The assemblage within the nation's legislative halls of those charged with the duty of making laws for the benefit of a generous and free people impressively suggests the exacting obligation and inexorable responsibility involved in their task. At the threshold of such labor now to be undertaken by the Congress of the United States, and in the discharge of an executive duty enjoined by the Constitution, I submit this communication, containing a brief statement of the condition of our national affairs and recommending such legislation as seems to me necessary and expedient. The history of our recent dealings with other nations and our peaceful relations with them at this time additionally demonstrate the advantage of consistently adhering to a firm but just foreign policy, free from envious or ambitious national schemes and characterized by entire honesty and sincerity. During the past year, pursuant to a law of Congress, commissioners were appointed to the Antwerp Industrial Exposition. Though the participation of American exhibitors fell far short of completely illustrating our national ingenuity and industrial achievements, yet it was quite creditable in view of the brief time allowed for preparation. I have endeavored to impress upon the Belgian Government the heedlessness and positive harmfulness of its restrictions upon the importation of certain of our food products, and have strongly urged that the rigid supervision and inspection under our laws are amply sufficient to prevent the exportation from this country of diseased cattle and unwholesome meat. The termination of the civil war in Brazil has been followed by the general prevalence of peace and order. It appearing at an early stage of the insurrection that its course would call for unusual watchfulness on the part of this Government, our naval force in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro was strengthened. This precaution, I am satisfied, tended to restrict the issue to a simple trial of strength between the Brazilian Government and the insurgents and to avert complications which at times seemed imminent. Our firm attitude of neutrality was maintained to the end. The insurgents received no encouragement of eventual asylum from our commanders, and such opposition as they encountered was for the protection of our commerce and was clearly justified by public law. A serious tension of relations having arisen at the close of the war between Brazil and Portugal by reason of the escape of the insurgent admiral Da Gama and his followers, the friendly offices of our representatives to those countries were exerted for the protection of the subjects of either within the territory of the other. Although the Government of Brazil was duly notified that the commercial arrangement existing between the United States and that country based on the third section of the tariff act of 1890 was abrogated on August 28, 1894, by the taking effect of the tariff law now in force, that Government subsequently notified us of its intention to terminate such arrangement on the 1st day of January, 1895, in the exercise of the right reserved in the agreement between the two countries. I invite attention to the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Brazilian minister on this subject. The commission organized under the convention which we had entered into with Chile for the settlement of the outstanding claims of each Government against the other adjourned at the end of the period stipulated for its continuance leaving undetermined a number of American cases which had been duly presented. These claims are not barred, and negotiations are in progress for their submission to a new tribunal. On the 17th of March last a new treaty with China in further regulation of emigration was signed at Washington, and on August 13 it received the sanction of the Senate. Ratification on the part of China and formal exchange are awaited to give effect to this mutually beneficial convention. A gratifying recognition of the uniform impartiality of this country toward all foreign states was manifested by the coincident request of the Chinese and Japanese Governments that the agents of the United States should within proper limits afford protection to the subjects of the other during the suspension of diplomatic relations due to a state of war. This delicate office was accepted, and a misapprehension which gave rise to the belief that in affording this kindly unofficial protection our agents would exercise the same authority which the withdrawn agents of the belligerents had exercised was promptly corrected. Although the war between China and Japan endangers no policy of the United States, it deserves our gravest consideration by reason of its disturbance of our growing commercial interests in the two countries and the increased dangers which may result to our citizens domiciled or sojourning in the interior of China. Acting under a stipulation in our treaty with Korea (the first concluded with a western power), I felt constrained at the beginning of the controversy to tender our good offices to induce an amicable arrangement of the initial difficulty growing out of the Japanese demands for administrative reforms in Korea, but the unhappy precipitation of actual hostilities defeated this kindly purpose. Deploring the destructive war between the two most powerful of the eastern nations and anxious that our commercial interests in those countries may be preserved and that the safety of our citizens there shall not be jeopardized, I would not hesitate to heed any intimation that our friendly aid for the honorable termination of hostilities would be acceptable to both belligerents. A convention has been finally concluded for the settlement by arbitration of the prolonged dispute with Ecuador growing out of the proceedings against Emilio Santos, a naturalized citizen of the United States. Our relations with the Republic of France continue to be such as should exist between nations so long bound together by friendly sympathy and similarity in their form of government. The recent cruel assassination of the President of this sister Republic called forth such universal expressions of sorrow and condolence from our people and Government as to leave no doubt of the depth and sincerity of our attachment. The resolutions passed by the Senate and House of Representatives on the occasion have been communicated to the widow of President Carnot. Acting upon the reported discovery of Texas fever in cargoes of American cattle, the German prohibition against importations of live stock and fresh meats from this country has been revived. It is hoped that Germany will soon become convinced that the inhibition is as needless as it is harmful to mutual interests. The German Government has protested against that provision of the customs tariff act which imposes a discriminating duty of one-tenth of 1 cent a pound on sugars coming from countries paying an export bounty thereon, claiming that the exaction of such duty is in contravention of Articles V and IX of the treaty of 1828 with Prussia. In the interests of the commerce of both countries and to avoid even the accusation of treaty violation, I recommend the repeal of so much of the statute as imposes that duty, and I invite attention to the accompanying report of the Secretary of State, containing a discussion of the questions raised by the German protests. Early in the present year an agreement was reached with Great Britain concerning instructions to be given to the naval commanders of the two Governments in Bering Sea and the contiguous North Pacific Ocean for their guidance in the execution of the award of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration and the enforcement of the regulations therein prescribed for the protection of seal life in the waters mentioned. An understanding has also been reached for the payment by the United States of $425,000 in full satisfaction of all claims which may be made by Great Britain for damages growing out of the controversy as to fur seals in Bering Sea or the seizure of British vessels engaged in taking seal in those waters. The award and findings of the Paris Tribunal to a great extent determined the facts and principles upon which these claims should be adjusted, and they have been subjected by both Governments to a thorough examination upon the principles as well as the facts which they involve. I am convinced that a settlement upon the terms mentioned would be an equitable and advantageous one, and I recommend that provision be made for the prompt payment of the stated sum. Thus far only France and Portugal have signified their willingness to adhere to the regulations established under the award of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration. Preliminary surveys of the Alaskan boundary and a preparatory examination of the question of protection of food fish in the contiguous waters of the United States and the Dominion of Canada are in progress. The boundary of British Guiana still remains in dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela. Believing that its early settlement on some just basis alike honorable to both parties is in the line of our established policy to remove from this hemisphere all causes of difference with powers beyond the sea, I shall renew the efforts heretofore made to bring about a restoration of diplomatic relations between the disputants and to induce a reference to arbitration--a resort which Great Britain so conspicuously favors in principle and respects in practice and which is earnestly sought by her weaker adversary. Since communicating the voluminous correspondence in regard to Hawaii and the action taken by the Senate and House of Representatives on certain questions submitted to the judgment and wider discretion of Congress the organization of a government in place of the provisional arrangement which followed the deposition of the Queen has been announced, with evidence of its effective operation. The recognition usual in such cases has been accorded the new Government. Under our present treaties of extradition with Italy miscarriages of justice have occurred owing to the refusal of that Government to surrender its own subjects. Thus far our efforts to negotiate an amended convention obviating this difficulty have been unavailing. Apart from the war in which the Island Empire is engaged, Japan attracts increasing attention in this country by her evident desire to cultivate more liberal intercourse with us and to seek our kindly aid in furtherance of her laudable desire for complete autonomy in her domestic affairs and full equality in the family of nations. The Japanese Empire of to-day is no longer the Japan of the past, and our relations with this progressive nation should not be less broad and liberal than those with other powers. Good will, fostered by many interests in common, has marked our relations with our nearest southern neighbor. Peace being restored along her northern frontier, Mexico has asked the punishment of the late disturbers of her tranquillity. There ought to be a new treaty of commerce and navigation with that country to take the place of the one which terminated thirteen years ago. The friendliness of the intercourse between the two countries is attested by the fact that during this long period the commerce of each has steadily increased under the rule of mutual consideration, being neither stimulated by conventional arrangements nor retarded by jealous rivalries or selfish distrust. An indemnity tendered by Mexico as a gracious act for the murder in 1887 of Leon Baldwin, an American citizen, by a band of marauders in Durango has been accepted and is being paid in installments. The problem of the storage and use of the waters of the Rio Grande for irrigation should be solved by appropriate concurrent action of the two interested countries. Rising in the Colorado heights, the stream flows intermittently, yielding little water during the dry months to the irrigation channels already constructed along its course. This scarcity is often severely felt in the regions where the river forms a common boundary. Moreover, the frequent changes in its course through level sands often raise embarrassing questions of territorial jurisdiction. Prominent among the questions of the year was the Bluefields incident, in what is known as the Mosquito Indian Strip, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean and within the jurisdiction of Nicaragua. By the treaty of 1860 between Great Britain and Nicaragua the former Government expressly recognized the sovereignty of the latter over the strip, and a limited form of self-government was guaranteed to the Mosquito Indians, to be exercised according to their customs, for themselves and other dwellers within its limits. The so-called native government, which grew to be largely made up of aliens, for many years disputed the sovereignty of Nicaragua over the strip and claimed the right to maintain therein a practically independent municipal government. Early in the past year efforts of Nicaragua to maintain sovereignty over the Mosquito territory led to serious disturbances, culminating in the suppression of the native government and the attempted substitution of an impracticable composite administration in which Nicaragua and alien residents were to participate. Failure was followed by an insurrection, which for a time subverted Nicaraguan rule, expelling her officers and restoring the old organization. This in turn gave place to the existing local government established and upheld by Nicaragua. Although the alien interests arrayed against Nicaragua in these transactions have been largely American and the commerce of that region for some time has been and still is chiefly controlled by our citizens, we can not for that reason challenge the rightful sovereignty of Nicaragua over this important part of her domain. For some months one, and during part of the time two, of our naval ships have been stationed at Bluefields for the protection of all legitimate interests of our citizens. In September last the Government at Managua expelled from its territory twelve or more foreigners, including two Americans, for alleged participation in the seditious or revolutionary movements against the Republic at Bluefields already mentioned; but through the earnest remonstrance of this Government the two Americans have been permitted to return to the peaceful management of their business. Our naval commanders at the scene of these disturbances by their constant exhibition of firmness and good judgment contributed largely to the prevention of more serious consequences and to the restoration of quiet and order. I regret that in the midst of these occurrences there happened a most grave and irritating failure of Nicaraguan justice. An American citizen named Wilson, residing at Rama, in the Mosquito territory, was murdered by one Arguello, the acting governor of the town. After some delay the murderer was arrested, but so insecurely confined or guarded that he escaped, and notwithstanding our repeated demands it is claimed that his recapture has been impossible by reason of his flight beyond Nicaraguan jurisdiction. The Nicaraguan authorities, having given notice of forfeiture of their concession to the canal company on grounds purely technical and not embraced in the contract, have receded from that position. Peru, I regret to say, shows symptoms of domestic disturbance, due probably to the slowness of her recuperation from the distresses of the war of 1881. Weakened in resources, her difficulties in facing international obligations invite our kindly sympathy and justify our forbearance in pressing long-pending claims. I have felt constrained to testify this sympathy in connection with certain demands urgently preferred by other powers. The recent death of the Czar of Russia called forth appropriate expressions of sorrow and sympathy on the part of our Government with his bereaved family and the Russian people. As a further demonstration of respect and friendship our minister at St. Petersburg was directed to represent our Government at the funeral ceremonies. The sealing interests of Russia in Bering Sea are second only to our own. A modus vivendi has therefore been concluded with the Imperial Government restrictive of poaching on the Russian rookeries and of sealing in waters which were not comprehended in the protected area defined in the Paris award. Occasion has been found to urge upon the Russian Government equality of treatment for our great life-insurance companies whose operations have been extended throughout Europe. Admitting as we do foreign corporations to transact business in the United States, we naturally expect no less tolerance for our own in the ample fields of competition abroad. But few cases of interference with naturalized citizens returning to Russia have been reported during the current year. One Krzeminski was arrested last summer in a Polish province on a reported charge of unpermitted renunciation of Russian allegiance, but it transpired that the proceedings originated in alleged malfeasance committed by Krzeminski while an imperial official a number of years ago. Efforts for his release, which promised to be successful, were in progress when his death was reported. The Government of Salvador having been overthrown by an abrupt popular outbreak, certain of its military and civil officers, while hotly pursued by infuriated insurgents, sought refuge on board the United States war ship Bennington, then lying in a Salvadorean port. Although the practice of asylum is not favored by this Government, yet in view of the imminent peril which threatened the fugitives and solely from considerations of humanity they were afforded shelter by our naval commander, and when afterwards demanded under our treaty of extradition with Salvador for trial on charges of murder, arson, and robbery I directed that such of them as had not voluntarily left the ship be conveyed to one of our nearest ports where a hearing could be had before a judicial officer, in compliance with the terms of the treaty. On their arrival at San Francisco such a proceeding was promptly instituted before the United States district judge, who held that the acts constituting the alleged offenses were political and discharged all the accused except one Cienfuegos, who was held for an attempt to murder. Thereupon I was constrained to direct his release for the reason that an attempt to murder was not one of the crimes charged against him and upon which his surrender to the Salvadorean authorities had been demanded. Unreasonable and unjust fines imposed by Spain on the vessels and commerce of the United States have demanded from time to time during the last twenty years earnest remonstrance on the part of our Government. In the immediate past exorbitant penalties have been imposed upon our vessels and goods by customs authorities of Cuba and Puerto Rico for clerical errors of the most trivial character in the manifests of bills of lading. In some cases fines amounting to thousands of dollars have been levied upon cargoes or the carrying vessels when the goods in question were entitled to free entry. Fines have been exacted even when the error had been detected and the Spanish authorities notified before the arrival of the goods in port. This conduct is in strange contrast with the considerate and liberal treatment extended to Spanish vessels and cargoes in our ports in like cases. No satisfactory settlement of these vexatious questions has yet been reached. The Mora case, referred to in my last annual message, remains unsettled. From the diplomatic correspondence on this subject which has been laid before the Senate it will be seen that this Government has offered to conclude a convention with Spain for disposal by arbitration of outstanding claims between the two countries, except the Mora claim. which, having been long ago adjusted, now only awaits payment as stipulated, and of course it could not be included in the proposed convention. It was hoped that this offer would remove parliamentary obstacles encountered by the Spanish Government in providing payment of the Mora indemnity. I regret to say that no definite reply to this offer has yet been made and all efforts to secure payment of this settled claim have been unavailing. In my last annual message I adverted to the claim on the part of Turkey of the right to expel as persons undesirable and dangerous Armenians naturalized in the United States and returning to Turkish jurisdiction. Numerous questions in this relation have arisen. While this Government acquiesces in the asserted right of expulsion, it will not consent that Armenians may be imprisoned or otherwise punished for no other reason than having acquired without imperial consent American citizenship. Three of the assailants of Miss Melton, an American teacher in Mosul, have been convicted by the Ottoman courts, and I am advised that an appeal against the acquittal of the remaining five has been taken by the Turkish prosecuting officer. A convention has been concluded with Venezuela for the arbitration of a long-disputed claim growing out of the seizure of certain vessels the property of citizens of the United States. Although signed, the treaty of extradition with Venezuela is not yet in force, owing to the insistence of that Government that when surrendered its citizens shall in no case be liable to capital punishment. The rules for the prevention of collisions at sea which were framed by the maritime conference held in this city in 1889, having been concurrently incorporated in the statutes of the United States and Great Britain have been announced to take effect March 1, 1895, and invitations have been extended to all maritime nations to adhere to them. Favorable responses have thus far been received from Austria, France, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. In my last annual message I referred briefly to the unsatisfactory state of affairs in Samoa under the operation of the Berlin treaty as signally illustrating the impolicy of entangling alliances with foreign powers, and on May 9, 1894, in response to a resolution of the Senate, I sent a Special message and documents to that body on the same subject, which emphasized my previously expressed opinions. Later occurrences, the correspondence in regard to which will be laid before the Congress, further demonstrate that the Government which was devised by the three powers and forced upon the Samoans against their inveterate hostility can be maintained only by the continued presence of foreign military force and at no small sacrifice of life and treasure. The suppression of the Mataafa insurrection by the powers and the subsequent banishment of the leader and eleven other chiefs, as recited in my last message, did not bring lasting peace to the islands. Formidable uprisings continued, and finally a rebellion broke out in the capital island, Upolu, headed in Aana, the western district, by the younger Tamasese, and in Atua, the eastern district, by other leaders. The insurgents ravaged the country and fought the Government's troops up to the very doors of Apia. The King again appealed to the powers for help, and the combined British and German naval forces reduced the Atuans to apparent subjection, not, however, without considerable loss to the natives. A few days later Tamasese and his adherents, fearing the ships and the marines, professed submission. Reports received from our agents at Apia do not justify the belief that the peace thus brought about will be of long duration. It is their conviction that the natives are at heart hostile to the present Government, that such of them as profess loyalty to it do so from fear of the powers, and that it would speedily go to pieces if the war ships were withdrawn. In reporting to his Government on the unsatisfactory situation since the suppression of the late revolt by foreign armed forces, the German consul at Apia stated: 
  That peace will be lasting is hardly to be presumed. The lesson given by firing on Atua was not sufficiently sharp and incisive to leave a lasting impression on the forgetful Samoan temperament. In fact, conditions are existing which show that peace will not last and is not seriously intended. Malietoa, the King, and his chiefs are convinced that the departure of the war ships will be a signal for a renewal of war. The circumstance that the representatives of the villages of all the districts which were opposed to the Government have already withdrawn to Atua to hold meetings, and that both Atua and Aana have forbidden inhabitants of those districts which fought on the side of the Government to return to their villages, and have already partly burned down the latter, indicates that a real conciliation of the parties is still far off.
 And in a note of the 10th ultimo, inclosing a copy of that report for the information of this Government, the German ambassador said: 
  The contents of the report awakened the imperial Government's apprehension that under existing circumstances the peace concluded with the rebels will afford no assurance of the lasting restoration of tranquillity in the islands.
 The present Government has utterly failed to correct, if indeed it has not aggravated, the very evils it was intended to prevent. It has not stimulated our commerce with the islands. Our participation in its establishment against the wishes of the natives was in plain defiance of the conservative teachings and warnings of the wise and patriotic men who laid the foundations of our free institutions, and I invite an expression of the judgment of Congress on the propriety of steps being taken by this Government looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with the other powers on some reasonable terms not prejudicial to any of our existing rights. The Secretary of the Treasury reports that the receipts of the Government from all sources of revenue during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, amounted to $372,802,498.29 and its expenditures to $442,605,758.87, leaving a deficit of $69,803,260.58. There was a decrease of $15,952,674.66 in the ordinary expense of the Government as compared with the fiscal year 1893. There was collected from customs $131,818,530.62 and from internal revenue $147,168,449.70. The balance of the income for the year, amounting to $93,815,517.97, was derived from the sales of lands and other sources. The value of our total dutiable imports amounted to $275,199,086, being $146,657,625 less than during the preceding year, and the importations free of duty amounted to $379,795,536, being $64,748,675 less than during the preceding year. The receipts from customs were $73,536,486.11 less and from internal revenue $13,836,539.97 less than in 1893. The total tax collected from distilled spirits was $85,259,250.25, on manufactured tobacco $28,617,898.62, and on fermented liquors $31,414,788.04. Our exports of merchandise, domestic and foreign, amounted during the year to $892,140,572, being an increase over the preceding year of $44,495,378. The total amount of gold exported during the fiscal year was $76,898,061, as against $108,680,444 during the fiscal year 1893. The amount imported was $72,449,119, as against $21,174,381 during the previous year. The imports of silver were $13,186,552 and the exports were $50,451,265. The total bounty paid upon the production of sugar in the United States for the fiscal year was $12,100,208.89, being an increase of $2,725,078.01 over the payments made during the preceding year. The amount of bounty paid from July 1, 1894, to August 28, 1894, the time when further payments ceased by operation of law, was $966,185.84. The total expenses incurred in the payment of the bounty upon sugar during the fiscal year was $130,140.85. It is estimated that upon the basis of the present revenue laws the receipts of the Government during the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 1895, will be $424,427,748.44 and its expenditures $444,427,748.44, resulting in a deficit of $20,000,000. On the 1st day of November, 1894, the total stock of money of all kinds in the country was $2,240,773,88.8, as against $2,204,651,000 on the 1st day of November, 1893, and the money of all kinds in circulation, or not included in the Treasury holdings, was $1,672,093,422, or $24.27 per capita upon an estimated population of 68,887,000. At the same date there was held in the Treasury gold bullion amounting to $44,615,177.55 and silver bullion which was purchased at a cost of $127,772,988. The purchase of silver bullion under the act of July 14, 1890, ceased on the 1st day of November, 1893, and up to that time there had been purchased during the fiscal year 11,917,658.78 fine ounces, at a cost of $8,715,521.32, an average cost of $0.7313 per fine ounce. The total amount of silver purchased from the time that law took effect until the repeal of its purchasing clause, on the date last mentioned, was 168,674,682.53 fine ounces, which cost $155,931,002.25, the average price per fine ounce being $0.9244. The total amount of standard silver dollars coined at the mints of the United States since the passage of the act of February 28, 1878, is $421,776,408, of which $378,166,793 were coined under the provisions of that act, $38,531,143 under the provisions of the act of July 14, 1890, and $5,078,472 under the act providing for the coinage of trade-dollar bullion. The total coinage of all metals at our mints during the last fiscal year consisted of 63,485,220 pieces, valued at $106,216,730.06, of which there were $99,474,912.50 in gold coined, $758 in standard silver dollars, $6,024,140.30 in subsidiary silver coin, and $716,919.26 in minor coin. During the calendar year 1893 the production of precious metals in the United States was estimated at 1,739,323 fine ounces of gold of the commercial and coinage value of $35,955,000 and 70,000,000 fine ounces of silver of the bullion or market value of $46,800,000 and of the coinage value of $77,576,000. It is estimated that on the 1st day of July, 1894, the stock of metallic money in the United States, consisting of coin and bullion, amounted to $1,251,640,958, of which $627,923,201 was gold and $624,347,757 was silver. Fifty national banks were organized during the year ending October 31, 1894, with a capital of $5,285,000, and 79, with a capital of $10,475,000, went into voluntary liquidation. Twenty-one banks, with a capital of $2,770,000, were placed in the hands of receivers. The total number of national banks in existence on the 31st day of October last was 3,756, being 40 less than on the 31st day of October, 1893. The capital stock paid in was $672,671,365, being $9,678,491 less than at the same time in the previous year, and the surplus fund and individual profits, less expenses and taxes paid, amounted to $334,121,082.10, which was $16,089,780 less than on October 31, 1893. The circulation was decreased $1,741,563. The obligations of the banks to each other were increased $117,268,334 and the individual deposits were $277,294,489 less than at the corresponding date in the previous year. Loans and discounts were $161,206,923 more than at the same time the previous year, and checks and other cash items were $90,349,963 more. The total resources of the banks at the date mentioned amounted to $3,473,922,055, as against $3,109,563,184.36 in 1893. From the report of the Secretary of War it appears that the strength of the Army on September 30, 1894, was 2,135 officers and 25,765 enlisted men. Although this is apparently a very slight decrease compared with the previous year, the actual effective force has been increased to the equivalent of nearly two regiments through the reorganization of the system of recruiting and the consequent release to regimental duty of the large force of men hitherto serving at the recruiting depots. The abolition of these depots, it is predicted, will furthermore effect an annual reduction approximating $250,000 in the direct expenditures, besides promoting generally the health, morale, and discipline of the troops. The execution of the policy of concentrating the Army at important centers of population and transportation, foreshadowed in the last annual report of the Secretary, has resulted in the abandonment of fifteen of the smaller posts, which was effected under a plan which assembles organizations of the same regiments hitherto widely separated. This renders our small forces more readily effective for any service which they may be called upon to perform, increases the extent of the territory under protection without diminishing the security heretofore afforded to any locality, improves the discipline, training, and esprit de corps of the Army, besides considerably decreasing the cost of its maintenance. Though the forces of the Department of the East have been somewhat increased, more than three-fourths of the Army is still stationed west of the Mississippi. This carefully matured policy, which secures the best and greatest service in the interests of the general welfare from the small force comprising our Regular Army, should not be thoughtlessly embarrassed by the creation of new and unnecessary posts through acts of Congress to gratify the ambitions or interests of localities. While the maximum legal strength of the Army is 25,000 men, the effective strength, through various causes, is but little over 20,000 men. The purpose of Congress does not, therefore, seem to be fully attained by the existing condition. While no considerable increase in the Army is, in my judgment, demanded by recent events, the policy of seacoast fortification, in the prosecution of which we have been steadily engaged for some years, has so far developed as to suggest that the effective strength of the Army be now made at least equal to the legal strength. Measures taken by the Department during the year, as indicated, have already considerably augmented the effective force, and the Secretary of War presents a plan, which I recommend to the consideration of Congress, to attain the desired end. Economies effected in the Department in other lines of its work will offset to a great extent the expenditure involved in the proposition submitted. Among other things this contemplates the adoption of the three-battalion formation of regiments, which for several years has been indorsed by the Secretaries of War and the Generals Commanding the Army. Compact in itself, it provides a skeleton organization, ready to be filled out in the event of war, which is peculiarly adapted to our strength and requirements; and the fact that every other nation, with a single exception, has adopted this formation to meet the conditions of modern warfare should alone secure for the recommendation an early consideration. It is hardly necessary to recall the fact that in obedience to the commands of the Constitution and the laws, and for the purpose of protecting the property of the United States, aiding the process of Federal courts, and removing lawless obstructions to the performance by the Government of its legitimate functions, it became necessary in various localities during the year to employ a considerable portion of the regular troops. The duty was discharged promptly, courageously, and with marked discretion by the officers and men, and the most gratifying proof was thus afforded that the Army deserves that complete confidence in its efficiency and discipline which the country has at all times manifested. The year has been free from disturbances by Indians, and the chances of further depredations on their part are constantly becoming more remote and improbable. The total .expenditures for the War Department for the year ended June 30, 1894, amounted to $56,039,009.34. Of this sum $2,000,614.99 was for salaries and contingent expenses, $23,665,156.16 for the support of the military establishment, $5,001,682.23 for miscellaneous objects, and $25,371,555.96 for public works. This latter sum includes $19,494,037.49 for river and harbor improvements and $3,947,863.56 for fortifications and other works of defense. The appropriations for the current year aggregate $52,429,112.78, and the estimates submitted by the Secretary of War for the next fiscal year call for appropriations amounting to $52,318,629.55. The skill and industry of our ordnance officers and inventors have, it is believed, overcome the mechanical obstacles which have heretofore delayed the armament of our coasts, and this great national undertaking upon which we have entered may now proceed as rapidly as Congress shall determine. With a supply of finished guns of large caliber already on hand, to which additions should now rapidly follow, the wisdom of providing carriages and emplacements for their mount can not be too strongly urged. The total enrollment of the militia of the several States is 117,533 officers and enlisted men, an increase of 5,343 over the number reported at the close of the previous year. The reports of militia inspections by Regular Army officers show a marked increase in interest and efficiency among the State organizations, and I strongly recommend a continuance of the policy of affording every practical encouragement possible to this important auxiliary of our military establishment. The condition of the Apache Indians held as prisoners by the Government for eight years at a cost of half a million dollars has been changed during the year from captivity to one which gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their capacity for self-support and at least partial civilization. Legislation enacted at the late session of Congress gave the War Department authority to transfer the survivors, numbering 346, from Mount Vernon Barracks, in Alabama, to any suitable reservation. The Department selected as their future home the military lands near Fort Sill, Ind. T., where, under military surveillance, the former prisoners have been established in agriculture under conditions favorable to their advancement. In recognition of the long and distinguished military services and faithful discharge of delicate and responsible civil duties by Major-General John M. Schofield, now the General Commanding the Army, it is suggested to Congress that the temporary revival of the grade of lieutenant-general in his behalf would be a just and gracious act and would permit his retirement, now near at hand, with rank befitting his merits. The report of the Attorney-General notes the gratifying progress made by the Supreme Court in overcoming the arrears of its business and in reaching a condition in which it will be able to dispose of cases as they arise without any unreasonable delay. This result is of course very largely due to the successful working of the plan inaugurating circuit courts of appeals. In respect to these tribunals the suggestion is made, in quarters entitled to the highest consideration that an additional circuit judge for each circuit would greatly strengthen these courts and the confidence reposed in their adjudications, and that such an addition would not create a greater force of judges than the increasing business of such courts requires. I commend the suggestion to the careful consideration of the Congress. Other important topics are adverted to in the report, accompanied by recommendations, many of which have been treated at large in previous messages, and at this time, therefore, need only be named. I refer to the abolition of the fee system as a measure of compensation to Federal officers; the enlargement of the powers of United States commissioners, at least in the Territories; the allowance of writs of error in criminal cases on behalf of the United States, and the establishment of degrees in the crime of murder. A topic dealt with by the Attorney-General of much importance is the condition of the administration of justice in the Indian Territory. The permanent solution of what is called the Indian problem is probably not to be expected at once, but meanwhile such ameliorations of present conditions as the existing system will admit of ought not to be neglected. I am satisfied there should be a Federal court established for the Territory, with sufficient judges, and that this court should sit within the Territory and have the same jurisdiction as to Territorial affairs as is now vested in the Federal courts sitting in Arkansas and Texas. Another subject of pressing moment referred to by the Attorney-General is the reorganization of the Union Pacific Railway Company on a basis equitable as regards all private interests and as favorable to the Government as existing conditions will permit. The operation of a railroad by a court through a receiver is an anomalous state of things which should be terminated on all grounds, public and private, at the earliest possible moment. Besides, not to enact the needed enabling legislation at the present session postpones the whole matter until the assembling of a new Congress and inevitably increases all the complications of the situation, and could not but be regarded as a signal failure to solve a problem which has practically been before the present Congress ever since its organization. Eight years ago in my annual message I urged upon the Congress as strongly as I could the location and construction of two prisons for the confinement of United States prisoners. A similar recommendation has been made from time to time since, and a few years ago a law was passed providing for the selection of sites for three such institutions. No appropriation has, however, been made to carry the act into effect, and the old and discreditable condition still exists. It is not my purpose at this time to repeat the considerations which make an impregnable case in favor of the ownership and management by the Government of the penal institutions in which Federal prisoners are confined. I simply desire to again urge former recommendations on the subject and to particularly call the attention of the Congress to that part of the report of the Secretary of War in which he states that the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., can be turned over to the Government as a prison for Federal convicts without the least difficulty and with an actual saving of money from every point of view. Pending a more complete reform, I hope that by the adoption of the suggestion of the Secretary of War this easy step may be taken in the direction of the proper care of its convicts by the Government of the United States. The report of the Postmaster-General presents a comprehensive statement of the operations of the Post-Office Department for the last fiscal year. The receipts of the Department during the year amounted to $75,080,479.04 and the expenditures to $84,324,414.15. The transactions of the postal service indicate with barometric certainty the fluctuations in the business of the country. Inasmuch, therefore, as business complications continued to exist throughout the last year to an unforeseen extent, it is not surprising that the deficiency of revenue to meet the expenditures of the Post-Office Department, which was estimated in advance at about $8,000,000, should be exceeded by nearly $1,225,000. The ascertained revenues of the last year, which were the basis of calculation for the current year, being less than estimated, the deficiency for the current year will be correspondingly greater, though the Postmaster-General states that the latest indications are so favorable that he confidently predicts an increase of at least 8 per cent in the revenues of the current year over those of the last year. The expenditures increase steadily and necessarily with the growth and needs of the country, so that the deficiency is greater or less in any year, depending upon the volume of receipts. The Postmaster-General states that this deficiency is unnecessary and might be obviated at once if the law regulating rates upon mail matter of the second class was modified. The rate received for the transmission of this second-class matter is 1 cent per pound, while the cost of such transmission to the Government is eight times that amount. In the general terms of the law this rate covers newspapers and periodicals. The extensions of the meaning of these terms from time to time have admitted to the privileges intended for legitimate newspapers and periodicals a surprising range of publications and created abuses the cost of which amounts in the aggregate to the total deficiency of the Post-Office Department. Pretended newspapers are started by business houses for the mere purpose of advertising goods, complying with the law in form only and discontinuing the publications as soon as the period of advertising is over. "Sample copies" of pretended newspapers are issued in great numbers for a like purpose only. The result is a great loss of revenue to the Government, besides its humiliating use as an agency to aid in carrying out the scheme of a business house to advertise its goods by means of a trick upon both its rival houses and the regular and legitimate newspapers. Paper-covered literature, consisting mainly of trashy novels, to the extent of many thousands of tons is sent through the mails at 1 cent per pound, while the publishers of standard works are required to pay eight times that amount in sending their publications. Another abuse consists in the free carriage through the mails of hundreds of tons of seed and grain uselessly distributed through the Department of Agriculture. The Postmaster-General predicts that if the law be so amended as to eradicate these abuses not only will the Post-Office Department show no deficiency, but he believes that in the near future all legitimate newspapers and periodical magazines might be properly transmitted through the mails to their subscribers free of cost. I invite your prompt consideration of this subject and fully indorse the views of the Postmaster-General. The total number of post-offices in the United States on the 30th day of June, 1894, was 69,805, an increase of 1,403 over the preceding year. Of these, 3,428 were Presidential, an increase in that class of 68 over the preceding year. Six hundred and ten cities and towns are provided with free delivery. Ninety-three other cities and towns entitled to this service under the law have not been accorded it on account of insufficient funds. The expense of free delivery for the current fiscal year will be more than $12,300,000, and under existing legislation this item of expenditure is subject to constant increase. The estimated cost of rural free delivery generally is so very large that it ought not to be considered in the present condition of affairs. During the year 830 additional domestic money-order offices were established. The total number of these offices at the close of the year was 19,264. There were 14,304,041 money orders issued during the year, being an increase over the preceding year of 994,306. The value of these orders amounted to $138,793,579.49, an increase of $11,217,145.84. There were also issued during the year postal notes amounting to $12,649,094.55. During the year 218 international money-order offices were added to those already established, making a total of 2,625 such offices in operation June 30, 1894. The number of international money orders issued during the year was 917,823, a decrease in number of 138,176, and their value was $13,792,455.31, a decrease in amount of $2,549,382.55. The number of orders paid was 361,180, an increase over the preceding year of 60,263, and their value was $6,568,493.78, an increase of $1,285,118.08. From the foregoing statements it appears that the total issue of money orders and postal notes for the year amounted to $165,235,129.35. The number of letters and packages mailed during the year for special delivery was 3,436,970. The special-delivery stamps used upon these letters and packages amounted to $343,697. The messengers fees paid for their delivery amounted to $261,209.70, leaving a balance in favor of the Government of $82,487.30. The report shows most gratifying results in the way of economies worked out without affecting the efficiency of the postal service. These consist in the abrogation of steamship subsidy contracts, reletting of mail transportation contracts, and in the cost and amount of supplies used in the service, amounting in all to $16,619,047.42. This report also contains a valuable contribution to the history of the Universal Postal Union, an arrangement which amounts practically to the establishment of one postal system for