Wednesday, September 11, 1901. McKinley doing well.

President McKinley's physicians told reporters, "Good news, good news, nothing but good news. We have washed and fed the President, and moved him to another bed" and  "that a count of his blood shows that it is in a normal condition, and we feel that we can announce definitely that there is not the least indication of blood poisoning."

The Director-General of the Pan-American Exposition announced plans for "a day of special thanksgiving, a day of national jubilee over the escape of President McKinley from death".

Clergymen attending a national conference in Chicago proposed a second Thanksgiving Day in honor of McKinley's escaping death.

Cousins Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and  Czar Nicholas of Russia met on the Kaiser's yacht, SMY Hohenzollern, which made a rendezvous with the Tsar's yacht off of the German coast.  The Czar was ferried to the location on his yacht, the Standart.

The U.S. Circuit Court for New York ordered a refund of $490,139.09 to the American Sugar Refining Company for improper tariffs.  The tax was imposed on sugar from Puerto Rico, which was except.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 10, 1901. Goldman arrested.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Anarchy, Communists, Economics, Emma Goldman, William McKinley

Tuesday, September 10, 1901. Goldman arrested.

Communist/Anarchist Emma Goldman, looking pissed off.

A nationwide roundup of anarchist resulted in the arrest of the perpetually pissed off looking Emma Goldman.  She was released on September 23.  William McKinley, who had been shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, continued to recover.

Goldman in 1886, age 17, apparently before she was perpetually pissed off.  In this photo she bears a remarkable resemblance to Ella Cordova.

The U.S. Treasury announced a massive bond buy back.

Last edition:

Monday, September 9, 1901. McKinley rallies.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley

Monday, September 9, 1901. McKinley rallies.

President McKinley rallied and doctors were cautiously optimistic he would recover.

Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, acting on the news, departed for the Adirondacks to go  hiking.

Last ediction:

Sunday, September 8, 1901. McKinley on the verge of death.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Crime, Death, William McKinley

Sunday, September 8, 1901. McKinley on the verge of death.

 

Last edition:

Saturday, September 7, 1901. Official end of the Boxer Rebellion, Roosevelt in Buffalo.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Boxer Rebellion, China, Crime, Diplomacy, New York (Buffalo), Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley

Saturday, September 7, 1901. Official end of the Boxer Rebellion, Roosevelt in Buffalo.

China signed the Boxer Protocol, one of China's "Unequal Treaties".

SETTLEMENT OF MATTERS GROWING OUT OF THE BOXER UPRISING (BOXER PROTOCOL)

The Plenipotentiaries of Germany, His Excellency M. A. Mumm von Schwarzenstein; of Austria-Hungary, His Excellency M. M. Czikann von Wahlbom; of Belgium, His Excellency M. Joostens; of Spain, M. B. J. de Cologan; of the United States, His Excellency Mr. W. W. Rockhill; of France, His Excellency M. Paul Beau; of Great Britain, His Excellency Sir Ernest Satow; of Italy, Marquis Salvago Raggi; of Japan, His Excellency M. Jutaro Komura; of the Netherlands, His Excellency M. F. M. Knobel; of Russia, His Excellency M. M. de Giers; and of China, His Highness Yi-K'uang, Prince of the First Rank Ching, President of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and His Excellency Li Hung-chang, Earl of the First Rank, Su-i, Tutor of the Heir Apparent, Grand Secretary of the Wen-nua Throne Hall, Minister of Commerce, Superintendent of the Northern Ports, Governor-General of Chihli, have met for the purpose of declaring that China has complied to the satisfaction of the Powers with the conditions laid down in the note of the 22d of December, 1900,[3] which were accepted in their entirety by His Majesty the Emperor of China in a decree dated the 27th of December, 1900 (Annex No. 1).

Article I a

By an Imperial Edict of the 9th of June last (Annex No. 2), Tsai Feng, Prince of the First Rank Ch'ün, was appointed Ambassador of His Majesty the Emperor of China, and directed in that capacity to convey to His Majesty the German Emperor the expression of the regrets of His Majesty the Emperor of China and of the Chinese Government for the assassination of His Excellency the late Baron von Ketteler, German Minister.

Prince Ch'ün left Peking the 12th of July last to carry out the orders which had been given him.

Article I b

The Chinese Government has stated that it will erect on the spot of the assassination of His Excellency the late Baron von Ketteler a commemorative monument, worthy of the rank of the deceased, and bearing an inscription in the Latin, German, and Chinese languages, which shall express the regrets of His Majesty the Emperor of China for the murder committed.

