North Carolina Newspapers

iVlr. Roosevelt Makes Recommendations " . , Concerning Needed Legislation THE NiillON PROSPEROUS Hecommendatijons Covering a Wide Itange of Subjects Finances, Com binations, Transportation, Natural , Resourcts and Other Interesting Topics Brought to the Attention of Our Lawmaking Body. The message of President Roosevelt to the second session of the Sixtieth Congress was read in both houses, and was in substance as follows: , To the Senate and House of Repres entatives: Finances. The financial standing of the nation at the present time is excellent, and the financial management of the na tion's interests by the Government during the last seven years has shown the most satisfactory results. But -our currency system is imperfect, and it is earnestly to be hoped that the Currency Commission will be able to propose a thoroughly good system -which will do away with the existing defects. - During the period from July . 1, 1901, to September 30, 190S, there was an increase in the amount of money in circulation of $902,991,399. The increase in the per capita during this period was $7.06. Within this time there were several occasions when it was necessary for the Treas ury Department to come to the relief of the money market by purchases of redemptions of United States bonds; fcy increasing deposits in national banks; by stimulating additional is sues of national bank notes, and by facilititating importations from abroad of gold. Our imperfect cur rency system has made these proceed ings necessary, and they were effec tive until the monetary disturbance in the fall of-1907 immensely increas edthe difficulty of ordinary methods of relief. By the middle of Novem ber the available working balance in the Treasury had been reduced to ap proximately $5,000,000. Clearing bouse associations throughout the country had been obliged to resort to the expedient of issuing clearing house certificates, to be used as money. In this emergency it was de termined to invite subscriptions for $50,000,000 Panama Canal bonds, and $100,000,000 3 per cent certificates of indebtedness authorized by the act of June Tj3, 1908. It was proposed to re deposjjFrii, tho national banks the pro coetra of these issues,- -and to permit 7T ' - 1 If 1 tneir use as u oasis ior uuuiuoiiai cir .ia: t j? a: i i i. m . moral effect of this procedure was so great that it was necessary to issue only $24,631,930 of Ihe Panama Canal bonds and $15,430,500 of the certifi cates of indebtedness. During the seven years and three months there has been a net surplus of nearly one hundred millions of re ceipts over expenditures, a reduction of the interest-bearing debt by ninety millions, in spite of the extraordinary expense of the Panama Canal, and a saving of nearly nine millions on the annual interest chax-ge. This is an exceedingly satisfactory showing, es pecially in view of the fact that dur ing this period the Nation has never hesitated to undertake any expendi ture that it regarded as necessaiy. There have been no new taxes and no increase cf taxes; on the contrary conic taxes have been taken off; there has been a reduction of taxation. ., Corporations. As regards the great corporations engaged in interstate business, and especially the railroads, I can only rif!if -H-lint T hnvp nlrpndv ncnin nnA again said in my message to the Con gress. I believe that under the inter state clause of the Constitution the United States has complete and para mount right to control all agencies of interestatc commerce ,and I believe that the National Government alone ean exercise this right with wisdom and effectiveness so as both to secure justice from, and to do justice to, the great corporations which are the most important factors in modern business. I believe that it is worst than folly to attempt to prohibit all combina tions as is done by the Sherman anti trust law because such a law can be enforced only imperfectly and un equally, and its enforcement works almost as much hardship as good. I strongly advocate that instead of an unwise effort to prohibit all combina tions, "fe shall be substituted a law which Wall expressly permit combina tions which are in the interest of the public, but shall at the same time give to some agency of the National Government full power of control and supervision over them. One of the chief features of this control should be securing" entire publicity in all matters which the public has a right V know, and furthermore, the power, ot by judicial but by executive J a? l .rtnf rnt n cfr.n fn errv form of improper favoritism or ether wrongdoing. The railways of the country should he. rut.Jtii-L''N' under tho etati Cora in ere.' ( : iission ana r-v- wanti- i" the Commis .roufrhoing, so "raplete super- V:,o issue of i . I mevc trst Pr rom th "ho. pO .' (' securities as well as over the raising and lowering of rates. As regards rates, ar least, this power should be summary. The power to investigate the financial operations and accounts of tho railways has been one of the most valuable features in recent legis lation. Power to make combinations and traffic agreements should be ex plicitly conferred upon the railroads, the permission of the Commission be ing first gained and the