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President[ Benjamin Harrison

         Date[ December 6, 1892

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In submitting my annual message to Congress I have great satisfaction in

being able to say that the general conditions affecting the commercial and

industrial interests of the United States are in the highest degree

favorable. A comparison of the existing conditions with those of the most

favored period in the history of the country will, I believe, show that so

high a degree of prosperity and so general a diffusion of the comforts of

life were never before enjoyed by our people.

The total wealth of the country in 1860 was $16,159,616,068. In 1890 it

amounted to $62,610,000,000, an increase of 287 per cent.

The total mileage of railways in the United States in 1860 was 30,626. In

1890 it was 167,741, an increase of 448 per cent; and it is estimated that

there will be about 4,000 miles of track added by the close of the year

1892.

The official returns of the Eleventh Census and those of the Tenth Census

for seventy-five leading cities furnish the basis for the following

comparisons:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am informed by the Superintendent of the Census that the omission of

certain industries in 1880 which were included in 1890 accounts in part for

the remarkable increase thus shown, but after making full allowance for

differences of method and deducting the returns for all industries not

included in the census of 1880 there remain in the reports from these

seventy-five cities an increase in the capital employed of $1,522,745,604,

in the value of the product of $2,024,236,166, in wages earned of

$677,943,929, and in the number of wage earners employed of 856,029. The

wage earnings not only show an increased aggregate, but an increase per

capita from $386 in 1880 to $547 in 1890, or 41.71 per cent.

The new industrial plants established since October 6, 1890, and up to

October 22, 1892, as partially reported in the American Economist, number

345, and the extension of existing plants 108; the new capital invested

amounts to $40,449,050, and the number of additional employees to 37,285.

The Textile World for July, 1892, states that during the first six months

of the present calendar year 135 new factories were built, of which 40 are

cotton mills, 48 knitting mills, 26 woolen mills, 15 silk mills, 4 plush

mills, and 2 linen mills. Of the 40 cotton mills 21 have been built in the

Southern States. Mr. A. B. Shepperson, of the New York Cotton Exchange,

estimates the number of working spindles in the United States on September

1, 1892, at 15,200,000, an increase of 660,000 over the year 1891. The

consumption of cotton by American mills in 1891 was 2,396,000 bales, and in

1892 2,584,000 bales, an increase of 188,000 bales. From the year 1869 to

1892, inclusive, there has been an increase in the consumption of cotton in

Europe of 92 per cent, while during the same period the increased

consumption in the United States has been about 150 per cent.

The report of Ira Ayer, special agent of the Treasury Department, shows

that at the date of September 30, 1892, there were 32 companies

manufacturing tin and terne plate in the United States and 14 companies

building new works for such manufacture. The estimated investment in

buildings and plants at the close of the fiscal year June 30, 1893, if

existing conditions were to be continued, was $5,000,000 and the estimated

rate of production 200,000,000 pounds per annum. The actual production for

the quarter ending September 30, 1892, was 10,952,725 pounds.

The report of Labor Commissioner Peck, of New York, shows that during the

year 1891, in about 6,000 manufacturing establishments in that State

embraced within the special inquiry made by him, and representing 67

different industries, there was a net increase over the year 1890 of

$30,315,130.68 in the value of the product and of $6,377,925.09 in the

amount of wages paid. The report of the commissioner of labor for the State

of Massachusetts shows that 3,745 industries in that State paid

$129,416,248 in wages during the year 1891, against $126,030,303 in 1890,

an increase of $3,335,945, and that there was an increase of $9,932,490 in

the amount of capital and of 7,346 in the number of persons employed in the

same period.

During the last six months of the year 1891 and the first six months of

1892 the total production of pig iron was 9,710,819 tons, as against

9,202,703 tons in the year 1890, which was the largest annual production

ever attained. For the same twelve months of 1891-92 the production of

Bessemer ingots was 3,878,581 tons, an increase of 189,710 gross tons over

the previously unprecedented yearly production of 3,688,871 gross tons in

1890. The production of Bessemer steel rails for the first six months of

1892 was 772,436 gross tons, as against 702,080 gross tons during the last

six months of the year 1891.

The total value of our foreign trade (exports and imports of merchandise)

during the last fiscal year was $1,857,680,610, an increase of $128,283,604

over the previous fiscal year. The average annual value of our imports and

exports of merchandise for the ten fiscal years prior to 1891 was

$1,457,322,019. It will be observed that our foreign trade for 1892

exceeded this annual average value by $400,358,591, an increase of 27.47

per cent. The significance and value of this increase are shown by the fact

that the excess in the trade of 1892 over 1891 was wholly in the value of

exports, for there was a decrease in the value of imports of $17,513,754.

The value of our exports during the fiscal year 1892 reached the highest

figure in the history of the Government, amounting to $1,030,278,148,

exceeding by $145,797,338 the exports of 1891 and exceeding the value of

the imports by $202,875,686. A comparison of the value of our exports for

1892 with the annual average for the ten years prior to 1891 shows an

excess of $265,142,651, or of 34.65 per cent. The value of our imports of

merchandise for 1892, which was $829,402,462, also exceeded the annual

average value of the ten years prior to 1891 by $135,215,940. During the

fiscal year 1892 the value of imports free of duty amounted to

$457,999,658, the largest aggregate in the history of our commerce. The

value of the imports of merchandise entered free of duty in 1892 was 55.35

per cent of the total value of imports, as compared with 43.35 per cent in

1891 and 33.66 per cent in 1890.

In our coastwise trade a most encouraging development is in progress, there

having been in the last four years an increase of 16 per cent. In internal

commerce the statistics show that no such period of prosperity has ever

before existed. The freight carried in the coastwise trade of the Great

Lakes in 1890 aggregated 28,295,959 tons. On the Mississippi, Missouri, and

Ohio rivers and tributaries in the same year the traffic aggregated

29,405,046 tons, and the total vessel tonnage passing through the Detroit

River during that year was 21,684,000 tons. The vessel tonnage entered and

cleared in the foreign trade of London during 1890 amounted to 13,480,767

tons, and of Liverpool 10,941,800 tons, a total for these two great

shipping ports of 24,422,568 tons, only slightly in excess of the vessel

tonnage passing through the Detroit River. And it should be said that the

season for the Detroit River was but 228 days, while of course in London

and Liverpool the season was for the entire year. The vessel tonnage

passing through the St. Marys Canal for the fiscal year 1892 amounted to

9,828,874 tons, and the freight tonnage of the Detroit River is estimated

for that year at 25,000,000 tons, against 23,209,619 tons in 1891. The

aggregate traffic on our railroads for the year 1891 amounted to

704,398,609 tons of freight, compared with 691,344,437 tons in 1890, an

increase of 13,054,172 tons.

Another indication of the general prosperity of the country is found in the

fact that the number of depositors in savings banks increased from 693,870

in 1860 to 4,258,893 in 1890, an increase of 513 per cent, and the amount

of deposits from $149,277,504 in 1860 to $1,524,844,506 in 1890, an

increase of 921 per cent. In 1891 the amount of deposits in savings banks

was $1,623,079,749. It is estimated that 90 per cent of these deposits

represent the savings of wage earners. The bank clearances for nine months

ending September 30, 1891, amounted to $41,049,390,08. For the same months

in 1892 they amounted to $45,189,601,947, an excess for the nine months of

$4,140,211,139.

