Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1902-07-24
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0 TT n |NH More Speeches Of That =
- a IA - ~ Memorable June 70
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IN "a Name :
Is. - ~ ~ - ~ III
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Massachusetts. 1t is full of common
7 sense. 1t breathes the spirit of patriot
ism, and here it is entire:
| Mr. McCall-Mr Chairman, I move to
amend by adding new section.
| The clerk read as follows:
| Insert the following as section SO: In
| this first organic act creating a civil gov
ernment for the Philippine Islands, l. Is
| hereby solemnly declared to be the settled
purpose of the congress to extend to the
| inhabitants of those islands every aid in
enabling them to develop the capacity for
| self government. and when such capacity
shall have been developed we pledge the
| faith OF the republic to confer upon them
the right of self government after the
fashion of the really free nations"
| Mr.. McCall-Mr. Chairman, I will occupy
| the time of the committee only moment
| upon this amendment. Different presi-
| dents have spoken upon what should be
| the ultimate policy of the people of the
United States with reference to the fu-
| ture government of the Philippine Islands.
will read now what President Roosevelt
| said in his first message to congress last
| December:
| "Our aim is high. We do not desire to
| do for the islanders merely what has else
| where been done for tropic peoples by
| even the best foreign governments. We
| hope to do for them what has never be-
| fore been done for any people of the
| tropics-to make them fit for self govern
ment after the fashion of the really free
nations.
The treaty of Paris does not confer on
| the president the power to fix the status
| of the people of the Philippine Islands,
| but imposes that duty upon congress. l
| agree most heartily with the utterance
have referred to by President Roosevelt
| 1t seems to me the time has at last ar
rived when we who are charged by treaty
with responsibility in the matter that
now, today. four years nearly after we
| have entered those islands, when we are
passing a BILL a comprehensive act, an
| organic act for the government of the
| people of the islands, act which looks
| far into the future, it is time for congress
| to perform its duty under the treaty of
Paris and declare in at least general
| terms what the policy of this people is
| to be.
| This bill contains provisions which
should never be enacted unless we couple
with them declaration of the line our
| policy is to follow If we are silent as to
our ultimate policy, those provisions will
| operate to determine what it is to be.
| One part of this bill will foreclose this
| question unless we write in this law no
tice of our purpose to the people who
may act under it. This bill opens up ev-
| cry stick of timber, every acre of land, ev-
/ cry nugget of ore to the people of these
| islands, to the citizens of the United
States, might say to the world.
| Now, our people will go there. capital
lists will swarm there like locusts-and 1
| do not mean this in any opprobriouS
sense, because the movement will grow
| out of our commercial spirit and enter
prise-they will make investments there,
| and after they have invested, if the prop
osition is ever made to take the islands
| from under the jurisdiction and sover-
eighty of the United States. they will
! come to this congress, and they will say
that they have invested their money on
! the faith of this act; they will appeal to
| US to protect them.
1 Gentlemen know as practical PROPOSE
| ton that no matter what may be the de-
| sires of the American people congress will
be practically powerless and that we shall
| probably never get out of the islands un-
| der those circumstances. The relations
between capital and imperialism are very
| intimate. The Boer war grew out of the
| investment of capital by the subjects cf
| Great Britain in the two South African
| republics. If we invite the capitalists of
this country and the world to invest there
under the shield of the United States, it
is morally certain that everything that
has been said by our president, by our ex-
commissioners and our other public men
will amount to nothing and that we shall
| remain there. if not forever, at least into
| the far future.
Now, 1 desire to have it written in this
| act, SO that anybody who goes there will
go under notice imbedded in the act, that
| we are not liable to stay there forever.
] Ultimate self government is the policy,
| as construe it, SO well enunciated by the
| president of the United States. 1t is that
| about which the people of the United
| States are thinking more than about any
| w
| Islands. and 1t seems to me here and now
| are the time and place for US to make
| some declaration with regard to it. We
| have followed the policy of drift long
| enough. We have voted tariffs for those
| people. We have created an army to
| subdue them, and we are now construct
| ing a frame of government for them.
| Somewhere between the covers of this
minute bill, in all it's eighty-three sections,
| we should find room enough to convey a
| hint of our purpose.
If we cannot here find a place to avow
our purpose, when, 1 ask. may we prop
erly state it? Whatever our and their in
| terests may seem hereafter to demand,
| whatever an awakened sense of fealty to
| the very principle of our national life
may point out if we are silent now, we
| SHALL fear bind these islands to us with
| cords of steel. This bill contains some
| liberal features. 1 think the gentleman
| from Wisconsin and those upon his com.
| mittee have considered this question in &.
| broad spirit. but it seems to me it would
] be vastly improved if the amendment l
| propose were inserted in it.
| Every American citizen without re-
| gard to politics-indeed, every lover of
constitutional liberty-would do well
to read and to seriously ponder that
speech.
The Republicans voted down Nc
| Calls amendment, Notwithstanding his
strong, luminous and truly American
| speech.
cochran's Homestead Amendment.
| The Democrats did their best to have
the public lands in the Philippines, for
which we paid $20OOO,OOO in cash, to
say nothing of the cost of the war,
thrown open to settlers in small guam
titles under the homestead laws in
stead Of being sold to cor1prations in
large blocks. Colonel CHARLES f.
Cochran of Missouri, an asle, fearless
and patriotic Democrat, offered the
| following amendment and delivered
the following terse and unanswerable
speech:
Mr.. Cochran-Mr. Chairman, the section
as amended by this proposed substitute
would read as follows:
THAT all lands acquired under the au-
thority of section Is of tnu act shall con-
stitute part and portion of the public
! property of the governments of the Philip
/ pine Islands and may be neld, granted,
| sold and conveyed to actual settlers only
| by the government of said islands on
such terms and conditions as it may pre-
scribe, provided that not more than
sixty hectares of said land shall be ac-
! quired by any one purchaser and that the
actual settlers and occupants at the time
said lands are acquired by the government
| shall have the preference over all otAers
| to purchase or otherwise acquire their
holdings. not exceeding sixty hectares in
area. within such reasonable time as may
| be determined by said government"
The gentleman from Indiana IMr. Crum-
| packer] says that it would be impossible
| to find purchasers for this land, subdi-
| vided in this manner. He says there are
not enough people in Luzon to occupy the
agricultural islands of the country, and
/ yet, at the beginning, when this govern
| ment was founded when we had public
| domain which we then thought would
| last for centuries, we saw fit to throw
| about 1t the protection of land laws,
| which from that day to this have limited
I to 160 acres the amount that could be ac-