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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.




The brief review of what was accomplished from the close of the war
to 1893, makes unreasonable and groundless any distrust either of our
financial ability or soundness; while the situation from 1893 to 1897
must admonish Congress of the immediate necessity of so legislating as
to make the return of the conditions then prevailing impossible.

There are many plans proposed as a remedy for the evil. Before we can
find the true remedy we must appreciate the real evil. It is not that
our currency of every kind is not good, for every dollar of it is good;
good because the Government's pledge is out to keep it so, and that
pledge will not be broken. However, the guaranty of our purpose to keep
the pledge will be best shown by advancing toward its fulfillment.

The evil of the present system is found in the great cost to the
Government of maintaining the parity of our different forms of money,
that is, keeping all of them at par with gold. We surely cannot be
longer heedless of the burden this imposes upon the people, even under
fairly prosperous conditions, while the past four years have
demonstrated that it is not only an expensive charge upon the
Government, but a dangerous menace to the National credit.

It is manifest that we must devise some plan to protect the Government
against bond issues for repeated redemptions. We must either curtail the
opportunity for speculation, made easy by the multiplied redemptions
of our demand obligations, or increase the gold reserve for their
redemption. We have $900,000,000 of currency which the Government by
solemn enactment has undertaken to keep at par with gold. Nobody is
obliged to redeem in gold but the Government. The banks are not required
to redeem in gold. The Government is obliged to keep equal with gold all
its outstanding currency and coin obligations, while its receipts are
not required to be paid in gold. They are paid in every kind of money
but gold, and the only means by which the Government can with certainty
get gold is by borrowing. It can get it in no other way when it most
needs it. The Government without any fixed gold revenue is pledged to
maintain gold redemption, which it has steadily and faithfully done,
and which, under the authority now given, it will continue to do.

The law which requires the Government, after having redeemed its United
States notes, to pay them out again as current funds, demands a constant
replenishment of the gold reserve. This is especially so in times of
business panic and when the revenues are insufficient to meet the
expenses of the Government. At such times the Government has no other
way to supply its deficit and maintain redemption but through the
increase of its bonded debt, as during the Administration of my
predecessor, when $262,315,400 of four-and-a-half per cent bonds were
issued and sold and the proceeds used to pay the expenses of the
Government in excess of the revenues and sustain the gold reserve. While
it is true that the greater part of the proceeds of these bonds were
used to supply deficient revenues, a considerable portion was required
to maintain the gold reserve.

With our revenues equal to our expenses, there would be no deficit
requiring the issuance of bonds. But if the gold reserve falls below
$100,000,000, how will it be replenished except by selling more bonds?
Is there any other way practicable under existing law? The serious
question then is, Shall we continue the policy that has been pursued in
the past; that is, when the gold reserve reaches the point of danger,
issue more bonds and supply the needed gold, or shall we provide other
means to prevent these recurring drains upon the gold reserve? If no
further legislation is had and the policy of selling bonds is to be
continued, then Congress should give the Secretary of the Treasury
authority to sell bonds at long or short periods, bearing a less rate of
interest than is now authorized by law.

I earnestly recommend, as soon as the receipts of the Government are
quite sufficient to pay all the expenses of the Government, that when
any of the United States notes are presented for redemption in gold and
are redeemed in gold, such notes shall be kept and set apart, and only
paid out in exchange for gold. This is an obvious duty. If the holder of
the United States note prefers the gold and gets it from the Government,
he should not receive back from the Government a United States note
without paying gold in exchange for it. The reason for this is made
all the more apparent when the Government issues an interest-bearing
debt to provide gold for the redemption of United States notes--a
non-interest-bearing debt. Surely it should not pay them out again
except on demand and for gold. If they are put out in any other way,
they may return again to be followed by another bond issue to redeem
them--another interest-bearing debt to redeem a non-interest-bearing
debt.

In my view, it is of the utmost importance that the Government
should be relieved from the burden of providing all the gold required
for exchanges and export. This responsibility is alone borne by the
Government, without any of the usual and necessary banking powers to
help itself. The banks do not feel the strain of gold redemption. The
whole strain rests upon the Government, and the size of the gold reserve
in the Treasury has come to be, with or without reason, the signal of
danger or of security. This ought to be stopped.

