The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-12-12
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

The keynote of the Presidents message is
conservatism, says the Baltimore american.
He reviews the achievements of the various
departments Of the Government with the evil
dent feeling that it is best to let well alone, and
where recommendations are made there is lit
tie of radical nature in their character. This
desire to keep present conditions undisturbed
and not suffer any molestation OF present ma
terial prosperity is in keeping with Mr.. Roose-
velt's recent utterances. Satisfactory progress
is, however, recorded, and unity of purpose is
made evident in all the governmental depart
ments.
The message gives prominence to the new
Department of Commerce and Labor, which,
through the Bureau of Corporations, has au-
thority to secure the enforcement of federal
antitrust laws and compel proper publicity of
the affairs of great corporations. The Presi-
dent reiterates his belief that publicity is the
cure for the trust evil, and that publicity can
do no harm to the honest corporation. An
important function of the new department is
to bring organized capital and organized labor
on common ground and to exercise watchful-
ness to secure to Americans the best advantage
in foreign trade. A reconstruction of our
monetary system at the presenttime is declared
unwise. Other subjects treated at some length
are the Alaskan boundary question and inter-
national arbitration.
But the subject which the President has
treated in greatest detail is the isthmian canal
and the steps leading up to the treaty with
Panama. The Presidents account is COM
plete justi6cation-if justification be needed
: of the course taken by the United States in all
dealings with Colombia. During the past
ffty-seven years, since the treaty with New
Granada, the predecessor upon the isthmus OF
the Republic of Colombia, there have been
ffty-three uprisings and revolutions in Pana-
ma, and the authority of Colombia has been
sustained on the isthmus only by the repeated
Intervention of force by the United States
Finally. the government of Colombia, Though
wholly unable to maintain order on the
isthmus, nevertheless declined to ratify treaty,
the conclusion of which opened the only
chance to secure its own stability and TO guar
antee permanent peace on, and the construc-
ton of, a canal across the isthmus." Under
these circumstances, to use the President IS
words, 1.-THE government of the United States
would have been guilty of folly and weakness,
amountiDgin their sum to crime against the
nation, had it acted otherwise than it did
when the revolution OF November Sd last took
place in Panama" 1t is difficult to see how
anyone can uphold the justice of the hands
Off policy, for laying aside the broader aspect
of the question as it relates to the worlds pro-
gress, we have the spectacle of distant govern
ment attempting to coerce the jewellers of a
land over which no actual supremacy existed
against the very country that upheld what
authority there was.
An interesting bit of Panama history is also
made public in the extraordinary proposition,
made to the United States by an eminent Co
lombian after the revolution had begun. This
distinguished Colombian, evidently by authori-
ty, promised that, if the United States would
land troops and restore Colon bias supremacy,
the Colombian government would declare
martial law, under which it could approve the
treaty by decree, or would call an extra session
of the Congress with new members favorable
to the treaty
The following recommendations are made
in the message: A committee to report legis-
lation needed for the development of our
merchant marine an extension of the fund
now available only in the prosecutions under
antitrust laws for use in postal and naturaliza-
ton fraud cases; provision for the Alaskan
Joint boundary commission international
laws for the protection of private property at
sea railroads and telegraph lines in Alaska
lighthouses in Hawaii closer tariff arrange
ments with the Philippines; restriction of the
granting of public lands to home builders
consolidation of all matters pertaining to for
ests under the Department of Agriculture and
a remedy for the Gotten weevil
Two subjects that might reasonably be
looked for are not discussed in the message
viz. the tariff laws and the necessity, OF
lack of necessity, for any changes in them,
and the frauds in the Postoffice Depart.
meEt. The latter topic is doubtless, omit
ted because it is amply treated in the mem.
orandum added to Mr.. Bristows report. The
message is however, sufficiently comprehen
contemplated, and that the homogenety that
characterized the administrations of Mckinley
and Roocovolt cfill rom oipc r1nohono