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

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Third. The Commissioner of the General Land Office reports that an
investigation, made under the supervision of his office, shows that Mr.
Redstone had actually abandoned the land covered by his preemption claim
before the reserve was established.

Fourth. The Commissioner of the General Land Office reports that an
examination, made under the supervision of his office, shows that the
improvements placed upon this land during the life of this preemption
claim and thereafter abandoned were less than $200 in value, while the
amount appropriated in this bill is $1,800.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 27, 1899_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

In accordance with a provision in the act making appropriations for
the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1899,
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of Agriculture "upon the
forestry investigations and work of the Department of Agriculture."

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 9, 1899_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith, in response to a resolution of the Senate of
the 2nd instant, requesting information "whether any franchises or
concessions of any character are being or have been granted by any
municipality in Cuba or Puerto Rico since the military occupation
thereof by the United States," etc., a report from the Secretary of
War and accompanying papers.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 11, 1899_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith the response of the Secretary of State to the
resolution of the House of Representatives of February 4, 1899, calling
for information in his possession concerning certain alleged outrages
committed upon the person of Bishop Earl Cranston and other American
citizens in the city of Peking, China.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 18, 1899_.

_To the Senate_:

I transmit herewith the response of the Secretary of Agriculture to the
resolution of the Senate of February 8, 1899, calling for information
in his possession regarding the practical usefulness of reservoirs to
agriculture in the irrigated region of the United States, especially
as affecting the distribution of water to crops, the area and value of
reclaimed land, and the stability and unprofitableness of farming where
irrigation is practised.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 21, 1899_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State,
accompanying the commercial relations of the United States for the
year 1898, being the annual reports of the consular officers upon the
industries and commerce of foreign countries. In view of the value of
these reports to the manufacturing and exporting interests of the
country, I indorse the recommendation of the Secretary of State that
Congress authorize the printing of the usual editions of 10,000 copies
of the general summary, entitled "Review of the World's Commerce" and
of 5,000 copies of "Commercial Relations" (including this summary), to
enable the Department of State to meet the demand for such information.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 1, 1899_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, a communication
from the Secretary of Agriculture, covering a report on the progress of
the beet-sugar industry in the United States during the year 1898. It
embraces the results of numerous chemical analyses and the observations
made by a special agent in various parts of the United States.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, March 3, 1899_.

_To the Senate_:

In response to the resolution of the Senate of February 28 last
directed to the Secretary of State, I transmit a report from that
officer submitting a list of claims against Spain, growing out of the
insurrection in Cuba, filed in the Department of State, not embraced
in Senate Document No. 79, Fifty-fourth Congress, second session.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 5, 1899_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

At the threshold of your deliberations you are called to mourn with your
countrymen the death of Vice-President Hobart, who passed from this life
on the morning of November 21 last. His great soul now rests in eternal
peace. His private life was pure and elevated, while his public career
was ever distinguished by large capacity, stainless integrity, and
exalted motives. He has been removed from the high office which he
honored and dignified, but his lofty character, his devotion to duty,
his honesty of purpose, and noble virtues remain with us as a priceless
legacy and example.

The Fifty-sixth Congress convenes in its first regular session with the
country in a condition of unusual prosperity, of universal good will
among the people at home, and in relations of peace and friendship with
every government of the world. Our foreign commerce has shown great
increase in volume and value. The combined imports and exports for the
year are the largest ever shown by a single year in all our history.
Our exports for 1899 alone exceeded by more than a billion dollars our
imports and exports combined in 1870. The imports per capita are 20 per
cent less than in 1870, while the exports per capita are 58 per cent
more than in 1870, showing the enlarged capacity of the United States
to satisfy the wants of its own increasing population, as well as to
contribute to those of the peoples of other nations.

Exports of agricultural products were $784,776,142. Of manufactured
products we exported in value $339,592,146, being larger than any
previous year. It is a noteworthy fact that the only years in all our
history when the products of our manufactories sold abroad exceeded
those bought abroad were 1898 and 1899.

Government receipts from all sources for the fiscal year ended June 30,
1899, including $11,798,314.14, part payment of the Central Pacific
Railroad indebtedness, aggregated $610,982,004.35. Customs receipts were
$206,128,481.75, and those from internal revenue $273,437,161.51.

For the fiscal year the expenditures were $700,093,564.02, leaving a
deficit of $89,111,559.67.

