VETO MESSAGES.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 24, 1890.
To the Senate:
I return to the Senate, in which it originated, with my objections, the bill (No. 544) "to provide for the purchase of a site and the erection of a public building thereon at Bar Harbor, in the State of Maine." The statement of a few facts will show, I think, that the public needs do not justify the contemplated expenditure of $75,000 for the erection of a public building at Bar Harbor. Only one public office, the post-office, is to be accommodated. It appears from a report of the Postmaster-General that the rent paid by the United States for a room containing 875 square feet of floor space was in 1888 $300 and the expenditure for fuel and lights $60. One clerk was employed in the office and no carriers. The gross postal receipts for that year were $7,000. Bar Harbor is almost wholly a summer resort. The population of the town of Eden, of which Bar Harbor forms a part, as taken by the census enumerators, was less than 2,000. During one quarter of the year this population is largely increased by summer residents and visitors, but for the other three quarters is not much above the census enumeration. The postal receipts for 1890 by quarters show that for more than half the year the gross receipts of the post-office are about $8 per day. The salary of a janitor for the new building would be more than twice the present cost to the Government of rent, fuel, and lights. I can not believe that upon reconsideration the Congress will approve the contemplated expenditure.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 26, 1891.
To the House of Representatives:
I return herewith without my approval the bill (H.R. 12365) entitled "An act to authorize Oklahoma City, in Oklahoma Territory, to issue bonds to provide a right of way for the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company through said city." This bill authorizes the corporation of Oklahoma City to issue corporate bonds to the amount of $40,000 for the purpose of providing the right of way for a railroad company through the city, if the proposition shall receive the assent of a majority of the legal voters at an election to be called for that purpose.
It is attempted to distinguish this case from the ordinary case of a municipal grant to a railway company by the fact that this railway company had located its line through the lands afterwards settled upon under the town-site law before such settlement, and that the route thus located cuts the plat of the city diagonally and in a way to be very injurious to property interests.
Upon an examination of the facts it appears to me to be clear that no legal location was made by the railway company prior to the acquisition of the lands by the occupying settlers. Some preliminary surveys had been made, but no map of location had been filed with the Secretary of the Interior. If the rights of this company at this point of its road as to right of way are derived from the general statute of the United States upon that subject (U. S. Revised Statutes, Supplement, p. 87), then section 4 distinctly saves the right of any settler who had located prior to the filing of a profile of the road and the approval by the Secretary of the Interior thereof. And if, on the other hand, the rights of the company at the point indicated are derived from the act of Congress of February 18, 1888, "to authorize the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company to construct and operate a railway through the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," section 6 of that act also plainly protects the right of any occupying claimant. The latter statute, it seems to me, was intended to grant a right of way only through Indian lands, and if these lands were not such the general statute to which I have referred would apply; but in either event the conclusion is the same.
It appears from the report of the committee that its favorable action, and, I must assume, the favorable action of Congress, proceeded upon the theory that there was a real controversy, doubtful as to its issue, as to the right of the railroad company to hold the line of its survey through the city.
Stripped, then, of this claim the proposition is nakedly one to authorize Oklahoma City to donate $40,000 to the Choctaw Coal and Railway Company. The general statute of the United States prohibits such grants, and this must stand until repealed as a continuing expression of legislative opinion. If a departure from this rule is to be allowed at all, certainly it should only be where the circumstances are exceptional. Such circumstances, in my opinion, do not exist in this case. Already I have received from other cities in the Territory protests against special legislation of this sort, accompanied by the suggestion that if this policy is admitted other cities shall also be allowed to encourage the building of roads by donation.
Oklahoma City, according to the report of the Census Office, has a population of about 4,100, and this donation would be equivalent to nearly $10 per capita. Very little real estate, whether town-site or country property, in this Territory is yet subject to assessment for taxation. The people have not yet had time to accumulate, and Congress has received appeals for aid to relieve a prevailing distress which the Territorial authorities have found themselves unable to deal with. It does not seem to me, in view of all these facts, that the wholesome rule prescribed by the general statute should be departed from.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 26, 1891.
