New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-03-29

dependencies, a iaurefled hero of two wars, has
officially reported to the Government in favor of
steps for the admission Of Cuba State On
every hand rise cries that in any event they
cannot and must not be dependencies. Some OF
these apparently for mere partisan effect,
but others are the obvious promptings OF a sin
cere and high minded however mistaken, i'm
pulse.
shall venture, them to consider IL real
and not abstract question-"acadenic." I
think it is the fad Of these later days 70 say
and propose again land again unblushingly.)
TO consider it from what has been called low
and sordid point OF view;-so low In fact. so
unworthy the respect OF latter day altrustic
philosophers. that 1t merely concerns the inter-
ests Of my country
For I take II that II there is one subject
which this Union has a right to consult its own
interests and inclnations, IL is the question
Of admitting States, of putting territory
in position where II can ever claim or expect
admission; just the subject which
nobody disputes the right of a mercantile firm
TO follow its OWE inclinations is that Of TAX
ing in unfortunate business as
partner; or the right of an individual to follow
his own inclinations about marrying some needy
spinster he may have felt ii duty TO befrend.
Because they are helpless and needy and our
hands, must we take them into partnership?
Because going TO help them, are we
bound to marry them?
Partly through mere inadvertence. but partly
also through crafty design, the wave Of gener-
Gus sympathy for the suffer
THE PUERTO ing little island Of Puerto Rico
RICAN which has been sweeping over
QUESTION the country has come very near
being perverted into the means
of turning awry the general policy and perma-
nent course of great Nation. To relieve the
Nv ing
Ricans citizens and by extension of the
Dingley tariff to Puerto Rico as a matter of
constitutional right foreclosed the whole ques-
ton.
I know it is said, plausiby enough. in some
quarters, that Congress cannot foreclose the
queston-has nothing to do with IL, in fact-out
that ii is a matter 20 be settled only by the
Supreme Law of the land, Of which Congress is
merely the servant. The point need not be dis
puted. But it is unquestioned part or the
Supreme Law of the land, as absolute and as
binding as ANYTHING in the Constitution itself,
which declares, in the duly ratified Treaty Of
Paris that the whole question Of the civil rights
and political status of the inhabitants In this
newly acquired property of ours snail be re-
served for the decision of Congress! Let those
who invoke the Supreme Law of the land learn
and bow to IT,
AS TO the mere duty of prompt and ample re-
lief for the distress IN Puerto ItlCo, there -
happily not a shade Of difference of opinion
among the seventy-ive millions OF our innabi-
tauts Nor was the free trade remedy so vehe-
mently recommended. important enough in itself
TO provoke serious objection delay. Cynical
observers might find indeed gentle amusement
in noting how in the name Of humanity the
blessings Of free trade were invoked by means OF
a demand for the immediate application of the
highest protective tariff known TO the history of
Economics. The very men who denounce II as a
Chinese wall are the men VINO demand its appli-
cation They say Give Puerto Rico free trade,
but what their proposal means is Deprive
Puerto Rico Of free trade and put her within
the barbarous Chinese wall Their words
sound like Offering her the liberty of trade with
all the world but mean fOrbidding her TO trade
with anybody except the United States
The Importance Of the question from an eco
nomic point Of view has been ludicrousiy exag-
gerated on both sides The
IMPORTANCE original proposal would have
OF THE in itself done far less harm
QUESTION than its opponents imagined
and far less good than it's
supporters hoped. Yet to the extent OF its in
1ueuce it would have been step backwards. 1t
would have been the rejection of the modern and
scientific colonial method and the adoption in
stead Of the method which has resulted in the
least prosperous colonies in the world,-the
method in a word Of Spain herself For the
Spanish tariff IL fact. made with some little
reference TO colonial interests we should merely
have substituted tariff, made with sole
reference 70 our own interests. A more distinct
piece OF blacksmith work in economic legislation
for helpless lonely little island in the mid
Atlantic could not well be imagined. What had
poor Puerto Rico done. that she should be
fenced in from all the Old world by elaborate
and highly complicated system Of duties upon
imports. calculated 10 protect the myriad vary
ing manufactures and maintain the high wages
OF this vast new continent and as little adapted
10 Puerto Rico's simple needs as is Jurgensen
repeater for the uses of a kitchen clock? Why
at the same stroke must she be crushed. she
would have been if the Constitution were eX-
tended to her, by a system OF internal taxation
which we ourselves prefer to regard as highly
exceptional on tobacco tobacco dealers. on
bank checks telegraph and telephone mes
sages bills of ading, bills Of exchange, leases
mortgages. life insurance, passenger tickets
medicines, legacies. irheritances mixed flour
and so on. and on, ad nhnitum, ad nauseam?
Did she deserve badly of US that even in a
hurry should do this thing 10 her in the
OF Humanity?
All the English speaking world, outside the
United States Congress perhaps, long since found
a more excellent way. II is
SIMPLICITY simplicity itself. 1t legslates
ITSELF for a community like Puerto
Rico with reference the sit
uation and wants OF that communicated with
reference TO somebody else. 1t applies TO Puerto
Rico a system devised for Puerto Rico-not one
devised for a distant and vastly larger country,