CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY.) 



185 



by the removal from about the sources of the streams 

 in question of th6 timber by which the water-supply 



The preservation of such portions of the forests on 

 the national domain as essentially contribute to the 

 equable flow of important water-courses is of the high- 

 est consequence. 



Important tributaries cf the Missouri, the Colum- 

 bia, and the Saskatchewan, rise in the mountain- 

 region of Montana, near the northern boundary of the 

 United States, between the Blackfeet and Flathead 

 Indian reservations. This region is unsuitable for 

 settlement, but upon the rivers which flow from it de- 

 pends the future agricultural development of a vast 

 tract of country. The attention of Congress is called 

 to the necessity of withdrawing from public sale this 

 part of the public domain, and establishing there a 

 forest reserve. 



The industrial exhibitions which have been held in 

 the United States during the present year attracted 

 attention in many foreign countries, where the an- 

 nouncement of those enterprises had been made pub- 

 lic through the foreign agencies of this Government. 

 The Industrial Exhibition at Boston, and the Southern 

 Exposition at Louisville, were largely attended by the 

 exhibitors of foreign countries, notwithstanding the 

 absence of any professed national character in those 

 undertakings. 



The Centennial Exposition to be held next year at 

 New Orleans, in commemoration of the centenary of 

 the first shipment of cotton from a port of the United 

 States, bids fair to meet with like gratifying success. 

 Under the act of Congress of the 10th of February, 

 1883, declaring that exposition to be national and in- 

 ternational in its character, all foreign governments 

 with which the United States maintain relations have 

 been invited to participate. 



The promoters of this important undertaking have 

 already received assurances of the lively interest which 

 it has excited abroad. 



The report of the Commissioners of the District of 

 Columbia is herewith transmitted. I ask for it your 

 careful attention, especially for those portions which 

 relate to assessments, arrears of taxes, and increase of 

 water-supply. 



The commissioners who were appointed under the 

 act of January 16, 1883, entitled " An act to regulate 

 and improve the civil service of the United States," 

 entered promptly upon the discharge of their duties. 



A series of rules, framed in accordance with the 

 spirit of the statute, was approved and promulgated 

 by the President. 



In some particulars wherein they seemed defective 

 those^ rules were subsequently amended. It will be 

 perceived that they discountenance any political or 

 religious tests for admission to those offices of the 

 public service to^ which the statute relates. 



The act is limited in its original application to the 

 classified clerkships in the several Executive Depart- 

 ments at Washington (numbering about 5,GOO), and to 

 similar positions in customs districts and post-offices 

 where as many as fifty persons are employed. 



A classification of these positions analogous to that 

 existing in the Washington offices was duly made be- 

 fore the law went into effect. 



Eleven customs districts and twenty-three post- 

 offices were thus brought under the immediate opera- 

 tion of the statute. 



The annual report of the civil-service commission, 

 which will soon be submitted to Congress, will doubt- 

 less afford the means of a more definite judgment than 

 I am now prepared to express as to the merits of the 

 new system. I am persuaded that its effects have 

 thus far proved beneficial. Its practical methods ap- 

 pear to be adequate for the enols proposed, and there 

 has been no serious difficulty in carrying them into 

 effect. Since the 16th of July last no person, so far 

 as I am aware, has been appointed to the public serv- 

 ice in the classified portions thereof at any of the 

 Departments, or at any of the post-offices and customs 



districts above named, except those certified by the 

 commission to be the most competent on the basis of 

 the examinations held in conformity to the rules. 



At the time when the present Executive entered 

 upon his office, his death, removal, resignation, or in- 

 ability to discharge his duties, would have left the 

 Government without a constitutional head. 



It is possible, of course, that a similar contingency 

 may again arise, unless the wisdom of Congress shall 

 provide against its recurrence. 



The Senate at its last session ? after full considera- 

 tion, passed an act relating to this subject, which will 

 now, I trust, commend itself to the approval of both 

 Houses of Congress. 



The clause of the Constitution upon which must de- 

 pend any law regulating the presidential succession, 

 presents also for solution other questions of paramount 

 importance. 



These questions relate to the proper interpretation 

 of the phrase " inability to discharge the powers and 

 duties of said office," our organic law providing that, 

 when the President shall suffer from such inability, 

 the presidential office shall devolve upon the Vice- 

 Presidentj who must himself, under like circum- 

 stances, give place to such officer as Congress may by 

 law appoint to act as President. 



I need not here set forth the numerous and interest- 

 ing inquiries which are suggested by these words of 

 the Constitution. They were fully stated in niy first 

 communication to Congress^ and nave since been the 

 subject of frequent deliberations in that body. 



It is greatlv to be hoped that these momentous 

 questions will find speedy solution, lest emergencies 

 may arise when longer delay will be impossible, and 

 any determination, albeit the wisest, may furnish 

 cause for anxiety and alarm. 



For the reasons fully stated in my last annual mes- 

 sage, I repeat my recommendation that Congress pro- 

 pose an amendment to that provision of the Constitu- 

 tion which prescribes the formalities for the enact- 

 ment of laws, whereby, in respect to bills for the 

 appropriation of public moneys, the Executive may 

 be enabled, while giving his approval to particular 

 items, to interpose his veto as to such others as do not 

 commend themselves to his judgment. 



The fourteenth amendment of the Constitution con- 

 fers the rights of citizenship upon all persons born or 

 naturalized in the United States and subject to the 

 jurisdiction thereof. It was the special purpose of 

 this amendment to insure to members of the colored 

 race the full enjoyment of civil and political rights. 



Certain statutory provisions intended to secure the 

 enforcement of those rights have been recently de- 

 clared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 



Any legislation whereby Congress may lawfully 

 supplement the guarantees which the Constitution 

 affords for the equal enjoyment by all the citizens of 

 the United States of every right, privilege, and im- 

 munity of citizenship will receive my unhesitating 

 approval. CHESTEE A. ARTHUR. 



WASHINGTON, December 4, 1883. 



Bnrean of Animal Industry. Feb. 5, 1884, a 

 bill to establish a bureau of animal industry, to 

 prevent the exportation of diseased cattle, and 

 to provide means for the suppression and ex- 

 tirpation of pleuro-pneumonia and other con- 

 tagious diseases among domestic animals, came 

 up for discussion in the House, and was the 

 subject of long debate there, and subsequently 

 in the Senate. The measure, as reported from 

 the Committee on Agriculture, was as follows: 



Be it enacted, etc., That the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture shall organize in his department a bureau of 

 animal industry, and shall appoint a chief thereof, 

 who shall be a competent veterinary surgeon, ana 

 whose duty it shall be to investigate and report upon 

 the number, value, and condition of the domestic ani* 