To the Senate:
I return to the Senate without my approval the bill (S. 4620) "to establish the Record and Pension Office of the War Department, and for other purposes."
This bill proposes to change the designation of one of the divisions of the War Department. It is now the "Record and Pension Division," and it is proposed that it shall hereafter be the "Record and Pension Office" of the War Department. The scope of the work assigned to this division or office is not changed, but the organization now existing under a classification made by the Secretary of War is by the bill made permanent and put beyond the control of the Secretary. The change of designation seems to have been intended to add dignity to the position, and the effect of the bill is probably to require that the chief of this office shall hereafter be appointed only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, though it is not clear that any provision is made for a chief after the particular person designated in the bill has been separated from the place or in case he is not appointed.
The real object of the bill is disclosed in the following clause:
The President is hereby authorized to nominate and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint the officer now in charge of said Record and Pension Division to be a colonel in the Army and chief of said office.
It is fairly to be implied from the bill that in the opinion of Congress the public interests would be promoted by making the contemplated change in the grade of this office and by giving the rank and pay of a colonel in the Army to the chief. A new and rather anomalous office is therefore created—that of "colonel in the Army and chief of the Record and Pension Office of the War Department"—but upon the condition that the President shall nominate a particular person to fill it. I do not think it is competent for Congress to designate the person who shall fill an office created by law, and practically nothing remains of the bill under consideration if this person is not to be appointed. The office is an important one, connected with the active civil administration of the War Department. I can not agree that the selection of the officer shall be taken out of the discretion of the Executive, where the responsibility for good administration necessarily rests. It is probably true that the officer intended to be benefited is peculiarly deserving and has had remarkable success in the discharge of the duties of the office; but these are considerations for the appointing power, and might safely have been left there.
If this particular appointment was backed by reasons so obvious as to secure the support of both Houses of Congress, it should have been assumed that these reasons could have been made obvious to the Executive by the ordinary methods. In connection with the Army and Navy retired lists, legislation akin to this has become quite frequent, too frequent in my opinion; but these laws have been regarded as grants of pensions rather than of offices.
If it is to be allowed that active places connected with the Executive Departments can be created upon condition that particular persons are or are not to be designated to fill them, the power of appointment might be wholly diverted from the Executive to the Congress.
BENJ. HARRISON.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1891.
To the Senate:
I return herewith without my approval the bill (S. 3270) "for the relief of the administratrix of the estate of George W. Lawrence."
If I rightly construe this bill, it authorizes the Court of Claims to give judgment in favor of the contractor with the United States for the construction of the vessels named (Agawam and Pontoosuc) for the difference between the contract price and the actual cost to the contractor of building the vessels, subject only to the condition that nothing shall be allowed for any advance in the price of labor or material unless such advance occurred during the prolonged term for completing the work rendered necessary by delay resulting from the action of the Government. The bill is somewhat obscure, but I have, I think, correctly stated the legal effect of it.
Undoubtedly in contracts made for army and navy supplies and construction during the early days of the war there was not infrequently loss to the contractor by reason of the advance in the cost of labor resulting from the withdrawal of so large a body of men for service in the field and the indirect result of this upon the cost of material; but I can not believe that it is the purpose of Congress to reopen such contracts at this late day and to pay to the contractors the cost of the work or material which they stipulated to do or deliver at fixed prices. In the matter of another vessel constructed by this same claimant and in the case of one other similar claim I approved bills at the last session, but they carefully limited any finding by the Court of Claims to such losses as necessarily resulted from the interference by the Government with the progress of the work, thus creating delays and enhanced cost.
In those cases the Government only undertook to make good losses resulting directly and unavoidably from its own acts. If the principle which seems to me to be embodied in the bill under consideration is adopted, I do not see how the Congress can refuse in all cases of all sorts of contracts to make good the losses resulting from appreciation in the cost of labor and material. The expenditure that such a policy would entail is incalculable, and the policy itself is, in my judgment, indefensible. The bill at the last session for the relief of this claimant in the case of another vessel constructed by him was, as I have said, carefully put upon the lines I have indicated, and if this claim could have been maintained upon, those lines I assume that the bill would have been similar in its provisions.
