The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-03-29


ment; power penned by the racial i'm
pulse in the blood of the fathers; power
so complete, emphatic and unusual
that there is in it the suggestion of
duty.
THE congress shall have power to
dispose of and make all needful rules
and regulations respecting the territory
United States.''
So the Constitution says that there
can be territory belonging to the Unit
ed States" Congress can even dis
pose" of that territory. But territory
belonging to the United States can not
be a part of the United States-that is
a contradiction in terms. If territory
belongs to the United States" and at
the same time is part of the United
States, it belongs to, is owned by, a
body politics of which it is itself a part
which is an absurdity in reasoning: an
impossibility in logic. And Congress
may even dispose of territory belong
ing to the United States.'' Dispose of
how2 No by making that territory
states only; not by establishing indie
pendent government only; not by MAX
ing that territory a part of the republic
only. No; and full provision for such
disposition of territory is made else
where in the Constitution. But the
words dispose of any territory belong
ing to the United States stand there
unlimited, absolute and imperial. We
can make it a part of the United States
II we wish. We can set up independent
government if we wish, and ALLEVIATE it
utterly; and yet we could not do that
if it is part of the United States, for
how can the United States ALLEVIATE any
part of itself, or how can any part of
the United States ALLEVIATE itself from
the United StateS2 Our southern broth
ers asked the latter question, and mil
| lion men answered it with their lives.
Congress shall have power to dispose
of territory belonging to the United
| States Dispose Of" We can sell this
territory belonging to u.s. then; yet
0an &c art f &c
] We can sell Porto Rico; we can sell
| the Philippines; we can turn them adrift
| and all this has been proposed by those
| who now declare that they are az part
of the United States. Does any man
| doubt that the United States can dis
pose of Porto Rico by selling it to an
other nation? And yet this could not be
| done if it is a. part of the United States
| So that the very power to dispose of
territory belonging to the United States
| is the power of the free hand over that
territory. The bestowal of that very
| power is a. denial that the Constitution
| extends over that territory, since if it
SO extended the power could no longer
| exist.
| regulations"
Think of power broader, more absolute,
more comprehensive than that. You can
| not. Power to dispose Of to sell. to
abandon, to exchange, to set up independ-
se to nfb Keep ilS
States" power ito make all needful rules
and regulations respecting territory be-
longing to the United States.'' if we do
| keep such territory. Power more abso-
| lutte than that is unthinkable. And it is
| not power implied from other sections.
as are most of the powers now exercised
| by congress and the entire national gov
eminent 1t is a power eXpressed-not a
| power implied. 1t is a power declared in
words so clear SO absolute, SO unrestriet-
ed, and so unusual, that they have the
ring of duty and command.
Territory or other property" Terri
States
that Constitution And If property. we
have the rights of property which are
familiar to all. But the constitution even
emphasized those rights ana unnecessar-
lily. declared that congress might even
defy the enemies of the government to
explain away these all-embracing powers.
FREE HAND DOES NOT MEAN TAR
IFF in PORTO RICO.
And So senators. we assert our power;
but by the same word we announce our
Justice too We do not want justice given
Tor the base emergencies Of political des-
peration, faction wants it, but we
free hand We want it as the expression
of our institutions. We want it in its
own abstract right. We want it as a dis
as a measure of statecraft looking to our
future as the dominant power of earth;
Reciprocity matter of justice and
duty is the position of the government
first announced by that great constructive
statesman, the president of the United
States, and afterwards by formal bills in
both senate and house. When the neces-
urgent and instant, a bill to raise 1t by
the method which was thought to be least
oppressive to the people at the moment
was reported in the house. The support
ers of the government in the house stated
that the tax proposed in that bill was a
| temporary expedient, and that Tree trade
| was to follow it. But after that bill had
passed the house and had come to the
senate the president of the United States,
| through second message to congress rec
commended an expedient which would give
the island and its people the money need
| ed fOT ne without the X
enable to stand for the reciprocity OF
trade which he had announced from the
first as our high policy and our plain
duty. And so the statesmanlike recon-
mendation of the president re .I, the
sity of deferring reciprocity with our
little island even for a day. and permits
us to stand where unitedly We stood at
first. house, senate and president to-
gether, for reciprocity of commerce be-
tween us and our island possession, ana
at the same time relieve hunger and want
and woe This suggestion of the presi-
dent in his second message recommend
ing the appropriation made the other day,
has saved the situation, fed the starv-
ing islanders, kept us in the path of our
plain duty, and taken from an obstruct-
ing partisan opposition an issue which it
of binding the American people, and thus
stripping the republic of those possessions
which have cost the nation so much in
: money and in blood
FREE TRADE WITH PORTO RICO AN
INVALUABLE EXPERIMENT.
; Reciprocity with Porto Rico will help
{ that island: it can not hurt No, it
/ will help us more than it will help Porto
Rico. 1t affords US safe experiment
with our possessions at the very begin
! ming of our experience as an administer
ing power For a nation of 70OO0.oo0 of
people with an imperial continent for its
home and practised in all the arts of
industry. can not suffer in competition
l with a little island smaller than single
2 county of Texas, 1900 miles from our
? shores, and peopledb by less than one-seven-
tieth of our number of inhabitants. pow
erty stricken and PROSTATE, ignorant of
! the meaning of self-government: and be-
holding modern civilization as through a
= glass darkly. If the American republic
r lust embarked upon the grandest career
! of all times, fears competition with the
? | least of its possessions, let US strike our
: | colors as a sovereign power, tack from
I our course marked out by the high in
! sniration of great events, put back to the
t mort Of decay, 90 out of commission, and
. | let the mighty voyage on which we start
D ed be sailed by holder hearts, loft1er