The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-30


power those words affirm; we would have
that power b. virtue of our institutions
and race tendencies which nothing but ex-
press denial in our Constitution could
check. reverse or destroy. But no such re-
versal Of the entire traditions. tendencies,
characteristics and purposes OF orr race
was written into our Constitution. Mo-
But on the contrary. the hand Of our des-
tiny seized the pen OF the law and wrote
into the very ordinance of our national life
the affirmation of the most elemental law
OF our blood. in these words of expansion,
or growth, OF administration:
Congress shall have power to dispose of
and make all needful rules and regulations
respecting territory or other property be-
longing to the United States"
II is the law of our necessary growth; IL
is the necessary statute of the free hand 10
achieve that growth and IL IS the hign
guarantee of our institutions that beneath
that free hand justice shall dwell ana
righteousness and mercy among the peoples
given into our keeping. And II is not pos
sible that such power VIII be perverted OF
abused until the character OF our people is
changed, till the records of a Thousand
years are erased, till our institutions rooted
in the soil of countless centuries are no
more. and until the high purposes or the
American people are, by some mallgn MIR
acle. changed to base uses and infamous
desires In the end il all comes to that
faith I'm the peerless people OF the American
Republic who, as L most profoundly be-
Iieve, are the trustees under God of the
civilization of the world in the great day
of our sovereignty now dawning. Senator'S,
IL is this noble faith which exalts our serv-
ice to the Republic to the dignity of a sacred
rite IL is faith this masterful American
people hold with a silent fervor that gives
them power and guarantees them purity.
and woe to them and TO us If we justify
not that faith by our WORKSHOP faith
without works is vain"
MEANS FREE TRADE.
And so. senators, we assert our power;
but by the same word we announce our
justice, too. We do not want justice given
for the base emergencies of political des-
peration, as faction wants it, But we
want it as the high justification of our free
hand We want it as the expression of
our institutions. We want ii in its own
abstract right. We want it as a discharge
of plain duty. And we want it as a meas
ure of statecraft looking to our future as
the dominant power of earth.
Mr.. President, the partisan opposition TO
the government pretends to want free
trade with Porto Rico, Hawaii and the
Philippines. 1t is this faction. this squad
ron of obStructing partiSanship, that has
been from the first opposing the govern
ment. There is no sincerity in their atti-
tude: for they advocate free trade with our
new possessions, they say, because they
are our possessions, and i'm the same SEN
tence advocate the abandonment of the
possessions Reconsideration Is an an
tagonism in premises and non sequitur
in conclusion. This partisan opposition TO
the government ask free trade with Porto
Rico and the Philippines not because they
believe i'm Ii except as they believe in free
trade with all the world. but to brighten
the timid with fasehods about competi-
ton with pauper labor and so to prevent
the Nation from keeping these priceless
possessions. That Is the motive of the par
tisan opposition to the government in urg-
ing free trade with Porto Rico. 1t Is an
issue they shall not have. Reciprocity as
Al
of the government. first announced by that
great constructive statesman the President
of the United States, and afterwards by
formal bills in both Senate and House
When the necessity for money for Porto
Rico became urgent and instant, a bill to
raise it by the method which was thought
to be least oppressive to the people at the
moment was reported in the House.
The supporters of the government in the
House stated that the tax proposed in that
bill was temporary expedient, and that
free trade was to follow il. But after that
bill had passed the House and had come to
the Senate the President of the United
States, through a second message to Con-
gress. recommended an expedent which
would give the island and its people the
money needed for the present without the
tax, and enable us to stand for the reci-
procity of trade which he had announced
from the first our high policy and our
plain duty. And so the statesmanlike rec
ommendation of the President relieves the
Senate and the House alike from the neces-
sity of deferring reciprocity with our little
island even for a day, and permits us to
stand where unitedly we stood at first
House. Senate and President together for
reciprocity of commerce between and
our island possession, and at the same time
relive hunger and want and woe. This
suggestion of the President in his second
message recommending the appropriation
made the other day has saved the situa-
ton, fed the starving islanders, kept us
in the. path of our plain duty and taken
| from an obstructing partisan opposition an
issue which ii had attempted to steal for
| the purpose of binding the American
people and thus stripping the Republic of
those possessions which have cost the Ma
| ton much in money and i'm blood.
HYPOCRISY OF DEMOCRATS.
No partisan opposition shall rob us of
| that issue. 1t is ours, and ours alone, first
announced by our President and saved to
us by his wise recommendation. Can men
ask why those loyal to the government in
the House voted for tariff and why we
will not vote for it here? Why, senator's
with the immediate necessity for revenue
for Porto Rico staring the House in the
face, it had that reason for its course
Porto Rico's pressing need induced the
House to adopt this indirect tax which
supplied the emergency. Were that the
situation here, our similar action might
be similarly justified. But our appropri-
alton of the more than 81, OOO.OO the gov
eminent has already collected from Por-
to Rico, giving them almost as much
ready money now as the proposed tax af-
fords in the two years of its life solves
the problem for us and removes the reason
for voting for that tax which was infiuen-
tia1 in the House. If you say that this
simple, wise and just suggestion should
have occurred earlier to members of the
House to the President, L answer that
just these simplest things are most sell
dnf1a nf Of hair var Cir,
plicity. Just these simple things mark
ship. Just these simple things save causes
in the courts, battles i'm war. and nations
in their crises and emergencies. BY this
appropriation. the Porto Ricans will have
money enough to last till a just and ra-
tional scheme of internal taxation on land
and the products of land. on luxuries and
stimulants, on checks and drafts and con-
veyances, on the scores of approved sub
jects OF emergency taxation, can be
adopted and put in operation; or until ex-
perience shall compel even a tariff
Reciprocal trade with Porto Rico is no
precedent for the same thing with the
Philippines None of measures with
Porto Rico are necessary methods for our
administration of government in the Pacific
archipelago. any more than our Hawaiian
legislation. The free hand given Congress
by the Constitution means appropriate
measures for Porto Rico determined by the
conditions of that island and its relations
to US and to the world; appropriate meas
ures for the Philippines determined by the
same considerations of wisdom: appropriate
legislation for Hawaii, determined by like