"The late candidate for Vice President ?" He answered, "The same." Thereupon the fortune teller answered that with great pride and pleasure he would undertake to accommodate him. Fitting his action to his word, he took his hand, and, after looking at it very carefully for a few seconds, dropped it and solemnly announced, "Mr. Davis, your fortune is precisely the same as it was before you were nominated.” Appreciation for the incident was shown by the great hilarity that ensued. I doubt if anyone appreciated the humor of it more than Mr. Davis himself.* Since the text was in print Mr. Arthur W. Dunn's book, "Gridiron Nights," has been published, and I find in it a reference to this incident, after which he adds: "This was not the only allusion to the supposition that the venerable West Virginia Democrat had been nominated because of his very large financial resources, and the further fact that his contributions fell short of expectations. In a 'dead letter' skit was found a letter from the Democratic National Committee, acknowledging receipt of $7.39 from Davis. Mr. Davis enjoyed it as well as anybody could. Mr. Davis and his son-in-law, Stephen B. Elkins, figured in a harmony performance where both were brought out and the statement made that politics should not divide families after the campaign was over. They were advised to shake hands and be friends. This they did amid the plaudits of the company, Davis remarking that he could stand for anything." CHAPTER XXXIII. PORTO RICO AND THE PHILIPPINES. ITH respect to Porto Rico we had no specific pledges to WITH redeem, but we had a general duty to govern that people in accordance with the spirit of our institutions, although outside constitutional restrictions and limitations, that it was deemed unwise if not impossible to apply there. I have already mentioned that at the beginning of the 56th Congress, December, 1899, we appointed three new permanent committees, one for Cuba, one for the Philippines, and one for the Pacific Islands and Porto Rico. Of this I was made chairman. On account of this assignment the duty fell to my committee, and especially to me, as its chairman, to draft what proved to be the first organic law ever enacted for the government of territory belonging to the United States, and yet not a part of the United States; a distinction and honor I have always appreciated; especially so in view of the successful result of my efforts. I had, before entering upon it, a good preparation for this duty in connection with the discussion of some resolutions introduced by Senator Vest of Missouri, in which he denied to the United States Government constitutional power to acquire, hold and govern territory, without making it an integral part of the United States. He had introduced his resolutions in anticipation of the acquisitions resulting from the war, and for the purpose, if he could secure their adoption, of making it impossible for us to hold colonial dependencies. I spoke in opposition to his resolutions on the 11th day of January, 1899. My speech on that occasion was, under all the circumstances, one of the most important I made during all my service in the Senate. I took pains to review with care all the authorities bearing upon the question of the powers of our Government in the particulars named; advancing and supporting the proposition as well as I could that we were not inferior, but the equal in governmental power of any other nation in the family of nations, and that, as our fathers declared in the Declaration of Independence, we should have, we did have full power to "levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do." As soon as my committee was organized I took testimony as to the character of the population of Porto Rico, and as to general conditions existing there, and then drafted what became the first organic law of the island; a statute approved by the President April 12, 1900, and upheld as a valid and constitutional enactment by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U. S., page 244, and in a number of other cases decided May 27, 1901. In all these decisions the statute was referred to as the Foraker Act. MT. FORAKER. Digressing for a moment from the thread of events I am mentioning, I note the fact that, in addition to the amendment prohibiting the granting of franchises in Cuba, called in my honor the Foraker Amendment, and this organic law for Porto Rico, called in my honor the Foraker Act, I was about the same time similarly and most unexpectedly remembered by having a mountain in Alaska named in my honor by Lieutenant Joseph S. Herron of the Eighth U. S. Cavalry, who discovered the same in 1899 while making an official exploration under the orders of the War Depart ment. According to his official report made and filed in 1901, this mountain is a part of the so-called McKinley Range, of which Mt. McKinley is said to be the highest peak on the continent, its height being given by Lieutenant Herron in his official report as 20,464 feet, while the height of Mt. Foraker is given in the same report as 20,000 feet. His report is accompanied by official maps and a sketch of these two mountains, of which I insert herewith an official copy. With this legislation and these decisions the way was cleared for intelligent action in the Philippines, where we had as yet done only preliminary work. That this was fully appreciated by Governor Taft is shown by the following extract from a letter: HONORABLE J. B. FORAKER, United States Senate, My Dear Senator: MANILA, P. I., July 22, 1901. I congratulate you on the result of the Supreme Court decision sustaining your view originally expressed on the constitutional question of so much importance to the welfare of these islands. A decision that the Dingley Tariff necessarily extends to the collection of imports in these islands would have produced a chaos and a difficulty in government here that I dislike to contemplate. Of course we have difficulties enough as it is, but the confusion and real hardship to the inhabitants involved by bringing these islands within the walls of the tariff never designed for their need can hardly be exaggerated. I presume that the discussion of the Philippines will continue with unabated zest in the next session of Congress. We have been so much occupied in trying to organize civil governments that we have not as yet begun to work upon the report which we are enjoined by Congress and executive order to prepare, but we hope to get it to the Secretary before Congress meets. With warm regards and cordial remembrances, believe me, Most sincerely yours, WM. H. TAFT. The statute so enacted for Porto Rico has continued with very few changes from that time until this to be the organic law of the island. That my work in securing the passage of this law was appreciated by those competent to judge other than Judge |