lilillljl 1 I I I I I [PI M ■ 1 1 11 1 ||j| !; iili 'ii ! 1 :■ ||J!||jj I I'll III l:$ 1 i 1 SI 9 Ijlill Glass h- & __ — Book /)V s3 J 907 I. have received your letter of the 19th instant, in which you enclose the draft of the formal letter And State Papers 1209 which is to follow. I have been notified that sev- eral delegations, bearing similar requests, are on the way hither. In the letter you, on behalf of the Cook County Moyer-Haywood conference, protest against certain language I used in a recent letter which you assert to be designed to influence the course of jus- tice in the case of the trial for murder of Messrs. Moyer and Haywood. I entirely agree with you that it is improper to endeavor to influence the course of justice, whether by threats or in any sim- ilar manner. For this reason I have regretted most deeply the action of such organizations as your own in undertaking to accomplish this very result in the very case of which you speak. For instance, your letter is headed "Cook County Moyer-Haywood- Pettibone Conference," with the headlines : "Death — can not — will not — and shall not claim our broth- ers !" This shows that you and your associates are not demanding a fair trial, or working for a fair trial, but are announcing in advance that the ver- dict shall only be one way and that you will not tolerate any other verdict. Such action is flagrant in its impropriety, and I join heartily in condemn- ing it. But it is a simple absurdity to suppose that be- cause any man is on trial for a given offence he is therefore to be freed from all criticism upon his general conduct and manner of life. In my letter to which you object, I referred to a certain promi- nent financier, Mr. Harriman, on the one hand, and to Messrs. Moyer, Haywood, and Debs on the other, 1210 Presidential Addresses as being equally undesirable citizens. It is as foolish to assert that this was designed to influence the trial of Moyer and Haywood as to assert that it was designed to influence the suits that have been brought against Mr. Harriman. I neither expressed nor indicated any opinion as to whether Messrs. Moyer and Haywood were guilty of the murder of Governor Steunenberg. If they are guilty they certainly ought to be punished. If they are not guilty they certainly ought not to be punished. But no possible outcome either of the trial or the suits can affect my judgment as to the undesira- bility of the type of citizenship of those whom I mentioned. Messrs. Moyer, Haywood, and Debs stand as representatives of those men who have done as much to discredit the labor movement as the worst speculative financiers or most un- scrupulous employers of labor and debauchers of legislatures have done to discredit honest capital- ists and fair-dealing business men. They stand as the representatives of those men who by their pub- lic utterances and manifestoes, by the utterances of the papers they control or inspire, and by the words and deeds of those associated with or subordinated to them, habitually appear as guilty of incitement to or apology for bloodshed and violence. If this does not constitute undesirable citizenship, then there can never be any undesirable citizens. The men whom I denounce represent the men who have abandoned that legitimate movement for the uplift- ing of labor, with which I have the most hearty And State Papers i 2 1 1 sympathy; they have adopted practices which cut them off from those who lead this legitimate move- ment. In every way I shall support the law-abiding and upright representatives of labor ; and in no way can I better support them than by drawing the sharpest possible line between them on the one hand, and, on the other hand, those preachers of violence who are themselves the worst foes of the honest laboring man. Let me repeat my deep regret that any body of men should so far forget their duty to the country as to endeavor by the formation of societies and in other ways to influence the course of justice in this matter. I have received many such letters as yours. Accompanying them were newspaper clippings an- nouncing demonstrations, parades, and mass-meet- ings designed to show that the representatives of labor, without regard to the facts, demand the acquittal of Messrs. Haywood and Moyer. Such meetings can, of course, be designed only to coerce court or jury in rendering a verdict, and they there- fore deserve all the condemnation which you in your letters say should be awarded to those who en- deavor improperly to influence the course of justice. You would, of course, be entirely within your rights if you merely announced that you thought Messrs. Moyer and Haywood were "desirable citi- zens" — though in such case I should take frank issue with you and should say that, wholly without regard to whether or not they were guilty of the crime for which they are now being tried, they rep- 1 21 2 Presidential Address resent as thoroughly undesirable a type of citizen- ship as can be found in this country ; a type which, in the letter to which you so unreasonably take ex- ception, I showed not to be confined to any one class, but to exist among some representatives of great capitalists as well as among some representatives of wage-workers. In that letter I condemned both types. Certain representatives of the great capi- talists in turn condemned me for including Mr. Harriman in my condemnation of Messrs. Moyer and Haywood. Certain of the representatives of labor in their turn condemned me because I in- cluded Messrs. Moyer and Haywood as undesirable citizens together with Mr. Harriman. I am as pro- foundly indifferent to the condemnation in one case as in the other. I challenge as a right the support of all good Americans, whether wage-workers or capitalists, whatever their occupation or creed, or in whatever portion of the country they live, when I condemn both the types of bad citizenship which I have held up to reprobation. It seems to me a mark of utter insincerity to fail thus to condemn both ; and to apologize for either robs the man thus apologiz- ing of all right to condemn any wrong-doing in any man, rich or poor, in public or in private life. You say you ask for a "square deal" for Messrs. Moyer and Haywood. So do I. When I say "square deal," I mean a square deal to every one; it is equally a violation of the policy of the square deal for a capitalist to protest against denunciation of a capitalist who is guilty of wrong-doing and And State Papers 121 3 for a labor leader to protest against the denuncia- tion of a labor leader who has been guilty of wrong-doing. I stand for equal justice to both; and so far as in my power lies I shall uphold justice, whether the man accused of guilt has behind him the wealthiest corporations, the greatest aggrega- tions of riches in the country, or whether he has behind him the most influential labor organizations in the country. Very truly yours, Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Honore Jaxon, Chairman, 667 West Lake Street, Chicago, 111. AT THE OPENING OF THE JAMESTOWN EX- POSITION, APRIL 26, 1907 At the outset I wish to say a word of special greeting to the representatives of the foreign gov- ernments here present. They have come to assist us in celebrating what was in very truth the birth- day of this Nation, for it was here that the colonists first settled, whose incoming, whose growth from their own loins and by the addition of new-comers from abroad, was to make the people which one hundred and sixty-nine years later assumed the solemn responsibilities and weighty duties of com- plete independence. In welcoming all of you I must say a special word, first to the representative of the people of Great Britain and Ireland. The fact that so many of our people, of whom as it happens I myself am one, have but a very small portion of English blood 1 214 Presidential Addresses in our veins, in no way alters the other fact that this Nation was founded by Englishmen, by the Cavalier and the Puritan. Their tongue, law, literature, the fund of their common thought, made an inheri- tance which all of us share, and marked deep the lines along which we have developed. It was the men of English stock who did most in casting the mold into which our national character was run. Let me furthermore greet all of you, the repre- sentatives of the people of continental Europe. From almost every nation of Europe we have drawn some part of our blood, some part of our traits. This mixture of blood has gone on from the begin- ning, and with it has gone on a kind of develop- ment unexampled among peoples of the stocks from which we spring; and hence to-day we differ sharply from, and yet in some ways are fundamen- tally akin to, all of the nations of Europe. Again, let me bid you welcome, representatives of our sister Republics of this continent. In the larger aspect, your interests and ours are identical. Your problems and ours are in large part the same ; and as we strive to settle them, I pledge you here- with on the part of this Nation the heartiest friend- ship and good-will. Finally, let me say a special word of greeting to those representatives of the Asiatic nations who make up that newest East which is yet the most ancient East, the East of time immemorial. In particular, let me express a word of hearty welcome to the representative of the mighty island empire And State Papers 121c of Japan; that empire, which, in learning from the West, has shown that it had so much, so very much, to teach the West in return. To all of you here gathered I express my thanks for your coming, and I extend to you my earnest wishes for the welfare of your several nations. The world has moved so far that it is no longer necessary to believe that one nation can rise only by thrusting another down. All farsighted states- men, all true patriots, now earnestly wish that the leading nations of mankind, as in their several ways they struggle constantly toward a higher civ- ilization, a higher humanity, may advance hand in hand, united only in a generous rivalry to see which can best do its allotted work in the world. I believe that there is a rising tide in human thought which tends for righteous international peace; a tide which it behooves us to guide through rational channels to sane conclusions; and all of us here present can well afford to take to heart St. Paul's counsel : "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." \Ye have met to-day to celebrate the opening of the Exposition which itself commemorates the first permanent settlement of men of our stock in Vir- ginia, the first beginning of what has since become this mighty Republic. Three hundred years ago a handful of English adventurers, who had crossed the ocean in what we should now call cockle-boats, as clumsy as they were frail, landed in the great wooded wilderness, the Indian-haunted waste, which 1 21 6 Presidential Addresses then stretched down to the water's edge along the entire Atlantic Coast. They were not the first men of European race to settle in what is now the United States, for there were already Spanish set- tlements in Florida and on the headwaters of the Rio Grande; and the French, who at almost the same time were struggling up the St. Lawrence, were likewise destined to form permanent settle- ments on the Great Lakes and in the valley of the mighty Mississippi before the people of English stock went westward of the Alleghenies. More- over, both the Dutch and the Swedes were shortly to found colonies between the two sets of English colonies, those that grew up around the Potomac and those that grew up on what is now the New England coast. Nevertheless, this landing at James- town possesses for us of the United States an alto- gether peculiar significance, and this without re- gard to our several origins. The men who landed at Jamestown and those who, thirteen years later, landed at Plymouth, all of English stock, and their fellow-settlers who during the next few decades streamed in after them, were those who took the lead in shaping the life history of this people in the colonial and revolutionary days. It was they who bent into definite shape our Nation while it was still young enough most easily, most readily, to take on the characteristics which were to become part of its permanent life habit. Yet let us remember that while this early En- glish colonial stock has left deeper than all others And State Papers 1217 upon our national life the mark of its strong twin individualities, the mark of the Cavalier and of the Puritan — nevertheless, this stock, not only from its environment but also from the presence with it of other stocks, almost from the beginning began to be differentiated strongly from any European peo- ple. As I have already said, about the time the first English settlers landed here, the Frenchman and the Spaniard, the Swede and the Dutchman, also came hither as permanent dwellers, who left their seed behind them to help shape and partially to inherit our national life. The German, the Irish- man, and the Scotchman came later, but still in colonial times. Before the outbreak of the Revolu- tion the American people, not only because of their surroundings, physical and spiritual, but because of the mixture of blood that had already begun to take place, represented a new and distinct ethnic type. This type has never been fixed in blood. All through the colonial days new waves of immigra- tion from time to time swept hither across the ocean, now from one country, now from another. The same thing has gone on ever since our birth as a nation ; and for the last sixty years the tide of immigration has been at the full. The new-comers are soon absorbed into our eager national life, and are radically and profoundly changed thereby, the rapidity of their assimilation being marvelous. But each group of new-comers, as it adds its blood to the life, also changes it somewhat, and this change and growth and development have gone on stead- i 2i 8 Presidential Addresses ily, generation by generation, throughout three centuries. The pioneers of our people who first landed on these shores on that eventful day three centuries ago had before them a task which during the early years was of heartbreaking danger and difficulty. The conquest of a new continent is iron work. People who dwell in old civilizations and find that therein so much of humanity's lot is hard, are apt to complain against the conditions as being solely due to man and to speak as if life could be made easy and simple if there were but a virgin conti- nent in which to work. It is true that the pioneer life was simpler, but it was certainly not easier. As a matter of fact, the first work of the pioneers in taking possession of a lonely wilderness is so rough, so hard, so dangerous that all but the strongest spirits fail. The early iron days of such a conquest search out alike the weak in body and the weak in soul. In the warfare against the rugged sternness of primeval Nature, only those can conquer who are themselves unconquerable. It is not until the first bitter years have passed that the life becomes easy enough to invite a mass of new-comers, and so great are the risk, hardship, and toil of the early years that there always exists a threat of lapsing back from civilization. The history of the pioneers of Jamestown, of the founders of Virginia, illustrates the truth of all this. Famine and pestilence and war menaced the little band of daring men who had planted them- And State Papers 1219 selves alone on the edge of a frowning continent. Moreover, as men ever find, whether in the tiniest frontier community or in the vastest and most highly organized and complex civilized society, their worst foes were in their own bosoms. Dissension, distrust, the inability of some to work and the un- willingness of others, jealousy, arrogance and envy, folly and laziness — in short, all the shortcomings with which we have to grapple now, were faced by those pioneers, and at moments threatened their whole enterprise with absolute ruin. It was some time before the ground on which they had landed supported them, in spite of its potential fertility, and they looked across the sea for supplies. At one moment so hopeless did they become that the whole colony embarked, and was only saved from aban- doning the country by the opportune arrival of help from abroad. At last they took root in the land, and were already prospering when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. In a few years a great inflow of settlers began. Four of the present States of New Eng- land were founded. Virginia waxed apace. The Carolinas grew up to the south of it, and Maryland to the north of it. The Dutch colonies between, which had already absorbed the Swedish, were in their turn absorbed by the English. Pennsylvania was founded and, later still, Georgia. There were many wars with the Indians and with the dauntless captains whose banners bore the lilies of France. At last the British flag flew without a rival in all 1220 Presidential Addresses eastern North America. Then came the successful struggle for national independence. For half a century after we became a separate nation there was comparatively little immigration to this country. Then the tide once again set hither, and has flowed in ever-increasing size until in each of the last three years a greater number of people came to these shores than had landed on them during the entire colonial period. Generation by generation these people have been absorbed into the national life. Generally their sons, almost al- ways their grandsons, are indistinguishable from one another and from their fellow-Americans de- scended from the colonial stock. For all alike the problems of our existence are fundamentally the same, and for all alike these problems change from generation to generation. In the colonial period, and for at least a century after its close, the conquest of the continent, the expansion of our people westward, to the Alle- ghenies, then to the Mississippi, then to the Pacific, was always one of the most important tasks, and sometimes the most important, in our national life. Behind the first settlers the conditions grew easier, and in the older-settled regions of all the colonies life speedily assumed much of comfort and some- thing of luxury ; and though generally it was on a much more democratic basis than life in the Old World, it was by no means democratic when judged by our modern standards; and here and there, as in the tide-water regions of Virginia, a genuine And State Papers 1221 aristocracy grew and flourished. But the men who first broke ground in the virgin wilderness, whether on the Atlantic Coast or in the interior, fought hard for mere life. In the early stages the fron- tiersman had to do battle with the savage, and when the savage was vanquished there remained the harder strain of war with the hostile forces of soil and climate, with flood, fever, and famine. There was sickness, and bitter weather; there were no roads ; there was a complete lack of all but the very roughest and most absolute necessaries. Under such circumstances the men and women who made ready the continent for civilization were able them- selves to spend but little time in doing aught but the rough work which was to make smooth the ways of their successors. In consequence observers whose insight was spoiled by lack of sympathy al- ways found both the settlers and their lives unat- tractive and repellent. In "Martin Chuzzlewit" the description of America, culminating in the descrip- tion of the frontier town of Eden, was true and life-like from the standpoint of one content to look merely at the outer shell : and yet it was a commu- nity like Eden that gave birth to Abraham Lincoln ; it was men such as were therein described from whose loins Andrew Jackson sprang. Hitherto each generation among us has had its allotted task, now heavier, now lighter. In the Revolutionary War the business was to achieve in- dependence. Immediately afterward there was an even more momentous task; that to achieve the na- 1222 Presidential Addresses tional unity and the capacity for orderly develop- ment, without which our liberty, our independence, would have been a curse and not a blessing. In each of these two contests, while there were many great leaders from many different States, it is but fair to say that the foremost place was taken by the soldiers and the statesmen of Virginia ; and to Vir- ginia was reserved the honor of producing the hero of both movements, the hero of the war, and of the peace that made good the results of the war — George Washington; while the two great political tendencies of the time can be symbolized by the names of two other great Virginians — Jefferson and Marshall — from one of whom we inherit the abiding trust in the people which is the foundation stone of democracy, and from the other the power to develop on behalf of the people a coherent and powerful government, a genuine and representative nationality. Two generations passed before the second great crisis of our history had to be faced. Then came the Civil War, terrible and bitter in itself and in its aftermath, but a struggle from which the Nation finally emerged united in fact as well as in name, united forever. Oh, my hearers, my fellow-coun- trymen, great indeed has been our good fortune; for as time clears away the mists that once shrouded brother from brother and made each look "as through a glass darkly" at the other, we can all feel the same pride in the valor, the devotion, and the fealty toward the right as it was given to each to And State Papers 1223 see the right, shown alike by the men who wore the blue and by the men who wore the gray. Rich and prosperous though we are as a people, the proudest heritage that each of us has, no matter where he may dwell, North or South, East or West, is the immaterial heritage of feeling, the right to claim as his own all the valor and all the steadfast devotion to duty shown by the men of both the great armies, of the soldiers whose leader was Grant and the sol- diers whose leader was Lee. The men and the women of the Civil War did their duty bravely and well in the days that were dark and terrible and splendid. We, their descendants, who pay proud homage to their memories, and glory in the feats of might of one side no less than of the other, need to keep steadily in mind that the homage which counts is the homage of heart and of hand, and not of the lips, the homage of deeds and not of words only. We, too, in our turn, must prove our truth by our endeavor. We must show ourselves worthy sons of the men of the mighty days by the way in which we meet the problems of our own time. We carry our heads high because our fathers did well in the years that tried men's souls ; and we must in our turn so bear ourselves that the children who come after us may feel that we too have done our duty. We can not afford to forget the maxim upon which Washington insisted, that the surest way to avert war is to be prepared to meet it. Neverthe- less, the duties that most concern us of this genera- 1224 Presidential Addresses tion are not military, but social and industrial. Each community must always dread the evils which spring up as attendant upon the very qualities which give it success. We of this mighty western Republic have to grapple with the dangers that spring from popular self-government tried on a scale incomparably vaster than ever before in the history of mankind, and from an abounding mate- rial prosperity greater also than anything which the world has hitherto seen. As regards the first set of dangers, it behooves us to remember that men can never escape being governed. Either they must govern themselves or they must submit to being governed by others. If from lawlessness or fickleness, from folly or self- indulgence, they refuse to govern themselves, then most assuredly in the end they will have to be gov- erned from the outside. They can prevent the need of government from without only by showing that they possess the power of government from within. A sovereign can not make excuses for his failures ; a sovereign must accept the responsibility for the exercise of the power that inheres in him; and where, as is true in our Republic, the people are sovereign, then the people must show a sober under- standing and a sane and steadfast purpose if they are to preserve that orderly liberty upon which as a foundation every republic must rest. In industrial matters our enormous prosperity has brought with it certain grave evils. It is our duty to try to cut out these evils without at the And State Papers 1225 same time destroying our well-being itself. This is an era of combination alike in the world of capi- tal and in the world of labor. Each kind of com- bination can do good, and yet each, however power- ful, must be opposed when it does ill. At the moment the greatest problem before us is how to exercise such control over the business use of vast wealth, individual, but especially corporate, as will ensure its not being used against the interest of the public, while yet permitting such ample legitimate profits as will encourage individual initiative. It is our business to put a stop to abuses and to pre- vent their recurrence, without showing a spirit of mere vindictiveness for what has been done in the past. In John Morley's brilliant sketch of Burke he lays especial stress upon the fact that Burke more than almost any other thinker or politician of his time realized the profound lesson that in politics we are concerned not with barren rights but with duties; not with abstract truth, but with practical morality. He especially eulogizes the way in which in his efforts for economic reform, Burke combined unshakable resolution in pressing the reform with a profound temperateness of spirit which made him, while bent on the extirpation of the evil system, re- fuse to cherish an unreasoning and vindictive ill- will toward the men who had benefited by it. Said Burke : "If I can not reform with equity, I will not reform at all. . . . (There is) a state to preserve as well as a state to reform." This is the exact spirit in which this country 1226 Presidential Addresses should move to the reform of abuses of corporate wealth. The wrong-doer, the man who swindles and cheats, whether on a big scale or a little one, shall receive at our hands mercy as scant as if he committed crimes of violence or brutality. We are unalterably determined to prevent wrong-doing in the future ; we have no intention of trying to wreak such an indiscriminate vengeance for wrongs done in the past as would confound the innocent with the guilty. Our purpose is to build up rather than to tear down. We show ourselves the truest friends of property when we make it evident that we will not tolerate the abuses of property. We are stead- ily bent on preserving the institution of private property; we combat every tendency toward reduc- ing the people to economic servitude; and we care not whether the tendency is due to a sinister agita- tion directed against all property, or whether it is due to the actions of those members of the preda- tory classes whose anti-social power is immeasur- ably increased because of the very fact that they possess wealth. Above all, we insist that while facing changed conditions and new problems, we must face them in the spirit which our forefathers showed when they founded and preserved this Republic. The corner-stone of the Republic lies in our treating each man on his worth as a man, paying no heed to his creed, his birthplace, or his occupation, ask- ing not whether he is rich or poor, whether he labors with head or hand ; asking only whether he And State Papers 1227 acts decently and honorably in the various relations of his life, whether he behaves well to his family, to his neighbors, to the state. We base our regard for each man on the essentials and not the acci- dents. We judge him not by his professions, but by his deeds; by his conduct, not by what he has acquired of this world's goods. Other republics have fallen, because the citizens gradually grew to consider the interests of a class before the interests of the whole; for when such was the case it mat- tered little whether it was the poor who plundered the rich or the rich who exploited the poor; in either event the end of the republic was at hand. We are resolute in our purpose not to fall into such a pit. This great Republic of ours shall never be- come the government of a plutocracy, and it shall never become the government of a mob. God will- ing, it shall remain what our fathers who founded it meant it to be — a government in which each man stands on his worth as a man, where each is given the largest personal liberty consistent with securing the well-being of the whole, and where, so far as in us lies, we strive continually to secure for each man such equality of opportunity that in the strife of life he may have a fair chance to show the stuff that is in him. We are proud of our schools and of the trained intelligence they give our children the opportunity to acquire. But what we care for most is the character of the average man; for we believe that if the average of character in the indi- vidual citizen is sufficiently high, if he possesses 1228 Presidential Addresses those qualities which make him worthy of respect in his family life and in his work outside, as well as the qualities which fit him for success in the hard struggle of actual existence — that if such is the character of our individual citizenship, there is lit- erally no height of triumph unattainable in this vast experiment of government by, of, and for a free people. AT THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE TO MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLEL- LAN AT WASHINGTON, MAY 2, 1907 Men of the Army of the Potomac, and yon, my Friends and Fellow-Citizens: It is with profound pleasure that, as President of the United States, I to-day take part in the un- veiling of a monument to one of its leading soldiers of the Civil War. Naturally, on behalf of the Nation, I greet with peculiar pleasure Mrs. Mc- Clellan and her son on this occasion. Next only to them, I take special pleasure in greeting the com- rades of General McClellan — you, the generals, the officers, and the enlisted men who fought under him in the mighty days. Let me here, General King, express my peculiar appreciation of the honor conferred upon me in electing me to honorary membership in the Society of the Army of the Potomac — an honor previously conferred upon my lamented predecessor, President McKinley. The war that I took part in was a little war, but it was all the war there was; and we And State Papers 1229 tried to show that we at least had the desire to act as you men of the mighty days would wish those who came after you to act. I desire also to say a special word of greeting to the Governor of New Jersey, and to the troops of New Jersey who have come here to pay homage to the memory of their revered fellow-citizen. To General McClellan it was given to command in some of the hardest fought battles and most im- portant campaigns in the great war of this hemi- sphere, so that his name will be forever linked with the mighty memories that arise when we speak of Antietam and South Mountain, Fair Oaks and Mal- vern; so that we never can speak of the great Army of the Potomac without having rise before us the figure of General McClellan, the man who or- ganized and first led it. There was also given to him the peculiar gift, one that is possessed by but very few men, to combine the qualities that won him the enthusiastic love and admiration of the soldiers who fought with and under him, and the qualities that in civil life endeared him peculiarly to all who came in contact with him. Let me say a word of acknowledgment of a special kind to the Committee who are responsible for the statue. It has been said of some modern statuary that it added a new terror to death. But I wish on behalf of those who live in the capital of the Nation to express my very profound ac- knowledgments to those who had the good taste to choose a great sculptor to do this work. I thank 1230 Presidential Addresses them for having erected here in so well-chosen a site a statue which, not only because of the man it commemorates, but because of its own intrinsic worth, adds to the nobility and beauty of the cap- ital city of the country. As has been already well said to-day, you men of the great war, you veterans here, need no statue, need no shaft, to recall you to the memory of your fellow-countrymen. You have as your perpetual monument the country itself. We have to-day a country, a government, a national capital, a flag, only because of what you and your comrades did in the Civil War. Above all, you left us not merely the heritage left by all good soldiers to their country — the heritage of the right to take glory in your own achievements — but you have the peculiar honor, the peculiar good fortune, to leave to your country- men the right to take pride also in the achieve- ments of their fellow-countrymen who were at the time your gallant foes — the men who are now your brothers, knit by the events of that war with you, and their descendants with yours, in a real Union forever indissoluble. We have become accustomed to accepting as a matter of course certain things which would be wellnigh impossible in any country save ours, so that it seems most natural that the President of the United States, when he drives down to take part in a celebration like this, should have as his personal aides both the sons of the men who wore the blue and the sons of the men who wore the gray. As Americans, when we glory in And State Papers 1231 what was done under Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, McClellan, Farragut, we can no less glory in the valor, and the devotion to duty as it was given to them to see the duty, of the men who fought under Lee and Stonewall Jackson and the Johnsons and Stewart and Morgan. Men of the Army of the Potomac, not only have you left us a united land, not only have you left us the material heritage which your hands wrought, but you have left us by what you did in your lives certain lessons which apply as much in peace as in war — lessons which are sometimes only painfully learned in war, which are sometimes quickly for- gotten in peace. First of all among these lessons necessary for our people to keep ever in mind, I would put the fact that the life worth living is the life of endeavor, the life of effort, the life of worthy strife to accomplish a worthy end. We have listened recently to a great deal of talk about peace. It is the duty of all of us to strive for peace, provided that it comes on the right terms. I believe that the man who really does best work for the state in peace is the very man who at need will do well in war. If peace is merely another name for self-indulgence, for sloth, for timidity, for the avoidance of duty, have none of it. Seek the peace that comes to the just man armed, who will dare to defend his rights if the need should arise. Seek the peace granted to him who will wrong no man and will not submit to wrong in return. Seek the peace that comes to us as the 11— 4. 1232 Presidential Addresses peace of righteousness, the peace of justice. Ask peace because your deeds and your powers warrant you in asking it, and do not put yourself in the position to crave it as something to be granted or withheld at the whim of another. If there is one thing which we should wish as a Nation to avoid, it is the teaching of those who would reenforce the lower promptings of our hearts, and so teach us to seek only a life of effortless ease, of mere material comfort. The material de- velopment of this country, of which we have a right to be proud provided that we keep our pride rational and within measure, brings with it certain great dangers, and one of those dangers is the con- founding of means and ends. Material develop- ment means nothing to a nation as an end in itself. If America is to stand simply for the accumulation of what tells for comfort and luxury, then it will stand for little indeed when looked at through the vistas of the ages. America will stand for much provided only that it treats material comfort, ma- terial luxury, and the means for acquiring such, as the foundation on which to build the real life, the life of spiritual and moral effort and achievement. The rich man who has done nothing but accumulate riches is entitled to but the scantiest consideration; to men of real power of discernment he is an ob- ject rather of contempt than of envy. The test of a fortune should be twofold — how it was earned and how it is spent. It is with the nation as it is with the individual. Looking back through his- And State Papers I2 33 tory, the nation that we respect is invariably the nation that struggled, the nation that strove toward a high ideal, the nation that recognized in an obstacle something to be overcome and not something to be shirked. The nation is but the aggregate of the individuals, and what is true of national life is and must be true of each of us in his individual life. The man renders but a poor service to nation or to individual who preaches rest, ease, absence of endeavor, as what that nation or that individual should strive after. Both you men who fought in blue and your brothers who fought in gray against you, as you look back in your lives through the years that have passed, what is it in those years that you most glory in? The times of ease, the times of fatness, the times when everything went smoothly with you? Of course not, because you are men, because you are moved by the spirit of men. What you glory in, what you hope to hand down as undying memories to your children, are the things that were done in the days that brought little pleasure with them save the grim consciousness of having done each man his duty as his duty needed to be done. Because in those years you had it in you dauntlessly to do your share in the work allotted to you, your chil- dren and your children's children rise up to call you blessed. Who among you now would barter the memories of the dark years from '61 to '65 for any gift that could be given? Not a man among you. You have won the right to feel a pride that 1234 Presidential Addresses none other of your countrymen can feel, and you won that right because you sought not the path of ease but the path of rough, disagreeable, irksome, and dangerous duty. In life as it is to-day in time of peace we do not have to face the difficulties and dangers you had to face; but if we do not face the duties that are ours in your spirit, we shall do them but poorly. We are a good many thousand years short of the Millennium yet, both as among nations and as among individuals, and our business is to do our own duty and to teach our children to do their duty in a rough, workaday world; and we can not do that duty by fine phrases. There is no use in anything I say here being all right unless the deeds both of myself and yourselves correspond to the words I speak and to which you listen. That is all that words count for — as an index by which you can judge the corresponding deeds, either of the speaker or of the listeners. We can not do our duty if we let ourselves get a false perspective of life, if we substitute ease and pleasure for the conception of duty itself. That is just as true of the man and the woman in private life as it is of the soldier. Consider your friends and associates who were not in the army ; take the younger people ; look at each man and each woman when they have begun to be elderly, and compare in real happiness those who have gone through life shirking, getting around and avoiding what was disagreeable and unpleasant, with those who have faced and over- And State Papers I2 35 come what was disagreeable and unpleasant, and you will find that it is the last class who have had the real enjoyment. There is just one person in this country whom I put ahead of any soldier, I do not care whether the soldier wore the blue or whether he wore the gray; I do not care whether he fought through the Civil War, not even if he lost an arm in the Civil War — I put ahead of the soldier the really good woman, the good wife and mother, who ha*s done her full duty. She often has a pretty hard time; each man here knows that it is the woman who often has to do harder work than the hardest- worked man ; and therefore the man worth the name will always show a peculiar consideration and tenderness for his helpmeet, for all the women of his household. The man at least has his nights to himself, and the woman with children does not. She has to take care of the children in sick- ness, she has a greater responsibility for raising them, for giving them the proper training, than the man can possibly have. Yet the woman who thus with labor and anxiety brings up her children is blessed among women, blessed among men. I do not pity her in the least. I respect and admire her, and hold her worthy of admiration and honor. The selfish creature, man or woman, who reaches old age having achieved ease by shirking duty, is to be heartily despised and not envied. Our admiration is reserved for him or for her who has done the real work which makes the next 1236 Presidential Addresses generation able in its turn to do its work in the country. I wish to see the people of this country not merely feel kindly toward their neighbors who do well ; f or I also wish to see them actuated by a flaming indig- nation toward their neighbors who do ill. I wish to see you peaceful, and desirous each to avoid harming his neighbor; and I wish to see you able and desirous each to see that your neighbor does not harm you. A foolish good-nature, a weak good- nature, incapable of righteous wrath, is almost as unfortunate an attribute for a citizen of this de- mocracy as willingness to do wrong on the part of the man himself. If the man hasn't in him the power of being aroused to vehement action when wrong has been done, he can be of no service in combating the manifold wrongs that do exist at present alike in our industrial and in our economic life. The public servant who is only good-natured and well-meaning is not a very useful public ser- vant. If you haven't got it in you to strive man- fully against wrong, you will accomplish but little for right. The qualities needed to make a good soldier, in their final analysis, are the qualities needed to make a good citizen; and the qualities needed alike by soldier in time of war and by all citizens in time of peace are those which in their sum make up the characteristics that tell for a great and righteous people. America must rise level to the ideals of the founders of the Nation when they started this And State Papers 1237 mighty Republic on the road of self-government. Those ideals in their sum were to found here a government of the people, by the people, where no one man should wrong his brother, where the Na- tion should wrong no outsider, and should be able to resist aggression from without. I hope to see this Nation play an ever-growing part in the affairs of the world. It can not play that part unless it is willing to accept the responsibilities that go with it. We can not do our first and primary duty at home within our own borders unless we strive meas- urably to realize certain ideals. By this I do not mean merely to talk about them at Fourth of July celebrations; to speak of them, and applaud the speech, and then go home and have neither speaker nor hearer practice what has thus virtuously been preached. We should say and applaud only what we believe in. And having said it, and having ap- plauded it when said, we should try to put it into practice. When we speak of liberty, when we praise it, let us try to see that in actual practice we achieve it. When we speak of fraternity, of brotherhood, let us exercise each for himself the qualities that make for brotherhood, for fraternity. When we speak of equality, let us try to realize it in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, who pointed out that there was, of course, a certain sense in which men are not, and can not be, equal ; but who realized by his life and his deeds the profound truth that in the larger sense, in the real, the all-important sense, there can and must be an equality among all men. 1238 Presidential Addresses This equality we, of the American Republic, must seek to secure among our fellow-citizens. It is an equality of rights before the law; a measurable equality of opportunity, so far as we can secure it, for each man to do the best that there is in him without harming his fellows, and without hindrance from his fellows; and finally, and most important, it is that equality which we should prize above all else, the equality of self-respect and of mutual re- spect among each and all of our citizens. The White House, Washington, May 2, ipo7 My dear Mr. Henry: When you, in company with Messrs. Coakley and Brown, called upon me this morning, I read you the letter I had written to the Attorney-General on March 25, 1906. At your request I gladly send you the following extract from that letter : "[Our duty is] if it should ever happen that we had any power in the matter, to see that exact jus- tice is done these men. There must be no con- donation of lawlessness on our part, even if the lawlessness takes the form of an effort to avenge the wrongs committed by the lawlessness of others. The sole question as regards Haywood and Moyer must be the question whether or not they can be shown to be guilty of this particular act, and their legal rights must -be as carefully safeguarded as those of any other men. It is alleged that they were extradited from Colorado in a manner that And State Papers 1239 amounted to a betrayal of their legal rights. I should like to have the District Attorney of Colo- rado, and if necessary the District Attorney of Idaho, give me such information as they can on this point. I should like to get from the District Attorney of Idaho any information that he can ob- tain as to whether or not there has been the slight- est disposition shown by the authorities in Idaho to act toward these men in an unfair or improper manner, or to deny them their legal rights. On the other hand, I should like to know whether there is any symptom of a miscarriage of justice in their favor. . . . The intemperate violence with which Socialistic or labor papers like that of Debs, and I am sorry to say some labor organizations, have in- sisted without any knowledge of the facts upon treating these men as martyrs to the cause of labor, has unquestionably resulted in tremendous pressure being brought to bear upon the authorities of Idaho to discharge or acquit them whether guilty or inno- cent. ... So far as the unions are anxious only to see that exact justice is done these men, that they are given their full legal rights and not condemned unless proved guilty of this specific act, they are entitled to the cordial co-operation of all just and fair-minded citizens. So far as by any action, or by murderous and treasonable language such as that quoted above from Debs (and others), they tend to bring pressure to bear upon the State authorities and the courts, to obstruct the course of justice, and to render it difficult to convict the men if guilty, 1240 Presidential Addresses they are equally without stint to be condemned ; and anything that the Federal authorities can do, in either event, to further the cause of justice is to be done." In response to your question it is, I trust, needless for me to say that if at any time you or any one else can submit to me any evidence showing that there has been a miscarriage of justice for or against Messrs. Moyer or Haywood, which you believe it is in my power to remedy, I will at once bring such evidence to the attention of the Attorney-General to have him give it the fullest consideration and to take thereon such action, if any, as it may be in the power of the Federal authorities to take. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. John S. Henry, 1220 Third Avenue, New York. AT THE GRADUATING EXERCISES OF FRIENDS* SCHOOL, WASHINGTON, MAY 24, 1907 Mr. Sidwell and Pupils: When I speak of the American boy, what I say really applies to the grown-ups nearly as much as to the boys. I want to see every one of you boys enjoy himself to the full, and yet remember that he won't enjoy himself if he does not do real work. It is not the boy who shirks his lessons, who shirks doing his work, who ultimately has a good time. 1 remember once talking with a great friend of mine, a professor in Yale, about a certain boy who had been put on the Yale football eleven early in the season ; I said that I had happened to know his father, and that I hoped the boy would do well. My friend, the professor, answered : "You will find he won't do well ; that fellow has not got the right stuff in him ; he will not keep up with his studies, and my experi- ence has always been if a boy has not the character to study he won't have the character to persevere in the game." The professor was exactly right. The boy was dropped before the end of the season. He did not have the right stuff in him ; and exactly as it had shown itself in his not keeping decently up with his studies, so it showed itself in making him quite unable to do his work on the team. I want to see each of you play hard when you play; and I want to see each of you work hard, and not play at all, when you work. I want to see a man work, but if he is (1241) 1242 Presidential Addresses the kind of man who is wholly unable ever to enjoy a holiday, he is apt to be a pretty poor father, a pretty poor citizen. Let him work hard, and let him remember to enjoy the other side of life too. I want to see you game, boys; I want to see you brave and manly ; and I also want to see you gentle and tender. In other words, you should make it your object to be the right kind of boys at home, so that your family will feel a genuine regret, instead of a sense of relief, when you stay away; and at the same time you must be able to hold your own in the outside world. You can not do that if you have not manliness, courage in you. It does no good to have either of those two sets of qualities if you lack the other. I do not care how nice a little boy you are, how pleasant at home, if when you are out you are afraid of other little boys lest they be rude to you; for if so you will not be a very happy boy nor grow up a very useful man. When a boy grows up I want him to be of such a type that when somebody wrongs him he will feel a good, healthy desire to show the wrong-doers that he can not be wronged with impunity. I like to have the man who is a citizen feel, when a wrong is done to the com- munity by any one, when there is an exhibition of corruption or betrayal of trust, or demagogy or vio- lence, or brutality, not that he is shocked and horri- fied and would like to go home ; but I want to have him feel the determination to put the wrong-doer down, to make the man who does wrong aware that the decent man is not only his superior in decency, And State Papers 1243 but his superior in strength ; not necessarily physical strength, but strength of character, the kind of strength that makes a good and forceful citizen. The place in which each of you should try to be most useful is his own home, and each of you should wish for and should practice in order to have cour- age and strength, so that they can be used in pro- tecting the gentle, in protecting the weak, against those who would wrong weakness and gentleness. The boy who will maltreat either a smaller child, a little boy or a little girl, or a dumb animal, is just about the meanest boy that you can find anywhere in the world. You should be brave and able to hold your own just because you should be able to put down such a bully. It should be your pride to be the champion of the weak. You will find a certain num- ber of boys who have strength and who pride them- selves in it, and who misuse it. The boy who will torture something harmless, who will oppress the boy or girl who is weak, or do wrong to those who can not resist, almost always proves to have a weak streak in him, and not to have the stuff in him that would make him stand up to an equal foe under punishment. That boy has not real courage, real strength; and much though I dislike seeing a boy who is timid, who is afraid, who can not hold his own, I dislike infinitely more, I abhor, the boy who uses strength and courage to oppress those who can not help themselves. Now, one word to the grown-ups, to the fathers and especially to the mothers. Do remember that I 244 Presidential Addresses in your homes it is just as important as in the out- side world that you should have neither hardness of heart nor softness of head. The damage done to children by cold or unfeeling or selfish parents is not a bit greater than the damage done to them by foolish and weak and over-indulgent parents. A foolish indulgence is as bad as any harshness. In particular the mother who lets her boy grow up selfish, imposing on her, not showing tenderness or consideration for her or for others, is preparing to turn the selfish son into what will some day be a brutal and unfeeling husband and father. That woman is not showing real tenderness, real love for the boy; she is showing folly, and wicked folly at that. She is doing the worst that she can for the boy, and she is preparing misery and suffering for all those who come in contact with him thereafter. The men, and especially the women (for it is the woman who counts for most in the household), who fail to bring up their children so that they give a prompt and ready obedience, and show unselfishness and consideration for others — all of us need to be taught that, it does not come naturally — fail signally in their duty as fathers or mothers. I shall quote, in closing, a bit of advice of which I have always been fond, gathered from the foot- ball field, and it applies just as much in after life as it does on a football team. In after life, as in your games, remember: "Don't flinch, don't foul, and hit the line hard." And State Papers I2 45 AT INDIANAPOLIS, IND., MAY 30, 1907 For more than one reason I am peculiarly glad that this year I speak on Memorial Day in the State of Indiana. There is no other class of our citizens to whom we owe so much as to the veterans of the great war. To them it was given to perform the one feat with which no other feat can be com- pared, for to them it was given to preserve the Union. Moreover, you men who wore the blue, blessed beyond the victors in any other war of recent times, have left to your countrymen more than the material results of the triumph, more even than the achieving the triumph itself. You have left a coun- try so genuinely reunited that all of us now, in what- ever part of this Union we live, have a right to feel the keenest pride, not only in the valor and self- devotion of you, the gallant men who wore the blue, but also in the valor and self-devotion of your gal- lant opponents who wore the gray. The hero whose monument we to-day unveil, by his life bore singu- lar testimony to the completeness of the reunion. General Lawton in his youth fought gallantly in the Civil War. Thirty-three years afterward he again marched to war, this time against a foreign foe, and served with distinguished ability and success as a general officer, both in Cuba and in the Philippines. When he thus served it was in an army whose gen- erals included not only many of his old comrades in arms, but some of his old opponents also, as General Wheeler and General Fitzhugh Lee. Under him, both among the commissioned officers and in the 1246 Presidential Addresses ranks, were many men whose fathers had worn the blue serving side by side with others whose fathers had worn the gray; but all Americans now, and nothing but Americans, all united in their fealty and devotion to their common flag and their common country, and each knowing only the generous rivalry with his fellows as to who could best serve the cause for which each was ready to lay down life itself. To General Lawton it befell actually to lay down his life ; a tragedy, but one of those noble tragedies where our pride rises above our sorrow. For he died in the fulness of time, serving his country with entire de- votion — a death that every man may well envy. Indiana in the Civil War furnished even more than her share of brave soldiers. It also fell to In- diana to furnish the greatest of all the war gov- ernors who upheld the hands of Abraham Lincoln ; for when history definitely awards the credit for what was done in the Civil War, she will put the services of no other civilian, save alone those of Lin- coln, ahead of the services of Governor Morton. No other man who rendered such services as he rendered worked under such terrible disadvantages; and no man without his iron power could have achieved what he achieved during the last two years of the war, when he managed the State Government of In- diana solely on money obtained by pledging his own personal honor and personal fortune, and yet never for one moment relaxed in the help he gave to Lincoln and Chase and Seward and Stanton in the Cabinet, to Grant and Sherman and Sheridan And State Papers 1247 and Thomas in the field. It was work that only the strongest man could have done, and it was work vitally necessary for the sake of the Nation. The men of the generation which fought the Civil War had their great tasks to perform. They met them as strong men should have met them. They did them, and we, their children, profit by their mighty deeds. But no generation can ever plead the great deeds of its predecessors as an excuse for failing to perform its own duties. Our duties are those of peace and not of war. Never- theless they are of the utmost importance; of im- portance to ourselves, and of still greater importance to the children who in a few years will take our places as the men and women of this Republic. If we wish to show ourselves worthy heirs of the men of the Civil War, we must do our tasks with the thoroughness with which they did theirs. Great social and industrial problems confront us, and their solution demands on our part unfaltering courage, and yet a wise, good-natured self-restraint; so that on the one hand we shall neither be daunted by difficulties nor fooled by those who would seek to persuade us that the difficulties are insuperable; while on the other hand we are not misled into showing either rashness or vindictiveness. Let us try as a people to show the same qualities as we deal with the industrial and social problems of to- day that Abraham Lincoln showed when with in- domitable resolution, but with a kindliness, patience, and common-sense quite as remarkable, he faced I 248 Presidential Addresses four weary years of open war in front, of calumny, detraction, and intrigue from behind, and at the end gave to his countrymen whom he had served so well the blood-bought gift of a race freed and a nation forever united. One great problem that we have before us is to preserve the rights of property; and these can only be preserved if we remember that they are in less jeopardy from the Socialist and the Anarchist than from the predatory man of wealth. It has become evident that to refuse to invoke the power of the Nation to restrain the wrongs committed by the man of great wealth who does evil is not only to neglect the interests of the public, but is to neglect the interests of the man of means who acts honor- ably by his fellows. The power of the Nation must be exerted to stop crimes of cunning no less than crimes of violence. There can be no halt in the course we have deliberately elected to pursue, the policy of asserting the right of the Nation, so far as it has the power, to supervise and control the business use of wealth, especially in its corporate form. To-day I wish to say a word to you about the first and most important feature of this task, the control of the common carriers doing an inter- state business, a control absolutely vested in the Nation ; while in so far as the common carriers also transport the mails, it is in my opinion probable that whether their business is or is not interstate, it is to the same extent subject to Federal control, under that clause of the Constitution granting- to And State Papers 1249 the National Government power to establish post roads, and therefore by necessary implication power to take all action necessary in order to keep them at the highest point of efficiency. Every Federal law dealing with corporations or with railroads that has been put upon the statute books during the last six years has been a step in advance in the right direction. All action taken by the Administration under these and the pre- existing laws has been just and proper. Every suit undertaken during that period has been a suit not merely warranted, but required, by the facts; a suit in the interest of the people as a whole, and, in the long run, particularly in the interest of stock- holders as well as in the interest of business men of property generally. There can be no swerving from the course that has thus been mapped out in the legislation actually enacted and in the messages in which I have asked for further legislation. We best serve the interests of the honest railway men when we announce that we will follow out precisely this course. It is the course of real, of ultimate conservatism. There will be no halt in the forward movement toward a full development of this policy ; and those who wish us to take a step backward or to stand still, if their wishes were realized, would find that they had invited an outbreak of the very radicalism they fear. There must be progressive leg- islative and administrative action for the correction of the evils which every sincere man must admit to have existed in railroad management in the past. 1250 Presidential Addresses Such additional legislation as that for which I have asked in the past, and especially that for which I asked in my message at the opening of the last session of Congress, is not merely in the interest of the public, but most emphatically in the interest of every honest railway manager and of all investors or would-be investors in railway securities. There must be vested in the Federal Government a full power of supervision and control over the railways doing interstate business ; a power in many respects analogous to and as complete as that the Govern- ment exercises over the national banks. It must possess the power to exercise supervision over the future issuance of stocks and bonds, either through a national corporation (which I should prefer) or in some similar fashion, such supervision to include the frank publicity of everything which would-be investors and the public at large have a right to know. The Federal Government will thus be able to prevent all overcapitalization in the fu- ture; to prevent any man hereafter from plun- dering others by loading railway properties with obligations and pocketing the money instead of spending it in improvements and in legitimate cor- porate purposes ; and any man acting in such fash- ion should be held to a criminal accountability. It should be declared contrary to public policy hence- forth to allow railroads to devote their capital to anything but the transportation business, certainly not to the hazards of speculation. For the very reason that we desire to favor the honest railroad And State Papers 1251 manager, we should seek to discourage the activ- ities of the man whose only concern with railroads is to manipulate their stocks. The business of rail- road organization and management should be kept entirely distinct from investment or brokerage busi- ness especially of the speculative type, and the credit and property of the corporation should be devoted to the extension and betterment of its railroads, and to the development of the country naturally tributary to the lines. These principles are funda- mental. Railroads should not be prohibited from acquiring connecting lines, by acquiring stocks, bonds, or other securities of such lines; but it is already well settled as contrary to public policy to allow railroads to acquire control over parallel and competing lines of transportation. Subject to first giving to the Government the power of supervision and control which I have advocated above, the law should be amended so that railroads may be per- mitted and encouraged to make traffic agreements when these are in the interest of the general public as well as of the railroad corporations making them. These agreements should of course be made public in the minutest detail, and should be subject to securing the previous assent of the Interstate Com- merce Commission. The movement to regulate railways by law has come to stay. The people of this country have made up their minds — and wisely made up their minds — to exercise a closer control over all kinds of public-service corporations, including railways. 