Amador ledger., 1900-09-21
EXPANDED AMERICA.
No Z.
Why We Took Porto Rico and What
We are To Do With 1t.

we are 10 DO WIN lC.
Porto Rico was taken from the Span
ish government primarily that a nation
which once possessed the greater part
of the continent of North and South
America, and had lost every col
ony planted, because of having op-
pressed and plundered their people,
might not have SO much as one small
island left in the western hemisphere to
occasion another interference by Uncle
Sam on behalf of humanity. This done
the final word could be written at the
end of the final volume of the unhappy
history of Spanish influence in Amer
lea, and almost the last vestige of a six
teenth century civilization could be
erased from the new world.
But Porto Rico was also wanted for
strategic reasons. If Cuba was to be
an independent nationality it stood our
country in hand to have naval outpost
betwixt that country and Europe. A
growing commerce with South America
likewise demands home port in the
western Indies.
In short Porto Rico was taken from
Spain because the opportunity to take
it was at hand, and because Porto Rico
is necessary to our own national well
fare, SO necessary, in fact, that it's being
taken or left could not be submitted to
the preferences of the illiterate and un-
informed people of Porto Rico. There
fore, and in accordance with Jeffer-
sonian precedent, the consent of the
governed was not asked. The interests
of 80 millions of Americans outweighed
the interests of the million beings who
makeshift somehow to live OH that is
land.
There is no provision in the treaty of
cessation for making Porto Rico state
in the American Union. Its future is
to be determined by Congress, and Con-
gress will determine its future as its
necessities may require.
An interesting constitutional question
has been raised by the followers of Mr..
Bryan in regard to Porto Rico as to
whether or not the Constitution follows
the flag, eek proprio vigore," as the
lawyers say. The policy of the admin
stration has proceeded on the hypothesis
that it does not. The Bryan platform
declares specifically that it does. The
Republican party leaves the question
fort he unbiased determination of the Su-
preme Court, unswerved by partisan
contention, as all such questions ought
always to be left.
1t may properly be said, however, that
there are two lines of decisions of the
courts on this question. One fathered
by the great Thomas Marshall and fol-
lowed by judges who stood for liberty
and for broad and liberal construction
of the organic law of the land The
other line of decisions had Roger B.
Taney for its progenitor and was first
judicially enunciated in the infamous
Dred Scott decision, though it was made
to do political service in the interest of
a forced extension of human slavery
into the free territories of the republic
under the contention of John @. Cal
houn, who declared that the Constitu-
ton carried slavery thither ex proprio
vigore. Pro-slavery judges followed
the precedent thus established.
1t is superfuous to remark that the
Bryan forces have championed the old
pro-savery precedent, while the Repub-
by Thomas Marshall and long line of
progressive and liberty-loving jurists.
As to the people of Porto Rico, SIS per
cent. of them own no taxable property
and are unable to read or write in any
language, which makes self government
al unthinkahle proposition. Porto Rico
has an assessed valuation of about 100
millions, mortgaged for 26 millions and
depressed by unproductive conditions.
Therefore sufficient revenue for en-
hghtened government could not be at
once obtained by direct taxation. To
supplement- the taxes a tariff of Is
per cent Of our regular tariff was levied
upon goods going to Porto Rico from
the United States and coming from
Porto Rico to the United States. All
the money thus raised is to go to Porto
Rico. This tariff expires of itself in
two years, when it is to be hoped that a
system of direct and internal taxation
will make its continuance needless.
A great to-do has been raised over
this tariff by the Bryanite party and
press, but when the American people
see and appreciate the truth that the
tariff is only 10 per cent of what we pay;
that every dollar that is collected at
both ends of the line goes to Porto Rico
for schools and roads and relief work.
that the local government of Porto Rico
can have the tariff annulled at any time
by devlsing and putting into operation
an adequate system of local taxation,
and finally, that the tariff expires by
limitation in two years from its enact
ment; when the people learn this to be
true, as it is true, they will not only
justify the tariff and the party that
enacted it, but will discover that the
Bryanites have made of it only another
bogy of bogy campaign.
Whether or not the Constitution is to
follow the flag is for the Supreme Court
of the United States to determine,
but this much the Republican party
AttS dlfeiury uStcInIueu' GHe AmerlCdn
school-house must follow the flag, and
the Constitution cannot folloW effect
lively wheIs the schoolhouse has NOT
done the pioneer work of preparation.
The tariff of 10 per cent of what we pay
was imposed ipon Porto Rico by the
Republican party that there might be
schoolhouses in Porto Rico and an inr
structed population fitted for American
life. And this was done i'll the face of