The Lamar register., 1900-05-16

want to recall to your attention the TACT
that there was not an individual in
all these six of any political party, who
did not insist that it was our duty to
keep the Philippines, and II that COM
mission had reported in favor of CIV
ing up the Philippine islands or of
maintaining only coaling station
there, you would find the leading plank
of the Bryanite party to-day denun-
citation of the Republica party because
1t didn't keep those islands. tGreat ap-
plause.) And when we went into the
war and declared Cuba was, and by
right ought to be, free and independ-
ent. we recall the fact that an almost
united Democracy voted against 1t. 1t
was Republican votes that made that
declaration. We expressly declared we
had no desire TO occupy the island, but
they voted against 1t because we did
not declare them at that time free and
independent, and to-day there is not
Democrat in either house of Congress
who would vote for bill to withdraw
our troops and let Cuba try 1t on an in
dependent basis.
with a great, rich island, we say 1t
is our duty, as befits a great nation.
that we should see that just laws were
established. and Its revenues were
raised, that some fiscal arrangement
be made that we will make the island
self-supporting. we will encourage its
people to self-government and to ac-
quire ability to maintain free govern
ment. and then we shall maintain our
promise and withdraw from the island.
That is our attitude to Cuba.
1--WE took Puerto Rico on still anoth-
er basis We took Puerto Rico because
its occupancy by a foreign power
would always be menace to our At
lantic shores. and to the Nicaraguan
canal when we build Ii, and so we said,
Puerto Rico must be ours; and we have
taken that million of people. stricken
by famine. stricken by disease and
poverty and suffering and flood. We
have appropriated millions of dollars
for their relief. We are expending
hundreds of thousands of dollars on
the roads and highways that the unem-
ployed may be employed. and we have
carried out the Recommendation of the
President that there should be freedom
of trade--not free trade-between
Puerto Rico and the United States.
There has been so much of mis-
statement that | want to take just
minute to explain TO you what was
done in Puerto Rico. We enacted. as
to these people. n law which gives
them self-government We put them
/
tory of the United States ever occu-
pied. and as favorable n position as
Colorado occupied during the many
years she was a territory. We have
said TO Puerto Rico: All the necessar-
les of life shall go in free to you. all
the necessaries of life you may export
freely and without duty-you may
take 10 your island, without the
slightest duty or revenue charge. all
the necessaries of life, not only food,
but rough lumber and those elements
which go TO make the structures and
rehnbilitate you in your homes, and as
TO others. the luxuries OF life. we shall
impose upon those things which you
shall take into your country duty
amounting 10 fifteen per cent. of the
present Dingley tariff, which amounts
to an average of less than seven per
cent. revenue duty upon the articles
which go into Puerto Rico. Then we
say to them. AT the end of two years,
during which you Will be able to pass
laws to raise your own revenues, IL
shall forever cease. and you shall have
free trade, and II between now and
two years from the first of last March,
If within that period you shall. through
your Legislature, enact any laws that
will make your island self-supporting
and give You the revenues you need,
that then free trade shall at once come
into existence and you shall pay no
duties at all. Nobody in Puerto Rico
is making n fuss about it. No Repub-
lfean who now understands II is max
ing a fuss about ii. 1t is only the
Bryanites. who are against everything
who don't like it.
.'And then. Mr.. Chairman, that
brings us to the great question of the
Philippine islands. When that war
closed and found us treating for peace
with Spain. we found hundreds and
thousands of islands in the Orient
linked together in a group, called the
Philippines, loaded down with oppres-
sion, treated with centuries of cruelty
and oppression. ignorant and enslaved;
we found there eighty different tribes
most of them speaking languages en-
tfrely foreign and not understood by
the other-eighty separate savage
tribes. We took possession of those
islands under a title as clear and un-
disputed as that under which every
member of this convention who has
home, holds his by deed.
Nobody in the world disputed our
title, and we found. due to Bryanite
disaffection at home, that a savage in
surrection against our power and au-
thortty was existing, we proceeded, as
1t was our duty to do, to suppress it,
and that. fellow citizens, is the origin