BENJ. HARRISON.
PROCLAMATIONS.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas satisfactory proof has been presented to me that provision has been made for adequate grounds and buildings for the uses of the World's Columbian Exposition, and that a sum not less than $10,000,000, to be used and expended for the purposes of said exposition, has been provided in accordance with the conditions and requirements of section 10 of an act entitled "An act to provide for celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus by holding an international exhibition of arts, industries, manufactures, and the products of the soil, mine, and sea, in the city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois," approved April 25, 1890:
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the authority vested in me by said act, do hereby declare and proclaim that such international exhibition will be opened on the 1st day of May, in the year 1893, in the city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, and will not be closed before the last Thursday in October of the same year. And in the name of the Government and of the people of the United States I do hereby invite all the nations of the earth to take part in the commemoration of an event that is preeminent in human history and of lasting interest to mankind by appointing representatives thereto and sending such exhibits to the World's Columbian Exposition as will most fitly and fully illustrate their resources, their industries, and their progress in civilization.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 24th day of December, 1890, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, pursuant to section 3 of the act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports, and for other purposes," the Secretary of State of the United States of America communicated to the Government of the United States of Brazil the action of the Congress of the United States of America, with a view to secure reciprocal trade, in declaring the articles enumerated in said section 3, to wit, sugars, molasses, coffee, and hides, to be exempt from duty upon their importation into the United States of America; and
Whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Brazil at Washington has communicated to the Secretary of State the fact that, in due reciprocity for and in consideration of the admission into the United States of America free of all duty of the articles enumerated in section 3 of said act, the Government of Brazil has by legal enactment authorized the admission, from and after April 1, 1891, into all the established ports of entry of Brazil, free of all duty, whether national, state, or municipal, of the articles or merchandise named in the following schedule, provided that the same be the product and manufacture of the United States of America:
1.—SCHEDULE OF ARTICLES TO BE ADMITTED FREE INTO BRAZIL.
Wheat.
Wheat flour.
Corn or maize and the manufactures thereof, including corn meal and
starch.
Rye, rye flour, buckwheat, buckwheat flour, and barley.
Potatoes, beans, and pease.
Hay and oats.
Pork, salted, including pickled pork and bacon, except hams.
Fish, salted, dried, or pickled.
Cotton-seed oil.
Coal, anthracite and bituminous.
Rosin, tar, pitch, and turpentine.
Agricultural tools, implements, and machinery.
Mining and mechanical tools, implements, and machinery, including
stationary and portable engines and all machinery for manufacturing
and industrial purposes, except sewing machines.
Instruments and books for the arts and sciences.
Railway construction material and equipment.
And that the Government of Brazil has by legal enactment further authorized the admission into all the established ports of entry of Brazil, with a reduction of 25 per cent of the duty designated on the respective article in the tariff now in force or which may hereafter be adopted in the United States of Brazil, whether national, state, or municipal, of the articles or merchandise named in the following schedule, provided that the same be the product or manufacture of the United States of America:
2.—SCHEDULE OF ARTICLES TO BE ADMITTED INTO BRAZIL, WITH A REDUCTION OF DUTY OF 25 PER CENT.
Lard and substitutes therefor.
Bacon hams.
Butter and cheese.
Canned and preserved meats, fish, fruits, and vegetables.
Manufactures of cotton, including cotton clothing.
Manufactures of iron and steel, single or mixed, not included in the
foregoing free schedule.
Leather and the manufactures thereof, except boots and shoes.
Lumber, timber, and the manufactures of wood, including cooperage,
furniture of all kinds, wagons, carts, and carriages.
Manufactures of rubber.
