The Elbert County tribune., 1900-05-17

IHIt Vi tntiI Ut aAaB
down Its interests and seek to make
the questions growing out Of the war,
party questions and not American
questions. The grent issues before the
parties are the questions growing out
of the war.
"T'he silver question Mt the East is
obliternted and forgotten. Paper after
paper, In the East. as you pick 1t up.
and leader after leader Of the Demo
cratic hosts. at the East. will tell you
that the country is safe now because
the Republicans have passed cur
rency bill. and Bryan can do no harm,
and therefore the great question before
the parties Is anti-expansion. 1t is on
ly out here. and In Nebraska, that you
hear anything about the silver Ques-
ton. Q,aughter.)
"Hcre you hear that in the East they
are burning up with anxiety for 10 to
/, by the United States alone. Why.
Mr.. Chairman, there is not n Bryanite
that can go east of the Mississippi
river and get a decent hearing II he
talks for silver-they will boot him OF
the stage. There is not n Democrat
that dare raise his voice In its behalf;
but with nm idea possibly that Colorado
Bryanites do not read eastern Journals,
they tell you out here that the contest
Is one for silver. and expansion Is a
dead issue. Go East and you will see
that all that is left is expansion, among
n few pcssmists who want our country
to limit itself TO Its own borders and
give up the legitimate conquests of the
wnr. You come here. where no man
dare to be nm nnti-expansionst in the
face OF Colorado opinion, and they viii
tell you that silver alone Is the Issue.
Well, Mr.. Chairman, when the war
closed and we sent our commissioners
of peace to Paris, men composed OF
members of both political parties, !
want to recall to your attention the fact
that there was not an individual In
all these six of any political party, who
did not insist that II was our duty to
keep the Philippines, and II that com
mission had reported in favor of CIV
ing up the Philippine Islands or of
maintaining only coaling station
there, you would find the leading plank
OF the Bryanite party to-day denun-
catIon of the Republica party because
IT didn't keep those islands. Great ap-
plause) And when we went into the
war and declared Cuba was, and by
right ought to be. free and independ-
ent, we recall the fact that an almost
united Democracy voted against 1t. 1t
was Republican votes that made that
declaration We expressly declared we
had no desire to occupy the island, but
they voted against II because we did
not declare them Mt that time free and
Independent, and to-day there Is not
a Democrat In either house of Congress
who would vote for bill to withdraw
our troops and let Cuba try It on an in
dependent basis.
with great, rich island. we say II
T.. I..tx. I..at
that we should see that Just laws were
established, and its revenues were
raised. that some fiscal arrangement
be made that we will make the island
self-supportlng, we will encourage its
people to elf-g0vernment and to ac-
quIre ability to maintain n free govern
ment. and then we shall maintain our
promise and withdraw from the island.
That is our attitude to Cuba.
eve took Puerto Rico on still anoth-
er basis. We took Puerto Rico because
It's occupancy by foreign power
would always be n menace to our At
lantic shores, and to the Nicaragunn
canal when we build II. and so we said,
Puerto Rico must be ours; and we have
taken that million of people, stricken
by famine. stricken by disease and
poverty and suffering and flood. We
1
for their relief. We are expending
hundreds of thousands of dollars on
the roads and highways that the unem-
ploycd may be employed, and we have
carried ont the recommendation of the
President that there should be freedom
of trade-not free trade-between
Puerto Rico and the United States.
"There has been so much of mis-
statement that / want to take just a
minute to explnln to you what was
done in Puerto Rico. We enacted, as
to these people, n law which gives
them self-government. We put them
upon ms favorable basis as any terri
tory of the United States ever occu-
pied, and as favorable position ns
Colorado occupied during the many
years she was n territory. We have
said to Puerto Rico: All the necessar-
les of life shall go in free to you, all
the necessaries of life you may export
freely and without duty-you may
tnke 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 tho structures and
rehabiltate you in your homes, and as
: TO others, the luxuries of life, we shall
impose upon those things which you
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 to 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,
. IL within that period you shall, through
your Legislature, enact any laws that
viii make your island self-supporting
and give you the revenues you need,
that then free trade shall at once come
Into existence and you shall pay no
duties at all. Nobody In Puerto Rico
is making fuss about 1t. No Repub-
lican who now understands 1t is max
ing fuss about 1t. 1t IL only the
Bryanites. who are against everything.
who don't like 1t.
"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 a 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 title rs clear and un-
disputed as that under which every
member of this convention who has
| homp holds his Inv deed