Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-23
TARIFF FOR PORTO RICO.
Debate Continued Mt Night Session n
the House,

the House.
The debate on the Porto Rican tariff bill
brought out several notable speeches in the
House yesterday, after The Stars report
closed, including one by Gen. Grosvenor OF
ONO, who answered a number of questions
as to the attitude of the President: an
other by Representative Mccall of Massa-
chusetts, the republican member of the
ways and means committee who dissented
from the majority report and Representa-.
tive Moody, another Massachusetts repub-
lcan. who sharply criticised the position of
his colleague.
The Supreme Courts Position
Mr.. Mccall in his speech referred to the
fact that the Supreme Court of the United
States had decided that goods brought from
territory belonging to the. United States
could not be burdened with an import duty.
Regarding this point he said:
If Congress has the power to levy duties
over an area comprising territories, then
the rule OF uniformity applies to that same
area Th1s Is in accordance with the pri-
mary rules of construction.
But the decision of the Supreme Court
put the matter above question. John Mar
snail, as great a jurist as ever sat UNION
the bench, declared IN Loughborough vs.
Blake that the rule of uniformity in the
tories
A fantastic theory which has been dis
covered by some modern jurists within
eighteen months holds that this opinion
OF Marshalfs was a mere dictum and that
the District of Columbia in regard 10
which the decision was rendered got under
lhe Constitution by some process which
made it different from a mere territory
1t is only necessary to say that in all
the long line of decisions concerning the
constitutional status of the District of CO.
lumbla the court has shown its ignorance
OF this modern doctrine and treats the Dis
tr1ct as a vulgar territory A third of n
century after the Loughborough case the
Supreme Court again. when California be-
came territory, decided that the rule Of
uniformity would apply to it.
Here are two different decisions a gem
Grafton apart, by our highest court. each
rendered when the court was composed of
entirely different justices, specifically hold
ing that the rule of uniformity in inlposts
applies to territories and those decisions
in the face of those decisions we who
have taken an oath to protect and defend
the Constitution are asked to levy duties
against an American territory.
If Congress is not bound by these limf-
tatlons against taxing unequally 1t is not
bound by any limitation upon its power in
the Constitution. The case is conclusive
so far as judicial authority is concerned
and when we regard the circumstances out
OF which our government and the Consti-
tuition sprang the words of the taxing
power, the direct adjudication of their
meaning the long line of authorities which
deny the existence of absolute power in
Congress, 1t is clear that the theory OF
despotic power is absolutely repugnant to
our Institutions"
AT the night session speeches were made
by Wilson of South Carolina Lewis of
Georgia and Spight of Mississippi in oppo-
Sfuon to the bill. The session was entirely
without noteworthy incidents, and at 8 D. M
the House adjourned.