me ROOSEVELT DOCTRINE DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE ROOSEVELT DOCTRINE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/rooseveltdoctrin01roos COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY C. M. BELL. THE ROOSEVELT DOCTRINE BEING THE PERSONAL UTTER- ANCES OF THE PRESIDENT ON VARIOUS MATTERS OF VITAL INTEREST, AUTHORITATIVELY ARRANGED FOR REFERENCE IN THEIR LOGICAL SEQUENCE A Brief Summary of the Principles of American Citizenship and Government Compiled by E. E. GARRISON New York ROBERT GRIER COOKE 1904 Copyright, 190 Jj., by Robert Grier Cooke FOREWORD The virile philosophy, of which this little book is a compressed expression, has been called “ Doc- trine,” because, rising above the plane of mere political or partisan utterance, it presents a re- markable exposition of the duties and rights of man and government, and particularly of our citi- zens and our government, from the view-point of the highest and broadest thought and feeling. It is loftier in tone, though no less practical, than the utterances of the great Franklin. It is full as lofty as, though far more practical than, the teachings of the great reformers. And finally it comes as a gift to the Nation and to the world, bearing the moral sanction that could alone proceed from its being the product of the intellect and experience of one who has shown by a reasonably long and perfectly con- sistent public career, that men like ex-Secretary Root and Senator Platt of Connecticut have the truth with them, when they declare that our Presi- dent will be placed, in History’s unerring verdict, among our great statesmen. Foreword The times are fully in accord with the energizing spirit of work for the sake of work, achievement for the good of self and others which breathes through all these utterances. And so generally is their truthfulness acknowledged that we need make no such effort as this for their wider dissemi- nation, but for the sake of some who misunderstand, some who have had no time to post themselves more fully, and a few who maliciously mistake, and care- lessly misquote one who is known, even better abroad than at home, as the foremost leader of modern thought revolution — the revolution of con- structive criticism of self rather than of destructive criticism of other men and institutions. There is place for only one regret in presenting this little volume — that its limitations of size pre- vent the appearance of much that is as worthy as anything that has been included. Brief as it is, its thoughtful perusal cannot, in any case, fail of producing a clearer grasp of the questions of the time, and a higher conception of citizenship. May many thousands derive from the reading the benefit that I have gained from the work of compilation. E. E. G. June, 1904. VI CONTENTS PAGE Roosevelt — Man and President, from Dr. Al- bert Shaw’s introduction to the published volumes of Speeches and State Papers . . 1 The Presidency, Mr. Roosevelt’s views of the position and its responsibilities, written while he was still Governor of New York State 10 Purpose in Office 26 Present Problems — Our attitude toward them . 27 President McKinley 30 Anarchy 32 Immigration Laws 35 Citizenship 37 Trusts — Capital — Labor — Corporations, Etc. . 43 Anti-Trust Actions 60 v/Panama Canal 70 Cuba I ... 77 Philippines 78 vii SRI Contents PAGE Lynching 88 General Wood 90 Tariff 93 Navy 101 Merchant Marine 112 Army — Militia 114 Civil War Veterans 123 Civil Service 125 Foreign Policy 127 Monroe Docti'ine 129 War 132 Consular Service 133 Agriculture 134 Irrigation 136 Forestry 146 Currency — Money 153 Banking Laws 164 Economy 165 Miscellaneous 166 viii ROOSEVELT— MAN AND PRESIDENT From Dr. Albert Shaw's Introduction to the Published Speeches . I T is to be noted that these addresses are patriotic rather than partisan, and that where they deal with matters of controversy they show a spirit as little contentious or polemic as possible. While the President believes in the utility of the party system, he speaks always as President of the whole country and not merely as the chief of a party. His speeches, in short, are the utter- ances of a man who embodies the national spirit more broadly and fully than almost any other man of his day ; and he expresses himself upon a wide range of topics with a larger fund of experience and direct knowledge than is possessed by any other conspicuous public man of either party. It is only through some understanding of the career that led up to his assumption of the Presi- dency that the richness, the fulness, and the au- thoritative quality of his observations on many varied themes can be appreciated. Mr. Roosevelt’s life has, amid much variety, possessed great unity. 1 Roosevelt While still in college at Harvard, his mind became centred upon the study of American life, Ameri- can history, and American government and policy. Whatever he undertook after leaving college added steadily to his understanding of the people of his own country and their institutions. Almost at once he threw himself into the politics of the great State of New York, served several terms in the Legislature, and made himself known throughout the country by the vigor and courage with which he applied himself to current problems of State and municipal reform. At a time when the so- called “spoils system” was powerfully rooted in the practical government of nation, State, and city, he became a civil service reformer. Everything that was worth while was of interest to him, and everything that he undertook to do was done whole-heartedly and thus made its contribu- tion to his own development. He was an officer in the militia, and learned lessons which became, years afterward, valuable to him as a colonel in the Span- ish-American War and later as commander-in-chief of the army by virtue of the Presidential office. Meanwhile his first literary undertaking was the history of the Naval War of 1812, which appeared in 1882, and which will always remain a vital and a 2 Roosevelt standard account of our last war with Great Britain, especially from the stand-point of naval strategy and actual operations. Whether taking part himself in the current life of his country and in the making of its history, or whether studying or writing about the part that others have taken in the development of the nation, there has been on Mr. Roosevelt’s part always a singleness of pur- pose and a harmony of effort. Thus, when he wrote about the War of 1812, as when in later years he wrote the graphic yet accurate and well- poised studies of those Western movements, military and civil, that created the Mississippi Valley ( com- prised in the series of volumes entitled “The Win- ning of the West,” there was on his part, just as much a sense of dealing with realities as when in 1899 he wrote out the story of the part played by his regiment of Rough Riders in the Spanish- American War of the year before. The circumstances which took him to the West in 1884 to become for some years a cattle ranch- man, a resident of the Great Plains, and an ex- ponent of hunting and frontier life, involved in no manner an interruption of the career upon which he had made so propitious an entrance. On the contrary, this was the best possible step that could 3 Roosevelt have been taken for the rounding out and develop- ment of the career of a man destined, either in letters or in action, to spend his life in dealing with American affairs from a broad stand-point. Many of the most marked traits of the American people have been evolved through the process of pioneering. For three centuries our people have been engaged in subduing a continent that they had found a pathless wilderness. No man who has lacked contact with some concrete phases of our pioneering life can ever wholly enter into the spirit of the nation’s historical development, or perfectly understand the inherited qualities of our present- day citizenship. Mr. Roosevelt’s Western life sup- plied that needful element of understanding, while it gave him physical hardihood and a continental breadth of view. It gave him, furthermore, that traditional American readiness with a horse and a gun, and that adaptability to the free life of field and of woods which is the heritage of the average young American, and which made the greater part of the Northern and Southern armies in the Civil War so unequalled, for effectiveness, in all military history. Through these years of practical life in the West Mr. Roosevelt never lost the studious and literary 4 Roosevelt habit, nor did he lose any of his zest for the public affairs of the country. In due time he returned to the East, took an active part in New York poli- tics again, and was nominated for Mayor. Then he went to Washington, where for a number of years he served as Chairman of the Board of Civil Service Commissioners and became an expert in the field of national administration. After that came his two years as President of the Police Commis- sioners of New York City — a truly strenuous period that tested every quality of his mind and character. The navy had been at low ebb when Mr. Roosevelt in 1882 wrote his “Naval War of 1812,” and that book fairly contributed toward the revival of interest which soon set on foot the movement for the creation of our modern fleet. The author of that book had ever afterward been regarded both at home and abroad as an expert student of naval history and of sea power, and he had retained an enthusiastic interest in the whole subject. He was well fitted, therefore, for the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, to which Presi- dent McKinley appointed him at the very time when, more clearly than most others, he foresaw the probability of a war with Spain. He threw his whole intense energy into the work 5 Roosevelt of fitting our navy for such a test, devoting him- self especially to the questions of readiness and efficiency in practical detail. And then came the outbreak of war. With the feeling that he was no longer needed in the naval department, and that it was his duty to respond to the call for volunteer soldiers, he entered the army. The his- tory of that service he has himself told in a fasci- nating way in the volume entitled “The Rough Riders,” included in this edition of his works. The war being ended, he returned to his own State of New York at a moment when his party was casting about for a candidate for Governor. The outlook was not propitious ; but Mr. Roosevelt’s recent career had given him a great personal popu- larity, and he was accordingly nominated and elected. Great questions of administration are al- ways pending in the State of New York, and there are few governmental offices in any country better adapted to train the incumbent for the tasks of practical statesmanship. Mr. Roosevelt took up the work of the Governorship with characteristic indus- try, and with results that were successful and valu- able in many directions. So well had he satisfied the expectations of his party and of the State that his renomination as Governor was assured ; and the 6 Roosevelt whole country had its attention fixed upon him as the probable nominee of his party for the Presi- dency in the year 1904. A variety of circumstances, however, most of them unexpected and some of them dramatic, led to an overwhelming demand by the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia in 1900 that he forego his prospect of a second term as Gov- ernor of New York in order to take the nomination for the Vice-Presidency on the ticket with Mr. McKinley. He was put forward by his party in that summer of 1900 as its most effective cam- paigner. The tragic death of President McKinley, in September, 1901, occurred only six months after his entrance upon a’ second term, and thus it hap- pened that Mr. Roosevelt had only a short time to serve in the office of Vice-President. So remarkable and so rapid a succession of valu- able public experiences, all of a kind to give train- ing for the duties of the Presidency, is probably unparalleled in our history. He had been the chief Civil Service Commissioner of this great nation, the head of the police administration of our chief metropolis, the active official of the naval depart- ment, the most energetic volunteer officer in the Spanish- American War, the Governor of NewYork, 7 Roosevelt and the Vice-President of the United States ; and the man who had succeeded brilliantly in all these positions, and who had treated every one of them in turn as if it furnished the one great opportunity for rendering public service, could but bring to the Presidency an accumulated knowledge and ex- perience that would make itself felt in every part of the work of that supreme office. It is this wide range of experience and knowl- edge that has given Mr. Roosevelt the easy mastery of many subjects which he has exhibited in his addresses and public papers ; and, further, it is these speeches and messages, far more than any- thing else, that exhibit him in his capacity as a practical statesman and that afford the unconscious but inevitable expression of the man himself in his relation to public affairs. All his accumulated experience has so built itself into the man that it finds a natural outlet in these varied and spon- taneous utterances on many themes. To sum up and to conclude: These addresses reveal the unity and consistency of President Roose- velt’s character and career. He is indeed a many- sided and versatile man, but there is nothing mutually contradictory about the different phases of his nature or of his past undertakings. His 8 Roosevelt vital Americanism is shown equally in his historical studies of the pioneer movement that built up our great West and in his accounts of ranching life and his studies of the big game of America. In his varied literary work, as in his other efforts and activities, there is little or nothing of an incidental or dilettante nature; all of it is the frank expres- sion of the man himself. The book on the War of 1812 was written when he was still very young. It might well have proved to be the merely boyish effort of a young man who had said to himself, “Lo, I will go to work and write a book !” But, on the contrary, it was in fact the outgrowth of vital interest and of strong conviction regarding his subject; and so the book lives and will continue to live. Thus all of his work for about a quarter of a century, whether literary in its character or active and official, has been done in the same direct, straightforward way as simply pertaining to the task in hand ; and the task, whether great or small, has always been deemed worthy of the whole vital energy of the man. 9 THE PRESIDENCY This article was written expressly for “ The Youth's Com- panion," and is reprinted by courtesy of that publication. Copyright, 1902, by Perry Mason Company. T HE President of the United States occupies a position of peculiar importance. In the whole world there is probably no other ruler, cer- tainly no other ruler under free institutions, whose power compares with his. Of course a despotic king has even more, but no constitutional monarch has as much. In the republics of France and Switzerland the President is not a very important officer, at least, compared with the President of the United States. In England the sovereign has much less control in shaping the policy of the nation, the Prime Min- ister occupying a position more nearly analogous to that of our President. The Prime Minister, however, can at any time be thrown out of office by an adverse vote, while the President can only be removed before his term is out for some ex- 10 The Presidency traordinary crime or misdemeanor against the nation. Of course, in the case of each there is the enor- mous personal factor of the incumbent himself to be considered, entirely apart from the power of the office itself. The power wielded by Andrew Jackson was out of all proportion to that wielded by Buchanan, although in theory each was alike. So a strong President may exert infinitely more influence than a weak Prime Minister, or vice versa. But this is merely another way of stating that in any office the personal equation is always of vital consequence. It is customary to speak of the framers of our Constitution as having separated the judicial, the legislative, and the executive functions of the gov- ernment. The separation, however, is not in all respects sharply defined. The President has cer- tainly most important legislative functions, and the upper branch of the national legislature shares with the President one of the most important of his executive functions ; that is, the President can either sign or veto the bills passed by Congress, while, on the other hand, the Senate confirms or rejects his nominations. Of course the President cannot initiate legislation, although he can recom- 11 The Presidency mend it. But unless two-thirds of Congress in both branches are hostile to him, he can stop any measure from becoming a law. This power is varyingly used by different Presidents, but it always exists, and must always be reckoned with by Congress. While Congress is in session, if the President neither signs nor vetoes the bill which is passed, the bill becomes a law without his signature. The effect is precisely the same as if he had signed it. Presidents who disapproved of details in a bill, but felt that on the whole it was advisable it should become a law, have at times used this method to emphasize the fact that they were not satisfied with the measure which they were yet unwilling to veto. A notable instance was afforded in President Cleveland’s second term, when he thus treated the Wilson-Gorman tariff bill. The immense federal service, including all the postal employees, all the customs employees, all the Indian agents, marshals, district attorneys, navy- yard employees, and so forth, is under the Presi- dent. It would of course be a physical impossibility for him to appoint all the individuals in the ser- vice. His direct power lies over the heads of the departments, bureaus, and more important offices. 12 The Presidency But he does not appoint these by himself. His is only the nominating power. It rests with the Senate to confirm or reject the nominations. The Senators are the constitutional advisers of the President, for it must be remembered that his Cabinet is not in the least like the Cabinet of which the Prime Minister is head in the English Parlia- ment. Under our government the Secretaries who form the Cabinet are in the strictest sense the President’s own ministerial appointees ; the men, chosen out of all the nation, to whom he thinks he can best depute the most important and laborious of his executive duties. Of course they all advise him on matters of general policy when he so desires it, and in practice each Cabinet officer has a very free hand in managing his own department, and must have it if he is to do good work. But all this advice and consultation is at the will of the Presi- dent. With the Senate, on the other hand, the advice and consultation are obligatory under the Constitution. The President and Congress are mutually neces- sary to one another in matters of legislation, and the President and the Senate are mutually neces- sary in matters of appointment. Every now and then men who understand our Constitution but 13 The Presidency imperfectly raise an outcry against the President for consulting the Senators in matters of appoint- ment, and even talk about the Senators “usurping” his functions. These men labor under a misappre- hension. The Senate has no right to dictate to the President who shall be appointed, but they have an entire right to say who shall not be ap- pointed, for under the Constitution this has been made their duty. In practice, under our party system, it has come to be recognized that each Senator has a special right to be consulted about the appointments in his own State, if he is of the President’s political party. Often the opponents of the Senator in his State do not agree with him in the matter of ap- pointments, and sometimes the President, in the exercise of his judgment, finds it right and desir- able to disregard the Senator. But the President and the Senators must work together, if they desire to secure the best results. But although many men must share with the President the responsibility for different individual actions, and although Congress must of course also very largely condition his usefulness, yet the fact remains that in his hands is infinitely more power than in the hands of any other man in our country 14 ) The Presidency during the time that he holds the office ; that there is upon him always a heavy burden of responsi- bility ; and that in certain crises this burden may become so great as to bear down any but the strongest and bravest man. It is easy enough to give a bad administration ; but to give a good administration demands the most anxious thought, the most wearing endeavor, no less than very unusual powers of mind. The chances for error are limitless, and in minor mat- ters, where from the nature of the case it is abso- lutely inevitable that the President should rely upon the judgment of others, it is certain that under the best Presidents some errors will be com- mitted. The severest critics of a President’s policy are apt to be, not those who know most about what is to be done and of the limitations under which it must be done, but those wffio know least. In the aggregate, quite as much wrong is com- mitted by improper denunciation of public servants who do well as by failure to attack those who do ill. There is every reason why the President, who- ever he may be and to whatever party he may belong, should be held to a sharp accountability alike for what he does and for what he leaves undone. But we injure ourselves and the nation 15 The Presidency if we fail to treat with proper respect the man, whether he is politically opposed to us or not, who in the highest office in our land is striving to do his duty according to the strength that is in him. We have had Presidents who have acted very weakly or unwisely in particular crises. We have had Presidents the sum