nothing but express denial in our Constitution could check, reverse, or destroy.

If then, the Constitution gives Congress a free hand over our possessions, how shall that power be exercised over each? How shall we deal with Porto Rico whose care is immediately before us?

I favor immediate free trade with Porto Rico, and I shall go on record as voting for amendments giving immediate and unrestricted freedom of trade to our island of Porto Rico. But if we in the Senate who believe that Porto Rico should have reciprocity at once are not able so to amend the bill here, I shall, after voting for free trade amendments, vote for the civil-government bill as finally modified by the committee, because we must not deny civil government to the people of Porto Rico a moment longer, and because the bill, as now modified, insures free trade with Porto Rico as soon as the civil government of that island provides a system of taxation of its own, and because it gives free food, clothing and implements to the islanders at once. I am proud that our fight against the House bill has caused this modifi

cation.

Mr. President, the great movement on which the American people have embarked is a movement of conscience as well as of power; of civilization as well as of commerce. It touches the shores of every sea. Directly or indirectly it affects all humanity. We go forth on a world career; we must conduct it with a world statesmanship a statesmanship that considers the effect of every law we pass upon the peoples over whom our influence is extending and upon the world at large, as well as upon ourselves.

THE PEOPLE'S PURPOSE

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Administration of government means more than balance sheets; more than weights or measures. It means this, but it also means the weighing of the hearts of men and the balance sheets of the affections of the governed people. Why to-day do England's colonists voluntarily tax themselves by preferential tariffs in order to give England the advantage of their trade? Why to-day do Canadians, Australians, and sons of the Empire everywhere voluntarily enlist to fight and die in far and savage lands that the dominion of England's flag may be extended? Why to-day are England's governed people themselves among the bravest of those who charge to their deaths in her defense? What, within a single half century, has thus reversed English colonial history and experience? Simply a statesmanship practical enough to consider sentiment as a real factor in the government of peoples.

The American masses, in whose breasts dwell the purity, power and hope of the Republic and of the world, understand this well. They mean to profit by the world's large lesson. They mean that our dominion shall be exercised in righteousness. They doubt not that human progress is one vast and swelling harmony which not even all the discords of history can destroy; and they mean that in that divine composition the noblest, highest, purest, tenderest note shall be that struck by the American people as the sovereign power of earth.

THE STAR OF EMPIRE

Speech opening the Republican Campaign for the West in the Auditorium, at Chicago, September 25, 1900, in reply to Mr. Bryan's Indianapolis speech accepting his second Democratic nomination for President. This speech was used by the Republicans as a National Campaign document.

"WESTWARD the Star of Empire takes its Way."

Not the star of kingly power, for kingdoms are everywhere dissolving in the increasing rights of men; not the star of autocratic oppression, for civilization is brightening and the liberties of the people are broadening under every flag. But the star of empire, as Washington used the word, when he called this Republic an "empire"; as Jefferson understood it, when he declared our form of government ideal for extending “our empire"; as Marshall understood it, when he closed a noble period of an immortal constitutional opinion by naming the domain of the American people "our empire."

This is the "empire" of which the prophetic voice declared "Westward the Star of Empire takes its Way" the star of the empire of liberty and law, of commerce and communication, of social order and the Gospel of our Lord the star of the empire of the civilization. of the world. Westward that star of empire takes its And to-day it illumines our path of duty across

course.

OPPOSING ARGUMENTS

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the Pacific into the islands and lands where Providence has called us.

In that path the American government is marching forward, opposed at every step by those who deny the right of the Republic to plant the institutions of the Flag where Events have planted that Flag itself. For this is our purpose, to perform which the Opposition declares that the Republic has no warrant in the Constitution, in morals or in the rights of man. And I mean to examine to-night every argument they advance for their policy of reaction and retreat.

It is not true, as the Opposition asserts, that every race without instruction and guidance is naturally selfgoverning. If so, the Indians were capable of self-government. America belonged to them whether they were or were not capable of self-government. If they were capable of self-government it was not only wrong, but it was a crime to set up our independent government on their land without their consent. If this is true, the Puritans, instead of being noble, are despicable characters; and the patriots of 1776, to whom the Opposition compares the Filipinos, were only a swarm of land pirates. If the Opposition is right, the Zulus who owned the Transvaal were capable of self-government; and the Boers who expelled them, according to the Opposition, deserve the abhorrence of righteous men.

But while the Boers took the lands they occupy from the natives who peopled them; while we peopled this country in spite of the Indian who owned it; and while this may be justified by the welfare of the world which those events advanced, that is not what is to be done in the Philippines. The American government, as a gov

ernment, will not appropriate the Filipinos' land or permit Americans as individuals to seize it. It will protect the Filipinos in their possessions. If any American secures real estate in the Philippines, it will be because he buys it from the owner. Under American administration the Filipino who owns his little plot of ground will experience a security in the possession of his property that he has never known before.

The English in Egypt and India have not taken the land from its owners; they have confirmed the occupants in their ownership. In Hawaii we have not taken the land from its owners; we have secured its owners in their peaceable possession. And our administration in the Philippines will also establish there that same security of property and life which is the very beginning of civilization itself.

If it be said that tropical countries can not be peopled by the Caucasian race, I answer that, even if true, it is no reason why they should not be governed by the Caucasian race. India is a tropical country. India is ruled by England to the advantage of India and England alike. Who denies that India's 300,000,000 are better off under English administration than under the bestial tyranny of native rulers, to whom the agony of their subjects was the highest form of amusement?

Dare Mr. Bryan say that he would have India back to its condition before England took it? If he dare not, he is answered. Dare he say that he would withdraw English rule now? If he dare not, he is answered. Dare he say that he would take the English "residents" from the Malay States and turn them back again to the rule of their brutal lords? If he dare not, he is answered.