And that the Government of Brazil has further provided that the laws and regulations adopted to protect its revenue and prevent fraud in the declarations and proof that the articles named in the foregoing schedules are the product or manufacture of the United States of America shall place no undue restrictions on the importer nor impose any additional charges or fees therefor on the articles imported;
And whereas the Secretary of State has, by my direction, given assurance to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Brazil at Washington that this action of the Government of Brazil in granting exemption of duties to the products and manufactures of the United States of America is accepted as a due reciprocity for the action of Congress as set forth in section 3 of said act:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, have caused the above-stated modifications of the tariff law of Brazil to be made public for the information of the citizens of the United States of America.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 5th day of February, 1891, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fifteenth.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it is provided by section 24 of an act approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes"—
That the President of the United States may from time to time set apart and reserve in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations; and the President shall by public proclamation declare the establishment of such reservations and limits thereof.
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, do hereby make known and proclaim that there has been and is hereby reserved from entry or settlement and set apart for a public forest reservation all that tract of land situate in the State of Wyoming contained within the following-described boundaries:
Beginning at a point on the parallel of 44° 50' where said parallel is intersected by the meridian of 110° west longitude; thence due east along said parallel to the meridian of 109° 30' west longitude; thence due south along said meridian to the forty-fourth parallel of north latitude; thence due west along said parallel to its point of intersection with the west boundary of the State of Wyoming; thence due north along said boundary line to its intersection with the south boundary of the Yellowstone National Park.
Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to enter or make settlement upon the tract of land reserved by this proclamation.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A.D.1891, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
The following provisions of the laws of the United States are hereby published for the information of all concerned:
Section 1956, Revised Statutes, chapter 3, Title XXIII, enacts that—
No person shall kill any otter, mink, marten, sable, or fur seal, or other fur-bearing animal within the limits of Alaska Territory or in the waters thereof; and every person guilty thereof shall for each offense be fined not less than $200 nor more than $1,000, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both; and all vessels, their tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargo, found engaged in violation of this section shall be forfeited; but the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to authorize the killing of any such mink, marten, sable, or other fur-bearing animal, except fur seals, under such regulations as he may prescribe; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary to prevent the killing of any fur seal and to provide for the execution of the provisions of this section until it is otherwise provided by law, nor shall he grant any special privileges under this section.
Section 3 of the act entitled "An act to provide for the protection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska," approved March 2, 1889, provides that—
SEC. 3. That section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States is hereby declared to include and apply to all the dominion of the United States in the waters of Bering Sea, and it shall be the duty of the President at a timely season in each year to issue his proclamation, and cause the same to be published for one month in at least one newspaper (if any such there be) published at each United States port of entry on the Pacific coast, warning all persons against entering such waters for the purpose of violating the provisions of said section, and he shall also cause one or more vessels of the United States to diligently cruise said waters and arrest all persons and seize all vessels found to be or to have been engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States therein.
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, pursuant to the above-recited statutes, hereby warn all persons against entering the waters of Bering Sea within the dominion of the United States for the purpose of violating the provisions of said section 1956, Revised Statutes; and I hereby proclaim that all persons found to be or to have been engaged in any violation of the laws of the United States in said waters will be arrested and punished as above provided, and that all vessels so employed, their tackle, apparel, furniture, and cargoes, will be seized and forfeited.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 4th day of April, 1891, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, pursuant to an act of Congress approved May 15, 1886, entitled "An act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various tribes for the year ending June 30, 1887, and for other purposes," an agreement was entered into on the 14th day of December, 1886, by John V. Wright, Jared W. Daniels, and Charles F. Larrabee, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the Arickaree, Gros Ventre, and Mandan tribes of Indians, residing on the Fort Berthold Reservation, in the then Territory of Dakota, now State of North Dakota, embracing a majority of all the male adult members of said tribes; and
Whereas by an act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes for the year ending June 30, 1892, and for other purposes," the aforesaid agreement of December 14, 1886, was accepted, ratified, and confirmed, except as to article 6 thereof, which was modified and changed on the part of the United States so as to read as follows:
That the residue of lands within said diminished reservation, after all allotments have been made as provided in article 3 of this agreement, shall be held by the said tribes of Indians as a reservation.
