

CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



141 



Claims Commission and for the adjudication of 

 claims heretofore presented but not determined 

 during the life of the previous commission has 

 been delayed by reason of the necessity for fresh 

 action by the Chilian Senate upon the amend- 

 ments attached to the ratification of the treaty 

 by the United States Senate. This formality is 

 soon to be accomplished. 



In view of disturbances in the populous prov- 

 inces of northern China, where are many of our 

 citizens, and of the imminence of disorder near 

 the capital and toward the seaboard, a guard of 

 marines was landed from the Boston and sta- 

 tioned during last winter in the legation com- 

 pound at Peking. With the restoration of order 

 this protection was withdrawn. 



The interests of our citizens in that vast em- 

 pire have not been neglected during the past year. 

 Adequate protection has been secured for our 

 missionaries and some injuries to their property 

 have been redressed. 



American capital has sought and found various 

 opportunities of competing to carry out the in- 

 tei'nal improvements which the Imperial Govern- 

 ment is wisely encouraging, and to develop the 

 natural resources of the empire. Our trade with 

 China has continued to grow, and our commercial 

 rights under existing treaties have been every- 

 where maintained during the past year, as they 

 will be in the future. 



The extension of the area open to international 

 foreign settlement at Shanghai and the opening of 

 the ports at Nanking, Tsing-Tao (Kiao-Chao), and 

 Ta-Lien-Wan to foreign trade and settlement will 

 doubtless afford American enterprise additional 

 facilities and new fields, of which it will not be 

 slow to take advantage. 



In my message to Congress of Dec. 5, 1898, I 

 urged that the recommendation which had been 

 made to the Speaker of the House of Representa- 

 tives by the Secretary of the Treasury on the 

 14th of June, 1898, for an appropriation for a com- 

 mission to study the commercial and industrial 

 conditions in the Chinese Empire and report as 

 to the opportunities for, and obstacles to, the en- 

 largements of markets in China for the raw prod- 

 ucts and manufactures of the United States, 

 should receive at your hands the consideration 

 which its importance and timeliness merited, but 

 the Congress failed to take action. 



I now renew this recommendation, as the im- 

 portance of the subject has steadily grown since 

 it was first submitted to you, and no time should 

 be lost in studying for ourselves the resources of 

 this great field for American trade and enterprise. 



The death of President Faure in February last 

 called forth those sincere expressions of sympa- 

 thy which befit the relations of two republics as 

 closely allied by unbroken historic ties as are the 

 United States and France. 



. Preparations for the representation of the in- 

 ductries, arts, and products of the United States 

 at the World's Exposition to be held in Paris 

 next year continue on an elaborate and compre- 

 hensive scale, thanks to the generous appropria- 

 tion provided by Congress, and to the friendly 

 interest the French Government has shown in 

 furthering a typical exhibit of American progress. 



There has been allotted to the United States 

 a considerable addition of space, which, while 

 placing our country in the first rank among exhib- 

 itors, does not suffice to meet the increasingly ur- 

 gent demands of our manufacturers. The efforts 

 of the commissioner general are ably directed 

 toward a strictly representative display of all 

 that most characteristically marks American 

 achievement in the inventive arts, and most ade- 



quately shows the excellence of our natural pro- 

 ductions. 



In this age of keen rivalry among nations for 

 mastery in commerce, the doctrine of evolution 

 and the rule of the survival of the fittest must 

 be as inexorable in their operation as they are 

 positive in the results they bring about. The 

 place won in the struggle by an industrial people 

 can only be held by unrelaxed endeavor and con- 

 stant advance in achievement. The present ex- 

 traordinary impetus in every line of American 

 exportation and the astounding increase in the 

 volume and value of our share in the world's 

 markets may not be attributed to accidental con- 

 ditions. 



The reasons are not far to seek. They lie deep 

 in our national character and find expression year 

 by year in every branch of handicraft, in every 

 new device whereby the materials we so abun- 

 dantly produce are subdued to the artisan's will 

 and made to yield the largest, most practical, and 

 most beneficial return. The American exhibit 

 at Paris should, and I am confident will, be an 

 open volume, whose lessons of skillfully directed 

 endeavor, unfaltering energy, and consummate 

 performance may be read by all on every page, 

 thus spreading abroad a clearer knowledge of the 

 worth of our productions and the justice of our 

 claim to an important place in the marts of the 

 world. To accomplish this by judicious selection, 

 by recognition of paramount merit in whatever 

 walk of trade or manufacture it may appear, and 

 by orderly classification and attractive installa- 

 tion is the task of our commission. 



The United States Government building is ap- 

 proaching completion, and no effort will be spared 

 to make it worthy, in beauty of architectural 

 plan and in completeness of display, to represent 

 our nation. It has been suggested that a perma- 

 nent building of similar or appropriate design be 

 erected on a convenient site, already given by the 

 municipality, near the exposition grounds, to 

 serve in commemoration of the part taken by this 

 country in this great enterprise, as an American 

 National Institute, for our countrymen resorting 

 to Paris for study. 



I am informed by our commissioner general 

 that we shall have in the American sections at 

 Paris over 7,000 exhibitors, from every State in 

 our country, a number ten times as great as those 

 which were represented at Vienna in 1873, six 

 times as many as those in Paris in 1878, and four 

 times as many as those who exhibited in Paris in 

 1889. This statement does not include the ex- 

 hibits from either Cuba, Porto Rico, or Hawaii, 

 for which arrangements have been made. 



A number of important international congresses 

 on special topics affecting public interests are 

 proposed to be held in Paris next summer in con- 

 nection with the exposition. Effort will be made 

 to have the several technical branches of our ad- 

 ministration efficiently represented at those con- 

 ferences, each in its special line, and to procure 

 the largest possible concourse of State representa- 

 tives, particularly at the Congresses of Public 

 Charity and of Medicine. 



Our relations with Germany continue to be 

 most cordial. The increasing intimacy of direct 

 association has been marked during the year by 

 the granting permission in April for the landing 

 on our shores of a cable from Borkum Emden, on 

 the North Sea, by way of the Azores, and also 

 by the conclusion on Sept. 2 of a Parcels Post 

 Convention with the Gei'man Empire. In all that 

 promises closer relations of intercourse and com- 

 merce and a better understanding between two 

 races having so many traits in common, Germany 





