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TEDDY "TRUSTBUSTER" ROOSEVELT -
1901
Controlling the Trusts - Page 2
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Roosevelt's Controlling the Trusts
speech.
It follows the full text transcript of
Theodore Roosevelt's Controlling the Trusts speech, delivered
before Congress at Washington D.C. - December 3, 1901.
This is page 2 of 2 of
Roosevelt's speech. Go to
page 1.
In Cuba such progress has been made toward
putting the independent government of the island
upon a firm footing that before the present
session of the Congress closes this will be an
accomplished fact. Cuba will then start as her
own mistress; and to the beautiful Queen of the
Antilles, as she unfolds this new page of her
destiny, we extend our heartiest greetings and
good wishes. Elsewhere I have discussed the
question of reciprocity. In the case of Cuba,
however, there are weighty reasons of morality
and of national interest why the policy should
be held to have a peculiar application, and I
most earnestly ask your attention to the wisdom,
indeed to the vital need, of providing for a
substantial reduction in the tariff duties on
Cuban imports into the United States. Cuba has
in her constitution affirmed what we desired.
that she should stand, in international matters,
in closer and more friendly relations with us
than with any other power; and we are bound by
every consideration of honor and expediency to
pass commercial measures in the interest of her
material well-being.
In the Philippines our problem is larger. They
are very rich tropical islands, inhabited by
many varying tribes, representing widely
different stages of progress toward
civilization. Our earnest effort is to help
these people upward along the stony and
difficult path that leads to self-government. We
hope to make our administration of the islands
honorable to our Nation by making it of the
highest benefit to the Filipinos themselves; and
as an earnest of what we intend to do, we point
to what we have done. Already a greater measure
of material prosperity and of governmental
honesty and efficiency has been attained in the
Philippines than ever before in their history.
It is no light task for a nation to achieve the
temperamental qualities without which the
institutions of free government are but an empty
mockery. Our people are now successfully
governing themselves, because for more than a
thousand years they have been slowly fitting
themselves, sometimes consciously, sometimes
unconsciously, toward this end. What has taken
us thirty generations to achieve, we cannot
expect to have another race accomplish out of
hand, especially when large portions of that
race start very far behind the point which our
ancestors had reached even thirty generations
ago. In dealing with the Philippine people we
must show both patience and strength,
forbearance and steadfast resolution. Our aim is
high. We do not desire to do for the islanders
merely what has elsewhere been done for tropic
peoples by even the best foreign governments. We
hope to do for them what has never before been
done for any people of the tropics--to make them
fit for self-government after the fashion of the
really free nations.
History may safely be challenged to show a
single instance in which a masterful race such
as ours, having been forced by the exigencies of
war to take possession of an alien land, has
behaved to its inhabitants with the
disinterested zeal for their progress that our
people have shown in the Philippines. To leave
the islands at this time would mean that they
would fall into a welter of murderous anarchy.
Such desertion of duty on our part would be a
crime against humanity. The character of
Governor Taft and of his associates and
subordinates is a proof, if such be needed, of
the sincerity of our effort to give the
islanders a constantly increasing measure of
self-government, exactly as fast as they show
themselves fit to exercise it. Since the civil
government was established not an appointment
has been made in the islands with any reference
to considerations of political influence, or to
aught else Save the fitness of the man and the
needs of the service.
In our anxiety for the welfare and progress of
the Philippines, may be that here and there we
have gone too rapidly in giving them local
self-government. It is on this side that our
error, if any, has been committed. No competent
observer, sincerely desirous of finding out the
facts and influenced only by a desire for the
welfare of the natives, can assert that we have
not gone far enough. We have gone to the very
verge of safety in hastening the process. To
have taken a single step farther or faster in
advance would have been folly and weakness, and
might well have been crime. We are extremely
anxious that the natives shall show the power of
governing themselves. We are anxious, first for
their sakes, and next, because it relieves us of
a great burden. There need not be the slightest
fear of our not continuing to give them all the
liberty for which they are fit.
The only fear is test in our overanxiety we give
them a degree of independence for which they are
unfit, thereby inviting reaction and disaster.
As fast as there is any reasonable hope that in
a given district the people can govern
themselves, self-government has been given in
that district. There is not a locality fitted
for self-government which has not received it.
But it may well be that in certain cases it will
have to be withdrawn because the inhabitants
show themselves unfit to exercise it; such
instances have already occurred. In other words,
there is not the slightest chance of our failing
to show a sufficiently humanitarian spirit. The
danger comes in the opposite direction.
There are still troubles ahead in the islands.
The insurrection has become an affair of local
banditti and marauders, who deserve no higher
regard than the brigands of portions of the Old
World. Encouragement, direct or indirect, to
these insurrectors stands on the same footing as
encouragement to hostile Indians in the days
when we still had Indian wars. Exactly as our
aim is to give to the Indian who remains
peaceful the fullest and amplest consideration,
but to have it understood that we will show no
weakness if he goes on the warpath, so we must
make it evident, unless we are false to our own
traditions and to the demands of civilization
and humanity, that while we will do everything
in our power for the Filipino who is peaceful,
we will take the sternest measures with the
Filipino who follows the path of the insurrecto
and the ladrone.
The heartiest praise is due to large numbers of
the natives of the islands for their steadfast
loyalty. The Macabebes have been conspicuous for
their courage and devotion to the flag. I
recommend that the Secretary of War be empowered
to take some systematic action in the way of
aiding those of these men who are crippled in
the service and the families of those who are
killed.
The time has come when there should be
additional legislation for the Philippines.