Their Excellencies the Chinese Plenipotentiaries have informed His Excellency the German Plenipotentiary, in a letter dated the 22nd of July last (Annex No. 3), that an arch of the whole width of the street would be erected on the said spot and that work on it was begun the 25th of June last.

Article II a

Imperial Edicts of the 13th and 21st of February, 1901 (Annexes Nos. 4, 5, and 6), inflicted the following punishments on the principal authors of the outrages and crimes committed against the foreign Governments and their nationals:

Tsai-I, Prince Tuan and Tsai Lan, Duke Fu-kuo, were sentenced to be brought before the autumn Court of Assizes for execution, and it was agreed that if the Emperor saw fit to grant them their lives, they should be exiled to Turkestan and there imprisoned for life, without the possibility of commutation of this punishment.

Tsai Hsün, Prince Chuang, Ying Nien, President of the Court of Censors, and Chao Shu-Chiao, President of the Board of Punishments, were condemned to commit suicide.

Yü Hsien, Governor of Shanhsi, Chi Hsiu, President of the Board of Rites, and Hsü Cheng-yu, formerly Senior Vice-President of the Board of Punishments, were condemned to death.

Posthumous degradation was inflicted on Kang Yi, Assistant Grand Secretary, President of the Board of Works, Hsü Tung, Grand Secretary, and Li Ping-heng, former Governor-General of Szu-ch'uan.

An Imperial Edict of February 13th, 1901 (Annex No. 7), rehabilitated the memories of Hsü Yung-yi, President of the Board of War, Li Shan, President of the Board of Works, Hsü Ching-cheng, Senior Vice-President of the Board of Works, Lien Yuan, Vice-Chancellor of the Grand Council, and Yuan Chang, Vice-President of the Court of Sacrifices, who had been put to death for having protested against the outrageous breaches of international law of last year.

Prince Chuang committed suicide the 21st of February, 1901, Ying Nien and Chao Shu-chiao the 24th, Yü Hsien was executed the 22nd, Chi Hsiu and Hsü Cheng-yu on the 26th. Tung Fuhsiang, General in Kan-su, has been deprived of his office by Imperial Edict of the 13th of February, 1901, pending the determination of the final punishment to be inflicted on him.

Imperial Edicts dated the 29th of April and 19th of August, 1901, have inflicted proportional punishments on the provincial officials convicted of the crimes and outrages of last summer.

Article II b

An Imperical Edict promulgated the 19th of August, 1901 (Annex No. 8), ordered the suspension of official examinations for five years in all cities where foreigners were massacred or subjected to cruel treatment.

Article III

In order to make honorable reparation for the assassination of Mr. Sugiyama, chancellor of the Japanese Legation, His Majesty the Emperor of China by an Imperial Edict of the 18th of June, 1901 (Annex No. 9), appointed Na Tung, Vice-President of the Board of Revenue to be his Envoy Extraordinary, and specially directed him to convey to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan the expression of the regrets of His Majesty the Emperor of China and of his Government at the assassination of the late Mr. Sugiyama.

Article IV

The Chinese Government has agreed to erect an expiatory monument in each of the foreign or international cemeteries which were desecrated and in which the tombs were destroyed.

It has been agreed with the Representatives of the Powers that the legations interested shall settle the details for the erection of these monuments, China bearing all the expenses thereof, estimated at ten thousand taels for the cemeteries at Peking and within its neighborhood, and at five thousand taels for the cemeteries in the provinces. The amounts have been paid and the list of these cemeteries is enclosed herewith (Annex No. 10).

Article V

China has agreed to prohibit the importation into its territory of arms and ammunition, as well as of materials exclusively used for the manufacture of arms and ammunition.

An Imperial Edict has been issued on the 25th of August, 1901 (Annex No. 11), forbidding said importation for a term of two years. New Edicts may be issued subsequently extending this by other successive terms of two years in case of necessity recognized by the Powers.

Article VI

By an Imperial Edict dated the 29th of May, 1901 (Annex No. 12), His Majesty the Emperor of China agreed to pay the Powers an indemnity of four hundred and fifty million Haikwan Taels. This sum represents the total amount of the indemnities for States, companies or societies, private individuals, and Chinese referred to in Article VI of the note of December 22nd, 1900.

