corruption body politic sound healthy many constituent members claim standing prostitution high right calling citizenship mean something become citizen united states process loophole whatever left open fraud methods frauds full investigation view meting punishment providing adequate remedies perpetrated include many variations procedure false certificates citizenship forged entirety genuine certificates fraudulently collusively obtained blank filled criminal conspirators certificates obtained fraudulent statements time arrival residence country imposition substitution another party real petitioner occur court certificates made subject barter sale transferred rightful holder entitled certificates forged erasure original names insertion names persons entitled necessary refer large causes leading state affairs desire naturalization heartily commended springs sincere permanent intention become citizens real appreciation privilege source untold evil trouble traceable selfish dishonest motives effort artificial improper means wholesale fashion create voters tools corrupt politicians desire evade certain labor laws creating discriminations alien labor good citizens whether naturalized native born equally interested protecting citizenship fraud form hand affording every facility naturalization good faith desire share alike privileges responsibilities federal grand jury lately session new york city dealt subject made presentment states situation briefly forcibly contains important suggestions consideration congress presentment included appendix report last annual message connection subject due regulation combinations capital may become injurious public recommend special appropriation better enforcement antitrust law stands extended direction accordingly legislative executive judicial appropriation act february 25 1903 32 854 904 congress appropriated purpose enforcing various federal trust laws sum five hundred thousand dollars expended direction employment special counsel agents department justice conduct proceedings prosecutions said laws courts united states recommend matter utmost importance urgency extension purposes appropriation may available direction used due enforcement laws united states general especially civil criminal laws relating public lands laws relating postal crimes offenses subject naturalization recent investigations shown deplorable state affairs three matters vital concern various frauds forgeries perjuries thousands acres public domain embracing lands different character extending various sections country dishonestly acquired hardly necessary urge importance recovering dishonest acquisitions stolen people promptly duly punishing offenders speak another part message widespread crimes sacred right citizenship falsely asserted inestimable heritage perverted base ends similar means frauds forgeries perjuries shameless briberies laws relating proper conduct public service general due administration department notoriously violated many indictments found consequent prosecutions course hearing eve thereof reasons thus indicated government may prepared enforce promptly greatest effect due penalties violations law end may furnished sufficient instrumentalities competent legal assistance investigations trials necessary many different points country urge upon congress necessity making said appropriation available immediate use purposes expended direction steps taken state department looking making bribery extraditable offense foreign powers need effective treaties covering crime manifest exposures prosecutions official corruption louis cities states resulted number givers takers bribes becoming fugitives foreign lands bribery included extradition treaties heretofore necessity arisen may much official corruption former years developed brought light immediate past preceding century country history policy united states leave place earth corrupt man fleeing country rest peace reason bribery included treaties extraditable recent amended treaty mexico whereby crime put list extraditable offenses established salutary precedent regard treaty state department asked mexico granted extradition one louis bribe givers crime serious bribery offenses violate one law corruption strikes foundation law form government authority vested people delegated represent official capacity offense heavier sacred trust reposed sells gain enrichment less heavy offense bribe giver worse thief thief robs individual corrupt official plunders entire city state wicked murderer murderer may take one life law corrupt official man corrupts official alike aim assassination commonwealth government people people people perish face earth bribery tolerated givers takers bribes stand evil infamy exposure punishment public corruption honor nation disgrace shame lies toleration correction city state still less nation injured enforcement law long public plunderers detected find refuge foreign land avoid punishment long encouragement given continue practices fail us lies stamp corruption escape share responsibility guilt first requisite successful unflinching enforcement law cutting corruption several years past rapid development alaska establishment growing american interests regions theretofore unsurveyed imperfectly known brought prominence urgent necessity practical demarcation boundaries jurisdictions united states great britain although treaty 1825 great britain russia provisions copied treaty 1867 whereby russia conveyed alaska united states positive control first russia later united states strip territory along continental mainland western shore portland canal mount elias following surrounding indentations coast including islands westward description landward margin strip indefinite resting supposed existence continuous ridge range mountains skirting coast figured charts early navigators time possible either party interest lay authority treaty line obviously exact according provisions command assent nearly century absence tangible local interests demanding exercise positive jurisdiction either side border left question dormant 1878 questions revenue administration stikine river led establishment provisional demarcation crossing channel two high peaks either side miles river mouth 1899 similar questions growing extraordinary development mining interests region head lynn canal brought temporary modus vivendi convenient separation made watershed divides white chilkoot passes north klukwan klehini river partial tentative adjustments could nature things satisfactory lasting permanent disposition matter became imperative unavailing attempts reach understanding joint high commission followed prolonged negotiations conducted amicable spirit convention united states great britain signed january 24 1903 providing examination subject mixed tribunal six members three side view final disposition ratifications exchanged march 3 last whereupon two governments appointed respective members behalf united states elihu root secretary war henry cabot lodge senator united states george turner united states great britain named right honourable lord alverstone lord chief justice england sir louis amable jette retired judge supreme court quebec aylesworth toronto tribunal met london september 3 presidency lord alverstone proceedings expeditious marked friendly conscientious spirit respective cases counter cases arguments presented issues clearly fully 20th october majority tribunal reached signed agreement questions submitted terms convention award right united states control continuous strip border mainland shore skirting inlets sinuosities coast confirmed entrance portland canal concerning legitimate doubt appeared defined passing tongass inlet northwestward wales pearse islands line drawn head portland canal degree north latitude interior border line strip fixed lines connecting certain mountain summits lying portland canal mount elias running along crest divide separating coast slope inland watershed part frontier drainage ridge approaches coast within distance ten marine leagues stipulated treaty extreme width strip around heads lynn canal branches line traced follows provisional demarcation 1878 crossing stikine river 1899 summits white chilkoot passes runs much farther inland klehini temporary line later modus vivendi leaves entire mining district porcupine river glacier creek within jurisdiction united states result satisfactory every way great material advantage people far northwest removed field discussion possible danger question liable become acutely accentuated passing year finally furnished signal proof fairness good two friendly nations approach determine issues involving national sovereignty nature incapable submission third power adjudication award vital points make effective regards others remains two governments appoint behalf one scientific experts shall convenient speed proceed together lay boundary line accordance decision majority tribunal recommend congress make adequate provision appointment compensation expenses members serve joint boundary commission part united states remembered second session last congress great britain germany italy formed alliance purpose blockading ports venezuela using means pressure would secure settlement claims due alleged certain subjects employment force collection claims terminated agreement brought offices diplomatic representatives united states caracas government washington thereby ending situation bound increasing friction jeoparded peace continent agreement venezuela agreed set apart certain percentage customs receipts two ports applied payment whatever obligations might ascertained mixed commissions appointed purpose due three powers already mentioned whose proceedings resulted state war also united states france spain belgium netherlands sweden norway mexico employed force collection claims alleged due certain citizens demand made blockading powers sums ascertained due citizens mixed commissions accorded payment full anything paid upon claims peace powers venezuela hand insisted creditors paid upon basis exact equality efforts adjust dispute suggested powers interest referred decision clearly opinion far wiser course would submit question permanent court arbitration hague seemed offer admirable opportunity advance practice peaceful settlement disputes nations secure hague tribunal memorable increase practical importance nations interested controversy numerous many instances powerful make evident beneficent results would follow appearance time bar august tribunal peace hopes regard realized russia austria represented persons learned distinguished jurists compose tribunal great britain germany france spain italy belgium netherlands sweden norway mexico united states venezuela represented respective agents counsel imposing concourse nations presenting arguments invoking decision high court international justice international peace hardly fail secure like submission many future controversies nations appearing find far easier appear second time nation imagine pride lessened following example presented triumph principle international arbitration subject warm congratulation offers happy augury peace world seems good ground belief real growth among civilized nations sentiment permit gradual substitution methods method war settlement disputes pretended yet near position possible wholly prevent war regard national interest honor cases permit settlement international disputes arbitration mixture prudence firmness wisdom think possible away much provocation excuse war least many cases substitute rational method settlement disputes hague court offers good example done direction settlement encouraged every way steps taken president mckinley annual message december 5 1898 made following recommendation experiences last year bring forcibly home us sense burdens waste war desire common civilized nations reduce lowest possible point damage sustained time war peaceable trade commerce true may suffer cases less communities nations damaged less state uneasiness apprehension outbreak hostilities throws entire commercial world object therefore minimize far practicable inevitable loss disturbance purpose probably best accomplished international agreement regard private property sea exempt capture destruction forces belligerent powers united states government many years advocated humane beneficent principle position recommend powers without imputation selfish motives therefore suggest consideration executive authorized correspond governments principal maritime powers view incorporating permanent law