Speech #560024890

I may say. thousands of remonstrances and earnest protests have been received by members of Congress from labor organizations. manufacturers of sugar. cigars. and various other industrial enterprises of this country. They unite in their protests against free importations from these new possessions of goods and articles raised and manufactured by the cheap and underpaid labor of these islands. They enter their solemn protest. not onlyagainst free trade between the United States and these islands. which bring the people of our own country in competition in trade with the people of these islands. but also against the immigration here of labor that is employed and paid at from 10 to 15 cents per day to compete with our labor. To avoid this awkward dilemma the Republican party is compelled to assume an extraordinary position with reference to these islands. You contend that these islands occupy the anomalous condition of being both in and out of the Union at one and the same time. that they are in the United States for the purposes of. being governed and controlled by the Congress of the United States. and out of the United States for the purposes of tariff taxation. that they are citizens of the United States for all purposes of Congressional action and taxation. but not citizens in the sense of being entitled to the protection of the Constitution. that they are a part of the United States in the sense that Congress is authorized to legislate and govern them at its own sweet will and pleasure. but not a part of the United States in the. sense that the Constitution applies to them andprotects them.