(a) These four hundred and fifty millions constitute a gold debt calculated at the rate of the Haikwan Tael to the gold currency of each country, as indicated below:

1 Haikwan Tael = Marks 3.055

= Austro-Hungarian Crowns 3.595

= gold Dollar 0.742

= Francs 3.750

= Pound Sterling 0 3s. 0d.

= Yen 1.407

= Netherlands Florin 1.796

= gold Ruble (17.424 dolias fine) 1.412

This sum in gold will bear interest at 4per cent per annum, and the capital shall be reimbursed by China in thirty-nine years in the manner indicated in the annexed plan of amortization (Annex No. 13).

Capital and interest will be payable in gold or at the rates of exchange prevailing on the dates at which the different payments fall due. The amortization will begin on the 1st of January, 1902, and will end at the close of the year 1940. The amortizations are payable annually, the first payment being fixed on the 1st of January, 1903.

Interest will run from the 1st of July, 1901; but the Chinese Government shall have the right to pay off within a term of three years, beginning January 1, 1902, the arrears of the first six months, ending the 31st of December, 1901, on condition, however, that it pay compound interest at the rate of 4 per cent per annum on the sums the payments of which shall have thus been deferred. Interest shall be payable semiannually, the first payment being due on the 1st of July, 1902.

(b) The service of the debt will be effected at Shanghai, in the following manner: Each Power will be represented by a delegate on a commission of bankers authorized to receive the amount of interest and amortization which shall be paid to it by the Chinese authorities designated for that purpose, to divide it among the interested parties, and to give a receipt for the same.

(c) The Chinese Government shall deliver to the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps at Peking a bond for the lump sum, which will subsequently be converted into fractional bonds bearing the signatures of the delegates of the Chinese Government designated for that purpose. This operation and all those relating to the issue of the bonds will be performed by the above-mentioned Commission, in accordance with the instructions which the Powers shall send their delegates.

(d) The proceeds of the revenues assigned to the payment of the bonds shall be paid monthly to the Commission.

(e) The revenues assigned as security for the bonds are the following:

1. The balance of the revenues of the Imperial Maritime Customs, after payment of the interest and amortization of preceding loans secured on these revenues, plus the proceeds of the increase to five per cent effective of the present tariff on maritime imports, including articles hitherto on the free list, with the exception of rice, cereals, and flour of foreign origin, as well as of gold and silver, minted or unminted.

2. The revenues of the native customs, administered in the open ports by the Imperial Maritime Customs.

3. The total revenues of the gabelle [salt tax], exclusive of the fraction previously set aside for other foreign loans.

The raising of the present tariff on imports to five per cent effective is agreed to on the conditions mentioned below.

It will be put in force two months after the signing of the present protocol, and no exceptions shall be made save for merchandise shipped not more than ten days after that date.

1°. All duties on imports levied ad valorem shall be converted as far as possible and as soon as may be into specific duties. This conversion will be made in the following manner: The average value of merchandise at the time of its unloading during the three years 1897, 1898, and 1899, that is to say, the market price less the amount of import duties and incidental expenses, shall be taken as the basis for the valuation of merchandise. Pending the result of the work of conversion, duties shall be levied ad valorem.

2°. The beds of the rivers Peiho and Whangpu will be improved with the financial participation of China.

Article VII

The Chinese Government has agreed that the quarter occupied by the legations shall be considered as one specially reserved for their use and placed under their exclusive control, in which Chinese shall not have the right to reside and which may be made defensible.

The limits of this quarter have been fixed as follows on the annexed plan (Annex No. 14):

On the west, the line 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

On the north, the line 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

On the east, Ketteler Street: 10, 11, 12.

On the south, the line 12–1, drawn along the outer base of the Tartar wall, taking in the bastions.

In the protocol annexed to the letter of the 16th of January, 1901,[4] China recognized the right of each Power to maintain a permanent guard in the said quarter for the defense of its legation.

Article VIII

The Chinese Government has consented to raze the forts of Taku and those which might impede free communication between Peking and the sea. Steps have been taken for carrying this out.

Article IX

The Chinese Government has conceded to the Powers, in the protocol annexed to the letter of the 16th of January, 1901, the right to occupy certain points, to be determined by an agreement between them, for the maintenance of open communication between the capital and the sea. The points occupied by the Powers are:

Huang-tsun, Lang-fang, Yang-tsun, Tientsin, Chum-liang, Ch'eng, Tang-ku, Lu-tai, Tang-shan, Lan-chou, Chang-li, Ch'in-wang tao, Shan-hai kuan.

