The Brunswick times-call., 1901-06-09

hall be laid on articles exported from
any state. No preference shall be giveI
by any regulation of commerce or reve
nue. to the ports of one State over thos,
Of another; nor shall vessels przrd to
or from, one State, be obligtanMsi i1SDser
clear or pay duties In anothefndf
Fave of the Justices incl'- Justlcs
Brown, upheld this part OF the Forake
law as being valid and constitutional,
while four Of the justices dissented
therefrom.
Justice Brown delivers thu opinion
for the majority of the court, and pre-.
dicates same upon theory-appa-
rently satisfactory to him, but to none
of The other members of the court
that the sections Of the constitution
quoted, by their 'erms, apply only to
States, and DO not apply t1 territories,
and, therefore, there is nothing in
them restricting the power of congr ess
10 levy tariff duties oD any imports
from any territory of the United States.
He saya that it is not necessary to de-
teFmine in The case at bar whether or
not the various other provisions Of tne
constitution apply TO Porto r co, the
only QUESTION being Involved as to
whether these two proyisi0n, apply
While his opinion decides nothing
therefore, except tha; these two tariff
provisions of the constitution do no,
apply to Porto Rico, be, uevsrtbe! ess
enters into q discussion of, and seeks
to maintain, the proposition that the
power of oOngress ia Unlimited in deal.
ing with territories. Hs ssserts thai
the constitution does net extend to any
teri it Try until extended by aot of con-
gress. He says, 1.-THE great libarality
of 'nRress in legislstiug the con. titu.
ton into all our contiguous territories
has undUu btedly TO tered the impress,
ion that 1t went there by it's own force
but there is nothing in the constitution
itself, and little in the interpretation
put upon 1t, to con firm the impression n. ,
Hetakes the position, practically, thai
the Union is but a confederation cl
league Of States, and says: 1.-THE
States could only delegate to congress
such powers as they Themselves pos-
sessed, and as they had no power to
acquire new territory, they had none to
delegate in that connection. The logica
inference from this is, that il congress
had power to acquire new territory,
which 10 conceded, that power was
never hampsred by the constitutional al
provisions"
He also says: "If it he gca conceded
that we are at liberty to acquire foreign
territory, a presumption arises that our
power with respect to such territory Is
the same power which other nations
have been accustomed to exercise with
respect to territory acquired by them. u
1t should be borne in mind, however
that while Justice Brown elaborates bis
opinion in the manner that these q ota-
tions from it indicate, and does go in q
way that Justice Harlan says 1--WE may
we'll view with surprise L not alarm
yet the precise point ttsM he dsolder
and all that the court y $, Is found
in the concluding statement OF hii
opinion, as follows:
1--WE are therefore, of the opinion
that the island Of Porto Rco Is terri
tory appurtenant and belonging TO the
Uuited States, but not a part of tbs
United States within the revenue clause
of the constitution; that the Foraker
act is constitutional 80 far as it i'm pose.
duties on imports from such island"
This is quite different thing from
holding that Porto Rico is not part o.
the United States under any clause o.
the constitution. It is a holding thai
the tariff imposed is constitutional
and not that it was properly imposed
because Of power outside Of and un
liyni+od hx, tho o1net;k,+;on