The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-08-16
EDMUNDS SIZES
GRAVE PERIL,

Former United States Senator George
F. Edmunds believes that the Admins
tration's course in regard to Cuba has
been wrong and that the promises to
Cuba have not been kept. He declares
that Porto Rico will be filled with corrup-
ton and bring great danger to this county.
Mr.. Edmunds also considers that the
Philippines will be a scene of corfuptions
and that imperialism will continue to be
an issue in this country. Il have been Il
Republican so long that 1 think
there will always be Republican party"
said he, land have never been able to
find much good in the Democratic party
However, think the Governments course
in regard to Cuba has been wrong and
unnecessary. We have not made good
our promises to Cuba, and there was moth
ing to prevent US from doing so. We
promised to give the Cubans their free
dom, and we would have stood much
better IN the eyes of the world and in
our own estimation if we had done so.
Il do not know enough about the
Cuhans to say whether they are capable
OF seltgovernment, but our action in al
lowing them to set up a government of
their own under certain restrictions in
regard to foreign affairs is an admission
on our part that they are capable. My
plan would have been to give them COM
plete independence, as we promised to do;
lett fhair r.. fhop
some time along in the winter, perhaps,
or before they had time to get into any
foreign entanglements or contract any
debts, we could have gone to them and
explained our position in the matter.
1--WE could have called attention to the
Monroe doctrine, told them that in order
to protect ourselves we must have some
arrangement by which they could not
make any alliances with other nations
without the Government of the United
States being consulted; that we had set
them free and it was necessary for US to
see to it that our rights were protected.
We could deal with them as republic
and have something in the nature of
treaty that would insure US all the pro-
lection necessary. If they refused to
enter any such arrangement it would be
necessary and right for us to insist upon
it, to tell them firmly that they must
agree to it or take the consequences That
would have been my idea of it, instead of
refusing to fulfill our promises and not
giving them an opportunity to say whether
or not we should control their foreign
relations
I'm my opinion we have more to fear
from Porto Rico than from Cuba Porto
Rico is part of the United States, and it
will probably not be long before it is
flooded with ambitious lawyers and other
carpctbaggcrs, who will soon be in control
Of its affairs to a greater or less extent
Then there will come a time when the
political parties will have to consider the
question of admitting Porto Rico into the
Union. The carpetbaggers and others
will be in control, and l think you will
ind the conditions worse than we ever
had with any of the Rocky Mountain Ter
ritories that have become States We
will have much worse people to deal with
than the Populists of the West
"In the Philippines we will probably
have to maintain an armed force for
number of years. There will always be
more or less guerrilla warfare going on,
and we will be in somewhat the same posi-
ton that England is in India, where she
is always finding it necessary to suppress
an uprising of one sort of another"
DO you think the trusts will become
more important issue than imperialism"
was asked.
The trusts will work out the problem
themselves In manner" was the reply.
They will go through the same trans
formation that the railroads did few
years ago. | think that experience has
shown that in all big combinations of this
kind it is found that they are prosperous
for time, at the start, then they begin to
fall behind, and finally they go to pieces
You do not think the trusts will be an
important ISSUE"
No, will not say that. One cannot !
tell what may happen, and you know that
everybody who is not in the trust is against |
It, and when we consider how compara- |
lively few people there are who hold stock |
III these great companies it is evident that |
the opposition against them is strong. If |
Tie Democratic party could suggest some |
thing that would appeal to the people as a
remedy don't think it would have much |
difficulty in winning an election, but I'm
afraid | cannot look to the Democrats for |
that