The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-04-02

OF government DY the OnlIeQ states
except that professional agitators, who |
revolutionized for revenue and had |
made fortunes in previous revolts, |
played upon the imagination of an ig |
norant people and led them into in |
SureectiOn. hoping the United States /
would follow Spanish precedents and |
purchase their allegiance. It is equally |
true that in Porto Rico the population |
is 50 poor and so crowded, and the con-
formation of the Island makes 1t so |
easy for an army to put down insur-
rcction, that, though the same govern |
ment existed in Porto Rico as in Cuba
and in the Philippines, it was lmpOS-
Sibla to inaugurate revolution in Porto |
Rico The Porto Ricans knew that they
must come under some government,
and after three hundred years of Spain
hailed with delight the transfer to the
United States.
OUR PLAIN DUTY.
1--WE come naturally now to the ques-
ton of hardships upon the Porto Riean
people and of cruelty to the inhabitants
OF our new possessions by the proposed
legislation. We are told with wonder
full eIoquence and passionate rhetoric
that it was our plain duty to return to
the people who have paid the duties
under the Dingley tariff act since our
occupation the money which had been
collected. The whole policy of the Re
publican party, from the President to
congress, has been to give back to Porto
Rico all the taxes levied and collected
upon her prOducts-tO give them back
to her for the purposes of her govern
ment and for the purposes of her i'm
proVement and her progress. These du-
ties had been paid by the sugar trust.
which controls the sugar products of
the islands, and the tobacco trust,
which controls the tobacco product of
the island-two of the richest and
greatest money making corporations in
the world. They had bought the sugar
and tobacco at a price Which included
1TT+a cold
TO the people of the United States at
a large profit after the duties were paid.
In the bill which we have just passed,
instead of paying these duties back to
these corpOTtions, which have been the
subject of so much abuse and with
whom we have been charged with be-
ing allied, we have given them back to
the people of Porto Rico for their
| school houses, for their roads, for the
relief OF the starving, and for the en-
plOyment which will come in the proper
administration of the fund.
THE analysis of the productions of
| the island which are exported shows
| that about fVe-eighths is coffee. There
IS no duty on coffee, and so there is no
outrage there. There is a duty at pres
| ent of $1.60 per hundred pounds upon
sugar and $1.85 per pound upon tobac--
| co under the Dingley tariff act. There
are millions of dollars worth of this su-
| gar and tobacco. owned by the sugar
and tobacco trusts, which is held from
| the market ana stored IN warehouses IN
| Porto Rico awaiting the action upon
| this bill. This sugar and tobacco was
| bought from the planters of Porto Rico
/ at a price which included these Dingley
| tariff duties and still left a. large profit
| for the purchaser. Every concession
made from the Dingley tariff is that
much more clear profit not to the pre-
| ducer, or the laborer. or the citizen of
| Porto Rico. but to these purchasers of
their products. SO by this act We are,
| out of the hundred per cent of addition
| al profit which the sugar trust and to-
! bacco trust would receive under free
| trade, taking 10 per cent for the people
! of Porto Rico and leaving the purchas-
| ers So per cent Tor their own income.
| The only difference between the original
recommendation of the president of the
| United States and the action of the
| house of representatives and of the
| senate committee is in the method by
| which the people of Porto Rico can re-
ceive the whole Of the revenue from the
tariff.
The presidents recommendation of
free trade was made in order that Porto
Ricans might have the use of these du-
ties in Porto Rico by not having to pay
public purposes in the island. The pro-
position of the house of representatives
and of this committee is that those du-
ties shall be collected and returned to
the people of Porto Rico because it is
the only way by which the people of the
island will get dollar of benefit from
| Jneln- NOW. from WnOfn VIII JleX De
| collected? In the last 25 years sugar
has fiuctuated as much as any other
product in the market; coffee has been
subject to the opening of new sources
of supply, to failures of crops, and tc
all those elements which add or take
away from % to sc per cent of the mar
ket price. But while coffee and sugar
importers have grown rich and by theil
skill, their capital, and their far-sight-
edness been able always to calculate fu-
ture prospects and to make money, nc
matter what the conditions, the labOre1
upon the plantations who produced
these crops has never known any differ
eTce in his wage. Unhappily for him
| the labor market was always over
stocked; unhappily for him, there was
no industry but the land to which he Oh
his family could apply for help. He was
the man with the hoe meeting all the
conditions of Dr. Markham'S remarka-
bic poem. He was too ignorant to know
when good times were making fortunes
; for those who handle the product which
he raised by his labor; he was too pow
erty stricken to Subsist in an organized
effort to increase the remuneration fol
his toll. 1t win be many a year before
these conditions change for the masse:
of the Porto Rican people. They car
never change when an overcrowdeC
. | population has but one means of liveli
; hood and there are na varied industries
) for it's relief
Then who pays this tariff, and wht
) gets the benefit of it? FOR the first tim
in the history of Porto Rico it is paiC
F by those who make money out of her
/ by those who are enriched by her toll
by those who are far removed from tn
ignorance and the suffering and tn
squalor of her population. The tariff
, money taken from them goes really t.
the people of Porto Rico who never be
, fore received any benefit It will go 70
= school houses and school teachers, ,whicl
viii make the next generation worthie
> of citizenship and f-government;
will go for roads, which will give EN-
ployment and opportunities for othe
. industries than merely agricultural:
: will go for those ordinary functions o
government which must be maintaine4
or you have anarchy, and they win b
maintained by this process withou
= those burdens of direct taxation which
| in the present condition of Porto Rice
! : would be such a terrific brake upon he