The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-12-09
tbs PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

DROBABLY THE MOST significant
utterance in the presidents mes
sage win attract less attention than
any other subject treated. That is the
warning that the revenues of the gov
ernment are rapidly dwindling to the
point where they viii barely equal the
expenses on an economical basis.
Dwelling upon this fact. the president
urges care fin appropriations as neces-
sity and does it with an emphasis that
leaves no doubt as to his apprehension
Of trouble if the appropriations are not
watched
That IS TO say, after period of rev.
euue from high tariff taxation. the
highest fin point of gross returns the
country has ever known, the nation is
in danger of facing a deficit if the ex-
ttavagance of the congress is not re-
strained. With such an income as the
government has been enjoying, it
should have been possible to reduce
taxation steadily and Systematically;
instead. there has been a persistent ef-
fort TO dissipate this revenue that there
might be no excuse for asking reduc-
tion in the tariff under which the trusts
thtive. In the wild scramble TO spend
money the natural outcome has fol-
lowed: the people have wearied under
trust exactions. have reached the limit
OF their purchasing power, the revenues
from tariff have begun to decrease and
even Roosevelt realizes that his party
has to face a settling day in the near
future
This is the most important phase Of
the message as it relates TO domestic
affairs. The long eulogy of the depart
ment of commerce and labor sounds
well The department wiH doubtless,
make for good when it falls into COM
retent ard disinterested hands. but the
presidents praise of what the depart
ment has already accomplished falls
very fiat on the ears OF "a people who
know how little it has done in either
the field of trusts or the department OF
labor The trusts continue their preda-
cory illegal commercial piracy, and
the less said about general labor con-
ditions just now the better for the adj
ministration. The department has mel
ther brought capital and labor together
on common ground. as the message
suggests. nor has IL done anything TO
restrain the trusts from exercising ar
bitrary power in an illegal way.
To western people there is one illum-
mating paragraph in the presidents
production. That is the information
that practically SS.5O0,OOO have been set
aside for irrigation purposes out OF the
receipts from government land sales.
To the west this means thousands Of
acres of arid land reclaimed; thousands
OF new homes for desirable settlers; an
Increase fin the taxable property Of
every state affected, and the gradual
development Of an Inland empire worth
an the colonies. all the Pauamas the
nation could acquire i'm a century OF
aggression.
AS To the Panama question. 70 is hard
e. DE patient with the presidents atti-
dude He says. with characteristic
cock-sureress: "The question now,
therefore. IS not by which route the
isfhmian canal shall be built, for that
question has been irrevocably settled"
Ia other words. the senate has nothing
to DO with The treaty which il has never
authorized nor with the presidents ac-
zion in using the navy of the United
States for the promotion of a rebellion
against a country with which we were
go peace. When Grover Cleveland
complained at having congress ON his
hands. there was great indignation at
his assumption that he not congress.
was cit" Beside Roosevelts declara-
ton that he has settled the isthmian
question. and the inference that the
senate is not needed, Cleveland's IA
nous sarcasm was q platitudinous. in-
nocuous pleasantly.
In reference to the frauds I'm the pos
tai department. there is something
lacking Of the fierce, autocratlc deter
nination voiced by the Roosevelt of six
months ago. Then he was going to do
something awful; now he passes it over
with a vague reference to no specific
discovery which leaves one to believe
that his case has fattened out COM
pietely. Either that, or ne has lost his
nerve and Is afraid TO pursue the sub
lect further for fear Of the results to
himself and his political fortunes.
Altogether. the message is about
what might have been expected. If
ANYTHING. il is much milder than the
country looked for. Possibly the APP
preaching campaign has softened the
man OF blood and fire. for certainly no
sucking dove could be gentler fin the
things that called for ourspokenness.