The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-09

some of It's members have been ex- posed and convicted of crimes against the federal commonwealth
 The president renews his recom- Noujations for the establishment Of postal savings banks, and parcels pest in rural districts,
 Congress Is again urged to confer citizenship upon the Porto Ricans'
 The admission of New Mexico and Arizona as states is advocated,
 In the part of the message devoted tn tho navy the president urges the creation of a general staff and the abolition of the present bureau sys- tenn He also urges the building or four more large battleships of the all bIg-gun type, and two hospital ships He enlarges upon the value or the cruise of the hattleship fleet to the Pacific and the orient
 Finances.
 The financial standing of the nation at the present time Is excellent, and the financial management of the na- tons interests by the government during the last seven years has shown the most satisfactory results, But our currency system is imperfect, and 1t is earnestly to be hoped that the cur rency commission will he able to pro- pose thoroughly good system which will do away with the existing defects,
 During the period from July 1, 1901, to September 30, 1908, there was an increase in the amount of money in circulation of $902,99l,399. The in- crease in the per capita during this period was s7.O6. Within this time there were several occasions when 1t was necessary for the treasury depart ment to come to the relief of the money market by purchases or re- demptions of United States bonds; by increasing deposits in national banks; by stimulating additional issues of na- tiona bank notes and by facilitating mportations from abroad of gold. Our imperfect currency system has made these proceedings necessary, and they were effective until the monetary dis turbance in the fall of 1907 immense ly increased the difficulty of ordinary methods of relief By the middle of November the available working bal ance in the treasury had been reduced to approximately S5,O00, 900. Clearing house associations throughout the country had been obliged to resort to the eXpedient of Issuing clearing house certificates, to be used as money. In this emergency 1t was determined to invite subscriptions for s50,000, GOO Panama canal bonds, and s100, 900, 900 three per cent, certificates of indebt- edness authorized by the act of June 13, 1898, 1t was proposed to re-de- posit in the national banks the pro- ceeds of these issues, and to permit their use as q base for additional cir cuatlng notes of national banks. The moral effect of this procedure was so great that 1t was necessary to issue only s246319S0 of the Panama canal bonds and s15,436,5OO of the certlf- cates of Indebtedness.
 During the period from July l. 1901, to September 30, 1908, the bal ance between the net ordinary receipts and the net ordinary expenses of the government showed surplus in the four years 1902, 1909, 1906 and 1907, and a deficit in the years 1904, 1905 1908 and fractional part of the fis- cal year 1909 Tho net result was a surplus Of S99, 2S3,41$.54 The fnan- cial operations of the government during this period, based upon these differences between receipts and ex-