Nothing better can be done for the islands than
to introduce industrial enterprises. Nothing
would benefit them so much as throwing them open
to industrial development. The connection
between idleness and mischief is proverbial, and
the opportunity to do remunerative work is one
of the surest preventatives of war. Of course no
business man will go into the Philippines unless
it is to his interest to do so; and it is
immensely to the interest of the islands that he
should go in. It is therefore necessary that the
Congress should pass laws by which the resources
of the islands can be developed; so that
franchises (for limited terms of years) can be
granted to companies doing business in them, and
every encouragement be given to the incoming of
business men of every kind.
Not to permit this is to do a wrong to the
Philippines. The franchises must be granted and
the business permitted only under regulations
which will guarantee the islands against any
kind of improper exploitation. But the vast
natural wealth of the islands must be developed,
and the capital willing to develop it must be
given the opportunity. The field must be thrown
open to individual enterprise, which has been
the real factor in the development of every
region over which our flag has flown. It is
urgently necessary to enact suitable laws
dealing with general transportation, mining,
banking, currency, homesteads, and the use and
ownership of the lands and timber. These laws
will give free play to industrial enterprise;
and the commercial development which will surely
follow will accord to the people of the islands
the best proofs of the sincerity of our desire
to aid them.
I call your attention most earnestly to the
crying need of a cable to Hawaii and the
Philippines, to be continued from the
Philippines to points in Asia. We should not
defer a day longer than necessary the
construction of such a cable. It is demanded not
merely for commercial but for political and
military considerations.
Either the Congress should immediately provide
for the construction of a Government cable, or
else an arrangement should be made by which like
advantages to those accruing from a Government
cable may be secured to the Government by
contract with a private cable company.
No single great material work which remains to
be undertaken on this continent is of such
consequence to the American people as the
building of a canal across the Isthmus
connecting North and South America. Its
importance to the Nation is by no means limited
merely to its material effects upon our business
prosperity; and yet with view to these effects
alone it would be to the last degree important
for us immediately to begin it. While its
beneficial effects would perhaps be most marked
upon the Pacific Coast and the Gulf and South
Atlantic States, it would also greatly benefit
other sections. It is emphatically a work which
it is for the interest of the entire country to
begin and complete as soon as possible; it is
one of those great works which only a great
nation can undertake with prospects of success,
and which when done are not only permanent
assets in the nation's material interests, but
standing monuments to its constructive ability.
I am glad to be able to announce to you that our
negotiations on this subject with Great Britain,
conducted on both sides in a spirit of
friendliness and mutual good will and respect,
have resulted in my being able to lay before the
Senate a treaty which if ratified will enable us
to begin preparations for an Isthmian canal at
any time, and which guarantees to this Nation
every right that it has ever asked in connection
with the canal. In this treaty, the old
Clayton-Bulwer treaty, so long recognized as
inadequate to supply the base for the
construction and maintenance of a necessarily
American ship canal, is abrogated. It
specifically provides that the United States
alone shall do the work of building and assume
the responsibility of safeguarding the canal and
shall regulate its neutral use by all nations on
terms of equality without the guaranty or
interference of any outside nation from any
quarter. The signed treaty will at once be laid
before the Senate, and if approved the Congress
can then proceed to give effect to the
advantages it secures us by providing for the
building of the canal.
The true end of every great and free people
should be self-respecting peace; and this Nation
most earnestly desires sincere and cordial
friendship with all others. Over the entire
world, of recent years, wars between the great
civilized powers have become less and less
frequent. Wars with barbarous or semi-barbarous
peoples come in an entirely different category,
being merely a most regrettable but necessary
international police duty which must be
performed for the sake of the welfare of
mankind. Peace can only be kept with certainty
where both sides wish to keep it; but more and
more the civilized peoples are realizing the
wicked folly of war and are attaining that
condition of just and intelligent regard for the
rights of others which will in the end, as we
hope and believe, make world-wide peace
possible. The peace conference at The Hague gave
definite expression to this hope and belief and
marked a stride toward their attainment.
This same peace conference acquiesced in our
statement of the Monroe Doctrine as compatible
with the purposes and aims of the conference.
The Monroe Doctrine should be the cardinal
feature of the foreign policy of all the nations
of the two Americas, as it is of the United
States. Just seventy-eight years have passed
since President Monroe in his Annual Message
announced that "The American continents are
henceforth not to be considered as subjects for
future colonization by any European power." In
other words, the Monroe Doctrine is a
declaration that there must be no territorial
aggrandizement by any non-American power at the
expense of any American power on American soil.
It is in no wise intended as hostile to any
nation in the Old World. Still less is it
intended to give cover to any aggression by one
New World power at the expense of any other. It
is simply a step, and a long step, toward
assuring the universal peace of the world by
securing the possibility of permanent peace on
this hemisphere.
During the past century other influences have
established the permanence and independence of
the smaller states of Europe. Through the Monroe
Doctrine we hope to be able to safeguard like
independence and secure like permanence for the
lesser among the New World nations.
This doctrine has nothing to do with the
commercial relations of any American power, save
that it in truth allows each of them to form
such as it desires. In other words, it is really
a guaranty of the commercial independence of the
Americas. We do not ask under this doctrine for
any exclusive commercial dealings with any other
American state. We do not guarantee any state
against punishment if it misconducts itself,
provided that punishment does not take the form
of the acquisition of territory by any
non-American power.
