The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1908-12-11
The PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

fM 4 1C0INCAt ANO06OV0AN p f AASv AA ~
message to congress is a ,comprehen-
sive, if a somewhat lengthy document.
There has been a tendency in recent
years to increase the length of these
executive communications to the IA
;tional legislature. The policy is n
of necessity rather than choice. The
country is expanding rapidly, and the
diversified interests are so great that
conditions are modified between the
adjournment and re-assembling Of the
congress.
The members, during the summer
vacation, are not as closely in touch
with affairs, as L administrative Of
ficers of the government, and thus 1t
is that the yearly messages of the
president embraces something of the
character of a general report Of the
various branches of the public service,
coupled with recommendations for flu.
5ture conduct.
The message published this morn.
ing is properly divided into subjects,
so that the busy reader may select
just that portion Of it in which he
is most interested if he does not care
to read it all.
1t opens with a discussion of the
financial affairs of the nation, and
recommends changes in an i'm
perfect banking system. Wise regula-
ton Of great corporations is urged,
with government control, though not
in a n to weaken the rights of
the states. r
Protection to workingmen, care for
the laborer who has been injured in
service or the family of the man
whose life has been lost, is a provision
the president recommends be enacted
into a law. Dreadful wrongs to the
working class he deplores, and points
a way out of the present maze of diff
ficulty, to a clearer light and to firmer
ground. In this respect the United
States, he says, is the most negligent
of nations, and compares unfavorably
with even the poorest of Europe, with
regard to the policy Of employers liza
bility.
Reform in the Judiciary, while nee.
essary, he a y is not possible at a
time when the courts are attacked in
discriminatory.
A campaign of ~villiication, he AYERS,
defeats the very object it is sought
to attain. Certain decisions have
been detrimental to the rights OF
labor.
It is only when the matter is dis.
cussed in a fair and impartial manner,
and without attempting extremes in
either direction, that the best results
for labor may be attained.
In this regard he takes up the sub
ject of class legislation, and points
out weaknesses in plans proposed, in
that many Of the remedies are neon.
stitutional, and for that very reason
ineffective. Checking the abuse of in
functions, he says, is necessary, on
which point all sides agree. Judges
interpret the law, they do not govern
the people; the laws are passed by
the people, and where unconstitutional,
decision is so rendered, in accordance
with the letter of the statutes. Equal
rights to all is demanded, and a prop.
osition to give special privileges to
one class and deny the same privileges
to another class. is therefore, stamped
as unconstitutional-in accordance
with the laws the majority OF the PEG.
pie have in each case insisted upon.
CURLING the use of overgrown for.
tunes, and the uses to which they may
be employed to infringe on the rights
of others, is recommended.
Protection of the forests and the
peril threatened by denuding the
mountains. and injuring the sources OF
water supply, is brought to the atten-
ton Of the law makers.
Action to improve inland waterways
is recommended.
Policing of national parks by the
army is urged.
The steady progress of the Indian
wards of the government is comment
ed upon.
He renews his recommendation for
the establishment Of a postal savings
bank, to be conducted by the govern.
ment.
Establishment of parcels post on
rural routes is pointed to as a neces-
sity.
Then, in order, he discusses the Sc
cret service, education, the census re.
distribution of bureaus, public health,
government printing, soldiers homes,
commissions, statehood of New Mex
leo and Arizona, interstate waters,
fisheries and seal furs, foreign affairs,
relations with South American repub.
lies, the Panama canal, ocean mail
service, Hawaii, the Philippines, Porto
Rico, Cuba, the Japanese exposition,
military affairs, the national guard
and the navy.
INCREASE IN cipciu A-,he