The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-04-11
The Porto Rican Question.

ex-senator Edmunds. In respect of
tariff and trade relations with Cuba
and the Philippines, the Senator Gays
cit will be time to cross those rivers
when we come to them" In his great
faux movement to the south of Rich
mond, General Grant did not wait till
he had led his army to the banks of
the James before he bethought himself
TO provide pontoons for the crossing.
When the Great Commander came to
the river the bridges his sagacious fore
sight had prepared were already built
and his army crossed without hitch,
or an hours delay. 1t is not the habit
of Senator Proctor to wait till he comes
to stream be knows he must cross, an
emergency he knows he must meet, till
he is confronted by the obstacle in his
path. He is not 80 unmindful as he
appears to be of an issue of which this
Porto Rican question is, alone, an in
significant part.
In bis letter to the Senator, Mr.. Ed
munds says he thinks the position which
"many gentlemen engaged in public
affairs, whose intelligence and patriot
ism are above question. have taken"
that "the Constitution does not EN-
brace the territories" sis untenable as
u matter OF law" and he believes it "is
still less defensible" on certain general
principles which he enumerates, and
which pertain to elderly, justice and
equal rights" Mr.. Edmupds is clearly
of the opinion that the Constitution
extends, &c proprio Uigore, to Porto
Rico, to the Philippines, and to all of
the on tying possessions OF the United
States, and Senator Proctor appears to
introduce Mr.. Edmunds as the expo
rent of his constitutional convictions
on this question. The ex-senator
seems to have supplied his successor in
the United States Senate with pontoons
for crossing the Cuban and the Philip
pine rivers. of which the Porto Rican
stream is tributary. Are the Senator
and his engineer sure of their moorings
on the further shore?
Senator Proctor constructs "a deadly
parallel" one of whose members is an
act of King George for taxing the Amer
lean colonies, the other is the pending
Porto Rican tariff act. King Georges
act declared that the revenue Parlia-
ment proposed to raise from the colo
MES was "for defraying the future
charges OF protecting, defending and
securing the colonies" The Porto
Rican act expressly stipulates thai the
revenue it shall raise is to be used
"for the aid and relief of the people OF
Porto Rico, and for public education,
for public works and for other COVER
mental and public purposes" History
tells what use was made of the
revenue raised under King Georges
tax acts; no person doubts for an in
slant that every dollar of this proposed
Porto Ricsn revenue would be used
with sacred fidelity to its declared OBJ
ject. Do the Senator's illustrations
constitute "deadly parallel" or do
they make a deadly right angle?
Concerning this Porto Rican tariff
measure, the delay and hesitation in
passing it, the objections to it which
appear to be magnfied out of all pro
portion to sense or reason, and the rel
alive standing of Republicans 10 Con-
gress in respect of it, the Press of New
York says:
This is absurd. 1t is un-Republcan. II
ia unworthy OF the party which has never
wasted winter in disposing of the most
fateful questions of policy as it has in dis
posing Of this little question of detail For
that is all that the Porto Rican question il
since the ways and means committee con-
sented TO the fifteen per cent rate. There
never has been hope of an abolition of
that rate; there never has been POSSIBLE
ity that 40 men would surrender to dozen
in the House, or forty-four men to half
dozen in the Senate.
Republican papers of the character
OF the Press, the Sun, the Tribune, and
Democratic papers Of the rank of the
Eagle of Brooklyn, it is submitted, are
worthy of higher consideration in their
Judgments, and in their publications in
matters like the existing contentious
respecting Porto Rican affairs, than is
the New York Herald, which Senator
Proctor uses as witness, or other pa.
pers which have ever been the in
veterate enemies of Republican poll
cies and measures, particularly in
matters of protection.
AS contribution to the discussion
of this question that is comprehensive
illuminative, dispassionate, by one who
speaks with the authority impaired by
eminent ability and largest experience
10 public affairs, careful perusal il