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

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WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 7, 1901._

The following "Classification of Vessels" and "Assignments to man
afloat" are hereby established for the Navy in accordance with an act of
Congress, approved March 3:

CLASSIFICATION OF VESSELS.

Torpedo Boat Destroyers: Torpedo boats, tugs, sailing ships and
receiving ships shall not be rated. Other vessels shall be rated by tons
of displacement as follows:

_First Rates_: Men of War when of eight thousand tons and above.

_Second Rates_: Men of War of four thousand tons and under eight
thousand tons, and Converted and Auxiliary vessels of six thousand tons
and above, except Colliers, Refrigerating ships, Distilling ships,
Tank-steamers, Reporting ships, Hospital ships and other vessels
constructed or equipped for special purposes.

_Third Rates_: Men of War from one thousand to four thousand tons
and Converted and Auxiliary Vessels from one thousand to six thousand
tons and Colliers, Refrigerating ships, Supply ships, Distilling ships,
Tank-steamers, Report ships, Hospital ships and other vessels
constructed or equipped for special purposes of four thousand tons and
above.

_Fourth Rates_: All other vessels.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 7, 1901._

Commandants to man the following:

An Admiral to man a fleet.

Rear-Admiral to man a fleet or squadron.

A Captain to man a division, or ship of the first or second rating or a
ship not rated.

Commander to man a division or a ship of the second or third rating or
ship not rated.

Lieutenant-Commander to man a ship of the third or fourth rating or a
ship not rated.

A Lieutenant to man a ship of the fourth rating; a torpedo boat
destroyer, torpedo boat, tug, tender or a ship not rated.

A Lieutenant, junior grade, to command a torpedo boat, tug, tender or
ship not rated.

An Ensign to man a torpedo boat, tug or ship not rated.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 10, 1901_.

_To the Secretary of the Treasury_:

SIR:--The sum of five hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as
remains unexpended, allotted and set aside by order of April 23, 1901,
from the appropriation made for the benefit and Government of Puerto
Rico by the act of March 24, 1900 (31 Stat, p. 51), is to be devoted to
public and permanent improvements in Puerto Rico and other governmental
and public purposes therein, as provided in the said act, and it is to
be expended under the supervision and subject to the approval of the
Government and administrative authorities of the Island.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 21, 1901._

I hereby order and direct that Executive Order dated May 3, 1899, be
amended so as to authorize the appointment of civilians as Collectors of
Customs in the Philippine Archipelago.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 21, 1901_.

_To the Secretary of War_:

SIR:--Pending the cessation of conditions requiring a continuance of
Military Government in the Philippine Islands, you are authorized to
make the following order:

On and after the 4th day of July, 1901, until it shall otherwise
be ordered, the President of the Philippine Commission will exercise
the Executive Authority in all civil affairs of the Government in
the Philippine Islands, heretofore exercised in such affairs by the
Military Governor of the Philippines, and to that end, the Hon. W.H.
Taft, President of the said Commission is hereby appointed Civil
Governor of the Philippine Islands. Such executive authority will be
exercised under and in conformity to the instructions to the Philippine
Commissioners dated April 7th, 1900, and subject to the approval and
control of the Secretary of War of the United States. The municipal
and Provincial Civil Governments will then, or shall hereafter be
established in said Islands and all persons performing duties pertaining
to the offices of Civil Government in said Islands will, in respect of
such duties report to the said Civil Government. The power to appoint
Civil Officers, heretofore vested in the Philippine Commission or in
the Military Government will be exercised by the Civil Governor with
the advice and consent of the Commissioners.

The Military Governor of the Philippines is hereby relieved from the
performance on and after the said fourth day of July of the civil duties
hereinbefore described, but his authority will continue to be exercised
as heretofore in those districts in which insurrection against the
authority of the United States continues to exist or in which public
order is not sufficiently restored to enable the Provincial Civil
Government to be established under the instructions to the Commission
dated April 7th, 1900.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 21, 1901._

In accordance with the provision in Section 2253 of the Revised Statutes
of the United States, and by virtue of the authority thereby given, it
is hereby ordered that the existing boundary line between Coeur d'Alene
and Lewiston Land Districts, State of Idaho, be and it is hereby changed
and re-established as follows: Beginning on the boundary line between
the States of Idaho and Washington at the northwest corner of
directional township forty-two (42) north, range six (6) west, Boise
meridian, thence east along the boundary line between townships
forty-two (42) and forty-three (43) north, to the crest of the Bitter
Root Mountains.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 25, 1901._

The executive order of April 5, 1901, is hereby amended by striking out
the word "Filipinos" and inserting in its stead "natives of the Islands
of the Philippines and of the Island of Guam."

