Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1901-06-06

: REGARD them otherwise, as it did Porte
I. Rico under the Foraker act, levying 8
: Is per cent tariff against her. BY 9
decision in another case handed dowr
al the same time, it is established that
after territories have been acquired
;; and until Congress acts, as it did by
the Foraker law, trade is free between
the .old" country and the new
accessions. 1t therefore appears as il
the constitution does ''follow the flag,
but that there is a string attached to it,
which Congress can pub at any time,
depriying the new territories OF the
rights of commercial freedom that
they have enjoyed up TO that time.
Thus. if the United States should
annex Cuba now it would become a
part OF the nation ard entitled to send
goods here duty free until Congress
could meet and determine otherwise.
Congress has not yet placed tariff
barrier against goods coming in from
the Philippines, and if this Porto
Rican case is to be followed as a
precedent there is nothing to prevent
wholesale importation from that
direction, even of European products,
which may come in that way to avoid
duties. A special session of Congress
to guard against this is not at all
unlikely
1t seems to us that the decision of
the court can only be justified on
grounds of expediency. The court
has pointed out how the United States
can become an empire and hold
colonies in any part OF the globe with
out endangering itself politically or.
commercially. For this judicial
authority to enter upon course of
colonization, the court is to be thanked,
if the end is happy one. 1t also lets
us out of bad hole, for we should be
in heap of trouble if it were found
that the constitution applied with full
force and scope to those islands that
we have joined to us on the map, but
whose inhabitants we do not wish to
greet as American tellow-citizens,
entitled to all the privileges we enjoy,
including freedom to trade in our
markets. But, it seems. only expe-
diency could dictate such findings. |
Judieally, they are lame. The court
finds that territories-and by territories
is meant all of our domains not
admitted as states OF the union,
including the District of Columbia |
are within the union, and yet not OF it,
They are mere colonies, to be legis- I
lated for or against, as Congress may |
decree. Congress may admit their
peoples to as little or as much of the |
beneficences of our constitution as it
sees fit They can claim nothing OF
right it is all matter of gratuity, to
be bestowed or withheld by Congress
according to its caprice. Congress
possesses the same absolute powers
over the territories-all of them-that
Great Britain and the other European
governments have over their colonies.
The United States is to Porto Rico and
Alaska, Luzon and New Mexico, what
England was to the American colonies
prior to the Revolution, with Congress
as the avenue through which authority
is exercised.
All this is wholly foreign to our
earlier conceptions. We have con-
sidered the territories as much within
the constitution as the states, except
that while they were attaining the
stature of statehood their form of
government has been under the
direction of Congress. That it would
have been constitutional to impose
tariff duties against Alaska has never
for moment been considered by any
one. And in spite OF this latest
decision of the federal supreme court
no one has the least faith that such a
tariff enactment against any OF the
older territories would be sustained,
if it came before the court a year
hence. 1t would then be discovered,
in some way or other, that the Older
territories occupy higher place than
the insular possessions, sufficient to
include them within the United States
for customs purposes.
1t is perfectly plain that the consti-
tuition made no provision Tor the hold
ing of colonies as such by the United
States. 1t was drawn by men who
had a bitter experience as eolonists
fresh in mind. To guard against the
very discrimination in trade privileges
that England had imposed on them it
was specifically laid down that all