civilized nations principle exemption private property sea contraband war capture destruction belligerent powers cordially renew recommendation supreme court speaking december 11 1899 peckham said think historically accurate say government always views among advanced governments world favor mitigating hardships horrors war accomplish object always advocated rules would cases away right capture private property enemy high seas advocate matter humanity morals anachronistic private property respected land respected sea moreover borne mind shipping represents internationally speaking much generalized species private property case ordinary property land property found sea much less apt case property found land really belong one nation modern system corporate ownership flag vessel often differs flag would mark nationality real ownership money control vessel cargo may belong individuals yet different nationality much american capital invested foreign ships among foreign nations often happens capital one largely invested shipping another furthermore practical matter may mentioned commerce destroying may serious loss great annoyance never subsidiary factor bringing terms resolute foe well recognized naval experts fighting ship commerce destroyer vessel whose feats add renown nation history establish place among great powers world last year interparliamentary union international arbitration met vienna six hundred members different legislatures civilized countries attending provided next meeting 1904 louis subject congress extending invitation like hague tribunal interparliamentary union one forces tending towards peace among nations earth entitled support trust invitation extended early july received intelligence happily turned erroneous assassination beirut dispatched small squadron port service might found necessary arrival although attempt life successful yet outrage symptomatic state excitement disorder demanded immediate attention arrival vessels happiest result feeling security took place former alarm disquiet officers cordially welcomed consular body leading merchants ordinary business resumed activity government sultan gave considerate hearing representations minister official regarded responsible disturbed condition affairs removed relations turkish government remain friendly claims rounded inequitable treatment schools missions appear process amicable adjustment signing new commercial treaty china took place shanghai 8th october satisfaction act result long discussion negotiation places commercial relations great oriental empire satisfactory footing ever heretofore enjoyed provides ordinary rights privileges diplomatic consular officers also important extension commerce increased facility access chinese ports relief trade removal obstacles embarrassed past chinese government engages fair equitable conditions probably accepted principal commercial nations abandon levy liken transit dues throughout empire introduce desirable administrative reforms larger facilities given citizens desire carry mining enterprises china secured missionaries valuable privilege recognition right rent lease perpetuity property religious societies may need parts empire indispensable condition advance development commerce manchuria china treaty us opened foreign commerce cities mukden capital province manchuria important port yalu river road korea full measure development commerce may rightfully expect hardly looked settlement present abnormal state things empire foundation development last laid call attention reduced cost maintaining consular service fiscal year ending june 30 1903 shown annual report auditor state departments compared year previous year consideration excess expenditures receipts account consular service amounted year ending june 30 1902 year ending june 30 1901 best showing respect consular service past fourteen years reduction cost service government made spite fact expenditures year question greater previous year rural service steadily extended attention congress asked question compensation letter carriers clerks engaged postal service especially new rural routes routes installed since first july last like period department history due regard economy must kept mind establishment new routes yet extension rural system must continued reasons sound public policy governmental movement recent years resulted greater immediate benefit people country districts rural free delivery taken connection telephone bicycle trolley accomplishes much toward lessening isolation farm life making brighter attractive immediate past lack facilities driven many active restless young men women farms cities rebelled loneliness lack mental companionship unhealthy undesirable cities grow expense country rural free delivery good thing good one causes check unwholesome tendency towards urban concentration population expense country districts reason sympathize approve policy building good roads movement good roads one fraught greatest benefit country districts trust congress continue favor proper ways louisiana purchase exposition exposition commemorates louisiana purchase first great step expansion made us continental nation expedition lewis clark across continent followed thereon marked beginning process exploration colonization thrust national boundaries pacific acquisition oregon country including present states oregon washington fact immense importance history first giving us place pacific seaboard making ready way ascendency commerce greatest oceans centennial establishment upon western coast expedition lewis clark celebrated portland oregon exposition summer 1905 event receive recognition support national government call special attention territory alaska country developing rapidly assured future mineral wealth great yet hardly tapped fisheries wisely handled kept national control business permanent utmost importance people forests properly guarded form another great source wealth portions alaska fitted farming stock raising although methods must adapted peculiar conditions country alaska situated far north norway sweden finland alaska prosper play part new world nations prospered played parts old world proper land laws enacted survey public lands immediately begun laws provided whereby entryman may make location secure patent methods kindred prescribed homestead mineral entrymen salmon hatcheries exclusively government control established cable extended sitka westward wagon roads trails built building railroads promoted legitimate ways built along coast attention paid needs alaska indians provision made officer deputies study needs relieve immediate wants help adapt new conditions commission appointed investigate season 1903 condition needs alaskan salmon fisheries finished work field preparing detailed report thereon preliminary report reciting measures immediately required protection preservation salmon industry already submitted secretary commerce labor attention needed action recommend appropriation made building hawaii taking possession already built territory reimbursed whatever amounts already expended governor empowered suspend remove official appointed without submitting matter legislature insular possessions philippines porto rico gratifying say steady progress make unnecessary spend much time discussing yet congress ever keep mind peculiar obligation rests upon us every way welfare communities philippines knit closer us tariff arrangements would course impossible suddenly raise people islands high pitch industrial prosperity governmental efficiency end degrees attain caution moderation shown developing among main reasons development hitherto gone smoothly scrupulous care taken choice governmental agents entire elimination partisan politics public service condition islanders material things far better ever governmental intellectual moral advance kept pace material advance one people ever benefited another people benefited filipinos taking possession islands cash receipts general land office last fiscal year increase preceding year sum approximately go credit fund reclamation arid land making total fund 30th june 1903 approximately gratifying disposition evinced unlawful inclosures public land remove fences nearly two million acres inclosed thrown open demand comparatively cases necessary go court accomplish purpose work vigorously prosecuted unlawful inclosures removed experience shown western states well rest country widespread conviction certain laws resulting administrative practice longer meet present needs character uses remaining public lands differ widely public lands congress especially view laws passed rapidly increasing rate disposal public lands followed corresponding increase home building tendency mass large holdings public lands especially timber grazing lands thereby retard settlement renew emphasize recommendation last year far available agriculture broadest sense whatever extent may reclaimed national irrigation law remaining public lands held rigidly home builder attention congress especially directed timber stone law law commutation clause homestead law operation many respects conflicted wise policy discussions congress elsewhere made evident wide divergence opinions holding opposite views subjects opposing sides strong convinced representatives weight within without congress differences matters opinion matters fact order definite information may available use congress appointed commission composed richards commissioner general land office gifford pinchot chief bureau forestry department agriculture newell chief hydrographer geological survey report earliest practicable moment upon condition operation effect present land laws use condition disposal settlement public lands commission report especially changes organization laws regulations practice affecting public lands needed effect largest practicable disposition public lands actual settlers build permanent homes upon secure permanence fullest effective use resources public lands make reports recommendations study questions may suggest commission report immediately upon points concerning judgment clear point upon doubt take time necessary make investigation reach final judgment work reclamation arid lands west progressing steadily satisfactorily terms law setting aside proceeds disposal public lands corps engineers known reclamation service conducting surveys examinations thoroughly organized especial pains taken secure rules body skilled experienced efficient men surveys examinations progressing throughout arid states territories plans reclaiming works prepared passed upon boards engineers approval secretary interior arizona nevada localities work needed construction already begun parts arid west various projects well advanced towards drawing contracts delayed part necessities reaching agreements understanding regards rights way acquisition real estate works contemplated construction national importance involving interstate questions securing stable communities midst vast tracts vacant land nation whole course gainer creation homes adding wealth stability country furnishing home market products east south reclamation law perhaps ideal appears present answer larger needs designed legislation recommended necessities change apparent study opportunities reclamation vast extent arid land shows whether reclamation done individuals corporations state sources water supply must effectively protected reservoirs guarded preservation forests headwaters streams engineers making preliminary examinations continually emphasize need urge remaining public lands headwaters important streams west reserved insure permanency water supply irrigation much progress forestry made past year necessity perpetuating forest resources whether public private hands recognized never demand forest reserves become insistent west west must use water wood summer range reserves supply progressive lumbermen striving forestry give business permanence great business interests awakening need forest preservation business matter government forest work receive congress hearty support especially support adequate protection forest reserves fire policy government passed beyond experimental stage reached condition scientific methods essential successful prosecution administrative features forest reserves present unsatisfactory divided three bureaus two departments therefore recommended matters pertaining forest reserves except involving pertaining land titles consolidated bureau forestry department agriculture states recently invaded weevil done much damage threatens entire cotton