Kansas City daily journal., 1896-11-28
PRESIDENT CLEvELAND'S LAST MES
SAGE TO CONGRESS.
DOCUMENT IS NEARLY DONE.
EXPECTED TO BE ONE OF HIS
ABLEsT STATE PAPERS.
Paragraphs Relating to the Cuban
Situation Yet to Be Written
Tax on Tea and Coffee TO
Be Recommended
Revenue Measure.

Washington, Nov. 27.-President Cleve-
land has been devotinE great deal of
time to his annual message during the last
week, and now has it all well in hand so
that it can be finished In a couple of days.
The message is expected to be one of
the ablest public documents Mr.. Cleveland
has written during his two terms. 1t will
be, in a sense, his farewell to the Amer
lean people as their chief executive, and
there is little doubt that he will embrace
the opportunity to mark cut the course
he believes ought to be followed by the
national government for the maintenance
and development of the honor and pros
perity of the country.
Foreign affairs will. naturally, claim con-
siderable attention. and the president will
have an opportunity to congratulate con-
gress and the country upon the solution of
the Venezuelan boundary controversy in d
manner honorable and satisfactory alike
to the United States and to Great Britain
and Venezuela. The condition of affairs
in Turkey will be discussed in detail. and
the president will be able to show that the
ordinary diplomatic agencies have sufficed
for the protection of American life and
property in the Turkish empire.
The last paragraphs of the message to
be written will be those dealing with the
situa ton in Cuba He will avail himself
of the latest possible information as to the
military situation in the island, and the
prospects for the early success or failure
of the insurgents may have much to do
with shaping his policy. Present indica
tions are that he will make no radical
recommendations on this subject. Other
foreign questions in which the United
States are interested will be touched upon
briefly.
Secretary Carlisle is preparing data look
ing to a recommendation for increasing
the revenue of the government by impos-
ing revenue duties on tea and coffee and
by increasing the internal revenu9 tax on
bee-. The president will doubtless express
his approval of these recommendations.
The financial reform recommendations of
the message will be along the line of Mr..
Cleveland's former recommendations, ana
will have as their basis the advocacy of
the single gold standard as the foundation
of the monetary system of the country.
The retirement of the greenbacks and the
Sherman notes will be recommended, so
as to make the government entirely out of
| the business of issuing promissory notes.
Banking reform will be recommended at
the same time, to enable the banks of the
country to issue circulating notes which
will be safe and which can be expanded
| or contracted in volume TO meet the needs
| of the business of the country.
| Mr.. Cleveland is alive to the necessity
| OF continuing the expansion of the navy
| and of constructing coast defenses TO put
| the country in d condition to resist foreign
| aggression, and the recommendations on
| these lines made by Secretaries Lamont
and Herbert in their annual reports will
| be seconded in the message.