American products, employment should continue to wait upon American labor, and with the present gold standard the workingman is secured against payments for his labor in a depreciated currency.

For labor a short day is better than a short dollar; one will lighten the burdens, the other lessens the rewards of toil. The one will promote contentment and independence; the other penury and want. The wages of labor should be adequate to keep the home in comfort, educate the children, and, with thrift and economy, lay something by for the days of infirmity and old age.

Practical civil service reform has always had the support and encouragement of the Republican party. The future of the merit system is safe in its hands.

During the present administration, as occasions have arisen for modification or amendment in the existing civil service laws and rules they have been made. Important amendments were promulgated by executive order under date of May 29, 1899, having for their principal purpose the exception from competitive examination of certain places involving fiduciary responsibilities or duties of a strictly confidential, scientific or executive character, which it was thought might better be filled either by non-competitive examination or by other tests of fitness in the discretion of the appointing officer. It is gratifying that the experience of more than a year has vindicated these changes in the marked improvement of the public service.

The merit system, as far as practicable, is made the basis for appointments to office in our new territory.

The American people are profoundly grateful to the soldiers, sailors and marines who have in every time of conflict fought their country's battles and defended its honor. The survivors, and the widows and orphans of those who have fallen, are justly entitled to receive the generous and considerate care of the nation. Few are now left of those who fought in the Mexican war, and while many of the veterans of the Civil war are still spared to us, their numbers are rapidly diminishing and age and infirmity are increasing their dependence. These, with the soldiers of the Spanish war, will not be neglected by their grateful countrymen. The pension laws have been liberal. They should be justly administered, and will be. Preference should be given to the soldiers, sailors and marines, their widows and orphans, with respect to employment in the public

service.

CUBA AND PORTO RICO.

We have been in possession of Cuba since the 1st of January, 1899. We have restored order and established domestic tranquillity. We have fed the starving, clothed the naked and ministered to the sick. We have improved the sanitary condition of the island. We bave stimulated industry, introduced public education and taken a full and comprehensive enumeration of the inhabitants. The quali

fication of electors has been settled and under it officers have been

chosen for all the municipalities of Cuba.

These local governments are now in operation, administered by the people. Our military establishment has been reduced from 43,000 soldiers to less than 6,000. An election has been ordered to be held on the 15th of September, under a fair election law already tried in the municipal elections, to choose members of a constitutional convention, and the convention by the same order is to assemble on the first Monday of November to frame a constitution upon which an independent government for the island will rest.

All this is a long step in the fulfillment of our sacred guarantees to the people of Cuba. We hold Porto Rico by the same title as the Philippines. The treaty of peace which ceded us the one conveyed to us the other.

Congress has given to this island a government in which the inhabitants participate, elect their own legislature, enact their own local laws, provide their own system of taxation, and in these respects have the same power and privileges enjoyed by other territories belonging to the United States, and a much larger measure of selfgovernment than was given to the inhabitants of Louisiana under Jefferson. A district court of the United States for Porto Rico has been established and local courts have been inaugurated, all of which are in operation. The generous treatment of the Porto Ricans accords with the most liberal thought of our own country and encourages the best aspirations of the people of the island. While they do not have instant free commercial intercourse with the United States, Congress complied with my recommendation by removing, on the first day of May last, 85 per cent of the duties and providing for the removal of the remaining 15 per cent on the 1st of March, 1902, or earlier if the legislature of Porto Rico shall provide local revenues for the expenses of conducting the government. During the intermediate period Porto Rican products coming into the United States pay a tariff of 15 per cent of the rates under the Dingley act, and our goods going to Porto Rico pay a like rate. The duties thus paid and collected both in Porto Rico and the United States are paid to the government of Porto Rico, and no part thereof is taken by the national government.

All the duties from Nov. 1, 1898, to June 30, 1900, aggregating the sum of $2.250,253.21, paid at the custom houses in the United States upon Porto Rican products, under the laws existing prior to the above-mentioned act of Congress, have gone into the treasury of Porto Rico to relieve the destitute and for schools and other public purposes.

In addition to this we have expended for relief, education and improvement of roads the sum of $1,513,084.95. The United States military force in the island has been reduced from 11,000 to 1,500, and native Porto Ricans constitute for the most part the local constabulary.

Under the new law and the inauguration of civil government there has been a gratifying revival of business. The manufacturers

of Porto Rico are developing; her imports are increasing; her tariff is yielding increased returns; her fields are being cultivated; free schools are being established. Notwithstanding the many embarassments incident to a change of national conditions she is rapidly showing the effects of her new relations to this nation.

THE PHILIPPINES.

For the sake of a full and intelligent understanding of the Philippine question, and to give to the people authentic information of the acts and aims of the administration, I present at some length the events of importance leading up to the present situation. The purposes of the executive are best revealed and can best be judged by what he has done and is doing. It will be seen that the power of the government has been used for the liberty, the peace and the prosperity of the Philippine peoples, and that force has been employed only against force, which stood in the way of the realization of these. ends.

On the 25th day of April, 1898, Congress declared that a state of war existed between Spain and the United States. On May 1, 1898, Admiral Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila bay. On May 19, 1898, Maj. Gen. Merritt, U. S. A., was placed in command of the military expedition to Manila, and directed among other things to immediately “publish a proclamation declaring that we come not to make war upon the people of the Philippines, nor upon any part or faction of them, but to protect them in their homes, in their employments and in their personal and religious rights. All persons who, either by active aid or by honest submission, co-operate with the United States in its efforts to give effect to this beneficent purpose will receive the reward of its support and protection.

