States. The Administration of President McKinley desired to give the Porto Ricans all these privileges. Secretary Root said, in his annual report:

"It is plain that it is essential to the prosperity of the island that she should receive substantially the same treatment at our hands as she received from Spain while a Spanish colony, and that the markets of the United States should be opened to her as were the markets of Spain and Cuba before the transfer of allegiance. Congress has the legal right to regulate the customs duties between the United States and Porto Rico as it pleases; but the highest considerations of justice and good faith demand that we should not disappoint the confident expectation of sharing in our prosperity with which the people of Porto Rico so gladly transferred their allegiance to the United States, and that we should treat the interests of this people as our own; and I wish most strongly to urge that the customs duties between Porto Rico and the United States be removed."

In his annual message of December 5, 1899, President McKinley emphasized the same point. "It must be borne in mind," he said, "that since the cession Porto Rico has been denied the principal markets she had long enjoyed and our tariffs have been continued against her products as when she was under Spanish sovereignty. The markets of

Spain are closed to her products except upon terms to which the commerce of all nations is subjected. The Island of Cuba, which used to buy her cattle and tobacco without customs duties, now imposes the same duties upon these products as from any other country entering her ports. She has, therefore, lost her free intercourse with Spain and Cuba, without any compensating benefits in this market. Her coffee was little known and not in use by our people, and therefore there was no demand here for this, one of her chief products. The markets of the United States should be opened up to her products. Our plain duty is to abolish all customs tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico and give her products free access to our markets."

The people of the United States generally acquiesced in the judgment of the Administration. Congress, however, had different ideas, a majority of the President's party insisting upon the imposition of duties. For a time there was great excitement, and one distinguished Republican Senator exclaimed, in an agony of spirit, "a few weeks ago we were united and invincible; now we are divided and in danger of defeat!" The cry was raised that the duties were to be levied in the interests of the trusts. President McKinley could have secured immediate free trade with Porto Rico by pushing the measure

through Congress with the aid of Democratic votes. But he decided, instead, to change his policy. To an intimate friend, he explained: "We need party harmony on the greater and more important question of the Philippines. I know I shall be charged with weakness, but I prefer to endure any such charges rather than face the future with a disunited party." In his quiet way the President sent for Mr. Dingley and other members of the House Ways and Means Committee, and privately handed them the draft of a compromise. The bill, based upon this suggestion, in its final form provided a temporary duty of fifteen per cent of the Dingley rates, all revenues to be used exclusively for the benefit of Porto Rico, and to cease as soon as the new local government to be established by the operation of the act should provide and put into operation a system of local taxation to meet the necessities of the Government of Porto Rico. In any event the tariff was to cease on the 1st of March, 1902. The bill, which became known as the "Foraker Act," was duly passed, and was approved by the President on April 12, 1900. Civil government was established on May I, with Charles H. Allen, of Massachusetts, as governor. The new legislative assembly was elected in November and convened on December 3. Free trade with the United States was proclaimed on the 25th of