the entire civilized world. Special attention is directed to this subject at this time in view of the fact that the next congress of the union will meet in Washington in 1897, and it is hoped that timely action will be taken in the direction of perfecting preparations for that event. The Postmaster-General renews the suggestion made in a previous report that the Department organization be increased to the extent of creating a direct district supervision of all postal affairs, and in this suggestion I fully concur. There are now connected with the Post-Office establishment 32,661 employees who are in the classified service. This includes many who have been classified upon the suggestion of the Postmaster-General. He states that another year's experience at the head of the Department serves only to strengthen the conviction as to the excellent working of the civil-service law in this branch of the public service. Attention is called to the report of the Secretary of the Navy, which shows very gratifying progress in the construction of ships for our new Navy. All the vessels now building, including the three torpedo boats authorized at the last session of Congress and excepting the first-class battle ship Iowa, will probably be completed during the coming fiscal year. The estimates for the increase of the Navy for the year ending June 30, 1896, are large, but they include practically the entire sum necessary to complete and equip all the new ships not now in commission, so that unless new ships are authorized the appropriations for the naval service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, should fall below the estimates for the coming year by at least $12,000,000. The Secretary presents with much earnestness a plea for the authorization of three additional battle ships and ten or twelve torpedo boats. While the unarmored vessels heretofore authorized, including those now nearing completion, will constitute a fleet which it is believed is sufficient for ordinary cruising purposes in time of peace, we have now completed and in process of construction but four first-class battle ships and but few torpedo boats. If we are to have a navy for warlike operations, offensive and defensive, we certainly ought to increase both the number of battle ships and torpedo boats. The manufacture of armor requires expensive plants and the aggregation of many skilled workmen. All the armor necessary to complete the vessels now building will be delivered before the 1st of June next. If no new contracts are given out, contractors must disband their workmen and their plants must lie idle. Battle ships authorized at this time would not be well under way until late in the coming fiscal year, and at least three years and a half from the date of the contract would be required for their completion. The Secretary states that not more than 15 per cent of the cost of such ships need be included in the appropriations for the coming year. I recommend that provision be made for the construction of additional battle ships and torpedo boats. The Secretary recommends the manufacture not only of a reserve supply of ordnance and ordnance material for ships of the Navy, but also a supply for the auxiliary fleet. Guns and their appurtenances should be provided and kept on hand for both these purposes. We have not to-day a single gun that could be put upon the ships Paris or New York of the International Navigation Company or any other ship of our reserve Navy. The manufacture of guns at the Washington Navy-Yard is proceeding satisfactorily, and none of our new ships will be required to wait for their guns or ordnance equipment. An important order has been issued by the Secretary of the Navy coordinating the duties of the several bureaus concerned in the construction of ships. This order, it is believed, will secure to a greater extent than has heretofore been possible the harmonious action of these several bureaus and make the attainment of the best results more certain. During the past fiscal year there has been an unusual and pressing demand in many quarters of the world for the presence of vessels to guard American interests. In January last, during the Brazilian insurrection, a large fleet was concentrated in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. The vigorous action of Rear-Admiral Benham in protecting the personal and commercial rights of our citizens during the disturbed conditions afforded results which will, it is believed, have a far-reaching and wholesome influence whenever in like circumstances it may become necessary for our naval commanders to interfere on behalf of our people in foreign ports. The war now in progress between China and Japan has rendered it necessary or expedient to dispatch eight vessels to those waters. Both the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Treasury recommend the transfer of the work of the Coast Survey proper to the Navy Department. I heartily concur in this recommendation. Excluding Alaska and a very small area besides, all the work of mapping and charting our coasts has been completed. The hydrographic work, which must be done over and over again by reason of the shifting and varying depths of water consequent upon the action of streams and tides, has heretofore been done under the direction of naval officers in subordination to the Superintendent of the Coast Survey. There seems to be no good reason why the Navy should not have entire charge hereafter of such work, especially as the Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department is now and has been for many years engaged in making efficient maps entirely similar to those prepared by the Coast Survey. I feel it my imperative duty to call attention to the recommendation of the Secretary in regard to the personnel of the line of the Navy. The stagnation of promotion in this the vital branch of the service is so great as to seriously impair its efficiency. I consider it of the utmost importance that the young and middle-aged officers should before the eve of retirement be permitted to reach a grade entitling them to active and important duty. The system adopted a few years ago regulating the employment of labor at the navy-yards is rigidly upheld and has fully demonstrated its usefulness and expediency. It is within the domain of civil-service reform inasmuch as workmen are employed through a board of labor selected at each navy-yard and are given work without reference to politics and in the order of their application, preference, however, being given to Army and Navy veterans and those having former navy-yard experience. Amendments suggested by experience have been made to the rules regulating the system. Through its operation the work at our navy-yards has been vastly improved in efficiency and the opportunity to work has been honestly and fairly awarded to willing and competent applicants. It is hoped that if this system continues to be strictly adhered to there will soon be as a natural consequence such an equalization of party benefit as will remove all temptation to relax or abandon it. The report of the Secretary of the Interior exhibits the situation of the numerous and interesting branches of the public service connected with his Department. I commend this report and the valuable recommendations of the Secretary to the careful attention of the Congress. The public land disposed of during the year amounted to 10,406,100.77 acres, including 28,876.05 of Indian lands. It is estimated that the public domain still remaining amounts to a little more than 600,000,000 acres, including, however, about 360,000,000 acres in Alaska, as well as military reservations and railroad and other selections of lands yet unadjudicated. The total cash receipts from sale of lands amounted to $2,674,285.79, including $91,981.03 received for Indian lands. Thirty-five thousand patents were issued for agricultural lands, and 3,100 patents were issued to Indians on allotments of their holdings in severalty, the land so allotted being inalienable by the Indian allottees for a period of twenty-five years after patent. There were certified and patented on account of railroad and wagon-road grants during the year 865,556.45 acres of land, and at the close of the year 29,000,000 acres were embraced in the lists of selections made by railroad and wagon-road companies and awaited settlement. The selections of swamp lands and that taken as indemnity therefor since the passage of the act providing for the same in 1849 amount to nearly or quite 80,500,000 acres, of which 58,000,000 have been patented to States. About 138,000 acres were patented during the last year. Nearly 820,000 acres of school and education grants were approved during the year, and at its close 1,250,363.81 acres remained unadjusted. It appears that the appropriation for the current year on account of special service for the protection of the public lands and the timber thereon is much less than those for previous years, and inadequate for an efficient performance of the work. A larger sum of money than has been appropriated during a number of years past on this account has been returned to the Government as a result of the labors of those employed in the particular service mentioned, and I hope it will not be crippled by insufficient appropriation. I fully indorse the recommendation of the Secretary that adequate protection be provided for our forest reserves and that a comprehensive forestry system be inaugurated. Such keepers and superintendents as are necessary to protect the forests already reserved should be provided. I am of the opinion that there should be an abandonment of the policy sanctioned by present laws under which the Government, for a very small consideration, is rapidly losing title to immense tracts of land covered with timber, which should be properly reserved as permanent sources of timber supply. The suggestion that a change be made in the manner of securing surveys of the public lands is especially worthy of consideration. I am satisfied that these surveys should be made by a corps of competent surveyors under the immediate control and direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. An exceedingly important recommendation of the Secretary relates to the manner in which contests and litigated cases growing out of efforts to obtain Government land are determined. The entire testimony upon which these controversies depend in all their stages is taken before the local registers and receivers, and yet these officers have no power to subpoena witnesses or to enforce their attendance to testify. These cases, numbering three or four thousand annually, are sent by the local officers to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for his action. The exigencies of his other duties oblige him to act upon the decisions of the registers and receivers without an opportunity of thorough personal examination. Nearly 2,000 of these cases are appealed annually from the Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior. Burdened with other important administrative duties, his determination of these appeals must be almost perfunctory and based upon the examination of others, though this determination of the Secretary operates as a final adjudication upon rights of very great importance. I concur in the opinion that the Commissioner of the General Land Office should be relieved from the duty of deciding litigated land cases, that a nonpartisan court should be created to pass on such cases, and that the decisions of this court should be final, at least so far as the decisions of the Department are now final. The proposed court might be given authority to certify questions of law in matters of especial importance to the Supreme Court of the United States or the court of appeals for the District of Columbia for decision. The creation of such a tribunal would expedite the disposal of cases and insure decisions of a more satisfactory character. The registers and receivers who originally hear and decide these disputes should be invested with authority to compel witnesses to attend and testify before them. Though the condition of the Indians shows a steady and healthy progress, their situation is not satisfactory at all points. Some of them to whom allotments of land have been made are found to be unable or disinclined to follow agricultural pursuits or to otherwise beneficially manage their land. This is especially true of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who, as it appears by reports of their agent, have in many instances never been located upon their allotments, and in some cases do not even know where their allotments are. Their condition has deteriorated. They are not self-supporting and they live in camps and spend their time in idleness. I have always believed that allotments of reservation lands to Indians in severalty should be made sparingly, or at least slowly, and with the utmost caution. In these days, when white agriculturists and stock raisers of experience and intelligence find their lot a hard one, we ought not to expect Indians, unless far advanced in civilization and habits of industry, to support themselves on the small tracts of land usually allotted to them. If the self-supporting scheme by allotment fails, the wretched pauperism of the allottees which results is worse than their original condition of regulated dependence. It is evident that the evil consequences of ill-advised allotment are intensified in cases where the false step can not be retraced on account of the purchase by the Government of reservation lands remaining after allotments are made and the disposition of such remaining lands to settlers or purchasers from the Government. I am convinced that the proper solution of the Indian problem and the success of every step taken in that direction depend to a very large extent upon the intelligence and honesty of the reservation agents and the interest they have in their work. An agent fitted for his place can do much toward preparing the Indians under his charge for citizenship and allotment of their lands, and his advice as to any matter concerning their welfare will not mislead. An unfit agent will make no effort to advance the Indians on his reservation toward civilization or preparation for allotment of lands in severalty, and his opinion as to their condition in this and other regards is heedless and valueless. The indications are that the detail of army officers as Indian agents will result in improved management on the reservations. Whenever allotments are made and any Indian on the reservation has previously settled upon a lot and cultivated it or shown a disposition to improve it in any way, such lot should certainly be allotted to him, and this should be made plainly obligatory by statute. In the light of experience and considering the uncertainty of the Indian situation and its exigencies in the future, I am not only disposed to be very cautious in making allotments, but I incline to agree with the Secretary of the Interior in the opinion that when allotments are made the balance of reservation land remaining after allotment, instead of being bought by the Government from the Indians and opened for settlement with such scandals and unfair practices as seem unavoidable, should remain for a time at least as common land or be sold by the Government on behalf of the Indians in an orderly way and at fixed prices, to be determined by its location and desirability, and that the proceeds, less expenses, should be held in trust for the benefit of the Indian proprietors. The intelligent Indian-school management of the past year has been followed by gratifying results. Efforts have been made to advance the work in a sound and practical manner. Five institutes of Indian teachers have been held during the year, and have proved very beneficial through the views exchanged and methods discussed particularly applicable to Indian education. Efforts are being made in the direction of a gradual reduction of the number of Indian contract schools, so that in a comparatively short time they may give way altogether to Government schools, and it is hoped that the change may be so gradual as to be perfected without too great expense to the Government or undue disregard of investments made by those who have established and are maintaining such contract schools. The appropriation for the current year, ending June 30, 1895, applicable to the ordinary expenses of the Indian service amounts to $6,733,003.18, being less by $663,240.64 than the sum appropriated on the same account for the previous year. At the close of the last fiscal year, on the 30th day of June, 1894, there were 969,544 persons on our pension rolls, being a net increase of 3,532 over the number reported at the end of the previous year. These pensioners may be classified as follows: Soldiers and sailors survivors of all wars, 753,968; widows and relatives of deceased soldiers, 215,162; army nurses in the War of the Rebellion, 414. Of these pensioners 32,039 are surviving soldiers of Indian and other wars prior to the late Civil War and the widows or relatives of such soldiers. The remainder, numbering 937,505, are receiving pensions on account of the rebellion, and of these 469,344 are on the rolls under the authority of the act of June 27, 1890, sometimes called the dependent-pension law. The total amount expended for pensions during the year was $139,804,461.05, leaving an unexpended balance from the sum appropriated of $25,205,712.65. The sum necessary to meet pension expenditures for the year ending June 30, 1896, is estimated at $140,000,000. The Commissioner of Pensions is of the opinion that the year 1895, being the thirtieth after the close of the War of the Rebellion, must, according to all sensible human calculation, see the highest limit of the pension roll, and that after that year it must begin to decline. The claims pending in the Bureau have decreased more than 90,000 during the year. A large proportion of the new claims filed are for increase of pension by those now on the rolls. The number of certificates issued was 80,213. The names dropped from the rolls for all causes during the year numbered 37,951. Among our pensioners are 9 widows and 3 daughters of soldiers of the Revolution and 45 survivors of the War of 1812. The barefaced and extensive pension frauds exposed under the direction of the courageous and generous veteran soldier now at the head of the Bureau leave no room for the claim that no purgation of our pension rolls was needed or that continued vigilance and prompt action are not necessary to the same end. The accusation that an effort to detect pension frauds is evidence of unfriendliness toward our worthy veterans and a denial of their claims to the generosity of the Government suggests an unfortunate indifference to the commission of any offense which has for its motive the securing of a pension and indicates a willingness to be blind to the existence of mean and treacherous crimes which play upon demagogic fears and make sport of the patriotic impulse of a grateful people. The completion of the Eleventh Census is now in charge of the Commissioner of Labor. The total disbursements on account of the work for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, amounted to $10,365,676.81. At the close of the year the number of persons employed in the Census Office was 679; at present there are about 400. The whole number of volumes necessary to comprehend the Eleventh Census will be 25, and they will contain 22,270 printed pages. The assurance is confidently made that before the close of the present calendar year the material still incomplete will be practically in hand, and the census can certainly be closed by the 4th of March, 1895. After that the revision and proof reading necessary to bring out the volumes will still be required. The text of the census volumes has been limited as far as possible to the analysis of the statistics presented. This method, which is in accordance with law, has caused more or less friction and in some instances individual disappointment, for when the Commissioner of Labor took charge of the work he found much matter on hand which according to this rule he was compelled to discard. The census is being prepared according to the theory that it is designed to collect facts and certify them to the public, not to elaborate arguments or to present personal views. The Secretary of Agriculture in his report reviews the operations of his Department for the last fiscal year and makes recommendations for the further extension of its usefulness. He reports a saving in expenditures during the year of $600,000, which is covered back into the Treasury. This sum is 23 per cent of the entire appropriation. A special study has been made of the demand for American farm products in all foreign markets, especially Great Britain, That country received from the United States during the nine months ending September 30, 1894, 305,910 live beef cattle, valued at $26,500,000, as against 182,611 cattle, valued at $16,634,000, during the same period for 1893. During the first six months of 1894 the United Kingdom took also 112,000,000 pounds of dressed beef from the United States, valued at nearly $10,000,000. The report shows that during the nine months immediately preceding September 30, 1894, the United States exported to Great Britain 222,676,000 pounds of pork; of apples, 1,900,000 bushels, valued at $2,500,000, and of horses 2,811, at an average value of $139 per head. There was a falling off in American wheat exports of 13,500,000 bushels, and the Secretary is inclined to believe that wheat may not in the future be the staple export cereal product of our country, but that corn will continue to advance in importance as an export on account of the new uses to which it is constantly being appropriated. The exports of agricultural products from the United States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, amounted to $628,363,038, being 72.28 per cent of American exports of every description, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain took more than 54 per cent of all farm products finding foreign markets. The Department of Agriculture has undertaken during the year two new and important lines of research. The first relates to grasses and forage plants, with the purpose of instructing and familiarizing the people as to the distinctive grasses of the United States and teaching them how to introduce valuable foreign forage plants which may be adapted to this country. The second relates to agricultural soils and crop production, involving the analyses of samples of soils from all sections of the American Union, to demonstrate their adaptability to particular plants and crops. Mechanical analyses of soils may be of such inestimable utility that it is foremost in the new lines of agricultural research, and the Secretary therefore recommends that a division having it in charge be permanently established in the Department. The amount appropriated for the Weather Bureau was $951,100. Of that sum $138,500, or 14 per cent, has been saved and is returned to the Treasury. As illustrating the usefulness of this service it may be here stated that the warnings which were very generally given of two tropical storms occurring in September and October of the present year resulted in detaining safely in port 2,305 vessels, valued at $36,183,913, laden with cargoes of probably still greater value. What is much more important and gratifying, many human lives on these ships were also undoubtedly saved. The appropriation to the Bureau of Animal Industry was $850,000, and the expenditures for the year were only $495,429.24, thus leaving unexpended $354,570.76. The inspection of beef animals for export and interstate trade has been continued, and 12,944,056 head were inspected during the year, at a cost of 1 3/4 cents per head, against 4 3/4 cents for 1893. The amount of pork microscopically examined was 35,437,937 pounds, against 20,677,410 pounds in the preceding year. The cost of this inspection has been diminished from 8 3/4 cents per head in 1893 to 6 1/2 cents in 1894. The expense of inspecting the pork sold in 1894 to Germany and France by the United States was $88,922.10. The quantity inspected was greater by 15,000,000 pounds than during the preceding year, when the cost of such inspection was $172,367.08. The Secretary of Agriculture recommends that the law providing for the microscopic inspection of export and interstate meat be so amended as to compel owners of the meat inspected to pay the cost of such inspection, and I call attention to the arguments presented in his report in support of this recommendation. The live beef cattle exported and tagged during the year numbered 353,535. This is an increase of 69,533 head over the previous year. The sanitary inspection of cattle shipped to Europe has cost an average of 10 3/4 cents for each animal, and the cost of inspecting Southern cattle and the disinfection of cars and stock yards averages 2.7 cents per animal. The scientific inquiries of the Bureau of Animal Industry have progressed steadily during the year. Much tuberculin and mallein have been furnished to State authorities for use in the agricultural colleges and experiment stations for the treatment of tuberculosis and glanders. Quite recently this Department has published the results of its investigations of bovine tuberculosis, and its researches will be vigorously continued. Certain herds in the District of Columbia will be thoroughly inspected and will probably supply adequate scope for the Department to intelligently prosecute its scientific work and furnish sufficient material for purposes of illustration, description, and definition. The sterilization of milk suspected of containing the bacilli of tuberculosis has been during the year very thoroughly explained in a leaflet by Dr. D. E. Salmon, the Chief of the Bureau, and given general circulation throughout the country. The Office of Experiment Stations, which is a part of the United States Department of Agriculture, has during the past year engaged itself almost wholly in preparing for publication works based upon the reports of agricultural experiment stations and other institutions for agricultural inquiry in the United States and foreign countries. The Secretary in his report for 1893 called attention to the fact that the appropriations made for the support of the experiment stations throughout the Union were the only moneys taken out of the National Treasury by act of Congress for which no accounting to Federal authorities was required. Responding to this suggestion, the Fifty-third Congress, in making the appropriation for the Department for the present fiscal year, provided that-- 
  The Secretary of Agriculture shall prescribe the form of annual financial statement required by section 3 of said act of March 2, 1887; shall ascertain whether the expenditures under the appropriation hereby made are in accordance with the provisions of said act, and shall make report thereon to Congress.
 In obedience to this law the Department of Agriculture immediately sent out blank forms of expense accounts to each station, and proposes in addition to make, through trusted experts, systematic examination of the several stations during each year for the purpose of acquiring by personal investigation the detailed information necessary to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to make, as the statute provides, a satisfactory report to Congress. The boards of management of the several stations with great alacrity and cordiality have approved the amendment to the law providing this supervision of their expenditures, anticipating that it will increase the efficiency of the stations and protect their directors and managers from loose charges concerning their use of public funds, besides bringing the Department of Agriculture into closer and more confidential relations with the experimental stations, and through their joint service largely increasing their usefulness to the agriculture of the country. Acting upon a recommendation contained in the report of 1893, Congress appropriated $10,000 "to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate and report upon the nutritive value of the various articles and commodities used for human food, with special suggestions of full, wholesome, and edible rations less wasteful and more economical than those in common use." Under this appropriation the Department has prepared and now has nearly ready for distribution an elementary discussion of the nutritive value and pecuniary economy of food. When we consider that fully one-half of all the money earned by the wage earners of the civilized world is expended by them for food, the importance and utility of such an investigation is apparent. The Department expended in the fiscal year 1893 $2,354,809.56, and out of that sum the total amount expended in scientific research was 45.6 per cent. But in the year ending June 30, 1894, out of a total expenditure of $1,948,988.38, the Department applied 51.8 per cent of that sum to scientific work and investigation. It is therefore very plainly observable that the economies which have been practiced in the administration of the Department have not been at the expense of scientific research. The recommendation contained in the report of the Secretary for 1893 that the vicious system of promiscuous free distribution of its departmental documents be abandoned is again urged. These publications may well be furnished without cost to public libraries, educational institutions, and the officers and libraries of States and of the Federal Government; but from all individuals applying for them a price covering the cost of the document asked for should be required. Thus the publications and documents would be secured by those who really desire them for proper purposes. Half a million of copies of the report of the Secretary of Agriculture are printed for distribution, at an annual cost of about $300,000. Large numbers of them are cumbering storerooms at the Capitol and the shelves of secondhand-book stores throughout the country. All this labor and waste might be avoided if the recommendations of the Secretary were adopted. The Secretary also again recommends that the gratuitous distribution of seeds cease and that no money be appropriated for that purpose except to experiment stations. He reiterates the reasons given in his report for 1893 for discontinuing this unjustifiable gratuity, and I fully concur in the conclusions which he has reached. The best service of the statistician of the Department of Agriculture is the ascertainment, by diligence and care, of the actual and real conditions, favorable or unfavorable, of the farmers and farms of the country, and to seek the causes which produce these conditions, to the end that the facts ascertained may guide their intelligent treatment. A further important utility in agricultural statistics is found in their elucidation of the relation of the supply of farm products to the demand for them in the markets of the United States and of the world. It is deemed possible that an agricultural census may be taken each year through the agents of the statistical division of the Department. Such a course is commended for trial by the chief of that division. Its scope would be: 
(1) The area under each of the more important crops. 
(2) The aggregate products of each of such crops. 
(3) The quantity of wheat and corn in the hands of farmers at a date after the spring sowings and plantings and before the beginning of harvest, and also the quantity of cotton and tobacco remaining in the hands of planters, either at the same date or at some other designated time. The cost of the work is estimated at $500,000. Owing to the peculiar quality of the statistician's work and the natural and acquired fitness necessary to its successful prosecution, the Secretary of Agriculture expresses the opinion that every person employed in gathering statistics under the chief of that division should be admitted to that service only after a thorough, exhaustive, and successful examination at the hands of the United States Civil Service Commission. This has led him to call for such examination of candidates for the position of assistant statisticians, and also of candidates for chiefs of sections in that division. The work done by the Department of Agriculture is very superficially dealt with in this communication, and I commend the report of the Secretary and the very important interests with which it deals to the careful attention of the Congress. The advantages to the public service of an adherence to the principles of civil-service reform are constantly more apparent, and nothing is so encouraging to those in official life who honestly desire good government as the increasing appreciation by our people of these advantages. A vast majority of the voters of the land are ready to insist that the time and attention of those they select to perform for them important public duties should not be distracted by doling out minor offices, and they are growing to be unanimous in regarding party organization as something that should be used in establishing party principles instead of dictating the distribution of public places as rewards of partisan activity. Numerous additional offices and places have lately been brought within civil-service rules and regulations, and some others will probably soon be included. The report of the Commissioners will be submitted to the Congress, and I invite careful attention to the recommendations it contains. I am entirely convinced that we ought not to be longer without a national board of health or national health officer charged with no other duties than such as pertain to the protection of our country from the invasion of pestilence and disease. This would involve the establishment by such board or officer of proper quarantine precautions, or the necessary aid and counsel to local authorities on the subject; prompt advice and assistance to local boards of health or health officers in the suppression of contagious disease, and in cases where there are no such local boards or officers the immediate direction by the national board or officer of measures of suppression; constant and authentic information concerning the health of foreign countries and all parts of our own country as related to contagious diseases, and consideration of regulations to be enforced in foreign ports to prevent the introduction of contagion into our cities and the measures which should be adopted to secure their enforcement. There seems to be at this time a decided inclination to discuss measures of protection against contagious diseases in international conference, with a view of adopting means of mutual assistance. The creation of such a national health establishment would greatly aid our standing in such conferences and improve our opportunities to avail ourselves of their benefits. I earnestly recommend the inauguration of a national board of health or similar national instrumentality, believing the same to be a needed precaution against contagious disease and in the interest of the safety and health of our people. By virtue of a statute of the United States passed in 1888 I appointed in July last Hon. John D. Kernan, of the State of New York, and Hon. Nicholas E. Worthington, of the State of Illinois, to form, with Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor, who was designated by said statute, a commission for the purpose of making careful inquiry into the causes of the controversies between certain railroads and their employees which had resulted in an extensive and destructive strike, accompanied by much violence and dangerous disturbance, with considerable loss of life and great destruction of property. The report of the commissioners has been submitted to me and will be transmitted to the Congress with the evidence taken upon their investigation. Their work has been well done, and their standing and intelligence give assurance that the report and suggestions they make are worthy of careful consideration. The tariff act passed at the last session of the Congress needs important amendments if it is to be executed effectively and with certainty. In addition to such necessary amendments as will not change rates of duty, I am still very decidedly in favor of putting coal and iron upon the free list. So far as the sugar schedule is concerned, I would be glad, under existing aggravations, to see every particle of differential duty in favor of refined sugar stricken out of our tariff law. If with all the favor now accorded the sugar-refining interest in our tariff laws it still languishes to the extent of closed refineries and thousands of discharged workmen, it would seem to present a hopeless case for reasonable legislative aid. Whatever else is done or omitted, I earnestly repeat here the recommendation I have made in another portion of this communication, that the additional duty of one-tenth of a cent per pound laid upon sugar imported from countries paying a bounty on its export be abrogated. It seems to me that exceedingly important considerations point to the propriety of this amendment. With the advent of a new tariff policy not only calculated to relieve the consumers of our land in the cost of their daily life, but to invite a better development of American thrift and create for us closer and more profitable commercial relations with the rest of the world, it follows as a logical and imperative necessity that we should at once remove the chief if not the only obstacle which has so long prevented our participation in the foreign carrying trade of the sea. A tariff built upon the theory that it is well to check imports and that a home market should bound the industry and effort of American producers was fitly supplemented by a refusal to allow American registry to vessels built abroad, though owned and navigated by our people, thus exhibiting a willingness to abandon all contest for the advantages of American transoceanic carriage. Our new tariff policy, built upon the theory that it is well to encourage such importations as our people need, and that our products and manufactures should find markets in every part of the habitable globe, is consistently supplemented by the greatest possible liberty to our citizens in the ownership and navigation of ships in which our products and manufactures may be transported. The millions now paid to foreigners for carrying American passengers and products across the sea should be turned into American hands. Shipbuilding, which has been protected to strangulation, should be revived by the prospect of profitable employment for ships when built, and the American sailor should be resurrected and again take his place--a sturdy and industrious citizen in time of peace and a patriotic and safe defender of American interests in the day of conflict. The ancient provision of our law denying American registry to ships built abroad and owned by Americans appears in the light of present conditions not only to be a failure for good at every point, but to be nearer a relic of barbarism than anything that exists under the permission of a statute of the United States. I earnestly recommend its prompt repeal. During the last month the gold reserved in the Treasury for the purpose of redeeming the notes of the Government circulating as money in the hands of the people became so reduced and its further depletion in the near future seemed so certain that in the exercise of proper care for the public welfare it became necessary to replenish this reserve and thus maintain popular faith in the ability and determination of the Government to meet as agreed its pecuniary obligations. It would have been well if in this emergency authority had existed to issue the bonds of the Government bearing a low rate of interest and maturing within a short period; but the Congress having failed to confer such authority, resort was necessarily had to the resumption act of 1875, and pursuant to its provisions bonds were issued drawing interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum and maturing ten years after their issue, that being the shortest time authorized by the act. I am glad to say, however, that on the sale of these bonds the premium received operated to reduce the rate of interest to be paid by the Government to less than 3 per cent. Nothing could be worse or further removed from sensible finance than the relations existing between the currency the Government has issued, the gold held for its redemption, and the means which must be resorted to for the purpose of replenishing such redemption fund when impaired. Even if the claims upon this fund were confined to the obligations originally intended and if the redemption of these obligations meant their cancellation, the fund would be very small. But these obligations when received and redeemed in gold are not canceled, but are reissued and may do duty many times by way of drawing gold from the Treasury. Thus we have an endless chain in operation constantly depleting the Treasury's gold and never near a final rest. As if this was not bad enough, we have, by a statutory declaration that it is the policy of the Government to maintain the parity between gold and silver, aided the force and momentum of this exhausting process and added largely to the currency obligations claiming this peculiar gold redemption. Our small gold reserve is thus subject to drain from every side. The demands that increase our danger also increase the necessity of protecting this reserve against depletion, and it is most unsatisfactory to know that the protection afforded is only a temporary palliation. It is perfectly and palpably plain that the only way under present conditions by which this reserve when dangerously depleted can be replenished is through the issue and sale of the bonds of the Government for gold, and yet Congress has not only thus far declined to authorize the issue of bonds best suited to such a purpose, but there seems a disposition in some quarters to deny both the necessity and power for the issue of bonds at all. I can not for a moment believe that any of our citizens are deliberately willing that their Government should default in its pecuniary obligations or that its financial operations should be reduced to a silver basis. At any rate, I should not feel that my duty was done if I omitted any effort I could make to avert such a calamity. As long, therefore, as no provision is made for the final redemption or the putting aside of the currency obligation now used to repeatedly and constantly draw from the Government its gold, and as long as no better authority for bond issues is allowed than at present exists, such authority will be utilized whenever and as often as it becomes necessary to maintain a sufficient gold reserve, and in abundant time to save the credit of our country and make good the financial declarations of our Government. Questions relating to our banks and currency are closely connected with the subject just referred to, and they also present some unsatisfactory features. Prominent among them are the lack of elasticity in our currency circulation and its frequent concentration in financial centers when it is most needed in other parts of the country. The absolute divorcement of the Government from the business of banking is the ideal relationship of the Government to the circulation of the currency of the country. This condition can not be immediately reached, but as a step in that direction and as a means of securing a more elastic currency and obviating other objections to the present arrangement of bank circulation the Secretary of the Treasury presents in his report a scheme modifying present banking laws and providing for the issue of circulating notes by State banks free from taxation under certain limitations. The Secretary explains his plan so plainly and its advantages are developed by him with such remarkable clearness that any effort on my part to present argument in its support would be superfluous. I shall therefore content myself with an unqualified indorsement of the Secretary's proposed changes in the law and a brief and imperfect statement of their prominent features. 
It is proposed to repeal all laws providing for the deposit of United States bonds as security for circulation; to permit national banks to issue circulating notes not exceeding in amount 75 per cent of their paid-up and unimpaired capital, provided they deposit with the Government as a guaranty fund, in United States legal-tender notes, including Treasury notes of 1890, a sum equal in amount to 30 per cent of the notes they desire to issue, this deposit to be maintained at all times, but whenever any bank retires any part of its circulation a proportional part of its guaranty fund shall be returned to it; to permit the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and keep on hand ready for issue in case an increase in circulation is desired blank national-bank notes for each bank having circulation and to repeal the provisions of the present law imposing limitations and restrictions upon banks desiring to reduce or increase their circulation, thus permitting such increase or reduction within the limit of 75 per cent of capital to be quickly made as emergencies arise. In addition to the guaranty fund required, it is proposed to provide a safety fund for the immediate redemption of the circulating notes of failed banks by imposing a small annual tax, say one-half of 1 per cent, upon the average circulation of each bank until the fund amounts to 5 per cent of the total circulation outstanding. When a bank fails its guaranty fund is to be paid into this safety fund and its notes are to be redeemed in the first instance from such safety fund thus augmented, any impairment of such fund caused thereby to be made good from the immediately available cash assets of said bank, and if these should be insufficient such impairment to be made good by pro rata assessment among the other banks, their contributions constituting a first lien upon the assets of the failed bank in favor of the contributing banks. As a further security it is contemplated that the existing provision fixing the individual liability of stockholders is to be retained and the bank's indebtedness on account of its circulating notes is to be made a first lien on all its assets. For the purpose of meeting the expense of printing notes, official supervision, cancellation, and other like charges there shall be imposed a tax of say one-half of 1 per cent per annum upon the average amount of notes in circulation. It is further provided that there shall be no national-bank notes issued of a less denomination than $10; that each national bank, except in case of a failed bank, shall redeem or retire its notes in the first instance at its own office or at agencies to be designated by it, and that no fixed reserve need be maintained on account of deposits. Another very important feature of this plan is the exemption of State banks from taxation by the United States in cases where it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury and Comptroller of the Currency by banks claiming such exemption that they have not had outstanding their circulating notes exceeding 75 per cent of their paid-up and unimpaired capital; that their stockholders are individually liable for the redemption of their circulating notes to the full extent of their ownership of stock; that the liability of said banks upon their circulating notes constitutes under their State law a first lien upon their assets; that such banks have kept and maintained a guaranty fund in United States legal-tender notes, including Treasury notes of 1890, equal to 30 per cent of their outstanding circulating notes, and that such banks have promptly redeemed their circulating notes when presented at their principal or branch offices. It is quite likely that this scheme may be usefully amended in some of its details, but I am satisfied it furnishes a basis for a very great improvement in our present banking and currency system. I conclude this communication fully appreciating that the responsibility for all legislation affecting the people of the United States rests upon their representatives in the Congress, and assuring them that, whether in accordance with recommendations I have made or not, I shall be glad to cooperate in perfecting any legislation that tends to the prosperity and welfare of our country.
