Year: 1874




produce, and therefore would be bene
fit to home production. There are many
articles entering into home manufac
lures which we do not produce ourselves
the tariff upon which increases the cost
of producing the manufactured article
All corrections in this regard are in the
direction of bringing labor and capital in
| harmony with each other, and of supply
ing one of the elements much needed,


The report of the Secretary of War
herewith attached and forming part oi
this message gives all the informa
ton concerning all the operations
wants and necessities, and contains
| many suggestions and recommendation
which l commend to your special atten-
ton. There is no class of Government
employees who are harder worked than
the army officers, and none who perform
their tasks more cheerfully and more eff
ficiently, and under circumstances OF
greater privations and hardships:


Legislation is desirable to render more
efficient this branch of the public SER
vice. All the recommendations of the
Secretary of War l regard as judicious,
and 1 especially commend to your atten-
/ ton the following: The consolidation
of Government arsenal; mileage to Off
GERS travelling under orders; the exemp-



subsistence stores from being covered in
to the Treasury; the use of ASPIRATIONS
for the purchase of subsistence stores
without waiting for the beginning OF the
fiscal year for which the appropriation is
made; for additional aspirations for the
collection of torpedo material for in
creased appropriations for the manufac-
ture of arms for relieving the various
States from Indebtedness for arms charg-
ed to them during the rebellion; for
dropping officers from the rolls of the
army without trial for the offense of
drawing pay more than once for the
same period; for the discouragemento of
the plan to pay soldiers by checks, and
for the establishment of professorship
of rhetoric and English literature at
West Point


The reasons for the recommendations
are obvious, and are set forth sufficiently
in the report attached. I also recon-
mend that the status of the staff, corps
of the army be fixed where this has not
already been done, so that promotions
may be made and vacancies filled as they
occur in each grade when reduced below
the number to be fixed. The necessity
for such legislation is specially felt now
in the pay department-the number of
vacancies in that department being now



formance of the duties required of them
by law


The efficiency of the Navy has been
largely increased during the last year.
under the impulse of the foreign compli-
cations which threatened us. At the
commencement of the last session of
Congress, most of our efficient wooden
ships were put in condition for immediate
service, and the repairs of our ironclad
fleet were pushed with the utmost vigor.
The result is that most of these are now
in effective state, and need only to be
manned and but in commission. to go at
once into service. Some of the new
sloops authorized by Congress are already
in commission, and most of the remain
der are launched and want only the COM
pletion of machinery to enable them to
take their places as part of our effect
force. Two iron torpedo ships have been
completed during the last year, and four
of our large double-turreted iron clads
are undergoing repairs. When these are |
finished, everything that is needful to
the navy, as now authorized, will be in !
condition for service, and with the adj |
vance in science af torpedo warfare, the |
American navy, comparatively small as
it is will be found powerful for the pur-
poses of peaceful nation.


Much has also been accomplished dur
ing the year in aid of science. and to in
crease the sum of general knowledge and
further the interests of commerce and |
civilization. Extensive and much need |
ed soundings have been made for hydro |
graphic purposes, and to fix the proper
routes of ocean telegraphs; the surveys
of the Great Isthmus have been under |
taken and completed, and two vessels of |
the navy are now employed in coniunc- |
ton with those of England, France, Ger
many and Russia, in observations con-
nected with the transit of Venus. useful |
and interesting to the scientific world.


Estimates for this branch of the public |
service do not differ materially from |
those of last year, those for the general |
support of the service being somewhat |
less, and those for improvements at the ,
various stations, rather larger than the |
corresponding estimate made year ago. |
The ready maintenance, and steady in
crease in the efficiency of this most i'm |
portant arm in proportion to the growth |
of our maratime intercourse and inter |
course and interests is recommended to |
the attention of Congress. The use of |
the navy during peace might be further |
utilized by a direct authorization of the |
employment of naval vessels in surveys |
of the supposed navigable waters of 9TH |



cially tributaries of the two great rivers |
of South America the Orinoco and ANA |
zon Nothing prevents under existing |
laws such exploration, except that ex-
pendltures must be made in such devel- |
opment of commercial interests advan-
tageous to the people reached and to |
to those who may establish relations with |
them.


The education of the people entitled |
to exercise the right of franchise l regard |
essential to prosperity, everywhere and
so in republics, where neither
education nor previous condition enters
into account in giving suffrage


Next to the public school, the Postof-
fee is the great agent of education, over
our vast territory The rapidity with
which new sections are being settled up,
thus increasing the carrying of mails in .
a more rapid ratio than the increase of
receipt, is not alarming. The report of
the Postmaster General herewith attach
ed shows that there was an increase of
revenue in his department in 1873 over
the previous year of $1,674, All, and an
increase of cost of carrying the mails, or
paying employees of S3,041, 467 91


The report of the Postmaster General
gives interesting statistics of his depart
ment, and compares them with cores
ponding statistics of year ago showing
a growth in every branch of the depart
menf. A postal convention has been
concluded with New South Wales, an ex-
change of postal cards established with
Switzerland, and negotiations, pending
for several years past with France, has
terminated in convention with that
country which went into effect last Au-
gust. An international Postal Congress
was convened in Berne, Switzerland, in