1252 Presidential Addresses Every honestly managed railway will gain and not lose by the policy. The men more anxious to manipulate stocks than to make the management of their roads efficient and honest are the only ones who have cause to oppose it. We who believe in steady and healthy progress stand unalterably for the new era of the widest publicity, and of fair dealing on the part of rail- roads with stockholders, passengers, and shippers. We ask the consent of no man in carrying out this policy; but we gladly welcome the aid of every man in perfecting the law in its details and in securing its enactment and the faithful observance of its wise provisions. We seek nothing revolu- tionary. We ask for such laws as in their essence now obtain in the staid old Commonwealth of Mas- sachusetts; such laws as now obtain in England. The purpose of those of us who so resolutely believe in the new policy, in its thorough carrying out, and in its progressive development, is in no sense puni- tive or vindictive. We would be the first to protest against any form of confiscation of property, and whether we protested or not, I may add that the Su- preme Court could be trusted in any event to see that there should be nothing done under the guise of reg- ulating roads to destroy property without just com- pensation or without due process of law. As a mat- ter of course, we shall punish any criminal whom we can convict under the law ; but we have no inten- tion of confounding the innocent many and the guilty few by any ill-judged and sweeping scheme of And State Papers I2 53 vengeance. Our aim is primarily to prevent these abuses in the future. Wherever evil-doers can be, they shall be, brought to justice; and no criminal, high or low, whom we can reach will receive immu- nity. But the rights of innocent investors should not be jeoparded by legislation or executive action; we sanction no legislation which would fall heavily on them, instead of on the original wrong-doers or beneficiaries of the wrong. There must be no such rigid laws as will prevent the development of the country, and such develop- ment can only be had if investors are offered an am- ple reward for the risk they take. We would be the first to oppose any unreasonable restrictions being placed upon the issuance of stocks and bonds, for such would simply hamper the growth of the United States; for a railroad must ultimately stand on its credit. But this does not prevent our demanding that there be lodged in the Government power to exercise a jealous care against the inflation of securities, and all the evils that come in its train. The man who builds a great railway and those who invest in it ren- der a great public service; for adequate transporta- tion facilities are a vital necessity to the country. We favor full and ample return to such men ; but we do not favor a policy of exploiting the many for the benefit of the few. We favor the railway man who operates his railway upon a straightforward and open business basis, from the standpoint of perma- nent investment, and who has an interest in its fu- ture; we are against only the man who cares nothing 1254 Presidential Addresses for the property after his speculative deal in its se- curities has been closed. We favor the railway man- ager who keeps in close touch with the people along his line rather than in close touch with the specula- tive market ; who operates his line with a view to the advantage he can legitimately get out of his railway as a permanent investment by giving a fair return to the stockholders and to the public good service with reasonable rates ; who does not operate his road with a view to the temporary speculative advantage which will follow capitalizing an uncertain future and un- loading the securities on the public. We wish to make it to the interest of the investor to put his money into the honest development of the railroads, and therefore we wish to discriminate against the man who, while enriching himself, lays upon the fu- ture owners and patrons of the road and above all upon the honest men whose duty it may become to operate the road, a burden of additional debt without adding correspondingly to its actual worth. Much is said about the inability of railway presidents to agree among themselves as to what policy should be advocated and what plans followed in the effort to work out the problems which now present them- selves. In so far as the law is concerned, all I ask of them is a willingness to comply fully with its spirit, and a readiness to move along the lines indi- cated by those who are charged with administering it. Our policy is built upon experience, and our pri- mary purpose is to ensure the future against the mistakes and delinquencies of the past. And State Papers 1255 There lias been much wild talk as to the extent of the overcapitalization of our railroads. The census reports on the commercial value of the railroads of the country, together with the reports made to the Interstate Commerce Commission by the railroads on their cost of construction, tend to show that as a whole the railroad property of the country is worth as much as the securities representing it, and that in the consensus of opinion of investors the total value of stock and bonds is greater than their total face value, notwithstanding the "water" that has been injected in particular places. The huge value of terminals, the immense expenditures in recent years in double tracking, improving grades, roadbeds, and structures, have brought the total investments to a point where the opinion that the real value is greater than the face value is probably true. No general statement such as this can be accepted as having more than a general value; there are many excep- tions; but the evidence seems ample that the great mass of railroad securities rest upon safe and solid foundations; if they fail in any degree to com- mand complete public confidence, it is because isolated instances of unconscionable stock-watering and kindred offences arouse suspicion, which nat- urally extends to all other corporate securities so long as similar practices are possible and the tend- ency to resort to them is unrestrained by law. While there have been many instances of gross and flagrant stock inflation, and while, of course, there remain cases of overcapitalization, yet when the statistics of II— 5 1256 Presidential Addresses the weaker roads, the overcapitalized roads, are combined with those of the stronger roads, and con- sidered in the aggregate, in my judgment they will not be found to impair the wholesome financial standing and position of the railroads as a whole; and while those railway owners and managers who have enriched themselves by loading their properties with securities representing little or no real value deserves our strongest condemnation, on the other hand our hearty commendation is due those owners and managers — representing, I believe, the large majority — who have year after year worked faith- fully, patiently, and honestly in building up our great system of railways, which has knitted together in close commercial and social intercourse widely removed sections of the country and stands second only to the great business of agriculture itself in contribution to national growth and development. Ample provision should be made by Congress to enable the Interstate Commerce Commission, by the employment of a sufficient force of experts, to un- dertake the physical valuation of each and any road in the country, whenever and so soon as in the opin- ion of the Commission such a valuation of any road would be of value to the Commission in its work. There are undoubtedly some roads as to which it would be an advantage, from the standpoint of the business of the Commission, to have such a physical valuation as soon as possible. At the outset let it be understood that physical valuation is no panacea ; it is no sufficient measure- And State Papers I2 57 ment of a rate; but it will be ultimately needed as an essential instrument in administrative super- vision. It will be of use to the Commission in connection with the duty of determining the rea- sonableness of future capitalization, both as one element to enable such a body to come to a right con- clusion in the matter, and also as an element to be placed before the investing public, to enable this public in its turn to reach a conclusion; though of course capitalization must be determined in large measure by future need rather than past investment. How important physical valuation will prove as one of the factors to assist in fixing equitable rates, I am not able to judge; but that it will be of a cer- tain importance can be safely assumed because of the opinions' of the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion and of the courts, and because of the recent action of the Northern Pacific Railroad in advanc- ing such a physical valuation as decisive on its side in a rate controversy. Such a valuation would nec- essarily help to protect the railroads against the making of inadequate and unjust rates, and would therefore be as important from the standpoint of the protection of the railroads as from the stand- point of the protection of the public ; and of course it is necessary to the enduring prosperity and devel- opment of the country that the railroads shall yield reasonable profits to investors. It is from one standpoint quite as important to know the original cost of the building of the road as to know what it would now cost to reproduce it; from another 1258 Presidential Addresses standpoint the human equation — that is, the man- agement of the road — is more important by far than the physical valuation; and the physical valua- tion of the road in one region may have an entirely different relation to the real value of the road than in another region where the conditions are utterly different. Therefore the physical valuation can never be more than one of many elements to be considered ; but it is one element, and at times may be a very important element, when taken in connection with the earning power, franchises, original cost, char- acter of management, location, and business pos- sibilities, in reaching an estimate on the property and rights of a corporation as a going concern. The effect of such valuation and supervision of securities can not be retroactive. Existing securi- ties should be tested by the laws in existence at the time of their issue. This Nation would no more injure securities which have become an important part of the national wealth than it would consider a proposition to repudiate the public debt. But the public interest requires guaranty against improper multiplication of securities in the future. Reason- able regulations for their issuance should be pro- vided, so as to secure as far as may be that the proceeds thereof shall be devoted to legitimate busi- ness purposes. In providing against overcapitali- zation we shall harm no human being who is honest ; and we shall benefit many, for overcapitalization often means an inflation that invites business panic; it always conceals the true relation of the profit And State Papers I2 59 earned to the capital invested, creating a burden of interest payments which may redound to the loss alike of the wage-earner and the general public, which is concerned in the rates paid by shippers; it damages the small investor, discourages thrift, and puts a premium on gambling and business trickery. There is an essential difference between private and quasi-public property which justifies setting somewhere a limit beyond which the accumulating value in quasi-public properties, due to the necessity of a growing community, shall not be capitalized. One of the most important features of the Hep- burn Act is its having given the Commission abso- lute control over the accounts of railways. The Commission has just issued an order to the effect that on July i next all the railways of the country subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission must standardize their accounting methods, and the Com- mission is now organizing a bureau of special ex- aminers, whose duty it will be, among other things, to see that the books of the carriers are kept in con- formity with the rules laid down by the Commission. Thus the means are already at hand and the ma- chinery already created which, when perfected, will put the public in position to know the facts, so that the small investor can exercise an intelligent judg- ment when entrusting his money to the promoters of great railway enterprises. We hope as one of the chief means for betterment of conditions to secure as complete publicity in the affairs of rail- roads as now obtains with regard to national banks. 1260 Presidential Addresses There need be no fear on the part of investors that this movement for national supervision and con- trol over railways will be for their detriment. If they doubt this, let them study the history of the railway-control movement in such a State as Iowa. It would be hard to find anywhere a more prosperous or more intelligent community; a community of thriving farmers and thriving townspeople. Iowa did its share in the work of building railroads when the business was one that demanded men of the utmost daring and resourcefulness; men like that gallant soldier and real captain of industry, Grenville M. Dodge; men who ran risks and performed feats for which it was difficult to make the reward too high ; men who staked everything on the chances of a business which to-day happily involves no such hazards. Iowa was at length forced to undertake the work of regulating the railways within her bor- ders. There was great outcry against it. It was proclaimed that such effort would ruin roads already built, and prevent building more. But Iowa pro- ceeded with the task, and it resulted, not in ruin and stagnation, but in increased safety and profit to the honest investor. Instead of putting roads into the hands of receivers, it was followed by a prosperity that rescued many of them from receiverships. No State, of course, can do for the railways what the National Government has already done for the banks, and that Government should do something analogous for the railways. National bank stocks are bought and sold largely on the certificate of And State Papers 1261 character which the Government, as a result of its examinations and supervision, gives to them. To give another illustration from Iowa's experience, when the national banking law was amended to al- low small banks to take out national charters, great numbers of the State banks of that State were reor- ganized into national institutions. The investing public was ready to back with unlimited confidence the institutions on which the Federal Government had set the seal of its confidence and approval. The railways have not been given this certificate of char- acter, under the seal of the National Government, and therefore many people who invest freely in the shares of banks are reluctant to buy railroad securi- ties. Give them the same guarantees as to railroad se- curities which we now give them as to national bank- shares, and we would presently see these people in- vesting in railroads, and thus opening a new reservoir from which to draw the capital now so much needed for the extension and betterment of the railroads. All this, my friends, is substantially what I have said over and over again. Surely, it ought not to be necessary to say that it in no shape or way rep- resents any hostility to corporations as such. On the contrary, it means a frank recognition of the fact that combinations of capital, like combinations of labor, are a natural result of modern conditions and of our national development. As far as in my ability lies my endeavor is and will be to prevent abuse of power by either and to favor both so long as they do well. The aim of the National Govern- 1262 Presidential Addresses ment is quite as much to favor and protect honest corporations, honest business men of wealth, as to bring to justice those individuals and corporations representing dishonest methods. Most certainly there will be no relaxation by the Government authorities in the effort to get at any great railroad wrecker — any man who by clever swindling devices robs in- vestors, oppresses wage-workers, and does injustice to the general public. But any such move as this is in the interest of honest railway operators, of honest corporations, and of those who when they invest their small savings in stocks and bonds, wish to be assured that these will represent money honestly ex- pended for legitimate business purposes. To confer upon the National Government the power for which I ask would be a check upon overcapitalization and upon the clever gamblers who benefit by overcapitali- zation. But it alone would mean an increase in the value, an increase in the safety of the stocks and bonds of law-abiding, honestly managed railroads, and would render it far easier to market their securi- ties. I believe in proper publicity. There has been complaint of some of the investigations recently car- ried on, but those who complain should put the blame where it belongs— upon the misdeeds which are done in darkness, and not upon the investigations which brought them to light. The Administration is responsible for turning on the light, but it is not responsible for what the light showed. I ask for full power to be given the Federal Government, be- cause no single State can -by legislation effectually And State Papers 1263 cope with these powerful corporations engaged in interstate commerce, and, while doing them full jus- tice, exact from them in return full justice to others. The conditions of railroad activity, the conditions of our immense interstate commerce, are such as to make the central government alone competent to ex- ercise full supervision ancl control. The grave abuses in individual cases of rail- road management in the past represent wrongs not merely to the general public, but, above all, wrongs to fair-dealing and honest corporations and men of wealth, because they excite a popular anger and distrust which from the very nature of the case tends to include in the sweep of its resentment good and bad alike. From the standpoint of the public I can not too earnestly say that as soon as the natu- ral and proper resentment aroused by these abuses becomes indiscriminate and unthinking, it also be- comes not merely unwise and unfair, but calculated to defeat the very ends which those feeling it have in view. There has been plenty of dishonest work by corporations in the past. There will not be the slightest let-up in the effort to hunt down and pun- ish every dishonest man. But the bulk of our busi- ness is honestly done. In the natural indignation the people feel over the dishonesty, it is all-essential that they should not lose their heads and get drawn into an indiscriminate raid upon all corporations, all people of wealth, whether they do well or ill. Out of any such wild movement good will not come, can not come, and never has come. On the 1264 Presidential Addresses contrary, the surest way to invite reaction is to follow the lead of either demagogue or visionary in a sweeping assault upon property values and upon public confidence, which would work incal- culable damage in the business world, and would produce such distrust of the agitators that in the revulsion the distrust would extend to honest men who, in sincere and sane fashion, are trying to remedy the evils. The great need of the hour, from the standpoint of the general public — of the producer, consumer, and shipper alike — is the need for better transpor- tation facilities, for additional tracks, additional terminals, and improvements in the actual handling of the railroads ; and all this with the least possible delay. Ample, safe, and rapid transportation facili- ties are even more necessary than cheap transpor- tation. The prime need is for the investment of money which will provide better terminal facilities, additional tracks, and a greater number of cars and locomotives, while at the same time securing, if possible, better wages and shorter hours for the employees. There must be just and reasonable regulation of rates, but any arbitrary and unthink- ing movement to cut them down may be equivalent to putting a complete stop to the effort to provide better transportation. There can be no question as to the desirability of doing away with rebates or any method of favor- ing one shipper at the expense of a competitor, and direct dealing with the rates is sometimes the only And State Papers 1265 method by which this favoritism can be avoided; but where favoritism is not alleged, and when the question is nakedly one of getting a lower rate, it must be remembered that it is often possible that those demanding it may be diametrically opposed in interest to those who demand a better, safer, and more rapid transportation service, and higher wages and shorter hours for employees. If the demand for more taxes, for higher wages, for shorter hours for employees, and for lower rates becomes so ex- cessive as to prevent ample and speedy transporta- tion, and to eat up the legitimate profits; if popular and legislative movements take a shape so ill- directed as not only to threaten honest investments and honest enterprises, but also to prevent any effort for the betterment of transportation facili- ties, it then becomes out of the question to secure the necessary investment of capital in order to bring about an improved service. Rates should not be unduly high; there should be a thorough safe- guarding against accidents; there should be no improper shirking of taxes; the shippers of the country must be supplied generously with cars and all other equipments necessary to properly care for our commerce, and all this means that the National Government must be given full and effective power of supervision and control. But the interests of those who build, who manage, and who invest in the railroads must be no less scrupulously guarded than the interests of the public. It is urgently nec- essary at the present time, in order to relieve the 1266 Presidential Addresses existing congestion of business and to do away with the paralysis which threatens our expanding indus- tries, because of limited and inefficient means of distribution, that our railway facilities should be so increased as to meet the imperative demands of our internal commerce. The want can be met only by private capital, and the vast expenditure necessary for such purpose will not be incurred unless pri- vate capital is afforded reasonable incentive and protection. It is therefore a prime necessity to allow investments in railway properties to earn a liberal return, a return sufficiently liberal to cover all risks. We can not get an improved service unless the carriers of the country can sell their securities; and therefore nothing should be done unwarrant- edly to impair their credit nor to decrease the value of their outstanding obligations. I emphatically believe that positive restraint should be imposed upon railway corporations, and that they should be required to meet positive obli- gations in the interest of the general public. I no less emphatically believe that in thus regulating and controlling the affairs of the railways it is necessary to recognize the need of an immense outlay of money from private sources, and the certainty that this will not be met without the assurance of suffi- cient reward to induce the necessary investment. It is plainly inadvisable for the Government to under- take to direct the physical operation of the railways, save in wholly exceptional cases; and the super- vision and control it exercises should be both en- And State Papers 1267 tirely adequate to secure its ends, and yet no more harassing than is necessary to secure these ends. I believe that the railroad men of the United States are coming to a more perfect sense of the responsibility of the relation which they bear to the public, and of the dignity of that relation. They are public servants in the highest and fullest sense. Indeed, there is not a brakeman nor a switchman upon the most remote road in the land who does not fill a public function and render a service of large public usefulness. We begrudge neither honor nor reward to these men to whom we entrust our lives and our property. Behind these active workers in the railroad field are those who have the determination of railroad policies. These men are entitled to great rewards ; and in return public opin- ion is right in holding them to a rigid accountability for the way they perform their public duties. For several months past some, if not all, of our roads have been in a condition of extreme congestion. Doubtless this is mainly due to the fact that the country has outgrown its railroads, that our pros- perity has increased at such a rate that the most sanguine and optimistic railroads have been unable to keep pace with its growth. But it is also true that ordinary methods of operation, which hold good in a placid time of steady and regular move- ment, should at a time of crisis yield to the impera- tive necessities of public need. The experience of the past winter proves how great is our dependence on the railroads and how 1268 Presidential Addresses serious the responsibility of those who undertake to care for the public in the matter of transporta- tion. I believe that there is sufficient ingenuity and executive genius in the operating officials of the roads greatly to diminish the troubles com- plained of. The most effective way to lessen demands for unreasonable legislation is for the railroads acting individually and collectively to remedy as many as possible of the abuses and shortcomings for which there really are remedies, and for which remedial laws are demanded by the shipping public. The admirable national legislation of recent years, in taking away from the railroads the power of giving illegal favor, has taken away from them one of the illegitimate methods by which they used to protect themselves from improper attack; and it is therefore necessary that upright public servants should be as vigilant to protect them against harm as to prevent them from doing harm. Undoubt- edly many high officers among the railroad men have followed the extremely unwise course of en- deavoring to defeat the enactment of proper laws for their own control, and of endeavoring to thwart, obstruct, and bring into discredit the administration of the laws. But the folly of some of their number iii no way alters our duty, nor the wisdom of per- forming this duty in a spirit of absolute justice alike to the railroad, the shipper, and the general public. Finally, friends, let us never forget that this is not merely a matter of business but also a matter And State Papers 1269 of morals. The success of our whole system of government depends upon our discriminating be- tween men, not with reference to whether they are rich or poor, whether they follow one occupation or another, but with reference solely to whether they act as honest and upright citizens should act. Let the local attorneys of the big roads keep out of politics; and when they have to appear before the National or any State Legislature let their names be put on a special register, and let their busi- ness be above-board and open. There are black- mailers in public life, and the citizen who is honest will war against the man who tries to blackmail a railroad or a big corporation with the same stern determination to punish him as against the man who corruptly favors such corporation. But let the railroad man remember that to purchase immu- nity in wrong-doing or to defeat blackmail by bribery is the worst and most shortsighted of poli- cies. Let the plain people insist on the one hand on governing themselves and on the other hand on doing exact justice to the railways. Let the big railroad man scrupulously refrain from any effort to influence politics or government save as it is the duty of every good citizen in legitimate ways to try to influence politics and government; let the people as a whole, in their turn, remember that it is their duty to discriminate in the sharpest way between the railway man who does well and the railway man who does ill; and, above all, to remember that the irreparable moral harm done to the body politic by i 270 Presidential Addresses corruption is just as great, whether the corruption takes the form of blackmailing a big corporation or of corruptly doing its bidding. What we have to demand in ourselves and in our public servants is honesty — honesty to all men; and if we condone dishonesty because we think it is exercised in the interests of the people, we may rest assured that the man thus showing it lacks only the opportunity to exercise it against the interests of the people. The man who on occasion will corruptly do what is wrong in the interests of a big corporation is the very man eager to blackmail that corporation as the opportunity arises. The man who is on occa- sion a corruptionist is apt, when the gust of popular feeling blows hard against the corporations he has corruptly served, to be the loudest, most reckless, and most violent among those who denounce them. Hunt such a man out of public life. Hunt him out as remorselessly if he is a blackmailer as if he stands corruptly for special privilege. Demand honesty — absolute, unflinching honesty — together with cour- age and common-sense, in public servant and in business man alike. Make it evident that you will not tolerate in public life a man who discriminates for or against any other, save as justice and reason demand it; and that in your attitude toward busi- ness men, toward the men who are dealing with the great financial interests of the country, while you intend to secure a sharp reckoning for the wrong- doers, you also intend heartily to favor the men who in legitimate ways are doing good work in the And State Papers 1271 business community — the railway president, the traffic manager, or other official, high or low, who is doing all in his power to handle his share in a vast and complicated business to the profit alike of the stockholder and the general public. Let the man of great wealth remember that, while using and enjoying it, he must nevertheless feel that he is in a sense a trustee, and that con- sistent misuse, whether in acquiring or spending his wealth, is ominous of evil to himself, to others who have wealth, and to the Nation as a whole. As for the rest of us, let us guard ourselves against envy as we ask that others guard themselves against arrogance, and remember Lincoln's words of kindly wisdom : "Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assur- ing that his own shall be safe from violence when built." AT THE SEMICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE FOUNDING OF AGRICULTURAL COL- LEGES IN THE UNITED STATES, AT LANS- ING, MICH., MAY 31, 1907 THE MAN WHO WORKS WITH HIS HANDS The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this college is an event of national significance, for Michigan was the first State in the Union to found this, the first agricultural college in America. The Nation is to be congratulated on the fact that the Congress at Washington has repeatedly enacted 1272 Presidential Addresses laws designed to aid the several States in estab- lishing and maintaining agricultural and mechan- ical colleges. I greet all such colleges, through their representatives who have gathered here to-day, and bid them Godspeed in their work. I no less heartily invoke success for the mechanical and agricultural schools ; and I wish to say that I have heard particu- larly good reports of the Minnesota Agricultural High School for the way in which it sends its graduates back to the farms to work as practical farmers. As a people there is nothing in which we take a juster pride than our educational system. It is our boast that every boy or girl has the chance to get a school training; and we feel it is a prime national duty to furnish this training free, because only thereby can we secure the proper type of citi- zenship in the average American. Our public schools and our colleges have done their work well, and there is no class of our citizens deserving of heartier praise than the men and women who teach in them. Nevertheless, for at least a generation we have been waking to the knowledge that there must be additional education beyond that provided in the public school as it is managed to-day. Our school system has hitherto been wellnigh wholly lacking on the side of industrial training, of the training which fits a man for the shop and the farm. This is a most serious lack, for no one can look at the peoples of mankind as they stand at present without realizing And State Papers 1273 that industrial training is one of the most potent factors in national development. We of the United States must develop a system under which each individual citizen shall be trained so as to be effec- tive individually as an economic unit, and fit to be organized with his fellows so that he and they can work in efficient fashion together. This question is vital to our future progress, and public atten- tion should be focused upon it. Surely it is emi- nently in accord with the principles of our dem- ocratic life that we should furnish the highest average industrial training for the ordinary skilled workman. But it is a curious thing that in in- dustrial training we have tended to devote our energies to producing high-grade men at the top rather than in the ranks. Our engineering schools, for instance, compare favorably with the best in Europe, whereas we have done almost nothing to equip the private soldiers of the industrial army — the mechanic, the metal-worker, the carpenter. In- deed, too often our schools train away from the shop and the forge; and this fact, together with the abandonment of the old apprentice system, has resulted in such an absence of facilities for pro- viding trained journeymen that in many of our trades almost all the recruits among the workmen are foreigners. Surely this means that there must be some systematic method provided for training young men in the trades, and that this must be co-or- dinated with the public-school system. No indus- trial school can turn out a finished journeyman ; but 1 274 Presidential Addresses it can furnish the material out of which a finished journeyman can be made, just as an engineering school furnishes the training which enables its grad- uates speedily to become engineers. We hear a great deal of the need of protecting our workingmen from competition with pauper labor. I have very little fear of the competition of pauper labor. The nations with pauper labor are not the formidable industrial competitors of this country. What the American workingman has to fear is the competition of the highly skilled workingman of the countries of greatest indus- trial efficiency. By the tariff and by our immi- gration laws we can always protect ourselves against the competition of pauper labor here at home ; but when we contend for the markets of the world we can get no protection, and we shall then find that our most formidable competitors are the nations in which there is the most highly developed business ability, the most highly developed indus- trial skill ; and these are the qualities which we must ourselves develop. We have been fond as a Nation of speaking of the dignity of labor, meaning thereby manual labor. Personally I don't think that we begin to under- stand what a high place manual labor should take ; and it never can take this high place unless it offers scope for the best type of man. We have tended to regard education as a matter of the head only, and the result is that a great many of our people, themselves the sons of men who worked with their And State Papers i 275 hands, seem to think that they rise in the world if they get into a position where they do no hard manual work whatever; where their hands will grow soft, and their working clothes will be kept clean. Such a conception is both false and mis- chievous. There are, of course, kinds of labor where the work must be purely mental, and there are other kinds of labor where, under existing con- ditions, very little demand indeed is made upon the mind, though I am glad to say that I think the proportion of men engaged in this kind of work is diminishing. But in any healthy community, in any community with the great solid qualities which alone make a really great nation, the bulk of the people should do work which makes demands upon both the body and the mind. Progress can not permanently consist in the abandonment of physi- cal labor, but in the development of physical labor so that it shall represent more and more the work of the trained mind in the trained body. To pro- vide such training, to encourage in every way the production of the men whom it alone can pro- duce, is to show that as a Nation we have a true conception of the dignity and importance of labor. The calling of the skilled tiller of the soil, the call- ing of the skilled mechanic, should alike be recog- nized as professions, just as emphatically as the callings of lawyer, of doctor, of banker, merchant, or clerk. The printer, the electrical worker, the house painter, the foundry man, should be trained just as carefully as the stenographer or the drug i 276 Presidential Addresses clerk. They should be trained alike in head and in hand. They should get over the idea that to earn twelve dollars a week and call it "salary" is better than to earn twenty-five dollars a week and call it "wages." The young man who has the courage and the ability to refuse to enter the crowded field of the so-called professions and to take to constructive industry is almost sure of an ample reward in earnings, in health, in opportunity to marry early, and to establish a home with rea- sonable freedom from worry. We need the training, the manual dexterity and industrial intelligence, which can be best given in a good agricultural, or building, or textile, or watch-making, or engraving, or mechanical school. It should be one of our prime objects to put the mechanic, the wage-worker who works with his hands, and who ought to work in a constantly larger degree with his head, on a higher plane of efficiency and reward, so as to in- crease his effectiveness in the economic world, and therefore the dignity, the remuneration, and the power of his position in the social world. To train boys and girls in merely literary accomplishments to the total exclusion of industrial, manual, and technical training, tends to unfit them for industrial work; and in real life most work is industrial. The problem of furnishing well-trained crafts- men, or rather journeymen fitted in the end to become such, is not simple — few problems are sim- ple in the actual process of their solution — and much care and forethought and practical common-sense And State Papers l2 77 will be needed, in order to work it out in a fairly satisfactory manner. It should appeal to all our citizens. I am glad that societies have already been formed to promote industrial education, and that their membership includes manufacturers and lead- ers of labor unions, educators and publicists, men of all conditions who are interested in education and in industry. It is such co-operation that offers most hope for a satisfactory solution of the ques- tion as to what is the best form of industrial school, as to the means by which it may be articu- lated with the public-school system, and as to the way to secure for the boys trained therein the op- portunity to acquire in the industries the practical skill which alone can make them finished jour- neymen. There is but one person whose welfare is as vital to the welfare of the whole country as is that of the wage-worker who does manual labor; and that is the tiller of the soil — the farmer. If there is one lesson taught by history it is that the perma- manent greatness of any State must ultimately depend more upon the character of its country population than upon anything else. No growth of cities, no growth of wealth can make up for a loss in either the number or the character of the farming population. In the United States more than in almost any other country we should realize this and should prize our country population. When this Nation began its independent existence it was as a nation of farmers. The towns were small and 1 278 Presidential Addresses were for the most part mere seacoast trading and fishing ports. The chief industry of the country was agriculture, and the ordinary citizen was in some way connected with it. In every great crisis of the past a peculiar dependence has had to be placed upon the farming population; and this de- pendence has hitherto been justified. But it can not be justified in the future if agriculture is per- mitted to sink in the scale as compared with other employments. We can not afford to lose that pre- eminently typical American, the farmer who owns his own farm. Yet it would be idle to deny that in the last half century there has been in the eastern half of our country a falling off in the relative condition of the tillers of the soil, although signs are multiplying that the Nation has waked up to the danger and is preparing to grapple effectively with it. East of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and the Potomac there has been on the whole an actual shrinkage in the number of the farming population since the Civil War. In the States of this section there has been a growth of population — in some an enormous growth — but the growth has taken place in the cities, and especially in the larger cities. This has been due to certain economic factors, such as the extension of railroads, the development of machin- ery, and the openings for industrial success af- forded by the unprecedented growth of cities. The increased facility of communication has resulted in the withdrawal from rural communities of most And State Papers 1279 of the small, widely distributed manufacturing and commercial operations of former times, and the substitution therefor of the centralized commercial and manufacturing industries of the cities. The chief offset to the various tendencies which have told against the farm has hitherto come in the rise of the physical sciences and their application to agricultural practices or to the rendering of country conditions more easy and pleasant. But these coun- tervailing forces are as yet in their infancy. As compared with a few decades ago, the social or community life of country people in the east com- pares less well than it formerly did with that of the dwellers in cities. Many country communities have lost their social coherence, their sense of com- munity interest. In such communities the country church, for instance, has gone backward both as a social and a religious factor. Now, we can not too strongly insist upon the fact that it is quite as unfortunate to have any social as any economic falling off. It would be a calamity to have our farms occupied by a lower type of people than the hard-working, self-respecting, independent, and essentially manly and womanly men and women who have hitherto constituted the most typically American, and on the whole the most valuable, ele- ment in our entire Nation. Ambitious native-born young men and women who now tend away from the farm must be brought back to it, and therefore they must have social as well as economic opportu- nities. Everything should be done to encourage the II— 1280 Presidential Addresses growth in the open farming country of such institu- tional and social movements as will meet the demand of the best type of farmers. There should be libra- ries, assembly halls, social organizations of all kinds. The school building and the teacher in the school building should, throughout the country districts, be of the very highest type, able to fit the boys and girls not merely to live in, but thoroughly to enjoy and to make the most, of the country. The country church must be revived. All kinds of agencies, from rural free delivery to the bicycle and the tele- phone, should be utilized to the utmost ; good roads should be favored; everything should be done to make it easier for the farmer to lead the most active and effective intellectual, political, and eco- nomic life. There are regions of large extent where all this, or most of this, has already been realized; and while this is perhaps especially true of great tracts of farming country west of the Mississippi, with some of which I have a fairly intimate personal knowl- edge, it is no less true of other great tracts of coun- try east of the Mississippi. In these regions the church and the school flourish as never before; there is a more successful and more varied farming in- dustry; the social advantages and opportunities are greater than ever before; life is fuller, happier, more useful; and though the work is more effec- tive than ever, and in a way quite as hard, it is carried on so as to give more scope for well-used leisure. My plea is that we shall all try to make And State Papers 1281 more nearly universal the conditions that now obtain in the most favored localities. Nothing in the way of scientific work can ever take the place of business management on a farm. We ought all of us to teach ourselves as much as possible ; but we can also all of us learn from others ; and the farmer can best learn how to manage his farm even better than he now does by practice, under intelligent supervision, on his own soil in such way as to increase his income. This is the kind of teaching which has been carried on in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas by Doctor Knapp, of the National Department of Agriculture. But much has been accomplished by the growth of what is broadly designated as agricultural science. This has been developed with remarkable rapidity dur- ing the last quarter of a century, and the benefit to agriculture has been great. As was inevitable, there was much error and much repetition of work in the early application of money to the needs of agricul- tural colleges and experiment stations alike by the Nation and the several States. Much has been ac- complished ; but much more can be accomplished in the future. The prime need must always be for real research, resulting in scientific conclusions of proved soundness. Both the farmer and the legislature must beware of invariably demanding immediate returns from investments in research efforts. It is probably one of our faults as a nation that we are too impatient to wait a sufficient length of time to accomplish the best results; and in agriculture ef- 1282 Presidential Addresses fective research often, although not always, involves slow and long-continued effort if the results are to be trustworthy. While applied science in agricul- ture as elsewhere must be judged largely from the standpoint of its actual return in dollars, yet the farmers, no more than any one else, can afford to ignore the large results that can be enjoyed be- cause of broader knowledge. The farmer must pre- pare for using the knowledge that can be obtained through agricultural colleges by insisting upon a constantly more practical curriculum in the schools in which his children are taught. He must not lose his independence, his initiative, his rugged self- sufficiency ; and yet he must learn to work in the heartiest co-operation with his fellows. The corner-stones of our unexampled prosperity are, on the one hand, the production of raw ma- terial, and its manufacture and distribution on the other. These two great groups of subjects are represented in the National Government principally by the Departments of Agriculture and of Com- merce and Labor. The production of raw material from the surface of the earth is the sphere in which the Department of Agriculture has hitherto achieved such notable results. Of all the executive depart- ments there is no other, not even the Post-Office, which comes into more direct and beneficent con- tact with the daily life of the people than the De- partment of Agriculture, and none whose yield of practical benefits is greater in proportion to the public money expended. And State Papers 1283 But great as its services have been in the past, the Department of Agriculture has a still larger field of usefulness ahead. It has been dealing with growing crops. It must hereafter deal also with living men. Hitherto agricultural research, instruc- tion, and agitation have been directed almost ex- clusively toward the production of wealth from the soil. It is time to adopt in addition a new point of view. Hereafter another great task before the National Department of Agriculture and the similar agencies of the various States must be to foster agriculture for its social results, or, in other words, to assist in bringing about the best kind of life on the farm for the sake of producing the best kind of men. The Government must recognize the far- reaching importance of the study and treatment of the problems of farm life alike from the social and the economic standpoints ; and the Federal and State Departments of Agriculture should co-operate at every point. The farm grows the raw material for the food and clothing of all our citizens ; it supports directly almost half of them; and nearly half the children of the United States are born and brought up on farms. How can the life of the farm family be made less solitary, fuller of opportunity, freer from drudgery, more comfortable, happier, and more at- tractive? Such a result is most earnestly to be desired. How can life on the farm be kept on the highest level, and where it is not already on that level, be so improved, dignified, and brightened as 1284 Presidential Addresses to awaken and keep alive the pride and loyalty of the farmer's boys and girls, of the farmer's wife, and of the farmer himself? How can a compelling desire to live on the farm be aroused in the children that are born on the farm ? All these questions are of vital importance not only to the farmer, but to the whole Nation; and the Department of Agricul- ture must do its share in answering them. The drift toward the city is largely determined by the superior social opportunities to be enjoyed there, by the greater vividness and movement of city life. Considered from the point of view of national efficiency, the problem of the farm is as much a problem of attractiveness as it is a problem of prosperity. It has ceased to be merely a problem of growing wheat and corn and cattle. The prob- lem of production has not ceased to be fundamental, but it is no longer final; just as learning to read and write and cipher are fundamental, but are no longer the final ends of education. We hope ulti- mately to double the average yield of wheat and corn per acre; it will be a great achievement; but it is even more important to double the desirability, comfort, and standing of the farmer's life. We must consider, then, not merely how to pro- duce, but also how production affects the producer. In the past we have given but scant attention to the social side of farm life. We should study much more closely than has yet been done the social or- ganization of the country, and inquire whether its institutions are now really as useful to the farmer And State Papers 1285 as they should be, or whether they should not be given a new direction and a new impulse, for no farmer's life should lie merely within the boundary of his farm. This study must be of the East and the West, the North and the South; for the needs vary from place to place. First in importance, of course, comes the effort to secure the mastery of production. Great strides toward this end have already htth taken over the larger part of the United States; much remains to be done, but much has been done; and the debt of the Nation to the various agencies of agricultural improvement for so great an advance is not to be overstated. But we can not halt here. The bene- fits of high social organization include such advan- tages as ease of communication, better educational facilities, increased comfort of living, and those op- portunities for social and intellectual life and inter- course, of special value to the young people and to the women, which are as yet chiefly to be had in centres of population. All this must be brought within the reach of the farmers who live on the farms, of the men whose labor feeds and clothes the towns and cities. Farmers must learn the vital need of co-operation with one another. Next to this comes co-operation with the Government, and the Government can best give its aid through associations of farmers rather than through the individual farmer; for there is no greater agricultural problem than that of deliv- ering to the farmer the large body of agricultural 1286 Presidential Addresses knowledge which has been accumulated by the Na- tional and State Governments and by the agricul- tural colleges and schools. Nowhere has the Gov- ernment worked to better advantage than in the South, where the work done by the Department of Agriculture in connection with the cotton-growers of the southwestern States has been phenomenal in its value. The farmers