There never has been a time in our history when work was so abundant or

when wages were as high, whether measured by the currency in which they are

paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life. It

is true that the market prices of cotton and wheat have been low. It is one

of the unfavorable incidents of agriculture that the farmer can not produce

upon orders. He must sow and reap in ignorance of the aggregate production

of the year, and is peculiarly subject to the depreciation which follows

overproduction. But while the fact I have stated is true as to the crops

mentioned, the general average of prices has been such as to give to

agriculture a fair participation in the general prosperity. The value of

our total farm products has increased from $1,363,646,866 in 1860 to

$4,500,000,000 in 1891, as estimated by statisticians, an increase of 230

per cent. The number of hogs January 1, 1891, was 50,625,106 and their

value $210,193,925; on January 1, 1892, the number was 52,398,019 and the

value $241,031,415. On January 1, 1891, the number of cattle was 36,875,648

and the value $544,127,908; on January 1 ,1892, the number was 37,651,239

and the value $570,749,155.

If any are discontented with their state here, if any believe that wages or

prices, the returns for honest toil, are inadequate, they should not fail

to remember that there is no other country in the world where the

conditions that seem to them hard would not be accepted as highly

prosperous. The English agriculturist would be glad to exchange the returns

of his labor for those of the American farmer and the Manchester workmen

their wages for those of their fellows at Fall River.

I believe that the protective system, which has now for something more than

thirty years continuously prevailed in our legislation, has been a mighty

instrument for the development of our national wealth and a most powerful

agency in protecting the homes of our workingmen from the invasion of want.

I have felt a most solicitous interest to preserve to our working people

rates of wages that would not only give daily bread but supply a

comfortable margin for those home attractions and family comforts and

enjoyments without which life is neither hopeful nor sweet. They are

American citizens--a part of the great people for whom our Constitution and

Government were framed and instituted--and it can not be a perversion of

that Constitution to so legislate as to preserve in their homes the

comfort, independence, loyalty, and sense of interest in the Government

which are essential to good citizenship in peace, and which will bring this

stalwart throng, as in 1861, to the defense of the flag when it is

assailed.

It is not my purpose to renew here the argument in favor of a protective

tariff. The result of the recent election must be accepted as having

introduced a new policy. We must assume that the present tariff,

constructed upon the lines of protection, is to be repealed and that there

is to be substituted for it a tariff law constructed solely with reference

to revenue; that no duty is to be higher because the increase will keep

open an American mill or keep up the wages of an American workman, but that

in every case such a rate of duty is to be imposed as will bring to the

Treasury of the United States the largest returns of revenue. The

contention has not been between schedules, but between principles, and it

would be offensive to suggest that the prevailing party will not carry into

legislation the principles advocated by it and the pledges given to the

people. The tariff bills passed by the House of Representatives at the last

session were, as I suppose, even in the opinion of their promoters,

inadequate, and justified only by the fact that the Senate and House of

Representatives were not in accord and that a general revision could not

therefore be undertaken.

I recommend that the whole subject of tariff revision be left to the

incoming Congress. It is matter of regret that this work must be delayed

for at least three months, for the threat of great tariff changes

introduces so much uncertainty that an amount, not easily estimated, of

business inaction and of diminished production will necessarily result. It

is possible also that this uncertainty may result in decreased revenues

from customs duties, for our merchants will make cautious orders for

foreign goods in view of the prospect of tariff reductions and the

uncertainty as to when they will take effect. Those who have advocated a

protective tariff can well afford to have their disastrous forecasts of a

change of policy disappointed. If a system of customs duties can be framed

that will set the idle wheels and looms of Europe in motion and crowd our

warehouses with foreign-made goods and at the same time keep our own mills

busy; that will give us an increased participation in the "markets of the

world" of greater value than the home market we surrender; that will give

increased work to foreign workmen upon products to be consumed by our

people without diminishing the amount of work to be done here; that will

enable the American manufacturer to pay to his workmen from 50 to 100 per

cent more in wages than is paid in the foreign mill, and yet to compete in

our market and in foreign markets with the foreign producer; that will

further reduce the cost of articles of wear and food without reducing the

wages of those who produce them; that can be celebrated, after its effects

have been realized, as its expectation has been in European as well as in

American cities, the authors and promoters of it will be entitled to the

highest praise. We have had in our history several experiences of the

contrasted effects of a revenue and of a protective tariff, but this

generation has not felt them, and the experience of one generation is not

highly instructive to the next. The friends of the protective system with

undiminished confidence in the principles they have advocated will await

the results of the new experiment.

The strained and too often disturbed relations existing between the

employees and the employers in our great manufacturing establishments have

not been favorable to a calm consideration by the wage earner of the effect

upon wages of the protective system. The facts that his wages were the

highest paid in like callings in the world and that a maintenance of this

rate of wages in the absence of protective duties upon the product of his

labor was impossible were obscured by the passion evoked by these contests.

He may now be able to review the question in the light of his personal

experience under the operation of a tariff for revenue only. If that

experience shall demonstrate that present rates of wages are thereby

maintained or increased, either absolutely or in their purchasing power,

and that the aggregate volume of work to be done in this country is

increased or even maintained, so that there are more or as many days' work

in a year, at as good or better wages, for the American workmen as has been

the case under the protective system, everyone will rejoice. A general

process of wage reduction can not be contemplated by any patriotic citizen

without the gravest apprehension. It may be, indeed I believe is, possible

for the American manufacturer to compete successfully with his foreign

rival in many branches of production without the defense of protective

duties if the pay rolls are equalized; but the conflict that stands between

the producer and that result and the distress of our working people when it

is attained are not pleasant to contemplate. The Society of the Unemployed,

now holding its frequent and threatening parades in the streets of foreign

cities, should not be allowed to acquire an American domicile.

The reports of the heads of the several Executive Departments, which are

herewith submitted, have very naturally included a resume of the whole work

of the Administration with the transactions of the last fiscal year. The

attention not only of Congress but of the country is again invited to the

methods of administration which have been pursued and to the results which

have been attained. Public revenues amounting to $1,414,079,292.28 have

been collected and disbursed without loss from misappropriation, without a

single defalcation of such importance as to attract the public attention,

and at a diminished per cent of cost for collection. The public business

has been transacted not only with fidelity, but progressively and with a

view to giving to the people in the fullest possible degree the benefits of

a service established and maintained for their protection and comfort.

Our relations with other nations are now undisturbed by any serious

controversy. The complicated and threatening differences with Germany and

England relating to Samoan affairs, with England in relation to the seal

fisheries in the Bering Sea, and with Chile growing out of the Baltimore

affair have been adjusted.

There have been negotiated and concluded, under section 3 of the tariff

law, commercial agreements relating to reciprocal trade with the following

countries: Brazil, Dominican Republic, Spain for Cuba and Puerto Rico,

Guatemala, Salvador, the German Empire, Great Britain for certain West

Indian colonies and British Guiana, Nicaragua, Honduras, and

Austria-Hungary.

Of these, those with Guatemala, Salvador, the German Empire, Great Britain,

Nicaragua, Honduras, and Austria-Hungary have been concluded since my last

annual message. Under these trade arrangements a free or favored admission

has been secured in every case for an important list of American products.

Especial care has been taken to secure markets for farm products, in order

to relieve that great underlying industry of the depression which the lack

of an adequate foreign market for our surplus often brings. An opening has

also been made for manufactured products that will undoubtedly, if this

policy is maintained, greatly augment our export trade. The full benefits

of these arrangements can not be realized instantly. New lines of trade are

to be opened. The commercial traveler must survey the field. The

manufacturer must adapt his goods to the new markets and facilities for

exchange must be established. This work has been well begun, our merchants

and manufacturers having entered the new fields with courage and

enterprise. In the case of food products, and especially with Cuba, the

trade did not need to wait, and the immediate results have been most

gratifying. If this policy and these trade arrangements can be continued in

force and aided by the establishment of American steamship lines, I do not

doubt that we shall within a short period secure fully one-third of the

total trade of the countries of Central and South America, which now

amounts to about $600,000,000 annually. In 1885 we had only 8 per cent of

this trade.