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 25, 1901._

In accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress approved June
4, 1897 (30 Stat, pp. 34-36), and by virtue of the authority thereby
given, and on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, it is
hereby ordered that the tracts hereinafter described and situated within
the limits of the Big Horn Forest Reservation in the State of Wyoming
be restored to the public domain after sixty days' notice hereof by
publication as required by law, these tracts having been found better
adapted to agriculture than forest purposes, to wit: What will be, when
surveyed, sections twenty-four (24) to thirty-six (36), both inclusive,
in township fifty-five (55) north, range ninety-two (92) west; what will
be, when surveyed, sections twenty-eight (28) to thirty-three (33), both
inclusive, in township fifty-five (55) north, range ninety-one (91)
west; sections thirty (30), thirty-one (31), thirty-two (32), and what
will be, when surveyed, sections four (4), five (5), six (6), seven (7),
eight (8), nine (9), sixteen (16), seventeen (17), eighteen (18),
nineteen (19), twenty (20), twenty-one (21), twenty-eight (28),
twenty-nine (29), and thirty-three (33), all in township fifty-four (54)
north, range ninety-one (91) west; the southwest quarter remaining
unsurveyed portion of section eighteen (18), all of sections nineteen
(19), thirty (30), thirty-one (31), and what will be, when surveyed,
sections six (6) and seven (7), all in township fifty-three (53) north,
range ninety (90) west.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 29, 1901._

In accordance with provision of the act of Congress approved June 4,
1897 (30 Stat. 34, 36), and by virtue of authority thereby given, and
on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, it is hereby
ordered that township twenty-two (22) south, range nine (9) east, and
township twenty-three (23) south, range nine (9) east, Willamette
meridian, Oregon, within the limits of the Cascade Range Forest
Reservation be restored to the public Domain after sixty days' notice
hereof by publication as required by law, these tracts having been found
better adapted to agriculture than forest purposes.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., July 24, 1901_.

_To the Secretary of the Treasury_:

SIR:--I herewith allot and set apart the funds now remaining in the
Treasury of the United States as a separate fund raised from duties and
taxes collected in the United States under the provisions of the act of
Congress entitled "An act temporarily to provide revenues and a Civil
Government for Puerto Rico and for other purposes" approved April 12th,
1900, for public purposes in Puerto Rico; and these funds hereby
allotted shall be devoted to public and permanent improvements in Puerto
Rico and other Governmental and public purposes therein as set forth in
the act of Congress approved March 24th, 1900 (31 Stat., p. 51), and
shall be expended under the sole supervision and subject to the approval
of the Governor and Administrative heads of the Island.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., August 19, 1901._

It is hereby ordered that so much of the Executive Order of December 28,
1898 as fixes the rates at which the Spanish Alphonsino (_centem_) and
the French Louis shall be accepted in payment of customs, taxes, public
and postal dues in the Island of Cuba is modified to read as follows:

Alphonsino (25 Peseta Piece) $4.78
Louis (20 Frank Piece) 3.83

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., August 20, 1901._

It is hereby ordered that all tracts and parcels of land belonging to
the United States situated on the Peninsula extending into the harbor
on the south side of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, known as Barrio
de la Puntilla, or Puntilla Point, bounded on the north by the south
boundary of the Paseo de la Princesa and on the east, south and west by
the navigable waters of the harbor at such part Warden's line as may be
established by competent authority, be and the same are hereby reserved
for naval purposes.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., August 27, 1901._

It is hereby ordered that the Executive Order of Jan. 4th, 1901, reserve
for light house purposes among other tracts of land or cites in the
District of Alaska a tract described as follows: "Scotch Cap beginning
at a point at low water mark, said point being three miles easterly of
point at low water mark opposite Scotch Cap Pinnacle six (6) due north
one mile, thence north seventy-one (71) degrees east true four (4)
miles, thence south thirty-eight (38) degrees true to low water mark;
thence follow the windings of the low water mark to place of beginning,"
be and the same is hereby canceled so far as it relates to the above
described tract, and it is hereby ordered that in lieu thereof a tract
described as follows: Scotch Cap beginning at point at low water mark on
Unimak Island, said point being three miles easterly of a point at low
water mark opposite Scotch Cap Pinnacle; thence due north one mile;
thence north seventy-one (71) degrees west true to four miles; thence
south thirty-eight degrees west true to low water mark, thence follow
the windings of the low water mark to place of beginning, be and it is
hereby reserved and set apart for light house purposes, subject to any
legal existing rights thereto.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., August 29, 1901._