The Secretary of the Treasury estimates that the receipts for the
current fiscal year will aggregate $640,958,112, and upon the basis of
present appropriations the expenditures will aggregate $600,958,112,
leaving a surplus of $40,000,000.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1899, the internal-revenue receipts
were increased about $100,000,000.

The present gratifying strength of the Treasury is shown by the
fact that on December 1, 1899, the available cash balance was
$278,004,837.72, of which $239,744,905.36 was in gold coin and bullion.
The conditions of confidence which prevail throughout the country have
brought gold into more general use and customs receipts are now almost
entirely paid in that coin.

The strong position of the Treasury with respect to cash on hand and the
favorable showing made by the revenues have made it possible for the
Secretary of the Treasury to take action under the provisions of section
3694, Revised Statutes, relating to the sinking fund. Receipts exceeded
expenditures for the first five months of the current fiscal year by
$13,413,389.91, and, as mentioned above, the Secretary of the Treasury
estimates that there will be a surplus of approximately $40,000,000 at
the end of the year. Under such conditions it was deemed advisable and
proper to resume compliance with the provisions of the sinking-fund law,
which for eight years has not been done because of deficiencies in the
revenues. The Treasury Department therefore offered to purchase during
November $25,000,000 of the 5 per cent loan of 1904, or the 4 per cent
funded loan of 1907, at the current market price. The amount offered
and purchased during November was $18,408,600. The premium paid by
the Government on such purchases was $2,263,521 and the net saving
in interest was about $2,885,000. The success of this operation was
sufficient to induce the Government to continue the offer to purchase
bonds to and including the 23d day of December, instant, unless the
remainder of the $25,000,000 called for should be presented in the
meantime for redemption.

Increased activity in industry, with its welcome attendant--a larger
employment for labor at higher wages--gives to the body of the people
a larger power to absorb the circulating medium. It is further true
that year by year, with larger areas of land under cultivation, the
increasing volume of agricultural products, cotton, corn, and wheat,
calls for a larger volume of money supply. This is especially noticeable
at the crop-harvesting and crop-moving period.

In its earlier history the National Banking Act seemed to prove a
reasonable avenue through which needful additions to the circulation
could from time to time be made. Changing conditions have apparently
rendered it now inoperative to that end. The high margin in bond
securities required, resulting from large premiums which Government
bonds command in the market, or the tax on note issues, or both
operating together, appear to be the influences which impair its public
utility.

The attention of Congress is respectfully invited to this important
matter, with the view of ascertaining whether or not such reasonable
modifications can be made in the National Banking Act as will render
its service in the particulars here referred to more responsive to
the people's needs. I again urge that national banks be authorized
to organize with a capital of $25,000.

I urgently recommend that to support the existing gold standard, and to
maintain "the parity in value of the coins of the two metals (gold and
silver) and the equal power of every dollar at all times in the market
and in the payment of debts," the Secretary of the Treasury be given
additional power and charged with the duty to sell United States bonds
and to employ such other effective means as may be necessary to these
ends. The authority should include the power to sell bonds on long and
short time, as conditions may require, and should provide for a rate
of interest lower than that fixed by the act of January 14, 1875.
While there is now no commercial fright which withdraws gold from the
Government, but, on the contrary, such widespread confidence that gold
seeks the Treasury demanding paper money in exchange, yet the very
situation points to the present as the most fitting time to make
adequate provision to insure the continuance of the gold standard and of
public confidence in the ability and purpose of the Government to meet
all its obligations in the money which the civilized world recognizes
as the best. The financial transactions of the Government are conducted
upon a gold basis. We receive gold when we sell United States bonds and
use gold for their payment. We are maintaining the parity of all the
money issued or coined by authority of the Government. We are doing
these things with the means at hand. Happily at the present time we are
not compelled to resort to loans to supply gold. It has been done in the
past, however, and may have to be done in the future. It behooves us,
therefore, to provide at once the best means to meet the emergency when
it arises, and the best means are those which are the most certain and
economical. Those now authorized have the virtue neither of directness
nor economy. We have already eliminated one of the causes of our
financial plight and embarrassment during the years 1893, 1894, 1895,
and 1896. Our receipts now equal our expenditures; deficient revenues
no longer create alarm. Let us remove the only remaining cause by
conferring the full and necessary power on the Secretary of the Treasury
and impose upon him the duty to uphold the present gold standard and
preserve the coins of the two metals on a parity with each other, which
is the repeatedly declared policy of the United States.