Our attitude in Cuba is a sufficient guaranty of
our own good faith. We have not the slightest
desire to secure any territory at the expense of
any of our neighbors. We wish to work with them
hand in hand, so that all of us may be uplifted
together, and we rejoice over the good fortune
of any of them, we gladly hail their material
prosperity and political stability, and are
concerned and alarmed if any of them fall into
industrial or political chaos. We do not wish to
see any Old World military power grow up on this
continent, or to be compelled to become a
military power ourselves. The peoples of the
Americas can prosper best if left to work out
their own salvation in their own way.
The work of upbuilding the Navy must be steadily
continued. No one point of our policy, foreign
or domestic, is more important than this to the
honor and material welfare, and above all to the
peace, of our nation in the future. Whether we
desire it or not, we must henceforth recognize
that we have international duties no less than
international rights. Even if our flag were
hauled down in the Philippines and Puerto Rico,
even if we decided not to build the Isthmian
Canal, we should need a thoroughly trained Navy
of adequate size, or else be prepared definitely
and for all time to abandon the idea that our
nation is among those whose sons go down to the
sea in ships. Unless our commerce is always to
be carried in foreign bottoms, we must have war
craft to protect it.
Inasmuch, however, as the American people have
no thought of abandoning the path upon which
they have entered, and especially in view of the
fact that the building of the Isthmian Canal is
fast becoming one of the matters which the whole
people are united in demanding, it is imperative
that our Navy should be put and kept in the
highest state of efficiency, and should be made
to answer to our growing needs. So far from
being in any way a provocation to war, an
adequate and highly trained navy is the best
guaranty against war, the cheapest and most
effective peace insurance. The cost of building
and maintaining such a navy represents the very
lightest premium for insuring peace which this
nation can possibly pay.
Probably no other great nation in the world is
so anxious for peace as we are. There is not a
single civilized power which has anything
whatever to fear from aggressiveness on our
part. All we want is peace; and toward this end
we wish to be able to secure the same respect
for our rights from others which we are eager
and anxious to extend to their rights in return,
to insure fair treatment to us commercially, and
to guarantee the safety of the American people.
Our people intend to abide by the Monroe
Doctrine and to insist upon it as the one sure
means of securing the peace of the Western
Hemisphere. The Navy offers us the only means of
making our insistence upon the Monroe Doctrine
anything but a subject of derision to whatever
nation chooses to disregard it. We desire the
peace which comes as of right to the just man
armed; not the peace granted on terms of
ignominy to the craven and the weakling.
It is not possible to improvise a navy after war
breaks out. The ships must be built and the men
trained long in advance. Some auxiliary vessels
can be turned into makeshifts which will do in
default of any better for the minor work, and a
proportion of raw men can be mixed with the
highly trained, their shortcomings being made
good by the skill of their fellows; but the
efficient fighting force of the Navy when pitted
against an equal opponent will be found almost
exclusively in the war ships that have been
regularly built and in the officers and men who
through years of faithful performance of sea
duty have been trained to handle their
formidable but complex and delicate weapons with
the highest efficiency. In the late war with
Spain the ships that dealt the decisive blows at
Manila and Santiago had been launched from two
to fourteen years, and they were able to do as
they did because the men in the conning towers,
the gun turrets, and the engine-rooms had
through long years of practice at sea learned
how to do their duty.
Our present Navy was begun in 1882. At that
period our Navy consisted of a collection of
antiquated wooden ships, already almost as out
of place against modern war vessels as the
galleys of Alcibiades and Hamilcar--certainly as
the ships of Tromp and Blake. Nor at that time
did we have men fit to handle a modern
man-of-war. Under the wise legislation of the
Congress and the successful administration of a
succession of patriotic Secretaries of the Navy,
belonging to both political parties, the work of
upbuilding the Navy went on, and ships equal to
any in the world of their kind were continually
added; and what was even more important, these
ships were exercised at sea singly and in
squadrons until the men aboard them were able to
get the best possible service out of them. The
result was seen in the short war with Spain,
which was decided with such rapidity because of
the infinitely greater preparedness of our Navy
than of the Spanish Navy.
While awarding the fullest honor to the men who
actually commanded and manned the ships which
destroyed the Spanish sea forces in the
Philippines and in Cuba, we must not forget that
an equal meed of praise belongs to those without
whom neither blow could have been struck. The
Congressmen who voted years in advance the money
to lay down the ships, to build the guns, to buy
the armor-plate; the Department officials and
the business men and wage-workers who furnished
what the Congress had authorized; the
Secretaries of the Navy who asked for and
expended the appropriations; and finally the
officers who, in fair weather and foul, on
actual sea service, trained and disciplined the
crews of the ships when there was no war in
sight--all are entitled to a full share in the
glory of Manila and Santiago, and the respect
accorded by every true American to those who
wrought such signal triumph for our country. It
was forethought and preparation which secured us
the overwhelming triumph of 1898. If we fail to
show forethought and preparation now, there may
come a time when disaster will befall us instead
of triumph; and should this time come, the fault
will rest primarily, not upon those whom the
accident of events puts in supreme command at
the moment, but upon those who have failed to
prepare in advance.
There should be no cessation in the work of
completing our Navy. So far ingenuity has been
wholly unable to devise a substitute for the
great war craft whose hammering guns beat out
the mastery of the high seas. It is unsafe and
unwise not to provide this year for several
additional Battle ships and heavy armored
cruisers, with auxiliary and lighter craft in
proportion; for the exact numbers and character
I refer you to the report of the Secretary of
the Navy. But there is something we need even
more than additional ships, and this is
additional officers and men. To provide battle
ships and cruisers and then lay them up, with
the expectation of leaving them unmanned until
they are needed in actual war, would be worse
than folly; it would be a crime against the
Nation.
