Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-29

counSefS OF our Teuton fathers In the Ter
man forests in the dim light of far dis
tant time
I'm n century the republic will number
more than 2o0OO0,Oco souls and problems
undreamed of by the fathers will arise
They will not be solved by the Constitution
II IT is but instrument of words; they
will be solved If the Constitution is the ex-
preston Of our institutions"
FavOrtng free trade with Porto Rlco, ne
said:
The 0pposition Not Sincere.
''Mr. President, the partisan opposition to
the government pretends to want free trade
with Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philip
pines. 1t is this faction, this squadron of
obstructing partisanship that has been
from the first opposing the government
There is no sincerity in their attitude; for
they advocate free trade with our new pos
sessions, they say, because they are our
possessions and In the same sentence ad-
vocate the abandonment of the possessions
Reconsideration is an antagonlSm in
premises and non-seQuitur in conclusion.
This partisan opposition to the government
ask ask free trade with Porto Rico and the
except as they believe in free trade with
all the world but to brighten the timid with
falsehoods about competition with pauper
labor and so to prevent the nation from
keeping these priceless possessions. That Is
the motive of the partisan opposition to the
government in urging free trade with Porto
Rico. 1t Is an issue they shall not have.
Reciprocity as matter of justice and duty
is the position of the government. first an
nounced by that great constructive states
man, the President Of the United States,
and afterward by formal bills in both Sem
ate and House. When the necessity for
money for Porto Rico became 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 supporters of the gov
eminent in the House stated that the tax
proposed in that bill was temporary ex-
pedient, and that free trade was to follow
1t. But after that bill had passed the
House and had come to the Senate the
President of the United States, through a
second message to Congress. recommended
an expedent which would give the island
and its people the money needed for the
present without the tax, and enable us 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
ident relieves the Senate and the House
alike from the necessity of deferring reci-
procity with our little island even for day,
and permits us to stand where untediy We
stood at first, House, Senate and President
together, for reciprocity of commerce be-
tween us and our island possession. and at
woe. 1nis suggestion Of the President in
his second message recommending the ap-
preparation made the other day, has saved
the situation, fed the starving islanders
kept US In the path of our plain duty, and
taken from an obstructing partisan opposi-
ton an Issue which 1t had attempted to
steal for the purpose of binding the Ameri-
can people, and thus stripping the republic
Of those possessions which have cost the
nation so much in money and in blood.
Porto Rico No Precedent.
Reciprocal trade with Porto Rico is no
precedent for the same thing with the Phil
ippines. None of our measures with Porto
Rico are necessary methods for our ad
ministration of government in the Pacific
archipelago, any more than our Hawaiian
f,rn hos 10 frr D,rt1
legislation. The free hand given Congress
by the Constitution means appropriate
measures for Porto Rico, determined by the
conditions of that island and its relations to
us and to the world; appropriate measures
for the Philippines determined by the same
considerations of wisdom; appropriate leg
islation for Hawaii determined by like
standards of common sense; appropriate
action as to Cuba and to such other por-
tons of the earth as may become ours or
fall under protection as the circum-
stances, conditions and all the elements of
sound judgment may dictate in each par
ticu}ar case. The principle of the free hand
of the liberty of our common sense. of the
discretion of our best thought. means that
In Porto Rico We may adopt free trade, if
that is best; in the Philippines tariff. if
that Is best; in Hawaii territorial form of
government, If that is best as the situation
Of each possession and the welfare of its
people and of the people of the United
States may suggest. And there is no bust
ness In the woridsthat would not run into
bankruptcy on any other plan. To declare
for uniform policy of government or tax
alton, to ignore differences of peoples, of
distance and of location with reference to
other markets, of resources in compar son
with our own, and Of all the long catalogue
of facts out of which sane conclusions can
come, is to write failure on the swelling
sails of the largest, noblest, most hopeful
movement ever launched by any people
upon the seas of world endeavor
Reciprocity with Porto Rico would helm
that island and it could not injure the
American people. Free trade with Porto
Rico would have good effect the en-
tire Latin America.
The Dream of Statesmen.
at has been the dream of American
statesmen for three-quarters of a century
to make the great republic the friend and