of whose work has not been to the advantage of the Republic. But we have never had one concerning whose personal integrity there was so much as a shadow of a suspicion, or who has not been animated by an earnest desire to do the best possible work that he could for the people at large. Of course infirmity of purpose or wrong-headedness may mar this integrity and sin- cerity of intention ; but the integrity and the good intentions have always existed. We have never had in the Presidential chair any man who did not sincerely desire to benefit the people and whose own personal ambitions were not entirely honorable, although as much cannot be said for certain aspirants for the place, such as Aaron Burr. Corruption, in the gross sense in which the word is used in ordinary conversation, has been abso- lutely unknown among our Presidents, and it has been exceedingly rare in our Presidents’ Cabinets. Inefficiency, whether due to lack of will-power, 16 The Presidency sheer deficiency in wisdom, or improper yielding either to the pressure of politicians or to the other kinds of pressure which must often be found even in a free democracy, has been far less uncommon. Of deliberate moral obliquity there has been but very little indeed. In the easiest, quietest, most peaceful times the President is sure to have great tasks before him. The simple question of revenue and expenditure is as important to the nation as it is to the average household, and the President is the man to whom the nation looks and whom it holds accountable in the matter both of expenditui’e and of revenue. It is an entirely mistaken belief that the expenditure of money is simply due to a taste for recklessness and extravagance on the part of the people’s rep- resentatives. The representatives in the long run are sure to try to do what the people effectively want. The trouble is that although each group has, and all the groups taken together still more strongly have, an interest in keeping the expenditures down, each group has also a direct interest in keeping some particular expenditure up. This expenditure is usually entirely proper and desirable, save only that the aggregate of all such expenditures may 17 The Presidency be so great as to make it impossible for the nation to go into them. It is a great deal the same thing in the nation as it is in a State. The demand may be for a consumptive hospital, or for pensions to veterans, or for a public building, or for an armory, or for cleaning out a harbor, or for starting irrigation. In each case the demand may be in itself entirely proper, and those interested in it, from whatever motives, may be both sincere and strenuous in their advocacy. But the President has to do on a large scale what every Governor of a State has to do on a small scale, that is, balance the demands on the Treasury with the capacities of the Treasury. Whichever way he decides, some people are sure to think that he has tipped the scale the wrong way, and from their point of view they may con- scientiously think it; whereas from his point of view he may know with equal conscientiousness that he has done his best to strike an average which would on the one hand not be niggardly toward worthy objects, and on the other would not lay too heavy a burden of taxation upon the people. Inasmuch as these particular questions have to be met every year in connection with every session of Congress and with the work of every depart- 18 The Presidency ment, it may readily be seen that even the Presi- dent’s every-day responsibilities are of no light order. So it is with his appointments. Entirely apart from the fact that there is a great pressure for place, it is also the fact that in all the higher and more important appointments there are usu- ally conflicting interests which must somehow be reconciled to the best of the President’s capacity. Here again it must be remembered that the matter is not always by any means one of merely what we call politics. Where there is a really seri- ous conflict in reference to an appointment, while it may be merely a factional fight, it is more apt to be because two groups of the President’s sup- porters differ radically and honestly on some ques- tion of policy ; so that whatever the President’s decision may be, he cannot help arousing dissatis- faction. One thing to be remembered is that appointments and policies which are normally routine and unim- portant may suddenly become of absolutely vital consequence. For instance, the War Department was utterly neglected for over thirty years after the Civil War. This neglect was due less to the successive Presidents than to Congress, and in Congress it was due to the fact that the people 19 The Presidency themselves did not take an interest in the army. Neither the regular officer nor the regular soldier takes any part in politics as a rule, so that the demagogue and the bread-and-butter politician have no fear of his vote ; and to both of them, and also to the cheap sensational newspaper, the army offers a favorite subject for attack. So it often happens that some amiable people really get a little afraid of the army, and have some idea that it may be used some time or other against our liberties. The army never has been and, I am sure, it never will be or can be a menace to anybody save America’s foes, or aught but a source of pride to every good and far-sighted American. But it is only in time of actual danger that such facts are brought home vividly to the minds of our poeple, and so the army is apt to receive far less than its proper share of attention. But when an emergency like that caused by the Spanish War arises, then the Secretary of War becomes the most important officer in the Cabinet, and the army steps into the place of foremost interest in all the country. It is only once in a generation that such a crisis as the Spanish War or the Mexican War or the War of 1812 has to be confronted, but in almost every administration lesser crises do arise. They 20 The Presidency may be in connection with foreign affairs, as was the case with the Chilian trouble under President Harrison’s administration, the Venezuelan matter in President Cleveland’s second term, or the Boxer uprising in China last year. Much more often they relate to domestic affairs, as in the case of a disas- trous panic, which produces terrible social and industrial convulsions. Whatever the problem may be, the President has got to meet it and to work out some kind of a solution. In midwinter or mid- summer, with Congress sitting or absent, the Presi- dent has always to be ready to devote every waking hour to some anxious, worrying, harassing matter, most difficult to decide, and yet which it is imper- ative immediately to decide. An immense addition to the President’s burden is caused by the entirely well-meaning people who ask him to do what he cannot possibly do. For the first few weeks after the inauguration a new President may receive on an average fifteen hun- dred letters a day. His mail is so enormous that often he cannot read one letter in a hundred, and rarely can he read one letter in ten. Even his private secretary can read only a small fraction of the mail. Often there are letters which the Presi- dent would really be glad to see, but which are 21 The Presidency swamped in the great mass of demands for office, demands for pensions, notes of warning or advice, demands for charity, and requests of every con- ceivable character, not to speak of the letters from “cranks,” which are always numerous in the Presi- dent’s mail. One President, who was very anxious to help people whenever he could, made the statement that the requests for pecuniary aid received in a single fortnight would, if complied with, have eaten up considerably more than his entire year’s salary. The requests themselves are frequently such as the President would like to comply with if there was any way of making a discrimination ; but there is none. One rather sad feature of the life of a President is the difficulty of making friends, because almost inevitably after awhile the friend thinks there is some office he would like, applies for it, and when the President is obliged to refuse, feels that he has been injured. Those who were closest to Abraham Lincoln have said that this w T as one of the things which concerned him most in connection with his administration. It is hardly necessary to allude to the well-known fact that no President can gratify a hundredth part of the requests and demands 22 The Presidency made upon him for office, often by men who have rendered him real services and who are fit to fill the position they seek, but not so fit as somebody else. Of course the man does not realize that his successful rival was appointed because he really was more fit, and he goes away sour and imbittered because of what he feels to be the President’s ingratitude. Perhaps the two most striking things in the Presidency are the immense power of the President, in the first place ; and in the second place, the fact that as soon as he has ceased being President he goes right back into the body of the people and becomes just like any other American citizen. While he is in office he is one of the half-dozen persons throughout the whole world who have most power to affect the destinies of the world. He can set fleets and armies in motion ; he can do more than any save one or two absolute sov- ereigns to affect the domestic welfare and happi- ness of scores of millions of people. Then when he goes out of office he takes up his regular round of duties like any other citizen, or if he is of ad- vanced age retires from active life to rest, like any other man who has worked hard to earn his rest. One President, John Quincy Adams, after leav- 23 The Presidency ing the Presidency, again entered public life as a Congressman, and achieved conspicuous successes in the Lower House. This, however, is a unique case. Many Presidents have followed the examples of Jefferson and Jackson, and retired, as these two men retired to Monticello and The Hermitage. Others have gone into more or less active work, as practising lawyers or as lecturers on law, or in business, or in some form of philanthropy. During the President’s actual incumbency of his office the tendency is perhaps to exaggerate not only his virtues but his faults. When he goes out he is simply one of the ordinary citizens, and per- haps for a time the importance of the role he has played is not recognized. True perspective is rarely gained until years have gone by. Altogether, there are few harder tasks than that of filling well and ably the office of President of the United States. The labor is immense, the ceaseless worry and harassing anxiety are beyond descrip- tion. But if the man at the close of his term is able to feel that he has done his duty well ; that he has solved after the best fashion of which they were capable the great problems with which he was confronted, and has kept clean and in good run- ning order the governmental machinery of the U The Presidency mighty Republic, he has the satisfaction of feeling that he has performed one of the great world- tasks, and that the mere performance is in itself the greatest of all possible rewards. 25 PURPOSE IN OFFICE HILE there are occasions when through leg- » » islative or administrative action the govern- mental representatives of the people caji do espe- cial service to one set of our citizens, yet I think you will agree with me that in the long run the best way in which to serve any one set of our citizens is to try to serve all alike well, to try to act in a spirit of fairness and justice to all — to give to each man his rights — to safeguard each man in his rights; and so far as in me lies, while I hold my present position I will be true to that conception of my duty . — At Coliseum, Hartford, Conn., Aug. 22, 1902. [p. 86.] * * Page figures at end of paragraphs indicate where excerpts may be found in the “Statesman Edition” of “Presidential Addresses and State Papers," published by “The Review of Reviews,” and are intended to facilitate reference to the com- plete speech or paper from which the excerpt is taken. 26 PRESENT PROBLEMS Our Attitude Toward Them W E have kept every promise made in 1896 and 1900. We have a right to be proud of the memories of the last six years. But we must remember that eacli victory only opens the chance for a new struggle ; that the remembrance of tri- umphs achieved in the past is of use chiefly if it spurs us to fresh effort in the present. No nation has ever prospered as we are prospering now, and we must see to it that by our own folly we do not mar this prosperity. Yet we must see to it also that wherever wrong flourishes it be repressed. It is not the habit of our people to shirk issues, but squarely to face them. It is not the habit of our people to treat a good record in the past as anything but a reason for expecting an even better record in the present ; and no Admin- istration, gentlemen, should ask to be judged save on those lines. The tremendous growth of our industrialism has brought to the front many prob- n Present Problems lems with which we must deal ; and I trust that we shall deal with them along the lines indicated in speech and in action by that profound jurist and upright and fearless public servant who represents Pennsylvania in the Cabinet — Attorney-General Knox. The question of the so-called trusts is but one of the questions we must meet in connection with our industrial system. There are many of them and they are serious ; but they can and will be met. Time may be needed for making the solution perfect; but it is idle to tell this people that we have not the power to solve such a problem as that of exercising adequate supervision over the great industrial combinations of to-day. We have the power and we shall find out the way. We shall not act hastily or recklessly ; but we have firmly made up our minds that a solution, and a right solution, shall be found, and found it will be. No nation as great as ours can expect to escape the penalty of greatness, for greatness does not come without trouble and labor. There are prob- lems ahead of us at home and problems abroad, because such problems are incident to the working out of a great national career. We do not shrink from them. Scant is our patience with those who preach the gospel of craven weakness. No nation 28 Present Problems under the sun ever jet played a part worth playing if it feared its fate overmuch — if it did not have the courage to be great. We of America, we, the sons of a nation yet in the pride of its lusty youth, spurn the teachings of distrust, spurn the creed of failure and despair. We know that the future is ours if we have in us the manhood to grasp it, and we enter the new century girding our loins for the contest before us, rejoicing in the struggle, and resolute so to bear ourselves that the Nation’s future shall even surpass her glorious past . — Union League, Phila., Nov. 22, 1902. [p. 219.] 29 PRESIDENT McKINLEY N O other President in our history has seen high and honorable effort crowned with more con- spicuous personal success. No other President en- tered upon his second term feeling such right to a profound and peaceful satisfaction. Then by a stroke of horror, so strange in its fantastic iniquity as to stand unique in the black annals of crime, he was struck down. The brave, strong, gentle heart was stilled forever, and word was brought to the woman who wept that she was to walk thenceforth alone in the shadow. The hideous infamy of the deed shocked the Nation to its depths, for the man thus struck at was in a peculiar sense the champion of the plain people, in a peculiar sense the repre- sentative and the exponent of those ideals which, if we live up to them, will make, as they have largely made, our country a blessed refuge for all who strive to do right and to live their lives simply and well as light is given them. The Nation was stunned, and the people mourned with a sense of bitter bereavement because they had lost a man 80 President McKinley whose heart beat for them as the heart of Lincoln once had beaten. We did right to mourn; for the loss was ours, not his. He died in the golden ful- ness of his triumph. He died victorious in that highest of all kinds of strife — the strife for an ampler, juster and more generous national life. — Canton, Ohio, Jan. 27, 1903. [p. 240.] 31 ANARCHY Its Teachings, and All Other Class Agitation, a Menace to Our Institutions W HEN we turn from the man to the Nation, the harm done is so great as to excite our gravest apprehensions and to demand our wisest and most resolute action. This criminal was a professed anarchist, inflamed by the teachings of professed anarchists, and probably also by the reckless utter- ances of those who, on the stump and in the public press, appeal to the dark and evil spirits of malice and greed, envy and sullen hatred. The wind is sowed by the men who preach such doctrines, and they cannot escape their share of responsibility for the whirlwind that is reaped. This applies alike to the deliberate demagogue, to the exploiter of sen- sationalism, and to the crude and foolish visionary who, for whatever reason, apologizes for crime or excites aimless discontent. — Presidential message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 532.] Anarchy Perfidy of Its Appeal to Labor The anarchist is a criminal whose perverted in- stincts lead him to prefer confusion and chaos to the most beneficent form of social order. His pro- test of concern for workingmen is outrageous in its impudent falsity ; for if the political institutions of this country do not afford opportunity to every honest and intelligent son of toil, then the door of hope is forever closed against him. The anarchist is everywhere not merely the enemy of system and of progress, but the deadly foe of liberty. If ever anarchy is triumphant, its triumph will last for but one red moment, to be succeeded for ages by the gloomy night of despotism. — Presidential message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 531.] Positive Measures Recommended I earnestly recommend to the Congress that in the exercise of its wise discretion it should take into consideration the coming to this country of an- archists or persons professing principles hostile to all government and justifying the murder of those placed in authority. Such individuals as those who not long ago gathered in open meeting to 33 Anarchy glorify the murder of King Humbert of Italy per- petrate a crime, and the law should insure their rigorous punishment. They and those like them should be kept out of this country ; and if found here they should be promptly deported to the coun- try whence they came; and far-reaching provisions should be made for the punishment of those who stay. No matter calls more urgently for the wisest thought of the Congress. — Presidential message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 535.] Its Antithesis and Its Cure So now it behooves each of us so to conduct his civil life, so to do his duty as a citizen, that we shall in the most effective way war against the spirit of anarchy in all its forms. — G. A. R. Rewnion, Washington, Feb. 19, 1902. [p. 17.] 34 IMMIGRATION LAWS Exclude Anarchy, Prevent Degradation of Labor, and Keep Up the Standard of Citizenship F IRST, we should aim to exclude absolutely not only all persons who are known to be believers in anarchistic principles or members of anarchistic societies, but also all persons who are of a low moral tendency or of unsavory reputation. This means that we should require a more thorough system of inspection abroad and a more rigid sys- tem of examination at our immigration ports, the former being especially necessary. The second object of a proper immigration law ought to be to secure by a careful and not merely perfunctory educational test some intelligent ca- pacity to appreciate American institutions and act sanely as American citizens. This would not keep out all anarchists, for many of them belong to the intelligent criminal class. But it would do what is also in point, that is, tend to decrease the sum of 35 Immigration Laws ignorance, so potent in producing the envy, suspi- cion, malignant passion, and hatred of order, out of which anarchistic sentiment inevitably springs. Finally, all persons should be excluded who are below a certain standard of economic fitness to enter our industrial field as competitors with Ameri- can labor. There should be proper proof of per- sonal capacity to earn an American living and enough money to insure a decent start under American conditions. This would stop the influx of cheap labor, and the resulting competition which gives rise to so much of bitterness in American industrial life; and it would dry up the springs of the pestilential social conditions in our great cities, where anarchistic organizations have their greatest possibility of growth . — Presidential mes- sage first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 549.] 36 CITIZENSHIP The Average Man Trustworthy UR Republic was founded upon the theory that the average man will as a rule do the right thing, that in the long run the majority will decide for what is sane and wholesome. If our fathers were mistaken in that theory, if ever the times become such — not occasionally but persist- ently — that the mass of the people do what is un- wholesome, what is wrong, then the Republic can not stand, I care not how good its laws, I care not what marvellous mechanism its Constitution may embody. In this country of ours the average citi- zen must devote a good deal of thought to the affairs of the State as a whole or those affairs will go backward ; and he must devote that thought and that time steadily and intelligently. If there is any one quality that is not admirable, whether in a nation or in an individual, it is hysterics, either in religion or in anything else. The man 37 Citizenship or woman who makes up for ten days’ indifference to duty by an eleventh-day morbid repentance about the duty is of scant use in the world. — Boston, Aug. 25, 1902. [p. 109.] Qualities of Good Citizenship In the unending strife for civic betterment, small is the use of these people who mean well, but who mean well feebly. The man who counts is the man who is decent and who makes himself felt as a force for decency, for cleanliness, for civic righteous- ness. He must have several qualities: first and foremost, of course, he must be honest, he must have the root of right thinking in him. That is not enough. In the next place he must have cour- age: the timid good man counts but little in the rough business of trying to do well the world’s work. And finally, in addition to being honest and brave he must have common-sense. If he does not have it, no matter what other qualities he may have, he will find himself at the mercy of those who, without possessing his desire to do right, know only too well how to make the wrong effective.