If we are to have an era of prosperity in the country, with sufficient
receipts for the expenses of the Government, we may feel no immediate
embarrassment from our present currency; but the danger still exists,
and will be ever present, menacing us so long as the existing system
continues. And, besides, it is in times of adequate revenues and
business tranquillity that the Government should prepare for the worst.
We cannot avoid, without serious consequences, the wise consideration
and prompt solution of this question.

The Secretary of the Treasury has outlined a plan, in great detail, for
the purpose of removing the threatened recurrence of a depleted gold
reserve and save us from future embarrassment on that account. To this
plan I invite your careful consideration.

I concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in his recommendation that
National banks be allowed to issue notes to the face value of the bonds
which they have deposited for circulation, and that the tax on
circulating notes secured by deposit of such bonds be reduced to
one-half of one per cent per annum. I also join him in recommending that
authority be given for the establishment of National banks with a
minimum capital of $25,000. This will enable the smaller villages and
agricultural regions of the country to be supplied with currency to meet
their needs.

I recommend that the issue of National bank notes be restricted to the
denomination of ten dollars and upwards. If the suggestions I have
herein made shall have the approval of Congress, then I would recommend
that National banks be required to redeem their notes in gold.

* * * * *

[See Vol. X, pp. 127-136.]


Not a single American citizen is now in arrest or confinement in Cuba of
whom this Government has any knowledge. The near future will demonstrate
whether the indispensable condition of a righteous peace, just alike to
the Cubans and to Spain as well as equitable to all our interests so
intimately involved in the welfare of Cuba, is likely to be attained. If
not, the exigency of further and other action by the United States will
remain to be taken. When that time comes that action will be determined
in the line of indisputable right and duty. It will be faced, without
misgiving or hesitancy in the light of the obligation this Government
owes to itself, to the people who have confided to it the protection of
their interests and honor, and to humanity.

Sure of the right, keeping free from all offense ourselves, actuated
only by upright and patriotic considerations, moved neither by passion
nor selfishness, the Government will continue its watchful care over
the rights and property of American citizens and will abate none of
its efforts to bring about by peaceful agencies a peace which shall
be honorable and enduring. If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty
imposed by our obligations to ourselves, to civilization and humanity
to intervene with force, it shall be without fault on our part and only
because the necessity for such action will be so clear as to command the
support and approval of the civilized world.

By a special message dated the 16th day of June last, I laid before
the Senate a treaty signed that day by the plenipotentiaries of the
United States and of the Republic of Hawaii, having for its purpose
the incorporation of the Hawaiian Islands as an integral part of the
United States and under its sovereignty. The Senate having removed the
injunction of secrecy, although the treaty is still pending before that
body, the subject may be properly referred to in this Message because
the necessary action of the Congress is required to determine by
legislation many details of the eventual union should the fact of
annexation be accomplished, as I believe it should be.

While consistently disavowing from a very early period any aggressive
policy of absorption in regard to the Hawaiian group, a long series of
declarations through three-quarters of a century has proclaimed the
vital interest of the United States in the independent life of the
Islands and their intimate commercial dependence upon this country. At
the same time it has been repeatedly asserted that in no event could the
entity of Hawaiian statehood cease by the passage of the Islands under
the domination or influence of another power than the United States.
Under these circumstances, the logic of events required that annexation,
heretofore offered but declined, should in the ripeness of time come
about as the natural result of the strengthening ties that bind us to
those Islands, and be realized by the free will of the Hawaiian State.

That treaty was unanimously ratified without amendment by the Senate and
President of the Republic of Hawaii on the 10th of September last, and
only awaits the favorable action of the American Senate to effect the
complete absorption of the Islands into the domain of the United States.
What the conditions of such a union shall be, the political relation
thereof to the United States, the character of the local administration,
the quality and degree of the elective franchise of the inhabitants, the
extension of the federal laws to the territory or the enactment of
special laws to fit the peculiar condition thereof, the regulation if
need be of the labor system therein, are all matters which the treaty
has wisely relegated to the Congress.

