198 



CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



oncea of the contrasted effects of a revenue and of a 

 protective tariff; but this generation has not felt 

 them, and the experience of one generation is not 

 highly instructive to the next. The friends of the 

 protective system, with undiminished confidence in 

 the principles they have advocated, will await the 

 results of the new experiment. 



The strained and too often disturbed relations ex- 

 isting between the employees and the employers in 

 our great manufacturing establishments have not been 

 favorable to a calm consideration by the wage earner 

 of the effect upon wages of the protective system. The 

 facts that his wages were the highest paid in like call- 

 ings in the world and that a maintenance of this rate 

 of wages, in the absence of protective duties upon the 

 product of his labor, was impossible, were obscured by 

 the passion evoked by these contests. He may now 

 be able to review the question in the light of his per- 

 sonal experience under the operation of a tariff for 

 revenue only. If that experience shall demonstrate 

 that present rates of wages are thereby maintained or 

 increased, either absolutely or in tneir purchasing 

 power, and that the aggregate volume of work to be 

 done in this country is increased, or even maintained, 

 so that there are more or as many days' work in a year 

 at as good or better wages for the American workman 

 as has been the case under the protective system, every 

 one will rejoice. 



A general process of wage reduction can not be 

 contemplated by any patriotic citizen without the 

 gravest apprehension. It may be, indeed I believe is, 

 possible for the American manufacturer to compete 

 successfully with his foreign rival in many branches 

 of production without the defense of protective duties 

 if the pay rolls are equalized ; but the conflict that 

 stands between the producer and that result and the 

 distress of our working people when it is attained are 

 not pleasant to contemplate. The Society of the Un- 

 employed, now holding its frequent and threatening 

 parades in the streets of foreign cities, should not be 

 allowed to acquire an American domicile. 



The reports of the heads of the several executive 

 departments which are herewith submitted have 

 very naturally included &' resume of the whole work 

 of the administration with the transactions of the last 

 fiscal year. The attention not only of Congress but 

 of the country is again invited to the methods of ad- 

 ministration which have been pursued and to the re- 

 sults which have been attained. Public revenues 

 amounting to $1,414,079,292.28 have been collected 

 and disbursed without loss from misappropriation, 

 without a single defalcation of such importance as to 

 attract the public attention, and at a diminished per 

 cent, of cost for collection. The public business has 

 been transacted not only with fidelity, but progres- 

 sively, and with a view to giving to the people in the 

 fullest possible degree the benefits of a service estab- 

 lished and maintained for their protection and com- 

 fort. 



Our relations with other nations are now undis- 

 turbed by any serious controversy. The complicated 

 and threatening differences with Germany and Eng- 

 land relating to Samoan affairs, with England in re- 

 lation to the seal fisheries in the Bering Sea, and with 

 Chili growing out of the Baltimore affair have been 

 adjusted. 



There have been negotiated and concluded, under 

 section 3 of the tariff law, commercial agreements re- 

 lating to reciprocal trade with the following coun- 

 tries : Brazil, Dominican Republic, Spain for Cuba 

 and Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Salvador, the German 

 Empire, Great Britain for certain West Indian colo- 

 nies and British Guiana, Nicaragua, Honduras, and 

 A ustria-Hungary. 



Of these, those with Guatemala, Salvador, the Ger- 

 man Empire, Great Britain, Nicaragua, Honduras, and 

 Austria-Hungary have been concluded since my last 

 annual message. Under these trade arrangements a 

 free or favored admission has been secured in every 

 case for an important list of American products. Es- 

 pecial care has been taken to secure markets for farm 



products in order to relieve that great underlying in- 

 dustry of the depression which the lack of an ade- 

 quate foreign market for our surplus often brings. An 

 opening has also been made for manufactured prod- 

 ucts that will undoubtedly, if this policy is main- 

 tained, greatly augment our export trade. The full 

 benefits of these arrangements can not be realized in^ 

 stantly. New lines of trade are to be opened. The 

 commercial traveler must survey the field. The 

 manufacturer must adapt his goods to the new mar- 

 kets and facilities for exchange must be established. 

 This work has been well begun, our merchants and 

 manufacturers having entered the new fields with 

 courage and enterprise. In the case of food products, 

 and especially with Cuba, the trade did not need to 

 wait, and the immediate results have been most grati- 

 fying. If this policy and these trade arrangements 

 can be continued in force and aided by the establish- 

 ment of American steamship lines, I do not doubt that 

 we shall, within a short period, secure fully one third 

 of the total trade of the countries of Central and South 

 America, which now amounts to about $600,000,000 an- 

 nually. In 1885 we had only 8 per cent, of this trade. 



The following statistics show the increase in our 

 trade with the countries with which we have recipro- 

 cal trade agreements from the date when such agree- 

 ments went into effect up to Sept. 30, 1892, the in- 

 crease being in some almost wholly and in others in 

 an important degree the result of these agreements. 



The domestic exports to Germany and Austria- 

 Hungary have increased in value from $47,673,756 to 

 $57,993.064, an increase of $10,319,308, or 21-63 per 

 cent. With American countries the value of our ex- 

 ports has increased from $44,160,285 to $54,613,598, an 

 increase of $10,453,313, or 23-67 per cent. The total 

 increase in the value of exports to all the countries 

 with which we have reciprocity agreements has been 

 $20,772,621. This increase is chiefly in wheat, flour, 

 meat, and dairy products, and in manufactures of iron 

 and steel and lumber. There has been a large in- 

 crease in the value of imports from all these countries 

 since the commercial agreements went into effect, 

 amounting to $74,294,525, but it has been entirely in 

 imports from the American countries, consisting most- 

 ly of sugar, coffee, India rubber, and crude drugs. 

 The alarmed attention of our European competitors 

 for the South American market has been attracted to 

 this new American policy, and to our acquisition and 

 their loss of South American trade. 



A treaty providing for the arbitration of the dis- 

 pute between Great Britain and the United States as 

 to the killing of seals in the Bering Sea was con- 

 cluded on the 29th of February last. This treaty was 

 accompanied by an agreement prohibiting pelagic 

 sealing pending the arbitration, and a vigorous effort 

 was made during this season to drive out all poach- 

 ing sealers from the Bering Sea. Six naval vessels, 3 

 revenue cutters, and 1 vessel from the Fish Commis- 

 sion, all under the command of Commander Evans, of 

 the navy, were sent into the sea, which was system- 

 atically patrolled. Some seizures were made, and it 

 is believed that the catch in the Bering Sea by poach- 

 ers amounted to less than 500 seals. It is true, how- 

 ever, that in the north Pacific, while the seal herds 

 were on their way to the passes between the Aleutian 

 Islands, a very large number, probably 35,000, were 

 taken. The existing statutes of the United States do 

 not restrain our citizens from taking seals in the Pa- 

 cific Ocean, and perhaps should not, unless the pro- 

 hibition can be extended to the citizens of other na- 

 tions. I recommend that power be given to the 

 President, by proclamation, to prohibit the taking of 

 seals in the north Pacific by American vessels, in 

 case, either as the result of the findings of the tribunal 

 of arbitration, or otherwise, the restraints can be ap- 

 plied to the vessels of all countries. The case of the 

 United States for the tribunal of arbitration has been 

 prepared with great care and industry by the Hon. 

 John W. Foster, and the counsel who represent this 

 Government express confidence that a result substan- 

 tially establishing our claims and preserving this 