— Banquet to Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, Apl. 19, 1902. [p. 30.] 38 Citizenship Work for Work's Sake If you are worth your salt and want your chil- dren to be worth their salt, teach them that the life that is not a life of work and effort is worthless, a curse to the man or woman leading it, a curse to those around him or her. Teach the boys that if they are ever to count in the world they will count not by flinching from difficulties, but by warring with and overcrowding them . — Before Minnesota Legislature, Apl. J/., 1903. [p. 291.] Unity in Citizenship and of Duty After all, we are one people, with the same fun- damental characteristics, whether we live in the city or in the country, in the East or in the West, in the North or the South. Each of us, unless he is contented to be a cumberer of the earth’s surface, must strive to do his life-work with his whole heart. Each must remember that, while he will be noxious to every one unless he first do his duty by himself, he must also strive ever to do his duty by his fellow. The problem of how to do these duties is acute everywhere. It is most acute in great cities, 39 Citizenship but it exists in the country, too. A man, to be a good citizen, must first be a good bread-winner, a good husband, a good father — I hope the father of many healthy children; just as a woman’s first duty is to be a good housewife and mother. The business duties, the home duties, the duties to one’s family, come first. The couple who bring up plenty of healthy children, who leave behind them many sons and daughters fitted in their turn to be good citizens, emphatically deserve well of the State. — At Bangor, Me., Aug. 27, 1902. [p. 129.] Individual Force It is a good thing to have a sound body, and a better thing to have a sound mind ; and better still to have that aggregate of virile and decent qualities which we group together under the name of char- acter. I said both decent and virile qualities — it is not enough to have one or the other alone. If a man is strong in mind and body and misuses his strength then he becomes simply a foe to the body politic, to be hunted down by all decent men ; and if, on the other hand, he has thoroughly decent impulses but lacks strength, he is a nice man, but 40 Citizenship does not count. — Banquet to Dr. Butler, A pi. 19, 1902. [p. 30.] Law Not an Adequate Substitute for Character There never has been devised, and there never will be devised, any law which will enable a man to succeed save by the exercise of those qualities which have always been the prerequisites of suc- cess — the qualities of hard work, of keen intelli- gence, of unflinching will. — Providence, R. I., Aug. 23, 1902. [p. 107.] Every Man the Arbiter of the Country’s Good But more than the law, far more than the admin- istration of the law, depends upon the individual quality of the average citizen. The chief factor in winning success for your State, for the people in the State, must be what the chief factor in winning the success of a people has been from the beginning of time — the character of the indi- vidual man, of the individual woman. — Omaha, Neb., Apl. 27, 1903. [p. 331.] 41 Citizenship No Public Virtue Where Private Virtue Fails No one can too strongly insist upon the elemen- tary fact that you cannot build the superstructure of public virtue save on private virtue. The sum of the parts is the whole, and if we wish to make that whole, the State, the representative and ex- ponent and symbol of decency, it must be so made through the decency, public and private, of the average citizen. — Union League, San Francisco, May U, 1903. [p. 413.] The People the Ultimate Authority After all, here at home we ourselves always have in our own hands the remedy whereby to supply any deficiency in integrity or capacity among those that govern us. — Hartford, Conn., Aug. ft®, 1903. [p. 88.] TRUSTS, CAPITAL, LABOR, CORPORATIONS, ETC. Tendencies of the Times and Their Treatment T HIS is an era of great combinations both of labor and of capital. In many ways these combinations have worked for good ; but they must work under the law, and the laws concerning them must be just and wise, or they will inevitably do evil ; and this applies as much to the richest cor- poration as to the most powerful labor union. Our laws must be wise, sane, healthy, conceived in the spirit of those who scorn the mere agitator, the mere inciter of class or sectional hatred; who wish justice for all men; who recognize the need of ad- hering so far as possible to the old American doc- trine of giving the widest possible scope for the free exercise of individual initiative, and yet who recognize also that after combinations have reached a certain stage it is indispensable to the general welfare that the Nation should exercise over them, 43 Trusts — Capital cautiously and with self-restraint, but firmly, the power of supervision and regulation. — Charleston Exposition, Apl. 9, 1902. [p. 26.] Old Laws and Old Customs Inoperative The old laws, and the old customs which had almost the binding force of law, were once quite sufficient to regulate the accumulation and distri- bution of wealth. Since the industrial changes which have so enormously increased the productive power of mankind, they are no longer sufficient. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 538.] The Conservative Course At the outset I shall ask you to remember that I do not approach the subject either from the stand-point of those who speak of themselves as anti-trust or anti-corporation people, nor yet from the stand-point of those who are fond of denying the existence of evils in the trusts, or who appar- ently proceed upon the assumption that if a cor- poration is large enough it can do no wrong.— Milwaukee, Wis., Apl. 3, 1903. [p. 272.] 44 Trusts — Capital Wise Plans Now in Massachusetts Most of our difficulties would be in a fair way of solution if we bad the power to put upon the national statute books, and did put upon them, laws for the Nation much like those on the subject of corporations in Massachusetts. If the Nation had that power, mind you, I should advocate as strenuously as I know how that the power should be exercised with extreme caution and self-restraint. — Boston, Aug. 35, 1903. [p. 116.] State Control Conflicts The wide-spread differences in laws, even between adjacent States, and the uncertainty of the power of enforcement, result practically in altogether in- sufficient control. I believe that the Nation must assume this power of control by legislation ; if necessary by constitutional amendment. — Provi- dence, R. I., Aug. 33, 1903. [p. 104.] National Control Necessary The large corporations, commonly called trusts, though organized in one State, always do business 45 Trusts — Capital in many States, often doing very little business in the State where they are incorporated. There is utter lack of uniformity in the State laws about them ; and as no State has any exclusive interest in or power over their acts, it has in practice proved impossible to get adequate regulation through State action. Therefore, in the interest of the whole people, the Nation should, without interfer- ing with the power of the States in the matter itself, also assume power of supervision and regu- lation over all corporations doing an interstate business. This is especially true where the corpora- tion derives a portion of its wealth from the exist- ence of some monopolistic element or tendency in its business. There would be no hardship in such super- vision ; banks are subject to it, and in their case it is now accepted as a simple matter of course. Indeed, it is probable that supervision of corpora- tions by the National Government need not go so far as is now the case with the supervision exercised over them by so conservative a State as Massa- chusetts, in order to produce excellent results. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 544 .] 46 Trusts — Capital Private Capital , Rightly Used, a Blessing The man who by the use of his capital develops a great mine, the man who by the use of his capital builds a great railroad, the man who by the use of his capital either individually or joined with others like him does any great legitimate business enterprise, confers a benefit, not a harm, upon the community, and is entitled to be so regarded. He is entitled to the protection of the law, and in re- turn he is to be required himself to obey the law. The law is no respecter of persons. The law is to be administered neither for the rich man as such, nor for the poor man as such. It is to be admin- istered for every man, rich or poor, if he is an honest and law-abiding citizen; and it is to be invoked against any man, rich or poor, who vio- lates it, without regard to which end of the social scale he may stand at, without regard to whether his offence takes the form of greed and cunning, or the form of physical violence ; in either case if he violates the law, the law is to be invoked against him ; and in so invoking it I have the right to challenge the support of all good citizens and to demand the acquiescence of every good man. I 47 Trusts — Capital hope I will have it ; but once for all I wish it under- stood that even if I do not have it I shall enforce the law. — Butte, Mont., May 37, 1903. [p. 433.] Demagoguery Dangerous We are certain to fail if we adopt the policy of the demagogue who raves against the wealth which is simply the form of embodied thrift, fore- sight, and intelligence; who would shut the door of opportunity against those whose energy we should especially foster, by penalizing the qualities which tell for success. Just as little can we afford to follow those who fear to recognize injustice and to endeavor to cut it out because the task is diffi- cult or even — if performed by unskilful hands — dangerous. — Charleston Exposition, Apl. 9, 1903. [p. 25.] Conservatism Must Dictate We know well the danger of false remedies, and we are against all violent, radical, and unwise change. But we believe that by proceeding slowly, yet resolutely, with good sense and moderation, and also with a firm determination not to be swerved from our course either by foolish clamor or by any 48 Trusts — Capital base or sinister influence, we can accomplish much for the betterment of conditions. — Milwaukee, Wis., Apl. 3, 1903. [p. 274.] Wealth Not the Creation of the State The creation of these great corporate fortunes has not been due to the tariff' nor to any other governmental action, but to natural causes in the business world, operating in other countries as they operate in our own. The process has aroused much antagonism, a great part of which is wholly without warrant. It is not true that as the rich have grown richer the poor have grown poorer. On the contrary, never before has the average man, the wage-worker, the farmer, the small trader, been so well off as in this country and at the present time. There have been abuses connected with the accumulation of wealth; yet it remains true that a fortune accumulated in legitimate business can be accumulated by the per- son specially benefited only on condition of con- ferring immense incidental benefits upon others. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 538.] 49 Trusts — Capital Individual Energy Must Not Be Discouraged We should recognize the immense importance to this material development of leaving as unham- pered as is compatible with the public good the strong and forceful men upon whom the success of business operations inevitably rests. The slight- est study of business conditions will satisfy anyone capable of forming a judgment that the personal equation is the most important factor in a business operation ; that the business ability of the man at the head of any business concern, big or little, is usually the factor which fixes the gulf between striking success and hopeless failure. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 539.] Wage-workers 9 Welfare Must Be Conserved With the sole exception of the farming interest, no one matter is of such vital moment to our whole people as the welfare of the wage-workers. If the farmer and the wage-worker are well off, it is absolutely certain that all others will be well off too. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress. [p. 546.] 50 Trusts — Capital Organization of Labor a Benefit I believe emphatically in organized labor. I believe in organizations of wage-workers. Organ- ization is one of the laws of our social and economic development at this time. But I feel that we must always keep before our minds the fact that there is nothing sacred in the name itself. To call an organization an organization does not make it a good one. The worth of an organization depends upon its being handled with courage, skill, wisdom, spirit of fair dealing as between man and man, and wise self-restraint. — Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Chattanooga, Tenn., Sept. 8, 1902. [p. 159.] Organization, Whether of Labor or Capital, Must Produce Good Results Under present-day conditions, it is as necessary to have corporations in the business world as it is to have organizations, unions, among wage-workers. We have a right to ask in each case only this: that good, and not harm, shall follow. Exactly as labor organizations, when man- aged intelligently and in a spirit of justice and 51 Trusts — Capital fair play, are of very great sendee not only to the wage-workers, but to the whole community, as has been shown again and again in the history of many such organizations ; so wealth, not merely indi- vidual, but corporate, when used aright is not merely beneficial to the community as a whole, but is absolutely essential to the upbuilding of such a series of communities as those whose citizens I am now addressing. — Providence, R. I., Aug. 23, 1902. [p. 102.] Organization Second Only to Individual Initiative in Productiveness The chief factor in the success of each man — wage-worker, farmer, and capitalist alike — must ever be the sum total of his own individual quali- ties and abilities. Second only to this comes the power of acting in combination or association with others. Very great good has been and will be accomplished by associations or unions of wage- workers, when managed with forethought, and when they combine insistence upon their own rights with law-abiding respect for the rights of others. The display of these qualities in such bodies is a duty of the Nation no less than to the associations 52 Trusts — Capital themselves. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 548.] Mutual Understanding the Means of Obviating Conflict I have a great deal of faith in the average Ameri- can citizen. I think he is a pretty good fellow, and I think he can generally get on with the other average American citizen if he will only know him. If he does not know him, but makes him a monster in his mind, then he will not get on with him. But if he will take the trouble to know him and realize that he is a being just like himself, with the same instincts, not all of them good, the same desire to overcome those that are not good, the same pur- poses, the same tendencies, the same shortcomings, the same desires for good, the same need of striving against evil; if he will realize all this, then if you can get the two together with an honest desire each to try not only to help himself but to help the other, most of our problems will be solved. — Topeka, Kan., May 1, 1903. [p. 538.] 53 Trusts — Capital Class Agitators Inimical to Labor There is no worse enemy of the wage-worker than the man who condones mob violence in any shape or who preaches class hatred. — Syracuse, N. Y., State Fair, Sept. 7, 1903. [p. 475.] Envy of the Fortunate and Brutal Indifference to Suffering Equally Disturbing Arrogance, suspicion, brutal envy of the well-to- do, brutal indifference toward those who are not well-to-do, the hard refusal to consider the rights of others, the foolish refusal to consider the limits of beneficent action, the base appeal to the spirit of selfish greed, whether it take the form of plunder of the fortunate or of oppression of the unfortu- nate — from these and from all kindred vices this Nation must be kept free if it is to remain in its present position in the fore-front of the peoples of mankind. — Chamber of Commerce, N. Y., No- vember 11, 1902. [p. 199.] We All Go Up or Down Together Men sincerely interested in the due protection of property, and men sincerely interested in seeing 54 Trusts — Capital that the just rights of labor are guaranteed, should alike remember not only that in the long run neither the capitalist nor the wage-worker can be helped in healthy fashion save by helping the other; but also that to require either side to obey the law and do its full duty toward the community is em- phatically to that side’s real interest. — Syracuse State Fair, Sept. 7, 1903. [p. 475.] Industrial Tendencies to Be Guided, Not Obstructed You can’t dam the current. You can build levees to keep the current within bounds and to shape its direction. I think that is exactly what we can do in connection with these great corpora- tions known as trusts. You cannot put a stop to or reverse the industrial tendencies of the age, but you can control and regulate them and see that they do no harm. — Wheeling, W. V a.. Sept. 6, 1903. [p. 149.] Organization of Finances, Properly Conducted, Beneficent Corporations that are handled honestly and fairly, so far from being an evil, are a natural 55 Trusts — Capital business evolution and make for the general pros- perity of our land. We do not wish to destroy cor- porations, but we do wish to make them subserve the public good. — At Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 20, 1902. [p. 173.] Organization of Finances, if Abused, May Be Controlled Under Present Powers of Congress I believe that monopolies, unjust discriminations, which prevent or cripple competition, fraudulent overcapitalization, and other evils in trust organi- zations and practices which injuriously affect inter- state trade can be prevented under the power of the Congress to “regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States” through regulations and requirements operating directly upon such commerce, the instrumentalities thereof, and those engaged therein. — Message second session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p 612.] Department of Commerce and Labor Furnishes the Means of Control The Congress has created the Department of Commerce and Labor, including the Bureau of Corporations, with for the first time authority to 56 Trusts — Capital secure proper publicity of such proceedings of these great corporations as the public has the right to know. It has provided for the expediting of suits for the enforcement of the Federal anti-trust law ; and by another law it has secured equal treat- ment to all producers in the transportation of their goods, thus taking a long stride forward in making effective the work of the Interstate Commerce Com- mission. The establishment of the Department of Com- merce and Labor, with the Bureau of Corporations thereunder, marks a real advance in the direction of doing all that is possible for the solution of the questions vitally affecting capitalists and wage- workers. The act creating the Department was approved on February 14, 1903, and two days later the head of the Department was nominated and confirmed by the Senate. Since then the work of organization has been pushed as rapidly as the initial appropriations permitted, and with due re- gard to thoroughness and the broad purposes which the Department is designed to serve . — Message second session Fifty-eighth Congress, [p. 649.] 57 Trusts — Capital The Laws Will Be Enforced A good deal can be done now, a good deal is being done now. As far as the anti-trust laws go they will be enforced. No suit will be undertaken for the sake of seeming to undertake it. — Boston, Aug. 25, 1902. [p. 117.] Enforcement Must Proceed Conservatively Even when the power has been granted it would be most unwise to exercise it too much, to begin by too stringent legislation. The mechanism of mod- ern business is as delicate and complicated as it is vast, and nothing would be more productive of evil to all of us, and especially to those least well off in this world’s goods, than ignorant meddling with this mechanism — above all, meddling in a spirit of class legislation or hatred or rancor. It is emi- nently necessary that the power should be had, but it is just as necessary that it should be exercised with wisdom and self-restraint. — Providence, R. I., Aug. 23, 1902. [p. 105.] 58 Trusts — Capital Privileges Derived From the Government Must Be Reasonably Used It is no limitation upon property rights or free- dom of contract to require that when men receive from government the privilege of doing busi- ness under corporate form, which frees them from individual responsibility, and enables them to call into their enterprises the capital of the public, they shall do so upon absolutely truthful representations as to the value of the property in which the capital is to be invested. — Message first session Fifty- seventh Congress, [p. 542.] 