in the region affected by the boll weevil, in jhe course of the efforts to fight it have succeeded in developing a most scientific husbandry, so that in many places the boll weevil became a blessing in disguise. Not only did tke industry of farming become of very much greater economic value in its direct results, but it became immensely more interesting to thousands of fam- ilies. The meetings at which the new subjects of interest were discussed grew to have a distinct so- cial value, while with the farmers were joined the merchants and bankers of the neighborhood. It is needless to say that every such successful effort to organize the farmer gives a great stimulus to the admirable educational work which is being done in the Southern wStates, as elsewhere, to prepare young people for an agricultural life. It is greatly to be wished that the communities from whence these students are drawn and to which they either return or should return could be co-operatively organized; that is, that associations of farmers could be organ- ized, primarily for business purposes, but also with social ends in view. This would mean that the re- turned students from the institutions of technical And State Papers 1287 learning would find their environment prepared to profit to the utmost by the improvements in tech- nical methods which they had learned. The people of our farming regions must be able to combine among themselves, as the most efficient means of protecting their industry from the highly organized interests which now surround them on every side. A vast field is open for work by co- operative associations of farmers in dealing with the relation of the farm to transportation and to the distribution and manufacture of raw materials. It is only through such combination that American farmers can develop to the full their economic and social power. Combination of this kind has, in Denmark, for instance, resulted in bringing the peo- ple back to the land, and has enabled the Danish peasant to compete in extraordinary fashion, not only at home but in foreign countries, with all rivals. Agricultural colleges and farmers' institutes have done much in instruction and inspiration ; they have stood for the nobility of labor and the necessity of keeping the muscles and the brain in training for industry. They have developed technical depart- ments of high practical value. They seek to pro- vide for the people on the farms an equipment so broad and thorough as to fit them for the highest requirements of our citizenship; so that they can establish and maintain country homes of the best type, and create and sustain a country civilization more than equal to that of the city. The men they 1288 Presidential Addresses train must be able to meet the strongest business competition, at home or abroad, and they can do this only if they are trained not alone in the vari- ous lines of husbandry but in successful economic management. These colleges, like the State ex- periment stations, should carefully study and make known the needs of each section, and should try to provide remedies for what is wrong. The education to be obtained in these colleges should create as intimate relationship as is possible between the theory of learning and the facts of actual life. Educational establishments should pro- duce highly trained scholars, of course; but in a country like ours, where the educational establish- ments are so numerous, it is folly to think that their main purpose is to produce these highly trained scholars. Without in the least disparaging schol- arship and learning — on the contrary, while giving hearty and ungrudging admiration and support to the comparatively few whose primary work should be creative scholarship — it must be remembered that the ordinary graduate of our colleges should be and must be primarily a man and not a scholar. Edu- cation should not confine itself to books. It must train executive power, and try to create that right public opinion which is the most potent factor in the proper solution of all political and social ques- tions. Book-learning is very important, but it is by no means everything ; and we shall never get the right idea of education until we definitely under- stand that a man may be well trained in book-learn- And State Papers 1289 ing and yet, in the proper sense of the word, and for all practical purposes, be utterly uneducated; while a man of comparatively little book-learn- ing may, nevertheless, in essentials, have a good education. It is true that agriculture in the United States has reached a very high level of prosperity; but we can not afford to disregard the signs which teach us that there are influences operating against the establishment or retention of our country life upon a really sound basis. The overextensive and waste- ful cultivation of pioneer days must stop and give place to a more economical system. Not only the physical but the ethical needs of the people of the country districts must be considered. In our coun- try life there must be social and intellectual advan- tages as well as a fair standard of physical comfort. There must be in the country, as in the town, a multiplication of movements for intellectual ad- vancement and social betterment. We must try to raise the average of farm life, and we must also try to develop it so that it shall offer exceptional chances for the exceptional man. Of course the essential things after all are those which concern all of us as men and women, no matter whether we live in the town or the country, and no matter what our occupations may be. The root problems are much the same for all of us, widely though they may differ in outward mani- festation. The most important conditions that tell for happiness within the home are the same for i 290 Presidential Addresses the town and the country; and the relations be- tween employer and employee are not always satis- factory on the farm any more than in the factory. All over the country there is a constant complaint of paucity of farm labor. Without attempting to go into all the features of this question, I would like to point out that you can never get the right kind, the best kind, of labor if you offer employ- ment only for a few months, for no man worth anything will permanently accept a system which leaves him in idleness for half the year. And most important of all, I want to say a special word on behalf of the one who is too often the very hard- est worked laborer on the farm — the farmer's wife. Reform, like charity, while it should not end at home, should certainly begin there; and the man, whether he lives on a farm or in a town, who is anxious to see better social and economic condi- tions prevail through the country at large, should be exceedingly careful that they prevail first as regards his own womankind. I emphatically be- lieve that for the great majority of women the really indispensable industry in which they should engage is the industry of the home. There are exceptions, of course; but exactly as the first duty of the normal man is the duty of being the home- maker, so the first duty of the normal woman is to be the home-keeper; and exactly as no other learning is as important for the average man as the learning which will teach him how to make his livelihood, so no other learning is as important And State Papers 1291 for the average woman as the learning which will make her a good housewife and mother. But this does not mean that she should be an overworked drudge. I have hearty sympathy with the move- ment to better the condition of the average tiller of the soil, of the average wage-worker, and I have an even heartier sympathy and applause for the movement which is to better the condition of their respective wives. There is plenty that is hard and rough and disagreeable in the necessary work of actual life; and under the best circumstances, and no matter how tender and considerate the husband, the wife will have at least her full share of work and worry and anxiety; but if the man is worth his salt he will try to take as much as possible of the burden off the shoulders of his helpmate. There is nothing Utopian in the movement ; all that is nec- essary is to strive toward raising the average, both of men and women, to the level on which the high- est type of family now stands among American farmers, among American skilled mechanics, among American citizens generally ; for in all the world there is no better and healthier home life, no finer factory of individual character, nothing more rep- resentative of what is best and most characteristic in American life, than that which exists in the higher type of American family; and this higher type of family is to be found everywhere among us, and is the property of no special group of citizens. The best crop is the crop of children; the best 1292 Presidential Addresses products of the farm are the men and women raised thereon ; and the most instructive and practical treat- ises on farming, necessary though they be, are no more necessary than the books which teach us our duty to our neighbor, and above all to the neighbor who is of our own household. You young men and women of the agricultural and industrial colleges and schools — and, for that matter, you who go to any college or school — must have some time for light reading ; and there is some light reading quite as useful as heavy reading, provided of course that you do not read in a spirit of mere vacuity. Aside from the great classics, and thinking only of the many healthy and stimulating books of the day, it is easy to pick out many which can really serve as tracts, because they possess what many avowed tracts and treatises do not, the prime quality of being interesting. You will learn the root princi- ples of self-help and helpfulness toward others from "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch," just as much as from any formal treatise on charity; you will learn as much sound social and industrial doctrine from Octave Thanet's stories of farmers and wage- workers as from avowed sociological and economic studies; and I cordially recommend the first chap- ter of "Aunt Jane of Kentucky" for use as a tract in all families where the men folks tend to selfish or thoughtless or overbearing disregard of the rights of their womankind. Do not misunderstand me. I have not the slight- est sympathy with those hysterical and foolish crea- And State Papers I2 93 tures who wish women to attain to easy lives by shirking their duties. I have as hearty a contempt for the woman who shirks her duty of bearing and rearing the children, of doing her full housewife's work, as I have for the man who is an idler, who shirks his duty of earning a living for himself and for his household, or who is selfish or brutal toward his wife and children. I believe in the happiness that comes from the performance of duty, not from the avoidance of duty. But I believe also in trying, each of us, as strength is given us, to bear one another's burdens ; and this especially in our own homes. No outside training, no co-operation, no Government aid or direction can take the place of a strong and upright character; of goodness of heart combined with clearness of head, and that strength and toughness of fibre necessary to wring success from a rough workaday world. Nothing outside of home can take the place of home. The school is an invaluable adjunct to the home, but it is a wretched substitute for it. The family rela- tion is the most fundamental, the most important of all relations. No leader in church or state, in sci- ence or art or industry, however great his achieve- ment, does work which compares in importance with that of the father and the mother, "who are the first of sovereigns and the most divine of priests." AT CONNELLSVILLE, PA., JUNE i, 1907 I greet you all. Remember always that the char- acter of the Nation ultimately depends upon the 1 294 Presidential Addresses characters of the individual citizens who make it up, and that you can tell fairly well whether a man is a good citizen by whether he is the kind of man who makes a good neighbor, a good friend. Above all, remember that your first duty in being a good neighbor is to be a good neighbor to those who are nearest to you — be a good neighbor to your own wife and children. I have mighty little use for the man who is always declaiming in favor of an eight- hour day for himself who does not think anything at all of having a sixteen-hour day for his wife. Give fair play all around; and remember that the woman needs fair play even more than the man. I believe in an eight-hour day for the man, but I want to see the man's wife given as good a show as the man. AT THE GEORGIA STATE BUILDING, JAMES- TOWN EXPOSITION, JUNE 10, 1907 I can not express how deeply touched I am at the action of the State of Georgia, my mother's State, the State from which I draw half the blood in my veins, in erecting as the Georgia State House at the Jamestown Exposition a replica of my grand- father's house at Roswell, Ga. ; the house in which my mother passed her youth and where she was married to my father. It is an act of gractous courtesy and consideration which I very deeply appreciate; and through the Governor and other representatives of Georgia I desire from my heart to thank all her citizens. Georgia's history is And State Papers I2 95 unique, for she alone among the original thirteen colonies and the subsequent new States added thereto, was founded with a consciously benevolent purpose, with the deliberate intent to benefit man- kind by upbuilding a commonwealth along carefully planned lines of social, political, and religious lib- erty and justice. Oglethorpe, the founder of Geor- gia, was a true apostle of philanthropy and of equality of opportunity for all. His set purpose was to found a State the gates of which should be open to the oppressed of every land and creed, and closed to every form of political, religious, or in- dustrial bondage or persecution. His colony wel- comed alike those who fled from political or social tyranny, and those, whether Christian or Jew, who sought liberty for conscience' sake. It was a high and honorable beginning; and I am proud, indeed, of my Georgian ancestry, and of the fact that my grandfather's grandfather, Archibald Bulloch, was the first Governor, or as the title then went, Presi- dent of the new State, when the Continental Con- gress, of which he was also a member, declared that the Thirteen States had become a new and inde- pendent nation. Since then Georgia has grown at a rate even more astounding than the rate of growth of the Nation as a whole; her sons have stood high in every field of activity, intellectual or physical ; and rapid though her progress has been in the past, it bids fair to be even greater in the wonder- ful new century which has now fairly opened. Perhaps the very fact that I am half Southern 1296 Presidential Addresses and half Northern in blood, and that for many years I was brought into peculiarly close associa- tion with the life of the great West, makes it natu- ral for me to feel with intensity the strong sense of kinship with every portion of our great common country, which should be the birthright of every true American. Since I have been President I have visited every State and Territory within the borders of the Union, save such as can only be reached by sea. I have traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. I have spoken at country fairs, to colleges, to com- mercial and business organizations, to associations of professional men, to labor organizations, to men of every creed and parentage. The thing that has struck me most has been the essential oneness, the essential unity, of our people. In the fundamentals I have found American citi- zens to be just about the same everywhere. In whatever locality of the country we live, whatever our fortune or occupation in life, there exist just about the same essential good qualities and much the same shortcomings in any gathering of our citizens. Of course, each community has its espe- cial temptations, its especial shortcomings; and if it is wise each community will try to cure itself rather than to cause heartburnings by railing at the shortcomings of a sister community. There is ample field for the reform energies of every one of us in his or her particular sphere of home and neighborhood activity. And State Papers i 297 Not only is all of this true as between one com- munity and another, but it is just as true between one class of our citizens and another. Now and then we meet well-meaning people who have a gen- uine horror and dread of all rich men and think of them as being set apart by peculiar vice and iniquity. Now and then we meet equally well- meaning rich men who have an equally irrational dread of those whom they style "labor leaders." In each case I think the hostility is in large part due to a want of sympathy caused by complete igno- rance of the men who arouse such distrust or anger. As a matter of fact, if we take a given number of men of large fortune and a like number of wage-workers, we find that in their essential human nature they are all alike. In each group we find men as wise and as foolish, as good and as bad as in the other group. Such being the case it is certainly well that, so far as possible, when the men of a given group, as a whole, act in a way that we deem contrary to the public interest, we should treat the action as a wrong to be remedied rather than as a wrong to be avenged. We ought not to tolerate wrong. It is a sign of weakness to do so, and in its ultimate effects weakness is often quite as bad as wickedness. But in putting a stop to the wrong we should, so far as possible, avoid getting into an attitude of vindictive hatred toward the wrong-doer. He may be morally to blame and it may be necessary to punish him; but, on the other hand, the wrong he has committed may simply be 1298 Presidential Addresses due to the existing condition of things, to condi- tions under which he has been brought up; and in such a case, while we must apply the remedy, and see that there is no further chance of harm to the community, it is neither just nor farsighted to ex- act revenge for what has been done. In short, friends, let us realize that in very truth we are knit together in ties of brotherhood, and that while it is proper and necessary that we should insist upon our rights, we should yet be patient and considerate in bearing with one another, and in trying, so far as in us lies, each to look at the problems that face us from his brother's standpoint as well as from his own. During the last quarter of a century this Nation has made astounding strides in material progress, and in no other section has this progress been more noteworthy than in the South. While her agri- culture has grown faster than ever before, there has also been a new growth of her manufacturing industries — indeed, there has been growth of every kind. But of course there is ample room for fur- ther growth. The South will be all the better for new immigrants of the right type, and I hope to see steamship lines carrying such immigrants es- tablished at ports like Savannah and Charleston, just as I hope to see ports like New Orleans con- nected by lines of steamers with the South Ameri- can continent, the continent with which our rela- ^iTCS^ayld-J^pw ever closer and mutually more advantageous, athe South, as everywhere through And State Papers I2 99 the Union, we need to see a good education given free to all children, no matter what may be their race or color. Nor can we wisely permit this edu- cation to be of a merely literary type. More and more we are growing to realize that there must be an education of the hand as well as of the head. There must be agricultural and industrial colleges, and, above all, schools in which there can be ele- mentary preparation for agriculture and industry. These schools for technical training will hold a great place in the future in fitting our citizens for doing their economic duties in the best possible shape. In the South there is a population peculiarly fitted to profit by them, a population which has been gener- ally referred to as "poor white," a population of splendid capacities, and almost purely of the old native stock, which simply lacks the opportunity to develop a degree of industrial efficiency unsur- passed elsewhere on this continent. It is a matter for congratulation that there is such a steady increase of interest in the Southern States in everything pertaining to children. This has already markedly shown itself, and I hope will still more markedly show itself in the future, in warring against the evil of child labor in factories. The factory is a very poor place indeed for a child ; indeed, personally I think the factory a poor place for a woman — certainly for a married woman, or for an unmarried woman for more than a very few years. In any community organized on really healthy lines the average woman will have quite I 300 Presidential Addresses enough to do in her own home, whether she is rich or poor ; and nowhere else can she do work of such value to the Nation as a whole — and by work, I mean her housework, her work as housewife and mother, and not so-called "home industries." As regards children, it is as essential to look after their physical as their mental training. We can not afford to let children grow up ignorant; and if they are sent to school they can not, while young, also work hard outside without detriment, physical, mental, and moral. There is urgent need for the health authorities to increase their care over the hygienic conditions and surroundings of children of tender years, and especially to supervise those in the schools. It is a good thing to try to reform bad children, to try to build up degenerate children; but it is an even better thing to try to keep healthy in soul, body, and mind those children who are now sound, but who may easily grow up unsound if no care is taken of them. The Nation's most valuable asset is the children; for the children are the Nation of the future. All people alive to the Nation's need should join together to work for the moral, spirit- ual, and physical welfare of the children in all parts of our land. I am glad that there has been founded a national society of public school hygiene, and I wish it, and all its branches, well in every way. There is increasing need that the welfare of the children should be effectively safeguarded by gov- ernmental action; with the proviso, however, that this action shall be taken with knowledge and in a And State Papers 13°* spirit of robust common-sense; for philanthropy, whether governmental or individual, is a curse and not a blessing when marked by a spirit of fool- ish sentimentality and ignorance. Such govern- mental action is merely one inevitable result of the ever-increasing growth of our complex industrial- ism. Decade by decade, it becomes more and more necessary that, without sacrificing their individual independence, the people of this country shall recognize in more effective form their mutual interdependence, and the duty of safeguarding the interest of each in the ultimate interest of all. We have inherited and developed a superbly self-reliant individualism in this country. I most earnestly hope that it will not be lost, that it will never be exchanged for a deadening socialism. The only permanently beneficial way in which to help any one is to help him to help himself; if either private charity, or governmental action, or any form of social expression destroys the individual's power of self-help, the gravest possible wrong is really done to the individual. Nevertheless, as the conditions of life grow more complex, it is not possible to trust our welfare only to the unbridled individual in- itiative of each unit of our population working as that unit wills. We need laws for the care of our children which were not needed when this country was in its infancy. We need laws for the control of vast corporations such as were not needed when the individual fortunes were far smaller than at present, and when these fortunes were not combined 1302 Presidential Addresses for business use. In the same way we need to change our attitude toward labor problems from what that attitude was in the days when the great bulk of our people lived in the country with no more complex labor relations than is implied in the con- nection between the farmer and the hired help. For example, the great increase in mechanical and manufacturing operations means a correspond- ing increase in the number of accidents to the wage- workers employed therein, these including both pre- ventable and inevitable accidents. To the ordinary wage-worker's family such a calamity means grim hardship. As the work is done for the employer, and therefore ultimately for the public, it is a bitter injustice that it should be the wage-worker himself and his wife and children who bear the whole penalty. Legislation should be had, alike from the Nation and from the States, not only to guard against the needless multiplication of these acci- dents, but to relieve the financial suffering due to them. Last winter Congress passed a safety-appli- ance law which marked a long stride in the right direction. But there should be additional legisla- tion to secure pecuniary compensation to workmen suffering from accidents, and when they are killed, to their families. At present both in the sphere covered by National legislation, and in the sphere covered by State legislation, the law in too many cases leaves the financial burden of industrial acci- dents to be borne by the injured workmen and their families; and a workman who suffers from an ac- And State Papers l 3°3 cident either has no case at all for redress or else must undertake a suit for damages against his em- ployer. The present practice is based on the view announced nearly seventy years ago that "principles of justice and good sense demand that a workman shall take upon himself all the ordinary risks of his occupation." In my view, principles of justice and good sense demand the very reverse of this view, which experience has proved to be unsound and productive of widespread suffering. It is neither just, expedient, nor humane, it is revolting to judg- ment and sentiment alike, that the financial burden of accidents occurring because of the necessary ex- igencies of their daily occupation should be thrust upon those sufferers who are least able to bear it, and that such remedy as is theirs should only be obtained by litigation which now burdens our courts. As a matter of fact there is no sound economic reason for distinction between accidents caused by negligence and those which are unavoidable, and the law should be such that the payment of those accidents will become automatic instead of being a matter for a lawsuit. Workmen should receive a cer- tain definite and limited compensation for all acci- dents in industry, irrespective of negligence. When the employer, the agent of the public, on his own responsibility and for his own profit, in the business of serving the public, starts in motion agencies which create risks for others, he should take all the ordinary and extraordinary risks involved; and 11—7 i3°4 Presidential Addresses though the burden will at the moment be his, it will ultimately be assumed, as it ought to be, by the gen- eral public. Only in this way can the shock of the accident be diffused, for it will be transferred from employer to consumer, for whose benefit all indus- tries are carried on. From every standpoint the change would be a benefit. The community at large should share the burden as well as the benefits of industry. Employers would thereby gain a desir- able certainty of obligation and get rid of litigation to determine it. The workman and the workman's family would be relieved from a crushing load. The National Government should be a model em- ployer. It should demand the highest quality of service from its employees and should care for them properly in return. Congress should adopt legis- lation providing limited but definite compensation for accidents to all workmen within the scope of the Federal power, including employees in navy- yards and arsenals. Similar legislation should fol- low throughout the States. The old and inadequate remedy of suit for negligence would then gradually disappear. Such a policy would mean that with increased responsibility of the employer would come increased care, and accidents would be reduced in number. The temporary burden involved will not hamper our industries. Long experience of compensation laws in other countries has demonstrated their benefit. What we advocate is only a simple measure of justice, only one step toward the goal of securing, And State Papers l 3°5 so far as human wisdom can secure, fair and equi- table treatment for each and every one of our people. As a corollary to the above let me point out the extreme unwisdom of the railway companies in righting the constitutionality of the national em- ployers' liability law. No law is more emphatically needed, and it must be kept on the statute books in drastic and thoroughgoing form. The railroads are prompt to demand the interference and to claim the protection of the Federal courts in times of riot and disorder; and in turn the Federal Government should see to it that they are not permitted suc- cessfully to plead that they are under the Federal law when thereby their own rights can be protected, but outside of it when it is invoked against them in behalf of the rights of others. If it is proper for the Federal courts to issue injunctions in behalf of railroads, it is proper that railroads should be held to a strict liability for accidents occurring to their employees. There should be the plainest and most unequivocal additional statement, by enactment of Congress, to the effect that railroad employees are entitled to receive damages for any accident that comes to them as an incident of the performance of their duties, and the law should be such that it will be impossible for the railroads successfully to fight it without thereby forfeiting all right to the pro- tection of the Federal Government under any cir- cumstances. In the same way there should be rigid Federal legislation to minimize all railway accidents. 1306 Presidential Addresses In closing, friends and fellow-citizens of Georgia, let me say one word suggested by the recent cere- monies, in which you have just taken part, in con- nection with your gift to the noble battleship named after your State. Our battleships and great armored cruisers, our fighting craft, are named after the States of our Union, and this symbolizes the fact that the Navy is a common possession of all of us, and that its honor and its triumphs are as dear to the heart of a true American who dwells any- where inland as to a true American who dwells anywhere on the seacoast. The Navy is our surest guaranty for peace, and if war should ever come it will be the greatest safeguard for our honor and our interests. As is likewise true of our Army, it is manned by a volunteer force ; for it must never be forgotten that all our soldiers and sailors, whether regular or not, are volunteers. Every encourage- ment should be given to our Navy, and no public servant should be pardoned for failing to do every- thing in him to see that we have the best type of ships and of guns, and that the officers and enlisted men are held to the strictest accountability for so practicing with the ships and guns that no navy afloat shall, ship for ship, squadron for squadron, be our superior." If the officers and enlisted men do their duty— and I am thankful to say that in our Navy the cases where they do not do their duty are relatively few in number — they put us all under a deep obligation to them, and we should give them all the reward and encouragement in our And State Papers i 307 power. The higher a man is in the service, the greater should be our insistence upon having the best kind of man. We should have a system of promotion either by elimination or by selection, so that mediocre officers could not come to the top. The officers in responsible positions should be watched with peculiar care. Each captain of a ship must do his duty just as emphatically as the enlisted men must do their duty, and the way they do their duty will largely depend upon the way he does his. He must keep his officers and men in good order, and he must remember that it is ordinarily his fault if they go down hill, if they deteriorate in discipline or become discontented. Modern wars are in reality derided long before they are fought. I earnestly we all ahat we shall never have another war ; but if we of us of result will have been determined in advance ; business Outcome will mainly depend upon the prep- aration which has been made to meet it in time of peace. This lesson of preparedness does not relate merely to war; it is just as true of our ordinary civic affairs. It is as true of the nation as of the individual. Each of us does any given piece of work well or ill, largely according to how he has previously trained himself to do it. The nation, which is but the aggregate of the individuals composing it, will rise or fail to rise in any great crisis according to the ideals and standards that it has kept in mind in ordinary days, and according to the way in which it has practically trained itself to realize these ideals I 308 Presidential Addresses and' eome up to these standards. We must insist upon justice and fair dealing - as between man and man. We must strive each of us to treat his fellow with an eye single to what his conduct warrants. We must work hard and bear ourselves cheerfully and valiantly. We must be kindly and considerate, and yet show that at need we have iron in our blood. If we live our ordinary everyday lives after this fashion, we need have no fear that the priceless gift of free government will wither in our hands. BEFORE THE NATIONAL EDITORIAL ASSO- CIATION AT JAMESTOWN, VA., JUNE 10, 1907 It is of course a mere truism to say that no other body of our countrymen wield as exiever dc an influence as those who write for the daj whether and for the periodicals. It is also a truismcourage- that such power implies the gravest responsuility, and the man exercising it should hold himself ac- countable, and should be held by others accountable, precisely as if he occupied any other position of public trust. I do not intend to dwell upon your duties to-day, however, save that I shall permit my- self to point out one matter where it seems to me that the need of our people is vital. It is essen- tial that the man in public life and the man who writes in the public press shall both of them, if they are really good servants of the people, be prompt to assail wrong-doing and wickedness. But in thus assailing wrong-doing and wickedness, there are And State Papers J 309 two conditions to be fulfilled, because if unfulfilled, harm and not good will result. In the first place, be sure of your facts and avoid everything like hysteria or exaggeration ; for to assail a decent man for something of which he is innocent is to give aid and comfort to every scoundrel, while indulgence in hysterical exaggeration serves to weaken, not strengthen, the statement of truth. In the second place, be sure that you base your judgment on con- duct and not on the social or economic position of the individual with whom you are dealing. There are good and bad men in every walk of life, and their being good or bad does not depend upon whether they have or do not have large bank ac- counts. Yet this elemental fact, this fact which we all accept as self-evident, when we think each of us of the people whom he himself knows in his business and social relations, is often completely ignored by certain public men and certain public writers. The men who thus ignore it and who attack wickedness only when found in a particular class are always unsafe, and are sometimes very dangerous, leaders. Distrust equally the man who is never able to discover any vices of rich men to attack and the man who confines himself to attack- ing the sins and shortcomings of rich men. It is a sure sign of moral and mental dishonesty in any man if in his public assaults upon iniquity he is never able to see any iniquity save that of a par- ticular class ; and this whether he is able only to see the crimes of arrogance and oppression in the 1310 Presidential Addresses rich or the crimes of envy and violence in the poor. He is no true American if he is a respecter of per- sons where right and wrong are concerned and if he fails to denounce the demagogue no less than the corruptionist, to denounce alike crimes of or- ganized greed and crimes of brutal violence. There is equal need to denounce the wealthy man who swindles investors or buys legislatures or oppresses wage-workers, and the needy man who inflames class hatred or incites mob violence. We need to hold the scales of justice even, and to weigh them down on one side is as bad as to weigh them down on the other. So much for what I have to say to you in your capacity of molders and guides of public thought. In addition I want to speak to you on two great movements in our public life which I feel must nec- essarily occupy no inconsiderable part of the time of our public men in the near future. One of these is the question of, in certain ways, reshaping our system of taxation so as to make it bear most heav- ily on those most capable of supporting the strain. The other is the question of utilizing the natural resources of the Nation in the way that will be of most benefit to the Nation as a whole. In utilizing and conserving the natural resources of the Nation, the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight. Unfortunately, fore- sight is not usually characteristic of a young and vigorous people, and it is obviously not a marked characteristic of us in the United States. Yet as- And State Papers i -2 1 1 suredly it should be the growing nation with a future which takes the long look ahead; and no other nation is growing so rapidly as ours or has a future so full of promise. No other nation en- joys so wonderful a measure of present prosperity which can of right be treated as an earnest of future success, and for no other are the rewards of foresight so great, so certain, and so easily fore- told. Yet hitherto as a Notion we have tended to live with an eye single to the present, and have per- mitted the reckless waste and destruction uf much of our natural wealth. The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental prob- lem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life. Unless we maintain an adequate material basis for our civilization, we can not main- tain the institutions in which we take so great and so just a pride; and to waste and destroy our nat- ural resources means to undermine this material basis. During the last five years efforts have been made in several new directions in the Government service to get our people to look ahead, to exercise foresight, and to substitute a planned and orderly development of our resources in the place of a hap- hazard striving for immediate profit. The effort has been made through several agencies. In 1902 the Reclamation Service began to de- velop the larger opportunities of the western half of our country for irrigation. The work includes all the States from the Great Plains through the I 3 1 2 Presidential Addresses Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Slope. It has been conducted with the clear and definite purpose of using the valuable water resources of the public land for the greatest good for the greatest number in the long run ; in other words, for the purpose of putting upon the land permanent home-makers who will use and develop it for themselves and for their children and children's children. There has been opposition, of course, to this work of the Reclama- tion Service; for we have been obliged to antag- onize certain men whose interest it was to exhaust for their own temporary personal profit natural re- sources which ought to be developed through use, so as to be conserved for the permanent common advantage of the people as a whole. But there will be no halt in the work of preserving the waters which head in the Rocky Mountain region so as to make them of most use to the people as a whole; for the policy is essential to our national welfare. The public lands of the United States should be utilized in similar fashion. Our present public land laws were passed when there was a vast surplus of vacant public land. The chief desire was to se- cure settlers thereon, and comparatively slight atten- tion was paid as to exactly how the lands were disposed of in detail. In consequence, lax execution of the laws became the rule both in the land office and in the public mind, and land frauds were com- mon and little noted. This was especially true when a system originally designed for the fertile and well-watered regions of the Middle West was And State Papers ^3 applied to the drier regions of the Great Plains and to the mountains and the Pacific Coast. In these regions the system lent itself to fraud, and much land passed out of the hands of the Govern- ment without passing into the hands of the home- maker. The Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice joined in prosecuting the offenders against the law ; but both the law and its administration were defective and needed to be changed. Three years ago a Public Lands Com- mission was appointed to scrutinize the law and the facts and to recommend a remedy. Their ex- amination specifically showed the existence of great frauds upon the public domain, and their recom- mendations for changes in the law were made with the design of conserving the natural resources of every part of the public land by putting it to its best use. Attention was especially called to the prevention of settlement by the passage of great areas of public lands into the hands of a few men, and to the enormous waste caused by unrestricted grazing on the open range ; a system of using the natural forage on the public domain which amounts to putting a premium on its destruction. The rec- ommendations of the Public Lands Commission were sound, for they were especially in the inter- est of the actual home-maker ; and where the small home-maker could not utilize the land, it was pro- vided that the Government should keep control of it so that it could not be monopolized by a few wealthy men. Congress has not yet acted upon I 3 14 Presidential Addresses these recommendations, except for the repeal of the iniquitous lieu-land law. But the recommenda- tions are so just and proper, so essential to our national welfare, that I believe they will surely ultimately be adopted. In 1 89 1 Congress authorized the President to create national forests in the public domain. These forest reserves remained for a long time in charge of the General Land Office, which had no men properly trained in forestry. But another depart- ment, that of Agriculture, possessed the trained men. In other words, the Government forests were without foresters and the Government for- esters without forests. Waste of effort and waste of forests inevitably followed. Finally the situa- tion was ended in 1905 by the creation of the United States Forest Service, which has stopped the waste, conserved the resources of the national forests, and made them useful ; so that our forests are now being managed on a coherent plan, and in a way that augurs well for the future. The mineral fuels of the eastern United States have already passed into the hands of large private owners, and those of the West are rapidly follow- ing. This should not be, for such mineral resources belong in a peculiar degree to the whole people. Under private control there is much waste from shortsighted methods of working, and the com- plete utilization is often sacrificed for a greater immediate profit. The mineral fuels under our present conditions are as essential to our prosper- And State Papers i 3 1 c ity as the forests will always be. The difference is that the supply is definitely limited, for coal does not grow and trees do. It is obvious that the min- eral fuels should be conserved, not wasted, and that enough of them should remain in the hands of the Government to protect the people against unjust or extortionate prices so far as that can still be done. What has been accomplished in the regulation of the great oil fields of the Indian Territory offers a striking example of the good results of such a policy. Last summer, accordingly, I withdrew most of the coal-bearing public lands temporarily from disposal, and asked for the legislation necessary to protect the public interest by the conservation of the mineral fuels ; that is, for the power to keep the fee in the Government and to lease the coal, oil, and gas rights under proper regulation. No such legislation was passed, but I still hope that we shall ultimately get it. In addition to treating aright for the benefit of the whole people the forests and the mineral beds, we should similarly try to preserve for the benefit of all the people the great stretches of public do- main, some three hundred million acres in all, which are unfit for cultivation by present methods and valuable only for the forage which they supply. This vast area is now open to the free grazing of cattle, sheep, horses, and goats, without restriction or regulation. When population has increased, as is now the case, such utter lack of management means that the public domain is turned over to be i 1 1 6 Presidential Addresses skinned by men whose only concern is to get what thev can out of it at the moment, without anv re- * • gard to whether or not it is ruined so far as the next generation is concerned. In other words, the range is not so much used as wasted by abuse : and as an incident conflict and bloodshed frequently arise between opposing users. With the rapid set- tling of the West the range is more and more over- grazed. Moreover, much of it can not be used to advantage unless it is fenced, for fencing is the only way by hich to keep in check the absentee owners : : nomad flocks .hich roam hither and thither, utterly destroying the pasturage and leav- ing a waste behind, so that their presence is in- compatible with the presence of home-makers. Good judges estimate that our public range has now lost nearly half its value, yet fencing is against the law. and as the law now stands it is wellnigh im- possible to do anything to keep the value of the range. The only practical remedy is to give con- trol of the range to the Federal Government. Such i atrol would not only stop all conflict but would -.serve the forage without stopping its use, as our experience with the national forests has fully proved. It would likewise secure to the West the great benefits of legitimate fencing without inter- fering in the slightest with the settlement of the country — on the contrary, while promoting the set- tlement of the country. Hitherto, however, it has not proved possible to get any legislation to secure these ends. The destruction of the public range Ar.i 5:::e Firer? I : 17 i ctMtinue until, as a Xatm we upon the enactment of some such laws as those I fas Fcr several years we have been doing ever in oar power to prevent fraud npcn the public land. bat can be done under the present la being done through the joint action of the Interior Department and the Department of Justice. But fullv to accomplish the prevention Jd there need of further legislation, and especially c: sufficient appropriation to permit the Departnt- : the Interior to examine : ntries on the ground before they pass into private owner- ship. The approp ...v " asked for ■'■ grante : i raid have put an end to the squan the public domain, while it would have pre ; anv need of c?.. ; ng baa r mdrvidual settlers bv hc.iing up their claims. He the appro- priation was not giver. ; ^sequence is not possible : secure is I :uld tike 1 re. the natural - ; usees : the public land from fraud. waste, and encroachment. So much for what we are g to do in utiliz- ing our pubhe lands for the public : in securing the use - the water, the forage, the coal, and the tim- ber for the public. In all four movements my chief adviser, and the man firs: BD SUgge l me the arses ich have actually proved so beneficial. was Mr. Gifford Pinchot. trie chief oi the Xsv.cr.a: Forest Ber ::e. Mr. Pinchot also sqggcfl a movement supplementary to all of these move- i 3 1 8 Presidential Addresses ments; one which will itself lead the way in the general movement which he represents and with which he is actively identified, for the conserva- tion of all our natural resources. This was the appointment of the Inland Waterways Commission. The inability of the railroads of the United States to meet the demands upon them has drawn public attention forcibly to the use of our waterways for transportation. But it is obvious that this is only one of their many uses, and that a planned and orderly development is impossible except by taking into account all the services they are capable of rendering. It was upon this ground that the In- land Waterways Commission was recently appointed. Their duty is to propose a comprehensive plan for the improvement and utilization of those great wa- terways which are the great potential highways of the country. Their duty is also to bring together the points of view of all users of streams, and to submit a general plan for the development and conservation of the vast natural resources of the waterways of the United States. Clearly it is impossible for the Waterways Commission to ac- complish its great task without considering the relation of streams to the conservation and use of all other natural resources, and I have asked that it do so. Here, then, for the first time, the orderly development and planned conservative use of all our natural resources is presented as a single prob- lem. One by one the individual tasks in this great problem have already been undertaken. One by And State Papers I 3 1 9 one in practical fashion the methods of dealing with them were worked out. National irrigation has proved itself a success by its actual working. Again, actual experience has shown that the na- tional forests will fulfil the larger purpose for which they were created. All who have thought- fully studied the subject have come to see that the solution of the public lands question lies with the home-maker, with the settler who lives on his land, and that Government control of the mineral fuels and the public grazing lands is necessary and in- evitable. Each of these conclusions represented a movement of vast importance which would confer large benefits upon the Nation, but which stood by itself. They are connected together into one great fundamental problem — that of the conserva- tion of all our natural resources. Upon the wise solution of this, much of our future obviously depends. Even such questions as the regulation of railway rates and the control of corporations are in reality subsidiary to the primal problem of the preservation in the interests of the whole peo- ple of the resources that nature has given us. If we fail to solve this problem, no skill in solving the others will in the end avail us very greatly. Now as to the matter of taxation. Most great civilized countries have an income tax and an in- heritance tax. In my judgment both should be part of our system of Federal taxation. I speak diffidently about the income tax because one scheme for an income tax was declared unconstitutional by 1320 Presidential Addresses the Supreme Court by a five to four vote; and in addition it is a difficult tax to administer in its practical workings, and great care would have to be exercised to see that it was not evaded by the very man whom it is most desirable to have taxed, for if so evaded it would of course be worse than no tax at all, as the least desirable of all taxes is the tax which bears heavily upon the honest as compared with the dishonest man. Nevertheless, a graduated income tax of the proper type would be a desirable permanent feature of Federal taxa- tion, and I still hope that one may be devised which the Supreme Court will declare constitutional. In my judgment, however, the inheritance tax is both a far better method of taxation, and far more important for the purpose I have in view — the purpose of having the swollen fortunes of the country bear in proportion to their size a constantly increasing burden of taxation. These fortunes exist solely because of the protection given the owners by the public. They are a constant source of care and anxiety to the public, and it is eminently just that they should be forced to pay heavily for the protection given them. It is, of course, elementary that the Nation has the absolute right to decide as to the terms upon which any man shall receive a bequest or devise from another. We have repeat- edly placed such laws on our own statute books, and they have repeatedly been declared constitu- tional by the courts. I believe that the tax should contain the progressive principle. Whatever any And State Papers 1321 individual receives, whether by gift, bequest, or devise, in life or in death, should, after a certain amount is reached, be increasingly burdened ; and the rate of taxation should be increased in propor- tion to the remoteness of blood of the man receiv- ing from the man giving or devising. The principle of this progressive taxation of inheritances has not only been authoritatively recognized by the legis- lation of Congress, but it is now unequivocally adopted in the leading civilized nations of the world — in, for instance, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Switzerland led off with the imposi- tion of high progressive rates. Great Britain was the first of the great nations to follow suit, and within the last few years both France and Ger- many have adopted the principle. In Great Britain all estates worth five thousand dollars or less are practically exempt from death duties, while the in- crease is such that when an estate exceeds five millions of dollars in value and passes to a dis- tant kinsman or stranger in blood, the Government receives nearly eighteen per cent. In France, under the progressive system, so much of an inheritance as exceeds ten millions of dollars pays over twenty per cent to the State if it passes to a distant rela- tive, and five per cent if it passes to a direct heir. In Germany very small inheritances are exempt, but the tax is so sharply progressive that an in- heritance not in agricultural or forest lands which exceeds two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, if it goes to distant relatives, is taxed at the rate of 1322 Presidential Addresses about twenty-five per cent. The German law is of special interest, because it makes the inheritance tax an imperial measure, while allotting to the in- dividual states of the Empire a portion of the proceeds and permitting them to impose taxes in addition to those imposed by the Imperial Gov- ernment. In the United States the National Gov- ernment has more than once imposed inheritance taxes in addition to those imposed by the States, and in the last instance about one-half of the States levied such taxes concurrently with the National Government, making a combined maximum rate in some cases as high as twenty-five per cent; and, as a matter of fact, several States adopted inheri- tance tax laws for the first time while the National law was still in force and unrepealed. The French law has one feature which is to be heartily com- mended. The progressive principle is so applied that each higher rate is imposed only on the excess above the amount subject to the next lower rate. This plan is peculiarly adapted to the working out of the theory of using the inheritance tax for the purpose of limiting the size of inheritable fortunes, since the progressive increase in the rates, accord- ing to this mode, may be carried to its logical con- clusion in a maximum rate of nearly one hundred per cent for the amount in excess of a specified sum, without being confiscatory as to the rest of the in- heritance; for each increase in rate would apply only to the amount above a certain maximum. I do not believe that any advantage comes either tc And State Papers ! 