these subjects.

The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment which it may
be possible for my Administration to prevent.

The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the Government
than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford
homes and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish
much the largest part of all our exports. As the Government lights our
coasts for the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so
it should give to the tillers of the soil the best lights of practical
science and experience.

Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially independent, and
are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fields of
employment. Their steady and healthy growth should still be matured.
Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the continued
improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways and by the
increase of our tonnage on the ocean.

The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for
shortening the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by constructing ship
canals or railways across the isthmus which unites the continents.
Various plans to this end have been suggested and will need
consideration, but none of them has been sufficiently matured to
warrant the United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject,
however, is one which will immediately engage the attention of the
Government with a view to a thorough protection to American interests.
We will urge no narrow policy nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges
in any commercial route; but, in the language of my predecessor, I