The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-11
From the Baltimore Sun.

S RESIDENT ROOSEvELT'S annu- " nual message to congress in De-
 cember, 1902, scarcely exceeded 10000 words. It dealt with variety of topics, most of which were treated with commendable conciseness. The message which the President sent to congress last Monday contained about 170OO words. With all respect for our chief magistrate, who is literary man as well as a states man, it should be said that his review of the state of the nation was entirely too long, It is assumed that when to be read If he forgets that golden maxim-"Brevity is the soul of wit"-the number of those who will give intelligent consideration to his utterances will be painfully small. Life is short; time is fieeting. People who have sufficient leis- ure to read an essay of 17O00 words are not so numerous nowadays as in the good old times when the world moved less rapidly than at the present time, when men were not so deeply absorbed in bus mess pursuits and when a message from President was considered an event of the highest importance. As a rule, what ever the President communicates to con- gress in the form of advice or informa- ton has been discussed minutely and ex- haustively before the translation of his message to the national legislature. For instance. the Panama revolution. which occurred on November 3, had been treated in all it's phases by the newspapers. It had elicited from the state department an elaborate explanation and defense of the course pursued by this government. There was nothing new of political diplomatic or economic nature to be said about it. Yet the President wrote more than 5000 words about this trite subject Why should the average reader feel it incumbent upon him to wade through columns of argument and narrative which had been set before him in more popular shape in the columns of the newspapers! Why should he read long dissertations on the relations of capital and labor, the regulation of trusts and the work of the department of the commerce and labor, when at the most these dissertations were merely reiterations of the Presidents pre- viously expressed views? Even if MT. Roosevelt, as an essayst, were entitled to rank with Macaulay and other mas- ters of the art of interesting and inform ing writing. the reading public would not be inclined to pore over messages which were either repetitions of past utterances or elaborations of facts and opinions which the newspapers had previously pre- scented.
 While 17,0Oo- word message is too se- were tax upon the patience and the time of the business or professional men. there is every reason to believe that mem bers of congress do not regard 1t with greater favor. Primarily the message is intended for the guidance and edification of our statesmen. As matter Of fact, there are few who listen attentively to 1t when it is read in the two houses of congress. The number of our solons able to give an intelligent and adequate sum- mary of a long message after the clerks of the house and senate have finished reading 1t would probably be found to constitute an insignificant proportion of the entire membership of congress. They have the document in printed form and can refer to 1t in their leisure moments when they need enlightenment on any portion of it's contents. It is significant that many congressmen who are asked to express an opinion of a message after it has been transmitted to congress ex- cuse themselves on the ground that they are not sufficiently acquainted with the Presidents recommendations and declara- tions to discuss them. If the message had been concise and Ito the point it is fair inference that they would not have pleaded ignorance. When the average statesman has to listen to a 17oo0-word