That disaster has not already overtaken us furnishes no proof that danger does not wait upon a continuation of the present silver coinage.  We have been saved by the most careful management and unusual expedients, by a combination of fortunate conditions, and by a confident expectation that the course of the Government in regard to silver coinage would be speedily changed by the action of Congress.

Prosperity hesitates upon our threshold because of the dangers and uncertainties surrounding this question.  Capital timidly shrinks from trade, and investors are unwilling to take the chance of the questionable shape in which their money will be returned to them, while enterprise halts at a risk against which care and sagacious management do not protect.

As a necessary consequence, labor lacks employment and suffering and distress are visited upon a portion of our fellow-citizens especially entitled to the careful consideration of those charged with the duties of legislation.  No interest appeals to us so strongly for a safe and stable currency as the vast army of the unemployed.

I recommend the suspension of the compulsory coinage of silver dollars, directed by the law passed in February, 1878.

The Steamboat-Inspection Service on the 30th day of June, 1885, was composed of 140 persons, including officers, clerks, and messengers.  The expenses of the service over the receipts were $138,822.22 during the fiscal year.  The special inspection of foreign steam vessels, organized under a law passed in 1882, was maintained during the year at an expense of $36,641.63.  Since the close of the fiscal year reductions have been made in the force employed which will result in a saving during the current year of $17,000 without affecting the efficiency of the service.

The Supervising Surgeon-General reports that during the fiscal year 41,714 patients have received relief through the Marine-Hospital Service, of whom 12,803 were treated in hospitals and 28,911 at the dispensaries.

Active and effective efforts have been made through the medium of this service to protect the country against an invasion of cholera, which has prevailed in Spain and France, and the smallpox, which recently broke out in Canada.

The most gratifying results have attended the operations of the Life-Saving Service during the last fiscal year.  The observance of the provision of law requiring the appointment of the force employed in this service to be made “solely with reference to their fitness, and without reference to their political or party affiliation,” has secured the result which may confidently be expected in any branch of public employment where such a rule is applied.  As a consequence, this service is composed of men well qualified for the performance of their dangerous and exceptionally important duties.

The number of stations in commission at the close of the year was 203.  The number of disasters to vessels and craft of all kinds within their field of action was 371.  The number of persons endangered in such disasters was 2,439, of whom 2,428 were saved and only 11 lost.  Other lives which were imperiled, though not by disasters to shipping, were also rescued, and a large amount of property was saved through the aid of this service.  The cost of its maintenance during the year was $828,474.43.