The assemblage within the nation's legislative halls of those charged with the duty of making laws for the benefit of a generous and free people impressively suggests the exacting obligation and inexorable responsibility involved in their task. At the threshold of such labor now to be undertaken by the Congress of the United States, and in the discharge of an executive duty enjoined by the Constitution, I submit this communication, containing a brief statement of the condition of our national affairs and recommending such legislation as seems to me necessary and expedient. The history of our recent dealings with other nations and our peaceful relations with them at this time additionally demonstrate the advantage of consistently adhering to a firm but just foreign policy, free from envious or ambitious national schemes and characterized by entire honesty and sincerity. During the past year, pursuant to a law of Congress, commissioners were appointed to the Antwerp Industrial Exposition. Though the participation of American exhibitors fell far short of completely illustrating our national ingenuity and industrial achievements, yet it was quite creditable in view of the brief time allowed for preparation. I have endeavored to impress upon the Belgian Government the heedlessness and positive harmfulness of its restrictions upon the importation of certain of our food products, and have strongly urged that the rigid supervision and inspection under our laws are amply sufficient to prevent the exportation from this country of diseased cattle and unwholesome meat. The termination of the civil war in Brazil has been followed by the general prevalence of peace and order. It appearing at an early stage of the insurrection that its course would call for unusual watchfulness on the part of this Government, our naval force in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro was strengthened. This precaution, I am satisfied, tended to restrict the issue to a simple trial of strength between the Brazilian Government and the insurgents and to avert complications which at times seemed imminent. Our firm attitude of neutrality was maintained to the end. The insurgents received no encouragement of eventual asylum from our commanders, and such opposition as they encountered was for the protection of our commerce and was clearly justified by public law. A serious tension of relations having arisen at the close of the war between Brazil and Portugal by reason of the escape of the insurgent admiral Da Gama and his followers, the friendly offices of our representatives to those countries were exerted for the protection of the subjects of either within the territory of the other. Although the Government of Brazil was duly notified that the commercial arrangement existing between the United States and that country based on the third section of the tariff act of 1890 was abrogated on August 28, 1894, by the taking effect of the tariff law now in force, that Government subsequently notified us of its intention to terminate such arrangement on the 1st day of January, 1895, in the exercise of the right reserved in the agreement between the two countries. I invite attention to the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Brazilian minister on this subject. The commission organized under the convention which we had entered into with Chile for the settlement of the outstanding claims of each Government against the other adjourned at the end of the period stipulated for its continuance leaving undetermined a number of American cases which had been duly presented. These claims are not barred, and negotiations are in progress for their submission to a new tribunal. On the 17th of March last a new treaty with China in further regulation of emigration was signed at Washington, and on August 13 it received the sanction of the Senate. Ratification on the part of China and formal exchange are awaited to give effect to this mutually beneficial convention. A gratifying recognition of the uniform impartiality of this country toward all foreign states was manifested by the coincident request of the Chinese and Japanese Governments that the agents of the United States should within proper limits afford protection to the subjects of the other during the suspension of diplomatic relations due to a state of war. This delicate office was accepted, and a misapprehension which gave rise to the belief that in affording this kindly unofficial protection our agents would exercise the same authority which the withdrawn agents of the belligerents had exercised was promptly corrected. Although the war between China and Japan endangers no policy of the United States, it deserves our gravest consideration by reason of its disturbance of our growing commercial interests in the two countries and the increased dangers which may result to our citizens domiciled or sojourning in the interior of China. Acting under a stipulation in our treaty with Korea (the first concluded with a western power), I felt constrained at the beginning of the controversy to tender our good offices to induce an amicable arrangement of the initial difficulty growing out of the Japanese demands for administrative reforms in Korea, but the unhappy precipitation of actual hostilities defeated this kindly purpose. Deploring the destructive war between the two most powerful of the eastern nations and anxious that our commercial interests in those countries may be preserved and that the safety of our citizens there shall not be jeopardized, I would not hesitate to heed any intimation that our friendly aid for the honorable termination of hostilities would be acceptable to both belligerents. A convention has been finally concluded for the settlement by arbitration of the prolonged dispute with Ecuador growing out of the proceedings against Emilio Santos, a naturalized citizen of the United States. Our relations with the Republic of France continue to be such as should exist between nations so long bound together by friendly sympathy and similarity in their form of government. The recent cruel assassination of the President of this sister Republic called forth such universal expressions of sorrow and condolence from our people and Government as to leave no doubt of the depth and sincerity of our attachment. The resolutions passed by the Senate and House of Representatives on the occasion have been communicated to the widow of President Carnot. Acting upon the reported discovery of Texas fever in cargoes of American cattle, the German prohibition against importations of live stock and fresh meats from this country has been revived. It is hoped that Germany will soon become convinced that the inhibition is as needless as it is harmful to mutual interests. The German Government has protested against that provision of the customs tariff act which imposes a discriminating duty of one-tenth of 1 cent a pound on sugars coming from countries paying an export bounty thereon, claiming that the exaction of such duty is in contravention of Articles V and IX of the treaty of 1828 with Prussia. In the interests of the commerce of both countries and to avoid even the accusation of treaty violation, I recommend the repeal of so much of the statute as imposes that duty, and I invite attention to the accompanying report of the Secretary of State, containing a discussion of the questions raised by the German protests. Early in the present year an agreement was reached with Great Britain concerning instructions to be given to the naval commanders of the two Governments in Bering Sea and the contiguous North Pacific Ocean for their guidance in the execution of the award of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration and the enforcement of the regulations therein prescribed for the protection of seal life in the waters mentioned. An understanding has also been reached for the payment by the United States of $425,000 in full satisfaction of all claims which may be made by Great Britain for damages growing out of the controversy as to fur seals in Bering Sea or the seizure of British vessels engaged in taking seal in those waters. The award and findings of the Paris Tribunal to a great extent determined the facts and principles upon which these claims should be adjusted, and they have been subjected by both Governments to a thorough examination upon the principles as well as the facts which they involve. I am convinced that a settlement upon the terms mentioned would be an equitable and advantageous one, and I recommend that provision be made for the prompt payment of the stated sum. Thus far only France and Portugal have signified their willingness to adhere to the regulations established under the award of the Paris Tribunal of Arbitration. Preliminary surveys of the Alaskan boundary and a preparatory examination of the question of protection of food fish in the contiguous waters of the United States and the Dominion of Canada are in progress. The boundary of British Guiana still remains in dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela. Believing that its early settlement on some just basis alike honorable to both parties is in the line of our established policy to remove from this hemisphere all causes of difference with powers beyond the sea, I shall renew the efforts heretofore made to bring about a restoration of diplomatic relations between the disputants and to induce a reference to arbitration--a resort which Great Britain so conspicuously favors in principle and respects in practice and which is earnestly sought by her weaker adversary. Since communicating the voluminous correspondence in regard to Hawaii and the action taken by the Senate and House of Representatives on certain questions submitted to the judgment and wider discretion of Congress the organization of a government in place of the provisional arrangement which followed the deposition of the Queen has been announced, with evidence of its effective operation. The recognition usual in such cases has been accorded the new Government. Under our present treaties of extradition with Italy miscarriages of justice have occurred owing to the refusal of that Government to surrender its own subjects. Thus far our efforts to negotiate an amended convention obviating this difficulty have been unavailing. Apart from the war in which the Island Empire is engaged, Japan attracts increasing attention in this country by her evident desire to cultivate more liberal intercourse with us and to seek our kindly aid in furtherance of her laudable desire for complete autonomy in her domestic affairs and full equality in the family of nations. The Japanese Empire of to-day is no longer the Japan of the past, and our relations with this progressive nation should not be less broad and liberal than those with other powers. Good will, fostered by many interests in common, has marked our relations with our nearest southern neighbor. Peace being restored along her northern frontier, Mexico has asked the punishment of the late disturbers of her tranquillity. There ought to be a new treaty of commerce and navigation with that country to take the place of the one which terminated thirteen years ago. The friendliness of the intercourse between the two countries is attested by the fact that during this long period the commerce of each has steadily increased under the rule of mutual consideration, being neither stimulated by conventional arrangements nor retarded by jealous rivalries or selfish distrust. An indemnity tendered by Mexico as a gracious act for the murder in 1887 of Leon Baldwin, an American citizen, by a band of marauders in Durango has been accepted and is being paid in installments. The problem of the storage and use of the waters of the Rio Grande for irrigation should be solved by appropriate concurrent action of the two interested countries. Rising in the Colorado heights, the stream flows intermittently, yielding little water during the dry months to the irrigation channels already constructed along its course. This scarcity is often severely felt in the regions where the river forms a common boundary. Moreover, the frequent changes in its course through level sands often raise embarrassing questions of territorial jurisdiction. Prominent among the questions of the year was the Bluefields incident, in what is known as the Mosquito Indian Strip, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean and within the jurisdiction of Nicaragua. By the treaty of 1860 between Great Britain and Nicaragua the former Government expressly recognized the sovereignty of the latter over the strip, and a limited form of self-government was guaranteed to the Mosquito Indians, to be exercised according to their customs, for themselves and other dwellers within its limits. The so-called native government, which grew to be largely made up of aliens, for many years disputed the sovereignty of Nicaragua over the strip and claimed the right to maintain therein a practically independent municipal government. Early in the past year efforts of Nicaragua to maintain sovereignty over the Mosquito territory led to serious disturbances, culminating in the suppression of the native government and the attempted substitution of an impracticable composite administration in which Nicaragua and alien residents were to participate. Failure was followed by an insurrection, which for a time subverted Nicaraguan rule, expelling her officers and restoring the old organization. This in turn gave place to the existing local government established and upheld by Nicaragua. Although the alien interests arrayed against Nicaragua in these transactions have been largely American and the commerce of that region for some time has been and still is chiefly controlled by our citizens, we can not for that reason challenge the rightful sovereignty of Nicaragua over this important part of her domain. For some months one, and during part of the time two, of our naval ships have been stationed at Bluefields for the protection of all legitimate interests of our citizens. In September last the Government at Managua expelled from its territory twelve or more foreigners, including two Americans, for alleged participation in the seditious or revolutionary movements against the Republic at Bluefields already mentioned; but through the earnest remonstrance of this Government the two Americans have been permitted to return to the peaceful management of their business. Our naval commanders at the scene of these disturbances by their constant exhibition of firmness and good judgment contributed largely to the prevention of more serious consequences and to the restoration of quiet and order. I regret that in the midst of these occurrences there happened a most grave and irritating failure of Nicaraguan justice. An American citizen named Wilson, residing at Rama, in the Mosquito territory, was murdered by one Arguello, the acting governor of the town. After some delay the murderer was arrested, but so insecurely confined or guarded that he escaped, and notwithstanding our repeated demands it is claimed that his recapture has been impossible by reason of his flight beyond Nicaraguan jurisdiction. The Nicaraguan authorities, having given notice of forfeiture of their concession to the canal company on grounds purely technical and not embraced in the contract, have receded from that position. Peru, I regret to say, shows symptoms of domestic disturbance, due probably to the slowness of her recuperation from the distresses of the war of 1881. Weakened in resources, her difficulties in facing international obligations invite our kindly sympathy and justify our forbearance in pressing long-pending claims. I have felt constrained to testify this sympathy in connection with certain demands urgently preferred by other powers. The recent death of the Czar of Russia called forth appropriate expressions of sorrow and sympathy on the part of our Government with his bereaved family and the Russian people. As a further demonstration of respect and friendship our minister at St. Petersburg was directed to represent our Government at the funeral ceremonies. The sealing interests of Russia in Bering Sea are second only to our own. A modus vivendi has therefore been concluded with the Imperial Government restrictive of poaching on the Russian rookeries and of sealing in waters which were not comprehended in the protected area defined in the Paris award. Occasion has been found to urge upon the Russian Government equality of treatment for our great life-insurance companies whose operations have been extended throughout Europe. Admitting as we do foreign corporations to transact business in the United States, we naturally expect no less tolerance for our own in the ample fields of competition abroad. But few cases of interference with naturalized citizens returning to Russia have been reported during the current year. One Krzeminski was arrested last summer in a Polish province on a reported charge of unpermitted renunciation of Russian allegiance, but it transpired that the proceedings originated in alleged malfeasance committed by Krzeminski while an imperial official a number of years ago. Efforts for his release, which promised to be successful, were in progress when his death was reported. The Government of Salvador having been overthrown by an abrupt popular outbreak, certain of its military and civil officers, while hotly pursued by infuriated insurgents, sought refuge on board the United States war ship Bennington, then lying in a Salvadorean port. Although the practice of asylum is not favored by this Government, yet in view of the imminent peril which threatened the fugitives and solely from considerations of humanity they were afforded shelter by our naval commander, and when afterwards demanded under our treaty of extradition with Salvador for trial on charges of murder, arson, and robbery I directed that such of them as had not voluntarily left the ship be conveyed to one of our nearest ports where a hearing could be had before a judicial officer, in compliance with the terms of the treaty. On their arrival at San Francisco such a proceeding was promptly instituted before the United States district judge, who held that the acts constituting the alleged offenses were political and discharged all the accused except one Cienfuegos, who was held for an attempt to murder. Thereupon I was constrained to direct his release for the reason that an attempt to murder was not one of the crimes charged against him and upon which his surrender to the Salvadorean authorities had been demanded. Unreasonable and unjust fines imposed by Spain on the vessels and commerce of the United States have demanded from time to time during the last twenty years earnest remonstrance on the part of our Government. In the immediate past exorbitant penalties have been imposed upon our vessels and goods by customs authorities of Cuba and Puerto Rico for clerical errors of the most trivial character in the manifests of bills of lading. In some cases fines amounting to thousands of dollars have been levied upon cargoes or the carrying vessels when the goods in question were entitled to free entry. Fines have been exacted even when the error had been detected and the Spanish authorities notified before the arrival of the goods in port. This conduct is in strange contrast with the considerate and liberal treatment extended to Spanish vessels and cargoes in our ports in like cases. No satisfactory settlement of these vexatious questions has yet been reached. The Mora case, referred to in my last annual message, remains unsettled. From the diplomatic correspondence on this subject which has been laid before the Senate it will be seen that this Government has offered to conclude a convention with Spain for disposal by arbitration of outstanding claims between the two countries, except the Mora claim. which, having been long ago adjusted, now only awaits payment as stipulated, and of course it could not be included in the proposed convention. It was hoped that this offer would remove parliamentary obstacles encountered by the Spanish Government in providing payment of the Mora indemnity. I regret to say that no definite reply to this offer has yet been made and all efforts to secure payment of this settled claim have been unavailing. In my last annual message I adverted to the claim on the part of Turkey of the right to expel as persons undesirable and dangerous Armenians naturalized in the United States and returning to Turkish jurisdiction. Numerous questions in this relation have arisen. While this Government acquiesces in the asserted right of expulsion, it will not consent that Armenians may be imprisoned or otherwise punished for no other reason than having acquired without imperial consent American citizenship. Three of the assailants of Miss Melton, an American teacher in Mosul, have been convicted by the Ottoman courts, and I am advised that an appeal against the acquittal of the remaining five has been taken by the Turkish prosecuting officer. A convention has been concluded with Venezuela for the arbitration of a long-disputed claim growing out of the seizure of certain vessels the property of citizens of the United States. Although signed, the treaty of extradition with Venezuela is not yet in force, owing to the insistence of that Government that when surrendered its citizens shall in no case be liable to capital punishment. The rules for the prevention of collisions at sea which were framed by the maritime conference held in this city in 1889, having been concurrently incorporated in the statutes of the United States and Great Britain have been announced to take effect March 1, 1895, and invitations have been extended to all maritime nations to adhere to them. Favorable responses have thus far been received from Austria, France, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. In my last annual message I referred briefly to the unsatisfactory state of affairs in Samoa under the operation of the Berlin treaty as signally illustrating the impolicy of entangling alliances with foreign powers, and on May 9, 1894, in response to a resolution of the Senate, I sent a Special message and documents to that body on the same subject, which emphasized my previously expressed opinions. Later occurrences, the correspondence in regard to which will be laid before the Congress, further demonstrate that the Government which was devised by the three powers and forced upon the Samoans against their inveterate hostility can be maintained only by the continued presence of foreign military force and at no small sacrifice of life and treasure. The suppression of the Mataafa insurrection by the powers and the subsequent banishment of the leader and eleven other chiefs, as recited in my last message, did not bring lasting peace to the islands. Formidable uprisings continued, and finally a rebellion broke out in the capital island, Upolu, headed in Aana, the western district, by the younger Tamasese, and in Atua, the eastern district, by other leaders. The insurgents ravaged the country and fought the Government's troops up to the very doors of Apia. The King again appealed to the powers for help, and the combined British and German naval forces reduced the Atuans to apparent subjection, not, however, without considerable loss to the natives. A few days later Tamasese and his adherents, fearing the ships and the marines, professed submission. Reports received from our agents at Apia do not justify the belief that the peace thus brought about will be of long duration. It is their conviction that the natives are at heart hostile to the present Government, that such of them as profess loyalty to it do so from fear of the powers, and that it would speedily go to pieces if the war ships were withdrawn. In reporting to his Government on the unsatisfactory situation since the suppression of the late revolt by foreign armed forces, the German consul at Apia stated: That peace will be lasting is hardly to be presumed. The lesson given by firing on Atua was not sufficiently sharp and incisive to leave a lasting impression on the forgetful Samoan temperament. In fact, conditions are existing which show that peace will not last and is not seriously intended. Malietoa, the King, and his chiefs are convinced that the departure of the war ships will be a signal for a renewal of war. The circumstance that the representatives of the villages of all the districts which were opposed to the Government have already withdrawn to Atua to hold meetings, and that both Atua and Aana have forbidden inhabitants of those districts which fought on the side of the Government to return to their villages, and have already partly burned down the latter, indicates that a real conciliation of the parties is still far off. And in a note of the 10th ultimo, inclosing a copy of that report for the information of this Government, the German ambassador said: The contents of the report awakened the imperial Government's apprehension that under existing circumstances the peace concluded with the rebels will afford no assurance of the lasting restoration of tranquillity in the islands. The present Government has utterly failed to correct, if indeed it has not aggravated, the very evils it was intended to prevent. It has not stimulated our commerce with the islands. Our participation in its establishment against the wishes of the natives was in plain defiance of the conservative teachings and warnings of the wise and patriotic men who laid the foundations of our free institutions, and I invite an expression of the judgment of Congress on the propriety of steps being taken by this Government looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with the other powers on some reasonable terms not prejudicial to any of our existing rights. The Secretary of the Treasury reports that the receipts of the Government from all sources of revenue during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, amounted to $372,802,498.29 and its expenditures to $442,605,758.87, leaving a deficit of $69,803,260.58. There was a decrease of $15,952,674.66 in the ordinary expense of the Government as compared with the fiscal year 1893. There was collected from customs $131,818,530.62 and from internal revenue $147,168,449.70. The balance of the income for the year, amounting to $93,815,517.97, was derived from the sales of lands and other sources. The value of our total dutiable imports amounted to $275,199,086, being $146,657,625 less than during the preceding year, and the importations free of duty amounted to $379,795,536, being $64,748,675 less than during the preceding year. The receipts from customs were $73,536,486.11 less and from internal revenue $13,836,539.97 less than in 1893. The total tax collected from distilled spirits was $85,259,250.25, on manufactured tobacco $28,617,898.62, and on fermented liquors $31,414,788.04. Our exports of merchandise, domestic and foreign, amounted during the year to $892,140,572, being an increase over the preceding year of $44,495,378. The total amount of gold exported during the fiscal year was $76,898,061, as against $108,680,444 during the fiscal year 1893. The amount imported was $72,449,119, as against $21,174,381 during the previous year. The imports of silver were $13,186,552 and the exports were $50,451,265. The total bounty paid upon the production of sugar in the United States for the fiscal year was $12,100,208.89, being an increase of $2,725,078.01 over the payments made during the preceding year. The amount of bounty paid from July 1, 1894, to August 28, 1894, the time when further payments ceased by operation of law, was $966,185.84. The total expenses incurred in the payment of the bounty upon sugar during the fiscal year was $130,140.85. It is estimated that upon the basis of the present revenue laws the receipts of the Government during the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 1895, will be $424,427,748.44 and its expenditures $444,427,748.44, resulting in a deficit of $20,000,000. On the 1st day of November, 1894, the total stock of money of all kinds in the country was $2,240,773,88.8, as against $2,204,651,000 on the 1st day of November, 1893, and the money of all kinds in circulation, or not included in the Treasury holdings, was $1,672,093,422, or $24.27 per capita upon an estimated population of 68,887,000. At the same date there was held in the Treasury gold bullion amounting to $44,615,177.55 and silver bullion which was purchased at a cost of $127,772,988. The purchase of silver bullion under the act of July 14, 1890, ceased on the 1st day of November, 1893, and up to that time there had been purchased during the fiscal year 11,917,658.78 fine ounces, at a cost of $8,715,521.32, an average cost of $0.7313 per fine ounce. The total amount of silver purchased from the time that law took effect until the repeal of its purchasing clause, on the date last mentioned, was 168,674,682.53 fine ounces, which cost $155,931,002.25, the average price per fine ounce being $0.9244. The total amount of standard silver dollars coined at the mints of the United States since the passage of the act of February 28, 1878, is $421,776,408, of which $378,166,793 were coined under the provisions of that act, $38,531,143 under the provisions of the act of July 14, 1890, and $5,078,472 under the act providing for the coinage of trade-dollar bullion. The total coinage of all metals at our mints during the last fiscal year consisted of 63,485,220 pieces, valued at $106,216,730.06, of which there were $99,474,912.50 in gold coined, $758 in standard silver dollars, $6,024,140.30 in subsidiary silver coin, and $716,919.26 in minor coin. During the calendar year 1893 the production of precious metals in the United States was estimated at 1,739,323 fine ounces of gold of the commercial and coinage value of $35,955,000 and 70,000,000 fine ounces of silver of the bullion or market value of $46,800,000 and of the coinage value of $77,576,000. It is estimated that on the 1st day of July, 1894, the stock of metallic money in the United States, consisting of coin and bullion, amounted to $1,251,640,958, of which $627,923,201 was gold and $624,347,757 was silver. Fifty national banks were organized during the year ending October 31, 1894, with a capital of $5,285,000, and 79, with a capital of $10,475,000, went into voluntary liquidation. Twenty-one banks, with a capital of $2,770,000, were placed in the hands of receivers. The total number of national banks in existence on the 31st day of October last was 3,756, being 40 less than on the 31st day of October, 1893. The capital stock paid in was $672,671,365, being $9,678,491 less than at the same time in the previous year, and the surplus fund and individual profits, less expenses and taxes paid, amounted to $334,121,082.10, which was $16,089,780 less than on October 31, 1893. The circulation was decreased $1,741,563. The obligations of the banks to each other were increased $117,268,334 and the individual deposits were $277,294,489 less than at the corresponding date in the previous year. Loans and discounts were $161,206,923 more than at the same time the previous year, and checks and other cash items were $90,349,963 more. The total resources of the banks at the date mentioned amounted to $3,473,922,055, as against $3,109,563,184.36 in 1893. From the report of the Secretary of War it appears that the strength of the Army on September 30, 1894, was 2,135 officers and 25,765 enlisted men. Although this is apparently a very slight decrease compared with the previous year, the actual effective force has been increased to the equivalent of nearly two regiments through the reorganization of the system of recruiting and the consequent release to regimental duty of the large force of men hitherto serving at the recruiting depots. The abolition of these depots, it is predicted, will furthermore effect an annual reduction approximating $250,000 in the direct expenditures, besides promoting generally the health, morale, and discipline of the troops. The execution of the policy of concentrating the Army at important centers of population and transportation, foreshadowed in the last annual report of the Secretary, has resulted in the abandonment of fifteen of the smaller posts, which was effected under a plan which assembles organizations of the same regiments hitherto widely separated. This renders our small forces more readily effective for any service which they may be called upon to perform, increases the extent of the territory under protection without diminishing the security heretofore afforded to any locality, improves the discipline, training, and esprit de corps of the Army, besides considerably decreasing the cost of its maintenance. Though the forces of the Department of the East have been somewhat increased, more than three-fourths of the Army is still stationed west of the Mississippi. This carefully matured policy, which secures the best and greatest service in the interests of the general welfare from the small force comprising our Regular Army, should not be thoughtlessly embarrassed by the creation of new and unnecessary posts through acts of Congress to gratify the ambitions or interests of localities. While the maximum legal strength of the Army is 25,000 men, the effective strength, through various causes, is but little over 20,000 men. The purpose of Congress does not, therefore, seem to be fully attained by the existing condition. While no considerable increase in the Army is, in my judgment, demanded by recent events, the policy of seacoast fortification, in the prosecution of which we have been steadily engaged for some years, has so far developed as to suggest that the effective strength of the Army be now made at least equal to the legal strength. Measures taken by the Department during the year, as indicated, have already considerably augmented the effective force, and the Secretary of War presents a plan, which I recommend to the consideration of Congress, to attain the desired end. Economies effected in the Department in other lines of its work will offset to a great extent the expenditure involved in the proposition submitted. Among other things this contemplates the adoption of the three-battalion formation of regiments, which for several years has been indorsed by the Secretaries of War and the Generals Commanding the Army. Compact in itself, it provides a skeleton organization, ready to be filled out in the event of war, which is peculiarly adapted to our strength and requirements; and the fact that every other nation, with a single exception, has adopted this formation to meet the conditions of modern warfare should alone secure for the recommendation an early consideration. It is hardly necessary to recall the fact that in obedience to the commands of the Constitution and the laws, and for the purpose of protecting the property of the United States, aiding the process of Federal courts, and removing lawless obstructions to the performance by the Government of its legitimate functions, it became necessary in various localities during the year to employ a considerable portion of the regular troops. The duty was discharged promptly, courageously, and with marked discretion by the officers and men, and the most gratifying proof was thus afforded that the Army deserves that complete confidence in its efficiency and discipline which the country has at all times manifested. The year has been free from disturbances by Indians, and the chances of further depredations on their part are constantly becoming more remote and improbable. The total .expenditures for the War Department for the year ended June 30, 1894, amounted to $56,039,009.34. Of this sum $2,000,614.99 was for salaries and contingent expenses, $23,665,156.16 for the support of the military establishment, $5,001,682.23 for miscellaneous objects, and $25,371,555.96 for public works. This latter sum includes $19,494,037.49 for river and harbor improvements and $3,947,863.56 for fortifications and other works of defense. The appropriations for the current year aggregate $52,429,112.78, and the estimates submitted by the Secretary of War for the next fiscal year call for appropriations amounting to $52,318,629.55. The skill and industry of our ordnance officers and inventors have, it is believed, overcome the mechanical obstacles which have heretofore delayed the armament of our coasts, and this great national undertaking upon which we have entered may now proceed as rapidly as Congress shall determine. With a supply of finished guns of large caliber already on hand, to which additions should now rapidly follow, the wisdom of providing carriages and emplacements for their mount can not be too strongly urged. The total enrollment of the militia of the several States is 117,533 officers and enlisted men, an increase of 5,343 over the number reported at the close of the previous year. The reports of militia inspections by Regular Army officers show a marked increase in interest and efficiency among the State organizations, and I strongly recommend a continuance of the policy of affording every practical encouragement possible to this important auxiliary of our military establishment. The condition of the Apache Indians held as prisoners by the Government for eight years at a cost of half a million dollars has been changed during the year from captivity to one which gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their capacity for self-support and at least partial civilization. Legislation enacted at the late session of Congress gave the War Department authority to transfer the survivors, numbering 346, from Mount Vernon Barracks, in Alabama, to any suitable reservation. The Department selected as their future home the military lands near Fort Sill, Ind. T., where, under military surveillance, the former prisoners have been established in agriculture under conditions favorable to their advancement. In recognition of the long and distinguished military services and faithful discharge of delicate and responsible civil duties by Major-General John M. Schofield, now the General Commanding the Army, it is suggested to Congress that the temporary revival of the grade of lieutenant-general in his behalf would be a just and gracious act and would permit his retirement, now near at hand, with rank befitting his merits. The report of the Attorney-General notes the gratifying progress made by the Supreme Court in overcoming the arrears of its business and in reaching a condition in which it will be able to dispose of cases as they arise without any unreasonable delay. This result is of course very largely due to the successful working of the plan inaugurating circuit courts of appeals. In respect to these tribunals the suggestion is made, in quarters entitled to the highest consideration that an additional circuit judge for each circuit would greatly strengthen these courts and the confidence reposed in their adjudications, and that such an addition would not create a greater force of judges than the increasing business of such courts requires. I commend the suggestion to the careful consideration of the Congress. Other important topics are adverted to in the report, accompanied by recommendations, many of which have been treated at large in previous messages, and at this time, therefore, need only be named. I refer to the abolition of the fee system as a measure of compensation to Federal officers; the enlargement of the powers of United States commissioners, at least in the Territories; the allowance of writs of error in criminal cases on behalf of the United States, and the establishment of degrees in the crime of murder. A topic dealt with by the Attorney-General of much importance is the condition of the administration of justice in the Indian Territory. The permanent solution of what is called the Indian problem is probably not to be expected at once, but meanwhile such ameliorations of present conditions as the existing system will admit of ought not to be neglected. I am satisfied there should be a Federal court established for the Territory, with sufficient judges, and that this court should sit within the Territory and have the same jurisdiction as to Territorial affairs as is now vested in the Federal courts sitting in Arkansas and Texas. Another subject of pressing moment referred to by the Attorney-General is the reorganization of the Union Pacific Railway Company on a basis equitable as regards all private interests and as favorable to the Government as existing conditions will permit. The operation of a railroad by a court through a receiver is an anomalous state of things which should be terminated on all grounds, public and private, at the earliest possible moment. Besides, not to enact the needed enabling legislation at the present session postpones the whole matter until the assembling of a new Congress and inevitably increases all the complications of the situation, and could not but be regarded as a signal failure to solve a problem which has practically been before the present Congress ever since its organization. Eight years ago in my annual message I urged upon the Congress as strongly as I could the location and construction of two prisons for the confinement of United States prisoners. A similar recommendation has been made from time to time since, and a few years ago a law was passed providing for the selection of sites for three such institutions. No appropriation has, however, been made to carry the act into effect, and the old and discreditable condition still exists. It is not my purpose at this time to repeat the considerations which make an impregnable case in favor of the ownership and management by the Government of the penal institutions in which Federal prisoners are confined. I simply desire to again urge former recommendations on the subject and to particularly call the attention of the Congress to that part of the report of the Secretary of War in which he states that the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., can be turned over to the Government as a prison for Federal convicts without the least difficulty and with an actual saving of money from every point of view. Pending a more complete reform, I hope that by the adoption of the suggestion of the Secretary of War this easy step may be taken in the direction of the proper care of its convicts by the Government of the United States. The report of the Postmaster-General presents a comprehensive statement of the operations of the Post-Office Department for the last fiscal year. The receipts of the Department during the year amounted to $75,080,479.04 and the expenditures to $84,324,414.15. The transactions of the postal service indicate with barometric certainty the fluctuations in the business of the country. Inasmuch, therefore, as business complications continued to exist throughout the last year to an unforeseen extent, it is not surprising that the deficiency of revenue to meet the expenditures of the Post-Office Department, which was estimated in advance at about $8,000,000, should be exceeded by nearly $1,225,000. The ascertained revenues of the last year, which were the basis of calculation for the current year, being less than estimated, the deficiency for the current year will be correspondingly greater, though the Postmaster-General states that the latest indications are so favorable that he confidently predicts an increase of at least 8 per cent in the revenues of the current year over those of the last year. The expenditures increase steadily and necessarily with the growth and needs of the country, so that the deficiency is greater or less in any year, depending upon the volume of receipts. The Postmaster-General states that this deficiency is unnecessary and might be obviated at once if the law regulating rates upon mail matter of the second class was modified. The rate received for the transmission of this second-class matter is 1 cent per pound, while the cost of such transmission to the Government is eight times that amount. In the general terms of the law this rate covers newspapers and periodicals. The extensions of the meaning of these terms from time to time have admitted to the privileges intended for legitimate newspapers and periodicals a surprising range of publications and created abuses the cost of which amounts in the aggregate to the total deficiency of the Post-Office Department. Pretended newspapers are started by business houses for the mere purpose of advertising goods, complying with the law in form only and discontinuing the publications as soon as the period of advertising is over. "Sample copies" of pretended newspapers are issued in great numbers for a like purpose only. The result is a great loss of revenue to the Government, besides its humiliating use as an agency to aid in carrying out the scheme of a business house to advertise its goods by means of a trick upon both its rival houses and the regular and legitimate newspapers. Paper-covered literature, consisting mainly of trashy novels, to the extent of many thousands of tons is sent through the mails at 1 cent per pound, while the publishers of standard works are required to pay eight times that amount in sending their publications. Another abuse consists in the free carriage through the mails of hundreds of tons of seed and grain uselessly distributed through the Department of Agriculture. The Postmaster-General predicts that if the law be so amended as to eradicate these abuses not only will the Post-Office Department show no deficiency, but he believes that in the near future all legitimate newspapers and periodical magazines might be properly transmitted through the mails to their subscribers free of cost. I invite your prompt consideration of this subject and fully indorse the views of the Postmaster-General. The total number of post-offices in the United States on the 30th day of June, 1894, was 69,805, an increase of 1,403 over the preceding year. Of these, 3,428 were Presidential, an increase in that class of 68 over the preceding year. Six hundred and ten cities and towns are provided with free delivery. Ninety-three other cities and towns entitled to this service under the law have not been accorded it on account of insufficient funds. The expense of free delivery for the current fiscal year will be more than $12,300,000, and under existing legislation this item of expenditure is subject to constant increase. The estimated cost of rural free delivery generally is so very large that it ought not to be considered in the present condition of affairs. During the year 830 additional domestic money-order offices were established. The total number of these offices at the close of the year was 19,264. There were 14,304,041 money orders issued during the year, being an increase over the preceding year of 994,306. The value of these orders amounted to $138,793,579.49, an increase of $11,217,145.84. There were also issued during the year postal notes amounting to $12,649,094.55. During the year 218 international money-order offices were added to those already established, making a total of 2,625 such offices in operation June 30, 1894. The number of international money orders issued during the year was 917,823, a decrease in number of 138,176, and their value was $13,792,455.31, a decrease in amount of $2,549,382.55. The number of orders paid was 361,180, an increase over the preceding year of 60,263, and their value was $6,568,493.78, an increase of $1,285,118.08. From the foregoing statements it appears that the total issue of money orders and postal notes for the year amounted to $165,235,129.35. The number of letters and packages mailed during the year for special delivery was 3,436,970. The special-delivery stamps used upon these letters and packages amounted to $343,697. The messengers fees paid for their delivery amounted to $261,209.70, leaving a balance in favor of the Government of $82,487.30. The report shows most gratifying results in the way of economies worked out without affecting the efficiency of the postal service. These consist in the abrogation of steamship subsidy contracts, reletting of mail transportation contracts, and in the cost and amount of supplies used in the service, amounting in all to $16,619,047.42. This report also contains a valuable contribution to the history of the Universal Postal Union, an arrangement which amounts practically to the establishment of one postal system for the entire civilized