And whereas it is provided in said last above-mentioned act—
That this act shall take effect only upon the acceptance of the modification and changes made by the United States as to article 6 of the said agreement by the said tribes of Indians in manner and form as said agreement was assented to, which said acceptance and consent shall be made known by proclamation by the President of the United States, upon satisfactory proof presented to him that the said acceptance and consent have been obtained in such manner and form.
And whereas satisfactory proof has been presented to me that the acceptance of and consent to the provisions of the act last named by the different bands of Indians residing on said reservation have been obtained in manner and form as said agreement of December 14, 1886, was assented to:
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, do hereby make known and proclaim the acceptance of and consent to the modification and changes made by the United States as to article 6 of said agreement by said tribe of Indians as required by the act, and said act is hereby declared to be in full force and effect, subject to all provisions, conditions, limitations, and restrictions therein contained.
All persons will take notice of the provisions of said act and of the conditions and restrictions therein contained, and be governed accordingly.
I furthermore notify all persons to particularly observe that a certain portion of the said Fort Berthold Reservation not ceded and relinquished by said agreement is reserved for allotment to, and also as a reservation for, the said tribes of Indians; and all persons are therefore hereby warned not to go upon any of the lands so reserved for any purpose or with any intent whatsoever, as no settlement or other rights can be secured upon said lands, and all persons found unlawfully thereon will be dealt with as trespassers and intruders; and I hereby declare all the lands sold, ceded, and relinquished to the United States under said agreement, namely, "all that portion of the Fort Berthold Reservation, as laid down upon the official map of the" (then) "Territory of Dakota published by the General Land Office in the year 1885, lying north of the forty-eighth parallel of north latitude, and also all that portion lying west of a north and south line 6 miles west of the most westerly point of the big bend of the Missouri River, south of the forty-eighth parallel of north latitude," open to settlement and subject to disposal as provided in section 25 of the act of March 3, 1891, aforesaid (26 U.S. Statutes at Large, p. 1035).
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of May, A.D. 1891, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
WILLIAM F. WHARTON,
Acting Secretary of State.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas an agreement for a modus vivendi between the Government of the United States and the Government of Her Britannic Majesty in relation to the fur-seal fisheries in Bering Sea was concluded on the 15th day of June, A.D. 1891, word for word as follows:
AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE GOVERNMENT OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY FOR A MODUS VIVENDI IN RELATION TO THE FUR-SEAL FISHERIES IN BERING SEA.
For the purpose of avoiding irritating differences and with a view to promote the friendly settlement of the questions pending between the two Governments touching their respective rights in Bering Sea, and for the preservation of the seal species, the following agreement is made without prejudice to the rights or claims of either party:
(1) Her Majesty's Government will prohibit until May next seal killing in that part of Bering Sea lying eastward of the line of demarcation described in article No. 1 of the treaty of 1867 between the United States and Russia, and will promptly use its best efforts to insure the observance of this prohibition by British subjects and vessels.
(2) The United States Government will prohibit seal killing for the same period in the same part of Bering Sea and on the shores and islands thereof the property of the United States (in excess of 7,500 to be taken on the islands for the subsistence and care of the natives), and will promptly use its best efforts to insure the observance of this prohibition by United States citizens and vessels.
(3) Every vessel or person offending against this prohibition in the said waters of Bering Sea outside of the ordinary territorial limits of the United States may be seized and detained by the naval or other duly commissioned officers of either of the high contracting parties, but they shall be handed over as soon as practicable to the authorities of the nation to which they respectively belong, who shall alone have jurisdiction to try the offense and impose the penalties for the same. The witnesses and proofs necessary to establish the offense shall also be sent with them.
(4) In order to facilitate such proper inquiries as Her Majesty's Government may desire to make with a view to the presentation of the case of that Government before arbitrators, and in expectation that an agreement for arbitration may be arrived at, it is agreed that suitable persons designated by Great Britain will be permitted at any time, upon application, to visit or to remain upon the seal islands during the present sealing season for that purpose.
Signed and sealed in duplicate at Washington, this 15th day of June, 1891, on behalf of their respective Governments, by William F. Wharton, Acting Secretary of State of the United States, and Sir Julian Pauncefote, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., H.B.M. envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary.
