Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1900-04-06
WANTS A FREE HAND.
eEvERipeE ON AMERICAS COL.
ONiAL PROBLEM.
Indiana senator Says No Precedent
Will Serve for Government of New
Possessions-He Advocates Recipro-
city and Free Trade for Porto Rico.

Senator Bcvcridgc of Indiana Thursday
delivered in the Senate his long-eXpected
speech on the United Suites new pos
sessions and the policy that should be
adopted i'll governing them. He began.
his speech as soon as the Senate con-
vcncd. The kcynotcs of his uttcrance
were free trade and reciprocity for Porto
Rico. He favored separating the civil
government and tariff features of the
Porto Rican bill so that the former might
become Il law Mt once. whether free trade
is carried or not. Mr.. Beveridge said in
part:
ITO treat Porto Rico as we treo. Sa-
waii and to deal with the latter as We
deal with the philippines, aud to apply
to all without delay the same fixed fer
mula of laws which custom and intention
of statehood has prescribed for our ter
ritOlics from which our States are forI,-
ed, is Il proposition as mad as it is novel.
More than amy people of history
events are placing lis where we may COM
mand and compel the peace of the world.
Porto Rico, Cuba. the canal. Hawaii, the
Philippines, make us literally the SOW
ercign power among the nations. l say
make us the master people of the world,
for L never will believe that we will sur
render Cur possessions to others because
We cannot invent sane and appropriate
methods for their government and con-
troll. | will never believe that our con
stitution manacles our hands and narrows
our vision and nnmhs our brain. | will
never admit that our constitution is such
a charter of death.
Issue Involves Keeping Islands.
THE first issue under debate involves
the Keeping of our new possessions. For
n | rejoice that we have them. For
IL l believe that We have them by the
DEGREES of Il Providence, which, i'll all
our history. has outrun the weak and
,haltins wisdom of presidents and con-
crosses. For IL l accept the privileges.
duties and the burdens of our situation.
i'll the spirit expressed to me by our
great admiral, as We stood OH the Olym-
pia's heroic decks and looked across the
beautiful city to the blue mountains of
I.uZon, when he said to me: "A higher
power than mine was in this business: IL
higher will and IL wisdom than ours un-
furled that flag over this ocean empire,
ours now and ours forever If we sur
render them to more discerning and pow
erful peoples, succeeding generations will
curse the folly and the crime that not
only yielded our high advantage, but plac-
ed the republic at the mercy of its posi-
BILE future foes"
After dealing with the constitutional
question involved Mt considerable length
MIR. Bcverilge came to the question of re-
ciprocity and free trade. He said in
part:
"Reciprocity with Porto Rico will help
that island; it cannot hurt us. No, it will
help us more than it will help Porto Rico.
1t affords us ii safe experiment with our
possessions at the very beginning of our
experience as an administering power.
For a nation of 7O,OO0,00O people with an
imperial continent for it's home, and prac-
ticed in all the arts of industry, anne
suffer in competition with n little island
smaller than n single county of Texas,
1,2OO miles from our shores, and pcopled
by less than one-seventieth of our number
of inhabitants, poverty stricken and pros
trate. ignorant of the meaning of self
government, and bcholding modern civil
ization as through u glass darkly. If the
American republic. just embarked upon
the Srandcst world career of all time,
fears competition with the least of its
possessions, let us strike our colors as n
sovereign power, tack from our course
4 ouI ny AN rs iiiSlhh SAO vi
great events, put back to the port of de-
cay, so out of commission, and let the
mighty voyage OH which VIC started be
sailed by boldcr hearts, lofticr faiths and
eyes of clearer vision.
Measure of Economic Wisdom.
"Reciprocity with Porto Rico is not
only a matter of duty; it is a measure of
economic wisdom. 1t is the reciprocity
for which the great statesmen of the re-
public have planned and toilcd. And it is
reciprocity not with a foreign country,
but with our own possession. 1t is re-
ciprocity of nature; Porto Rican products
supply what we need and cannot so we'll
produce. When our markets are open to
Porto Rican products industry will, and
must OF necessity, be stimulated as by
the wine Of life itself all through our ISL
and, the people will prosper, money will
pour into their witllercd hands md Porto
Rico, now desolate, will be placed in the
position of prosperity justified by its re-
sources, its location and its possibilities.
And with her prosperity she will in turn
endow us. Her markets will exclusively
be ours.
But to close our markets to our own
possession or to make those markets dear
and difficult is to take from our masses
the necessities produced on our own tor
ritory, and to make the markets Of our
own dependency dear n difficult to our
producers is to deny to ourselves the OPP
portunity to sell IL own products to our
own possession. 1t is a situation which
even the necessity for instant financial
relief could not render e%ndurable to the
Government of the United States, and SO
the President of the republic, true to his
f%atlerly solicitude for Porto Rico, true
to his constructive craftsmanship, has,
through the legal and constitutional
method Of an executive message to the
Senate and the House, recommended the
relief to the island by the appropriation
of more than $2.O0O,O0O, which, in turn,
relieves the Congress of the United
States from committing an offense
against craftsmanship to which it was
driven by the absolute necessity for funds
for the island. And that recommends
ton we have adopted"
Tennessee has become the leading nbos.