combination or agreement being published in all its details. In the interest of the pub lic the representatives of the public should have complete power to see that the railroads do their -duty by the public, and as a matter of course this power should also be exercised so as to see that no injustice is done to the railroads. The share-holders, the employees and the shippers all have interests that must be guarded. It is to the interest of all of them that no swindling stock speculation should be allowed, and that there should be no improper issuance of securities. The guiding intelligences necessarv for the successful building and successful management of railroads should re ceive ample remuneration; but no man should be allowed to make money in connection with railroads out oi fraudulent over-capitalizations and kindred stock-gambliner performan ces; there must be no defrauding of investors, oppression of the farmers and business men who ship freight, or callous disregard of the rights and needs of the employees. In addition to this the interests of the share holders, of the employees, and of the shippers should all be guarded as against one another. To give any one of them undue and improper consid eration is to do injustice to the others. Rates must be made as low as is com patible with giving proper returns to all the employees of the railroad, from the highest to the lowest, and proper returns to the shareholders; but they must not, for instance, be re duced in such fashion as to necessi tate a cut in the wages 'of the employ ees or the abolition of the proper and legitimate profits of honest sharehold ers. . ' Telegraph and telephone companies engaged in interstate business should be put under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Labor. There are many matters affecting labor and the status of the wage worker to which I should like to draw your attention, but an exhaustive dis cussion of the problem in all its as pects is not now necessary. This ad ministration is nearing its end; and, moreover, under our form of govern ment the solution of the problem de pends upon the action of the States- as much as jupori the action of the Nation. Nevertheless, there are cer tain considerations which 1 wish to set before .you, because I hope that our people will more and more keep them in mind. A blind and ignorant resistance to every effort for the re form of abuses and for the readjust ment of society to modern industrial conditions represents not true conser vatism but an incitement to the wild est radicalism for wise radicalism and Avise conservatism go hand in hand, one bent on progress, the other bent on seeing that no change is made unless in the right direction. I be lieve in a steady effort, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say in steady efforts in many different direc tions, to bring about a condition ot affairs under which the men who work with hand or brain, the laborers, the superintendents, the men who pro duce for the market and the men who find a market for the articles produced, shall own a far greater share than at present of th wealth thev produce, and be enabled to in vest it in the tools and instruments by which all work is carried on. As far as possible I hope to see a frank rec ognition of the advantages conferred by machinery, organization, and di vision of labor, accompanied by an effort to bring about a larger share in the ownership by wage-workers of railway, mill, and factory. In farm ing, this simply means that we wish to see the farmer" own his own land; we do not wish to seevthe farms so large that they become the property of absentee landlords who farm them by tenants, nor yet so small that the farmer becomes like a European peas ant. Again, the depositors in our saving banks now number over one tenth of our entire population. These are all capitalists, who through the savings banks loan their money to the workers that is, in many cases to themselves to carry on their var ious industries. The more we increase their number, the more we introduce the principles of cooperation into our industry. Every increase in tbe num ber of small stockholders in corpora tions is a good thing, for the same reasons; and where the employees are the stockholders the result is particu larly good. Very raueh of this move ment must be outside of anything that can be accomplished by legislation; but legislation can do a good deal. P-tfll "savinsrs banks will make it easy for the poorest to keep their savings in absolute safety. The reg ulation of the national highways must be such that they shall serve all peo ple with equal, iustice. Corporate finances must bo supervised so as to make it far safer than at present for the man of small means to invest his money in stocks. There must be pro hibition of. child labor, diminution of woman labor, shortening of hours of all mechanical labor; stock watering should be prohibited, and stock gamb ling so far as is possible discouraged. There should bo a progressive inheri tance tax on large fortunes. Indus trial education .should be encouraged. As far as possible we1 should lighten the burden of taxation on the small man. We should put a premium upon thrift, hard work, and business ener