world. Special attention is directed to this subject at this time in view of the fact that the next congress of the union will meet in Washington in 1897, and it is hoped that timely action will be taken in the direction of perfecting preparations for that event. The Postmaster-General renews the suggestion made in a previous report that the Department organization be increased to the extent of creating a direct district supervision of all postal affairs, and in this suggestion I fully concur. There are now connected with the Post-Office establishment 32,661 employees who are in the classified service. This includes many who have been classified upon the suggestion of the Postmaster-General. He states that another year's experience at the head of the Department serves only to strengthen the conviction as to the excellent working of the civil-service law in this branch of the public service. Attention is called to the report of the Secretary of the Navy, which shows very gratifying progress in the construction of ships for our new Navy. All the vessels now building, including the three torpedo boats authorized at the last session of Congress and excepting the first-class battle ship Iowa, will probably be completed during the coming fiscal year. The estimates for the increase of the Navy for the year ending June 30, 1896, are large, but they include practically the entire sum necessary to complete and equip all the new ships not now in commission, so that unless new ships are authorized the appropriations for the naval service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, should fall below the estimates for the coming year by at least $12,000,000. The Secretary presents with much earnestness a plea for the authorization of three additional battle ships and ten or twelve torpedo boats. While the unarmored vessels heretofore authorized, including those now nearing completion, will constitute a fleet which it is believed is sufficient for ordinary cruising purposes in time of peace, we have now completed and in process of construction but four first-class battle ships and but few torpedo boats. If we are to have a navy for warlike operations, offensive and defensive, we certainly ought to increase both the number of battle ships and torpedo boats. The manufacture of armor requires expensive plants and the aggregation of many skilled workmen. All the armor necessary to complete the vessels now building will be delivered before the 1st of June next. If no new contracts are given out, contractors must disband their workmen and their plants must lie idle. Battle ships authorized at this time would not be well under way until late in the coming fiscal year, and at least three years and a half from the date of the contract would be required for their completion. The Secretary states that not more than 15 per cent of the cost of such ships need be included in the appropriations for the coming year. I recommend that provision be made for the construction of additional battle ships and torpedo boats. The Secretary recommends the manufacture not only of a reserve supply of ordnance and ordnance material for ships of the Navy, but also a supply for the auxiliary fleet. Guns and their appurtenances should be provided and kept on hand for both these purposes. We have not to-day a single gun that could be put upon the ships Paris or New York of the International Navigation Company or any other ship of our reserve Navy. The manufacture of guns at the Washington Navy-Yard is proceeding satisfactorily, and none of our new ships will be required to wait for their guns or ordnance equipment. An important order has been issued by the Secretary of the Navy coordinating the duties of the several bureaus concerned in the construction of ships. This order, it is believed, will secure to a greater extent than has heretofore been possible the harmonious action of these several bureaus and make the attainment of the best results more certain. During the past fiscal year there has been an unusual and pressing demand in many quarters of the world for the presence of vessels to guard American interests. In January last, during the Brazilian insurrection, a large fleet was concentrated in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. The vigorous action of Rear-Admiral Benham in protecting the personal and commercial rights of our citizens during the disturbed conditions afforded results which will, it is believed, have a far-reaching and wholesome influence whenever in like circumstances it may become necessary for our naval commanders to interfere on behalf of our people in foreign ports. The war now in progress between China and Japan has rendered it necessary or expedient to dispatch eight vessels to those waters. Both the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Treasury recommend the transfer of the work of the Coast Survey proper to the Navy Department. I heartily concur in this recommendation. Excluding Alaska and a very small area besides, all the work of mapping and charting our coasts has been completed. The hydrographic work, which must be done over and over again by reason of the shifting and varying depths of water consequent upon the action of streams and tides, has heretofore been done under the direction of naval officers in subordination to the Superintendent of the Coast Survey. There seems to be no good reason why the Navy should not have entire charge hereafter of such work, especially as the Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department is now and has been for many years engaged in making efficient maps entirely similar to those prepared by the Coast Survey. I feel it my imperative duty to call attention to the recommendation of the Secretary in regard to the personnel of the line of the Navy. The stagnation of promotion in this the vital branch of the service is so great as to seriously impair its efficiency. I consider it of the utmost importance that the young and middle-aged officers should before the eve of retirement be permitted to reach a grade entitling them to active and important duty. The system adopted a few years ago regulating the employment of labor at the navy-yards is rigidly upheld and has fully demonstrated its usefulness and expediency. It is within the domain of civil-service reform inasmuch as workmen are employed through a board of labor selected at each navy-yard and are given work without reference to politics and in the order of their application, preference, however, being given to Army and Navy veterans and those having former navy-yard experience. Amendments suggested by experience have been made to the rules regulating the system. Through its operation the work at our navy-yards has been vastly improved in efficiency and the opportunity to work has been honestly and fairly awarded to willing and competent applicants. It is hoped that if this system continues to be strictly adhered to there will soon be as a natural consequence such an equalization of party benefit as will remove all temptation to relax or abandon it. The report of the Secretary of the Interior exhibits the situation of the numerous and interesting branches of the public service connected with his Department. I commend this report and the valuable recommendations of the Secretary to the careful attention of the Congress. The public land disposed of during the year amounted to 10,406,100.77 acres, including 28,876.05 of Indian lands. It is estimated that the public domain still remaining amounts to a little more than 600,000,000 acres, including, however, about 360,000,000 acres in Alaska, as well as military reservations and railroad and other selections of lands yet unadjudicated. The total cash receipts from sale of lands amounted to $2,674,285.79, including $91,981.03 received for Indian lands. Thirty-five thousand patents were issued for agricultural lands, and 3,100 patents were issued to Indians on allotments of their holdings in severalty, the land so allotted being inalienable by the Indian allottees for a period of twenty-five years after patent. There were certified and patented on account of railroad and wagon-road grants during the year 865,556.45 acres of land, and at the close of the year 29,000,000 acres were embraced in the lists of selections made by railroad and wagon-road companies and awaited settlement. The selections of swamp lands and that taken as indemnity therefor since the passage of the act providing for the same in 1849 amount to nearly or quite 80,500,000 acres, of which 58,000,000 have been patented to States. About 138,000 acres were patented during the last year. Nearly 820,000 acres of school and education grants were approved during the year, and at its close 1,250,363.81 acres remained unadjusted. It appears that the appropriation for the current year on account of special service for the protection of the public lands and the timber thereon is much less than those for previous years, and inadequate for an efficient performance of the work. A larger sum of money than has been appropriated during a number of years past on this account has been returned to the Government as a result of the labors of those employed in the particular service mentioned, and I hope it will not be crippled by insufficient appropriation. I fully indorse the recommendation of the Secretary that adequate protection be provided for our forest reserves and that a comprehensive forestry system be inaugurated. Such keepers and superintendents as are necessary to protect the forests already reserved should be provided. I am of the opinion that there should be an abandonment of the policy sanctioned by present laws under which the Government, for a very small consideration, is rapidly losing title to immense tracts of land covered with timber, which should be properly reserved as permanent sources of timber supply. The suggestion that a change be made in the manner of securing surveys of the public lands is especially worthy of consideration. I am satisfied that these surveys should be made by a corps of competent surveyors under the immediate control and direction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. An exceedingly important recommendation of the Secretary relates to the manner in which contests and litigated cases growing out of efforts to obtain Government land are determined. The entire testimony upon which these controversies depend in all their stages is taken before the local registers and receivers, and yet these officers have no power to subpoena witnesses or to enforce their attendance to testify. These cases, numbering three or four thousand annually, are sent by the local officers to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for his action. The exigencies of his other duties oblige him to act upon the decisions of the registers and receivers without an opportunity of thorough personal examination. Nearly 2,000 of these cases are appealed annually from the Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior. Burdened with other important administrative duties, his determination of these appeals must be almost perfunctory and based upon the examination of others, though this determination of the Secretary operates as a final adjudication upon rights of very great importance. I concur in the opinion that the Commissioner of the General Land Office should be relieved from the duty of deciding litigated land cases, that a nonpartisan court should be created to pass on such cases, and that the decisions of this court should be final, at least so far as the decisions of the Department are now final. The proposed court might be given authority to certify questions of law in matters of especial importance to the Supreme Court of the United States or the court of appeals for the District of Columbia for decision. The creation of such a tribunal would expedite the disposal of cases and insure decisions of a more satisfactory character. The registers and receivers who originally hear and decide these disputes should be invested with authority to compel witnesses to attend and testify before them. Though the condition of the Indians shows a steady and healthy progress, their situation is not satisfactory at all points. Some of them to whom allotments of land have been made are found to be unable or disinclined to follow agricultural pursuits or to otherwise beneficially manage their land. This is especially true of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who, as it appears by reports of their agent, have in many instances never been located upon their allotments, and in some cases do not even know where their allotments are. Their condition has deteriorated. They are not self-supporting and they live in camps and spend their time in idleness. I have always believed that allotments of reservation lands to Indians in severalty should be made sparingly, or at least slowly, and with the utmost caution. In these days, when white agriculturists and stock raisers of experience and intelligence find their lot a hard one, we ought not to expect Indians, unless far advanced in civilization and habits of industry, to support themselves on the small tracts of land usually allotted to them. If the self-supporting scheme by allotment fails, the wretched pauperism of the allottees which results is worse than their original condition of regulated dependence. It is evident that the evil consequences of ill-advised allotment are intensified in cases where the false step can not be retraced on account of the purchase by the Government of reservation lands remaining after allotments are made and the disposition of such remaining lands to settlers or purchasers from the Government. I am convinced that the proper solution of the Indian problem and the success of every step taken in that direction depend to a very large extent upon the intelligence and honesty of the reservation agents and the interest they have in their work. An agent fitted for his place can do much toward preparing the Indians under his charge for citizenship and allotment of their lands, and his advice as to any matter concerning their welfare will not mislead. An unfit agent will make no effort to advance the Indians on his reservation toward civilization or preparation for allotment of lands in severalty, and his opinion as to their condition in this and other regards is heedless and valueless. The indications are that the detail of army officers as Indian agents will result in improved management on the reservations. Whenever allotments are made and any Indian on the reservation has previously settled upon a lot and cultivated it or shown a disposition to improve it in any way, such lot should certainly be allotted to him, and this should be made plainly obligatory by statute. In the light of experience and considering the uncertainty of the Indian situation and its exigencies in the future, I am not only disposed to be very cautious in making allotments, but I incline to agree with the Secretary of the Interior in the opinion that when allotments are made the balance of reservation land remaining after allotment, instead of being bought by the Government from the Indians and opened for settlement with such scandals and unfair practices as seem unavoidable, should remain for a time at least as common land or be sold by the Government on behalf of the Indians in an orderly way and at fixed prices, to be determined by its location and desirability, and that the proceeds, less expenses, should be held in trust for the benefit of the Indian proprietors. The intelligent Indian-school management of the past year has been followed by gratifying results. Efforts have been made to advance the work in a sound and practical manner. Five institutes of Indian teachers have been held during the year, and have proved very beneficial through the views exchanged and methods discussed particularly applicable to Indian education. Efforts are being made in the direction of a gradual reduction of the number of Indian contract schools, so that in a comparatively short time they may give way altogether to Government schools, and it is hoped that the change may be so gradual as to be perfected without too great expense to the Government or undue disregard of investments made by those who have established and are maintaining such contract schools. The appropriation for the current year, ending June 30, 1895, applicable to the ordinary expenses of the Indian service amounts to $6,733,003.18, being less by $663,240.64 than the sum appropriated on the same account for the previous year. At the close of the last fiscal year, on the 30th day of June, 1894, there were 969,544 persons on our pension rolls, being a net increase of 3,532 over the number reported at the end of the previous year. These pensioners may be classified as follows: Soldiers and sailors survivors of all wars, 753,968; widows and relatives of deceased soldiers, 215,162; army nurses in the War of the Rebellion, 414. Of these pensioners 32,039 are surviving soldiers of Indian and other wars prior to the late Civil War and the widows or relatives of such soldiers. The remainder, numbering 937,505, are receiving pensions on account of the rebellion, and of these 469,344 are on the rolls under the authority of the act of June 27, 1890, sometimes called the dependent-pension law. The total amount expended for pensions during the year was $139,804,461.05, leaving an unexpended balance from the sum appropriated of $25,205,712.65. The sum necessary to meet pension expenditures for the year ending June 30, 1896, is estimated at $140,000,000. The Commissioner of Pensions is of the opinion that the year 1895, being the thirtieth after the close of the War of the Rebellion, must, according to all sensible human calculation, see the highest limit of the pension roll, and that after that year it must begin to decline. The claims pending in the Bureau have decreased more than 90,000 during the year. A large proportion of the new claims filed are for increase of pension by those now on the rolls. The number of certificates issued was 80,213. The names dropped from the rolls for all causes during the year numbered 37,951. Among our pensioners are 9 widows and 3 daughters of soldiers of the Revolution and 45 survivors of the War of 1812. The barefaced and extensive pension frauds exposed under the direction of the courageous and generous veteran soldier now at the head of the Bureau leave no room for the claim that no purgation of our pension rolls was needed or that continued vigilance and prompt action are not necessary to the same end. The accusation that an effort to detect pension frauds is evidence of unfriendliness toward our worthy veterans and a denial of their claims to the generosity of the Government suggests an unfortunate indifference to the commission of any offense which has for its motive the securing of a pension and indicates a willingness to be blind to the existence of mean and treacherous crimes which play upon demagogic fears and make sport of the patriotic impulse of a grateful people. The completion of the Eleventh Census is now in charge of the Commissioner of Labor. The total disbursements on account of the work for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, amounted to $10,365,676.81. At the close of the year the number of persons employed in the Census Office was 679; at present there are about 400. The whole number of volumes necessary to comprehend the Eleventh Census will be 25, and they will contain 22,270 printed pages. The assurance is confidently made that before the close of the present calendar year the material still incomplete will be practically in hand, and the census can certainly be closed by the 4th of March, 1895. After that the revision and proof reading necessary to bring out the volumes will still be required. The text of the census volumes has been limited as far as possible to the analysis of the statistics presented. This method, which is in accordance with law, has caused more or less friction and in some instances individual disappointment, for when the Commissioner of Labor took charge of the work he found much matter on hand which according to this rule he was compelled to discard. The census is being prepared according to the theory that it is designed to collect facts and certify them to the public, not to elaborate arguments or to present personal views. The Secretary of Agriculture in his report reviews the operations of his Department for the last fiscal year and makes recommendations for the further extension of its usefulness. He reports a saving in expenditures during the year of $600,000, which is covered back into the Treasury. This sum is 23 per cent of the entire appropriation. A special study has been made of the demand for American farm products in all foreign markets, especially Great Britain, That country received from the United States during the nine months ending September 30, 1894, 305,910 live beef cattle, valued at $26,500,000, as against 182,611 cattle, valued at $16,634,000, during the same period for 1893. During the first six months of 1894 the United Kingdom took also 112,000,000 pounds of dressed beef from the United States, valued at nearly $10,000,000. The report shows that during the nine months immediately preceding September 30, 1894, the United States exported to Great Britain 222,676,000 pounds of pork; of apples, 1,900,000 bushels, valued at $2,500,000, and of horses 2,811, at an average value of $139 per head. There was a falling off in American wheat exports of 13,500,000 bushels, and the Secretary is inclined to believe that wheat may not in the future be the staple export cereal product of our country, but that corn will continue to advance in importance as an export on account of the new uses to which it is constantly being appropriated. The exports of agricultural products from the United States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, amounted to $628,363,038, being 72.28 per cent of American exports of every description, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain took more than 54 per cent of all farm products finding foreign markets. The Department of Agriculture has undertaken during the year two new and important lines of research. The first relates to grasses and forage plants, with the purpose of instructing and familiarizing the people as to the distinctive grasses of the United States and teaching them how to introduce valuable foreign forage plants which may be adapted to this country. The second relates to agricultural soils and crop production, involving the analyses of samples of soils from all sections of the American Union, to demonstrate their adaptability to particular plants and crops. Mechanical analyses of soils may be of such inestimable utility that it is foremost in the new lines of agricultural research, and the Secretary therefore recommends that a division having it in charge be permanently established in the Department. The amount appropriated for the Weather Bureau was $951,100. Of that sum $138,500, or 14 per cent, has been saved and is returned to the Treasury. As illustrating the usefulness of this service it may be here stated that the warnings which were very generally given of two tropical storms occurring in September and October of the present year resulted in detaining safely in port 2,305 vessels, valued at $36,183,913, laden with cargoes of probably still greater value. What is much more important and gratifying, many human lives on these ships were also undoubtedly saved. The appropriation to the Bureau of Animal Industry was $850,000, and the expenditures for the year were only $495,429.24, thus leaving unexpended $354,570.76. The inspection of beef animals for export and interstate trade has been continued, and 12,944,056 head were inspected during the year, at a cost of 1 3/4 cents per head, against 4 3/4 cents for 1893. The amount of pork microscopically examined was 35,437,937 pounds, against 20,677,410 pounds in the preceding year. The cost of this inspection has been diminished from 8 3/4 cents per head in 1893 to 6 1/2 cents in 1894. The expense of inspecting the pork sold in 1894 to Germany and France by the United States was $88,922.10. The quantity inspected was greater by 15,000,000 pounds than during the preceding year, when the cost of such inspection was $172,367.08. The Secretary of Agriculture recommends that the law providing for the microscopic inspection of export and interstate meat be so amended as to compel owners of the meat inspected to pay the cost of such inspection, and I call attention to the arguments presented in his report in support of this recommendation. The live beef cattle exported and tagged during the year numbered 353,535. This is an increase of 69,533 head over the previous year. The sanitary inspection of cattle shipped to Europe has cost an average of 10 3/4 cents for each animal, and the cost of inspecting Southern cattle and the disinfection of cars and stock yards averages 2.7 cents per animal. The scientific inquiries of the Bureau of Animal Industry have progressed steadily during the year. Much tuberculin and mallein have been furnished to State authorities for use in the agricultural colleges and experiment stations for the treatment of tuberculosis and glanders. Quite recently this Department has published the results of its investigations of bovine tuberculosis, and its researches will be vigorously continued. Certain herds in the District of Columbia will be thoroughly inspected and will probably supply adequate scope for the Department to intelligently prosecute its scientific work and furnish sufficient material for purposes of illustration, description, and definition. The sterilization of milk suspected of containing the bacilli of tuberculosis has been during the year very thoroughly explained in a leaflet by Dr. D. E. Salmon, the Chief of the Bureau, and given general circulation throughout the country. The Office of Experiment Stations, which is a part of the United States Department of Agriculture, has during the past year engaged itself almost wholly in preparing for publication works based upon the reports of agricultural experiment stations and other institutions for agricultural inquiry in the United States and foreign countries. The Secretary in his report for 1893 called attention to the fact that the appropriations made for the support of the experiment stations throughout the Union were the only moneys taken out of the National Treasury by act of Congress for which no accounting to Federal authorities was required. Responding to this suggestion, the Fifty-third Congress, in making the appropriation for the Department for the present fiscal year, provided that-- The Secretary of Agriculture shall prescribe the form of annual financial statement required by section 3 of said act of March 2, 1887; shall ascertain whether the expenditures under the appropriation hereby made are in accordance with the provisions of said act, and shall make report thereon to Congress. In obedience to this law the Department of Agriculture immediately sent out blank forms of expense accounts to each station, and proposes in addition to make, through trusted experts, systematic examination of the several stations during each year for the purpose of acquiring by personal investigation the detailed information necessary to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to make, as the statute provides, a satisfactory report to Congress. The boards of management of the several stations with great alacrity and cordiality have approved the amendment to the law providing this supervision of their expenditures, anticipating that it will increase the efficiency of the stations and protect their directors and managers from loose charges concerning their use of public funds, besides bringing the Department of Agriculture into closer and more confidential relations with the experimental stations, and through their joint service largely increasing their usefulness to the agriculture of the country. Acting upon a recommendation contained in the report of 1893, Congress appropriated $10,000 "to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to investigate and report upon the nutritive value of the various articles and commodities used for human food, with special suggestions of full, wholesome, and edible rations less wasteful and more economical than those in common use." Under this appropriation the Department has prepared and now has nearly ready for distribution an elementary discussion of the nutritive value and pecuniary economy of food. When we consider that fully one-half of all the money earned by the wage earners of the civilized world is expended by them for food, the importance and utility of such an investigation is apparent. The Department expended in the fiscal year 1893 $2,354,809.56, and out of that sum the total amount expended in scientific research was 45.6 per cent. But in the year ending June 30, 1894, out of a total expenditure of $1,948,988.38, the Department applied 51.8 per cent of that sum to scientific work and investigation. It is therefore very plainly observable that the economies which have been practiced in the administration of the Department have not been at the expense of scientific research. The recommendation contained in the report of the Secretary for 1893 that the vicious system of promiscuous free distribution of its departmental documents be abandoned is again urged. These publications may well be furnished without cost to public libraries, educational institutions, and the officers and libraries of States and of the Federal Government; but from all individuals applying for them a price covering the cost of the document asked for should be required. Thus the publications and documents would be secured by those who really desire them for proper purposes. Half a million of copies of the report of the Secretary of Agriculture are printed for distribution, at an annual cost of about $300,000. Large numbers of them are cumbering storerooms at the Capitol and the shelves of secondhand-book stores throughout the country. All this labor and waste might be avoided if the recommendations of the Secretary were adopted. The Secretary also again recommends that the gratuitous distribution of seeds cease and that no money be appropriated for that purpose except to experiment stations. He reiterates the reasons given in his report for 1893 for discontinuing this unjustifiable gratuity, and I fully concur in the conclusions which he has reached. The best service of the statistician of the Department of Agriculture is the ascertainment, by diligence and care, of the actual and real conditions, favorable or unfavorable, of the farmers and farms of the country, and to seek the causes which produce these conditions, to the end that the facts ascertained may guide their intelligent treatment. A further important utility in agricultural statistics is found in their elucidation of the relation of the supply of farm products to the demand for them in the markets of the United States and of the world. It is deemed possible that an agricultural census may be taken each year through the agents of the statistical division of the Department. Such a course is commended for trial by the chief of that division. Its scope would be: (1) The area under each of the more important crops. (2) The aggregate products of each of such crops. (3) The quantity of wheat and corn in the hands of farmers at a date after the spring sowings and plantings and before the beginning of harvest, and also the quantity of cotton and tobacco remaining in the hands of planters, either at the same date or at some other designated time. The cost of the work is estimated at $500,000. Owing to the peculiar quality of the statistician's work and the natural and acquired fitness necessary to its successful prosecution, the Secretary of Agriculture expresses the opinion that every person employed in gathering statistics under the chief of that division should be admitted to that service only after a thorough, exhaustive, and successful examination at the hands of the United States Civil Service Commission. This has led him to call for such examination of candidates for the position of assistant statisticians, and also of candidates for chiefs of sections in that division. The work done by the Department of Agriculture is very superficially dealt with in this communication, and I commend the report of the Secretary and the very important interests with which it deals to the careful attention of the Congress. The advantages to the public service of an adherence to the principles of civil-service reform are constantly more apparent, and nothing is so encouraging to those in official life who honestly desire good government as the increasing appreciation by our people of these advantages. A vast majority of the voters of the land are ready to insist that the time and attention of those they select to perform for them important public duties should not be distracted by doling out minor offices, and they are growing to be unanimous in regarding party organization as something that should be used in establishing party principles instead of dictating the distribution of public places as rewards of partisan activity. Numerous additional offices and places have lately been brought within civil-service rules and regulations, and some others will probably soon be included. The report of the Commissioners will be submitted to the Congress, and I invite careful attention to the recommendations it contains. I am entirely convinced that we ought not to be longer without a national board of health or national health officer charged with no other duties than such as pertain to the protection of our country from the invasion of pestilence and disease. This would involve the establishment by such board or officer of proper quarantine precautions, or the necessary aid and counsel to local authorities on the subject; prompt advice and assistance to local boards of health or health officers in the suppression of contagious disease, and in cases where there are no such local boards or officers the immediate direction by the national board or officer of measures of suppression; constant and authentic information concerning the health of foreign countries and all parts of our own country as related to contagious diseases, and consideration of regulations to be enforced in foreign ports to prevent the introduction of contagion into our cities and the measures which should be adopted to secure their enforcement. There seems to be at this time a decided inclination to discuss measures of protection against contagious diseases in international conference, with a view of adopting means of mutual assistance. The creation of such a national health establishment would greatly aid our standing in such conferences and improve our opportunities to avail ourselves of their benefits. I earnestly recommend the inauguration of a national board of health or similar national instrumentality, believing the same to be a needed precaution against contagious disease and in the interest of the safety and health of our people. By virtue of a statute of the United States passed in 1888 I appointed in July last Hon. John D. Kernan, of the State of New York, and Hon. Nicholas E. Worthington, of the State of Illinois, to form, with Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor, who was designated by said statute, a commission for the purpose of making careful inquiry into the causes of the controversies between certain railroads and their employees which had resulted in an extensive and destructive strike, accompanied by much violence and dangerous disturbance, with considerable loss of life and great destruction of property. The report of the commissioners has been submitted to me and will be transmitted to the Congress with the evidence taken upon their investigation. Their work has been well done, and their standing and intelligence give assurance that the report and suggestions they make are worthy of careful consideration. The tariff act passed at the last session of the Congress needs important amendments if it is to be executed effectively and with certainty. In addition to such necessary amendments as will not change rates of duty, I am still very decidedly in favor of putting coal and iron upon the free list. So far as the sugar schedule is concerned, I would be glad, under existing aggravations, to see every particle of differential duty in favor of refined sugar stricken out of our tariff law. If with all the favor now accorded the sugar-refining interest in our tariff laws it still languishes to the extent of closed refineries and thousands of discharged workmen, it would seem to present a hopeless case for reasonable legislative aid. Whatever else is done or omitted, I earnestly repeat here the recommendation I have made in another portion of this communication, that the additional duty of one-tenth of a cent per pound laid upon sugar imported from countries paying a bounty on its export be abrogated. It seems to me that exceedingly important considerations point to the propriety of this amendment. With the advent of a new tariff policy not only calculated to relieve the consumers of our land in the cost of their daily life, but to invite a better development of American thrift and create for us closer and more profitable commercial relations with the rest of the world, it follows as a logical and imperative necessity that we should at once remove the chief if not the only obstacle which has so long prevented our participation in the foreign carrying trade of the sea. A tariff built upon the theory that it is well to check imports and that a home market should bound the industry and effort of American producers was fitly supplemented by a refusal to allow American registry to vessels built abroad, though owned and navigated by our people, thus exhibiting a willingness to abandon all contest for the advantages of American transoceanic carriage. Our new tariff policy, built upon the theory that it is well to encourage such importations as our people need, and that our products and manufactures should find markets in every part of the habitable globe, is consistently supplemented by the greatest possible liberty to our citizens in the ownership and navigation of ships in which our products and manufactures may be transported. The millions now paid to foreigners for carrying American passengers and products across the sea should be turned into American hands. Shipbuilding, which has been protected to strangulation, should be revived by the prospect of profitable employment for ships when built, and the American sailor should be resurrected and again take his place--a sturdy and industrious citizen in time of peace and a patriotic and safe defender of American interests in the day of conflict. The ancient provision of our law denying American registry to ships built abroad and owned by Americans appears in the light of present conditions not only to be a failure for good at every point, but to be nearer a relic of barbarism than anything that exists under the permission of a statute of the United States. I earnestly recommend its prompt repeal. During the last month the gold reserved in the Treasury for the purpose of redeeming the notes of the Government circulating as money in the hands of the people became so reduced and its further depletion in the near future seemed so certain that in the exercise of proper care for the public welfare it became necessary to replenish this reserve and thus maintain popular faith in the ability and determination of the Government to meet as agreed its pecuniary obligations. It would have been well if in this emergency authority had existed to issue the bonds of the Government bearing a low rate of interest and maturing within a short period; but the Congress having failed to confer such authority, resort was necessarily had to the resumption act of 1875, and pursuant to its provisions bonds were issued drawing interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum and maturing ten years after their issue, that being the shortest time authorized by the act. I am glad to say, however, that on the sale of these bonds the premium received operated to reduce the rate of interest to be paid by the Government to less than 3 per cent. Nothing could be worse or further removed from sensible finance than the relations existing between the currency the Government has issued, the gold held for its redemption, and the means which must be resorted to for the purpose of replenishing such redemption fund when impaired. Even if the claims upon this fund were confined to the obligations originally intended and if the redemption of these obligations meant their cancellation, the fund would be very small. But these obligations when received and redeemed in gold are not canceled, but are reissued and may do duty many times by way of drawing gold from the Treasury. Thus we have an endless chain in operation constantly depleting the Treasury's gold and never near a final rest. As if this was not bad enough, we have, by a statutory declaration that it is the policy of the Government to maintain the parity between gold and silver, aided the force and momentum of this exhausting process and added largely to the currency obligations claiming this peculiar gold redemption. Our small gold reserve is thus subject to drain from every side. The demands that increase our danger also increase the necessity of protecting this reserve against depletion, and it is most unsatisfactory to know that the protection afforded is only a temporary palliation. It is perfectly and palpably plain that the only way under present conditions by which this reserve when dangerously depleted can be replenished is through the issue and sale of the bonds of the Government for gold, and yet Congress has not only thus far declined to authorize the issue of bonds best suited to such a purpose, but there seems a disposition in some quarters to deny both the necessity and power for the issue of bonds at all. I can not for a moment believe that any of our citizens are deliberately willing that their Government should default in its pecuniary obligations or that its financial operations should be reduced to a silver basis. At any rate, I should not feel that my duty was done if I omitted any effort I could make to avert such a calamity. As long, therefore, as no provision is made for the final redemption or the putting aside of the currency obligation now used to repeatedly and constantly draw from the Government its gold, and as long as no better authority for bond issues is allowed than at present exists, such authority will be utilized whenever and as often as it becomes necessary to maintain a sufficient gold reserve, and in abundant time to save the credit of our country and make good the financial declarations of our Government. Questions relating to our banks and currency are closely connected with the subject just referred to, and they also present some unsatisfactory features. Prominent among them are the lack of elasticity in our currency circulation and its frequent concentration in financial centers when it is most needed in other parts of the country. The absolute divorcement of the Government from the business of banking is the ideal relationship of the Government to the circulation of the currency of the country. This condition can not be immediately reached, but as a step in that direction and as a means of securing a more elastic currency and obviating other objections to the present arrangement of bank circulation the Secretary of the Treasury presents in his report a scheme modifying present banking laws and providing for the issue of circulating notes by State banks free from taxation under certain limitations. The Secretary explains his plan so plainly and its advantages are developed by him with such remarkable clearness that any effort on my part to present argument in its support would be superfluous. I shall therefore content myself with an unqualified indorsement of the Secretary's proposed changes in the law and a brief and imperfect statement of their prominent features. It is proposed to repeal all laws providing for the deposit of United States bonds as security for circulation; to permit national banks to issue circulating notes not exceeding in amount 75 per cent of their paid-up and unimpaired capital, provided they deposit with the Government as a guaranty fund, in United States legal-tender notes, including Treasury notes of 1890, a sum equal in amount to 30 per cent of the notes they desire to issue, this deposit to be maintained at all times, but whenever any bank retires any part of its circulation a proportional part of its guaranty fund shall be returned to it; to permit the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and keep on hand ready for issue in case an increase in circulation is desired blank national-bank notes for each bank having circulation and to repeal the provisions of the present law imposing limitations and restrictions upon banks desiring to reduce or increase their circulation, thus permitting such increase or reduction within the limit of 75 per cent of capital to be quickly made as emergencies arise. In addition to the guaranty fund required, it is proposed to provide a safety fund for the immediate redemption of the circulating notes of failed banks by imposing a small annual tax, say one-half of 1 per cent, upon the average circulation of each bank until the fund amounts to 5 per cent of the total circulation outstanding. When a bank fails its guaranty fund is to be paid into this safety fund and its notes are to be redeemed in the first instance from such safety fund thus augmented, any impairment of such fund caused thereby to be made good from the immediately available cash assets of said bank, and if these should be insufficient such impairment to be made good by pro rata assessment among the other banks, their contributions constituting a first lien upon the assets of the failed bank in favor of the contributing banks. As a further security it is contemplated that the existing provision fixing the individual liability of stockholders is to be retained and the bank's indebtedness on account of its circulating notes is to be made a first lien on all its assets. For the purpose of meeting the expense of printing notes, official supervision, cancellation, and other like charges there shall be imposed a tax of say one-half of 1 per cent per annum upon the average amount of notes in circulation. It is further provided that there shall be no national-bank notes issued of a less denomination than $10; that each national bank, except in case of a failed bank, shall redeem or retire its notes in the first instance at its own office or at agencies to be designated by it, and that no fixed reserve need be maintained on account of deposits. Another very important feature of this plan is the exemption of State banks from taxation by the United States in cases where it is shown to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury and Comptroller of the Currency by banks claiming such exemption that they have not had outstanding their circulating notes exceeding 75 per cent of their paid-up and unimpaired capital; that their stockholders are individually liable for the redemption of their circulating notes to the full extent of their ownership of stock; that the liability of said banks upon their circulating notes constitutes under their State law a first lien upon their assets; that such banks have kept and maintained a guaranty fund in United States legal-tender notes, including Treasury notes of 1890, equal to 30 per cent of their outstanding circulating notes, and that such banks have promptly redeemed their circulating notes when presented at their principal or branch offices. It is quite likely that this scheme may be usefully amended in some of its details, but I am satisfied it furnishes a basis for a very great improvement in our present banking and currency system. I conclude this communication fully appreciating that the responsibility for all legislation affecting the people of the United States rests upon their representatives in the Congress, and assuring them that, whether in accordance with recommendations I have made or not, I shall be glad to cooperate in perfecting any legislation that tends to the prosperity and welfare of our country.
