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.
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