The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-06-19
Free Philippine Sugar.

TlCO niAiPPi"o '"0"
The Senate on Wednesday last
adopted the schedule of the tariff
bill providing for the admission
free of d,ty of 100000 tons of
Philippines sugar annually by a
vote OF 26 to 43. The adoption OF
this schedule is a great disap-
pointment to the sugar planters OF
This State, as it means from year
to year the tonnage will be in
creased. Senator Foster made a
powerful and convincing argu-
me 1t in opposition to the admis-
sion of Philippine sugar free of
duty in this country. In the
course of his speech Senator Fos-
ter drew a lesson from our ex-
perience with Hawaii. He stated
that when that country was seek
ing a reciprocity trea,y in 1876
the sugar production was less than
1900 tons, and the Secretary OF
the Treasury, who favored the
treaty, assured Congress that the
limit of production could never be
above 1900 tons, yet the crop
had increased to more than AL
600 in 1907, and the crop for the
ensuing year was estimated to be
more than 10000 tons. The SEN
ator further said:
''In my Judgment, the ratification OF
the Treaty of Paris. by which this
Government acquired the Philippine
Archipe' ago, was, next to the fifteenth
amendment of the Constitution, the
greatest political blunder that can be
charged against the dominant party.
Il believe that the fundamental
principles upon which the Republic is
founded can be properly maintained
and perpetuated only by people cap
able of self-government, and there is
no other people on the face OF the
earth, except the white man, competent
to establish and preserve this highest
type of human government. and that
whenever we seek to incorporate in
the body polite of this Government
any people except the Caucasian, we
weaken the powers of our people and
our Government, and whenever we at
tempt to govern people other than
by their consent we depart from the
constitutional landmarks of the Re
public and menace the basic and
structural principles of our free in
situations.
Sovereignty under our form of
government is lodged in the people.
I do not want to see that sovereignty
lodged in any other hands except
those of the white man, and in no
other hands can the destiny of the
Government be confded. l do not
want this Government to hold her
colonies, any possession or any. ter
ritory in which The white man OF our
country cannot go and build up his
hone and carry with him and plant
there the great and sublime and in
estimable principles Of our Govern
ment.
1T is utterly impossible to build up
colony of Americans in the Philip
pines, because climatic conditions
forbid it, and local conditions forbid
it, and local environments prevent it.
81 have visited these islands, and
their agricultural possibilities are
practically unlimited. Their people
are strictly Asiatic. They are Asiat;c
in their national life, in their civiliza-
ton, in their hopes and aspirations,
in their social usages and practices,
and in their political thought. We
can never impress upon these people
the civilization and national ideas
and aspirations of the Western
World.
"But, Mr.. President, what profit is
there in continuing to keep these peo-
pie in subsection? To continue to
stay there means to destroy the very
traditions under which this Republic
was born and has grown to its present
commanding position among the. ma
tions of the earth. If we stay there
will be no American colony, friendly
and loyal to our country and faithful
to its institutions, but an Oriental
colony, hostile to our Government
and despising our flag. AS the years
go by their opposition to r rule will
grow stronger, their hostility to our
tween the white man and the yellow
man will become more bitter as the
two people grow wider apart. The
American and the Filipino never
can and ought never to be assimilat-
ed. The immutable laws of nature
forbid it. The two people can never
be one, the twain can never meet. AS
Kipling has said:
$ East is East, and West is West,
and never the twain shall meet,
Till earth and sky stand presently at
Gods great judgment seat
Two thousand horned toads
from Texas are going through the