158 



CONGRESS. (PBESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



ily in his humble home, as a consumer is vitally in- 

 terested in all that cheapens the cost of living, and 

 enables him to bring within his domestic circle addi- 

 tional comforts and advantages. 



This relation of the workingman to the revenue 

 laws of the country, and the manner in which it pal- 

 pably influences the question of wages, should not be 

 forgotten in the justifiable prominence given to the 

 proper maintenance of the supply and protection of 

 well-paid labor. And these considerations suggest 

 such an arrangement of Government revenues as shall 

 reduce the expense of living, while it does not curtail 

 the opportunity for work nor reduce the compensation 

 of American labor, and injuriously affect its condition 

 and the dignified place it holds in the estimation of 

 our people. 



But our farmers and agriculturists those who from 

 the soil produce the things consumed by all are, per- 

 haps, more directly and plainly concerned than any 

 other of our citizens in a just and careful system of 

 Federal taxation. Those actually engaged in and more 

 remotely connected with this kind ot work, number 

 nearly one half of our population. None labor harder 

 or more continuously than they. No enactments 

 limit their hours of toil, and no interposition of the 

 Government enhances to any extent the value of their 

 products. And yet for many of the necessaries and 

 comforts of life, which the most scrupulous economy 

 enables them to bring into their homes, and for their 

 implements of husbandry, they are obliged to pay a 

 price largely increased by an unnatural profit wnich, 

 by the action of the Government, is given to the more 

 favored manufacturer. 



I recommend that, keeping in view all these con- 

 siderations, the increasing and unnecessary surplus ot 

 national income annually accumulating be released to 

 the people by an amendment to our revenue laws 

 which shall cheapen the price of the necessaries of 

 life, and give freer entrance to such imported materials 

 as by American labor may be manufactured into mar- 

 ketable commodities. 



Nothing can be accomplished, however, in the di- 

 rection of this much-needed reform, unless the sub- 

 ject is approached in a patriotic spirit of devotion to 

 the interests of the entire country, and with a will- 

 ingness to yield something for the public good. 



The sum paid upon the public debt during the fiscal 

 year ended June 30, 1886, was $44,551,043.36. 



During the twelve months ended Oct. 31 ; 188(5, three- 

 per-cent. bonds were called for redemption amount- 

 ing to $127,283,100 : of which $80,643,200 was so called 

 to answer the requirements of the law relating to the 

 sinking-fund, and $46,639,900 for the purpose of re- 

 ducing the public debt by application of a part of the 

 surplus in the Treasury to that object. Of the bonds 

 thus called $102,269,450 became subject under such 

 calls to redemption prior to Nov. 1, 1886. The re- 

 mainder, amounting to $25,013,650, matured under 

 the calls after that date. 



In addition to the amount subject to payment and 

 cancellation prior to November 1, there were also paid 

 before that day certain of these bonds, with the interest 

 thereon, amounting to $5,072,350, which were antici- 

 pated as to their maturity, of which $2,664,850 had 

 not been called. Thus $107,341 ,800 had been actually 

 applied prior to the 1st of November, 1886, to the extin- 

 guishment of our bonded and interest-bearing debt, 

 leaving on that day still outstanding the sum of 

 $1,153,443,112. Of this amount $86,848.700 were still 

 represented by three-per-cent. bonds. They, however, 

 have been, since November 1, or will at once be, 

 further reduced by $22,606,150, being bonds which 

 have been called, as already stated, but not redeemed 

 and canceled before the latter date^ 



During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1886, there 

 were coined, under the compulsory silver-coinage act 

 of 1878, 29,838,905 silver dollars, and the cost of the 

 silver used in such coinage was $23,448,960.01. There 

 had been coined up to the close of the previous fiscal 

 year under provisions of the law, 203,882,554 silver 



dollars, and on the 1st day of December, 1886, the 

 total amount of such coinage was $247,131,549. 



The Director of the Mint reports that at the time of 

 the passage of the law of 1878 directing this coinage 

 the intrinsic value of the dollars thus coined was 

 ninety-four and one fourth cents each, and that on 

 the 31st day of July, 1886, the price of silver reached 

 the lowest stage ever known, so that the intrinsic or 

 bullion price of our standard silver dollar at that date 

 was less than seventy-two cents. The price of silver 

 on the 30th day of November last was such as to make 

 these dollars intrinsically worth seventy-eight cents 

 each. 



These differences in value of the coins represent 

 the fluctuations in the price of silver, and they cer- 

 tainly do not indicate that compulsory coinage b"y the 

 Government enhances the price of that commodity or 

 secures uniformity in its value. 



Every fair and legal effort has been made by the 

 Treasury Department to distribute this currency 

 among the people. The withdrawal of the United 

 States Treasury notes of small denominations, and 

 the issuing of small silver certificates have been re- 

 sorted to in the endeavor to accomplish this result, in 

 obedience to the will and sentiments of the representa- 

 tives of the people in the Congress. On the 27th day 

 of November, 1886, the people held of these coins, or 

 certificates representing them, the nominal sum of 

 $166,873,041, and we still had $79,464,345 in the 

 Treasury as against about $142.894,055 so in the 

 hands of the people, and $72,865,376 remaining in the 

 Treasury one year ago. The Director of the Mint 

 again urges the necessity of more vault-room for the 

 purpose of storing those silver dollars which arc not 

 needed for circulation by the people. 



I have seen no reason to change the views expressed 

 in my last annual message on the subject of this com- 

 pulsory coinage, and I again urge its suspension on 

 the grounds contained in my former recommendation, 

 re-enforced by the significant increase of our gold ex- 

 portations during the last year, as appears by the 

 comparative statement herewith presented, and for 

 the further reasons that the more this currency is dis- 

 tributed among the people the greater becomes our 

 duty to protect it from disaster ; that we now have 

 abundance for all our needs : and that there seems 

 but little propriety in building vaults to store such 

 currency when the only pretense for its coinage is the 

 necessity of its use by the people as a circulating me- 

 dium. 



The great number of suits now pending in the 

 United States courts for the Southern District of New 

 York, growing out of the collection of customs rev- 

 enue at the port of New York, and the number of 

 such suits that are almost daily instituted, are certainly 

 worthy the attention of the Congress. These legal con- 

 troversies, based upon conflicting views by importers 

 and the collector as to the interpretation of our pres- 

 ent complex and indefinite revenue laws, might be 

 largely obviated by an amendment of those laws. 



But, pending such amendment, the present condi- 

 tion of this litigation should be relieved. There are 

 now pending about twenty-five hundred of these 

 suits. More than eleven hundred have been com- 

 menced within the past eighteen months, and many 

 of the others have been at issue for more than twen- 

 ty-five years. These delays subject the Government 

 to loss of evidence, and prevent the preparation ne- 

 cessary to defeat unjust and fictitious claims, while 

 constantly accruing interest threatens to double the 

 demands involved. 



In the present condition of the dockets of the 

 courts, well filled with private suits, and of the force 

 allowed the district attorney, no greater than is neces- 

 sary for the ordinary and current business of his office, 

 these revenue litigations can not be considered. 



In default of the adoption by the Congress of a plan 

 for the general reorganization of the Federal courts, 

 as has been heretofore recommended, I urge the pro- 

 priety of passing a law permitting the appointment of 