To send any war ship against a competent enemy
unless those aboard it have been trained by
years of actual sea service, including incessant
gunnery practice, would be to invite not merely
disaster, but the bitterest shame and
humiliation. Four thousand additional seamen and
one thousand additional marines should be
provided; and an increase in the officers should
be provided by making a large addition to the
classes at Annapolis. There is one small matter
which should be mentioned in connection with
Annapolis. The pretentious and unmeaning title
of "naval cadet" should be abolished; the title
of "midshipman," full of historic association,
should be restored.
Even in time of peace a war ship should be used
until it wears out, for only so can it be kept
fit to respond to any emergency. The officers
and men alike should be kept as much as possible
on blue water, for it is there only they can
learn their duties as they should be learned.
The big vessels should be maneuvered in
squadrons containing not merely battle ships,
but the necessary proportion of cruisers and
scouts. The torpedo boats should be handled by
the younger officers in such manner as will best
fit the latter to take responsibility and meet
the emergencies of actual warfare.
Every detail ashore which can be performed by a
civilian should be so performed, the officer
being kept for his special duty in the sea
service. Above all, gunnery practice should be
unceasing. It is important to have our Navy of
adequate size, but it is even more important
that ship for ship it should equal in efficiency
any navy in the world. This is possible only
with highly drilled crews and officers, and this
in turn imperatively demands continuous and
progressive instruction in target practice, ship
handling, squadron tactics, and general
discipline. Our ships must be assembled in
squadrons actively cruising away from harbors
and never long at anchor. The resulting wear
upon engines and hulls must be endured; a battle
ship worn out in long training of officers and
men is well paid for by the results, while, on
the other hand, no matter in how excellent
condition, it is useless if the crew be not
expert.
We now have seventeen battle ships appropriated
for, of which nine are completed and have been
commissioned for actual service. The remaining
eight will be ready in from two to four years,
but it will take at least that time to recruit
and train the men to fight them. It is of vast
concern that we have trained crews ready for the
vessels by the time they are commissioned. Good
ships and good guns are simply good weapons, and
the best weapons are useless save in the hands
of men who know how to fight with them. The men
must be trained and drilled under a thorough and
well-planned system of progressive instruction,
while the recruiting must be carried on with
still greater vigor. Every effort must be made
to exalt the main function of the officer--the
command of men. The leading graduates of the
Naval Academy should be assigned to the
combatant branches, the line and marines.
Many of the essentials of success are already
recognized by the General Board, which, as the
central office of a growing staff, is moving
steadily toward a proper war efficiency and a
proper efficiency of the whole Navy, under the
Secretary. This General Board, by fostering the
creation of a general staff, is providing for
the official and then the general recognition of
our altered conditions as a Nation and of the
true meaning of a great war fleet, which meaning
is, first, the best men, and, second, the best
ships. The Naval Militia forces are State
organizations, and are trained for coast
service, and in event of war they will
constitute the inner line of defense. They
should receive hearty encouragement from the
General Government.
But in addition we should at once provide for a
National Naval Reserve, organized and trained
under the direction of the Navy Department, and
subject to the call of the Chief Executive
whenever war becomes imminent. It should be a
real auxiliary to the naval seagoing peace
establishment, and offer material to be drawn on
at once for manning our ships in time of war. It
should be composed of graduates of the Naval
Academy, graduates of the Naval Militia,
officers and crews of coast-line steamers,
longshore schooners, fishing vessels, and steam
yachts, together with the coast population about
such centers as lifesaving stations and
light-houses.
The American people must either build and
maintain an adequate navy or else make up their
minds definitely to accept a secondary position
in international affairs, not merely in
political, but in commercial, matters. It has
been well said that there is no surer way of
courting national disaster than to be "opulent,
aggressive, and unarmed."
It is not necessary to increase our Army beyond
its present size at this time. But it is
necessary to keep it at the highest point of
efficiency. The individual units who as officers
and enlisted men compose this Army, are, we have
good reason to believe, at least as efficient as
those of any other army in the entire world. It
is our duty to see that their training is of a
kind to insure the highest possible expression
of power to these units when acting in
combination.
The conditions of modern war are such as to make
an infinitely heavier demand than ever before
upon the individual character and capacity of
the officer and the enlisted man, and to make it
far more difficult for men to act together with
effect. At present the fighting must be done in
extended order, which means that each man must
act for himself and at the same time act in
combination with others with whom he is no
longer in the old-fashioned elbow-to-elbow
touch. Under such conditions a few men of the
highest excellence are worth more than many men
without the special skill which is only found as
the result of special training applied to men of
exceptional physique and morale. But nowadays
the most valuable fighting man and the most
difficult to perfect is the rifleman who is also
a skillful and daring rider.
The proportion of our cavalry regiments has
wisely been increased. The American cavalryman,
trained to maneuver and fight with equal
facility on foot and on horseback, is the best
type of soldier for general purposes now to be
found in the world. The ideal cavalryman of the
present day is a man who can fight on foot as
effectively as the best infantryman, and who is
in addition unsurpassed in the care and
management of his horse and in his ability to
fight on horseback.
A general staff should be created. As for the
present staff and supply departments, they
should be filled by details from the line, the
men so detailed returning after a while to their
line duties. It is very undesirable to have the
senior grades of the Army composed of men who
have come to fill the positions by the mere fact
of seniority. A system should be adopted by
which there shall be an elimination grade by
grade of those who seem unfit to render the best
service in the next grade. Justice to the
veterans of the Civil War who are still in the
Army would seem to require that in the matter of
retirements they be given by law the same
privileges accorded to their comrades in the
Navy.
