Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-12-03
The Message.

The fear expressed that the Presidents
message would be too long was idle. 1t is
safe to say that man will count the
words, but that every one who takes it up
will read 1t through with relish. From the
first paragraph. with its tender tribute to
the memory of Mr.. Mckinley, to the last,
with its earnest expression of appreciation
of the foreign sympathy offered to the ma
ton in it's hour of sorrow, the paper Is one
OF individuality and of interest. 1t leaves
no important question untouched, and it
discOurses Of none in any obscure or halt
ing fashion. The man of opinions gives his
opinions in clear and concise style, and so
as to impress upon the reader the belief in
the authors absolute sincerity. A trained
writer and thinker holds the pen, and he
holds it very firmly. Congress, at any
rate. cannot complain. because the constitu-
tiOnal requirement that the President shall
from time to time make suggestions to that
body with relation to the state of public
business and the public welfare was never
more completely complied with. Here are
suggestions enough to last the session. And
all of them good. Lucky will the coun-
try be if even the half of them are fol-
lowed.
The Presidents arrangement of his topics
puts the question of the anarchists first,
There is no more important question, and
Congress should deal with it in some effec-
tive form Nor will it suffice simply to
suppress the fiends who are now harboring
in this country and openly boasting of their
views and publicly rejoicing when some
ruler is assassinated by one of their num-
Der Our immigration laws are, and for
some years have been, sadly in need of
overhauling, with the view of keeping out
of the United States people without the
ability or the desire to take up and dis
charge the burdens of good citizenship.
And. appropriately enough, the President
closes the paragraph with an appeal for
the renewal of the Chinese exclusion act.
The paragraph with regard to the tarin
and reciprocity. while strictly In line with
AIR. McKinley's Buffalo speech. cannot be
set down as the offspring of that. 1t will
be recalled that Mr.. Roosevelt, then the
Vice President, spoke at Minneapolis sever
al days before Mr.. Mckinley did at Buffalo,
and In much the same strain to in
dustries and foreign markets. The two
men, without a conference, were thinking
along the same lines and to the same ends.
Both were protectiOnists. Both stood to
their protection guns. But both urged a
logical application of the policy to the new
times and conditions. Mr.. Roosevelt in
biblical phrase, calls reciprocity the hand
maiden of protection'-a very just and
happy Characterization. And it will not be
overlooked that Mr.. Roosevelt agrees with
his predecessor in the opinion that there
are some OF our industries which no longer
need protection, and that it would be wise
and right to shift the favors now bestowed
upon them to more deserving objects or use
them in making terms of trade with other
nations. And for the reciprocity treaties
now before the Senate he asks considera-
ton.
The President speaks for peace, but of
course upon the only line which insures
peace. We must get and stay good and
ready for war. The navy must take rank
with the best. We must have ships of the
most approved pattern. and men enough,
and TO spare, thoroughly drilled for fight
ing them. We won against Spain because
We were ready on the sea: and we must be
prepared there at all times and against all
possible corners. The army, too, should be
kept smart and fit Whatever is necessary
TO the maintenance of a system working
for the production of capable officers and
hardy men should be willingly and album
dainty supplied
Surely the west will like this message.
Her wants are remembered in the warm
est terms. No other President has ever
spoken at such length or so explicitly on the
subject of irrigation. II Is probably true
too. that other President ever had so
wide an acquaintance with the subject as
Mr. Roosevelt possesses. He is, as Ii We're
an adopted child of the west, and knows
her wants and sympathiZes with them. In
the far east. in early times, the man who
digged well was listed as a public bene-
factor. His name was recorded with honor
And it Is safe TO say that if Mr.. Roosevelt
can induce Congress to lay the foundation
for reservoirs which will husband for the
great empire beyond the Mississippi the
water necessary to add the desert reaches
there to habitation anu productivity he need
lose no sleep about the enduring quality of
his fame
The main argument which some Ameri-