industry suggest congress prompt enactment remedial legislation judgment may approve granting patents foreigners proper course country follow give advantages foreigners countries foreigners dwell extend return citizens extend benefits patent laws inventions like return articles would patentable foreign countries concerned american could get corresponding patent countries indian agents dependent appointment tenure office upon considerations partisan politics practice appointing possible officers bonded superintendents vacancies occur working well attention invited widespread illiteracy due lack public schools indian territory prompt heed paid need education children territory last annual message attention congress called necessity enlarging law gratifying note law amended important respects increasing railway mileage country greater number men employed use larger heavier equipment urgency renewed effort prevent loss life limb upon railroads country particularly employees apparent inspection water craft service upon water congress built elaborate body protective legislation thorough method inspection annually spending large sums money encouraging observe congress alive interests employed upon wonderful arteries commerce railroads safely transport millions passengers billions tons freight federal inspection safety appliances congress making appropriations service analogous government upheld generations regard vessels believed prove great practical benefit railroad employees traveling public greater part commerce interstate exclusively control congress needed safety uniformity must secured national legislation class citizens deserves well nation nation owes veterans civil war special attention asked excellent work pension bureau expediting disposing pension claims fiscal year ending july 1 1903 bureau settled claims average 825 claims working day year number settlements since july 1 1903 excess last year average approaching claims working day believed work bureau current close present fiscal year year ended june 30 last persons appointed competitive examinations rules preceding year 40 per cent passed examinations abnormal growth largely occasioned extension classification rural service appointment last year rural carriers revision rules took effect april 15 last greatly improved operation completion reform civil service recognized good citizens everywhere matter highest public importance success merit system largely depends upon effectiveness rules machinery provided enforcement gratifying spirit friendly exists departments government enforcement uniform observance letter spirit act executive orders july 3 1902 march 26 1903 july 8 1903 require appointments unclassified laborers departments washington field service shall made assistance united states civil service commission system registration test relative fitness applicants appointment employment system competitive open citizens united states qualified respect age physical ability moral character industry adaptability manual labor except case veterans civil war element age omitted system appointment distinct classified service classify positions mere laborer act rules regulations aid thereof put operation several departments gradually extended parts service results satisfactory extravagance checked decreasing number unnecessary positions increasing efficiency employees remaining congress result thorough investigation charities reformatory institutions district columbia joint select committee two houses made report march 1898 created act approved june 6 1900 board charities district columbia consist five residents district appointed president united states advice consent senate term three years serve without compensation president mckinley appointed five men active prominent public charities washington upon taking office july 1 1900 resigned different charities connected members board reappointed successive years board serves commissioners district columbia board gave first year careful impartial study special problems continued study every year light best practice public charities elsewhere recommendations annual reports congress commissioners district columbia economical efficient administration charities reformatories district columbia required act creating based upon principles commended joint select committee congress report march 1898 approved best administrators public charities make desired systematization improvement affairs supervision worthy favorable consideration congress effect laws providing general staff army effective use national guard excellent great improvement made efficiency army recent years schools erected fort leavenworth fort riley institution fall maneuver work accomplish satisfactory results good effect maneuvers upon national guard marked ample appropriation made enable guardsmen several states share benefit government soon possible secure suitable permanent camp sites military maneuvers various sections country service thereby rendered regular army national guard several states great repay many times relatively small expense rest satisfied done however people contented system promotion mere seniority contented triumph mediocrity excellence hand system encouraged exercise social political favoritism promotions would even worse would surely easy devise method promotion grade grade opinion higher officers service upon candidates decisive upon standing promotion latter system obtains west point quality year work determines standing year class man dropped graduated next class relative position military superiors decide warranted merit words ability energy fidelity similar qualities determine rank man year year west point standing army graduates west point time effort find man best worst reward punish accordingly abandoned brilliancy amount hard work eagerness performance duty advance slackness indifference falls short offense retard system changed hope officers high grade right expect considering material upon draw moreover man renders service captain pershing rendered last spring moro campaign ought possible reward without jumping grade shortly enunciation famous principle american foreign policy known monroe doctrine president monroe special message congress january 30 1824 spoke follows navy arm government always derive aid support rights every power engaged war know strength naval power number ships class condition promptitude may bring service pay due consideration argument heartily congratulate congress upon steady progress building american navy afford great work stand still means go back cessation adding effective units fighting strength fleet meanwhile navy department officers navy well part providing constant service sea conditions akin actual warfare officers enlisted men learning handle battleships cruisers torpedo boats high efficiency fleet squadron formations standard marksmanship steadily raised best work ashore indispensable highest duty naval officer exercise command sea establishment naval base philippines ought longer postponed base desirable time peace time war would indispensable lack would ruinous without fleet would helpless naval experts agreed subig bay proper place purpose national interests require work fortification development naval station subig bay begun early date best conditions work consume much time eminently desirable however provided naval general staff lines similar general staff lately created army within navy department needs service brought system duties general staff partially performed bureau navigation direction war college office naval intelligence board inspection close touch general board navy though excellent officers head boards bureaus good work authority general staff sufficient scope insure proper readiness emergencies need establishment law body trained officers shall exercise systematic control military affairs navy authorized advisers secretary concerning act june 28 1902 congress authorized president enter treaty colombia building canal across isthmus panama provided event failure secure treaty lapse reasonable time recourse building canal nicaragua necessary consider alternative enabled lay senate treaty providing building canal across isthmus panama route commended deliberate judgment congress acquire treaty right construct canal route question therefore route isthmian canal shall built question definitely irrevocably decided question simply whether shall isthmian canal congress directed take panama route treaty colombia essence condition course referred government controlled route route territory across route lay name moment territory bore map purpose law authorize president make treaty power actual control isthmus panama purpose fulfilled year 1846 government entered treaty new granada predecessor upon isthmus republic colombia present republic panama treaty provided government citizens united states always free open right way transit across isthmus panama modes communication might constructed turn government guaranteed perfect neutrality isthmus view free transit one sea might interrupted embarrassed treaty vested united states substantial property right carved rights sovereignty property new granada possessed said territory name new granada passed away territory divided successor government colombia ceased property isthmus new republic panama one time sovereign state another time mere department successive confederations known new granada columbia succeeded rights first one formerly exercised isthmus long isthmus endures mere geographical fact existence peculiar interest therein required position perpetuate solemn contract binds holders territory respect right freedom transit across binds us return safeguard isthmus world exercise inestimable privilege true interpretation obligations upon united states entered treaty 1846 given repeatedly utterances presidents secretaries state secretary cuss 1858 officially stated position government follows progress events rendered interoceanic route across narrow portion central america vastly important commercial world especially united states whose possessions extend along atlantic pacific coasts demand speediest easiest modes communication rights sovereignty states occupying region always respected shall expect rights exercised spirit befitting occasion wants circumstances arisen sovereignty duties well rights none local governments even administered regard demands nations would permitted spirit eastern isolation close gates intercourse great highways world justify act pretension avenues trade travel belong choose shut almost equivalent encumber unjust relations would prevent general use seven years later 1865 seward different communications took following position united states taken take interest question internal revolution state panama state united states colombia maintain perfect neutrality connection domestic altercations united states nevertheless hold ready protect transit trade across isthmus invasion either domestic foreign disturbers peace state panama neither text spirit stipulation article united states engages preserve neutrality isthmus panama imposes obligation government comply requisition president united states colombia force protect isthmus panama body insurgents country purpose stipulation guarantee isthmus seizure invasion foreign power speed date november 7 1865 advised secretary seward follows treaty supposed new granada invited united states become party intestine troubles government united states become bound take sides domestic broils new granada united states guarantee new granada sovereignty property territory foreign governments four hundred years ever since shortly discovery hemisphere canal across isthmus planned two score years worked made last ages alter geography continent trade routes world shown every treaty negotiated attempted negotiate peoples control isthmus foreign nations reference thereto consistent good faith observing obligations one hand peoples isthmus hand civilized world whose commercial rights safeguarding guaranteeing action done duty others letter spirit shown utmost forbearance exacting rights last spring act referred treaty concluded representatives republic colombia government ratified senate treaty entered urgent solicitation people colombia body experts appointed government especially go matter routes across isthmus pronounced unanimously favor panama route drawing treaty every concession made people government colombia dealing generosity make serious question whether gone far interest expense scrupulous desire pay possible heed merely real even