3 2 3 the country as a whole or to the individuals in- heriting the money by permitting the transmission in their entirety of such enormous fortunes as have been accumulated in America. The tax could be made to bear more heavily upon persons residing out of the country than upon those residing within it. Such a heavy progressive tax is of course in no shape or way a tax on thrift or industry, for thrift and industry have ceased to possess any measurable importance in the acquisition of the swollen fortunes of which I speak long before the tax would in any way seriously affect them. Such a tax would be one of the methods by which we should try to preserve a measurable equality of opportunity for the people of the generation growing to manhood. As Lincoln pointed out, there are some respects in which men are obvi- ously not equal ; but there is no reason why there should not be an equality of self-respect and of mutual respect, an equality of rights before the law, and at least an approximate equality in the conditions under which each man obtains the chance to show the stuff that is in him when compared with his fellows. INTERVIEW WITH MR. EDWARD B. CLARK [From Everybody's Magazine, Jane, 1907] I don't believe for a minute that some of these men who are writing nature stories and putting the word "truth" prominently in their prefaces know the heart of the wild things. Neither do I believe that 1324 Presidential Addresses certain men who, while they may say nothing spe- cifically about truth, do claim attention as realists because of their animal stories, have succeeded in learning the real secrets of the life of the wilderness. They don't know, or if they do know, they indulge in the wildest exaggeration under the mistaken notion that they are strengthening their stories. As for the matter of giving these books to the children for the purpose of teaching them the facts of natural history — why, it's an outrage. If these stories were written as fables, published as fables, and put into the children's hands as fables, all would be well and good. As it is, they are read and be- lieved because the writer not only says they are true, but lays stress upon his pledge. There is no more reason why the children of the country should be taught a false natural history than why they should be taught a false physical geography. Dropping the matter of the school-books for a moment, take the stories of some of the nature writers who wish to be known as realists. Real- ism is truth. A writer like Stewart Edward White is true to nature ; he knows the forest and the moun- tain and the desert ; he puts down what he sees ; and he sees the truth. But certain others either have not seen at all, or they have seen superficially. Na- ture-writing with them is no labor of love. Their readers, in the main persons who have never lived apart from the paved street, take the wildest flights of the imagination of these "realists" as an inspired word from the gospel of nature. It is false teaching. And State Papers J 3 2 5 Take the chapter from Jack London's "White Fang" that tells the story of a fight between the great northern wolf, White Fang, and a bulldog. Reading this, I can't believe that Mr. London knows much about the wolves, and I am certain that he knows nothing about their fighting, or as a realist he would not tell this tale. Here is a great wolf of the northern breed ; its strength is such that with one stroke it can hamstring a horse or gut a steer, and yet it is represented as ripping and slashing with "long, tearing strokes" again and again and again a bulldog not much more than a third its size, and the bulldog, which should be in ribbons, keeps on fighting without having suffered any appreciable injury. This thing is the very sublimity of ab- surdity. In such a fight the chance for the dog would be only one in a thousand, its victory being possible only through getting a throat grip the instant that the fight started. This kind of realism is a closet product. In the same book London describes a great dog- wolf being torn in pieces by a lucivee, a northern lynx. This is about as sensible as to describe a torn cat tearing in pieces a thirty-pound fighting bull terrier. Nobody who really knew anything about either a lynx or a wolf would write such nonsense. Now, I don't want to be misunderstood. If the stories of these writers were written in the spirit that inspired Mowgli and we were told tales like those of the animals at the Council Rock, of their deliberations and their something more than 1326 Presidential Addresses human conclusions, we should know that we were getting the very essence of fable, and we should be content to read, enjoy, and accept them as fables. We don't in the least mind impossibilities in avowed fairy tales; and Bagheera and Baloo and Kaa are simply delightful variants of Prince Charming and Jack the Slayer of Giants. But when such fables are written by a make-believe realist, the matter assumes an entirely different complexion. Men who have visited the haunts of the wild beasts, who have seen them, and have learned at least something of their ways, resent such gross falsifying of nature's records. William J. Long is perhaps the worst of these nature-writing offenders. It is his stories, I am told, that have been put, in part, into many of the public schools of the country in order that from them the children may get the truths of wild ani- mal life. Take Mr. Long's story of "Wayeeses, the White Wolf." Here is what the writer says in his preface to the story: "Every incident in this wolf's life, from his grasshopper hunting to the cunning cari- bou chase, and from the den in the rocks to the meeting of wolf and children on the storm-swept barrens, is minutely true to fact, and is based squarely upon my own observation and that of my Indians." As a matter of fact, the story of Wayeeses is filled with the wildest improbabilities and a few And State Papers J 3 2 7 mathematical impossibilities. If Mr. Long wants us to believe his story of the killing of the caribou fawn by the wolf in the way that he says it was done, he must produce eye-witnesses and affidavits. I don't believe the thing occurred. Nothing except a shark or an alligator will attempt to kill by a bite behind the shoulder. There is no less vulner- able point of attack; an animal might be bitten there in a confused scuffle, of course, or seized in his jump so as to throw him; but no man who knows anything of the habits of wolves or even of fighting dogs would dream of describing this as the place to kill with one bite. I have seen scores of animals that have been killed by wolves; the killing or crippling bites were always in the throat, flank, or ham. Mr. George Shiras, who has seen not scores but hundreds of such carcasses, tells me that the death wounds or disabling wounds were invariably in the throat or the flank, except when the animal was first hamstrung. If Mr. Long's wolf killed the caribou fawn by a bite through the heart, as the writer asserts, the wolf either turned a somersault — or pretty near it — or else got his head upside down under the fore legs of the fawn, a sufficiently difficult perform- ance. Wayeeses would have to do this before he could get the whole breast of the animal in his mouth in order to crush it and bite through to the heart. It is very unlikely that any wolf outside of a book would be fool enough to attempt a thing like this even with a fawn caribou, when the kill- er— 8 1328 Presidential Addresses ing could be done far more surely in so many easier ways. But the absurdity of this story is as nothing to the story of the killing of a bull caribou by the same wolf, using the same method. "A terrific rush, a quick snap under the stag's chest just be- hind the fore legs where the heart lay ; then the big wolf leaped aside and sat down quietly again to watch." Mr. Long has Wayeeses, after tearing the cari- bou's heart, hold himself "with tremendous will- power from rushing in headlong and driving the game, which might run for miles if too hard pressed." Now here Mr. Long is not thinking of anything he has ever seen, but has a confused memory of what he has heard or read of gut-wounded animals. A caribou with such a hurt may go on for a long distance before it drops, and it is wise not to fol- low it too closely, because if not followed it will often lie down, and in an hour or so will become too stiff to get up. But it would seem that even Mr. Long might know, what a child should know, that no caribou and no land mammal of any kind lives after the heart is pierced as he describes; whether followed or not, the caribou would fall in a few jumps. This, however, is the least of the absurdities of the story. That Wayeeses tore the heart of the bull caribou in the way that Mr. Long describes is a mathematical impossibility. The wolf's jaws would not gape right; the skin And State Papers i 329 and the chest walls with all the protective bone and tissue could not possibly be crushed in; the teeth of the wolf could not pierce through them to the heart, for no wolf's teeth are long enough for the job, nor are the teeth of any other carnivorous land mammal. By no possibility could a wolf or any other flesh-eating land mammal perform such a feat. It would need the tusks of a walrus. Mr. Long actually can not know the length of a wolf's fang ; let him measure one, and then measure what the length would have to be to do the thing he describes ; and then let him avow his story a pleasing fable. He will get a clear idea of just what the feat would be if he will hang a grape- fruit in the middle of a keg of flour, and then see whether a big dog could bite through the keg into the grapefruit; it would be a parallel per- formance to the one he describes when he makes his picture-book wolf bite into the heart of a bull caribou. As a sort of a climax of absurdity to this "true story of Wayeeses," Mr. Long draws a picture of this wilderness wolf, savage from tip to tip, doing for some lost children the kindly service of leading them home through the forest. Now let me repeat that this would be all right if the story were avow- edly a fairy tale, like Kipling's "Jungle Book." But it is grotesque to claim literal truthfulness for such a tissue of absurdities. I wonder sometimes as I read the lynx stories of Mr. Long if this wilderness tramper ever saw 1330 Presidential Addresses a lynx to know it at all in any real sense. He has several stories of the lynx. They vary little in their grotesque inaccuracy. Take the story of "Upweekis the Shadow," which has place in a little book that I am told is used as one of the supplementary readers from which American school children are expected to get accurate knowledge of wilderness ways. There are all kinds of absurdities in this lynx "study." In one place, for instance, Mr. Long describes a number of lynxes gathered around the nearly eaten carcass of a caribou, while a menag- erie of smaller beasts, including a pine marten, circulates freely among them. Now, of course, a marten would circulate among a company of lynxes just about as long as a mouse would circulate among a company of cats. But the most comic feature of Mr. Long's lynx article is his account of various desperate encounters he had with the animal, which he evidently regards as a monster dangerous to man. We are told by the writer that a lone lynx made him exceedingly "uncomfortable" for half an afternoon. The animal "dogged" him hour after hour through the wilderness. He tells of making double time for four miles in order to reach camp before night should fall and give the lynx the ad- vantage. Mr. Long declares that he had an en- counter with the lynx before he succeeded in driving it from the trail. In reality, any one is in just as much danger of being attacked by a domestic cat when walking through his own garden as Mr. Long And State Papers 1 23 l was of being attacked by this lynx of the northern wilderness. Once more let me say that if the fairy-tale mark were put on the stories of these writers, criticism would pass. Apparently, however, they wish to be known as teachers, or possibly they have a feeling of pride that springs from the belief that their read- ers will think of them as of those who have tramped the wilds and met nature in its gentleness and in its fierceness face to face. Some of the writers who at times offend, at other times do excellent work. Mr. Thompson Seton has made interesting observations of fact, and much of his fiction has a real value. But he should make it clear that it is fiction, and not fact. Many of the nature stories of Charles G. D. Roberts are avowedly fairy tales, and no one is deceived by them. When such is the case, we all owe a debt to Mr. Roberts, for he is a charming writer and he loves the wilderness. But even Mr. Roberts fails to consult possibilities in some of his stories. The lynx seems to have an unholy fascination for these realists, and Mr. Roberts has succumbed to it. I wish he had learned a little of the real lynx, as distinguished from the Mr. Long lynx, before he wrote the story called "On the Night Trail." It's a big lynx that weighs over forty pounds. A fifty-pound lynx is a giant among the American species. An ordinary lucivee is about the size of i 3 3 2 Presidential Addresses a big Rocky Mountain bobcat. I have seen a light- weight dog, a cross between a bull terrier and a collie, take a full-grown, able-bodied lynx out of a hole, though this is a rather exceptional feat. When the lynx is hard pressed and gets into a good place it will turn and fight just as a domestic cat will fight in the same circumstances, but it won't fight on its own initiative. In a hole it can usually stand off a good dog, but in the open any big fighting dog will kill it. I have known two ordinary foxhounds to kill a lucivee ; several times I have seen a Rocky Mountain lynx, or bobcat, killed by a pack of half a dozen or more hounds and terriers, and in no case did the struggle last over a few seconds, the lynx being killed so quickly that it had no time to leave a serious mark on any one of its numerous foes. Now in this "Night-Trail" story of Mr. Roberts a man catches a lynx in a trap, ties it up, puts it into a bag, and, swinging it over his shoulder, starts through the woods with his burden. On his way the man is attacked by eight wolves that form them- selves in a crescent at his front. He is armed with an axe and as well as he can he fights off his wolf assailants. In the crisis, in order to give the lynx a chance for its life and perhaps a chance to create "an effective diversion in his own favor," the man slashes the sack open, cuts the lynx's bonds, and sets it free. The lynx, according to Mr. Roberts, goes into the fray with the wolves with a sort of savage And State Papers J 333 exultation. Several of the wolves receive slashes which send them yelping out of the battle. Now the thing is so utterly ridiculous that any man who knows both the wolf and the lynx loses patience. Real wolves would have made shreds of a real lynx within a twinkling of the time they closed in to the attack. The animal of the story would have stood no more chance with the eight wolves than a house cat would stand in a fight with eight bull terriers. In one of the books that I understand is used as a supplementary reader is a story of "the caribou school." It is difficult to discuss this story with patience. The writer, Mr. Long, vouches for the truth of everything in the book by saying that the sketches are the result "of many years' personal ob- servation in woods and fields." He tells of finding- half a dozen mother caribou and nearly twice as many little ones gathered together in a natural open- ing surrounded by dense underbrush — and this was their schoolroom. Then there follows a description of the mother caribou's method of teaching man- ners to the young, of giving them lessons in jump- ing and of impressing upon them the necessity of following the leader. Mr. Long allows little for instinct. He says : "It was true kindergarten teach- ing, for under the guise of a frolic the calves were being taught a needful lesson." Such a tale, which the school children receive stamped with the word "truth," should need no comment; and it is rather startling to think of any school authorities accept- ing it. 1334 Presidential Addresses The preservation of the useful and beautiful animal and bird life of the country depends largely upon creating in the young an interest in the life of the woods and fields. If the child mind is fed with stories that are false to nature, the children will go to the haunts of the animal only to meet with disappointment. The result will be disbelief, and the death of interest. The men who misinter- pret nature and replace facts with fiction, undo the work of those who in the love of nature interpret it aright. NATURE FAKERS [From Everybody's Magazine, September, 1907] In the Middle Ages there was no hard-and-fast line drawn between fact and fiction even in ordi- nary history; and until much later there was not even an effort to draw it in natural history. There are quaint little books on beasts, in German and in English, as late as the sixteenth century, in which the unicorn and the basilisk appear as real crea- tures; while to more commonplace animals there are ascribed traits and habits of such exceeding marvelousness that they ought to make the souls of the "nature fakers" of these degenerate days swell with envious admiration. As real outdoor naturalists, real observers of na- ture, grew up, men who went into the wilderness to find out the truth, they naturally felt a half- indignant and half-amused contempt both for the men who invented preposterous fiction about wild And State Papers x 335 animals, and for the credulous stay-at-home people who accepted such fiction as fact. A century and a half ago old Samuel Hearne, the Hudson Bay explorer, a keen and trustworthy observer, while writing of the beaver, spoke as follows of the spir- itual predecessors of certain modern writers : "I can not refrain from smiling when I read the accounts of different authors who have written on the economy of these animals, as there seems to be a contest between them who shall most exceed in fiction. But the compiler of the 'Wonders of Nature and Art' seems, in my opinion, to have succeeded best in this respect; as he has not only collected all the fictions into which other writers on the subject have run, but has so greatly im- proved on them, that little remains to be added to his account of the beaver besides a vocabulary of their language, a code of their laws, and a sketch of their religion, to make it the most complete natu- ral history of that animal which can possibly be offered to the public. "There can not be a greater imposition, or indeed a grosser insult on common understanding, than the wish to make us believe the stories [in question] . . . a very moderate share of understanding is surely sufficient to guard [any one] against giving credit to such marvelous tales, however smoothly they may be told, or however boldly they may be asserted by the romancing traveler." Hearne was himself a man who added greatly to the fund of knowledge about the beasts of the 1336 Presidential Addresses wilderness. We need such observers; much re- mains to be told about the wolf and the bear, the lynx and the fisher, the moose and the caribou. Undoubtedly wild creatures sometimes show very unexpected traits, and individuals among them sometimes perform fairly startling feats or exhibit totally unlooked-for sides of their characters in their relations with one another and with man. We much need a full study and observation of all these animals, undertaken by observers capable of seeing, understanding, and recording what goes on in the wilderness; and such study and observation can not be made by men of dull mind and limited power of appreciation. The highest type of student of nature should be able to see keenly and write in- terestingly and should have an imagination that will enable him to interpret the facts. But he is not a student of nature at all who sees not keenly but falsely, who writes interestingly and untruthfully, and whose imagination is used not to interpret facts but to invent them. We owe a real debt to the men who truthfully portray for us, with pen or pencil, any one of the many sides of outdoor life; whether they work as artists or as writers, whether they care for big beasts or small birds, for the homely farmland or for the vast, lonely, wilderness; whether they are scientists proper, or hunters of game, or lovers of all nature — which, indeed, scientists and hunters ought also to be. John Burroughs and John Muir, Stewart Edward White and Frederic Remington, And State Papers I 3 37 Olive Thorne Miller, Hart Merriam, William Horn- aday, Frank Chapman, J. A. Allen, Ernest Inger- soll, Witmer Stone, William Cram, George Shiras, Caspar Whitney — to all of these, and to many like them whom I could name, we owe much, we who love the breath of the woods and the fields, and who care for the wild creatures, large or small. And the surest way to neutralize the work of these lovers of truth and nature, of truth in nature-study, is to encourage those whose work shows neither knowledge of nature nor love of truth. The modern "nature faker" is of course an object of derision to every scientist worthy of the name, to every real lover of the wilderness, to every faunal naturalist, to every true hunter or nature lover. But it is evident that he completely deceives many good people who are wholly ignorant of wild life. Some- times he draws on his own imagination for his fictions ; sometimes he gets them second-hand from irresponsible guides or trappers or Indians. In the wilderness, as elsewhere, there are some persons who do not regard the truth; and these are the very persons who most delight to fill credu- lous strangers with impossible stories of wild beasts. As for Indians, they live in a world of mysticism, and they often ascribe supernatural traits to the animals they know, just as the men of the Middle Ages, with almost the same childlike faith, credited the marvels told of the unicorn, the basilisk, the roc, and the cockatrice. Of all these "nature fakers," the most reckless 1338 Presidential Addresses and least responsible is Mr. Long; but there are others who run him close in the "yellow journal- ism of the woods," as John Burroughs has aptly- called it. It would take a volume merely to cata- logue the comic absurdities with which the books of these writers are filled. There is no need of dis- cussing their theories ; the point is that their alleged "facts" are not facts at all, but fancies. Their most striking stories are not merely distortions of facts, but pure inventions; and not only are they inven- tions, but they are inventions by men who know so little of the subject concerning which they write, and who to ignorance add such utter recklessness, that they are not even able to distinguish be- tween what is possible, however wildly improbable, and mechanical impossibilities. Be it remembered that I am not speaking of ordinary mistakes, of ordinary errors of observation, of differences of interpretation and opinion; I am dealing only with deliberate invention, deliberate perversion of fact. Now all this would be, if not entirely proper, at least far less objectionable, if the writers in ques- tion were content to appear in their proper garb, as is the case with the men who write fantastic fiction about wild animals for the Sunday issues of various daily newspapers. Moreover, as a writer of spirited animal fables, avowed to be such, any man can gain a distinct place of some importance. But it is astonishing that such very self-evident fiction as that which I am now discussing should, And State Papers 1 3 39 when advertised as fact, impose upon any person of good sense, no matter how ignorant of natural history and of wild life. Most of us have enjoyed novels like "King Solomon's Mines," for instance. But if Mr. Rider Haggard had insisted that his novels were not novels but records of actual fact, we should feel a mild wonder at the worthy persons who accepted them as serious contribu- tions to the study of African geography and ethnology. It is not probable that the writers in question have even so much as seen some of the animals which they minutely describe. They certainly do not know the first thing about their habits, nor even about their physical structure. Judging from the internal evidence of their books, I should gravely doubt if they had ever seen a wild wolf or a wild lynx. The wolves and lynxes and other animals which they describe are full brothers of the wi d beasts that appear in "Uncle Remus" and "Reynard the Fox," and deserve the same serious considera- tion from the zoological standpoint. Certain of their wolves appear as gifted with all the philoso- phy, the self-restraint, and the keen intelligence of, say, Marcus Aurelius, together with the lofty phi- lanthropy of a modern altruist; though unfortu- nately they are hampered by a wholly erroneous view of caribou anatomy. Like the White Queen in "Through the Looking- Glass," these writers can easily believe three impos- sible things before breakfast; and they do not mind I 340 Presidential Addresses in the least if the impossibilities are mutually con- tradictory. Thus, one story relates how a wolf with one bite reaches the heart of a bull caribou, or a moose, or a horse — a feat which, of course, has been mechanically impossible of performance by any land carnivora since the death of the last sabre-toothed tiger. But the next story will cheerfully describe a doubtful contest between the wolf and a lynx or a bulldog, in which the latter survives twenty slash- ing bites. Now of course a wolf that could bite into the heart of a horse would swallow a bulldog or a lynx like a pill. In one story a wolf is portrayed as guiding home some lost children, in a spirit of thoughtful kind- ness; let the overtrustful individual who has girded up his loins to believe this think of the way he would receive the statement of some small farmer's boy that when lost he was guided home by a coon, i possum, or a woodchuck. Again, one of these story-book wolves, when starving, catches a red squirrel, which he takes round as a present to pro- pitiate a bigger wolf.* If any man seriously thinks * This particular incident was alleged to have taken place in Newfoundland, the wolf being the same as the hero of the caribou-heart-bite episode. Mr. George Shiras had informed me that there were no red squirrels in Newfoundland, and that wolves were so scarce as to be practically non-existent, if they existed at all. He now writes me under date of July 19th as follows : "I enclose a copy of a recent letter received from my guide — in Newfoundland — which shows that I did not err regard- ing the wolves and red squirrel. "When Dr. Long alleges he was following, for weeks at a And State Papers 1341 a starving wolf would act in this manner, let him study hounds when feeding, even when they are not starving. The animals are alternately portrayed as actu- ated by motives of exalted humanitarianism, and as possessed of demoniac prowess and insight into motive. In one story the fisher figures in the latter capacity. A fisher is a big marten, the size of a fox. This particular story-book fisher, when pur- sued by hunters on snow-shoes, kills a buck by a bite in the throat, and leaves the carcass as a bribe to the hunters, hoping thereby to distract attention from himself ! Now, foxes are continually hunted ; they are far more clever than fishers. What ra- tional man would pay heed to a story that a fox when hunted killed a good-sized calf by a bite in the throat, and left it as a bribe to the hounds and hunters, to persuade them to leave him alone ? One story is just as possible as the other. In another story the salmon is the hero. The writer begins by blunders about the young salmon time, wolves in Newfoundland, this animal 'was extinct, or practically so. Squires is one of the best and most reliable trappers on this island, being one of the few who perma- nently reside in the interior, trapping in the most northerly and wildest portions of the country, where wolf sign would be instantly detected were the animals to be found on this island. Such audacity on the part of Dr. Long is simply astounding." The letter from the guide, W. T. Squires, runs in part as follows : "There are no squirrel of any kind here. Neither have I seen any sign of wolf in the last ten years." i ^42 Presidential Addresses which a ten minutes' visit to any government fish hatchery would have enabled him to avoid; and as a climax describes how the salmon goes up a fall by flopping from ledge to ledge of a cliff, under circumstances which make the feat about as prob- able as that the fish would use a step-ladder. As soon as these writers get into the wilderness, they develop preternatural powers of observation, and, as Mr. Shiras says, become themselves "invisible and odorless," so that the shyest wild creatures permit any closeness of intimacy on their part; in one recent story about a beaver colony, the alternative to the above proposition is that the beavers were both blind and without sense of smell. Yet these same writers, who see such marvelous things as soon as they go into the woods, are in- capable of observing aright the most ordinary facts when at home. One of their stories relates how the eyes of frogs shine at night in the wilderness; the author apparently ignoring the fact that frog- ponds are common in less remote places, and are not inhabited by blazing-eyed frogs. Two of our most common and most readily observed small mam- mals are the red squirrel and the chipmunk. The chipmunk has cheek pouches, in which he stores ber- ries, grain, and small nuts, whereas the red squirrel has no cheek pouches, and carries nuts between his teeth. Yet even this simple fact escapes the atten- tion of one of the writers we are discussing, who endows a red squirrel with cheek pouches filled with And State Papers i 343 nuts. Evidently excessive indulgence in invention tends to atrophy the power of accurate observa- tion. In one story a woodcock is described as making a kind of mud splint for its broken leg; it seems a pity not to have added that it also made itself a crutch to use while the splint was on. A Baltimore oriole is described as making a contrivance of twigs and strings whereby to attach its nest, under cir- cumstances which would imply the mental ability and physical address of a sailor making a ham- mock; and the story is backed up by affidavits, as are others of these stories. This particular feat is precisely as possible as that a Rocky Mountain pack rat can throw the diamond hitch. The affidavits in support of these various stories are interesting only because of the curious light they throw on the personalities of those making and believing them. If the writers who make such startling discov- eries in the wilderness would really study even the denizens of a barnyard, they would be saved from at least some of their more salient mistakes. Their stories dwell much on the "teaching" of the young animals by their elders and betters. In one story, for instance, a wild duck is described as "teaching" her young how to swim and get their food. If this writer had strolled into the nearest barnyard con- taining a hen which had hatched out ducklings, a glance at the actions of those ducklings when the hen happened to lead them near a puddle would i 344 Presidential Addresses have enlightened him as to how much "teaching" they needed. But these writers exercise the same florid imagination when they deal with a robin or a rabbit as when they describe a bear, a moose, or a salmon. It is half-amusing and half-exasperating to think that there should be excellent persons to whom it is necessary to explain that books stuffed with such stories, in which the stories are stated as facts, are preposterous in their worthlessness. These worthy persons vividly call to mind Professor Lounsbury's comment on "the infinite capacity of the human brain to withstand the introduction of knowledge." The books in question contain no statement which a seri- ous and truth-loving student of nature can accept, save statements which have already long been known as established by trustworthy writers. The fables they contain bear the same relation to real natural history that Barnum's famous artificial mermaid bore to real fish and real mammals. No man who has really studied nature in a spirit of seeking the truth, whether he be big or little, can have any contro- versy with these writers ; it would be as absurd as to expect some genuine student of anthropology or archaeology to enter into a controversy with the clumsy fabricators of the Cardiff Giant. Their books carry their own refutation; and affidavits in support of the statements they contain are as worthless as the similar affidavits once solemnly issued to show that the Cardiff "giant" was a petrified pre-Adamite man. There is now no And State Papers i 345 more excuse for being - deceived by their stories than for being still in doubt about the silly Cardiff hoax. Men of this stamp will necessarily arise, from time to time, some in one walk of life, some in another. Our quarrel is not with these men, but with those who give them their chance. We who believe in the study of nature feel that a real knowledge and appreciation of wild things, of trees, flowers, birds, and of the grim and crafty creatures of the wilderness, give an added beauty and health to life. Therefore we abhor deliberate or reckless untruth in this study as much as in any other; and therefore we feel that a grave wrong is committed by all who, holding a position that entitles them to respect, yet condone and encourage such untruth. AT THE LAYING OF THE CORXER-STONE OF THE PILGRIM MEMORIAL MONUMENT, PROYINCETOYVX. MASS., AUGUST 20, 1907 It is not too much to say that the event com- memorated by the monument which we have come here to dedicate was one of those rare events which can in good faith be called of world importance. The coming hither of the Pilgrim three centuries ago, followed in far larger numbers by his sterner kinsmen, the Puritans, shaped the destinies of this continent, and therefore profoundly affected the destiny of the whole world. Men of other races, the Frenchman and the Spaniard, the Dutchman. I 346 Presidential Addresses the German, the Scotchman, the Irishman, and the Swede, made settlements within what is now the United States,, during the colonial period of our history and before the Declaration of Independence ; and since then there has been an ever-swelling im- migration from Ireland and from the mainland of Europe; but it was the Englishman who settled in Virginia and the Englishman who settled in Mas- sachusetts who did most in shaping the lines of our national development. We can not as a Nation be too profoundly grate- ful for the fact that the Puritan has stamped his influence so deeply on our national life. We need have but scant patience with the men who now rail at the Puritan's faults. They were evident, of course, for it is a quality of strong natures that their failings, like their virtues, should stand out in bold relief; but there is nothing easier than to belittle the great men of the past by dwelling only on the points where they come short of the univer- sally recognized standards of the present. Men must be judged with reference to the age in which they dwell, and the work they have to do. The Puritan's task was to conquer a continent ; not merely to over- run it, but to settle it, to till it, to build upon it a high industrial and social life; and, while engaged in the rough work of taming the shaggy wilder- ness, at that very time also to lay deep the im- movable foundations of our whole American system of civil, political, and religious liberty achieved through the orderly process of law. This was the And State Papers i 347 work allotted him to do; this is the work he did; and only a master spirit among men could have done it. We have traveled far since his day. ■ That liberty of conscience which he demanded for himself, we now realize must be as freely accorded to others as it is resolutely insisted upon for ourselves. The splendid qualities which he left to his children, we other Americans who are not of Puritan blood also claim as our heritage. You. sons of the Puritans, and we, who are descended from races whom the Puritans would have deemed alien — we are all Americans together. We all feel the same pride in the genesis, in the history, of our people ; and there- fore this shrine of Puritanism is one at which we all gather to pay homage, no matter from what country our ancestors sprang. We have gained some things that the Puritan had not — we of this generation, we of the twentieth century, here in this great Republic ; but we are also in danger of losing certain things which the Puritan had and which we can bv no manner of means afford to lose. We have gained a joy of living which he had not, and which it is a good thing for every people to have and to develop. Let us see to it that we do not lose what is more important still ; that we do not lose the Puritan's iron sense of duty, his unbending, unflinching will to do the right as it was given him to see the right. It is a good thing that life should gain in sweetness, but only provided that it does not lose in strength. Ease and rest and I 348 Presidential Addresses pleasure are good things, but only if they come as the reward of work well done, of a good fight well won, of strong effort resolutely made and crowned by high achievement. The life of mere pleasure, of mere effortless ease, is as ignoble for a nation as for an individual. The man is but a poor father who teaches his sons that ease and pleasure should be their chief objects in life; the woman who is a mere petted toy, incapable of serious purpose, shrink- ing from effort and duty, is more pitiable than the veriest overworked drudge. So he is but a poor leader of the people, but a poor national adviser, who seeks to make the Nation in any way subordi- nate effort to ease, who would teach the people not to prize as the greatest blessing the chance to do any work, no matter how hard, if it becomes their duty to do it. To the sons of the Puritans it is almost needless to say that the lesson above all others which Puritanism can teach this Nation is the all- importance of the resolute performance of duty. If we are men we will pass by with contemptuous disdain alike the advisers who would seek to lead us into the paths of ignoble ease and those who would teach us to admire successful wrong-doing. Our ideals should be high, and yet they should be capable of achievement in practical fashion; and we are as little to be excused if we permit our ideals to be tainted with what is sordid and mean and base, as if we allow our power of achievement to atrophy and become either incapable of effort or capable only of such fantastic effort as to accomplish nothing And State Papers i 349 of permanent good. The true doctrine to preach to this Nation, as to the individuals composing this Nation, is not the life of ease, but the life of effort, If it were in my power to promise the people of this land anything, I would not promise them pleas- ure. I would promise them that stern happiness which comes from the sense of having done in practical fashion a difficult work which was worth doing. The Puritan owed his extraordinary success in subduing this continent and making it the foun- dation for a social life of ordered liberty pri- marily to the fact that he combined in a very remarkable degree both the power of individual initiative, of individual self-help, and the power of acting in combination with his fellows; and that furthermore he joined to a high heart that shrewd common-sense which saves a man from the besetting sins of the visionary and the doctrinaire. He was stout hearted and hard headed. He had lofty pur- poses, but he had practical good sense, too. He could hold his own in the rough workaday world without clamorous insistence upon being helped by others, and yet he could combine with others when- ever it became necessary to do a job which could not be as well done by any one man individually. These were the qualities which enabled him to do his work, and they are the very qualities which we must show in doing our work to-day. There is no use in our coming here to pay homage to the men who founded this Nation unless we first of 135° Presidential Addresses all come in the spirit of trying to do our work to-day as they did their work in the yesterdays that have vanished. The problems shift from generation to generation, but the spirit in which they must be approached, if they are to be successfully solved, remains ever the same. The Puritan tamed the wilderness, and built up a free government on the stump-dotted clearings amid the primeval forest. His descendants must try to shape the life of our complex industrial civilization by new devices, by new methods, so as to achieve in the end the same results of justice and fair dealing toward all. He cast aside nothing old merely for the sake of in- novation, yet he did not hesitate to adopt anything new that would serve his purpose. When he planted his commonwealths on this rugged coast he faced wholly new conditions and he had to devise new methods of meeting them. So we of to-day face wholly new conditions in our social and industrial life. We should certainly not adopt any new scheme for grappling with them merely because it is new and untried; but we can not afford to shrink from grappling with them because they can only be grap- pled with by some new scheme. The Puritan was no Laodicean, no laissez-faire theorist. When he saw conduct which was in vio- lation of his rights — of the rights of man, the rights of God, as he understood them — he attempted to regulate such conduct with instant, unquestioning promptness and effectiveness. If there was no other way to secure conformity with the rule of right, And State Papers l 35 1 then he smote down the transgressor with the iron of his wrath. The spirit of the Puritan was a spirit which never shrank from regulation of conduct if such regulation was necessary for the public weal; and this is the spirit which we must show to-day whenever it is necessary. The utterly changed conditions of our national life necessitate changes in certain of our laws, of our governmental methods. Our federal system of government is based upon the theory of leaving to each community, to each State, the control over those things which affect only its own members and which the people of the locality themselves can best grapple with, while providing for national regula- tion in those matters which necessarily affect the Nation as a whole. It seems to me that such ques- tions as national sovereignty and State's rights need to be treated not empirically or academically, but from the standpoint of the interests of the people as a whole. National sovereignty is to be upheld in so far as it means the sovereignty of the people used for the real and ultimate good of the people; and State's rights are to be upheld in so far as they mean the people's rights. Especially is this true in dealing with the relations of the people as a whole to the great corporations which are the distinguish- ing feature of modern business conditions. Experience has shown that it is necessary to ex- ercise a far more efficient control than at present over the business use of those vast fortunes, chiefly corporate, which are used (as under modern con- II— 9 i35 2 Presidential Addresses ditions they almost invariably are) in interstate busi- ness. When the Constitution was created none of the conditions of modern business existed. They are wholly new and we must create new agencies to deal effectively with them. There is no objection in the minds of this people to any man's earning any amount of money if he does it honestly and fairly, if he gets it as the result of special skill and enterprise, as a reward of ample service actually rendered. But there is a growing determination that no man shall amass a great fortune by special privilege, by chicanery and wrong-doing, so far as it is in the power of legislation to prevent; and that a fortune, however amassed, shall not have a business use that is antisocial. Most large corpo- rations do a business that is not confined to any one State. Experience has shown that the effort to control these corporations by mere State action can not produce wholesome results. In most cases such effort fails to correct the real abuses of which the corporation is or may be guilty ; while in other cases the effort is apt to cause either hardship to the corporation itself or else hardship to neighboring States which have not tried to grapple with the problem in the same manner; and of course we must be as scrupulous to safeguard the rights of the corporations as to exact from them in return a full measure of justice to the public. I believe in a national incorporation law for corporations en- gaged in interstate business. I believe, furthermore, that the need for action is most pressing as regards And State Papers 1353 those corporations which, because they are common carriers, exercise a quasi-public function ; and which can be completely controlled in all respects by the Federal Government by the exercise of the power conferred under the interstate commerce clause, and, if necessary, under the post-road clause, of the Con- stitution. During the last few years we have taken marked strides in advance along the road of proper regulation of these railroad corporations; but we must not stop in the work. The National Govern- ment should exercise over them a similar super- vision and control to that which is exercised over national banks. We can do this only by proceeding farther along the lines marked out by the recent national legislation. In dealing with any totally new set of conditions there must at the outset be hesitation and experi- ment. Such has been our experience in dealing with the enormous concentration of capital em- ployed in interstate business. Not only the legis- latures but the courts and the people need gradually to be educated so that they may see what the real wrongs are and what the real remedies. Almost every big business concern is engaged in interstate commerce, and such a concern must not be allowed by a dexterous shifting of position, as has been too often the case in the past, to escape thereby all re- sponsibility either to State or Nation. The Amer- ican people became firmly convinced of the need of control over these great aggregations of capital, especially where they had a monopolistic tendency, J354 Presidential Addresses before they became quite clear as to the proper way of achieving the control. Through their represen- tatives in Congress they tried two remedies, which were to a large degree, at least as interpreted by the courts, contradictory. On the one hand, under the antitrust law the effort was made to prohibit all combination, whether it was or was not hurtful or beneficial to the public. On the other hand, through the interstate commerce law a beginning was made in exercising such supervision and con- trol over combinations as to prevent their doing anything harmful to the body politic. The first law, the so-called Sherman law, has filled a useful place, for it bridges over the transition period until the American people shall definitely make up its mind that it will exercise over the great corpora- tions that thoroughgoing and radical control which it is certain ultimately to find necessary. The principle of the Sherman law, so far as it prohibits combinations which, whether because of their extent or of their character, are harmful to the public, must always be preserved. Ultimately, and I hope with reasonable speed, the National Government must pass laws which, while increasing the supervisory and regulatory power of the Government, will also permit such useful combinations as are made with absolute openness and as the representatives of the Government may previously approve. But it will not be possible to permit such combinations save as the second stage in a course of proceed- ings of which the first stage must be the exercise And State Papers 1355 of a far more complete control by the National Government. In dealing with those who offend against the antitrust and interstate commerce laws the Depart- ment of Justice has to encounter many and great difficulties. Often men who have been guilty of violating these laws have really acted in crimi- nal fashion, and if possible should be proceeded against criminally ; and therefore it is advisable that there should be a clause in these laws providing for such criminal action and for punishment by im- prisonment as well as by fine. But, as is well known, in a criminal action the law is strictly construed in favor of the defendant, and in our country, at least, both judge and jury are far more inclined to consider his rights than they are the interests of the general public; while in addition it is always true that a man's general practices may be so bad that a civil action will lie when it may not be pos- sible to convict him of any one criminal act. There are unfortunately a certain number of our fellow- countrymen who seem to accept the view that unless a man can be proved guilty of some particular crime he shall be counted a good citizen, no matter how infamous the life he has led, no matter how pernicious his doctrines or his practices. This is the view announced from time to time with clamor- ous insistence, now by a group of predatory capi- talists, now by a group of sinister anarchistic leaders and agitators, whenever a special champion of either class, no matter how evil his general life, is acquitted 1356 Presidential Addresses of some one specific crime. Such a view is wicked whether applied to capitalist or labor leader, to rich man or poor man. (And, by the way, I take this opportunity of stating that all that I have said in the past as to desirable and undesirable citizens remains true, and that I stand by it.) We have to take this feeling into account when we are debating whether it is possible to get a con- viction in a criminal proceeding against some rich trust magnate, many of whose actions are severely to be condemned from the moral and social stand- point, but no one of whose actions seems clearly to establish such technical guilt as will ensure a con- viction. As a matter of expediency, in enforcing the law against a great corporation, we have con- tinually to weigh the arguments pro and con as to whether a prosecution can successfully be entered into, and as to whether we can be successful in a criminal action against the chief individuals in the corporation, and if not, whether we can at least be successful in a civil action against the corporation itself. Any effective action on the part of the Government is always objected to, as a matter of course, by the wrong-doers, by the beneficiaries of the wrong-doers, and by their champions ; and often one of the most effective ways of attacking the action of the Government is by objecting to prac- tical action upon the ground that it does not go far enough. One of the favorite devices of those who are really striving to prevent the enforcement of these laws is to clamor for action of such severity And State Papers 1357 that it can not be undertaken because it will be certain to fail if tried. An instance of this is the demand often made for criminal prosecutions where such prosecutions would be certain to fail. We have found by actual experience that a jury which will gladly punish a corporation by fine, for in- stance, will acquit the individual members of that corporation if we proceed against them criminally because of those very things which the corporation which they direct and control has done. In a recent case against the Licorice Trust we indicted and tried the two corporations and their respective presidents. The contracts and other transactions establishing the guilt of the corporations were made through, and so far as they were in writing were signed by, the two presidents. Yet the jury convicted the two corporations and acquitted the two men. Both verdicts could not possibly have been correct; but apparently the average juryman wishes to see trusts broken up, and is quite ready to fine the corporation itself ; but is very reluctant to find the facts "proven beyond a reasonable doubt" when it comes to send- ing to jail a reputable member of the business com- munity for doing what the business community has unhappily grown to recognize as wellmgh normal in business. Moreover, under the neces- sary technicalities of criminal proceedings, often the only man who can be reached criminally will be some subordinate who is not the real guilty party at all. Many men of large wealth have been guilty of 1358 Presidential Addresses conduct which from the moral standpoint is crimi- nal, and their misdeeds are to a peculiar degree reprehensible, because those committing them have no excuse of want, of poverty, of weakness and ignorance to offer as partial atonement. When in addition to moral responsibility these men have a legal responsibility which can be proved so as to impress a judge and jury, then the Department will strain every nerve to reach them criminally. Where this is impossible, then it will take whatever action will be most effective under the actual conditions. In the last six years we have shown that there is no individual and no corporation so powerful that he or it stands above the possibility of punishment under the law. Our aim is to try to do something effective; our purpose is to stamp out the evil; we shall seek to find the most effective device for this purpose; and we shall then use it, whether the device can be found in existing law or must be sup- plied by legislation. Moreover, when we thus take action against the wealth which works iniquity, we are acting in the interest of every man of property who acts decently and fairly by his fellows; and we are strengthening the hands of those who pro- pose fearlessly to defend property against all unjust attacks. No individual, no corporation, obeying the law has anything to fear from this Administration. During the present trouble with the stock market I have, of course, received countless requests and suggestions, public and private, that I should say or do something to ease the situation. There is a And State Papers 1359 world-wide financial disturbance; it is felt in the bourses of Paris and Berlin ; and British consols are lower than for a generation, while British railway securities have also depreciated. On the New York- Stock Exchange the disturbance has been peculiarly severe. Most of it I believe to be due to matters not peculiar to the United States, and most of the remainder to matters wholly unconnected with any governmental action; but it may well be that the determination of the Government (in which, gentle- men, it will not waver) to punish certain male- factors of great wealth, has been responsible for something of the trouble; at least to the extent of having caused these men to combine to bring about as much financial stress as possible, in order to dis- credit the policy of the Government and thereby secure a reversal of that policy, so that they may enjoy unmolested the fruits of their own evil-doing. That they have misled many good people into be- lieving that there should be such reversal of policy is possible. Tf so I am sorry; but it will not alter my attitude. Once for all let me say that so far I am concerned, and for the eighteen months of my Presidency that remain, there will be no change in the policy we have steadily pursued, no let up in the effort to secure the honest observance of the law; for I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this free country— the people through their governmental agents, or a few ruthless and domineering men whose wealth makes them pe- culiarly formidable because they hide behind the 1360 Presidential Addresses breastworks of corporate organization. I wish there to be no mistake on this point; it is idle to ask me not to prosecute criminals, rich or poor. But I desire no less emphatically to have it understood that we have sanctioned and will sanction no action of a vindictive type, and above all no action which shall inflict great and unmerited suffering upon in- nocent stockholders or upon the public as a whole. Our purpose is to act with the minimum of harsh- ness compatible with attaining our ends. In the man of great wealth who has earned his wealth honestly and uses it wisely we recognize a good citizen of the best type, worthy of all praise and respect. Business can be done under modern con- ditions only through corporations, and our pur- pose is heartily to favor the corporations that do well. The Administration appreciates that liberal but honest profits for legitimate promoting, good salaries, ample salaries, for able and upright man- agement, and generous dividends for capital em- ployed either in founding or continuing wholesome business ventures, are the factors necessary for successful corporate activity and therefore for generally prosperous business conditions. All these are compatible with fair dealing as between man and man and rigid obedience to the law. Our aim is to help every honest man, every honest corpora- tion, and cur policy means in its ultimate analysis a healthy and prosperous expansion of the business activities of honest business men and honest corpo- rations. And State Papers 1361 I very earnestly hope that the legislation which deals with the regulation of corporations engaged in interstate business will also deal with the rights and interests of the wage-workers employed by those corporations. Action was taken by the Congress last year limiting the number of hours that rail- way employees should be employed. The law is a good one; but if in practice it proves necessary to strengthen it, it must be strengthened. We have now secured a national employers' liability law ; but ultimately a more far-reaching and thoroughgoing law must be passed. It is monstrous that a man or woman who is crippled in an industry, even as the result of taking what are the necessary risks of the occupation, should be required to bear the whole burden of the loss. That burden should be distributed and not placed solely upon the weakest individual, the one least able to carry it. By making the employer liable the loss will ulti- mately be distributed among all the beneficiaries of the business. I also hope that there will be legislation increas- ing the power of the National Government to deal with certain matters concerning the health of our people everywhere; the Federal authorities, for in- stance, should join with all the State authorities in warring against the dreadful scourge of tubercu- losis. Your own State government, here in Mas- sachusetts, deserves high praise for the action it has taken in these public health matters during the last few years; and in this, as in some other matters, I 1362 Presidential Addresses hope to see the National Government stand abreast of the foremost State governments. I have spoken of but one or two laws which, in my judgment, it is advisable to enact as part of the general scheme for making the interference of the National Government more effective in securing justice and fair dealing as between man and man here in the United States. Let me add, however, that while it is necessary to have legislation when conditions arise where we can only cope with evils through the joint action of all of us, yet that we can never afford to forget that in the last analysis the all-important factor for each of us must be his own individual character. It is a necessary thing to have good laws, good institutions ; but the most necessary of all things is to have a high quality of individual citizenship. This does not mean that we can afford to neglect legislation. It will be highly disastrous if we permit ourselves to be misled by the pleas of those who see in an unrestricted indi- vidualism the all-sufficient panacea for social evils; but it will be even more disastrous to adopt the opposite panacea of any Socialistic system which would destroy all individualism, which would root out the fibre of our whole citizenship. In any great movement, such as that in which we are engaged, nothing is more necessary than sanity, than the re- fusal to be led into extremes by the advocates of the ultra course on either side. Those professed friends of liberty who champion license are the worst foes of liberty and tend by the reaction their And State Papers l 3&3 violence causes to throw the Government back into the hands of the men who champion corruption and tyranny in the name of order. So it is with this movement for securing justice toward all men, and equality of opportunity so far as ; t can be secured by governmental action. The rich man who with hard arrogance declines to consider the rights and the needs of those who are less well off, and the poor man who excites or indulges in envy and hatred of those who are better off, are alike alien to the spirit of our national life. Each of them should learn to appreciate the baseness and deg- radation of his point of view, as evil in the one case as in the other. There exists no more sordid and un- lovely type of social development than a plutocracy, for there is a peculiar unwholesomeness in a social and governmental ideal where wealth by and of itself is held up as the greatest good. The materialism of such a view, whether it finds its expression in the life of a man who accumulates a vast fortune in ways that are repugnant to every instinct of gener- osity and of fair dealing, or whether it finds its expression in the vapidly useless and self-indulgent life of the inheritor of that fortune, is contemptible in the eyes of all men capable of a thrill of lofty feeling. Where the power of the law can be wisely used to prevent or to minimize the acquisition or business employment of such wealth and to make it pay by income or inheritance tax its proper share of the burden of government, I would invoke that power without a moment's hesitation. 