Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1900-10-10
Farmer BRONNAT SCHOOL
CONSENT OF GOVERNED"
Senator "PitchfOrk" Tillman Sheds "Croco.
die Tears Over Woes of the Filipinos,
but Admits His Party Shot Negro
Republicans In the South.
Eighth Lesson.

evening, said Farmer Brown, as they
seated themselves for the next even.
ing's lesson. lin regard to a matter
that has bothered me somewhat ever
since the candidates were nominated
You see the Democrats say that the
taking of the Philippine islands and
the attempt on the part of the presi-
dent to conquer the Filipinos and make
them part of the United States, isn't
according to the constitution. What
do you say to that?"
What the Administration Proposes.
II know that the Democrats talk
very learnedly about the consent of
the governed said John, land there
has been an attempt to arouse a good
deal of sentimentality on this score.
1t strikes me, however, that if this
matter is considered dispassionately,
one will hardly say that the Demo
Gratis have any right to quote what
they claim is the constitutional argu-
ment against the holding Of the Phil
ippines. In the first place the admin
istratiOn proposes to give the Filipinos
stable government, but to do this
you will admit, think, that it will be
necessary, first, for them to cease their
discretionary warfare. The ratifi.
cation of the treaty of Paris gave to
the United States the absolute legal
title to these islands and, at the same
time, imposed upon us the duty of pro-
tecting the people of the islands and
their property from harm, both from
instruction within or attacks from
without. Now, to perform this duty
it will, of course, be necessary for the
United States to suppress this insur-
rectiOn before it can establish formal
government for the islands. 1t seems
to me, father, that this is one thing
which the opponents of the admins
tration do not take into account So
far as anything that the administration
has yet done it seems that we have
acted entirely within the constitution
and in accordance with the provisions
of the Paris treaty. You must also
and this is one of the
strong points in the discussion of this
question, that the ratification of this
treaty may be said to have been
brought about almost solely through
the influence exerted by William Jen-
nings Bryan.
Ratified Through Mr.. Bryan's Influence.
You know it took two-thirds vote
of the senate to ratify the treaty, and
the Republicans could not muster
enough votes to do so without the as
sistance of the opposition in that body
Mr. Bryan went to Washington and
urged the Democrats and Free Silver
senator's to join with the Republicans
and vote for its ratification. They did
so and ten Democratic senator's, three
POpulists. four silverites and one in
dependent took Bryan's advice and
voted for the ratification, giving the
treaty 81 votes to % in the negative.
Thus it came about that it was through
his influence that the needed votes
were secured. He had nothing to say
at that time about the consent of the
governed and it was left to subse-
quent Democratic platforms to give
voice to this objection and. in my opin-
ION, this was done solely because the
of Mr. Bryan's campaign
hoped thereby to secure votes for their
ticket among the foreign element of
our people.
'Consent of the Governed" In the south.
with reference to the charge that
the constitution has been violated or
IS to be, with respect to the consent
Of the governed it seems to me that
there are few things i'm our own
which the Democrats should
before they bring this charge
against President Mckinley and the
Republican administration. In the
first place, l find, by consulting
speech made by Hon. +. J. Burkett of
Nebraska in the house of representa-
lives. March 8. 1900, that there were
10 members of the house Mt its last
session who We're elected by vote
averaging only 3.025, and IL of these
had no opposition whatever. In the
other cases the opposition vote ranged
from 141 to 313. Now, the population
Of these Is districts is 1850, 134. or an
average population per district of 49,
SOD. These districts. according to this
showing, averaged one vote to every
81 population. Now, father. YOU will
admit that there is evidently some
hing wrong there. The districts
'efer to are the Sixth South Carolina;
the First, Second. Third, Fourth and
Sixth Arkansas: the Third. Fourth,
Fifth, Sixth and Tenth Georgia: the
Sixth Louisiana, and the First. Second
and Third Mississippi districts. Ii is
needless to say, of course. that each
Of these districts Is represented in CON
sress by a Democratic member. Now,
take five districts I'm the north, the
First and Second Colorado districts,
by slverites, the First and
Seventh Illinois, represented by Re.
publicans, and the Sixteenth New
York, represented by Democrat.
These five districts have population
Of 1,092, 742. or about two-fifths of the
population of the Is districts | have
lust referred TO. but the number of
votes cast IN these districts aggregated
81 ,906, and the successful candidates
received an average OF 39,365 votes to
m average of 23,016 votes cast for