fancied rights weaker neighbor already owed much protection forbearance yielded possible ways desires drawing treaty nevertheless government colombia merely repudiated treaty repudiated manner make evident time colombian congress adjourned scantiest hope remained ever getting satisfactory treaty government colombia made treaty yet colombian congress called ratify vote ratification unanimous appear government made real effort secure ratification immediately adjournment congress revolution broke panama people panama long discontented republic colombia kept quiet prospect conclusion treaty matter vital concern became evident treaty hopelessly lost people panama rose literally one man shot fired single man isthmus interest colombian government life lost accomplishment revolution colombian troops stationed isthmus long unpaid made common people panama astonishing unanimity new republic started duty united states premises clear strict accordance principles laid secretaries cass seward official documents quoted united states gave notice would permit landing expeditionary force arrival would mean chaos destruction along line railroad proposed canal interruption transit inevitable consequence de facto government panama recognized following telegram ehrman people panama apparently unanimous movement dissolved political connection republic colombia resumed independence satisfied de facto government republican form without substantial opposition people established state panama enter relations responsible government territory look due action protect persons property citizens united states keep open isthmian transit accordance obligations existing treaties governing relations united states territory government colombia notified action following telegram beaupre people panama apparently unanimous movement dissolved political connection republic colombia resumed independence adopted government republican form government united states america entered relations president united states accordance ties friendship long happily existed respective nations earnestly commends governments colombia panama peaceful equitable settlement questions issue holds bound merely treaty obligations interests civilization see peaceful traffic world across isthmus panama shall longer disturbed constant succession unnecessary wasteful civil wars events happened years elapsed since united states entered treaty new granada time governments new granada successor colombia constant state flux following partial list disturbances isthmus panama period question reported us consuls possible give complete list reports speak revolutions must mean unsuccessful revolutions partial list revolutions rebellions insurrections riots outbreaks occurred period question yet number 53 57 years noted one lasted nearly three years quelled another nearly year short experience half century shown colombia utterly incapable keeping order isthmus active interference united states enabled preserve much semblance sovereignty exercise united states police power interest connection isthmus would sundered long ago 1856 1860 1873 1885 1901 1902 sailors marines united states war ships forced land order patrol isthmus protect life property see transit across isthmus kept open 1861 1862 1885 1900 colombian government asked united states government would land troops protect interests maintain order isthmus perhaps extraordinary request received runs follows knowing revolution already commenced panama eminent colombian says government united states land troops preserve colombian sovereignty transit requested colombian charge government declare martial law virtue vested constitutional authority public order disturbed approve decree ratification canal treaty signed government united states prefers call extra session congress new friendly members next may approve treaty eminent colombian perfect confidence says became necessary go isthmus send representatives adjust matters along lines satisfaction people dispatch noteworthy two standpoints offer immediately guaranteeing treaty us sharp contrast positive contemptuous refusal congress closed sessions consider favorably treaty shows government made treaty really absolute control situation choose exercise control dispatch calls us restore order secure colombian supremacy isthmus colombian government action decided bar us preventing construction canal control interest commerce traffic whole civilized world means undisturbed transit across isthmus panama become transcendent importance united states repeatedly exercised control intervening course domestic dissension protecting territory foreign invasion 1853 everett assured peruvian minister hesitate maintain neutrality isthmus case war peru colombia 1864 colombia always vigilant avail privileges conferred treaty expressed expectation event war peru spain united states would carry effect guaranty neutrality administrations state department treaty either one side used basis less important demands said mr fish 1871 department state reason believe attack upon colombian sovereignty isthmus several occasions averted warning government 1886 colombia menace hostilities italy cerruti case bayard expressed serious concern united states could feel european power resort force sister republic hemisphere sovereign uninterrupted use part whose territory guarantors solemn faith treaty recital facts establishes beyond question first united states half century patiently good faith carried obligations treaty 1846 second first time became possible colombia anything requital services thus repeatedly rendered years united states colombian government peremptorily offensively refused thus part even though would advantage immeasurably advantage state panama time jurisdiction third throughout period revolutions riots factional disturbances every kind occurred one almost uninterrupted succession lasting months even years central government unable put make peace rebels fourth disturbances instead showing sign abating tended grow numerous serious immediate past fifth control colombia isthmus panama could maintained without armed intervention assistance united states words government colombia though wholly unable maintain order isthmus nevertheless declined ratify treaty conclusion opened chance secure stability guarantee permanent peace construction canal across isthmus circumstances government united states would guilty folly weakness amounting sum crime nation acted otherwise revolution november 3 last took place panama great enterprise building interoceanic canal held gratify whims respect governmental impotence even sinister evil political peculiarities people though dwell afar yet wish actual dwellers isthmus assert unreal supremacy territory possession territory fraught peculiar capacities isthmus question carries obligations mankind course events shown canal built private enterprise nation therefore must built united states every effort made government united states persuade colombia follow course essentially interests interests world interests colombia efforts failed colombia persistence repulsing advances made forced us sake honor interest merely people people isthmus panama people civilized countries world take decisive steps bring end condition affairs become intolerable new republic panama immediately offered negotiate treaty us treaty herewith submit interests better safeguarded treaty colombia ratified senate last session better terms treaties offered us republics nicaragua costa rica last right begin great undertaking made available panama done part remains american congress part forthwith republic enter upon execution project colossal size incalculable possibilities good country nations mankind provisions treaty united states guarantees maintain independence republic panama granted united states perpetuity use occupation control strip ten miles wide extending three nautical miles sea either terminal lands lying outside zone necessary construction canal auxiliary works islands bay panama cities panama colon embraced canal zone united states assumes sanitation case need maintenance order therein united states enjoys within granted limits rights power authority would possess sovereign territory exclusion exercise sovereign rights republic railway canal property rights belonging panama needed canal pass united states including property respective companies cities panama colon works property personnel canal railways exempted taxation well cities panama colon canal zone dependencies free immigration personnel importation supplies construction operation canal granted provision made use military force building fortifications united states protection transit details particularly acquisition interests new panama canal company panama railway united states condemnation private property uses canal stipulations treaty closely followed compensation given enlarged grants remains ten millions dollars payable exchange ratifications beginning nine years date annual payment life convention
country congratulate amount substantial achievement mark past year regard foreign regard domestic policy nation man important thing household therefore country especially congratulate accomplished direction provide exercise supervision great corporation combination corporation engage interstate commerce congress create department commerce labor include bureau corporation first time authority secure proper publicity proceeding great corporation public right know provide expedite suit enforcement federal law another law secure equal treatment producer transportation good thus take long stride forward make effective work interstate commerce commission establishment department commerce labor bureau corporation thereunder mark real advance direction possible solution question vitally affect capitalist act create department approve february 14 1903 two day later head department nominate confirm senate since work organization push rapidly initial appropriation permit due regard thoroughness broad purpose department design serve transfer various bureaus branch department begin current fiscal year provide act personnel comprise employee washington country large scope department duty authority embrace commercial industrial interest nation design restrict control full liberty legitimate business action secure exact authentic information aid executive enforce exist law enable congress enact additional legislation find necessary order prevent obtain privilege expense diminished opportunity many preliminary work bureau corporation department show wisdom creation publicity corporate affair tend away ignorance afford facts upon intelligent action may take systematic intelligent investigation already develop fact knowledge essential right understanding needs duty business world corporation honestly fairly organize whose manager conduct business recognize obligation deal squarely stockholders competitor public nothing fear supervision purpose bureau embarrass assail legitimate business aid bringing well industrial condition condition shall obedience law recognition public obligation corporation great small department commerce labor clearing house information regard business transaction nation executive arm government aid strengthen domestic foreign market perfect transportation facility build merchant marine prevent entrance undesirable immigrant improve commercial industrial condition bring together common ground necessary partner industrial progress capital labor commerce nation steadily grow volume tendency time toward close trade relation constant watchfulness need secure americans chance participate best advantage foreign trade may confidently expect new department justify expectation creator exercise watchfulness well businesslike administration law relate internal affair intrust care enact law enumerate congress proceed sane conservative line nothing revolutionary attempt successful effort make direction see corporation handle subserve public good legislation moderate characterize throughout idea attack corporation endeavor provide away evil drew line misconduct wealth gladly recognize great good do capitalist alone conjunction fellow work along proper legitimate line purpose legislation purpose undoubtedly fulfil favor man well supervise action prevent ill publicity harm honest corporation corporation dread corporation shrink light welfare corporation need oversensitive work department commerce labor condition upon theory secure fair treatment alike labor capital consistent policy national government far power hold check