Article X

The Chinese Government has agreed to post and to publish for two years in all district cities the following Imperial Edicts:

(a) Edict of the 1st of February, 1901 (Annex No. 15), prohibiting forever, under pain of death, membership in any anti-foreign society.

(b) Edicts of the 13 and 25 February, 29 April and 19 August enumerating the punishments inflicted on the guilty.

(c) Edict of the 19th August, 1901, prohibiting examinations in all cities where foreigners were massacred or subjected to cruel treatment.

(d) Edict of the 1st of February, 1901 (Annex No. 16), declaring all governors-general, governors, and provincial or local officials responsible for order in their respective districts, and that in case of new anti-foreign troubles or other infractions of the treaties which shall not be immediately repressed and the authors of which shall not have been punished, these officials shall be immediately dismissed, without possibility of being given new functions or new honors.

The posting of these edicts is taking place progressively throughout the Empire.

Article XI

The Chinese Government has undertaken to negotiate such amendments to the treaties of commerce and navigation as the foreign Governments have considered desirable, as well as other points bearing on commercial relations, with the object of facilitating these.

At present, and as a result of the stipulations contained in Article VI concerning the indemnity, the Chinese Government agrees to assist in the improvement of the courses of the rivers Peiho and Whangpu, as stated below.

(a) The works for the improvement of navigation in the Peiho, begun in 1898 with the cooperation of the Chinese Government, have been resumed under the direction of an international Commission. As soon as the administration of Tientsin shall have been handed back to the Chinese Government, the latter will be able to have a representative on this Commission, and will pay each year a sum of sixty thousand Haikwan Taels for continuing the works.

(b) A River Board, charged with the management and control of the work of straightening the Whangpu and improving the course of that river, is hereby created.

This Board shall consist of members representing the interests of the Chinese Government and those of foreigners in the shipping trade of Shanghai. The expense to be incurred for the works and the general management of the undertaking is estimated at the annual sum of four hundred and sixty thousand Haikwan Taels for the first twenty years. This sum will be supplied in equal portions by the Chinese Government and the foreign interests concerned. Detailed stipulations concerning the composition, duties, and revenues of the River Board are embodied in Annex No. 17.

Article XII

An Imperial Edict of the 24th of July, 1901 (Annex No. 18), reorganized the Office of Foreign Affairs, (Tsungli Yamen), on the lines indicated by the Powers, that is to say, transformed it into a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Waiwu Pu), which takes precedence over the six other Ministries of State. The same Edict appointed the principal members of this Ministry.

An agreement has also been reached concerning the modification of Court ceremonial as regards the reception of foreign Representatives and has been the subject of several notes from the Chinese Plenipotentiaries, the substance of which is embodied in a memorandum herewith annexed (Annex No. 19).

Finally, it is expressly understood that as regards the declarations above set forth and the annexed documents emanating from the foreign Plenipotentiaries, the French text alone is authoritative.

The Chinese Government having thus complied to the satisfaction of the Powers with the conditions laid down in the above-mentioned note of December 22nd, 1900, the Powers have acceded to the wish of China to terminate the situation created by the disorders of the summer of 1900. The foreign Plenipotentiaries are therefore authorized to declare in the names of their Governments that, with the exception of the legation guards mentioned in Article VII, the international troops will completely evacuate the city of Peking, on the 17th September, 1901, and, with the exception of the localities mentioned in Article IX, will withdraw from the province of Chihli on the 22d of September.

The present final Protocol has been drawn up in twelve identic copies and signed by all the Plenipotentiaries of the Contracting Countries. One copy will be given to each of the foreign Plenipotentiaries, and one copy will be given to the Chinese Plenipotentiaries.

Peking, 7th September, 1901.

[For Germany:]

A v Mumm[seal]

[For Austria-Hungary:]

M. Czikann[seal]

[For Belgium:]

Joostens[seal]

[For Spain:]

B J de Cologan[seal]

[For the United States]

W. W. Rockhill[seal]

[For France:]

Beau[seal]

[For the United Kingdom:]

Ernest Satow[seal]

[For Italy:]

Salvago Raggi[seal]

[For Japan:]

Jutaro Komura[seal]

[For the Netherlands:]

F. M. Knobel[seal]

[For Russia:]

M. de Giers[seal]

[For China:]

Yi-K'uang[seal]

Li Hung-chang[seal]

Annexes to the Final Protocol

Vice President Roosevelt traveled to Buffalo where he met with the President, the Cabinet, various Senators and Congressmen and the press. 

