CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



notwithstanding the facts stated in my special mes- 

 sage, the deed should be approved and the money, 

 $2,991,450, paid over, was presented to me May 10, 

 1892, My special message was intended to call the 

 attention of Congress to the subject, and in view of 

 the fact that it is conceded that the appropriation pro- 

 ceeded upon a false basis as to the amount of lands 

 to be paid for, and is by $50,000 in excess of the 

 amount they are entitled to (even if their claim to the 

 land is given full recognition at the rate agreed upon), 

 I have not felt willing to approve the deed, and shall 

 not do so, at least until both Houses of Congress have 

 acted upon the subject. It has been informally pro- 

 posed by the claimants to release this sum of $50,000, 

 but I have no power to demand or accept such a re- 

 lease, and such an agreement would be without con- 

 sideration and void. 



1 desire further to call the attention of Congress to 

 the fact that the recent agreement concluded with the 

 Kiowas and Comanches relates to lands which were a 

 part of the " leased district," and to which the claim 

 of the Choctaws and Chickasaws is precisely that 

 recognized by Congress in the legislation I have re- 

 ferred to. The surplus lands to which this claim 

 would attach in the Kiowa and Comanche Reserva- 

 tion is 2,500,000 acres, and at the same rate the Gov- 

 ernment will be called upon to pay to the Choctaws 

 and Chickasaws for these lands $3,125,000. This 

 sum will be further augmented, especially if the title 

 of the Indians to the tract now Grier County, Texas, 

 is established. The duty devolved upon me in this 

 connection was simply to pass upon the form of the 

 deed, but as in my opinion the facts mentioned in my 

 special message were not adequately brought to the 

 attention of Congress in connection with the legisla- 

 tion, I have felt that I would not be justified in acting 

 without some new expression of the legislative will. 



The report of the Commissioner of Pensions, to 

 which extended notice is given by the Secretary of 

 the Interior in his report, will attract great attention. 

 Judged by the aggregate amount of work done, the 

 last year has been the greatest in the history of the 

 office. I believe that the organization of the office is 

 efficient, and that the work has been done with fidel- 

 ity. The passage of what is known as the disability 

 bill has, as was foreseen, very largely increased the 

 annual disbursements to the disabled veterans of the 

 civil war. The estimate for this fiscal year was $144,- 

 956,000, and that amount was appropriated. A de- 

 ficiency amounting to $10,508,621 must be provided 

 for at this session. The estimate for pensions for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, is $165,000,000. The 

 Commissioner of Pensions believes that, if the present 

 legislation and methods are maintained and further 

 additions to the pension laws are not made, the maxi- 

 mum expenditure for pensions will be reached June 

 30, 1894, and will be at the highest point $188,000,000 

 per annum. 



I adhere to the views expressed in previous mes- 

 sages, that the care of the disabled soldiers of the war 

 of the rebellion is a matter of national concern and 

 duty. Perhaps no emotion cools sooner than that of 

 gratitude, but I can not believe that this process has 

 yet reached a point with our people that would sus- 

 tain the policy of remitting the care of these disabled 

 veterans to the inadequate agencies provided by local 

 laws. The parade on the 20th of September last, upon 

 the streets of this capital, of 60,000 of the surviving 

 Union veterans of the war of the rebellion was a most 

 touching and thrilling episode, and the rich and gra- 

 cious welcome extended to them by the District of 

 Columbia, and the applause that greeted their progress 

 from tens of thousands of people from all the States, 

 did much to revive the glorious recollections of the 

 grand review, when these men and many thousand 

 others now in their graves were welcomed with grate- 

 ful joy as victors in a struggle in which the national 

 unity, honor, and wealth were all at issue. 



In my last annual message I called attention to the 

 fact that some legislative action was necessary in order 

 to protect the interests of the Government in its rela- 



tions with the Union Pacific Railway. The Commis- 

 sioner of Railroads has submitted a very full report, 

 giving exact information as to the debt, the liens upon 

 the company's property, and its resources. We must 

 deal with the question as we find it, and take that 

 course which will, under existing conditions, best 

 secure the interests of the United States. I recom- 

 mended in my last annual message that a commission 

 be appointed to deal with this question, and I renew 

 that recommendation, and suggest that the commis- 

 sion be given full power. 



The report of the Secretary of Agriculture contains 

 not only a most interesting statement of the progres- 

 sive and valuable work done under the administra- 

 tion of Secretary Rusk, but many suggestions for the 

 enlarged usefulness of this important department. In 

 the successful effort to break down the restrictions to 

 the free introduction of our meat products in the 

 countries of Europe, the Secretary has been untiring 

 from the first, stimulating and aiding all other Gov- 

 ernment officers, at home and abroad, whose official 

 duties enabled them to participate in the work. The 

 total trade in hog products with Europe in May, 1892, 

 amounted to 82,000,000 pounds, against 46,900,000 in 

 the same month of 1891 ; in June, i892,the exports ag- 

 gregated 85,700,000 pounds, against 46,500,000 pounds 

 in the same month of the previous year ; in July there 

 was an increase of 41 per cent., and in August of 55 

 per cent., over the corresponding months ot 1891. 



Over 40,000,000 pounds of inspected pork have been 

 exported since the law was put into operation, and a 

 comparison of the four months of May, June, July, 

 and August, 1892, with the same months of 1891 shows 

 an increase in the number of pounds of our export of 

 pork products of 62 per cent., and an increase in value 

 of 661 per cent. The exports of dressed beef increased 

 from 137,900,000 pounds in 1889 to 220,500,000 pounds 

 in 1892, or about 60 per cent. During the past year 

 there have been exported 394,607 head of live cattle, 

 as against 205,786 exported in 1889. This increased 

 exportation has been largely promoted by the inspec- 

 tion authorized by law and the faithful efforts of the 

 Secretary and his efficient subordinates to make that 

 inspection thorough and to carefully exclude from all 

 cargops diseased or suspected cattle. The require- 

 ment of the English regulations that live cattle arriv- 

 ing from the United States must be slaughtered at the 

 docks had its origin in the claim that pleuropneu- 

 monia existed among American cattle, and that the 

 existence of the disease could only certainly be deter- 

 mined by a post-mortem inspection. 



The Department of Agriculture has labored with 

 great energy and faithfulness to extirpate this disease, 

 and on the 26th day of September last a public an- 

 nouncement was made by the Secretary that the dis- 

 ease no longer existed anywhere within the United 

 States. He is entirely satisfied, after the most search- 

 ing inquiry, that this statement was justified, and 

 that by a continuance of the inspection and quaran- 

 tinenow required of cattle brought into this country 

 the disease can be prevented from again getting any 

 foothold. The vame to the cattle industry of the 

 United States of this achievement can hardly be esti- 

 mated. We can not, perhaps, at once insist that this ; 

 evidence shall be accepted as satisfactory by other 

 countries ; but if the present exemption from the dis- 

 ease is maintained, and the inspection of our cattle 

 arriving at foreign ports, in which our own veterina- 

 rians participate, confirms it, we may justly expect 

 that the requirement that our cattle shall be slaugh- 

 tered at the docks will be revoked, as the sanitary 

 restrictions upon our pork products have been. If 

 our cattle can be taken alive to the interior the trade 

 will be enormously increased. 



Agricultural products constituted 78 - l per cent of 

 our unprecedented exports for the fiscal year which 

 closed June 30, 1892, the total exports being $1,030,- 

 278,030, and the value of the agricultural products 

 $793,717,676, which exceeds by more than $150,000,000 

 the shipment of agricultural products in any previous 

 year. 