unscrupulous man whether employer employee refuse weaken individual initiative hamper cramp industrial development country recognize era federation combination great capitalistic corporation labor union become factor tremendous importance industrial center hearty recognition give beneficent work accomplish corporation union line different corporation different union draw different individual draw conduct effort treat organize capital organize labor alike ask nothing save interest shall bring harmony interest general public conduct shall conform fundamental rule obedience law individual freedom justice fair deal towards whenever either corporation labor union individual disregard law act spirit arbitrary tyrannous interference right others whether corporation individual federal government jurisdiction see misconduct stop pay slight heed position power corporation union individual one vital fact question whether conduct individual aggregate individual accordance law land every man must guarantee liberty right like property labor long infringe right others man law man ask man permission require obey obedience law demand right ask favor nation thankful step successfully take put principle effect progress evolution revolution nothing radical do action moderate resolute therefore work stand shall backward step work law prove desirable shall point expand amplified amendment make desirability show meanwhile administer judgment insistence upon obedience need emphasize signal fashion event past year source exclusive postal service receipt government last fiscal year aggregate expenditure period surplus fiscal year indication surplus present fiscal year small indeed surplus july november receipt custom approximately nine million dollar less receipt source correspond portion last year decrease continue ratio throughout fiscal year surplus would reduce approximately thirty million dollar revenue custom suffer much decrease fiscal year surplus would vanish large surplus certainly undesirable two year ago war tax take express intention equalize governmental receipt expenditures though first year thereafter still show surplus seem likely substantial equality revenue expenditure attain case great moment exercise care economy appropriation scan sharply change fiscal revenue system may reduce income need strict economy expenditures emphasize fact afford parsimonious provide essential national careful economy wherever possible alone prevent income fall point require order meet genuine need integrity currency beyond question present condition would unwise unnecessary attempt reconstruction entire monetary system liberty grant secretary treasury deposit custom receipt grant deposit receipt source message december 2 1902 call attention certain needs financial situation ask consideration congress question last session congress suggestion joint note republic mexico imperial government china harmony act congress appropriate pay expense thereof commission appoint confer principal european country hope plan might devise whereby fix rate exchange could assure country country commission file preliminary report make public deem important commission continue sum money appropriate sufficient pay expense labor majority people desire step take interest american shipping may resume former position ocean carry trade hitherto difference opinion proper method reach end wide prove impossible secure adoption particular scheme view fact recommend congress direct secretary navy secretary commerce labor associate representation senate house representative congress wisdom may designate serve commission purpose investigate report congress next session legislation desirable necessary development american merchant marine american commerce incidentally national ocean mail service adequate auxiliary naval crusiers naval reserve measure desirable event especially desirable time view fact present governmental contract ocean mail american line expire 1905 ocean mail act pass 1891 1895 transatlantic mail line equal foreign line since german put steamer british contract steamer service equal best commercial public abandon stay business ought full understanding advantage country one hand exact knowledge cost proper method carry moreover line cargo ship even importance fast mail line save far latter depend upon furnish swift auxiliary cruiser time war establishment new line cargo ship south america asia elsewhere would much interest commercial expansion much immigration right kind none wrong kind need devise system undesirable immigrant shall keep entirely desirable immigrant properly distribute throughout country present district need immigrant none others population already congest immigrant come number depress condition life already last two year immigration service new york greatly improve corruption inefficiency formerly obtain eradicated service investigate committee new york citizen high stand arthur briesen lee frankel eugene philbin thomas hynes ralph trautman report deal whole situation length conclude certain recommendation administrative legislative action receive attention secretary commerce labor special investigation subject naturalization direction consequent prosecution reveal condition affair call immediate attention congress forgery perjury shameless flagrant character perpetrate dense center population throughout country establish beyond doubt many citizen united state title whatever right assert enjoy benefit gross frauds never forget citizenship quote word recently use supreme court unite state inestimable heritage whether proceeds birth within country obtain naturalization poison source national character strength fountain privilege claim exercise without right mean fraud corruption body politic sound healthy many constituent member claim stand prostitution high right call citizenship mean something become citizen united state process loophole whatever leave open fraud method frauds full investigation view meting punishment provide adequate remedy perpetrate include many variation procedure false certificate citizenship forge entirety genuine certificate fraudulently collusively obtained blank fill criminal conspirator certificate obtain fraudulent statement time arrival residence country imposition substitution another party real petitioner occur court certificate make subject barter sale transfer rightful holder entitle certificate forge erasure original name insertion name person entitle necessary refer large cause lead state affair desire naturalization heartily commend spring sincere permanent intention become citizen real appreciation privilege source untold evil trouble traceable selfish dishonest motif effort artificial improper mean wholesale fashion create voter tool corrupt politician desire evade certain labor law create discrimination alien labor good citizen whether naturalized native bear equally interested protect citizenship fraud form hand afford every facility naturalization good faith desire share alike privilege responsibility federal grand jury lately session new york city dealt subject make presentment state situation briefly forcibly contain important suggestion consideration congress presentment include appendix report last annual message connection subject due regulation combination capital may become injurious public recommend special appropriation well enforcement antitrust law stand extended direction accordingly legislative executive judicial appropriation act february 25 1903 32 854 904 congress appropriate purpose enforce various federal trust law sum five hundred thousand dollar expended direction employment special counsel agent department justice conduct proceeding prosecution say law court united state recommend matter utmost importance urgency extension purpose appropriation may available direction use due enforcement law united state general especially civil criminal law relate public land law relate postal crime offense subject naturalization recent investigation show deplorable state affair three matter vital concern various fraud forgery perjuries thousand acres public domain embrace land different character extend various section country dishonestly acquire hardly necessary urge importance recover dishonest acquisition steal people promptly duly punish offender speak another part message widespread crime sacred right citizenship falsely assert inestimable heritage pervert base end similar mean frauds forgery perjury shameless bribery law relate proper conduct public service general due administration department notoriously violate many indictment find consequent prosecution course hear eve thereof reason thus indicated government may prepare enforce promptly great effect due penalty violation law end may furnish sufficient instrumentality competent legal assistance investigation trial necessary many different point country urge upon congress necessity making say appropriation available immediate use purpose expend direction step take state department look make bribery extraditable offense foreign power need effective treaty cover crime manifest exposure prosecution official corruption louis city state result number giver taker bribe become fugitive foreign land bribery include extradition treaty heretofore necessity arisen may much official corruption former year develop bring light immediate past preceding century country history policy united state leave place earth corrupt man flee country rest peace reason bribery include treaty extraditable recent amend treaty mexico whereby crime put list extraditable offense establish salutary precedent regard treaty state department ask mexico grant extradition one louis bribe giver crime serious bribery offenses violate one law corruption strike foundation law form government authority vest people delegate represent official capacity offense heavier sacred trust repose sell gain enrichment less heavy offense bribe giver bad thief thief rob individual corrupt official plunder entire city state wicked murderer murderer may take one life law corrupt official man corrupt official alike aim assassination commonwealth government people people people perish face earth bribery tolerated giver taker bribe stand evil infamy exposure punishment public corruption honor nation disgrace shame lie toleration correction city state still less nation injure enforcement law long public plunderer detect find refuge foreign land avoid punishment long encouragement give continue practice fail u lie stamp corruption escape share responsibility guilt first requisite successful unflinching enforcement law cut corruption several year past rapid development alaska establishment grow american interest region theretofore unsurveyed imperfectly know brought prominence urgent necessity practical demarcation boundary jurisdiction united state great britain although treaty 1825 great britain russia provision copy treaty 1867 whereby russia convey alaska united state positive control first russia later united state strip territory along continental mainland western shore portland canal mount elia follow surround indentation coast include island westward description landward margin strip indefinite rest suppose existence continuous ridge range mountains skirt coast figure chart early navigator time possible either party interest lay authority treaty line obviously exact accord provision command assent nearly century absence tangible local interest demand exercise positive jurisdiction either side border leave question dormant 1878 question revenue administration stikine river lead establishment provisional demarcation cross channel two high peak either side mile river mouth 1899 similar question grow extraordinary development mining interest region head lynn canal brought temporary modus vivendi convenient separation make watershed divide white chilkoot pass north klukwan klehini river partial tentative adjustment could nature thing satisfactory lasting permanent disposition matter become imperative unavailing attempt reach understand joint high commission follow prolonged negotiation conduct amicable spirit convention united state great britain sign january 24 1903 provide examination subject mixed tribunal six member three side view final disposition ratification exchange march 3 last whereupon two government appoint respective member behalf united state elihu root secretary war henry cabot lodge senator united state george turner united state great britain name right honourable lord alverstone lord chief justice england sir louis amable jette retire judge supreme