.59.

The Railway Mail Service not only adds to the promptness of
mail delivery at all offices, but it is the especial instrumentality
which puts the smaller and way places in the service on an equality
in that regard with the larger and terminal offices. This branch
of the postal service has therefore received much attention from the
Postmaster-General, and though it is gratifying to know that it is in
a condition of high efficiency and great usefulness, I am led to agree
with the Postmaster-General that there is room for its further
improvement.

There are now connected to the Post-Office establishment 28,324
employees who are in the classified service. The head of this great
Department gives conclusive evidence of the value of civil-service
reform when, after an experience that renders his judgment on the
subject absolutely reliable, he expresses the opinion that without
the benefit of this system it would be impossible to conduct the vast
business intrusted to him.

I desire to commend as especially worthy of prompt attention the
suggestions of the Postmaster-General relating to a more sensible and
businesslike organization and a better distribution of responsibility
in his Department.

The report of the Secretary of the Navy contains a history of the
operations of his Department during the past year and exhibits a most
gratifying condition of the personnel of our Navy. He presents a
satisfactory account of the progress which has been made in the
construction of vessels and makes a number of recommendations to which
attention is especially invited.

During the past six months the demands for cruising vessels have been
many and urgent. There have been revolutions calling for vessels to
protect American interests in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica,
Honduras, Argentina, and Brazil, while the condition of affairs in
Honolulu has required the constant presence of one or more ships. With
all these calls upon our Navy it became necessary, in order to make up a
sufficient fleet to patrol the Bering Sea under the _modus vivendi_
agreed upon with Great Britain, to detail to that service one vessel
from the Fish Commission and three from the Revenue Marine.

Progress in the construction of new vessels has not been as rapid as
was anticipated. There have been delays in the completion of unarmored
vessels, but for the most part they have been such as are constantly
occurring even in countries having the largest experien