The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-04
OPINIONS IN LAST OF
THE INSULAR
CASES
Involving Relationship to the
Philippines and Porto
Rico
RENDERED ON YESTERDAY
No Duty on Shipments From Philip
No Duty on Shipments From Philip
pines Here, Philippines Being
Cur Territory.
RIGHT TO Tx GOODS SENT PORTO RICO
Though They be Neither Imports Nor Exports
Congress May Tax Them Under Am
pie Powers Conferred by the
Constitution.
(By the Associated Press.)


Washington. D. c., Dec. 2.-Opinions
were rendered in the United States Su-
preme court today in the last two of the
insular test cases. One of them was
that known as .'the IA diamond rings"
case, involving the relationship of the
United States to the Philippine Islands
from a tariff point of view. and the
other what is known as the Dooley case
number two, involving the constitution
atty of the collection of duty on goods
shipped from New York to Porto Rico
In the former case the court through
Chief Justice Fuller held that the 6ia-
mond rings brought in from the Philip
pines, and over which the case arose,
should have been exempt from duty un-
der the Paris treaty of peace, as that
treaty made the Philippines American
territory The decision in the Philip
pine case followed closely that of the
first Porto Rican case of last term. In
the Dooley case decided today,
IT was held that the duty collected on
goods carried from New York to
Porto Rico was permissible, but that it
was in reality tax for the benefit of
an export duty, which was claimed by
the merchants who antagonized the Gov
eminent in the case.
In both cases there were dissenting
opinions concurred in by four of the
nine Justices of the court.
1t is generally believed that the find
ing in the Philippine case will lead to
early efforts to secure legislation for the
a
with those islands. AS the Porto Rican
opinion sustains the constitutionality of
the Foraker act no such necessity will
arise with reference to Porto Rico.
The fouteen diamond rings case is
that of Emil ]. Pepke VS.. the United
States, and involves the constitutionality
of the imposition of customs duties upon
merchandise brought into the United
States from the Philippine Islands after
the exchange of the peace treaty with
Spain The opinion was handed down by
Chief Justice Fuller. The record shows
that Pepke, who was the respondent in
the court below was soldier in the
army of the United States in the Island
of Luzon; that while there and after
the ratification of the peace treaty he
purchased the fourteen diamond rings,
afterward brought these rings while still
in the service of the United States
aboard the United States vessel, trans
porting his regiment to San Francisco
where he was mustered out Later he
came with the rings to Chicago, where
the rings were seized by the customs
officers under the claim that the Philip
pine Islands were foreign territory. and
that merchandise brought from those
islands to the United States was subject
to customs duties, which were not paid
by Pepke. Pepke set UP the claim that
the imposition of duties upon merchan-
disc under the circumstances was con-
trary to the Constitution of the United
states, and in violation of his rights as
a citizen.
Chief Justice Fuller quoted somewhat
extensively from the opinion of the
court in the case of LIE Lima vs. Bidwell.
His principal quotation from that case
was the paragraph setting forth the
theory that country remains foreign
with respect to the tariff laws until
Congress has acted by embracing 1T
within the customs. The opinion then
continued as follows:
No reason is perceived for any differ
ent ruling as to the Philippines. BY the
third article of the treaty Spain ceded
to the United States the archipelago
known as the Philippine Islands. The
Philippines thereby ceased in the lam
guage of the treaty to be Spanish. Ceas-
ing to be Spanish they ceased to be for
eign country. They came under the COM
plete and absolute sovereignty and do