If the treaty is confirmed as every consideration of dignity and honor
requires, the wisdom of Congress will see to it that, avoiding abrupt
assimilation of elements perhaps hardly yet fitted to share in the
highest franchises of citizenship, and having due regard to the
geographical conditions, the most just provisions for self-rule in local
matters with the largest political liberties as an integral part of our
Nation will be accorded to the Hawaiians. No less is due to a people
who, after nearly five years of demonstrated capacity to fulfill the
obligations of self-governing statehood, come of their free will to
merge their destinies in our body-politic.

The questions which have arisen between Japan and Hawaii by reason of
the treatment of Japanese laborers emigrating to the Islands under the
Hawaiian-Japanese convention of 1888, are in a satisfactory stage of
settlement by negotiation. This Government has not been invited to
mediate, and on the other hand has sought no intervention in that
matter, further than to evince its kindliest disposition toward such a
speedy and direct adjustment by the two sovereign States in interest as
shall comport with equity and honor. It is gratifying to learn that the
apprehensions at first displayed on the part of Japan lest the cessation
of Hawaii's national life through annexation might impair privileges to
which Japan honorably laid claim, have given place to confidence in the
uprightness of this Government, and in the sincerity of its purpose to
deal with all possible ulterior questions in the broadest spirit of
friendliness.

As to the representation of this Government to Nicaragua, Salvador, and
Costa Rica, I have concluded that Mr. William L. Merry, confirmed as
minister of the United States to the States of Nicaragua, Salvador and
Costa Rica, shall proceed to San Jose, Costa Rica, and there temporarily
establish the headquarters of the United States to those three States.
I took this action for what I regarded as the paramount interests of
this country. It was developed upon an investigation by the Secretary of
State that the Government of Nicaragua, while not unwilling to receive
Mr. Merry in his diplomatic quality, was unable to do so because of the
compact concluded June 20, 1895, whereby that Republic and those of
Salvador and Honduras, forming what is known as the Greater Republic of
Central America, had surrendered to the representative Diet thereof
their right to receive and send diplomatic agents. The Diet was not
willing to accept him because he was not accredited to that body. I
could not accredit him to that body because the appropriation law of
Congress did not permit it. Mr. Baker, the present minister at Managua,
has been directed to present his letters of recall.

Mr. W. Godfrey Hunter has likewise been accredited to the Governments
of Guatemala and Honduras, the same as his predecessor. Guatemala is not
a member of the Greater Republic of Central America, but Honduras is.
Should this latter Government decline to receive him, he has been
instructed to report this fact to his Government and await its further
instructions.

A subject of large importance to our country, and increasing
appreciation on the part of the people, is the completion of the great
highway of trade between the Atlantic and Pacific, known as the
Nicaragua Canal. Its utility and value to American commerce is
universally admitted. The Commission appointed under date of July 24
last "to continue the surveys and examinations authorized by the act
approved March 2, 1895," in regard to "the proper route, feasibility,
and cost of construction of the Nicaragua Canal, with a view of making
complete plans for the entire work of construction of such canal," is
now employed in the undertaking. In the future I shall take occasion to
transmit to Congress the report of this Commission, making at the same
time such further suggestions as may then seem advisable.

Under the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1897,
for the promotion of an international agreement respecting bimetallism,
I appointed on the 14th day of April, 1897, Hon. Edward O. Wolcott of
Colorado, Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, and Hon. Charles J. Paine
of Massachusetts, as special envoys to represent the United States.
They have been diligent in their efforts to secure the concurrence and
cooperation of European countries in the international settlement of the
question, but up to this time have not been able to secure an agreement
contemplated by their mission.

The gratifying action of our great sister Republic of France in joining
this country in the attempt to bring about an agreement among the
principal commercial nations of Europe, whereby a fixed and relative
value between gold and silver shall be secured, furnishes assurance that
we are not alone among the larger nations of the world in realizing the
international character of the problem and in the desire of reaching
some wise and practical solution of it. The British Government has
published a _resume_ of the steps taken jointly by the French
ambassador in London and the special envoys of the United States, with
whom our ambassador at London actively co-operated in the presentation
of this subject to Her Majesty's Government. This will be laid before
Congress.

Our special envoys have not made their final report, as further
negotiations between the representatives of this Government and the
Governments of other countries are pending and in contemplation.
They believe that doubts which have been raised in certain quarters
respecting the position of maintaining the stability of the parity
between the metals and kindred questions may yet be solved by further
negotiations.