In this connection I repeat my former recommendations that a portion of
the gold holdings shall be placed in a trust fund from which greenbacks
shall be redeemed upon presentation, but when once redeemed shall not
thereafter be paid out except for gold.

The value of an American merchant marine to the extension of our
commercial trade and the strengthening of our power upon the sea invites
the immediate action of the Congress. Our national development will be
one-sided and unsatisfactory so long as the remarkable growth of our
inland industries remains unaccompanied by progress on the seas. There
is no lack of constitutional authority for legislation which shall give
to the country maritime strength commensurate with its industrial
achievements and with its rank among the nations of the earth.

The past year has recorded exceptional activity in our shipyards, and
the promises of continual prosperity in shipbuilding are abundant.
Advanced legislation for the protection of our seamen has been enacted.
Our coast trade, under regulations wisely framed at the beginning of the
Government and since, shows results for the past fiscal year unequaled
in our records or those of any other power. We shall fail to realize our
opportunities, however, if we complacently regard only matters at home
and blind ourselves to the necessity of securing our share in the
valuable carrying trade of the world.

Last year American vessels transported a smaller share of our exports
and imports than during any former year in all our history, and the
measure of our dependence upon foreign shipping was painfully manifested
to our people. Without any choice of our own, but from necessity, the
Departments of the Government charged with military and naval operations
in the East and West Indies had to obtain from foreign flags merchant
vessels essential for those operations.

The other great nations have not hesitated to adopt the required means
to develop their shipping as a factor in national defense and as one of
the surest and speediest means of obtaining for their producers a share
in foreign markets. Like vigilance and effort on our part cannot fail
to improve our situation, which is regarded with humiliation at home
and with surprise abroad. Even the seeming sacrifices, which at the
beginning may be involved, will be offset later by more than equivalent
gains.

The expense is as nothing compared to the advantage to be achieved.
The reestablishment of our merchant marine involves in a large measure
our continued industrial progress and the extension of our commercial
triumphs. 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.

Combinations of capital organized into trusts to control the conditions
of trade among our citizens, to stifle competition, limit production,
and determine the prices of products used and consumed by the people,
are justly provoking public discussion, and should early claim the
attention of the Congress.

The Industrial Commission, created by the act of the Congress of June
18, 1898, has been engaged in extended hearings upon the disputed
questions involved in the subject of combinations in restraint of trade
and competition. They have not yet completed their investigation of this
subject, and the conclusions and recommendations at which they may
arrive are undetermined.

The subject is one giving rise to many divergent views as to the nature
and variety or cause and extent of the injuries to the public which may
result from large combinations concentrating more or less numerous
enterprises and establishments, which previously to the formation of the
combination were carried on separately.

It is universally conceded that combinations which engross or control
the market of any particular kind of merchandise or commodity necessary
to the general community, by suppressing natural and ordinary
competition, whereby prices are unduly enhanced to the general consumer,
are obnoxious not only to the common law but also to the public welfare.
There must be a remedy for the evils involved in such organizations. If
the present law can be extended more certainly to control or check these
monopolies or trusts, it should be done without delay. Whatever power
the Congress possesses over this most important subject should be
promptly ascertained and asserted.

President Harrison in his annual message of December 3, 1889, says:

Earnest attention should be given by Congress to a consideration of the
question how far the restraint of those combinations of capital commonly
called "trusts" is matter of Federal jurisdiction. When organized, as
they often are, to crush out all healthy competition and to monopolize
the production or sale of an article of commerce and general necessity
they are dangerous conspiracies against the public good, and should be
made the subject of prohibitory and even penal legislation.

An act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints
and monopolies was passed by Congress on the 2d of July, 1890. The
provisions of this statute are comprehensive and stringent. It declares
every contract or combination, in the form of a trust or otherwise,
or conspiracy in the restraint of trade or commerce among the several
States or with foreign nations, to be unlawful. It denominates as a
criminal every person who makes any such contract or engages in any
such combination or conspiracy, and provides a punishment by fine or
imprisonment. It invests the several circuit courts of the United States
with jurisdiction to prevent and restrain violations of the act, and
makes it the duty of the several United States district attorneys, under
the direction of the Attorney-General, to institute proceedings in
equity to prevent and restrain such violations. It further confers upon
any person who shall be injured in his business or property by any other
person or corporation by reason of anything forbidden or declared to be
unlawful by the act, the power to sue therefor in any circuit court of
the United States without respect to the amount in controversy, and to
recover threefold the damages by him sustained and the costs of the
suit, including reasonable attorney fees. It will be perceived that the
act is aimed at every kind of combination in the nature of a trust or
monopoly in restraint of interstate or international commerce.

