In many respects the National Banking Law furnishes sufficient liberty
for the proper exercise of the banking function; but there seems to be
need of better safeguards against the deranging influence of commercial
crises and financial panics. Moreover, the currency of the country
should be made responsive to the demands of our domestic trade and
commerce.

The collections from duties on imports and internal taxes continue to
exceed the ordinary expenditures of the Government, thanks mainly to the
reduced army expenditures. The utmost care should be taken not to reduce
the revenues so that there will be any possibility of a deficit; but,
after providing against any such contingency, means should be adopted
which will bring the revenues more nearly within the limit of our actual
needs. In his report to the Congress the Secretary of the Treasury
considers all these questions at length, and I ask your attention to the
report and recommendations.

I call special attention to the need of strict economy in expenditures.
The fact that our national needs forbid us to be niggardly in providing
whatever is actually necessary to our well-being, should make us doubly
careful to husband our national resources, as each of us husbands his
private resources, by scrupulous avoidance of anything like wasteful or
reckless expenditure. Only by avoidance of spending money on what is
needless or unjustifiable can we legitimately keep our income to the
point required to meet our needs that are genuine.

In 1887 a measure was enacted for the regulation of interstate railways,
commonly known as the Interstate Commerce Act. The cardinal provisions
of that act were that railway rates should be just and reasonable and
that all shippers, localities, and commodities should be accorded equal