the assemblage within the nation legislative halls of those charged with the duty of making laws for the benefit of a generous and free people impressively suggests the exacting obligation and inexorable responsibility involved in their task at the threshold of such labor now to be undertaken by the congress of the united states and in the discharge of an executive duty enjoined by the constitution i submit this communication containing a brief statement of the condition of our national affairs and recommending such legislation as seems to me necessary and expedient the history of our recent dealings with other nations and our peaceful relations with them at this time additionally demonstrate the advantage of consistently adhering to a firm but just foreign policy free from envious or ambitious national schemes and characterized by entire honesty and sincerity during the past year pursuant to a law of congress commissioners were appointed to the antwerp industrial exposition though the participation of american exhibitors fell far short of completely illustrating our national ingenuity and industrial achievements yet it was quite creditable in view of the brief time allowed for preparation i have endeavored to impress upon the belgian government the heedlessness and positive harmfulness of its restrictions upon the importation of certain of our food products and have strongly urged that the rigid supervision and inspection under our laws are amply sufficient to prevent the exportation from this country of diseased cattle and unwholesome meat the termination of the civil war in brazil has been followed by the general prevalence of peace and order it appearing at an early stage of the insurrection that its course would call for unusual watchfulness on the part of this government our naval force in the harbor of rio de janeiro was strengthened this precaution i am satisfied tended to restrict the issue to a simple trial of strength between the brazilian government and the insurgents and to avert complications which at times seemed imminent our firm attitude of neutrality was maintained to the end the insurgents received no encouragement of eventual asylum from our commanders and such opposition as they encountered was for the protection of our commerce and was clearly justified by public law a serious tension of relations having arisen at the close of the war between brazil and portugal by reason of the escape of the insurgent admiral da gama and his followers the friendly offices of our representatives to those countries were exerted for the protection of the subjects of either within the territory of the other although the government of brazil was duly notified that the commercial arrangement existing between the united states and that country based on the third section of the tariff act of 1890 was abrogated on august 28 1894 by the taking effect of the tariff law now in force that government subsequently notified us of its intention to terminate such arrangement on the 1st day of january 1895 in the exercise of the right reserved in the agreement between the two countries i invite attention to the correspondence between the secretary of state and the brazilian minister on this subject the commission organized under the convention which we had entered into with chile for the settlement of the outstanding claims of each government against the other adjourned at the end of the period stipulated for its continuance leaving undetermined a number of american cases which had been duly presented these claims are not barred and negotiations are in progress for their submission to a new tribunal on the 17th of march last a new treaty with china in further regulation of emigration was signed at washington and on august 13 it received the sanction of the senate ratification on the part of china and formal exchange are awaited to give effect to this mutually beneficial convention a gratifying recognition of the uniform impartiality of this country toward all foreign states was manifested by the coincident request of the chinese and japanese governments that the agents of the united states should within proper limits afford protection to the subjects of the other during the suspension of diplomatic relations due to a state of war this delicate office was accepted and a misapprehension which gave rise to the belief that in affording this kindly unofficial protection our agents would exercise the same authority which the withdrawn agents of the belligerents had exercised was promptly corrected although the war between china and japan endangers no policy of the united states it deserves our gravest consideration by reason of its disturbance of our growing commercial interests in the two countries and the increased dangers which may result to our citizens domiciled or sojourning in the interior of china acting under a stipulation in our treaty with korea the first concluded with a western power i felt constrained at the beginning of the controversy to tender our good offices to induce an amicable arrangement of the initial difficulty growing out of the japanese demands for administrative reforms in korea but the unhappy precipitation of actual hostilities defeated this kindly purpose deploring the destructive war between the two most powerful of the eastern nations and anxious that our commercial interests in those countries may be preserved and that the safety of our citizens there shall not be jeopardized i would not hesitate to heed any intimation that our friendly aid for the honorable termination of hostilities would be acceptable to both belligerents a convention has been finally concluded for the settlement by arbitration of the prolonged dispute with ecuador growing out of the proceedings against emilio santos a naturalized citizen of the united states our relations with the republic of france continue to be such as should exist between nations so long bound together by friendly sympathy and similarity in their form of government the recent cruel assassination of the president of this sister republic called forth such universal expressions of sorrow and condolence from our people and government as to leave no doubt of the depth and sincerity of our attachment the resolutions passed by the senate and house of representatives on the occasion have been communicated to the widow of president carnot acting upon the reported discovery of texas fever in cargoes of american cattle the german prohibition against importations of live stock and fresh meats from this country has been revived it is hoped that germany will soon become convinced that the inhibition is as needless as it is harmful to mutual interests the german government has protested against that provision of the customs tariff act which imposes a discriminating duty of of 1 cent a pound on sugars coming from countries paying an export bounty thereon claiming that the exaction of such duty is in contravention of articles v and ix of the treaty of 1828 with prussia in the interests of the commerce of both countries and to avoid even the accusation of treaty violation i recommend the repeal of so much of the statute as imposes that duty and i invite attention to the accompanying report of the secretary of state containing a discussion of the questions raised by the german protests early in the present year an agreement was reached with great britain concerning instructions to be given to the naval commanders of the two governments in bering sea and the contiguous north pacific ocean for their guidance in the execution of the award of the paris tribunal of arbitration and the enforcement of the regulations therein prescribed for the protection of seal life in the waters mentioned an understanding has also been reached for the payment by the united states of in full satisfaction of all claims which may be made by great britain for damages growing out of the controversy as to fur seals in bering sea or the seizure of british vessels engaged in taking seal in those waters the award and findings of the paris tribunal to a great extent determined the facts and principles upon which these claims should be adjusted and they have been subjected by both governments to a thorough examination upon the principles as well as the facts which they involve i am convinced that a settlement upon the terms mentioned would be an equitable and advantageous one and i recommend that provision be made for the prompt payment of the stated sum thus far only france and portugal have signified their willingness to adhere to the regulations established under the award of the paris tribunal of arbitration preliminary surveys of the alaskan boundary and a preparatory examination of the question of protection of food fish in the contiguous waters of the united states and the dominion of canada are in progress the boundary of british guiana still remains in dispute between great britain and venezuela believing that its early settlement on some just basis alike honorable to both parties is in the line of our established policy to remove from this hemisphere all causes of difference with powers beyond the sea i shall renew the efforts heretofore made to bring about a restoration of diplomatic relations between the disputants and to induce a reference to arbitration a resort which great britain so conspicuously favors in principle and respects in practice and which is earnestly sought by her weaker adversary since communicating the voluminous correspondence in regard to hawaii and the action taken by the senate and house of representatives on certain questions submitted to the judgment and wider discretion of congress the organization of a government in place of the provisional arrangement which followed the deposition of the queen has been announced with evidence of its effective operation the recognition usual in such cases has been accorded the new government under our present treaties of extradition with italy miscarriages of justice have occurred owing to the refusal of that government to surrender its own subjects thus far our efforts to negotiate an amended convention obviating this difficulty have been unavailing apart from the war in which the island empire is engaged japan attracts increasing attention in this country by her evident desire to cultivate more liberal intercourse with us and to seek our kindly aid in furtherance of her laudable desire for complete autonomy in her domestic affairs and full equality in the family of nations the japanese empire of is no longer the japan of the past and our relations with this progressive nation should not be less broad and liberal than those with other powers good will fostered by many interests in common has marked our relations with our nearest southern neighbor peace being restored along her northern frontier mexico has asked the punishment of the late disturbers of her tranquillity there ought to be a new treaty of commerce and navigation with that country to take the place of the one which terminated thirteen years ago the friendliness of the intercourse between the two countries is attested by the fact that during this long period the commerce of each has steadily increased under the rule of mutual consideration being neither stimulated by conventional arrangements nor retarded by jealous rivalries or selfish distrust an indemnity tendered by mexico as a gracious act for the murder in 1887 of leon baldwin an american citizen by a band of marauders in durango has been accepted and is being paid in installments the problem of the storage and use of the waters of the rio grande for irrigation should be solved by appropriate concurrent action of the two interested countries rising in the colorado heights the stream flows intermittently yielding little water during the dry months to the irrigation channels already constructed along its course this scarcity is often severely felt in the regions where the river forms a common boundary moreover the frequent changes in its course through level sands often raise embarrassing questions of territorial jurisdiction prominent among the questions of the year was the bluefields incident in what is known as the mosquito indian strip bordering on the atlantic ocean and within the jurisdiction of nicaragua by the treaty of 1860 between great britain and nicaragua the former government expressly recognized the sovereignty of the latter over the strip and a limited form of was guaranteed to the mosquito indians to be exercised according to their customs for themselves and other dwellers within its limits the native government which grew to be largely made up of aliens for many years disputed the sovereignty of nicaragua over the strip and claimed the right to maintain therein a practically independent municipal government early in the past year efforts of nicaragua to maintain sovereignty over the mosquito territory led to serious disturbances culminating in the suppression of the native government and the attempted substitution of an impracticable composite administration in which nicaragua and alien residents were to participate failure was followed by an insurrection which for a time subverted nicaraguan rule expelling her officers and restoring the old organization this in turn gave place to the existing local government established and upheld by nicaragua although the alien interests arrayed against nicaragua in these transactions have been largely american and the commerce of that region for some time has been and still is chiefly controlled by our citizens we can not for that reason challenge the rightful sovereignty of nicaragua over this important part of her domain for some months one and during part of the time two of our naval ships have been stationed at bluefields for the protection of all legitimate interests of our citizens in september last the government at managua expelled from its territory twelve or more foreigners including two americans for alleged participation in the seditious or revolutionary movements against the republic at bluefields already mentioned but through the earnest remonstrance of this government the two americans have been permitted to return to the peaceful management of their business our naval commanders at the scene of these disturbances by their constant exhibition of firmness and good judgment contributed largely to the prevention of more serious consequences and to the restoration of quiet and order i regret that in the midst of these occurrences there happened a most grave and irritating failure of nicaraguan justice an american citizen named wilson residing at rama in the mosquito territory was murdered by one arguello the acting governor of the town after some delay the murderer was arrested but so insecurely confined or guarded that he escaped and notwithstanding our repeated demands it is claimed that his recapture has been impossible by reason of his flight beyond nicaraguan jurisdiction the nicaraguan authorities having given notice of forfeiture of their concession to the canal company on grounds purely technical and not embraced in the contract have receded from that position peru i regret to say shows symptoms of domestic disturbance due probably to the slowness of her recuperation from the distresses of the war of 1881 weakened in resources her difficulties in facing international obligations invite our kindly sympathy and justify our forbearance in pressing claims i have felt constrained to testify this sympathy in connection with certain demands urgently preferred by other powers the recent death of the czar of russia called forth appropriate expressions of sorrow and sympathy on the part of our government with his bereaved family and the russian people as a further demonstration of respect and friendship our minister at petersburg was directed to represent our government at the funeral ceremonies the sealing interests of russia in bering sea are second only to our own a modus vivendi has therefore been concluded with the imperial government restrictive of poaching on the russian rookeries and of sealing in waters which were not comprehended in the protected area defined in the paris award occasion has been found to urge upon the russian government equality of treatment for our great companies whose operations have been extended throughout europe admitting as we do foreign corporations to transact business in the united states we naturally expect no less tolerance for our own in the ample fields of competition abroad but few cases of interference with naturalized citizens returning to russia have been reported during the current year one krzeminski was arrested last summer in a polish province on a reported charge of unpermitted renunciation of russian allegiance but it transpired that the proceedings originated in alleged malfeasance committed by krzeminski while an imperial official a number of years ago efforts for his release which promised to be successful were in progress when his death was reported the government of salvador having been overthrown by an abrupt popular outbreak certain of its military and civil officers while hotly pursued by infuriated insurgents sought refuge on board the united states war ship bennington then lying in a salvadorean port although the practice of asylum is not favored by this government yet in view of the imminent peril which threatened the fugitives and solely from considerations of humanity they were afforded shelter by our naval commander and when afterwards demanded under our treaty of extradition with salvador for trial on charges of murder arson and robbery i directed that such of them as had not voluntarily left the ship be conveyed to one of our nearest ports where a hearing could be had before a judicial officer in compliance with the terms of the treaty on their arrival at san francisco such a proceeding was promptly instituted before the united states district judge who held that the acts constituting the alleged offenses were political and discharged all the accused except one cienfuegos who was held for an attempt to murder thereupon i was constrained to direct his release for the reason that an attempt to murder was not one of the crimes charged against him and upon which his surrender to the salvadorean authorities had been demanded unreasonable and unjust fines imposed by spain on the vessels and commerce of the united states have demanded from time to time during the last twenty years earnest remonstrance on the part of our government in the immediate past exorbitant penalties have been imposed upon our vessels and goods by customs authorities of cuba and puerto rico for clerical errors of the most trivial character in the manifests of bills of lading in some cases fines amounting to thousands of dollars have been levied upon cargoes or the carrying vessels when the goods in question were entitled to free entry fines have been exacted even when the error had been detected and the spanish authorities notified before the arrival of the goods in port this conduct is in strange contrast with the considerate and liberal treatment extended to spanish vessels and cargoes in our ports in like cases no satisfactory settlement of these vexatious questions has yet been reached the mora case referred to in my last annual message remains unsettled from the diplomatic correspondence on this subject which has been laid before the senate it will be seen that this government has offered to conclude a convention with spain for disposal by arbitration of outstanding claims between the two countries except the mora claim which having been long ago adjusted now only awaits payment as stipulated and of course it could not be included in the proposed convention it was hoped that this offer would remove parliamentary obstacles encountered by the spanish government in providing payment of the mora indemnity i regret to say that no definite reply to this offer has yet been made and all efforts to secure payment of this settled claim have been unavailing in my last annual message i adverted to the claim on the part of turkey of the right to expel as persons undesirable and dangerous armenians naturalized in the united states and returning to turkish jurisdiction numerous questions in this relation have arisen while this government acquiesces in the asserted right of expulsion it will not consent that armenians may be imprisoned or otherwise punished for no other reason than having acquired without imperial consent american citizenship three of the assailants of miss melton an american teacher in mosul have been convicted by the ottoman courts and i am advised that an appeal against the acquittal of the remaining five has been taken by the turkish prosecuting officer a convention has been concluded with venezuela for the arbitration of a claim growing out of the seizure of certain vessels the property of citizens of the united states although signed the treaty of extradition with venezuela is not yet in force owing to the insistence of that government that when surrendered its citizens shall in no case be liable to capital punishment the rules for the prevention of collisions at sea which were framed by the maritime conference held in this city in 1889 having been concurrently incorporated in the statutes of the united states and great britain have been announced to take effect march 1 1895 and invitations have been extended to all maritime nations to adhere to them favorable responses have thus far been received from austria france portugal spain and sweden in my last annual message i referred briefly to the unsatisfactory state of affairs in samoa under the operation of the berlin treaty as signally illustrating the impolicy of entangling alliances with foreign powers and on may 9 1894 in response to a resolution of the senate i sent a special message and documents to that body on the same subject which emphasized my previously expressed opinions later occurrences the correspondence in regard to which will be laid before the congress further demonstrate that the government which was devised by the three powers and forced upon the samoans against their inveterate hostility can be maintained only by the continued presence of foreign military force and at no small sacrifice of life and treasure the suppression of the mataafa insurrection by the powers and the subsequent banishment of the leader and eleven other chiefs as recited in my last message did not bring lasting peace to the islands formidable uprisings continued and finally a rebellion broke out in the capital island upolu headed in aana the western district by the younger tamasese and in atua the eastern district by other leaders the insurgents ravaged the country and fought the government troops up to the very doors of apia the king again appealed to the powers for help and the combined british and german naval forces reduced the atuans to apparent subjection not however without considerable loss to the natives a few days later tamasese and his adherents fearing the ships and the marines professed submission reports received from our agents at apia do not justify the belief that the peace thus brought about will be of long duration it is their conviction that the natives are at heart hostile to the present government that such of them as profess loyalty to it do so from fear of the powers and that it would speedily go to pieces if the war ships were withdrawn in reporting to his government on the unsatisfactory situation since the suppression of the late revolt by foreign armed forces the german consul at apia stated that peace will be lasting is hardly to be presumed the lesson given by firing on atua was not sufficiently sharp and incisive to leave a lasting impression on the forgetful samoan temperament in fact conditions are existing which show that peace will not last and is not seriously intended malietoa the king and his chiefs are convinced that the departure of the war ships will be a signal for a renewal of war the circumstance that the representatives of the villages of all the districts which were opposed to the government have already withdrawn to atua to hold meetings and that both atua and aana have forbidden inhabitants of those districts which fought on the side of the government to return to their villages and have already partly burned down the latter indicates that a real conciliation of the parties is still far off and in a note of the 10th ultimo inclosing a copy of that report for the information of this government the german ambassador said the contents of the report awakened the imperial government apprehension that under existing circumstances the peace concluded with the rebels will afford no assurance of the lasting restoration of tranquillity in the islands the present government has utterly failed to correct if indeed it has not aggravated the very evils it was intended to prevent it has not stimulated our commerce with the islands our participation in its establishment against the wishes of the natives was in plain defiance of the conservative teachings and warnings of the wise and patriotic men who laid the foundations of our free institutions and i invite an expression of the judgment of congress on the propriety of steps being taken by this government looking to the withdrawal from its engagements with the other powers on some reasonable terms not prejudicial to any of our existing rights the secretary of the treasury reports that the receipts of the government from all sources of revenue during the fiscal year ending june 30 1894 amounted to and its expenditures to leaving a deficit of there was a decrease of in the ordinary expense of the government as compared with the fiscal year 1893 there was collected from customs and from internal revenue the balance of the income for the year amounting to was derived from the sales of lands and other sources the value of our total dutiable imports amounted to being less than during the preceding year and the importations free of duty amounted to being less than during the preceding year the receipts from customs were less and from internal revenue less than in 1893 the total tax collected from distilled spirits was on manufactured tobacco and on fermented liquors our exports of merchandise domestic and foreign amounted during the year to being an increase over the preceding year of the total amount of gold exported during the fiscal year was as against during the fiscal year 1893 the amount imported was as against during the previous year the imports of silver were and the exports were the total bounty paid upon the production of sugar in the united states for the fiscal year was being an increase of over the payments made during the preceding year the amount of bounty paid from july 1 1894 to august 28 1894 the time when further payments ceased by operation of law was the total expenses incurred in the payment of the bounty upon sugar during the fiscal year was it is estimated that upon the basis of the present revenue laws the receipts of the government during the current fiscal year ending june 30 1895 will be and its expenditures resulting in a deficit of on the 1st day of november 1894 the total stock of money of all kinds in the country was as against on the 1st day of november 1893 and the money of all kinds in circulation or not included in the treasury holdings was or per capita upon an estimated population of at the same date there was held in the treasury gold bullion amounting to and silver bullion which was purchased at a cost of the purchase of silver bullion under the act of july 14 1890 ceased on the 1st day of november 1893 and up to that time there had been purchased during the fiscal year fine ounces at a cost of an average cost of per fine ounce the total amount of silver purchased from the time that law took effect until the repeal of its purchasing clause on the date last mentioned was fine ounces which cost the average price per fine ounce being the total amount of standard silver dollars coined at the mints of the united states since the passage of the act of february 28 1878 is of which were coined under the provisions of that act under the provisions of the act of july 14 1890 and under the act providing for the coinage of bullion the total coinage of all metals at our mints during the last fiscal year consisted of pieces valued at of which there were in gold coined 758 in standard silver dollars in subsidiary silver coin and in minor coin during the calendar year 1893 the production of precious metals in the united states was estimated at fine ounces of gold of the commercial and coinage value of and fine ounces of silver of the bullion or market value of and of the coinage value of it is estimated that on the 1st day of july 1894 the stock of metallic money in the united states consisting of coin and bullion amounted to of which was gold and was silver fifty national banks were organized during the year ending october 31 1894 with a capital of and 79 with a capital of went into voluntary liquidation banks with a capital of were placed in the hands of receivers the total number of national banks in existence on the 31st day of october last was being 40 less than on the 31st day of october 1893 the capital stock paid in was being less than at the same time in the previous year and the surplus fund and individual profits less expenses and taxes paid amounted to which was less than on october 31 1893 the circulation was decreased the obligations of the banks to each other were increased and the individual deposits were less than at the corresponding date in the previous year loans and discounts were more than at the same time the previous year and checks and other cash items were more the total resources of the banks at the date mentioned amounted to as against in 1893 from the report of the secretary of war it appears that the strength of the army on september 30 1894 was officers and enlisted men although this is apparently a very slight decrease compared with the previous year the actual effective force has been increased to the equivalent of nearly two regiments through the reorganization of the system of recruiting and the consequent release to regimental duty of the large force of men hitherto serving at the recruiting depots the abolition of these depots it is predicted will furthermore effect an annual reduction approximating in the direct expenditures besides promoting generally the health morale and discipline of the troops the execution of the policy of concentrating the army at important centers of population and transportation foreshadowed in the last annual report of the secretary has resulted in the abandonment of fifteen of the smaller posts which was effected under a plan which assembles organizations of the same regiments hitherto widely separated this renders our small forces more readily effective for any service which they may be called upon to perform increases the extent of the territory under protection without diminishing the security heretofore afforded to any locality improves the discipline training and esprit de corps of the army besides considerably decreasing the cost of its maintenance though the forces of the department of the east have been somewhat increased more than of the army is still stationed west of the mississippi this carefully matured policy which secures the best and greatest service in the interests of the general welfare from the small force comprising our regular army should not be thoughtlessly embarrassed by the creation of new and unnecessary posts through acts of congress to gratify the ambitions or interests of localities while the maximum legal strength of the army is men the effective strength through various causes is but little over men the purpose of congress does not therefore seem to be fully attained by the existing condition while no considerable increase in the army is in my judgment demanded by recent events the policy of seacoast fortification in the prosecution of which we have been steadily engaged for some years has so far developed as to suggest that the effective strength of the army be now made at least equal to the legal strength measures taken by the department during the year as indicated have already considerably augmented the effective force and the secretary of war presents a plan which i recommend to the consideration of congress to attain the desired end economies effected in the department in other lines of its work will offset to a great extent the expenditure involved in the proposition submitted among other things this contemplates the adoption of the formation of regiments which for several years has been indorsed by the secretaries of war and the generals commanding the army compact in itself it provides a skeleton organization ready to be filled out in the event of war which is peculiarly adapted to our strength and requirements and the fact that every other nation with a single exception has adopted this formation to meet the conditions of modern warfare should alone secure for the recommendation an early consideration it is hardly necessary to recall the fact that in obedience to the commands of the constitution and the laws and for the purpose of protecting the property of the united states aiding the process of federal courts and removing lawless obstructions to the performance by the government of its legitimate functions it became necessary in various localities during the year to employ a considerable portion of the regular troops the duty was discharged promptly courageously and with marked discretion by the officers and men and the most gratifying proof was thus afforded that the army deserves that complete confidence in its efficiency and discipline which the country has at all times manifested the year has been free from disturbances by indians and the chances of further depredations on their part are constantly becoming more remote and improbable the total for the war department for the year ended june 30 1894 amounted to of this sum was for salaries and contingent expenses for the support of the military establishment for miscellaneous objects and for public works this latter sum includes for river and harbor improvements and for fortifications and other works of defense the appropriations for the current year aggregate and the estimates submitted by the secretary of war for the next fiscal year call for appropriations amounting to the skill and industry of our ordnance officers and inventors have it is believed overcome the mechanical obstacles which have heretofore delayed the armament of our coasts and this great national undertaking upon which we have entered may now proceed as rapidly as congress shall determine with a supply of finished guns of large caliber already on hand to which additions should now rapidly follow the wisdom of providing carriages and emplacements for their mount can not be too strongly urged the total enrollment of the militia of the several states is officers and enlisted men an increase of over the number reported at the close of the previous year the reports of militia inspections by regular army officers show a marked increase in interest and efficiency among the state organizations and i strongly recommend a continuance of the policy of affording every practical encouragement possible to this important auxiliary of our military establishment the condition of the apache indians held as prisoners by the government for eight years at a cost of half a million dollars has been changed during the year from captivity to one which gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their capacity for and at least partial civilization legislation enacted at the late session of congress gave the war department authority to transfer the survivors numbering 346 from mount vernon barracks in alabama to any suitable reservation the department selected as their future home the military lands near fort sill ind where under military surveillance the former prisoners have been established in agriculture under conditions favorable to their advancement in recognition of the long and distinguished military services and faithful discharge of delicate and responsible civil duties by john schofield now the general commanding the army it is suggested to congress that the temporary revival of the grade of in his behalf would be a just and gracious act and would permit his retirement now near at hand with rank befitting his merits the report of the notes the gratifying progress made by the supreme court in overcoming the arrears of its business and in reaching a condition in which it will be able to dispose of cases as they arise without any unreasonable delay this result is of course very largely due to the successful working of the plan inaugurating circuit courts of appeals in respect to these tribunals the suggestion is made in quarters entitled to the highest consideration that an additional circuit judge for each circuit would greatly strengthen these courts and the confidence reposed in their adjudications and that such an addition would not create a greater force of judges than the increasing business of such courts requires i commend the suggestion to the careful consideration of the congress other important topics are adverted to in the report accompanied by recommendations many of which have been treated at large in previous messages and at this time therefore need only be named i refer to the abolition of the fee system as a measure of compensation to federal officers the enlargement of the powers of united states commissioners at least in the territories the allowance of writs of error in criminal cases on behalf of the united states and the establishment of degrees in the crime of murder a topic dealt with by the of much importance is the condition of the administration of justice in the indian territory the permanent solution of what is called the indian problem is probably not to be expected at once but meanwhile such ameliorations of present conditions as the existing system will admit of ought not to be neglected i am satisfied there should be a federal court established for the territory with sufficient judges and that this court should sit within the territory and have the same jurisdiction as to territorial affairs as is now vested in the federal courts sitting in arkansas and texas another subject of pressing moment referred to by the is the reorganization of the union pacific railway company on a basis equitable as regards all private interests and as favorable to the government as existing conditions will permit the operation of a railroad by a court through a receiver is an anomalous state of things which should be terminated on all grounds public and private at the earliest possible moment besides not to enact the needed enabling legislation at the present session postpones the whole matter until the assembling of a new congress and inevitably increases all the complications of the situation and could not but be regarded as a signal failure to solve a problem which has practically been before the present congress ever since its organization eight years ago in my annual message i urged upon the congress as strongly as i could the location and construction of two prisons for the confinement of united states prisoners a similar recommendation has been made from time to time since and a few years ago a law was passed providing for the selection of sites for three such institutions no appropriation has however been made to carry the act into effect and the old and discreditable condition still exists it is not my purpose at this time to repeat the considerations which make an impregnable case in favor of the ownership and management by the government of the penal institutions in which federal prisoners are confined i simply desire to again urge former recommendations on the subject and to particularly call the attention of the congress to that part of the report of the secretary of war in which he states that the military prison at fort leavenworth can be turned over to the government as a prison for federal convicts without the least difficulty and with an actual saving of money from every point of view pending a more complete reform i hope that by the adoption of the suggestion of the secretary of war this easy step may be taken in the direction of the proper care of its convicts by the government of the united states the report of the presents a comprehensive statement of the operations of the department for the last fiscal year the receipts of the department during the year amounted to and the expenditures to the transactions of the postal service indicate with barometric certainty the fluctuations in the business of the country inasmuch therefore as business complications continued to exist throughout the last year to an unforeseen extent it is not surprising that the deficiency of revenue to meet the expenditures of the department which was estimated in advance at about should be exceeded by nearly the ascertained revenues of the last year which were the basis of calculation for the current year being less than estimated the deficiency for the current year will be correspondingly greater though the states that the latest indications are so favorable that he confidently predicts an increase of at least 8 per cent in the revenues of the current year over those of the last year the expenditures increase steadily and necessarily with the growth and needs of the country so that the deficiency is greater or less in any year depending upon the volume of receipts the states that this deficiency is unnecessary and might be obviated at once if the law regulating rates upon mail matter of the second class was modified the rate received for the transmission of this matter is 1 cent per pound while the cost of such transmission to the government is eight times that amount in the general terms of the law this rate covers newspapers and periodicals the extensions of the meaning of these terms from time to time have admitted to the privileges intended for legitimate newspapers and periodicals a surprising range of publications and created abuses the cost of which amounts in the aggregate to the total deficiency of the department pretended newspapers are started by business houses for the mere purpose of advertising goods complying with the law in form only and discontinuing the publications as soon as the period of advertising is over sample copies of pretended newspapers are issued in great numbers for a like purpose only the result is a great loss of revenue to the government besides its humiliating use as an agency to aid in carrying out the scheme of a business house to advertise its goods by means of a trick upon both its rival houses and the regular and legitimate newspapers literature consisting mainly of trashy novels to the extent of many thousands of tons is sent through the mails at 1 cent per pound while the publishers of standard works are required to pay eight times that amount in sending their publications another abuse consists in the free carriage through the mails of hundreds of tons of seed and grain uselessly distributed through the department of agriculture the predicts that if the law be so amended as to eradicate these abuses not only will the department show no deficiency but he believes that in the near future all legitimate newspapers and periodical magazines might be properly transmitted through the mails to their subscribers free of cost i invite your prompt consideration of this subject and fully indorse the views of the the total number of in the united states on the 30th day of june 1894 was an increase of over the preceding year of these were presidential an increase in that class of 68 over the preceding year six hundred and ten cities and towns are provided with free delivery other cities and towns entitled to this service under the law have not been accorded it on account of insufficient funds the expense of free delivery for the current fiscal year will be more than and under existing legislation this item of expenditure is subject to constant increase the estimated cost of rural free delivery generally is so very large that it ought not to be considered in the present condition of affairs during the year 830 additional domestic offices were established the total number of these offices at the close of the year was there were money orders issued during the year being an increase over the preceding year of the value of these orders amounted to an increase of there were also issued during the year postal notes amounting to during the year 218 international offices were added to those already established making a total of such offices in operation june 30 1894 the number of international money orders issued during the year was a decrease in number of and their value was a decrease in amount of the number of orders paid was an increase over the preceding year of and their value was an increase of from the foregoing statements it appears that the total issue of money orders and postal notes for the year amounted to the number of letters and packages mailed during the year for special delivery was the stamps used upon these letters and packages amounted to the messengers fees paid for their delivery amounted to leaving a balance in favor of the government of the report shows most gratifying results in the way of economies worked out without affecting the efficiency of the postal service these consist in the abrogation of steamship subsidy contracts reletting of mail transportation contracts and in the cost and amount of supplies used in the service amounting in all to this report also contains a valuable contribution to the history of the universal postal union an arrangement which amounts practically to the establishment of one postal system for the entire civilized world special attention is directed to this subject at this time in view of the fact that the next congress of the union will meet in washington in 1897 and it is hoped that timely action will be taken in the direction of perfecting preparations for that event the renews the suggestion made in a previous report that the department organization be increased to the extent of creating a direct district supervision of all postal affairs and in this suggestion i fully concur there are now connected with the establishment employees who are in the classified service this includes many who have been classified upon the suggestion of the he states that another year experience at the head of the department serves only to strengthen the conviction as to the excellent working of the law in this branch of the public service attention is called to the report of the secretary of the navy which shows very gratifying progress in the construction of ships for our new navy all the vessels now building including the three torpedo boats authorized at the last session of congress and excepting the battle ship iowa will probably be completed during the coming fiscal year the estimates for the increase of the navy for the year ending june 30 1896 are large but they include practically the entire sum necessary to complete and equip all the new ships not now in commission so that unless new ships are authorized the appropriations for the naval service for the fiscal year ending june 30 1897 should fall below the estimates for the coming year by at least the secretary presents with much earnestness a plea for the authorization of three additional battle ships and ten or twelve torpedo boats while the unarmored vessels heretofore authorized including those now nearing completion will constitute a fleet which it is believed is sufficient for ordinary cruising purposes in time of peace we have now completed and in process of construction but four battle ships and but few torpedo boats if we are to have a navy for warlike operations offensive and defensive we certainly ought to increase both the number of battle ships and torpedo boats the manufacture of armor requires expensive plants and the aggregation of many skilled workmen all the armor necessary to complete the vessels now building will be delivered before the 1st of june next if no new contracts are given out contractors must disband their workmen and their plants must lie idle battle ships authorized at this time would not be well under way until late in the coming fiscal year and at least three years and a half from the date of the contract would be required for their completion the secretary states that not more than 15 per cent of the cost of such ships need be included in the appropriations for the coming year i recommend that provision be made for the construction of additional battle ships and torpedo boats the secretary recommends the manufacture not only of a reserve supply of ordnance and ordnance material for ships of the navy but also a supply for the auxiliary fleet guns and their appurtenances should be provided and kept on hand for both these purposes we have not a single gun that could be put upon the ships paris or new york of the international navigation company or any other ship of our reserve navy the manufacture of guns at the washington is proceeding satisfactorily and none of our new ships will be required to wait for their guns or ordnance equipment an important order has been issued by the secretary of the navy coordinating the duties of the several bureaus concerned in the construction of ships this order it is believed will secure to a greater extent than has heretofore been possible the harmonious action of these several bureaus and make the attainment of the best results more certain during the past fiscal year there has been an unusual and pressing demand in many quarters of the world for the presence of vessels to guard american interests in january last during the brazilian insurrection a large fleet was concentrated in the harbor of rio de janeiro the vigorous action of benham in protecting the personal and commercial rights of our citizens during the disturbed conditions afforded results which will it is believed have a and wholesome influence whenever in like circumstances it may become necessary for our naval commanders to interfere on behalf of our people in foreign ports the war now in progress between china and japan has rendered it necessary or expedient to dispatch eight vessels to those waters both the secretary of the navy and the secretary of the treasury recommend the transfer of the work of the coast survey proper to the navy department i heartily concur in this recommendation excluding alaska and a very small area besides all the work of mapping and charting our coasts has been completed the hydrographic work which must be done over and over again by reason of the shifting and varying depths of water consequent upon the action of streams and tides has heretofore been done under the direction of naval officers in subordination to the superintendent of the coast survey there seems to be no good reason why the navy should not have entire charge hereafter of such work especially as the hydrographic office of the navy department is now and has been for many years engaged in making efficient maps entirely similar to those prepared by the coast survey i feel it my imperative duty to call attention to the recommendation of the secretary in regard to the personnel of the line of the navy the stagnation of promotion in this the vital branch of the service is so great as to seriously impair its efficiency i consider it of the utmost importance that the young and officers should before the eve of retirement be permitted to reach a grade entitling them to active and important duty the system adopted a few years ago regulating the employment of labor at the is rigidly upheld and has fully demonstrated its usefulness and expediency it is within the domain of reform inasmuch as workmen are employed through a board of labor selected at each and are given work without reference to politics and in the order of their application preference however being given to army and navy veterans and those having former experience amendments suggested by experience have been made to the rules regulating the system through its operation the work at our has been vastly improved in efficiency and the opportunity to work has been honestly and fairly awarded to willing and competent applicants it is hoped that if this system continues to be strictly adhered to there will soon be as a natural consequence such an equalization of party benefit as will remove all temptation to relax or abandon it the report of the secretary of the interior exhibits the situation of the numerous and interesting branches of the public service connected with his department i commend this report and the valuable recommendations of the secretary to the careful attention of the congress the public land disposed of during the year amounted to acres including of indian lands it is estimated that the public domain still remaining amounts to a little more than acres including however about acres in alaska as well as military reservations and railroad and other selections of lands yet unadjudicated the total cash receipts from sale of lands amounted to including received for indian lands thousand patents were issued for agricultural lands and patents were issued to indians on allotments of their holdings in severalty the land so allotted being inalienable by the indian allottees for a period of years after patent there were certified and patented on account of railroad and grants during the year acres of land and at the close of the year acres were