1364 Presidential Addresses But while we can accomplish something by legis- lation, legislation can never be more than a part, and often no more than a small part, in the general scheme of moral progress; and crude or vindictive legislation may at any time bring such progress to a halt. Certain Socialistic leaders propose to redis- tribute the world's goods by refusing to thrift and energy and industry their proper superiority over folly and idleness and sullen envy. Such legislation would merely, in the words of the president of Columbia University, "wreck the world's efficiency for the purpose of redistributing the world's dis- content." We should all of us work heart and soul for the real and permanent betterment which will lift our democratic civilization to a higher level of safety and usefulness. Such betterment can come only by the slow, steady growth of the spirit which metes a generous, but not a sentimental, justice ta each man on his merits as a man, and which recog- nizes the fact that the highest and deepest happiness for the individual lies not in selfishness but in service. AT CANTON, OHIO, SEPTEMBER 30, 1907 We have gathered together to-day to pay our meed of respect and affection to the memory of William McKinley, who as President won a place in the hearts of the American people such as but three or four of all the Presidents of this country have ever won. He was of singular uprightness and purity of character, alike in public and in pri- And State Papers 1365 vate life ; a citizen who loved peace, he did his duty faithfully and well for four years of war when the honor of the Nation called him to arms. As Con- gressman, as Governor of his State, and finally as President, he rose to the foremost place among our statesmen, reaching a position which would satisfy the keenest ambition; but he never lost that simple and thoughtful kindness toward every human being, great or small, lofty or humble, with whom he was brought in contact, which so endeared him to our people. He had to grapple with more serious and complex problems than any President since Lin- coln, and yet, while meeting every demand of states- manship, he continued to live a beautiful and touch- ing family life, a life very healthy for this Nation to see in its foremost citizen ; and now the woman who walked in the shadow ever after his death, the wife to whom his loss was a calamity more crushing than it could be to any other human being, lies beside him here in the same sepulchre. There is a singular appropriateness in the inscrip- tion on his monument. Mr. Cortelyou, whose rela- tions with him were of such close intimacy, gives me the following information about it : On the President's trip to the Pacific Slope in the spring of 1 90 1 President Wheeler, of the University of California, conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him in words so well chosen that they struck the fastidious taste of John Hay, then Secretary of State, who wrote and asked for a copy of them from President Wheeler. On the receipt of this 1366 Presidential Addresses copy he sent the following letter to President Mc- Kinley, a letter which now seems rilled with a strange and unconscious prescience : "Dear Mr. President : "President Wheeler sent me the enclosed at my request. You will have the words in more perma- nent shape. They seem to me remarkably well chosen, and stately and dignified enough to serve — long hence, please God — as your epitaph. "Yours faithfully, "John Hay." "University of California, Office of the President. "By authority vested in me by the regents of the University of California, I confer the degree of Doctor of Laws upon William McKinley, President of the United States, a statesman singularly gifted to unite the discordant forces of the Government and mould the diverse purpose of men toward pro- gressive and salutary action, a magistrate whose poise of judgment has been tested and vindicated in a succession of national emergencies; good citi- zen, brave soldier, wise executive, helper and leader of men, exemplar to his people of the virtues that build and conserve the state, society, and the home. "Berkeley, May 15, 1901." It would be hard to imagine an epitaph which a good citizen would be more anxious to deserve or And State Papers 1367 one which would more happily describe the quali- ties of that great and good citizen whose life we here commemorate. He possessed to a very ex- traordinary degree the gift of uniting discordant forces and securing from them a harmonious action which told for good government. From purposes not merely diverse, but bitterly conflicting, he was able to secure healthful action for the good of the state. In both poise and judgment he rose level to the several emergencies he had to meet as leader of the Nation, and, like all men with the root of true greatness in them, he grew to steadily larger stature under the stress of heavy responsibilities. He was a good citizen and a brave soldier, a Chief Executive whose wisdom entitled him to the trust which he received throughout the Nation. He was not only a leader of men, but preeminently a helper of men ; for one of his most marked traits was the intensely human quality of his wide and deep sym- pathy. Finally, he not merely preached, he was, that most valuable of all citizens in a democracy like ours, a man who in the highest place served as an unconscious example to his people of the vir- tues that build and conserve alike our public life, and the foundation of all public life, the intimate life of the home. Many lessons are taught us by his career, but none more valuable than the lesson of broad human sympathy for and among all of our citizens of all classes and creeds. No other President has ever more deserved to have his life work characterized 1368 Presidential Addresses in Lincoln's words as being carried on "with malice toward none, with charity toward all." As a boy he worked hard with his hands; he entered the Army as a private soldier; he knew poverty; he earned his own livelihood ; and by his own exertions he finally rose to the position of a man of moderate means. Not merely was he in personal touch with farmer and town dweller, with capitalist and wage- worker, but he felt an intimate understanding of each, and therefore an intimate sympathy with each ; and his consistent effort was to try to judge all by the same standard and to treat all with the same justice. Arrogance toward the weak, and envious hatred of those well off, were equally abhorrent to his just and gentle soul. Surely this attitude of his should be the attitude of all our people to-day. It would be a cruel dis- aster to this country to permit ourselves to adopt an attitude of hatred and envy toward success worthily won, toward wealth honestly acquired. Let us in this respect profit by the example of the republics of this Western Hemisphere to the south of us. Some of these republics have prospered greatly ; but there are certain ones that have lagged far behind, that still continue in a condition of material poverty, of social and political unrest and confusion. With- out exception the republics of the former class are those in which honest industry has been assured of reward and protection; those where a cordial wel- come has been extended to the kind of enterprise which benefits the whole country, while incidentally, And State Papers i 369 as is right and proper, giving substantial rewards to those who manifest it. On the other hand, the poor and backward republics, the republics in which the lot of the average citizen is least desirable, and the lot of the laboring man worst of all, are pre- cisely those republics in which industry has been killed because wealth exposed its owner to spolia- tion. To these communities foreign capital now rarely comes, because it has been found that as soon as capital is employed so as to give substantial re- muneration to those supplying it, it excites ignorant envy and hostility, which result in such oppressive action, within or without the law, as sooner or later to work a virtual confiscation. Every manifestation of feeling of this kind in our civilization should be crushed at the outset by the weight of a sensible public opinion. From the standpoint of our material prosperity there is only one other thing as important as the discouragement of a spirit of envy and hostility toward honest business men, toward honest men of means; this is the discouragement of dishonest business men. [Great applause.] Wait a moment ; I don't want you to applaud this part unless you are willing to applaud also the part I read first, to which you listened in silence. [Laugh- ter and applause.] I want you to understand that I will stand just as straight for the rights of the honest man who wins his fortune by honest methods as I will stand against the dishonest man who wins a fortune by dishonest methods. And 137° Presidential Addresses I challenge the right to your support in one attitude just as much as in the other. I am glad you applauded when you did, but I want you to go back now and applaud the other statement. I will read a little of it over again. "Every manifestation of ignorant envy and hostility toward honest men who acquire wealth by honest means should be crushed at the outset by the weight of a sensible public opinion." [Tremendous ap- plause.] Thank you. Now I'll go on. From the standpoint of our material prosperity there is only one other thing as important as the discouragement of a spirit of envy and hostility toward honest business men, toward honest men of means, and that is the discouragement of dishonest business men, the war upon the chicanery and wrong-doing which are peculiarly repulsive, pecul- iarly noxious when exhibited by men who have no excuse of want, of poverty, of ignorance for their crimes. My friends, I will wage war against those dishonest men to the utmost extent of my ability, and I will stand no less stoutly in defence of honest men, rich or poor. Men of means and, above all, men of great wealth can exist in safety under the peaceful protection of the state only in orderly societies, where liberty manifests itself through and under the law. That is what you fought for, you veterans. You fought for the supremacy of the national law in every corner of this Republic. It is these men, the men of wealth, who more than any others should in the interest of the class to which And State Papers 1371 they belong, in the interest of their children and their children's children, seek in every way, but es- pecially in the conduct of their lives, to insist upon and to build up respect for the law. It is an extraor- dinary thing, a very extraordinary thing, that it should be necessary for me to utter as simple a truth as that; yet it is necessary. It may not be true from the standpoint of some particular indi- vidual of this class of very wealthy men, but in the long run it is pre-eminently true from the standpoint of the class as a whole, no less than of the country as a whole, that it is a veritable calamity to achieve a temporary triumph by violation or evasion of the law, and we are the best friends of the man of property, we show ourselves the stanchest upholders of the rights of property when we set our faces like flint against those offenders who do wrong in order to acquire great wealth, or who use this wealth as a help to wrong-doing. I sometimes feel that I have trenched a little on your province, Brother Bristol, and on that of your brethren, by preaching. But whenever I speak of the wrong-doing of a man of wealth or of a man of poverty, poor man or rich man, I always want to try to couple together the fact that wrong-doing is wrong just as much in one case as in the other, with the fact that right is just as much right in one case as in the other. I want the plain people of this country, I want all of us who do not have great wealth, to remember that in our own interest, and because it is right, we must be just as scrupulous 1372 Presidential Addresses in doing justice to the man of great wealth as in exacting justice from him. Wrong-doing is confined to no class. Good and evil are to be found among both rich and poor, and in drawing the line among our fellows we must draw it on conduct and not on worldly possessions. Woe to this country if we ever get to judging men by anything save their worth as men, without re- gard to their fortune in life. In other words, my plea is that you draw the line on conduct and not on worldly possessions. In the abstract most of us will admit this. It is a rather more difficult propo- sition in the concrete. We can act upon such doc- trines only if we really have knowledge of, and sympathy with, one another. If both the wage- worker and the capitalist are able to enter each into the other's life, to meet him so as to get into genuine sympathy with him, most of the misunder- standing between them will disappear and its place will be taken by a judgment broader, juster, more kindly, and more generous ; for each will find in the other the same essential human attributes that exist in himself. It was President McKinley's peculiar glory that in actual practice he realized this as it is given to but few men to realize it ; that his broad and deep sympathies made him feel a genuine sense of oneness with all his fellow-Americans, whatever their station or work in life, so that to his soul they were all joined with him in a great brotherly de- mocracy of the spirit. It is not given to many of us in our lives actually to realize this attitude to the And State Papers 1373 extent that he did ; but we can at least have it before us as the goal of our endeavor, and by so doing we shall pay honor better than in any other way to the memory of the dead President whose services in life we this day commemorate. AT KEOKUK, IOWA, OCTOBER 1, 1907 Men and Women of Iozca: I am glad indeed to see you and to speak to you in this thriving city of your great and prosperous State. I believe with all my heart in the people of Iowa, for I think that you are good, typical Ameri- cans, and that among you there has been developed to a very high degree that body of characteristics which we like to regard as distinctively American. During the last few years we of the United States have been forced to consider very seriously certain economic problems. We have made a beginning in the attempt to deal with the relations of the National Government — that is, with the relations of the peo- ple of the country — to the huge and wealthy cor- porations, controlled for the most part by a few very rich men, which are engaged in interstate business — especially the great railway corporations. You know my views on this matter. You know that I believe that the National Government, in the interests of the people, should assume much the same supervision and control over the management of the interstate common carriers that it now exer- cises over the national banks. You know further- more that I believe that this supervision and control 1374 Presidential Addresses should be exercised in a spirit of rigid fairness toward the corporations, exacting justice from them on behalf of the people, but giving them justice in return. Recently I have been reading the work of the eminent Italian scholar Ferrero on the history of the Roman Republic, when the life of the Roman state had become that of a complex and luxurious industrial civilization. I am happy to say that the differences between that civilization and our own are more striking than the resemblances; and there is no warrant for our being drawn into any pessi- mistic comparison between the two civilizations. But there is every reason why we should study care- fully the past in order to draw from it lessons for use in the present. One of the most striking fea- tures of the years which saw the downfall of the Roman Republic was the fact that the political life of Rome became split between two camps, one con- taining the rich who wished to exploit the poor, and the other the poor who wished to plunder the rich. Naturally, under such circumstances, the public man who was for the moment successful tended to be either a violent reactionary or a violent demagogue. Any such condition of political life is as hopelessly unhealthy now as it was then. I believe so implic- itly in the future of our people, because I believe that the average American citizen will no more tol- erate government by a mob than he will tolerate government by a plutocracy; that he desires to see justice done to and justice exacted from rich man And State Papers i 375 and poor man alike. We are not trying to favor any man at the expense of his fellows. We are try- ing to shape things so that as far as possible each man shall have a fair chance in life; so that he shall have, so far as by law this can be accomplished, the chance to show the stuff that there is in him. We have no intention of trying to work for the impos- sible and undesirable end of giving to the lazy, the thriftless, the weak, and the vicious, the reward that belongs to, and in the long run can only come to, the hard working, the thrifty, the resolute, and the honest. But we do wish to see that the necessary struggle in life shall be carried on under genuinely democratic conditions ; that, so far as human action can safely provide it, there shall be an approxi- mately fair start; that there shall be no oppression of the weak, and that no man shall be permitted to acquire or to use a vast fortune by methods or in ways that are tortuous and dishonest. Therefore we need wise laws, and we need to have them resolutely administered. We can get such laws and such administration only if the peo- ple are alive to their interests. The other day I listened to an admirable sermon by Bishop John- ston of western Texas. His theme was that the vital element in judging any man should be his con- duct, and neither his position nor his pretensions; and, furthermore, that freedom could only stay with a people which has the habit of self-mastery. As he said, the price of liberty is not only eternal vigi- lance, but eternal virtue; and I may add, eternal 11—10 1376 Presidential Addresses common-sense. Each man here knows that he him- self has been able to use his freedom to advantage only provided that he could master himself, that he could Control his own passions and direct his own faculties. Each of you fathers and mothers here knows that if your sons are to do well in the world they must know how to master themselves. Every man must have a master ; if he is not his own mas- ter, then somebody else will be. This is just as true of public life as of private life. If we can not mas- ter ourselves, control ourselves, then sooner or later we shall have to submit to outside control ; for there must be control somewhere. One way of exercising such control is through the laws of the land. Ours is a government of lib- erty, but it is a government of that orderly liberty which comes by and through the honest enforce- ment of and obedience to the law. At intervals during the last few months the appeal has been made to me not to enforce the law against certain wrong-doers of great wealth because to do so would interfere with the business prosperity of the coun- try. Under the effects of that kind of fright which when sufficiently acute we call panic, this appeal has been made to me even by men who ordinarily be- have as decent citizens. One newspaper which has itself strongly advanced this view gave prominence to the statement of a certain man of great wealth to the effect that the so-called financial weakness "was due entirely to the admitted intention of President Roosevelt to punish the large moneyed interests And State Papers i 377 which had transgressed the laws." I do not admit that this has been the main cause of any business troubles we have had ; but it is possible that it has been a contributory cause. If so, friends, as far as I am concerned it must be accepted as a disagreeable but unavoidable feature in a course of policy which as long as I am President will not be changed. In any great movement for righteousness, where the forces of evil are strongly intrenched, it is unfor- tunately inevitable that some unoffending people should suffer in company with the real offenders. This is not our fault. It is the fault of those to whose deceptive action these innocent people owe their false position. A year or two ago certain representatives of labor called upon me and in the course of a very pleasant conversation told me that they regarded me as "the friend of labor." I an- swered that I certainly was, and that I would do everything in my power for the laboring man except anything that was zvrong. I have the same answer to make to the business man. I will do everything I can do to help business conditions, except any- thing that is wrong. And it would be not merely wrong but infamous to fail to do all that can be done to secure the punishment of those wrong-doers whose deeds are peculiarly reprehensible because they are not committed under the stress of want. Whenever a serious effort is made to cut out what is evil in our political life, whether the effort takes the shape of warring against the gross and sordid forms of evil in some municipality, or whether it 1378 Presidential Addresses takes the shape of trying to secure the honest en- forcement of the law as against very powerful and wealthy people, there are sure to be certain individ- uals who demand that the movement stop because it may hurt business. In each case the answer must be that we earnestly hope and believe that there will be no permanent damage to business from the move- ment, but that if righteousness conflicts with the fancied needs of business, then the latter must go to the wall. We can not afford to substitute any other test for that of guilt or innocence, of wrong- doing or well-doing, in judging any man. If a man does well, if he acts honestly, he has nothing to fear from this Administration. But so far as in me lies the corrupt politician, great or small, the private citizen who transgresses the law — be he rich or poor — shall be brought before the impartial justice of a court. Perhaps I am most anxious to get at the politician who is corrupt, because he betrays a great trust; but assuredly I shall not spare his brother corruptionist who shows himself a swindler in busi- ness life; and, according to our power, crimes of fraud and cunning shall be prosecuted as relent- lessly as crimes of brutality and physical violence. We need good laws and we need above all things the hearty aid of good citizens in supporting and enforcing the laws. Nevertheless, men and women of this great State, men and women of the Middle West, never forget that law and the administration of law, important though they are, must always occupy a wholly secondary place as compared with And State Papers 1 379 the character of the average citizen himself. On this trip I shall speak to audiences in each of which there will be many men who fought in the Civil War. You who wore the blue and your brothers of the South who wore the gray know that in war no general no matter how good, no organization no matter how perfect, can avail if the average man in the ranks has not got the fighting edge. We need the organization, the preparation ; we need the good general; but we need most the fighting edge in the individual soldier. So it is in private life. We live in a rough, workaday world, and we are yet a long way from the millennium. We can not as a Nation and we can not as individuals afford to cultivate only the gentler, softer qualities. There must be gentleness and tenderness — the strongest men are gentle and tender — but there must also be courage and strength. I have a hearty sympathy with those who believe in doing all that can be done for peace; but I have no sympathy at all with those who believe that in the world as it now is we can afford to see the average American citizen lose the qualities that in their sum make up a good fighting man. You men must be workers who work with all your heart and strength and mind at your several tasks in life; and you must also be able to fight at need. You women have even higher and more difficult duties; for I honor no man, not even the soldier who fights for righteousness, quite as much as I honor the good woman who does her full duty as wife and mother. But if she shirks her duty as wife and 1380 Presidential Addresses mother, then she stands on a par with the man who refuses to work for himself and his family, for those dependent upon him, and who in time of the Na- tion's need refuses to fight. The man or woman who shirks his or her duty occupies a contemptible position. You here are the sons and daughters of the pioneers. I preach to you no life of ease. I preach to you the life of effort, the life that finds its highest satisfaction in doing well some work that is well worth doing. So much for what concerns every man and every woman in this country. Now, a word or two as to matters which are of peculiar interest to this region of our country. Since I have been President I have traveled in every State of this Union, but my traveling has been almost entirely on railroads, save now and then by wagon or on horseback. Now I have the chance to try traveling by river; to go down the greatest of our rivers, the Father of Waters. A good many years ago when I lived in the Northwest I traveled occasionally on the Upper Missouri and its tributaries; but then we went in a flatboat and did our own rowing and paddling and poling. Now I am to try a steamboat. I am a great believer in our railway system; and the fact that I am very firm in my belief as to the necessity of the Govern- ment exercising a proper supervision and control over the railroads does not in the least interfere with the other fact that I greatly admire the large majority of the men in all positions, from the top And State Papers 1381 to the bottom, who build and run them. Yet, while of course I am anxious to see these men, and there- fore the corporations they represent or serve, achieve the fullest measure of legitimate prosperity, never- theless as this country grows I feel that we can not have too many highroads, and that in addition to the iron highroads of our railway system we should also utilize the great river highways which have been given us by nature. From a variety of causes these highways have in many parts of the country been almost abandoned. This is not healthy. Our people, and especially the representatives of the peo- ple in the National Congress, should give their most careful attention to this subject. We should be pre- pared to put the Nation collectively back of the movement to improve them for the Nation's use. Our knowledge at this time is not such as to per- mit me to go into details, or to say definitely just what the Nation should do; but most assuredly our great navigable rivers are national assets just as much as our great seacoast harbors. Exactly as it is for the interest of all the country that our great harbors should be fitted to receive in safety the largest vessels of the merchant fleets of the world, so by deepening and otherwise our rivers should be fitted to bear their part in the movement of our merchandise; and this is especially true of the Mis- sissippi and its tributaries, which drain the immense and prosperous region which makes in very fact the heart of our Nation; the basin of the Great Lakes being already united with the basin of the Missis- 1382 Presidential Addresses sippi, and both regions being identical in their prod- ucts and interests. Waterways are peculiarly fitted for the transportation of the bulky commodities which come from the soil or under the soil ; and no other part of our country is as fruitful as is this in such commodities. You in Iowa have many manufacturing centres, but you remain, and I hope you will always remain, a great agricultural State. I hope that the means of transporting your commodities to market will be steadily improved ; but this will be of no use unless you keep producing the commodities, and in the long run this will largely depend upon your being able to keep on the farm a high type of citizenship. The effort must be to make farm life not only remu- nerative but attractive, so that the best young men and girls will feel inclined to stay on the farm and not to go to the city. Nothing is more important to this country than the perpetuation of our system of medium-sized farms worked by their owners. We do not want to see our farmers sink to the condition of the peasants of the Old World, barely able to live on their small holdings, nor do we want to see their places taken by wealthy men owning enormous estates which they work purely by tenants and hired servants. At present the ordinary farmer holds his own in the land as against any possible representative of the landlord class of farmer — that is, of the men who would own vast estates — because the ordinary farmer unites his capital, his labor, and his brains And State Papers x 3^3 with the making of a permanent family home, and thus can afford to hold his land at a value at which it can not be held by the capitalist, who would have to run it by leasing it or by cultivating it at arm's length with hired labor. In other words, the typical American farmer of to-day gets his remuneration in part in the shape of an independent home for his family, and this gives him an advantage over an absentee landlord. Now, from the standpoint of the Nation as a whole it is pre-eminently desirable to keep as one of our chief American types the farmer, the farm home-maker, of the medium-sized farm. This type of farm home is one of our strong- est political and social bulwarks. Such a farm worked by the owner has proved by experience the best place in which to breed vigorous leaders alike for country and city. It is a matter of prime eco- nomic and civic importance to encourage this type of home-owning farmer. Therefore, we should strive in every way to aid in the education of the farmer for the farm, and should shape our school system with this end in view; and so vitally important is this that, in my opinion, the Federal Government should cooperate with the State governments to secure the needed change and improvement in our schools. It is sig- nificant that both from Minnesota and Georgia there have come proposals in this direction in the appear- ance of bills introduced into the National Congress. The Congressional land grant act of 1852 accom- plished much in establishing the agricultural col- 1384 Presidential Addresses leges in the several States, and therefore in prepar- ing to turn the system of educational training for the young into channels at once broader and more practicable — and what I am saying about agricul- tural training really applies to all industrial train- ing. But the colleges can not reach the masses, and it is essential that the masses should be reached. Such agricultural high schools as those in Minne- sota and Nebraska for farm boys and girls, such technical high schools as are to be found, for in- stance, in both St. Louis and Washington, have by their success shown that it is entirely feasible to carry in practical fashion the fundamentals of in- dustrial training into the realms of our secondary schools. At present there is a gap between our pri- mary schools in country and city and the industrial collegiate courses, which must be closed, and if nec- essary the Nation must help the State to close it. Too often our present schools tend to put altogether too great a premium upon mere literary education, and therefore to train away from the farm and the shop. We should reverse this process. Specific train- ing of a practical kind should be given to the boys and girls who when men and women are to make up the backbone of this Nation by working in agri- culture, in the mechanical industries, in arts and trades ; in short, who are to do the duty that should always come first with all of us, the duty of home- making and home-keeping. Too narrow a literary education is, for most men and women, not a real And State Papers 1385 education at all ; for a real education should fit peo- ple primarily for the industrial and home-making employments in which they must employ the bulk of their activities. Our country offers unparalleled opportunities for domestic and social advancement, for social and economic leadership in the world. Our greatest national asset is to be found in the children. They need to be trained to high ideals of every-day living, and to high efficiency in their respective vocations ; we can not afford to have them trained otherwise, and the Nation should help the States to achieve this end. Now, men of Iowa, I want to say just a word on a matter that concerns not the States of the Mississippi Valley itself, but the States west of them, the States of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately, I am not able on this present trip to visit those States, or I should speak to their own people on the point to which I now intend to allude; but after all anything that affects a considerable number of Americans who live under one set of conditions, must be of moment to all other Americans, for never forget, friends, that in the long run we shall all go up or go down together. The States of the high plains and of the moun- tains have a peculiar claim upon me, because for a number of years I lived and worked in them, and I have that intimate knowledge of their people that comes under such conditions. In those States there is need of a modification of the land laws 1386 Presidential Addresses that have worked so well in the well-watered fer- tile regions to the eastward, such as those in which you here dwell. The one object in all our land laws should always be to favor the actual settler, the actual home-maker, who comes to dwell on the land and there to bring up his children to inherit it after him. The Government should part with its title to the land only to the actual home-maker — not to the profit-maker, who does not care to make a home. The land should be sold outright only in quantities sufficient for decent homes — not in huge areas to be held for speculative purposes or used as ranches, where those who do the actual work are merely tenants or hired hands. No temporary prosperity of any class of men could in the slightest degree atone for failure on our part to shape the laws so that they may work for the permanent good of the home-maker. This is fundamental, gentlemen, and is simply carrying out the idea upon which I dwell in speaking to you of your own farms here in Iowa. Now in many States where the rainfall is light it is a simple absurdity to expect any man to live, still less to bring up a family, on one hundred and sixty acres. Where we are able to introduce irri- gation, the homestead can be very much less in size — can, for instance, be forty acres; and there is nothing that Congress has done during the past six years more important than the enactment of the national irrigation law. But where irrigation is not applicable and the land can only be used for graz- ing, it may be that you can not run more than one And State Papers 1 387 steer to ten acres, and it is not necessary to be much of a mathematician in order to see that where such is the case a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres will not go far toward the support of a fam- ily. In consequence of this fact, homesteaders do not take up the lands in the tracts in question. They are left open for anybody to graze upon that wishes to. The result is that men who use them moder- ately, and not with a view to exhausting their re- sources, are at the mercy of those who care nothing for the future and simply intend to skin the land in the present. For instance, the small sheep farmer who has a home and who wishes that home to pass on to his children improved in value will nat- urally run his flock so that the land will support it, not only to-day, but ten years hence; but a big absentee sheep owner, who has no home on the land at all, but simply owns huge migratory flocks of sheep, may well find it to his profit to drive them over the small sheep farmer's range and eat it all out. He can then drive his flocks on, whereas the small man can not. Of course, to permit such a state of things is not only evil for the small man, but is destructive of the best interests of the coun- try. Substantially the same conditions obtain as regards cattle. The custom has therefore grown up of fencing great tracts of Government land with- out warrant of law. The men who fenced this land were sometimes rich men, who, by fencing it, kept out actual settlers and thereby worked evil to the country. But in many cases, whether they were 1388 Presidential Addresses large men or small men, their object was not to keep out actual settlers, but to protect themselves and their own industry by preventing overgrazing of the range on the part of reckless stock owners who had no place in the permanent development of the country and who were indifferent to every- thing except the profits of the moment. To permit the continuance of this illegal fencing inevitably tended to very grave abuses, and the Government has therefore forced the fencers to take down their fences. In doing this we have not only obeyed and enforced the law, but we have corrected many fla- grant abuses. Nevertheless, we have also caused hardship, which, though unavoidable, I was exceed- ingly unwilling to cause. In some way or other we must provide for the use of the public range under conditions which shall inure primarily to the benefit of the actual settlers on or near it, and which shall prevent its being wasted. This means that in some shape or way the fencing of pasture land must be permitted under restrictions which will safeguard the rights of the actual settlers. I desire to act as these actual settlers wish to have me in this matter. I wish to find out their needs and desires, and then to try to put them into effect. But they must take trouble, must look ahead to their own ultimate and real good, must insist upon being really represented by their public men, if we are to have a good result. A little while, ago I received a very manly and sensi- ble letter from one of the prominent members of the Laramie County (Wyo.) Cattle and Horse Grow- And State Papers 1389 ers' Association. My correspondent remarked inci- dentally in his letter, "I am a small ranchman, and have to plow and pitch hay myself," and then went on to say that the great majority of their people had complied with the governmental order, had removed their fences and sold their cattle, but that they must get some kind of a lease law which would permit them to graze their stock under proper conditions or else it would be ruinous to them to continue in the business. The think I have most at heart as regards this subject is to do whatever will be of permanent benefit to just exactly the people for whom this correspondent of mine spoke — the small ranchmen who have to plow and pitch hay themselves. All I want to do is to find out what will be to their real benefit, for that is certain to be to the benefit of the country as a whole. It may be that we can secure their interests best by per- mitting all homesteaders in the dry country to enclose, individually or a certain number of them together, big tracts of range for summer use, the tracts being proportioned to the number of neigh- boring homesteaders who wish to run their cattle upon it. It may be that parts of the range will only be valuable for companies that can lease it and put large herds on it ; for the way properly to develop a region is to put it to those uses to which it is best adapted. The amount to be paid for the leasing privilege is to me a matter of com- parative indifference. The Government does not wish to make money out of the range, but simply 139° Presidential Addresses to provide for the necessary supervision that will prevent its being eaten out or exhausted; that is, that will secure it undamaged as an asset for the next generation, for the children of the present home-makers. Of course we must also provide enough to pay the proper share of the county taxes. I am not wedded to any one plan, and I am willing to combine several plans if necessary. But the present system is wrong, and I hope to see, in all the States of the Great Plains and the Rockies, the men like my correspondent of the Laramie County Cattle and Horse Growers' Asso- ciation, the small ranchmen "who plow and pitch hay themselves," seriously take up this matter and make their representatives in Congress understand that there must be some solution, and that this solu- tion shall be one which will secure the greatest per- manent well-being to the actual settlers, the actual home-makers. I promise with all the strength I have to co-operate toward this end. AT ST. LOUIS, MO., OCTOBER 2, 1907 It is a very real pleasure to address this body of citizens of Missouri here in the great city of St. Louis. I have often visited St. Louis before, but always by rail. Now I am visiting it in the course of a trip by water, a trip on the great nat- ural highway which runs past your very doors — a highway once so important, now almost aban- doned, which I hope this Nation will see not only restored to all its former usefulness, but given a And State Papers 1391 far greater degree of usefulness to correspond with the extraordinary growth in wealth and population of the Mississippi Valley. We have lived in an era of phenomenal railroad building. As routes for merchandise, the iron highways have completely supplanted the old wagon roads, and under their competition the importance of the water highways has been much diminished. The growth of the railway system has been rapid all over the world, but nowhere so rapid as in the United States. Ac- companying this there has grown in the United States a tendency toward the practically complete abandonment of the system of water transportation. Such a tendency is certainly not healthy, and I am convinced that it will not be permanent. There are many classes of commodities, especially those which are perishable in their nature and where the value is high relatively to the bulk, which will always be carried by rail. But bulky commodities which are not of a perishable nature will always be specially suited for the conditions of water trans- port. To illustrate the truth of this statement it would only be necessary to point to the use of the canal system in many countries of the Old World; but it can be illustrated even better by what has happened nearer home. The Great Lakes offer a prime example of the importance of a good water highway for mercantile traffic. As the line of traf- fic runs through lakes, the conditions are in some respects different from what must obtain on even the most important river. Nevertheless, it is well 1 392 Presidential Addresses to remember that a very large part of this traffic is conditioned upon an artificial waterway, a canal — the famous Soo. The commerce that passes through the Soo far surpasses in bulk and in value that of the Suez Canal. From every standpoint it is desirable for the Nation to join in improving the greatest system of river highways within its borders, a system sec- ond only in importance to the highway afforded by the Great Lakes; the highways of the Missis- sippi and its great tributaries, such as the Missouri and Ohio. This river system traverses too many States to render it possible to leave merely to the States the task of fitting it for the greatest use of which it is capable. It is emphatically a national task, for this great river system is itself one of our chief national assets. Within the last few years there has been an awakening in this country to the need of both the conservation and the development of our national resources under the supervision of and by the aid of the Federal Government. This is especially true of all that concerns our running waters. On the mountains from which the springs start we are now endeavoring to preserve the for- ests which regulate the water supply and prevent too startling variations between droughts and fresh- ets. Below the mountains, in the high dry regions of the western plains, we endeavor to secure the proper utilization of the waters for irrigation. This is at the sources of the streams. Farther down, where they become navigable, our aim must be to And State Papers i 393 try to develop a policy which shall secure the utmost advantage from the navigable waters. Finally, on the lower courses of the Mississippi, the Nation should do its full share in the work of levee build- ing ; and, incidentally to its purpose of serving navi- gation, this will also prevent the ruin of alluvial bottoms by floods. Our knowledge is not suffi- ciently far advanced to enable me to speak definitely as to the plans which should be adopted; but let me say one word of warning : The danger of en- tering on any such scheme lies in the adoption of impossible and undesirable plans, plans the adop- tion of which means an outlay of money extrava- gant beyond all proportion to the return, or which, though feasible, are not, relatively to other plans, of an importance which warrants their adoption. It will not be easy to secure the assent of a funda- mentally cautious people like our own to the adop- tion of such a policy as that I hope to see adopted; and even if we begin to follow out such a policy it certainly will not be persevered in if it is found to entail reckless extravagance or to be tainted with jobbery. The interests of the Nation as a whole must be always the first consideration. This is properly a national movement, because all interstate and foreign commerce, and the im- provements and methods of carrying it on, are sub- jects for national action. Moreover, while of course the matter of the improvement of the Mississippi River and its tributaries is one which especially con- cerns the great middle portion of our country, the 1394 Presidential Addresses region between the Alleghenies and the Rockies, yet it is of concern to the rest of the country also, for it can not too often be said that whatever is really beneficial to one part of our country is ulti- mately of benefit to the whole. Exactly as it is a good thing for the interior of our country that the seaports on the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Gulf should be safe and commodious, so it is to the interest of the dwellers on the coast that the interior should possess ample facilities for the transportation of its products. Our interests are all closely interwoven, and in the long run it will be found that we go up or go down together. Take, for instance, the Panama Canal. If the Mississippi is restored to its former place of im- portance as a highway of commerce, then the building of the Panama Canal will be felt as an immediate advantage to the business of every city and country district in the Mississippi Valley. I think that the building of that canal will be of especial advantage to the States that lie along the Pacific and the States that lie along the Gulf ; and yet, after all, I feel that the advantage will be shared in an only less degree by the States of the interior and of the Atlantic Coast. In other words, it is a thoroughly national work, undertaken for and redounding to the advantage of all of us — to the advantage of the Nation as a whole. There- fore I am glad to be able to report to you how well we are doing with the canal. There is bound to be a certain amount of experiment, a certain And State Papers 1 395 amount of feeling our way, in a task so gigantic — a task greater than any of its kind that has ever hitherto been undertaken in the whole history of mankind; but the success so far has been astonish- ing, and we have not met with a single one of the accidents or drawbacks which I freely confess I expected we should from time to time encounter. We, in the first place, laid the foundation for the work by securing the most favorable possible con- ditions as regards the health, comfort, and safety of the men who were to do it; and now the Canal Zone is in point of health better off than the aver- age district of the same size at home. Then we went at the problem of the actual digging and dam building. For over a year past we have been en- gaged in making the dirt fly in good earnest, and the output of the giant steam shovels has steadily increased. It is now the rainy season, when work is most difficult on the Isthmus, yet in the month of August last we excavated over a million and two hundred thousand cubic yards of earth and rock, a greater amount than in any previous month. If we are able to keep up substantially the rate of progress that now obtains we shall finish the actual digging within five or six years; though when we come to the great Gatun dam and locks, while there is no question as to the work being feasible, there are several elements entering into the time prob- lem which make it unwise at present to hazard a prophecy in reference thereto. Now, gentlemen, this leads me up to another 1396 Presidential Addresses matter for national consideration, and that is our Navy. The Navy is not primarily of importance only to the coast regions. It is every bit as much the concern of the farmer who dwells a thousand miles from sea water as of the fisherman who makes his living on the ocean, for it is the concern of every good American who knows what the mean- ing of the word patriotism is. This country is definitely committed to certain fundamental policies — to the Monroe Doctrine, for instance, and to the duty not only of building, but, when it is built, of policing and defending the Panama Canal. We have definitely taken our place among the great world powers, and it would be a sign of ignoble weakness, having taken such a place, to shirk its responsibil- ities. Therefore, unless we are willing to abandon this place, to abandon our insistence upon the Mon- roe Doctrine, to give up the Panama Canal, and to be content to acknowledge ourselves a weak and timid nation, we must steadily build up and main- tain a great fighting Navy. Our Navy is already so efficient as to be a matter of just pride to every American. So long as our Navy is no larger than at present, it must be considered as an elementary principle that the bulk of our battle fleet must always be kept together. When the Panama Canal is built it can be transferred without difficulty from one part of our coast to the other ; but even before that canal is built it ought to be thus transferred to and fro from time to time. In a couple of months our fleet of great armored ships starts for the Pacific. And State Papers i ^gy California, Oregon, and Washington have a coast line which is our coast line just as emphatically as the coast line of New York and Maine, of Louisiana and Texas. Our fleet is going to its own home waters in the Pacific, and after a stay there it will return to its own home waters in the Atlantic. The best place for a naval officer to learn his duties is at sea, by performing them, and only by actually putting through a voyage of this nature, a voyage longer than any ever before undertaken by as large a fleet of any nation, can we find out just exactly what is necessary for us to know as to our naval needs, and practice our officers and enlisted men in the highest duties of their profession. Among all our citizens there is no body of equal size to whom we owe quite as much as to the officers and en- listed men of the Army and Navy of the United States, and I bespeak from you the fullest and heartiest support, in the name of our Nation and of our flag, for the services to which these men belong. In conclusion I wish to say a word to this body, containing as it does so many business men, upon what is pre-eminently a business proposition, and that is the proper national supervision and control of corporations. At the meeting of the American Bar Association in this last August, Judge Charles F. Amidon of North Dakota read a paper on the Nation and the Constitution so admirable that it is deserving of very wide study; for what he said was, as all studies of law in its highest form ought to 1398 Presidential Addresses be, a contribution to constructive jurisprudence as it should be understood not only by judges but by legislators, not only by those who interpret and decide the law, but by those who make it and who administer or execute it. He quoted from the late Justice Miller of the Supreme Court to show that even in the interpretation of the Constitution by this, the highest authority of the land, the court's successive decisions must be tested by the way they work in actual application to the national life; the court adding to its thought and study the results of experience and observation until the true solu- tion is evolved by a process both of inclusion and exclusion. Said Justice Miller : "The meaning of the Constitution is to be sought as much in the na- tional life as in the dictionary;" for, as has been well said, government purely out of a law library can never be really good government. Now that the questions of government are be- coming so largely economic, the majority of our so-called constitutional cases really turn not upon the interpretation of the instrument itself, but upon the construction, the right apprehension of the liv- ing conditions to which it is to be applied. The Constitution is now and must remain what it always has been; but it can only be interpreted as the in- terests of the whole people demand, if interpreted as a living organism, designed to meet the condi- tions of life and not of death; in other words, if interpreted as Marshall interpreted it, as Wilson declared it should be interpreted. The Marshall And State Papers M99 theory, the theory of life and not of death, allows to the Nation, that is to the people as a whole, when once it finds a subject within the national cognizance, the widest and freest choice of methods for national control, and sustains every exercise of national power which has any reasonable relation to national objects. The negation of this theory means, for instance, that the Nation — that we, the ninety millions of people of this country — will be left helpless to control the huge corporations which now domineer in our industrial life, and that they will have the authority of the courts to work their desires unchecked; and such a decision would in the end be as disastrous for them as for us. If the theory of the Marshall school prevails, then an immense field of national power, now unused, will be developed, which will be adequate for deal- ing with many, if not all, of the economic prob- lems which vex us; and we shall be saved from the ominous threat of a constant oscillation between economic tyranny and economic chaos. Our indus- trial, and therefore our social, future as a Nation depends upon settling aright this urgent question. The Constitution is unchanged and unchangeable save by amendment in due form. But the condi- tions to which it is to be applied have undergone a change which is almost a transformation, with the result that many subjects formerly under the control of the States have come under the control of the Nation. As one of the justices of the Supreme Court has recently said: "The growth of national II—il 1400 Presidential Addresses powers, tinder our Constitution, which marks merely the great outlines and designates only the great objects of national concern, is to be compared to the growth of a country not by the geographical en- largement of its boundaries, but by the increase of its population." A hundred years ago there was, except the commerce which crawled along our sea- coast or up and down our interior waterways, prac- tically no interstate commerce. Now, by the rail- road, the mails, the telegraph, and the telephone an immense part of our commerce is interstate. By the transformation it has escaped from the power of the State and come under the power of the Nation. Therefore there has been a great practical change in the exercise of the national power, under the acts of Congress, over interstate commerce ; while on the other hand there has been no noticeable change in the exercise of the national power "to regulate com- merce with foreign nations and with the Indian tribes." The change as regards interstate commerce has been, not in the Constitution, but in the business of the people to which it is to be applied. Our economic and social future depends in very large part upon how the interstate commerce power of the Nation is interpreted. I believe that the Nation has the whole govern- mental power over interstate commerce and the widest discretion in dealing with that subject; of course under the express limits prescribed in the Constitution for the exercise of all powers, such, for instance, as the condition that "due process of law" And State Papers 1401 shall not be denied. The Nation has no direct power over purely intrastate commerce, even where it is conducted by the same agencies which conduct interstate commerce. The courts must determine what is National and what is State commerce. The same reasoning which sustained the power of Con- gress to incorporate the United States Bank tends to sustain the power to incorporate an interstate railroad, or any other corporation conducting an interstate business. There are difficulties arising from our dual form of government. If they prove to be insuperable re- sort must be had to the power of amendment. Let us first try to meet them by an exercise of all the powers of the National Government which in the Marshall spirit of broad interpretation can be found in the Constitution as it is. They are of vast extent. The chief economic question of the day in this coun- try is to provide a sovereign for the great corpora- tions engaged in interstate business ; that is, for the railroads and the interstate industrial corporations. At the moment our prime concern is with the rail- roads. When railroads were first built they were purely local in character. Their boundaries were not coextensive even with the boundaries of one State. They usually covered but two or three counties. All this has now changed. At present five great systems embody nearly four-fifths of the total mileage of the country. All the most impor- tant railroads are no longer State roads, but instru- ments of interstate commerce. Probably eighty-five 1402 Presidential Addresses per cent of their business is interstate business. It is the Nation alone which can with wisdom, justice, and effectiveness exercise over these interstate rail- roads the thorough and complete supervision which should