court quebec aylesworth toronto tribunal meet london september 3 presidency lord alverstone proceeding expeditious mark friendly conscientious spirit respective case counter case argument present issue clearly fully 20th october majority tribunal reach signed agreement question submit term convention award right united state control continuous strip border mainland shore skirt inlet sinuosity coast confirmed entrance portland canal concerning legitimate doubt appear defined pass tongass inlet northwestward wale pearse island line draw head portland canal degree north latitude interior border line strip fix line connect certain mountain summit lie portland canal mount elia run along crest divide separate coast slope inland watershed part frontier drainage ridge approach coast within distance ten marine league stipulate treaty extreme width strip around head lynn canal branch line trace follow provisional demarcation 1878 cross stikine river 1899 summit white chilkoot pass run much farther inland klehini temporary line later modus vivendi leaf entire mining district porcupine river glacier creek within jurisdiction united state result satisfactory every way great material advantage people far northwest remove field discussion possible danger question liable become acutely accentuate pass year finally furnish signal proof fairness good two friendly nation approach determine issue involve national sovereignty nature incapable submission third power adjudication award vital point make effective regard others remain two government appoint behalf one scientific expert shall convenient speed proceed together lay boundary line accordance decision majority tribunal recommend congress make adequate provision appointment compensation expense member serve joint boundary commission part united state remember second session last congress great britain germany italy form alliance purpose blockade port venezuela use mean pressure would secure settlement claim due allege certain subject employment force collection claim terminate agreement bring office diplomatic representative united state caracas government washington thereby end situation bound increase friction jeoparded peace continent agreement venezuela agree set apart certain percentage custom receipt two port apply payment whatever obligation might ascertain mixed commission appoint purpose due three power already mention whose proceeding result state war also united state france spain belgium netherlands sweden norway mexico employ force collection claim allege due certain citizen demand make blockading power sum ascertain due citizen mixed commission accord payment full anything pay upon claim peace power venezuela hand insist creditor pay upon basis exact equality effort adjust dispute suggest power interest refer decision clearly opinion far wise course would submit question permanent court arbitration hague seem offer admirable opportunity advance practice peaceful settlement dispute nation secure hague tribunal memorable increase practical importance nation interested controversy numerous many instance powerful make evident beneficent result would follow appearance time bar august tribunal peace hop regard realize russia austria represent person learn distinguished jurist compose tribunal great britain germany france spain italy belgium netherlands sweden norway mexico united state venezuela represent respective agent counsel impose concourse nation present argument invoke decision high court international justice international peace hardly fail secure like submission many future controversy nation appear find far easy appear second time nation imagine pride lessen follow example present triumph principle international arbitration subject warm congratulation offer happy augury peace world seem good ground belief real growth among civilized nation sentiment permit gradual substitution method method war settlement dispute pretend yet near position possible wholly prevent war regard national interest honor case permit settlement international dispute arbitration mixture prudence firmness wisdom think possible away much provocation excuse war least many case substitute rational method settlement dispute hague court offer good example do direction settlement encourage every way step take president mckinley annual message december 5 1898 make follow recommendation experience last year bring forcibly home u sense burden waste war desire common civilized nation reduce low possible point damage sustain time war peaceable trade commerce true may suffer case less community nation damage less state uneasiness apprehension outbreak hostility throw entire commercial world object therefore minimize far practicable inevitable loss disturbance purpose probably best accomplished international agreement regard private property sea exempt capture destruction force belligerent power united state government many year advocate humane beneficent principle position recommend power without imputation selfish motif therefore suggest consideration executive authorize correspond government principal maritime power view incorporate permanent law civilize nation principle exemption private property sea contraband war capture destruction belligerent power cordially renew recommendation supreme court speak december 11 1899 peckham say think historically accurate say government always view among advanced government world favor mitigate hardship horror war accomplish object always advocate rule would case away right capture private property enemy high sea advocate matter humanity moral anachronistic private property respect land respect sea moreover borne mind ship represent internationally speak much generalize specie private property case ordinary property land property find sea much less apt case property find land really belong one nation modern system corporate ownership flag vessel often differ flag would mark nationality real ownership money control vessel cargo may belong individual yet different nationality much american capital invest foreign ship among foreign nation often happen capital one largely invested shipping another furthermore practical matter may mention commerce destroying may serious loss great annoyance never subsidiary factor bring term resolute foe well recognize naval expert fight ship commerce destroyer vessel whose feat add renown nation history establish place among great power world last year interparliamentary union international arbitration meet vienna six hundred member different legislature civilize country attend provide next meeting 1904 louis subject congress extend invitation like hague tribunal interparliamentary union one force tend towards peace among nation earth entitle support trust invitation extend early july receive intelligence happily turn erroneous assassination beirut dispatch small squadron port service might find necessary arrival although attempt life successful yet outrage symptomatic state excitement disorder demand immediate attention arrival vessel happiest result feeling security take place former alarm disquiet officer cordially welcome consular body lead merchant ordinary business resume activity government sultan give considerate hearing representation minister official regard responsible disturbed condition affair remove relation turkish government remain friendly claim round inequitable treatment school mission appear process amicable adjustment sign new commercial treaty china take place shanghai 8th october satisfaction act result long discussion negotiation place commercial relation great oriental empire satisfactory foot ever heretofore enjoyed provide ordinary right privilege diplomatic consular officer also important extension commerce increase facility access chinese port relief trade removal obstacle embarrass past chinese government engage fair equitable condition probably accept principal commercial nation abandon levy liken transit due throughout empire introduce desirable administrative reform large facility give citizen desire carry mining enterprise china secure missionary valuable privilege recognition right rent lease perpetuity property religious society may need part empire indispensable condition advance development commerce manchuria china treaty u open foreign commerce city mukden capital province manchuria important port yalu river road korea full measure development commerce may rightfully expect hardly looked settlement present abnormal state thing empire foundation development last laid call attention reduce cost maintain consular service fiscal year end june 30 1903 show annual report auditor state department compare year previous year consideration excess expenditures receipt account consular service amount year end june 30 1902 year end june 30 1901 best show respect consular service past fourteen year reduction cost service government make spite fact expenditures year question great previous year rural service steadily extend attention congress ask question compensation letter carrier clerk engage postal service especially new rural route route instal since first july last like period department history due regard economy must keep mind establishment new route yet extension rural system must continue reason sound public policy governmental movement recent year result great immediate benefit people country district rural free delivery take connection telephone bicycle trolley accomplishes much toward lessen isolation farm life make bright attractive immediate past lack facility drive many active restless young men woman farm city rebel loneliness lack mental companionship unhealthy undesirable city grow expense country rural free delivery good thing good one cause check unwholesome tendency towards urban concentration population expense country district reason sympathize approve policy building good road movement good road one fraught great benefit country district trust congress continue favor proper way louisiana purchase exposition exposition commemorate louisiana purchase first great step expansion make u continental nation expedition lewis clark across continent follow thereon mark begin process exploration colonization thrust national boundary pacific acquisition oregon country include present state oregon washington fact immense importance history first give u place pacific seaboard make ready way ascendency commerce great oceans centennial establishment upon western coast expedition lewis clark celebrate portland oregon exposition summer 1905 event receive recognition support national government call special attention territory alaska country develop rapidly assure future mineral wealth great yet hardly tapped fishery wisely handle kept national control business permanent utmost importance people forest properly guard form another great source wealth portion alaska fit farm stock raise although method must adapt peculiar condition country alaska situate far north norway sweden finland alaska prosper play part new world nation prosper played part old world proper land law enact survey public land immediately begin law provide whereby entryman may make location secure patent method kindred prescribed homestead mineral entrymen salmon hatchery exclusively government control establish cable extend sitka westward wagon road trail build build railroad promote legitimate way build along coast attention pay need alaska indian provision make officer deputy study need relieve immediate want help adapt new condition commission appoint investigate season 1903 condition need alaskan salmon fishery finish work field prepare detailed report thereon preliminary report recite measure immediately require protection preservation salmon industry already submit secretary commerce labor attention need action recommend appropriation make building hawaii take possession already build territory reimburse whatever amount already expend governor empower suspend remove official appoint without submit matter legislature insular possession philippine porto rico gratify say steady progress make unnecessary spend much time discuss yet congress ever keep mind peculiar obligation rest upon u every way welfare community philippines knit closer u tariff arrangement would course impossible suddenly raise people island high pitch industrial prosperity governmental efficiency end degrees attain caution moderation show develop among main reason development hitherto go smoothly scrupulous care take choice governmental agent entire elimination partisan politics public service condition islander material