gy; but these qualities cease to be the main factors in accumulating a for tune long before that fortune reaches a point where it would be seriously affected by any inheritance tax such as I propose. It is eminently right that the Nation should fix the terms upon which the great fortunes are in herited. They rarely do good and they often do harm to those who in herit them in their entirety. The above is the merest sketch, hardly even a sketch in outline, of the reforms for which we should work. But there is one matter with which the Congress should deal at this session. There should no longer be any paltering with the question of taking care of the wage-workers who, under our present industrial system, become killed, crippled, or worn out as part of the regular incidents of a given business. The majority of wage workers must have their rights se cured for them by State action; but the National Government should leg islate in thoroughgoing and far-reach ing fashion not only for all employees of the National Government, but for all persons engaged in interestate commerce. The object , sought for cuold be achieved to a measurable de gree, as far as those killed or crippled are concerned, by proper employers' liability laws. As far as conecrns those who have been worn out, I ttall your attention to the fact that definite steps toward provding old-age pen sions have been taken in many of our private industries. These may be in definitely extended through voluntary association and contributory schemes, or through the agency of savings banks, as under the recent Massachu setts plan. To strengthen these prac tical measures should be our imme diate duty; it is not at present neces sary to consider the larger and more general governmental schemes that most Europena governments have found themselves obliged to adopt. I renew my recommendation made in a previous message that half-holidays be granted during summer to all wage-workers in Government employ. I also renew my recommendation that the principle of the eight-hour day should as rapidly and as far as practicable be extended to the entire work being carried on by the Govern ment; the present law should be amended to embrace contracts on those public works which the present wording of the aet seems to exclude. Tho Courts. I most earnestly urge upon the Con gress the duty of increasing the to tally inadequate salaries now given to our Judges. On the whole there is no body of public servants who do as valuable work, nor whose moneyed re ward is so inadequate compared to their work. Beginning with the Su preme Court the Judges should have their salaries doubled. It is not be fitting the dignity of the Nation that its most honored public servants should be paid sums so small compar ed to what they would earn in private life that the performance of public service by them implies an exceeding ly heavy pecuniary sacrifice. It is earnestly to be desired that some method should be devised for doing away with the long delays which now obtain in the administra tion of justice, " and which operate with peculiar severity against persons of small means, and favor only the very criminals whom it is most de sirable to punish. These long delays in the final decisions of cases make in the aggregate a crying evil; and a remedy should be devised. Much of this intolerable delay is due to im proper regard paid to technicalities which are a mere hindrance to justice. In some noted recent cases this over regard for technicalities has resulted in a striking denial of justice, and flagrant wrong to the body politic. Forests. If there is any one duty which more than another we owe it to our children and our children's children to per form at once, it is to save the forests of this country, for they constitute the first and most important element in the conservation of the natural re sources of our country. There are of course two kinds of natural resources. One is the kind which can nly be used as part of a process of exhaus tion: this is true of mines, natural oil and gas wells, and the like. The other, and of eourse ultimately by far the most important, includes the re sources which can be improved in the process of wise use; the soil, the riv ers, and the forests come under this head. Any really civilized nation tvM so use all of these three great national assets that the nation will have their benefit in the future. Just r.s a farmer, after all his life making his living from his farm, will, if he is an expert farmer, leave it as an asset of increased value to his son, so we should leave our national domain to our children, increasd in value and not worn out. There are small sec tions of our own country, in the East and in the West, in the Adirondack's, the White Mountains, and the Appa lachians, and in the Rockv Mountains, where we can alreadv see for oursel ves the damage in the shape of per manent injury to the soil and the river systems which comes from reck less deforestation. It matters net i .1 . i! ' t . -P i Ana frt iwnetner mis ueioiun the actual cutting of timber, to the fires that inevitably follow such reck less cutting of timber, or to reckless and uncontrolled grazing, especially by the great migratory bands of sheep, the unchecked