Last edition:

Friday, September 6, 1901. McKinley shot.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Pan American Exposition, telephone, Theodore Roosevelt, Weapons

Friday, September 6, 1901. McKinley shot.

McKinley entering the Temple of Music at the Pan American Exposition moments before being shot.  He attended the event over the objections of his personal secretary.

Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley twice with a .32 Iver Johnson revolver, a "hammerless" revolver that was marketed as a self protection handgun.   The small caliber bullet fired from the low velocity cartridge actually bounced off of a coat button with the first shot, but the second entered his abdomen.  The low powered round did not kill him, but he was severely wounded and required surgery, which was performed about 30 minutes later. The surgery did not locate the bullet, the surgery complicated by McKinley being obese.  McKinley's words at the time indicated a forgiving and sympathetic view of his assassin.

Abdominal wounds normally resulted in gangrene, which in fact this one did.

News of the shooting reached Theodore Roosevelt, who as on vacation in Vermont, by phone.

Last edition:

Thursday, September 5, 1901. President McKinley's last public address.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, baseball, New York (Buffalo), Pan American Exposition, the spoken word, William McKinley

Thursday, September 5, 1901. President McKinley's last public address.

 

President McKinley delivered a speech at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

President Milburn, Director General Buchanan, Commissioners, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am glad to be again in the city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with her people, to whose generous hospitality I am not a stranger and with whose good will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. To-day I have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome to the foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence and participation in this exposition have contributed in so marked a degree to its interest and success. To the Commissioners of the Dominion of Canada and the British colonies, the French colonies, the republics of Mexico and Central and South America and the commissioners of Cuba and Puerto Rico, who share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellowship and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, science, education and manufacture which the old has bequeathed to the new century. Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise and intellect of the people and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and as such instruct the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity. It exacts a study of the wants, comforts and even the whims of the people and recognizes the efficiency of high quality and new pieces to win their favor. The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business to devise, invent, improve and economize in the cost of production.

Business life, whether among ourselves or with other people, is ever a sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future. Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century. But though commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must not be.

The Pan-American exposition has done its work thoroughly, presenting in its exhibits evidences of the highest skill and illustrating the progress of the human family in the western hemisphere. This portion of the earth has no cause for humiliation for the part it has performed in the march of civilization. It has not accomplished everything from it. It has simply done its best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and recognizing the manifold achievements of others, it invites the friendly rivalry of all the powers in the peaceful pursuits of trade and commerce, and will co-operate with all in advancing the highest and best interests of humanity.

The wisdom and energy of all the nations are none too great for the world's work. The success of art, science, industry and invention is an international asset and a common glory.

After all, how near one to the other is every part of the world. Modern inventions have brought into close relation widely separated peoples and made them better acquainted. Geographic and political divisions will continue to exist, but distances have been effaced. Swift ships and swift trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields Which a few years ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchanged as never before, and with increasing transportation facilities come increasing knowledge and larger trade. Prices are fixed with mathematical precision by supply and demand. The world's selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports.

We travel greater distances in a shorter space of time and with more ease than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation is no longer possible or desirable. The same important news is read, though in different languages, the same day in all christendom. The telegraph keeps us advised of what is occurring everywhere, and the press foreshadows, with more or less accuracy, the plans and purposes of the nations.

Market prices of products and of securities are hourly known in every commercial mart, and the investments of the people extend beyond their own national boundaries into the remotest parts of the earth. Vast transactions are conducted and international exchanges are made by the tick of the cable. Every event of interest is immediately bulletined. The quick gathering and transmission of news, like rapid transit, are of recent origin and are only made possible by the genius of the inventor and the courage of the investor. It took a special messenger of the Government, with every facility known at the time for rapid travel, nineteen days to go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a message to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a treaty of peace had been signed. How different now!

We reached General Miles in Puerto Rico by cable, and he was able, through the military telegraph, to stop his army on the firing line with the message that the United States and Spain had signed a protocol suspending hostilities. We knew almost instantly of the first shots fired at Santiago, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces was known at Washington within less than an hour of its consummation The first ship of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that historic harbor when the fact was flashed to our capital, and the swift destruction that followed was announced immediately through the wonderful medium of telegraphy.

