Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-06
Senator Morgan on Phil
ippine Question.
OUR CONGRESS MUSTACT
And Pass Laws That Will Give the
People All the Rights They Are
Entitled TOLLS Idea of What
Should Be Done,

New York, Nov. "a special to the
Herald from Washington says: Con
Sress should at once take action in re-
latlon to the Philippines said Senator
Morgan to-day. This action should be
taken in the discharge of the duty i'm
posed pv section four. article four of the
constitution, which provides that the
united states shall guarantee to every
state in this union a republican form of
government"
The senator said that this imposed a
distinct duty upo ngres and the dis
charge or that duty by action looking to
the establishment of a republican form of
government in the Philippines would be
the only answer possible to the antrim
pellalfSts. he explained that what he
meant Dy giving a republican form of
government to the Philippines was that
the pest form of a republican government
known to the world, would be the best
10 FOUND among the ideal and that every
step toward establishing a government
IN the Philippines should be an approach
10 THIS nigh ideal. No attempt should
De made, he said, to frame a detailed gov
for the islands as a whole or for
any OF the various peoples who inhabited
them without a thorough understanding
OF all the conditions and needs of the in
habitants.
Asked whether he favored a congress-
1onal commission to visit the Philippines
and study the conditions there before at
tempting to frame a system of govern
ment, he replied:
Il think it would be wise to have such
a commission visit the islands. If we
had undertaken to frame a government
for Hawaii without the study of local
tDflIlt1OnS Whjph nI1r nnt1, ~ iSSinn mazda
l think it is probable that we would have
made some ,~-egregious plumbers. This
study of conditions and of the peculiar
characteristic tics and needs of the people
is even more necessary in the case of the
Philippines than in Hawaii, because we
know less of the Philippines"
In the senator's opinion the govern
ment of the United States should have
charge of the external relations of the
islands, of collecting and expanding the
the islands as a group, while the local af-
fairs should be confideG as fas as pos
sible to the people of the different locali-
ties. In this connection he spoke of the
township system of the New England
states as the highest ideal of local self
government. The question of who
should have the right to vote would have
to be determined and in his con-
%nection the senator called attention
stance the determination of who
territories organized under the United
States, an arbitrary act, in some places
men only being allowed to vote, in others
men and women and in others various
qualifications being prescribed.
Existing laws, the senator thought,
should be continued in force as far as
they were good laws because the people
understood them. One change that
would have to be made would be to take
away from the friars and the religious
orders their power of levying taxes on
the people. Senator Morgan is of the
opinion that while the United States
should undertake at once the solution of
the problem of governing the Philippines.
the development of that government into
its ultimate form will have to be a matter
of growth.