182 



CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



The gain in freights to the people and the direct sav- 

 ing to the Government of the U nited States in the use 

 of its naval vessels would pay the entire cost of this 

 work within a short series of years. The report of the 

 Secretary of the Navy shows the saving in our naval 

 expenditures which would result. 



The Senator from Alabama (Mr. Morgan), in his 

 argument upon this subject before the Senate at the 

 last session, did not overestimate the importance of 

 this work when he said that " the canal is the most 

 important subject now connected with the commercial 

 growth and progress of the United States." 



If this work is to be promoted by the usual finan- 

 cial methods and without the aid of this Government, 

 the expenditures, in its interest-bearing securities and 

 stocks, will probably be twice the actual cost. This 

 will necessitate higher tolls, and constitute a heavy 

 and altogether needless burden upon our commerce 

 and that of the world. Every dollar of the bonds and 

 stock of the company should represent a dollar ex- 

 pended in the legitimate and economical prosecution 

 of the work. Tnis is only possible by giving to the 

 hoiii Is the guarantee of the United States Government. 

 Such a guarantee would secure the ready sale at par 

 of a 3-per-cent. bond, from time to time, as the 

 money was needed. I do not doubt that, built upon 

 these business methods, the canal would, when fully 

 inaugurated, earn its tixed charges and operating ex- 

 penses. But if its bonds arc to be marketed at heavy 

 discounts and every bond sold is to be accompanied 

 by a gift of stock, as has come to be expected oy in- 

 vestors in such enterprises, the traffic will be seriously 

 burdened to pay interest and dividends. I am quite 

 willing to recommend Government promotion in the 

 prosecution of a work which, if no other means oft'ered 

 for securing its completion, is of such transcendent 

 interest that the Government should, in my opinion, 

 secure it by direct appropriations from its Treasury. 



A guarantee of the oonds of the Canal Company to 

 an amount necessary to the completion of the canal 

 could, I think, be so given as not to involve any seri- 

 ous risk of ultimate loss. The things to be carefully 

 guarded are the completion of the work within the 

 limits of the guarantee, the subrogation of the United 

 States to the rights of the first-mortgage bondhold- 

 ers for any amounts it may have to pay, and in 

 the mean time a control of the stock of the company 

 as a security against mismanagement and loss. I 

 most sincerely hope that neither party nor sectional 

 lines will be drawn upon this great American project, 

 so full of interest to the people of all our States and 

 so influential in its effects upon the prestige and pros- 

 perity of our common country. 



The island of Navassa, in the West Indian group, 

 has, under the provisions of Title 72 of the Revised 

 Statutes, been recognized by the President as apper- 

 taining to the United States. It contains guano de- 

 posits, is owned by the Navassa Phosphate Company, 

 and is occupied solely by its employees. In Septem- 

 ber, 1889, a revolt took place among these laborers, re- 

 sulting in the killing of some of the agents of the com- 

 pany, caused, as the laborers claimed, by cruel treat- 

 ment. These men were arrested and tried in the United 

 States court at Baltimore, under section 5576 of the 

 statute referred to, as if the offenses had been com- 

 mitted on board a merchant vessel of the United 

 States on the high seas. There appeared on the trial, 

 and otherwise came to me, such evidences of the bad 

 treatment of the men that, in consideration of this and 

 of the fact that the men had no access to any public 

 officer or tribunal for protection or the redress of 

 their wrongs, I commuted the death sentences that 

 had been passed by the court upon three of them. In 

 April last my attention was again called to this island, 

 and to the unregulated condition of things there, by 

 a letter from a colored laborer, who complained that 

 he was wrongfully detained upon the island by the 

 phosphate company after the expiration of his contract 

 of service. A naval vessel was sent to examine into 

 the case of this man and generally into the condition 

 of things on the island. It was found that the la- 



borer referred to had been detained beyond the con- 

 tract limit, and that a condition of revolt again ex- 

 isted among the laborers. A board of naval officers 

 reported, among other things, as follows : 



"We would desire to state further that the discipline 

 maintained on the island seems to be that of a convict 

 establishment, without its comforts and cleanliness, 

 and that, until more attention is paid to the shipping 

 of laborers, by placing it under Government supervis- 

 ion to prevent misunderstanding and misrepresenta- 

 tion, and until some amelioration is shown in the 

 treatment of the laborers, these disorders will be of 

 constant occurrence." 



1 recommend legislation that shall place labor con- 

 tracts upon this and other islands having the relation 

 that Navassa has to the United States under the 

 supervision of a court commissioner, and that shall 

 provide, at the expense of the owners, an officer to 

 reside upon the islands with power to judge and ad- 

 just disputes and to enforce a just and humane treat- 

 ment of the employees. It is inexcusable that Amer- 

 ican laborers should be left within our own jurisdiction 

 without access to any Government officer or tribunal 

 for their protection and the redress of their wrongs. 



International copyright has been secured, in accord- 

 ance with the conditions of the act of March 3, 1891, 

 with Belgium, France, Great Britain and the British 

 possessions, and Switzerland, the laws of those coun- 

 tries permitting to our citizens the benefit of copyright 

 on substantially the same basis as to their own citizens 

 or subjects. With Germany a special convention has 

 been negotiated upon this subject, which will bring 

 that country within the recip'rocal benefits of our 

 legislation. 



The general interest in the operations of the Treas- 

 ury Department has been much augmented during 

 the last year by reason of the conflicting predictions, 

 which accompanied and followed the tariff and other 

 legislation of the last Congress affecting the revenues, 

 as to the results of this legislation upon the Treasury 

 and upon the country. On the one hand it was con- 

 tended that imports would so fall off as to leave the 

 Treasury bankrupt and that the prices of articles 

 entering into the living of the people would be so 

 enhanced as to disastrously affect their comfort and 

 happiness, while on the other it was argued that the 

 loss to the revenue, largely the result of placing sugar 

 on the free list, would be a direct gain to the people ; 

 that the prices of the necessaries of life, including 

 those most highly protected, would not be enhanced; 

 that labor would' have a larger market and the prod- 

 ucts of the farm advanced prices ; while the Treasury 

 surplus and receipts would be adequate to meet the 

 appropriations, including the large exceptional ex- 

 penditures for the refunding to the States of the direct 

 tax and the redemption of the 4i-per-cent. bonds. 



It is not my purpose to enter at any length into a 

 discussion of the effects of the legislation to which I 

 have referred ; but a brief examination of the statistics 

 of the Treasury and a general glance at the state of 

 business throughout the country will, I think, satisfy 

 any impartial inquirer that its results have disap- 

 pointed the evil prophecies of its opponents and in a 

 large measure realized the hopeful predictions of its 

 friends. Rarely, if ever before, in the history of the 

 country has there been a time when the proceeds of 

 one day's labor or the product of one farmed acre 

 would purchase so large an amount of those things 

 that enter into the living of the masses of the people. 

 I believe that a full test "will develop the fact that the 

 tariff act of the Fifty-first Congress is very favorable 

 in its average effect upon the prices of articles entering 

 into common use. 



During the twelve months from Oct. 1. 1890, to 

 Sept. 30, 1891, the total value of our foreign commerce 

 (imports and exports combined) was $1,747,806,406, 

 which was the largest of any year in the history 

 of the United States. The largest in any previous 

 year was in 1890, when our commerce amounted to 

 $1,647,139,093, and the last year exceeds this enor- 

 mous aggregate by over one hundred millions. It is 



