In our great prosperity we must guard against the danger it invites of extravagance in Government expenditures and appropriations; and the chosen representatives of the people will, I doubt not, furnish an example in their legislation of that wise economy which in a season of plenty husbands for the future.  In this era of great business activity and opportunity caution is not untimely.  It will not abate, but strengthen, confidence.  It will not retard, but promote, legitimate industrial and commercial expansion.  Our growing power brings with it temptations and perils requiring constant vigilance to avoid.  It must not be used to invite conflicts, nor for oppression, but for the more effective maintenance of those principles of equality and justice upon which our institutions and happiness depend.  Let us keep always in mind that the foundation of our Government is liberty; its superstructure peace.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, December 4, 1900.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, copy of a letter from the Commissioner-General of the United States to the Paris Exposition of 1900, of November 17, 1900, giving a detailed statement of the expenditures of the commission for the year ended November 15, 1900.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, December 6, 1900.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith the report from the Secretary of State and accompanying papers relating to the claim against the United States of the Russian subject, Gustav Isak Dahlberg, master and principal owner of the Russian bark Hans, based on his wrongful and illegal arrest and imprisonment by officers of the United States District Court for the southern district of Mississippi, and, in view of the opinion expressed by the Department of Justice that the said arrest and detention of the complainant were wrongful and without the authority of law, I recommend the appropriation by Congress of the sum of $5,000 to reimburse the master and owners of the vessel for all losses and damages incurred by reason of his said wrongful and illegal arrest and detention.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, December 6, 1900.

To the Congress of the United States: 

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, in relation to the lynching, in La Salle County, Tex., on October 5, 1895, of Florentine Suaste, a Mexican citizen.

Following the course pursued in the case of the lynching of three Italian subjects at Hahnville, La., on August 8, 1896, and in that of the lynching of the Mexican citizen, Luis Moreno, at Yreka, Cal., in August, 1895, I recommend the appropriation by Congress, out of humane consideration, and without reference to the question of liability of the Government of the United States, of the sum of $2,000, to be paid by the Secretary of State to the Government of Mexico, and by that Government distributed to the heirs of the above-mentioned Florentino Suaste.