The report of the Secretary shows that while the effective force of the Navy is rapidly increasing by reason of the improved build and armament of the new ships, the number of our ships fit for sea duty grows very slowly.  We had on the 4th of March last 37 serviceable ships, and though 4 have since been added to the list, the total has not been increased, because in the meantime 4 have been lost or condemned.  Twenty-six additional vessels have been authorized and appropriated for; but it is probable that when they are completed our list will only be increased to 42—­a gain of 5.  The old wooden ships are disappearing almost as fast as the new vessels are added.  These facts carry their own argument.  One of the new ships may in fighting strength be equal to two of the old, but it can not do the cruising duty of two.  It is important, therefore, that we should have a more rapid increase in the number of serviceable ships.  I concur in the recommendation of the Secretary that the construction of 8 armored ships, 3 gunboats, and 5 torpedo boats be authorized.

An appalling calamity befell three of our naval vessels on duty at the Samoan Islands, in the harbor of Apia, in March last, involving the loss of 4 officers and 47 seamen, of two vessels, the Trenton and the Vandalia, and the disabling of a third, the Nipsic.  Three vessels of the German navy, also in the harbor, shared with our ships the force of the hurricane and suffered even more heavily.  While mourning the brave officers and men who died facing with high resolve perils greater than those of battle, it is most gratifying to state that the credit of the American Navy for seamanship, courage, and generosity was magnificently sustained in the storm-beaten harbor of Apia.

The report of the Secretary of the Interior exhibits the transactions of the Government with the Indian tribes.  Substantial progress has been made in the education of the children of school age and in the allotment of lands to adult Indians.  It is to be regretted that the policy of breaking up the tribal relation and of dealing with the Indian as an individual did not appear earlier in our legislation.  Large reservations held in common and the maintenance of the authority of the chiefs and headmen have deprived the individual of every incentive to the exercise of thrift, and the annuity has contributed an affirmative impulse toward a state of confirmed pauperism.

Our treaty stipulations should be observed with fidelity and our legislation should be highly considerate of the best interests of an ignorant and helpless people.  The reservations are now generally surrounded by white settlements.  We can no longer push the Indian back into the wilderness, and it remains only by every suitable agency to push him upward into the estate of a self-supporting and responsible citizen.  For the adult the first step is to locate him upon a farm, and for the child to place him in a school.