The Penn's Grove record., 1900-10-26
REMEMBER PORTO RICO
gREpUBLlcANs WOULD WANToNLY
ENsL.vE THAT UNHAPPY ISLE.

will Those Who Perpetrate So Foul q Deed
Spare the American Workingman, he
American Farmers When They Have
Gained the Power They Aspire to Hold7
Let the American voters remember
our broken promises to Porto Rico
and by his ballot erase the stain from
the folds Of our national emblem.
President Schurman. Of the Philip
pine Commission, who, as "a gentle
man and a scholar" has ~endeayored
to throw the robe of rhetoric and the
ptous apology ove the crimes OF Presi-
dent Mckinley and his abettors in the
Philippines. could not stand the Porto
Rican tariff act. In a letter to a
friend, quoted in Senator Proctor's
speech, President Schurman said:
WI are bound to this curse by
solemn promises. The supreme and
irresistible reason for removing all
customs barriers between the United
States and Porto Rico is the promise
made by General Miles, when first
landing American forces on the ISL
and, that the Porto Ricans should
enjoy the same rights, privileges and
immunities as the people of the United
States. On this understanding the
Porto Ricans accepted American
sovereignty, not only without oppo-
sition, but with joyful trust and con-
fdeDce.
1.-THE present issue is simply this:
Shall we repudiate or shall we fulfill
the national engagements? Shall this
great republic break faith with the
little island of Porto Rico? Having
secured the fruits of General Miles's
promise, shall we now renounce the
promise?
1.-THE American people will not toll
crate any faltering with solemn obj
cations. Recognizing the national
good faith as the nations chiefest
good, they will condemn any violation
Of it as the blacklist crime. All e
the country this Porto Rican question
has stirred to the deepest the national
heart and conscience; legislation, in
spired by q breach Of good faith, will
bring a terrible nemesis.
1T is said that a tariff is needed be-
tween Porto Rico and the United
States to provide a case for the courts
to determine the extent Of our juris-
diction owe the new dependencies,
especially the Philippine. I answer
that no convenience, no expediency,
no other obligation, ever justified a
breach of the national good faith.
Let me add, too, that this Porto Rican
legislation is testing us before the
eyes of the Filipinos, who keep well
Informed Of all our doings. They will
judge by this legislation of the value
Of American promises. When the
Aguinaldo's emissaries to the Philip
pine Commission once expressed the
near that the American Government
hight not keep the promise it was
darlington SPAIN said he. made
promises and broke them'-I silenced
him with the reply: sSignor, the Uni
ted States is not SPAIN
rs he now to learn-are all the
Filipfnos now to learn-that in the
first legislation for our new depend
encies we prove faithless to u
pledges and recreant to our obliga-
lions? Such an exhibition of our
selves will strengthen the hands Of
Aguinaldo and the insurgents, be-
cause, unhappily, it "a be used to
support their persistent statement
that the Americans are no more trust
worthy than the Spaniards.
AT the very moment when we need
to inspire confidence in the minds Of
the conquered Filipinos, shall we COM
nit an act which will confirm their
distrust of us, quicken their suspic-
ions and breed new end perhaps in
eradicable antipathies? God forbid"