The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-15

an act of Congress. 1t follows from this
that by the ratification of the treaty of
Paris the island porto Rico) became ter
ritory of the United States-although
not an organized territory in the
technical sense of the word. 1t may
undoubtedly become necessary for the
adequate administration of domestic
territory to pass a special act providing
the proper machinery and officers, as the
President would have no authority, ex-
cept under the war power, to administer
1t himself, but no act is necessary to
make it domestic territory, if once it has
been coded to the United States"
In the second place, the court holds
that the inhabitants of the unorganized
territory in question are entitled to those
guarantees of the Constitution which
Marshall termed private rights. The ex-
act words of Justice Brown in Downes
against Bidwell are these:
Whatever may be finally decided by
the American people as to the status of
these Islands and their inhabitants
whether they shall be introduced into
the sisterhood of States, or be permitted
to form Independent goyernments-it
does not follow that, in the meantime,
awaiting that decision, the people are in
the matter of personal rights unprotect-
ed by the provisions of our Constitu-
ton and subject to the merely arbitrary
control of Congress. Even if regarded
as aliens, they are entitled under the
principles of the Constitution to be pro-
tected in life, liberty and property"
Thirdly, the court holds that the politi-
cal status of unorganized territory is de-
terminable by Congress-; that is, the po-
ltical rights according to MarshalPs
dlchotomy of the rights of inhabitants of
the territories. Again note Justice
Browns opinion in Downes against Bid
well: I'VE are also of opinion that power
10 acquire territory by treaty implies,
not only the power to govern such ter
ritory, but to prescribe on what terms
the United States will receive it's inhabi-
tants, and what their status shall be in
what Chief Justice Marshall termed the
American empire"
! Comparing this present position of the
Supreme Court with the principles enun-
ciated by Marshall and consistently fol-
/ lowed by Congress for eight decades,
their coincidence is at once apparent.
In no essential do the two interpreta-
lions differ. The recent decisions do but
reaffirm the long established principles.
Foreign territory acquired by the United
states becomes a once territory of the
unorganized type. AS SUCH it is entitled
to the private rights or guarantees of the
derived solely from Congress.
! On the question of uniform taxation
alone does the Supreme Court, by its de-
cision of May 27, controvert any previ-
ously accepted principle of constitutional
law. In denying the right of Porto Rico
= to taxation which shall be uniform with
that imposed in the rest of the United
States. except the Philippines, the court
reverses the principle established by
Marshall in Loughbo ough against Blake
a principle consistently adhered to from
1920 to 1898. Yet this much must be said
in favor of the court. Congress by the
customs provision of the act annexing
Hawaii had already caused the principle
to be violated for two years. and no one
had ever questioned its authority to do
SO. The presumption always being in
favor of the congressional attitude, the
decision of the court on this point may
be palliated. perhaps, but not excused.
To the critic who sees in this decision
a violation CT the principle involved in
the Revolutionary watchword, mo taxa
ton without representation be it suffi-
cient answer that for more than a Gen.