J. B. Foraker

“ So much has been said about Puerto Rico that it is difficult to say anything new. All understand the nature of the island and are familiar with the fact that, under that name, we are proposing to govern not only Puerto Rico proper, but also a number of adjacent islands—Vieque, Culebra, Mona, etc.—that were ceded to us by the treaty with Spain. Likewise, all are familiar, in a general way, with the population of these islands; that is to say, all know that they number, in the aggregate, about one million people ”

“ Republicans generally are of the opinion that the Constitution is the organic law for the States of the Union alone, unless, by Congressional action, it be extended and applied to Territories outside of the Union. All the territory that we have heretofore acquired, excepting only Alaska, has come to us under treaties that stipulated that it should be, in due time, incorporated into the Union, and that the inhabitants of it should be admitted to the privileges and immunities guaranteed by the Constitution to citizens of the United States ”

“ This would mean the overthrow of our protective tariff and of our revenue tariff system.
Puerto Rico and the Philippines stand in precisely the same relation to this Government. We acquired both by the same instrument. Our power as to the one is the measure of our power as to the other. The necessities of Puerto Rico are such as to require our dealing with her in the most generous and merciful way possible. The provisions of the bill give rise to all these questions. ”

“ But Japan is but an island of the sea, with a population of only forty-two or forty-three millions of people. China has a population variously estimated at from four to six hundred millions. They are just being introduced to our civilization. What has happened as to Japan will happen as to China, multiplied over and over again. The whole world recognizes that China is the great market of the future, and there have been, accordingly, corresponding efforts made by all the leading nations to secure a fair share, and, by some, to secure a monopoly, of this vast trade. ”

“ In every other Territory that we have ever had since the beginning of the Government, the revenues have been raised, for local purposes, by direct taxation of property, and in every such Territory the people have been required to pay internal revenue taxes besides, and where the Territory had ports of entry, as Florida, Louisiana, Washington and Oregon had, the full tariff rates have been imposed. ”

“ This expenditure for the insular government comprehends the inauguration of a system of education, the building of school houses, etc., and also the construction of roads, bridges and other public improvements, without which it is impossible to restore prosperity to the island and to institute any substantial progress for the people. ”