embraced in the lists of selections made by railroad and companies and awaited settlement the selections of swamp lands and that taken as indemnity therefor since the passage of the act providing for the same in 1849 amount to nearly or quite acres of which have been patented to states about acres were patented during the last year nearly acres of school and education grants were approved during the year and at its close acres remained unadjusted it appears that the appropriation for the current year on account of special service for the protection of the public lands and the timber thereon is much less than those for previous years and inadequate for an efficient performance of the work a larger sum of money than has been appropriated during a number of years past on this account has been returned to the government as a result of the labors of those employed in the particular service mentioned and i hope it will not be crippled by insufficient appropriation i fully indorse the recommendation of the secretary that adequate protection be provided for our forest reserves and that a comprehensive forestry system be inaugurated such keepers and superintendents as are necessary to protect the forests already reserved should be provided i am of the opinion that there should be an abandonment of the policy sanctioned by present laws under which the government for a very small consideration is rapidly losing title to immense tracts of land covered with timber which should be properly reserved as permanent sources of timber supply the suggestion that a change be made in the manner of securing surveys of the public lands is especially worthy of consideration i am satisfied that these surveys should be made by a corps of competent surveyors under the immediate control and direction of the commissioner of the general land office an exceedingly important recommendation of the secretary relates to the manner in which contests and litigated cases growing out of efforts to obtain government land are determined the entire testimony upon which these controversies depend in all their stages is taken before the local registers and receivers and yet these officers have no power to subpoena witnesses or to enforce their attendance to testify these cases numbering three or four thousand annually are sent by the local officers to the commissioner of the general land office for his action the exigencies of his other duties oblige him to act upon the decisions of the registers and receivers without an opportunity of thorough personal examination nearly of these cases are appealed annually from the commissioner to the secretary of the interior burdened with other important administrative duties his determination of these appeals must be almost perfunctory and based upon the examination of others though this determination of the secretary operates as a final adjudication upon rights of very great importance i concur in the opinion that the commissioner of the general land office should be relieved from the duty of deciding litigated land cases that a nonpartisan court should be created to pass on such cases and that the decisions of this court should be final at least so far as the decisions of the department are now final the proposed court might be given authority to certify questions of law in matters of especial importance to the supreme court of the united states or the court of appeals for the district of columbia for decision the creation of such a tribunal would expedite the disposal of cases and insure decisions of a more satisfactory character the registers and receivers who originally hear and decide these disputes should be invested with authority to compel witnesses to attend and testify before them though the condition of the indians shows a steady and healthy progress their situation is not satisfactory at all points some of them to whom allotments of land have been made are found to be unable or disinclined to follow agricultural pursuits or to otherwise beneficially manage their land this is especially true of the cheyennes and arapahoes who as it appears by reports of their agent have in many instances never been located upon their allotments and in some cases do not even know where their allotments are their condition has deteriorated they are not and they live in camps and spend their time in idleness i have always believed that allotments of reservation lands to indians in severalty should be made sparingly or at least slowly and with the utmost caution in these days when white agriculturists and stock raisers of experience and intelligence find their lot a hard one we ought not to expect indians unless far advanced in civilization and habits of industry to support themselves on the small tracts of land usually allotted to them if the scheme by allotment fails the wretched pauperism of the allottees which results is worse than their original condition of regulated dependence it is evident that the evil consequences of allotment are intensified in cases where the false step can not be retraced on account of the purchase by the government of reservation lands remaining after allotments are made and the disposition of such remaining lands to settlers or purchasers from the government i am convinced that the proper solution of the indian problem and the success of every step taken in that direction depend to a very large extent upon the intelligence and honesty of the reservation agents and the interest they have in their work an agent fitted for his place can do much toward preparing the indians under his charge for citizenship and allotment of their lands and his advice as to any matter concerning their welfare will not mislead an unfit agent will make no effort to advance the indians on his reservation toward civilization or preparation for allotment of lands in severalty and his opinion as to their condition in this and other regards is heedless and valueless the indications are that the detail of army officers as indian agents will result in improved management on the reservations whenever allotments are made and any indian on the reservation has previously settled upon a lot and cultivated it or shown a disposition to improve it in any way such lot should certainly be allotted to him and this should be made plainly obligatory by statute in the light of experience and considering the uncertainty of the indian situation and its exigencies in the future i am not only disposed to be very cautious in making allotments but i incline to agree with the secretary of the interior in the opinion that when allotments are made the balance of reservation land remaining after allotment instead of being bought by the government from the indians and opened for settlement with such scandals and unfair practices as seem unavoidable should remain for a time at least as common land or be sold by the government on behalf of the indians in an orderly way and at fixed prices to be determined by its location and desirability and that the proceeds less expenses should be held in trust for the benefit of the indian proprietors the intelligent management of the past year has been followed by gratifying results efforts have been made to advance the work in a sound and practical manner five institutes of indian teachers have been held during the year and have proved very beneficial through the views exchanged and methods discussed particularly applicable to indian education efforts are being made in the direction of a gradual reduction of the number of indian contract schools so that in a comparatively short time they may give way altogether to government schools and it is hoped that the change may be so gradual as to be perfected without too great expense to the government or undue disregard of investments made by those who have established and are maintaining such contract schools the appropriation for the current year ending june 30 1895 applicable to the ordinary expenses of the indian service amounts to being less by than the sum appropriated on the same account for the previous year at the close of the last fiscal year on the 30th day of june 1894 there were persons on our pension rolls being a net increase of over the number reported at the end of the previous year these pensioners may be classified as follows soldiers and sailors survivors of all wars widows and relatives of deceased soldiers army nurses in the war of the rebellion 414 of these pensioners are surviving soldiers of indian and other wars prior to the late civil war and the widows or relatives of such soldiers the remainder numbering are receiving pensions on account of the rebellion and of these are on the rolls under the authority of the act of june 27 1890 sometimes called the law the total amount expended for pensions during the year was leaving an unexpended balance from the sum appropriated of the sum necessary to meet pension expenditures for the year ending june 30 1896 is estimated at the commissioner of pensions is of the opinion that the year 1895 being the thirtieth after the close of the war of the rebellion must according to all sensible human calculation see the highest limit of the pension roll and that after that year it must begin to decline the claims pending in the bureau have decreased more than during the year a large proportion of the new claims filed are for increase of pension by those now on the rolls the number of certificates issued was the names dropped from the rolls for all causes during the year numbered among our pensioners are 9 widows and 3 daughters of soldiers of the revolution and 45 survivors of the war of 1812 the barefaced and extensive pension frauds exposed under the direction of the courageous and generous veteran soldier now at the head of the bureau leave no room for the claim that no purgation of our pension rolls was needed or that continued vigilance and prompt action are not necessary to the same end the accusation that an effort to detect pension frauds is evidence of unfriendliness toward our worthy veterans and a denial of their claims to the generosity of the government suggests an unfortunate indifference to the commission of any offense which has for its motive the securing of a pension and indicates a willingness to be blind to the existence of mean and treacherous crimes which play upon demagogic fears and make sport of the patriotic impulse of a grateful people the completion of the eleventh census is now in charge of the commissioner of labor the total disbursements on account of the work for the fiscal year ending june 30 1894 amounted to at the close of the year the number of persons employed in the census office was 679 at present there are about 400 the whole number of volumes necessary to comprehend the eleventh census will be 25 and they will contain printed pages the assurance is confidently made that before the close of the present calendar year the material still incomplete will be practically in hand and the census can certainly be closed by the 4th of march 1895 after that the revision and proof reading necessary to bring out the volumes will still be required the text of the census volumes has been limited as far as possible to the analysis of the statistics presented this method which is in accordance with law has caused more or less friction and in some instances individual disappointment for when the commissioner of labor took charge of the work he found much matter on hand which according to this rule he was compelled to discard the census is being prepared according to the theory that it is designed to collect facts and certify them to the public not to elaborate arguments or to present personal views the secretary of agriculture in his report reviews the operations of his department for the last fiscal year and makes recommendations for the further extension of its usefulness he reports a saving in expenditures during the year of which is covered back into the treasury this sum is 23 per cent of the entire appropriation a special study has been made of the demand for american farm products in all foreign markets especially great britain that country received from the united states during the nine months ending september 30 1894 live beef cattle valued at as against cattle valued at during the same period for 1893 during the first six months of 1894 the united kingdom took also pounds of dressed beef from the united states valued at nearly the report shows that during the nine months immediately preceding september 30 1894 the united states exported to great britain pounds of pork of apples bushels valued at and of horses at an average value of 139 per head there was a falling off in american wheat exports of bushels and the secretary is inclined to believe that wheat may not in the future be the staple export cereal product of our country but that corn will continue to advance in importance as an export on account of the new uses to which it is constantly being appropriated the exports of agricultural products from the united states for the fiscal year ending june 30 1894 amounted to being per cent of american exports of every description and the united kingdom of great britain took more than 54 per cent of all farm products finding foreign markets the department of agriculture has undertaken during the year two new and important lines of research the first relates to grasses and forage plants with the purpose of instructing and familiarizing the people as to the distinctive grasses of the united states and teaching them how to introduce valuable foreign forage plants which may be adapted to this country the second relates to agricultural soils and crop production involving the analyses of samples of soils from all sections of the american union to demonstrate their adaptability to particular plants and crops mechanical analyses of soils may be of such inestimable utility that it is foremost in the new lines of agricultural research and the secretary therefore recommends that a division having it in charge be permanently established in the department the amount appropriated for the weather bureau was of that sum or 14 per cent has been saved and is returned to the treasury as illustrating the usefulness of this service it may be here stated that the warnings which were very generally given of two tropical storms occurring in september and october of the present year resulted in detaining safely in port vessels valued at laden with cargoes of probably still greater value what is much more important and gratifying many human lives on these ships were also undoubtedly saved the appropriation to the bureau of animal industry was and the expenditures for the year were only thus leaving unexpended the inspection of beef animals for export and interstate trade has been continued and head were inspected during the year at a cost of 1 cents per head against 4 cents for 1893 the amount of pork microscopically examined was pounds against pounds in the preceding year the cost of this inspection has been diminished from 8 cents per head in 1893 to 6 cents in 1894 the expense of inspecting the pork sold in 1894 to germany and france by the united states was the quantity inspected was greater by pounds than during the preceding year when the cost of such inspection was the secretary of agriculture recommends that the law providing for the microscopic inspection of export and interstate meat be so amended as to compel owners of the meat inspected to pay the cost of such inspection and i call attention to the arguments presented in his report in support of this recommendation the live beef cattle exported and tagged during the year numbered this is an increase of head over the previous year the sanitary inspection of cattle shipped to europe has cost an average of 10 cents for each animal and the cost of inspecting southern cattle and the disinfection of cars and stock yards averages cents per animal the scientific inquiries of the bureau of animal industry have progressed steadily during the year much tuberculin and mallein have been furnished to state authorities for use in the agricultural colleges and experiment stations for the treatment of tuberculosis and glanders quite recently this department has published the results of its investigations of bovine tuberculosis and its researches will be vigorously continued certain herds in the district of columbia will be thoroughly inspected and will probably supply adequate scope for the department to intelligently prosecute its scientific work and furnish sufficient material for purposes of illustration description and definition the sterilization of milk suspected of containing the bacilli of tuberculosis has been during the year very thoroughly explained in a leaflet by salmon the chief of the bureau and given general circulation throughout the country the office of experiment stations which is a part of the united states department of agriculture has during the past year engaged itself almost wholly in preparing for publication works based upon the reports of agricultural experiment stations and other institutions for agricultural inquiry in the united states and foreign countries the secretary in his report for 1893 called attention to the fact that the appropriations made for the support of the experiment stations throughout the union were the only moneys taken out of the national treasury by act of congress for which no accounting to federal authorities was required responding to this suggestion the congress in making the appropriation for the department for the present fiscal year provided that the secretary of agriculture shall prescribe the form of annual financial statement required by section 3 of said act of march 2 1887 shall ascertain whether the expenditures under the appropriation hereby made are in accordance with the provisions of said act and shall make report thereon to congress in obedience to this law the department of agriculture immediately sent out blank forms of expense accounts to each station and proposes in addition to make through trusted experts systematic examination of the several stations during each year for the purpose of acquiring by personal investigation the detailed information necessary to enable the secretary of agriculture to make as the statute provides a satisfactory report to congress the boards of management of the several stations with great alacrity and cordiality have approved the amendment to the law providing this supervision of their expenditures anticipating that it will increase the efficiency of the stations and protect their directors and managers from loose charges concerning their use of public funds besides bringing the department of agriculture into closer and more confidential relations with the experimental stations and through their joint service largely increasing their usefulness to the agriculture of the country acting upon a recommendation contained in the report of 1893 congress appropriated to enable the secretary of agriculture to investigate and report upon the nutritive value of the various articles and commodities used for human food with special suggestions of full wholesome and edible rations less wasteful and more economical than those in common use under this appropriation the department has prepared and now has nearly ready for distribution an elementary discussion of the nutritive value and pecuniary economy of food when we consider that fully of all the money earned by the wage earners of the civilized world is expended by them for food the importance and utility of such an investigation is apparent the department expended in the fiscal year 1893 and out of that sum the total amount expended in scientific research was per cent but in the year ending june 30 1894 out of a total expenditure of the department applied per cent of that sum to scientific work and investigation it is therefore very plainly observable that the economies which have been practiced in the administration of the department have not been at the expense of scientific research the recommendation contained in the report of the secretary for 1893 that the vicious system of promiscuous free distribution of its departmental documents be abandoned is again urged these publications may well be furnished without cost to public libraries educational institutions and the officers and libraries of states and of the federal government but from all individuals applying for them a price covering the cost of the document asked for should be required thus the publications and documents would be secured by those who really desire them for proper purposes half a million of copies of the report of the secretary of agriculture are printed for distribution at an annual cost of about large numbers of them are cumbering storerooms at the capitol and the shelves of stores throughout the country all this labor and waste might be avoided if the recommendations of the secretary were adopted the secretary also again recommends that the gratuitous distribution of seeds cease and that no money be appropriated for that purpose except to experiment stations he reiterates the reasons given in his report for 1893 for discontinuing this unjustifiable gratuity and i fully concur in the conclusions which he has reached the best service of the statistician of the department of agriculture is the ascertainment by diligence and care of the actual and real conditions favorable or unfavorable of the farmers and farms of the country and to seek the causes which produce these conditions to the end that the facts ascertained may guide their intelligent treatment a further important utility in agricultural statistics is found in their elucidation of the relation of the supply of farm products to the demand for them in the markets of the united states and of the world it is deemed possible that an agricultural census may be taken each year through the agents of the statistical division of the department such a course is commended for trial by the chief of that division its scope would be 1 the area under each of the more important crops 2 the aggregate products of each of such crops 3 the quantity of wheat and corn in the hands of farmers at a date after the spring sowings and plantings and before the beginning of harvest and also the quantity of cotton and tobacco remaining in the hands of planters either at the same date or at some other designated time the cost of the work is estimated at owing to the peculiar quality of the statistician work and the natural and acquired fitness necessary to its successful prosecution the secretary of agriculture expresses the opinion that every person employed in gathering statistics under the chief of that division should be admitted to that service only after a thorough exhaustive and successful examination at the hands of the united states civil service commission this has led him to call for such examination of candidates for the position of assistant statisticians and also of candidates for chiefs of sections in that division the work done by the department of agriculture is very superficially dealt with in this communication and i commend the report of the secretary and the very important interests with which it deals to the careful attention of the congress the advantages to the public service of an adherence to the principles of reform are constantly more apparent and nothing is so encouraging to those in official life who honestly desire good government as the increasing appreciation by our people of these advantages a vast majority of the voters of the land are ready to insist that the time and attention of those they select to perform for them important public duties should not be distracted by doling out minor offices and they are growing to be unanimous in regarding party organization as something that should be used in establishing party principles instead of dictating the distribution of public places as rewards of partisan activity numerous additional offices and places have lately been brought within rules and regulations and some others will probably soon be included the report of the commissioners will be submitted to the congress and i invite careful attention to the recommendations it contains i am entirely convinced that we ought not to be longer without a national board of health or national health officer charged with no other duties than such as pertain to the protection of our country from the invasion of pestilence and disease this would involve the establishment by such board or officer of proper quarantine precautions or the necessary aid and counsel to local authorities on the subject prompt advice and assistance to local boards of health or health officers in the suppression of contagious disease and in cases where there are no such local boards or officers the immediate direction by the national board or officer of measures of suppression constant and authentic information concerning the health of foreign countries and all parts of our own country as related to contagious diseases and consideration of regulations to be enforced in foreign ports to prevent the introduction of contagion into our cities and the measures which should be adopted to secure their enforcement there seems to be at this time a decided inclination to discuss measures of protection against contagious diseases in international conference with a view of adopting means of mutual assistance the creation of such a national health establishment would greatly aid our standing in such conferences and improve our opportunities to avail ourselves of their benefits i earnestly recommend the inauguration of a national board of health or similar national instrumentality believing the same to be a needed precaution against contagious disease and in the interest of the safety and health of our people by virtue of a statute of the united states passed in 1888 i appointed in july last hon john kernan of the state of new york and hon nicholas worthington of the state of illinois to form with hon carroll wright commissioner of labor who was designated by said statute a commission for the purpose of making careful inquiry into the causes of the controversies between certain railroads and their employees which had resulted in an extensive and destructive strike accompanied by much violence and dangerous disturbance with considerable loss of life and great destruction of property the report of the commissioners has been submitted to me and will be transmitted to the congress with the evidence taken upon their investigation their work has been well done and their standing and intelligence give assurance that the report and suggestions they make are worthy of careful consideration the tariff act passed at the last session of the congress needs important amendments if it is to be executed effectively and with certainty in addition to such necessary amendments as will not change rates of duty i am still very decidedly in favor of putting coal and iron upon the free list so far as the sugar schedule is concerned i would be glad under existing aggravations to see every particle of differential duty in favor of refined sugar stricken out of our tariff law if with all the favor now accorded the interest in our tariff laws it still languishes to the extent of closed refineries and thousands of discharged workmen it would seem to present a hopeless case for reasonable legislative aid whatever else is done or omitted i earnestly repeat here the recommendation i have made in another portion of this communication that the additional duty of of a cent per pound laid upon sugar imported from countries paying a bounty on its export be abrogated it seems to me that exceedingly important considerations point to the propriety of this amendment with the advent of a new tariff policy not only calculated to relieve the consumers of our land in the cost of their daily life but to invite a better development of american thrift and create for us closer and more profitable commercial relations with the rest of the world it follows as a logical and imperative necessity that we should at once remove the chief if not the only obstacle which has so long prevented our participation in the foreign carrying trade of the sea a tariff built upon the theory that it is well to check imports and that a home market should bound the industry and effort of american producers was fitly supplemented by a refusal to allow american registry to vessels built abroad though owned and navigated by our people thus exhibiting a willingness to abandon all contest for the advantages of american transoceanic carriage our new tariff policy built upon the theory that it is well to encourage such importations as our people need and that our products and manufactures should find markets in every part of the habitable globe is consistently supplemented by the greatest possible liberty to our citizens in the ownership and navigation of ships in which our products and manufactures may be transported the millions now paid to foreigners for carrying american passengers and products across the sea should be turned into american hands shipbuilding which has been protected to strangulation should be revived by the prospect of profitable employment for ships when built and the american sailor should be resurrected and again take his place a sturdy and industrious citizen in time of peace and a patriotic and safe defender of american interests in the day of conflict the ancient provision of our law denying american registry to ships built abroad and owned by americans appears in the light of present conditions not only to be a failure for good at every point but to be nearer a relic of barbarism than anything that exists under the permission of a statute of the united states i earnestly recommend its prompt repeal during the last month the gold reserved in the treasury for the purpose of redeeming the notes of the government circulating as money in the hands of the people became so reduced and its further depletion in the near future seemed so certain that in the exercise of proper care for the public welfare it became necessary to replenish this reserve and thus maintain popular faith in the ability and determination of the government to meet as agreed its pecuniary obligations it would have been well if in this emergency authority had existed to issue the bonds of the government bearing a low rate of interest and maturing within a short period but the congress having failed to confer such authority resort was necessarily had to the resumption act of 1875 and pursuant to its provisions bonds were issued drawing interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum and maturing ten years after their issue that being the shortest time authorized by the act i am glad to say however that on the sale of these bonds the premium received operated to reduce the rate of interest to be paid by the government to less than 3 per cent nothing could be worse or further removed from sensible finance than the relations existing between the currency the government has issued the gold held for its redemption and the means which must be resorted to for the purpose of replenishing such redemption fund when impaired even if the claims upon this fund were confined to the obligations originally intended and if the redemption of these obligations meant their cancellation the fund would be very small but these obligations when received and redeemed in gold are not canceled but are reissued and may do duty many times by way of drawing gold from the treasury thus we have an endless chain in operation constantly depleting the treasury gold and never near a final rest as if this was not bad enough we have by a statutory declaration that it is the policy of the government to maintain the parity between gold and silver aided the force and momentum of this exhausting process and added largely to the currency obligations claiming this peculiar gold redemption our small gold reserve is thus subject to drain from every side the demands that increase our danger also increase the necessity of protecting this reserve against depletion and it is most unsatisfactory to know that the protection afforded is only a temporary palliation it is perfectly and palpably plain that the only way under present conditions by which this reserve when dangerously depleted can be replenished is through the issue and sale of the bonds of the government for gold and yet congress has not only thus far declined to authorize the issue of bonds best suited to such a purpose but there seems a disposition in some quarters to deny both the necessity and power for the issue of bonds at all i can not for a moment believe that any of our citizens are deliberately willing that their government should default in its pecuniary obligations or that its financial operations should be reduced to a silver basis at any rate i should not feel that my duty was done if i omitted any effort i could make to avert such a calamity as long therefore as no provision is made for the final redemption or the putting aside of the currency obligation now used to repeatedly and constantly draw from the government its gold and as long as no better authority for bond issues is allowed than at present exists such authority will be utilized whenever and as often as it becomes necessary to maintain a sufficient gold reserve and in abundant time to save the credit of our country and make good the financial declarations of our government questions relating to our banks and currency are closely connected with the subject just referred to and they also present some unsatisfactory features prominent among them are the lack of elasticity in our currency circulation and its frequent concentration in financial centers when it is most needed in other parts of the country the absolute divorcement of the government from the business of banking is the ideal relationship of the government to the circulation of the currency of the country this condition can not be immediately reached but as a step in that direction and as a means of securing a more elastic currency and obviating other objections to the present arrangement of bank circulation the secretary of the treasury presents in his report a scheme modifying present banking laws and providing for the issue of circulating notes by state banks free from taxation under certain limitations the secretary explains his plan so plainly and its advantages are developed by him with such remarkable clearness that any effort on my part to present argument in its support would be superfluous i shall therefore content myself with an unqualified indorsement of the secretary proposed changes in the law and a brief and imperfect statement of their prominent features it is proposed to repeal all laws providing for the deposit of united states bonds as security for circulation to permit national banks to issue circulating notes not exceeding in amount 75 per cent of their and unimpaired capital provided they deposit with the government as a guaranty fund in united states notes including treasury notes of 1890 a sum equal in amount to 30 per cent of the notes they desire to issue this deposit to be maintained at all times but whenever any bank retires any part of its circulation a proportional part of its guaranty fund shall be returned to it to permit the secretary of the treasury to prepare and keep on hand ready for issue in case an increase in circulation is desired blank notes for each bank having circulation and to repeal the provisions of the present law imposing limitations and restrictions upon banks desiring to reduce or increase their circulation thus permitting such increase or reduction within the limit of 75 per cent of capital to be quickly made as emergencies arise in addition to the guaranty fund required it is proposed to provide a safety fund for the immediate redemption of the circulating notes of failed banks by imposing a small annual tax say of 1 per cent upon the average circulation of each bank until the fund amounts to 5 per cent of the total circulation outstanding when a bank fails its guaranty fund is to be paid into this safety fund and its notes are to be redeemed in the first instance from such safety fund thus augmented any impairment of such fund caused thereby to be made good from the immediately available cash assets of said bank and if these should be insufficient such impairment to be made good by pro rata assessment among the other banks their contributions constituting a first lien upon the assets of the failed bank in favor of the contributing banks as a further security it is contemplated that the existing provision fixing the individual liability of stockholders is to be retained and the bank indebtedness on account of its circulating notes is to be made a first lien on all its assets for the purpose of meeting the expense of printing notes official supervision cancellation and other like charges there shall be imposed a tax of say of 1 per cent per annum upon the average amount of notes in circulation it is further provided that there shall be no notes issued of a less denomination than 10 that each national bank except in case of a failed bank shall redeem or retire its notes in the first instance at its own office or at agencies to be designated by it and that no fixed reserve need be maintained on account of deposits another very important feature of this plan is the exemption of state banks from taxation by the united states in cases where it is shown to the satisfaction of the secretary of the treasury and comptroller of the currency by banks claiming such exemption that they have not had outstanding their circulating notes exceeding 75 per cent of their and unimpaired capital that their stockholders are individually liable for the redemption of their circulating notes to the full extent of their ownership of stock that the liability of said banks upon their circulating notes constitutes under their state law a first lien upon their assets that such banks have kept and maintained a guaranty fund in united states notes including treasury notes of 1890 equal to 30 per cent of their outstanding circulating notes and that such banks have promptly redeemed their circulating notes when presented at their principal or branch offices it is quite likely that this scheme may be usefully amended in some of its details but i am satisfied it furnishes a basis for a very great improvement in our present banking and currency system i conclude this communication fully appreciating that the responsibility for all legislation affecting the people of the united states rests upon their representatives in the congress and assuring them that whether in accordance with recommendations i have made or not i shall be glad to cooperate in perfecting any legislation that tends to the prosperity and welfare of our country
assemblage within nation legislative halls charged duty making laws benefit generous free people impressively suggests exacting obligation inexorable responsibility involved task threshold labor undertaken congress united states discharge executive duty enjoined constitution submit communication containing brief statement condition national affairs recommending legislation seems necessary expedient history recent dealings nations peaceful relations time additionally demonstrate advantage consistently adhering firm foreign policy free envious ambitious national schemes characterized entire honesty sincerity past year pursuant law congress commissioners appointed antwerp industrial exposition though participation american exhibitors fell far short completely illustrating national ingenuity industrial achievements yet quite creditable view brief time allowed preparation endeavored impress upon belgian government heedlessness positive harmfulness restrictions upon importation certain food products strongly urged rigid supervision inspection laws amply sufficient prevent exportation country diseased cattle unwholesome meat termination civil war brazil followed general prevalence peace order appearing early stage insurrection course would call unusual watchfulness part government naval force harbor rio de janeiro strengthened precaution satisfied tended restrict issue simple trial strength brazilian government insurgents avert complications times seemed imminent firm attitude neutrality maintained end insurgents received encouragement eventual asylum commanders opposition encountered protection commerce clearly justified public law serious tension relations arisen close war brazil portugal reason escape insurgent admiral da gama followers friendly offices representatives countries exerted protection subjects either within territory although government brazil duly notified commercial arrangement existing united states country based third section tariff act 1890 abrogated august 28 1894 taking effect tariff law force government subsequently notified us intention terminate arrangement 1st day january 1895 exercise right reserved agreement two countries invite attention correspondence secretary state brazilian minister subject commission organized convention entered chile settlement outstanding claims government adjourned end period stipulated continuance leaving undetermined number american cases duly presented claims barred negotiations progress submission new tribunal 17th march last new treaty china regulation emigration signed washington august 13 received sanction senate ratification part china formal exchange awaited give effect mutually beneficial convention gratifying recognition uniform impartiality country toward foreign states manifested coincident request chinese japanese governments agents united states within proper limits afford protection subjects suspension diplomatic relations due state war delicate office accepted misapprehension gave rise belief affording kindly unofficial protection agents would exercise authority withdrawn agents belligerents exercised promptly corrected although war china japan endangers policy united states deserves gravest consideration reason disturbance growing commercial interests two countries increased dangers may result citizens domiciled sojourning interior china acting stipulation treaty korea first concluded western power felt constrained beginning controversy tender good offices induce amicable arrangement initial difficulty growing japanese demands administrative reforms korea unhappy precipitation actual hostilities defeated kindly purpose deploring destructive war two powerful eastern nations anxious commercial interests countries may preserved safety citizens shall jeopardized would hesitate heed intimation friendly aid honorable termination hostilities would acceptable belligerents convention finally concluded settlement arbitration prolonged dispute ecuador growing proceedings emilio santos naturalized citizen united states relations republic france continue exist nations long bound together friendly sympathy similarity form government recent cruel assassination president sister republic called forth universal expressions sorrow condolence people government leave doubt depth sincerity attachment resolutions passed senate house representatives occasion communicated widow president carnot acting upon reported discovery texas fever cargoes american cattle german prohibition importations live stock fresh meats country revived hoped germany soon become convinced inhibition needless harmful mutual interests german government protested provision customs tariff act imposes discriminating duty 1 cent pound sugars coming countries paying export bounty thereon claiming exaction duty contravention articles v ix treaty 1828 prussia interests commerce countries avoid even accusation treaty violation recommend repeal much statute imposes duty invite attention accompanying report secretary state containing discussion questions raised german protests early present year agreement reached great britain concerning instructions given naval commanders two governments bering sea contiguous north pacific ocean guidance execution award paris tribunal arbitration enforcement regulations therein prescribed protection seal life waters mentioned understanding also reached payment united states full satisfaction claims may made great britain damages growing controversy fur seals bering sea seizure british vessels engaged taking seal waters award findings paris tribunal great extent determined facts principles upon claims adjusted subjected governments thorough examination upon principles well facts involve convinced settlement upon terms mentioned would equitable advantageous one recommend provision made prompt payment stated sum thus far france portugal signified willingness adhere regulations established award paris tribunal arbitration preliminary surveys alaskan boundary preparatory examination question protection food fish contiguous waters united states dominion canada progress boundary british guiana still remains dispute great britain venezuela believing early settlement basis alike honorable parties line established policy remove hemisphere causes difference powers beyond sea shall renew efforts heretofore made bring restoration diplomatic relations disputants induce reference arbitration resort great britain conspicuously favors principle respects practice earnestly sought weaker adversary since communicating voluminous correspondence regard hawaii action taken senate house representatives certain questions submitted judgment wider discretion congress organization government place provisional arrangement followed deposition queen announced evidence effective operation recognition usual cases accorded new government present treaties extradition italy miscarriages justice occurred owing refusal government surrender subjects thus far efforts negotiate amended convention obviating difficulty unavailing apart war island empire engaged japan attracts increasing attention country evident desire cultivate liberal intercourse us seek kindly aid furtherance laudable desire complete autonomy domestic affairs full equality family nations japanese empire longer japan past relations progressive nation less broad liberal powers good fostered many interests common marked relations nearest southern neighbor peace restored along northern frontier mexico asked punishment late disturbers tranquillity ought new treaty commerce navigation country take place one terminated thirteen years ago friendliness intercourse two countries attested fact long period commerce steadily increased rule mutual consideration neither stimulated conventional arrangements retarded jealous rivalries selfish distrust indemnity tendered mexico gracious act murder 1887 leon baldwin american citizen band marauders durango accepted paid installments problem storage use waters rio grande irrigation solved appropriate concurrent action two interested countries rising colorado heights stream flows intermittently yielding little water dry months irrigation channels already constructed along course scarcity often severely felt regions river forms common boundary moreover frequent changes course level sands often raise embarrassing questions territorial jurisdiction prominent among questions year bluefields incident known mosquito indian strip bordering atlantic ocean within jurisdiction nicaragua treaty 1860 great britain nicaragua former government expressly recognized sovereignty latter strip limited form guaranteed mosquito indians exercised according customs dwellers within limits native government grew largely made aliens many years disputed sovereignty nicaragua strip claimed right maintain therein practically independent municipal government early past year efforts nicaragua maintain sovereignty mosquito territory led serious disturbances culminating suppression native government attempted substitution impracticable composite administration nicaragua alien residents participate failure followed insurrection time subverted nicaraguan rule expelling officers restoring old organization turn gave place existing local government established upheld nicaragua although alien interests arrayed nicaragua transactions largely american commerce region time still chiefly controlled citizens reason challenge rightful sovereignty nicaragua important part domain months one part time two naval ships stationed bluefields protection legitimate interests citizens september last government managua expelled territory twelve foreigners including two americans alleged participation seditious revolutionary movements republic bluefields already mentioned earnest remonstrance government two americans permitted return peaceful management business naval commanders scene disturbances constant exhibition firmness good judgment contributed largely prevention serious consequences restoration quiet order regret midst occurrences happened grave irritating failure nicaraguan justice american citizen named wilson residing rama mosquito territory murdered one arguello acting governor town delay murderer arrested insecurely confined guarded escaped notwithstanding repeated demands claimed recapture impossible reason flight beyond nicaraguan jurisdiction nicaraguan authorities given notice forfeiture concession canal company grounds purely technical embraced contract receded position peru regret say shows symptoms domestic disturbance due probably slowness recuperation distresses war 1881 weakened resources difficulties facing international obligations invite kindly sympathy justify forbearance pressing claims felt constrained testify sympathy connection certain demands urgently preferred powers recent death czar russia called forth appropriate expressions sorrow sympathy part government bereaved family russian people demonstration respect friendship minister petersburg directed represent government funeral ceremonies sealing interests russia bering sea second modus vivendi therefore concluded imperial government restrictive poaching russian rookeries sealing waters comprehended protected area defined paris award occasion found urge upon russian government equality treatment great companies whose operations extended throughout europe admitting foreign corporations transact business united states naturally expect less tolerance ample fields competition abroad cases interference naturalized citizens returning russia reported current year one krzeminski arrested last summer polish province reported charge unpermitted renunciation russian allegiance transpired proceedings originated alleged malfeasance committed krzeminski imperial official number years ago efforts release promised successful progress death reported government salvador overthrown abrupt popular outbreak certain military civil officers hotly pursued infuriated insurgents sought refuge board united states war ship bennington lying salvadorean port although practice asylum favored government yet view imminent peril threatened fugitives solely considerations humanity afforded shelter naval commander afterwards demanded treaty extradition salvador trial charges murder arson robbery directed voluntarily left ship conveyed one nearest ports hearing could judicial officer compliance terms treaty arrival san francisco proceeding promptly instituted united states district judge held acts constituting alleged offenses political discharged accused except one cienfuegos held attempt murder thereupon constrained direct release reason attempt murder one crimes charged upon surrender salvadorean authorities demanded unreasonable unjust fines imposed spain vessels commerce united states demanded time time last twenty years earnest remonstrance part government immediate past exorbitant penalties imposed upon vessels goods customs authorities cuba puerto rico clerical errors trivial character manifests bills lading cases fines amounting thousands dollars levied upon cargoes carrying vessels goods question entitled free entry fines exacted even error detected spanish authorities notified arrival goods port conduct strange contrast considerate liberal treatment extended spanish vessels cargoes ports like cases satisfactory settlement vexatious questions yet reached mora case referred last annual message remains unsettled diplomatic correspondence subject laid senate seen government offered conclude convention spain disposal arbitration outstanding claims two countries except mora claim long ago adjusted awaits payment stipulated course could included proposed convention hoped offer would remove parliamentary obstacles encountered spanish government providing payment mora indemnity regret say definite reply offer yet made efforts secure payment settled claim unavailing last annual message adverted claim part turkey right expel persons undesirable dangerous armenians naturalized united states returning turkish jurisdiction numerous questions relation arisen government acquiesces asserted right expulsion consent armenians may imprisoned otherwise punished reason acquired without imperial consent american citizenship three assailants miss melton american teacher mosul convicted ottoman courts advised appeal acquittal remaining five taken turkish prosecuting officer convention concluded venezuela arbitration claim growing seizure certain vessels property citizens united states although signed treaty extradition venezuela yet force owing insistence government surrendered citizens shall case liable capital punishment rules prevention collisions sea framed maritime conference held city 1889 concurrently incorporated statutes united states great britain announced