Meanwhile it gives me satisfaction to state that the special envoys have
already demonstrated their ability and fitness to deal with the subject,
and it is to be earnestly hoped that their labors may result in an
international agreement which will bring about recognition of both gold
and silver as money upon such terms, and with such safeguards as will
secure the use of both metals upon a basis which shall work no injustice
to any class of our citizens.

In order to execute as early as possible the provisions of the third and
fourth sections of the Revenue Act, approved July 24, 1897, I appointed
the Hon. John A. Kasson of Iowa, a special commissioner plenipotentiary
to undertake the requisite negotiations with foreign countries desiring
to avail themselves of these provisions. The negotiations are now
proceeding with several Governments, both European and American. It is
believed that by a careful exercise of the powers conferred by that Act
some grievances of our own and of other countries in our mutual trade
relations may be either removed, or largely alleviated, and that the
volume of our commercial exchanges may be enlarged, with advantage to
both contracting parties.

Most desirable from every standpoint of national interest and patriotism
is the effort to extend our foreign commerce. To this end our merchant
marine should be improved and enlarged. We should do our full share of
the carrying trade of the world. We do not do it now. We should be the
laggard no longer. The inferiority of our merchant marine is justly
humiliating to the national pride. The Government by every proper
constitutional means, should aid in making our ships familiar visitors
at every commercial port of the world, thus opening up new and valuable
markets to the surplus products of the farm and the factory.

The efforts which had been made during the two previous years by my
predecessor to secure better protection to the fur seals in the North
Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, were renewed at an early date by this
Administration, and have been pursued with earnestness. Upon my
invitation, the Governments of Japan and Russia sent delegates to
Washington, and an international conference was held during the months
of October and November last, wherein it was unanimously agreed that
under the existing regulations this species of useful animals was
threatened with extinction, and that an international agreement of all
the interested powers was necessary for their adequate protection.

The Government of Great Britain did not see proper to be represented at
this conference, but subsequently sent to Washington, as delegates, the
expert commissioners of Great Britain and Canada who had, during the
past two years, visited the Pribilof Islands, and who met in conference
similar commissioners on the part of the United States. The result of
this conference was an agreement on important facts connected with the
condition of the seal herd, heretofore in dispute, which should place
beyond controversy the duty of the Governments concerned to adopt
measures without delay for the preservation and restoration of the herd.
Negotiations to this end are now in progress, the result of which I hope
to be able to report to Congress at an early day.

International arbitration cannot be omitted from the list of subjects
claiming our consideration. Events have only served to strengthen the
general views on this question expressed in my inaugural address. The
best sentiment of the civilized world is moving toward the settlement
of differences between nations without resorting to the horrors of war.
Treaties embodying these humane principles on broad lines, without in
any way imperiling our interests or our honor, shall have my constant
encouragement.

The acceptance by this Government of the invitation of the Republic of
France to participate in the Universal Exposition of 1900, at Paris, was
immediately followed by the appointment of a special commissioner to
represent the United States in the proposed exposition, with special
reference to the securing of space for an adequate exhibit on behalf of
the United States.

The special commissioner delayed his departure for Paris long enough
to ascertain the probable demand for space by American exhibitors. His
inquiries developed an almost unprecedented interest in the proposed
exposition, and the information thus acquired enabled him to justify
an application for a much larger allotment of space for the American
section than had been reserved by the exposition authorities. The result
was particularly gratifying, in view of the fact that the United States
was one of the last countries to accept the invitation of France.

The reception accorded our special commissioner was most cordial,
and he was given every reasonable assurance that the United States
would receive a consideration commensurate with the proportions of our
exhibit. The report of the special commissioner as to the magnitude
and importance of the coming exposition, and the great demand for
space by American exhibitors, supplies new arguments for a liberal
and judicious appropriation by Congress, to the end that an exhibit
fairly representative of the industries and resources of our country may
be made in an exposition which will illustrate the world's progress
during the nineteenth century. That exposition is intended to be the
most important and comprehensive of the long series of international
exhibitions, of which our own at Chicago was a brilliant example, and
it is desirable that the United States should make a worthy exhibit of
American genius and skill and their unrivaled achievements in every
branch of industry.

