The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1901-05-31
THE SUPREME COURT DECISION.

The SUPREME CUURE DhOlOlON'
The brief summary of the decision
of the Supreme Court on the lnsu.ar
cases which was given in the first dis
patches sent out from Washington, fail
ed to convey an entirely accurate under
standing of the real scope and mean
ing of this decision. And indeed this
is not surprising, for when one has
read the decision in full, or rather
the decisions, for there were several
cases under consideration, he finds it
little hard to figure out exactly the
relations which exist between this gov
ernment and its newly acquired pos
sessions, so peculiar, and in some re-
spects so conflicting, are therulings of
this august tribunal.
In the main, however, it appears
clear that every substantial conten-
tion of the administration, as to its
powers in the acquisition and govern
ment of our new possessions, has been
sustained. The Court holds that the
islands were acquired in lawful
manner, and that they may be gov
erned in any way that Congress may
see fit. That was the main PROPOSE
tion on which the last Presidential
campaign was fought, and the ruling
of the Supreme Court aflirms the ver-
dict of the people. The Republican
party is again declared by the court
of last resort to be right, and the
Democratic party, as usual, is found
to be wrong. The constitution is
scepter of sovereignty, not manacle
TO bind our hands. The United States
of America can exercise all the acts
of nationality. 1t can acquire new
territory by conquest or by pur-
chase, it can hold it an indefinite per-
iod without organizing it into State
or Territory, and IL can govern its
people as it sees fit, either with or
without their consent. Iuwas upon the
theory that this government could do
all these things that the Administra-
tion negotiated the treaty of peace
with Spain, proceeded to put down the
insurrection in the Philippines, and
organized civil governmentlin Porto
Rico. The theory has been sustained
at every point, and it is TO be hoped
that we have heard the last of the
outcry that the Admin stration was
violating the constitution.
1t is u most momentous and far
reaching decision. One has only to
consider the plightin whicht this nation
would have found itself had the decis-
ion faced the other way, to realize
that Suppose it had been decreed
that the whole theory upon which the
Administration had acted was wrong,
that the islands were not lawfully ac-
uuired, or that having lbeen ac-
ouired they must become at once an
integral portion of he United States,
their people free to come and go in
any part of this country, their goods
TO be admitted free OF duty, and their
admission as Territories OF this Union
an immediate necessity. 1t is hard to
Imagine what a shock such a decision
would have been to the business of
America.
But fortunately we are not com
PEELED to face the problems that such
IA ruling would have forced upon US.
The Supreme Court, following its own
precedents for hundred years, has
interpreted the constitution from the
large and enlightened and patriotic
view point of Sovereign America. 1t
has again declared that the United
States is a NATION, clothed with the
highest sovereignty and able not only
to wage war but to reap the fruits Of
victory, having power to so rule all
its possessions as to insure its own
tranquility and perpetuity and the
prosperity and peace of all its citi-
zens.
It is wise and patriotic decision,
and it starts the United States of
America, of Hawaii, of Porto Rico
and the Philippines, out pom the new
century with all the wreckage cleared
away, with free hand to work out
her own destiny. That it will be u
glorious destiny who dan doubt?