In accordance with provisions of Section 179 Revised Statutes as
amended by act approved August 5th, 1882 (22 Stats, at large 238),
Brigadier-General G.S. Gillespie, Corps of Engineers, United States
Army, is authorized and directed to perform the duties of Secretary of
War during the temporary absence from the seat of Government of the
Secretary of War and the Assistant Secretary of War.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

PRESIDENT McKINLEY'S LAST PUBLIC UTTERANCE TO THE PEOPLE, BUFFALO, N.Y.,
SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1901.

_President Milburn, Director General Buchanan, Commissioners, Ladies
and Gentlemen_:

I am glad to be again in the city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with
her people, to whose generous hospitality I am not a stranger and with
whose good will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. To-day
I have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome to the
foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence and participation
in this exposition have contributed in so marked a degree to its
interest and success. To the Commissioners of the Dominion of Canada and
the British colonies, the French colonies, the republics of Mexico and
Central and South America and the commissioners of Cuba and Puerto Rico,
who share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellowship
and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, science, education
and manufacture which the old has bequeathed to the new century.
Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's
advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise and intellect of the
people and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and
brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of
information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped
to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and
as such instruct the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows,
which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful
invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity.
It exacts a study of the wants, comforts and even the whims of the
people and recognizes the efficiency of high quality and new pieces to
win their favor. The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business
to devise, invent, improve and economize in the cost of production.

Business life, whether among ourselves or with other people, is ever a
sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future.
Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated
processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long
ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth
century. But though commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we
must not be.

The Pan-American exposition has done its work thoroughly, presenting
in its exhibits evidences of the highest skill and illustrating the
progress of the human family in the western hemisphere. This portion of
the earth has no cause for humiliation for the part it has performed in
the march of civilization. It has not accomplished everything from it.
It has simply done its best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and
recognizing the manifold achievements of others, it invites the friendly
rivalry of all the powers in the peaceful pursuits of trade and
commerce, and will co-operate with all in advancing the highest and best
interests of humanity.

The wisdom and energy of all the nations are none too great for the
world's work. The success of art, science, industry and invention is an
international asset and a common glory.

After all, how near one to the other is every part of the world. Modern
inventions have brought into close relation widely separated peoples and
made them better acquainted. Geographic and political divisions will
continue to exist, but distances have been effaced. Swift ships and
swift trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few
years ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchanged as never
before, and with increasing transportation facilities come increasing
knowledge and larger trade. Prices are fixed with mathematical precision
by supply and demand. The world's selling prices are regulated by market
and crop reports.

We travel greater distances in a shorter space of time and with more
ease than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation is no longer
possible or desirable. The same important news is read, though in
different languages, the same day in all Christendom. The telegraph
keeps us advised of what is occurring everywhere, and the press
foreshadows, with more or less accuracy, the plans and purposes of the
nations.

Market prices of products and of securities are hourly known in every
commercial mart, and the investments of the people extend beyond their
own national boundaries into the remotest parts of the earth. Vast
transactions are conducted and international exchanges are made by the
tick of the cable. Every event of interest is immediately bulletined.
The quick gathering and transmission of news, like rapid transit, are of
recent origin and are only made possible by the genius of the inventor
and the courage of the investor. It took a special messenger of the
Government, with every facility known at the time for rapid travel,
nineteen days to go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a
message to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a
treaty of peace had been signed. How different now!

We reached General Miles in Puerto Rico by cable, and he was able,
through the military telegraph, to stop his army on the firing line with
the message that the United States and Spain had signed a protocol
suspending hostilities. We knew almost instantly of the first shots
fired at Santiago, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces
was known at Washington within less than an hour of its consummation.
The first ship of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that historic
harbor when the fact was flashed to our capital, and the swift
destruction that followed was announced immediately through the
wonderful medium of telegraphy.

