The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-07
OF CONGRESS ON ACCOUNT OF THE
INSULAR DECISIONS.
THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT
Can be Carried on Under Authority
Invested In the President as Com.
mander In Chief of the Army or I'm
der Civil Authority Conferred by the
Spooner Resolution-In the Mean.
time the Dingley Tariff is to be COL
lected.
lected.

Washington. June 4.-The cabinet to-
day unanimously decided that existing
conditions do not warrant the calling
of an extra session of congress this
summer.
The decision Of the cabinet was an
nounced after the cabinet meeting in
the following statement issued by Sec
retary Cortelyou:
THE president has determined that
existing conditions do not require or
warrant the calling of congress togeth-
er during the present summer or max
ing any change in the policy hitherto
pursued and announced in regard to
the Philippine islands,"
About the first of next month. full
civil government will be set up in the
Philippine islands. exactly as projected
by the Philippine commission. AS soon
aIter that date as the administrative
ministry can be made ready for it, the
new Philippine tariff will be proclaim
ed, also following out the original plan
formed before the announcement of
the decision of the supreme court last
week. These determinations followed
careful study of the decision of the
known at the cabinet meeting today.
Secretary Root has had little doubt at
any time since the courts action of the
Feasibility of continuing the execution
or the Philippine programme, without
violating any of the principles enuncia-
ted by the court, and his study was
mainly to make sure that he had not
overlooked anything in the decision
that might qualify that belief on his
part. He has not found in any of the
opinions delivered by the justices any
thing to shake his original idea, and
having so advised the cabinet, and
that view being shared by the attorney
general, the original programme is to
be carried out.
AS to the legal status Of the islands
the officials have nothing to say. They
do not indicate whether the tenure is
TO be regarded as one of purely mill
tary or whether they have found in the
decision warrant for taking the Spoon
er act as quite efficient in itself to
justify the establishment of a purely
civil government in the Philippines
accompanied by the taxing power az
exhibited in tariff schedules. The gen
eral statement is made that the exet-
else of authority is to be by virtue oj
the supreme power reposed in the pres
ident: it may be either as commander
in-chief of the United States military
establishment or by virtue of the
special designation in the Spooner law
perhaps either would be sufficient.
The collector at San Francisco will
go on taking up Dingley duties on i'm
ports from the Philippines, for the cab
met has assured itself that the practice
is legal, or at any rate. they are not
bound to otherwise declare in the alb
sence of a decision by the highest judi
cial authority. The failure of the court
to announce q decision in the fourteen
diamond rings case. the one involving
the legality of the imposition of Ding
ley duties on goods from the Philip
pines, is regarded as warranting the
belief that the court did not find in
this case a parallel to the de Lima
case.
The report of the Philippine commits
sion setting out in vast detail the COM
plete scheme of civil government de-
vised by them is now in Washington
and the legal difficulty being passed
consideration will now be given to this
report.
1t would not be feasible to notify
Judge Taft by mail of his appointment
as the first civil governor of the Phil
ippines in time for him to assume Office
July 1st. SO this must be done by cable