The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1901-12-07
Status of the Philippines.

DAILY States.
Last summer when the first of the insular
cases were decided by the Supreme Court
of the United States, the questions affecting
the Philippines were not touched. The
court decided two cases from Porto Rico.
in one of which it was held that prior to the
passage of the Foraker enactment, Porto
Rico, being part of the domestic territory
of the United States. tariff taxes could not
be levied on commerce between that island
and the United States. The other decision
was concerned with tax that had been
collected after the passage of the Foraker
act, and in this the majority of the
court held that Congress had the power to
impose a tariff upon trade with that terri
tory, and that the act establishing such a
tariff was constitutional and proper.
The t'Fourteen Diamond Rings case,
decided by the court yesterday, came
pretty much in the class of cases
with the FIRST of the cases above
referred to. The matter got into the court
by an attempt on the part of the customs
officers to collect tariff duties upon fourteen
diamond rings, which American soldier
in the Philippines purchased in Manila and
brought back to this country when he was
discharged from army service. The lower
court sustained the customs officer, and the
case was taken up on appeal to the Supreme
Court of the United States, where the deci-
sion of the court was reversed, Chief Justice
Fuller being the organ of the court, though
four of the nine justices dissented. The
court held that the Philippines, having be-
come American territory under the terms of
the treaty of Paris, they are now domestic
territory and therefore, following the deci-
sion OF the De Lima case, which was the
first of the two Porto Rican cases decided
last summer. articles coming into the United
States from that territory are not subject to
customs duties.
This was the case with Porto Rico up to
the time of the Foraker act, but the Repub-
licans evendently overlooked the Philippines
when they were framing that act, hence it's
provisions were not made to apply to that
archipelago. Up to this time, in SO far
tariff regulations go, the constitution follows
the flag to the Philippines; although now
that the attention of the Republicans in
Congress has been called to that fact by the
courts decision, they will doubtless take
immediate steps to secure the divorce of the
constitution from the emblem of the coun-
try's power. and to permi, the flag to go it
alone while the constitution comes back to
the mainland. Under the decision in the
Downes case the second of the Porto Rican
decisions last summer. Congress has the
power to enact special tariff laws for
insular possessions, and acting under this
authority time will be lost in eacting
legislation take what little there may be
of the constitution remaining there out of
the Philippines, and to complete the abso-
lutte dominance of the sweet will of Con-
gress and of the President in all matters
the government of that section.
The decision of the court in the ''Fourteen
Diamond Rings" case is proper, but the
Republican Congress may be depended upon
to circumvent it's doctrine and to reduce the
Philippines to the level of subjects of an
imperial government.