The process of elimination of the least fit
should be conducted in a manner that would
render it practically impossible to apply
political or social pressure on behalf of any
candidate, so that each man may be judged purely
on his own merits. Pressure for the promotion of
civil officials for political reasons is bad
enough, but it is tenfold worse where applied on
behalf of officers of the Army or Navy. Every
promotion and every detail under the War
Department must be made solely with regard to
the good of the service and to the capacity and
merit of the man himself. No pressure,
political, social, or personal, of any kind,
will be permitted to exercise the least effect
in any question of promotion or detail; and if
there is reason to believe that such pressure is
exercised at the instigation of the officer
concerned, it will be held to militate against
him. In our Army we cannot afford to have
rewards or duties distributed save on the simple
ground that those who by their own merits are
entitled to the rewards get them, and that those
who are peculiarly fit to do the duties are
chosen to perform them.
Every effort should be made to bring the Army to
a constantly increasing state of efficiency.
When on actual service no work save that
directly in the line of such service should be
required. The paper work in the Army, as in the
Navy, should be greatly reduced. What is needed
is proved power of command and capacity to work
well in the field. Constant care is necessary to
prevent dry rot in the transportation and
commissary departments.
Our Army is so small and so much scattered that
it is very difficult to give the higher officers
(as well as the lower officers and the enlisted
men) a chance to practice maneuvers in mass and
on a comparatively large scale. In time of need
no amount of individual excellence would avail
against the paralysis which would follow
inability to work as a coherent whole, under
skillful and daring leadership. The Congress
should provide means whereby it will be possible
to have field exercises by at least a division
of regulars, and if possible also a division of
national guardsmen, once a year. These exercises
might take the form of field maneuvers; or, if
on the Gulf Coast or the Pacific or Atlantic
Sea- board, or in the region of the Great Lakes,
the army corps when assembled could be marched
from some inland point to some point on the
water, there embarked, disembarked after a
couple of days' journey at some other point, and
again marched inland. Only by actual handling
and providing for men in masses while they are
marching, camping, embarking, and disembarking,
will it be possible to train the higher officers
to perform their duties well and smoothly.
A great debt is owing from the public to the men
of the Army and Navy. They should be so treated
as to enable them to reach the highest point of
efficiency, so that they may be able to respond
instantly to any demand made upon them to
sustain the interests of the Nation and the
honor of the flag. The individual American
enlisted man is probably on the whole a more
formidable fighting man than the regular of any
other army. Every consideration should be shown
him, and in return the highest standard of
usefulness should be exacted from him. It is
well worth while for the Congress to consider
whether the pay of enlisted men upon second and
subsequent enlistments should not be increased
to correspond with the increased value of the
veteran soldier.
Much good has already come from the act
reorganizing the Army, passed early in the
present year. The three prime reforms, all of
them of literally inestimable value, are, first,
the substitution of four-year details from the
line for permanent appointments in the so-called
staff divisions; second, the establishment of a
corps of artillery with a chief at the head;
third, the establishment of a maximum and
minimum limit for the Army. It would be
difficult to overestimate the improvement in the
efficiency of our Army which these three reforms
are making, and have in part already effected.
The reorganization provided for by the act has
been substantially accomplished. The improved
conditions in the Philippines have enabled the
War Department materially to reduce the military
charge upon our revenue and to arrange the
number of soldiers so as to bring this number
much nearer to the minimum than to the maximum
limit established by law. There is, however,
need of supplementary legislation. Thorough
military education must be provided, and in
addition to the regulars the advantages of this
education should be given to the officers of the
National Guard and others in civil life who
desire intelligently to fit themselves for
possible military duty. The officers should be
given the chance to perfect themselves by study
in the higher branches of this art. At West
Point the education should be of the kind most
apt to turn out men who are good in actual field
service; too much stress should not be laid on
mathematics, nor should proficiency therein be
held to establish the right of entry to a corps
d'elite. The typical American officer of the
best kind need not be a good mathematician; but
he must be able to master himself, to control
others, and to show boldness and fertility of
resource in every emergency.
Action should be taken in reference to the
militia and to the raising of volunteer forces.
Our militia law is obsolete and worthless. The
organization and armament of the National Guard
of the several States, which are treated as
militia in the appropriations by the Congress,
should be made identical with those provided for
the regular forces. The obligations and duties
of the Guard in time of war should be carefully
defined, and a system established by law under
which the method of procedure of raising
volunteer forces should be prescribed in
advance. It is utterly impossible in the
excitement and haste of impending war to do this
satisfactorily if the arrangements have not been
made long beforehand. Provision should be made
for utilizing in the first volunteer
organizations called out the training of those
citizens who have already had experience under
arms, and especially for the selection in
advance of the officers of any force which may
be raised; for careful selection of the kind
necessary is impossible after the outbreak of
war.
That the Army is not at all a mere instrument of
destruction has been shown during the last three
years. In the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico
it has proved itself a great constructive force,
a most potent implement for the upbuilding of a
peaceful civilization.
No other citizens deserve so well of the
Republic as the veterans, the survivors of those
who saved the Union. They did the one deed which
if left undone would have meant that all else in
our history went for nothing. But for their
steadfast prowess in the greatest crisis of our
history, all our annals would be meaningless,
and our great experiment in popular freedom and
self-government a gloomy failure. Moreover, they
not only left us a united Nation, but they left
us also as a heritage the memory of the mighty
deeds by which the Nation was kept united. We
are now indeed one Nation, one in fact as well
as in name; we are united in our devotion to the
flag which is the symbol of national greatness
and unity; and the very completeness of our
union enables us all, in every part of the
country, to glory in the valor shown alike by
the sons of the North and the sons of the South
in the times that tried men's souls.
