CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'H MESSAGE.) 



205 



An intcn -sting and a promising work for the bene- 

 fit nf tin' American farmer has been begun through 

 agents ni'tln- Agricultural Department in Kuropc, und 

 rinisist.s in rllorts to introduce tho various produote of 

 linliiiii corn as articles of liuinun food. The high 

 price dt' rye offered u favorable opportunity for the 

 experiment in (iciiniiny of combining corn meal with 

 Mi 1 tn produce a cheaper bread. A fair degree uf 

 -has been attained, and some mills forgrind- 

 im: corn tor food Imve been introduced. The See re - 

 tury is of tin- opinion that this new use of the prod- 

 ucts if corn has already stimulated exportation*, und 

 that, if diligently prosecuted, large and important 

 markets can presently be opened for this great 

 American product 



The suggestions of the Secretary for an enlarge- 

 ment of the work of the Department are ootnmended 

 to your favorable consideration. It may, 1 think, be 

 said without challenge that in no corresponding 

 period lias so much lieen done as during the last four 

 \ears for t lie 1 M-nc-nt of American agriculture. 



The subject of quarantine regulations, inspection, 

 and control was brought suddenly to my attention by 

 the arrival at our ports in August last of vessels in- 

 fected with cholera. Quarantine regulations should 

 IK- uniform at all our ports. Under the Constitution 

 they are plainly within the exclusive Federal juris- 

 diction when and so far as Congress shall legislate. 

 In my opinion the whole subject should be taken 

 into national control, and adequate power given to 

 tin Executive to protect our people against plague 

 invasions. On the 1st of September last I approved 

 regulations establishing a twenty-day quarantine for 

 all vessels bringing immigrants from foreign ports. 

 This order will be continued in force. Some loss 

 and suffering have resulted to passengers, but a due 

 care for the homes of our people justifies in such cases 

 the utmost precaution. There is danger that with 

 the corning of spring cholera will again appear, and a 

 liberal appropriation should be made at this session 

 to enable our quarantine and port officers to exclude 

 the deadly plague. 



But the most careful and stringent quarantine regu- 

 lations may not be sufficient absolutely to exclude the 

 disease, '.the progress of medical and sanitary sci- 

 ence has been such, however, that if approye_d pre- 

 cautions are taken at once to put all of our cities and 

 towns in the best sanitary condition, and provision is 

 made for isolating any sporadic cases, and for a thor- 

 ough disinfection, an epidemic can, I am sure, be 

 avoided. This work appertains to the local author- 

 ities, and the responsibility and the penalty will be 

 appalling if it is neglected or unduly delayed. 



We are peculiarly subject in our great ports to the 

 spread of infectious diseases by reason of the fact that 

 unrestricted immigration brings to us out of European 

 cities, in the overcrowded steerages of great steam- 

 ships, a large number of persons whose surroundings 

 make them the easy victims of the plague. This 

 consideration, as wel'l as those affecting the political, 

 moral, and industrial interests of our country, lead 

 me to renew the suggestion that admission to our 

 country and to the high privileges of its citizenship 

 should be more restricted and more careful. We 

 have, I think, a right, and owe a duty to our own 

 people, and especially to our working people, not only 

 to keep out the vicious, the ignorant, the civil dis- 

 turber, the pauper, and the contract laborer, but to 

 cheek the too great flow of immigration now coming 

 by further limitations. 



The report of the World's Columbian Exposition 

 has not yet been submitted. That of the Board of 

 Management of the Government exhibit has been re- 

 ceived, and is herewith transmitted. The work of 

 construction and of preparation for the opening of the 

 Kxposition in May next has progressed most satisfac- 

 torily, and upon a scale of liberality and magnificence 

 that will worthily sustain the honor of the United 

 States. 



The District of Columbia is left, by a decision of 

 the Supreme Court of the District, without any law 



regulating the liquor traffic. An old statute of the 

 Legislature of the District, relating to the licencing 

 of various vocations, has hitherto been treated by tho 

 eoininissioners as giving them power to grant or re- 

 fuse licenses to sell intoxicating liquors, and an ub- 

 jeeting those who sold without license to penalties; 

 uut in May last the Supreme Court of the District 

 held against this view of the powers of the commis- 

 sioners. It is of urgent imjiortance, therefore, that 

 < 'ongress should supply, either by direct enactment 

 or by conferring discretionary powers upon the com- 

 missioners, proper limitations ami restraint* upon the 

 liquor traffic in the District. The District ha* suf- 

 fered in its reputation by many crimes of violence, a 

 large per cent, of them resulting from drunkenness 

 and the liquor traffic. Tho capital of the nation 

 should be freed from this rcproacn by the enactment 

 of stringent restrictions and limitations upon the 

 traffic. 



In renewing the recommendation which I have 

 made in three preceding annual messages, that Con- 

 gress should legislate for the protection of railroad 

 employees against the dangers incident to the old and 

 inadequate methods of braking and coupling which 

 are still in use upon freight trains, I dp so with the 

 hope that this Congress may take action upon the 

 subject. Statistics furnished by the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission show that during the year ending 

 June 30, 1891, there were 47 different styles of car 

 couplers reported to be in use, and that during the 

 same period there were 2,660 employees killed and 

 2ti,140 injured. Nearly 16 per cent, of the deaths oc- 

 curred in the coupling and uncoupling of cars, and 

 over 36 per cent, of the injuries had the same origin. 



The Civil Service Commission ask for an increased 

 appropriation for needed clerical assistance, which I 

 think should be given. I extended the classified 

 service, March 1, 1892, to include physicians, superin- 

 tendents, assistant superintendents, school teachers, 

 and matrons in the Indian service, and have had un- 

 der consideration the subject of some further exten- 

 sions, but have not as yet fully determined the lines 

 upon which extensions can most properly and use- 

 fully be made. 



I have, in each of the three annual messages which 

 it has been my duty to submit to Congress, called at- 

 tention to the evils and dangers connected with our 

 election methods and practices as they are related to 

 the choice of officers of the National Government 

 In my last annual message 1 endeavored to invoke 

 serious attention to the evils of unfair apportionment* 

 for Congress. I can not close this message without 

 again calling attention to these grave and threatening 

 evils. I had hoped that it was possible to secure a 

 nonpartisan inquiry, by means of a commission, into 

 evils the existence of which is known to all, and that 

 out of this might grow legislation from which all 

 thought of partisan advantage should be eliminated 

 and only the higher thought appear of maintaining 

 the freedom and purity of the ballot and the equality 

 of the elector, without the guarantee of which the 

 Government could never have been formed, and with- 

 out the continuance of which it can not continue to 

 exist in peace and prosperity. 



It is time that mutual charges of unfairness and 

 fraud between the great parties should cease, and that 

 . the sincerity of those who profess a desire for pure^ 

 and honest elections should be brought to the test of 

 their willingness to free our legislation and our elec- 

 tion methods from everything that tends to impair 

 the public confidence in the announced result. The 

 necessity for an inquiry, and for legislation by Con- 

 gress, upon this subject is emphasised by the fact 

 that the tendency of the legislation in some States in 

 recent years has in some important particulars been 

 away from and not toward free and fair elections and 

 equal apportionments. Is it not time that we should 

 come together upon the high plane of patriotism 

 while we devise methods that shall secure the right 

 of every man qualified by law to cast a free ballot, 

 and give to every such ballot an equal value in 



