Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-03
ANNUAL MESSAGE
ThePresident Sends His
= Views to Congress.
STATE OF THE COUNTRY
Condition of Affairs in China
Discussed.
: The PHILIPPINE PROBLEM
How Far War Taxes May Be
Reduced.
The PHILIPPINE PROBLEM
OTHER MATTERS TREATED OF

OTHER MATTERS TREATED OF
The President today transmitted his an
nual message to Congress- 1t was as fol-
lows:
To the Senate and House Of Representa-
tives:
At the outgoing Of the old and the in
coming of the century you begin the
last session of the Fifty-sixth Congress
with evidences every hand of individual
End national prosperity and with proof Of
the growing strength and increasing power
for good Of republican institutions. Your
countrymen will join with you in felicita-
ton tha, American liberty is more firmly
established than ever before, and that love
for 1t and the determination to preserve
1t are more universal than at any former
period of our history.
zThe Republic was never so strong, be-
cause never so strongly intrenched in the
hearts of the people as now. The Cons titu-
ton, with few amendments, exists as it left
the hands of its authors. The additions
which have been made to 1t proclaim larger
freedom and more extended citizenship.
Popular government has demonstrated in its
one hundred and twenty-four years Of trial
here its stability and security, and its eff
c,ency the best instrument of national
development and the best safeguard to HUI
man rights.
When the Sixth Congress assembled in
November, 1900, the population of the
United States was 53OS 4S3 1t is now
76,3o4, 199. Then we had sixteen states.
Now we have forty-five. Then our territory
consisted of 9O9.O5O square miles. 1t is now
3.S46.595 square miles. Education. religion,
and morality have kept pace with our ad-
vancement in other directions, and while
extending its power the Government has
adhered to Its foundation principles and
abated none of them in dealing with
new peoples and possessions A nation SO
preserved and blessed gives reverent thanks
to God and invokes His guidance and the
continuance Of His care and favor.
THE CHINESE PROBLEM.
In our foreign intercourse the dominant
question has been the treatment Of the Chi
nsse problem. Apart from this our relations
with the powers have been happy.
The recent troubles in China spring from
the anti foreign agitation which for the
past three years has gained strength In
the northern provinces. Their origin lies
deep in the character Of the Chinese races
and in the traditions Of their government.
The TAPPING rebellion and the opening of
Inent disturbed alike the homogenaity and
the seclusion Of China.
Meanwhile foreign activity made Itself
felt in all quarters, not alone on the coast,
but along the great river arteries and in
the remoter districts. carrying new ideas
and introducing new associations among a
pIimitive people which had pursued for
Centuries g. national policy of isolation
The telegraph and the railway spreading
over their land the steamers plying on
their waterways, the merchant und the
missionary penetrating year by year tar
ther TO the interior, became TO the Chinese
mind types Of an alien INVASION changing
the course of their national life and
fraught with vague forebodings of disaster
! to their beliefs and their self-control.
For several years before the present trou-
bles all the resources of foreign diplomacy,
backed by moral demonstrations of the
physical force of fleets and arms. have been
needed to secure due respect for the treaty
rights of foreigners and to obtain satis-
factton from the responsible authorities for
the sporadic outrages upon the persons and
~pIoperty of unoffending sojourners, which
from time to time occurred a widely sep
arated points In the northern provinces, as
in the case of the outbreaks in Sze-cnuen
and Shan-tung.
Posting of antiforeign placards became
a daily occurrence, which the repeate ed
reprobation of the Imperial power failed TO
check or punish These infiammatory ap-
Speais TO the ignorance and superstition Of
the masses, mendacious and absurd in
their accusations and deeply hostile in
their spirit could not but work cumulative
harm They aimed at no particular class
of foreigners; they were impartial in at
lacking everything foreign.
An outbreak in Shan-tung, In which Ger
man missionaries were slain, was the too
natural result of these malevolent teach
ings. The posting of seditious placards -x-
horting to the utter destruction of foreign
and every foreign thing, continued un-
rebuked. Hostile demonstrations toward
the stranger gained strength by organiza-
ton.
The sect. commonly styled the Boxers.
developed greatly in the provinces north Of
the Yang-Tse, and with the collusion of
many notable officials, including some in
the Immediate councils Of the Throne 1t
self. became alarmingly aggressive. No
foreigners life, outside of the protected
treaty ports. was safe. No foreign inter-
est was secure from spoliation
The diplomatic representatives of the pow
srs in Peking strove In vain to check this
movement. Protest was followed by de-
mand and demand by renewed protest, to be
met with perfunctory edicts from the Pal
ace and evasive and futile assurances from
the Tsung- The circle Of the Box
er influence narrowed about Peking, and
while nominally stigmatized seditious, 1t
was felt that its spirit pervaded the capital
itself, that the Imperial forces were imbued
=, with it's doctrines, and that the immediate
counselors Of the Empress Dowager were