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Show TJIE MKSSAlrE. The message sent in by the president yesterday, the firEt day of the second Bession of the Fifty-fourth congress, is an excessively long and exhaustive document. In the main it Is a statesmanlike states-manlike document, remarkable alike for what it recommends and for what it Ignores, The sore-hearted est looked anxiously for some word of encouragement encourage-ment for the silent and discouraged silver interests, but alas, no word escaped es-caped the presidential lips which can be tortured into encouragement. So, so far as silver is conerned, we may as well take leave of it until there is a complete change in the executive policy of the nation. The foreign policy outlined by the president is vigorous, comprehensive and manly It covers all the leading policies likely to interest the country and which are familiar to the people. The president speaks of the production of the "prec-cious "prec-cious metals.'' Ibis seems a melancholy melan-choly jibe at silver, reduced by the policy of the government to the position posi-tion of a base and dishonored metal leaving gold alone as the one metal worthy to be called "precious." The army is dwelt upon at lengihl The main ieatures of the message under this head is that the rank and file amounts to 2S,000 men. The use of the army in the late strikes is illustrated and defended, and very successfully too, we think. The president strongly favors the encouragement en-couragement of the organization of the militia forces of the states. There is no feature of the message more commendable com-mendable than this. It is all important import-ant that the military spirit of the people peo-ple be encouraged and fostered in every way. "We are glad that this matter mat-ter has at last atti acted the presidential presiden-tial notice. There is a little pardonable glorification over the condition o"f our navv. Indeed the government has I much to justify the glorification of the president under this head. We have now the foundations laid upon a permanent per-manent basis for a first-class naval establishment. es-tablishment. The government has certainly cer-tainly no more important interest to care for than this. The recommendations of the secretary of the interior on the subject of public lands are generally sound save in the matter of the mineral lands of the west, and this from an entire ignoring of the subject altogether. The In , dians come in for considerable atten tion. The president acknowledges that the condition oi the aborigines is not what it was once, or what i; should be. "We dissent from His Excellency's conclusions con-clusions as to the worth of the principle princi-ple of ciyil service reform. We have looked honestly fo these zreat end valuable results, but we arerank to say we have never been able ? to d!s- cover them. What the party loses in strength is not compensated for by the actual advantage of the service from a general, or non-partisan standpoint. stand-point. Indeed civil eervice reform as we see it worked out in the daily buii-ness buii-ness of the government,is a yery decided and glaring humbug. The president strongly recommends some tariff amendments. We wish we could say as much for his soundness on financial and commercial policies. The document is very lengthy, much too much so for The Dispatch to think of reproducing. |