The following statistics show the increase in our trade with the countries

with which we have reciprocal trade agreements from the date when such

agreements went into effect up to September 30, 1892, the increase being in

some almost wholly and in others in an important degree the result of these

agreements:

The domestic exports to Germany and Austria-Hungary have increased in value

from $47,673,756 to $57,993,064, an increase of $10,319,308, or 21.63 per

cent. With American countries the value of our exports has increased from

$44,160,285 to $54,613,598, an increase of $10,453,313, or 23.67 per cent.

The total increase in the value of exports to all the countries with which

we have reciprocity agreements has been $20,772,621. This increase is

chiefly in wheat, flour, meat, and dairy products and in manufactures of

iron and steel and lumber. There has been a large increase in the value of

imports from all these countries since the commercial agreements went into

effect, amounting to $74,294,525, but it has been entirely in imports from

the American countries, consisting mostly of sugar, coffee, india rubber,

and crude drugs. The alarmed attention of our European competitors for the

South American market has been attracted to this new American policy and to

our acquisition and their loss of South American trade.

A treaty providing for the arbitration of the dispute between Great Britain

and the United States as to the killing of seals in the Bering Sea was

concluded on the 29th of February last. This treaty was accompanied by an

agreement prohibiting pelagic sealing pending the arbitration, and a

vigorous effort was made during this season to drive out all poaching

sealers from the Bering Sea. Six naval vessels, three revenue cutters, and

one vessel from the Fish Commission, all under the command of Commander

Evans, of the Navy, were sent into the sea, which was systematically

patrolled. Some seizures were made, and it is believed that the catch in

the Bering Sea by poachers amounted to less than 500 seals. It is true,

however, that in the North Pacific, while the seal herds were on their way

to the passes between the Aleutian Islands, a very large number, probably

35,000, were taken. The existing statutes of the United States do not

restrain our citizens from taking seals in the Pacific Ocean, and perhaps

should not unless the prohibition can be extended to the citizens of other

nations. I recommend that power be given to the President by proclamation

to prohibit the taking of seals in the North Pacific by American vessels in

case, either as the result of the findings of the Tribunal of Arbitration

or otherwise, the restraints can be applied to the vessels of all

countries. The case of the United States for the Tribunal of Arbitration

has been prepared with great care and industry by the Hon. John W. Foster,

and the counsel who represent this Government express confidence that a

result substantially establishing our claims and preserving this great

industry for the benefit of all nations will be attained.

During the past year a suggestion was received through the British minister

that the Canadian government would like to confer as to the possibility of

enlarging upon terms of mutual advantage the commercial exchanges of Canada

and of the United States, and a conference was held at Washington, with Mr.

Blaine acting for this Government and the British minister at this capital

and three members of the Dominion cabinet acting as commissioners on the

part of Great Britain. The conference developed the fact that the Canadian

government was only prepared to offer to the United States in exchange for

the concessions asked the admission of natural products. The statement was

frankly made that favored rates could not be given to the United States as

against the mother country. This admission, which was foreseen, necessarily

terminated the conference upon this question. The benefits of an exchange

of natural products would be almost wholly with the people of Canada. Some

other topics of interest were considered in the conference, and have

resulted in the making of a convention for examining the Alaskan boundary

and the waters of Passamaquoddy Bay adjacent to Eastport, Me., and in the

initiation of an arrangement for the protection of fish life in the

coterminous and neighboring waters of our northern border.

The controversy as to tolls upon the Welland Canal, which was presented to

Congress at the last session by special message, having failed of

adjustment, I felt constrained to exercise the authority conferred by the

act of July 26, 1892, and to proclaim a suspension of the free use of St.

Marys Falls Canal to cargoes in transit to ports in Canada. The Secretary

of the Treasury established such tolls as were thought to be equivalent to

the exactions unjustly levied upon our commerce in the Canadian canals.

If, as we must suppose, the political relations of Canada and the

disposition of the Canadian government are to remain unchanged, a somewhat

radical revision of our trade relations should, I think, be made. Our

relations must continue to be intimate, and they should be friendly. I

regret to say, however, that in many of the controversies, notably those as

to the fisheries on the Atlantic, the sealing interests on the Pacific, and

the canal tolls, our negotiations with Great Britain have continuously been

thwarted or retarded by unreasonable and unfriendly objections and protests

from Canada in the matter of the canal tolls our treaty rights were

flagrantly disregarded. It is hardly too much to say that the Canadian

Pacific and other railway lines which parallel our northern boundary are

sustained by commerce having either its origin or terminus, or both, in the

United States. Canadian railroads compete with those of the United States

for our traffic, and without the restraints of our interstate-commerce act.

Their cars pass almost without detention into and out of our territory.

The Canadian Pacific Railway brought into the United States from China and

Japan via British Columbia during the year ended June 30, 1892, 23,239,689

pounds of freight, and it carried from the United States, to be shipped to

China and Japan via British Columbia, 24,068,346 pounds of freight. There

were also shipped from the United States over this road from Eastern ports

of the United States to our Pacific ports during the same year 13,912,073

pounds of freight, and there were received over this road at the United

States Eastern ports from ports on the Pacific Coast 13,293,315 pounds of

freight. Mr. Joseph Nimmo, Jr., former chief of the Bureau of Statistics,

when before the Senate Select Committee on Relations with Canada, April 26,

1890, said that "the value of goods thus transported between different

points in the United States across Canadian territory probably amounts to

$100,000,000 a year."

There is no disposition on the part of the people or Government of the

United States to interfere in the smallest degree with the political

relations of Canada. That question is wholly with her own people. It is

time for us, however, to consider whether, if the present state of things

and trend of things is to continue, our interchanges upon lines of land

transportation should not be put upon a different basis and our entire

independence of Canadian canals and of the St. Lawrence as an outlet to the

sea secured by the construction of an American canal around the Falls of

Niagara and the opening of ship communication between the Great Lakes and

one of our own seaports. We should not hesitate to avail ourselves of our

great natural trade advantages. We should withdraw the support which is

given to the railroads and steamship lines of Canada by a traffic that

properly belongs to us and no longer furnish the earnings which lighten the

otherwise crushing weight of the enormous public subsidies that have been

given to them. The subject of the power of the Treasury to deal with this

matter without further legislation has been under consideration, but

circumstances have postponed a conclusion. It is probable that a

consideration of the propriety of a modification or abrogation of the

article of the treaty of Washington relating to the transit of goods in

bond is involved in any complete solution of the question.

Congress at the last session was kept advised of the progress of the

serious and for a time threatening difference between the United States and

Chile. It gives me now great gratification to report that the Chilean

Government in a most friendly and honorable spirit has tendered and paid as

an indemnity to the families of the sailors of the Baltimore who were

killed and to those who were injured in the outbreak in the city of

Valparaiso the sum of $75,000. This has been accepted not only as an

indemnity for a wrong done, but as a most gratifying evidence that the

Government of Chile rightly appreciates the disposition of this Government

to act in a spirit of the most absolute fairness and friendliness in our

intercourse with that brave people. A further and conclusive evidence of

the mutual respect and confidence now existing is furnished by the fact

that a convention submitting to arbitration the mutual claims of the

citizens of the respective Governments has been agreed upon. Some of these

claims have been pending for many years and have been the occasion of much

unsatisfactory diplomatic correspondence.

I have endeavored in every way to assure our sister Republics of Central

and South America that the United States Government and its people have

only the most friendly disposition toward them all. We do not covet their

territory. We have no disposition to be oppressive or exacting in our

dealings with any of them, even the weakest. Our interests and our hopes

for them all lie in the direction of stable governments by their people and

of the largest development of their great commercial resources. The mutual

benefits of enlarged commercial exchanges and of a more familiar and

friendly intercourse between our peoples we do desire, and in this have

sought their friendly cooperation.