59 ANTI TRUST ACTIONS A Brief History I T was shown that certain trunk lines had en- tered into unlawful agreements as to the transportation of food products from the West to the Atlantic seaboard, giving a few favored ship- pers rates much below the tariff charges imposed upon the smaller dealers and the general public. These unjust practices had prevailed to such an extent and for so long a time that many of the smaller shippers had been driven out of business, until practically one buyer of grain on each rail- way system had been able by his illegal advantages to secure a monopoly on the line with which his secret compact was made; this monopoly enabling him to fix the price to both producer and consumer. Many of the great packing-house concerns were shown to be in combination with each other and with most of the great railway lines, whereby they enjoyed large secret concessions in rates and thus 60 Anti-Trust Actions obtained a practical monopoly of the fresh and cured meat industry of the country. These fusions, though violative of the statute, had prevailed un- checked for so many years that they had become intrenched in and interwoven with the commercial life of certain large distributing localities ; al- though this was of course at the expense of the vast body of law-abiding merchants, the general public, and particularly of unfavored localities. Under those circumstances it was a serious prob- lem to determine the wise course to follow in vital- izing a law which had in part become obsolete or proved incapable of enforcement. Of what the Attorney-General did in enforcing it I shall speak later. The decisions of the courts upon the law had betrayed weaknesses and imperfections, some of them so serious as to render abortive efforts to apply any effective remedy for the existing evils. It is clear that corporations created for quasi- public purposes, clothed for that reason with the ultimate power of the state to take private prop- erty against the will of the owner, hold their cor- porate powers as carriers in trust for the fairly impartial service of all the public. Favoritism in the use of such powers, unjustly enriching some and unjustly impoverishing others, discriminating 61 Anti-Trust Actions in favor of some places and against others, is pal- pably violative of plain principles of justice. Such a practice unchecked is hurtful in many ways. Congress, having had its attention drawn to the matter, enacted a most important anti-rebate law, which greatly strengthens the interstate commerce law. This new law prohibits under adequate pen- alties the giving and as well the demanding or receiving of such preferences, and provides the preventive remedy of injunction. The vigorous administration of this law — and it will be enforced — will, it is hoped, afford a substantial remedy for certain trust evils which have attracted public attention and have created public unrest. This law represents a noteworthy and important advance toward just and effective regulation of transportation. Moreover, its passage has been supplemented by the enactment of a law to expedite the hearing of actions of public moment under the anti-trust act, known as the Sherman law, and under the act to regulate commerce, at the request of the Attorney-General; and furthermore, addi- tional funds have been appropriated to be expended under the direction of the Attorney-General in the enforcement of these laws. All of this represents a great and substantial 62 Anti-Trust Actions advance in legislation. But more important even than legislation is the administration of the law, and I ask jour attention for a moment to the way in which the law has been administered by the pro- found jurist and fearless public servant who now occupies the position of Attorney-General, Mr. Knox. The Constitution enjoins upon the Presi- dent that he shall take care that the laws be faith- fully executed, and under this provision the Attor- ney-General formulated a policy which was in effect nothing but the rigid enforcement, by suits man- aged with consummate skill and ability, both of the anti-trust law and of the imperfect provisions of the act to regulate commerce. The first step taken was the prosecution of fourteen suits against the principal railroads of the Middle West, restraining them by injunction from further violations of either of the laws in question. About the same time the case against the North- ern Securities Company was initiated. This was a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey with a capital of four hundred million dollars, the alleged purpose being to control the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific rail- road companies, two parallel and competing lines extending across the northern tier of States from 63 Anti-Trust Actions the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. What- ever the purpose, its consummation would have resulted in the control of the two great railway systems — upon which the people of the North- western States were so largely dependent for their supplies and to get their products to market — being practically merged into the New Jersey cor- poration. The proposition that these independent systems of railroads should be merged under a single control alarmed the people of the States concerned, lest they be subjected to what they deemed a monopoly of interstate transportation and the suppi’ession of competition. The Gov- ernors of the States most deeply affected held a meeting to consider how to prevent the merger be- coming effective and passed resolutions calling upon the National Government to enforce the anti- trust laws against the alleged combination. When these resolutions were referred to the Attorney- General for consideration and advice, he reported that in his opinion the Northern Securities Com- pany and its control of the railroads mentioned was a combination in restraint of trade, and was attempting a monopoly in violation of the national anti-trust law. Thereupon a suit in equity, which is now pending, was begun by the Government to 64 Anti-Trust Actions test the validity of this transaction under the Sher- man law. At nearly the same time the disclosures respect- ing the secret rebates enjoyed by the great packing- house companies, coupled with the very high price of meats, led the Attorney-General to direct an investigation into the methods of the so-called beef trust. The result was that he filed bills for injunc- tion against six of the principal packing-house companies, and restrained them from combining and agreeing upon prices at which they would sell their products in States other than those in which their meats were prepared for market. Writs of injunction were issued accordingly, and since then, after full argument, the United States Circuit Court has made the injunction perpetual. The cotton interests of the South, including growers, buyers, and shippers, made complaint that they were suffering great injury in their business from the methods of the Southern railroads in the handling and transportation of cotton. They al- leged that these railroads, by combined action under a pooling arrangement to support their rate- schedules, had denied to the shippers the right to elect over what roads their commodities should be shipped, and that by dividing upon a fixed basis 65 Anti-Trust Actions the cotton crop of the South all inducement to compete in rates for the transportation thereof was eliminated. Proceedings were instituted by the Attorney-General under the anti-trust law, which resulted in the destruction of the pool and in restoring to the growers and shippers of the South the right to ship their products over any road they elected, thus removing the restraint upon the free- dom of commerce. In November, 1902, the Attorney-General di- rected that a bill for an injunction be filed in the United States Circuit Court at San Francisco against the Federal Salt Company — a corporation which had been organized under the laws of an Eastern State, but had its main office and principal place of business in California — and against a number of other companies and persons consti- tuting what was known as the salt trust. These injunctions were to restrain the execution of certain contracts between the Federal Salt Company and the other defendants, by which the latter agreed neither to import nor buy or sell salt, except from and to the Federal Salt Company, and not to en- gage or assist in the production of salt west of the Mississippi River during the continuance of such contracts. As the result of these agreements the 66 Anti-Trust Actions price of salt had been advanced about four hundred per cent. A temporary injunction order was ob- tained, which the defendants asked the court to modify on the ground that the anti-trust law had no application to contracts for purchases and sales within a State. The Circuit Court overruled this contention and sustained the Government’s posi- tion. This practically concluded the case, and it is understood that in consequence the Federal Salt Company is about to be dissolved and that no further contest will be made. The above is a brief outline of the most impor- tant steps, legislative and administrative, taken during the past eighteen months in the direction of solving, so far as at present it seems practicable by national legislation or administration to solve, what we call the trust problem. They represent a sum of very substantial achievement. They rep- resent a successful effort to devise and apply real remedies; an effort which so far succeeded because it was made not only with resolute purpose and de- termination, but also in a spirit of common-sense and justice, as far removed as possible from rancor, hysteria, and unworthy demagogic appeal. In the same spirit the laws will continue to be enforced. Not only is the legislation recently enacted effect- 67 Anti-Trust Actions ive, but in my judgment it was impracticable to attempt more. Nothing of value is to be expected from ceaseless agitation for radical and extreme legislation. The people may wisely, and with con- fidence, await the results which are reasonably to be expected from the impartial enforcement of the laws which have recently been placed upon the statute-books. Legislation of a general and indis- criminate character would be sure to fail, either because it would involve all interests in a common ruin, or because it would not really reach any evil. We have endeavored to provide a discriminating adaptation of the remedy to the real mischief. Many of the alleged remedies advocated are of the unpleasantly drastic type which seeks to destroy the disease by killing the patient. Others are so obviously futile that it is somewhat difficult to treat them seriously or as being advanced in good faith. High among the latter I place the effort to reach the trust question by means of the tariff. You can, of course, put an end to the prosperity of the trusts by putting an end to the prosperity of the Nation ; but the price for such action seems high. The alternative is to do exactly what has been done during the life of the Congress which has just closed — that is, to endeavor, not to destroy cor- 68 Anti-Trust Actions porations, but to regulate them with a view of doing away with whatever is of evil in them and of making them subserve the public use. The law is not to be administered in the interest of the poor man as such, nor yet in the interest of the rich man as such, but in the interest of the law-abiding man, rich or poor. We are no more against or- ganizations of capital than against organizations of labor. -We welcome both, demanding only that each shall do right and shall remember its duty to the Republic. Such a course we consider not merely a benefit to the poor man, but a benefit to the rich man. We do no man an injustice when we require him to obey the law. On the contrary, if he is a man whose safety and well-being depend in a peculiar degree upon the existence of the spirit of law and order, we are rendering him the greatest service when we require him to be himself an exemplar of that spirit. — Milwaukee , Wis., Apl. 3, 1903. [p. 278.] 69 PANAMA CANAL The United States to Accomplish this Great Engineering Feat T HE Isthmian Canal is to be one of the greatest, probably the greatest, engineering feat of the twentieth century ; and I am glad it is to be done by America. We must take care that it is done under the best conditions and by the best Ameri- cans. — Hartford, Conn., Aug. 22, 1902. [p. 91.] The Canal an Advantage, Not a Menace to Other American States The canal will be of great benefit to America, and of importance to all the world. It will be of advantage to us industrially and also as improving our military position. It will be of advantage to the countries of tropical America. It is earnestly to be hoped that all of these countries will do as some of them have already done with signal suc- 70 Panama Canal cess, and will invite to their shores commerce and improve their material conditions by recognizing that stability and order are the prerequisites of successful development. No independent nation in America need have the slightest fear of aggression from the United States. It behooves each one to maintain order within its own borders and to dis- charge its just obligations to foreigners. When this is done they can rest assured that, be they strong or weak, they have nothing to dread from outside interference. More and more, the increas- ing interdependence and complexity of interna- tional, political, and economic relations render it incumbent on all civilized and orderly powers to insist on the proper policing of the world. — Mes- sage second session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 624.] Its Importance to the Country No single great material work which remains to be" undertaken on this coil linen L is of such conse- quence to the American people as the building of a canal across~the isthmus connecting North and "South America. .Its importance to the Nation is hv no means limited merely to its material effects upon our business prosperity ; and yet with view to these 71 Panama Canal effects alone it would be to the last degree impor- tant 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 co mplete 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, hut, standing mon uments to its const.ni c- trve ability . — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 573.] Blind Criticism I hesitate to refer to the injurious insinuations which have been made of complicity by this gov- ernment in the revolutionary movement in Panama. They are as destitute of foundation as of pro- priety. The only excuse for my mentioning them is the fear lest unthinking persons might mistake for acquiescence the silence of mere self-respect. I think proper to say, therefore, that no one con- nected with this Government had any part in pre- 72 Panama Canal paring, inciting, or encouraging the late revolution on the Isthmus of Panama, and that save from the reports of our military and naval officers, no one connected with this Government had any previous knowledge of the revolution except such as was accessible to any person of ordinary intelligence who read the newspapers and kept up a current acquaintance with public affairs. — Special message to Congress , Jan. If, 190 If. [p. 743.] Original Guaranty of New Granadian Integrity Intended Mainly to Further Con- struction of Canal The attacks against which the United States engaged to protect New Granadian sovereignty were those of foreign powers ; but this engagement was only a means to the accomplishment of a yet more important end. The great design of the article was to assure the dedication of the Isthmus to the purposes of free and unobstructed inter- oceanic transit, the consummation of which would be found in an interoceanic canal. — Special mes- sage to Congress, Jan. If, 190 If., [p. 475.] 73 Panama Canal Colombia's Ulterior Design The naked meaning of this report is that Co- lombia proposed to wait until, by the enforcement of a forfeiture repugnant to the ideas of justice which obtain in every civilized nation, the property and rights of the New Panama Canal Company could be confiscated . — Special message to Con- gress, Jan. 4> 1904- [p. 749.] Recognition of Panama I confidently maintain that the recognition of the Republic of Panama was an act justified by the interests of collective civilization. If ever a gov- ernment could be said to have received a mandate from civilization to effect an object the accom- plishment of which was demanded in the interest of mankind, the United States holds that position with regard to the interoceanic canal. Since our purpose to build the canal was definitely announced, there have come from all quarters assurances of ap- proval and encouragement, in which even Colombia herself at one time participated; and to general assurances were added specific acts and declarations. 74 Panama Canal The Republics assembled at the International Conference of Mexico applaud the purpose of the United States Government to construct an inter- oceanic canal, and acknowledge that this work will not only be worthy of the greatness of the Ameri- can people, but also in the highest sense a work of civilization, and to the greatest degree beneficial to the development of commerce between the American States and the other countries of the world. Among those who signed this resolution on be- half of their respective governments was General Reyes, the delegate of Colombia. Little could it have been foreseen that two years later the Colom- bian Government, led astray by false allurements of selfish advantage, and forgetful alike of its inter- national obligations and of the duties and respon- sibilities of sovereignty, would thwart the efforts of the United States to enter upon and complete a work which the nations of America, re-echoing the sentiment of the nations of Europe, had pro- nounced to be not only “worthy of the greatness of the American people,” but also “in the highest sense a work of civilization.” That our position as the mandatary of civiliza- tion has been by no means misconceived is shown 75 Panama Canal by the promptitude with which the powers have, one after another, followed our lead in recognizing Panama as an independent State . — Special mes- sage to Congress, Jan. b , 190J+. [p. 752.] 76 CUBA Our Treatment of Her Unprecedented B UT on the 20th of next month Cuba becomes a free republic, and we turn over to the islanders the control of their own government. It would be very difficult to find a parallel in the con- duct of any other great State that has occupied such a position as ours. We have kept our word and done our duty, just as an honest individual in private life keeps his word and does his duty. Cuba’s position makes it necessary that her po- litical relations with us should differ from her political relations with other powers. This fact has been formulated by us and accepted by the Cubans in the Platt amendments. It follows as a corollary that where the Cubans have thus assumed a position of peculiar relationship to our political system they must similarly stand in a peculiar rela- tionship to our economic system . — Charleston Exposition, April, 1902. [p. 23.] 