The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-22
CONSTITUTION AND FLAG.

| government is bound by the constitution
in governing the island possessions, and
whether this island empire after -acquisi-
ton from Spain is part of the United
! States or still foreign country. For
/ a week the case has been exhaustively
| argued before the court. Court deci
| sions and the nations history have been
ransaclled for precedents. of law and eX-
! ecutive policy. Inasmuch the two
cases before the court involve the ques-
ton of national revenue and taxation.
the court according to custom is ex-
pected to transmit as" early and prompt
a decision as its deliberations will per-
| nit; so that within a few months the
| great constitutional issues which for two
years have -agitated the legal and pO-
litical thought of the country will in all
probability be settled so far as concerns
the de ;erm nation of the highest judicial
! tribunal OF the land.
Two cases are before the court for
| joint consideration both involving The ap
plication of the tariff laws; one appeal
ing against the payment of tariff duties
on goods imported from Porto Rico. and
the other on goods imported from the
| Philippines. The argument of appellants
from the rulings of the custom hotse-
and the lower court, is substantially as
follows:
First-Congress derives all of it's pow
ers from the constitution, and cannot
make laws for any country where the
constitution is not in force. Unless
the constitution extends to Porto Rico
and the Philippines, congress has no au-
| thcrity there.
| Secondly ratifica ton of the treaty
Porto Rico and the Philippines became
| part of the United States and entitled
to the constitutional guarantees, among
! which are freedom of trade and uniform
taxation throughout the United States.
Third-TlIe tariff law Of 1897, as stated
in the enacting clause, operates only
against "articles imported from foreign
countries;' and Porto Rico and the Phil
| lipines, since the ratification of the
| treaty, April Il, 1899, have not been for.
| eign countries, but part of the terri
| terry of the United States.
Fcurth-Congress derives its power to
| enact tariff laws from article /, section
| s. of the constitution, which provides
that ''all duties, imposts and excuses
shall be uniform throughout the United
states"
1t is now nearly fifty years since the
United States supreme court decided the
almost parallel case of California, at that
time recently acquired by conquest and
treaty from Mexico and governed under
a territorial regime not unlike that Of
Louisiana and Porto Rico, The court in
that case Gross KS. Harrison, 16 Howard.
les, 191-20D decided: First, that "by the
ratification of the treaty California be-
came part OF the United States;''
| second, 1.-The constitution of the United
! States extends to California; and third,
that California under the constitution be-
came subject to the provision, that all
| duties, mposts, and excuses Shall be uni
form Throughout the United States"
! Congressman Iittleheld in his famous
| speech in congress on the Porto Rican
bill cites five subsequent cases where the
! above doctrine in Cross VS. Harrison has
| been cited by the supreme court and ap-
/ proved.
O. 1t is nearly eighty years since the de-
ri. Of
| the celebrated case of Lcu3hborough vs.
Blake g Wheaton, 3i9), involving the
| same issue, and raising the question
| whether the constitution and its uniform
tax provision extended to the District of
Columbia, which, ike Porto Rico is a
territory and not state. The court, in
| the words of Chief Justice Marshall, held:
| ''The District of Columbia or the terri
tory west~of the Missouri (then an un-
explored Wild is not. less within the
United States than Maryland or Pennsvl-
vania, and it is not less necessary on
the principles CT our constitution that
uniformity in the imposition of imposts,
duties and excuses shall be observed in
the one than in the other
This case has been cited and approved
| by the supreme court in three subse-
| quent cases involving national taxation.
! Moreover, furs and oil shipped from
Alaska after the ratification Of the Alas
kan treaty, in 1867 have been admitted
by the United States treasury depart
| ment, by official instruction, free of duty.
1t is interesting to note that Judge Ma
COON, legal adviser of the insular branch
of the war department, i'll a brief render
ed in May, 1899, gav<s it as his opinion
that there was no question that Porto
Rico was a part of the United States,
or that the constitution extended to it,
and that congress had no power to levy
tariff taxes on goods imported from Por-
to Rico or shipped TO it from other por-
lions of the United States President
Mckinley followed with the famous mes
sage of one year ago, in which he de-
clared, ''oUr plain duty is to abolish the
customs tariff between the United StStes
and Porto Rico"
But when the Porto Rican tariff fight
grew hot. both Mckinley and Magoon re-
versed themselves. Secretary of War
Root, page q of his report, outlined the
new administration doctrine thus: 'The
provision of the constitution prescribing
uniformity Of duties throughout the
United States was not meant for them
dhe Porto Ricans) but was a provision