So accustomed are we to safe and easy communication with distant lands that its temporary interruption, even in ordinary times, results in loss and inconvenience. We shall never forget the days of anxious waiting and awful suspense when no information was permitted to be sent from Pekin, and the diplomatic representatives of the nations in China, cut off from all communication, inside and outside of the walled capital, were surrounded by an angry and misguided mob that threatened their lives; nor the joy that filled the world when a single message from the Government of the United States brought through our minister the first news of the safety of the besieged diplomats.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a mile of steam railroad on the globe. Now there are enough miles to make its circuit many times. Then there was not a line of electric telegraph; now we have a vast mileage traversing all lands and seas. God and man have linked the nations together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any other. And as we are brought more and more in touch with each other the less occasion there is for misunderstandings and the stronger the disposition, when we have differences, to adjust them in the court of arbitration, which is the noblest forum for the settlement of international disputes.

My fellow citizens, trade statistics indicate that this country is in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures are almost appalling. They show that we are utilizing our fields and forests and mines and that we are furnishing profitable employment to the millions of workingmen throughout the United States, bringing comfort and happiness to their homes and making it possible to lay by savings for old age and disability. That all the people are participating in this great prosperity is seen in every American community, and shown by the enormous and unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. Our duty is the care and security of these deposits, and their safe investment demands the highest integrity and the best business capacity of those in charge of these depositories of the people's earnings.

We have a vast and intricate business, built up through years of toil and struggle, in which every part of the country has its stake, and will not permit of either neglect or of undue selfishness. No narrow, sordid policy will subserve it. The greatest skill and wisdom on the part of the manufacturers and producers will be required to hold and increase it. Our industrial enterprises which have grown to such great proportions affect the homes and occupations of the people and the welfare of the country. Our capacity to produce has developed so enormously and our products have so multiplied that the problem of more markets requires our urgent and immediate attention. Only a broad and enlightened policy will keep what we have. No other policy will get more. In these times of marvelous business energy and gain we ought to be looking to the future, strengthening the weak places in our industrial and commercial system, that we may be ready for any storm or strain.

By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our home production we shall extend the outlets for our increasing surplus. A system which provides a mutual exchange of commodities, a mutual exchange is manifestly essential to the continued and healthful growth of our export trade. We must not repose in fancied security that we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If such a thing were possible, it would not be best for us or for those with whom we deal. We should take from our customers such of their products as we can use without harm to our industries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet and we should sell everywhere we can, and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater demand for home labor.

The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times, measures of retaliation are not. If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed, for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad? Then, too, we have inadequate steamship service. New lines of steamers have already been put in commission between the Pacific coast ports of the United States and those on the western coasts of Mexico and Central and South America. These should be followed up with direct steamship lines between the eastern coast of the United States and South American ports. One of the needs of the times is to direct commercial lines from our vast fields of production to the fields of consumption that we have but barely touched. Next in advantage to having the thing. to sell is to have the convenience to carry it to the buyer. We must encourage our merchant marine. We must have more ships. They must be under the American flag, built and manned and owned by Americans. These will not only be profitable in a commercial sense; they will be messengers of peace and amity wherever they go. We must build the Isthmian canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a straight line of water communication with the western coasts of Central and South America and Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable cannot be longer postponed.

In the furthering of these objects of national interest and concern you are performing an important part. This exposition would have touched the heart of that American statesman whose mind was ever alert and thought ever constant for a larger commerce and a truer fraternity of the republics of the new world. His broad American spirit is felt and manifested here. He needs no identification to an assemblage of Americans anywhere, for the name of Blaine is inseparably associated with the pan-American movement, which finds this practical and substantial expression, and which we all hope will be firmly advanced by the pan-American congress that assembles this autumn in the capital of Mexico. The good work will go on. It cannot be stopped. These buildings will disappear; this creation of art and beauty and industry will perish from sight, but their influence will remain to.

Make it live beyond its too short living

With praises and thanksgiving.

Who can tell the new thoughts that have been awakened, the ambitions fired and the high achievements that will be wrought through this exposition? Gentlemen, let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not conflict, and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war. We hope that all who are represented here may be moved to higher and nobler effort for their own and the world's good, and that out of this city may come, not only greater commerce and trade, but more essential than these, relations of mutual respect, confidence and friendship which will deepen and endure.

Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of earth.

It would be his last public speech.

The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues was formed in Chicago by seven minor baseball leagues.forming what is now called Minor League Baseball.

Last edition:

Monday, September 2, 1901. "A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick – you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible."

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Civility, Disease, Medicine, Minnesota, Standards, the spoken word, Theodore Roosevelt

Monday, September 2, 1901. "A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick – you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible."

