The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-02-18

king was put on the throne. rs Sena-
tor Mills said:
He OTataafa, the old king) was sent
off TO the Marshall islands, belonging
to Germany. He is there in prison to-
day, and has been for years, with the
waves of the ocean breaking around
him III that desolate isle, with mol
earthly prospect of getting back
TO the land of his nativity and the
people for whom he has been de-
stroyed, for whose liberties and rights
he is suffering Imprisonment, guarded
by american bayonetS and the eXpensel
OF his incarceration paid out Of the
pockets of the hard working people
OF the United States"
The treaty which is keeping in power
the present king of Samoa was nego-
tiated by Harrison through Phelps in
Germany and by it the territory Of the
people there is partitioned out among
the three powers to the treaty as cold
bloodedly as was the territory of Po-
land parcelled out to Russia, Austria
and Prussia. Further, the treaty pro-
Yides that Maletoa shall be king until
the three powers decide otherwise.
Absolutely no provision is made for an
exercise Of the win OF the people of
the islands. If there is any dissension
among the three powers that have
ruthlessly trodden a helpless people
under foot then the appeal must be
taken TO the King of Sweden, as
much interested as either Germany or
England in keeping up the pomp of a
monarchy Everything is done by the
powers. The people of the islands are
forbidden even to sell their lands The
only right that is given them is the
right TO lease them for forty years.
This government has pursued
shameless policy to the Indians of
this country. They have trodden them
down in the march of civilization and
practiced upon them barbarities that
darken the history of the country. Yet
they have never gone to such ex-
tremeS even with the Indians as the
connecting brains of the heads Of two
monarchies and a republic have gone
in making UP scheme to rob the peo-
pie of the Samoan islands of the right
to govern themselves. Senator Mills
said further!
'@This Republican treaty also imposes
taxes on those people. I have always
understood that of all the powers of
government the sRoWer to take the
property OF the Stizen is the greatest
power that can be given. 1t is the
greatest power to be intrusted. it is
the power most liable to abuse, the
power most frequently abused; and
yet they do not consult those poor
people about the taxes they are to pay
to this republic. But this royal Re
publican treaty of Samoa lays down
all sort Of taxes there and among
them import and export duties. I do
not know how any American Republi-
can ever got it into his head that an
export duty was a republican tax;
how that came out of the civilization
Of the United States, when in the very
constitution of our country we have
said that no export duty shall be
levied at all.
But they have got beyond this
country. They were away down $1,000
miles in the Pacific ocean establishing
"a royal republic with the aid of Ger
many and Great Britain and there they
imposed export duties and import du-
ties and capitation taxes. taxes on
boats, taxes on colored plantation
laborers, taxes on firearms, taxes on
dwelling houses, special taxes OH
stores, occasional taxes, license taxes
all sorts of taxes, and when the whole
land is torn and blasted by this abuse
of taxation, to guard against an up
rising of the people of Samoa they dis
armed them and in this Republican
treaty they declare that no arms shall
I0n int Cny
man sell to a native Samoan a gun
They disarmed them. What says the
constitution Of the United States to
this magnificent treaty? What did
your fathers say when the Constitution
was framed in 1887? a well regulated
militia being necessary to the security
Of free state, the right of the people
to keep and bear arms shall not be in
fringed.
1t is useless to talk about keeping a
people free when they cannot use the
jeWelry of freedom, when they cannot
fight force with force, When they can
not plead their cause on the bat
tlefeld with gunpowder and bayonets
Our fathers secured to US tho right
to keep and bear arms 50 that no
power in the Union can take vt from
US. In case the government shall be-
come a despotism the arms of the
freeman is the last resort of the peo-
pie for the preservation of their lib
critics. They have said that no power
shall disarm the people of the United
States and yet in this republic of Sa-
mOa a Republican administration in
combination with the two most power
full monarchies of the world, stood by
and aided in the disarming of those
poor defenseless people"
As to the secret reasons for this
American interference in the affairs of
Samoa, they appear to be the same as
those which move upon the assaiIants
OF the administration because of fail
ure to listen to their clamors for
American absorption of Hawaii Mr.
Mills thus put the matter before the
Senate:
"AN for sugar, Mr. President. This
treaty When tested by the polariscope
will show SO degrees of saccharine
strength. And so with this affair in
the Hawaiian islands. Let me show
what has been paraded for the delec-
tatiOn of the American people about
the Hawaiian islands. Forty corpora
tons with q capital stock of sos, 40O, $780,
American ownership $22,459610, native
Hawaiian $266,250 The American per
cent, of all these corporations, 7417;
British, 1911: German, 6.2: and native
Hawaiian IS of per cent"
EASY TO SEE.