The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-28
The New York Senator Urges
Ratification of the Treaty.
INCREASE OF THE ARMY
Henderson of Iowa Asserts That There
Is No Need of Standing Army of
100000 Men i He Denounced
johnson as Unpatriotic.

ator T. c. Plat of New York on the
general subject of expansion. This was
the first speech Mr.. Plat has delivered
in the senate since his return to the
body. He took strong ground for the
ratification of the pending treaty Of
peace. A resolution was offered by Mr..
Sullivan of Mississippi, declaring that
the ratification of the treaty should not
commit the government to a colonial
policy. The pension appropriation hill,
the second of the general appropriation
measures, was passed after some de-
bate.
At the opening of the senate, Spoon
er and Rawlins gave notice of speeches
on the resolution opposing annexation,
Spooner Wednesday and Rawlins
Thursday next.
Mason asked unanimous consent FOR
vote on his resolution declaring it 10
the policy of the United States not to
attempt to govern the people of any
other nation, next Friday at l o'clock,
and Hoar for a vote on his resolution,
declaring the Filipinos ought to be free
and independent, but Carter objected to
both.
Senator Platt then addressed the sem
ate in opposition to the Vest resolution.
He spoke from notes and in clear,
resonant voice. He was accorded the
closest attention by his colleagues on
both sides of the chamber and by
large audience in the galleries. He
said:
There has never been absent from
the floor of the senate that class Of
intellect which has found in the consti
j tuition it's warrant for opposing new
things. Nor is it new things only which
are SO resolutely opposed in the name of
the fathers. 1t is the old things with
new faces as well. Here we have been
whole century anneXing territory,
annexing with a club or with a caress,
Just as the necessities demanded, aid
yet senators are discovering to one an
other the most acute distress over what
they boldly describe as a departure
from the time-honored traditions.
"Mr. President, it was not the main
purpose of the makers of the constitu-
ton to point out a way in accordance
with which the problems of government
were to be solved. That purpose, no
doubt, was in their minds to some eX-
tent, but to an extent which must have
had its boundaries defined in their own
experience. Their main purpose was to
devise plan of government and not CT
dain policies and where they seemed
to be ordaining policies, where they de-
parted from the main work of estlb
fishing the bodies which together should
form the government and of dstribut-
ing to each its particular functions they
were doing precisely what every other
legislative assembly, before their time
and subsequently thereto, has had to
do-they We're satisfying popular preju-
dices and looking forward to the day
when their work would be passed upon
by minds less trained than their own
in the consideration of great principles
and more subject than theirs to tempo
rary and local prejudice. l do not mean
to suggest, Mr. President, that such
legislation as does occur in the consti-
tuition is any less binding upon us te-
cause it was put there as a concession
to the sentiment of the hour: but I do
affirm without hesitation that the in
ferenceS which we draw now from such
legislation limiting the power of the gen.
eral government and tending to render
our government less competent than
other governments, need to be drawn
carefully and need to be considered in
the light of the whole scheme of fed
eral authority. 1t is true that we are a
government Of limited powers, but tine
purpose of the limitation was simply to
reserve to the people of the states such
ample power as would enable them to
determine their own affairs in their
own way, such affairs, I mean, as We're
not also the affairs of the people of
other states; and it was not the purpose
Of such limitation to hinder the feder-
al government in providing as might
seem best and wisest for the general
welfare of the whole country.
1T is surprising, Mr. President how
often 1t has been necessary to make
this argument and to call attention to
these distinctions, and yet l suppose
the temptation is a natural one to make
= SN1,r re li.,Nt ta1
powers mean a government empower
ed to do whatever each man wants
done, but forbiddng to do whatever
each man opposes. That thought must
have occurred, it seems to me, to every
senator who heard the proposition ad-
vanced here that we had the right I'M
der the constitution to annex territory
for the purpose of putting up
guns to kill people with. but lacked
the right of annexing it for the pur-
pose of putting up school houses and
of doing the things that contribute to
the happiness and prosperity of the peo-
pie concerned.
THE disorder now existing in the
Philippine islands to which senators
who are opposing the treaty may well
afford to consider how far they are
contributing, the unwillingness of the
armed natives to accept American GU
thority does not constitute, in my
mind. the slightest ground on which
to base a vote against the Paris agree.
ment. On the contrary, it affords a
new reason why our action should be
more prompt and unanimous"
Mr.. Fairbanks of Indiana precipitated
some discussion by a statement which
he submitted at this point with respect
to the anti-expansion propaganda. He
said that on Thursday certain clippings
from agricultural newspapers from
various parts of the country We're in
sert ed in the record. There is a very
systematic and subtle attempt to mis-
lead the people of the country with re-
spect to the question of expansion" said
Mr.. Fairbanks, and the agricultural
papers are being used as a medium for
this transformation"
Mr.. Fairbanks said that he had been
credibly informed that Herbert Myrick
the editor of an agricultural newspaper
at Springfield, Mass, had sent to agri-
cultural newspapers throughout the
country the letter of Andrew Carnegie
"a tow tn 1~ff iS,,