I have believed, however, while holding these sentiments in the greatest

sincerity, that we must insist upon a just responsibility for any injuries

inflicted upon our official representatives or upon our citizens. This

insistence, kindly and justly but firmly made, will, I believe, promote

peace and mutual respect.

Our relations with Hawaii have been such as to attract an increased

interest, and must continue to do so. I deem it of great importance that

the projected submarine cable, a survey for which has been made, should be

promoted. Both for naval and commercial uses we should have quick

communication with Honolulu. We should before this have availed ourselves

of the concession made many years ago to this Government for a harbor and

naval station at Pearl River. Many evidences of the friendliness of the

Hawaiian Government have been given in the past, and it is gratifying to

believe that the advantage and necessity of a continuance of very close

relations is appreciated.

The friendly act of this Government in expressing to the Government of

Italy its reprobation and abhorrence of the lynching of Italian subjects in

New Orleans by the payment of 125,000 francs, or $24,330.90, was accepted

by the King of Italy with every manifestation of gracious appreciation, and

the incident has been highly promotive of mutual respect and good will.

In consequence of the action of the French Government in proclaiming a

protectorate over certain tribal districts of the west coast of Africa

eastward of the San Pedro River, which has long been regarded as the

southeastern boundary of Liberia, I have felt constrained to make protest

against this encroachment upon the territory of a Republic which was

rounded by citizens of the United States and toward which this country has

for many years held the intimate relation of a friendly counselor.

The recent disturbances of the public peace by lawless foreign marauders on

the Mexican frontier have afforded this Government an opportunity to

testify its good will for Mexico and its earnest purpose to fulfill the

obligations of international friendship by pursuing and dispersing the evil

doers. The work of relocating the boundary of the treaty of Guadalupe

Hidalgo westward from El Paso is progressing favorably.

Our intercourse with Spain continues on a friendly footing. I regret,

however, not to be able to report as yet the adjustment of the claims of

the American missionaries arising from the disorders at Ponape, in the

Caroline Islands, but I anticipate a satisfactory adjustment in view of

renewed and urgent representations to the Government at Madrid.

The treatment of the religious and educational establishments of American

citizens in Turkey has of late called for a more than usual share of

attention. A tendency to curtail the toleration which has so beneficially

prevailed is discernible and has called forth the earnest remonstrance of

this Government. Harassing regulations in regard to schools and churches

have been attempted in certain localities, but not without due protest and

the assertion of the inherent and conventional rights of our countrymen.

Violations of domicile and search of the persons and effects of citizens of

the United States by apparently irresponsible officials in the Asiatic

vilayets have from time to time been reported. An aggravated instance of

injury to the property of an American missionary at Bourdour, in the

province of Konia, called forth an urgent claim for reparation, which I am

pleased to say was promptly heeded by the Government of the Porte.

Interference with the trading ventures of our citizens in Asia Minor is

also reported, and the lack of consular representation in that region is a

serious drawback to instant and effective protection. I can not believe

that these incidents represent a settled policy, and shall not cease to

urge the adoption of proper remedies.

International copyright has been extended to Italy by proclamation in

conformity with the act of March 3, 1891, upon assurance being given that

Italian law permits to citizens of the United States the benefit of

copyright on substantially the same basis as to subjects of Italy. By a

special convention proclaimed January 15, 1892, reciprocal provisions of

copyright have been applied between the United States and Germany.

Negotiations are in progress with other countries to the same end.

I repeat with great earnestness the recommendation which I have made in

several previous messages that prompt and adequate support be given to the

American company engaged in the construction of the Nicaragua ship canal.

It is impossible to overstate the value from every standpoint of this great

enterprise, and I hope that there may be time, even in this Congress, to

give to it an impetus that will insure the early completion of the canal

and secure to the United States its proper relation to it when completed.

The Congress has been already advised that the invitations of this

Government for the assembling of an international monetary conference to

consider the question of an enlarged use of silver were accepted by the

nations to which they were addressed. The conference assembled at Brussels

on the 22d of November, and has entered upon the consideration of this

great question. I have not doubted, and have taken occasion to express that

belief as well in the invitations issued for this conference as in my

public messages, that the free coinage of silver upon an agreed

international ratio would greatly promote the interests of our people and

equally those of other nations. It is too early to predict what results may

be accomplished by the conference. If any temporary check or delay

intervenes, I believe that very soon commercial conditions will compel the

now reluctant governments to unite with us in this movement to secure the

enlargement of the volume of coined money needed for the transaction of the

business of the world.

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will attract especial interest

in view of the many misleading statements that have been made as to the

state of the public revenues. Three preliminary facts should not only be

stated but emphasized before looking into details: First, that the public

debt has been reduced since March 4, 1889, $259,074,200, and the annual

interest charge $11,684,469; second, that there have been paid out for

pensions during this Administration up to November 1, 1892,

$432,564,178.70, an excess of $114,466,386.09 over the sum expended during

the period from March 1, 1885, to March 1, 1889; and, third, that under the

existing tariff up to December 1 about $93,000,000 of revenue which would

have been collected upon imported sugars if the duty had been maintained

has gone into the pockets of the people, and not into the public Treasury,

as before. If there are any who still think that the surplus should have

been kept out of circulation by hoarding it in the Treasury, or deposited

in favored banks without interest while the Government continued to pay to

these very banks interest upon the bonds deposited as security for the

deposits, or who think that the extended pension legislation was a public

robbery, or that the duties upon sugar should have been maintained, I am

content to leave the argument where it now rests while we wait to see

whether these criticisms will take the form of legislation.

The revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, from all sources

were $425,868,260.22, and the expenditures for all purposes were

$415,953,806.56, leaving a balance of $9,914,453.66. There were paid during

the year upon the public debt $40,570,467.98. The surplus in the Treasury

and the bank redemption fund passed by the act of July 14, 1890, to the

general fund furnished in large part the cash available and used for the

payments made upon the public debt. Compared with the year 1891, our

receipts from customs duties fell off $42,069,241.08, while our receipts

from internal revenue increased $8,284,823.13, leaving the net loss of

revenue from these principal sources $33,784,417.95. The net loss of

revenue from all sources was $32,675,972.81.

The revenues, estimated and actual, for the fiscal year ending June 30,

1893, are placed by the Secretary at $463,336,350.44, and the expenditures

at $461,336,350.44, showing a surplus of receipts over expenditures of

$2,000,000. The cash balance in the Treasury at the end of the fiscal year

it is estimated will be $20,992,377.03. So far as these figures are based

upon estimates of receipts and expenditures for the remaining months of the

current fiscal year, there are not only the usual elements of uncertainty,

but some added elements. New revenue legislation, or even the expectation

of it, may seriously reduce the public revenues during the period of

uncertainty and during the process of business adjustment to the new

conditions when they become known. But the Secretary has very wisely

refrained from guessing as to the effect of possible changes in our revenue

laws, since the scope of those changes and the time of their taking effect

can not in any degree be forecast or foretold by him. His estimates must be

based upon existing laws and upon a continuance of existing business

conditions, except so far as these conditions may be affected by causes

other than new legislation.

The estimated receipts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, are

$490,121,365.38, and the estimated appropriations $457,261,335.33, leaving

an estimated surplus of receipts over expenditures of $32,860,030.05. This

does not include any payment to the sinking fund. In the recommendation of

the Secretary that the sinking-fund law be repealed I concur. The

redemption of bonds since the passage of the law to June 30, 1892, has

already exceeded the requirements by the sum of $990,510,681.49. The

retirement of bonds in the future before maturity should be a matter of

convenience, not of compulsion. We should not collect revenue for that

purpose, but only use any casual surplus. To the balance of $32,860,030.05

of receipts over expenditures for the year 1894 should be added the

estimated surplus at the beginning of the year, $20,992,377.03, and from

this aggregate there must be deducted, as stated by the Secretary, about

$44,000,000 of estimated unexpended appropriations.