take effect march 1 1895 invitations extended maritime nations adhere favorable responses thus far received austria france portugal spain sweden last annual message referred briefly unsatisfactory state affairs samoa operation berlin treaty signally illustrating impolicy entangling alliances foreign powers may 9 1894 response resolution senate sent special message documents body subject emphasized previously expressed opinions later occurrences correspondence regard laid congress demonstrate government devised three powers forced upon samoans inveterate hostility maintained continued presence foreign military force small sacrifice life treasure suppression mataafa insurrection powers subsequent banishment leader eleven chiefs recited last message bring lasting peace islands formidable uprisings continued finally rebellion broke capital island upolu headed aana western district younger tamasese atua eastern district leaders insurgents ravaged country fought government troops doors apia king appealed powers help combined british german naval forces reduced atuans apparent subjection however without considerable loss natives days later tamasese adherents fearing ships marines professed submission reports received agents apia justify belief peace thus brought long duration conviction natives heart hostile present government profess loyalty fear powers would speedily go pieces war ships withdrawn reporting government unsatisfactory situation since suppression late revolt foreign armed forces german consul apia stated peace lasting hardly presumed lesson given firing atua sufficiently sharp incisive leave lasting impression forgetful samoan temperament fact conditions existing show peace last seriously intended malietoa king chiefs convinced departure war ships signal renewal war circumstance representatives villages districts opposed government already withdrawn atua hold meetings atua aana forbidden inhabitants districts fought side government return villages already partly burned latter indicates real conciliation parties still far note 10th ultimo inclosing copy report information government german ambassador said contents report awakened imperial government apprehension existing circumstances peace concluded rebels afford assurance lasting restoration tranquillity islands present government utterly failed correct indeed aggravated evils intended prevent stimulated commerce islands participation establishment wishes natives plain defiance conservative teachings warnings wise patriotic men laid foundations free institutions invite expression judgment congress propriety steps taken government looking withdrawal engagements powers reasonable terms prejudicial existing rights secretary treasury reports receipts government sources revenue fiscal year ending june 30 1894 amounted expenditures leaving deficit decrease ordinary expense government compared fiscal year 1893 collected customs internal revenue balance income year amounting derived sales lands sources value total dutiable imports amounted less preceding year importations free duty amounted less preceding year receipts customs less internal revenue less 1893 total tax collected distilled spirits manufactured tobacco fermented liquors exports merchandise domestic foreign amounted year increase preceding year total amount gold exported fiscal year fiscal year 1893 amount imported previous year imports silver exports total bounty paid upon production sugar united states fiscal year increase payments made preceding year amount bounty paid july 1 1894 august 28 1894 time payments ceased operation law total expenses incurred payment bounty upon sugar fiscal year estimated upon basis present revenue laws receipts government current fiscal year ending june 30 1895 expenditures resulting deficit 1st day november 1894 total stock money kinds country 1st day november 1893 money kinds circulation included treasury holdings per capita upon estimated population date held treasury gold bullion amounting silver bullion purchased cost purchase silver bullion act july 14 1890 ceased 1st day november 1893 time purchased fiscal year fine ounces cost average cost per fine ounce total amount silver purchased time law took effect repeal purchasing clause date last mentioned fine ounces cost average price per fine ounce total amount standard silver dollars coined mints united states since passage act february 28 1878 coined provisions act provisions act july 14 1890 act providing coinage bullion total coinage metals mints last fiscal year consisted pieces valued gold coined 758 standard silver dollars subsidiary silver coin minor coin calendar year 1893 production precious metals united states estimated fine ounces gold commercial coinage value fine ounces silver bullion market value coinage value estimated 1st day july 1894 stock metallic money united states consisting coin bullion amounted gold silver fifty national banks organized year ending october 31 1894 capital 79 capital went voluntary liquidation banks capital placed hands receivers total number national banks existence 31st day october last 40 less 31st day october 1893 capital stock paid less time previous year surplus fund individual profits less expenses taxes paid amounted less october 31 1893 circulation decreased obligations banks increased individual deposits less corresponding date previous year loans discounts time previous year checks cash items total resources banks date mentioned amounted 1893 report secretary war appears strength army september 30 1894 officers enlisted men although apparently slight decrease compared previous year actual effective force increased equivalent nearly two regiments reorganization system recruiting consequent release regimental duty large force men hitherto serving recruiting depots abolition depots predicted furthermore effect annual reduction approximating direct expenditures besides promoting generally health morale discipline troops execution policy concentrating army important centers population transportation foreshadowed last annual report secretary resulted abandonment fifteen smaller posts effected plan assembles organizations regiments hitherto widely separated renders small forces readily effective service may called upon perform increases extent territory protection without diminishing security heretofore afforded locality improves discipline training esprit de corps army besides considerably decreasing cost maintenance though forces department east somewhat increased army still stationed west mississippi carefully matured policy secures best greatest service interests general welfare small force comprising regular army thoughtlessly embarrassed creation new unnecessary posts acts congress gratify ambitions interests localities maximum legal strength army men effective strength various causes little men purpose congress therefore seem fully attained existing condition considerable increase army judgment demanded recent events policy seacoast fortification prosecution steadily engaged years far developed suggest effective strength army made least equal legal strength measures taken department year indicated already considerably augmented effective force secretary war presents plan recommend consideration congress attain desired end economies effected department lines work offset great extent expenditure involved proposition submitted among things contemplates adoption formation regiments several years indorsed secretaries war generals commanding army compact provides skeleton organization ready filled event war peculiarly adapted strength requirements fact every nation single exception adopted formation meet conditions modern warfare alone secure recommendation early consideration hardly necessary recall fact obedience commands constitution laws purpose protecting property united states aiding process federal courts removing lawless obstructions performance government legitimate functions became necessary various localities year employ considerable portion regular troops duty discharged promptly courageously marked discretion officers men gratifying proof thus afforded army deserves complete confidence efficiency discipline country times manifested year free disturbances indians chances depredations part constantly becoming remote improbable total war department year ended june 30 1894 amounted sum salaries contingent expenses support military establishment miscellaneous objects public works latter sum includes river harbor improvements fortifications works defense appropriations current year aggregate estimates submitted secretary war next fiscal year call appropriations amounting skill industry ordnance officers inventors believed overcome mechanical obstacles heretofore delayed armament coasts great national undertaking upon entered may proceed rapidly congress shall determine supply finished guns large caliber already hand additions rapidly follow wisdom providing carriages emplacements mount strongly urged total enrollment militia several states officers enlisted men increase number reported close previous year reports militia inspections regular army officers show marked increase interest efficiency among state organizations strongly recommend continuance policy affording every practical encouragement possible important auxiliary military establishment condition apache indians held prisoners government eight years cost half million dollars changed year captivity one gives opportunity demonstrate capacity least partial civilization legislation enacted late session congress gave war department authority transfer survivors numbering 346 mount vernon barracks alabama suitable reservation department selected future home military lands near fort sill ind military surveillance former prisoners established agriculture conditions favorable advancement recognition long distinguished military services faithful discharge delicate responsible civil duties john schofield general commanding army suggested congress temporary revival grade behalf would gracious act would permit retirement near hand rank befitting merits report notes gratifying progress made supreme court overcoming arrears business reaching condition able dispose cases arise without unreasonable delay result course largely due successful working plan inaugurating circuit courts appeals respect tribunals suggestion made quarters entitled highest consideration additional circuit judge circuit would greatly strengthen courts confidence reposed adjudications addition would create greater force judges increasing business courts requires commend suggestion careful consideration congress important topics adverted report accompanied recommendations many treated large previous messages time therefore need named refer abolition fee system measure compensation federal officers enlargement powers united states commissioners least territories allowance writs error criminal cases behalf united states establishment degrees crime murder topic dealt much importance condition administration justice indian territory permanent solution called indian problem probably expected meanwhile ameliorations present conditions existing system admit ought neglected satisfied federal court established territory sufficient judges court sit within territory jurisdiction territorial affairs vested federal courts sitting arkansas texas another subject pressing moment referred reorganization union pacific railway company basis equitable regards private interests favorable government existing conditions permit operation railroad court receiver anomalous state things terminated grounds public private earliest possible moment besides enact needed enabling legislation present session postpones whole matter assembling new congress inevitably increases complications situation could regarded signal failure solve problem practically present congress ever since organization eight years ago annual message urged upon congress strongly could location construction two prisons confinement united states prisoners similar recommendation made time time since years ago law passed providing selection sites three institutions appropriation however made carry act effect old discreditable condition still exists purpose time repeat considerations make impregnable case favor ownership management government penal institutions federal prisoners confined simply desire urge former recommendations subject particularly call attention congress part report secretary war states military prison fort leavenworth turned government prison federal convicts without least difficulty actual saving money every point view pending complete reform hope adoption suggestion secretary war easy step may taken direction proper care convicts government united states report presents comprehensive statement operations department last fiscal year receipts department year amounted expenditures transactions postal service indicate barometric certainty fluctuations business country inasmuch therefore business complications continued exist throughout last year unforeseen extent surprising deficiency revenue meet expenditures department estimated advance exceeded nearly ascertained revenues last year basis calculation current year less estimated deficiency current year correspondingly greater though states latest indications favorable confidently predicts increase least 8 per cent revenues current year last year expenditures increase steadily necessarily growth needs country deficiency greater less year depending upon volume receipts states deficiency unnecessary might obviated law regulating rates upon mail matter second class modified rate received transmission matter 1 cent per pound cost transmission government eight times amount general terms law rate covers newspapers periodicals extensions meaning terms time time admitted privileges intended legitimate newspapers periodicals surprising range publications created abuses cost amounts aggregate total deficiency department pretended newspapers started business houses mere purpose advertising goods complying law form discontinuing publications soon period advertising sample copies pretended newspapers issued great numbers like purpose result great loss revenue government besides humiliating use agency aid carrying scheme business house advertise goods means trick upon rival houses regular legitimate newspapers literature consisting mainly trashy novels extent many thousands tons sent mails 1 cent per pound publishers standard works required pay eight times amount sending publications another abuse consists free carriage mails hundreds tons seed grain uselessly distributed department agriculture predicts law amended eradicate abuses department show deficiency believes near future legitimate newspapers periodical magazines might properly transmitted mails subscribers free cost invite prompt consideration subject fully indorse views total number united states 30th day june 1894 increase preceding year presidential increase class 68 preceding year six hundred ten cities towns provided free delivery cities towns entitled service law accorded account insufficient funds expense free delivery current fiscal year existing legislation item expenditure subject constant increase estimated cost rural free delivery generally large ought considered present condition affairs year 830 additional domestic offices established total number offices close year money orders issued year increase preceding year value orders amounted increase also issued year postal notes amounting year 218 international offices added already established making total offices operation june 30 1894 number international money orders issued year decrease number value decrease amount number orders paid increase preceding year value increase foregoing statements appears total issue money orders postal notes year amounted number letters packages mailed year special delivery stamps used upon letters packages amounted messengers fees paid delivery amounted leaving balance favor government report shows gratifying results way economies worked without affecting efficiency postal service consist abrogation steamship subsidy contracts reletting mail transportation contracts cost amount supplies used service amounting report also contains valuable contribution history universal postal union arrangement amounts practically establishment one postal system entire civilized world special attention directed subject time view fact next congress union meet washington 1897 hoped timely action taken direction perfecting preparations event renews suggestion made previous report department organization increased extent creating direct district supervision postal affairs suggestion fully concur connected establishment employees classified service includes many classified upon suggestion states another year experience head department serves strengthen conviction excellent working law branch public service attention called report secretary navy shows gratifying progress construction ships new navy vessels building including three torpedo boats authorized last session congress excepting battle ship iowa probably completed coming fiscal year estimates increase navy year ending june 30 1896 large include practically entire sum necessary complete equip new ships commission unless new ships authorized appropriations naval service fiscal year ending june 30 1897 fall estimates coming year least secretary presents much earnestness plea authorization three additional battle ships ten twelve torpedo boats unarmored vessels heretofore authorized including nearing completion constitute fleet believed sufficient ordinary cruising purposes time peace completed process construction four battle ships torpedo boats navy warlike operations offensive defensive certainly ought increase number battle ships torpedo boats manufacture armor requires expensive plants aggregation many skilled workmen armor necessary complete vessels building delivered 1st june next new contracts given contractors must disband workmen plants must lie idle battle ships authorized time would well way late coming fiscal year least three years half date contract would required completion secretary states 15 per cent cost ships need included appropriations coming year recommend provision made construction additional battle ships torpedo boats secretary recommends manufacture reserve supply ordnance ordnance material ships navy also supply auxiliary fleet guns appurtenances provided kept hand purposes single gun could put upon ships paris new york international navigation company ship reserve navy manufacture guns washington proceeding satisfactorily none new ships required wait guns ordnance equipment important order issued secretary navy coordinating duties several bureaus concerned construction ships order believed secure greater extent heretofore possible harmonious action several bureaus make attainment best results certain past fiscal year unusual pressing demand many quarters world presence vessels guard american interests january last brazilian insurrection large fleet concentrated harbor rio de janeiro vigorous action benham protecting personal commercial rights citizens disturbed conditions afforded results believed wholesome influence whenever like circumstances may become necessary naval commanders interfere behalf people foreign ports war progress china japan rendered necessary expedient dispatch eight vessels waters secretary navy secretary treasury recommend transfer work coast survey proper navy department heartily concur recommendation excluding alaska small area besides work mapping charting coasts completed hydrographic work must done reason shifting varying depths water consequent upon action streams tides heretofore done direction naval officers subordination superintendent coast survey seems good reason navy entire charge hereafter work especially hydrographic office navy department many years engaged making efficient maps entirely similar prepared coast survey feel imperative duty call attention recommendation secretary regard personnel line navy stagnation promotion vital branch service great seriously impair efficiency consider utmost importance young officers eve retirement permitted reach grade entitling active important duty system adopted years ago regulating employment labor rigidly upheld fully demonstrated usefulness expediency within domain reform inasmuch workmen employed board labor selected given work without reference politics order application preference however given army navy veterans former experience amendments suggested experience made rules regulating system operation work vastly improved efficiency opportunity work honestly fairly awarded willing competent applicants hoped system continues strictly adhered soon natural consequence equalization party benefit remove temptation relax abandon report secretary interior exhibits situation numerous interesting branches public service connected department commend report valuable recommendations secretary careful attention congress public land disposed year amounted acres including indian lands estimated public domain still remaining amounts little acres including however acres alaska well military reservations railroad selections lands yet unadjudicated total cash receipts sale lands amounted including received indian lands thousand patents issued agricultural lands patents issued indians allotments holdings severalty land allotted inalienable indian allottees period years patent certified patented account railroad grants year acres land close year acres embraced lists selections made railroad companies awaited settlement selections swamp lands taken indemnity therefor since passage act providing 1849 amount nearly quite acres patented states acres patented last year nearly acres school education grants approved year close acres remained unadjusted appears appropriation current year account special service protection public lands timber thereon much less previous years inadequate efficient performance work larger sum money appropriated number years past account returned government result labors employed particular service mentioned hope crippled insufficient appropriation fully indorse recommendation secretary adequate protection provided forest reserves comprehensive forestry system inaugurated keepers superintendents necessary protect forests already reserved provided opinion abandonment policy sanctioned present laws government small consideration rapidly losing title immense tracts land covered timber properly reserved permanent sources timber supply suggestion change made manner securing surveys public lands especially worthy consideration satisfied surveys made corps competent surveyors immediate control direction commissioner general land office exceedingly important recommendation secretary relates manner contests litigated cases growing efforts obtain government land determined entire testimony upon controversies depend stages taken local registers receivers yet officers power subpoena witnesses enforce attendance testify cases numbering three four thousand annually sent local officers commissioner general land office action exigencies duties oblige act upon decisions registers receivers without opportunity thorough personal examination nearly cases appealed annually commissioner secretary interior burdened important administrative duties determination appeals must almost perfunctory based upon examination others though determination secretary operates final adjudication upon rights great importance concur opinion commissioner general land office relieved duty deciding litigated land cases nonpartisan court created pass cases decisions court final least far decisions department final proposed court might given authority certify questions law matters especial importance supreme court united states court appeals district columbia decision creation tribunal would expedite disposal cases insure decisions satisfactory character registers receivers originally hear decide disputes invested authority compel witnesses attend testify though condition indians shows steady healthy progress situation satisfactory points allotments land made found unable disinclined follow agricultural pursuits otherwise beneficially manage land especially true cheyennes arapahoes appears reports agent many instances never located upon allotments cases even know allotments condition deteriorated live camps spend time idleness always believed allotments reservation lands indians severalty made sparingly least slowly utmost caution days white agriculturists stock raisers experience intelligence find lot hard one ought expect indians unless far advanced civilization habits industry support small tracts land usually allotted scheme allotment fails wretched pauperism allottees results worse original condition regulated dependence evident evil consequences allotment intensified cases false step retraced account purchase government reservation lands remaining allotments made disposition remaining lands settlers purchasers government convinced proper solution indian problem success every step taken direction depend large extent upon intelligence honesty reservation agents interest work agent fitted place much toward preparing indians charge citizenship allotment lands advice matter concerning welfare mislead unfit agent make effort advance indians reservation toward civilization preparation allotment lands severalty opinion condition regards heedless valueless indications detail army officers indian agents result improved management reservations whenever allotments made indian reservation previously settled upon lot cultivated shown disposition improve way lot certainly allotted made plainly obligatory statute light experience considering uncertainty indian situation exigencies future disposed cautious making allotments incline agree secretary interior opinion allotments made balance reservation land remaining allotment instead bought government indians opened settlement scandals unfair practices seem unavoidable remain time least common land sold government behalf indians orderly way fixed prices determined location desirability proceeds less expenses held trust benefit indian proprietors intelligent management past year followed gratifying results efforts made advance work sound practical manner five institutes indian teachers held year proved beneficial views exchanged methods discussed particularly applicable indian education efforts made direction gradual reduction number indian contract schools comparatively short time may give way altogether government schools hoped change may gradual perfected without great expense government undue disregard investments made established maintaining contract schools appropriation current year ending june 30 1895 applicable ordinary expenses indian service amounts less sum appropriated account previous year close last fiscal year 30th day june 1894 persons pension rolls net increase number reported end previous year pensioners may classified follows soldiers sailors survivors wars widows relatives deceased soldiers army nurses war rebellion 414 pensioners surviving soldiers indian wars prior late civil war widows relatives soldiers remainder numbering receiving pensions account rebellion rolls authority act june 27 1890 sometimes called law total amount expended pensions year leaving unexpended balance sum appropriated sum necessary meet pension expenditures year ending june 30 1896 estimated commissioner pensions opinion year 1895 thirtieth close war rebellion must according sensible human calculation see highest limit pension roll year must begin decline claims pending bureau decreased year large proportion new claims filed increase pension rolls number certificates issued names dropped rolls causes year numbered among pensioners 9 widows 3 daughters soldiers revolution 45 survivors war 1812 barefaced extensive pension frauds exposed direction courageous generous veteran soldier head bureau leave room claim purgation pension rolls needed continued vigilance prompt action necessary end accusation effort detect pension frauds evidence unfriendliness toward worthy veterans denial claims generosity government suggests unfortunate indifference commission offense motive securing pension indicates willingness blind existence mean treacherous crimes play upon demagogic fears make sport patriotic impulse grateful people completion eleventh census charge commissioner labor total disbursements account work fiscal year ending june 30 1894 amounted close year number persons employed census office 679 present 400 whole number volumes necessary comprehend eleventh census 25 contain printed pages assurance confidently made close present calendar year material still incomplete practically hand census certainly closed 4th march 1895 revision proof reading necessary bring volumes still required text census volumes limited far possible analysis statistics presented method accordance law caused less friction instances individual disappointment commissioner labor took charge work found much matter hand according rule compelled discard census prepared according theory designed collect facts certify public elaborate arguments present personal views secretary agriculture report reviews operations department last fiscal year makes recommendations extension usefulness reports saving expenditures year covered back treasury sum 23 per cent entire appropriation special study made demand american farm products foreign markets especially great britain country received united states nine months ending september 30 1894 live beef cattle valued cattle valued period 1893 first six months 1894 united kingdom took also pounds dressed beef united states valued nearly report shows nine months immediately preceding september 30 1894 united states exported great britain pounds pork apples bushels valued horses average value 139 per head falling american wheat exports bushels secretary inclined believe wheat may future staple export cereal product country corn continue advance importance export account new uses constantly appropriated exports agricultural products united states fiscal year ending june 30 1894 amounted per cent american exports every description united kingdom great britain took 54 per cent farm products finding foreign markets department agriculture undertaken year two new important lines research first relates grasses forage plants purpose instructing familiarizing people distinctive grasses united states teaching introduce valuable foreign forage plants may adapted country second relates agricultural soils crop production involving analyses samples soils sections american union demonstrate adaptability particular plants crops mechanical analyses soils may inestimable utility foremost new lines agricultural research secretary therefore recommends division charge permanently established department amount appropriated weather bureau sum 14 per cent saved returned treasury illustrating usefulness service may stated warnings generally given two tropical storms occurring september october present year resulted detaining safely port vessels valued laden cargoes probably still greater value much important gratifying many human lives ships also undoubtedly saved appropriation bureau animal industry expenditures year thus leaving unexpended inspection beef animals export interstate trade continued head inspected year cost 1 cents per head 4 cents 1893 amount pork microscopically examined pounds pounds preceding year cost inspection diminished 8 cents per head 1893 6 cents 1894 expense inspecting pork sold 1894 germany france united states quantity inspected greater pounds preceding year cost inspection secretary agriculture recommends law providing microscopic inspection export interstate meat amended compel owners meat inspected pay cost inspection call attention arguments presented report support recommendation live beef cattle exported tagged year numbered increase head previous year sanitary inspection cattle shipped europe cost average 10 cents animal cost inspecting southern cattle disinfection cars stock yards averages cents per animal scientific inquiries bureau animal industry progressed steadily year much tuberculin mallein furnished state authorities use agricultural colleges experiment stations treatment tuberculosis glanders quite recently department published results investigations bovine tuberculosis researches vigorously continued certain herds district columbia thoroughly inspected probably supply adequate scope department intelligently prosecute scientific work furnish sufficient material purposes illustration description definition sterilization milk suspected containing bacilli tuberculosis year thoroughly explained leaflet salmon chief bureau given general circulation throughout country office experiment stations part united states department agriculture past year engaged almost wholly preparing publication works based upon reports agricultural experiment stations institutions agricultural inquiry united states foreign countries secretary report 1893 called attention fact appropriations made support experiment stations throughout union moneys taken national treasury act congress accounting federal authorities required responding suggestion congress making appropriation department present fiscal year provided secretary agriculture shall prescribe form annual financial statement required section 3 said act march 2 1887 shall ascertain whether expenditures appropriation hereby made accordance provisions said act shall make report thereon congress obedience law department agriculture immediately sent blank forms expense accounts station proposes addition make trusted experts systematic examination several stations year purpose acquiring personal investigation detailed information necessary enable secretary agriculture make statute provides satisfactory report congress boards management several stations great alacrity cordiality approved amendment law providing supervision expenditures anticipating increase efficiency stations protect directors managers loose charges concerning use public funds besides bringing department agriculture closer confidential relations experimental stations joint service largely increasing usefulness agriculture country acting upon recommendation contained report 1893 congress appropriated enable secretary agriculture investigate report upon nutritive value various articles commodities used human food special suggestions full wholesome edible rations less wasteful economical common use appropriation department prepared nearly ready distribution elementary discussion nutritive value pecuniary economy food consider fully money earned wage earners civilized world expended food importance utility investigation apparent department expended fiscal year 1893 sum total amount expended scientific research per cent year ending june 30 1894 total expenditure department applied per cent sum scientific work investigation therefore plainly observable economies practiced administration department expense scientific research recommendation contained report secretary 1893 vicious system promiscuous free distribution departmental documents abandoned urged publications may well furnished without cost public libraries educational institutions officers libraries states federal government individuals applying price covering cost document asked required thus publications documents would secured really desire proper purposes half million copies report secretary agriculture printed distribution annual cost large numbers cumbering storerooms capitol shelves stores throughout country labor waste might avoided recommendations secretary adopted secretary also recommends gratuitous distribution seeds cease money appropriated purpose except experiment stations reiterates reasons given report 1893 discontinuing unjustifiable gratuity fully concur conclusions reached best service statistician department agriculture ascertainment diligence care actual real conditions favorable unfavorable farmers farms country seek causes produce conditions end facts ascertained may guide intelligent treatment important utility agricultural statistics found elucidation relation supply farm products demand markets united states world deemed possible agricultural census may taken year agents statistical division department course commended trial chief division scope would 1 area important crops 2 aggregate products crops 3 quantity wheat corn hands farmers date spring sowings plantings beginning harvest also quantity cotton tobacco remaining hands planters either date designated time cost work estimated owing peculiar quality statistician work natural acquired fitness necessary successful prosecution secretary agriculture expresses opinion every person employed gathering statistics chief division admitted service thorough exhaustive successful examination hands united states civil service commission led call examination candidates position assistant statisticians also candidates chiefs sections division work done department agriculture superficially dealt communication commend report secretary important interests deals careful attention congress advantages public service adherence principles reform constantly apparent nothing encouraging official life honestly desire good government increasing appreciation people advantages vast majority voters land ready insist time attention select perform important public duties distracted doling minor offices growing unanimous regarding party organization something used establishing party principles instead dictating distribution public places rewards partisan activity numerous additional offices places lately brought within rules regulations others probably soon included report commissioners submitted congress invite careful attention recommendations contains entirely convinced ought longer without national board health national health officer charged duties pertain protection country invasion pestilence disease would involve establishment board officer proper quarantine precautions necessary aid counsel local authorities subject prompt advice assistance local boards health health officers suppression contagious disease cases local boards officers immediate direction national board officer measures suppression constant authentic information concerning health foreign countries parts country related contagious diseases consideration regulations enforced foreign ports prevent introduction contagion cities measures adopted secure enforcement seems time decided inclination discuss measures protection contagious diseases international conference view adopting means mutual assistance creation national health establishment would greatly aid standing conferences improve opportunities avail benefits earnestly recommend inauguration national board health similar national instrumentality believing needed precaution contagious disease interest safety health people virtue statute united states passed 1888 appointed july last hon john kernan state new york hon nicholas worthington state illinois form hon carroll wright commissioner labor designated said statute commission purpose making careful inquiry causes controversies certain railroads employees resulted extensive destructive strike accompanied much violence dangerous disturbance considerable loss life great destruction property report commissioners submitted transmitted congress evidence taken upon investigation work well done standing intelligence give assurance report suggestions make worthy careful consideration tariff act passed last session congress needs important amendments executed effectively certainty addition necessary amendments change rates duty still decidedly favor putting coal iron upon free list far sugar schedule concerned would glad existing aggravations see every particle differential duty favor refined sugar stricken tariff law favor accorded interest tariff laws still languishes extent closed refineries thousands discharged workmen would seem present hopeless case reasonable legislative aid whatever else done omitted earnestly repeat recommendation made another portion communication additional duty cent per pound laid upon sugar imported countries paying bounty export abrogated seems exceedingly important considerations point propriety amendment advent new tariff policy calculated relieve consumers land cost daily life invite better development american thrift create us closer profitable commercial relations rest world follows logical imperative necessity remove chief obstacle long prevented participation foreign carrying trade sea tariff built upon theory well check imports home market bound industry effort american producers fitly supplemented refusal allow american registry vessels built abroad though owned navigated people thus exhibiting willingness abandon contest advantages american transoceanic carriage new tariff policy built upon theory well encourage importations people need products manufactures find markets every part habitable globe consistently supplemented greatest possible liberty citizens ownership navigation ships products manufactures may transported millions paid foreigners carrying american passengers products across sea turned american hands shipbuilding protected strangulation revived prospect profitable employment ships built american sailor resurrected take place sturdy industrious citizen time peace patriotic safe defender american interests day conflict ancient provision law denying american registry ships built abroad owned americans appears light present conditions failure good every point nearer relic barbarism anything exists permission statute united states earnestly recommend prompt repeal last month gold reserved treasury purpose redeeming notes government circulating money hands people became reduced depletion near future seemed certain exercise proper care public welfare became necessary replenish reserve thus maintain popular faith ability determination government meet agreed pecuniary obligations would well emergency authority existed issue bonds government bearing low rate interest maturing within short period congress failed confer authority resort necessarily resumption act 1875 pursuant provisions bonds issued drawing interest rate 5 per cent per annum maturing ten years issue shortest time authorized act glad say however sale bonds premium received operated reduce rate interest paid government less 3 per cent nothing could worse removed sensible finance relations existing currency government issued gold held redemption means must resorted purpose replenishing redemption fund impaired even claims upon fund confined obligations originally intended redemption obligations meant cancellation fund would small obligations received redeemed gold canceled reissued may duty many times way drawing gold treasury thus endless chain operation constantly depleting treasury gold never near final rest bad enough statutory declaration policy government maintain parity gold silver aided force momentum exhausting process added largely currency obligations claiming peculiar gold redemption small gold reserve thus subject drain every side demands increase danger also increase necessity protecting reserve depletion unsatisfactory know protection afforded temporary palliation perfectly palpably plain way present conditions reserve dangerously depleted replenished issue sale bonds government gold yet congress thus far declined authorize issue bonds best suited purpose seems disposition quarters deny necessity power issue bonds moment believe citizens deliberately willing government default pecuniary obligations financial operations reduced silver basis rate feel duty done omitted effort could make avert calamity long therefore provision made final redemption putting aside currency obligation used repeatedly constantly draw government gold long better authority bond issues allowed present exists authority utilized whenever often becomes necessary maintain sufficient gold reserve abundant time save credit country make good financial declarations government questions relating banks currency closely connected subject referred also present unsatisfactory features prominent among lack elasticity currency circulation frequent concentration financial centers needed parts country absolute divorcement government business banking ideal relationship government circulation currency country condition immediately reached step direction means securing elastic currency obviating objections present arrangement bank circulation secretary treasury presents report scheme modifying present banking laws providing issue circulating notes state banks free taxation certain limitations secretary explains plan plainly advantages developed remarkable clearness effort part present argument support would superfluous shall therefore content unqualified indorsement secretary proposed changes law brief imperfect statement prominent features proposed repeal laws providing deposit united states bonds security circulation permit national banks issue circulating notes exceeding amount 75 per cent unimpaired capital provided deposit government guaranty fund united states notes including treasury notes 1890 sum equal amount 30 per cent notes desire issue deposit maintained times whenever bank retires part circulation proportional part guaranty fund shall returned permit secretary treasury prepare keep hand ready issue case increase circulation desired blank notes bank circulation repeal provisions present law imposing limitations restrictions upon banks desiring reduce increase circulation thus permitting increase reduction within limit 75 per cent capital quickly made emergencies arise addition guaranty fund required proposed provide safety fund immediate redemption circulating notes failed banks imposing small annual tax say 1 per cent upon average circulation bank fund amounts 5 per cent total circulation outstanding bank fails guaranty fund paid safety fund notes redeemed first instance safety fund thus augmented impairment fund caused thereby made good immediately available cash assets said bank insufficient impairment made good pro rata assessment among banks contributions constituting first lien upon assets failed bank favor contributing banks security contemplated existing provision fixing individual liability stockholders retained bank indebtedness account circulating notes made first lien assets purpose meeting expense printing notes official supervision cancellation like charges shall imposed tax say 1 per cent per annum upon average amount notes circulation provided shall notes issued less denomination 10 national bank except case failed bank shall redeem retire notes first instance office agencies designated fixed reserve need maintained account deposits another important feature plan exemption state banks taxation united states cases shown satisfaction secretary treasury comptroller currency banks claiming exemption outstanding circulating notes exceeding 75 per cent unimpaired capital stockholders individually liable redemption circulating notes full extent ownership stock liability said banks upon circulating notes constitutes state law first lien upon assets banks kept maintained guaranty fund united states notes including treasury notes 1890 equal 30 per cent outstanding circulating notes banks promptly redeemed circulating notes presented principal branch offices quite likely scheme may usefully amended details satisfied furnishes basis great improvement present banking currency system conclude communication fully appreciating responsibility legislation affecting people united states rests upon representatives congress assuring whether accordance recommendations made shall glad cooperate perfecting legislation tends prosperity welfare country
