Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1900-03-17
PRESIDENT M'KINLEY IN
ACCORD WITH CONGRESS
Cabinent Member Issues a State
ment in Regard to Puerto
Rican Policy
DISAGREEMENT RUM0RS DENIED
General Mfsconception OF the Situa.
tlon--Democrats Have Confused
and Misled the Public, the
Statement Declares.

following executive statement:
There has been IA wide misapprc-
hension of the Puer 20 .Rican tariff bill,
of the attitude of the president, of the
action of congress and of their rela-
tions TO each other. fine criticism and
the concern which have come from
some well meaning quarters are due
almost entirely to n misunderstanding
of the real facts.
THE attempt TO represent that
there has been a disagreement be-
tween the president and congress is
WHOLLY unfounded. There has been no
essential difference between them.
The recommendation of the president
and the house bill in their purpose
and effect amount to the same thing.
The clouds of confusion on the sub
ject have been clouds of misunder-
standing and will clear away. \ sim
pie statement Of the facts will make
this plain.
The president, in his annual mes
sage of December 1, urged that the
customs duties on trade between
Puerto Rico and the United States be
removed. Imports from Puerto Rico
into the United States have been and
are now paying the Dingley rates.
They ave no preference owe goods
from any foreign country. The presi-
dent felt that Puerto Rico should be
hat ii should be removed not as n
and humane public policy.
"His argument indicated the right
and suggested his view rs to the ques-
49,, - A,,a4.4...-- .1I.,,f,Ar,
Puerto Rico, severed from Spain, had
lost her old markets and had gained
none in their place. She had been de-
vastated by hurricane and left desti-
tute. Humanity dictated every effort
to lift her up and 10 give her a new
market, What the president proposed
was that the United States should
offer the largest and most generous
measure of help to the distressed and
suffering island. He has never wavered
n single instant in the object he
sought. Had his suggestion been ac-
repted and followed by all in his spir-
IL and as he meant it, with the limita-
tons he intended, all would have been
well here. But when the time came
for action in congress two tendencies
were seen. On the one hand there
were good men and some business and
agricultural interests, while those OBJ
iecting TO free trade with Puerto Rico
alone feared that free trade with
Puerto Rico would be made a prece-
dent for free trade with the Philip
pines. They felt that there should be
a distinct assertion and exercise of
the power to impose duties, however
small, as an assurance hat this power
was reserved for other cases.
"On the other hand, what the presi-
dent proposed as a worthy act of ma
tional generosity and liberal policy
was seized by political opponents and
claimed as a necessary and inevitable
measure of inherent constitutional
right. They insisted that the consti-
tuition by its own force extends TO
Puerto Rico and all the new island
possessions and spreads all its provi-
sions over them, including uniform
taxation. They were eager to commit
a republican congress TO the adoption
of free trade with Puerto Rico, not as
n measure of generous ~eXpediency, but
because they could then claim that it
had riveted a hard and fast principle
which would tie the hands Of the gov
eminent everywhere, in the Philip
pines as well as in Puerto Rico, with
out regard to varying conditions, and
which would expose the administra-
ton and its party to all the criticisms
and attacks that would be made on
such a position.
ut was a cunning game, but it did
not succeed. The approximations were
both met and frustrated by the bill
which passed the house and which
levies Is per cent or less than one
sixth of the Dingley rates. That low
rate involves no possible hardships.
1t has the advantage of producing
needed revenue which, until civil gov
eminent and law are fully obtained in
Puerto Rico, cannot be raised as well
from any other source.
There was another point which was
not generally understood. The bill
provides that the whole amount of du-
ties on goods coming from Puerto Rico
shall be paid back TO Puerto Rico for
the benefit of the island. This fully
harmonizes with the object at which
the president aimed of relieving the
trade Of Puerto Rico from burden
some restrictions and of extending the
ldl SCSt bNSiNC " NIP, dhu "ISI II
was crowned by the presidents special
message, promptly carried out by the
house, providing not only that the
duties hereafter collected, but those
heretofore collected TO the amour of
81, 100000 should be appropriated to be
expended wholly in Puerto Rico for
her development and improvement, alb
solutely no ground was left for any
p%retense that the policy Of the presi-
dent and congress was in the slightest
degree harsh and oppressive.
Nobody can Understandings object
to the Is per cent already paid back to
Puerto Rico on the ground that it is
unfair and hard toward Puerto Rico.
We can Understandings object only
on the claim that there is no power TO
levy any duty at all, and such a claim
would leave the president and o
gress powerless and helpless in the
Philippines as well as in Puerto Rico.
Between a Is per cent duty, as pro-
yided by the congressional bill, every
cent of which is to be returned to
Puerto Rico, that island also getting
all collected at the other end, and the
removal of customs duties as suggest
ed by the president for humanity's
sake, there is absolutely no difference
whatever in practical results. In both
everything is for humanity. Congress