WILLIAM F. WHARTON. [SEAL.]
JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE. [SEAL.]
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, have caused the said agreement to be made public, to the end that the same and every part thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States of America and the citizens thereof.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 15th day of June, A.D. 1891, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
WILLIAM F. WHARTON,
Acting Secretary of State.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it is provided by section 13 of the act of Congress of March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to amend Title LX, chapter 3, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, relating to copyrights," that said act "shall only apply to a citizen or a subject of a foreign state or nation when such foreign state or nation permits to citizens of the United States of America the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as its own citizens, or when such foreign state or nation is a party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United States of America may at its pleasure become a party to such agreement;" and
Whereas it is also provided by said section that "the existence of either of the conditions aforesaid shall be determined by the President of the United States by proclamation made from time to time as the purposes of this act may require;" and
Whereas satisfactory official assurances have been given that in Belgium, France, Great Britain and the British possessions, and Switzerland the law permits to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to the citizens of those countries:
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, do declare and proclaim that the first of the conditions specified in section 13 of the act of March 3, 1891, is now fulfilled in respect to the citizens or subjects of Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Switzerland.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 1st day of July, 1891, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.
BENJ. HARRISON.
By the President:
WILLIAM F. WHARTON,
Acting Secretary of State.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, pursuant to section 3 of the act of Congress approved October 1, 1890, entitled "An act to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports, and for other purposes," the Secretary of State of the United States of America communicated to the Government of Spain the action of the Congress of the United States of America, with a view to secure reciprocal trade, in declaring the articles enumerated in said section 3, to wit, sugars, molasses, coffee, and hides, to be exempt from duty upon their importation into the United States of America; and
Whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Spain at Washington has communicated to the Secretary of State the fact that, in reciprocity and compensation for the admission into the United States of America free of all duty of the articles enumerated in section 3 of said act, the Government of Spain will by due legal enactment and as a provisional measure admit, from and after September 1, 1891, into all the established ports of entry of the Spanish islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico the articles or merchandise named in the following transitory schedule, on the terms stated therein, provided that the same be the product or manufacture of the United States and proceed directly from the ports of said States:
Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba
and Puerto Rico free of duties:
1. Meats, in brine, salted or smoked, bacon, hams, and meats preserved
in cans, in lard or by extraction of air, jerked beef excepted.
2. Lard.
3. Tallow and other animal greases, melted or crude, unmanufactured.
4. Fish and shellfish, live, fresh, dried, in brine, smoked, pickled,
oysters and salmon in cans.
5. Oats, barley, rye, and buckwheat, and flour of these cereals.
6. Starch, maizena, and other alimentary products of corn, except corn
meal.
7. Cotton seed, oil and meal cake of said seed for cattle.
8. Hay, straw for forage, and bran.
9. Fruits, fresh, dried, and preserved, except raisins.
10. Vegetables and garden products, fresh and dried.
11. Resin of pine, tar, pitch, and turpentine.
12. Woods of all kinds, in trunks or logs, joists, rafters, planks,
beams, boards, round or cylindric masts, although cut, planed, and
tongued and grooved, including flooring.
13. Woods for cooperage, including staves, headings, and wooden hoops.
14. Wooden boxes, mounted or unmounted, except of cedar.
15. Woods, ordinary, manufactured into doors, frames, windows, and
shutters, without paint or varnish, and wooden houses, unmounted,
without paint or varnish.
16. Wagons and carts for ordinary roads and agriculture.
17. Sewing machines.
18. Petroleum, raw or unrefined, according to the classification fixed
in the existing orders for the importation of this article in said
islands.