The public confidence in the purpose and ability of the Government to

maintain the parity of all of our money issues, whether coin or paper, must

remain unshaken. The demand for gold in Europe and the consequent calls

upon us are in a considerable degree the result of the efforts of some of

the European Governments to increase their gold reserves, and these efforts

should be met by appropriate legislation on our part. The conditions that

have created this drain of the Treasury gold are in an important degree

political, and not commercial. In view of the fact that a general revision

of our revenue laws in the near future seems to be probable, it would be

better that any changes should be a part of that revision rather than of a

temporary nature.

During the last fiscal year the Secretary purchased under the act of July

14, 1890, 54,355,748 ounces of silver and issued in payment therefor

$51,106,608 in notes. The total purchases since the passage of the act have

been 120,479,981 ounces and the aggregate of notes issued $116,783,590. The

average price paid for silver during the year was 94 cents per ounce, the

highest price being $1.02 3/4 July 1, 1891, and the lowest 83 cents March

21, 1892. In view of the fact that the monetary conference is now sitting

and that no conclusion has yet been reached, I withhold any recommendation

as to legislation upon this subject.

The report of the Secretary of War brings again to the attention of

Congress some important suggestions as to the reorganization of the

infantry and artillery arms of the service, which his predecessors have

before urgently presented. Our Army is small, but its organization should

all the more be put upon the most approved modern basis. The conditions

upon what we have called the "frontier" have heretofore required the

maintenance of many small posts, but now the policy of concentration is

obviously the right one. The new posts should have the proper strategic

relations to the only "frontiers" we now have--those of the seacoast and of

our northern and part of our southern boundary. I do not think that any

question of advantage to localities or to States should determine the

location of the new posts. The reorganization and enlargement of the Bureau

of Military Information which the Secretary has effected is a work the

usefulness of which will become every year more apparent. The work of

building heavy guns and the construction of coast defenses has been well

begun and should be carried on without check.

The report of the Attorney-General is by law submitted directly to

Congress, but I can not refrain from saying that he has conducted the

increasing work of the Department of Justice with great professional skill.

He has in several directions secured from the courts decisions giving

increased protection to the officers of the United States and bringing some

classes of crime that escaped local cognizance and punishment into the

tribunals of the United States, where they could be tried with

impartiality.

The numerous applications for Executive clemency presented in behalf of

persons convicted in United States courts and given penitentiary sentences

have called my attention to a fact referred to by the Attorney-General in

his report, namely, that a time allowance for good behavior for such

prisoners is prescribed by the Federal statutes only where the State in

which the penitentiary is located has made no such provision. Prisoners are

given the benefit of the provisions of the State law regulating the

penitentiary to which they may be sent. These are various, some perhaps too

liberal and some perhaps too illiberal. The result is that a sentence for

five years means one thing if the prisoner is sent to one State for

confinement and quite a different thing if he is sent to another. I

recommend that a uniform credit for good behavior be prescribed by

Congress.

I have before expressed my concurrence in the recommendation of the

Attorney-General that degrees of murder should be recognized in the Federal

statutes, as they are, I believe, in all the States. These grades are

rounded on correct distinctions in crime. The recognition of them would

enable the courts to exercise some discretion in apportioning punishment

and would greatly relieve the Executive of what is coming to be a very

heavy burden--the examination of these cases on application for

commutation.

The aggregate of claims pending against the Government in the Court of

Claims is enormous. Claims to the amount of nearly $400,000,000 for the

taking of or injury to the property of persons claiming to be loyal during

the war are now before that court for examination. When to these are added

the Indian depredation claims and the French spoliation claims, an

aggregate is reached that is indeed startling. In the defense of all these

cases the Government is at great disadvantage. The claimants have preserved

their evidence, whereas the agents of the Government are sent into the

field to rummage for what they can find. This difficulty is peculiarly

great where the fact to be established is the disloyalty of the claimant

during the war. If this great threat against our revenues is to have no

other check, certainly Congress should supply the Department of Justice

with appropriations sufficiently liberal to secure the best legal talent in

the defense of these claims and to pursue its vague search for evidence

effectively.

The report of the Postmaster-General shows a most gratifying increase and a

most efficient and progressive management of the great business of that

Department. The remarkable increase in revenues, in the number of

post-offices, and in the miles of mail carriage furnishes further evidence

of the high state of prosperity which our people are enjoying. New offices

mean new hamlets and towns, new routes mean the extension of our border

settlements, and increased revenues mean an active commerce. The

Postmaster-General reviews the whole period of his administration of the

office and brings some of his statistics down to the month of November

last. The postal revenues have increased during the last year nearly

$5,000,000. The deficit for the year ending June 30, 1892, is $848,341 less

than the deficiency of the preceding year. The deficiency of the present

fiscal year it is estimated will be reduced to $1,552,423, which will not

only be extinguished during the next fiscal year but a surplus of nearly

$1,000,000 should then be shown. In these calculations the payments to be

made under the contracts for ocean mail service have not been included.

There have been added 1,590 new mail routes during the year, with a mileage

of 8,563 miles, and the total number of new miles of mail trips added

during the year is nearly 17,000,000. The number of miles of mail journeys

added during the last four years is about 76,000,000, this addition being

21,000,000 miles more than were in operation in the whole country in 1861.

The number of post-offices has been increased by 2,790 during the year, and

during the past four years, and up to October 29 last, the total increase

in the number of offices has been nearly 9,000. The number of free-delivery

offices has been nearly doubled in the last four years, and the number of

money-order offices more than doubled within that time.

For the three years ending June 30, 1892, the postal revenue amounted to

$197,744,359, which was an increase of $52,263,150 over the revenue for the

three years ending June 30, 1888, the increase during the last three years

being more than three and a half times as great as the increase during the

three years ending June 30, 1888. No such increase as that shown for these

three years has ever previously appeared in the revenues of the Department.

The Postmaster-General has extended to the post-offices in the larger

cities the merit system of promotion introduced by my direction into the

Departments here, and it has resulted there, as in the Departments, in a

larger volume of work and that better done.

Ever since our merchant marine was driven from the sea by the rebel

cruisers during the War of the Rebellion the United States has been paying

an enormous annual tribute to foreign countries in the shape of freight and

passage moneys. Our grain and meats have been taken at our own docks and

our large imports there laid down by foreign shipmasters. An increasing

torrent of American travel to Europe has contributed a vast sum annually to

the dividends of foreign shipowners. The balance of trade shown by the

books of our custom-houses has been very largely reduced and in many years

altogether extinguished by this constant drain. In the year 1892 only 12.3

per cent of our imports were brought in American vessels. These great

foreign steamships maintained by our traffic are many of them under

contracts with their respective Governments by which in time of war they

will become a part of their armed naval establishments. Profiting by our

commerce in peace, they will become the most formidable destroyers of our

commerce in time of war. I have felt, and have before expressed the

feeling, that this condition of things was both intolerable and

disgraceful. A wholesome change of policy, and one having in it much

promise, as it seems to me, was begun by the law of March 3, 1891. Under

this law contracts have been made by the Postmaster-General for eleven mail

routes. The expenditure involved by these contracts for the next fiscal

year approximates $954,123.33. As one of the results already reached

sixteen American steamships, of an aggregate tonnage of 57,400 tons,

costing $7,400,000, have been built or contracted to be built in American

shipyards.

The estimated tonnage of all steamships required under existing contracts

is 165,802, and when the full service required by these contracts is

established there will be forty-one mail steamers under the American flag,

with the probability of further necessary additions in the Brazilian and

Argentine service. The contracts recently let for transatlantic service

will result in the construction of five ships of 10,000 tons each, costing

$9,000,000 to $10,000,000, and will add, with the City of New York and City

of Paris, to which the Treasury Department was authorized by legislation at

the last session to give American registry, seven of the swiftest vessels

upon the sea to our naval reserve. The contracts made with the lines

sailing to Central and South American ports have increased the frequency

and shortened the time of the trips, added new ports of call, and sustained

some lines that otherwise would almost certainly have been withdrawn. The

service to Buenos Ayres is the first to the Argentine Republic under the

American flag. The service to Southampton, Boulogne, and Antwerp is also

new, and is to be begun with the steamships City of New York and City of

Paris in February next.