assemblage within nation legislative hall charge duty make law benefit generous free people impressively suggest exact obligation inexorable responsibility involve task threshold labor undertaken congress united state discharge executive duty enjoin constitution submit communication contain brief statement condition national affair recommend legislation seem necessary expedient history recent dealing nation peaceful relation time additionally demonstrate advantage consistently adhere firm foreign policy free envious ambitious national scheme characterize entire honesty sincerity past year pursuant law congress commissioner appoint antwerp industrial exposition though participation american exhibitor fell far short completely illustrate national ingenuity industrial achievement yet quite creditable view brief time allow preparation endeavor impress upon belgian government heedlessness positive harmfulness restriction upon importation certain food product strongly urge rigid supervision inspection law amply sufficient prevent exportation country diseased cattle unwholesome meat termination civil war brazil follow general prevalence peace order appear early stage insurrection course would call unusual watchfulness part government naval force harbor rio de janeiro strengthen precaution satisfy tended restrict issue simple trial strength brazilian government insurgent avert complication time seem imminent firm attitude neutrality maintain end insurgent receive encouragement eventual asylum commander opposition encounter protection commerce clearly justify public law serious tension relation arise close war brazil portugal reason escape insurgent admiral da gama follower friendly office representative country exert protection subject either within territory although government brazil duly notified commercial arrangement exist united state country base third section tariff act 1890 abrogate august 28 1894 take effect tariff law force government subsequently notify u intention terminate arrangement 1st day january 1895 exercise right reserve agreement two country invite attention correspondence secretary state brazilian minister subject commission organize convention enter chile settlement outstanding claim government adjourn end period stipulate continuance leave undetermined number american case duly present claim bar negotiation progress submission new tribunal 17th march last new treaty china regulation emigration sign washington august 13 receive sanction senate ratification part china formal exchange await give effect mutually beneficial convention gratify recognition uniform impartiality country toward foreign state manifest coincident request chinese japanese government agent united state within proper limit afford protection subject suspension diplomatic relation due state war delicate office accept misapprehension give rise belief afford kindly unofficial protection agent would exercise authority withdrawn agent belligerent exercise promptly correct although war china japan endangers policy united state deserve grave consideration reason disturbance grow commercial interest two country increase danger may result citizen domicile sojourn interior china act stipulation treaty korea first conclude western power felt constrained beginning controversy tender good office induce amicable arrangement initial difficulty grow japanese demand administrative reform korea unhappy precipitation actual hostility defeat kindly purpose deplore destructive war two powerful eastern nation anxious commercial interest country may preserve safety citizen shall jeopardize would hesitate heed intimation friendly aid honorable termination hostility would acceptable belligerent convention finally conclude settlement arbitration prolong dispute ecuador grow proceeding emilio santos naturalized citizen united state relation republic france continue exist nation long bound together friendly sympathy similarity form government recent cruel assassination president sister republic call forth universal expression sorrow condolence people government leave doubt depth sincerity attachment resolution pass senate house representative occasion communicate widow president carnot act upon report discovery texas fever cargo american cattle german prohibition importation live stock fresh meat country revive hop germany soon become convinced inhibition needless harmful mutual interest german government protest provision custom tariff act impose discriminate duty 1 cent pound sugar come country pay export bounty thereon claim exaction duty contravention article v ix treaty 1828 prussia interest commerce country avoid even accusation treaty violation recommend repeal much statute impose duty invite attention accompany report secretary state contain discussion question raise german protest early present year agreement reach great britain concern instruction give naval commander two government bering sea contiguous north pacific ocean guidance execution award paris tribunal arbitration enforcement regulation therein prescribe protection seal life water mention understand also reach payment united state full satisfaction claim may make great britain damage grow controversy fur seal bering sea seizure british vessel engage take seal water award finding paris tribunal great extent determine fact principle upon claim adjust subjected government thorough examination upon principle well fact involve convince settlement upon term mention would equitable advantageous one recommend provision make prompt payment state sum thus far france portugal signify willingness adhere regulation establish award paris tribunal arbitration preliminary survey alaskan boundary preparatory examination question protection food fish contiguous water united state dominion canada progress boundary british guiana still remain dispute great britain venezuela believe early settlement basis alike honorable party line establish policy remove hemisphere cause difference power beyond sea shall renew effort heretofore make bring restoration diplomatic relation disputant induce reference arbitration resort great britain conspicuously favor principle respect practice earnestly seek weak adversary since communicate voluminous correspondence regard hawaii action take senate house representative certain question submit judgment wider discretion congress organization government place provisional arrangement follow deposition queen announce evidence effective operation recognition usual case accord new government present treaty extradition italy miscarriage justice occur owe refusal government surrender subject thus far effort negotiate amend convention obviate difficulty unavailing apart war island empire engage japan attracts increase attention country evident desire cultivate liberal intercourse u seek kindly aid furtherance laudable desire complete autonomy domestic affair full equality family nation japanese empire longer japan past relation progressive nation less broad liberal power good foster many interest common mark relation near southern neighbor peace restore along northern frontier mexico ask punishment late disturber tranquillity ought new treaty commerce navigation country take place one terminate thirteen year ago friendliness intercourse two country attest fact long period commerce steadily increase rule mutual consideration neither stimulate conventional arrangement retard jealous rivalry selfish distrust indemnity tender mexico gracious act murder 1887 leon baldwin american citizen band marauder durango accept pay installment problem storage use water rio grande irrigation solve appropriate concurrent action two interested country rise colorado height stream flow intermittently yielding little water dry month irrigation channel already construct along course scarcity often severely felt region river form common boundary moreover frequent change course level sand often raise embarrass question territorial jurisdiction prominent among question year bluefields incident know mosquito indian strip border atlantic ocean within jurisdiction nicaragua treaty 1860 great britain nicaragua former government expressly recognize sovereignty latter strip limit form guarantee mosquito indian exercise accord custom dweller within limit native government grow largely make alien many year dispute sovereignty nicaragua strip claim right maintain therein practically independent municipal government early past year effort nicaragua maintain sovereignty mosquito territory lead serious disturbance culminate suppression native government attempt substitution impracticable composite administration nicaragua alien resident participate failure follow insurrection time subvert nicaraguan rule expel officer restore old organization turn give place exist local government establish upheld nicaragua although alien interest array nicaragua transaction largely american commerce region time still chiefly controlled citizen reason challenge rightful sovereignty nicaragua important part domain month one part time two naval ship station bluefields protection legitimate interest citizens september last government managua expelled territory twelve foreigner include two american allege participation seditious revolutionary movement republic bluefields already mention earnest remonstrance government two american permit return peaceful management business naval commander scene disturbance constant exhibition firmness good judgment contribute largely prevention serious consequence restoration quiet order regret midst occurrence happen grave irritating failure nicaraguan justice american citizen name wilson reside rama mosquito territory murder one arguello act governor town delay murderer arrest insecurely confine guard escaped notwithstanding repeat demand claim recapture impossible reason flight beyond nicaraguan jurisdiction nicaraguan authority give notice forfeiture concession canal company ground purely technical embrace contract recede position peru regret say show symptom domestic disturbance due probably slowness recuperation distress war 1881 weaken resource difficulty face international obligation invite kindly sympathy justify forbearance press claim felt constrained testify sympathy connection certain demand urgently prefer power recent death czar russia call forth appropriate expression sorrow sympathy part government bereave family russian people demonstration respect friendship minister petersburg direct represent government funeral ceremony seal interest russia bering sea second modus vivendi therefore conclude imperial government restrictive poaching russian rookery seal water comprehend protected area define paris award occasion find urge upon russian government equality treatment great company whose operation extend throughout europe admit foreign corporation transact business united state naturally expect less tolerance ample field competition abroad case interference naturalized citizen return russia report current year one krzeminski arrest last summer polish province report charge unpermitted renunciation russian allegiance transpire proceeding originate allege malfeasance commit krzeminski imperial official number year ago effort release promise successful progress death report government salvador overthrown abrupt popular outbreak certain military civil officer hotly pursue infuriated insurgent seek refuge board united state war ship bennington lie salvadorean port although practice asylum favor government yet view imminent peril threaten fugitive solely consideration humanity afford shelter naval commander afterwards demand treaty extradition salvador trial charge murder arson robbery direct voluntarily leave ship convey one near port hear could judicial officer compliance term treaty arrival san francisco proceed promptly institute united state district judge hold act constitute alleged offense political discharge accuse except one cienfuegos hold attempt murder thereupon constrain direct release reason attempt murder one crime charge upon surrender salvadorean authority demand unreasonable unjust fine impose spain vessel commerce united state demand time time last twenty year earnest remonstrance part government immediate past exorbitant penalty impose upon vessel good custom authority cuba puerto rico clerical error trivial character manifest bill lade case fine amount thousand dollar levy upon cargo carry vessel good question entitle free entry fine exact even error detected spanish authority notify arrival good port conduct strange contrast considerate liberal treatment extend spanish vessel cargo port like case satisfactory settlement vexatious question yet reach mora case refer last annual message remain unsettled diplomatic correspondence subject laid senate see government offer conclude convention spain disposal arbitration outstanding claim two country except mora claim long ago adjust awaits payment stipulate course could include propose convention hop offer would remove parliamentary obstacle encounter spanish government provide payment mora indemnity regret say definite reply offer yet make effort secure payment settle claim unavailing last annual message advert claim part turkey right expel person undesirable dangerous armenian naturalize united state return turkish jurisdiction numerous question relation arisen government acquiesces assert right expulsion consent armenian may imprison otherwise punished reason acquire without imperial consent american citizenship three assailant miss melton american teacher mosul convict ottoman court advise appeal acquittal remain five take turkish prosecute officer convention conclude venezuela arbitration claim grow seizure certain vessel property citizen united state although sign treaty extradition venezuela yet force owe insistence government surrender citizen shall case liable capital punishment rule prevention collision sea frame maritime conference hold city 1889 concurrently incorporate statute united state great britain announce take effect march 1 1895 invitation extend maritime nation adhere favorable response thus far received austria france portugal spain sweden last annual message refer briefly unsatisfactory state affair samoa operation berlin treaty signally illustrate impolicy entangle alliance foreign power may 9 1894 response resolution senate send special message document body subject emphasize previously express opinion later occurrence correspondence regard laid congress demonstrate government devise three power force upon samoan inveterate hostility maintain continue presence foreign military force small sacrifice life treasure suppression mataafa insurrection power subsequent banishment leader eleven chiefs recite last message bring last peace island formidable uprising continue finally rebellion break capital island upolu head aana western district young tamasese atua eastern district leader insurgent ravage country fought government troop door apia king appeal power help combine british german naval force reduce atuans apparent subjection however without considerable loss native day later tamasese adherent fear ship marine profess submission report receive agent apia justify belief peace thus bring long duration conviction native heart hostile present government profess loyalty fear power would speedily go piece war ship withdrawn report government unsatisfactory situation since suppression late revolt foreign arm force german consul apia state peace last hardly presume lesson give fire atua sufficiently sharp incisive leave last impression forgetful samoan temperament fact condition exist show peace last seriously intend malietoa king chief convinced departure war ship signal renewal war circumstance representative village district opposed government already withdraw atua hold meeting atua aana forbidden inhabitant district fought side government return village already partly burn latter indicates real conciliation party still far note 10th ultimo inclose copy report information government german ambassador say content report awaken imperial government apprehension exist circumstance peace conclude rebel afford assurance last restoration tranquillity islands present government utterly fail correct indeed aggravate evil intend prevent stimulate commerce island participation establishment wish native plain defiance conservative teaching warning wise patriotic men lay foundation free institution invite expression judgment congress propriety step take government look withdrawal engagement power reasonable term prejudicial exist right secretary treasury report receipts government source revenue fiscal year end june 30 1894 amount expenditure leave deficit decrease ordinary expense government compare fiscal year 1893 collect custom internal revenue balance income year amount derive sale land source value total dutiable import amount less preceding year importation free duty amount less preceding year receipt custom less internal revenue less 1893 total tax collect distilled spirit manufacture tobacco ferment liquor export merchandise domestic foreign amount year increase precede year total amount gold export fiscal year fiscal year 1893 amount import previous year import silver export total bounty pay upon production sugar united state fiscal year increase payment make precede year amount bounty pay july 1 1894 august 28 1894 time payment cease operation law total expense incur payment bounty upon sugar fiscal year estimate upon basis present revenue law receipt government current fiscal year end june 30 1895 expenditure result deficit 1st day november 1894 total stock money kind country 1st day november 1893 money kind circulation include treasury holding per caput upon estimate population date hold treasury gold bullion amount silver bullion purchase cost purchase silver bullion act july 14 1890 cease 1st day november 1893 time purchase fiscal year fine ounce cost average cost per fine ounce total amount silver purchase time law take effect repeal purchasing clause date last mentioned fine ounce cost average price per fine ounce total amount standard silver dollar coin mint united state since passage act february 28 1878 coin provision act provision act july 14 1890 act provide coinage bullion total coinage metal mint last fiscal year consist piece value gold coin 758 standard silver dollar subsidiary silver coin minor coin calendar year 1893 production precious metal united state estimate fine ounce gold commercial coinage value fine ounce silver bullion market value coinage value estimate 1st day july 1894 stock metallic money unite state consist coin bullion amount gold silver fifty national bank organize year end october 31 1894 capital 79 capital go voluntary liquidation bank capital place hand receiver total number national bank existence 31st day october last 40 less 31st day october 1893 capital stock pay less time previous year surplus fund individual profit less expense tax pay amounted less october 31 1893 circulation decrease obligation bank increase individual deposit less correspond date previous year loan discount time previous year check cash item total resource bank date mention amounted 1893 report secretary war appear strength army september 30 1894 officer enlist men although apparently slight decrease compare previous year actual effective force increase equivalent nearly two regiment reorganization system recruit consequent release regimental duty large force men hitherto serve recruit depot abolition depot predict furthermore effect annual reduction approximate direct expenditure besides promote generally health morale discipline troop execution policy concentrate army important center population transportation foreshadow last annual report secretary result abandonment fifteen small post effect plan assembles organization regiment hitherto widely separate render small force readily effective service may call upon perform increase extent territory protection without diminish security heretofore afford locality improves discipline train esprit de corp army besides considerably decrease cost maintenance though force department east somewhat increase army still station west mississippi carefully mature policy secures best great service interest general welfare small force comprise regular army thoughtlessly embarrass creation new unnecessary post act congress gratify ambition interest locality maximum legal strength army men effective strength various cause little men purpose congress therefore seem fully attain exist condition considerable increase army judgment demand recent event policy seacoast fortification prosecution steadily engage year far develop suggest effective strength army make least equal legal strength measure take department year indicate already considerably augment effective force secretary war present plan recommend consideration congress attain desire end economy effect department line work offset great extent expenditure involve proposition submit among thing contemplates adoption formation regiment several year indorsed secretary war general command army compact provide skeleton organization ready fill event war peculiarly adapt strength requirement fact every nation single exception adopt formation meet condition modern warfare alone secure recommendation early consideration hardly necessary recall fact obedience command constitution law purpose protect property united state aid process federal court remove lawless obstruction performance government legitimate function become necessary various locality year employ considerable portion regular troop duty discharge promptly courageously mark discretion officer men gratify proof thus afford army deserves complete confidence efficiency discipline country time manifest year free disturbance indian chance depredation part constantly become remote improbable total war department year end june 30 1894 amount sum salary contingent expense support military establishment miscellaneous object public work latter sum include river harbor improvement fortification work defense appropriation current year aggregate estimate submit secretary war next fiscal year call appropriation amount skill industry ordnance officer inventor believe overcome mechanical obstacle heretofore delayed armament coast great national undertaking upon enter may proceed rapidly congress shall determine supply finish gun large caliber already hand addition rapidly follow wisdom providing carriage emplacements mount strongly urge total enrollment militia several state officer enlist men increase number report close previous year report militia inspection regular army officer show marked increase interest efficiency among state organization strongly recommend continuance policy afford every practical encouragement possible important auxiliary military establishment condition apache indian hold prisoners government eight year cost half million dollar change year captivity one give opportunity demonstrate capacity least partial civilization legislation enact late session congress give war department authority transfer survivor number 346 mount vernon barrack alabama suitable reservation department select future home military land near fort sill ind military surveillance former prisoner establish agriculture condition favorable advancement recognition long distinguish military service faithful discharge delicate responsible civil duty john schofield general commanding army suggest congress temporary revival grade behalf would gracious act would permit retirement near hand rank befit merit report note gratify progress make supreme court overcome arrears business reach condition able dispose case arise without unreasonable delay result course largely due successful work plan inaugurate circuit court appeal respect tribunal suggestion make quarter entitled high consideration additional circuit judge circuit would greatly strengthen court confidence repose adjudication addition would create great force judge increase business court require commend suggestion careful consideration congress important topic advert report accompany recommendation many treat large previous message time therefore need name refer abolition fee system measure compensation federal officer enlargement power united state commissioner least territory allowance writ error criminal case behalf united state establishment degree crime murder topic dealt much importance condition administration justice indian territory permanent solution call indian problem probably expect meanwhile amelioration present condition exist system admit ought neglect satisfied federal court establish territory sufficient judge court sit within territory jurisdiction territorial affair vest federal court sit arkansas texas another subject press moment refer reorganization union pacific railway company basis equitable regard private interest favorable government exist condition permit operation railroad court receiver anomalous state thing terminate ground public private early possible moment besides enact need enable legislation present session postpones whole matter assemble new congress inevitably increase complication situation could regard signal failure solve problem practically present congress ever since organization eight year ago annual message urge upon congress strongly could location construction two prison confinement united state prisoner similar recommendation make time time since year ago law pass provide selection site three institution appropriation however make carry act effect old discreditable condition still exist purpose time repeat consideration make impregnable case favor ownership management government penal institution federal prisoner confine simply desire urge former recommendation subject particularly call attention congress part report secretary war state military prison fort leavenworth turn government prison federal convict without least difficulty actual save money every point view pending complete reform hope adoption suggestion secretary war easy step may take direction proper care convict government united state report present comprehensive statement operation department last fiscal year receipt department year amount expenditure transaction postal service indicate barometric certainty fluctuation business country inasmuch therefore business complication continue exist throughout last year unforeseen extent surprise deficiency revenue meet expenditure department estimate advance exceed nearly ascertain revenue last year basis calculation current year less estimated deficiency current year correspondingly great though state late indication favorable confidently predict increase least 8 per cent revenue current year last year expenditures increase steadily necessarily growth need country deficiency great less year depend upon volume receipt state deficiency unnecessary might obviate law regulate rate upon mail matter second class modify rate receive transmission matter 1 cent per pound cost transmission government eight time amount general term law rate cover newspaper periodical extension mean term time time admit privilege intend legitimate newspaper periodical surprising range publication create abuse cost amount aggregate total deficiency department pretend newspaper start business house mere purpose advertising good comply law form discontinue publication soon period advertising sample copy pretend newspaper issue great number like purpose result great loss revenue government besides humiliate use agency aid carry scheme business house advertise good mean trick upon rival house regular legitimate newspaper literature consist mainly trashy novel extent many thousand ton send mail 1 cent per pound publisher standard work require pay eight time amount sending publication another abuse consist free carriage mail hundred ton seed grain uselessly distribute department agriculture predict law amend eradicate abuse department show deficiency believe near future legitimate newspaper periodical magazine might properly transmit mail subscriber free cost invite prompt consideration subject fully indorse view total number united state 30th day june 1894 increase precede year presidential increase class 68 precede year six hundred ten city town provide free delivery city towns entitle service law accord account insufficient fund expense free delivery current fiscal year exist legislation item expenditure subject constant increase estimate cost rural free delivery generally large ought consider present condition affair year 830 additional domestic office establish total number office close year money order issue year increase precede year value order amount increase also issue year postal note amount year 218 international office add already establish make total office operation june 30 1894 number international money order issue year decrease number value decrease amount number order pay increase precede year value increase forego statement appear total issue money order postal note year amount number letter package mail year special delivery stamp use upon letter package amount messenger fee pay delivery amount leave balance favor government report show gratify result way economy work without affect efficiency postal service consist abrogation steamship subsidy contract reletting mail transportation contract cost amount supply use service amount report also contain valuable contribution history universal postal union arrangement amount practically establishment one postal system entire civilize world special attention direct subject time view fact next congress union meet washington 1897 hop timely action take direction perfect preparation event renew suggestion make previous report department organization increase extent create direct district supervision postal affair suggestion fully concur connect establishment employee classify service include many classify upon suggestion state another year experience head department serve strengthen conviction excellent work law branch public service attention call report secretary navy show gratify progress construction ship new navy vessel build include three torpedo boat authorize last session congress except battle ship iowa probably complete come fiscal year estimate increase navy year end june 30 1896 large include practically entire sum necessary complete equip new ship commission unless new ship authorize appropriation naval service fiscal year end june 30 1897 fall estimate come year least secretary present much earnestness plea authorization three additional battle ship ten twelve torpedo boat unarmored vessel heretofore authorized include nearing completion constitute fleet believe sufficient ordinary cruising purpose time peace complete process construction four battle ship torpedo boat navy warlike operation offensive defensive certainly ought increase number battle ship torpedo boat manufacture armor require expensive plant aggregation many skilled workman armor necessary complete vessel building deliver 1st june next new contract give contractor must disband workmen plant must lie idle battle ship authorized time would well way late come fiscal year least three year half date contract would require completion secretary state 15 per cent cost ship need included appropriation come year recommend provision make construction additional battle ship torpedo boat secretary recommend manufacture reserve supply ordnance ordnance material ship navy also supply auxiliary fleet gun appurtenance provide kept hand purpose single gun could put upon ship paris new york international navigation company ship reserve navy manufacture gun washington proceed satisfactorily none new ship require wait gun ordnance equipment important order issue secretary navy coordinate duty several bureau concern construction ship order believe secure great extent heretofore possible harmonious action several bureau make attainment best result certain past fiscal year unusual press demand many quarter world presence vessel guard american interest january last brazilian insurrection large fleet concentrate harbor rio de janeiro vigorous action benham protect personal commercial right citizen disturbed condition afford result believe wholesome influence whenever like circumstance may become necessary naval commander interfere behalf people foreign port war progress china japan render necessary expedient dispatch eight vessel water secretary navy secretary treasury recommend transfer work coast survey proper navy department heartily concur recommendation exclude alaska small area besides work mapping chart coast complete hydrographic work must do reason shift vary depths water consequent upon action stream tide heretofore do direction naval officer subordination superintendent coast survey seem good reason navy entire charge hereafter work especially hydrographic office navy department many year engage make efficient map entirely similar prepare coast survey feel imperative duty call attention recommendation secretary regard personnel line navy stagnation promotion vital branch service great seriously impair efficiency consider utmost importance young officer eve retirement permit reach grade entitle active important duty system adopt year ago regulate employment labor rigidly uphold fully demonstrate usefulness expediency within domain reform inasmuch workman employ board labor select give work without reference politics order application preference however give army navy veteran former experience amendment suggest experience make rule regulate system operation work vastly improve efficiency opportunity work honestly fairly award willing competent applicant hop system continue strictly adhere soon natural consequence equalization party benefit remove temptation relax abandon report secretary interior exhibit situation numerous interesting branch public service connect department commend report valuable recommendation secretary careful attention congress public land dispose year amount acre include indian land estimate public domain still remain amount little acre include however acre alaska well military reservation railroad selection land yet unadjudicated total cash receipt sale land amount include receive indian land thousand patent issue agricultural land patent issue indian allotment holding severalty land allot inalienable indian allottees period year patent certify patented account railroad grant year acres land close year acre embrace list selection make railroad company await settlement selection swamp land take indemnity therefor since passage act provide 1849 amount nearly quite acre patent state acre patent last year nearly acres school education grant approve year close acre remain unadjusted appear appropriation current year account special service protection public land timber thereon much less previous year inadequate efficient performance work large sum money appropriate number year past account return government result labor employ particular service mention hope cripple insufficient appropriation fully indorse recommendation secretary adequate protection provide forest reserve comprehensive forestry system inaugurate keeper superintendent necessary protect forest already reserve provided opinion abandonment policy sanction present law government small consideration rapidly lose title immense tract land cover timber properly reserve permanent source timber supply suggestion change make manner secure survey public land especially worthy consideration satisfy survey make corps competent surveyor immediate control direction commissioner general land office exceedingly important recommendation secretary relate manner contest litigate case grow effort obtain government land determine entire testimony upon controversy depend stage take local register receiver yet officer power subpoena witness enforce attendance testify case number three four thousand annually send local officer commissioner general land office action exigencies duty oblige act upon decision register receiver without opportunity thorough personal examination nearly case appeal annually commissioner secretary interior burden important administrative duty determination appeal must almost perfunctory base upon examination others though determination secretary operate final adjudication upon right great importance concur opinion commissioner general land office relieve duty decide litigate land case nonpartisan court create pas case decision court final least far decision department final propose court might give authority certify question law matter especial importance supreme court unite state court appeal district columbia decision creation tribunal would expedite disposal case insure decision satisfactory character register receiver originally hear decide dispute invest authority compel witness attend testify though condition indian show steady healthy progress situation satisfactory point allotment land make find unable disincline follow agricultural pursuit otherwise beneficially manage land especially true cheyenne arapahoe appear report agent many instance never locate upon allotment case even know allotment condition deteriorate live camp spend time idleness always believe allotment reservation land indian severalty make sparingly least slowly utmost caution day white agriculturist stock raiser experience intelligence find lot hard one ought expect indian unless far advanced civilization habit industry support small tract land usually allot scheme allotment fails wretched pauperism allottees result bad original condition regulate dependence evident evil consequence allotment intensified case false step retrace account purchase government reservation land remain allotment make disposition remain land settler purchaser government convince proper solution indian problem success every step take direction depend large extent upon intelligence honesty reservation agent interest work agent fit place much toward prepare indian charge citizenship allotment land advice matter concern welfare mislead unfit agent make effort advance indian reservation toward civilization preparation allotment land severalty opinion condition regard heedless valueless indication detail army officer indian agent result improved management reservation whenever allotment make indian reservation previously settle upon lot cultivate show disposition improve way lot certainly allot make plainly obligatory statute light experience consider uncertainty indian situation exigencies future dispose cautious make allotment incline agree secretary interior opinion allotment make balance reservation land remain allotment instead buy government indian open settlement scandal unfair practice seem unavoidable remain time least common land sell government behalf indian orderly way fix price determine location desirability proceeds less expense hold trust benefit indian proprietor intelligent management past year follow gratifying result effort make advance work sound practical manner five institute indian teacher hold year prove beneficial view exchange method discuss particularly applicable indian education effort make direction gradual reduction number indian contract school comparatively short time may give way altogether government school hop change may gradual perfect without great expense government undue disregard investment make establish maintain contract school appropriation current year end june 30 1895 applicable ordinary expense indian service amount less sum appropriate account previous year close last fiscal year 30th day june 1894 person pension roll net increase number report end previous year pensioner may classify follow soldier sailor survivor war widow relative decease soldier army nurse war rebellion 414 pensioner survive soldier indian war prior late civil war widow relatives soldier remainder number receive pension account rebellion roll authority act june 27 1890 sometimes call law total amount expend pension year leave unexpended balance sum appropriate sum necessary meet pension expenditure year end june 30 1896 estimate commissioner pension opinion year 1895 thirtieth close war rebellion must accord sensible human calculation see high limit pension roll year must begin decline claim pending bureau decrease year large proportion new claim file increase pension roll number certificate issue name drop roll cause year number among pensioner 9 widow 3 daughter soldier revolution 45 survivor war 1812 barefaced extensive pension fraud expose direction courageous generous veteran soldier head bureau leave room claim purgation pension roll need continued vigilance prompt action necessary end accusation effort detect pension fraud evidence unfriendliness toward worthy veteran denial claim generosity government suggest unfortunate indifference commission offense motive secure pension indicate willingness blind existence mean treacherous crime play upon demagogic fear make sport patriotic impulse grateful people completion eleventh census charge commissioner labor total disbursement account work fiscal year end june 30 1894 amount close year number person employ census office 679 present 400 whole number volume necessary comprehend eleventh census 25 contain print page assurance confidently make close present calendar year material still incomplete practically hand census certainly close 4th march 1895 revision proof read necessary bring volume still require text census volume limit far possible analysis statistic present method accordance law cause less friction instance individual disappointment commissioner labor take charge work found much matter hand accord rule compel discard census prepare accord theory design collect fact certify public elaborate argument present personal view secretary agriculture report review operation department last fiscal year make recommendation extension usefulness report save expenditure year cover back treasury sum 23 per cent entire appropriation special study make demand american farm product foreign market especially great britain country receive united state nine month end september 30 1894 live beef cattle value cattle valued period 1893 first six month 1894 united kingdom take also pound dress beef united state value nearly report show nine month immediately precede september 30 1894 united state export great britain pound pork apple bushel value horse average value 139 per head fall american wheat export bushel secretary incline believe wheat may future staple export cereal product country corn continue advance importance export account new us constantly appropriate export agricultural product united state fiscal year end june 30 1894 amount per cent american export every description united kingdom great britain take 54 per cent farm product find foreign market department agriculture undertaken year two new important line research first relate grass forage plant purpose instruct familiarize people distinctive grass united state teach introduce valuable foreign forage plant may adapt country second relate agricultural soil crop production involve analysis sample soil section american union demonstrate adaptability particular plant crop mechanical analysis soil may inestimable utility foremost new line agricultural research secretary therefore recommends division charge permanently establish department amount appropriate weather bureau sum 14 per cent save returned treasury illustrate usefulness service may state warning generally give two tropical storm occur september october present year result detain safely port vessel value laden cargo probably still great value much important gratify many human life ship also undoubtedly save appropriation bureau animal industry expenditures year thus leave unexpended inspection beef animal export interstate trade continue head inspect year cost 1 cent per head 4 cent 1893 amount pork microscopically examine pound pound precede year cost inspection diminish 8 cent per head 1893 6 cent 1894 expense inspect pork sell 1894 germany france united state quantity inspect great pound precede year cost inspection secretary agriculture recommend law provide microscopic inspection export interstate meat amend compel owner meat inspected pay cost inspection call attention argument present report support recommendation live beef cattle export tagged year number increase head previous year sanitary inspection cattle ship europe cost average 10 cent animal cost inspect southern cattle disinfection car stock yard average cent per animal scientific inquiry bureau animal industry progress steadily year much tuberculin mallein furnish state authority use agricultural college experiment station treatment tuberculosis glanders quite recently department publish result investigation bovine tuberculosis research vigorously continue certain herd district columbia thoroughly inspect probably supply adequate scope department intelligently prosecute scientific work furnish sufficient material purpose illustration description definition sterilization milk suspect contain bacillus tuberculosis year thoroughly explain leaflet salmon chief bureau give general circulation throughout country office experiment station part united state department agriculture past year engage almost wholly prepare publication work base upon report agricultural experiment station institution agricultural inquiry united state foreign country secretary report 1893 call attention fact appropriation make support experiment station throughout union money take national treasury act congress account federal authority require respond suggestion congress make appropriation department present fiscal year provide secretary agriculture shall prescribe form annual financial statement require section 3 say act march 2 1887 shall ascertain whether expenditure appropriation hereby make accordance provision say act shall make report thereon congress obedience law department agriculture immediately send blank form expense account station propose addition make trust expert systematic examination several station year purpose acquire personal investigation detail information necessary enable secretary agriculture make statute provide satisfactory report congress board management several station great alacrity cordiality approve amendment law provide supervision expenditure anticipate increase efficiency station protect director manager loose charge concern use public fund besides bring department agriculture closer confidential relation experimental station joint service largely increase usefulness agriculture country act upon recommendation contain report 1893 congress appropriate enable secretary agriculture investigate report upon nutritive value various article commodity use human food special suggestion full wholesome edible ration less wasteful economical common use appropriation department prepare nearly ready distribution elementary discussion nutritive value pecuniary economy food consider fully money earn wage earner civilize world expend food importance utility investigation apparent department expend fiscal year 1893 sum total amount expend scientific research per cent year end june 30 1894 total expenditure department apply per cent sum scientific work investigation therefore plainly observable economy practice administration department expense scientific research recommendation contain report secretary 1893 vicious system promiscuous free distribution departmental document abandon urged publication may well furnish without cost public libraries educational institution officer library state federal government individual apply price cover cost document ask require thus publication document would secure really desire proper purpose half million copy report secretary agriculture print distribution annual cost large number cumber storeroom capitol shelf store throughout country labor waste might avoid recommendation secretary adopt secretary also recommend gratuitous distribution seed cease money appropriate purpose except experiment station reiterate reason give report 1893 discontinue unjustifiable gratuity fully concur conclusion reach best service statistician department agriculture ascertainment diligence care actual real condition favorable unfavorable farmer farm country seek cause produce condition end fact ascertain may guide intelligent treatment important utility agricultural statistic find elucidation relation supply farm product demand market united state world deem possible agricultural census may take year agent statistical division department course commend trial chief division scope would 1 area important crop 2 aggregate product crop 3 quantity wheat corn hand farmer date spring sowings planting begin harvest also quantity cotton tobacco remain hand planter either date designate time cost work estimate owe peculiar quality statistician work natural acquire fitness necessary successful prosecution secretary agriculture express opinion every person employ gather statistic chief division admit service thorough exhaustive successful examination hand united state civil service commission lead call examination candidate position assistant statistician also candidate chiefs section division work do department agriculture superficially dealt communication commend report secretary important interest deal careful attention congress advantage public service adherence principle reform constantly apparent nothing encourage official life honestly desire good government increase appreciation people advantage vast majority voter land ready insist time attention select perform important public duty distract doling minor office grow unanimous regard party organization something use establish party principle instead dictate distribution public place reward partisan activity numerous additional office place lately bring within rule regulation others probably soon included report commissioner submit congress invite careful attention recommendation contain entirely convinced ought longer without national board health national health officer charge duty pertain protection country invasion pestilence disease would involve establishment board officer proper quarantine precaution necessary aid counsel local authority subject prompt advice assistance local board health health officer suppression contagious disease case local board officer immediate direction national board officer measure suppression constant authentic information concern health foreign country part country relate contagious disease consideration regulation enforce foreign port prevent introduction contagion city measure adopt secure enforcement seem time decide inclination discus measure protection contagious diseases international conference view adopt mean mutual assistance creation national health establishment would greatly aid standing conference improve opportunity avail benefit earnestly recommend inauguration national board health similar national instrumentality believe need precaution contagious disease interest safety health people virtue statute united state pass 1888 appoint july last hon john kernan state new york hon nicholas worthington state illinois form hon carroll wright commissioner labor designate say statute commission purpose make careful inquiry cause controversy certain railroad employee result extensive destructive strike accompany much violence dangerous disturbance considerable loss life great destruction property report commissioner submit transmitted congress evidence take upon investigation work well do stand intelligence give assurance report suggestion make worthy careful consideration tariff act pass last session congress need important amendment execute effectively certainty addition necessary amendment change rate duty still decidedly favor put coal iron upon free list far sugar schedule concern would glad exist aggravation see every particle differential duty favor refine sugar stricken tariff law favor accord interest tariff law still languish extent close refinery thousand discharged workman would seem present hopeless case reasonable legislative aid whatever else do omit earnestly repeat recommendation make another portion communication additional duty cent per pound lay upon sugar import country pay bounty export abrogate seem exceedingly important consideration point propriety amendment advent new tariff policy calculate relieve consumer land cost daily life invite well development american thrift create u closer profitable commercial relation rest world follow logical imperative necessity remove chief obstacle long prevented participation foreign carry trade sea tariff build upon theory well check import home market bind industry effort american producer fitly supplement refusal allow american registry vessel build abroad though own navigated people thus exhibit willingness abandon contest advantage american transoceanic carriage new tariff policy build upon theory well encourage importation people need product manufacture find market every part habitable globe consistently supplement great possible liberty citizen ownership navigation ship product manufacture may transport million pay foreigner carry american passenger product across sea turn american hand shipbuilding protected strangulation revive prospect profitable employment ship build american sailor resurrect take place sturdy industrious citizen time peace patriotic safe defender american interest day conflict ancient provision law deny american registry ship build abroad own american appear light present condition failure good every point nearer relic barbarism anything exist permission statute united state earnestly recommend prompt repeal last month gold reserved treasury purpose redeem note government circulate money hand people become reduced depletion near future seem certain exercise proper care public welfare become necessary replenish reserve thus maintain popular faith ability determination government meet agreed pecuniary obligation would well emergency authority exist issue bond government bear low rate interest mature within short period congress fail confer authority resort necessarily resumption act 1875 pursuant provision bond issue draw interest rate 5 per cent per annum mature ten year issue shortest time authorize act glad say however sale bond premium receive operated reduce rate interest pay government less 3 per cent nothing could worse remove sensible finance relation exist currency government issue gold hold redemption mean must resort purpose replenish redemption fund impair even claim upon fund confine obligation originally intend redemption obligation mean cancellation fund would small obligation receive redeemed gold cancel reissue may duty many time way draw gold treasury thus endless chain operation constantly deplete treasury gold never near final rest bad enough statutory declaration policy government maintain parity gold silver aid force momentum exhaust process add largely currency obligation claim peculiar gold redemption small gold reserve thus subject drain every side demand increase danger also increase necessity protect reserve depletion unsatisfactory know protection afford temporary palliation perfectly palpably plain way present condition reserve dangerously deplete replenished issue sale bond government gold yet congress thus far decline authorize issue bond best suit purpose seem disposition quarter deny necessity power issue bond moment believe citizen deliberately willing government default pecuniary obligation financial operation reduce silver basis rate feel duty do omit effort could make avert calamity long therefore provision make final redemption put aside currency obligation use repeatedly constantly draw government gold long well authority bond issue allow present exists authority utilize whenever often become necessary maintain sufficient gold reserve abundant time save credit country make good financial declaration government question relate bank currency closely connect subject refer also present unsatisfactory feature prominent among lack elasticity currency circulation frequent concentration financial center need part country absolute divorcement government business bank ideal relationship government circulation currency country condition immediately reach step direction mean secure elastic currency obviate objection present arrangement bank circulation secretary treasury present report scheme modify present banking law provide issue circulate note state bank free taxation certain limitation secretary explain plan plainly advantage develop remarkable clearness effort part present argument support would superfluous shall therefore content unqualified indorsement secretary propose change law brief imperfect statement prominent feature propose repeal law provide deposit united state bond security circulation permit national bank issue circulate note exceed amount 75 per cent unimpaired capital provide deposit government guaranty fund united state note include treasury note 1890 sum equal amount 30 per cent note desire issue deposit maintain time whenever bank retire part circulation proportional part guaranty fund shall return permit secretary treasury prepare keep hand ready issue case increase circulation desired blank note bank circulation repeal provision present law impose limitation restriction upon bank desire reduce increase circulation thus permit increase reduction within limit 75 per cent capital quickly make emergency arise addition guaranty fund require propose provide safety fund immediate redemption circulate note fail bank impose small annual tax say 1 per cent upon average circulation bank fund amount 5 per cent total circulation outstanding bank fail guaranty fund pay safety fund note redeem first instance safety fund thus augment impairment fund cause thereby make good immediately available cash asset say bank insufficient impairment make good pro rata assessment among bank contribution constitute first lien upon asset fail bank favor contribute bank security contemplate exist provision fix individual liability stockholder retain bank indebtedness account circulate note make first lien asset purpose meet expense printing note official supervision cancellation like charge shall impose tax say 1 per cent per annum upon average amount note circulation provide shall note issue less denomination 10 national bank except case fail bank shall redeem retire note first instance office agency designate fixed reserve need maintain account deposit another important feature plan exemption state bank taxation unite state case show satisfaction secretary treasury comptroller currency bank claim exemption outstanding circulating note exceed 75 per cent unimpaired capital stockholder individually liable redemption circulate note full extent ownership stock liability say bank upon circulate note constitute state law first lien upon asset bank keep maintain guaranty fund united state note include treasury note 1890 equal 30 per cent outstanding circulating note bank promptly redeem circulate note present principal branch office quite likely scheme may usefully amend detail satisfied furnishes basis great improvement present banking currency system conclude communication fully appreciate responsibility legislation affect people united state rest upon representative congress assure whether accordance recommendation make shall glad cooperate perfect legislation tend prosperity welfare country