77 PHILIPPINES Problem to Which the Spanish War Gave Rise T HE Spanish War itself was an easy task, but it left us certain other tasks which were much more difficult. One of these tasks was that of dealing with the Philippines. The easy thing to do — the thing which appealed not only to lazy and selfish men, but to very many good men whose thought did not drive down to the root of things- — was to leave the islands. Had we done this, a period of wild chaos would have supervened, and then some stronger power would have stepped in and seized the islands and have taken up the task which we in such a case would have flinched from performing. A less easy, but infinitely more absurd course, would have been to leave the islands ourselves, and at the same time to assert that we would not permit anyone else to interfere with them. This particular course would have combined all the possible disadvantages of every other course which was advocated. It would 78 Philippines have placed us in a humiliating position, because when the actual test came it would have been quite out of the question for us, after some striking deed of savagery had occurred in the islands, to stand by and prevent the re-entry of civilization into them ; while the mere fact of our having threat- ened thus to guarantee the local tyrants and wrong- doers against outside interference by ourselves or others, would have put a premium upon every species of tyranny and anarchy within the islands. — Hartford, Conn., Aug. 22, 1902. [p. 92.] Individual Liberty Possible Under Enlightened Government Only But our armies do more than bring peace, do more than bring order. They bring freedom. Re- member always that the independence of a tribe or a community may, and often does, have nothing whatever to do with the freedom of the individual in that tribe or community. There are now in Asia and Africa scores of despotic monarchies, each of which is independent, and in no one of which is there the slightest vestige of freedom for the individual man. Scant indeed is the gain to mankind from the “independence” of a blood- 79 Philippines stained tyrant who rules over abject and brutalized slaves. But great is the gain to humanity which follows the steady though slow introduction of the orderly liberty, the law-abiding freedom of the individual, which is the only sure foundation upon which national independence can be built. Wher- ever in the Philippines the insurrection has been definitely and finally put down, there the indi- vidual Filipino already enjoys such freedom, such personal liberty under our rule, as he could never even have dreamed of under the rule of an “inde- pendent” Aguinaldian oligarchy. — Arlington, Va., May 30, 1902. [p. 65.] High Standard of American and Native Officials The utmost care has been exercised in choosing the best type of Americans for the high civil posi- tions, and the actual work of administration has been done, so far as possible, by native Filipino officials serving under these Americans. The suc- cess of the effort has been wonderful. Never has this country had a more upright or an abler body of public representatives than Governor Taft, Vice- Governor Wright, and their associates and sub- ordinates in the Philippine Islands. It is a very 80 Philippines difficult matter, practically, to apply the prin- ciples of an orderly free government to an Oriental people struggling upward out of barbarism and subjection. It is a task requiring infinite firmness, patience, tact, broad-mindedness. All these quali- ties, and the countless others necessary, have been found in the civil and military officials. — Hartford, Conn., Aug. 22, 1902. [p. 95.] Public Order and Private Liberty But the islands have never been as orderly, as peaceful, or as prosperous as now ; and in no other Oriental country, whether ruled by Asiatics or Europeans, is there anything approaching to the amount of individual liberty and of self-govern- ment which our rule has brought to the Filipinos. — Banquet to Gerd. Wright, Memphis, Term., Nov. 19, 1902. [p. 208.] Was Not an Easy Task In the Philippines the problem was one of great complexity. There was an insurrectionary party claiming to represent the people of the islands and putting forth their claim with a certain specious- 81 Philippines ness which deceived no small number of excellent men here at home, and which afforded to yet others a chance to arouse a factious party spirit against the President. Of course, looking back, it is now easy to see that it would have been both absurd and wicked to abandon the Philippine Archipelago and let the scores of different tribes — Christian, Mo- hammedan, and pagan, in every stage of semi- civilization and Asiatic barbarism — turn the islands into a welter of bloody savagery, with the absolute certainty that some strong power would have to step in and take possession. But though now it is easy enough to see that our duty was to stay in the islands, to put down the insurrection by force of arms, and then to establish freedom-giving civil government, it needed genuine statesmanship to see this and to act accordingly at the time of the first revolt. — Canton, Ohio, Jan. 27, 1903. [p. 238.] McKinley and the Philippines; His Promises Fulfilled McKinley said: “That Congress will provide for them a government which will bring them bless- ings, which will promote their material interests as 82 Philippines well as advance their people in the path of civiliza- tion and intelligence, I confidently believe. They will not be governed as vassals or serfs or slaves. They will be given a government of liberty, regu- lated by law, honestly administered, without op- pressing exactions, taxation without tyranny, jus- tice without bribe, education without distinction of social condition, freedom of religious worship, and protection in ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ ” What he said then lay in the realm of promise. Now it lies in the realm of positive performance. — Fargo, N. D., Apl. 7, 1903. [p. 311.] Our Administration Accomplishes the Wishes of the Greatest of the Native Patriots Remember always that in the Philippines the American Government has tried and is trying to carry out exactly what the greatest genius and most revered patriot ever known in the Philippine Islands — Jose Rizal — steadfastly advocated. Tins man, shortly before his death, in a message to his countrymen, under date of December 16, 1896, condemned unsparingly the insurrection of Agui- naldo, terminated just before our navy appeared 83 Philippines upon the scene, and pointed out the path his people should follow to liberty and enlightenment. Speak- ing of the insurrection and of the pretence that Filipino independence of a wholesome character could thereby be obtained, he wrote: “When, in spite of my advice, a movement was begun, I offered of my own accord, not only my services, but my life and even my good name to be used in any way they might believe effective in stifling the rebellion. I thought of the disaster which would follow the success of the revolution, and I deemed myself fortunate if by any sacrifice I could block the progress of such a useless calamity. “My countrymen, I have given proof that I was one who sought liberty for our country and I still seek it. But as a first step I insisted upon the development of the people in order that, by means of education and of labor, they might acquire the proper individual character and force which would make them worthy of it. In my writings I have commended to you study and civic virtue, without which our redemption does not exist. ... I cannot do less than condemn, and I do condemn, this absurd and savage insurrection planned behind my back, which dishonors us before the Filipinos and 84 Philippines discredits us with those who otherwise would argue in our behalf. I abominate its cruelties and dis- avow any kind of connection with it, regretting with all the sorrow of my soul that these reckless men have allowed themselves to be deceived. Let them return, then, to their homes, and may God pardon those who have acted in bad faith.” This message embodied precisely and exactly the avowed policy upon which the American Govern- ment has acted in the Philippines. What the patriot Rizal said with such force in speaking of the insurrection before we came to the islands ap- plies with tenfold greater force to those who fool- ishly or wickedly opposed the mild and beneficent government we were instituting in the islands. The judgment of the martyred public servant, Rizal, whose birthday the Philippine people celebrate, and whom they worship as their hero and ideal, sets forth the duty of American sovereignty ; a duty from which the American people will never flinch. —Fargo, N. D., Apl. 7, 1903. [p. 317.] The Result a Work of Constructive Statesmanship Taking the work of ythe army and the civil au- thorities together, it may be questioned whether 85 Philippines anywhere else in modern times the world has seen a better example of real constructive statesmanship than our people have given in the Philippine Isl- ands. High praise should also be given those Filipinos, in the aggregate very numerous, who have accepted the new conditions and joined with our representatives to work with hearty good-will for the welfare of the islands. — Message second session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 629.] History Presents No Parallel 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 Phil- ippines. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Con- gress. [p. 669.] Our Own Advantage in the Result Nor should it be forgotten that while we have thus acted in the interest of the islanders them- selves, we have also helped our own people. Our interests are as great in the Pacific as in the At- 86 Philippines lantic. The welfare of California, Oregon, and Washington is as vital to the Nation as the wel- fare of New England, New York, and the South Atlantic States. The awakening of the Orient means very much to all the nations of Christen- dom, commercially no less than politically. — Hart- ford, Conn., August 22, 1902. [p. 97.] 87 LYNCHING Views Similar to Lincoln's T HIS matter of lynching would be a terrible thing even if it stopped with the lynching of men guilty of the inhuman and hideous crime of rape; but as a matter of fact, lawlessness of this type never does stop and never can stop in such fashion. Every violent man in the community is encouraged by every case of lynching in which the lynchers go unpunished to himself take the law into his own hands whenever it suits his own convenience. In the same way the use of torture by the mob in certain cases is sure to spread until it is applied more or less indiscriminately in other cases. The spirit of lawlessness grows with what it feeds on, and when mobs with impunity lynch criminals for one cause, they are certain to begin to lynch real or alleged criminals for other causes. In the recent cases of lynching, over three-fourths were not for rape at all, but for murder, attempted murder, and even less heinous offences. Moreover, the history 88 Lynching of these recent cases shows the awful fact that when the minds of men are habituated to the use of torture by lawless bodies to avenge crimes of a peculiarly revolting description, other lawless bodies will use torture in order to punish crimes of an ordinary type. Surely no patriot can fail to see the fearful brutalization and debasement which the indulgence of such a spirit and such practices inevitably portends . — Letter to Gov . Durbin, Aug. 6 , 1903 . [p. 527.] 89 GENERAL WOOD President McKinley's Choice a Good One P RESIDENT McKINLEY, with his usual sin- gular sagacity in the choice of agents, selected in General Leonard Wood the man of all others best fit to bring the island through its uncertain period of preparation for independence, and the result of his wisdom was shown when the island became in name and in fact a free Republic, for it started with a better equipment and under more favorable conditions than had ever previously been the case with any Spanish- American commonwealth. — Canr- ton, Ohio, Jan. 27, 1903. [p. 238.] His Service a Sacrifice Leonard Wood four years ago went down to Cuba, has served there ever since, has rendered her literally invaluable service; a man who through those four years thought of nothing else, did noth- ing else, save to try to bring up the standard of 90 General Wood political and social life in that island, to clean it physically and morally, to make justice even and fair in it, to found a school system which should be akin to our own, to teach the people after four centuries of misrule that there were such things as governmental righteousness and honesty and fair play for all men on their merits as men. He did all this. He is a man of slender means. He did this on his pay as an army officer. As Governor of the island sixty millions of dollars passed through his hands, and he came out having been obliged to draw on his slender capital in order that he might come out even when he left the island. Credit to him? Yes, in a way. In another, no particular credit, because he was built so that he could do nothing else. He devoted himself as disinterestedly to the good of the Cuban people in all their rela- tions as man could. He has come back here, and has been attacked, forsooth, by people who are not merely unworthy of having their names coupled with his, but who are incapable of understanding the motives that have spurred him on to bring honor to this republic . — Harvard Commencement, June 25, 1902. [p. 81.] 91 General Wood How Other Countries Reward such Service When in England they get a man to do what Lord Cromer did in Egypt, when a man returns as Lord Kitchener will return from South Africa, they give him a peerage and he receives large and tangible reward. But our Cromers, our men of that stamp, come back to this country, and if they are fortunate, they go back to private life with the privilege of taking up as best they can the strings left loose when they severed their old con- nections; and if fortune does not favor them they are accused of maladversion in office — not an accu- sation that hurts them, but an accusation that brands with infamy every man who makes it, and that reflects but ill on the country in which it is made . — Harvard Commencement, June 25, 1902. [p. 80.] 92 TARIFF Present System Satisfactory to the Majority of the People T HERE is general acquiescence in our present tariff system as a national policy. The first requisite to our prosperity is the continuity and stability of this economic policy. — Presidential mes- sage first session Fifty-seventh Congress. [p. 550.] Policy Based on Workingmans Advantage The general tariff policy to which, without regard to changes in detail, I believe this country to be irrevocably committed, is fundamentally based upon ample recognition of the difference in labor cost here and abroad; in other words, the recognition of the need for full development of the intelligence, the comfort, the high standard of civilized living and the inventive genius of the 93 Tariff American workingman as compared to the working- man of any other country in the world. — Logans- port, Ind., Sept. 2 3 , 1902. [p. 195.] No Hardshell Views Belief in the wisdom of a protective tariff is in no way inconsistent with frankly admitting the desirability of changing a set of schedules, when from any cause such change is in the interests of the Nation as a whole — and our tariff policy is designed to favor the interests of the Nation as a whole and not those of any particular set of indi- viduals save as an incident to this building up of national well-being. There are two or three differ- ent methods by which it will be possible to provide such readjustment without any shock to the busi- ness world. — Logansport, Ind., Sept. 23, 1902. [p. 193.] Modifications Should Be Consistent and Broad-gauge Of course in making any changes we should have to proceed in accordance with certain fixed and definite principles, and the most important of these 94) Tariff is an avowed determination to protect the interests of the American producer, be he business man, wage-worker, or farmer. The one consideration which must never be omitted in a tariff change is the imperative need of preserving the American standard of living for the American workingman. The tariff rate must never fall below that which will protect the American workingman by allowing for the difference between the general labor cost here and abroad. — Logansport, Ind., Sept. 23, 1902. [p. 194.] A Business, Not a Partisan Matter What we really need in this country is to treat the tariff as a business proposition from the stand- point of the interests of the country as a whole, and not from the stand-point of the temporary needs of any political party. It surely ought not to be necessary to dwell upon the extreme unwis- dom, from a business stand-point, from the stand- point of national prosperity, of violent and radical changes amounting to the direct upsetting of tariff policies at intervals of every few years. A nation like ours can adjust its business after a fashion to any kind of tariff. But neither our nation nor any 95 Tariff other can stand the ruinous policy of readjusting its business to radical changes in the tariff at short intervals. This is more true now than ever it was before, for owing to the immense extent and variety of our products, the tariff schedules of to-day carry rates of duty on more than four thousand articles. Continual sweeping changes in such a tariff, touching so intimately the commercial inter- ests of the nation which stands as one of the two or three greatest in the whole industrial world, cannot but be disastrous. Yet on the other hand where the industrial needs of the nation shift as rapidly as they do with us, it is a matter of prime importance that we should be able to readjust our economic policy as rapidly as possible and with as little friction as possible to these needs. We need a scheme which will enable us to provide a reapplication of the principle to the changed conditions. The problem therefore is to devise some method by which these shifting needs can be recog- nized and the necessary read j ustments of duties pro- vided without forcing the entire business commu- nity, and therefore the entire Nation, to submit to a violent surgical operation, the mere threat of which, and still more the accomplished fact of which, would probably paralyze for a considerable time all 96 Tariff the industries of the country. It is on every account most earnestly to be hoped that this problem can be solved in some manner into which partisanship shall enter as a purely secondary consideration, if at all; that is, in some manner which shall provide for an earnest effort by non-partisan inquiry and action to secure any changes the need of which is indicated by the effect found to proceed from a given rate of duty on a given article; its effect, if any, as regards the creation of a substantial monopoly ; its effect upon domestic prices, upon the revenue of the government, upon importations from abroad, upon home productions, and upon consumption. — Logansport, Ind., Sept. £3, 1902. [p. 191.] Reciprocity and Protection Reciprocity must be treated as the handmaiden of protection. Our first duty is to see that the pro- tection granted by the tariff in every case where it is needed is maintained, and that reciprocity be sought for so far as it can safely be done without injury to our home industries. Just how far this is must be determined according to the individual case, remembering always that every application of our tariff policy to meet our shifting national 97 Tariff needs must be conditioned upon the cardinal fact that the duties must never be reduced below the point that will cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad. The well-being of the wage-worker is a prime consideration of our entire policy of economic legislation. — Message first ses- sion Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 551.] A Poor Weapon Against the Trusts One point we must steadily keep in mind. The question of tariff revision, speaking broadly, stands wholly apart from the question of dealing with the trusts. No change in tariff duties can have any substantial effect in solving the so-called trust prob- lem. Certain great trusts or great corporations are wholly unaffected by the tariff. Practically all the others that are of any importance have as a matter of fact numbers of smaller American competitors ; and of course a change in the tariff which would work injury to the large corporation would work not merely injury but destruction to its smaller competitors ; and equally of course such a change would mean disaster to all the wage-workers con- nected with either the large or the small corpora- tion. From the stand-point of those interested in 98 Tariff the solution of the trust problem such a change would therefore merely mean that the trust was relieved of the competition of its weaker American competitors, and thrown only into competition with foreign competitors; and that the first effort to meet this new competition would be made by cut- ting down wages, and would therefore be primarily at the cost of labor. In the case of some of our greatest trusts such a change might confer upon them a positive benefit. Speaking broadly, it is evident that the changes in the tariff will affect the trusts for weal or for woe simply as they affect the whole country. The tariff affects trusts only as it affects all other interests. It makes all these inter- ests, large or small, profitable ; and its benefits can be taken from the large only under penalty of taking them from the small also. — Minneapolis, Minn., Apl. If., 1903. [p. 300.] An Attack Through the Tariff on the Trusts Equally Dangerous to Their Smaller Competitors The trusts can be damaged by depriving them of the benefits of a protective tariff, only on con- dition of damaging all their smaller competitors, and all the wage-workers employed in the industry. 99 Tariff This point is very important, and it is desirable to avoid any misunderstanding concerning it. I am not now considering whether or not, on grounds totally unconnected with the trusts, it would be well to lower the duties on various schedules, either by direct legislation or by legislation or treaties de- signed to secure as an offset reciprocal advantages from the nations with which we trade. My point is that changes in the tariff would have little ap- preciable effect on the trusts save as they shared in the general harm or good proceeding from such changes. No tariff change would help one of our smaller corporations, or one of our private indi- viduals in business, still less one of our wage- workers, as against a large corporation in the same business ; on the contrary, if it bore heavily on the large corporation it would inevitably be felt still more by that corporation’s weaker rivals, while any injurious result would of necessity be shared by both the employer and the employed. — Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 20, 1902. [p. 179.] 100 NAVY Must Be Free from “ Politics ” T HERE must be no partisan politics in the army or the navy of the United States. All that concerns us to know about any general or admiral, about a mighty captain by sea or by land, is whether he is a thoroughly fit commander of men and loyal to the country as a whole. — Memphis, Tenn., Nov., 1902. [p. 209.] General Staff Needed It is eminently desirable, however, that there should be provided a naval general staff on lines similar to those of the General Staff lately created for the army. Within the Navy Department itself the needs of the service have brought about a sys- tem under which the duties of a general staff are partially performed ; for the Bureau of Navigation has under its direction the War College, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Board of Inspection, 101 Navy and has been in close touch with the General Board of the navy. But though under the excellent offi- cers at their head these boards and bureaus do good work, they have not the authority of a general staff, and have not sufficient scope to insure a proper readiness for emergencies. We need the establishment by law of a body of trained officers, who shall exercise a systematic control of the mili- tary affairs of the navy, and be authorized advisers of the Secretary concerning it. — Message second session Fifty-eighth Congress, [p. 692.] Efficient Navy Means Peace The entire country is vitally interested in the navy, because an efficient navy of adequate size is not only the best guarantee of peace, but is also the surest means for seeing that if war does come the result shall be honorable to our good name and favorable to our national interests. — Haverhill, Mass., Aug. 2 6 , 1902. [p. 118.] We Must Not Turn Back The work of upbuilding the navy must be stead- ily continued. No one point of our policy, foreign or domestic, is more important than this to the 102 Navy 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 inter- national rights. Even if our flag were hauled down in the Philippines and Porto 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 bot- toms, w r e 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 guarantee against war, the cheapest and most effective peace insurance. The cost of building and maintaining such a navy represents 103 Navy 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 com- mercially, and to guarantee the safety of the American people. Our people intend to abide by the Monroe Doc- trine, 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 insist- ence 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 104 Navy 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 faith- ful 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 anti- quated wooden ships, already almost as out of place against modern war-vessels as the galleys of Alci- biades 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 105 Navy administration of a succession of patriotic Secre- taries 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 Philip- pines 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 Con- gressmen 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 busi- ness men and wage-workers who furnished what the Congress had authorized; the Secretaries of the Navy who asked for and expended the appropria- tions ; and finally the officers who, in fair weather and foul, on actual sea service, trained and disci- 106 Navy plined 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. