The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-01-12
Man Without a Country.

The people of Porto Rico occupy
it would be ironical to say .enjoy-a
peculiar position under the beneficent
folds of the American flag. They are
not American citizens; they are nc
longer subjects Of Spain; they are not
Independent. Just exactly what they
are, nobody seems to know. Accord
ing to the civil service rules Of the
United States none but American citi.
zens are eligible for Federal positions
Therefore no Porto Rican can hold of.
flee in his native land under the flag
which he is satirically told redeemed
him from slavery. None but carpet.
baggers can hold Office, says the Bos.
ton Pilot.
1t is very satisfactory arrangement
for the carpet-baggers. When William
Walker, the famous filibuster. was
president of Nicaragua he did not ga
so far as to declare that Nicaraguans
We're not eligible for office in their OWN
country. The most that he did in that
direction was to have law passed
legalizing land titles and such docu-
ments made out in English or Spanish,
with an avowed purpose of giving an
advantage to his American followers,
who We're familiar with both Ian
guages. Our own government could
'"give him points, in the way of
squeezing the Spanish-American or
ange.
Now comes the case of Porto Ri
can gentleman, Don Alfonso Comics Y
Stanley, by his name apparently half
American, who is detained in New
York harbor as pauper immigrant
because, on arriving from Paris, he
is found not to have the $50 without
which no foreign immigrant is al
lowed to land in the home Of the free.
He is scholar and a man of high
character, as is testified to by a letter
from the secretary Of the American
Embassy at Paris to the commissioner
of immigration. Nevertheless he is
not permitted to land, lest he might
become "public CHARGE"
If this were not solemn fact it
would be a CHASTITY joke. The immi-
grafton laws say that pauper immi-
grants should be sent back to the port
when they came, at the expense of the
steamship bringing them over But
suppose the French authorities should
decline to let this learned and respect
able pauper be landed OH their shores,
what then? To what government
should he look for protection? What
authority would be expected to REIN
burse the steamship company for their
outlay? What could they do with him
anyhow? True, they could drown him
in mid-ocean aud we presume that no
authority could question the act, fo,
he belongs to no country and has no
rights that anyone is bound to respect.
1t would probably be unsafe for any
body to treat harshly Porto Rioan
pig or horse, even though native born
so long as our flag foated over it
there or on the high seas; for pigs and
horses have commercial value higher
than that of scholars.
Here is an island than which there
is none fairer under the sun, inhabited
by kindly, gentle race who endured
centuries Of misgovernment and wei
coined with open arms the North
Americans who came to make them
free. Before the Americans came
they had form of autonomy, not
very liberal, it is true. but us much
better than their present condition as
the proverbial half loaf is better thar
no bread. They have had very little
bread of the material kind since thai
to them unlucky invasion. Unbiased
visitors to the island see on every side
poverty and degradation not equalled
we trust, anywhere else on this hem
isphere. The great hurricane of Au
gust, 1899. was responsible for mucl
Of the widespread misery, but tn.
prolongation Of economic hardship.