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Messages and Papers of William McKinley V.2. by William McKinley

W >> William McKinley >> Messages and Papers of William McKinley V.2.




It is gratifying also to note that during the year a considerable
reduction is shown in the expenditures of the Government. The War
Department expenditures for the fiscal year 1900 were $134,774,767.78,
a reduction of $95,066,486.69 over those of 1899. In the Navy Department
the expenditures were $55,953,077.72 for the year 1900, as against
$63,942,104.25 for the preceding year, a decrease of $7,989,026.53. In
the expenditures on account of Indians there was a decrease in 1900 over
1899 of $2,630,604.38; and in the civil and miscellaneous expenses for
1900 there was a reduction of $13,418,065.74.

Because of the excess of revenues over expenditures the Secretary of the
Treasury was enabled to apply bonds and other securities to the sinking
fund to the amount of $56,544,556.06. The details of the sinking fund
are set forth in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to which
I invite attention. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates that the
receipts for the current fiscal year will aggregate $580,000,000 and
the expenditures $500,000,000, leaving an excess of revenues over
expenditures of $80,000,000. The present condition of the Treasury is
one of undoubted strength. The available cash balance November 30 was
$139,303,794.50. Under the form of statement prior to the financial law
of March 14 last there would have been included in the statement of
available cash gold coin and bullion held for the redemption of United
States notes.

If this form were pursued, the cash balance including the present gold
reserve of $150,000,000, would be $289,303,794.50. Such balance November
30, 1899, was $296,495,301.55. In the general fund, which is wholly
separate from the reserve and trust funds, there was on November 30,
$70,090,073.15 in gold coin and bullion, to which should be added
$22,957,300 in gold certificates subject to issue, against which there
is held in the Division of Redemption gold coin and bullion, making a
total holding of free gold amounting to $93,047,373.15.

It will be the duty as I am sure it will be the disposition of the
Congress to provide whatever further legislation is needed to insure the
continued parity under all conditions between our two forms of metallic
money, silver and gold.

Our surplus revenues have permitted the Secretary of the Treasury
since the close of the fiscal year to call in the funded loan of 1891
continued at 2 per cent, in the sum of $25,364,500. To and including
November 30, $23,458,100 of these bonds have been paid. This sum,
together with the amount which may accrue from further redemptions under
the call, will be applied to the sinking fund.

The law of March 14, 1900, provided for refunding into 2 per cent
thirty-year bonds, payable, principal and interest, in gold coin of the
present standard value, that portion of the public debt represented by
the 3 per cent bonds of 1908, the 4 percents of 1907, and the 5 percents
of 1904, of which there was outstanding at the date of said law
$839,149,930. The holders of the old bonds presented them for exchange
between March 14 and November 30 to the amount of $364,943,750. The net
saving to the Government on these transactions aggregates $9,106,166.

Another effect of the operation, as stated by the Secretary, is to
reduce the charge upon the Treasury for the payment of interest from the
dates of refunding to February 1, 1904, by the sum of more than seven
million dollars annually. From February 1, 1904, to July 1, 1907, the
annual interest charge will be reduced by the sum of more than five
millions, and for the thirteen months ending August 1, 1908, by about
one million. The full details of the refunding are given in the annual
report of the Secretary of the Treasury.

The beneficial effect of the financial act of 1900, so far as it
relates to a modification of the national banking act, is already
apparent. The provision for the incorporation of national banks with a
capital of not less than $25,000 in places not exceeding three thousand
inhabitants has resulted in the extension of banking facilities to many
small communities hitherto unable to provide themselves with banking
institutions under the national system. There were organized from the
enactment of the law up to and including November 30, 369 national
banks, of which 266 were with capital less than $50,000, and 103 with
capital of $50,000 or more.

It is worthy of mention that the greater number of banks being organized
under the new law are in sections where the need of banking facilities
has been most pronounced. Iowa stands first, with 30 banks of the
smaller class, while Texas, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and the middle
and western sections of the country have also availed themselves largely
of the privileges under the new law.

A large increase in national-bank-note circulation has resulted from the
provision of the act which permits national banks to issue circulating
notes to the par value of the United States bonds deposited as security
instead of only 90 per cent thereof, as heretofore. The increase in
circulating notes from March 14 to November 30 is $77,889,570.

