daring leadership. The Congress should provide means whereby it will be possible to have field exercises by at least a division of regulars, and if possible also a division of national guardsmen, once a year. These exercises might take the form of field manoeuvers; or, if on the Gulf Coast or the Pacific or Atlantic 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."

That is the special application of the Tampa and Santiago experience. The important work done by the President in the Navy Department gives rise to much in the message that shows expert ability. This is an illustration: "To send a warship against a competent enemy unless those aboard it have been trained by years of actual sea service, including incessant gunnery practice, would be to invite not merely disaster, but the bitterest shame and humiliation. Four thousand additional seamen and one thousand additional marines should be provided; and an increase in the officers should be provided by making a large addition to the classes at Annapolis. There is one small matter which should be mentioned in connection with Annapolis. The pretentious and unmeaning title of "naval cadet" should be abolished; the title of "midshipman," full of historic association, should be restored.

"Even in time of peace a warship should be used until it wears out, for only so can it be kept fit to respond to any emergency. The officers and men alike should be kept as much as possible on blue water, for it is there only they can learn their duties as they should be learned. The big vessels should be manoeuvered in squadrons containing not merely battle ships but the necessary proportion of cruisers and scouts. The torpedo boats should be handled by the younger officers in such manner as will best fit the latter to take responsibility and meet the emergencies of actual warfare.

"Every detail ashore which can be performed by a civilian should be so performed, the officer being kept for his special duty in the sea service. Above all, gunnery practice should be unceasing. It is important to have our Navy of adequate size, but it is even more important that ship for ship it should equal in efficiency any Navy in the world. This is possible only with highly drilled crews and officers, and this in turn imperatively demands continuous and progressive instruction in target practice, ship handling, squadron tactics, and general discipline. Our ships must be assembled in squadrons actively cruising away from harbors and never long at anchor. The resulting wear upon engines and hulls must be endured; a battleship 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."

Here we have the sort of talk the people have long longed to read. It is significant of business, and that battleships may take risks of usefulness in times of peace.

The President seems to be as much at home in the Postal Department as elsewhere. He says:

"The full measure of postal progress which might be realized has long been hampered and obstructed by the heavy burden imposed on the Government through the intrenched and well-understood abuses which have grown up in connection with second-class mail matter. The extent of this burden appears when it is stated that while the second-class matter makes nearly three-fifths of the weight of all the mail, it paid for the last fiscal year only $4,294,445 of the aggregate postal revenue of $111,631,193."

The loss on this item would pay, if the money were saved, the cost of the Navy, enlarged as the President proposes.

In regard to the consular service, the President recommends promotion on merit. He stands by his well known Civil Service ideas, which he has largely caused to be made practical. He says:

"The gain to the government has been immense. The navy yards and postal service illustrate, probably better than any other branches of the Government, the great gain in economy, efficiency and honesty due to the enforcement of this principle.

"Not an office should be filled in the Philippines or Porto Rico with any regard to the man's partizan affiliation or services, with any regard to the political, social, or personal influence which he may have at his command; in short, heed should be paid to absolutely nothing save the man's own character and capacity and the needs of the service.

"The administration of these islands should be as wholly free from the suspicion of partizan politics as the administration of the Army and Navy. 'All that we ask from the public servant in the Philippines or Porto Rico is that he reflect honor on his country by the way in which he makes that country's rule a benefit to the peoples who have come under it. This is all that we should ask, and we cannot afford to be content with less."

Referring to prosperity, the President congratulates the country that it is "abounding." The "Gold Standard" act is pronounced "timely and judicious.' One of the best points in the message is this: "The men who are idle or credulous, the men who seek gains, not by genuine work with head or hand, but by gambling in any form, are always a source of menace, not only to themselves but to others. If the business world loses its head, it loses what legislation cannot supply."

The first essential in dealing with "trusts," the President says, is "publicity," and "in the interest of the public, the government should have the right to

inspect and examine the workings of the great corporations engaged in interstate business. Publicity is the only sure remedy which we can now invoke."

There probably needs to be something else, but that will do as a beginning; "the large corporations, commonly called trusts, though organized in one State, always do business 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 interfering with the power of the States in the matter itself, also assume power of supervision and regulation over all corporations doing an interstate business."

Nothing more striking has been said of the railroad questions than this: "The captains of industry who have driven the railway systems across this continent, who have built up our commerce, who have developed our manufactures, have, on the whole, done great good to our people."

