The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-12
THE OPPOSING VIEWS
THE CONSTITUTION AND NEWLY
ACQUIRED TERRITORIES.
DOES 1T APPLY OR NOT?
GRIGGS, CARLISLE AND LINDSAY
ARGUE THE QUESTION.

Impossible to Inforce an IrOnclad
Rule of Uniformity With Our Ex-
panded Territory Said MIR. Griggs.
May Take in China or Egypt Some
Day Question Not Whether
Constitution Extends Over Porto
Rico, Said MIR. Carlisle, but Wheth-
err 1t Extends Over the President,
Congress and the Cabinet.
Washington. Jan. 11.-Attorney General
Griggs resumed his argument before the
United States Supreme Court to-day in
the Porto Rican cases. He insisted that
the application of the internal revenue
laws TO Porto Rico would be unwise and
in many places Improbable. A rule Of
uniformity in internal taxes, he said,
could be established for application to
contiguous states. being governed by sim
liar laws and similar conditions, but d-
versity was the necessary rule as to ter
ritories, because of diversity as to geog-
raphy and racial characteristics observa-
bic in the territories. We have been so
long accustomed to regard the United
States according to its old lines, said Mr.
Grisgs that it is almost a wrench to con-
slider that there is new United States
territory within the Arctic circle, and in
the islands of many seas. This expansion
should result in a larger comprehension
OF the duties and necessities, and the i'm
possibility of enforcing an ironciad rule
Of uniformity everywhere should be borne
in mind.
The Attorney General reviewed the his
tory of the internal revenue legislation.
showing that the first tax on distilled
spirits was applicable only to states and
subsequent act extended the provisions
to the territories. Subsequent similar
legislation refers to the states and terri
tories and the District of Columbia.
AS to the future, he said we must con-
slider the possibility not the proba bility.
of the acquisition of Egypt, the Soudan.
central Africa, China or spot in the
Antarctic circle and the classes of people
who may at any future time be entitled
to citizenship. The powers of Congress to
legislate were amply sufficient to permit
the settlement OF all such contingencies.
Hon. John G. Carlisle chief attorney
Tor the plaintiffs, followed Mr.. Carlisle
SAID he was arguing that peace obtained
AFTER the signing of the protocol; that
there was then no war and that the Pres
ldent could only create a de facto gov
eminent and have it govern While the
constitution imposed the duty upon Con-
gfess or regulating commerce, yet since
the signing of the protocol the President
mas, he said, exercised the powers of as
sessing duties and carrying out all the
duties of Congress. The court had de-
cided that treaty between two Powers
TOOK erect from its date, whenever pos
session was given.
In this case, he said the question Is
not whether the constitution extends to
the inhabitants of Porto Rico. but
whether 1t extends over the Congress. the
President and the cabinet When a GOV
ernment takes from one man more than if
should 1t is not taxation, but it is taking
MS property without due process of law
ana giving him no compensation for II.
There would be two constitutions. he
said, in the Interpretation of counsel on
the other side, one for states and defining
the powers and caring for the rights of
citizens, and the other for the territories
giving no rights, and there were sitting
courts outside the United States in a ter
ritory, granting citizenship in the United
States to a resident upon five years in
haNtation of territory outside the Unit
ed States
Mr.. Carlisle undertook to show that both
direct and indirect taxes had been laid
upon states and territories alike and tariff
duties had been laid upon imports into
territories as well as states. Mr.. Carlisle
said Porto Rico cannot be a foreign coun-
try, for its courts send appeals to this
body. = his is, therefore, not an import
tax, but an export tax upon goods sent
out of these states and there are two spe-
cific prohibitions against such export du-
ties. He contends that the provisions
show that the tax is an export tax and
not an import tax and that it is not a
local tax, but general one. If it is true
that there lies tne arbitrary power in
the consti .ut;"h we should he delighted
that it WIS net discovered for more than
100 years until we had a great country
made up Of free states and filed with free
people.
Senator Lindsay of Kentucky argued
for the plaintiff in the next of the Porto
Rican cases, that of Huns vs. the New
York and Porto Rico Steamship Com
pany. he said that the belief that the
constitution was in force upon the ratif-
cation of a treaty or as the direct result
of conquest was not shared by jefferson,
Livingston or Monroe, and cited the pro-
visions in various treaties covering the
subsequent right to be conferred upon in
habitants Neither treaties nor conquest
make territory but Congress had to leg
islate to give such standing.
The Congress of the United States, he
said, which possesses all legislative pow
err may extend the constitution to terri
tory and may legislate for that territory.
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