Semi-weekly herald., 1908-12-10
Presidents Message

To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives: The financial standing O
the nation at the present time is ex
cellent, and the financial management
of the nations interests by the gov
ernment during the last seven year
has shown the most satisfactory re
suits. But our currency system is i'm
perfect. and il is earnestly to be hopet
that the currency commission will bt
able to propose a thoroughly good sys
tenn which will do away with the ex
listing defects.
During the periou from July, 1901. tc
September 80. 1908, there was an in
cfeSGe in the amount of money in
circulation of s9O2, ,991 .399 The in.
crease in the per capita during this
p@riod ssas $706 Within this time
there were several occasions when It
was necessary for the treasury de.
partment 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 ma.
tional bank notes, and by facilitating
importations 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 immensely
increased the difficulty of ordinary
methods of relief.
BY the middle of November the
available working balance in the treas
ury had beersreduced to approximately
S5,OOO,OO0. Gearing house associations
throughout the country had been OBJ
hged to resort to the expedient of
issuing clearing house certificates to
be used as money. In this emergency
iS aas determined o,invite subscrip.
tions for s50,00O,0OO Panama canal
bonds, and S100OOO,OOO per cent Ger
tificates of Indebtedness authorized by
the (ct of June 13, 1898. 1t was pro
posed to redeposit in the national
banks the proceeds of these issues,
and to permit their use as basis for
additional circulating notes OF national
banks.
The moral effect of this procedure
was so great that 1t was necessary to
issue only s24.631 $50 of the Panama
canal bonds and $3.50, 500 of the Ger.
tificates of indebtedness.
During the period from July l, 1901,
to September 80. 1908, the balance
between the net ordinary receipts and
the net ordinary expenses of the gov
ernment showed a surplus in the four
years 1902, 1908, 1906 and 1907, and a
deficit in the years 1904, 1905, 1908
and fractional part of the fiscal year
1909. The net result was a surplus
of $99,2S3, ,413.54. The financial opera.
,tions of the government during this
odvbased upon these differences
between receipts and expenditures, re-
suited in net reduction of the inter.
SoS- Inns uVoI vi Tic Oullcu Oldlt6
fromas9S7,141,O4O to $S97, 1858. 800. not
withs1tnding that there had been two
sales of Panama canal bonds and
amounting in the aggregate to s54,-
631,9S0, and an issue of per cent
certificates of indebtedness under the
act of June 10, 1898, amounting to sl5,-
436,50O. Retunding operations of the
treasury department under the act of
March ID, 1900, resulted in the conver.
sion into per cent consols of 1880
of S200,309,400 bonds bearing higher
rates of interest. A decrease of 49,.
6S7,956 in the annual interest charge
resulted from these operations.
In short, during the seven years and
three months there has been a net sur.
plus of nearly one hundred millions of
receipss over expenditures. reduction
of the interestbearing debt by ninety
millions, in spite of the extraordinary
expense of the Panama canal, and
saving of nearly nine millions on the
annual interest charge. This is an
exceedingly satisfactory showing. es-
pecially in view of the fact that dur
ing this period the nation has never
hesitated to undertake any expendi.
ture that it regarded as necessary.
There have been no new taxes and no
increases of taxes; on the contrary
sOme taxes have been taken off; there
has been a reduction of taxation.
As regards the great corporations
engaged in interstate business, and es.
Decially the railroads. l can only re-
peat what / have already again and
Main said in my messages to the con.
gress. | believe that under the in
terstate clause of the constitution
the United States has complete and
paramount right to control all agencies
OF interstate commerce, and l believe
that the national government alone
can exercise this right with wisdom
and effectiveness SO as both to Sc
cure justice from, and to do justic,
to, thevgreat corporations which ar,
the most important factors in moderr
: husiness