The present immediately effective force of the Navy consists of four
battle ships of the first class, two of the second, and forty-eight
other vessels, ranging from armored cruisers to torpedo boats. There are
under construction five battle ships of the first class, sixteen torpedo
boats, and one submarine boat. No provision has yet been made for the
armor of three of the five battle ships, as it has been impossible to
obtain it at the price fixed by Congress. It is of great importance that
Congress provide this armor, as until then the ships are of no fighting
value.

The present naval force, especially in view of its increase by the
ships now under construction, while not as large as that of a few other
powers, is a formidable force; its vessels are the very best of each
type; and with the increase that should be made to it from time to time
in the future, and careful attention to keeping it in a high state of
efficiency and repair, it is well adapted to the necessities of the
country.

The great increase of the Navy which has taken place in recent years was
justified by the requirements for national defense, and has received
public approbation. The time has now arrived, however, when this
increase, to which the country is committed, should, for a time, take
the form of increased facilities commensurate with the increase of our
naval vessels. It is an unfortunate fact that there is only one dock on
the Pacific Coast capable of docking our largest ships, and only one on
the Atlantic Coast, and that the latter has for the last six or seven
months been under repair and therefore incapable of use. Immediate steps
should be taken to provide three or four docks of this capacity on the
Atlantic Coast, at least one on the Pacific Coast, and a floating dock
in the Gulf. This is the recommendation of a very competent Board,
appointed to investigate the subject. There should also be ample
provision made for powder and projectiles, and other munitions of war,
and for an increased number of officers and enlisted men. Some additions
are also necessary to our navy-yards, for the repair and care of our
large number of vessels. As there are now on the stocks five battle
ships of the largest class, which cannot be completed for a year or two,
I concur with the recommendation of the Secretary of the Navy for an
appropriation authorizing the construction of one battle ship for the
Pacific Coast, where, at present, there is only one in commission and
one under construction, while on the Atlantic Coast there are three in
commission and four under construction; and also that several torpedo
boats be authorized in connection with our general system of coast
defense.

The Territory of Alaska requires the prompt and early attention of
Congress. The conditions now existing demand material changes in the
laws relating to the Territory. The great influx of population during
the past summer and fall and the prospect of a still larger immigration
in the spring will not permit us to longer neglect the extension of
civil authority within the Territory or postpone the establishment of a
more thorough government.

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We do not know the women's names, but their voices are quite distinct. All are pregnant. But while the first woman awaits the birth of her baby with a moon-like serenity, the other two are not so lucky. One, whose previous pregnancies have failed to go to term, is experiencing a heartbreaking late miscarriage; the other is a young student whose accidental pregnancy will end in her child being put up for adoption.

Sylvia Plath's only play was never intended for the stage, being broadcast instead on BBC radio in August 1962. Less than six months later, Plath killed herself, but not before the burst of astonishing creative energy that produced her extraordinary, terrifying Ariel poems.

Anyone who knows Plath's poetry will see the connection between Three Women and Plath's subsequent poems, particularly in the way she talks about the agony of childbirth, the rush of love for this tiny alien being, and both the wonder and wounded rawness of motherhood. It is a beautiful piece, full of startling imagery that draws you in through the sheer intensity of its femaleness, and because it so precisely articulates the emotions that are often thought but seldom voiced by women - certainly not in the early 1960s - about men, motherhood and our relationship to our bodies.

It's been 20 years since there has been an attempt at a professional stage version and - in a theatre world that happily accepts the poetic offerings of Sarah Kane and Debbie Tucker Green, or the staged possibilities of The Waves, one of Plath's own inspirations for the piece, I see no reason why it shouldn't be brought to life. Sadly, it doesn't breathe here, in a production by Robert Shaw that is clearly a labour of love, but which never finds a way to give the internal a physical reality. Plath's poetry, like most babies, is more robust than it appears - and won't break if treated with a little less reverence and considerably more grit.

Instead, what we are offered is tinkling piano music, mournful mood lighting, an innocuous pale setting, as well as three perfectly good but indisputably ladylike performances that capture none of the wounded redness of Plath's poetry, and do her the disservice of making her sound bleached and somewhat prissy. It's a pity. What might have been a wonder ends up a mere curiosity.

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