hereof.

The importance of legislation for the permanent increase of the Army is
therefore manifest, and the recommendation of the Secretary of War for
that purpose has my unqualified approval. There can be no question that
at this time, and probably for some time in the future, 100,000 men
will be none too many to meet the necessities of the situation. At all
events, whether that number shall be required permanently or not, the
power should be given to the President to enlist that force if in his
discretion it should be necessary; and the further discretion should
be given him to recruit for the Army within the above limit from the
inhabitants of the islands with the government of which we are charged.
It is my purpose to muster out the entire Volunteer Army as soon as the
Congress shall provide for the increase of the regular establishment.
This will be only an act of justice and will be much appreciated by the
brave men who left their homes and employments to help the country in
its emergency.

In my last annual message I stated:

The Union Pacific Railway, main line, was sold under the decree of the
United States court for the district of Nebraska on the 1st and 2d of
November of this year. The amount due the Government consisted of the
principal of the subsidy bonds, $27,236,512, and the accrued interest
thereon, $31,211,711.75, making the total indebtedness $58,448,223.75.
The bid at the sale covered the first-mortgage lien and the entire
mortgage claim of the Government, principal and interest.

This left the Kansas Pacific case unconcluded. By a decree of the court
in that case an upset price for the property was fixed at a sum which
would yield to the Government only $2,500,000 upon its lien. The sale,
at the instance of the Government, was postponed first to December 15,
1897, and later, upon the application of the United States, was
postponed to the 16th day of February, 1898.

Having satisfied myself that the interests of the Government required
that an effort should be made to obtain a larger sum, I directed the
Secretary of the Treasury, under the act passed March 3, 1887, to pay
out of the Treasury to the persons entitled to receive the same the
amounts due upon all prior mortgages upon the Eastern and Middle
divisions of said railroad out of any money in the Treasury not
otherwise appropriated, whereupon the Attorney-General prepared a
petition to be presented to the court, offerin