The prosecution by the United States of offenses under the act of 1890
has been frequently resorted to in the Federal courts, and notable
efforts in the restraint of interstate commerce, such as the
Trans-Missouri Freight Association and the Joint Traffic Association,
have been successfully opposed and suppressed.

President Cleveland in his annual message of December 7, 1896--more than
six years subsequent to the enactment of this law--after stating the
evils of these trust combinations, says:

Though Congress has attempted to deal with this matter by legislation,
the laws passed for that purpose thus far have proved ineffective, not
because of any lack of disposition or attempt to enforce them, but
simply because the laws themselves as interpreted by the courts do not
reach the difficulty. If the insufficiencies of existing laws can be
remedied by further legislation, it should be done. The fact must be
recognized, however, that all Federal legislation on this subject may
fall short of its purpose because of inherent obstacles, and also
because of the complex character of our governmental system, which,
while making the Federal authority supreme within its sphere, has
carefully limited that sphere by metes and bounds which cannot be
transgressed. The decision of our highest court on this precise question
renders it quite doubtful whether the evils of trusts and monopolies can
be adequately treated through Federal action, unless they seek directly
and purposely to include in their objects transportation or intercourse
between States or between the United States and foreign countries.

It does not follow, however, that this is the limit of the remedy that
may be applied. Even though it may be found that Federal authority is
not broad enough to fully reach the case, there can be no doubt of the
power of the several States to act effectively in the premises, and
there should be no reason to doubt their willingness to judiciously
exercise such power.

The State legislation to which President Cleveland looked for relief
from the evils of trusts has failed to accomplish fully that object.
This is probably due to a great extent to the fact that different States
take different views as to the proper way to discriminate between evil
and injurious combinations and those associations which are beneficial
and necessary to the business prosperity of the country. The great
diversity of treatment in different States arising from this cause and
the intimate relations of all parts of the country to each other without
regarding State lines in the conduct of business have made the
enforcement of State laws difficult.

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.

A review of our relations with foreign States is presented with such
recommendations as are deemed appropriate.

The long-pending boundary dispute between the Argentine Republic and
Chile was settled in March last by the award of an arbitral commission,
on which the United States minister at Buenos Ayres served as umpire.

Progress has been made toward the conclusion of a convention of
extradition with the Argentine Republic. Having been advised and
consented to by the United States Senate and ratified by Argentina, it
only awaits the adjustment of some slight changes in the text before
exchange.

In my last annual message I adverted to the claim of the
Austro-Hungarian Government for indemnity for the killing of certain
Austrian and Hungarian subjects by the authorities of the State of
Pennsylvania, at Lattimer, while suppressing an unlawful tumult of
miners, September 10, 1897. In view of the verdict of acquittal rendered
by the court before which the sheriff and his deputies were tried for
murder, and following the established doctrine that the Government may
not be held accountable for injuries suffered by individuals at the
hands of the public authorities while acting in the line of duty in
suppressing disturbance of the public peace, this Government, after due
consideration of the claim advanced by the Austro-Hungarian Government,
was constrained to decline liability to indemnify the sufferers.

It is gratifying to be able to announce that the Belgian Government has
mitigated the restrictions on the importation of cattle from the United
States, to which I referred in my last annual message.

Having been invited by Belgium to participate in a congress, held at
Brussels, to revise the provisions of the general act of July 2, 1890,
for the repression of the African slave trade, to which the United
States was a signatory party, this Government preferred not to be
represented by a plenipotentiary, but reserved the right of accession
to the result. Notable changes were made, those especially concerning
this country being in the line of the increased restriction of the
deleterious trade in spirituous liquors with the native tribes, which
this Government has from the outset urgently advocated. The amended
general act will be laid before the Senate, with a view to its advice
and consent.

Early in the year the peace of Bolivia was disturbed by a successful
insurrection. The United States minister remained at his post, attending
to the American interests in that quarter, and using besides his good
offices for the protection of the interests of British subjects in the
absence of their national representative. On the establishment of the
new Government, our minister was directed to enter into relations
therewith.

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