The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-04-03

| treaty of Paris provides that the political
| and civil rights of the people in the ceded
! islands shall be determined by Congress;
| but by Congress, as Congress is con-
trolled by the Constitution, which Gre
! ated Congress- and not by Congress act
| ing with the absolutism Of an English
| Parliament. Congress can do nothing
| not authorized by the Constitution. In
no section, either by grant or implication,
| is there any authority for two classes OF
! people-citizens Of the States and sub
| jects of the Congress
| "The experience of the Republican
! party in the art of reconstruction be-
tween 1865 and 1S70-between the acqui-
| sition of Alaska and the Philippines,
| taught lessons which were not forgotten
when the treaty of Paris secured the
| islands from Spain. The exploitation of
the Southern States by carpet bag gov
| ernments was an experience for which
the acquisition of Porto Rico and the
Philippines offered opportunities which
were provided for in the treaty itself.
tariff for Porto Rico, that subject of
Congress-which protects certain inter-
ests CT the United States and denies to all
other people in the States the benefit of
ompetition--creates q virtual trust on
cigars, cigarettes and tobacco, and helps
the actual trust in sugar. for the bene-
fit of manufacturers at the cost of the
consumers in the States and producers in
Porto Rico. While three hundred thou
sand tons of sugar in Hawaii, the property
of the trust king of the United States en-
ters free of all duty, the sixty thousand
tons Of sugar, produced by the impovcr-
ished planters of Porto Rico are taxed
Ea yyb fu of
Paris was manipulated so as to give to
Congress, the power which has been thus
abused.
"The omnipotence CT Congress ever The
civil rights and political status Of ten mill
lions of people is grated on a treaty and
the treaty is now alleged to supersede
even the Constitution. and to have be.
come the supreme law OF the land.
Against a claim so monstrous and shock
ing to every sense Of constitutional law
the people of the States in the Union VII
enter their solemn and efficient protest
| They will never assent to the new Repub-
.ican dogma that the Executive through
his diplomatic agents, can negotiate
treaty which shall be paramount to the
Constitution. and that the State Depart
uent, through and by means of the hoCus
pocus of diplomacy, can convert this re-
public of republics into an imperialism
more despotic than the absoutism of
Parliament" He maintained that the
Democratic party was the original party
Of expansion along lines which adGed
strength to national resources
Adverting to the proposed tariff or Por-
to Rican products, Mr.. Bate declared ttat
the original bill provided for free trade
and Shiny tentacles of the octopus soon
reached into the committee room and all
was lost
The debate on this Dill has unveiled
the fact that the treaty of Paris has
given the same trade privileges that the
United States may use-free trade if
there is free trade between the island
and the States; while the favored ma
tion clause in our treaties with foreign
nations stands ready to open wide the
Philippine door into the United States.
In that dilemma this bungling treaty.
mean nc disrespect to it's trainers, has
placed the Republican party. 1t was that
discovery which fastened the sugar and
tobacco interests as advanced couriers to
the committee room which the ultimatum
of no more money for political campaign
unless a barbed wire fence of duties was
placed around the industries, which here
tofore have placed SO much money whore
it would do the most good.
A bill authorizing the holding of a re g.
ular term of the United States District
Court of the Western District of Vir-
gina at Charlottesville was passed.
Mr. Perkins, fer the Porto Rican Bill,
and Mr.. Simons, against 1t, also spoke.
The latter said the pending measure
might, if any bill could. transfer Oregon
from the Republican to the doubtful list.
The imposition of the tariff he said, in
the face of the agreement with the people,
was q serious party blunder.
At 625 .. M. the Senate adjourned.