Amalgamation of staff corps in the navy.

The Secretary of the Navy is striving to unify the various corps of the Navy to the extent possible and thereby stimulate a Navy spirit as distinguished from a corps spirit.  In this he has my warm support.

All officers are to be naval officers first and specialists afterwards.  This means that officers will take up at least one specialty, such as ordnance, construction, or engineering.  This is practically what is done now, only some of the specialists, like the pay officers and naval constructors, are not of the line.  It is proposed to make them all of the line.

All combatant corps should obviously be of the line.  This necessitates amalgamating the pay officers and also those engaged in the technical work of producing the finished ship.  This is at present the case with the single exception of the naval constructors, whom it is now proposed to amalgamate with the line.

Council of national defense.

I urge again upon Congress the desirability of establishing the council of national defense.  The bill to establish this council was before Congress last winter, and it is hoped that this legislation will pass during the present session.  The purpose of the council is to determine the general policy of national defense and to recommend to Congress and to the President such measures relating to it as it shall deem necessary and expedient.

No such machinery is now provided by which the readiness of the Army and Navy may be improved and the programs of military and naval requirements shall be coordinated and properly scrutinized with a view of the necessities of the whole Nation rather than of separate departments.

Departments of agriculture and commerce and labor.

For the consideration of matters which are pending or have been disposed of in the Agricultural Department and in the Department of Commerce and Labor, I refer to the very excellent reports of the Secretaries of those departments.  I shall not be able to submit to Congress until after the Christmas holidays the question of conservation of our resources arising in Alaska and the West and the question of the rate for second-class mail matter in the Post Office Department.

Commission on efficiency and economy.

The law does not require the submission of the reports of the Commission on Economy and Efficiency until the 31st of December.  I shall therefore not be able to submit a report of the work of that commission until the assembling of Congress after the holidays.

Civil retirement and contributory pension system.