UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 28

UNITED STATES CONGRESS

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S

MESSAGE

A LENGTHY DOCUMENT.

WASHINGTON, December 4.

President Roosevelt's Message to Congress occupied three hours in reading. It comprised 63 pages, and is the longest on record.

The Message dealt with 50 subjects, and contained few surprises. It does- not oppose railway pooling, but recommends the suspension of trust companies the same as banks, the forbidding of monopolies and trading at a loss in order to crush competition. It urges the Federal control of inter-State business, the establishment of an emergency currency to be issued under a heavy tax, the establishment of post office savings banks, graduated income and inheritance .taxes, and the extension of the Ocean Mail Act of 1891 to enable the Postmaster-general to devote the present profit of 3,500,000dpl on the mail service abroad to a mail service to South America, Asia, the Philippines, and Australia at the rate of 4dorper mile with 16-knot steamships. It also recommends that the workmen's compensation law should be brought up to the standard of that in European' countries.

President Roosevelt affirms that .the United States is definitely committed to Protection, but he says the tariff ought to be revised periodically in order to prevent excessive or improper benefits being conferred. He adds that the best time for revision is after the Presidential election. He recommends the establishment of a larger army and the construction of fo"ur of tlve largest type of battleships this year, also defensive works and coaling stations in the Pacific, which is America's coast line equally itith the Atlantic. He hopes that until the Panama Canal is opened the battleship fleet will shift from one ocean to the other every year or two. The President dwells upon the educational value of Admiral Evans's cruise, and he anticipates in terms of warm friendliness America's participation in the Tokio Exhibition. He does not mention immigration.

LONDON, December 4.

The Times says that President Roosevelt has nothing to suggest in the way of real banking reform.

Th© New York correspondent of The Times describes the disappointment of leading bankens and financiers. Tlie Financial News says tliat President Roosevelt's Message is valueless.

Tlie Financial Times declares that in time of crisis it will be like a man asking for bread and being given a tract.