thing far well ever governmental intellectual moral advance keep pace material advance one people ever benefit another people benefit filipinos take possession island cash receipt general land office last fiscal year increase precede year sum approximately go credit fund reclamation arid land make total fund 30th june 1903 approximately gratify disposition evince unlawful inclosure public land remove fence nearly two million acre inclosed thrown open demand comparatively case necessary go court accomplish purpose work vigorously prosecute unlawful inclosure remove experience show western state well rest country widespread conviction certain law result administrative practice longer meet present need character us remain public land differ widely public land congress especially view law pass rapidly increase rate disposal public land followed corresponding increase home building tendency mass large holding public land especially timber graze land thereby retard settlement renew emphasize recommendation last year far available agriculture broad sense whatever extent may reclaim national irrigation law remain public land hold rigidly home builder attention congress especially direct timber stone law law commutation clause homestead law operation many respect conflict wise policy discussion congress elsewhere make evident wide divergence opinion hold opposite view subject oppose side strong convinced representative weight within without congress difference matter opinion matter fact order definite information may available use congress appoint commission compose richards commissioner general land office gifford pinchot chief bureau forestry department agriculture newell chief hydrographer geological survey report early practicable moment upon condition operation effect present land law use condition disposal settlement public land commission report especially change organization law regulation practice affect public land need effect large practicable disposition public land actual settler build permanent home upon secure permanence full effective use resource public land make report recommendation study question may suggest commission report immediately upon point concern judgment clear point upon doubt take time necessary make investigation reach final judgment work reclamation arid land west progress steadily satisfactorily term law set aside proceeds disposal public land corps engineer know reclamation service conduct survey examination thoroughly organize especial pain take secure rule body skilled experienced efficient men survey examination progress throughout arid state territory plan reclaim work prepare pass upon board engineer approval secretary interior arizona nevada locality work need construction already begin part arid west various project well advanced towards draw contract delay part necessity reach agreement understand regard right way acquisition real estate work contemplate construction national importance involve interstate question secure stable community midst vast tract vacant land nation whole course gainer creation home add wealth stability country furnish home market product east south reclamation law perhaps ideal appear present answer large need design legislation recommend necessity change apparent study opportunity reclamation vast extent arid land show whether reclamation do individual corporation state source water supply must effectively protect reservoir guard preservation forest headwater stream engineer make preliminary examination continually emphasize need urge remain public land headwater important stream west reserve insure permanency water supply irrigation much progress forestry make past year necessity perpetuate forest resource whether public private hand recognize never demand forest reserve become insistent west west must use water wood summer range reserve supply progressive lumberman strive forestry give business permanence great business interest awaken need forest preservation business matter government forest work receive congress hearty support especially support adequate protection forest reserve fire policy government pass beyond experimental stage reach condition scientific method essential successful prosecution administrative feature forest reserve present unsatisfactory divide three bureau two department therefore recommend matter pertain forest reserve except involve pertain land title consolidate bureau forestry department agriculture state recently invade weevil do much damage threaten entire cotton industry suggest congress prompt enactment remedial legislation judgment may approve grant patent foreigner proper course country follow give advantage foreigner country foreigner dwell extend return citizen extend benefit patent law invention like return article would patentable foreign country concerned american could get corresponding patent country indian agent dependent appointment tenure office upon consideration partisan politics practice appoint possible officer bond superintendent vacancy occur work well attention invite widespread illiteracy due lack public school indian territory prompt heed pay need education child territory last annual message attention congress call necessity enlarge law gratify note law amend important respect increase railway mileage country great number men employ use large heavier equipment urgency renew effort prevent loss life limb upon railroad country particularly employee apparent inspection water craft service upon water congress build elaborate body protective legislation thorough method inspection annually spend large sum money encourage observe congress alive interest employ upon wonderful artery commerce railroad safely transport million passenger billion ton freight federal inspection safety appliances congress make appropriation service analogous government upheld generation regard vessel believe prove great practical benefit railroad employee travel public great part commerce interstate exclusively control congress need safety uniformity must secure national legislation class citizens deserve well nation nation owe veteran civil war special attention ask excellent work pension bureau expedite dispose pension claim fiscal year end july 1 1903 bureau settle claim average 825 claim work day year number settlement since july 1 1903 excess last year average approach claim work day believe work bureau current close present fiscal year year end june 30 last person appoint competitive examination rule precede year 40 per cent pass examination abnormal growth largely occasion extension classification rural service appointment last year rural carrier revision rule take effect april 15 last greatly improved operation completion reform civil service recognize good citizen everywhere matter high public importance success merit system largely depend upon effectiveness rule machinery provide enforcement gratify spirit friendly exist department government enforcement uniform observance letter spirit act executive order july 3 1902 march 26 1903 july 8 1903 require appointment unclassified laborer department washington field service shall make assistance united state civil service commission system registration test relative fitness applicant appointment employment system competitive open citizen united state qualify respect age physical ability moral character industry adaptability manual labor except case veteran civil war element age omit system appointment distinct classified service classify position mere laborer act rule regulation aid thereof put operation several department gradually extend part service result satisfactory extravagance check decrease number unnecessary position increase efficiency employee remain congress result thorough investigation charity reformatory institution district columbia joint select committee two house make report march 1898 create act approve june 6 1900 board charity district columbia consist five resident district appoint president united state advice consent senate term three year serve without compensation president mckinley appoint five men active prominent public charity washington upon take office july 1 1900 resign different charity connect member board reappointed successive year board serve commissioner district columbia board give first year careful impartial study special problem continue study every year light best practice public charity elsewhere recommendation annual report congress commissioner district columbia economical efficient administration charity reformatories district columbia require act create base upon principle commend joint select committee congress report march 1898 approve best administrator public charity make desired systematization improvement affair supervision worthy favorable consideration congress effect law provide general staff army effective use national guard excellent great improvement make efficiency army recent year school erect fort leavenworth fort riley institution fall maneuver work accomplish satisfactory result good effect maneuver upon national guard mark ample appropriation make enable guardsman several state share benefit government soon possible secure suitable permanent camp site military maneuver various section country service thereby render regular army national guard several state great repay many time relatively small expense rest satisfy do however people content system promotion mere seniority content triumph mediocrity excellence hand system encourage exercise social political favoritism promotion would even worse would surely easy devise method promotion grade grade opinion high officer service upon candidate decisive upon stand promotion latter system obtain west point quality year work determines stand year class man drop graduate next class relative position military superior decide warrant merit word ability energy fidelity similar quality determine rank man year year west point stand army graduate west point time effort find man best worst reward punish accordingly abandon brilliancy amount hard work eagerness performance duty advance slackness indifference fall short offense retard system change hope officer high grade right expect consider material upon draw moreover man render service captain pershing render last spring moro campaign ought possible reward without jump grade shortly enunciation famous principle american foreign policy know monroe doctrine president monroe special message congress january 30 1824 speak follow navy arm government always derive aid support right every power engage war know strength naval power number ship class condition promptitude may bring service pay due consideration argument heartily congratulate congress upon steady progress build american navy afford great work stand still mean go back cessation add effective unit fight strength fleet meanwhile navy department officer navy well part provide constant service sea condition akin actual warfare officer enlist men learn handle battleship cruiser torpedo boat high efficiency fleet squadron formation standard marksmanship steadily raise best work ashore indispensable high duty naval officer exercise command sea establishment naval base philippine ought longer postpone base desirable time peace time war would indispensable lack would ruinous without fleet would helpless naval expert agree subig bay proper place purpose national interest require work fortification development naval station subig bay begin early date best condition work consume much time eminently desirable however provide naval general staff line similar general staff lately create army within navy department need service bring system duty general staff partially perform bureau navigation direction war college office naval intelligence board inspection close touch general board navy though excellent officer head board bureaus good work authority general staff sufficient scope insure proper readiness emergency need establishment law body trained officer shall exercise systematic control military affair navy authorize adviser secretary concern act june 28 1902 congress authorize president enter treaty colombia build canal across isthmus panama provide event failure secure treaty lapse reasonable time recourse build canal nicaragua necessary consider alternative enable lay senate treaty provide build canal across isthmus panama route commend deliberate judgment congress acquire treaty right construct canal route question therefore route isthmian canal shall build question definitely irrevocably decide question simply whether shall isthmian canal