8 Presidential Addresses 



great as to make it impossible for the nation to go 

 into them. 



It is a good deal the same thing in the nation 

 as it is in a State. The demand may be for a 

 consumptive hospital, or for pensions to veterans, 

 or for a public building, or for an armory, or for 

 cleaning out a harbor, or for starting irrigation. 

 In each case the demand may be in itself entirely 

 proper, and those interested in it, from whatever 

 motives, may be both sincere and strenuous in their 

 advocacy. But the President has to do on a large 

 scale what every Governor of a State has to do 

 on a small scale, that is, balance the demands on 

 the Treasury with the capacities of the Treasury. 



Whichever way he decides, some people are sure 

 to think that he has tipped the scale the wrong way, 

 and from their point of view they may conscien 

 tiously think it; whereas from his point of view he 

 may know with equal conscientiousness that he has 

 done his best to strike an average which would on 

 the one hand not be niggardly toward worthy ob 

 jects, and on the other would not lay too heavy a 

 burden of taxation upon the people. 



Inasmuch as these particular questions have to 

 be met every year in connection with every session 

 of Congress and with the work of every depart 

 ment, it may readily be seen that even the Presi 

 dent's every-day responsibilities are of no light or 

 der. So it is with has appointments. Entirely 

 apart from the fact that there is a great pressure 

 for place, it is also the fact that in all the higher 



