Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-09

that trade between the United States and
the Island of Porto Rico shall be unre-
strieted by any custom duties whatever,
and that we shall redeem the good faith
and the implied pledges of this country TO
the people of that island.''
Porto Ricans as Citizens.
Senator Lindsay said that the Senate
measure contains all the Objectionable fea-
lures of the House bill and also a provis-
ion absolutely inconsistent with the taxing
power it asserted. He then called attention
to the fact that the Senate bill declared
that all Porto Ricans who were Spanish
subjects should be deemed citizens of the
United States, and took issue with Senator
forakers contention that Citizen" when
used in the treaty of Paris, meant merely
that person owes allegiance to the gov
eminent.
Any action We took as TO them could not.
in his view. determine the civil rights and
the political status of the Filipinos, for it
was matter of expediency with us.
Moreover, the Philippines. while lawfully
subject to our sovereign jurisdiction, are
not integral parts of the United States. and
their inhabitants were not, in his opinion,
entitled to claim that they can be governed
only under and in exact accordance with
the Constitution of the United States.
The doctrine that the Constitution of the
United States follows the flag, and that no
country to which title may be acquired.
whether by treaty or conquest, can be held
end governed otherwise than as an integral
portion of the United States, did not COM
mend itself to him.
1t was to avoid the claim that, by the ac-
ceptance of the cession from Spain, we
placed ourselves under obligations to the
people of the coded territory, to clothe
them with American citizenship, however
fnexpedient or preporterous, or even dam
gerous, 1T might be to do so, that the stipu-
lations of the old French, Spanish and
Mexican treaties were omitted, and q ma
terially different stipulation inserted in the
treaty of Paris.
anti-imperial sentiment of the country
would not, he said of course accept his
view. They would attach no controlling
importance to the covenants contained In
earlier treaties fixing the status of country
and people ceded to us and not leaving this
10 extend ex proprio vigoro under the Con-
stitution, but would claim that without
them the Constitution would have extended
ceded territories and converted their in
habitants into citizens of the United States
Difference in Treaties.
Summing up his position with reference
to the difference between the treaty of
Paris and other treaties by which the
United States had acquired territory, Sen
ator Lindsay said:
The treaty of Paris does not provide as
have other treaties, that the Inhabitants
OF the territories ceded by Spain shall at
any time, or in any contingency, be made
citizens of the United States. or that their
civil rights are to be measured by the
federal Constitution. Those rights are com
mitted to the determination of Congress.
The Asiatic countries ceded by Spain can
not be Incorporated into our Union. Their
people cannot be admitted to the rights
of citizenship. We have, therefore, the
alternatives either to refuse the perform
ance of the duty which, in the estimation
of the civilized world, We assumed by the
acceptance of the cession, or else courag-
eously to set about the task of giving TO
these people the best government they are
capable of administering. / do not favor,
and ] do not believe the American peope
favor, the permanent holding of the Fill
pinos in a state of vassalage, but we do
not hasten the day of their national en-
reimbursement by demanding for them
rights which their conditions make it i'm
possible for them to enjoy, or by charg-
ing them with duties they are palpably
unable to perform.
Legislation for Porto Rico.
Satisfied that the Supreme Court will
be slow to enter on the work OF impair
ing the discretion intended to be secured
to Congress by the treaty of Paris, and
that there is no reasonable ground for
fearing that it will decide, either that the
citizenship of the Filipinos must be rec
ogniZed on the one hand, or the exercise
OF federal jurisdiction over them and the
countries they inhabit abandoned on the
other, l insist that we may legislate for
Porto Rico and its people in the broadcast
spirit of justice and generosity without
endangering our authority to solve the
Asiatic problem on lines consistent with the
best interests of the United States and of
the Philippines. on principles that will
secure to the people of those islands ma
tional autonomy whenever they may dem
onstrate their capacity and disposition to
preserve domestic order and to perform
the international obligations that must be
assumed should they become an independ-
ent state.
We cannot forget that, with the cession
of Porto Rico. she lost the principal mar
kets she had long enjoyed: that our tariff
laws have been systematically applied to
Spain and Cuba, which were once open
to her. can only be reached now by the
payment of Spanish and Cuban duties She
has lost free intercourse with Spain and