19. Coal, mineral.
20. Ice.
Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba
and Puerto Rico on payment of the duties stated:
21. Corn or maize, 25 cents per 100 kilograms.
22. Corn meal, 25 cents per 100 kilograms.
23. Wheat, from January 1, 1892, 30 cents per 100 kilograms.
24. Wheat flour, from January 1, 1892, $1 per 100 kilograms.
Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba
and Puerto Rico at a reduction of duty of 25 per cent:
25. Butter and cheese.
26. Petroleum, refined.
27. Boots and shoes in whole or in part of leather or skins.
And whereas the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Spain in Washington has further communicated to the Secretary of State that the Government of Spain will in like manner and as a definitive arrangement admit, from and after July 1, 1892, into all the established ports of, entry of the Spanish islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico the articles or merchandise named in the following schedules A, B, C, and D, on the terms stated therein, provided that the same be the product or manufacture of the United States and proceed directly from the ports of said States:
Products or manufactures of the United States to be admitted into Cuba
and Puerto Rico free of duties:
1. Marble, jasper, and alabaster, natural or artificial, in rough or
in pieces, dressed, squared, and prepared for taking shape.
2. Other stones and earthy matters, including cement, employed in
building, the arts and industries.
3. Waters, mineral or medicinal.
4. Ice.
5. Coal, mineral.
6. Resin, tar, pitch, turpentine, asphalt, schist, and bitumen.
7. Petroleum, raw or crude, in accordance with the classification
fixed in the tariff of said islands.
8. Clay, ordinary, in paving tiles, large and small, bricks, and roof
tiles unglazed, for the construction of buildings, ovens, and other
similar purposes.
9. Gold and silver coin.
10. Iron, cast, in pigs, and old iron and steel.
11. Iron, cast, in pipes, beams, rafters, and similar articles for
the construction of buildings and in ordinary manufactures.
(See repertory.)
12. Iron, wrought, and steel, in bars, rails and bars of all kinds,
plates, beams, rafters, and other similar articles for construction
of buildings.
13. Iron, wrought, and steel, in wire, nails, screws, nuts, and pipes.
14. Iron, wrought, and steel, in ordinary manufactures, and wire cloth
unmanufactured. (See repertory.)
15. Cotton, raw, with or without seed.
16. Cotton seed, oil and meal cake of same for cattle.
17. Tallow and all other animal greases, melted or crude,
unmanufactured.
18. Books and pamphlets, printed, bound and unbound.
19. Woods of all kinds, in trunks or logs, joists, rafters, planks,
beams, boards, and round or cylindric masts, although cut, planed,
tongued and grooved, including flooring.
20. Wooden cooperage, including staves, headings, and wooden hoops.
21. Wooden boxes, mounted or unmounted, except of cedar.
22. Woods, ordinary, manufactured into doors, frames, windows, and
shutters, without paint or varnish, and wooden houses, unmounted,
without paint or varnish.
23. Woods, ordinary, manufactured into all kinds of articles, turned or
unturned, painted or varnished, except furniture. (See repertory.)
24. Manures, natural or artificial.
25. Implements, utensils, and tools for agriculture, the arts, and
mechanical trades.
26. Machines and apparatus, agricultural, motive, industrial, and
scientific, of all classes and materials, and loose pieces for the
same, including wagons, carts, and handcarts for ordinary roads
and agriculture.
27. Material and articles for public works, such as railroads,
tramways, roads, canals for irrigation and navigation, use of
waters, ports, light-houses, and civil construction of general
utility, when introduced by authorization of the Government or if
free admission is obtained in accordance with local laws.
28. Materials of all classes for the construction, repair in whole or
in part of vessels, subject to specific regulations to avoid abuse
in the importation.
29. Meats, in brine, salted and smoked, including bacon, hams, and
meats preserved in cans, in lard or by extraction of air, jerked
beef excepted.
30. Lard and butter.
31. Cheese.
32. Fish and shellfish, live, fresh, dried, in brine, salted, smoked,
and pickled, oysters and salmon in cans.
33. Oats, barley, rye, and buckwheat, and flour of these cereals.
34. Starch, maizena, and other alimentary products of corn, except corn
meal.
35. Fruits, fresh, dried, and preserved, except raisins.
36. Vegetables and garden products, fresh and dried.
37. Hay, straw for forage, and bran.
38. Trees, plants, shrubs, and garden seeds.
39. Tan bark.