The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-08
CITIZENS OR ALIENs-wHIcH /.


In the excitement attending the discus
sion of the rights of the Filipinos and
the future position of those islands in
the American commonwealth the legal
status of the peaceful Porto Rlcans I'M
der the treaty of Paris has been over
looked.
Whether by accident or design the
high commissioners who negotiated this
important treaty, while providing spe-
officially fer the disposition of the native
subjects of Spain being In the coded ter
ritory at the time of the ratification of
the treaty, left 1.-THE civil and political
status of the native inhabitants of the
territories hereby ceded to be determined
by the congress" The exact words are
quoted that it may appear how little at
tention was given to the rights OF the
great bulk of the inhabitants of all the
ceded possessions. 1t is not necessary
to remark that this clause is an anomaly
among the treaties of the world which
were the instruments of territorial t. ans
fer. The status Of the inhabitants who
are thus without their consent forced to
change allegiance from one sovereignty.
to another, is always determined by
treaty stipulation With the change OF
diplomatic policy, which the treaty of
Paris inaugurated, the United States
commissioners laid down a new tenet of
international law.
Leaving out Of the question the status
of the Fflipinos with whom the United
States is Waging a war, the political
status Tor want of it) of the Porto Rican
lomatic blunder.
There is an axiom that in state Of
civilized society all men owe allegiance
to some sovereignty. Yet we have in the
case of the Porto Rican man without
a country-a citizen of nowhere. Forcibly
robbed of his citizenship in the kingdom
of Spain he is barred from citizenship in
the conquoring republic. Should Porto
Rcan immigrate to our shores and ex-
press a desire to become citizen under
the naturalization laws, the request
would be denied, for must he not re-
nounce his former allegiance before talk
ing on the new? How could he renounce
allegiance to the king of Spain, when tat
relation had been declared null by a
formal treaty?
Relying on the implied rights of a
civilized man to citizenship somewhere
the Porto Rican has demanded the right
to vote at the general elections as an
American citizen and has been refused
by the courts. Nor is this all. The
theory of the administration would hold
the Porto Rican to an allegiance in the
case of insurrection and punish him for
acts of treason, while denying him the
protection of an American citizen Not
withstanding the fact that the Stars and
Stripes float over his head he Is treated
and taxed like a foreigner.
The supreme court may be able to I'M
tie the knot into which the administra.
ton has tied the status of the native
inhabitants of the insular possessions, but
the probabilities arc that the court viii
sever the knot, by laying down the broad
principle that the constitution determines
the status of all civilized persons occu,
pying national territory
Had the parties who were responsible
for the present administrative policy.
seen clearly the constitutional pitfaHa
into which it would lead its advocates, it
is quite certain that different clause
would have found its way into the treaty