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress. [p. 577.] Ships Once Built Should Be Kept in Commission 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 addi- tional marines should be provided ; and an increase in the officers should be provided by making a large 107 Navy addition to the classes at Annapolis . — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress . [p. 581.] Shore Duty by Civilians 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 con- tinuous and progressive instruction in target prac- tice, ship handling, squadron tactics, and general discipline. Our ships must be assembled in squad- rons 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 108 Navy 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 weap- ons 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 recruit- ing must be carried on with still greater vigor. Every effort must be made to exalt the main func- tion 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 effi- ciency 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 condi- tions as a nation and of the true meaning of a 109 Navy great war fleet, which meaning is, first, the best men, and second, the best ships. The Naval Militia forces are State organiza- tions, and are trained for coast service, and in event of war they will constitute the inner line of defence. They should receive hearty encourage- ment 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 aux- iliary to the naval sea-going peace establishment, and offer material to be drawn on at once for man- ning our ships in time of war. It should be com- posed 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 centres as life-saving sta- tions 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 110 Navy there is no surer way of courting national disaster than to be “opulent, aggressive, and unarmed.” — Message first sesssion Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 582 .] Ill MERCHANT MARINE Needs Upbuilding T HE condition of the American merchant marine is such as to call for immediate remedial action by the Congress. It is discreditable to us as a nation that our merchant marine should be utterly insignificant in comparison to that of other nations which we overtop in other forms of business. We should not longer submit to condi- tions under which only a trifling portion of our great commerce is carried in our own ships. To remedy this state of things would not merely serve to build up our shipping interests, but it would . also result in benefit to all who are interested in the permanent establishment of a wider market for American products, and would provide an auxiliary force for the navy. Ships work for their own coun- tries just as railroads work for their terminal points. Shipping lines, if established to the prin- cipal countries with which we have dealings, would 112 Merchant Marine be of political as well as commercial benefit. From every stand-point it is unwise for the United States to continue to rely upon the ships of competing nations for the distribution of our goods. It should be made advantageous to carry American goods in American-built ships. At present American shipping is under certain great disadvantages when put in competition with the shipping of foreign countries. Many of the fast foreign steamships, at a speed of fourteen knots or above, are subsidized; and all our ships, sailing vessels and steamers alike, cargo-carriers of slow speed and mail-carriers of high speed, have to meet the fact that the original cost of building American ships is greater than is the case abroad; that the wages paid the officers and seamen are very much higher than those paid the officers and seamen of foreign competing countries ; and that the stand- ard of living on our ships is far superior to the standard of living on the ships of our commercial rivals . — Message first session Fifty-seventh Con- gress. [P- 553.] 113 ARMY— MILITIA General Staff and National Guard T HE effect of the laws providing a General Staff for the army and for the more effective use of the National Guard has been excellent. Great improvement has been made in the efficiency of our army in recent years. Such schools as those erected at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley and the institution of fall manoeuvre work accomplish satisfactory results. The good effect of these manoeuvres upon the National Guard is marked, and ample appropriation should be made to enable the guardsmen of the several States to share in the benefit. The Government should as soon as possible secure suitable permanent camp sites for military manoeeuvres in the various sections of the country. The service thereby rendered not only to the Regu- lar Army but to the National Guard of the several States, will be so great as to repay many times over the relatively small expense. — Message second ses- sion Fifty-eighth Congress, [p. 689.] 114 ) A rmy — Militia Not Size, but Efficiency 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 indi- vidual units who as officers and enlisted men com- pose 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 con- ditions 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 115 Army — Militia and morale. But nowadays the most valuable fighting man and the most difficult to perfect is the rifleman who is also a skilful and daring rider. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 584 .] Calvary and Mounted Infantry The proportion of our cavalry regiments has wisely been increased. The American cavalryman, trained to manoeuvre 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 116 Army — Militia 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 press- ure, 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 117 Army — Militia 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 com- mand and capacity to work well in the field. Con- stant 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 practise manoeuvres in mass and on a compara- tively 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 skilful and daring leader- ship. 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 exer- cises might take the form of field manoeuvres; or, if on the Gulf Coast or the Pacific or Atlantic 118 Army — Militia Seaboard, 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, camp- ing, embarking, and disembarking, will it be pos- sible 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 in- stantly 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 ex- acted 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. 119 A rmy — Militia Much good has already come from the act reor- ganizing the army, passed early in the present year. The three prime reforms, all of them of lit- erally inestimable value, are, first, the substitution of four-year details from the line for permanent appointments in the so-called staff divisions ; sec- ond, 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 num- ber 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 120 Army — Militia 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 ser- vice; too much stress should not be laid on mathe- matics, 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 bold- ness and fertility of resource in every emergency. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress. [p. 585.] Militia 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 appro- priations 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 estab- lished by law under which the method of procedure 121 Army — Militia of raising volunteer forces should be prescribed in advance. It is utterly impossible in the excitement and haste of impending war to do this satisfac- torily 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 selec- tion 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 Porto Rico it has proved itself a great constructive force, a most potent implement for the upbuilding of a peaceful civilization . — Message first session Fifty- seventh Congress, [p. 589.] CIVIL WAR VETERANS N O other citizens deserve so well of the Repub- lic 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 experi- ment 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 com- pleteness 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 123 Civil War Veterans so well in the East and the West Indies and on the mainland of Asia have shown that this remem- brance 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 fore-front of the battle. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress. [p. 590.] 124 CIVIL SERVICE Merit System HE merit system of making appointments A 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. Writ- ten competitive examinations offer the only avail- able 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 condi- tions it is, though an imperfect means, yet the best present means of getting satisfactory results. Wherever the conditions have permitted the 125 Civil Service 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 illus- trate, probably better than any other branches of the government, the great gain in economy, effi- ciency, 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 — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 591.] 126 FOREIGN POLICY Friendliness and Self-Respect T HE stronger, the more self-confident the na- tion is, the more carefully it should guard its speech as well as its action, and should make it a point, in the interest of its own self-respect, to see that it does not say what it cannot make good, that it avoids giving needless offence, that it shows genuinely and sincerely its desire for friendship with the rest of mankind, but that it keeps itself in shape to make its weight felt should the need arise. That is in substance my theory of what our foreign policy should be. Let us not boast, not insult anyone, but make up our minds coolly what is necessary to say, say it, and then stand to it, whatever the consequences may be. — Waukesha, Wis., Apl. 3, 1903. [p.272.] 127 Foreign Policy, Assume That Other Powers Are Sincere Let the friendly expressions of foreign powers be accepted as tokens of their sincere good-will, and reflecting their real sentiments. — Waukesha, Wis., Apl. 3, 1903. [p. 273.] 128 MONROE DOCTRINE May Become International Law T HE Monroe Doctrine is not international law, and though I think one day it may become such, this is not necessary as long as it remains a cardinal feature of our foreign policy and as long as we possess both the will and the strength to make it effective. This last point, my fellow-citizens, is all important, and is one which as a people we can never afford to forget. I believe in th e Monroe Doctrine with all my heart and soul; I am con- vinced that the immense majority of our fellow- countrymen so believe in it; but I would infinitely prefer to see us abandon it than to see us put it forward and bluster about it, and yet fail to build up the efficient fighting strength which in the last resort can alone make it respected by any strong foreign power whose interest it may ever happen to be to violate it. — Chicago, III., Apl. 2, 1903. [p. 265.] 129 Monroe Doctrine A Guaranty of Commercial Independence of All the Americas This same peace conference acquiesced in our statement of the Monroe Doctrine as compatible with the purposes and aims of the conference. The M onroe D octrine should be the cardinal feature of the foreign p olicy ofall the nations , of the two Americas, as it is of theJUnited_ States. Justr^eventy -eight' years have passed since Presi- dent Monroe in his Annual Message announced that “The American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future coloniza- tion 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. This doctrine has nothing to do with the com- mercial 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 commericial dealings with any other American 130 Monroe Doctrine state. We do not guarantee any state against punishment if it misconducts itself, provided that punishment does not take the form of the acquisi- tion 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 . — Message first session Fifty- seventh Congress, [p. 576.] 131 WAR The Advance of Civilization Should Mark the Decline of War Spirit S civilization grows warfare becomes less and A less the normal condition of foreign relations. The last century has seen a marked diminution of wars between civilized powers ; wars with uncivilized powers are largely mere matters of international police duty, essential for the welfare of the world. Wherever possible, arbitration or some similar method should be employed in lieu of war to settle difficulties between civilized nations, although as yet the world has not progressed sufficiently to render it possible, or necessarily desirable, to invoke arbitration in every case. The formation of the international tribunal which sits at The Hague is an event of good omen from which great conse- quences for the welfare of all mankind may flow. It is far better, where possible, to invoke such a permanent tribunal, than to create special arbi- trators for a given purpose. — Message second ses- sion Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 622.] 132 CONSULAR SERVICE Merit System Desirable I T is much to be desired that our consular system be established by law on a basis providing for appointment and pi'omotion only in consequence of proved fitness.- — Message second Session Fifty- seventh Congress, [p. 644.] Men of Character Needed 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 main- tained until the principles set forth in the bills heretofore submitted to the Congress on this sub- ject are enacted into law. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 594.] 133 AGRICULTURE IN no department of governmental work in re- cent years has there been greater success than in that of giving scientific aid to the farming popu- lation, thereby showing them how most efficiently to help themselves. There is no need of insisting upon its importance, for the welfare of the farmer is fundamentally necessary to the welfare of the Republic as a whole. In addition to such work as quarantine against animal and vegetable plagues, and warring against them when here introduced, much efficient help has been rendered to the farmer by the introduction of new plants specially fitted for cultivation under the peculiar conditions exist- ing in different portions of the country. New cereals have been established in the semi-arid West. For instance, the practicability of producing the best types of macaroni wheats in regions of an an- nual rainfall of only ten inches or thereabouts has been conclusively demonstrated. Through the in- troduction of new rices in Louisiana and Texas the 134 Agriculture production of rice in this country has been made to about equal the home demand. In the South- west the possibility of regrassing overstocked range lands has been demonstrated; in the North many new forage crops have been introduced, while in the East it has been shown that some of our choicest fruits can be stored and shipped in such a way as to find a profitable market abroad. — Mes- sage second session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 641 .] 135 IRRIGATION Its Vast Importance to the Country at Large O NE word as to the greatest question with which our people as a whole have to deal in the matter of internal development to-day — the question of irrigation. Not of recent years has any more important law been put upon the statute- books of the Federal Government than the law a year ago providing for the first time that the Na- tional Government should interest itself in aiding and building up a system of irrigated agri- culture in the Rocky Mountains and plains States. — Salt Lake City, May 29, 1903. [p. 442.] As Beneficial to Arid States as River and Harbor Improvements to Humid States One of the greatest and most beneficent measures passed by the last Congress, or indeed by any Congress in recent years, is the Irrigation Act, 136 Irrigation which will do for the States of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain region at least as much as ever has been done for the States of the humid region by river and harbor improvements. Few measures that have been put upon the statute-books of the Nation have done more for the people than this law will, I firmly believe, directly and indirectly accomplish for the States in question . — Sioux Falls, April 6, 1903. [p. 303.] Progress of the Work The work of reclamation of the arid lands of the West is progressing steadily and satisfactorily under the terms of the law setting aside the pro- ceeds from the disposal of public lands. The corps of engineers known as the Reclamation Service, which is conducting the surveys and examinations, has been thoroughly organized, especial pains being taken to secure under the civil-service rules a body of skilled, experienced, and efficient men. Surveys and examinations are progressing through- out the arid States and Territories, plans for re- claiming works being prepared and passed upon by boards of engineers before approval by the Secretary of the Interior. In Arizona and Nevada, 13T Irrigation in localities where such work is pre-eminently needed, construction has already been begun. In other parts of the arid West various projects are well advanced toward the drawing up of contracts, these being delayed in part by necessities of reach- ing agreements or understanding as regards rights of way or acquisition of real estate. Most of the works contemplated for construction are of national importance, involving interstate questions or the securing of stable, self-supporting communities in the midst of vast tracts of vacant land. The Na- tion as a whole is of course the gainer by the crea- tion of these homes, adding as they do to the wealth and stability of the country, and furnishing a home market for the products of the East and South. The reclamation law, while perhaps not ideal, ap- pears at present to answer the larger needs for which it is designed. Further legislation is not recommended until the necessities of change are more apparent . — Message second session Fifty- eighth Congress, [p. 682.] The Forests and Irrigation The forests are natural reservoirs. By restrain- ing the streams in flood and replenishing them in drought they make possible the use of waters other- 138 Irrigation wise wasted. They prevent the soil from washing, and so protect the storage reservoirs from filling up with silt. Forest conservation is therefore an essential condition of water conservation. The forests alone cannot, however, fully regu- late and conserve the waters of the arid region. Great storage works are necessary to equalize the flow of streams and to save the flood waters. Their construction has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast for private effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual States act- ing alone. Far-reaching interstate problems are involved; and the resources of single States would often be inadequate. It is properly a national function, at least in some of its features. It is as right for the National Government to make the streams and rivers of the arid region useful by engineering works for water storage as to make useful the rivers and harbors of the humid region by engineering works of another kind. The stor- ing of the floods in reservoirs at the head-waters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy of river control, under which levees are built on the lower reaches of the same streams. The Government should construct and maintain these reservoirs as it does other public works. 