by treaty or otherwise, as will tend to equalize and greatly enlarge our mutual exchanges.

It will certainly be time enough for us to consider whether we must cheapen the cost of production by cheapening labor, in order to gain access to the South American markets, when we have fairly tried the effect of established and reliable steam communication, and of convenient methods of money exchanges. There can be no doubt, I think, that with these facilities well established, and with a rebate of duties upon imported raw materials used in the manufacture of goods for export, our merchants will be able to compete in the ports of the Latin-American nations with those of any other country.

If after the Congress shall have acted upon pending tariff legislation it shall appear that, under the general treaty-making power, or under any special powers given by law, our trade with the States represented in the Conference can be enlarged upon a basis of mutual advantage, it will be promptly done.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

BENJ. HARRISON.

June 19, 1890.

THE LOUISIANA STATE LOTTERY.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

The recent attempt to secure a charter from the State of North Dakota for a lottery company, the pending effort to obtain from the State of Louisiana a renewal of the charter of the Louisiana State Lottery, and the establishment of one or more lottery companies at Mexican towns near our border, have served the good purpose of calling public attention to an evil of vast proportions. If the baneful effects of the lotteries were confined to the States that give the companies corporate powers and a license to conduct the business, the citizens of other States, being powerless to apply legal remedies, might clear themselves of responsibility by the use of such moral agencies as were within their reach. But the case is not so. The people of all the States are debauched and defrauded. The vast sums of money offered to the States for charters are drawn from the people of the United States, and the General Government, through its mail system, is made the effective and profitable medium of intercourse between the lottery company and its victims. The use of the mails is quite as essential to the companies as

the State license. It would be practically impossible for these 'companies to exist if the public mails were once effectively closed against their advertisements and remittances. The use of the mails by these companies is a prostitution of an agency only intended to serve the purposes of a legitimate trade and a decent social intercourse.

It is not necessary, I am sure, for me to attempt to portray the robbery of the poor and the wide-spread corruption of public and private morals which are the necessary incidents of these lottery schemes.

The national capital has become a sub-headquarters of the Louisiana Lottery Company, and its numerous agents and attorneys are conducting here a business involving probably a larger use of the mails than that of any legitimate business enterprise in the District of Columbia. There seems to be good reason to believe that the corrupting touch of these agents has been felt by the clerks in the postal service and by some of the police officers of the District.

Severe and effective legislation should be promptly enacted to enable the Post-Office Department to purge the mails of all letters, newspapers, and circulars relating to the business.

The letter of the Postmaster-General, which I transmit herewith, points out the inadequacy of the existing statutes, and suggests legislation that would be effective.

It may also be necessary to so regulate the carrying of letters by the express companies as to prevent the use of those agencies to maintain communication between the lottery companies and their agents or customers in other States.

It does not seem possible that there can be any division of sentiment as to the propriety of closing the mails against these companies, and I therefore venture to express the hope that such proper powers as are necessary to that end will be at once given to the Post-Office Department.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

July 29, 1890.

BENJ. HARRISON.

POSTAL AND CABLE COMMUNICATION WITH SOUTH

AMERICA.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of State, inclosing the recommendations of the International American Conference for the establishment of improved facilities for postal and cable communication between the United States and the several countries of Central and South America.

I can not too strongly urge upon Congress the necessity of giving this subject immediate and favorable consideration, and of making adequate appropriations to carry the recommendations into effect; and in this connection I beg leave to call attention to what was said on the subject in my annual message. The delegates of the seventeen neighboring republics which have so recently been assembled in Washington, at the invitation of this Government, have expressed their wish and purpose to cooperate with the United States in the adoption of measures to improve the means of communication between the several republics of America. They recognize the necessity of frequent, regular, and rapid steamship service, both for the purpose of maintaining friendly intercourse and for the convenience of commerce, and realize that without such facilities it is useless to attempt to extend the trade between their ports and ours.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

BENJ. HARRISON.

July 2, 1890.

