Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-22

to the southern Philippines would undoubt-
eddy cause a bloody uprising In Moroland,
whose people, unaccustomed to taxation,
were worked up almost to the point Of re-
volt by our attempt to collect the compar-
atively light duties exacted by the Spanish
law In Luzon and the visayan Islands.
Our protective tariff. the resultant in its
specific items OF the clash Of various inter-
ests. is carefully adjusted to the needs and
capacities OF highly civilized people. de-
veloped industrially to the extreme, inhab-
iting the temperate Rome and thickly set
Ting continental area SO intersected
with railroads and SO bound together by
the telegraph that the remotest parts are
In easy communication, and their respective
products can be rapidly transported to that
point Within the national limits where the
greatest demand for them exists. :,
1t viii be not protective but oppressive
and destructive when applied to a diversi-
fled hodge-podge of savage peoples inhabit-
ing numerous tropical islands which grow
different products from those represented in
the Dingley act, and which lack manufac-
lures and facilities of transportation. The
duty on rice. for instance. is adapted to
American conditions; but rice Is the Fill
pinos bread, and the Dingley rate, which
is an increase of thousand per cent over
the Spanish rate, would be a preposterous
msfft and nothing short Of revolutions
breeding IL collected In the Philippines.
To permit some adaptability Of methods in
accordance with the conditions confronted
in each case it is desirable that Congress
should have free legislative hand as
possible not in order that we Of the United
States may crafty our tyrannical instincts
by placing despotic heel upon the neck OF
Asiatic millions, but in order that the most
valued rights and privileges, the ingrained
sentiments and traditions of these millions
may be to the limit of national safety re-
spected and protected.
American protection and guardianship of
the Fiipinos should be as light, strong,
easily fitting coat-of-mail. and not as uni
form. unylelding, cramping straight-jacket.
The interests and welfare of the Filplnos
very clearly demand considerate flexible
ity in the government and laws applied to
them. which will be impossible if the Islands
are subjected to the constitutional limitation
concerning uniformity Of duties and che
other restrictive provisions applicable to the
states of the Union.
A question of national deficiency and
impotence Is also involved in the de-
cision. Is the government of the republic
when intrusted with power by the people
at disadvantage, in comparison with other
great nations and through crippling self
imposed limitations, In dealing for the ma
tional welfare and trade development with
It's OWE territorial dependencies and with
the outside world? Since the civil war the
tendency has been to strengthen the ma
tlonal idea. to take an enlarged view OF the
power of the Nation, spelled with a capital
N. The war with Spain and trade and ter
ritorial expansion into Asia have had no
reversing influence. There Is no popular
demand that the Supreme Court. in deter
mining what the government may do for
the promotion of the general welfare, shall
clip the Eagles wings