The President remarks in the further trust division: "It is no

limitation upon upon property rights or freedom of contract to require that when men receive from Government the privilege of doing business 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."

The most intelligent attention is given by the President to the immigration questions, the preservation of forests, and the reclamation of arid land. This follows the general drift of remark:

"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 pre vent Western competition with Eastern agriculture."

Of the present tariff system the President remarks:

"There is a 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. Nothing could be more unwise than to disturb the business interests of the country by any general tariff change at this time. Doubt, apprehension, uncertainty are exactly what we most wish to avoid in the interest of our commercial and material well-being. Our experience in the past has shown that sweeping revisions of the tariff are apt to produce conditions closely approaching panic in the business world. Yet it is not only possible, but emi

nently desirable, to combine with the stability of our economic system a supplementary system of reciprocal benefit and obligation with other Nations. Such reciprocity is an incident and result of the firm establishment and preservation of our present economic policy. It was especially provided for in the present tariff law.

"Reciprocity must be treated as the handmaiden of protection. Our first duty is to see that the protection 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."

There is no possible improvement of this statement. The attention of the Senate is called to the reciprocity treaties laid before it by President McKinley, and "subject to this proviso of the proper protection necessary to our industrial well-being at home, the principle of reciprocity must command our hearty support. . . . 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. To secure these markets we can utilize existing duties in any case where they are no longer needed for the purpose of protection."

The country is under obligation to the President for an immense amount of unusually valuable information committed to Congress, and eagerly accepted by the people at large. As the reading of the message was listened to with such attention as has never been exceeded and rarely approached, so it has been received by the readers of the document in millions of homes. There has been an extraordinary gathering of news for this paper. The references to the treatment of arid lands are of great interest, new to the greater number of people, and important. Cuba and the Philippines are disposed of with a rapidity not attempted with the problems. The message contains this: "In Cuba such progress has been made toward putting the independent government of the island upon a firm footing that before the present session of the Congress closes this will be an accomplished fact. Cuba will then start as her own mistress; and to the beautiful Queen of the Antilles, as she unfolds this new page of her destiny, we extend our heartiest greetings and good wishes."

The President goes further in recommending reciprocity in Cuba than in other cases. In the case of Cuba he says:

"There are weighty reasons of morality and of National interest why the policy should be held to have a peculiar application, and I most earnestly ask your attention to the wisdom, indeed to the vital need, of providing for a substantial reduction in the tariff duties on Cuban imports into the United States. Cuba has in her constitution affirmed what we desired, that she should stand, in

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international matters, in closer and more friendly relations with us than with any other power; and we are bound by every consideration of honor and expediency to pass commercial measures in the interest of her material well-being." This compliment Porto Rico deserves:

"It is a pleasure to say that it is hardly more necessary to report as to Porto Rico than as to any State or Territory within our continental limits. The island is thriving as never before, and it is being administered efficiently and honestly. Its people are now enjoying liberty and order under the protection of the United States, and upon this fact we congratulate them and ourselves.

"In Hawaii our aim must be to develop the Territory on the traditional American lines. We do not wish a region of large estates tilled by cheap labor; we wish a healthy American community of men who themselves till the farms they own.

"In the Philippines our problem is larger. They are very rich tropical islands, inhabited by many varying tribes, representing widely different stages of progress toward civilization. Our earnest effort is to help these people upward along the stony and difficult path that leads to self-government. We hope to make our administration of the islands honorable to our nation by making it of the highest benefit to the Filipinos themselves."

There is proposed a new cabinet officer to deal with commerce, and the permanency of the Census Bureau is recommended. The contact between government and "labor" is studied with the expectation of reaching conclusions. It is to be remarked that there are no tentative touches of doubtful purpose in regard to the enfeebled clamor of those who would flee from the islands we possess.

The Chinese questions have dwindled, and both sides of the House applauded the recommendation of the re-enactment of the Chinese exclusion law.

The Message closes, as it began, with reference to the mourning of the Nation, and refers to the death of Queen Victoria with expression of sorrow, and there is like reference to the Queen's daughter, the Dowager Empress of Germany, and closes:

"In the midst of our affliction we reverently thank the 'Almighty that we are at peace with the nations of mankind, and we firmly intend that our policy shall be such as to continue unbroken these international relations of mutual respect and good will."

"White House, December 3, 1901."

"THEODORE ROOSEVELT."

The matter of the Message is of such moment that the manner of it has not received the attention and admiration that are due to the vigor with which a great variety of subjects are treated, and the merits of the paper simply as a