The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-04
Wednesday, December 4, 1907.
rHr pREsrpENr,s MEssAe !.

THE PRESIDEN1'S MESSAG Gf.
 It is lamentable from every point of view that the President of the United States and executive officers generally should consider it their duty to give their views upon public matters to leg islative bodies at such great length as to preclude the possibility of the mes sage containing them being read in- telligently by either members of the President Roosevelt's annual message to the congress of the United States yesterday contained so many words that while it would have been possible to print it in the columns of The Jour- nal and Courier 1t would have been a ridiculous sacrifice of news space to have done so. By carefully condensing 1t we have been able to bring 1t with in the consideration of our readers and offer them a comprehensive presenta- liOn OI the tSrOunu lt CONsTS
 A political supporter of President Roosevelt said recently in commenting upon his extraordinary activity that he made the mistake of putting too many irons in the fire at the same time, the consequence of which was to embar-s rass his friends by forcing them to di- vide their interest between things in which they believed and things which could not awaken their approval This is the criticism to be made of the mes sage read yesterday. It leaves one in state of hopeless confusion as to the legislative needs of the hour while a briefer message dealing with fewer and major topics would have provoked an intelligently popular advocacy of them It is absolutely impossible for Congress at the session upon which 1t has entered to adequately consider and digest the many undertakings the President offers 1t. It may be ques- toned whether several congresses could fitly consider and satisfactorily dispose of them, so closely related are many of them to human experiences which call for the finest judgment be- fore they can be approved. It does not follow that the President is advising things of minor importance or that the things he advises are not really press ing in their significance, but rather that in piling too much on Congress for its consideration he puts a premi- um upon positive neglect through both ignorance and indifference. He at the same time encourages uninten- tionaIly the public to turn away from the whole subject of government by depriving them of the chance to know something definite of the things likely to be uppermost in the halls of legisla- ton.
 President Roosevelt would of course be the first to disclaim any such pur- pose and he would be right in doing 50, but the effect nevertheless remains the same. We seriously question if a fraction of one per cent. of the voting population of the country knows at this moment more of the contents of the message than are set forth in the newspaper headlines, and yet import ant matters are treated of in 1t which might carry conviction if considered apart from mass of progressive ideas. We are bit surprised to learn that President Roosevelt attributes the money stringeucy to the hoarding of money by the people. He is more i'm pressive when he says that he has no idea of letting up on Successful dis. honesty" That he should favor modi- fcation of the Sherman antitrust law and enlarged powers for the inter- state commission under a publicity clause follows from an intelligent observation of recent events. It is interesting to observe, too, that his present position coineides with that originally taken by former United States Senator Platt of Connecticut Aside from demand for "greatel elasticity in our currency" the Presi. dents views are vaguely brief. Tht tariff revision, which is commenting itself with such interest to the oountr, at large, he favors, bur at some othel time than that immediate:y preceding q presidential election. The right O injunction when tyrannically used ht condemns, though he Is not exactly clear as to what should take its place as a principle of control in times O eStrcme danger. The employers Ii ability act is again appr oved. His troat ment of labor is extended and include an enthusiastic .panegrylc upon tn, furrner and a demand Cor an eight hour day for government employees