can be made as to our officers, taken as a whole; but there must be a reservation made in regard to those in the highest ranks as to which I have already spoken-and in regard to those who have just entered the service; because we do not now get full benefit from our excellent naval school at Annapolis. It is absurd not to graduate the midshipmen as ensigns; to keep them for two years in such an anomalous position as at present the law requires is detrimental to them and to the service. In the academy itself, every first classman should be required in turn to serve as petty officer and officer; his ability to discharge his duties as such should be a prerequisite to his going into the line, and his success in commanding should largely determine his standing at graduation. The Board of Visitors should be appointed in January, and each member should be required to give at least six days' service, only from one to three days' to be performed during June week, which is the least desirable time for the board to be at Annapolis so far as benefiting the Navy by their observations is concerned. THE WHITE HOUSE, Tuesday, December 8, 1908 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE RELATING TO THE SECRET SERVICE. Mr. PERKINS, from the special committee to consider a portion of the annual message of the President, submitted the following REPORT. The special committee to consider a portion of the President's annual message submitted a privileged report on the following resolution, recommending its passage: Whereas the annual message of the President contained the following paragraphs: "Last year an amendment was incorporated in the measure providing for the Secret Service which provided that there should be no detail from the Secret Service and no transfer therefrom. It is not too much to say that this amendment has been of benefit only, and could be of benefit only, to the criminal classes. If deliberately introduced for the purpose of diminishing the effectiveness of war against crime, it could not have been better devised to this end. It forbade the practices that had been followed to a greater or less extent by the executive heads of various departments for twenty years. To these practices we owe the securing of the evidence which enabled us to drive great lotteries out of business and secure a quarter of a million of dollars in fines from their promoters. "These practices have enabled us to discover some of the most outrageous frauds in connection with the theft of government land and government timber by great corporations and by individuals. These practices have enabled us to get some of the evidence indispensable in order to secure the conviction of the wealthiest and most formidable criminals with whom the Government has to deal, both those operating in violation of the antitrust law and others. The amendment in question was of benefit to no one excepting to these criminals, and it seriously hampers the Government in the detection of crime and the securing of justice. Moreover, it not only affects departments outside of the Treasury, but it tends to hamper the Secretary of the Treasury himself in the effort to utilize the employees of his department so as to best meet the requirements of the public service. It forbids him from preventing frauds upon the customs service, from investigating irregularities in branch mints and assay offices, and has seriously crippled him. It prevents the promotion of employees in the Secret Service, and this further discourages good effort. In its present form the restriction operates only to the advantage of the criminal, of the wrongdoer. "The chief argument in favor of the provision was that the Congressmen did not themselves wish to be investigated by Secret Service men. Very little of such investigation has been done in the past; but it is true that the work of the Secret Service agents was partly responsible for the indictment and conviction of a Senator and a Congressman for land frauds in Oregon. I do not believe that it is in the public interest to protect criminals in any branch of the public service, and exactly as we have again and again during the past seven years prosecuted and convicted such criminals who were in the executive branch of the Government, so in my belief we should be given ample means to prosecute them if found in the legislative branch. But if this is not considered desirable a special exception could be made in the law prohibiting the use of the Secret Service force in investigating Members of the Congress. It would be far better to do this than to do what actually was done, and strive to prevent or at least to hamper effective action against criminals by the executive branch of the Government." Understanding this language to be a reflection on the integrity of its membership, and aware of its own constitutional duty as to its membership, the House in respectful terms called on the President for any information that would justify the language of the message or assist it in its constitutional duty to purge itself of corruption. The President in his message of January 4 denies that the paragraph of the annual message casts reflections on the integrity of the House; attributes to the House "an entire failure to understand my message;" declares that he has made no charge of corruption against any Member of this House, and by implication states that he has no proof of corruption on the part of any Member of this House. Whether the House in its resolution of December 17, 1908, correctly interpreted the meaning of the words used by the President in his annual message, or whether it misunderstood that language as the President implies, will be judged now and in the future according to the accepted interpretations of the English language. This House, charged only with its responsibility to the people of the United States and its obligation to transmit unimpaired to the future the representative institutions inherited from the past, and to preserve its own dignity, must insist on its own capacity to understand the import of the President's language. We consider the language of the President in his message of December 8, 1908, unjustified and without basis of fact, and that it constitutes a breach of the privileges of the House; therefore, be it Resolved, That the House in the exercise of its constitutional prerogatives declines to consider any communication from any source which is not in its own judgment respectful; and be it further Resolved, That the special committee and the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union be discharged from any consideration of so much of the President's annual message as relates to the Secret Service, and is above set forth, and that the said portion of the message be laid on the table; and be it further Resolved, That the message of the President sent to the House on January 4, 1909, being unresponsive to the inquiry of the House and constituting an invasion of the privileges of this House by questioning the motives and intelligence of members in the exercise of their constitutional rights and functions, be laid on the table. SPECIAL MESSAGE. To the House of Representatives: I have received the resolution of the House of Representatives of December 17, 1908, running as follows: "Whereas there was contained in the sundry civil appropriation bill which passed Congress at its last session and became a law a provision in reference to the employment of the Secret Service in the Treasury Department; and "Whereas in the last annual message of the President of the United States to the two Houses of Congress it was stated in refer THE CHANNEL OF THE CANAL The Panama Canal has a summit elevation of eighty-five feet above the sea and is reached by a flight of three locks at the Atlantic or northern end, one in the interior at Pedro Miguel and two at the Pacific or southern end. It is about fifty miles in length from deep water in the Caribbean Sea to deep water in the Pacific Ocean. The channel from mile o in the Caribbean to mile 6.70 is 500 feet wide; from the south end of Gatun locks to mile 23.50, not less than 1,000 feet wide; from mile 23.50 to mile 26.50, 800 feet wide; from mile 26.50 to mile 27.00, 700 feet wide; from mile 27.00 to mile 31.25, 500 feet wide; from mile 31.25 to Pedro Miguel lock (mile 39.36) 300 feet wide, and from Pedro Miguel lock to Miraflores locks and from Miraflores locks to deep water in Panama Bay, 500 feet wide. The average bottom width of the channel in this project is 649 feet, and the minimum width is 300 feet. The Canal has a minimum depth of 41 feet. A full description of the Panama Canal will be found in the Encyclopedic Index. |