be exercised. One of the chief, and probably the chief, of the domestic causes for the adoption of the Constitution was the need to confer upon the Nation exclusive control over interstate commerce. But this grant of power is worthless unless it is held to confer thoroughgoing and complete control over practically the sole instrumentalities of in- terstate commerce — the interstate railroads. The railroads themselves have been exceedingly short- sighted in the rancorous bitterness which they have shown against the resumption by the Nation of this long- neglected power. Great capitalists, who pride themselves upon their extreme conservatism, often believe they are acting in the interests of property when following a course so shortsighted as to be really an assault upon property. They have shown extreme unwisdom in their violent opposition to the assumption of complete control over the railroads by the Federal Government. The American people will not tolerate the happy-go-lucky system of no control over the great interstate railroads, with the insolent and manifold abuses which have so gener- ally accompanied it. The control must exist some- where; and unless it is by thoroughgoing and radi- cal law placed upon the statute books of the Nation, it will be exercised in ever-increasing measure by the several States. The same considerations which And State Papers 1403 made the founders of the Constitution deem it im- perative that the Nation should have complete con- trol of interstate commerce apply with peculiar force to the control of interstate railroads at the present day; and the arguments of Madison of Vir- ginia, Pinckney of South Carolina, and Hamilton and Jay of New York, in their essence apply now as they applied one hundred and twenty years ago. The national convention which framed the Con- stitution, and in which almost all the most eminent of the first generation of American statesmen sat, embodied the theory of the instrument in a resolu- tion, to the effect that the National Government should have power in cases where the separate States were incompetent to act with full efficiency, and where the harmony of the United States would be interrupted by the exercise of such individual legis- lation. The interstate railroad situation is exactly a case in point. There will, of course, be local mat- ters affecting railroads which can best be dealt with by local authority, but as national commercial agents the big interstate railroad ought to be completely subject to national authority. Only thus can we se- cure their complete subjection to, and control by, a single sovereign, representing the whole people, and capable both of protecting the public and of seeing that the railroads neither inflict nor endure injustice. Personally I firmly believe that there should be national legislation to control all industrial corpora- tions doing an interstate business, including the con- trol of the output of their securities, but as to these 1404 Presidential Addresses the necessity for Federal control is less urgent and immediate than is the case with the railroads. Many of the abuses connected with these corporations will probably tend to disappear now that the Government — the public — is gradually getting the upper hand as regards putting a stop to the rebates and special privileges which some of these corporations have enjoyed at the hands of the common carriers. But ultimately it will be found that the complete remedy for these abuses lies in direct and affirmative action by the National Government. That there is con- stitutional power for the national regulation of these corporations I have myself no question. Two or three generations ago there was just as much hos- tility to national control of banks as there is now to national control of railroads or of industrial corporations doing an interstate business. That hostility now seems to us ludicrous in its lack of warrant ; in like manner, gentlemen, our descendants will regard with wonder the present opposition to giving the National Government adequate power to control those great corporations, which it alone can fully, and yet wisely, safely, and justly control. Re- member also that to regulate the formation of these corporations offers one of the most direct and effi- cient methods of regulating their activities. I am not pleading for an extension of constitu- tional power. I am pleading that constitutional power which already exists shall be applied to new conditions which did not exist when the Constitu- tion went into being. I ask that the national powers And State Papers 1405 already conferred upon the National Government by the Constitution shall be so used as to bring national commerce and industry effectively under the authority of the Federal Government and thereby avert industrial chaos. My plea is not to bring about a condition of centralization. It is that the Govern- ment shall recognize a condition of centralization in a field where it already exists. When the national banking law was passed it represented in reality not centralization, but recognition of the fact that the country had so far advanced that the currency was already a matter of national concern and must be dealt with by the central authority at Washington. So it is with interstate industrialism and especially with the matter of interstate railroad operation to- day. Centralization has already taken place in the world of commerce and industry. All I ask is that the National Government look this fact in the face, accept it as a fact, and fit itself accordingly for a policy of supervision and control over this central- ized commerce and industry. AT CAIRO, ILL, OCTOBER 3, 1907 Men of Illinois, and you, Men of Kentucky and Missouri: I am glad to have the chance to speak to you to- day. This is the heart of what may be called the Old West, which we now call the Middle West, using the term to denote that great group of rich and powerful States which literally forms the heart of the country. It is a region whose people are dis- 1406 Presidential Addresses tinctively American in all their thoughts, in all their ways of looking at life ; and in its past and its pres- ent alike it is typical of our country. The oldest men present can still remember the pioneer days, the days of the white-tilted ox wagon, of the emi- grant, and of the log cabin in which that emigrant first lived when he settled to his task as a pioneer farmer. They were rough days, days of hard work, and the people who did that work seemed themselves uncouth and forbidding to visitors who could not look below the surface. It is curious and amusing to think that even as genuine a lover of his kind, a man normally so free from national prejudices as Charles Dickens, should have selected the region where we are now standing as the seat of his for- lorn "Eden" in "Martin Chuzzlewit." The country he so bitterly assailed is now one of the most fertile and productive portions of one of the most fertile and productive agricultural territories in all the world, and the dwellers in this territory represent a higher average of comfort, intelligence, and sturdy capacity for self-government than the people in any tract of like extent in any other continent. The land teems with beauty and fertility, and but a score of years after Dickens wrote it was shown to be a nursery and breeding ground of heroes, of soldiers and statesmen of the highest rank, while the rugged worth of the rank and file of the citizenship rendered possible the deeds of the mighty men who led in council and in battle. This was the region that brought forth mighty Abraham Lincoln, the incar- And State Papers l A-°7 nation of all that is best in democratic life ; and from the loins of the same people, living only a little far- ther south, sprang another of our greatest Presi- dents, Andrew Jackson — "Old Hickory" — a man who made mistakes, like most strong men, but a man of iron will and incorruptible integrity, fear- less, upright, devoted to the welfare of his country- men, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, a typical American if ever there was one. I commend a careful reading of "Martin Chuz- zlewit" to the pessimists of to-day, to the men who, instead of fighting hard to do away with abuses while at the same time losing no jot of their buoyant hopefulness for the country, insist that all our peo- ple, socially and industrially, in their private lives no less than as politicians, newspaper men, and busi- ness men, are at a lower ebb than ever before. If ever any one of you feels a little downcast over the peculiarly gloomy view of the present taken by some well-meaning pessimist of to-day, you will find it a real comfort to read "Martin Chuzzle- wit," to see what a well-meaning pessimist of the past thought of our people sixty-five years ago ; and then think of the extraordinary achievement, the extraordinary gain, morally no less than ma- terially, of those sixty-five years. Dickens can be read by us now with profit; Elijah Pogram, Han- hoHop, Jefferson Brick, and Scadder have their representatives &-dzy>, pj«ni.y ( l our resources in place of a haphazard striving for immediate profit. Our great river systems should be developed as National water highways ; the Mis- sissippi, with its tributaries, standing first in impor- tance, and the Columbia second, although there are many others of importance on the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Gulf slopes. The National Gov- ernment should undertake this work, and I hope a beginning will be made in the present Congress, and the greatest of all our rivers, the Mississippi, should receive especial attention. From the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi there should be a deep waterway, with deep waterways leading from it to the East and West. Such a waterway would practically mean the extension of our coast line into the very heart of our country, it would be of incalculable benefit to our people. If begun at once it can be carried through in time appreci- ably to relieve the congestion of our great freight- carrying lines of railroads. The work should be systematically and continuously carried forward in accordance with some well-conceived plan. The main streams should be improved to the highest point of efficiency before the improvement of the branches is attempted ; and the work should be kept free from every taint of recklessness or jobbery. The inland waterways which lie just back of the whole eastern and southern coasts should likewise be developed. Moreover, the development of our waterways involves many other important water problems, all of which should be considered as part 1536 Presidential Addresses of the same general scheme. The Government dams should be used to produce hundreds of thousands of horse-power as an incident to improving navi- gation; for the annual value of the unused water- power of the United States perhaps exceeds the annual value of the products of all our mines. As an incident to creating the deep waterway down the Mississippi, the Government should build along its whole lower length levees which, taken together with the control of the headwaters, will at once and forever put a complete stop to all threat of floods in the immensely fertile Delta region. The terri- tory lying adjacent to the Mississippi along its lower course will thereby become one of the most prosperous and populous, as it already is one of the most fertile, farming regions in all the world. I have appointed an Inland Waterways Commission to study and outline a comprehensive scheme of development along all the lines indicated. Later I shall lay its report before the Congress. Irrigation should be far more extensively devel- oped than at present, not only in the States of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, but in many others, as, for instance, in large portions of the South Atlantic and Gulf States, where it should go hand in hand with the reclamation of swamp land. The Federal Government should seriously devote itself to this task, realizing that utilization of waterways and water-power, forestry, irrigation, and the reclamation of lands threatened with overflow, And State Papers l 5T,7 are all interdependent parts of the same problem. The work of the Reclamation Service in developing the larger opportunities of the western half of our country for irrigation is more important than almost any other movement. The constant purpose of the Government in connection with the Recla- mation Service has been to use the water resources of the public lands for the ultimate greatest good of the greatest number; in other words, to put upon the land permanent home-makers, to use and de- velop it for themselves and for their children and children's children. There has been, of course, opposition to this work ; opposition from some inter- ested men who desire to exhaust the land for their own immediate profit without regard to the welfare of the next generation, and opposition from honest and well-meaning men who did not fully understand the subject or who did not look far enough ahead. This opposition is, I think, dying away, and our people are understanding that it would be utterly wrong to allow a few individuals to exhaust for their own temporary personal profit the resources which ought to be developed through use so as to be conserved for the permanent common advantage of the people as a whole. The effort of the Government to deal with the public land has been based upon the same principle as that of the Reclamation Service. The land law system which was designed to meet the needs of the fertile and well-watered regions of the Middle West has 1538 Presidential Addresses largely broken down when applied to the dryer re- gions of the Great Plains, the mountains, and much of the Pacific Slope, where a farm of 160 acres is inadequate for self-support. In these regions the system lent itself to fraud, and much land passed out of the hands of the Government without pass- ing into the hands of the home-maker. The De- partment of the Interior and the Department of Justice joined in prosecuting the offenders against the law; and they have accomplished much, while where the administration of the law has been defec- tive it has been changed. But the laws themselves are defective. Three years ago a public lands com- mission was appointed to scrutinize the law, and defects, and recommend a remedy. Their exami- nation specifically showed the existence of great fraud upon the public domain, and their recommen- dations for changes in the law were made with the design of conserving the natural resources of every part of the public lands by putting it to its best use. Especial attention was called to the prevention of settlement by the passage of great areas of public lands into the hands of a few men, and to the enormous waste caused by unrestricted grazing upon the open range. The recommendations of the Public Lands Commission are sound, for they are especially in the interest of the actual home-maker ; and where the small home-maker can not at present utilize the land they provide that the Government shall keep control of it so that it may not be mo- nopolized by a few men. The Congress has not And State Papers J^O yet acted upon these recommendations; but they are so just and proper, so essential to our National welfare, that I feel confident, if the Congress will take time to consider them, that they will ultimately be adopted. Some such legislation as that proposed is essential in order to preserve the great stretches of public grazing land which are unfit for cultivation under present methods and are valuable only for the for- age which they supply. These stretches amount in all to some 300,000,000 acres, and are open to the free grazing of cattle, sheep, horses, and goats, without restriction. Such a system, or rather such lack of system, means that the range is not so much used as wasted by abuse. As the West settles the range becomes more and more over-grazed. Much of it can not be used to advantage unless it is fenced, for fencing is the only way by which to keep in check the owners of nomad flocks which roam hither and thither, utterly destroying the pastures and leaving a waste behind so that their presence is incompatible with the presence of home- makers. The existing fences are all illegal. Some of them represent the improper exclusion of actual settlers, actual home-makers, from territory which is usurped by great cattle companies. Some of them represent what is in itself a proper effort to use the range for those upon the land, and to prevent its use by nomadic outsiders. All these fences, those that are hurtful and those that are beneficial, are alike illegal and must come down. But it is an out- 154° Presidential Addresses rage that the law should necessitate such action on the part of the Administration. The unlawful fencing of public lands for private grazing must be stopped, but the necessity which occasioned it must be provided for. The Federal Government should have control of the range, whether by permit or lease, as local necessities may determine. Such control could secure the great benefit of legitimate fencing, while at the same time securing and pro- moting the settlement of the country. In some places it may be that the tracts of range adjacent to the homesteads of actual settlers should be al- lotted to them severally or in common for the sum- mer grazing of their stock. Elsewhere it may be that a lease system would serve the purpose; the leases to be temporary and subject to the rights of settlement, and the amount charged being large enough merely to permit of the efficient and bene- ficial control of the range by the Government, and of the payment to the county of the equivalent of what it would otherwise receive in taxes. The de- struction of the public range will continue until some such laws as these are enacted. Fully to pre- vent the fraud in the public lands which, through the joint action of the Interior Department and the Department of Justice, we have been endeavoring to prevent, there must be further legislation, and especially a sufficient appropriation to permit the Department of the Interior to examine certain classes of entries on the ground before they pass into private ownership. The Government should And State Papers 1541 part with its title only to the actual home-maker, not to the profit-maker who does not care to make a home. Our prime object is to secure the rights and guard the interests of the small ranchman, the man who plows and pitches hay for himself. It is this small ranchman, this actual settler and home- maker, who in the long run is most hurt by permit- ting thefts of the public land in whatever form. Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inex- haustible; this is not so. The mineral wealth of the country, the coal, iron, oil, gas, and the like, does not reproduce itself, and therefore is certain to be exhausted ultimately; and wastefulness in dealing with it to-day means that our descendants will feel the exhaustion a generation or two before they otherwise would. But there are certain other forms of waste which could be entirely stopped — the waste of soil by washing, for instance, which is among the most dangerous of all wastes now in progress in the United States, is easily preventable, so that this present enormous loss of fertility is entirely unnecessary. The preservation or replace- ment of the forests is one of the most important means of preventing this loss. We have made a beginning in forest preservation, but it is only a beginning. At present lumbering is the fourth greatest industry in the United States ; and yet, so rapid has been the rate of exhaustion of timber in I 542 Presidential Addresses the United States in the past, and so rapidly is the remainder being exhausted, that the country is un- questionably on the verge of a timber famine which will be felt in every household in the land. There has already been a rise in the price of lumber, but there is certain to be a more rapid and heavier rise in the future. The present annual consumption of lumber is certainly three times as great as the an- nual growth; and if the consumption and growth continue unchanged, practically all our lumber will be exhausted in another generation, while long be- fore the limit to complete exhaustion is reached the growing scarcity will make itself felt in many blighting ways upon our national welfare. About 20 per cent of our forested territory is now reserved in national forests; but these do not include the most valuable timber lands, and in any event the proportion is too small to expect that the reserves can accomplish more than a mitigation of the trouble which is ahead for the Nation. Far more drastic action is needed. Forests can be lumbered so as to give to the public the full use of their mercantile timber without the slightest detriment to the forest, any more than it is a detriment to a farm to furnish a harvest ; so that there is no paral- lel between forests and mines, which can only be completely used by exhaustion. But forests, if used as all our forests have been used in the past and as most of them are still used, will be either wholly destroyed, or so damaged that many decades have to pass before effective use can be made of them And State Papers i 543 again. All these facts are so obvious that it is extraordinary that it should be necessary to repeat them. Every business man in the land, every writer in the newspapers, every man or woman of an ordi- nary school education, ought to be able to see that immense quantities of timber are used in the coun- try, that the forests which supply this timber are rapidly being exhausted, and that, if no change takes place, exhaustion will come comparatively soon, and that the effects of it will be felt severely in the every-day life of our people. Surely, when these facts are so obvious, there should be no delay in taking preventive measures. Yet we seem as a Nation to be willing to proceed in this matter with happy-go-lucky indifference even to the immediate future. It is this attitude which permits the self- interest of a very few persons to weigh for more than the ultimate interest of all our people. There are persons who find it to their immense pecuniary benefit to destroy the forests by lumbering. They are to be blamed for thus sacrificing the future of the Nation as a whole to their own self-interest of the moment; but heavier blame attaches to the peo- ple at large for permitting such action, whether in the White Mountains, in the southern Alleghenies, or in the Rockies and Sierras. A big lumbering company, impatient for immediate returns and not caring to look far enough ahead, will often delib- erately destroy all the good timber in a region, hoping afterward to move on to some new country. The shiftless man of small means, who does not 11—17 i 544 Presidential Addresses care to become an actual home-maker but would like immediate profit, will find it to his advantage to take up timber land simply to turn it over to such a big company, and leave it valueless for future settlers. A big mine owner, anxious only to de- velop his mine at the moment, will care only to cut all the timber that he wishes without regard to the future — probably not looking ahead to the con- dition of the country when the forests are ex- hausted, any more than he does to the condition when the mine is worked out. I do not blame these men nearly as much as I blame the supine public opinion, the indifferent public opinion, which per- mits their action to go unchecked. Of course to check the waste of timber means that there must be on the part of the public the acceptance of a tem- porary restriction in the lavish use of the timber, in order to prevent the total loss of this use in the future. There are plenty of men in public and pri- vate life who actually advocate the continuance of the present system of unchecked and wasteful ex- travagance, using as an argument the fact that to check it will of course mean interference with the ease and comfort of certain people who now get lumber at less cost than they ought to pay, at the expense of the future generations. Some of these persons actually demand that the present forest re- serves be thrown open to destruction, because, for- sooth, they think that thereby the price of lumber could be put down again for two or three or more years. Their attitude is precisely like that of an And State Papers ! 545 agitator protesting against the outlay of money by farmers on manure and in taking care of their farms generally. Undoubtedly, if the average farmer were content absolutely to ruin his farm, he could for two or three years avoid spending any money on it, and yet make a good deal of money out of it. But only a savage would, in his private affairs, show such reckless disregard of the future ; yet it is precisely this reckless disregard of the future which the opponents of the forestry system are now endeavoring to get the people of the United States to show. The only trouble with the movement for the preservation of our forests is that it has not gone nearly far enough, and was not begun soon enough. It is a most fortunate thing, however, that we began it when we did. We should acquire in the Appalachian and White Mountain regions all the forest lands that it is possible to acquire for the use of the Nation. These lands, because they form a National asset, are as emphatically Na- tional as the rivers which they feed, and which flow through so many States before they reach the ocean. There should be no tariff on any forest product grown in this country; and, in especial, there should be no tariff on wood pulp ; due notice of the change being of course given to those engaged in the business so as to enable them to adjust themselves to the new conditions. The repeal of the duty on wood pulp should if possible be accompanied by an I 546 Presidential Addresses agreement with Canada that there shall be no ex- port duty on Canadian pulp wood. In the eastern United States the mineral fuels have already passed into the hands of large private owners, and those of the West are rapidly follow- ing. It is obvious that these fuels should be con- served and not wasted, and it would be well to protect the people against unjust and extortionate prices, so far as that can still be done. What has been accomplished in the great oil fields of the In- dian Territory by the action of the Administration offers a striking example of the good results of such a policy. In my judgment the Government should have the right to keep the fee of the coal, oil, and gas fields in its own possession and to lease the rights to develop them under proper regulations ; or else, if the Congress will not adopt this method, the coal deposits should be sold under limitations, to conserve them as public utilities, the right to mine coal being separated from the title to the soil. The regulations should permit coal lands to be worked in sufficient quantity by the several corporations. The present limitations have been absurd, excessive, and serve no useful purpose, and often render it necessary that there should be either fraud or else abandonment of the work of getting out the coal. Work on the Panama Canal is proceeding in a highly satisfactory manner. In March last. John F. Stevens, chairman of the Commission and chief And State Papers i 547 engineer, resigned, and the Commission was reor- ganized and constituted as follows : Lieutenant- Colonel George W. Goethals, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, chairman and chief engineer; Major D, D. Gaillard, Corps of Engineers, United States Army; Major William L. Sibert. Corps of Engineers, United States Army; Civil Engineer H. H. Rousseau, United States Navy; Mr. J. C. S. Blackburn ; Colonel W. C. Gorgas, United States Army, and Mr. Jackson Smith, Commissioners. This change of authority and direction went into effect on April 1, without causing a perceptible check to the progress of the work. In March the total excavation in the Culebra Cut, where effort was chiefly concentrated, was 815,270 cubic yards. In April this was increased to 879,527 cubic yards. There was a considerable decrease in the output for May and June owing partly to the advent of the rainy season and partly to temporary trouble with the steam-shovel men over the question of wages. This trouble was settled satisfactorily to all parties, and in July the total excavation advanced materially, and in August the grand total from all points in the canal prism by steam shovels and dredges exceeded all previous United States records, reaching 1,274,- 404 cubic yards. In September this record was eclipsed, and a total of 1,517.412 cubic yards \va> removed. Of this amount 1,481,307 cubic yards were from the canal prism and 36,105 cubic yards were from accessory works. These results were achieved in the rainy season with a rainfall in Au- 1548 Presidential Addresses gust of 11.89 inches and in September of 11.65 inches. Finally, in October, the record was again eclipsed, the total excavation being 1,868,729 cubic yards ; a truly extraordinary record, especially in view of the heavy rainfall, which was 17.1 inches. In fact, experience during the last two rainy seasons demonstrates that the rains are a less serious obstacle to progress than has hitherto been supposed. Work on the locks and dams at Gatun, which began actively in March last, has advanced so far that it is thought that masonry work on the locks can be begun within fifteen months. In order to remove all doubt as to the satisfactory character of the foundations for the locks of the canal, the Secretary of War requested three eminent civil engi- neers, of special experience in such construction, Alfred Noble, Frederic P. Stearns, and John R. Freeman, to visit the Isthmus and make thorough personal investigations of the sites. These gentle- men went to the Isthmus in April, and by means of test pits which had been dug for the purpose, they inspected the proposed foundations, and also ex- amined the borings that had been made. In their report to the Secretary of War, under date of May 2, 1907, they said : ''We found that all of the locks, of the dimensions now proposed, will rest upon rock of such character that it will furnish a safe and stable foundation." Subsequent new borings, conducted by the present Commission, have fully confirmed this verdict. They show that the locks And State Papers i 549 will rest on rock for their entire length. The cross- section of the dam and method of construction will be such as to insure against any slip or sloughing off. Similar examination of the foundations of the locks and dams on the Pacific side are in progress. I believe that the locks should be made of a width of 120 feet. Last winter bids were requested and received for doing the work of canal construction by contract. None of them was found to be satisfactory and all were rejected. It is the unanimous opinion of the present Commission that the work can be done better, more cheaply, and more quickly by the Gov- ernment than by private contractors. Fully 80 per cent of the entire plant needed for construction has been purchased or contracted for; machine shops have been erected and equipped for making all needed repairs to the plant ; many thousands of em- ployees have been secured; an effective organiza- tion has been perfected ; a recruiting system is in operation which is capable of furnishing more labor than can be used advantageously; employees are well sheltered and well fed ; salaries paid are satis- factory, and the work is not only going forward smoothly, but it is producing results far in advance of the most sanguine anticipations. Under these favorable conditions, a change in the method of prosecuting the work would be unwise and unjusti- fiable, for it would inevitably disorganize existing conditions, check progress, and increase the cost and lengthen the time of completing the canal. 155° Presidential Addresses The chief engineer and all his professional associ- ates are firmly convinced that the 85 foot level lock canal which they are constructing is the best that could be desired. Some of them had doubts on this point when they went to the Isthmus. As the plans have developed under their direction their doubts have been dispelled. While they may decide upon changes in detail as construction advances, they are in hearty accord in approving the general plan. They believe that it provides a canal not only adequate to all demands that will be made upon it but superior in every way to a sea-level canal. I concur in this belief. I commend to the favorable consideration of the Congress a postal savings bank system, as recom- mended by the Postmaster-General. The primary object is to encourage among our people economy and thrift and by the use of postal savings banks to give them an opportunity to husband their re- sources, particularly those who have not the facili- ties at hand for depositing their money in savings banks. Viewed, however, from the experience of the past few weeks, it is evident that the advantages of such an institution are still more far-reaching. Timid depositors have withdrawn their savings for the time being from national banks, trust companies, and savings banks; individuals have hoarded their cash and the workingmen their earnings; all of which money has been witheld and kept in hiding or in the safe deposit box to the detriment of pros- And State Papers l 55* perity. Through the agency of the postal savings banks such money would be restored to the channels of trade, to the mutual benefit of capital and labor. I further commend to the Congress the consider- ation of the Postmaster-General's recommendation for an extension of the parcel post, especially on the rural routes. There are now 38.215 rural routes, serving nearly 15,000,000 people who do not have the advantages of the inhabitants of cities in obtain- ing their supplies. These recommendations have been drawn up to benefit the farmer and the country storekeeper; otherwise. I should not favor them, for I believe that it is good policy for our Government to do everything possible to aid the small town and the country district. It is desirable that the country merchant should not be crushed out. The fourth-class postmasters' convention has passed a very strong resolution in favor of placing the fourth-class postmasters under the civil-service law. The Administration has already put into effect the policy of refusing to remove any fourth-class postmasters save for reasons connected with the good of the service; and it is endeavoring so far as possible to remove them from the domain of par- tisan politics. It would be a most desirable thing to put the fourth-class postmasters in the classified service. It is possible that this might be done with- out Congressional action but, as the matter is de- batable, I earnestly recommend that the Congress enact a law providing that they be included under the civil-service law and put in the classified service. 1 5 5 2 Presidential Addresses Oklahoma has become a State, standing on a full equality with her elder sisters, and her future is assured by her great natural resources. The duty of the National Government to guard the personal and property rights of the Indians within her borders remains of course unchanged. I reiterate my recommendations of last year as regards Alaska. Some form of local self-govern- ment should be provided, as simple and inexpensive as possible; it is impossible for the Congress to devote the necessary time to all the little details of necessary Alaskan legislation. Road building and railway building should be encouraged. The Gov- ernor of Alaska should be given an ample appropria- tion wherewith to organize a force to preserve the public peace. Whiskey selling to the natives should be made a felony. The coal land laws should be changed so as to meet the peculiar needs of the Territory. This should be attended to at once ; for the present laws permit individuals to locate large areas of the public domain for speculative purposes ; and cause an immense amount of trouble, fraud, and litigation. There should be another judicial division established. As early as possible lighthouses and buoys should be established as aids to navigation, especially in and about Prince William Sound, and the survey of the coast completed. There is need of liberal appropriations for lighting and buoying the southern coast and improving the aids to navi- gation in southeastern Alaska. One of the great And State Papers '553 industries of Alaska, as of Puget Sound and the Columbia, is salmon fishing. Gradually, by reason of lack of proper laws, this industry is being ruined; it should now be taken in charge, and effectively protected, by the United States Government. The courage and enterprise of the citizens of the far Northwest in their projected Alaska-Yukon- Pacific Exposition, to be held in 1909. should re- ceive liberal encouragement. This exposition is not sentimental in its conception, but seeks to exploit the natural resources of Alaska and to promote the commerce, trade, and industry of the Pacific States with their neighboring States and with our insular possessions and the neighboring countries of the Pacific. The exposition asks no loan from the Con- gress but seeks appropriations for National exhibits and exhibits of the Western dependencies of the General Government. The State of Washington and the city of Seattle have shown the characteristic Western enterprise in large donations for the con- duct of this exposition in which other States are lending generous assistance. The unfortunate failure of the shipping bill at the last session of the last Congress was followed by the taking off of certain Pacific steamships, which has greatly hampered the movement of passengers between Hawaii and the mainland. Unless the Con- gress is prepared by positive encouragement to secure proper facilities in the way of shipping between Hawaii and the mainland, then the coast- 1554 Presidential Addresses wise shipping laws should be so far relaxed as to prevent Hawaii suffering as it is now suffering. I again call your attention to the capital importance from every standpoint of making Pearl Harbor available for the largest deep-water vessels, and of suitably fortifying the island. The Secretary of War has gone to the Philip- pines. On his return I shall submit to you his report on the islands. I again recommend that the rights of citizenship be conferred upon the people of Porto Rico. A bureau of mines should be created under the control and direction of the Secretary of the In- terior ; the bureau to have power to collect statistics and make investigations in all matters pertaining to mining and particularly to the accidents and dangers of the industry. If this can not now be done, at least additional appropriations should be given the Interior Department to be used for the study of mining conditions, for the prevention of fraudulent mining schemes, for carrying on the work of mapping the mining districts, for studying methods for minimizing the accidents and dangers in the industry; in short, to aid in all proper ways the development of the mining industry. I strongly recommend to the Congress to provide funds for keeping up the Hermitage, the home of And State Papers ^555 Andrew Jackson; these funds to be used through the existing Hermitage Association for the preser- vation of a historic building which should ever be dear to Americans. I further recommend that a naval monument be established in the Vicksburg National Park. This national park gives a unique opportunity for com- memorating the deeds of those gallant men who fought on water, no less than of those who fought on land, in the great civil war. Legislation should be enacted at the present ses- sion of the Congress for the Thirteenth Census. The establishment of the permanent Census Bureau affords the opportunity for a better census than we have ever had, but in order to realize the full ad- vantage of the permanent organization, ample time must be given for preparation. There is a constantly growing interest in this country in the question of the public health. At last the public mind is awake to the fact that many dis- eases, notably tuberculosis, are National scourges. The work of the State and city boards of health should be supplemented by a constantly increasing interest on the part of the National Government. The Congress has already provided a bureau of public health and has provided for a hygienic laboratory. There are other valuable laws relating to the public health connected with the various 1556 Presidential Addresses departments. This whole branch of the Govern- ment should be strengthened and aided in every way. I call attention to two Government commissions which I have appointed and which have already done excellent work. The first of these has to do with the organization of the scientific work of the Government, which has grown up wholly without plan and is in consequence so unwisely distributed among the Executive Departments that much of its effect is lost for the lack of proper co-ordination. This commission's chief object is to introduce a planned and orderly development and operation in the place of the ill-assorted and often ineffective grouping and methods of work which have prevailed. This can not be done without legislation, nor would it be feasible to deal in detail with so complex an ad- ministrative problem by specific provisions of law. I recommend that the President be given authority to concentrate related lines of work and reduce duplication by Executive order through transfer and consolidation of lines of work. The second committee, that on Department methods, was instructed to investigate and report upon the changes needed to place the conduct of the executive force of the Government on the most economical and effective basis in the light of the best modern business practice. The committee has made very satisfactory progress. Antiquated practices and bureaucratic ways have been abolished, and a . And State Papers 1557 general renovation of departmental methods has been inaugurated. All that can be done by Execu- tive order has already been accomplished or will be put into effect in the near future. The work of the main committee and its several assistant com- mittees has produced a wholesome awakening on the part of the great body of officers and employees engaged in Government work. In nearly every Department and office there has been a careful self- inspection for the purpose of remedying any defects before they could be made the subject of adverse criticism. This has led individuals to a wider study of the work on which they were engaged, and this study has resulted in increasing their efficiency in their respective lines of work. There are recommendations of special importance from the committee on the subject of personnel and the clas- sification of salaries which will require legislative action before they can be put into effect. It is my intention to submit to the Congress in the near future a special message on those subjects. Under our form of government voting is not merely a right but a duty, and, moreover, a funda- mental and necessary duty if a man is to be a good citizen. It is well to provide that corporations shall not contribute to Presidential or National campaigns, and furthermore to provide for the publication of both contributions and expenditures. There is, however, always danger in laws of this kind, which from their very nature are difficult of enforcement; 1558 Presidential Addresses the danger being lest they be obeyed only by the honest, and disobeyed by the unscrupulous, so as to act only as a penalty upon honest men. More- over, no such law would hamper an unscrupulous man of unlimited means from buying his own way into office. There is a very radical measure which would, I believe, work a substantial improvement in our system of conducting a campaign, although I am well aware that it will take some time for people so to familiarize themselves with such a proposal as to be willing to consider its adoption. The need for collecting large campaign funds would vanish if Congress provided an appropriation for the proper and legitimate expenses of each of the great national parties, an appropriation ample enough to meet the necessity for thorough organ- ization and machinery, which requires a large expenditure of money. Then the stipulation should be made that no party receiving campaign funds from the Treasury should accept more than a fixed amount from any individual subscriber or donor; and the necessary publicity for receipts and ex- penditures could without difficulty be provided. There should be a National gallery of art estab- lished in the capital city of this country. This is important not merely to the artistic but to the material welfare of the country; and the people are to be congratulated on the fact that the movement to establish such a gallery is taking definite form under the guidance of the Smithsonian Institution. // And State Papers 1559 So far from there being a tariff on works of art brought into the country, their importation should be encouraged in every way. There have been no sufficient collections of objects of art by the Govern- ment, and what collections have been acquired are scattered and are generally placed in unsuitable and imperfectly lighted galleries. The Biological Survey is quietly working for the good of our agricultural interests, and is an excel- lent example of a Government bureau which con- ducts original scientific research the findings of which are of much practical utility. For more than twenty years it has studied the food habits of birds and mammals that are injurious or beneficial to agriculture, horticulture, and forestry; has distrib- uted illustrated bulletins on the subject, and has labored to secure legislative protection for the bene- ficial species. The cotton boll-weevil, which has recently overspread the cotton belt of Texas and is steadily extending its range, is said to cause an annual loss of about $3,000,000. The Biological Survey has ascertained and given wide publicity to the fact that at least 43 kinds of birds prey upon this destructive insect. It has discovered that 57 species of birds feed upon scale-insects — dreaded enemies of the fruit grower. It has shown that woodpeckers as a class, by destroying the larvae of wood-boring insects, are so essential to tree life that it is doubtful if our forests could exist without them. It has shown that cuckoos and orioles are 1560 Presidential Addresses the natural enemies of the leaf-eating caterpillars that destroy our shade and fruit trees; that our quails and sparrows consume annually hundreds of tons of seeds of noxious weeds; that hawks and owls as a class (excepting the few that kill poultry and game birds) are markedly beneficial, spending their lives in catching grasshoppers, mice, and other pests that prey upon the products of husbandry. It has conducted field experiments for the purpose of devising and perfecting simple methods for holding in check the hordes of destructive rodents — rats, mice, rabbits, gophers, prairie dogs, and ground squirrels — which annually destroy crops worth many millions of dollars; and it has published practical directions for the destruction of wolves and coyotes on the stock ranges of the West, re- sulting during the past year in an estimated saving of cattle and sheep valued at upward of a million dollars. It has inaugurated a system of inspection at the principal ports of entry on both Atlantic and Pacific Coasts by means of which the introduction of nox- ious mammals and birds is prevented, thus keeping out the mongoose and certain birds which are as much to be dreaded as the previously introduced English sparrow and the house rats and mice. In the interest of game protection it has co-oper- ated with local officials in every State in the Union, has striven to promote uniform legislation in the several States, has rendered important service in enforcing the Federal law regulating interstate And State Papers 1561 traffic in game, and has shown how game protec- tion may be made to yield a large revenue to the State — a revenue amounting in the case of Illinois to $128,000 in a single year. The Biological Survey has explored the faunas and floras of America with reference to the distri- bution of animals and plants; it has defined and mapped the natural life areas — areas in which, by reason of prevailing climatic conditions, certain kinds of animals and plants occur — and has pointed out the adaptability of these areas to the cultivation of particular crops. The results of these investi- gations are not only of high educational value but are worth each year to the progressive farmers of the country many times the cost of maintaining the Survey, which, it may be added, is exceedingly small. I recommend to Congress that this bureau, whose usefulness is seriously handicapped by lack of funds, be granted an appropriation in some de- gree commensurate with the importance of the work it is doing. I call your especial attention to the unsatisfac- tory condition of our foreign mail service, which because of the lack of American steamship lines is now largely done through foreign lines, and which, particularly so far as South and Central America are concerned, is done in a manner which consti- tutes a serious barrier to the extension of our commerce. The time has come, in my judgment, to set to 1562 Presidential Addresses work seriously to make Our ocean mail service cor- respond more closely with our recent commercial and political development. A beginning was made by the ocean mail act of March 3, 1891, but even at that time the act was known to be inadequate in various particulars. Since that time events have moved rapidly in our history. We have acquired Hawaii, the Philippines, and lesser islands in the Pacific. We are steadily prosecuting the great work of uniting at the Isthmus the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific. To a greater extent than seemed probable even a dozen years ago, we may look to an American future on the sea worthy of the tradi- tions of our past. As the first step in that direc- tion, and the step most feasible at the present time, I recommend the extension of the ocean mail act of 1 89 1. That act has stood for some years free from successful criticism of its principle and purpose. It was based on theories of the obligations of a great maritime nation, undisputed in our own land and followed by other nations since the beginning of steam navigation. Briefly those theories are, that it is the duty of a first-class power so far as prac- ticable to carry its ocean mails under its own flag ; that the fast ocean steamships and their crews, re- quired for such mail service, are valuable auxil- iaries to the sea power of a nation. Furthermore, the construction of such steamships insures the maintenance in an efficient condition of the ship- yards in which our battleships must be built. The expenditure of public money for the per- And State Papers 1 563 forma nee of such necessary functions of government is certainly warranted, nor is it necessary to dwell upon the incidental benefits to our foreign com- merce, to the shipbuilding industry, and to ship owning and navigation which will accompany the discharge of these urgent public duties, though they, too, should have weight. The only serious question is whether at this time we can afford to improve our ocean mail service as it should be improved. All doubt on this subject is removed by the reports of the Post-Office Depart- ment. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1907, that Department estimates that the postage collected on the articles exchanged with foreign countries other than Canada and Mexico amounted to $6,579,- 043.48, or $3,637,226.81 more than the net cost of the service exclusive of the cost of transporting the articles between the United States exchange post- offices and the United States post-offices at which they were mailed or delivered. In other words, the Government of the United States, having assumed a monopoly of carrying the mails for the people, is making a profit of over $3,600,000 by rendering a cheap and inefficient service. That profit I believe should be devoted to strengthening our maritime power in those directions where it will best promote our prestige. The country is familiar with the facts of our maritime impotence in the harbors of the great and friendly republics of South America. Following the failure of the shipbuilding bill we lost our only American line of steamers to Austral- I 564 Presidential Addresses asia, and that loss on the Pacific has become a seri- ous embarrassment to the people of Hawaii, and has wholly cut off the Samoan Islands from regular communication with the Pacific Coast. Puget Sound, in the year, has lost over half (four out of seven) of its American steamers trading with the Orient. We now pay under the act of 1891 $4 a statute mile outward to 20-knot American mail steamships, built according to naval plans, available as cruisers, and manned by Americans. Steamships of that speed are confined exclusively to transatlantic trade with New York. To steamships of 16 knots or over only $2 a mile can be paid, and it is steam- ships of this speed and type which are needed to meet the requirements of mail service to South America, Asia (including the Philippines), and Australia. I strongly recommend, therefore, a simple amendment to the ocean mail act of 189 1 which shall authorize the Postmaster-General in his discretion to enter into contracts for the transpor- tation of mails to the republics of South America, to Asia, the Philippines, and Australia at a rate not to exceed $4 a mile for steamships of 16 knots speed or upward, subject to the restrictions and obliga- tions of the act of 1891. The profit of $3,600,000 which has been mentioned will fully cover the maxi- mum annual expenditure involved in this recom- mendation, and it is believed will in time establish the lines so urgently needed. The proposition in- volves no new principle, but permits the efficient And State Papers l S^S discharge of public functions now inadequately per- formed or not performed at all. Not only there is not now, but there never has been, any other nation in the world so wholly free from the evils of militarism as is ours. There never has been any other large nation, not even China, which for so long a period has had relatively to its numbers so small a regular army as has ours. Never at any time in our history has this Nation suffered from militarism or been in the remotest danger of suffering from militarism. Never at any time of our history has the Regular Army been of a size which caused the slightest appreciable tax upon the tax-paying citizens of the Nation. Almost always it has been too small in size and underpaid. Never in our entire history has the Nation suffered in the least particular because too much care has been given to the Army, too much prominence given it, too much money spent upon it, or because it has been too large. But again and again we have suffered because enough care has not been given to it, because it has been too small, because there has not been sufficient preparation in advance for possible war. Every foreign war in which we have engaged has cost us many times the amount which, if wisely expended during the preceding years of peace on the Regular Army, would have ensured the war ending in but a fraction of the time and but for a fraction of the cost that was actually the case. As a Nation we have always 1566 Presidential Addresses been shortsighted in providing for the efficiency of the Army in time of peace. It is nobody's espe- cial interest to make such provision and no one looks ahead to war at any period, no matter how remote, as being a serious possibility; while an improper economy, or rather niggardliness, can be practiced at the expense of the Army with the certainty that those practicing it will not be called to account therefor, but that the price will be paid by the un- fortunate persons who happen to be in office when a war does actually come. I think it is only lack of foresight that troubles us, not any hostility to the Army. There are, of course, foolish people who denounce any care of the Army or Navy as "militarism," but I do not think that these people are numerous. This coun- try has to contend now, and has had to contend in the past, with many evils, and there is ample scope for all who would work for reform. But there is not one evil that now exists, or that ever has ex- isted in this country, which is, or ever has been, owing in the smallest part to militarism. Declama- tion against militarism has no more serious place in an earnest and intelligent movement for right- eousness in this country than declamation against the worship of Baal or Ashtaroth. It is declamation against a non-existent evil, one which never has existed in this country, and which has not the slight- est chance of appearing here. We are glad to help in any movement for international peace, but this is because we sincerely believe that it is our duty to And State Papers i 567 help all such movements provided they are sane and rational, and not because there is any tendency toward militarism on our part which needs to be cured. The evils we have to fight are those in con- nection with industrialism, not militarism. Indus- try is always necessary, just as war is sometimes necessary. Each has its price, and industry in the United States now exacts, and has always exacted, a far heavier toll of death than all our wars put together. The statistics of the railroads of this country for the year ended June 30, 1906, the last contained in the annual statistical report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, show in that one year a total of 108,324 casualties to persons, of which 10.618 represent the number of persons killed. In that wonderful hive of human activity, Pittsburg, the deaths due to industrial accidents in 1906 were 919. all the results of accidents in mills, mines, or on railroads. For the entire country, therefore, it is safe to say that the deaths due to industrial accidents aggregate in the neighborhood of twenty thousand a year. Such a record makes the death rate in all our foreign wars utterly trivial by comparison. The number of deaths in battle in all the foreign wars put together, for the last cen- tury and a quarter, aggregate considerably less than one year's death record for our industries. A mere glance at these figures is sufficient to show the absurdity of the outcry against militarism. But again and again in the past our little Regular Army has rendered service literally vital to the 1 1 — 18 1568 Presidential Addresses country, and it may at any time have to do so in the future. Its standard of efficiency and instruction is higher now than ever in the past. But it is too small. There are not enough officers; and it is impossible to secure enough enlisted men. We should maintain in peace a fairly complete skeleton of a large army. A great and long-continued war would have to be fought by volunteers. But months would pass before any large body of effi- cient volunteers could be put in the field, and our Regular Army should be large enough to meet any immediate need. In particular it is essential that we should possess a number of extra officers trained in peace to perform efficiently the duties urgently required upon the breaking out of war. The Medical Corps should be much larger than the needs of our Regular Army in war. Yet at present it is smaller than the needs of the service demand even in peace. The Spanish War occurred less than ten years ago. The chief loss we suf- fered in it was by disease among the regiments which never left the country. At the moment the Nation seemed deeply impressed by this fact; yet seemingly it has already been forgotten, for not the slightest effort has been made to prepare a medical corps of sufficient size to prevent the repe- tition of the same disaster on a much larger scale if we should ever be engaged in a serious conflict. The trouble in the Spanish War was not with the then existing officials of the War Department; it was with the representatives of the people as a And State Papers i 569 whole, who, for the preceding thirty years, had de- clined to make the necessary provision for the Army. Unless ample provision is now made by Congress to put the Medical Corps where it should be put, disaster in the next war is inevitable, and the responsibility will not lie with those then in charge of the War Department, but with those who now decline to make the necessary provision. A well-organized medical corps, thoroughly trained before the advent of war in all the important ad- ministrative duties of a military sanitary corps, is essential to the efficiency of any large army, and especially of a large volunteer army. Such knowl- edge of medicine and surgery as is possessed by the medical profession generally will not alone suffice to make an efficient military surgeon. He must have, in addition, knowledge of the administration and sanitation of large field hospitals and camps, in order to safeguard the health and lives of men intrusted in great numbers to his care. A bill has long been pending before the Congress for the re- organization of the Medical Corps; its passage is urgently needed. But the Medical Department is not the only de- partment for which increased provision should be made. The rate of pay for the officers should be greatly increased ; there is no higher type of citizen than the American regular officer, and he should have a fair reward for his admirable work. There should be a relatively even greater increase in the pay for the enlisted men. In especial provision 157° Presidential Addresses should be made for establishing grades equivalent to those of warrant officers in the Navy which should be open to the enlisted men who serve suffi- ciently long and who do their work well. Induce- ments should be offered sufficient to encourage really good men to make the Army a life occupation. The prime need of our present Army is to secure and retain competent non-commissioned officers. This difficulty rests fundamentally on the question of pay. The non-commissioned officer does not correspond with an unskilled laborer; he corre- sponds to the best type of skilled workman or to the subordinate official in civil institutions. Wages have greatly increased in outside occupations in the last forty years, and the pay of the soldier, like the pay of the officers, should be proportionately in- creased. The first sergeant of a company, if a good man, must be one of such executive and adminis- trative ability, and such knowledge of his trade, as to be worth far more than we at present pay him. The same is true of the regimental sergeant-major. These men should be men who had fully resolved to make the Army a life occupation, and they should be able to look forward to ample reward ; while only men properly qualified should be given a chance to secure these final rewards. The increase over the present pay need not be great in the lower grades for the first one or two enlistments, but the increase should be marked for the non-commissioned officers of the upper grades who serve long enough to make it evident that they intend to stay permanently in And State Papers 1571 the Army, while additional pay should be given for high qualifications in target practice. The position of warrant officer should be established and there should be not only an increase of pay, but an in- crease of privileges and allowances and dignity, so as to make the grade open to non-commissioned officers capable of filling them desirably from every standpoint. The rate of desertion in our Army now in time of peace is alarming. The deserter should be treated by public opinion as a man guilty of the greatest crime ; while, on the other hand, the man who serves steadily in the Army should be treated as what he is, that is, as pre-eminently one of the best citizens of this Republic. After twelve years' service in the Army my own belief is that the man should be given a preference according to his ability for certain types of office over all civilian applicants without examination. This should also apply, of course, to the men who have served twelve years in the Navy. A special corps should be pro- vided to do the manual labor now necessarily de- manded of the privates themselves. Among the officers there should be severe exami- nations to weed out the unfit up to the grade of major. From that position on appointments should be solely by selection and it should be understood that a man of merely average capacity could never get beyond the position of major, while every man who serves in any grade a certain length of time prior to promotion to the next grade without get- ting the promotion to the next grade should be 1 572 Presidential Addresses forthwith retired. The practice marches and field manoeuvres of the last two or three years have been invaluable to the Army. They should be continued and extended. A rigid and not a perfunctory ex- amination of physical capacity has been provided for the higher grade officers. This will work well. Unless an officer has a good physique, unless he can stand hardship, ride well, and walk fairly, he is not fit for any position, even after he has become a colonel. Before he has become a colonel the need for physical fitness in the officer is almost as great as in the enlisted man. I hope speedily to see in- troduced into the Army a far more rigid and thor- ough-going test of horsemanship for all field officers than at present. There should be a Chief of Cavalry just as there is a Chief of Artillery. Perhaps the most important of all legislation needed for the benefit of the Army is a law to equalize and increase the pay of officers and en- listed men of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Revenue-Cutter Service. Such a bill has been pre- pared, which it is hoped will meet with your favor- able consideration. The next most essential meas- ure is to authorize a number of extra officers as mentioned above. To make the Army more attrac- tive to enlisted men, it is absolutely essential to create a service corps, such as exists in nearly every modern army in the world, to do the skilled and unskilled labor, inseparably connected with military administration, which is now exacted, without just compensation, of enlisted men who voluntarily en- And State Papers l S7% tered the Army to do service of an altogether dif- ferent kind. There are a number of other laws nec- essary to so organize the Army as to promote its efficiency and facilitate its rapid expansion in time of war ; but the above are the most important. It was hoped the Hague Conference might deal with the question of the limitation of armaments. But even before it had assembled informal inquiries had developed that as regards naval armaments, the only ones in which this country had any interest, it was hopeless to try to devise any plan for which there was the slightest possibility of securing the assent of the nations gathered at The Hague. No plan was even proposed which would have had the assent of more than one first-class Power outside of the United States. The only plan that seemed at all feasible, that of limiting the size of battle- ships, met with no favor at all. It is evident, there- fore, that it is folly for this Nation to base any hope of securing peace on any international agree- ment as to the limitation of armaments. Such being the fact, it would be most unwise for us to stop the upbuilding of our Navy. To build one battleship of the best and most advanced type a year would barely keep our fleet up to its present force. This is not enough. In my judgment, we should this year provide for four battleships. But it is idle to build warships unless in addition to providing the men. and the means for thorough training, we provide the auxiliaries for them, unless we provide i 574 Presidential Addresses docks, the coaling stations, the colliers and supply ships that they need. We are extremely deficient in coaling stations and docks on the Pacific, and this deficiency should not longer be permitted to exist. Plenty of torpedo boats and destroyers should be built. Both on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, for- tifications of the best type should be provided for all our greatest harbors. We need always to remember that in time of war the Navy is not to be used to defend harbors and seacoast cities; we should perfect our system of coast fortifications. The only efficient use for the Navy is for offence. The only way in which it can efficiently protect our own coast against the possible action of a foreign navy is by destroying that foreign navy. For defence against a hostile fleet which actually attacks them, the coast cities must depend upon their forts, mines, torpedoes, sub- marines, and torpedo boats and destroyers. All of these together are efficient for defensive purposes, but they in no way supply the place of a thoroughly efficient navy capable of acting on the offensive; for parrying never yet won a fight. It can only be won by hard hitting, and an aggressive sea-going navy alone can do this hard hitting of the offensive type. But the forts and the like are necessary so that the warships may be footloose. In time of war there is sure to be demand, under pressure of fright, for the ships to be scattered so as to defend all kinds of ports. Under penalty of terrible disaster, this de- mand must be refused. The ships must be kept And State Papers l $75 together, and their objective made the enemy's fleet. If fortifications are sufficiently strong, no modern navy will venture to attack them, so long as the foe has in existence a hostile navy of anything like the same size or efficiency. But unless there exists such a navy, then the fortifications are powerless by themselves to secure the victory. For of course the mere deficiency means that any resolute enemy can at his leisure combine all his forces upon one point with the certainty that he can take it. Until our battle fleet is much larger than at pres- ent it should never be split into detachments so far apart that they could not in event of emergency be speedily united. Our coast line is on the Pacific just as much as on the Atlantic. The interests of California, Oregon, and Washington are as em- phatically the interests of the whole Union as those of Maine and New York, of Louisiana and Texas. The battle fleet should now and then be moved to the Pacific, just as at other times it should be kept in the Atlantic. When the Isthmian Canal is built the transit of the battle fleet from one ocean to the other will be comparatively easy. Until it is built I earnestly hope that the battle fleet will be thus shifted between the two oceans every year or two. The marksmanship on all our ships has improved phenomenally during the last five years. Until within the last two or three years it was not pos- sible to train a battle fleet in squadron manoeuvres under service conditions, and it is only during these last two or three years that the training under these 1576 Presidential Addresses conditions has become really effective. Another and most necessary stride in advance is now being taken. The battle fleet is about starting by the Straits of Magellan to visit the Pacific Coast. Sixteen battle- ships are going under the command of Rear-Admi- ral Evans, while eight armored cruisers and two other battleships will meet him at San Francisco, whither certain torpedo destroyers are also going. No fleet of such size has ever made such a voyage, and it will be of very great educational use to all engaged in it. The only way by which to teach officers and men how to handle the warships so as to meet every possible strain and emergency in time of war is to have them practice under similar con- ditions in time of peace. Moreover, the only way to find out our actual needs is to perform in time of peace whatever manoeuvres might be necessary in time of war. After war is declared it is too late to find out the needs ; that means to invite disaster. This trip to the Pacific will show what some of our needs are and will enable us to provide for them. The proper place for an officer to learn his duty is at sea, and the only way in which a navy can ever be made efficient is by practice at sea, under all the conditions which would have to be met if war existed. I bespeak the most liberal treatment for the offi- cers and enlisted men of the Navy. It is true of them, as likewise of the officers and enlisted men of the Army, that they form a body whose interests should be close to the heart of every good Ameri- And State Papers l 577 can. In return the most rigid performance of duty should be exacted from them. The reward should be ample when they do their best; and nothing less than their best should be tolerated. It is idle to hope for the best results when the men in the senior grades come to those grades late in life and serve too short a time in them. Up to the rank of lieu- tenant-commander promotion in the Navy should be as now, by seniority, subject, however, to such rigid tests as would eliminate the unfit. After the grade of lieutenant-commander, that is, when we come to the grade of command rank, the unfit should be eliminated in such manner that only the conspicuously fit would remain, and sea service should be a principal test of fitness. Those who are passed by should, after a certain length of ser- vice in their respective grades, be retired. Of a given number of men it may well be that almost all would make good lieutenants and most of them good lieutenant-commanders, while only a minority will be fit to be captains, and but three or four to be admirals. Those who object to promotion other- wise than by mere seniority should reflect upon the elementary fact that no business in private life could be successfully managed if those who enter at the lowest rungs of the ladder should each in turn, if he lived, become the head of the firm, its active director, and retire after he had held the position a few months. On its face such a scheme is an absurdity. Chances for improper favoritism can be minimized by a properly formed board ; such as 1578 Presidential Addresses the board of last June, which did such conscientious and excellent work in elimination. If all that ought to be done can not now be done, at least let a beginning be made. In my last three annual Messages, and in a special Message to the last Congress, the necessity for legislation that will cause officers of the line of the Navy to reach the grades of captain and rear-admiral at less advanced ages and which will cause them to have more sea training and experience in the highly responsible duties of those grades, so that they may become thoroughly skillful in handling warships, divisions, squadrons, and fleets in action, has been fully ex- plained and urgently recommended. Upon this subject the Secretary of the Navy has submitted detailed and definite recommendations which have received my approval, and which, if enacted into law, will accomplish what is immediately necessary, and will, as compared with existing law, make a saving of more than five millions of dollars during the next seven years. The navy personnel act of 1899 has accomplished all that was expected of it in providing satisfactory periods of service in the several subordinate grades, from the grade of en- sign to the grade of lieutenant-commander, but the law is inadequate in the upper grades and will con- tinue to be inadequate on account of the expansion of the personnel since its enactment. Your atten- tion is invited to the following quotations from the report of the personnel board of 1906, of which the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was president : And State Papers J 579 "Congress has authorized a considerable increase in the number of midshipmen at the Naval Acad- emy, and these midshipmen upon graduation are promoted to ensign and lieutenant (junior grade). But no provision has been made for a correspond- ing increase in the upper grades, the result being that the lower grades will become so congested that a midshipman now in one of the lowest classes at Annapolis may possibly not be promoted to lieu- tenant until he is between 45 and 50 years of age. So it will continue under the present law, congest- ing at the top and congesting at the bottom. The country fails to get from the officers of the service the best that is in them by not providing opportu- nity for their normal development and training. The board believes that this works a serious detri- ment to the efficiency of the Navy and is a real menace to the public safety." As stated in my special Message to the last Con- gress : "I am firmly of the opinion that unless the present conditions of the higher commissioned per- sonnel is rectified by judicious legislation the future of our Navy will be gravely compromised." It is also urgently necessary to increase the efficiency of the Medical Corps of the Navy. Special legislation to this end has already been proposed; and I trust it may be enacted without delay. It must be remembered that everything done in the Navy to fit it to do well in time of war must be done in time of peace. Modern wars are short; they do not last the length of time requisite to build 1580 Presidential Addresses a battleship ; and it takes longer to train the officers and men to do well on a battleship than it takes to build it. Nothing effective can be done for the Navy once war has begun, and the result of the war, if the combatants are otherwise equally matched, will depend upon which power has pre- pared best in time of peace. The United States Navy is the best guaranty the Nation has that its honor and interest will not be neglected; and in addition it offers by far the best insurance for peace that can by human ingenuity be devised. I call attention to the report of the official Board of Visitors to the Naval Academy at Annapolis which has been forwarded to the Congress. The report contains this paragraph : "Such revision should be made of the courses of study and methods of conducting and marking ex- aminations as will develop and bring out the aver- age all-round ability of the midshipman rather than to give him prominence in any one particular study. The fact should be kept in mind that the Naval Academy is not a university but a school, the primary object of which is to educate boys to be efficient naval officers. Changes in curriculum, therefore, should be in the direction of making the course of instruction less theoretical and more prac- tical. No portion of any future class should be graduated in advance of the full four years' course, and under no circumstances should the standard of instruction be lowered. The Academy in al- most all of its departments is now magnificently And State Papers i 58 1 equipped, and it would be very unwise to make the course of instruction less exacting than it is to-day." Acting upon this suggestion I designated three sea-going officers, Captain Richard Wainwright, Commander Robert S. Griffin, and Lieutenant- Commander Albert L. Key, all graduates of the Academy, to investigate conditions and to recom- mend to me the best method of carrying into effect this general recommendation. These officers per- formed the duty promptly and intelligently, and, under the personal direction of Captain Charles J. Badger, Superintendent of the Academy, such of the proposed changes as were deemed to be at present advisable were put into effect at the beginning of the academic year, October 1, last. The results, I am confident, will be most beneficial to the Academy, to the midshipmen, and to the Navy. In foreign affairs this country's steady policy is to behave toward other nations as a strong and self- respecting man should behave toward the other men with whom he is brought into contact. In other words, our aim is disinterestedly to help other nations where such help can be wisely given without the appearance of meddling with what does not concern us; to be careful to act as a good neigh- bor ; and at the same time, in good-natured fashion, to make it evident that we do not intend to be imposed upon. 1582 Presidential Addresses The Second International Peace Conference was convened at The Hague on the 15th of June last and remained in session until the 18th of October. For the first time the representatives of practically all the civilized countries of the world united in a temperate and kindly discussion of the methods by which the causes of war might be narrowed and its injurious effects reduced. Although the agreements reached in the Con- ference did not in any direction go to the length hoped for by the more sanguine, yet in many direc- tions important steps were taken, and upon every subject on the program there was such full and considerate discussion as to justify the belief that substantial progress has been made toward further agreements in the future. Thirteen conventions were agreed upon embodying the definite conclu- sions which had been reached, and resolutions were adopted marking the progress made in matters upon which agreement was not yet sufficiently complete to make conventions practicable. The delegates of the United States were in- structed to favor an agreement for obligatory arbitration, the establishment of a permanent court of arbitration to proceed judicially in the hearing and decision of international causes, the prohibition of force for the collection of contract debts alleged to be due from governments to citizens of other countries until after arbitration as to the justice and amount of the debt and the time and manner of payment, the immunity of private property at And State Papers *5%3 sea, the better definition of the rights of neutrals, and. in case any measure to that end should be introduced, the limitation of armaments. In the field of peaceful disposal of international differences several important advances were made. First, as to obligatory arbitration. Although the Conference failed to secure a unanimous agreement upon the details of a convention for obligatory arbitration, it did resolve as follows: "It is unanimous : ( i ) In accepting the principle for obligatory arbitration; (2) In declaring that certain differences, and notably those relating to the interpretation and application of international conventional stipulations, are susceptible of being submitted to obligatory arbitration without any re- striction." In view of the fact that as a result of the dis- cussion the vote upon the definite treaty of obliga- tory arbitration which was proposed, stood 32 in favor to 9 against the adoption of the treaty, there can be little doubt that the great majority of the countries of the world have reached a point where they are now ready to apply practically the princi- ples thus unanimously agreed upon by the Con- ference. The second advance, and a very great one, is the agreement which relates to the use of force for the collection of contract debts. Your attention is in- vited to the paragraphs upon this subject in my message of December, 1906, and to the resolution of the Third American Conference at Rio in the 1584 Presidential Addresses summer of 1906. The convention upon this subject adopted by the Conference substantially as proposed by the American delegates is as follows : "In order to avoid between nations armed con- flicts of a purely pecuniary origin arising from contractual debts claimed of the government of one country by the government of another country to be due to its nationals the signatory powers agree not to have recourse to armed force for the collec- tion of such contractual debts. "However, this stipulation shall not be applicable when the debtor state refuses or leaves unanswered an offer to arbitrate, or, in case of acceptance, makes it impossible to formulate the terms of submission, or, after arbitration, fails to comply with the award rendered. "It is further agreed that arbitration here con- templated shall be in conformity, as to procedure, with Chapter III of the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes adopted at The Hague, and that it shall determine, in so far as there shall be no agreement between the parties, the justice and the amount of the debt, the time and mode of payment thereof." Such a provision would have prevented much injustice and extortion in the past, and I can not doubt that its effect in the future will be most salutary. A third advance has been made in amending and perfecting the convention of 1899 f° r trie voluntary settlement of international disputes, and And State Papers l S^S particularly the extension of those parts of that con- vention which relate to commissions of inquiry. The existence of those provisions enabled the Gov- ernments of Great Britain and Russia to avoid war, notwithstanding great public excitement, at the time of the Dogger Bank incident, and the new convention agreed upon by the Conference gives practical effect to the experience gained in that inquiry. Substantial progress was also made toward the creation of a permanent judicial tribunal for the determination of international causes. There was very full discussion of the proposal for such a court and a general agreement was finally reached in favor of its creation. The Conference recom- mended to the signatory powers the adoption of a draft upon which it agreed for the organization of the court, leaving to be determined only the method by which the judges should be selected. This re- maining unsettled question is plainly one which time and good temper will solve. A further agreement of the first importance was that for the creation of an international prize court. The constitution, organization, and procedure of such a tribunal were provided for in detail. Any one who recalls the injustices under which this country suffered as a neutral power during the early part of the last century can not fail to see in this provision for an international prize court the great advance which the world is making toward the substitution of the rule of reason and justice in 1586 Presidential Addresses place of simple force. Not only will the interna- tional prize court be the means of protecting the interests of neutrals, but it is in itself a step toward the creation of the more general court for the hearing of international controversies to which reference has just been made. The organization and action of such a prize court can not fail to accustom the different countries to the submission of international questions to the decision of an' international tribunal, and we may confidently ex- pect the results of such submission to bring about a general agreement upon the enlargement of the practice. Numerous provisions were adopted for reducing the evil effects of war and for defining the rights and duties of neutrals. The Conference also provided for the holding of a third Conference within a period similar to that which elapsed between the First and Second Con- ferences. The delegates of the United States worthily represented the spirit of the American people and maintained with fidelity and ability the policy of our Government upon all the great questions dis- cussed in the Conference. The report of the delegation, together with authenticated copies of the conventions signed, when received, will be laid before the Senate for its con- sideration. When we remember how difficult it is for one of our own legislative bodies, composed of citizens of And State Papers i 587 the same country, speaking the same language, living under the same laws, and having the same customs, to reach an agreement, or even to secure a majority upon any difficult and important subject which is proposed for legislation, it becomes plain that the representatives of forty-five different countries, speaking many different languages, ac- customed to different methods of procedure, with widely diverse interests, who discussed so many different subjects and reached agreements upon so many, are entitled to grateful appreciation for the wisdom, patience, and moderation with which they have discharged their duty. The example of this temperate discussion, and the agreements and the efforts to agree, among representatives of all the nations of the earth, acting with universal recog- nition of the supreme obligation to promote peace, can not fail to be a powerful influence for good in future international relations. A year ago in consequence of a revolutionary movement in Cuba which threatened the immediate return to chaos of the island, the United States intervened, sending down an army and establishing a provisional government under Governor Magoon. Absolute quiet and prosperity have returned to the island because of this action. We are now taking- steps to provide for elections in the islands and our expectation is within the coming year to be able to turn the island over again to a government chosen by the people thereof. Cuba is at our doors. It 1588 Presidential Addresses is not possible that this Nation should permit Cuba again to sink into the condition from which we rescued it. All that we ask of the Cuban people is that they be prosperous, that they govern them- selves so as to bring content, order and progress to their island, the Queen of the Antilles ; and our only interference has been and will be to help them achieve these results. An invitation has been extended by Japan to the Government and people of the United States to participate in a great national exposition to be held at Tokyo from April 1 to October 31, 191 2, and in which the principal countries of the world are to be invited to take part. This is an occasion of spe- cial interest to all the nations of the world, and peculiarly to us ; for it is the first instance in which such a great national exposition has been held by a great power dwelling on the Pacific; and all the nations of Europe and America will, I trust, join in helping to success this first great exposition ever held by a great nation of Asia. The geographical relations of Japan and the United States as the pos- sessors of such large portions of the coasts of the Pacific, the intimate trade relations already exist- ing between the two countries, the warm friendship which has been maintained between them without break since the opening of Japan to intercourse with the western nations, and her increasing wealth and production, which we regard with hearty good- will and wish to make the occasion of mutually bene- And State Papers ^89 ficial commerce, all unite in making it eminently desirable that this invitation should be accepted. I heartily recommend such legislation as will provide in generous fashion for the representation of this Government and its people in the proposed exposi- tion. Action should be taken now. We are apt to underestimate the time necessary for preparation in such cases. The invitation to the French Exposi- tion of 1900 was brought to the attention of the Congress by President Cleveland in December, 1 895 : and so many are the delays necessary to such proceedings that the period of four years and a half which then intervened before the exposition proved none too long for the proper preparation of the exhibits. The adoption of a new tariff by Germany, ac- companied by conventions for reciprocal tariff con- cessions between that country and most of the other countries of Continental Europe, led the German Government to give the notice necessary to termi- nate the reciprocal commercial agreement with this country proclaimed July 13, 1900. The notice was to take effect on the 1st of March, 1906, and in default of some other arrangements this would have left the exports from the United States to Germany subject to the general German tariff duties, from 25 to 50 per cent higher than the conventional duties imposed upon the goods of most of our competitors for German trade. Under a special agreement made between the 159° Presidential Addresses two Governments in February, 1906, the German Government postponed the operation of their notice until the 30th of June, 1907. In the mean time, deeming it to be my duty to make every possible effort to prevent a tariff war between the United States and Germany arising from misunderstand- ing by either country of the conditions existing in the other, and acting upon the invitation of the German Government, I sent to Berlin a commis- sion composed of competent experts in the opera- tion and administration of the customs tariff, from the Departments of the Treasury and Commerce and Labor. This commission was engaged for sev- eral months in conference with a similar commis- sion appointed by the German Government, under instructions, so far as practicable, to reach a com- mon understanding as to all the facts regarding the tariffs of the United States and Germany material and relevant to the trade relations between the two countries. The commission reported, and upon the basis of the report, a further temporary commercial agreement was entered into by the two countries, pursuant to which, in the exercise of the authority conferred upon the President by the third section of the tariff act of July 24, 1897, I extended the reduced tariff rates provided for in that section to champagne and all other sparkling wines, and pur- suant to which the German conventional or mini- mum tariff rates were extended to about 96^ per cent of all the exports from the United States to Germany. This agreement is to re- And State Papers i 59 1 main in force until the 30th of June, 1908, and until six months after notice by either party to terminate it. The agreement and the report of the commission on which it is based will be laid before the Congress for its information. This careful examination into the tariff relations between the United States and Germany involved an inquiry into certain of our methods of admin- istration which had been the cause of much com- plaint on the part of German exporters. In this inquiry I became satisfied that certain vicious and unjustifiable practices had grown up in our customs administration, notably the practice of determining values of imports upon detective reports never dis- closed to the persons whose interests were affected. The use of detectives, though often necessary, tends toward abuse, and should be carefully guarded. Under our practice as I found it to exist in this case, the abuse had become gross and discreditable. Under it. instead of seeking information as to the market value of merchandise from the well-known and respected members of the commercial commu- nity in the country of its production, secret state- ments were obtained from informers and discharged employees and business rivals, and upon this kind of secret evidence the values of imported goods were frequently raised and heavy penalties were frequently imposed upon importers who were never permitted to know what the evidence was and who never had an opportunity to meet it. It is quite 11—10 i 592 Presidential Addresses probable that this system tended toward an increase of the duties collected upon imported goods, but I conceive it to be a violation of law to exact more duties than the law provides, just as it is a viola- tion to admit goods upon the payment of less than the legal rate of duty. This practice was repugnant to the spirit of American law and to American sense of justice. In the judgment of the most competent experts of the Treasury Department and the De- partment of Commerce and Labor it was wholly unnecessary for the due collection of the customs revenues, and the attempt to defend it merely illus- trates the demoralization which naturally follows from a long-continued course of reliance upon such methods. I accordingly caused the regulations gov- erning this branch of the customs service to be modified so that values are determined upon a hearing in which all the parties interested have an opportunity to be heard and to know the evidence against them. Moreover, our Treasury agents are accredited to the government of the country in which they seek information, and in Germany re- ceive the assistance of the quasi-official chambers of commerce in determining the actual market value of goods, in accordance with what I am advised to be the true construction of the law. These changes of regulations were adapted to the removal of such manifest abuses that I have not felt that they ought to be confined to our relations with Germany ; and I have extended their operation And State Papers i 593 to all other countries which have expressed a desire to enter into similar administrative relations. I ask for authority to reform the agreement with China under which the indemnity of 1900 was fixed, by remitting and cancelling the obligation of China for the payment of all that part of the stipu- lated indemnity which is in excess of the sum of $1 1,655.492.69, and interest at four per cent. After the rescue of the foreign legations in Peking dur- ing the Boxer troubles in 1900 the powers required from China the payment of equitable indemnities to the several nations, and the final protocol under which the troops were withdrawn, signed at Pe- king, September 7, 1901, fixed the amount of this indemnity allotted to the United States at over $20,000,000, and China paid, up to and including the 1st day of June, last, a little over $6,000,000. It was the first intention of this Government at the proper time when all claims had been presented and all expenses ascertained as fully as possible, to re- vise the estimates and account, and as a proof of sincere friendship for China voluntarily to release that country from its legal liability for all payments in excess of the sum which should prove to be necessary for actual indemnity to the United States and its citizens. This Nation should help in every practicable way in the education of the Chinese people, so that the vast and populous Empire of China may gradually 1594 Presidential Addresses adapt itself to modern conditions. One way of doing this is by promoting the coming of Chinese students to this country and making it attractive to them to take courses at our universities and higher educational institutions. Our educators should, so far as possible, take concerted action toward this end. On the courteous invitation of the President of Mexico, the Secretary of State visited that coun- try in September and October and was received everywhere with the greatest kindness and hos- pitality. He carried from the Government of the United States to our southern neighbor a message of respect and good-will and of desire for better acquaintance and increasing friendship. The re- sponse from the Government and the people of Mexico was hearty and sincere. No pains were spared to manifest the most friendly attitude and feeling toward the United States. In view of the close neighborhood of the two countries the relations which exist between Mexico and the United States are just cause for gratifica- tion. We have a common boundary of over 1,500 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. Much of it is marked only by the shifting waters of the Rio Grande. Many thousands of Mexicans are residing upon our side of the line, and it is estimated that over 40,000 Americans are resident in Mexican territory and that American invest- And State Papers i 595 ments in Mexico amount to over $700,000,000. The extraordinary industrial and commercial pros- perity of Mexico has been greatly promoted by American enterprise, and Americans are sharing largely in its results. The foreign trade of the republic already exceeds $240,000,000 per annum, and of this two-thirds, both of exports and imports, are exchanged with the United States. Under these circumstances numerous questions necessarily arise between the two countries. These questions are always approached and disposed of in a spirit of mutual courtesy and fair dealing. Americans carrying on business in Mexico testify uniformly to the kindness and consideration with which thev are treated and their sense of the security of their property and enterprises under the wise administration of the great statesman who has so long held the office of Chief Magistrate of that republic. The two Governments have been uniting their efforts for a considerable time past to aid Central America in attaining the degree of peace and order which have made possible the prosperity of the northern parts of the Continent. After the peace between Guatemala, Honduras, and Salvador, cele- brated under the circumstances described in my last Message, a new war broke out between the repub- lics of Nicaragua. Honduras, and Salvador. The effort to compose this new difficulty has resulted in the acceptance of the joint suggestion of the Presi- dents of Mexico and of the United States for a 1596 Presidential Addresses general peace conference between all the countries of Central America. On the 17th day of September last a protocol was signed between the representa- tives of the five Central American countries accredited to this Government, agreeing upon a conference to be held in the City of Washington "in order to devise the means of preserving the good relations among said republics and bringing about permanent peace in those countries." The protocol includes the expression of a wish that the Presidents of the United States and Mexico should appoint "representatives to lend their good and impartial offices in a purely friendly way toward the realiza- tion of the objects of the conference." The con- ference is now in session and will have our best wishes and, where it is practicable, our friendly assistance. One of the results of the Pan-American Confer- ence at Rio Janeiro in the summer of 1906 has been a great increase in the activity and usefulness of the International Bureau of American Republics. That institution, which includes all the American republics in its membership and brings all their representatives together, is doing a really valuable work in informing the people of the United States about the other republics and in making the United States known to them. Its action is now limited by appropriations determined when it was doing a work on a much smaller scale and rendering much less valuable service. I recommend that the con- And State Papers 1597 tribution of this Government to the expenses of the Bureau be made commensurate with its increased work. MESSAGE COMMUNICATED TO THE TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS JANUARY 31, 1908 To the Senate and House of Representatives: The recent decision of the Supreme Court in regard to the Employers' Liability Act, the experi- ence of the Interstate Commerce Commission and of the Department of Justice in enforcing the In- terstate Commerce and Antitrust Laws, and the gravely significant attitude toward the law and its administration recently adopted by certain heads of great corporations, render it desirable that there should be additional legislation as regards certain of the relations between labor and capital, and between the great corporations and the public. The Supreme Court has decided the Employers' Liability Law to be unconstitutional because its terms apply to employees engaged wholly in in- trastate commerce as well as to employees engaged in interstate commerce. By a substantial majority the court holds that the Congress has power to deal with the question in so far as interstate commerce is concerned. As regards the Employers' Liability Law. I ad- vocate its immediate reenactment, limiting its scope so that it shall apply only to the class of cases as 1598 Presidential Addresses to which the court says it can constitutionally apply, but strengthening its provisions within this scope. Interstate employment being thus covered by an adequate national law, the field of intra- state employment will be left to the action of the several States. With this clear definition of responsibility the States will undoubtedly give to the performance of their duty within their field the consideration the importance of the subject demands. I also very urgently advise that a comprehensive act be passed providing for compensation by the Government to all employees injured in the Gov- ernment service. Under the present law an injured workman in the employment of the Government has no remedy, and the entire burden of the accident falls on the helpless man, his wife, and his young children. This is an outrage. It is a matter of humiliation to the Nation that there should not be on our statute books provision to meet and partially to atone for cruel misfortune when it comes upon a man through no fault of his own while faithfully serving the public. In no other prominent indus- trial country in the world could such gross injustice occur; for almost all civilized nations have enacted legislation embodying the complete recognition of the principle which places the entire trade risk for industrial accidents (excluding, of course, accidents due to wilful misconduct by the employee) on the industry as represented by the employer, which in this case is the Government. In all these coun- And State Papers 1 599 tries the principle applies to the Government just as much as to the private employer. Under no cir- cumstances should the injured employee or his sur- viving dependents be required to bring suit against the Government, nor should there be the require- ment that in order to ensure recovery negligence in some form on the part of the Government should be shown. Our proposition is not to confer a right of action upon the Government employee, but to secure him suitable provision against injuries re- ceived in the course of his employment. The bur- den of the trade risk should be placed upon the Government. Exactly as the workingman is en- titled to his wages, so he should be entitled to indemnity for the injuries sustained in the natural course of his labor. The rates of compensation and the regulations for its payment should be specified in the law, and the machinery for determining the amount to be paid should in each case be provided in such manner that the employee is properly rep- resented without expense to him. In other words, the compensation should be paid automatically, while the application of the law in the first instance should be vested in the Department of Commerce and Labor. The law should apply to all laborers, mechanics, and other civilian employees of the Government of the United States, including those in the service of the Panama Canal Commission and of the insular governments. The same broad principle which should apply to the Government should ultimately be made applica- 1600 Presidential Addresses ble to all private employers. Where the Nation has the power it should enact laws to this effect. Where the States alone have the power they should enact the laws. It is to be observed that an em- ployers' liability law does not really mean mulcting employers in damages. It merely throws upon the employer the burden of accident insurance against injuries which are sure to occur. It requires him either to bear or to distribute through insurance the loss which can readily be borne when distrib- uted, but which, if undistributed, bears with fright- ful hardship upon the unfortunate victim of acci- dent. In theory, if wages were always freely and fairly adjusted, they would always include an allow- ance as against the risk of injury, just as certainly as the rate of interest for money includes an al- lowance for insurance against the risk of loss. In theory, if employees were all experienced business men, they would employ that part of their wages which is received because of the risk of injury to secure accident insurance. But as a matter of fact, it is not practical to expect that this will be done by the great body of employees. An employers' liability law makes it certain that it will be done, in effect, by the employer, and it will ultimately impose no real additional burden upon him. There is a special bill to which I call your atten- tion. Secretary Taft has urgently recommended the immediate passage of a law providing for com- pensation to employees of the Government injured And State Papers 1601 in the work of the Isthmian canal, and that $100,000 be appropriated for this purpose each year. I earnestly hope this will be done; and that a special bill be passed covering- the case of Vardmaster Banton. who was injured nearly two years ago while doing his duty. He is now helpless to support his wife and his three little boys. I again call your attention to the need of some action in connection with the abuse of injunctions in labor cases. As regards the rights and wrongs of labor and capital, from blacklisting to boycot- ting, the whole subject is covered in admirable fashion by the report of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, which report should serve as a chart for the guidance of both legislative and executive officers. As regards injunctions, I can do little but repeat what I have said in my last message to the Congress. Even though it were possible, I should consider it most unwise to abolish the use of the process of injunction. It is necessary in order that the courts may maintain their own dignity, and in order that they may in effective manner check dis- order and violence. The judge who uses it cau- tiously and conservatively, but who. when the need arises, uses it fearlessly, confers the greatest service upon our people, and his preeminent usefulness as a public servant should be heartily recognized. But there is no question in my mind that it has some- times been used heedlessly and unjustly, and that some of the injunctions issued inflict grave and 1602 Presidential Addresses occasionally irreparable wrong upon those en- joined. It is all wrong to use the injunction to prevent the entirely proper and legitimate actions of labor organizations in their struggle for industrial better- ment, or under the guise of protecting property rights unwarrantably to invade the fundamental rights of the individual. It is futile to concede, as we all do, the right and the necessity of organ- ized effort on the part of wage-earners, and yet by injunctive process to forbid peaceable action to accomplish the lawful objects for which they are organized and upon which their success depends. The fact that the punishment for the violation of an injunction must, to make the order effective, necessarily be summary and without the interven- tion of a jury makes its issuance in doubtful cases a dangerous practice, and in itself furnishes a rea- son why the process should be surrounded with safeguards to protect individuals against being en- joined from exercising their proper rights. Rea- sonable notice should be given the adverse party. This matter is daily becoming of graver impor- tance, and I can not too urgently recommend that the Congress give careful consideration to the sub- ject. If some way of remedying the abuses is not found, the feeling of indignation against them among large numbers of our citizens will tend to grow so extreme as to produce a revolt against the whole use of the process of injunction. The ultra- conservatives who object to cutting out the abuses And State Papers ^03 will do well to remember that, if the popular feel- ing does become strong, many of those upon whom they rely to defend them will be the first to turn against them. Men of property can not afford to trust to anything save the spirit of justice and fan- play ; for those very public men who, while it is to their interest, defend all the abuses committed by capital and pose as the champions of conservatism, will, the moment they think their interest changes, take the lead in just such a matter as this and pan- der to what they esteem popular feeling by endeav- oring, for instance, effectively to destroy the power of the courts in matters of injunction; and will even seek to render nugatory the power to punish for contempt, upon which power the very existence of the orderly administration of justice depends. It is my purpose as soon as may be to submit some further recommendations in reference to our laws regulating labor conditions within the sphere of Federal authority. A very recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States rendered since this message was written, in the case of Adair v. United States, seemingly of far-reaching import and of very serious probable consequences, has modified the previously entertained views on the powers of the Congress in the premises to such a degree as to make necessary careful consideration of the opinions therein filed before it is possible definitely to decide in what way to call the matter to your attention. Not only should there be action on certain laws 1604 Presidential Addresses affecting wage-earners; there should also be such action on laws better to secure control over the great business concerns engaged in interstate com- merce, and especially over the great common car- riers. The Interstate Commerce Commission should be empowered to pass upon any rate or practice on its own initiative. Moreover, it should be provided that whenever the Commission has reason to be- lieve that a proposed advance in a rate ought not to be made without investigation, it should have authority to issue an order prohibiting the advance pending examination by the Commission. I would not be understood as expressing an opin- ion that any or even a majority of these advances are improper. Many of the rates in this country have been abnormally low. The operating expenses of our railroads, notably the wages paid railroad employees, have greatly increased. These and other causes may in any given case justify an advance in rates, and if so the advance should be permitted and approved. But there may be, and doubtless are, cases where this is not true ; and our law should be so framed that the Government, as the repre- sentative of the whole people, can protect the indi- vidual against unlawful exaction for the use of these public highways. The Interstate Commerce Commission should be provided with the means to make a physical valuation of any road as to which it deems this valuation necessary. In some form the Federal Government should exercise supervi- sion over the financial operations of our interstate And State Papers 1605 railroads. In no other way can justice be done between the private owners of those properties and the public which pay their charges. When once an inflated capitalization has gone upon the market and has become fixed in value, its existence must be rec- ognized. As a practical matter it is then often ab- solutely necessary to take account of the thousands of innocent stockholders who have purchased their stock in good faith. The usual result of such infla- tion is therefore to impose upon the public an un- necessary but everlasting tax, while the innocent purchasers of the stock are also harmed and only a few speculators are benefited. Such wrongs when once accomplished can with difficulty be undone; but they can be prevented with safety and with justice. When combinations of interstate railways must obtain Government sanction ; when it is no longer possible for an interstate railway to issue stock or bonds, save in the manner approved by the Federal Government ; when that Government makes sure that the proceeds of every stock and bond issue go into the improvement of the prop- erty and not the enrichment of some individual or syndicate ; when, whenever it becomes material for guidance in the regulative action of the Govern- ment, the physical value of one of these proper- ties is determined and made known — there will be eliminated from railroad securities that element of uncertainty which lends to them their speculative quality and which has contributed much to the financial stress of the recent past. 1606 Presidential Addresses I think that the Federal Government must also assume a certain measure of control over the phys- ical operation of railways in the handling of inter- state traffic. The Commission now has authority to establish through routes and joint rates. In order to make this provision effective, and in order to promote in times of necessity the proper move- ment of traffic, I think it must also have authority to determine the conditions upon which cars shall be interchanged between different interstate rail- ways. It is also probable that the Commission should have authority, in particular instances, to determine the schedule upon which perishable com- modities shall be moved. In this connection I desire to repeat my recom- mendation that railways be permitted to form traffic associations for the purpose of conferring about and agreeing upon rates, regulations, and practices affecting interstate business in which the members of the association are mutually interested. This does not mean that they should be given the right to pool their earnings or their traffic. The law requires that rates shall be so adjusted as not to discriminate between individuals, localities, or dif- ferent species of traffic. Ordinarily, rates by all competing lines must be the same. As applied to practical conditions, the railway operations of this country can not be conducted according to law with- out what is equivalent to conference and agreement. The articles under which such associations operate should be approved by the Commission; all their And State Papers 1607 operations should be open to public inspection; and the rates, regulations, and practices upon which they agree should be subject to disapproval by the Commission. I urge this last provision with the same earnest- ness that I do the others. This country provides its railway facilities by private capital. Those fa- cilities will not be adequate unless the capital em- ployed is assured of just treatment and an adequate return. In fixing the charges of our railroads, I believe that, considering the interests of the public alone, it is better to allow too liberal rather than too scanty earnings, for, otherwise, there is grave danger that our railway development may not keep pace with the demand for