I earnestly urge the continuance of the policy inaugurated by this

legislation, and that the appropriations required to meet the obligations

of the Government under the contracts may be made promptly, so that the

lines that have entered into these engagements may not be embarrassed. We

have had, by reason of connections with the transcontinental railway lines

constructed through our own territory, some advantages in the ocean trade

of the Pacific that we did not possess on the Atlantic. The construction of

the Canadian Pacific Railway and the establishment under large subventions

from Canada and England of fast steamship service from Vancouver with Japan

and China seriously threaten our shipping interests in the Pacific. This

line of English steamers receives, as is stated by the Commissioner of

Navigation, a direct subsidy of $400,000 annually, or $30,767 per trip for

thirteen voyages, in addition to some further aid from the Admiralty in

connection with contracts under which the vessels may be used for naval

purposes. The competing American Pacific mail line under the act of March

3, 1891, receives only $6,389 per round trip.

Efforts have been making within the last year, as I am informed, to

establish under similar conditions a line between Vancouver and some

Australian port, with a view of seizing there a trade in which we have had

a large interest. The Commissioner of Navigation states that a very large

per cent of our imports from Asia are now brought to us by English

steamships and their connecting railways in Canada. With a view of

promoting this trade, especially in tea, Canada has imposed a

discriminating duty of 10 per cent upon tea and coffee brought into the

Dominion from the United States. If this unequal contest between American

lines without subsidy, or with diminished subsidies, and the English

Canadian line to which I have referred is to continue, I think we should at

least see that the facilities for customs entry and transportation across

our territory are not such as to make the Canadian route a favored one, and

that the discrimination as to duties to which I have referred is met by a

like discrimination as to the importation of these articles from Canada.

No subject, I think, more nearly touches the pride, the power, and the

prosperity of our country than this of the development of our merchant

marine upon the sea. If we could enter into conference with other

competitors and all would agree to withhold government aid, we could

perhaps take our chances with the rest; but our great competitors have

established and maintained their lines by government subsidies until they

now have practically excluded us from participation. In my opinion no

choice is left to us but to pursue, moderately at least, the same lines.

The report of the Secretary of the Navy exhibits great progress in the

construction of our new Navy. When the present Secretary entered upon his

duties, only 3 modern steel vessels were in commission. The vessels since

put in commission and to be put in commission during the winter will make a

total of 19 during his administration of the Department. During the current

year 10 war vessels and 3 navy tugs have been launched, and during the four

years 25 vessels will have been launched. Two other large ships and a

torpedo boat are under contract and the work upon them well advanced, and

the 4 monitors are awaiting only the arrival of their armor, which has been

unexpectedly delayed, or they would have been before this in commission.

Contracts have been let during this Administration, under the

appropriations for the increase of the Navy, including new vessels and

their appurtenances, to the amount of $35,000,000, and there has been

expended during the same period for labor at navy-yards upon similar work

$8,000,000 without the smallest scandal or charge of fraud or partiality.

The enthusiasm and interest of our naval officers, both of the staff and

line, have been greatly kindled. They have responded magnificently to the

confidence of Congress and have demonstrated to the world an unexcelled

capacity in construction, in ordnance, and in everything involved in the

building, equipping, and sailing of great war ships.

At the beginning of Secretary Tracy's administration several difficult

problems remained to be grappled with and solved before the efficiency in

action of our ships could be secured. It is believed that as the result of

new processes in the construction of armor plate our later ships will be

clothed with defensive plates of higher resisting power than are found on

any war vessels afloat. We were without torpedoes. Tests have been made to

ascertain the relative efficiency of different constructions, a torpedo has

been adopted, and the work of construction is now being carried on

successfully. We were without armor-piercing shells and without a shop

instructed and equipped for the construction of them. We are now making

what is believed to be a projectile superior to any before in use. A

smokeless powder has been developed and a slow-burning powder for guns of

large caliber. A high explosive capable of use in shells fired from service

guns has been found, and the manufacture of gun cotton has been developed

so that the question of supply is no longer in doubt.

The development of a naval militia, which has been organized in eight

States and brought into cordial and cooperative relations with the Navy, is

another important achievement. There are now enlisted in these

organizations 1,800 men, and they are likely to be greatly extended. I

recommend such legislation and appropriations as will encourage and develop

this movement. The recommendations of the Secretary will, I do not doubt,

receive the friendly consideration of Congress, for he has enjoyed, as he

has deserved, the confidence of all those interested in the development of

our Navy, without any division upon partisan lines. I earnestly express the

hope that a work which has made such noble progress may not now be stayed.

The wholesome influence for peace and the increased sense of security which

our citizens domiciled in other lands feel when these magnificent ships

under the American flag appear is already most gratefully apparent. The

ships from our Navy which will appear in the great naval parade next April

in the harbor of New York will be a convincing demonstration to the world

that the United States is again a naval power.

The work of the Interior Department, always very burdensome, has been

larger than ever before during the administration of Secretary Noble. The

disability-pension law, the taking of the Eleventh Census, the opening of

vast areas of Indian lands to settlement, the organization of Oklahoma, and

the negotiations for the cession of Indian lands furnish some of the

particulars of the increased work, and the results achieved testify to the

ability, fidelity, and industry of the head of the Department and his

efficient assistants.

Several important agreements for the cession of Indian lands negotiated by

the commission appointed under the act of March 2, 1889, are awaiting the

action of Congress. Perhaps the most important of these is that for the

cession of the Cherokee Strip. This region has been the source of great

vexation to the executive department and of great friction and unrest

between the settlers who desire to occupy it and the Indians who assert

title. The agreement which has been made by the commission is perhaps the

most satisfactory that could have been reached. It will be noticed that it

is conditioned upon its ratification by Congress before March 4, 1893. The

Secretary of the Interior, who has given the subject very careful thought,

recommends the ratification of the agreement, and I am inclined to follow

his recommendation. Certain it is that some action by which this

controversy shall be brought to an end and these lands opened to settlement

is urgent.

The form of government provided by Congress on May 17, 1884, for Alaska was

in its frame and purpose temporary. The increase of population and the

development of some important mining and commercial interests make it

imperative that the law should be revised and better provision made for the

arrest and punishment of criminals.

The report of the Secretary shows a very gratifying state of facts as to

the condition of the General Land Office. The work of issuing agricultural

patents, which seemed to be hopelessly in arrear when the present Secretary

undertook the duties of his office, has been so expedited that the bureau

is now upon current business. The relief thus afforded to honest and worthy

settlers upon the public lands by giving to them an assured title to their

entries has been of incalculable benefit in developing the new States and

the Territories.

The Court of Private Land Claims, established by Congress for the promotion

of this policy of speedily settling contested land titles, is making

satisfactory progress in its work, and when the work is completed a great

impetus will be given to the development of those regions where unsettled

claims under Mexican grants have so long exercised their repressive

influence. When to these results are added the enormous cessions of Indian

lands which have been opened to settlement, aggregating during this

Administration nearly 26,000,000 acres, and the agreements negotiated and

now pending in Congress for ratification by which about 10,000,000

additional acres will be opened to settlement, it will be seen how much has

been accomplished.

