The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-12-04
he Suggests That Congress Restrain
Injurious Combinations.
FOR s3o,ooo,oOe REELECTION IN WAR TAX

The Policy Of The United States in China Re-
affirmed. Recommends Federal Courts be
Given Jurisdiction in Cases Where
Foreign Government S Subjects Suf-
fer at the Hands Of a Mob.
To the Senate and House of Represen-
tatives.
At the outgoing of the old and the in
coming of the new century you begin the
last session of the Fifty-sixth Congress
with evidences on every hand of individu-
al and national prosperity and with proof
of the growing strength and increasing
power for good of Republican institutions.
Your countrymen will join with you in
felicitation that American liberty is more
firmly established than ever before, and
that love for il and the determination
10 preserve it are more universal than
at any former period of our history.
The Republic was never so strong, be-
cause never so strongly intrenched in the
stitution with few amendments. exists
as it left the hands of it's authors. The
additions which have been made to it
proclaim larger freedom and more ex-
tended citizenship. Popular government
has demonstrated in it's one hundred and
twenty four years of trial here it's sta
hility and security, and its efficiency as
the best instrument of national develop
inent and the best safeguard to human
rights.
When the Sixth Congress assembled in
November, 1900, the population of the
United States was 5,308,483. 1t is now
76,304,799 Then we had sixteen States.
Now we have forty-five. Then our terri
tory consisted of 909O50 square miles.
1t is now 3,S46,595 square miles. Educa-
tion, religion, and morality have kept
pace with our advancement in other di-
rections, and while extending its power
the Government has adhered to it's foun-
dation principles and abated none OF
them in dealing with our 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 domi-
nant question has been the treatment of
the Chinese 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 Gov
ernment The TAPPING rebellion and the
opening of Chinese ports to foreign trade
and settlement disturbed alike the ho-
mogeneity 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 assoc!a-
tions among a primitive people which
had pursued for centuries national pol
icy of isolation.
The telegraph and the railway spread
ing over their land the steamers plying
on their waterways. the merchant and
the missionary penetrating year by year
farther 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
troubles all the resources of foreign di-
plomacy, 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 satisfaction from the responsible
authorities for the sporadic outrages upon
the persons and property of unoffending
sojourners, which from time to time oc-
Cured at widely separated points in the
northern provinces. as in the case of the
outbreaks in Sze-chuen and Shan-tung.
Posting of anti-foreign placards became
a daily occurrence which the repeated
reurobation of the Imperial power failed
to check or punish These inflammatory
appeals to the ignorance and supersti-
tion of the masses, mendacious and abb
surd in their accusations and deeply hos
tile in their spirit. could not but work
cumulative harm. They aimed at no par
ticultr clas of foreigners; they were inn
partial in attacking everything foreign.
An outbreak in Shan -tung. in which
German missionaries were slain, was the
the too natural result of these malevo-
lent teachings. The posting of seditious
placards, exhorting to the utter destruc-
tion of foreigners and of every foreign
thing continued unrebuked. Hostile dem
onstrations toward the stranger gained
strength by organization.
THE WORK OF BOXERS.
The sect, commonly styled the Boxers,
developed greatly in the provinces north
the Yang-Tse, and with the collusion Of
many notable officials, including some in
the immediate councils of the Throne it
self. became alarmingly aggressive. No