Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1900-03-30
Who ARE THE FAITHFUL.

WH1 ARE The Faithful.
Washington correspondents agree
that administration Senators are work
irg necessarily to pass the infamous act
sent up from the House Feb %.
Friends of the President are protesting
to see only political maneuver in the
peoples protest against the measure
IL has even come to the point where
Cabinet officers and Federal officials are
proclaiming the Puerto Rico tariff to be
''the test of loyalty standard on
which political faith shall be measured.
These men may speak with author
ority, but they speak neither honestly
nor wisely. In viewing the present re-
volt of the American people against the
Puerto Rico tariff in the light Of u mere
political maneuver, they disclose an
ignorance of public opinion and public
temper which is as melancholy as it is
appalling. .e.
For exactly eighteen months the
President of the United States, in his
public speeches, and his written mes
sages, has advocated the cause Of nat
ional expansion. He has done this
with the eloquence, the adroitness, and
the force which are peculiarly his own.
He has met and refuted, times without
number, the ugly charge of imperial
ism brought against him. his party,
and his country by the men who op-
posed the war with Spain and despised
the fruit of our vistory. He has preach.
ed the blessings of American civiliza-
ton in our new lands. With his cab.
nit officers and his spokesmen in con-
gress he has fought in the forefront fol
the extension of American rights,
and privileges, and institutions to the
islands torn by us from the hands Of
Spain. - -'"-
In all this work the President has
had the unwavering support of the
republican leaders and the republican
edl tors throughout the United States
He has been assisted, moreover by
some of the foremost Democrates in the
country. With aid Of these forces
fighting night and day with an intel
ligence and enthusiasm rarely paralleled
in the political history of the land, i,
has been possible for him to defeat tht
enemies of Greater America, and tc
disarm and scatter the formidable array
at first enlisted under the banner Of
anti.imperialism.
Thus it came to pass that the Presi
dent had behind him the full strength
and conviction Of his party when HI
told the people Of the East: Our hae
does not mean one thing here and an
other in Cuba or Porto Rico;" and thai
in forecasting the first constructive leg
islation calculated to carry out the ex
pansion policy, he spoke to an over
whelming public sentiment when h
said: Our plain duty is to abolish al
customs tariffs between the United
States and Porto Rico. The Republi
can party and the people of the United
States chen and there accepted this dec
laration as consistent and final, and OF
it took their stand.
Il But three months have passed, an(
what do we see? The Republicans o
the House passing an act to reduce
Puerto Rico t. the level Of an imperial
istic colony; to repudiate the promises
made specifically in the name OF th'
President to the people of the island; t.
erect between them and other Ameri
can territory a tariff wall such as ha
never before been act up between terri
tories under the American flag; to disa
VOW the whole doctrine of territorial ex
pansion under the precedents and tradi
tions of this country, and to wipe of
the face Of politics these professions O.
good faith and broad statesmanship OF
which the Republican party has tough
and won since the war with Spain, ant
has prepared to fight again. And al
this at The behest of the sugar and to
bacco lobby, working under cover a
the national capital
Yet we are told today that approva
of this arrogant betrayal of trust to
ward our new POSSESSIONS. of this bare
breach of faith toward the American
people, is to be made the test of loyal
ty." It may we'll be asked: Loyalty
to whom, loyalty to what?" TO th'
Gessler hat set up in. the House of Rep
resentatives by Oxnard and company
Surely not. 10 the Cabinet which fol
eighteen months by word and deed hal
Brought the American people to lht
very position where, they now stand
fast? No. To the House of Represen
tatives or the Senate under whose in
spira,ion the people marched upward
to the heights which they now have
and hold? No. To the party that
must live or die by the maintenance
of policy which for year and hall
has been its daily food and drink? No
TO the country whose future in The
two great oceans is to be cast into the
balance by this act of Congress? No.
What SORT Of 'loyalty," then. is in