The work in the Indian Bureau in the execution of the policy of recent

legislation has been largely directed to two chief purposes: First, the

allotment of lands in severalty to the Indians and the cession to the

United States of the surplus lands, and, secondly, to the work of educating

the Indian for his own protection in his closer contact with the white man

and for the intelligent exercise of his new citizenship. Allotments have

been made and patents issued to 5,900 Indians under the present Secretary

and Commissioner, and 7,600 additional allotments have been made for which

patents are now in process of preparation. The school attendance of Indian

children has been increased during that time over 13 per cent, the

enrollment for 1892 being nearly 20,000. A uniform system of school

text-books and of study has been adopted and the work in these national

schools brought as near as may be to the basis of the free common schools

of the States. These schools can be transferred and merged into the

common-school systems of the States when the Indian has fully assumed his

new relation to the organized civil community in which he resides and the

new States are able to assume the burden. I have several times been called

upon to remove Indian agents appointed by me, and have done so promptly

upon every sustained complaint of unfitness or misconduct. I believe,

however, that the Indian service at the agencies has been improved and is

now administered on the whole with a good degree of efficiency. If any

legislation is possible by which the selection of Indian agents can be

wholly removed from all partisan suggestions or considerations, I am sure

it would be a great relief to the Executive and a great benefit to the

service. The appropriation for the subsistence of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe

Indians made at the last session of Congress was inadequate. This smaller

appropriation was estimated for by the Commissioner upon the theory that

the large fund belonging to the tribe in the public Treasury could be and

ought to be used for their support. In view, however, of the pending

depredation claims against this fund and other considerations, the

Secretary of the Interior on the 12th of April last submitted a

supplemental estimate for $50,000. This appropriation was not made, as it

should have been, and the oversight ought to be remedied at the earliest

possible date.

In a special message to this Congress at the last session, I stated the

reasons why I had not approved the deed for the release to the United

States by the Choctaws and Chickasaws of the lands formerly embraced in the

Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation and remaining after allotments to that

tribe. A resolution of the Senate expressing the opinion of that body that

notwithstanding the facts stated in my special message the deed should be

approved and the money, $2,991,450, paid over was presented to me May 10,

1892. My special message was intended to call the attention of Congress to

the subject, and in view of the fact that it is conceded that the

appropriation proceeded upon a false basis as to the amount of lands to be

paid for and is by $50,000 in excess of the amount they are entitled to

(even if their claim to the land is given full recognition at the rate

agreed upon), I have not felt willing to approve the deed, and shall not do

so, at least until both Houses of Congress have acted upon the subject. It

has been informally proposed by the claimants to release this sum of

$50,000, but I have no power to demand or accept such a release, and such

an agreement would be without consideration and void.

I desire further to call the attention of Congress to the fact that the

recent agreement concluded with the Kiowas and Comanches relates to lands

which were a part of the "leased district," and to which the claim of the

Choctaws and Chickasaws is precisely that recognized by Congress in the

legislation I have referred to. The surplus lands to which this claim would

attach in the Kiowa and Comanche Reservation is 2,500,000 acres, and at the

same rate the Government will be called upon to pay to the Choctaws and

Chickasaws for these lands $3,125,000. This sum will be further augmented,

especially if the title of the Indians to the tract now Greet County, Tex.,

is established. The duty devolved upon me in this connection was simply to

pass upon the form of the deed; but as in my opinion the facts mentioned in

my special message were not adequately brought to the attention of Congress

in connection with the legislation, I have felt that I would not be

justified in acting without some new expression of the legislative will.

The report of the Commissioner of Pensions, to which extended notice is

given by the Secretary of the Interior in his report, will attract great

attention. Judged by the aggregate amount of work done, the last year has

been the greatest in the history of the office. I believe that the

organization of the office is efficient and that the work has been done

with fidelity. The passage of what is known as the disability bill has, as

was foreseen, very largely increased the annual disbursements to the

disabled veterans of the Civil War. The estimate for this fiscal year was

$144,956,000, and that amount was appropriated. A deficiency amounting to

$10,508,621 must be provided for at this session. The estimate for pensions

for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, is $165,000,000. The Commissioner

of Pensions believes that if the present legislation and methods are

maintained and further additions to the pension laws are not made the

maximum expenditure for pensions will be reached June 30, 1894, and will be

at the highest point $188,000,000 per annum.

I adhere to the views expressed in previous messages that the care of the

disabled soldiers of the War of the Rebellion is a matter of national

concern and duty. Perhaps no emotion cools sooner than that of gratitude,

but I can not believe that this process has yet reached a point with our

people that would sustain the policy of remitting the care of these

disabled veterans to the inadequate agencies provided by local laws. The

parade on the 20th of September last upon the streets of this capital of

60,000 of the surviving Union veterans of the War of the Rebellion was a

most touching and thrilling episode, and the rich and gracious welcome

extended to them by the District of Columbia and the applause that greeted

their progress from tens of thousands of people from all the States did

much to revive the glorious recollections of the Grand Review when these

men and many thousand others now in their graves were welcomed with

grateful joy as victors in a struggle in which the national unity, honor,

and wealth were all at issue.

In my last annual message I called attention to the fact that some

legislative action was necessary in order to protect the interests of the

Government in its relations with the Union Pacific Railway. The

Commissioner of Railroads has submitted a very full report, giving exact

information as to the debt, the liens upon the company's property, and its

resources. We must deal with the question as we find it and take that

course which will under existing conditions best secure the interests of

the United States. I recommended in my last annual message that a

commission be appointed to deal with this question, and I renew that

recommendation and suggest that the commission be given full power.

The report of the Secretary of Agriculture contains not only a most

interesting statement of the progressive and valuable work done under the

administration of Secretary Rusk, but many suggestions for the enlarged

usefulness of this important Department. In the successful efforts to break

down the restrictions to the free introduction of our meat products in the

countries of Europe the Secretary has been untiring from the first,

stimulating and aiding all other Government officers at home and abroad

whose official duties enabled them to participate in the work. The total

trade in hog products with Europe in May, 1892, amounted to 82,000,000

pounds, against 46,900,000 in the same month of 1891; in June, 1892, the

export aggregated 85,700,000 pounds, against 46,500,000 pounds in the same

month of the previous year; in July there was an increase of 41 per cent

and in August of 55 per cent over the corresponding months of 1891. Over

40,000,000 pounds of inspected pork have been exported since the law was

put into operation, and a comparison of the four months of May, June, July,

and August, 1892, with the same months of 1891 shows an increase in the

number of pounds of our export of pork products of 62 per cent and an

increase in value of 66 1/2 per cent. The exports of dressed beef increased

from 137,900,000 pounds in 1889 to 220,500,000 pounds in 1892 or about 60

per cent. During the past year there have been exported 394,607 head of

live cattle, as against 205,786 exported in 1889. This increased

exportation has been largely promoted by the inspection authorized by law

and the faithful efforts of the Secretary and his efficient subordinates to

make that inspection thorough and to carefully exclude from all cargoes

diseased or suspected cattle. The requirement of the English regulations

that live cattle arriving from the United States must be slaughtered at the

docks had its origin in the claim that pleuro-pneumonia existed among

American cattle and that the existence of the disease could only certainly

be determined by a post mortem inspection.

The Department of Agriculture has labored with great energy and

faithfulness to extirpate this disease, and on the 26th day of September

last a public announcement was made by the Secretary that the disease no

longer existed anywhere within the United States. He is entirely satisfied

after the most searching inquiry that this statement was justified, and

that by a continuance of the inspection and quarantine now required of

cattle brought into this country the disease can be prevented from again

getting any foothold. The value to the cattle industry of the United States

of this achievement can hardly be estimated. We can not, perhaps, at once

insist that this evidence shall be accepted as satisfactory by other

countries; but if the present exemption from the disease is maintained and

the inspection of our cattle arriving at foreign ports, in which our own

veterinarians participate, confirms it, we may justly expect that the

requirement that our cattle shall be slaughtered at the docks will be

revoked, as the sanitary restrictions upon our pork products have been. If

our cattle can be taken alive to the interior, the trade will be enormously

increased.

