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


crime.
The politics Of it need not greatly concern this
audience or long detain you.
But the facts are interesting.
POLITICAL II Puerto Rico instead OF be-
ASPECT OF longing to u.s. is a part Of is,
THE CONSTI- are the Philippines. The
TUTIONAL title is exactly the same. So
CLAIM. Guam and Samoa and the
Sandwich Islands; and will
be Cuba if she comes, or any other West India
Island
First then you are proposing TO open the ports
OF the United States directly TO the tropical
products OF the two greatest archipelagoes of the
world; and indirectly through the open door
have pledged in the Philippines 10 all the prod
ucts of all the world, You guarantee directly
to the cheap labor of these tropical regions and
indirectly but the less bndngly to the
cheap labor of the world free admission of It's
products TO this continent in unrestricted com
petition with our own higher paid labor. And
as your whole tariff system is thus plucked up
by the roots you must resort to direct taxation
for the expenses of the General Government
Secondly. as if this were not enough you have
made these tropical laborers citizens-Chinese
halfbreeds pagans and all-and have given
them the unquestionable and inalienabe right
10 follow their products across the ocean il
they like flood the labor market and compete
in person own soil with our own work
men.
Is that the feast they wish to set before the
laboring men Of this country? Is that the real
inwardness of the Trojan horse pushed forward
against Tariff wall, in the name of human
ity to suffering Puerto Rico? Is that the pro-
gramme the wise humanitarans who have been
bewitching the world with noble craftsmanship
at Washington propose TO lay before the
iya1 IahO Of r,air oh,
platform for the approaching Presidential cam
paign? They need have fear the intelligent
wOrlkingmen Of America viii fail 10 appreciate
the sweet boon they offer
But if the question thus raised at the bar of
politics may TO only food for laugh
ter that al the bar OF patriot
THE ism is matter for tears. II
PATRIOTIC the islanders are already citi-
ASPECT zens, then they are entitled 70
OF IT the future of citizens. If the
territory is already an integral
part Of the United Stat . then by all our prac-
tce and traditions it has the right TO admission
in states of suitable size and population. Is il
said we could keep them out we have kept
out sparsely settled New Mexico? How long do
you expect to keep even New Mexico out. or
Oklahoma or Arizona? What luck did you have
in keeping out others-even Utah-with its bar
sinister of the twin relic of barbarism? How
long would ii take your politicians of the baser
sort to combine for the admission of the islands
whose electoral votes they had reason 10 think
they could control?
But 1t is said that Puerto Rico deserves ad-
mission anyway because we are bound by the
volunteered assurance of General Miles that
they should have the rights OF American citf-
zens. Perhaps though there is no evidence
that he meant more, they thought he meant
more, than such rights as American citizens
everywhere enjoy, even in the District of Co
lumbia,-eqCal laws. trial by jury. the writ Of
ha beas corpus local self government-in a word.
the civil rights which the genius of our Govern
ment secures to all under our control who
capable of exercising them. If he did mean
more or if they thought he meant more, did
that entitle him 10 anticipate his chief and
override in casual military proclamation the
supreme law of the land. whose commission he
bore? Or did il entitIe them 10 suppose that he
couldo But Puerto Rico received the Irresistible
army OF General Miles so handsomely, and is so
unfortunate and so little, Reasons all for con-
sideration certainly; for care, for -generosity:-
but not for starting the avalanche on the the
DRY that after il had got under only a little
headway still stop il if want 10.
Who thinks he can lay his hand the rugged
edge Of the Muir Glacier and compel it to ad-
vance no further? Who believes that We can
from the mid Atlantic third of the way over
TO Africa, and then reject nearer and more
valuable islands when they come? Behind
Puerto Rico is Cuba. and behind Cuba are all
the other West Indies; and the famous law of
political grayitation which John Quincy AG-
ans propheticany announced three-q quarters OF
a century ago will then be acting on them with
ever increasing force. And behind them.-no.
ahead of them-abreast of Puerto Rico itself
stand the Philippines!
Regard I beg Of YOU in the calm white light
that BELTS these clustered retreats of sober
thought. the degradation of the
CALM WHITE Republic thus coolly contem-
LIGHT. plated by the men who assure
have possessions
whose people are not entitled under Consti-
tuition to citizenship and ultimately tc State
hood! The Republican institutions we have been
trained in constitute a system only likely 10
endure among a people Of high virtue and high
Intelligence Such are its complications and
checks and balances and interdependencies,
which the intelligence. the patience and the
virtue of the highest Caucasian development,
that II is obviously a system absolutely unwork-
able by group Of tropical and Oriental races,
more or less hostile to each other. whose highest
type is Chinese and Malay halfbreed and
among whom millions, a majority possibly. are
far below the level Of the pure Malay.
Before the advent Of the United States. the
history of the worlds efforts at Republcanism
was a monotonous record Of
SCHOOLGIRLS failure Your very schooIboys
TAUGHT. are taught the reason. II was
because the average Of inteTi-
gence and morality was too low; because they
lacked the self-restrained. self-governing quail
ttv iay IN he