Eight years ago in my annual message I urged upon the Congress as Strongly as I could the location and construction of two prisons for the confinement of United States prisoners.[12] A similar recommendation has been made from time to time since, and a few years ago a law was passed providing for the selection of sites for three such institutions.  No appropriation has, however, been made to carry the act into effect, and the old and discreditable condition still exists.

It is not my purpose at this time to repeat the considerations which make an impregnable case in favor of the ownership and management by the Government of the penal institutions in which Federal prisoners are confined.  I simply desire to again urge former recommendations on the subject and to particularly call the attention of the Congress to that part of the report of the Secretary of War in which he states that the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., can be turned over to the Government as a prison for Federal convicts without the least difficulty and with an actual saving of money from every point of view.

Pending a more complete reform, I hope that by the adoption of the suggestion of the Secretary of War this easy step may be taken in the direction of the proper care of its convicts by the Government of the United States.

The report of the Postmaster-General presents a comprehensive statement of the operations of the Post-Office Department for the last fiscal year.  The receipts of the Department during the year amounted to $75,080,479.04 and the expenditures to $84,324,414.15.

The transactions of the postal service indicate with barometric certainty the fluctuations in the business of the country.  Inasmuch, therefore, as business complications continued to exist throughout the last year to an unforeseen extent, it is not surprising that the deficiency of revenue to meet the expenditures of the Post-Office Department, which was estimated in advance at about $8,000,000, should be exceeded by nearly $1,225,000.  The ascertained revenues of the last year, which were the basis of calculation for the current year, being less than estimated, the deficiency for the current year will be correspondingly greater, though the Postmaster-General states that the latest indications are so favorable that he confidently predicts an increase of at least 8 per cent in the revenues of the current year over those of the last year.

The expenditures increase steadily and necessarily with the growth and needs of the country, so that the deficiency is greater or less in any year, depending upon the volume of receipts.