Speech #580056238

The development of Alaska means the development of American ideasand the maintenance of American labor. The exploitation of our colonial possessions means the development of low wages and inferior labor. Porto Rico. Cuba. the Philippines. and Hawaii are a menace to American labor. There without immigration laws or contract laws or limitation upon cooly and Japanese labor is growing up a great competitive labor population. but in the development of Alaska the American miner and American labor is king. high wages and prosperity prevail. Let us divert the vast appropriations hitherto wasted in our colonial possessions in the development of the mighty empire of the West and the upbuilding of American labor.