Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-11
TRYING TO ALARM LABOR.


81, 1900:
"The attempt to alarm the laborers
OF this country by the false assertion
that the acquisition of these islands
will let in Chinese laborers is dema-
gogism. Our exclusion laws apply TO
Chinese from whatever country they
may come. The law that excludes
Chinese immigration to this country
can be made applicable to all our pos
sessions and the Chinese residents of
the Philippines may be treated in the
same manner as the Chinese residents
of the United States
"The suggestion that laborers from
the islands who are not Chinese may
migrate to this country and compete
with American labor has no founda-
ton to support it. Nature marks the
line which laboring migration must
follow. Witness our own country.
The Swedes and the Norwegians find
congenial homes along the Northern
Lakes and Canadian borders. Ger
mans follow along little farther
south. The Irish prefer the central
regions of the United States as cor
responding more nearly to the eli
lhaIC VI lilOli UdtlFS lCiuG. ITO lIul-
ians generally go farther south. and
on the Pacific coast to find climatic
conditions similar to balmy Italy.
Never in all the ages has the popula-
ton of the tropics crossed the isother-
NAL lines to inhabit and cultivate
the soil of the temperate zones, nor
have laborers from the north sue
ceeded in cultivating tropical lands,
Merchants, traders, bankers, and bust
ness men readily accommodate them
selves to the climate of the torrid,
temperate, or frigid zone. Business
and professional men from the north
enjoy southern climes. and the same
is true of business and professional
men of the south when they emf
CRATE to the north. But successful
labor follows but does not cross the
line separating the tropical from the
temperate zone.
The resources of the United States
in everything found in the temperate
zones are inexhaustible and practi-
cally untouched. Modern machinery
and the genius of American people
can always produce more of the pro-
ducts and manufactures of the tenn
perate zone than the people can use.
These islands under American control
and. enterprise will produce vastly
more tropical products than they can
consume. The interchange of the
products of the farm, the mine, and
the. factory for the sugar, coffee, to-
baeco, fruits, and other products of
these islands twill give employment TO
millions in the United States as we'll
as in the islands. The storm of criti-
cism and the rancorous vituperation
of disappointed ambition will soon
pass away, and when the American
people are in full enjoyment of the
new acquisitions, they well view them
as serenely and with as much salts
faction as they now contemplate the
teeming population and the wonderful
productions Of the countries acquired
during the administrations of Jeffer-
son, Monroe, and Polk, and posterity
will wonder why anybody could have
opposed the rich inheritance which
the war against Spanish cruelty
brought to the United States, as they
now wonder why it was that the ac-
QUESTIONS of territory which we have
heretofore made were opposed by
persons otherwise considered sane
and sensible.
"The establishment of self-govern.
ment and the Inauguration of industry
under the benign influence of the
principles of the Declaration of indie.
pendence in the gems of the sea-
which good fortune has placed with.
in the reach of the American people
are delayed and embarrassed by the
timidity of the friends of expansion
and progress. The suggestion that
there is some nebulous, open-door pol
icy in the far east which would pre-
vent the United States from extending
GUS customs laws over the Philip
pines is dream Of folly which will
not disturb the American people
The idea that the United States will
hold the Philippines and maintain
their ports free to all the world and
at the same time separate them from
our country by a tariff wall which
| would exclude them from our markets
and deprive us of the benefit of theil
trade cannot be seriously considered
"The contention that any of the
islands which we wrested from Span
ish rule would injure American indus
tries on account of their productions
is a pure invention. Some gentle
men seem to regard is as a matter OF
no consequence that the consumers
are compelled to- pay $250,O00,0O0 8
year for tropical products which these
islands will produce. and that the
farmers and manufacturers of this
country would be deprived, by the
loss of these acquisitions, of an an
nual market of from three hundred tc
five hundred million dollars"