Redistribution of bureaus.

The first legislative step to be taken is that for the concentration of the proper bureaus into one of the existing departments.  I therefore urgently recommend the passage of a bill which shall authorize a redistribution of the bureaus which shall best accomplish this end.

Government printing office.

I recommend that legislation be enacted placing under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce and Labor the Government Printing Office.  At present this office is under the combined control, supervision, and administrative direction of the President and of the Joint Committee on Printing of the two Houses of the Congress.  The advantage of having the 4,069 employees in this office and the expenditure of the $5,761,377.57 appropriated therefor supervised by an executive department is obvious, instead of the present combined supervision.

Soldiers’ homes.

All Soldiers’ Homes should be placed under the complete jurisdiction and control of the War Department.

Independent bureaus and commissions.

Economy and sound business policy require that all existing independent bureaus and commissions should be placed under the jurisdiction of appropriate executive departments.  It is unwise from every standpoint, and results only in mischief, to have any executive work done save by the purely executive bodies, under the control of the President; and each such executive body should be under the immediate supervision of a Cabinet Minister.

Statehood.

I advocate the immediate admission of New Mexico and Arizona as States.  This should be done at the present session of the Congress.  The people of the two Territories have made it evident by their votes that they will not come in as one State.  The only alternative is to admit them as two, and I trust that this will be done without delay.

Interstate fisheries.

I call the attention of the Congress to the importance of the problem of the fisheries in the interstate waters.  On the Great Lakes we are now, under the very wise treaty of April 11th of this year, endeavoring to come to an international agreement for the preservation and satisfactory use of the fisheries of these waters which can not otherwise be achieved.  Lake Erie, for example, has the richest fresh water fisheries in the world; but it is now controlled by the statutes of two Nations, four States, and one Province, and in this Province by different ordinances in different counties.  All these political divisions work at cross purposes, and in no case can they achieve protection to the fisheries, on the one hand, and justice to the localities and individuals on the other.  The case is similar in Puget Sound.