The men who in the last three years have done so
well in the East and the West Indies and on the
mainland of Asia have shown that this
remembrance is not lost. In any serious crisis
the United States must rely for the great mass
of its fighting men upon the volunteer soldiery
who do not make a permanent profession of the
military career; and whenever such a crisis
arises the deathless memories of the Civil War
will give to Americans the lift of lofty purpose
which comes to those whose fathers have stood
valiantly in the forefront of the battle.
The merit system of making appointments is in
its essence as democratic and American as the
common school system itself. It simply means
that in clerical and other positions where the
duties are entirely non-political, all
applicants should have a fair field and no
favor, each standing on his merits as he is able
to show them by practical test. Written
competitive examinations offer the only
available means in many cases for applying this
system. In other cases, as where laborers are
employed, a system of registration undoubtedly
can be widely extended. There are, of course,
places where the written competitive examination
cannot be applied, and others where it offers by
no means an ideal solution, but where under
existing political conditions it is, though an
imperfect means, yet the best present means of
getting satisfactory results.
Wherever the conditions have permitted the
application of the merit system in its fullest
and widest sense, the gain to the Government has
been immense. The navy-yards and postal service
illustrate, probably better than any other
branches of the Government, the great gain in
economy, efficiency, and honesty due to the
enforcement of this principle.
I recommend the passage of a law which will
extend the classified service to the District of
Columbia, or will at least enable the President
thus to extend it. In my judgment all laws
providing for the temporary employment of clerks
should hereafter contain a provision that they
be selected under the Civil Service Law.
It is important to have this system obtain at
home, but it is even more important to have it
applied rigidly in our insular possessions. Not
an office should be filled in the Philippines or
Puerto Rico with any regard to the man's
partisan affiliations or services, with any
regard to the political, social, or personal
influence which he may have at his command; in
short, heed should be paid to absolutely nothing
save the man's own character and capacity and
the needs of the service.
The administration of these islands should be as
wholly free from the suspicion of partisan
politics as the administration of the Army and
Navy. All that we ask from the public servant in
the Philippines or Puerto Rico is that he
reflect honor on his country by the way in which
he makes that country's rule a benefit to the
peoples who have come under it. This is all that
we should ask, and we cannot afford to be
content with less.
The merit system is simply one method of
securing honest and efficient administration of
the Government; and in the long run the sole
justification of any type of government lies in
its proving itself both honest and efficient.
The consular service is now organized under the
provisions of a law passed in 1856, which is
entirely inadequate to existing conditions. The
interest shown by so many commercial bodies
throughout the country in the reorganization of
the service is heartily commended to your
attention. Several bills providing for a new
consular service have in recent years been
submitted to the Congress. They are based upon
the just principle that appointments to the
service should be made only after a practical
test of the applicant's fitness, that promotions
should be governed by trustworthiness,
adaptability, and zeal in the performance of
duty, and that the tenure of office should be
unaffected by partisan considerations.
The guardianship and fostering of our rapidly
expanding foreign commerce, the protection of
American citizens resorting to foreign countries
in lawful pursuit of their affairs, and the
maintenance of the dignity of the nation abroad,
combine to make it essential that our consuls
should be men of character, knowledge and
enterprise. It is true that the service is now,
in the main, efficient, but a standard of
excellence cannot be permanently maintained
until the principles set forth in the bills
heretofore submitted to the Congress on this
subject are enacted into law.
In my judgment the time has arrived when we
should definitely make up our minds to recognize
the Indian as an individual and not as a member
of a tribe. The General Allotment Act is a
mighty pulverizing engine to break up the tribal
mass. It acts directly upon the family and the
individual. Under its provisions some sixty
thousand Indians have already become citizens of
the United States. We should now break up the
tribal funds, doing for them what allotment does
for the tribal lands; that is, they should be
divided into individual holdings. There will be
a transition period during which the funds will
in many cases have to be held in trust. This is
the case also with the lands. A stop should be
put upon the indiscriminate permission to
Indians to lease their allotments. The effort
should be steadily to make the Indian work like
any other man on his own ground. The marriage
laws of the Indians should be made the same as
those of the whites.
In the schools the education should be
elementary and largely industrial. The need of
higher education among the Indians is very, very
limited. On the reservations care should be
taken to try to suit the teaching to the needs
of the particular Indian. There is no use in
attempting to induce agriculture in a country
suited only for cattle raising, where the Indian
should be made a stock grower. The ration
system, which is merely the corral and the
reservation system, is highly detrimental to the
Indians. It promotes beggary, perpetuates
pauperism, and stifles industry. It is an
effectual barrier to progress. It must continue
to a greater or less degree as long as tribes
are herded on reservations and have everything
in common. The Indian should be treated as an
individual--like the white man. During the
change of treatment inevitable hardships will
occur; every effort should be made to minimize
these hardships; but we should not because of
them hesitate to make the change. There should
be a continuous reduction in the number of
agencies.
In dealing with the aboriginal races few things
are more important than to preserve them from
the terrible physical and moral degradation
resulting from the liquor traffic. We are doing
all we can to save our own Indian tribes from
this evil. Wherever by international agreement
this same end can be attained as regards races
where we do not possess exclusive control, every
effort should be made to bring it about.
