Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1900-04-05
WANTS A FREE HAND.
BEvERiDGE ON AMERICAS COL.
ONlAL PROBLEM.
Indiana Senator Says No Precedent
Will Serve for Government of New
POssessions-He Advocates Recipro-

/ s5st
Senator Beveridge of Indiana Thursday
| delivered in the Senate his long expected
| speech on the United States new pos
| sessions and the policy that should be
| adopted in governing them. He began
his speech as soon as the Senate con-
yened. The keynotes of his utterance
| were free trade and reciprocity for Porto
| Rico. He favored separating the civil
| government and tariff features of the
| Porto Rican bill so that the former might
| become law at once, whether free trade
| is carried or not. Mr.. Beveridge said in
| part:
'.To treat Porto Rico as we treat Ha-
! wall and to deal with the latter as we
| deal with the Philippines, and to apply
| to all without delay the same fixed for
mula Of laws which custom and intention
| of statehood has prescribed for our ter
| ritories from which our States are form
| ed, is proposition as mad as it is novel.
More than any people of history
| events are placing us where we may COM
| mand and compel the peace of the world.
| Porto Rico, Cuba, the canal, Hawaii, the
| Philippines, make us literally. the SOW
| ereign power among the nations. l say
make us the master people of the world,
| for / never will believe that we will sur
| render our possessions to others because
we cannot invent sane and appropriate
methods for their government and con-
| troll. / will never believe that our con-
stitution manacles our hands and narrows
our vision and numbs our brain. | will
never admit that our constitution is such
| charter of death.
Issue Involves Keeping Islands.
''The first issue under debate involves
the keeping of our new possessions. For
one I rejoice that we have them. For
one I believe that we have them by the
DEGREES of Providence, which, in all
our history, has outrun the weak and
hating wisdom of presidents and COM
crosses. For one / accept the privileges,
duties and the burdens of our situation,
in the spirit expressed to me- by QUE
great admiral, as we stood on the Olym~
pia's heroic decks and looked across the
beautiful city to the blue mountains Of
LAzon, when he said to me: A higher
power than mine was in this business; d.
higher will and wisdom than ours un-
furled that flag over this ocean empire.
ours now and ours forever If we. sur
render them to more discerning and pow
erful peoples succeeding generations will
curse the folly and the crime that not
only yielded Quar- high advantage, but plac-
ed the republic at the mercy of it's posSi-,
BILE future foes
After dealing with the constitutions nj
question involved at considerable length.
Mr.. Beveridge came to the question of re-
eiprocity and free trade. He said IFS.
nart:
Reciprocity with, Porto Rico will help
that island; it cannot hurt us. No, it will
help us more than. it will help Porto Rico.
It affords us safe experiment with our
possessions at the very beginning of our
experience as an administering power.
For nation of 70, 600, 900 people with an
imperial continent for it's home, and prac-
ticed in all. the arts, of industry, cannot
suffer in competition with. % little island
smaller than. a single county of Texas,
100. miles from our Shores and peopled
by less than. -seventiethl Of our number
of inhabitants;- poverty stricken and pros
trate, ignorant of, the meaning Of self
government, and. behelding modern civil
ization as through a glass darkly. Ii the
American. republic. just embarked upon
the grandest world caEeer of all time,
fears competition with the Least Of It's
possessions, let us, strike QUE ce4ors as
sovereign powen,. tack from OUR course
marked, out by the high, Inspiration OF
great events, put back to the port OF de-
cay, goa out of commission, and let the
mighty voyage on which We started be
sailed by. bolder hearts, loftier faiths and
eyes of clearer vision.
Measure of Economic Wisdom.
Reciprocity with. Porto Rico is not
only matter Of duty: it is measure of
economic wisdom 1t is the reciprocity
for which the gEsaf statesmen of the re-
public have planned and toiLed. And it is
reciprocity not with foreign country,
but with our OWN. possession 1t is re-
ciprocity of nature; Porto Rican products
supply what we need and cannot so well
produce When our marke IS are open to
Porto Rican products industry will, and
must OF necessity, be stimulated as by
the wine of life itself all through our ISL
and, the people. will prosper, money will
pour into their withefed hands and Porto
Rico. now deselate, will be placed in the
position Of prosperity justified by its re-
sources, it's location and its possibilities.
And with her prosperity she will In turn
endow us. Her markets will exclusively
be ours.
ssBut to close our markets to our own.
possession or to- make those markets dear
| and difficult is to take from our masses
the necessities produced on our own ter
ritory, and to make the markets OF our
own dependency dear and difficult to our
| producers is to deny TO ourselves the OPP
| portunity to sell our own products to our
own possession. 1t is situation Whch
| even the necessity for instant financial
relief could not render endurable- to the
Government of the United States and SO
the President of the republic, true to his
| fatherly solicitude for Porto Rico, true
to his constructive craftsmanship, has.
| through the legal and constitutional
method of an executive message to the
! Senate and the House, recommended the
/ relief to the island by the appropriation
/ of more than $2.O00,000, which, in turn.
| relieves the Congress of the United
States from committing an offense