INSULAR POSSESSIONS

Conditions in the insular possessions on the whole have been good.  Their business has been reviving.  They are being administered according to law.  That effort has the full support of the administration.  Such recommendations as may conic from their people or their governments should have the most considerate attention.

EDUCATION AND WELFARE

Our National Government is not doing as much as it legitimately can do to promote the welfare of the people.  Our enormous material wealth, our institutions, our whole form of society, can not be considered fully successful until their benefits reach the merit of every individual.  This is not a suggestion that the Government should, or could, assume for the people the inevitable burdens of existence.  There is no method by which we can either be relieved of the results of our own folly or be guaranteed a successful life.  There is an inescapable personal responsibility for the development of character, of industry, of thrift, and of self-control.  These do not come from the Government, but from the people themselves.  But the Government can and should always be expressive of steadfast determination, always vigilant, to maintain conditions under which these virtues are most likely to develop and secure recognition and reward.  This is the American policy.

It is in accordance with this principle that we have enacted laws for the protection of the public health and have adopted prohibition in narcotic drugs and intoxicating liquors.  For purposes of national uniformity we ought to provide, by constitutional amendment and appropriate legislation, for a limitation of child labor, and in all cases under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government a minimum wage law for women, which would undoubtedly find sufficient power of enforcement in the influence of public opinion.

Having in mind that education is peculiarly a local problem, and that it should always be pursued with the largest freedom of choice by students and parents, nevertheless, the Federal Government might well give the benefit of its counsel and encouragement more freely in this direction.  If anyone doubts the need of concerted action by the States of the Nation for this purpose, it is only necessary to consider the appalling figures of illiteracy representing a condition which does not vary much in all parts of the Union.  I do not favor the making of appropriations from the National Treasury to be expended directly on local education, but I do consider it a fundamental requirement of national activity which, accompanied by allied subjects of welfare, is worthy of a separate department and a place in the Cabinet.  The humanitarian side of government should not be repressed, but should be cultivated.

Mere intelligence, however, is not enough.  Enlightenment must be accompanied by that moral power which is the product of the home and of rebellion.  Real education and true welfare for the people rest inevitably on this foundation, which the Government can approve and commend, but which the people themselves must create.