wanderings of which over the country means de struction of forests and disaster to the small home makers, the settlers of limited means. Inland Waterways. Action should be begun forthwith, during the present session of the Congress, for tho improvement of 'ur inland waterways action which wiil result in giving us no: onlv navi gable but navigated rivers. We hava spent hundreds of millions of dolla' upon these waterways, yet the traffi on nearly all of them is steadily de clining. This condition i the dnect result of the absence of any compre hensive and far-seeing plan of water way improvement. Obviously we can not continue thus to expend the rev enues of the Government without re turn. It is poor business to spend money for inland navigation unless we get it. Denatured Alcohol. I had occasion in my message of May 4, 1906, to urge the passage of some law putting alcohol, used in the arts, industries, and manufactures, upon the free list; that is, to provide lor the withdrawal free of tax of alcohol which is to be denatured for those purposes. The law of June 7, lysJb, and its amendment of March 2, 1907, accomplished what was desired in that respect, and the use of de natured alcohol, as intended, is mak ing a fair degree of progress and is entitled to further encouragement and support from the Congress. Pure Food. The pure food legislation has al ready worked a benefit difficult to overestimate. Indian Affairs. It has been my purpose from the beginning of my administration to take the Indian Service completely out of the atmosphere of political activity, and there has been steady progress toward that end. The last remaining stronghold of politics in that service was the agency system, which had seen its best days and was gradually falling to pieces from nat ural or purely evolutionary causes, but, like all such survivals, was de caying slowly in its later stages. It seems clear that its extincition had better be made final now, so that the ground ean be cleared for larger con-1 structive work on behalf of the In-! dians, preparatory to their induction into the full measures of responsible citizenship. On November 1 only eighteen agencies were left on the roster, with two exceptions, where some legal questions seemed to stand temporarily in the way, these have been changed to superintendencies, and their heads brought into the classified civil service. Secret Service. The law enacted by the last session of Congress to provide that there should be no detail from the Secret Service and no transferrence there from seems to have been only in the interest of the criminal classes, both large and small, and as a mat ter of common interest should be re pealed and the old system re-enacted. Corporations are necessary instru ments of modern business. They have been permitted to become a menace largely because 'the governmental rep resentatives of the people have work ed slowly in providing adequate con trol over them. Control over the great corporations doing interstate business can be ef fective only when such control is vested in the executive department of the government. . Postal Savings Banks. I again renew my recommendation for postal savings banks, for deposit ing savings with the security of the Government behind them. The object is to encourage thrift and economy in the wage-earner and person of moderate means. In fourteen States the deposits in savings banks as re ported to the Comptroller of the Currency amount to $3,590,245,402, or 98.4 per cent of the entire deposits, while in the remaining 32 States there are only $70,303,543, or 1.6 per cent showing conclusively that there are many localities in the United States where sufficient opportunity is not given to the people to deposit their savings. The result is that money is kept in hiding and unemployed. It is believed that in the aggregate vast sums of money would be brought in to circulation through the instrumen tality ef the postal savings banks. While there are only 1,453 savings banks reporting to the Comptroller there are more than 61,000 post-offices 40,000 of which are money order of fices. Postal savings banks are now in operation in practically all the great civilized countries with the ex ception of tbe United States. Parcel Post. In my last annual message I com mended the Postmaster-General's re commendation for an extension of the parcel post on the rural routes. The establishment of a local parcel post on rural routes would be to the mu tual benefit of the farmer and the country storekeeper, and it is de sirable that the routes, serving more than 15,000.000 people, should be utilized to the fullest practicable ex tent. An amendment was proposed in tbe Senate at the last session, at the suggestion cf the Pcstmnster- General, providing that, for the pur pose of ascertaining the practicability of establishing a special local parcel post system on the rural routes throughout the United States, the Postmaster General be authorized and directed to experiment and report to the Congress the result of such ex periment by establishing a special local parcel post system on. rural de-. livery routes in not to exceed four counties in the United States for packages of fourth-class matter orig inating on a