The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1900-05-03

more than One-tenth of the space COM
monty taken up by statesmen DESTROYS
of disseminating their views through |
the medium of the government print
ing Office, the speech of Congressman
Grosvenor of Ohio on the Puerto Rican
question, delivered in the National
House of Representatives on the 28th
of February, 1900. is among the most |
important of all the speeches made on
this subject in either branch of Con- |
gress-more important than all the |
rest of the speeches put together, we |
had almost said. The strength of Mr.. |
Grosvenor's presentment of the real |
factors of the Puerto Rfcan problem |
lies in it's brevity, its directness, its |
simplicity of statement, and above all |
its truth, solid. vital truth.
Surely in vain the net is spread in
the sight of any Bird began Mr.. Gros-
venor, aptly taking from Holy Writ a
quotation that should put to shame a
considerable number of Republican
speakers and writers who have deliber-
ately walked into the net spread out
in plain sight before their open eyes
and have been awkward1y Topping
around in it now some two months.
1t was a net spread by the enemies of
American liberty and American labor:
a net spread by prototypes Of those
who in 1850 forced upon the country
the dangerous issue of intrenching hui
man slavery into the territories the
principle that the constitution of it's
own force carries slavery into any
all of the territories of the United
States a net spread by free traders
with the design of advancing their ia
vorfte dogma of cheapening Ameri
can labor and American manhood;
net spread to embarrass and defeat the
Republican party at the polls this
year.
It is strange indeed that in the
dc of md
speakers who enlarge upon the cruel
ty of the IS per cent tariff proposition
and who discourse SO e1oQuent1y upon
what they designate the right of the
people of all our new possessions to
instantly enter upon the enjoyment of
all the rights enjoyed by the people of
the states of the union. the real pur
pose of the net spread in their plain
sight had not been more apparent;
strange that they should not see, what
Mr.. Grosvenor so forcib1y points out,
that behind it all is simply the stalk
ing of the Democratic purpose, mani
tested at the very outset, to drive the
Republicans of this country into po-
sition where they could destroy them
at the polls"
The telling points which brfst1e in
the speech of Mr.. GrOsvenOr may thus
be briefly stated:
L. The question whether 1.-The con
stitution followed the flag into Puer-
to Rico, and if into Puerto Rico then
of necessity into the Philippines, fol
you cannot separate the two PROPOSE
tiOns.
2 If the Affirmative of these PROPOSE
tions be true, the cheap, degraded labor
of the Su1us, the Taga1s, the Fnipinos
and the horde of Asiatics which VIZ
took unto ourselves when we took thu
Philippine islands will come into com
petition with American labor in GU
fnr
prevent full aedged American eiti
zen from Offering his labor where h
will and at what price he will
8. That the entire volume of Puert
Rican sugar and tobacco now awaiting
transport to the American market ha
long since passed out of the hands o
the native producers and into tn
hands of trusts and spectators VIII
alone would profit by the removal Q
all tariffs these commodities
That is all there is of it, says Con
gresham Grosvenor. and in order t
bring that about the whole Democrat
party of the United States. and all thei
oagitatorS and cO-OperatorS hav
launched their boat in support of
principle that will bring to the 1abo
sections of the United States million
upon millions of half-dressed vags
bonds to cut down the price OF wages
Truly and well it is urged by Mr. Gro
venor that if the question had stoo
alone, and had not carried with 1t
much bigger, broader and more po
tentous question, nobody would haN
been seriously or permanently disgrul
tied if absolute free trade had bee
granted to Puerto Rico and the Peep
of that island would have been gran
ed without much opposition, the boo
of unrestricted commercial intercour
through legislative enactment by R
publican Congress: but not, mark 20
in pursuance of the false and DANCE
Gus doctrine that the constitution Il
lows the flag
1t was in the interest of Americ
labor that Mr.. Grosvenor made /
powerful speech OF February g.
one has yet answered that speech:
one has yet shown. and no one C
show, how the Republican party cou
have squared itself with the labor
terests OF the United States if it h
walked into the Bourbon free ira
net SO artfu1ly spread for the purpoS