The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-28
WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY rs. 1900.
A PITIFUL SCENE.

No one can read the press reports of
the proceedings of the Republican con-
ference at Washington on the subject of
the proposed Puerto Rico tariff without
a sense of pity. Barely has so abject
spectacle been presented by a national
administration as that which has just
been witnessed. And If there be one fea-
ture of the strange occasion more worthy
nished by President Mckinley. The
shifty, evasive, insincere and indecisive
character of the man is there revealed.
How complete tool must such man
be in the hands of the unscrupulous
cabal who all but publicly avow their
ownership of him. Taking a stand at the
outset which won the public approval,
and, among many, evoked admiration.
his appearance before that conference is
that of political coward who feels that
he Is unworthy Of trust by his friends or
of serious hostility by his opponents.
The scene in question only reveals
protectionism in one OF its death spasms.
After having exhausted every device
known to INSCRIPTIONS politicians to
force the bill in its original form on the
country, and finding that public senti-
ment will have none of it, the admins
tration forces rush to cover under the
false pretense that the bill Is intended
for the benefit of those whom 1t can only
operate to rob and Cypress. The measure
had been forced on the administration
by the corrupt forces that are today or
ganizing themselves into trust conspira-
cies In every large commercial center in
the country 1t had been dictated by the
sugar and tobacco spectators who have
so long had the government as a silent
and contributing party to their robberies
of the consumers of the United States.
with such knowledge existing, 1t involves
the very essence of political turpftude to
claim for it that it is designed in the in
terest of those whom we have set out to
fleece.
The object lesson is well worthy the
study Of the American people. Coming
as 1t does on the heels Of the attempted
subsidy robbery. 1t shows the resources
of the federal government to be in the
hands of those who now control them as
mere spoils which are designed to be dis
tributed among individuals and corpora
lions.
The primary question at issue here
must be settled. It is whether we can,
under our constitutional system, pursue a
course similar in principle and practice
to that followed by the ministers of King
George toward the American colonies,
and in revolt against which these states
won their liberty. That is what it in
voIves-nothing less Or more. If we can
hold colonies only to rob and bayonet the
natives of them; If we can, as the presi-
dent says we can. deprive them of all
civil and political rights, deny them adj
mission to the Union and establish among
them naked militarism as substitute for
civil government. 1t is time that we
should openly proclaim the empire which
so many of our people believe is immi-
nent. No empire, from the frozen reaches
Of Siberia to the tropical regions of Bra
I'll. has ever existed which felt itself at
liberty to go to further extremes than our
national authorities have avowed them
selves ready to go in their treatment Of
the people of the unhappy lands that have