The age-herald., 1899-07-09
Between Territory in Our Pos-
 session and That Which
IS PART OF OUR TERRITORY
The Supreme Court Has Held That Mi l. tary Occupation Does Not Ex- tend the Boundaries of
 the United States.

Washington, July S.-The Peninsular com- mission has prepared an exhaustive opinion by which they hold that the islands in pos session of the United States as result of the war with Spain are not part of the territory of the United States.
 Copies of this opinion have been furnish ed to the secretary of war and the attorney general, and 1t is surmised that the attor- ney general will shortly prepare an official opinion upon this important question. The commission holds that there is radical difference between territory a part of the United States and territory in the possess sion of the United States. It has been generally conceded, they say, that we can do as we please with the islands which we obtained from Spain. that we can sell them. give them away or turn them over to the inhabitants who live upon them, for the establishment of independent government. If this general admission is true, then they affirm the islands can not be part of the territory of the United States, because no part of the United States can be alienated. The United States can neither sell or alien- ate any portion of its territory, nor can any portion of the territory alienate itself from the United States
 Settled by War of Secession.
 This was well settled by the war of se- cession The supreme court has held that boundaries of the U. A L.. and the com mission claim that the Spanish cession merely confirmed our military occupation. There was nothing in the treaty of Paris which made the islands we obtained from Spain a part of our territory. In this re- spect the treaty was markedly different from those by which We obtained Louisi- ana and Florida. By the terms of both these latter treaties the territory acquired was to become part of the United States and the inhabitants thereof at the time of the cession were to be entitled to all of the privileges and immunities of citizenship. The situation with reference to the Pacific, Hawaii and the Philippines, the commission says, is practically the same as that of the territory acquired from Mexico in the war of 1864.
 Decision IS Irrevocable.
 Once Porto Rico and other islands are recognized as territory of the United States, the decision, the commission holds, is rre- vocable. All the laws of the United States are Immediately extended over the islands, citizenship is conferred upon the inhabi- tants and commerce between the islands and the United States becomes free in vir- tue of the constitutional provisions inhibit- ing the levying of duties between ports of the United States territory. Members of the commission believe that the courts of the United States, in rendering a decision of this question, would of necessity follow the political policy of the government They have prepared a code of laws for extension over the islands With reference to the tariff duties they believe that much injury results from the present conditions
 While the military government has the power in Porto Rico, for instance, to reduce the tariff on goods entering the island. it has no power to reduce the tariff upon ex- ports from the island to the United States Therefore, they say. it would be manifestly unfair to negotiate reciprocity treaties with Barbadoes, Jamaica and other West Indian islands by which they could get their products into the United States at lower rate than those which come from