transportation. But the fundamental idea that these railways are public highways must be recognized, and they must be open to the whole public upon equal terms and upon reasonable terms. In reference to the Sherman Antitrust Law, I repeat the recommendations made in my message at the opening of the present Congress, as well as in my message to the previous Congress. The attempt in this law to provide in sweeping terms against all combinations of whatever character, if technically in restraint of trade as such restraint has been defined by the courts, must necessarily be either futile or mischievous, and sometimes both. The present law makes some combinations illegal, although they may be useful to the country. On the other hand, as to some huge combinations which 1608 Presidential Addresses are both noxious and illegal, even if the action un- dertaken against them under the law by the Gov- ernment is successful, the result may be to work but a minimum benefit to the public. Even though the combination be broken up and a small measure of reform thereby produced, the real good aimed at can not be obtained, for such real good can come only by a thorough and continuing supervision over the acts of the combination in all its parts, so as to prevent stock watering, improper forms of com- petition, and, in short, wrong-doing generally. The law should correct that portion of the Sherman act which prohibits all combinations of the character above described, whether they be reasonable or un- reasonable ; but this should be done only as part of a general scheme to provide for this effective and thoroughgoing supervision by the National Government of all the operations of the big inter- state business concerns. Judge Hough of New York, in his recent decision in the Harriman case, states that the Congress possesses the power to limit the interstate operations of corporations not complying with Federal safeguards against the re- currence of obnoxious practices, and to license those which afford the public adequate security against methods calculated to diminish solvency, and there- fore efficiency and economy in interstate transpor- tation. The judge adds that in these matters "the power of Congress is ample, though as yet not fruitful in results." It is very earnestly to be de- sired that either along the lines the judge indicates, And State Papers 1609 or in some other way equally efficacious, the Con- gress may exercise the power which he holds it possesses. Superficially it may seem that the laws, the pas- sage of which I herein again advocate — for I have repeatedly advocated them before — are not con- nected. But in reality they are connected. Each and every one of these laws, if enacted, would rep- resent part of the campaign against privilege, part of the campaign to make the class of great prop- erty-holders realize that property has its duties no less than its rights. When the courts guarantee to the employer, as they should, the rights of the employer, and to property the rights of property, they should no less emphatically make it evident that they will exact from property and from the employer the duties which should necessarily ac- company these rights; and hitherto our laws have failed in precisely this point of enforcing the per- formance of duty by the man of property toward the man who works for him, by the man of great wealth, especially if he uses that wealth in corporate form, toward the investor, the wage-worker, and the general public. The permanent failure of the man of property to fulfil his obligations would ulti- mately assure the wresting from him of the privi- leges which he is entitled to enjoy only if he recog- nizes the obligations accompanying them. Those who assume or share the responsibility for this fail- ure are rendering but a poor service to the cause which they believe they champion. t6io Presidential Addresses I do not know whether it is possible, but if pos- sible it is certainly desirable, that in connection with measures to restrain stock watering and overcapi- talization there should be measures taken to prevent at least the grosser forms of gambling in securities and commodities, such as making large sales of what men do not possess and "cornering" the market. Legitimate purchases of commodities and of stocks and securities for investment have no connection whatever with purchases of stocks or other secur- ities or commodities on a margin for speculative and gambling purposes. There is no moral differ- ence between gambling at cards or in lotteries or on the racetrack and gambling in the stock market. One method is just as pernicious to the body politic as the other in kind, and in degree the evil worked is far greater. But it is a far more difficult subject with which to deal. The great bulk of the business transacted on the exchanges is not only legitimate, but is necessary to the working of our modern in- dustrial system, and extreme care would have to be taken not to interfere with this business in doing away with the "bucket-shop" type of operation. We should study both the successes and the failures of foreign legislators who, notably in Germany, have worked along this line, so as not to do anything harmful. Moreover, there is a special difficulty in dealing with this matter by the Federal Government in a Federal Republic like ours. But if it is pos- sible to devise a way to deal with it, the effort should be made, even if only in a cautious and tentative And State Papers 1611 way. It would seem that the Federal Government could at least act by forbidding the use of the mails, telegraph and telephone wires for mere gambling in stocks and futures, just as it does in lottery transactions. I enclose herewith a statement issued by the Chief of the Bureau of Corporations (Appendix 1), in answer to certain statements (which I also enclose) made by and on behalf of the agents of the Stand- ard Oil Corporation (Appendix 2), and a letter of the Attorney-General (Appendix 3) containing an answer to certain statements, also enclosed, made by the president of the Santa Fe Railway Company (Appendix 4). The Standard Oil Corporation and the railway company have both been found guilty by the courts of criminal misconduct ; both have been sentenced to pay heavy fines ; and each has issued and published broadcast these statements, asserting their innocence and denouncing as im- proper the action of the courts and juries in con- victing them of guilt. These statements are very elaborate, are very ingenious, and are untruthful in important particulars. The following letter and enclosed from Mr. Heney sufficiently illustrate the methods of the high officials of the Santa Fe and show the utter falsity of their plea of ignorance, the similar plea of the Standard Oil being equally without foundation : 1 6 1 2 Presidential Addresses Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorney, District of Oregon, Portland, Jatmary II, igoS. The President, Washington, D. C. Dear Mr. President: I understand that Mr. Ripley, of the Atchi- son, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway system, has commented with some severity upon your attitude toward the payment of rebates by certain transcon- tinental railroads, and that he has declared that he personally never knew anything about any rebates being granted by his road. ... I enclose you here- with copy of a letter from Edward Chambers, gen- eral freight traffic manager of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway system, to Mr. G. A. David- son, auditor of the same company, dated February 27, 1907. . . . This letter does not deal with interstate ship- ments, but the constitution of the State of California makes the payment of rebates by railroads a mis- demeanor, and Mr. Ripley has apparently not been above the commission of crime to secure business. You are at liberty to use this enclosure in any way that you think it can be of service to yourself or the public. . . . Sincerely, yours, Francis J. Heney. And State Papers 1 6 1 3 San Francisco, February 2"j , IQ07. Dear Sir — I hand you herewith a file of papers covering the movement of fuel oil shipped by the Associated Oil Company over our line from Janu- ary 1, 1906, up to and including November 15, 1906. We agreed with the Associated Oil Company's negotiations with Mr. Ripley, Mr. Wells, and my- self, that in consideration of their making us a special price on oil for company use, which is cov- ered by a contract, and the further consideration that we would take a certain quantity, they would in turn ship from Bakersfield over our line to San Francisco Bay points a certain minimum number of barrels of fuel oil at rate of 25 cents per barrel from Bakersfield, exclusive of the switching charge. These statements cover the movement, except that they have included Stockton, which is not correct, as it is not a bay point and could not be reached as conveniently by water. We have paid them on account of this movement $7,239, which should be deducted from the total of movement shown in the attached papers. I wish you would arrange to make up a state- ment, check the same, and refund to the Associated Oil Company down to the basis of 25 cents per barrel from Bakersfield. where they are the ship- pers, regardless of who is consignee, as all their fuel oil is sold delivered. The reason for making this deal, in addition to what I have stated, is that the 1 6i 4 Presidential Addresses Associated Oil Company have their own boats and carry oil from fields controlled by themselves along the coast near San Luis Obispo to San Francisco at a much lower cost than the special rate we have made them and in competition with the Union Oil Company and the Standard Oil Company, it was necessary for them to sell at the San Francisco Bay points on the basis of the cost of water transporta- tion from the coast fields. They figured they could only afford to pay us the 25 cents per barrel if by doing this they sold our company a certain amount of fuel oil, otherwise the business covered by the attached papers would have come in by boat from the coast fields. I am writing this up completely, so that there may be in the papers a history of the reasons why this arrangement was made. I wish you would go ahead and make the adjustment as soon as possi- ble, as the Associated Oil Company are very anxious to have the matter closed up. The arrangement was canceled on November 15 at a conference between Mr. Ripley, Mr. Wells, Mr. Porter, and myself. Yours truly, Edward Chambers. Shipments-Associated Oil Company, Mr. G. A. Davidson, Auditor, Los Angeles. The attacks by these great corporations on the Administration's actions have been given a wide circulation throughout the country, in the newspa- And State Papers 1 6 1 5 pers and otherwise, by those writers and speakers who. consciously or unconsciously, act as the rep- resentatives of predatory wealth — of the wealth ac- cumulated on a giant scale by all forms of iniquity, ranging from the oppression of wage-workers to unfair and unwholesome methods of crushing out competition, and to defrauding the public by stock- jobbing and the manipulation of securities. Certain wealthy men of this stamp, whose conduct should be abhorrent to every man of ordinarily decent conscience, and who commit the hideous wrong of teaching our young men that phenomenal busi- ness success must ordinarily be based on dishon- esty, have during the last few months made it apparent that they have banded together to work for a reaction. Their endeavor is to overthrow and discredit all who honestly administer the law, to prevent any additional legislation which would check and restrain them, and to secure if possible a freedom from all restraint which will permit every unscrupulous wrong-doer to do what he wishes un- checked provided he has enough money. The only way to counteract the movement in which these men are engaged is to make clear to the public just what they have done in the past and just what they are seeking to accomplish in the present. The Administration and those who support its views are not only not engaged in an assault on property, but are strenuous upholders of the rights of property. The wise attitude to take is admirably stated by Governor Fort of New Jersey in his 11—20 1 6 1 6 Presidential Addresses recent inaugural address ; the principles which he upholds as regards the State being, of course, iden- tical with those which should obtain as regards the Nation. "Just and fair regulation can only be objected to by those misconceiving the rights of the State. The State grants all corporate powers to its rail- ways and other public utility corporations, and may not only modify but repeal all charters and charter privileges it confers. It may, therefore, impose con- ditions upon their operation at its pleasure. Of course, in the doing of these things, it should act wisely and with conservatism, protecting all vested rights of property and the interests of the innocent holders of the securities of existing quasi-public cor- porations. Regulation, therefore, upon a wise basis, of the operation of these public utilities companies, including the fixing of rates and public charges, upon complaint and subject to court review, should be intrusted to a proper board, as well as the right to regulate the output of stock and the bonded issues of such corporations. If this were done it would inure to the benefit of the people and the com- panies, for it would fix the value of such secur- ities, and act as a guaranty against their depreciation. Under such a law the holders of existing securities would find them protected, and new securities of- fered would have the confidence of the people, be- cause of the guaranty of the State that they were only issued for extensions or betterments and upon some basis of the cost of such extensions or bet- And State Papers 1617 terments. It is difficult to suggest any legislation that would give greater confidence to the public and investors than a wise public utilities bill; and the mere suggestion of its enactment should cause this class of security holders to feel that their holdings were strengthened, and that the State was about to aid the managers of its public utility corporations to conserve their corporate property for the public benefit and for the protection of invested capital. . . . "The time has come for the strict supervision of these great corporations and the limitation of their stock and bond issues under some proper public official. It will make for conservatism, and strengthen the companies doing a legitimate busi- ness, and eliminate, let us hope, those which are merely speculative in character and organized sim- ply to catch the unsuspecting or credulous investor. Corporations have come in our business world to remain for all time. Corporate methods are the most satisfactory for business purposes in many cases. Every business or enterprise honestly in- corporated should be protected, and the public made to feel confidence in its corporate organization. Capital invested in corporations must be as free from wrongful attack as that invested by individ- uals, and the State should do everything to foster and protect invested corporate capital and encour- age the public in giving to it support and confidence. Nothing will do so much to achieve this desirable result as proper supervision and reasonable control over stock and bond issues, so that overcapitaliza- 1618 Presidential Addresses tion will be prevented and the people may know when they buy a share of stock or a bond . . . that the name of the State upon it stands as a guar- anty that there is value behind it and reasonable safety in its purchase. The act must make it clear that the intent of the supervision by the Commissioner is not for the purpose of striking at corporate organizations or invested corporate capital, but rather to recognize and protect exist- ing conditions and ensure greater safeguards for the future. . . . "Capital does not go into a State where reprisals are taken or vested interests are injured; it comes only where wise, conservative, safe treatment is assured, and it should be our policy to encourage and secure corporate rights and the best interests of stock and bond holders committed to our legal care." Under no circumstances would we countenance attacks upon law-abiding property, or do aught but condemn those who hold up rich men as being evil men because of their riches. On the contrary, our whole effort is to insist upon conduct, and neither wealth nor property nor any other class distinction, as being the proper standard by which to judge the actions of men. For the honest man of great wealth we have a hearty regard, just as we have a hearty regard for the honest politician and honest news- paper. But part of the movement to uphold hon- esty must be a movement to frown on dishonesty. We attack only the corrupt men of wealth, who And State Papers 1 6 1 9 find in the purchased politician the most efficient instrument of corruption and in the purchased newspaper the most efficient defender of corrup- tion. Our main quarrel is not with these agents and representatives of the interests. They derive their chief power from the great sinister offend- ers who stand behind them. They are but pup- pets, who move as the strings are pulled. It is not the puppets, but the strong, cunning men and the mighty forces working for evil behind and through the puppets, with whom we have to deal. We seek to control law-defying wealth ; in the first place to prevent its doing dire evil to the Republic, and in the next place to avoid the vindictive and dread- ful radicalism which, if left uncontrolled, it is cer- tain in the end to arouse. Sweeping attacks upon all property, upon all men of means, without regard to whether they do well or ill, would sound the death-knell of the Republic; and such attacks be- come inevitable if decent citizens permit those rich men whose lives are corrupt and evil to domineer in swollen pride, unchecked and unhindered, over the destinies of this country. We act in no vin- dictive spirit, and we are no respecters of persons. If a labor union does wrong, we oppose it as firmly as we oppose a corporation which does wrong; and we stand equally stoutly for the rights of the man of wealth and for the rights of the wage-worker. We seek to protect the property of every man who acts honestly, of every corporation that represents wealth honestly accumulated and honestly used. 1620 Presidential Addresses We seek to stop wrong-doing-, and we desire to punish the wrong-doers only so far as is necessary to achieve this end. There are ample material rewards for those who serve with fidelity the mammon of unrighteous- ness; but they are dearly paid for by the people who permit their representatives, whether in pub- lic life, in the press, or in the colleges where their young men are taught, to preach and to practice that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. The amount of money the representatives of certain great moneyed interests are willing to spend can be gauged by their recent publication broadcast throughout the papers of this country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, of huge advertise- ments attacking with envenomed bitterness the Ad- ministration's policy of warring against successful dishonesty, and by their circulation of pamphlets and books prepared with the same object: while they likewise push the circulation of the writings and speeches of men who, whether because they are misled, or because, seeing the light, they yet are willing to sin against the light, serve these their masters of great wealth to the cost Of the plain people. The books and pamphlets, the controlled newspapers, the speeches by public or private men, to which I refer, are usually and especially in the interest of the Standard Oil Trust and of certain notorious railroad combinations, but they also de- fend other individuals and corporations of great wealth that have been guilty of wrong-doing. It And State Papers 1621 is only rarely that the men responsible for the wrong-doing themselves speak or write. Normally they hire others to do their bidding, or find others who will do it without hire. From the Railroad Rate Law to the Pure Food Law, every measure for honesty in business that has been passed during the last six years has been opposed by these men on its passage and in its administration with every resource that bitter and unscrupulous craft could su57i and Navy Union, 748 increase of pay for officers and men, 1572 reduction of, 80, 81 Medical Corps, 671, 1568, 1569 Arnold, Captain, 554 Arrogance and envy, 112, 113 Associated Oil Company,i6i3,i6i4 Athletics, 12-15 Atlanta, 556, 9 12 addresses, 488, 505 Attorney-General, 62, 619, 724, 743 Attorney-General's reports, 165, 168 "Aunt Jane of Kentucky," 1292 Aurelius, Marcus, 1339 ('639) 1640 Index Austin, address, 330-334 Texas, 324 Average man, the, 411 B Bacon, Mr. Robert, 823, 878 Badger, Captain Charles J., 1581 Bakersfield, 1612 Bankhead, Hon. John H., 1182 Banton, Yardmaster, 1601 Barnard, Judge, 1483 Barry, Commodore John, 294 Batangas, 644 Battle fleet, sending to Pacific coast the, 1576 Beavers case, 165 "Beef Packers," 724 Beef-packing investigation, 728 Beirut, 54 Belford, Father, 884 Bell, General, 305 Benson case, 165 Beowulf, 1125, 1126, 1127 Berard, Victor, 1082, 1145 Bering Sea Tribunal, 976 Beveridge amendment, 775 Bigelow, Mr., 865 Biological Survey, 1559 Birmingham (Ala.) addresses, 53o Bishop, Mr., 1020 Black, Governor, 856 Blackburn, Mr. J. C. S., 1547 Blackstone, 1124 Bliss, Cornelius N., 98 Blocksom, Major Augustus P., 1063, 1064, 1068, 1096 Blue Schoolhouse (Colo.) address, 345-35o Board of Consulting Engineers, 667 Boca Dam, La, 1019, 1049 Bodin, Joseph, 1100 Boll-weevil, 144 Brandywine, 261 Braun, President, 237 Breaches of public trust, 619 Brewer, Justice, 279, 280 Bristol, Dr., 1371 Brooklyn, 378, 380, 383, 386, 457 Brooks, Phillips, 884 Brown, Chaplain, 1197 Justice, address at dinner to, 763 Colonel John Mason, 408 Mr., 1238 Brownson, Captain, 209, 214 Brownsville, Texas, conflict of U. S. colored troops at, 1065, 1066, 1067, 1068, 1069, 1097, 1098 Bryce, Mr., 1485 "Bucket-shops," 1610 Buell, General, 28 Buenos Ayres, 970 Buffalo, 639 Bulloch, Annie, 485 Archibald, 1295 Irving, 487 James Dunwaddy, 487 Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," 712 Burke, Edmund, 808, 1225 Burroughs, John, 1336, 1338 Burton, Congressman Theo. E., 766, 770, 1 182 Cabot, 1419 Caesar, 101, 1129 Cairo, 111., 1405 California, 144, 145, 152, 316, 638 Development Company, 1084, 1085, 1086, 1087, 1088, 1089, 1090 University of, 1366 Canada, Charles S., 1100 Candler, Governor, 911 Cannon, Hon. J. G., letter to, 47, 94 Speaker, 801 Canton, Ohio, 1364 Capital, organization, 368-374 Square (Richmond) address, 456 Capron, Allen, 296, 1206 Cardiff Giant, 1344 Caribbean Sea, 44, 508, 509 Carlisle, John G., 252 Carnegie, Mr., 1190 Carroll, Bishop, 198 Archbishop, 784 Casselly, Father, 884 Catholic Total Abstinence Union, Cavite, 644, 645 Celtic, literature, 397, 398 Sagas, 1125, 1126, 1127 Cemetery Ridge, 32 Census, Bureau, 634 thirteenth, 1555 Central, America, 1194 Juvenile Reformatory Commit- tee, 664 Chaffee, General, 1199 Chambers, Edward, 1612, 1614 Index 1 64 1 Channing's "The Union," 1418 Chapelle, Archbishop, 548 Chapman, Frank, 1337 Character, 384, 394 Charlemagne, 1133 Charlotte (N. C.) address, 482-485 Chase, Charles R., 1099, 1100 Secretary, 1246 Chautauqua address, 451-467 Chesapeake Bay, 686 Chicago, 183, 361, 362, 365, 374, 375, 450 and Alton Railroad, 1625 Stock Yards, 772-775 Child Labor, 922, 1527 Children, care of, 340 Chile, 812 China, 469, 498-500 consular service in, 692 famine in, 1080 part played in, 53 trade treaty with, 54 trade with, 159, 160, 178 Chinese, Empire, 45 exclusion, 705 immigration, 630-632 indemnity, remittance of, 1593 labor, 706 Choate, Ambassador, 400, 407, 885 Christ Church Parish, Oyster Bay, bicentenary celebration, .813- 820 Citizenship, undesirable type of, 1212 Civic Club of New York, 115 Civil Service, 633 law, 67 Civil War, the, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 55, 56, 83, 84, 226, 302, 306, 315, 3«6, 339. 34'. 343- 346, 373. 43°. 457. 459. 483, 489, 507, 5«6, 531, 53 8 < 558, 1222, 1228, 1235, 1245, 1246, 1247, 1441, 1442, 1457 Clark, Edward B., 1323 University address, 403-408 Class of '71, Naval Academy. 214 Clay, Henry, 466, 970 Senator, 485, 488, 489 Cleveland, President, 55, 97, 587 Climate and Agriculture, 142 Coakley, Mr., 1238 Coal fields, national ownership of, 58 Coast defence, 681, 683, 687 Cockrell, Senator, 203 Code of Alaska, 168 Coghlan, Admiral, 301, 302, 303 College sport, 427 Collegiate training, 479-481 Colon, 58, 655, 1028, 1029 Panama, address to employees at, 863 Colorado, 138, 350, 353, 354, 665 Agricultural College, 353 River, 1083 "Colorado," the, 554, 555 Colored Industrial Association address, 456 man, education of, 755 women, education of, 758 Columbia University, 9 Commerce, act to regulate, 134 Commerce and Labor, Depart- ment of, 62, 126, 451, 452, 582, 618, 701, 726, 739, 807 Secretary of, 97 Commercial Club, 362 Commission of public lands, 151 Common law in America, 62 Commonplace, vital quality of, 529 Compromises, 398 Compulsory school attendance, '39 Conall, the victorious, 1140 Confederacy, 377, 527 Confederate, army, 532 cemeteries, 625 navy, 487 soldiers, 544, 11 19 veterans, 471 veterans address, 544, 545 Conference of nations, 595 Congregational Church, 729 Congress, 50, 54. 60, 71, 90, 133, 137, 141, 158, 160, 162, 165, 166, 169, 171, 188, 199, 203, 294, 305, 358, 366, 389, 451, 505, 560, 566, 567, 577. 578. 579. ■'586, 588, 589. Soo, 591, 625, 639, 647, 650, 652, 685, 690, 691, 702, 708, 715, 728, 729, 763, 797, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 807, 809, 810, 811, 838, 851, 869, 898, 899, 900, 903, 919, 922, 923, 927, 931, 947, 989, 994, 1000, 1010, 1095, 1107, 1122, 1146, 1 148, 1 152, 1154, 1156, 1161, 1354, 1406, 1427, 1490, 1504, 1510, 1519, 1520, 1522, •523. «533. 1539. J55o, 155'. J552. >553. 1555. 1557, 1558, 1561, 1578. 1579, 1607 "Congress," ship, 5.54. 733 Connellsville, Pa., 1293 Constitution, the, 30, 51, 162, 165, 166, 374 1642 Ind ex Consular, force, 657 Reform Association, 691 service, 692, 693 system, 157 Continentals, the, 32 Cook County Moyer-Haywood- Pettibone Conference, 1209 Copyright law, 636 Corozal, Panama, 1027, 1028 Corporations, 484 Bureau of, 62, 100, 131-133, 586, 588, 702, 739, 1503, 1621 Commissioner of, 726 great, 127-135 great, necessary, 127-128 growth of, 492 law to prohibit them from con- tributing to campaign ex- penses, 898 sovereignty over, 562-577 State control of, 370 supervision over, 355-359, 405, 448, 455 Corruption, 504, 505 in elections, 593-595 Cortelyou, Hon. Geo. B., 97-100, 847, 888, 1365 Cotton, 497-498 Courtesy, international, 7-8 Cowen, Mrs., 1101 Cram, William, 1337 Crane, W. Murray, 98, 400 Cranston, Bishop, 880 Creagor, R. B., 1096 Criminal law, 619 Crisis in national history, 30, 31 Crockett, Davy, 329, 333 Cromer, Lord, 433 Crooked public servants, 515 Crop reporting system, 145 Crothers, Mr., 739 Crothers's,"The Gentle Reader," 737 "The Pardner's Wallet," 739 Cuba, 45, 49, 53, 144, 177, 179, 185, 257, 259, 260, 447, 509, 654, 821, 963, 1 178, 1 193 American troops in, 821 hygiene of, 432 independence of, 823 Cuban reciprocity treaty, 42, 73 Cuchulain Sagas, 1128, 1129 Cuchulain's "Wooing of Eraer," 1 130 Culebra, Canal Zone, address to employees, 861 cut, 1049, I °5 I i 1547 "Cumberland," ship, 554, 733 , 734 Currency laws, revision of, 949, 1508 Cushing, Lieutenant, 733 "Dakota," the, 195 Dallas addresses, 314, 324 Dasent, 1126 Davidson, G. A., 1612, 1614 Davis, Jefferson, 1442 Dean, Miss, 677 Debs, Mr., 858, 1209, "39 Declaration of Independence, Deep Waterway Convention, Memphis, Tenn., 1419 Defensive letter, 97, 100 Deficit, imaginary, 82 Deirdrd, 1130, 1134, 1135 Demagogy in legislation, 360 Democratic, administration, 99 committee, 98 convention, New York, 58 ineptitude, 47, 50, 68 monetary policy, 58, 61 Deneen, Governor, 377 Denver, 352, Chamber of Commerce address, 350-360 Department methods, committee on, 694, 696, 701 Depew, 846, 848, 856 Desert Land act, 1003 Devine, Mr., 884 Dewey, Admiral. 303, 304, 779 Dick, Senator, 673, 674 Dickens's "Martin Chuzzlewit," 1406, 1407, 1408 Dickinson, Judge, 365, 366 District commissioners, 139 District of Columbia, 108, 121, 137, 140, 164, 665 Board of Education, 665 "Doctor," the, 442 "The, in the Public School," 1 186 Dominican contracts, foreign, 254 debt, 248 protocol, message about the, 241 -260 Dominguez, Ygnacio, 1097, 1100 Downey incident, the, 116-118 Drago, Dr., 970 "Dreadnought," British battle- ship, IIII Index 1643 Uruids, 1132 Duffv, Colonel, 292 Dun'Bull of Cooley, 1130, 1137 Dunne, Mayor, 375, 376 Duquesne, 732 Durham, N. C, 47 8 Dutch, blood, 106 Reformed Church, 729 E Educators, 425-429 Egypt, 186 Eight-hour law, 703, 704, 705, 1523 Elector, the great, ioi Electorate, corruption of, 164 Eleventh New York Regiment, 1074 Elkins, Herbert. 1100 law, 807 Ellis Island, 277, 278 Emain Macha, palace at, 1139 Emerson, 301 Employers', Association, 374 liability, 123, 579 liability act, 1305, 1522, 1597 Encroachments, executive, 54 Endicott Board, 682, 684, 685 Endicott, Mordecai T., Rear-Ad- miral, 653 English, blood, 106 settlement, 104 Ernst, Colonel Oswald H., 653 Eton, 1 162 "Everybody's Magazine," 1323, 1334 Expatriation, 164 Expenditures, national, 83, 119 Fair Oaks, battle of, 1229 Far East, 53, 177, 180 Farm labor, 1290 Farmer and tariff, 76-79 Farragut, 280, 281, 302, 304, 426, 751, 1231 "Fate of the Sons of Usnach," 1 1 30 "Feast of Bricriu of the Bitter Tongue," 1130, 1138 Federal, control ot corporations, 370 law, 121 Ferrero, 1374 Fifteenth Amendment, 92 Fifth Missouri Cavalry, 1075 Fifty-eighth Congress, 119, 133 Filipinos, 46, 86, 87, 88, 92, 187, 188, 189 in public service, 643 Financial, crises, averting, 591 legislation, 40 Finn element, 106 Finot's "Race Prejudice," 1188 First U. S. Volunteer Cavalry, un- veiling of monument to mem- ory of, 1 197 Flag Day, 787 Floating batteries, 683 Florida, 505, 510 Baptist College address, 510-513 Foodstuffs, misrepresentation and Interstate Commerce, 637 Foreign, affairs, 461-462 policy, 44, 5 1 . 54. I7 1 . l8o < 2I2 Forest, Congress, address at, 190- 201 policy, 146-151 preservation, 190-194, 198 reserves, 469-471 service, 150-151, 623 Formosa, 186 Fort, Governor, 1615 Fort Fisher veterans, 11 18 Forty years after, 391 Fourteenth Amendment, 92 Fourth Missouri Cavalry, 1075 France, Republic of, 711 Franklin, Benjamin, 1187 Frederick the Great, 101, 102, 103 address at unveiling the statue of, 101-107 Fredericksburg, battle of, 21, 296 Freedom, 24, 25 Freeman, John R., 1548 French, element, 106 Huguenots, 104 Friends' School, graduating exer- cises of, 1241 Fuels, conservation of mineral, 1146-1160 Fulton, 426 G Gaillard, Major D. D., 1547 Gallaudet College, Washington, address at, 738 Galloway, Bishop, 911 Galvan, Manuel de J., 252 Game refuges, 152 Ganelon, 1133 Garfield, Mr., 100, 724, 728 Garlington, Brigadier- General Ernest A., 1063, 1064 1644 Index Gatun Dam, Panama, 1019, 1049, 1395- 1548 Gaynor and Greene case, 165, 1622 Geer, Dr., 820 General land office, 591 Georgetown College, address at commencement, 784-790 Georgetown, D. C, 787 Georgia, State of, 485, 488, 500, 501, 1294, 1295 German, Ambassador, 101,103,105, 107, 710 blood, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107 Emperor, 101, 102, 103, 107 Lutheran Church Conference, Missouri Synod, address to, 746 people, ioi, 104, 107 tariff, 1589 veterans, 709 German town, 261 Germany, 101, 102, 393, 710 Gettysburg, battle of, 21, 22, 24, 30, 32, 826 Memorial Day address, 21-29 Gey, Mr., 1018 Gibbons, Cardinal, 108 Gladstone, William Ewart, 1438 Goddard, Norton, 115 Goethals, Lt.-Col. George W., 1547 Gold, standard, 40, 59 standard act, 60 Gompers, Mr., 855 Good citizenship, 108-110 Gordon, William A., 11 14 Gorgas, Colonel W. C, 1022, 1027, 1547 Gould, Miss, 387 Government, an aid only, 218 buildings, 202-204 ownership of railways, 930 Governmental service, 694 Graduate school, 410 Graduating Class of the Naval Academy, address to the, 209- 216 remarks, 391-306 Grand Army, 346, 377, 457, 510, 558, 946 address, 544 Grand Canyon of the Colorado, 152, 638 Grant, General U. S., 28, 226, 236, 247. 3°5, 377, 426. 457. 463. 465, 490, 558, 751, 1075, 1199, 1223, 1231 Grant, Dominican Commission, 247 Judge Robert, 288 Gray, Judge George, 252 Greene, General, 463 Greensboro, N. C, address, 481- 482 Gregory, Lady, 1126 Griffin, Commander Robert S., 1 581 Groton School, 1162 prize day exercises, address at the, 8-20 Guam, 686 Guantanamo, 686 Guasimas, Las, 1197, 1206 Guatemala, Republic of, 144, 973, 974 Guilford, N. C, 481 Gulick, Dr., 709 Gun Foundry Board, 682 Gustavus Adolphus, 101 H Hadley, President, 25 Haggard, Mr. Rider, 1339 Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines," 1339 "Hague," The, 595, 596, 1195, 1196, 1584 call for congress at, 95, 176 world's congress at, 969, 971, 980, 1573 tribunal, 249, 600 tribunal rescued, 52 Hains, Brig. -Gen. Peter C, 653 Haiti, Minister of, 275 Hale, Edward Everett, Mr., 676, 677 Hamilton, Alexander, 834, 1403 Hammond, Charles A., 1100 Hampton, Normal and Agricul- tural Institute, address at, 754 Roads, 155 Virginia, 915 Hancock, General, 28 Hanna, Mr., 893, 896 Hannibal, 101, 102 Harriman, E. H., 846, 847, 848, 849, 850, 852, 855, 1209, 1210, 1212 Harris, Toel Chandler, 501, 502 Harrisburg, Pa. , dedication of new State Capitol, 825 Harrison, President, 587 Harrod, Benjamin M., 653 Harvard Union, address before, 1 164 Index 1645 Harvard University, 9, 397, 407, 408, 414, 415, 417, 422 address at, 407-422 Havana, 823 Hawaii, 53, 171, 648, 649, 1123, 1562 Hawthorne, 426 Hay, Hon. John, 65, 427, 429, 602, 892, 893, 896, 897, 1365, 1366, 1472, 1473. >-»75. M77 Haywood, Mr., 85S, 1209, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1240 Hearne, Samuel, 1335 Hearst, Mr., 846, 858 "Heimsknngla," Norse Saga, 1126 Henderson, Colonel, 466 Heney, Francis J., 161 1, 1612 Henry, Patrick, 465, 1179 Mr. John S. , 1238, 1240 Hepburn act, 1259 Herbert. Hilary A., 1114 Herkimer, General, 105 Hermitage, The, near Nashville, Tennessee, address at, 1454, MS6, 1458, 1459 "Heroes of the Red Branch," 1139 Hesse, ex-Corporal. 1074, 1076 Higgins, Mr., 847, 849, 850 Higginson, Colonel, 415, 1164 Hill, Governor, 99 Mr. J. J., 855 Hohenzollern, illustrious House <>f, 101 Hollander settlement, 104 Holt, Judge, 901 Holy Cross College remarks, 397 Home missionary work, 276, 280 Homely virtues, 306 Homestead act, 1003 Honduras, Republic of, 973, 974 Honolulu, 171, 686 Hooker's, Bishop, "Ecclesiastical Polity," 718 Hornaday, William, 1337 Hough, Judge, 1608 House of Representatives, Office Building, address at laving corner stone of. 712 resolution, February 15. 1905, resolution, relating to oil in- dustry, 689 H uston, Sam, 329, ^3 Howard, General, 28 Howard University, address at commencement exercises, 766 installation of Wilbur Patterson Thirkield, as President of, i )S i Howry, Charles B., 1114 Howth, siege of, 1130 Hubbard medal, 1002 Hughes, Governor, 846 Hull, Miss, 1126 Humphrey, Judge, 225, 724, 726 Humphreys, General, 1184 Hungarian Club dinner, address at the, 236-241 Hurst, Mr., 89^, 895 Hyde, Mr., 8 47 \ 848, 856, 857 President, 776 Hyde's, President, "The College Man and College Woman," 776 "From Epicurus to Christ," 776 Idaho, district attorney of, 1239 Idealism in politics, 398 Ideals, 15-19 Igorrotes, 88 Illinois, 138 "Illinois," battleship, 1413 Immigrants, care of, 277 Immigration, 160, 161, 626-632 laws, 706 Imperial valley, 1082, 1084. 1087, 10Q3, 1095 Inaugural address (1905), 269-272 Income tax, 320, 321, 1319 graduated, 1514 India, 186 Indian, agents, 153-155 Bureau, 155 Territory, 652 Indiana, 1244 Indianapolis, Ind., address at, 1245 Indians, 640 education of, 762 policy toward the, 153 Industrial problems, 463-465 Industrialism, 120, 350-353 Ingersoll, Ernest, 1337 Inheritance tax, 937, 1319, 1320, 1321 Injunctions in labor disputes, 580 Inland Waterways Commission, 1182, 1185, 1318, 1430, 1431, i 4V ,, '536 Insolence to foreign powers, 383 Insurance corporations, 586 International Conference of American Republics, First, Washington, 966 Second, Mexico, 965, 966 Third, Rio de Janeiro, 966, 967, 968, 972 1646 Index International Peace Conference, Second, 1582 Interparliamentary Union, 596 remarks to the, 95, 96, 176, 596 Interstate Commerce, 220-223 Act, 63, 325, 903 Commission, 134, 223, 323, 354, 475, 567, 57i, 572, 688, 689, 726, 742, 743. 851, 852, 853, 1256, 1496, 1525, 1567, 1604 laws, 62, 1355 suits, 58 Interstate National Guard Asso- ciation, 673 Ireland, Archbishop, 879, 883, 886 Irish, element, 104, 106 elemental virtues, 296 Sagas, ancient, 1124 Iroquois Club banquet, address at, 365-374 Irrigation (see also "West"), 83, 621 Isthmian Canal, 40, 44, 49, 5°. l8 °, 211, 264, 528, 1575 Commission, 666, 669, 670. 678, 680 salaries of officials, 669 Isthmus of Panama, 50, 51, 667, 668, 670, 866, 921, 1562 health of the, 508 Italian element, 106 Italy, 254 J Jackson, Andrew, 264, 265, 295, 466 736, 1221, 1407, 1458, 1555 Stonewall, 465, 466, 483, 751 Jacksonville, Fla., address, 505-513 Jamestown, Va., 104 Exposition, Georgia State Build- ing, address at, 1294-1308 Exposition, opening of, 1213, 1216 National Editorial Association, 1308 Tricentennial Celebration, 155, 624 Japan, 1588 Army Medical Department, 673 growth of, 959 Japanese, 672 fleet, 687 in United States, hostility to, 957 to provide for naturalization of, 961 Java, 186 Jay, John, 1403 Jaxon, Mr. Honore, 1213 Jefferson, Mrs., 466 Thomas, 970, 1222 Jelks, Governor, 912 Jews in Roumania, 52 Johnston, Bishop, 1375 General, 463, 751 Joint Traffic Association, 934, 1499 Jolo Disturbance, 644 Jones, John Paul, address at re- interment of remains of, 731, 732, 733. 734 Judge, 1097 Judiciary, 55 Justice, Department of, 57, 63, 167, 451, 474, 618, 702, 726, 727, 839, i3 l 3, 13*7. l62 5. l6 3! Juvenile courts, 138, 665 K "Kalevala," 1125 Kansas, 195 - Keane, Bishop, 884 "Kearsarge," the, 407 Keefe, Mr., 855 Keep, Charles Hallam, 1080, 1081 Commission, 694, 695, 697 Kentucky, 316, 408 "Kentucky," battleship, 1413 Keokuk, Iowa, 1373 Key, Lieutenant-Commander Al- bert L., 1581 "Keystone State," 825 King, General, 1228 King's Mountain, battle of, 468, 1462 Kipling's "Jungle Book," 1329 Kirkpatrick, Mr., 334 Kishineff massacre petition, 52 Knapp, Dr., 1281 Knox, Attorney-General, 100 Senator, 741, 836, 853 Kunersdorf, 102 Labor, Bureau of, 126 and capital, 917 cases, injunctions in, 1601 Commissioner of, 1525 legislation, 125-128 problem, 120-123 questions, 570 unionism, 125 Laguna Dam, 1090 I ndex 1647 Land laws, 1156, 1157. 1158, ,x 59. 1160 Lansing, Mich., 1271 Laramie County (Wyo.) Cattle and Horse Growers' Associa- tion, 1389, 1.190 Lawless's "With the Wild Geese," 1126 Lawrence, Bishop, 19, 409. 88 ° Lawrenceville School, 1162 Lawton, General, 1199, 1245 Leahy, Mrs. Kate, 1100 Lee, General Fitzhugh, 466, 1199, 1245 General Harry, 295, 11 16 General Robert E., 226, 463, 465, 466, 490, 55 ». 75 «. l °7 6 < ,IlS - 1 199, 1223 General R. E., celebration of one hundredth anniversary of birtti of, letter on, 1114-1118 Legal profession, 530-543 Legislative foresight in medical matters, 3 II "3«3 Letter accepting nomination, 47-94 Leuthen, victory of, 102 Levee system, 550, 623 Liberty Hall Academy, n 17 Licorice trust, 1357 Life Saving Service pension, 639 Lincoln, Abraham, 25, 31, 34, 47. 91, 217, 218, 224, 225, 226, 234, 261, 262, 272, 284, 400, 426, 427, 466, 502, 790, 792, 795, 807, 832, mo, i23i, 1237, 1246, 1247, X271, i3 2 3. '368. »4°°. l 5 l & dinner, address at the, 224-236 his Gettysburg speech, 22 Little Rock addresses, 533~543. 544 Loeb, Mr., 851, 889 Logansport, Ind., 74 Loigaire the Triumphant, 1140 London's, Jack, "White Fang," 1325 Long, William J., 1326, 1328, 1341 Long's, "Upwtekis the Shadow," "Wayeeses, the White Wolf," 1326, 1329 Longfellow's Saga of King Olaf, 1126 Long Island, Bishop of, 814 Medical Society, addresses to the, 420-433 Loomis, Mr., 693 Los Angeles, 1438 Louisiana, State of, 408, 544, 545, 546. 549. 55o, 948 "Louisiana," U. S. S., 1014 address to officers and enlisted men of, 872 Lounsbury. Professor, 1344 Lovering, Colonel Leonard A., 1063, 1064 Lowell, Lawrence, 13 Luther Place Memorial Church, address at, 205-208 Lutheran Church, 205-207, 747 Lynching, 914 M Mabie, Mr., 394 McClellan, General, 28 Major-General George B., un- veiling of statue to, 1228-1238 Mrs., 1228 McCormick, Mr., 894 McDonald, J. P., 1100 McDonnell, Peter, 292 Macfarland, Mr., 112, 665 McGee, Dr. W. J., 1182 MacKenzie, General Alexander, 1182 McKinley, President, 55. 63, 91, 159, 587, 625, 879, 885, 887, 888, 1228, 1364, 1372, 1471 inscription on monument to, 1366 MacMonnies, 426 McNeill, John Charles, 477 Madison, James, 1403 Magoon, Charles E., 653, 963 Magyar element, 106 Mahan, Captain, 983 Maine, State of, 948 Mallet, Mr., 1018, 1047 Malvern, battle of, 1229 Manassas, Field manoeuvres, 81, ^83 Virginia, Industrial School, 676 Manila, 303, 304, 388 Bay, 686 Marine, Corps, increase of pay for officers and men, 1572 Hospital Service, 158, 171 Mariposa big tree garden, 63.H Marshall, John, 832, 834, 970, 1222, 1398 "Martin Chuzzlewit," 1221 Martinez, Amado, 1100 Jose, 1100 Matachin, Canal Zone, address to workmen at, 862 1648 Index Maxwell, Mr., 422 Meade, General, 28 Meagher, Brigadier, 296 Meats, inspection of, 83, 142 Meave, Queen, 1136 Mecklenburg Declaration, 467, 483 Medals of honor, 123, 184 Medical ethics, 309-311 Memorial Day, 946 Merchant Marine, Commission,624 and tariff, 80 Merchants' Club, 362 luncheon (Chicago), address at, 361-365 Merger suit, 57 Merriam, Hart, 1337 "Merrimac" and "Monitor" bat- tle, 554 Message to Congress, Jan. 8, 1906, 666; Feb. 19, 1906, 678; March 5, 1906, 681 ; March 7, 1906, 688; April 18, 1906, 724; May 4, 1906, 739; June 4, 1906, 772; Dec. 3, 1906, 898; Dec. 5, 1906, 990; Dec. 11, 1906, 995; Dec. 17, 1906, 1003; Dec. 17, 1906, 1010; Dec. 17, 1906, 1014; Dec. 18, 1906, 1060; Dec. 19, 1906, 1062; Jan. 14, 1907, 1095; Jan. 23, 1907, 1120; Feb. 13, 1907, 1145; 1st session, 60th Congress, 1488; Jan. 31, 1908, 1597 Messages to Congress (1904 and 1905), 1 19-189, 560-658 Metcalf, Secretary, 1062 Mexican War, 306, 408 Mexico, 494, 1194, 1594 Michigan, 1271 Militarism, 210-212 Miller, Mr., 728 Justice, 1398 Olive Thorne, 1337 Minneapolis, 69 Minnesota Agricultural High School, 1272 "Missouri," battleship, 389, 872, 1413 Mob interests, 404, 405 Mobile (Ala.) address, 513-518 Monetary policy, 58-61 Monroe, James, 970 Doctrine, 45, 52, 176-179, 180, 211, 212, 242, 258, 259, 260, 264, 307. 323. 345, 3 6 3, 4031 404, 427-436, 602-611, 804, 970, in 1, I39 6 . *454 Monte Cristi, Santo Domingo, 254 Montgomery, (Ala.) address, 527- 530 General, 295 Moody, Attorney - General, 100, ,728, 853 Moore, John B., 254 Moore, S. C.,-noo Morgan, Mr., 855 horse, the, 353 Morley, John, 1225 Morocco, 711 Moros, 88, 89, 644 Morris, Captain, 734 William, 1126 Morrison, Mr., 705, 855 Morrissey, Mr., 855 Morton, Governor, 1246 Mr. Paul, 853, 854 Motherhood, 282-291, 343 Moyer, Mr., 858, 1209, I2 io, 121 1, 1212, 1240 Muck-rake, the Man with the, 712, 713 Muhlenberg, General, 105 Muir, John, 1336 N Napoleon, 101 Napoleonic struggles, 24 Nashville, Tenn., address at, 1461 National, Arbitration and Peace Congress, New York, N. Y., 1190-1197 art gallery proposed, 157 board of trade, 150 Cathedral School, address at commencement, 776-784 Congress of Mothers, address before the, 282-291 Convention for Extension of the Foreign Commerce of the United States, address at banquet to, 1104 Education Association, address to the, 422-429 Forest Service, 1317 Geographic Society banquet, address on presenting medal to Commander Peary, 1001 Guard, 81, 183, 184, 305, 328, 329, 484, 519, 538, 674, 675, 1172 Irrigation Congress, 150 Live Stock Association, 150 Playgrounds Councils, 708 public health service, 157 Red Cross Association, 812 Index 1649 National, water highways, 15.15 Wool Growers' Association, 150 Naturalization, 160-164, 617-619 laws, revision needed, 163 Naturalized citizens, 65-67 Nature fakers, 1334-134 5 Natus, Frank, 1097 Naval, branch, Y. M. C. A., ad- dress, 386-391 marksmanship, 54, 388 Medical School, address to the graduates of, 309-314 training, 214-216 training station, 362 Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., 1580 address, 209-216 Navy, 51, 52, 54, 105, 171, 172, 180- 183, 184, 185, 263-265, 294, 300- 305, 309-314. 362. 386, 387- 389. 390, 404, 516, 547, 552-555, 59 x « 611, 613, 614, 617, 687, 986, 1123, 1 199, 1306, 1396, 1574, 1575 Assistant Secretary of, 698 increase of pay for officers and men of, 1572 Medical Corps, 671, 1579 Secretary of the, 383 Nebraska, 195 Negro, criminal, 535 delegates of Colored Industrial Association, address, 456 Negroes, crime among, 913 as citizens, 513, 521-527 Neill, Charles P., 772, 773 Nettleton, General, 1063, 1068 Newell, Mr. F. H., 1182 New Hampshire, 295 New Jersey Association of Con- gregational Ministers, 729 Newlands, Senator Francis G., 1 182 New Mexico, 652 New Orleans, 295 address, 544-552 battle of, 736 New York, 183, 204 Central Railroad, 743 City, 224. 236, 292, 300, 383 Democratic Convention, 58 Stock Exchange, 1359 Niaxara Falls, 638 "Nibelungenlied," 1125, 1127 Njala Saga, 1126 Noble, Mr., 1050 Alfred, 1548 Nomination for President, letter accepting, 47-94 address (1904), 36-47 Norse Sagas, 1133 North Carolina, 467, 477, 478, 481, 482, 483, 484 Northern, Pacific Railroad, 1257 Securities Company, 57, 100 Securities Company, suit, 836 Virginia, Army of, 32, 1117 O Ocean Grove, N. J., 422 O'Connor, Mr., 1035 Odell, Governor, 846, 847, 849, 856 Odin, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, 1097, 1 100 Oglethorpe, 1295 O'Gonnan, Bishop, 888 Oklahoma, 195, 632, 1552 Old-age pension, 56 Olney, Attorney-General, 100 O'Neill, Captain, 296, 1206 "On to Richmond," 26 Organization of capital and labor, 43, 61, 62, 63 Organized labor, 489, 492 Orient interests, 88 Osterhaus, Mr., 873 Oyster Bay, 36, 47, 429 address at, 36-47, 790-801 Pacific cable, 45 Padron, Genero, 1100 Page, Thomas Nelson, 1114 Palma, President, 824 Palmer, Mr., 902 Panama, 45, 50, 177, 431, 655, 669, 671, 859, 1 193 sanitary conditions in, 1022, 1023, 1024, 1025, 1026, 1027 Straits of, 679 Panama Canal (see also Isthmian canal), 82, 84, 321, 359, 363, 366, 404, 431, 462, 506-508, 513-515, 516, 547, 550, 591. 603, 653-656, 667, 687, 704, 715, 803, 804, 83S, 1 178, 1394, 1396, 1433, '434, 1435. 1445. 1546 Board of Consulting Engineers, 678 Commission, 1599 lock canal, 678, 679, 680, 681 sea-level canal, 678, 679, 680, 681 1650 Index Pan-American Conference, Rio Janeiro, in 1906, 1596 Parker, Judge, 97-100 Lord Chancellor, 907 Parks, Judge, 1096, 1100 Party politics, 365 Patterson, Governor, 1436 memorial cup, 477 Senator, 352 Peace. 95, 395 attitude toward, 597-622 Pearl Harbor, 686 Peary, Commander, 1001, 1002 Pennsylvania, 30, 205, 825 Pennypacker, Governor, 21 Penrose, Major, 1068 Pension, Bureau, 152, 625 Office, 55 Order, 55-57, 78 Periodical Publishers' Associa- tion, remarks at the dinner of the, 5-8 Perry, Commodore, 957 Philadelphia, 217, 261, 293, 294 Philippine, administration, 84 civil service, 68 disasters, 642 Philippine Islands, duties on ex- ports from, 802 to provide lower tariff for, 952 Philippines, 183, 185-189, 212, 264, 493. 5*3, 642-647,651, 1123, 1178, 1562 foothold in, 45, 49, 53 independence of the, 85-92 Physical prowess, 12-15 Piedmont Club, 500 Pilgrim Memorial Monument, Provincetown, Mass., laying of corner stone, 1345 Pilgrims, 1219 Pinchot, Mr. Gifford, 694, 1182, 1317 Pinckney, 1403 Pius IX, Pope, 892 Piatt, Senator, 1856 amendment, 177, 257, 963 Playground Association of Amer- ica, 1 161 Playgrounds, for children, 709 public, 140 Plymouth, 1219 Poe, 426 Political contributions, 97-100 Pomeroy, Mr., 903 Porter, Mr., 1614 Horace, 732, 885 Porto-Rican administration, 84, 171 Porto Rico, 53, 493, 649-651, 995 to provide American citizenship for, 953 University and Normal School, address at, 869 Portsmouth, Va., address at Navy Yard, 748 Post-Office Department, 156, 1563 Post roads, 1248 Postal savings bank system, 1550 Potomac, Army of the, 28, 1229, 1231 Practical, being, 35 Prague, victory of, 102 Preciado, Palerno, 1097, noo Presidency Nomination Address, 36-47 Pribilof Islands, 975 Prig, the, 10 Princeton University, 9 Productive scholarship, 413 Prosperity, general, 560 Protection as robbery, 71-73 Prussia, 101 Public, health and Marine Hospi- tal Service, 549 land laws, 621 Lands Commission, 1313, 1538 School Athletic League of New York, 1 162 school system, 665 schools, 10, 666 service, efficiency of, 84 Puerto Plata, 253 Purdy, Assistant Attorney-Gen- eral, 1096, H02 Pure-Food law, 1507, 1621 Puritans, 1345 Q Quarantine laws desired, 157 Quay, Senator 21, 22 Quesada, Senor Don Gonzalo, let- ter to, 821-824 Quinn, Mr., 374-376 Race, decadence, 135-137 problems, 227-233 Railroad employees, hours of em- ployment, 921 Railroad rate, law, 928, 1621 legislation, 688 regulation, 124, 471-476 Railway corporations, Federal control of, 1176 Index 1651 Railway, employees, 556, 578 Employees' Orders, address to the, 55&-560 oversight by Government, 557- 560. 567-577, , : , , Railways, Federal control of, 1249, 1250, 1251-1271 Raleigh, N. C, 467- 477. 55^ Ramirez, Macedonio, 1100 Randolph of Roauoke, 414 Rebates, 474, 932 Rebellion, the, 30 Reclamation, Act, 621 service, 145, 131*1 >537 Red Cross Conference, 980 Reed, ex-Speaker, 1172 Reformed Church, 747 Religious tolerance, 110-111 Remington, Frederic, 1336 Rendall, George W., 1100 Representatives, House of, 60 Republican, Club of New York City, 224 National Committee, chairman of, 97, 9 s National Convention, 36, 47 nomination, acceptance of, 47-94 party, 49 policy, 56 record, 48, 91 Revenue-Cutter Service, increase of pay for officers and men, 157' Revenue, insufficient, 589 "Review of Reviews," 1188 Revolution, the, 30, 104-105, 261, 294, 295. 3°». 3 06 - 468, 469. I221 "Reynard the Fox," 1339 Reynolds, James Bronson, 772, 773 Jim, 236 General, 28 Rhodes, Mr., 530 Richmond, Va., 456, 458, 465, 544 Rifle practice, 674 Riis, Jacob, 236, 664, 708 Rio de Janeiro, 965, 9 60 . 9°7 Ripley, Mr., 1020, 1050, 1612, 1613, River systems, improvement and control of, 1181-1186 Rixey, Dr., 1020, 1027 Roberts, Charles G. D., 1331 Roberts's, Mr., "On the Night Trail," 1331, 133 2 Roman Catholic Church, 644, 883, 891 Root, Elihu, Secretary, 98, 400, 428, 692, 823, 853. 858, 859, 876, 968, 1020, 1057, 1058, 1 104, 1105, 1109, mo, 1120, 1190, 1194, 1479. 1481, 1483 Rose, Judge, 538, 539 Rosen, Ambassador, 596 Rosencranz, General, 28 Ross, Professor Edward A., 1190 Rossbach, victory of, 102 Roswell, Georgia, 486, 1294 Georgia, address, 485, 487 Roumania, treatment of Jews in, 52 Rouse, Mr., 739 Rousseau, H. H., 1547 Rudolph, Mr. Cuno H., 1164 Rugby, 1 162 Rural free delivery, 83 Rush, Richard, 970 Ruskin, 202, 699 Russia and the Jews, 65 Russian fleet, 687 Russo-Japanese War, 181 Sacramento River, 1427 Safety appliance law, 125 Saga of Gisli the Outlaw, 1126 St.-Gaudens, 426 St. Louis, Mo., 1390 St. Mark's School, 9 St. Patrick's Church, remarks at, 108-111 St. Paul's School, 9, 1162 "Salton Sink" region, 1082, 1087 Salvador, Republic of, 973, 974 Samar, 645 San Antonio, 334, 340 Sanborn, 1100 San Francisco, California, 204, 303, 753, 754, 1614 schools, exclusion of Japanese children, 1061 San Joaquin, 1427 San Juan, 686, 995, 1206 San Luis Obispo, 1614 Santa Fe Railway Company, 1611, 1627 Santiago, Cuba, 296, 388, 484, 510 Santo Domingo, Republic of, 241- 260, 273-275, 402, 403, 444-448, 607-611, 1105, 1106, 1178, 1179. 1194 Improvement Company, 245. 25 «, 252 1652 Index Santo Domingo, treaty, 804 Satterlee, Dr., 890 Sault Ste. Marie Canal, 679 Scandinavian element, 106 Schick, Dr., 276 Schiller, 393 School children of the United States, letter to, 1207 Scotch blood, 106 Seattle, Washington, 955, 1553 Self-education, duty of, 676 Self-government, 586 Self-help, 278 Self-restraint in the good citi- zen, 5-8 Semmes, Admiral, 513, 516 Senate, 60, 175, 247 "Serapis," ship, 733 Seton, Thompson, 1331 Seven Years' War, 102 Seward, Secretary, 1246 Shanton, Captain, 1035 Shaw, Dr. Albert, 1190 Shea, Mr. 274-277 Shepherd, Chief Justice Seth, 1114 Sheridan, General, 28, 295, 466, 75i. 1231, 1246 Sherman, General, 28, 463, 558, 751, 1231, 1246 Anti-trust Act, 62, 1607 J. S., letter to, 846-858 Representative, 801, 1118 Shipments-Associated Oil Com- pany, 1614 Shiras, Mr. George, 1327, 1337, 1340, 1342 Shonts, Theodore P., 367, 653, 1020, 1057, 1060 Sibert, Major William L., 1547 Sickles, General, 28 Shipp, N. C, 484 Sigrid, Queen, 1137 Silk production, 145 Simpson, Mr., 320 Sims, Mr., 979 Sioux, 89 Sisera, 1128 Sixtieth Ohio Regiment, 1074 Slav element, 106 Slocum, General, 377, 381, 384 statue, speech at unveiling of the, 378-386 Smith, Hon. Herbert Knox, 1182 Jackson, 1020, 1036, 1547 Captain Joe, 554, 734 Commodore Joe, 734 Smithsonian Institution, 157, 1558 Smoke nuisance, 637 Smyrna, 54 Snob, the, 10-12 Sobriety, 432, 435 Social transformation, 280-281 Society of the Army of the Poto- mac, 1228 Society of the Friendly Sons »f St. Patrick, address at the dinner of the, 292-299 in Philadelphia, 293 Song of Roland, 1125, 1127 Sons of the American Revolution, address at the dinner of the, 300-308 Soo Canal (see Sault Ste. Marie Canal), 680 Sosa Dam, 1019 South American Republics, 1122 Southern, magnanimity, 457-459 Pacific Company, 1091, 1092 struggle, 459, 460 South Mountain, 1229 Spain, King of, 886 Spanish-American War, 49, 82, 186, 484, 519, 1 199, 1568 Speer, Judge, 1079 Spooner Act, 655. 687 Square deal, a, 476 Squires, W. T., 1341 Stafford, Rev. Father, 108 Standard Oil Company, 740, 741, 742, 161 1, 1614, 1620, 1627, 1630 Stanton, Secretary, 1246 State, Agricultural Colleges, 141 Department, 66, 67, 248, 587, 588, 618, 656, 692 experiment stations, 141 rights, doctrine of, 1176 Secretary of, 159, 164, 275, 427 Steadfastness, 32-35 Stearns, Frederic P., 1050, 1548 Steuben, General, 105 Steunenberg, Governor, 1210 Stevens, John F., 653, 678, 1020, 1057, 1060, 1546 Stone, Witmer, 1337 Storer, Hon. Bellamy, 876, 878, 879, 880, 881, 882, 885, 886, 888, 892,893 Mrs., 877, 878, 879, 880, 881, 882, 885, 886 Strange, Rt. Rev. Robert, 232 Strikers' committee, remarks to the, 374-376 Strikes and lockouts, 925, 1524 Subig Bay, 686 Index 1653 Success, ordinary, 19-20 in life, 239 real, 347-350 Suez Canal, 679 Suffren, Bailli de, 732 Sullivan, General, 295 Mrs., Mother of Governors, 205 ^ Sulzer, Congressman, 236 Sumatra, 144 Sumter, Fort, 408 Supreme Court of the United States, 407, 578, 593. 64° Swift, Dr., 276, 277 Switzerland, Republic of, 990 Taft, Governor, 92 Secretary W. H., 674, 823, 853, 907, 1050, 1057 Taggart, Thomas, 98 Tangier, 54 "Tara's Mead Hall," 1140 Target practice, 390 Tariff, the, 69-80 benefits of, 75-80 legislation, 41 relations between Germany and the United States, 1591 revision, 69-73, 811 Teamsters' Association, 374 Tennessee, 316 Terrell, ex-Minister, 325 Texan character, 328, 333 "Texas," battleship. 39° Texas, 144, 315. 3»6. 3»7- 3*8, 319. 321, 324, 328, 330, 331, 333, 340, 342, 344, 379 Legislature, 325, 326, 329 Legislature, address to, 324-329 National Guard, 329 Thackeray, 487 Thanet, Octave, 1292 Thanksgiving Proclamations, 1470-1483 Thirkield, Wilbur Patterson, 1483 Thomas, Charles M., letter to, 824-825 General, 28, 1231, 1246 Thorn, Doctor, 1100 "Three Sorrowful Tales of Erin," "34 "Through the Looking-Glass," 1339 Timber and Stone Act, 1003 Tolerance, age of, 207 Topeka and Santa Fe Railway System, 1612 Tourville, 732 Tracy, General, 393 Trades union talk, 433~439 Trans - Mississippi Commercial Congress, Kansas City, Mo., 1120, 1121 Trans-Missouri Case, 934, i499 Treasury, 82 Department, 592 Secretary of the, 159 "Tree Day," 1207 Trieber, Judge, 533 Trinity College, N. C, 478 Troy, 399 Trust supervision, 218-223 Trusts, 418-420, i355-«3 61 and the tariff, 69-71 dealing with, 38, 50, 61, 63 Tuberculosis, State and Federal war against, 1361 Turkestan, 186 Turkey, 144 Armenians in, 52, 54 Christians in, 65 Turpin, Archbishop, 1133 Tuskegee (Ala.) address, 518-527 Tuskegee Institute, 677. 915 address, 521-527 Twentieth Illinois Regiment, 1075 Twenty-fifth U. S. Infantry, dis- charge of troops of, 1063, 1095, 1096 Twiggs, General, 1076 U "Uncle Remus," 501, 1339 _ Uniforms, exclusion of enlisted men wearing, 824, 873 Union League Club, address at the, 217-224 Union Oil Company, 1614 University luxury. 4*4 University of Pennsylvania, 266, 267 address at the, 261-268 Uprightness, 238 in legislation, 502, 503 Valley Forge, 29, 30, 32, 33, 261 Valparaiso earthquake, 812 Vandewater, Dr., 816 Venezuela, 45. 54, '77- 249 1654 Index Vermont, 353 Veteran pensions, 55-57, 84 Veterans of Civil War, 152, 527 Vicksburg, Mississippi, address at, 1442 National Park, 1555 Virginia, State of, 205, 456, 457, 465, 624, 1219 Vladivostok, 687 W Wage-workers' rights, 122 Wagner, Rev. Charles, introduc- tion of, 112-119 Wagner's "The Simple Life," 112, 114, 119 Wainwright, Captain Richard, 1581 Wallace, Mr., 367 Wall Street, 839 War, Assistant Secretary of, 698 College, 101, 103 of 1812, 301, 306, 735 Secretary of, 678, 686 Warfield, Governor, 209, 210 Warner, Senator William, 1182 Washburn, Dr., 813 Washington, Booker T., 521, 677 City, 5, 101, 108, ii2, 138-140, 190, 201, 204, 276, 282, 301, 580, 637 College, 1117 George, 30, 31, 32, 34, 217, 234, 261-268, 272, 295, 301, 307, 400- 426, 463, 833, 970, 1222 Memorial Church, remarks at the, 29-35 State of, 948, 1553 Waterways Convention, address to delegates, 963 Watson, James E., letter to, 801- 812 Wayne, General Anthony, 295, 463 Wealth, 494-496 hatreds, 534 Wells, Mr., 1614 Welsh element, 106 Westendorps, bankers, 250, 251 West India laborers, 704, 1043, 1047 West, irrigation of the, 43, 83 "West Virginia," the, address, 552-555 U. S. S., 873 Wheeler, General, 1199, 1245 President Benjamin Ide, 1365 White, Dr., 549, 550 Justice, 408, 938 Stewart Edward, 1324, 1336 White House, 273 address, 556-560 remarks at the, 95 Whitney, Caspar, 1337 Wife-beaters, 140 "Wiggs, Mrs., of the Cabbage Patch," 1292 Wiley, Colonel, 527 Wilkesbarre address, 433-439 Wilkinson, James, 1074 William II, Emperor of Germany, 711 Williams, Mr., 1442, 1444, 1448, 1449 Williams College, 401 address, 398-407 Williamstown, Mass., 398 Wilmer, Mr. Joseph, 1114 Wilson, General, 779 Justice James, 831, 833, 834 Secretary, 192, 295, 353 Wisdom in liberty, 25-28 Women in industry, 582 Wood, General Leonard, 433 Wood pulp, tariff on, 1545 Worcester, Mass., 391, 397 Workingman's standard of liv- ing, 74 Workingmen and tariff, 79 Wright, Governor, 92, 188 Marcus J., 11 14 President, 395 Yale University, 9, 25 Yellow fever epidemic, 549 Yellowstone Park, 152, 639 York, Pa., address at, 840 Yosemite, 152, 638, 639 Young, Lieut. -General, 1197, 1199 Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, 114, 388, 439, 1048 Yukon River Railway, 169 Zorndorf, victory of, 102 1 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 607 984 9 %