The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-03-30

people who look at this question from a
standpoint of interest, who are not su-
gar men, nor tobacco men nor men who
have any commercial or class interests,
which it is claimed must be placated by
our action, are the best judges of what
is fair and right and honest, and that
their judgment in the end must and will
prevail. If we are not bound by the
letter of the constitution, we are bound
by justice and humanity to deal with
these questions in the spirit of Ameri-
can institutions and American civiliza-
ton.
The people. Mr.. President, look upon
this as a matter of principle, question
of good faith and common honesty;
and their moral sense has been shocked
and the national heart and conscience
stirred by the fear that this measure of
taxation viii be adopted by congress
The people believe, as the president
did when he wrote in his annual mes
sage that Our plain duty is to abolish
the customs tariff between the United
States and Porto Rico The people
know that sentence by heart and they
will repeat it millions of times within
The year from its deliverance unless we
perform what the president says is Our
plain duty The people believe that this
is a question, not of mere policy, but OF
principle
Mr.. Proctor had read by the clerk the
proclamation Of General Miles to the peo-
pie of Porto Rico in which it was prom
iSed to bestOw upon them the immunitieS
and blessings of the liberal institutions
of our government" and the recent let
ter of President Schurman of the late
Philippine commission, in which he holds
that the obligation to give the Porto Ri
cans free trade is moral. not conStitu-
tiOnal; and that the American people will
not tolerate any faltering with solemn
obligation
Continuing, Mr. Proctor said: 1--WE levy
this tribute upon a people who are in
the direst poverty and distress, resulting
in a large part from our very action in
taking possession of their island and de
stroying the existing markets for their
products and opening no other; and to
this is added. by the hand of the Al
mighty, the terrible destruction of the
tornado, so that they are now in the eX-
treme of poverty and destitution border
ing on starvation. If this bill becomes
a law, it will stand greatly in the way
of the development of that little island
1t leaves the future in uncertainty, for
if we levy tax of Is per cent. the next
congress may levy tax of so per cent
If we adopt free trade, it will be accepted
by everybody as a definite policy towards
Porto Rico. Business interests Will know
what to depend upon, and capital and en-
terprise will go there, and soon change
the deplorable conditions now existing.
Uncertainty will paralyze industry.
The constitution may or may not follow
the flag, but the good faith of the Amer
lean people must stand unquestloned
wherever the Stars and Stripes are seen
There is no way to successfully govern
or deal with people who are in our power
or are inferior to us in advantages and
opportunities, except to be strictly just.
to keep perfect good faith with them.
The plea of harmony in the party ap-
peais to me strongly. But this is a ques-
tfon higher than party or policy; it IS a
question of principle, and it is better that
even a small minority of the party should
be right than that we should all be
lit is of vital consequence. Mr.. Presi-
dent that this, our first important step
in legislation for our new possessions
should be such as to commend 1tSelf to
the judgment and conscience of the Am
erican people,
PETTUS RIDICULES BEVERIDGE.
At the conclusion of Mr.. Proetor's
speech Mr.. Pettus (Ala.) addressed the
senate on some of the constitutional
phases presented by the Porto Rico bill
I viii attempt to show" said Mr.
Pettus. how majority of this senate
has quit the public road-the road
pointed out by the law of the land, and
viii show how the result of it will be.
In discussing this question, we will
go back TO the very foundations. The
great error of those in the ajOrity here
is that they are in violation of all our
notions of justice and common sense.
They take their departure in the sense
that the United States is a sovereign
in the sense that some European ma
tions are sovereigns. 1t is not SO, and
can never be-
We are governed in our relations
with these territories by the law of ma
tons so far as they are applicable
When we took these islands we took
them with the limitations of exercising
only such power over them as was pos
sible in the conditions of the United
states"
He referred to the ignorance of law
manifested by Mr. Gallinger On. H.)
yesterday in quoting certain judicial
decisions and then adverted to the
wonderful defamation we had yester-
day from the orator of the senate .
(Mr. Beveridge).
when you get a genuine orator he is
absolutely absolved." said he, from all
rules of logic and common sense"
Mr. Pettus said the senate or the
president pro tenn or the senator from
Iowa (Allison) would have to take some
action as to that orator. You'll have to
have a caucus on him." Gaughter).
He then said that when the Master Sc
lected a leader for the Israelites he did
not choose an orator. He even chose
a suffering man. His name was Moses,
but he was not an orator.