Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-03-30
The speaker Henderson sub.erfuge.

The Chicago Times-Herald, in COM
menting editorially on the apology of
Speaker Henderson for the house
Porto Rican tariff iniquity, says of the
speakers letter that lit a5ounds in
delphic references to trusts and sym
dicates,' which he says are fighting
this bill. He refers to these syndi-
Gates and the Goldfish of New England
and other interests, including the
-four interests, all trying to get into
Porto Rico without paying the 10
per cent duty on their products. ;
But nowhere does he offer a single
reason why the -four. fish and pro-
vision interests of the United States
should be taxed ID per cent or any
per cent for selling their products in
territory, possession, dependency
or whatever he may call the island
| belonging to the United States
Speaker Henderson fairly cries
over the iniquity of 'syndicates and
trusts proposing to tax this desc
late island, forgetting the cause of
Rico of that free access to American
markets which it was our plain duty
to accord. Does the speaker recall
that cry of the defeated and humili-
ated Shylock when the duke of Venice
| declared all his wealth forfeit-one-
half to the state, one-half to Antonio:
| "'You take my house when you do take the
prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby live.
with it's Is per cent tariff congress
proposes to knock both props-the
freedom to buy and the freedom to
sell in American manifestation under
the arms of Porto Rico. We have
| taken from the Porto Ricans the means
| of living, and today the United States
| stands before the world responsible
for the sore industrial straits to which
the islanders have been reduced.
| Speaker Henderson excuses the tariff
for revenue as imposing a burden that
will be imperceptible while direct
tax would be simply brutal and in
human This is most extraordinary
language to come from an American
to Americans, who today in every
state and territory of the union are
living under direct taxation for the
maintenance of every institution of
local self-government. The property
of the Inhabitants of Porto Rico is as
Justly liable to bear the expenses of
local civil government as that of the
citizens of Illinois or New Mexico.
And in natural wealth the island is
better able to bear it than half the
states of the union
lit is time, the Herald says. THAT
Speaker Henderson recognized the
folly of trying to throw syndicate and
philanthropic dust in the eyes of the
repu blicans of the northwest. They
stand by the traditions of the republic
that have never permitted hostile
tariffs between parts of the United
States. They protest against reduc-
ing one of the richest islands of the
West Indies to a condition of mendi-
canc3 meFHty because it voluntarily
and l6onfihingly accepted the change
of sovereignty. They are asking:
If Porto Rico is not part of the
United States. what right has congress
to legislate about it at all?
- If Porto Ricans are not citizens of
the United States. what right has
congress to legislate respecting them
at alp
IF, as Senator Beveridge says. the
constitution is a chart by which we
sail all seas and make ali ports, why
are not its prohibitions the, warning
beacons of perils to be>avoided? Is it
not time for Speaker Henderson and
the rest of the Iowa delegation to sus-
pect that the conscience of nearly
500. 900 voters in the Hawkeye state
is safer guide to national honor and
duty than the purblind vision of a
handful of leaders in Washington. who
sdmit that special syndicates, trusts
and interests are not without infiu-
ence in the capital?
1T is at least time that the lead
ers' in Washington disabuse their
minds of the hallucination that they
possess any monopoly of knowledge on
the conditions or policies inv olved in
the Porto Rican question. They
must, moreover, remember that the
people and not politicians, syndicates
or trusts will pass final judgment on
what is justice and our plain duty to
Porto Rico"