The party in power is committed to such legislation as will better make
the currency responsive to the varying needs of business at all seasons
and in all sections.

Our foreign trade shows a remarkable record of commercial and industrial
progress. The total of imports and exports for the first time in the
history of the country exceeded two billions of dollars. The exports are
greater than they have ever been before, the total for the fiscal year
1900 being $1,394,483,082, an increase over 1899 of $167,459,780, an
increase over 1898 of $163,000,752, over 1897 of $343,489,526, and
greater than 1896 by $511,876,144.

The growth of manufactures in the United States is evidenced by the fact
that exports of manufactured products largely exceed those of any
previous year, their value for 1900 being $433,851,756, against
$339,592,146 in 1899, an increase of 28 per cent.

Agricultural products were also exported during 1900 in greater volume
than in 1899, the total for the year being $835,858,123, against
$784,776,142 in 1899.

The imports for the year amounted to $849,941,184, an increase over 1899
of $152,792,695. This increase is largely in materials for manufacture,
and is in response to the rapid development of manufacturing in the
United States. While there was imported for use in manufactures in 1900
material to the value of $79,768,972 in excess of 1899, it is reassuring
to observe that there is a tendency toward decrease in the importation
of articles manufactured ready for consumption, which in 1900 formed
15.17 per cent of the total imports, against 15.54 per cent in 1899 and
21.09 per cent in 1896.

I recommend that the Congress at its present session reduce the
internal-revenue taxes imposed to meet the expenses of the war with
Spain in the sum of thirty millions of dollars. This reduction should be
secured by the remission of those taxes which experience has shown to be
the most burdensome to the industries of the people.

I specially urge that there be included in whatever reduction is made
the legacy tax on bequests for public uses of a literary, educational,
or charitable character.

American vessels during the past three years have carried about 9 per
cent of our exports and imports. Foreign ships should carry the least,
not the greatest, part of American trade. The remarkable growth of our
steel industries, the progress of shipbuilding for the domestic trade,
and our steadily maintained expenditures for the Navy have created an
opportunity to place the United States in the first rank of commercial
maritime powers.

Besides realizing a proper national aspiration this will mean the
establishment and healthy growth along all our coasts of a distinctive
national industry, expanding the field for the profitable employment of
labor and capital. It will increase the transportation facilities and
reduce freight charges on the vast volume of products brought from the
interior to the seaboard for export, and will strengthen an arm of the
national defense upon which the founders of the Government and their
successors have relied. In again urging immediate action by the Congress
on measures to promote American shipping and foreign trade, I direct
attention to the recommendations on the subject in previous messages,
and particularly to the opinion expressed in the message of 1899:

I am satisfied the judgment of the country favors the policy of aid to
our merchant marine, which will broaden our commerce and markets and
upbuild our sea-carrying capacity for the products of agriculture and
manufacture, which, with the increase of our Navy, mean more work and
wages to our countrymen, as well as a safeguard to American interests
in every part of the world.


The attention of the Congress is invited to the recommendation of the
Secretary of the Treasury in his annual report for legislation in behalf
of the Revenue-Cutter Service, and favorable action is urged.

In my last annual message to the Congress I called attention to the
necessity for early action to remedy such evils as might be found to
exist in connection with combinations of capital organized into trusts,
and again invite attention to my discussion of the subject at that time,
which concluded with these words:

It is apparent that uniformity of legislation upon this subject in
the several States is much to be desired. It is to be hoped that such
uniformity, founded in a wise and just discrimination between what is
injurious and what is useful and necessary in business operations, may
be obtained, and that means may be found for the Congress, within the
limitations of its constitutional power, so to supplement an effective
code of State legislation as to make a complete system of laws
throughout the United States adequate to compel a general observance
of the salutary rules to which I have referred.

The whole question is so important and far-reaching that I am sure no
part of it will be lightly considered, but every phase of it will have
the studied deliberation of the Congress, resulting in wise and
judicious action.


Restraint upon such combinations as are injurious, and which are within
Federal jurisdiction, should be promptly applied by the Congress.

