The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-12-10
TO VISIT CUBA.
The President Will Look Over
New Possessions
In the West Indies After Con-
gress AdjOurns.
AWAY FOR TWO WEEKS
viii Be the First Time a Chief
Magistrate
Ever Passed the Boundaries of
the United States.
FOR TWO WEEKS

New York, Dec. 1O.-A Washington
special says: A report that the presi-
dent intends to visit Cuba and Porto Ri
CO at the first favorable opportunity
has become known in the state, war
and navy departments and was quickly
made the subject of serious speculation
among various officials on account OF
the exceedingly interesting questions it
raised. Among other things there was
spontaneous revival of the fiction
that the chief executive could not pass
the boundaries of the United States
without FORGETTING his Office. 1t is pc
culiar how persistent is the notion even
among high officials that some constitu-
tional or statutory restriction confines
the executive to American soil, when as
a matter of fact, although none of Pres
ident McKin1ey's predecessors have ev-
er left the country during their terms Of
Office, their actions were alone affected
by considerations of propriety or pre-
cedent, which no one could hold to ap-
ply in the present instance.
The president wishes to make a per-
sOnal tour of inspection in those islands
as soon as he can spare time from
public business. 1t would be impossible
for him to go before congress adjourns
on March 4. which is, fortunately about
the best time of the year to make a
short stay in the tropics.
During the first six weeks of the new
year in addition to the continuous exec
utive routine business the social Obli-
cations involved in the program of pub
lie receptions and state dinners would
restrict the president closely to Wash
ingtOn and after next weeks southern
tour, he will hardly find it possible to be
able to leave the White House for more
than two days at a time before the be-
ginning of Lent, in the middle of Feb
ruary. For the ensuing two weeks,
marks the closing days of a short Ses-
sion of congress, there viii be no leis-
ure for the executive.
With Havana only q single nights
run for the dispatch boat Dolphin from
Tampa, there might be a chance for the
president to spend two whole days in
a weeks absence from Washington and
remain always in close Geographic COM
nunicatiOn with the executive depart
ments, so that if a critical emergency
arose, he could be in a railway train
speeding toward the capital within II
hours. He would not think of a trip
to Havana before the Spanish flag is
hauled down on January 1.
Practical unanimity of opinion pre-
walls among officials that the cOntem-
plated visit of the president to Havana
has as full warrant as the trip
to Porto Rico so long as the American
flag flies over Cuba, although a few
self is not actually a part of the United
States territory until congress has made
a declaration to that effect, either in
so many words, or by ratifying the
peace treaty at Paris. This fine point
is not seriously raised except to show
that Porto Rico and Cuba must be con-
sidered identical in view of the fact that
they are governed precisely alike, by
military officers under the immediate
direction of the president as command
er-in-chief The president would not
care to set foot in Cuba if were held to
be foreign territory, much as he might
wish to see the country, for that might
be a perilOus precedent to establish. But
no one appears to cOntrOvert the right
as we'll as the advisability of an exec
utive visit to the new American possess
sions, provided it does not involve too
long an enforced absence from Wash
ingtOn.
When the president visits Porto Rico
and Cuba, he will undoubtedly be ac-
cOmpanied by Mrs. Mckinley and sever
al members of the cabinet with their
wives, and although the stay of the
party in each port visited will not be
longer than single day, an absence of
two weeks from Washington will be
necessary. It is probable that Secreta-
~ Alger and several army officers will
go to San Juan, Santiago, Havana and
other points in the island before the
president visits those phases.