The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-02-21
GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONIES.

GONERNMENT OF Thh toLoNiEs'
The question whether Porto Rio, and
our Other irsular possessions ars under
the constitution by res son of their an.
pexation to this country Is one that will
not te finally settled until the suprsms
Court has passed upon 1t. II the Court
should decide affirmatiyely then the
people of these islands would
be entitled to the same privileges and i'm :
munities as the people of Oklahoma or
Idaho, Trade between the islsrds and this
country would necessarily be frse. their
Inhabitants would become citizsns OF the
United States and might freely come to
any Of the states of the union AMI settle
there. 1t Ia uselfss to speculate as to
what the decision OF the court Will lie.
Able arguments oan be made on both
sides, and we dismiss this question
with the remark that courts are greatly
affected by cisoum stances and conditions
In constr u,ng the scope Of the fundamen-
tai law, so that the earlier decisions OF
the court when circu instances and oon-
ditious were very different from what
they are now cannot be regarded as a
safe indication of what the decision OF
the court will 9 In this year Of our Lord
400.
The question which We propose to con-
sIdsr briefly is this. Assuming that Con-
gres, has the power either to treat our
irsllar POSSESSIONS as territory not under
the onnstitr tlcn, or to treat them as terri
tory subjsct to the Limitations of that in
strumsnt which would 1t bs expsdient to
choose. II Congress wants to give the In
terests Of the colonies precedencs, then
there can be little question that 10 csn
bes. do S, by placing them under the
constitution. That viii secure to them
certain great privileges at ,onoe. 1t will
assure them of a free market In this
country for al their products. 1t will az
sure them the right to come and go with
perfect freedom, and IL will assure their
labaring Glasses the right to compets with
the laboring CLASSES Of the present states
and tsrrit ,rIss of the union. In short 1t
will secure to them at once all the rights
and privil sges Of Citizen OF Maine or
New York except the right to be repre-
ssnssd In the halls of Congress. and 1t
will open the way to the ultimate posfes-
sion of even this right.
But when the casa is Viewed from the
standpoint of the interests of the people
of the ct ates ami terr,t 1ries Of the present
union the auswer must be that those in
tsrests win he best subservsd by not plac-
ing the ooioEies under the constitution
IL 10 exceedingly unfortunate that we
should have annexed to this country peo-
Piles Of such q character that we need
protection against than. But a.
annexation Is contaminated, proba-
big beyond recall, . policy should
be pursued that will reduos its evils to
the lowest farms possible consistent with
she proper discharge Of the obligations
which we are under to the peoples whom
we have forced TO accept our sovereignty.
II we place them under the constitution
We throw wide open o Pandora box of
evils. We cannot then prevent the Taga-
logs and Suius Of the Philippines or
country and adding immensely TO our
slrsaay exceedingly perplexing racs and
labor problems. We cannot prevent these
islands from bscoming states Of this
union With senators and repressn tativss,
whenever a majority in Congrsss may see
political advantages In admitting them
to that right. We cannot prevent
these Moi ilizsd people from aspiring
TO help sorsrn US. with the danger ever
present that thsy may suc-esd. We can
net smut out thsir products or plaos q
duty upon them. We cannot, in short,
do anything to protsct ourselves Agains,
them. 1t Is not for the welfare of the
people OF this union that any such oon-
tions shp uld prevail. Tbs Eemi-civtlissd