In my last annual message I dwelt at some length upon the condition of
affairs in the Philippines. While seeking to impress upon you that the
grave responsibility of the future government of those islands rests
with the Congress of the United States, I abstained from recommending
at that time a specific and final form of government for the territory
actually held by the United States forces and in which as long as
insurrection continues the military arm must necessarily be supreme.
I stated my purpose, until the Congress shall have made the formal
expression of its will, to use the authority vested in me by the
Constitution and the statutes to uphold the sovereignty of the United
States in those distant islands as in all other places where our flag
rightfully floats, placing, to that end, at the disposal of the army and
navy all the means which the liberality of the Congress and the people
have provided. No contrary expression of the will of the Congress having
been made, I have steadfastly pursued the purpose so declared, employing
the civil arm as well toward the accomplishment of pacification and the
institution of local governments within the lines of authority and law.

Progress in the hoped-for direction has been favorable. Our forces have
successfully controlled the greater part of the islands, overcoming the
organized forces of the insurgents and carrying order and administrative
regularity to all quarters. What opposition remains is for the most part
scattered, obeying no concerted plan of strategic action, operating only
by the methods common to the traditions of guerrilla warfare, which,
while ineffective to alter the general control now established, are
still sufficient to beget insecurity among the populations that have
felt the good results of our control and thus delay the conferment upon
them of the fuller measures of local self-government, of education, and
of industrial and agricultural development which we stand ready to give
to them.

By the spring of this year the effective opposition of the dissatisfied
Tagals to the authority of the United States was virtually ended, thus
opening the door for the extension of a stable administration over much
of the territory of the Archipelago. Desiring to bring this about, I
appointed in March last a civil Commission composed of the Hon. William
H. Taft, of Ohio; Prof. Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan; the Hon. Luke I.
Wright, of Tennessee; the Hon. Henry C. Ide, of Vermont, and Prof.
Bernard Moses, of California. The aims of their mission and the scope of
their authority are clearly set forth in my instructions of April 7,
1900, addressed to the Secretary of War to be transmitted to them:

In the message transmitted to the Congress on the 5th of December, 1899,
I said, speaking of the Philippine Islands: "As long as the insurrection
continues the military arm must necessarily be supreme. But there is no
reason why steps should not be taken from time to time to inaugurate
governments essentially popular in their form as fast as territory is
held and controlled by our troops. To this end I am considering the
advisability of the return of the Commission, or such of the members
thereof as can be secured, to aid the existing authorities and
facilitate this work throughout the islands."

To give effect to the intention thus expressed, I have appointed Hon.
William H. Taft, of Ohio; Prof. Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan; Hon.
Luke I. Wright, of Tennessee; Hon. Henry C. Ide, of Vermont, and Prof.
Bernard Moses, of California, Commissioners to the Philippine Islands
to continue and perfect the work of organizing and establishing civil
government already commenced by the military authorities, subject in
all respects to any laws which Congress may hereafter enact.

The Commissioners named will meet and act as a board, and the Hon.
William H. Taft is designated as president of the board. It is probable
that the transfer of authority from military commanders to civil
officers will be gradual and will occupy a considerable period. Its
successful accomplishment and the maintenance of peace and order in the
meantime will require the most perfect co-operation between the civil
and military authorities in the islands, and both should be directed
during the transition period by the same Executive Department. The
Commission will therefore report to the Secretary of War, and all their
action will be subject to your approval and control.

You will instruct the Commission to proceed to the city of Manila,
where they will make their principal office, and to communicate with
the Military Governor of the Philippine Islands, whom you will at the
same time direct to render to them every assistance within his power
in the performance of their duties. Without hampering them by too
specific instructions, they should in general be enjoined, after making
themselves familiar with the conditions and needs of the country, to
devote their attention in the first instance to the establishment of
municipal governments, in which the natives of the islands, both in the
cities and in the rural communities, shall be afforded the opportunity
to manage their own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they
are capable and subject to the least degree of supervision and control
which a careful study of their capacities and observation of the
workings of native control show to be consistent with the maintenance
of law, order, and loyalty.