Agricultural products constituted 78.1 per cent of our unprecedented

exports for the fiscal year which closed June 30, 1892, the total exports

being $1,030,278,030 and the value of the agricultural products

$793,717,676, which exceeds by more than $150,000,000 the shipment of

agricultural products in any previous year.

An interesting and a promising work for the benefit of the American farmer

has been begun through agents of the Agricultural Department in Europe, and

consists in efforts to introduce the various products of Indian corn as

articles of human food. The high price of rye offered a favorable

opportunity for the experiment in Germany of combining corn meal with rye

to produce a cheaper bread. A fair degree of success has been attained, and

some mills for grinding corn for food have been introduced. The Secretary

is of the opinion that this new use of the products of corn has already

stimulated exportations, and that if diligently prosecuted large and

important markets can presently be opened for this great American product.

The suggestions of the Secretary for an enlargement of the work of the

Department are commended to your favorable consideration. It may, I think,

be said without challenge that in no corresponding period has so much been

done as during the last four years for the benefit of American

agriculture.

The subject of quarantine regulations, inspection, and control was brought

suddenly to my attention by the arrival at our ports in August last of

vessels infected with cholera. Quarantine regulations should be uniform at

all our ports. Under the Constitution they are plainly within the exclusive

Federal jurisdiction when and so far as Congress shall legislate. In my

opinion the whole subject should be taken into national control and

adequate power given to the Executive to protect our people against plague

invasions. On the 1st of September last I approved regulations establishing

a twenty-day quarantine for all vessels bringing immigrants from foreign

ports. This order will be continued in force. Some loss and suffering have

resulted to passengers, but a due care for the homes of our people

justifies in such cases the utmost precaution. There is danger that with

the coming of spring cholera will again appear, and a liberal appropriation

should be made at this session to enable our quarantine and port officers

to exclude the deadly plague.

But the most careful and stringent quarantine regulations may not be

sufficient absolutely to exclude the disease. The progress of medical and

sanitary science has been such, however, that if approved precautions are

taken at once to put all of our cities and towns in the best sanitary

condition, and provision is made for isolating any sporadic cases and for a

thorough disinfection, an epidemic can, I am sure, be avoided. This work

appertains to the local authorities, and the responsibility and the penalty

will be appalling if it is neglected or unduly delayed.

We are peculiarly subject in our great ports to the spread of infectious

diseases by reason of the fact that unrestricted immigration brings to us

out of European cities, in the overcrowded steerages of great steamships, a

large number of persons whose surroundings make them the easy victims of

the plague. This consideration, as well as those affecting the political,

moral, and industrial interests of our country, leads me to renew the

suggestion that admission to our country and to the high privileges of its

citizenship should be more restricted and more careful. We have, I think, a

right and owe a duty to our own people, and especially to our working

people, not only to keep out the vicious, the ignorant, the civil

disturber, the pauper, and the contract laborer, but to check the too great

flow of immigration now coming by further limitations.

The report of the World's Columbian Exposition has not yet been submitted.

That of the board of management of the Government exhibit has been received

and is herewith transmitted. The work of construction and of preparation

for the opening of the exposition in May next has progressed most

satisfactorily and upon a scale of liberality and magnificence that will

worthily sustain the honor of the United States.

The District of Columbia is left by a decision of the supreme court of the

District without any law regulating the liquor traffic. An old statute of

the legislature of the District relating to the licensing of various

vocations has hitherto been treated by the Commissioners as giving them

power to grant or refuse licenses to sell intoxicating liquors and as

subjecting those who sold without licenses to penalties; but in May last

the supreme court of the District held against this view of the powers of

the Commissioners. It is of urgent importance, therefore, that Congress

should supply, either by direct enactment or by conferring discretionary

powers upon the Commissioners, proper limitations and restraints upon the

liquor traffic in the District. The District has suffered in its reputation

by many crimes of violence, a large per cent of them resulting from

drunkenness and the liquor traffic. The capital of the nation should be

freed from this reproach by the enactment of stringent restrictions and

limitations upon the traffic.

In renewing the recommendation which I have made in three preceding annual

messages that Congress should legislate for the protection of railroad

employees against the dangers incident to the old and inadequate methods of

braking and coupling which are still in use upon freight trains, I do so

with the hope that this Congress may take action upon the subject.

Statistics furnished by the Interstate Commerce Commission show that during

the year ending June 30, 1891, there were forty-seven different styles of

car couplers reported to be in use, and that during the same period there

were 2,660 employees killed and 26,140 injured. Nearly 16 per cent of the

deaths occurred in the coupling and uncoupling of cars and over 36 per cent

of the injuries had the same origin.

The Civil Service Commission ask for an increased appropriation for needed

clerical assistance, which I think should be given. I extended the

classified service March 1, 1892, to include physicians, superintendents,

assistant superintendents, school-teachers, and matrons in the Indian

service, and have had under consideration the subject of some further

extensions, but have not as yet fully determined the lines upon which

extensions can most properly and usefully be made.

I have in each of the three annual messages which it has been my duty to

submit to Congress called attention to the evils and dangers connected with

our election methods and practices as they are related to the choice of

officers of the National Government. In my last annual message I endeavored

to invoke serious attention to the evils of unfair apportionments for

Congress. I can not close this message without again calling attention to

these grave and threatening evils. I had hoped that it was possible to

secure a nonpartisan inquiry by means of a commission into evils the

existence of which is known to all, and that out of this might grow

legislation from which all thought of partisan advantage should be

eliminated and only the higher thought appear of maintaining the freedom

and purity of the ballot and the equality of the elector, without the

guaranty of which the Government could never have been formed and without

the continuance of which it can not continue to exist in peace and

prosperity.

It is time that mutual charges of unfairness and fraud between the great

parties should cease and that the sincerity of those who profess a desire

for pure and honest elections should be brought to the test of their

willingness to free our legislation and our election methods from

everything that tends to impair the public confidence in the announced

result. The necessity for an inquiry and for legislation by Congress upon

this subject is emphasized by the fact that the tendency of the legislation

in some States in recent years has in some important particulars been away

from and not toward free and fair elections and equal apportionments. Is it

not time that we should come together upon the high plane of patriotism

while we devise methods that shall secure the right of every man qualified

by law to cast a free ballot and give to every such ballot an equal value

in choosing our public officers and in directing the policy of the

Government?

Lawlessness is not less such, but more, where it usurps the functions of

the peace officer and of the courts. The frequent lynching of colored

people accused of crime is without the excuse, which has sometimes been

urged by mobs for a failure to pursue the appointed methods for the

punishment of crime, that the accused have an undue influence over courts

and juries. Such acts are a reproach to the community where they occur, and

so far as they can be made the subject of Federal jurisdiction the

strongest repressive legislation is demanded. A public sentiment that will

sustain the officers of the law in resisting mobs and in protecting accused

persons in their custody should be promoted by every possible means. The

officer who gives his life in the brave discharge of this duty is worthy of

special honor. No lesson needs to be so urgently impressed upon our people

as this, that no worthy end or cause can be promoted by lawlessness.

This exhibit of the work of the Executive Departments is submitted to

Congress and to the public in the hope that there will be found in it a due

sense of responsibility and an earnest purpose to maintain the national

honor and to promote the happiness and prosperity of all our people, and

this brief exhibit of the growth and prosperity of the country will give us

a level from which to note the increase or decadence that new legislative

policies may bring to us. There is no reason why the national influence,

power, and prosperity should not observe the same rates of increase that

have characterized the past thirty years. We carry the great impulse and

increase of these years into the future. There is no reason why in many

lines of production we should not surpass all other nations, as we have

already done in some. There are no near frontiers to our possible

development. Retrogression would be a crime.

BENJ. HARRISON

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