Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-04-20
SETTLEMENT OF PUERTO RICAN
QUESTION.

~ ANSA ~ "a
SETTLEMENT OF PUERTO RICAN
QUESTION.
The Chicago Tribune, speaking of
the settlement of the vexed Puerto
Rican question, says of the bill that
has been passed:
That measure which commends it.
self to the mature, deliberate judg-
ment of men like Governor Shaw of
Iowa and Senators Allison, Spooner
and Lodge, and which, as is believed,
represents in it's present amended
shape the views of the president, ar
rived at after conference with those
best acquainted with insular affairs,
can contain nothing to which any
member of the republican party can
take exception. The better they be-
come acquainted with it the better will
they like it. Justice and %expediency
alike recommend it. The republican
party in congress has acted wisely
and the people will sanction what it
has done.
The action resolved on by congress
invades none of the rights of the
Puerto Ricans. 1t deals with them
with a generosity which goes far be-
yond the bounds of justice. Never
before has the general government un-
dertaken to do so much for an equal
or even a smaller number of people.
The military government, which no
Puerto Rican found fault with except
because it is a military government, is
to be replaced by a civil government,
in which the qualified voters of the
island will participate. They will
elect the members of the lower house
of the local legislature. While that
government is being organized, and
until the time Ome when it has
worked out a revenue system to meet
it's needs, revenue will be required for
governmental purposes. That tenn
porary revenue will be supplied by this
bill, which a few ill-informed repub-
licans and many democrats, influenced
by party considerations, have been at
lacking so vehement]y.
If the low duties levied on Puerto
Rican products in American ports and
the duties collected in Puerto Rican
ports do not produce enough revenue
congress will make good the def
cheney. The people of the island will
not be asked to do so. They will not
have to pay American internal revenue
taxes. They Will not have to pay
duties on foodstuffs and many other
necessary arllcles sent to them from
the United States. The landowners
will not have to pay direct taxes. No
people on this continent will be so
lightly taxed as the Puerto Ricans.
When the civil government has elab-
Grated it's plan for raising a revenue,
and is ready to put it in operation, it
will so notify the president, who will
%thereupon order by proclamation the
introduction of immediate and entire
free trade between Puerto Rico and
the United States. 1t he is so notified
late this year or early next year, free
trade will begin then. Whatever the
civil government may do, that free
trade will come in March, 1901.
The passage of this bill ends that
uncertainty which has done more to
harm Puerto Rico than anything else
could have done. The minute it is
known that the sugar and tobacco of
the island are to pay only Is per cent
of the Dingley law duties all those
products in store will be shipped to
the United States at once. Industry
duu COluIlcICc Will revive Ill the
island. The thoughts of the people
will be turned towards that new civil
government in which they are to take
part.
The Puerto Rican incident is closed.
Hard up as the democrats are for is
sues, they cannot make an issue out of
it. For what has been done has been
we'll done. The best possible pro-
vision has been made for bridging
over the period between now and the
time when the future civil government
is in full working order.