AGREEMENT WITH THE SAC AND FOX INDIANS.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In compliance with the provisions of section 14 of the act of March 2, 1889, I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, an agreement concluded between the Commissioners appointed under that section on behalf of the United States commonly known as the Cherokee Commission, and the Sac and Fox Nation of Indians in the Indian Territory, on the 12th day of June last.

The Sac and Fox Nation have a national council, and the negotiation was conducted with that body, which undoubtedly had competent authority to contract on behalf of the tribe for the sale of these lands. The letter of the Secretary of the Interior and the

accompanying papers, which are submitted herewith furnish all the information necessary to the consideration of the questions to be determined by Congress.

The only serious question presented is as to that article of the agreement which limits the distribution of the funds to be paid by the United States, under it, to the Sac and Fox Indians now in the Indian Territory. I very gravely doubt whether the remnant or band of this tribe now living in Iowa has any interest in these lands in the Indian Territory. The reservation there was apparently given in consideration of improvements upon the lands or the tribe in Kansas. The band now resident in Iowa, upon lands purchased by their own means, as I am advised, left the Kansas reservation many years before the date of this treaty and, it would seem, could have had no equitable interest in the improvements on the Kansas lands, which must have been the result of the labors of that portion of the tribe living upon them. The right of the Iowa band to a participation in the proceeds of the sale of the Kansas reservation was explicitly reserved in the treaty, but it seems to me, upon a somewhat hasty examination of the treaty, that the reservation in the Indian Territory was intended only for the benefit of those who should go there to reside. The Secretary of the Interior has expressed a somewhat different view of the effect of this treaty, but if the facts are, as I understand, that the Iowa band did not contribute to the improvements which were the consideration for the reservation, and did not accept the invitation to settle upon the reservation lands in the Indian Territory, I do not well see how they have either an equitable or legal claim to participate in the proceeds of the sale of those lands.

The whole matter is submitted for the consideration of Congress. BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

July 2, 1890.

LANDS IN ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In my annual message I called attention to the urgent need of legislation for the adjustment of the claims under Mexican grants to lands in Arizona and New Mexico.

I now submit a correspondence which has passed between the Department of State and the Mexican Government concerning the rights of certain Mexican citizens to have their claims to lands

ceded to the United States by the treaty adjusted and confirmed. I also submit a letter from the Secretary of the Interior, with accompanying papers, showing the number and extent of these claims and their present condition.

The United States owes a duty to Mexico to confirm to her citizens those valid grants that were saved by the treaty, and the long delay which has attended the discharge of this duty has given just cause of complaint.

The entire community where these large claims exist, and indeed all of our people, are interested in an early and final settlement of them. No greater incubus can rest upon the energies of a people' in the development of a new country than that resulting from unsettled land titles.

The necessity for legislation is so evident and so urgent that I venture to express the hope that relief will be given at the present session of Congress.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

BENJ. HARRISON.

July 1, 1890.

DISTRESS IN OKLAHOMA.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I have received, under date of July 29 ultimo, a communication from the Hon. George W. Steele, governor of the Territory of Oklahoma, in which, among other things, he says:

A delegation from township 16, range 1, in this county, has just left me, who came to represent that there are at this time twenty-eight families in that township who are in actual need of the necessaries of life, and they give it as their opinion that their township is not an exception, and that in the very near future a large proportion of the settlers of this Territory will have to have assistance. This I have looked for, but have hoped to bridge over until after the legislature meets, when I thought some arrangement might be made for taking care of these needy people; but with little taxable property in the Territory, and very many necessary demands to be made and met, I doubt if the legislature will be able to make such provision until a crop is raised next year as will be adequate to the demands.

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Now, I know whereof I speak, and .I say there are a great many people in this Territory who have not the necessary means of providing meals for a day to come and are being helped by their very poor neighbors. No one regrets more than I do the necessity of making the foregoing statement, and I have hoped to bridge the matter over, as I have said before, until the legislature would meet, and see if some provision could be made. I now see the utter hopelessness of such a course, and I beg of you to call the attention of Congress to the condition of our people, with the earnest hope that provision may be made whereby great suffering may be relieved; and I assure you that so far as I am able to prevent it, not one ounce of provisions, or a cent of money contributed to the above need shall be improperly used.