The San Francisco call., 1901-12-03
PEACE TREATY TAKES
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
DOMESTIC TERRITORY
Chief Justice Fuller Decides the Diamond
Ring Cases Against the United States
Government.

wv WASHINGTON, Dec. 2.-Opin-
" N ions were rendered in the Su-
WW preme Court to-day in the
v " last two of the insular test
cases. One of them, the case
of Emil ]. Pepke against the United
States, is better known as the fourteen
diamond ring case" and involved tne re-
lationship of the United States to the
Philippine Islands from tarin point OF
view. The other case, known as the
Dooley case No. 2, involved the const1tu-
tionality of the collection OF duty on
goods shipped from New York TO Porto
! Rico.
In the former case the court. through
| Chief Justice Fuller, held that the ola-
mond rings brought in from the Philip
pines and over which the case arose
should have been exempt from duty un-
| der the Paris treaty of peace, as tnat
| treaty made the Philippines American
| territory. The decision in the Ph11pplne
case followed closely that OF the nrst
Porto Rican case in the last term.
In the Dooley case decided to-day IL
was held that the duty collected on
| goods carried from New York to Porto
! Rico was permissible, but that 1t was IN
reality tax for the benefit OF the Porto
Ricans themselves, rather than an export
duty. as was claimed by the merchants
/ who antagonized the Government
In both cases there were dissenting
| opinions concurred in by four OF the hlne
Justices of the court.
The decisions were rendered in the
room of the Senate Committee on Ju-
| dietary, where the court is sitting tenn
| porariIy, and owing to the limited space
! there were comparatively few persons
! present. -.
The delivery of the opinions IN cnleI'
with the reading of the dissenting oplh-
ions, consumed little more tndn dn
| hour. and it was listened to with the
| closest attention
It is generally believed that the hnd-
ing in the Philippine case will lead 10
early efforts to secure legislation Ior
the regulation of our commercial rela-
tions with those islands. AS the Porto
| Rican opinion sustaiDs the constlIulon-
/ o1jtv of the Foraker act, no such neces-
! sity will arise with reference 10 Porto
Rico.
History of the Pepke Case.
The record in the Pepke case shows
that Pepke, who was the respondent IN
49, court below was a soldier in the
army of the United States in the island
! of Iuzon: that while there and after the
| ratification of the peace treaty he pur-
! erased the fourteen diamond rings which
are involved in the case i he "a a1fSg"AI4 Yer ser-
| vice of the United States, aboard Uniteu
States vessel transporting his regiment 70
San Francisco, where he was mustered
out. Later he went with the rings 70
| Chicago, where the rings were seized by
| the customs officials under the claim
| that the Philippines were forelgn terri terri
| tory and merchandise brought from tnose
! islands was subject to duties. Pepke set
IN the claim that customs duties on mer-
| chandise under the circumstances were
contrary to the e. U91fed g states e,tiaen ia%s anu
| The case came to the Supreme CourS
from the District Court of the United
States for the Northern DIVISION OF I'LL
nois In that court the facts set up il
| PenIxe's plea were admitted by demur-
| rer filed by the United States, and that
court sustained the demurrer, oVerru1ng
the plea and entering judgment against
| the merchandise seized and directing that
II be sold in accordance with the law, and
from this decision the present writ OF er-
| ror was prosecuted.
In his opinion in the case, Chief Jus
! tice Fuller said that the Philippine ISL
ands ceased to be tTes9 Ieggn of as
signed and the resolution to which ne
referred as being ineffective was the res
olution adopted by the Senate soon after
| the ratification of the treaty.
| After stating the case at some length,
Chief Justice Fuller quoted somewhat ex-
tensively from the % opinion 9f this court I;t
| principal quotation from that case was
! the paragraph setting forth the theory
| that a country remains foreign with re-
|
| has acted by embracing it within the
| customs. The opinion then continued as
| follows:
Philippines Are Domestic Territory,
No reason is perceived for any different rul-
| ing as to the Philippines BY the third article
| of the treaty Spain ceded to the United States
1.-THE archipelago known as the Philippine
Islands, and the United States agreed to
pay to Spain the of SO. o0O, 600 within three
months The treaty was ratified; Congress ap-
propriated the money; the ratification was pro-