Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1900-05-12
HENRY C. PAYNE TALKS
ABOUT PORTO RICO
Wisconsin National Committeeman
on Needed Legislation for Our
InsuIar Possessions.
MUST HAVE A COLONIAL POLICY
Cannot BE Made an Integral Par
ofthe United States--People
viii Sustain the AL
ministration.

Hon. Henry &. Payne, of Milwau-
kcc, the Wisconsin member of the re-
! publican national committee, has been
i'm Los Angeles, where he was inter
| viewed by the Lon Angeles Times, OF
which General Harrison Gray Otis Is
president and general manager.
Speaking of the Porto Kican question,
Mr.. Payne said:
ut is n momcntous question, but
the great body OF the people has con-
fidencc, ! find, in the ability and good
faith in the administration, and Is
resting confident in the belief that
| the president and the republican ma
iority in congress will do what is
right by Porto Rico.
"Prcsident McKinley's declaration
I'm his message that ii was our plain
duty 10 have free and unlimited trade
with Porto Rico was an attractive
program. and met with a sympathetic
response. But it is the presidents
duty to change his mind, just as it is
any other mans, when he sees, after q
careful study of the question, that
another policy is demanded by Wis
dom and justice. !,
"The fact is that the president and
nearly all his advisers in Washington,
a great majority of the republican
senators and representatives, arrived
at the conclusion that the first legis-
lation with regard to u insular
possessions, if we may call them such,
should be in the line of setting forth
q principle, and that principle should
be that these new possessions shall
not hold the same relation to the
country as do the territories that
have become Incorporated and are in
cipient states.
81 think the more thoughtful people
of our country are opposed to any
plan to bring these islands in as inte-
grail parts of the nation. Call it what
YOU please, we must come down to a
colonial policy of some form. There is
great anxiety on the part of the adj
ministratiOn to get started right on
this matter. Certain newspapers de-
clare that the presidents change OF
front was due TO the pressure of the
tobacco and sugar interests. This
charge seems TO me ridiculous in view
of the fact that these interests want
absolute free trade with Porto Rico.
~ was born and brought up in Mas
sachusetts, and | always believed in
Daniel Webstcr's Interpretation of the
constitution, instead Of that of Mr..
Calhoun. Some republican newspa-
pers seem inclined TO line up with Mr..
Calhoun and the bred Scott decision,
in considering this Porto Rican mat
ter, shouting that the constitution
follows the hag;' but | believe the
country can more safely follow the
.,,,I;.., ,c NInIn, in.nlr, md
Daniel Webster.
"UnderneatA the trifing tariff
changes proposed there lies this old
constitutional question, which is of
tremendous and lasting consequence.
You remember that John G. Calhoun
and the champions of slavery main
tanned that the constitution went
with the flag into all territory ac-
quircd by the United States, and
therefore the stakeholder had the
right to carry his slaves and keep
them i'm any territory. This view was
maintained by the infamous bred
Scot decision of the United States SUI
premc court, to the effect that the
United States can acquire territory
only for the purpose of forming
states, and all acquisitions must be
treated MS integral parts of the union.
Webster and Lincoln took the oppo-
site view that new territory, acquired
in one way or another, is not an inte-
grail part of the union until it has
been duly Incorporated and until then
the government has constitutional
power to regulate it's affairs. Here is
the real issue involved in all this
Porto Rican discussion, and firmly
believe the thinking people of this
country, after careful consideration,
will prefer to follow Lincoln and
Webster, whom history has vindi-
Gated, rather than Douglas and Cal
houn.
This little furry about Porto Rico
will soon be over. II will not affect
the result of the presidential election.
The administration stands well with
the people. 1t has fulfilled its pledges
to them, and more, too. On the money
question it has done better than it
promised. 1t has builded better than
the republican platform. 1t has re-
stored confidence and has revived bus
mess to the extent that we have more
prosperity I'VE than we had in 1892,
which was high tide. | cannot doubt
that such an administration will be
sustained"