power to grant or refuse licenses to sell intoxicating
liquors and as subjecting those who sold without licenses to penalties;
but in May last the supreme court of the District held against this
view of the powers of the Commissioners. It is of urgent importance,
therefore, that Congress should supply, either by direct enactment
or by conferring discretionary powers upon the Commissioners, proper
limitations and restraints upon the liquor traffic in the District.
The District has suffered in its reputation by many crimes of violence,
a large per cent of them resulting from drunkenness and the liquor
traffic. The capital of the nation should be freed from this reproach
by the enactment of stringent restrictions and limitations upon the
traffic.

In renewing the recommendation which I have made in three preceding
annual messages that Congress should legislate for the protection
of railroad employees against the dangers incident to the old and
inadequate methods of braking and coupling which are still in use upon
freight trains, I do so with the hope that this Congress may take action
upon the subject. Statistics furnished by the Interstate Commerce
Commission show that during the year ending June 30, 1891, there were
forty-seven different styles of car couplers reported to be in use, and
that during the same period there were 2,660 employees killed and 26,140
injured. Nearly 16 per cent of the deaths occurred in the coupling and
uncoupling of cars and over 36 per cent of the injuries had the same
origin.

The Civil Service Commission ask for an increased appropriation for
needed clerical assistance, which I think should be given. I extended
the classified service March 1, 1892, to include physicians,
superintendents, assistant superintendents, school-teachers, and matrons
in the Indian service, and have had under consideration the subject of
some further extensions, but have not as yet fully determined the lines
upon which extensions can most properly and usefully be made.

I have in each of the three annual messages which it has been my duty
to submit to Congress called attention to the evils and dangers
connected with our election methods and practices as they are related
to the choice of officers of the National Government. In my last annual
message I endeavored to invoke serious attention to the evils of unfair
apportionments for Congress. I can not close this message without again
calling attention to these grave