Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1912 — CONGRESS HEARS SECOND MESSAGE [ARTICLE]

CONGRESS HEARS SECOND MESSAGE

President Tells of Treasury and Army Affairs. BUSINESS ON SOLID BASIS Foreign Trade During Year Exceeds 34,000,000,000 —Crop Value Greatest in the History of the Nation. Washington, Dec. 6. —President Taft today sent to congress his second message of the session, In which he deals with judicial, fiscal, military and insular affairs. The president in part says: The condition of the country with reference to business could hardly be better.; While the four years of the administration now drawing to a close have not developed great speculative expansion or a wide field of new investment, the recovery and progress made from the depressing conditions following the panic of 1907 have been steady and the improvement has been clear and easily traced in the statistics. The business of the country is now on a solid basis. Credits are not unduly extended and every phase of the situation seems in a state of preparedness for a period of unexampled prosperity. Manufacturing to the Limit. Manufacturing concerns are running at their full capacity and the demand for labor was never so constant and growing. The foreign trade of the country for this year will exceed $4,000,000,000, while the balance in our favor—.that of the excess of exports over Imports—will exceed $500,000,000. More than half our exports are manufactures or partly manufactured material, while our exports of farm products do not show the same increase of domestic consumption. It is a year of bumper crops; the total money value of farm products will exceed $9,500,000,000. It is a year when the bushel or unit price of agricultural products has gradually failed, and yet the total value of the entire crop Is greater by over $1,000,000,000 than we have known in our history. Condition of the Treasury.

The condition of the treasury Is very satisfactory. The total interestbearing debt is $963,777,770, of which $134,631,980 constitute the Panama canal loan. The non-interest-bearing debt is $378,301,284.90, including $346,671,016 of greenbacks. We have in the treasury $150,000,000 In gold coin as a reserve against the outstanding greenbacks; and in addition we have a cash balance in the treasury as a general fund of $167,152,478.99, or an increase of $26,975,552 over the general fund last year. 'Receipts and Expenditures.

For three years the expenditures of the government have decreased under the influence of an effort to economize. This year presents an apparent exception. The estimate by the secretary of the treasury of the ordinary receipts, exclusive of postal revenues, for the year ending June 30, 1914, indicates that they will amount to $170,000,000. The sum of the estimates of the expenditures for that same year, exclusive of Panama canal disbursements and the postal disbursements payable from postal revenues is $732,000,000, indicating a deficit of $22,000,000. For the year ending June 30, 1913, similarly estimated receipts were $667,000,000, while the total corresponding estimate of expenditures for that year, submitted through the secretary of the treasury to congress, amounted to $656,000,000. This shows an increase of $76,000,000 in the estimates for 1914 over the total estimates of 1913. This is due to an increase of £25,000,000 in the estimate for rivers and harbors for the next year on projects and surveys authorized by congress; to an increase under the new pension bill of $32,500,000; and to an increase in the estimates for expenses of the navy department of $24,000,000.

Recommends a thorough reorganization of the army. Favors passage of a bill to Increase the efficiency of the National Guard. Declares we have discharged our responsibilities to the Philippines, and that they are now prepared for selfgovernment, but declares himself opposed to the independence of the Islands. Regulation of Water Power.

There are pending before congress a large number of bills proposing to grant privileges of erecting dams for the purpose of creating water power in our navigable rivers. I deem it highly important that the nation should adopt a cohsistent and harmonious treatment of these water-power projects, which will preserve for this purpose their value to the government, whose right it is to grant the permit. The Panama Oanal. During the past year the work of construction upon the canal has progressed most satisfactorily. About 87 per cent, of the excavation work has been completed, and more than 93 per cent, of the concrete for all the locks is ill place. Although the / official date of the opening has been set for January 1, 1915, the canal will, in fact, from present indications, be opened for shipping during the latter half of 1913. Acting uilder the authority conferred on me by congress, I have, by executive proclamation, promulgated the following schedule of tolls for ships passing through the canal, based upon the thorough report of Emory

R. Johnson, special commissioner on traffic and tolls: 1. On merchant vessels carrying passengers or cargo, $1.20 per net vessel ton—each 100 cubic feet—of actual capacity. 2. On vessels in ballast without passengers or cargo, 40 per cent, less than the rate of tolls for vessels with passengers or cargo. 8. Upon naval vessels, other than transports, colliers, hospital ships and supply ships, 50 cents per displacement ton. 4. Upon army and navy transports, colliers, hospital ships, and supply ships, $1.20 per net ton, the vessels t 6 be measured by the same rules as are employed in determining the net tonnage of merchant vessels. Rules for the determination of the tonnage upon which toll charges are based are now in course of preparation and will be promulgated in due season. * Panama Canal Treaty. The proclamation which I have Issued in respect to the Panama canal tolls is in accord with the Panama canal act passed by this congress August 24, 1912. We have been advised that the British government has prepared a protest against the act and its enforcement in so far as it relieves from the payment of tolls American ships engaged in the American coastwise trade on the ground that it violates British rights under the HayPauncefote treaty concerning the Panama canal. When the protest is presented, it will be promptly considered and an effort made to reach a satisfactory adjustment of any differences there may be between the two governments. Navy Department. The navy of the United States is in a greater state of efficiency and is more powerful than it has been before, but in the emulation which exists between different countries in respect to the increase of naval and military armaments this condition is not a permanent one. A year ago congress refused to appropriate for more than one battleship, in this I think a great mistake of policy was made, and I urgently recommend that this congress make up for the mistake of the last session by appropriations authorizing the construction of three battleships, in addition to destroyers, fuel ships, and the other auxiliary vessels as shown in the building program of the general board. Department of Justice. This department has been very active in the enforcement of the law. It has been better organized and with a larger fonje than ever before in the history of the government. The prosecutions which have been successfully concluded and which are now pending testify to the effectiveness of the department work.

WILLIAM H. TAFT.