ANNEXATION DANGEROUS

TO

TO LABOR.

BY HON. HORACE CHILTON,

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM TEXAS.

The pending treaty of peace between the United States and Spain, which has been made public by order of the Senate, contains three main articles. By Article I Spain relinquishes all claim of title to Cuba. By Article II Spain cedes to the United States the Island of Porto Rico and other islands under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies and the Island of Guam in the Ladrones. By Article III Spain makes like absolute cession of the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands and the United States agree to pay Spain $20,000,000.

There are other dependent articles, the most important of which is, probably, Article VII, by which the two Governments relinquish all claim for indemnity on the part of either Government or its citizens against the other Government arising out of the troubles in Cuba, and in which the United States agree to settle such claims on the part of our citizens against Spain. This may develop into an obligation of many millions against our Government. The amount has not been ascertained nor even estimated with any approximate accuracy.

The first two articles of the treaty present no difficulties. We are satisfied with a relinquishment of Cuba to its own people. Few Senators object to taking a cession of Porto Rico, which lies in the Western

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Hemisphere. The Island of Guam, in the Ladrones, is not more than two or three times as large as the District of Columbia, and contains a population of only four or five thousand. It is a convenient size for a coaling and naval station, and we would have no perplexities of government for future settlement.

The article relating to the Philippines is the one upon which our differences of opinion turn.

I am not an anti-expansionist. I believe that it is the duty and the interest of this country to widen its boundaries as time goes on. But I would not do this indiscriminately. In case of doubt, I would adhere closely to the policy of the forefathers. In my judgment the taking of the Philippines will bring peril both to the interests and the institutions of the American people. It is not an acquisition which will add to the comfort and glory of the Republic, like that of Louisiana, or Florida, or Texas, or New Mexico and California.

It seems to me a matter of astonishment that such a radical far-reaching responsibility should be courted upon the scantiness of the information which we possess in regard to the subject-matter of our acquisition.

Perhaps no Senator upon this floor ever set foot upon the Philippine Islands, and few will claim that they possess that grasp upon the case which they would feel necessary in an important private transaction.

We know in a general way that there are from 1,200 to 1,800 islands in the Philippine group, that four or five hundred of them are inhabited, and that a great many of them are so barren that they contain not a single soul. We know that there are from 7,000,000 to 12,000,000 people upon them. My own opinion is that there are nearer 7,000,000 than 12,000,000, be

cause we know how customary it is to exaggerate the population of the Eastern nations.

There is no homogeneity among those people. Some profess one religion, some another. Some have. never been under the actual sovereignty of Spain. They represent all grades of society from rank savages to the semi-civilized children of Spanish and Chinese fathers and native Malay mothers. A mere handful of Germans, English, and Spaniards are there, but they are so few that they need not be taken into account.

We

Now, the first thing which would have to be done after the United States went into the Philippines would be to bring the islands under settled rule. would have to do what Spain, after three hundred years of trial, with all the instrumentalities of tyranny at her command, has been unable to do. We would need a great and growing army.

If we will confine our operations to Porto Rico and Cuba, no additions to our present Regular Army will be necessary. We need but few soldiers inside the present borders of the United States, and our existing military force can be spared largely for Porto Rico and Cuba. Porto Rico is small in area and at peace. That island can be policed by two or three companies of good soldiers. Nor is there great danger in Cuba.

The fact of the proximity of the United States to the West Indies, that our great power hangs over the islands like a mountain side, the hopelessness of making headway against this Government in a rebellion or insurrection, will deter those in Porto Rico. and Cuba who might otherwise be factors in disturbance from doing anything in opposition to our just rule.

But, sir, when we go to the Philippine Islands a different problem is thrust upon us. We will need a standing army of European proportions, and with that standing army will come all the vast consequences of present and future expense, which the American people should never forget. We will have retired lists for Army and Navy officers expanding faster than we expand our dominion; we will have pensions piled on pensions to the latest generation; we will have our minds constantly fixed upon visions of war and conquest rather than peace and industrial advancement, and for years the Pacific cables will bring bloody news to the homes of America.

But, sir, after we go there, after we have subjected those islands under great stress and great expense to the Government of our country, what a complexity. of social and political problems is brought to our doors. Take, for example, the labor problem.

There are two distinct dangers which it is hardly possible to avert. Those dangers are, first, the competition of the pauper laborers of the Philippine Islands who may come to our shores. The second is the danger of the competition of the pauper-made products sent out from the Philippine Islands to flood and disparage American markets.

It is hardly material to the consideration of this question whether the Philippine Islanders become citizens or not when they are admitted into the bounds of our Republic. All persons who are within the jurisdiction of this country have the free right of locomotion from one part of our dominion to another. Would it be within the power of Congress to say that an alien peacefully resident here should not go from one of our Territories to another?