Then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt delivered a famous speech at the Minnesota State Fair.  The speech is frequently quoted, but out of context, and extremely inaccurately.

Remarks by the Vice President at the Minnesota State Fair in Minneapolis

In his admirable series of studies of Twentieth century problems Dr. Lyman Abbott has pointed out that we are a nation of pioneers; that the first colonists to our shores were pioneers, and that pioneers selected out from among the descendants of these early pioneers, mingled with others selected afresh from the old world, pushed westward into the wilderness, and laid the foundations for new commonwealths. They were men of hope and energy; for the men of dull content or more dull despair had no part in the great movement into and across the new world. Our country has been populated by pioneers, and therefore it has in it more energy, more enterprise, more expansive power than any other in the wide world.

You whom I am now addressing stand, for the most part, but one generation removed from these pioneers. You are typical Americans, for you have done the great, the characteristic, the typical work of our American life. In making homes and carving out careers for yourselves, and your children, you have built up this state; throughout our history the success of the homemaker has been but another name for the upbuilding of the nation. The men who with ax in the forest and pick in the mountains and plow on the prairies, pushed to completion the dominion of our people over the American wilderness have given the definite shape to our nation. They have shown the qualities of daring, endurance and far-sightedness, of eager desire for victory and stubborn refusal to accept defeat, which go to make up the essential manliness of the American character. Above all they have recognized the practical form the fundamental law of success in American life – the law of worthy work, the law of high, resolute endeavor. We have but little room among our people for the timid, the irresolute and the idle, and it is no less true that there is scant room in the world at large for the nation with mighty thews that dares not to be great.

Every father and mother here, if they are wise, will bring up their children not to shirk difficulties, but to meet them and overcome them; not to strive after a life of ignoble ease, but to strive to do their duty, first to themselves and their families and then to the whole state; and this duty must inevitably take the shape of work in some form or other. You, the sons of pioneers, if you are true to your ancestry, must make your lives as worthy as they made theirs. They sought for true success, and therefore they did not seek ease. They knew that success comes only to those who lead the life of endeavor.

No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to where our legislation shall stop in interfering between man and man, between interest and interest. All that can be said is that it is highly undesirable on the one hand, to weaken individual initiative, and on the other hand, that in a constantly increasing number of cases we shall find it necessary in the future to shackle cunning as in the past we have shackled force.

It is not only highly desirable, but necessary, that there should be legislation which shall carefully shield the interest of wage workers, and which shall discriminate in favor of the hones and human employer by removing the disadvantages under which he stands when compared with unscrupulous competitors who have no conscience, and will do right only under fear of punishment.

Nor can legislation stop only with what are termed labor questions. The vast individual and corporate fortunes, the vast combinations of capital which have marked the development of our industrial system, create new conditions, and necessitate a change from the old attitude of state and the nation toward property.

Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick – you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples. Whenever on any point we come in contact with a foreign power, I hope that we shall always strive to speak courteously and respectfully of that foreign power.

Let us make it evident that we intend to do justice. Then let us make it equally evident that we will not tolerate injustice being done us in return. Let us further make it evident that we use no words which we are not which prepared to back up with deeds, and that while our speech is always moderate, we are ready and willing to make it good. Such an attitude will be the surest possible guarantee of that self-respecting peace, the attainment of which is and must ever be the prime aim of a self-governing people.

This is the attitude we should take as regards the Monroe doctrine. There is not the least need of blustering about it. Still less should it be used as a pretext for our own aggrandizement at the expense of any other American state. But most emphatically, we must make it evident that we intend on this point ever to maintain the old American position. Indeed, it is hard to understand how any man can take any other position now that we are all looking forward to the building of the Isthmian canal. The Monroe doctrine is not international law, but there is no necessity that it should be.

Our dealings with Cuba illustrate this, and should be forever a subject of just national pride. We speak in no spirit of arrogance when we state as a simple historic fact that never in recent times has any great nation acted with such disinterestedness as we have shown in Cuba. We freed the island from the Spanish yoke. We then earnestly did our best to help the Cubans in the establishment of free education, of law and order, of material prosperity, of the cleanliness necessary to salutary well-being in their great cities. We did all this at great expense of treasure, at some expense of life, and now we are establishing them in a free and independent commonwealth, and have asked in return nothing whatever save that at no time shall their independence be prostituted to the advantage of some foreign rival of ours, or so as to menace our well-being. To have failed to ask this would have amounted to national stultification on our part.

