The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-03
DUTIES WERE ILLEGAL.
THE PHILIPPINE CASE DECIDED
 AGAINST GOVERNMENT.
Islands Are U. s. Territ0ry-Status Not Altered by Resolution of Congress- Another Porto Rico Ruling-Opinions Handed Down To-day by the United Supreme Court tn the Remaining Insular Cases.
Insular Cases.

Washington, Dec. 2--The United
 States supreme court to-day rendered 2
 decision in the case of Emil J. Pepke vs
 the United States. This is the case known as the "Fourteen Diamond Rings
 Case" and involves the constitutional ity of the imposition of customs duties upon merchandise brought into the
 United States from the Philippines af- ter the exchange of the peace treaty
 with Spain.
 The opinion was handed down by Chief Justice Fuller and was adverse to the claims of the government on the ground that the Philippine Islands were, at the time the rings were brought in, American territory. Ceas- ing to be foreign territory, they be- came domestic territory, he said. The decisions in the De Lima Porto Rican cases were cited at length, and it was held that the resolution adopted by con- gress concerning the Philippines was not sufficient to change the situation. Chief Justice Fuller said that the Phil ippine Islands ceased to be foreign ter ritory as soon as the Paris treaty Of peace was signed and the resolution to which he referred as being ineffective and not binding was the resolution adopted by the senate soon after the ratification of the treaty.
 After stating the case at some length Chief Justice Fuller quoted somewhat extensively from the opinion of this court in the case of De Lima vs. Bid- well. His principal quotation was the rh fnrtb Inc theory that. a country remains foreign with respect to the tariff laws until congress has acted by embracing it within the GUS toms. The opinion then continued as follows:
 "No reason is perceived for any diff ferent ruling as to the Philippines. By the third article of the treaty Spain ceded to the United States the archi- pelago known as the Philippine Isl- ai1ds,' and the United States agreed to pay Spain the sum of $20,00O0O0 within three months. The treaty was ratified; congress appropriated the money; the ratification was proclaimed"
 The treaty-making power, the execu- tive power, the legislative power con- cured in the completion of the trans action. The Philippines thereby ceased, in tie language of the treaty 'to be Spanish Ceasing to be Spanish, they ceased to be foreign country. They came under the complete and absolute sovereignty and dominion of the Unit ed states.
 The chief justice concluded his opin- ion by reversing the decision of the court below.
 Justice Brown read an opinion con- curing in the result, but differing from the conclusions drawn on minor points. Justices Gray, Shiras. White and Me- Kenna dissented.
 This case is one of the two important cases left undecided by the court at its last term, when it decided a number Of cases involving the customs relations of the United States with its insular pos sessions. The cases decided at that time bore entirely upon the relations of this country with Porto Rico, and this was the only case of a large num- Der which were then argued and con- sidered which involved the relations of the United States with the Philippines The other case involved the right to impose duties on articles exported from the United States to Porto Rico. Much interest has been manifested in this Philippine case, because of the proba- bility of legislation relating to the Phil ippines at the approaching session of 
 The record shows that Pepke who was the respondent in the court below. was q soldier in the army of the United i States in the island of Luzon; that 1 while there, and after the ratification of | the peace treaty, he purchased the four |