The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-29
RIGHT TO GOVERN
JOHN C. CARLISLE DISCUSSES Ma
TIONAL POWERS.
RIGHT is NOT ABSOLUTE
NATION CAN'T DEPRIVE A PEOPLE
of VOICE IN AFFAIRS.


pose and Foreign for Another.
Power to Tax Does Not Include
the Right to Divest n Conquered
People of Share In Their Own
Government.
Saratoga, N. Y, Aug. 2S.-John G..
Carlisle of New York. former secre-
tary of the treasury. delivered the an
nuaI address before the American Bar
Association to-day. He spoke upon
the power of the United States to &C
quire and govern territory, which, he
said, was question growing out Of
the acquisition of territory from Spain.
Unless the constitution is changed,
which is hardly probable, said Mr.. Car
Isle, the law is the same whether the
territory is located in the eastern or
western hemisphere.
He next touched upon limitation of
the power to acquire territory under
the constitution of the United States
and referred to the power to declare
war and make treaties. The territory
obtained by military occupation is held
by the same until Congress can meet
and substitute civil for military gov
eminent Congressional power to gov
ern acquired territory was dwelt upon
at Some length, and the Porto Rico
incident in regard to imports and ex-
ports was alluded to by the speaker.
Can't Look Both ways.
Porto Rico and the Philippines
cannot be domestic for one purpose
and foreign for another purpose" Mr..
Carlisle said. Mr.. Carlisle quoted from
decisions handed down by the United
States Supreme Court to support his
contentious.
Mr.. Carlisle said, in addition, that
the right Of discovery is acknowledged
by international authorities. The
power to acquire territory is derived
from the same power as
the right to declare war. Not only
is the power to acquire admitted. but
also the right to govern it is admitted
Il do not believe that the power t
tax people. to prescribe political rights
and privileges he said goes to the
extent of deprivings them of a say tn
the conduct of affairs which concern
themselves. Territory is not property
in the sense of depriving its inhabi-
tants Of the power of governship. The
government in a territory when rati-
fed by a treaty becomes de facto, al
though administered by the military.
The functions of the latter, after the
recognition of territory as a part of the
new owner, are merely to preserve or
der, to protect the interests of the peo-
pie, to see that they shall enjoy the
liberties of subjects of the governing
country.
Domestic by Virtue of Treaty.
when the treaty with Spain was
ratified, Porto Rico and the Philippines
became domestic. Those new possess
sions could not become domestic for
one purpose and foreign for another.
ut was held, however, that Porto
Rico and the Philippines did not be-
come domestic under the meaning Of
the revenue law. The legislation was
supposed to be in force In Porto Rico
when 1t became a part of the United
States.
THE trade with Porto Rico Is domes-
tic trade, and the authorities of the
port of New York have ruled that the
regulations governing vessels trading
In foreign trade did not apply to those
trading with Porto Rico.
"1'he legislation does not expand or
contract, but extends wherever our
boundaries extend. AS the territory Of
country expands so is the 1urisdic-
ton enlarged; or is decreased If the
territory diminishes. The nature and
source of jurisdiction is the same"
Hon. EmIin McCIain's Address.
In general session this evening Hon.
Emlin McClain, of Iowa, read a pa
per on 1.-THE Evolution of the judicial
Opinion"
Judge McClain's address was largely
a plea for greater condensation of le-
gal opinions and reports, which he
said had reached a degree Of elabora-
ton and extension positively appalling
to the average practitioner of the
law.
In former times the skill and dis
cernment of the reporter had been APP
piled to the elimination of the foolish
and the superfiuous, but those good old
days had gone, to come seemingly,
no more. In this condition of affairs
Judge McClain appealed from the re-
porter to the court. Concluding a
learned and interesting paper, he said ::
"But the development and perfection
of our case law no longer depends on
the skill and judgment of the reporter.
Everything which is written is now put
in print, and the judge who writes must
for himself exercise the discrimination
once required of the good reporter,
and II is for him to prevent the pres
ervation of Irrelevant and superfluous
matter by the simple expedient of not
writing 1t.
zone other suggestion may. perhaps,
be ventured, and that is that opinions
on points which are entitled to con-
sideration with the view of the pre-
servation of the result reached are
more satisfactory and useful IL the
reasons given are stated in few words.
been found ii Is not necessary to elab-
crate IL by extensive argument nor to
support 1t by multitudinous quotations
and citation of authorities. 1t is only
necessary to go so far as to show
the relation determined between the
significant facts of the case and the
well-known principles which are APP
piled TO them The case will be indl-
vidualized by those principles and facts
and will be made use OF with reference
10 them regardless OF elaboration
Lawyers and judges viii alike bear me
out In saying that the elaborate text
book opinion IN which a whole branch
OF the law II expounded. regardless Of
It's application 70 the facts OF the ease
in hand. IL confusing and often abso-
lutely misleading, and the time neces-
sarily expended IN discovering what