Economy in public expenditure is a duty that can not innocently be
neglected by those intrusted with the control of money drawn from the
people for public uses. It must be confessed that our apparently endless
resources, the familiarity of our people with immense accumulations
of wealth, the growing sentiment among them that the expenditure of
public money should in some manner be to their immediate and personal
advantage, the indirect and almost stealthy manner in which a large
part of our taxes is exacted, and a degenerated sense of official
accountability have led to growing extravagance in governmental
appropriations.

At this time, when a depleted public Treasury confronts us, when many
of our people are engaged in a hard struggle for the necessaries of
life, and when enforced economy is pressing upon the great mass of our
countrymen, I desire to urge with all the earnestness at my command that
Congressional legislation be so limited by strict economy as to exhibit
an appreciation of the condition of the Treasury and a sympathy with the
straitened circumstances of our fellow-citizens.

The duty of public economy is also of immense importance in its intimate
and necessary relation to the task now in hand of providing revenue to
meet Government expenditures and yet reducing the people's burden of
Federal taxation.

After a hard struggle tariff reform is directly before us. Nothing so
important claims our attention and nothing so clearly presents itself as
both an opportunity and a duty--an opportunity to deserve the gratitude
of our fellow-citizens and a duty imposed upon us by our oft-repeated
professions and by the emphatic mandate of the people. After full
discussion our countrymen have spoken in favor of this reform, and they