Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-04-06

1t means that seventy-fve thousand
men are to be taken from the ranks OF
those who toll and placed upon the
backs Of the remaining toilers, so thai
every man who produces wealth must
work little harder, sacrifice more, in
order to bear this burden, and you Re
publicans who never asked for large
army, nor tried to defend it, will now
endeavor to swallow large army
You will say, Its tough-but l like
it." You have got to do it in order tC
maintain yonr standing in the Repub
lican party. And if We have imperial
ism, we will have to have large army
If we have imperialism, there will
never be fewer soldiers in the standing
army than we have to, day, and wher
you agree to imperialism, you mus,
agree also to the large army. 1 wan,
to discuss imperialism for a little
while, but want to lead you up to il
hy gradual steps. When we talked
about Imperialism, many of you said
that there was no thought of imperial.
ism. The President made speech in
Boston, year ago last February, and
he said the thought of imperialism
had not entered the Republican mind
In September of 1897, the President
said to the Cubans: 81 speak not
of forcible annexation, for that can.
not be thought Of" and yet we have
now found that it was possible for the
Republican party to think of thing
about which it was said that it was
not possible to think, and therefore
when the President made that speech,
l did not get much consolation out OF
it.
They DiscIaim Imperialism While inausuratins
II by the Most PaIpable Acts Of
Autocratic Rule.
He said in the last speech he made
in public that the Republican party
was opposed to Imperialism; that the
Democratic party was opposed to i'm
perialism, and that everybody was OPP
posed to imperialism; and yet, while
he was making that speech, the Re-
publicans were trying to force through
the Porto Rican bill that separated
the flag from the constitution, and as.
serted the doctrine that the President
could do what he pleased with the
people who do not live in any of the
forty-fve States; that Congress was
under no restriction whatever when it
dealt with them; that those people
were not protected by one single arti-
Gle OF the constitution, and while the
President was declaiming against i'm
perialism his party was practicing i'm
perialistic tactics, for what can be
be more imperialistic than to declare
that there is border outside OF the
that there is a twilight
zone outside of the constitution, and
that President and Congress, created
by the constitution is not covered by
it? What is more imperialistic than
that? The Republican Chairman of
the Committee on Ways and Means
introduced bill to give free trade to
Porto Rico. The Governor General of
Porto Rico recommended free trade and
you shouted for it. The people of
Porto Rico prayed for free trade, and
you shouted for it. The Secretary of
War said that the highest considera.
lions of justice and good faith require
it, and the President added his voice
and said that it was a plain duty to
give free trade to the people OF Porto
Rico. And you all wanted it. But
power rose behind the throne, a power
greater than the power of the Chair
man of that committee; q power
greater than the Governor General; a
power more persuasive than the people
Of Porto Rico; a power higher than
the highest considerations of justice
and good faith; power more potent
than the constitution and the Presi-
dent, or the plain duty prescribed by
him, and that power drove through
Congress bill that put q duty upon
imports from Porto Rico and upon ex-
ports from this country to Porto Rico,
and then all Of these people-nearly
all OF them-who had shouted for
free trade with Porto Rico are now
to swallow their words, and
as you gulp them down, you say this
is the toughest proposition-but we
like il.
Some Republican inconsistencies and Dodsins
Of responsibilities.
In 1897, Mr.. Mckinley said in his
message that forcible annexation was
to our code OF morality, and
aggression. That's what he
said, and every one OF you Republi.
cans said "that's right" You said,
what a pleasant thing it is to have a
President who can recognize a code of
when he sees it; what a
blessing it is to have q President who
cannot be allured into criminal ag-
erosion; what blessing to have
President who stands upon the doc
trines that made this nation famous.
And now that same administration
that said that forcible annexation was
not to be thought of, and that it was
to our code of morality and
criminal aggression. has more than
sixty thousand soldiers in islands
more than seven thousand miles from
our shores, forcing that same doctrine
OF forcible annexation upon an unwill-
ing people, violating our code of NOR
atty, committing criminal aggression
and you people who are so proud that
you had President who knew a code
when he saw it and could recognize
morality anywhere, you are now swal-
lowing his imperialistic doctrine and
saying, though it's tough, we like it."
Not only are you willing to violate
our code of morality, but you have
gone SO far that you are trying to
gloss it over with hypocrisy. Now
you not only deny that it is criminal
aggression, but you say that God did
it ALT was not the Republican
party's fault at all. You want to lay
the blame on the Almighty. knew