The Navy has maintained the spirit and high efficiency which have always characterized that service, and has lost none of the gallantry in heroic action which has signalized its brilliant and glorious past.  The Nation has equal pride in its early and later achievements.  Its habitual readiness for every emergency has won the confidence and admiration of the country.  The people are interested in the continued preparation and prestige of the Navy and will justify liberal appropriations for its maintenance and improvement.  The officers have shown peculiar adaptation for the performance of new and delicate duties which our recent war has imposed.

It cannot be doubted that Congress will at once make necessary provision for the armor plate for the vessels now under contract and building.  Its attention is respectfully called to the report of the Secretary of the Navy, in which the subject is fully presented.  I unite in his recommendation that the Congress enact such special legislation as may be necessary to enable the Department to make contracts early in the coming year for armor of the best quality that can be obtained in this country for the Maine, Ohio, and Missouri, and that the provision of the act of March 3, 1899, limiting the price of armor to $300 per ton be removed.

In the matter of naval construction Italy and Japan, of the great powers, laid down less tonnage in the year 1899 than this country, and Italy alone has less tonnage under construction.  I heartily concur in the recommendations for the increase of the Navy, as suggested by the Secretary.

Our future progress and prosperity depend upon our ability to equal, if not surpass, other nations in the enlargement and advance of science, industry, and commerce.  To invention we must turn as one of the most powerful aids to the accomplishment of such a result.  The attention of the Congress is directed to the report of the Commissioner of Patents, in which will be found valuable suggestions and recommendations.

On the 30th of June, 1899, the pension roll of the United States numbered 991,519.  These include the pensioners of the Army and Navy in all our wars.  The number added to the rolls during the year was 40,991.  The number dropped by reason of death, remarriage, minors by legal limitation, failure to claim within three years, and other causes, was 43,186, and the number of claims disallowed was 107,919.  During the year 89,054 pension certificates were issued, of which 37,077 were for new or original pensions.  The amount disbursed for army and navy pensions during the year was $138,355,052.95, which was $1,651,461.61 less than the sum of the appropriations.

The Grand Army of the Republic at its recent national encampment held in Philadelphia has brought to my attention and to that of the Congress the wisdom and justice of a modification of the third section of the act of June 27, 1890, which provides pensions for the widows of officers and enlisted men who served ninety days or more during the War of the Rebellion and were honorably discharged, provided that such widows are without other means of support than their daily labor and were married to the soldier, sailor, or marine on account of whose service they claim pension prior to the date of the act.