139 Irrigation Where their purpose is to regulate the flow of streams, the water should be turned freely into the channels in the dry season to take the same course under the same laws as the natural flow. The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents a different problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the flow of streams. The object of the government is to dispose of the land to settlers who will build homes upon it. To accom- plish this object water must be brought within their reach. The pioneer settlers on the arid public domain chose their homes along streams from which they could themselves divert the water to reclaim their holdings. Such opportunities are practically gone. There remain, however, vast areas of public land which can be made available for homestead settle- ment, but only by reservoirs and main-line canals impracticable for private enterprise. These irriga- tion works should be built by the National Govern- ment. The lands reclaimed by them should be reserved by the Government for actual settlers, and the cost of construction should so far as possible be repaid by the land reclaimed. The distribution of the water, the division of the streams among irri- gators, should be left to the settlers themselves in 140 Irrigation conformity with State laws and without interfer- ence with those laws or with vested rights. The policy of the National Government should be to aid irrigation in the several States and Territories in such manner as will enable the people in the local communities to help themselves, and as will stimu- late needed reforms in the State laws and regula- tions governing irrigation. The reclamation and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every portion of our country, just as the settlement of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic States. The increased demand for manufactured articles will stimulate industrial production, while wider home markets and the trade of Asia will consume the larger food supplies and effectually prevent West- ern competition with Eastern agriculture. Indeed, the products of irrigation will be consumed chiefly in upbuilding local centres of mining and other industries, which would otherwise not come into existence at all. Our people as a whole will profit, for successful home-making is but another name for the upbuilding of the Nation. The necessary foundation has already been laid for the inauguration of the policy just described. It would be unwise to begin by doing too much, for 141 Irrigation a great deal will doubtless be learned, both as to what can and what cannot be safely attempted, by the early efforts, which must of necessity be partly experimental in character. At the very beginning the Government should make clear, beyond shadow of doubt, its intention to pursue this policy on lines of the broadest public interest. No reservoir or canal should ever be built to satisfy selfish personal or local interests; but only in accordance with the advice of trained experts, after long investigation has shown the locality where all the conditions com- bine to make the work most needed and fraught with the greatest usefulness to the community as a whole. There should be no extravagance, and the believers in the need of irrigation will most benefit their cause by seeing to it that it is free from the least taint of excessive or reckless expenditure of the public moneys. Whatever the Nation does for the extension of irrigation should harmonize with and tend to im- prove the condition of those now living on irrigated land. We are not at the starting-point of this de- velopment. Over two hundred millions of private capital has already been expended in the construc- tion of irrigation works, and many million acres of arid land reclaimed. A high degree of enterprise 142 Irrigation and ability has been shown in the work itself ; but as much cannot be said in reference to the laws relating thereto. The security and value of the homes created depend largely on the stability of titles to water; but the majority of these rest on the uncertain foundation of court decisions ren- dered in ordinary suits at law. With a few credit- able exceptions, the arid States have failed to provide for the certain and just division of streams in times of scarcity. Lax and uncertain laws have made it possible to establish rights to water in ex- cess of actual uses or necessities, and many streams have already passed into private ownership, or a control equivalent to ownership. Whoever controls a stream practically controls the land it renders productive, and the doctrine of private ownership of water apart from land cannot prevail without causing enduring wrong. The recognition of such ownership, which has been per- mitted to grow up in the arid regions, should give way to a more enlightened and larger recognition of the rights of the public in the control and dis- posal of the public water supplies. Laws founded upon conditions obtaining in humid regions, where water is too abundant to justify hoarding it, have no proper application in a dry country. 143 Irrigation In the arid States the only right to water which should be recognized is that of use. In irrigation this right should attach to the land reclaimed and be inseparable therefrom. Granting perpetual water rights to others than users, without com- pensation to the public, is open to all the objections which apply to giving away perpetual franchises to the public utilities of cities. A few of the West- ern States have already recognized this, and have incorporated in their constitutions the doctrine of perpetual State ownership of water. The benefits which have followed the unaided development of the past justify the nation’s aid and co-operation in the more difficult and important work yet to be accomplished. Laws so vitally affecting homes as those which control the water supply will only be effective when they have the sanction of the irrigators ; reforms can only be final and satisfactory when they come through the en- lightenment of the people most concerned. The larger development which national aid insures should, however, awaken in every arid State the determination to make its irrigation system equal in justice and effectiveness that of any country in the civilized world. Nothing could be more unwise than for isolated communities to continue to learn 144 Irrigation everything experimentally, instead of profiting by what is already known elsewhere. We are dealing with a new and momentous question, in the preg- nant years while institutions are forming, and what we do will affect not only the present but future generations. Our aim should be not simply to reclaim the largest area of land and provide homes for the largest number of people, but to create for this new industry the best possible social and industrial conditions ; and this requires that we not only understand the existing situation, but avail our- . selves of the best experience of the time in the solu- tion of its problems. A careful study should be made, both by the Nation and the States, of the irrigation laws and conditions, here and abroad. Ultimately it will probably be necessary for the Nation to co-operate with the several arid States in proportion as these States by their legislation and administration show themselves fit to receive it. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress. [p. 563.] 145 FORESTRY Forest Preservation and Homes T HE first great object of the forest reserves is, of course, the first great object of the whole land policy of the United States — the creation of homes, the favoring of the home-maker. That is why we wish to provide for the home-makers of the present and the future the steady and continu- ous supply of timber, grass, and above all, of water. That is the object of the forest reserves, and that is why I bespeak your cordial co-operation in their preservation . — Salt Lake City, May 29, 1903. [p. 441.] Forests and Head-waters The study of the opportunities of reclamation of the vast extent of arid land shows that whether this reclamation is done by individuals, corporations, or the State, the sources of water supply must be effectively protected and the reservoirs guarded by 146 Forestry the preservation of the forests at the head-waters of the streams. The engineers making the pre- liminary examinations continually emphasize this need and urge that the remaining public lands at the head-waters of the important streams of the West be reserved to insure permanency of water supply for irrigation. Much progress in forestry has been made during the past year. The necessity for perpetuating our forest resources, whether in public or private hands, is recognized now as never before. The demand for forest reserves has become insistent in the West, because the West must use the water, wood, and summer range which only such reserves can supply. Progressive lumbermen are striving, through forestry, to give their business permanence. Other great business interests are awakening to the need of forest preservation as a business matter. The Government’s forest work should receive from the Congress hearty support, and especially support adequate for the protection of the forest reserves against fire. The forest- reserve policy of the Government has passed be- yond the experimental stage and has reached a condition where scientific methods are essential to its successful prosecution. The administration features of forest reserves are at present unsatis- 147 Forestry factory, being divided between three Bureaus of two Departments. It is therefore recommended that all matters pertaining to forest reserves, ex- cept those involving or pertaining to land titles, be consolidated in the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture. — Message second ses- sion Fifty-eight Congress, [p. 683.] Forest Preservation Does Not Mean Destruction of Timber Industry Public opinion throughout the United States has moved steadily toward a just appreciation of the value of forests, whether planted or of natural growth. The great part played by them in the creation and maintenance of the national wealth is now more fully realized than ever before. Wise forest protection does not mean the with- drawal of forest resources, whether of wood, water, or grass, from contributing their full share to the welfare of the people, but, on the contrary, gives the assurance of larger and more certain supplies. The fundamental idea of forestry is the perpetua- tion of forests by use. Forest protection is not an end of itself ; it is a means to increase and sustain the resources of our country and the industries 148 Forestry which depend upon them. The preservation of our forests is an imperative business necessity. We have come to see clearly that whatever destroys the forest, except to make way for agriculture, threatens our well-being. The practical usefulness of the national forest reserves to the mining, grazing, irrigation, and other interests of the regions in which the reserves lie has led to a wide-spread demand by the people of the West for their protection and extension. The forest reserves will inevitably be of still greater use in the future than in the past. Additions should be made to them whenever practicable, and their use- fulness should be increased by a thoroughly busi- ness-like management. At present the protection of the forest reserves rests with the General Land Office, the mapping and description of their timber with the United States Geological Survey, and the preparation of plans for their conservative use with the Bureau of Forestry, which is also charged with the general advancement of practical forestry in the United States. These various functions should be united in the Bureau of Forestry, to which they properly belong. The present diffusion of responsibility is bad from every stand-point. It prevents that effec- 149 Forestry tive co-operation between the government and the men who utilize the resources of the reserves, with- out which the interests of both must suffer. The scientific bureaus generally should be put under the Department of Agriculture. The President should have by law the power of transferring lands for use as forest reserves to the Department of Agriculture. He already has such power in the case of lands needed by the Departments of War and the Navy. The wise administration of the forest reserves will be not less helpful to the interests which depend on water, than to those which depend on wood and grass. The water supply itself de- pends upon the forest. In the arid region it is water, not land, which measures production. The western half of the United States would sustain a population greater than that of our whole country to-day if the waters that now run to waste were saved and used for irrigation. The forest and water problems are perhaps the most vital internal questions of the United States. Certain of the forest reserves should also be made preserves for the wild forest creatures. All of the reserves should be better protected from fires. Many of them need special protection because of 150 Forestry the great injury done by live stock, above all Dy sheep. The increase in deer, elk, and other animals in the Yellowstone Park shows what may be ex- pected when other mountain forests are properly protected by law and properly guarded. Some of these areas have been so denuded of surface vege- tation by overgrazing that the ground-breeding birds, including grouse and quail, and many mam- mals, including deer, have been exterminated or driven away. At the same time the water-storing capacity of the surface has been decreased or de- stroyed, thus promoting floods in times of rain and diminishing the flow of streams between rains. In cases where natural conditions have been re- stored for a few years, vegetation has again car- peted the ground, birds and deer are coming back, and hundreds of persons, especially from the imme- diate neighborhood, come each summer to enjoy the privilege of camping. Some at least of the forest reserves should afford perpetual protection to the native fauna and flora, safe havens of refuge to our rapidly diminishing wild animals of the larger kinds, and free camping-grounds for the ever-increasing numbers of men and women who have learned to find rest, health, and recreation in the splendid forests and flower-clad meadows of our 151 Forestry mountains. The forest reserves should be set apart forever for the use and benefit of our people as a whole and not sacrificed to the short-sighted greed of a few — Message first session Fifty-seventh Con- gress. [p. 557.] 152 C URRENCY— MONEY Greater Elasticity Needed I T is well-nigh universally admitted, certainly in any business community such as this, that our currency system is wanting in elasticity; that is, the volume does not respond to the varying needs of the country as a whole, nor of the varying needs of the different localities as well as of different times. Our people scarcely need to be reminded that grain-raising communities require a larger volume of currency at harvest time than during the summer months ; and the same principle in greater or less extent applies to every community. Our currency laws need such modification as will insure definitely the parity of every dollar coined or issued by the government, and such expansion or con- traction of the currency as will promptly and auto- matically respond to the varying needs of com- merce. Permanent increase would be dangerous, permanent contraction ruinous, but the needed elas- 153 Currency— M oney ticity must be brought about by provisions which will permit both contraction and expansion as the varying needs of the several communities and busi- ness interests at different times and in different localities require. — Quincy, III., Apl. 29, 1903. [p. 335.] Present Prosperity Must Not Be Imperilled It is most important that we should maintain the high level of our present prosperity. We have now reached the point in the development of our interests where we are not only able to supply our own markets but to produce a constantly growing surplus for which we must find markets abroad. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 552.] Honest Financial System First Essential A financial system of assured honesty is the first essential. Another essential for any commu- nity is perseverance in the economic policy which for a course of years is found best fitted for its peculiar needs . — Logans port, Ind., Sept. 23, 1903. [p. 190.] 154 Currency — M oney Sound Money Part of an Honest System The Act of March 14, 1900, intended unequiv- ocally to establish gold as the standard money and to maintain at a parity therewith all forms of money medium in use with us, has been shown to be timely and judicious. The price of our Government bonds in the world’s market, when compared with the price of similar obligations is- sued by other nations, is a flattering tribute to our public credit. This condition it is evidently desirable to maintain. — Message first session Fif- ty-seventh Congress, [p. 554.] Our Currency Reliable The integrity of our currency is beyond ques- tion, and under present conditions it would be unwise and unnecessary to attempt a reconstruc- tion of our entire monetary system. The same liberty should be granted the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit customs receipts as is granted him in the deposit of receipts from other sources. — Message second session Fifty-eighth Congress. [p. 655.] 155 Currency — M oney Currency Needs Greater Elasticity In many respects the National Banking Law furnishes sufficient liberty for the proper exercise of the banking function; but there seems to be need of better safeguards against the deranging influence of commercial crises and financial panics. Moreover, the currency of the country should be made responsive to the demands of our domestic trade and commerce. — Message first ses- sion Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 554.] Stability of Interest Rates Demands Greater Flexibility Interest rates are a potent factor in business activity, and in order that these rates may be equalized to meet the varying needs of the seasons and of widely separated communities, and to pre- vent the recurrence of financial stringencies which injuriously affect legitimate business, it is necessary that there should be an element of elas- ticity in our monetary system. Banks are the natural servants of commerce, and upon them should be placed, as far as practicable, the bur- 156 Currency — Money den of furnishing and maintaining a circulation adequate to supply the needs of our diversified industries and of our domestic and foreign com- merce ; and the issue of this should be so regu- lated that a sufficient supply should be always available for the business interests of the country. It would be both unwise and unnecessary at this time to attempt to reconstruct our financial sys- tem, which has been the growth of a century ; but some additional legislation is, I think, desirable. The mere outline of any plan sufficiently compre- hensive to meet these requirements would trans- gress the appropriate limits of this communica- tion. It is suggested, however, that all future legislation on the subject should be with the view of encouraging the use of such instrumentalities as will automatically supply every legitimate de- mand of productive industries and of commerce, not only in the amount but in the character of circulation ; and of making all kinds of money in- terchangeable, and, at the will of the holder, con- vertible into the established gold standard. — Mes- sage second session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 617 .] 157 Currency — M oney Great Caution Necessary in Handling Financial Questions In dealing with business interests, for the Gov- ernment to undertake by crude and ill-considered legislation to do what may turn out to be bad, would be to incur the risk of such far-reaching national disaster that it would be preferable to undertake nothing at all. The men who demand the impossible or the undesirable serve as the allies of the forces with which they are nominally at war, for they hamper those who would en- deavor to find out in rational fashion what the wrongs really are and to what extent and in what manner it is practicable to apply remedies. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 541 .] Proper Handling of Financial Questions Is for the Good of All Alike It is not true that as the rich have grown richer the poor have grown poorer. On the con- trary, never before has the average man, the w r age-worker, the farmer, the small trader, been so well off as in this country and at the present 158 Currency — M oney time. There have been abuses connected with the accumulation of wealth ; yet it remains true that a fortune accumulated in legitimate business can be accumulated by the person specially benefited only on condition of conferring immense inciden- tal benefits upon others. Successful enterprise, of the type which benefits all mankind, can only exist if the conditions are such as to offer great prizes as the rewards of success. — Message first session Fifty-Seventh Congress, [p. 538.] Financial and Industrial Developments Have Benefited the Whole People This well-being is due to no sudden or acciden- tal causes, but to the play of economic forces in this country for over a century ; to our laws, our sustained and continuous policies; above all, to the high individual average of our citizenship. Great fortunes have been won by those who have taken the lead in this phenomenal industrial de- velopment, and most of these fortunes have been won, not by doing evil, but as an incident to action which has benefited the community as a whole. Never before has material well-being been so widely diffused among our people. Great 159 Currency — M oney fortunes have been accumulated, and yet in the aggregate these fortunes are small indeed when compared to the wealth of the people as a whole. The plain people are better off than they have ever been before. The insurance companies, which are practically mutual benefit societies — especially helpful to men of moderate means — represent ac- cumulations of capital which are among the largest in this country. There are more deposits in the savings banks, more owners of farms, more well-paid wage-workers in this country now than ever before in our history.