The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-05-15

OF trade-not free trade-Detween
Puerto Rico and the United States.
"Thcre has been so much of mis-
statement that l want to take just
minute to explain to you what was
done in Puerto Rico. We enacted, as
to these people, law which gives
them self-govcrnment. We put them
upon as favorable IA basis as any terri
tory of the United States ever occu-
pied, and as favorable n position as
Colorado occupied during the many
years she WAS n territory. We have
said to Puerto Rico: All the necessar-
les of life shall 20 in free to you, all
the necessaries of life you may export
freely and without duty-you may
take TO 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
rehahilitate 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 n duty
amounting to 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 ~ them, AT the end of two years,
during which you will be able TO pass
laws to raise your own revenues, Ii
shall forever cease, and you shall have
free trade, and If between now and
two years from the first of last March,
II 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 ut once come
into existence and you shall pay no
duties Mt all. Nobody in Puerto Rico
Is making n fuss about it. No Repub-
lican who now understands 1t is max
ing fuss about it. II 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 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-
tirely foreign and not understood by
the other-eighty separate savage
tribes. We took possession of those
islands under Il 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 Bryanitc
disafTection at home, that savage in
surrection against our power and au-
thority was existing. we proceeded, as
it was our duty to do. to suppress it.
and that, fellow citizens. is the origin
of the new Bryanite crusade against
the Republican policy. What would
you have US do? Would you have us
turn back that island to savagery
They have got no prctensc of self gov
ernment. The race of Tagalos which
Is fighting MS has no cohesion with the
other eishty-odd tribes that exist in
the islands. To turn them back to their
own resources would turn them back
to bloody and endless and cruel war.
We took those island, not for aggran-
diZement and not for selfish purposes.
We took them because there were ten
millions of ignorant people occupying
those islands, coveted by every nation
of Europe. who would have gone to
war over them and we realized that
our duty as an Anglo-SaNon race re
quired us to take possession of those
islands and lift those people up into
the light of civilization and of Chris
tianity. That is the policy which the
Democratic party attacked.
There, Mr.. Chairman, we stand, apd
there the Republican party proposes to
stand. They say. give back those is
lands. Why. fellow-cltizens, we took
Colorado south of the Arkansas and
west of II from Mexico, when we had
our war with Mexico. and we took
p,.t. . t,.t,<a 4
California under the Gadsdcn pur-
chase. Would you have us give back
southern Colorado to the red Indian.
who dominated it when we took it?
With equal right and with equal JUS
tice, the United States could be called
upon TO give back the Philippines to
the equally red savages who dominate
them now and resist American author
ity tapplause).
American diplomacy has recently
won IA diplomatic victory in respect to
the open-door in China, and when that
great empire shall fall to pieces, as it
will, You will find, Mr.. Chairman. and
Indies and gentlemen, that we, too,
shall be called upon. as intelligent
american citizens. and as great free
nation to assert our sphere of iIfiu-
cnce and declare our rights in that
great and wealthy empire 1oud APP
plause). 1t was not for naught, my
friends, that for n century and quar-
ter we followed the plow and confined
ourselves to the original borders of
our country as bounded by the two
oceans. We We're fitting ourselves for
free government and free people, and
with great civil war we made Il ma
ton, one of whose foundations had
been slavery, forever Il free people, and
we have educated ourselves until we
are not afraid to face IL worldwide re
:-ponsibility (applause).
Colorado has more ut stake in this
great question than any of the com