Great progress has already been made among farmers by the creation of farmers’ institutes, of dairy associations, of breeders’ associations, horticultural associations, and the like.  A striking example of how the Government and the farmers can cooperate is shown in connection with the menace offered to the cotton growers of the Southern States by the advance of the boll weevil.  The Department is doing all it can to organize the farmers in the threatened districts, just as it has been doing all it can to organize them in aid of its work to eradicate the cattle fever tick in the South.  The Department can and will cooperate with all such associations, and it must have their help if its own work is to be done in the most efficient style.

Much is now being done for the States of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains through the development of the national policy of irrigation and forest preservation; no Government policy for the betterment of our internal conditions has been more fruitful of good than this.  The forests of the White Mountains and Southern Appalachian regions should also be preserved; and they can not be unless the people of the States in which they lie, through their representatives in the Congress, secure vigorous action by the National Government.

I invite the attention of the Congress to the estimate of the Secretary of War for an appropriation to enable him to begin the preliminary work for the construction of a memorial amphitheater at Arlington.  The Grand Army of the Republic in its national encampment has urged the erection of such an amphitheater as necessary for the proper observance Of Memorial Day and as a fitting monument to the soldier and sailor dead buried there.  In this I heartily concur and commend the matter to the favorable consideration of the Congress.

I am well aware of how difficult it is to pass a constitutional amendment.  Nevertheless in my judgment the whole question of marriage and divorce should be relegated to the authority of the National Congress.  At present the wide differences in the laws of the different States on this subject result in scandals and abuses; and surely there is nothing so vitally essential to the welfare of the nation, nothing around which the nation should so bend itself to throw every safeguard, as the home life of the average citizen.  The change would be good from every standpoint.  In particular it would be good because it would confer on the Congress the power at once to deal radically and efficiently with polygamy; and this should be done whether or not marriage and divorce are dealt with.  It is neither safe nor proper to leave the question of polygamy to be dealt with by the several States.  Power to deal with it should be conferred on the National Government.