In the Philippines we have brought peace, and we are at this moment giving them such freedom and self-government as they could never under any conceivable conditions have obtained had we turned them loose to sink into a welter of blood, and confusion, or to become the prey of some strong tyranny without or within. The bare recital of the facts is sufficient to show that we did our duty, and what prouder title to honor can a nation have than to have done its duty? We have done our duty to ourselves, and we have done the higher duty of promoting the civilization of mankind.

Barbarism has and can have no place in a civilized world. It is our duty toward the people living in barbarism to see that they are freed from their chains, and we can only free them by destroying barbarism itself. The missionary, the merchant and the soldier may each have to play a part in this destruction, and in the consequent uplifting of the people. Exactly as it is the duty of a civilized power scrupulously to respect the rights of all weaker civilized powers and gladly to help those who are struggling towards civilization, so it is its duty to put down savagery and barbarism. As in such a work human instruments must be used, and as human instruments are imperfect, this means that at times there will be injustices, that at times, merchant, or soldier, or even missionary may do wrong.

Let us instantly condemn and rectify such wrong when it occurs, and if possible punish the wrong-doer. But, shame, thrice shame to us, if we are so foolish as to make such occasional wrong-doing an excuse for failing to perform a great and righteous task. No only in our own land, but throughout history, the advance of civilization has been of incalculable benefit to mankind, and those through whom it has advanced deserve the higher honor. All honor to the missionary, all honor to the soldier, all honor to the merchant who now in our own day have done so much to bring light into the world's dark places.

Let me insist again, for fear of possible misconstruction, upon the fact that our duty is two-fold, and that we must raise others while we are benefiting ourselves. In bringing order to the Philippines, our soldiers added a new page to the honor-roll of American history and they incalculably benefited the islanders themselves. Under the wise administration of Gov. Taft the islands now enjoy a peace and liberty of which they have hitherto never even dreamed. But this peace and liberty under the law must be supplemented by material, by industrial development, to the introduction of American industries and products; no merely because this will be a good thing for our people, but infinitely more because it will be of incalculable benefit to the people of the Philippines.

We shall make mistakes; and if we let these mistakes frighten us from work, we shall show ourselves weaklings. Half a century ago Minnesota and the two Dakotas were Indian hunting grounds. We committed plenty of blunders, and now and then worse than blunders, in our dealings with the Indians. But who does not admit at the present day that we were right in wresting from barbarism and adding to civilization the territory out of which we have made these beautiful states? And now we are civilizing the Indian and putting him on a level to which he could never have attained under the old conditions.

In the Philippines let us remember that the spirit and not the mere form of government is the essential matter. The Tagalogs have a hundred-fold the freedom under us that they would have if we had abandoned the islands. We are not trying to subjugate a people; we are trying to develop them, and make them a law-abiding, industrious and educated people, and we hope, ultimately, a self-governing people. In short, in the work we have done, we are but carrying out the true principles of our democracy. We work in a spirit of self-respect for ourselves and of good-will toward others, in a spirit of love for and of infinite faith in mankind. We do not blindly refuse to face the evils that exist; or the shortcomings inherent in humanity; but across blunderings and shirking, across selfishness and meanness of motive, across short-sightedness and cowardice, we gaze steadfastly toward the far horizon of golden triumph.

If you study our past history as a nation you will see we have made many blunders and have been guilty of many shortcomings, and yet that we have always in the end come out victorious because we have refused to be daunted by blunders and defeats—have recognized them, but have preserved in spite of them. So it must be in the future. We gird up our loins as a nation with the stern purpose to play our part manfully in winning the ultimate triumph, and therefore we turn scornfully aside from the paths of mere ease and idleness, and with unfaltering steps tread the rough road of endeavor, smiting down the wrong and battling for the right as Greatheart smote and battled in Bunyan's immortal story.

Let's look at that line again:

A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick – you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few beings more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely contemptible. 

Hmmm. . . .

So Roosevelt didn't actually say what  people think he said, at all.

The first tests on radiation treatment for cancer were conducted.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 1, 1901. Starting the Hejaz Railway.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Kingdom of Hejaz, Ottoman Empire, Philippines, Railroads, Syria

Sunday, September 1, 1901. Starting the Hejaz Railway.

The first section of the Hejaz Railway was completed. The section ran from Muzayrib to Daraa in Syria.

The Philippine Commission added its first Filipinos.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 31, 1901. Traveling anarchist.

Labels: 1900s, 1901, Anarchy, Art, Labor Day, New York (Buffalo), William McKinley