US Presidency
1903

We have cause as a nation to be thankful for the steps that have been so successfully taken to put these principles into effect. The progress has been by evolution, not by revolution. Nothing radical has been done; the action has been both moderate and resolute. Therefore the work will stand. There shall be no backward step. If in the working of the laws it proves desirable that they shall at any point be expanded or amplified, the amendment can be made as its desirability is shown. Meanwhile they are being administered with judgment, but with insistence upon obedience to them, and their need has been emphasized in signal fashion by the events of the past year. From all sources, exclusive of the postal service, the receipts of the Government for the last fiscal year aggregated $ 560,396,674. The expenditures for the same period were $ 506,099,007, the surplus for the fiscal year being $ 54,297,667. The indications are that the surplus for the present fiscal year will be very small, if indeed there be any surplus.