congress direct take panama route treaty colombia essence condition course refer government control route route territory across route lay name moment territory bore map purpose law authorize president make treaty power actual control isthmus panama purpose fulfil year 1846 government enter treaty new granada predecessor upon isthmus republic colombia present republic panama treaty provide government citizen united state always free open right way transit across isthmus panama mode communication might construct turn government guarantee perfect neutrality isthmus view free transit one sea might interrupt embarrassed treaty vest united state substantial property right carve right sovereignty property new granada possess say territory name new granada pass away territory divide successor government colombia cease property isthmus new republic panama one time sovereign state another time mere department successive confederation know new granada columbia succeed right first one formerly exercise isthmus long isthmus endures mere geographical fact existence peculiar interest therein require position perpetuate solemn contract bind holder territory respect right freedom transit across bind u return safeguard isthmus world exercise inestimable privilege true interpretation obligation upon united state enter treaty 1846 give repeatedly utterances president secretary state secretary cuss 1858 officially state position government follow progress event render interoceanic route across narrow portion central america vastly important commercial world especially united state whose possession extend along atlantic pacific coast demand speedy easy mode communication right sovereignty state occupy region always respect shall expect right exercise spirit befit occasion want circumstance arisen sovereignty duty well right none local government even administer regard demand nation would permit spirit eastern isolation close gate intercourse great highway world justify act pretension avenue trade travel belong choose shut almost equivalent encumber unjust relation would prevent general use seven year later 1865 seward different communication take follow position united state take take interest question internal revolution state panama state united state colombia maintain perfect neutrality connection domestic altercation united state nevertheless hold ready protect transit trade across isthmus invasion either domestic foreign disturber peace state panama neither text spirit stipulation article united state engage preserve neutrality isthmus panama impose obligation government comply requisition president united state colombia force protect isthmus panama body insurgent country purpose stipulation guarantee isthmus seizure invasion foreign power speed date november 7 1865 advise secretary seward follow treaty suppose new granada invite united state become party intestine troubles government unite state become bound take side domestic broil new granada united state guarantee new granada sovereignty property territory foreign government four hundred year ever since shortly discovery hemisphere canal across isthmus plan two score year work make last age alter geography continent trade route world show every treaty negotiate attempted negotiate people control isthmus foreign nation reference thereto consistent good faith observe obligation one hand people isthmus hand civilize world whose commercial right safeguard guarantee action do duty others letter spirit show utmost forbearance exact right last spring act refer treaty conclude representative republic colombia government ratify senate treaty enter urgent solicitation people colombia body expert appoint government especially go matter route across isthmus pronounce unanimously favor panama route drawing treaty every concession make people government colombia deal generosity make serious question whether go far interest expense scrupulous desire pay possible heed merely real even fancy right weak neighbor already owe much protection forbearance yield possible way desire draw treaty nevertheless government colombia merely repudiate treaty repudiate manner make evident time colombian congress adjourn scanty hope remain ever get satisfactory treaty government colombia make treaty yet colombian congress call ratify vote ratification unanimous appear government make real effort secure ratification immediately adjournment congress revolution break panama people panama long discontent republic colombia keep quiet prospect conclusion treaty matter vital concern become evident treaty hopelessly lose people panama rise literally one man shot fire single man isthmus interest colombian government life lose accomplishment revolution colombian troop station isthmus long unpaid make common people panama astonish unanimity new republic start duty united state premise clear strict accordance principle lay secretary cass seward official document quote united state give notice would permit land expeditionary force arrival would mean chaos destruction along line railroad propose canal interruption transit inevitable consequence de facto government panama recognize follow telegram ehrman people panama apparently unanimous movement dissolve political connection republic colombia resume independence satisfy de facto government republican form without substantial opposition people establish state panama enter relation responsible government territory look due action protect person property citizen united state keep open isthmian transit accordance obligation exist treaty govern relation united state territory government colombia notify action follow telegram beaupre people panama apparently unanimous movement dissolve political connection republic colombia resume independence adopt government republican form government unite state america enter relation president united state accordance tie friendship long happily exist respective nation earnestly commend government colombia panama peaceful equitable settlement question issue hold bound merely treaty obligation interest civilization see peaceful traffic world across isthmus panama shall longer disturb constant succession unnecessary wasteful civil war event happen year elapse since united state enter treaty new granada time government new granada successor colombia constant state flux follow partial list disturbance isthmus panama period question report u consuls possible give complete list report speak revolution must mean unsuccessful revolution partial list revolution rebellion insurrection riot outbreak occur period question yet number 53 57 year note one last nearly three year quell another nearly year short experience half century show colombia utterly incapable keep order isthmus active interference united state enable preserve much semblance sovereignty exercise united state police power interest connection isthmus would sunder long ago 1856 1860 1873 1885 1901 1902 sailor marine united state war ship force land order patrol isthmus protect life property see transit across isthmus keep open 1861 1862 1885 1900 colombian government ask united state government would land troop protect interest maintain order isthmus perhaps extraordinary request receive run follow know revolution already commence panama eminent colombian say government united state land troop preserve colombian sovereignty transit request colombian charge government declare martial law virtue vest constitutional authority public order disturb approve decree ratification canal treaty sign government united state prefers call extra session congress new friendly member next may approve treaty eminent colombian perfect confidence say become necessary go isthmus send representative adjust matter along line satisfaction people dispatch noteworthy two standpoint offer immediately guarantee treaty u sharp contrast positive contemptuous refusal congress close session consider favorably treaty show government make treaty really absolute control situation choose exercise control dispatch call u restore order secure colombian supremacy isthmus colombian government action decide bar u prevent construction canal control interest commerce traffic whole civilize world mean undisturbed transit across isthmus panama become transcendent importance united state repeatedly exercise control intervene course domestic dissension protect territory foreign invasion 1853 everett assure peruvian minister hesitate maintain neutrality isthmus case war peru colombia 1864 colombia always vigilant avail privilege confer treaty express expectation event war peru spain united state would carry effect guaranty neutrality administration state department treaty either one side use basis less important demand say mr fish 1871 department state reason believe attack upon colombian sovereignty isthmus several occasion avert warn government 1886 colombia menace hostility italy cerruti case bayard express serious concern united state could feel european power resort force sister republic hemisphere sovereign uninterrupted use part whose territory guarantor solemn faith treaty recital fact establish beyond question first united state half century patiently good faith carry obligation treaty 1846 second first time become possible colombia anything requital service thus repeatedly rendered year united state colombian government peremptorily offensively refuse thus part even though would advantage immeasurably advantage state panama time jurisdiction third throughout period revolution riot factional disturbance every kind occur one almost uninterrupted succession last month even year central government unable put make peace rebel fourth disturbance instead show sign abate tend grow numerous serious immediate past fifth control colombia isthmus panama could maintain without arm intervention assistance united state word government colombia though wholly unable maintain order isthmus nevertheless decline ratify treaty conclusion open chance secure stability guarantee permanent peace construction canal across isthmus circumstance government united state would guilty folly weakness amount sum crime nation act otherwise revolution november 3 last take place panama great enterprise building interoceanic canal held gratify whim respect governmental impotence even sinister evil political peculiarity people though dwell afar yet wish actual dweller isthmus assert unreal supremacy territory possession territory fraught peculiar capacity isthmus question carry obligation mankind course event show canal built private enterprise nation therefore must build united state every effort make government united state persuade colombia follow course essentially interest interest world interest colombia effort fail colombia persistence repulsing advance make forced u sake honor interest merely people people isthmus panama people civilize country world take decisive step bring end condition affair become intolerable new republic panama immediately offer negotiate treaty u treaty herewith submit interest well safeguard treaty colombia ratify senate last session well term treaty offer u republic nicaragua costa rica last right begin great undertaking make available panama do part remain american congress part forthwith republic enter upon execution project colossal size incalculable possibility good country nation mankind provision treaty united state guarantee maintain independence republic panama grant united state perpetuity use occupation control strip ten mile wide extend three nautical mile sea either terminal land lie outside zone necessary construction canal auxiliary work island bay panama city panama colon embrace canal zone united state assume sanitation case need maintenance order therein united state enjoy within grant limit right power authority would possess sovereign territory exclusion exercise sovereign right republic railway canal property right belong panama need canal pas united state include property respective company city panama colon work property personnel canal railway exempt taxation well city panama colon canal zone dependency free immigration personnel importation supply construction operation canal grant provision make use military force build fortification united state protection transit detail particularly acquisition interest new panama canal company panama railway united state condemnation private property use canal stipulation treaty closely followed compensation give enlarge grant remain ten million dollar payable exchange ratification begin nine year date annual payment life convention