The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-30

| vote Tor tdr1n. FOR the power 10 act
freely with our possessions is the best con-
ditiOn on which can successfully keep
them, and to surrender them is treason
| to our future. But the imposition of
tariff IL not involved in the constitutional
| principle of free hand The very reverse
/ Is true. This is proved by the statement
| of the principle itself. and it cannot be
stated TOO often, for it's statement is its
| best support The free hand under the
] Constitution means that we can adopt reci-
| procfty with Porto Rico If that is wisest
| and best for Porto Rico and for Us; terri
| torial form OF government in Hawaii II that
| is wisest and best for Hawaii and for us;
| a tariff relation with possessions in the
| far East If that is wisest and best, and do
anywhere and at all times what is wisest
and best for our possessions and for u.s.
1t does not mean uniform tariff or uni
| form free trade, but exactly the reverse
And so the highest exercise of the consti-
tutional free hand is the adoption of reci-
| procity with Porto Rico, because that is
wisest and best for her and for US.
Gentlemen of a partisan opposition, you
| shall not make this false issue. You shall
1 not be permitted to say that reciprocity
with Porto Rico means that Calhoun's doc
| trine is again alive and extends over the
territory which that Constitution itself
declares is not part of the United States,
| but is territory belonging To the United
states. And you shall not make the plea
| or craft and the appeal of guile that IL we
| hare free trade with our possessions we
| will come into competition with their
| labor, and that, therefore, we should get
| stitution extends over them, they are a
part of the United States, and must
| have free trade with them, without that
base fallacy being exposed to the people
| For If, as you declare, the Constitution
| does extend over these possessions, If they
| are a part of the United States, then you,
| II you were in power could not get rid of
them; for no power earth, in the
heavens can cast adrift or ALLEVIATE in any
way a single foot of soil that has once
become part of the United States. So that
II your position Is correct your
| would not relieve Americans from
competition with Filipino labor, which you
| say free trade would create, but, on the
contrary, would forever fasten that conf
petition on them For your success means
| that the Constitution extends over these
| islands, that they thereby are a part Of
| the United States. with free trade and
all privileges of States; and if that is So
| it is a condition you could never change.
since You could not ALLEVIATE foot of the
| soil of the United States. But if the gov
| eminent prevails among the people i'm the
| coming election. it means that we can do
as we please with these possessions. even
| to alternating them. if the interests of the
Republic demand it, If we are right we can
protect ourselves from Filipino labor If
necessary, If the opponents of the govern
ment are right, free trade is there now
and there irrevocably and forever
AN INVALUABLE EXPERIMENT.
| Reciprocity with Porto Rico will help that
| us more than it will help Porto Rico. 1t
| affords us a safe experiment with our pos
| sessions at the very beginning of our ex-
perience as an administering power. For
| nation of 70.O0O,O0O of people, with an i'm
| perial continent for its home and practiced
| in all the arts of industry, cannot suffer in
| competition with a little island smaller
| than a single county of Texas, 100 miles
| from our shores and peopled by less than
! one-seventieth of our number of nhab-
itants, poverty-stricken and PROSTATE, ig
norant of the meaning of self-government
and beholding modern civilization as
/ through a glass, darkly. If the American
| Republic, just embarked upon the grandest
| world career of all time. fears competition
with the least of its possessions, let
| strike our colors sovereign power,
tack from our course marked out by the
| high inspiration of great events, put back
| TO the port of decay. go out of commits
| sion, and let the mighty voyage on which
we started be sailed by holder hearts,
| loftier faiths and eyes of clearer vision.
| Reciprocity with Porto Rico is not only
| a matter of duty; it is measure of eco
nomic wisdom. 1t is the reciprocity for
| which the great statesmen of the Republic
| have planned and toiled. And ii is reci-
procity not with a foreign country, but
with possession. 1t is reciprOc-
| ity of nature; Porto Rican products sup
| ply what we need and cannot so well pro-
duce; we supply what Porto Rico needs
| and cannot well produce 1t is reel
| procity decreed by natural laws to which
| our acts must in the end conform. 1t is
reciprocity mot made by hands, eternal
| In the heavens" Ii is reciprocity of
predestination-a relation established in
! the nature of things, and as inevitable as
was our conflict with our race antagonist
| in the recent war When our markets
| are open 10 Porto Rican products indus
/ try will, and must, of necessity. be stimuli
| lated by the wine of life itself all through
4 nrrN tell thn 40 xrfn
will pour into their withered hands, and
| Porto Rico, now desolate, will be placed in
| the position of prosperity justified by its
| resources, it's location and its possibilities.
| And with her prosperity she will in turn
endow Her markets will exclusively
| be ours; for our tariff against Europe and
| the world will be her tariff against Europe
| and the world, and our clothing and
| flour and corn and implements, and all
| the products of our farms and mills and
| looms will have exclusive markets there
| And the more prosperous We make her by
| offering our markets TO Porto Rico, the
more she can buy of US, and will. In
creaSing prosperity means increasing de-
sires; increasing prosperity means more
money to satisfy those desires. And So
| this act of simple justice creates a new
and exclusive market for what we raise
and make. and supplies the money to make
that market valuable-supplies the money
| by buying from own island necessities
now purchased from foreign lands. But
| TO close our markets to our own possession
cult. is to take from our masses the neces-
stiles produced our own territory; and
to make the markets of our own dependen-
cy dear and difficult to our producers is
| to deny to ourselves the opportunity to sell
| our own products TO our own possession.
| IL Is situation which even the necessity
| for instant financial relief could not render
endurable to the government of the United
States; and so the President of the Repub-
| lie true to his fathers solcitude for Por-
| to Rico, true to his constructive states
manship, has, through the legal and con-
stitutional method of an executive mes
| sage to the Senate and the House, recon-
mended the relief to the island by the ap-
preparation of more than 81, 100000, which,
| in turn. relieves the Congress of the
United States from committing an offense
against craftsmanship to which it was
driven by the absolute necessity for funds
for the island. And that recommendation
we have adopted.
HARMLESS BUT CONCLUSIVE.
And the reciprocity recommended by the
President in his first message gives us an
experiment in colonial administration, right
at the outset, that is absolutely invaluable
and that will not occur again; an expert
ment that cannot injure us, and vet re-
veals all the results of reciprocal exchange
OF products between us and our own pos
sessions as completely as if that course
had been pursued as TO all, just as a drop
of some new compound in the chemists