The next subject in order of importance should be the organization of
government in the larger administrative divisions corresponding to
counties, departments, or provinces, in which the common interests of
many or several municipalities falling within the same tribal lines,
or the same natural geographical limits, may best be subserved by
a common administration. Whenever the Commission is of the opinion
that the condition of affairs in the islands is such that the central
administration may safely be transferred from military to civil control
they will report that conclusion to you, with their recommendations as
to the form of central government to be established for the purpose of
taking over the control.

Beginning with the 1st day of September, 1900, the authority to
exercise, subject to my approval, through the Secretary of War, that
part of the power of government in the Philippine Islands which is of a
legislative nature is to be transferred from the Military Governor of
the islands to this Commission, to be thereafter exercised by them in
the place and stead of the Military Governor, under such rules and
regulations as you shall prescribe, until the establishment of the civil
central government for the islands contemplated in the last foregoing
paragraph, or until Congress shall otherwise provide. Exercise of this
legislative authority will include the making of rules and orders,
having the effect of law, for the raising of revenue by taxes, customs
duties, and imposts; the appropriation and expenditure of public funds
of the islands; the establishment of an educational system throughout
the islands; the establishment of a system to secure an efficient civil
service; the organization and establishment of courts; the organization
and establishment of municipal and departmental governments, and all
other matters of a civil nature for which the Military Governor is now
competent to provide by rules or orders of a legislative character.

The Commission will also have power during the same period to appoint to
office such officers under the judicial, educational, and civil-service
systems and in the municipal and departmental governments as shall be
provided for. Until the complete transfer of control the Military
Governor will remain the chief executive head of the government of the
islands, and will exercise the executive authority now possessed by him
and not herein expressly assigned to the Commission, subject, however,
to the rules and orders enacted by the Commission in the exercise of the
legislative powers conferred upon them. In the meantime the municipal
and departmental governments will continue to report to the Military
Governor and be subject to his administrative supervision and control,
under your direction, but that supervision and control will be confined
within the narrowest limits consistent with the requirement that the
powers of government in the municipalities and departments shall be
honestly and effectively exercised and that law and order and individual
freedom shall be maintained.

All legislative rules and orders, establishments of government, and
appointments to office by the Commission will take effect immediately,
or at such times as they shall designate, subject to your approval
and action upon the coming in of the Commission's reports, which are
to be made from time to time as their action is taken. Wherever civil
governments are constituted under the direction of the Commission
such military posts, garrisons, and forces will be continued for the
suppression of insurrection and brigandage and the maintenance of law
and order as the Military Commander shall deem requisite, and the
military forces shall be at all times subject, under his orders, to the
call of the civil authorities for the maintenance of law and order and
the enforcement of their authority.

In the establishment of municipal governments the Commission will take
as the basis of their work the governments established by the Military
Governor under his order of August 8, 1899, and under the report of the
board constituted by the Military Governor by his order of January 29,
1900, to formulate and report a plan of municipal government, of which
His Honor Cayetano Arellano, President of the Audiencia, was chairman,
and they will give to the conclusions of that board the weight and
consideration which the high character and distinguished abilities of
its members justify.

In the constitution of departmental or provincial governments they will
give especial attention to the existing government of the island of
Negros, constituted with the approval of the people of that island,
under the order of the Military Governor of July 22, 1899, and after
verifying, so far as may be practicable, the reports of the successful
working of that government they will be guided by the experience thus
acquired so far as it may be applicable to the condition existing in
other portions of the Philippines. They will avail themselves, to the
fullest degree practicable, of the conclusions reached by the previous
Commission to the Philippines.

In the distribution of powers among the governments organized by the
Commission, the presumption is always to be in favor of the smaller
subdivision, so that all the powers which can properly be exercised by
the municipal government shall be vested in that government, and all
the powers of a more general character which can be exercised by the
departmental government shall be vested in that government, and so
that in the governmental system, which is the result of the process,
the central government of the islands, following the example of
the distribution of the powers between the States and the National
Government of the United States, shall have no direct administration
except of matters of purely general concern, and shall have only such
supervision and control over local governments as may be necessary to
secure and enforce faithful and efficient administration by local
officers.

