The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-21
A MILITARY SATRAPY.

A Washington dispatch, apparently In
srircd, says that on the report Of his
commissioner paramount to Porto Rico.
the president is of the opinion that a
military government must be maintained
in Porto Rico for two or three years.
The island Is now, by virtue of the treaty
of Paris and by general assent. an inte-
grail portion Of these United States, as
much a territory of 1t as is Arizona or
New Mexico. There is no state Of war
existing in the island. Its people are sub
missive to their new masters; in fact our
advent was hailed by Porto Ricans with
delight. and the flag Of this country on
many occasions greeted our troops as
they entered its cities or villages. Con-
greSs was in session when the treaty
that transferred the island to this coun-
try was ratified by the senate, and con-
gress adjourned without making any pro-
vision for civil government. And now
we are told that the president contem-
plates the maintenance of a military gov
eminent there for a period beyond his
present term of office
In October, 1903. the senate ratified the
treaty that transferred Louisiana from
France to the United States. On March
&c following congress enacted a law erect
ing the portion south Of the SD parallel.
the present northern boundary Of the
state, into a territory and. provided for
its government by civil authorities The
Inhabitants within the District Of Orleans.
as the territory was named, were mostly
Spantards, of the same race that now
forms the bulk of the population of Porto
Rico. minus whatever progress CEN
fury may have produced among the peo-
pie Of the island. The same congress
enacted law for the civil government
of the city of New Orleans. Certainly the
Spaniards Of New Orleans. then no
toriously hostile to the AMERICAS. were
not more capable of self-government than
are the Porto Ricaps of today.
The difference in the treatment accord
ed the peoples annexed by two admin1stra-
tons, separated by nearly a century, is
the difference in the concepts OF govern
ment held by their heads and backed
by their parties. Jefferson was Demo-
crat and an individualist, believing in the
| principles Of government he wrote into
| the Declaration OF Independence; Nc
Kinley Is, unconsciousy, perhaps, a col
lectivist with the Hamiltonian distrust
| of the capacity of the people for self
| government. That is the basis of hts
great policy of protection, and 1t is the
basis Of the present decision to maintain
a military satrapy IN Porto Rico, policy
permitted by his congress In its avoid
ance Of the duty of providing a form of
| civil government for the island.
| The first Republican president did not
hold the same ideas Of government evil
IDENTIFY held by the latest, and, let us pray,
the last. mo man." he wrote, rs good
enough to govern another man without
that mans consent. When the white man
| governs himself that is self-government:
| but when he governs himself and also
| another man that is more than self-gov-
ermnet-thatis despotism. -" Those who
deny freedom to others deserve it not for
themselves and under a just God cannot
| long retain it" 1t will not do to reply
| that Lincoln was referring to the negro
| unless it is also asserted that the average
| Porto Rican Is, morally and intellectually.
on the same plane with the Southern
! plantation negro. If Jefferson deemed the
for self-government, the Spaniards in
Porto Rico today are filter. If we start
military government there. how long will
1T be, in this growing industrial ferment,
before we will have military government
| at home?