In other respects also, sir, your nation is viewed with sympathetic admiration by my countrymen.

Your people are conquering the wilderness and are bringing to the markets of the world the fruits of their labor.

It gives me the greatest possible pleasure to welcome Your Excellency on this occasion and to express to you my profound appreciation of the signal honor which you, through your visit, are conferring upon the Government and people of the…

Firm believers in democracy, they are successfully upholding within their borders the principles of self-government.

The program of the treaty does represent a decrease in destroyer and submarine strength.

We accomplish that without building a single ship.

The real issue in the treaty is whether we shall stop competitive naval building with all the destruction and the dangers to international good will that the continuation of that course implies; whether we shall spend an enormous sum in…

Now, the aircraft carriers, and the destroyers, and submarine programs of the treaty are fair, and they have not been subject to any particular criticism.

On the merits or demerits of these alternatives as to this very small part of the fleet of about 1,125,000 tons, our naval advisers are sharply divided.

There is not one scintilla of agreement or obligation of any character outside the treaty itself.

The United States scraps three battleships, the British five, and Japan one, and postpones the enormous expenditure for renewals under the Washington Treaty until after 1936.

I have not done so yet. It has not come in yet, but I will when it arrives.

I have no other questions except one on the District appropriations, and I anticipate that the committees will be able to find some solution without stopping the works of the District.

We thus attain parity in the battle fleet now instead of 10 years hence.

I regard it as a very important administrative step.

It may form a nucleus for collecting further funds for that purpose, all of which represents a useful step in the development of scientific research in connection with industry.

I have also been glad to sign this morning two other bills of importance--one for the Civil War veterans, signed last night as a matter of fact--giving an increase in allowance there for totally disabled veterans, those that require…

Today nearly 70 years have passed since Lincoln spoke.