I bespeak the most cordial support from the
Congress and the people for the St. Louis
Exposition to commemorate the One Hundredth
Anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. This
purchase was the greatest instance of expansion
in our history. It definitely decided that we
were to become a great continental republic, by
far the foremost power in the Western
Hemisphere. It is one of three or four great
landmarks in our history--the great turning
points in our development. It is eminently
fitting that all our people should join with
heartiest good will in commemorating it, and the
citizens of St. Louis, of Missouri, of all the
adjacent region, are entitled to every aid in
making the celebration a noteworthy event in our
annals. We earnestly hope that foreign nations
will appreciate the deep interest our country
takes in this Exposition, and our view of its
importance from every standpoint, and that they
will participate in securing its success. The
National Government should be represented by a
full and complete set of exhibits.
The people of Charleston, with great energy and
civic spirit, are carrying on an Exposition
which will continue throughout most of the
present session of the Congress. I heartily
commend this Exposition to the good will of the
people. It deserves all the encouragement that
can be given it. The managers of the Charleston
Exposition have requested the Cabinet officers
to place thereat the Government exhibits which
have been at Buffalo, promising to pay the
necessary expenses. I have taken the
responsibility of directing that this be done,
for I feel that it is due to Charleston to help
her in her praiseworthy effort. In my opinion
the management should not be required to pay all
these expenses. I earnestly recommend that the
Congress appropriate at once the small sum
necessary for this purpose.
The Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo has just
closed. Both from the industrial and the
artistic standpoint this Exposition has been in
a high degree creditable and useful, not merely
to Buffalo but to the United States. The
terrible tragedy of the President's
assassination interfered materially with its
being a financial success. The Exposition was
peculiarly in harmony with the trend of our
public policy, because it represented an effort
to bring into closer touch all the peoples of
the Western Hemisphere, and give them an
increasing sense of unity. Such an effort was a
genuine service to the entire American public.
The advancement of the highest interests of
national science and learning and the custody of
objects of art and of the valuable results of
scientific expeditions conducted by the United
States have been committed to the Smithsonian
Institution. In furtherance of its declared
purpose--for the "increase and diffusion of
knowledge among men" --the Congress has from
time to time given it other important functions.
Such trusts have been executed by the
Institution with notable fidelity. There should
be no halt in the work of the Institution, in
accordance with the plans which its Secretary
has presented, for the preservation of the
vanishing races of great North American animals
in the National Zoological Park. The urgent
needs of the National Museum are recommended to
the favorable consideration of the Congress.
Perhaps the most characteristic educational
movement of the past fifty years is that which
has created the modern public library and
developed it into broad and active service.
There are now over five thousand public
libraries in the United States, the product of
this period. In addition to accumulating
material, they are also striving by
organization, by improvement in method, and by
co-operation, to give greater efficiency to the
material they hold, to make it more widely
useful, and by avoidance of unnecessary
duplication in process to reduce the cost of its
administration.
In these efforts they naturally look for
assistance to the Federal library, which, though
still the Library of Congress, and so entitled,
is the one national library of the United
States. Already the largest single collection of
books on the Western Hemisphere, and certain to
increase more rapidly than any other through
purchase, exchange, and the operation of the
copyright law, this library has a unique
opportunity to render to the libraries of this
country--to American scholarship--service of the
highest importance. It is housed in a building
which is the largest and most magnificent yet
erected for library uses. Resources are now
being provided which will develop the collection
properly, equip it with the apparatus and
service necessary to its effective use, render
its bibliographic work widely available, and
enable it to become, not merely a center of
research, but the chief factor in great
co-operative efforts for the diffusion of
knowledge and the advancement of learning.
For the sake of good administration, sound
economy, and the advancement of science, the
Census Office as now constituted should be made
a permanent Government bureau. This would insure
better, cheaper, and more satisfactory work, in
the interest not only of our business but of
statistic, economic, and social science.
The remarkable growth of the postal service is
shown in the fact that its revenues have doubled
and its expenditures have nearly doubled within
twelve years. Its progressive development
compels constantly increasing outlay, but in
this period of business energy and prosperity
its receipts grow so much faster than its
expenses that the annual deficit has been
steadily reduced from $11,411,779 in 1897 to
$3,923,727 in 1901. Among recent postal advances
the success of rural free delivery wherever
established has been so marked, and actual
experience has made its benefits so plain, that
the demand for its extension is general and
urgent.
It is just that the great agricultural
population should share in the improvement of
the service. The number of rural routes now in
operation is 6,009, practically all established
within three years, and there are 6,000
applications awaiting action. It is expected
that the number in operation at the close of the
current fiscal year will reach 8,600. The mail
will then be daily carried to the doors of
5,700,000 of our people who have heretofore been
dependent upon distant offices, and one-third of
all that portion of the country which is adapted
to it will be covered by this kind of service.
The full measure of postal progress which might
be realized has long been hampered and
obstructed by the heavy burden imposed on the
Government through the entrenched and
well-understood abuses which have grown up in
connection with second-class mail matter. The
extent of this burden appears when it is stated
that while the second-class matter makes nearly
three-fifths of the weight of all the mail, it
paid for the last fiscal year only $4,294,445 of
the aggregate postal revenue of $111,631,193. If
the pound rate of postage, which produces the
large loss thus entailed, and which was fixed by
the Congress with the purpose of encouraging the
dissemination of public information, were
limited to the legitimate newspapers and
periodicals actually contemplated by the law, no
just exception could be taken. That expense
would be the recognized and accepted cost of a
liberal public policy deliberately adopted for a
justifiable end. But much of the matter which
enjoys the privileged rate is wholly outside of
the intent of the law, and has secured admission
only through an evasion of its require. merits
or through lax construction. The proportion of
such wrongly included matter is estimated by
postal experts to be one-half of the whole
volume of second-class mail. If it be only
one-third or one-quarter, the magnitude of the
burden is apparent. The Post-Office Department
has now undertaken to remove the abuses so far
as is possible by a stricter application of the
law; and it should be sustained in its effort.
