MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 5 December 1907, Page 2

MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.

THE LONGEST ON RECORD. " 'RESIDENT'S DIRECTIONS ON CUEPENT AMERICAN SUBJECTS. IMPORTANT MAIL SERVICES RECOMMENDATION. Received Dec. 4, 0.57 p.m. Washington, December 4. I resident Roosevelt's message to Congress occupied three hours in reading its sixty-three pages—the longest on record. If dealt with fifty subjects, and included few surprises. He is not opposed to railway "pooling"; recommends the suspension of trust companies the same as banks; forbidding of monopolies and trading at a loss in order to crush competition; urges Federal control of inter-State business; the establishment of emergency currency to be issued 1 under a heavy tax; the establishment i of post office savings banks; graduated income and inheritance taxes; the extension of the Ocean Mail Act, 1891, to enable the Postmaster to devote the present profit of three and a-half million dollars on the mail service abroad » m " ! .? erv . lces to South America, Asia, the Philippines, and Australia at the rate of four dollars a mile to 16-knot steamships. He urges that the workmen's compensation law should be brought up to the standard of European countries.

AMERICA'S FISCAL POLICY. LARGER ARMY AND NAVY ADVOCATED. ATTITUDE TOWARDS JAPAN. Received Dec. 5, 0.46 a.m. Washington, December i. President Roosevelt affirms that the United States is definitely committed to Protection, but he considers the tariff ought to be revised periodically so as to lfrevent excessive or improper benefits being conferred, adding that the best time for revision is after the Presidential election. He recommends a larger army, an addition to the navy this year of four of the largest type of battleShips, and also the establishment of defensive works and coaling stations in the Pacific, which -is America's coastline equally with the Atlantic. He hopes that until the Panama Canal is opened the battle fleet will shift from one ocean to the other every year' or two. The message dwells on the educational value of Admiral Evans's cruise, and anticipates, in terms oS warm friendliness, America's participation in the Tokio Exhibition. The message, however, does not mention anything about immigration. , °

PRESS OPINIONS. . ' Received Dec. 5, 0.46 a.m. London, December 4. The Times says that President Rooee-t velt has nothing to suggest in the v*f of real banking reform. The New York correspondent of The Times describes the disappointment of leading bankers and financier's over ike message. The Financial News says President Roosevelt's message' is valueless. The Financial Times declares that In time of a crisis like the present the message was like a man asking for bread and being given a tract to read.