io Presidential Addresses 



never will be or can be a menace to anybody save 

 America's foes, or aught but a source of pride to 

 every good and far-sighted American. But it is 

 only in time of actual danger that such facts are 

 brought home vividly to the minds of our people, 

 and so the army is apt to receive far less than its 

 proper share of attention. But when an emergency 

 like that caused by the Spanish War arises, then the 

 Secretary of War becomes the most important offi 

 cer in the Cabinet, and the army steps into the 

 place of foremost interest in all the country. 



It is only once in a generation that such a crisis 

 as the Spanish War or the Mexican War or the 

 War of 1812 has to be confronted, but in almost 

 every administration lesser crises do arise. They 

 may be in connection with foreign affairs, as was 

 the case with the Chilean trouble under President 

 Harrison's administration, the Venezuelan matter 

 in President Cleveland's second term, or the Boxer 

 uprising in China last year. Much more often they 

 relate to domestic affairs, as in the case of a disas 

 trous panic, which produces terrible social and indus 

 trial convulsions. Whatever the problem may be, 

 the President has got to meet it and to work out 

 some kind of a solution. In midwinter or midsum 

 mer, with Congress sitting or absent, the President 

 has always to be ready to devote every waking 

 hour to some anxious, worrying, harassing matter, 

 most difficult to decide, and yet which it is imper 

 ative immediately to decide. 



An immense addition to the President's burden 



