166 



CONGRESS. (THE PORTO Rico MEASURES.) 



If this 60,000 tons comes in from Porto Rico, it 

 will be but a drop in the bucket. Even should it 

 double in quantity it could have no influence on 

 our market. Our sugar producers have nothing to 

 fear if we stop with sugar from Porto Rico at the 

 duty in this bill. 



" Nor will this bill injure the tobacco industry. 

 Their tobacco is quite different from ours. The 

 best of it ranks with the Cuban or nearly so. 

 Nearly all of it is filler tobacco and very little is 

 fit for wrappers. My own impression is that it will 

 add to the sale of wrappers in the United States 

 and make a better market for our tobacco growers. 

 I have yet to see the tobacco man who fears the 

 introduction of the Porto Rican product. 



" Their great fear is that if we should give free 

 trade to Porto Rico we should follow it with free 

 trade with the Philippine Islands, and ultimately 

 with Cuba. Neither they nor the sugar producers 

 fear anything from Porto Rico alone, and when 

 Congress asserts its power under the Constitution 

 to deal in the manner proposed by this bill with 

 this territory, it gives them renewed confidence to 

 believe that Congress has the power and can be 

 trusted to care for their interests when we come to 

 deal with the other islands. 



" I find from the Bureau of Statistics that the 

 sugar imported into this country in 1898 under 

 16 Dutch standard of color brought an average 

 price of 2 cents, and in 1899 an average price of 

 2.2; that the average duty paid upon the sugar 

 v/as 1.57 in 1898 and 1.63 in 1899 that is, $1.63 

 a hundred pounds, an average of $1.60 a hundred 

 for the two years upon sugar such as these men 

 would export to the United States. That makes 

 a pretty figure if you remit all that duty of $1.60 

 a hilndred pounds, or $35.84 for a long ton, a total 

 of $1,600.000 on the 45,000 tons that they will ex- 

 port to the United States this year. Suppose we 

 take a quarter of that and give them three fourths. 



" Suppose we take $400,000, or rather give it into 

 the hands of the President of the United States, 

 in order to carry out the benevolent object of build- 

 ing roads and building schoolhouses for these Porto 

 Ricans; are we not dealing more generously with 

 these whole people to do that that is, to provide 

 schools on the mountains and on the mountain 

 sides, where the poor coffee planters are struggling 

 along for an existence than to give the whole of 

 it to the sugar planters and let the schools go? 



" So with tobacco. I find that the whole duty on 

 their 4,000,000 pounds of tobacco, at 35 cents a 

 pound, would amount to $1,400,000. We might 

 give this to the tobacco planters, because on all 

 these articles, gentlemen, make no mistake, the 

 price of sugar and the price of tobacco is made in 

 the United States, and they have to pay these 

 duties to get into our markets. And if we remit 

 the duty, we remit for them. Suppose we say, 

 then, we will divide with these people; that we 

 will give them $1,000,000 out of their duty on 

 tobacco, and take $350,000 and add it to the rev- 

 enues to come from these islands." 



Anticipating that the opposition to the measure 

 would rest mainly on the denial of its constitution- 

 ality, Mr. Payne made an argument for the author- 

 ity of Congress, saying in conclusion: 



" 1 want to make llii.s further suggestion. Gen- 

 tlemen who are lawyers are honestly divided on 

 this question this constitutional question. We 

 believe that the United States means the United 

 stati-. in the Constitution, and that the words 

 that are added, giving us power to dispose of and 

 make rules and regulations respecting the territory 

 and other property belonging to the United States, 

 refer In a ditVerent subject from the United States 

 itself to territory belonging to the United States. 



We believe that there is that plain distinction. 

 Some gentlemen profess to believe otherwise. 



" If this bill is passed it will give the Supreme 

 Court of the United States the first opportunity 

 it has ever had to meet that question fairly and 

 squarely and say whether the limitation for uni- 

 form taxation in the United States refers to the 

 United States or to the United States and the 

 territory belonging to the United States, it may 

 be an important question to be considered in the 

 future when we come to legislate for the Philip- 

 pine Islands, when we come to legislate, if we have 

 to, with respect to Cuba, and I think it would be a 

 good proposition to submit that question now to 

 the Supreme Court. If you are right, gentlemen, 

 in your contention we shall have difficulty when 

 we come to legislate for our other islands. We 

 shall have difficulty in protecting the interests of 

 the people, the manufacturers, the farmers of the 

 United States. If we are right in our contention, 

 pur way is more simple. 



" As for the people of Porto Rico, I would move 

 as fast as their own good will warrant. Pass this 

 bill, which even the gentleman from Massachusetts 

 admits is a well-considered measure from a fiscal 

 standpoint, and give them better markets and 

 abundant revenue. Do not tie down their destinies 

 to the whim of the 88 per cent, illiterate or to the 

 caprice of the 12 per cent, of the educated, who 

 have known no government except Spanish mis- 

 rule. Keep them all in leading strings until you 

 have educated them up to the full stature of Amer- 

 ican manhood, and then crown them with the 

 glory of American citizenship. In the meantime 

 give them all the rights accorded to our own peo- 

 ple under the Constitution, consistent with their 

 best interest and well-being. 



" Our duty now, Mr. Chairman, is, in the first 

 place, to restore, nay, to give law and order in the 

 Philippine Islands,' then to investigate, then to 

 legislate, remembering that these people are un- 

 educated, remembering that it would be unsafe to 

 give the full power of government to the illiter- 

 ates or to those who can read and write. 



" The rights of neither would be preserved. The 

 rights of either would be unsafe. 



" We can proceed as did the fathers a hundred 

 years ago, who had no scruples on that question, 

 but believed that Congress had the absolute power 

 over the territory of the United States. 



" It is our duty to take these poor people and 

 educate them and lift them up and give them the 

 privileges of the Constitution and the privileges of 

 government as they shall grow in education and 

 in knowledge. 



" And finally, whether we send them forth 

 among the nations of the earth or annex them a* 

 States in this Union, we will bring them up to the 

 full level and stature of American manhood. 

 Wherever the flag is raised it shall not go down 

 until it covers beneath its folds a people enjoying , 

 the blessings of civilization, of freedom, and of sov- 

 ereign citizenship." 



Opening the discussion in opposition to the 

 measure, Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee, said: 



" Mr. Chairman, I am not an alarmist. Those on 

 this floor who know me and have done me the 

 honor to listen to what I have had to say on former 

 occasions when speaking to pending measures will 

 bear me witness that I have not been accustomed 

 to indulge in extravagant statement or vehement 

 denunciation. I endeavor at all times to be con 

 servative, and I may add I am naturally inclined 

 to optimism. With this much of preface of a per- 

 sonal character, I begin by saying that in my judg- 

 ment the pending bill is more dangerous to the 

 liberties of the people of this republic than any 