On July 3, 1898, the Spanish fleet in attempting to escape from Santiago harbor was destroyed by the American fleet, and on July 17, 1898, the Spanish garrison in the city of Santiago surrendered to the commander of the American forces.

Following these brilliant victories, on the 12th day of August, 1898, upon the initiative of Spain, hostilities were suspended and a protocol was signed with a view to arranging terms of peace between the two governments. In pursuance thereof I appointed as commissioners the following distinguished citizens to conduct the negotiations on the part of the United States; Hon. William R. Day of Ohio, Hon. William P. Frye of Maine, Hon. Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota, Hon. George Gray of Delaware and Hon. Whitelaw Reid of New York. In addressing the peace commission before its departure for Paris I said:

"It is my wish that throughout the negotiations intrusted to the commission the purpose and spirit with which the United States accepted the unwelcome necessity of war should be kept constantly in view. We took up arms only in obedience to the dictates of humanity and in the fulfillment of high public and moral obligations. We had

no design of aggrandizement and no ambition of conquest. Through the long course of repeated representations which preceded and aimed to avert the struggle and in the final arbitrament of force this country was impelled solely by the purpose of relieving grievous wrongs and removing long-existing conditions which disturbed its tranquillity, which shocked the moral sense of mankind and which could no longer be endured.

"It is my earnest wish that the United States in making peace should follow the same high rule of conduct which guided it in facing war. It should be as scrupulous and magnanimous in the concluding settlement as it was just and humane in its original action.

"Our aims in the adjustment of peace should be directed to lasting results and to the achievement of the common good under the demands of civilization, rather than to ambitious designs.

"Without any original thought of complete or even partial acquisition, the presence and success of our arms in Manila imposes upon us obligations which we can not disregard. The march of events rules and overrules human action. Avowing unreservedly the purpose which has animated all our efforts, and still solicitous to adhere to it, we cannot be unmindful that without any desire or design on our part the war has brought us new duties and responsibilities, which we must meet and discharge as becomes a great nation on whose growth and career from the beginning the Ruler of Nations has plainly written the high command and pledge of civilization."

On October 28, 1898, while the peace commission was continuing negotiations in Paris, the following additional instruction was sent:

"It is imperative upon us that as victors we should be governed only by motives which will exalt our nation. Territorial expansion should be our least concern; that we shall not shirk the moral obligations of our victory is of the greatest. It is undisputed that Spain's authority is permanently destroyed in every part of the Philippines. To leave any part in her feeble control now would increase our difficulties and be opposed to the interests of humanity. . . Nor can we permit Spain to transfer any part of the islands to another power. Nor can we invite another power or powers to join the United States in sovereignty over them. We must either hold them or turn them back to Spain.

"Consequently, grave as are the responsibilities, and unforeseen as are the difficulties which are before us, the president can see but one plain path of duty, the acceptance of the archipelago. Greater difficulties and more serious complications-administrative and international-would follow any other course. The president has given to the views of the commissioners the fullest consideration, and in reaching the conclusion above announced in the light of information communicated to the commission and to the president since your departure, he has been influenced by the single consideration of duty and humanity. The president is not unmindful of the distressed financial condition of Spain, and whatever consideration the United

States may show must come from its sense of generosity and benevolence, rather than from any real or technical obligation."

Again, on November 13, I instructed the commission :

"From the standpoint of indemnity both the archipelagoes (Porto Rico and the Philippines) are insufficient to pay our war expenses, but aside from this do we not owe an obligation to the people of the Philippines which will not permit us to return them to the sovereignty of Spain? Could we justify ourselves in such a course, or could we permit their barter to some other power? Willing or not, we have the responsibility of duty, which we cannot escape. The president cannot believe any division of the archipelago can bring us anything but embarrassment in the future. The trade and commercial side, as well as the indemnity side for the cost of the war, are questions we might yield. They might be waived or compromised, but the questions of duty and humanity appeal to the President so strongly that he can find no appropriate answer but the one he has here marked out.

The treaty of peace was concluded on Dec. 10, 1898. By its terms the archipelago, known as the Philippine Islands, was ceded by Spain to the United States.

It was also provided that "the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by the Congress." Eleven days thereafter, on Dec. 21, the following direction was given to the commander of our forces in the Philippines:

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The military commander of the United States is enjoined to make known to the inhabitants of the Philippine islands that in succeeding to the sovereignty of Spain, in severing the former political relations of the inhabitants, and in establishing a new political power, the authority of the United States is to be exerted for the securing of the persons and property of the people of the islands and for the confirmation of all their private rights and relations. It will be the duty of the commander of the forces of occupation to announce and proclaim in the most public manner that we come not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends, to protect the natives in their homes, in their employments, and in their personal and religious rights."

PHILIPPINE COMMISSION.

In order to facilitate the most humane, pacific and effective extension of authority throughout these islands, and to secure, with the least possible delay, the benefits of a wise and generous protection of life and property to the inhabitants, I appointed in January, 1899, a commission consisting of Hon. Jacob Gould Schurman of New York, Admiral George Dewey, U. S. N., Hon. Charles Denby of Indiana, Prof. Dean C. Worcester of Michigan, and Maj. Gen. Elwell Otis, U. S. A. Their instructions contained the following:

"In the performance of this duty the commissioners are enjoined to meet at the earliest possible day in the city of Manila and to an