So accustomed are we to safe and easy communication with distant lands
that its temporary interruption, even in ordinary times, results in loss
and inconvenience. We shall never forget the days of anxious waiting and
awful suspense when no information was permitted to be sent from Pekin,
and the diplomatic representatives of the nations in China, cut off
from all communication, inside and outside of the walled capital, were
surrounded by an angry and misguided mob that threatened their lives;
nor the joy that filled the world when a single message from the
Government of the United States brought through our minister the first
news of the safety of the besieged diplomats.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a mile of steam
railroad on the globe. Now there are enough miles to make its circuit
many times. Then there was not a line of electric telegraph; now we have
a vast mileage traversing all lands and seas. God and man have linked
the nations together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any other.
And as we are brought more and more in touch with each other the less
occasion there is for misunderstandings and the stronger the
disposition, when we have differences, to adjust them in the court of
arbitration, which is the noblest forum for the settlement of
international disputes.

My fellow citizens, trade statistics indicate that this country is
in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures are almost appalling.
They show that we are utilizing our fields and forests and mines and
that we are furnishing profitable employment to the millions of
workingmen throughout the United States, bringing comfort and happiness
to their homes and making it possible to lay by savings for old age
and disability. That all the people are participating in this great
prosperity is seen in every American community, and shown by the
enormous and unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. Our duty
is the care and security of these deposits, and their safe investment
demands the highest integrity and the best business capacity of those
in charge of these depositories of the people's earnings.

We have a vast and intricate business, built up through years of
toil and struggle, in which every part of the country has its stake,
and will not permit of either neglect or of undue selfishness. No
narrow, sordid policy will subserve it. The greatest skill and wisdom
on the part of the manufacturers and producers will be required to hold
and increase it. Our industrial enterprises which have grown to such
great proportions affect the homes and occupations of the people and
the welfare of the country. Our capacity to produce has developed so
enormously and our products have so multiplied that the problem of more
markets requires our urgent and immediate attention. Only a broad and
enlightened policy will keep what we have. No other policy will get
more. In these times of marvelous business energy and gain we ought
to be looking to the future, strengthening the weak places in our
industrial and commercial system, that we may be ready for any storm
or strain.

By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our home
production we shall extend the outlets for our increasing surplus.
A system which provides a mutual exchange of commodities, a mutual
exchange is manifestly essential to the continued and healthful growth
of our export trade. We must not repose in fancied security that we can
forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If such a thing were
possible, it would not be best for us or for those with whom we deal.
We should take from our customers such of their products as we can use
without harm to our industries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural
outgrowth of our wonderful industrial development under the domestic
policy now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic
consumption must have a vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through
a foreign outlet and we should sell everywhere we can, and buy wherever
the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a
greater demand for home labor.

The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and
commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable.
A policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent
reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the
times, measures of retaliation are not. If perchance some of our tariffs
are no longer needed, for revenue or to encourage and protect our
industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and
promote our markets abroad? Then, too, we have inadequate steamship
service. New lines of steamers have already been put in commission
between the Pacific coast ports of the United States and those on the
western coasts of Mexico and Central and South America. These should be
followed up with direct steamship lines between the eastern coast of the
United States and South American ports. One of the needs of the times is
to direct commercial lines from our vast fields of production to the
fields of consumption that we have but barely touched. Next in advantage
to having the thing to sell is to have the convenience to carry it to
the buyer. We must encourage our merchant marine. We must have more
ships. They must be under the American flag, built and manned and owned
by Americans. These will not only be profitable in a commercial sense;
they will be messengers of peace and amity wherever they go. We must
build the Isthmian canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a
straight line of water communication with the western coasts of Central
and South America and Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable cannot
be longer postponed.

In the furthering of these objects of national interest and concern
you are performing an important part. This exposition would have
touched the heart of that American statesman whose mind was ever alert
and thought ever constant for a larger commerce and a truer fraternity
of the republics of the new world. His broad American spirit is felt
and manifested here. He needs no identification to an assemblage of
Americans anywhere, for the name of Blaine is inseparably associated
with the Pan-American movement, which finds this practical and
substantial expression, and which we all hope will be firmly advanced by
the Pan-American congress that assembles this autumn in the capital of
Mexico. The good work will go on. It cannot be stopped. These buildings
will disappear; this creation of art and beauty and industry will perish
from sight, but their influence will remain to

Make it live beyond its too short living
With praises and thanksgiving.

Who can tell the new thoughts that have been awakened, the ambitions
fired and the high achievements that will be wrought through this
exposition? Gentlemen, let us ever remember that our interest is in
concord, not conflict, and that our real eminence rests in the victories
of peace, not those of war. We hope that all who are represented here
may be moved to higher and nobler effort for their own and the world's
good, and that out of this city may come, not only greater commerce and
trade, but more essential than these, relations of mutual respect,
confidence and friendship which will deepen and endure.

Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity,
happiness and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the
peoples and powers of earth.

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