The President's Message

The first message of President Roosevelt to the special session of the Fiftyninth Congress was a voluminous document, discussing in detail an extraordinary number of matters of import to the welfare of the nation. In reading it one can not help speculating as to what feelings it would arouse in the souls of the fathers of the Constitution. The federal government has been increasingly compelled to consider economic matters because of their political importance. But President Roosevelt recommends legislation which is political only in the most indirect fashion. Lynching, labor injunctions, the color line in education, the eight-hour day, the withdrawal of coal lands from settlement, state supervision of trusts, a tax on incomes, an increasingly heavy tax on inheritances for the purpose of preventing the rise of great fortunes, the scientific training of farmers, marriage and divorce, race suicide and irrigation are given quite as much

attention as our relations with Japan and Cuba. The tariff is not treated, if indeed mentioned, and the Panama situation was left for treatment in a second message.

The Tax

on

Inheritances

There is no denying that the President's attitude toward great fortunes is one of genuine apprehension. He makes a sincere attempt to meet a danger that, since the will of Marshall Field with its creation of an endowment fund for his grandchildren, has been recognized by every thoughtful man, whether he be rich or poor. The President realizes the difficulty which lies in any hasty legislation, but he believes that in the near future our national legislators should enact a law providing for a graduated inheritance tax by which a steadily increasing rate of duty "should be paid upon all moneys and other valuables coming by gift or bequest to any individual or corporation" In his judgment judgment "the pro rata of the tax should. increase very heavily with the increase of

Currency Reform

Another matter upon which Congress is certainly bound to act in the immediate future, is currency reform. President Roosevelt is rather non-committal at this point, but quotes as among possibly feasible plans worthy of consideration, that of Secretary Shaw. The essential features of this plan have been approved by bankers and include the so-called credit currency. The President's uncertainty as regards the best plan at this particular point is a tribute to his caution, and incidentally to his experience as a stockman in the West. But he evidently means to let men of finance answer questions of finance. This caution as to a practical matter, the complications of which are. very obvious, is striking when compared with the President's plea for constitutional amendment giving Congress the right to regulate divorce, and his short but vigorous homily on the necessity of a high birth-rate.

Doctrine

As we should expect, the message touches upon the relations of the United States with Cuba and The Monroe South America, particular attention being given to Secretary Root's trip in the interest of removing misunderstandings of the Monroe Doctrine. A section of peculiar significance is the President's approving quotation of Doctor Drago's statement of the traditional policy of the government as to its relation to the American republics. In this connection it is gratifying to see that the President urges that citizenship be conferred upon Porto Ricans and that the Philippine tariff should be either lowered or abolished. It will be remembered that Congress refused to pass a bill to this effect at its last session.