The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-03-09
WHO ORDERED THIS LAST BLOT ON
THE FLAG?"

"How does President Mckinley justify
the robbery of already beggared Porto
Ricans?" "Who ordered this last blot
on the flag?" These are questions for
which the president and his congress
will have to make answer to the Ameri-
can people; not to the Democrats only,
but to Republicans as well.
The New York Telegraph, a non-poli-
tical paper, says:
How can President Mckinley with
that representative conscience of which
his publicity bureau told us so much a
| year or two ago, with that large, philan-
thropic heart which beats for the op-
pressed and suffering, how can this man
| for whose undoubted honor and abiding
sense of justice-reconcile his character
| with his action in the case of Porto
| Rico? The United States undertook a
war in the name of oppressed humanity
Spain had enslaved the inhabitants of
the West Indies islands and was living
on the proceeds of their blood, and
wrung from their very existence. Nc
Kinley came as the liberator. The part
fitted him, for he loves nothing so we'll
as Veneration, except adulation. He got
both in full measure. Gen. Miles told
the inhabitants of Porto Rico that their
island having become United States
territory they would have the same
treatment and become subject to the
same laws as other members of the
great democracy. President Mckinley
in certain messages to congress-he can
not go back on his utterances and writ
tings in this case, as he did in the mat
ter of finance-told of the grievous
wrong it would be to impose a tariff on
the Porto Ricans. Elihu Root, secretary
of war. went on record to the same
effect. Solemn national promises by
men who had a right to promise, being
duly commissioned for such purpose,
were made only to be violated. The
Porto Rico tariff law. which, with Nc
Kinley's influence, will go through
congress, places the islanders in worse
condition than they We're in under Spain.
They were robbed by Spain, but were
robbed of their kinsmen, and men who
understood how to deprive the some
what brutal art of much of its rough
ness. With their present officials it is
different The Anglo-SaXon is not so
fine and smooth in his methods. The
Porto Ricans are not only robbed and
| continued in their condition of starva-
| tion but the work is done inartistically,
according to their notions. 1t hurts
worse. How can the president, to repeat
the question above, reconcile his tariff
proposition for Porto Rico with his
| former pledged word? Who made him
| change? Who is responsible for this
new stain upon the national honor? Ac-
cording to reports official so per cent
of the Porto Ricans require assistance
| in the way of food and necessaries of
| life. The island will be wholly peopled
| by beggars within five years, and there
| Is this about a West Indian beggar,
he cannot be broken of the habit. The
high tariff law may enrich few Ameri-
can robbers, but 1t puts a heavy respon-
sibility upon the rest Of the American
people. If we start in by making the
| Porto Ricans paupers, we shall find
| them paupers to the end of the remotest
! generation. This is characteristic of the
Latin race. and all that is civilized or
approaches civilization in the West In
dies islands may be traced to the Latin
element. This suggestion Is thrown out
merely as fright to the tariff robbers
1t is the only sort of argument they
can understand. They may be certain
that, having impoverished the island
such persons as escape starvation will
be continuous charge upon the people
of this country.
|