Show I THE PORTO RICO BILL BilL TIme people of PortoRico at least tens of thousands of them are desperately 1oor The Island was taxed to the limit by old Spain and last year a great hurricane hur-ricane swept the Island and left It deso late Those people cannot be Ignored by our Government The hungry ones must be fed the children must be sent l to school It was proposed to lay 01 light tariff upon her exports to Lime United Stales a tariff not enough to check In the least the market for those export and lo use the money thus collected col-lected exclusively for the necessary expenses ex-penses of the Island the tariff to remain re-main In force two years That has caused all the storm That has caused every demagogue politician and newspaper news-paper In the country to shout uncon slltullonal and to cry out Porto Rico Is or is not a part of our country I and there Is no law for treating any portion of the United Stales as a colony I Tho Joy over the matt I shows thee the-e to which the Democratic party has been driven We think It was not a wise bill because of the opportunity opportu-nity which It gives the shriekers But their reasoning Is I flabby beyond expression expres-sion Ask any one of them why the measure would If a law be unconstitutional i unconsti-tutional and what could he answer j The Constitution provides certain rules to govern States II provides for the admission of new Slates It provides thai Congress shall prescribe governments govern-ments for territory belonging to the United Slates that has not been admit ted Into I i the Union Ulnh was a Terrl lory not long since and Congress prescribed pre-scribed many a rule for tln I > government govern-ment here which It never would or could I prescribe for a State But before that tmt Congress prescribed the terms on which the Territory should be organized Now Porto Rico Is neither a State nor an I organized Territory but merely an Island Isl-and In Ihe sea which Is Ihe property of tho United States and subject to just I exactly such laws as Congress may prescribe pre-scribe for It Where then is the foundation for the unconstitutional I cry No man can tel I is but the fevered vision of desperate brains hiLt lml I are struggling for party slogans The very meanest feature of time criticisms criti-cisms is 1 that where there was a struggle strug-gle to obtain Imperative revenues without with-out inking 1 it I from the taxpayers I of I he 1T ii I ted States and to obtain I them from the Island Itself I without t levying a direct I i I di-rect tax there the whole business is I treated as but a scheme to Increase the revenues of certaIn monopolies In 1 this country We repeat that we are sorry the bill was Introduced because It gives to certain blatherskites an opportunity to air their ignorance 1 or dishonesty In n way to catch the ears of other blatherskites but that there is anything any-thing either unconstitutional Illegal or unjust in the measure not one of them can show |