The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-31
EXTRA SESSION TALK.

There are Senators and Representatives
who think the recent decisions OF the
Supreme Court make an extra session of
Congress advisable. According to their
view it is highly important that there
shall be legislation for the Philippines at
once, because, if there is not, grave COM
plications may arise out of the Philip
pine tariff. The present tariff system for
those islands. which is looked upon as
a war measure, is that which was in
operation under Spanish rule. though it
has been very considerably modified
A revised system has been prepared,
but whether it will be put into operation
before Congress has legislated in respect
TO the matter is a question which the
government probably is not yet ready to
answer. 1t has not yet had time to fully
understand the fun import of the Su-
preme Court decisions. There are cases
pending before the court involving the
validity of the Philippine tariff Why
these cases were not decided along With
the Porto Rican cases is question that
is the subject of a great deal of comment.
One view is that the court found difficult
ties in the way, and thought it advisable
to take additional time for the consider
alton of them.
If 1t is held that from the treaty of Paris
the Philippines have sustained the same
relations to the United States that Porto
Rico has it would seem as If the court
could not avoid deciding that the Philip
pine tariff is unconstitutional, 1t having
held that there was no authority for COL
Letting duties on Porto Rican imports be-
tween the signing of the treaty and the
passage of the Foraker act. According to
the courts decision, legislation by Con-
gress was necessary for the levying of
duties on Porto Rican imports. There has
been no such legislation in the case of
the Philippines, unless the Spooner act
can be construed as giving authority to
impose duties.
There is, of course a difference between
the status of Porto Rico and that of the
Philippines. In the case Of Porto Rico pos
session of the island accompanied the
&c ssion Of it. In the case of the Philip
pines it cannot be said that the United
States have yet obtained complete pos
session of them. Besides, at the time of
the ratification of the treaty, there was
a resolution adopted by the Senate which
shows that there was no intention to treat
the islands as a part of the domestic ter
ritory of the United States. There Is some
ground, therefore, for the opinion that
the Supreme Court will not follow it's de-
cision in the Porto Rican cases in decid-
ing the Philippine cases.
The fact that under the treaty Spain
has the right to trade with the Philip
pines for ten years on exactly the same
terms the United States trade with them
complexities matters. It is claimed there
fore that if in deciding the Philippine
cases the Porto Rican precedent should
be followed-that is, that there could be
no duties levied on goods from the Phil
ippines to the United States or from the
United States to the Philippines-Spain
might send goods into the United States
by way of the Philippines free Of duty.
Indeed many complications might arise
not now clearly foreseen. 1t is for this
reason that there is talk OF an extra ses-
sion OF Congress, in order that there
may be legislation that will make a Phil
ippine tariff legal. assuming of course
that the present tariff is not legal, and
that there is no authority in the Presi-
dent under the Spooner act to make it
legal.