Evening journal., 1889-12-03

| enjoys, that every necessary chanH
will be so made as not t.
impair the just and REASONABLE
protection of our home industries
The inequality Of the law should be ad
justcd but the protective principle SHOULD
be maintained and fairly applied to th'
products of our farms as we'll as of on
shops These duties necessarily hav'
relation TO other things besides the public
revenues. We cannot limit their effects
by fixing our eyes on the public treasury
alone. They have direct relation tt
home production, 10 work, to wages anc
TO the commercial independence of oui
country and the wise and patriotic legis-
lator should enlarge the field Of his Wis
ion to include all of these.
The necessary reduction in our public
revenues can am sure be made without
making the smaller burden more onerous
than the larger by reason of the disabil-
tiles and limitation which the process Of
reduction puts upon both capital and
labor. The free list can very safely be ex.
tended by placing upon it articles that
| do not offer Injurious competition to such
/ domestic products as our home labor can
supply.
The removal of the internal tax on to.
bhoto NoulQ inAiCNt ala 1uPbibAnb ahAl-
cultural product from a burden which
was imposed only because our revenue
| from customs duties was insufficient for
the public needs. II safe provision against
| fraud can be devised the removal of the
tax upon spirits used in the arts and in
| manufactures would also offer an unob-
jectionable method Of reducing the sur
plus.
.
On the subject Of trusts" the Presi.
dent says;
Earnest attention should be given by
Congress to consideration of the ques-
tion how far the restraint of those com
binations of capital commonly called
trusts" is matter OF Federal jurisdic-
tion. When organized as they often are, to
crush ont all healthy competition and to
monopolize the production or sale of an
article of commerce and general necessity
they are dangerous conspiracies against
the public good and should be made the
subject OF prohibitory and even penal
legislation.
On the pension question the President
says:
The law now provides pension for
every soldier and sailor who was mus
tered into the service of the United
States during the civil war, and is now
suffering from wounds or disease having
an origin in the service and in the line Of
duty. Two of the three necessary facts,
viz Master and disability are usually
susceptible Of easy proof, but the third,
origin the service, is often difficult and
In many cases impossible to establish.
That very many Of those who endured
the hardships Of our bloody and
arduous campaigns are now dis
abled from disease that had
real, but mot traceable origin in
the service | do not doubt. Besides
these there is another class composed of
men, many Of whom served an enlist
ment of three full years, and of cen
listed veterans who added fourth year
of service, who escaped the casualties of
battle, Of the assaults of disease, who
were always ready for any detail, who
were in every battle line of their com
mand and who were mustered out In
sound health, and have since the close of
the war while fighting with the same
indomitable and independent spirit the
contests Of civil life, been overcome by
disease or casualties.
am not unaware that the pension
roll already involves a very large annual
expenditure, neither am / deferred BY
that fact from recommending that Con-
gress grant pension to such honorably
discharged soldiers and sailors OF the
civil war as having rendered substantial
service during the war are now depen-
dent upon their own labor for mainte-
nance and by disease or casualty are in
capacitated from earning 1t. Many Of the
men who would be included in this form
of relief are now dependent upon public
aid and 1t does not in my Judgment con.
sist with the national honor that they
shall continue to subsist upon the local
relief given indiscriminatly to paupers
instead Of upon the special and generous
provisiop OF the nation they served so
CALAMITY sGd unselfshly.
The purpose OF the Civil Service law
was absolutely to exclude any other con-
sideration ia connection with appoint
mQnts under II than that Of merit as
teAted by the examination. The bust
ness proceeds upon the theory that both
the examining board and the appointing
officers were absolutely ignorant as to
the political views and associations OF ali
persons on the Civil Service lists.
1t is not too much to say, however, that
some recent congressional investigations
have somewhat shaken public confidence
in the impartlality Of the selections for
appointments. The reform of the Civil
Service will make Mosaic or satisfactory
advance until the present law
and its equal administration are well es
tablished in the confidence Of the people.
1t will be my pleasure, as il Is my duty
TO see that the law Is executed with firm,
ness and impartiality.
If some of its provisions have been
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS byappointing officers.
our resentment should not suggest the
repeal Of the law, but reform IN its ad.
ministration. We should have one view
OF the matter and hold it with a sincerity
that is not affected by the consideration
that the party to which we belong is for
the time in power.
The President recommends a national
grant Of money to aid education. He ad.
mits that such grants Of money from tine
public treasury should be always sug-
gested by isome exceptional conditions,
but says the sudden emancipation Of the
slaves of the South the bestowal
Of the suffrage and the impair
ment Of the ability of the
states where these, now citizens. were
chiefly found, to adequately, provide
educational facilities presented not only
exceptional, but unexampled conditions
In further discussing the condition Of the
eolored people, the President says.
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