rural route or at the dis tributing post office for delivery by rural carriers. It would seem only proper that such an experiment should be tried in order to demon strate the practicability of the prop osition, especially as tho Postmaster General estimates that the revenue derived from the opeation of such a system on all the rural routes would amount to many million dollars. Education. i The share that the National Gov - crnment should take in the broad work-of education has not received the attention and the care it rightly deserves. The immediate responsi bility for the support and improve ment of our educational systems and institutions rests and should always rest with the people of the several States acting through their state and local governments, but the Nation hag an opportunity in education work which" must not be lost and a duty which should no longer be neglected. With the limited means hitherto provided, the Bureau of Education has rendered efficient service, but the Congress has neglected to adequately supply the bureau witt means to meet the educational growth of. the coun try. The appropriations for the gen eral work of the bureau, out side edu cation in Alaska, for the year 1909 are but $87,500 an amount less than they were ten years ago, and some of the important items in these appro priations are iess than they were t hirty years .ago. It is r.n inexcusable waste of public money to appropri ate an amount which is so inade quate as to make it impossible prop erly to do the work authorized, and it is unfair to the great educational interests of the country to deprive them of the value of the results which can be obtained by proper appropri ations. Census. I strongly urge that the request of the Director of the Census in connec tion with the decennial work so soon to be begun, be complied with and that the appointments to the census force be placed under the civil ser vice law, waiving the geographical requirements as requested by the Di rector of the Census. The supervisers and enumerators should not be ap pointed under the civil service law, for the reasons given by the Director. I commend to the Congress the care ful consideration of the admirable re port of the Director of the Census, and I trust that his recommedations will be adopted and immediate action thereon taken. Soldiers' Home. All Soldiers' Homes should be plac ed under the complete jurisdiction and control of the War Department. Independent Bureaus aad Commis sions. Economy and sound business policy require that all existing independent bureaus and commissions should be placed under the juridiction of ap propriate executive departments. It is unwise from every standpoint, and results only in mischief, to have any executive work done save by the purely executive bodies, under the control of the President; and each such executive body should be under the immediate supervision of a Cabi net Minister; Statehood. I advocate the immediate admis sion of New Mexico and Arizona as States. This should be done at the present session of the Congress. The people of the tAvo Territories have made it evident by their votes that they will not eoine in as one State. The only alternative is to admit them as two, and I trust that this will be clone Avithout delay. Interstate Fisheries. I call the attention, of the Con gress, to the importance of the prob lem of the fisheries in the interstate waters. On the Great Lakes we are now, under the very wise treaty of April 11th, of this year, endeavoring to come to an international agree ment for the preservation and satis factory use of the fisheries of these waters can not otherwise be achieved. Lake Erie, for example, has the rich est fresh water fisheries in the world ; but it is now controlled by the statutes ef two Nations, four States, and one Province, and in this Prov ince by different ordinances in dif ferent counties. All these political divisions work at cross purposes, and in no case they achieve protection to the fisheries, on the one hand, and justice to the localities and individ uals on the other. Ihe case is simi lar in Puget Sound. Fisheries and Fur Seah. The federal statute regulating in terstate traffic in game should be ex tended to include fish. New federal fish hatcheries should be estbalished. The administration of the Alaskan fur-seal service should be vested in the Bureau of Fisheries. Ford is Affairs. This Nation's foreign policy is based on the theory that right must be done between nations precisely as between individuals, and in our ac tions for the last ten years we have in this matter proven our faith by our deeds. We have behaved and are behaving, towards other notions, as in private life an honorablo man would behave towards his fellows. Latin-American Republics. The commercial and material pro gress of the twenty Latin-American Republics is worthy of the careiui attention of the Congress. No other section of the world has shown a crreater proportionate development of its fnreieri trade during the last lei v-ears and none other has more special (1 r,i the interest of the United Stale. It offers today probably larger opportunities for the ksriti- mate extension of our commerce thai any other group of countries. ThesJ countries " will want , our products ii greatly increased quantities, and w shall correspondingly need theirs The International Bureau of the Am erican Republics is doinr a usefu work in making these nations and their resources better known to us and in acquainting them not only, with us as a people and with bur! purposes towards them, but with! goods. It is an international insti tution supported by all the govern- 1 ments of the two Americas, Panama Canal. The work on the Panama Canal is being done with a speed, efficiency and entire devotion to duty, which make it a model for all work of the kind. No task of such magnitude hag ever before been undertaken by any ration: and no task of the., kind has ever been better performed. The men on the Isthmus, from Colonel Goe thals and his fellow commissioners through tlTe entire list of employee who are faithfully doing their duty, have won their right to the ungrudg ing respect and gratitude of the Am- erican people. Ocean Mail Lines. T nflin reenmmpml ihe tnftono?r of the ocean mail act of 1891 so that satisfactory American ocean lines to South America, Asia, the Philipines, and Australia may be established. The creation of such steamship lines should be the natural corollary of th, voyage of the battle fleet. It should precede the opening of the Panama Canal. Even under favorable con ditions several years must elapse be fore such lines can be put into opera tion. Accordingly I urge that the Congress act promptly where fore sight already shows that action soon er or later will be inevitable. The Army. Aa rprfnrds ttiA Armv T pnl! ntfpn- tion to the fact that while our junior officers and enlisted men stand very high, the present system of promo tion by seniority results in bringing into the higher grades many men of mediocre capacity who have but a short time to serve. iSo man should regard it as his vested right to rise to the highest rank in the Army any more than in any other profession. It is a curious and by no means cred itnWo fiief thnf. -therf slinnld hi en uiien a xaiiure on me pari oi me c l ' l il. i. . r j.1 public and its representatives to un- standpoint of the service and the Na tion, of refusing to promote respect able, elderlv incompetents. The higher places should bo given to the . a j : : i i a a to seniority; at least seniority should be treated as only one consideration. In the stress of modern industritl competition no business firm could succeed if those responsible for its management were chosen simply on the ground that they were the oldest people in its employment; yet this is the course advocated as regards the army, and required by law for all grades except those of general officer. As a matter of fact, all of the best officers in the highest ranks of the army are those who have attained their present position wholly or in part by a process of selection. The Navy. I approve the recommendations off the General Board for the increase of the Navy, calling especial attention to the need of additional destroyers and colliers, and above all, of the four battleships. It is desirable to complete as son as possible a squad ron of eight battleships of the best existing type. The North Dakota, Deleware, Florida and Utah will form the first of this squadron. The four vessels proposed will form the second division. It will be an improvement on the. first, the ships being of the heavy, single caliber, all big gun type. All the vessels should have the same tactical qualities, that is, speed and turning circle, and as near . as possible these tactical qualities should be the same as is in the four vessels before named now being built. The American people have caus for profound gratification, both in view of the excellent condition of the fleet as shown by this cruise ,and in view of the improvement the cruise has worked in this already high con dition. I do not believe that there ia any other service in the world in which the average of character and efficiency in the enlisted men is a high as is now the case in our own. I believe that the same statement can be made as to our officers, taken as a whole; but there must be a reserva tion made in regard to those in tho highest ranks as to which I have al ready spoken and in regard to those who have just entered the service J because we do not now get full bene fit from our excellent naval school at Annapolis. It is absurd not to graduate the midshipmen as ensigns; to keep them for two years in sncli an anomalous position as at present the law requires is detrimental to them and to the service. In the aca demy itelf, every first classman should be required in turn to serve -as petty officer and officer; his abil ity t discharge his duties as such should be a prerequisite to his going into the line, and his success in com manding should largely determine his standing at graduation. The .Board of Visitors should be appointed in January, and each member should be required to give at least six days service, only from one to three days to be performed during June week, which is the least desirable time for the board to be at Annapolis so far as benefiting the navy by their ob servation? in concerned. THEODORE nOOSEVELT. Tlie White House, Tuesday, Decern bcr 8, 1003.