The many different degrees of civilization and varieties of custom
and capacity among the people of the different islands preclude very
definite instruction as to the part which the people shall take in the
selection of their own officers; but these general rules are to be
observed: That in all cases the municipal officers who administer the
local affairs of the people, are to be selected by the people, and that
wherever officers of more extended jurisdiction are to be selected in
any way, natives of the islands are to be preferred, and if they can be
found competent and willing to perform the duties, they are to receive
the offices in preference to any others.

It will be necessary to fill some offices for the present with Americans
which after a time may well be filled by natives of the islands. As
soon as practicable a system for ascertaining the merit and fitness of
candidates for civil office should be put in force. An indispensable
qualification for all offices and positions of trust and authority in
the islands must be absolute and unconditional loyalty to the United
States, and absolute and unhampered authority and power to remove and
punish any officer deviating from that standard must at all times be
retained in the hands of the central authority of the islands.

In all the forms of government and administrative provisions which
they are authorized to prescribe the Commission should bear in mind
that the government which they are establishing is designed not for our
satisfaction, or for the expression of our theoretical views, but for
the happiness, peace, and prosperity of the people of the Philippine
Islands, and the measures adopted should be made to conform to their
customs, their habits, and even their prejudices, to the fullest extent
consistent with the accomplishment of the indispensable requisites of
just and effective government.

At the same time the Commission should bear in mind, and the people
of the islands should be made plainly to understand, that there are
certain great principles of government which have been made the basis
of our governmental system which we deem essential to the rule of law
and the maintenance of individual freedom, and of which they have,
unfortunately, been denied the experience possessed by us; that there
are also certain practical rules of government which we have found to
be essential to the preservation of these great principles of liberty
and law, and that these principles and these rules of government must
be established and maintained in their islands for the sake of their
liberty and happiness, however much they may conflict with the customs
or laws of procedure with which they are familiar.

It is evident that the most enlightened thought of the Philippine
Islands fully appreciates the importance of these principles and rules,
and they will inevitably within a short time command universal assent.
Upon every division and branch of the government of the Philippines,
therefore, must be imposed these inviolable rules:

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George Frederick Kunz - "Shakespeare and Precious Stones"

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Roy Greenslade: Michael Wolff on Rupert Murdoch - he loves gossip
Articles published by guardian.co.uk Books

President Obama teams up with one of Marvel's greatest heroes, reports Alison Flood

Here's Michael Wolff, still doing the rounds promoting his Rupert Murdoch biography, The man who owns the news. This interview with Jon Stewart is fun. It starts off with Wolff saying: "You wanna start a rumour, tell Rupert. He's the biggest gossip I've ever met." And there's an amusing pay-off too. (Via Comedy Central/The E&P Pub)

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Murder One closing so did we commit this crime?

Barack Obama is teaming up with Spider-Man in a new comic from Marvel, which will see the future president exchanging a fist-bump with Peter Parker's alter ego.

The five-page story takes place in Washington DC on inauguration day, when one of Spidey's oldest enemies, the Chameleon, attempts to stop Obama's swearing-in ceremony. Fortunately, Peter Parker is covering the event as a photographer, and jumps in to save the day.

"Ya hear that, Chameleon? The president-elect here just appointed me ... secretary of shuttin' you up," Spider-Man says as he thwacks the Chameleon in the face. "I hope this doesn't ruin the inauguration for you," he tells Obama, as the Chameleon is led away by security officials. "Honestly, I'm more upset by the Chameleon's shockingly deficient understanding of the electoral process," Obama replies.

Spidey then cedes the limelight to Obama. "This is your day, after all, and I know it wouldn't look good to be seen palling around with me," he says, in a nod to Sarah Palin's comment that the then presidential candidate had been "palling around with terrorists".

The story, written by Zeb Wells and illustrated by Todd Nauck and Frank D'Armata, will appear as a bonus feature in Amazing Spider-Man 583, which goes on sale on 14 January.

"When we heard that president-elect Obama is a collector of Spider-Man comics, we knew that these two historic figures had to meet in our comics' Marvel Universe," said Marvel's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. "A Spider-Man fan moving into the Oval Office is an event that must be commemorated in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man."

In October, graphic novel biographies of Obama and his then rival John McCain were published by IDW. April will see Michelle Obama appearing in the Female Force comic book series.

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