led attention to the
subject of "civil-service reform."

Action has been taken so far as to authorize the appointment of a board
to devise rules governing methods of making appointments and promotions,
but there never has been any action making these rules, or any rules,
binding, or even entitled to observance, where persons desire the
appointment of a friend or the removal of an official who may be
disagreeable to them.

To have any rules effective they must have the acquiescence of Congress
as well as of the Executive. I commend, therefore, the subject to your
attention, and suggest that a special committee of Congress might confer
with the Civil-Service Board during the present session for the purpose
of devising such rules as can be maintained, and which will secure the
services of honest and capable officials, and which will also protect
them in a degree of independence while in office.

Proper rules will protect Congress, as well as the Executive, from much
needless persecution, and will prove of great value to the public at
large.

I would recommend for your favorable consideration the passage of an
enabling act for the admission of Colorado as a State in the Union.
It possesses all the elements of a prosperous State, agricultural and
mineral, and, I believe, has a population now to justify such admission.
In connection with this I would also recommend the encouragement of a
canal for purposes of irrigation from the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains to the Missouri River. As a rule I am opposed to further
donations of public lands for internal improvements owned and controlled
by private corporations, but in this instance I would make an exception.
Between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains there is an arid belt
of public land from 300 to 500 miles in width, perfectly valueless for
the occupation of man, for the want of sufficient rain to secure the
growth of any product. An irrigating canal would make productive a belt
as wide as the supply of water could be made to spread over across this
entire country, and would secure a cordon of settlements connecting the
present population of the mountain and mining regions with that of the
older States. All the land reclaimed would be clear gain. If alternate
sections are retained by the Government, I would suggest that the
retained sections be thrown open to entry under the homestead laws,
or sold to actual settlers for a very low price.

I renew my prev