- — Message second ses- sion Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 608.] Interests of All Will Be Best Served by Treating the Financial Question Conservatively Unquestionably these business interests will best be served if together with fixity of principle as re- gards the tariff we combine a system which will permit us from time to time to make the necessary re-application of the principle to the shifting na- tional needs. We must take scrupulous care that the re-application shall be made in such a way that it will not amount to a dislocation of our system, the mere threat of which (not to speak of the per- 160 Currency — M oney formance) would produce paralysis in the business energies of the community. — Message second ses- sion Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 614.] Post Office Revenues Show the General Nature of the Financial Activity The striking increase in the revenues of the Post Office Department shows clearly the prosper- ity of our people and the increasing activity of the business of the country. — Message second ses- sion Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 634.] Setbacks May Appear, but Our Prosperity Is on a Firm Foundation There will undoubtedly be periods of depres- sion. The wave will recede; but the tide will ad- vance. This nation is seated on a continent flanked by two great oceans. It is composed of men the descendants of pioneers, or, in a sense, pioneers themselves; of men winnowed out from among the nations of the Old World by the energy, boldness, and love of adventure found in their own eager hearts. Such a nation, so placed, will surely wrest success from fortune. — Message second session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 606.] 161 Currency — M oney America’s New Industrial Ascendancy America has only just begun to assume that commanding position in the international business world which we believe will more and more be hers. It is of the utmost importance that this position be not jeopardized, especially at a time when the overflowing abundance of our own natural re- sources and the skill, business energy, and me- chanical aptitude of our people make foreign markets essential. — Message first session. Fifty- seventh Congress, [p. 539.] We All Go Up or Down Together Moreover, it cannot too often be pointed out that to strike with ignorant violence at the inter- ests of one set of men almost inevitably endangers the interests of all. The fundamental rule in our national life — the rule which underlies all others — is that, on the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together. There are excep- tions ; and in times of prosperity some will pros- per far more, and in times of adversity some will suffer far more, than others : but speaking gen- 162 Cu rrency — M oney erally, a period of good times means that all share more or less in them, and in a period of hard times all feel the stress to a greater or less degree. It surely ought not to be necessary to enter into any proof of this statement; the memory of the lean years which began in 1893 is still vivid, and we can contrast them with the conditions in this very year which is now closing. Disaster to great business enterprises can never have its effects lim- ited to the men at the top. It spreads through- out, and while it is bad for everybody, it is worst for those furthest down. The capitalist may be shorn of his luxuries, but the wage-worker may be deprived of even bare necessities . — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 540.] 163 BANKING LAWS T HE Act of March 14, 1900, intended un- equivocally to establish gold as the standard money and to maintain at a parity therewith all forms of money medium in use with us, has been shown to be timely and judicious. The price of our government bonds in the world’s market, when compared with the price of similar obligations issued by other nations, is a flattering tribute to our public credit. This condition it is evidently desirable to maintain. In many respects the National Banking Law furnishes sufficient liberty for the proper exercise of the banking function; but there seems to be need of better safeguards against the deranging influence of commercial crises and financial panics. Moreover, the currency of the country should be made responsive to the demands of our domestic trade and commerce . — Message first session Fifty - seventh Congress, [p. 554.] 164 ECONOMY In Public Affairs I CALL special attention to the need of strict economy in expenditures. The fact that our national needs forbid us to be niggardly in pro- viding whatever is actually necessary to our well- being, should make us doubly careful to husband our national resources, as each of us husbands his private resources, by scrupulous avoidance of any- thing like wasteful or reckless expenditure. Only by avoidance of spending money on what is need- less or unjustifiable can we legitimately keep our income to the point required to meet our needs that are genuine . — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 555.] 165 MISCELLANEOUS I HAVE no respect for the man who will put up with injustice. If a man will not take his part, the part is not worth taking. — Waukesha, Wis., A pi. 3, 1903. [p. 269.] Many qualities are needed in order that we can contribute our mite toward the upward movement of the world — among them the quality of self- abnegation, and yet combined with it the quality which will refuse to submit to injustice. I want to preach the two qualities going hand in hand. I do not want a man to fail to try to strive for his own betterment, I do not want him to be quick to yield to injustice; I want him to stand for his rights; but I want him to be very certain that he knows what his rights are, and that he does not make them the wrongs of some one else. — Topeka, Kan., May 1, 1903. [p. 358.] 166 Miscellaneous It is to be hoped that the Congress will make liberal appropriations for the continuance of the service already established and for its further extension . — Message second session of Fifty-sev- enth Congress, [p. 635.] There are many qualities which we need alike in private citizen and in public man, but three above all — three for the lack of which no brilliancy and no genius can atone — and those three are courage, honesty, and common-sense. — Antietam, Sept. 17, 1903. [p. 488.] This is not and never shall be a government either of a plutocracy or of a mob. It is, it has been, and it will be, a government of the people; including alike the people of great wealth and of moderate weath, the people who employ others, the people who are employed, the wage-worker, the lawyer, the mechanic, the banker, the farmer; in- cluding them all, protecting each and every one if he acts decently and squarely, and discriminating against any one of them, no matter from what class he comes, if he does not act squarely and fairly, if he does not obey the law. — Spokane, Wash., May 36, 1903. [p. 430.] 167 Miscellaneous In every instance how the after events of history have falsified the predictions of the men of little faith ! There are critics so feeble and so timid that they shrink back when this Nation asserts that it comes in the category of the nations who dare to be great, and they want to know, forsooth, the cost of greatness and what it means. — Before Arctic Brotherhood, Seattle, Wash., May 83, 1903. [p. 422.] It is curious how our fate as a nation has often driven us forward toward greatness in spite of the protests of many of those esteeming themselves in point of training and culture best fitted to shape the Nation’s destiny. — Before Arctic Brotherhood, Seattle, Wash., May 23, 1903. [p. 422.] Provision should be made to enable the Secretary of War to keep cavalry and artillery horses, worn out in long performance of duty. Such horses fetch but a trifle when sold ; and rather than turn them out to the misery awaiting them when thus disposed of, it would be better to employ them at light work around the posts, and when necessary to put them painlessly to death .—Message second session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 631.] 168 Miscellaneous On the face of the papers presented, Miller would appear to have been removed in violation of law. There is no objection to the employees of the Gov- ernment Printing Office constituting themselves into a union if they so desire ; but no rules or reso- lutions of that union can be permitted to override the laws of the United States, which it is my sworn duty to enforce . — Letter to Mr. Cortelyou from Oyster Bay, July 13, 1903. [p. 520.] Wise laws and fearless and upright administra- tion of the laws can give the opportunity for such prosperity as we see about us. But that is all that they can do. When the conditions have been cre- ated which make prosperity possible, then each individual man must achieve it for himself by his own energy and thrift and business intelligence. If when people wax fat they kick, as they have kicked since the days of Jeshurun, they will speed- ily destroy their own prosperity. If they go into wild speculation and lose their heads they have lost that which no laws can supply. If in a spirit of sullen envy they insist upon pulling down those who have profited most in years of fatness, they will bury themselves in the crash of the common 169 Miscellaneous disaster. It is difficult to make our material condi- tion better by the best laws, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws. — Providence, R. I., Aug. 23 , 1902 . [p. 99.] In accordance with a well-known sociological law, the ignorant or reckless agitator has been the really effective friend of the evils which he has been nominally opposing. In dealing with business interests, for the government to undertake by crude and ill-considered legislation to do what may turn out to be bad, would be to incur the risk of such far- reaching national disaster that it would be prefer- able to undertake nothing at all. — Message first session Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 541.] Remember always that a man who does a thing so that it is worth doing is always a man who does his work for the work’s sake. — Banquet to Dr. Butler, New York, Apl. 19, 1902. [p. 31.] We need display but scant patience with those who, sitting at ease in their own homes, delight to exercise a querulous and censorious spirit of judg- ment upon their brethren who, whatever their shortcomings, are doing strong men’s work as they 170 Miscellaneous bring the light of civilization into the world’s dark places. The criticism of those who live softly, remote from the strife, is of little value; but it would be difficult to overestimate the value of the missionary work of those who go out to share the hardship, and, while sharing it, not to talk, but to wage war against the myriad forms of brutality. — Board of Home Missions, New York, May SO, 1902. [p. 46.] There are very different kinds of success. There is the success that brings with it the seared soul — the success which is achieved by wolfish greed and vulpine cunning — the success which makes honest men uneasy or indignant in its presence. Then there is the other kind of success — the success which comes as the reward of keen insight, of sagacity, of resolution, of address, combined with unflinching rectitude of behavior, public and private. The first kind of success may, in a sense — and a poor sense at that — benefit the individual, but it is al- ways and necessarily a curse to the community; whereas the man who wins the second kind, as an incident of its winning becomes a beneficiary to the whole commonwealth. — Chamber of Commerce, New York, Nov. 11, 1902. [p. 200.] 171 Miscellaneous He is a poor creature who does not give help generously when the chance comes. But finally in the last resort the man who wins now will be the man of the type who has won always, the man who can win for himself. Do not make the mistake of thinking that it is possible ever to call in any out- side force to take the place of the man’s own indi- vidual initiative, the man’s individual capacity to do work worth doing. — Dalton, Mass., Sept. 3, 1903. [p. 146.] However wise a policy may be it can be enforced only if the people of the State believe in it. — Salt Lake City, May 39, 1903. [p. 441.] No great destiny ever yet came to a people walk- ing with their eyes on the ground and their faces shrouded in gloom. No great destiny ever yet came to a people who feared the future, who feared failure more than they hoped for success. — Span- ish War Veterans, Detroit, Sept. 33, 1903. [p. 187.] Not only must our labor be protected by the tariff, but it should also be protected so far as it is possible from the presence in this country of any laborers brought over by contract, or those who, 172 Miscellaneous coming freely, yet represent a standard of living so depressed that they can undersell our men in the labor market and drag them to a lower level. I regard it as necessary, with this end in view, to re- enact immediately the law excluding Chinese labor- ers and to strengthen it wherever necessary in order to make its enforcement entirely effective. — Mes- sage first session Fifty -seventh Congress. [p. 546.] And remember, you, the people of this govern- ment by the people, that while the public servant, the legislator, the executive officer, the judge, are not to be excused if they fall short of their duty, yet that their doing their duty cannot avail unless you do yours. In the last resort we have to depend upon the jury drawn from the people to convict the scoundrel who has tainted our public life ; and unless that jury does its duty, unless it is backed by the public sentiment of the people, all the work of legislator, of executive officer, of judicial officer, is for naught.— Washington, D. C., Nov. 16, 1903. [p. 503.] One feature of honesty and common-sense com- bined is never to promise what you do not think 173 Miscellaneous you can perform, and then never fail to perform what you have promised. And that applies in public life just as much as in private life. — Fitch- burg, Mass., Sept. 2, 190 2. [p. 138.] A great deal can be accomplished by working each for all and all for each; but we must not forget that the first requisite in accomplishing that is that each man should work for others by working for himself, by developing his own capacity. — Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Chattanooga, Term., Sept. 8, 1902. [p. 162.] We ask no man’s permission when we require him to obey the law ; neither the permission of the poor man nor yet of the rich man. Least of all can the man of great wealth afford to break the law, even for his own financial advantage; for the law is his prop and support, and it is both foolish and profoundly unpatriotic for him to fail in giving hearty support to those who show that there is in very fact one law, and one law only, alike for the rich and the poor, for the great and the small. — Syracuse State Fair, Sept. 7, 1903. [p. 474.] And unfortunately it is just as true in the edu- cation of children as in everything else, that it is 174 Miscellaneous' almost as harmful to be a virtuous fool as a knave. — Minnesota Legislature, Apl. 1/., 1903. [p. 290.] In our own country, with its many-sided, hurry- ing, practical life, the place for cloistered virtue is far smaller than is the place for that essential manliness which, without losing its fine and lofty side, can yet hold its own in the rough struggle with the forces of the world about us. — Northfield, Mass., Sept. 1, 1902. [p. 134*.] When outward well-being, instead of being re- garded as a valuable foundation on which happi- ness may with wisdom be built, is mistaken for happiness itself, so that material prosperity be- comes the one standard, then, alike by those who enjoy such prosperity in slothful or criminal ease, and by those who in no less evil manner rail at, envy, and long for it, poverty is held to be shame- ful, and money, whether well or ill gotten, to stand for merit. — Bangor, Me., Aug. 27, 1902. [p. 133.] All this does not mean condemnation of prog- ress. It is mere folly to try to dig up the dead past, and scant is the good that comes from asceti- 175 Miscellaneous cism and retirement from the world. But let us make sure that our progress is in the essentials as well as in the incidentals. Material prosperity with- out the moral lift toward righteousness means a diminished capacity for happiness and a debased character. — Bangor , Me., Aug. 27, 1902. [p. 133.] I ask that we see to it in our country that the line of division in the deeper matters of our citizen- ship be drawn, never between section and section, never between creed and creed, never, thrice never, between class and class ; but that the line be drawn on the line of conduct, cutting through sections, cutting through creeds, cutting through classes ; the line that divides the honest from the dishonest, the line that divides good citizenship from bad citizenship, the line that declares a man a good citizen only if, and always if, he acts in accordance with the immutable law of righteousness. — Spo- kane, Wash., May 26, 1903. [p. 431.] Indeed, there is a revolting injustice, intolerable to just minds, in punishing the weak scoundrel who fails, and bowing down to and making life easy for the far more dangerous scoundrel who succeeds. • — Northfield, Mass., Sept. 1, 1902. [p. 135.] 176 Miscellaneous In every governmental process the aim that a people capable of self-government should stead- fastly keep in mind is to proceed by evolution rather than revolution. — Wheeling, W. Va., Sept. 6, 1902. [p. 148.] If a man is not decent, is not square and honest, then the possession of ability only serves to render him more dangerous to the community ; as a wild beast grows more dangerous the stronger and fiercer he is. — Northfield, Mass., Sept. 1, 1902. [p. 136.] But virtue by itself is not enough, or anything like enough. Strength must be added to it, and the determination to use that strength. The good man who is ineffective is not able to make his good- ness of much account to the people as a whole. No matter how much a man hears the word, small is the credit attached to him if he fails to be a doer also; and in serving the Lord he must remember that he needs to avoid sloth in his business as well as to cultivate fervency of spirit. — Northfield, Mass., Sept. 1, 1902. [p. 136.] It is almost as irritating to be patronized as to be wronged. — Bangor, Me., Aug. 27, 1902. [p. 130.] 177 Miscellaneous We must judge a nation by the net result of its life and activity. And so we must judge the poli- cies of those who at any time control the destinies of a nation. — Union League, Philadelphia, Nov. 22, 1902. [p. 213.] Of course, fundamentally each man will yet find that the chief factor in determining his success or failure in life is the sum of his own individual qualities. — Sioux Falls, S. D., Apl. 6, 1903. [p. 306.] There are good citizens and bad citizens in every class as in every locality, and the attitude of decent people toward great public and social questions should be determined, not by the accidental ques- tions of employment or locality, but by those deep- set principles which represent the innermost souls of men. — Syracuse State Fair, Sept. 7, 1903. [p. 469.] The wounds left by the great Civil War, incom- parably the greatest war of modem times, have healed ; and its memories are now priceless heritages of honor alike to the North and to the South. The devotion, the self-sacrifice, the steadfast resolution 178 Miscellaneous and lofty daring, the high devotion to the right as each man saw it, whether Northerner or South- erner — all these qualities of the men and women of the early sixties now shine luminous and brilliant before our eyes, while the mists of anger and hatred that once dimmed them have passed away forever. — Charleston Exposition, Apl. 9, 190 2. [p. 19.] We need no proof of the completeness of our reunion as a people. When the war with Spain came the sons of the men who wore the blue and the sons of the men who wore the gray vied with one another in the effort to get into the ranks and face a foreign foe under the old flag that had been carried in triumph under Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor and Andrew Jackson. — Banquet to General Wright, Memphis, Term., Nov. 19, 1902. [p. 203.] And so I think I have the right to say that, knowing the Southern people as I do, I would heartily advocate fighting twice as hard as you fought from 1861 to 1865 for the privilege of staying in the same Union with them. — Banquet to Justice Harlan, Dec. 9, 1902. [p. 223.] 179 Miscellaneous The true line of cleavage lies between good citizen and bad citizen ; and the line of cleavage may, and often does, run at right angles to that which divides the rich and the poor. The sinews of virtue lie in man’s capacity to care for what is outside himself. The man who lives simply, and justly, and hon- orably, whether rich or poor, is a good citizen. — Bangor, Me., Aug. 27, 1902. [p. 132.] Hardness of heart is a dreadful quality, but it is doubtful whether, in the long run, it works more damage than softness of head. — Bangor, Me., Aug. 27, 1902. [p. 131.] As a people we have played a large part in the world, and we are bent upon making our future even larger than the past. In particular, the events of the last four years have definitely decided that, for woe or for weal, our place must be great among the nations. We may either fail greatly or succeed greatly ; but we cannot avoid the en- deavor from which either great failure or great success must come. Even if we would, we cannot play a small part. If we should try, all that 180 Miscellaneous would follow would be that we should play a large part ignobly and shamefully— Message second ses- sion Fifty-seventh Congress, [p. 607.] Great fortunes have been won by those who have taken the lead in this phenomenal industrial development, and most of these fortunes have been won, not by doing evil, but as an incident to action which has benefited the community as a whole. — Message second session Fifty-seventh Congress. [p. 608 .] All that we have been trying to do, with a cer- tain fair amount of success, through legislation and through administration, has been to do square and equal justice between man and man; to try to give every man a fair chance, to try to secure good treatment for him, if he deserves it, be he rich or poor, and to try to see that he does not wrong his fellow. After all, that is about what must be the essence of legislation if it is to be really good legislation. * * * It is meant to do square justice to each man, big or little, and to ensure, as far as by legislation we can secure, that he will do fair justice in return. — Jamestown , N. D., A pi. 7, 1903. [p. 322.] 181 1 308 R781R0 581346 315008 !