Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Great progress has already been made among farmers by the creation of
farmers' institutes, of dairy associations, of breeders' associations,
horticultural associations, and the like. A striking example of how the
Government and the farmers can cooperate is shown in connection with
the menace offered to the cotton growers of the Southern States by the
advance of the boll weevil. The Department is doing all it can to
organize the farmers in the threatened districts, just as it has been
doing all it can to organize them in aid of its work to eradicate the
cattle fever tick in the South. The Department can and will cooperate
with all such associations, and it must have their help if its own work
is to be done in the most efficient style.
Much is now being done for the States of the Rocky Mountains and Great
Plains through the development of the national policy of irrigation and
forest preservation; no Government policy for the betterment of our
internal conditions has been more fruitful of good than this. The
forests of the White Mountains and Southern Appalachian regions should
also be preserved; and they can not be unless the people of the States
in which they lie, through their representatives in the Congress,
secure vigorous action by the National Government.
I invite the attention of the Congress to the estimate of the Secretary
of War for an appropriation to enable him to begin the preliminary work
for the construction of a memorial amphitheater at Arlington. The Grand
Army of the Republic in its national encampment has urged the erection
of such an amphitheater as necessary for the proper observance Of
Memorial Day and as a fitting monument to the soldier and sailor dead
buried there. In this I heartily concur and commend the matter to the
favorable consideration of the Congress.
I am well aware of how difficult it is to pass a constitutional
amendment. Nevertheless in my judgment the whole question of marriage
and divorce should be relegated to the authority of the National
Congress. At present the wide differences in the laws of the different
States on this subject result in scandals and abuses; and surely there
is nothing so vitally essential to the welfare of the nation, nothing
around which the nation should so bend itself to throw every safeguard,
as the home life of the average citizen. The change would be good from
every standpoint. In particular it would be good because it would
confer on the Congress the power at once to deal radically and
efficiently with polygamy; and this should be done whether or not
marriage and divorce are dealt with. It is neither safe nor proper to
leave the question of polygamy to be dealt with by the several States.
Power to deal with it should be conferred on the National Government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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