Owing to the rapid growth of our power and our
interests on the Pacific, whatever happens in
China must be of the keenest national concern to
us.
The general terms of the settlement of the
questions growing out of the antiforeign
uprisings in China of 1900, having been
formulated in a joint note addressed to China by
the representatives of the injured powers in
December last, were promptly accepted by the
Chinese Government. After protracted conferences
the plenipotentiaries of the several powers were
able to sign a final protocol with the Chinese
plenipotentiaries on the 7th of last September,
setting forth the measures taken by China in
compliance with the demands of the joint note,
and expressing their satisfaction therewith. It
will be laid before the Congress, with a report
of the plenipotentiary on behalf of the United
States, Mr. William Woodville Rockhill, to whom
high praise is due for the tact, good judgment,
and energy he has displayed in performing an
exceptionally difficult and delicate task.
The agreement reached disposes in a manner
satisfactory to the powers of the various
grounds of complaint, and will contribute
materially to better future relations between
China and the powers. Reparation has been made
by China for the murder of foreigners during the
uprising and punishment has been inflicted on
the officials, however high in rank, recognized
as responsible for or having participated in the
outbreak. Official examinations have been
forbidden for a period of five years in all
cities in which foreigners have been murdered or
cruelly treated, and edicts have been issued
making all officials directly responsible for
the future safety of foreigners and for the
suppression of violence against them.
Provisions have been made for insuring the
future safety of the foreign representatives in
Peking by setting aside for their exclusive use
a quarter of the city which the powers can make
defensible and in which they can if necessary
maintain permanent military guards; by
dismantling the military works between the
capital and the sea; and by allowing the
temporary maintenance of foreign military posts
along this line. An edict has been issued by the
Emperor of China prohibiting for two years the
importation of arms and ammunition into China.
China has agreed to pay adequate indemnities to
the states, societies, and individuals for the
losses sustained by them and for the expenses of
the military expeditions sent by the various
powers to protect life and restore order.
Under the provisions of the joint note of
December, 1900, China has agreed to revise the
treaties of commerce and navigation and to take
such other steps for the purpose of facilitating
foreign trade as the foreign powers may decide
to be needed.
The Chinese Government has agreed to participate
financially in the work of bettering the water
approaches to Shanghai and to Tientsin, the
centers of foreign trade in central and northern
China, and an international conservancy board,
in which the Chinese Government is largely
represented, has been provided for the
improvement of the Shanghai River and the
control of its navigation. In the same line of
commercial advantages a revision of the present
tariff on imports has been assented to for the
purpose of substituting specific for ad valorem
duties, and an expert has been sent abroad on
the part of the United States to assist in this
work. A list of articles to remain free of duty,
including flour, cereals, and rice, gold and
silver coin and bullion, has also been agreed
upon in the settlement.
During these troubles our Government has
unswervingly advocated moderation, and has
materially aided in bringing about an adjustment
which tends to enhance the welfare of China and
to lead to a more beneficial intercourse between
the Empire and the modern world; while in the
critical period of revolt and massacre we did
our full share in safe-guarding life and
property, restoring order, and vindicating the
national interest and honor. It behooves us to
continue in these paths, doing what lies in our
power to foster feelings of good will, and
leaving no effort untried to work out the great
policy of full and fair intercourse between
China and the nations, on a footing of equal
rights and advantages to all. We advocate the
"open door" with all that it implies; not merely
the procurement of enlarged commercial
opportunities on the coasts, but access to the
interior by the waterways with which China has
been so extraordinarily favored. Only by
bringing the people of China into peaceful and
friendly community of trade with all the peoples
of the earth can the work now auspiciously begun
be carried to fruition. In the attainment of
this purpose we necessarily claim parity of
treatment, under the conventions, throughout the
Empire for our trade and our citizens with those
of all other powers.
We view with lively interest and keen hopes of
beneficial results the proceedings of the
Pan-American Congress, convoked at the
invitation of Mexico, and now sitting at the
Mexican capital. The delegates of the United
States are under the most liberal instructions
to cooperate with their colleagues in all
matters promising advantage to the great family
of American commonwealths, as well in their
relations among themselves as in their domestic
advancement and in their intercourse with the
world at large.
My predecessor communicated to the Congress the
fact that the Weil and La Abra awards against
Mexico have been adjudged by the highest courts
of our country to have been obtained through
fraud and perjury on the part of the claimants,
and that in accordance with the acts of the
Congress the money remaining in the hands of the
Secretary of State on these awards has been
returned to Mexico. A considerable portion of
the money received from Mexico on these awards
had been paid by this Government to the
claimants before the decision of the courts was
rendered. My judgment is that the Congress
should return to Mexico an amount equal to the
sums thus already paid to the claimants.
The death of Queen Victoria caused the people of
the United States deep and heartfelt sorrow, to
which the Government gave full expression. When
President McKinley died, our Nation in turn
received from every quarter of the British
Empire expressions of grief and sympathy no less
sincere. The death of the Empress Dowager
Frederick of Germany also aroused the genuine
sympathy of the American people; and this
sympathy was cordially reciprocated by Germany
when the President was assassinated. Indeed,
from every quarter of the civilized world we
received, at' the time of the President's death,
assurances of such grief and regard as to touch
the hearts of our people. In the midst of our
affliction we reverently thank the Almighty that
we are at peace with the nations of mankind; and
we firmly intend that our policy shall be such
as to continue unbroken these
international relations of mutual respect and
good will.
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