The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-09
PORTO RIcAN ALIENS

Porto Rico case which has just been
handed down, presents another instruc-
tive illustration of the stultifying and
contradictory attitude which this peo-
pie is obliged to maintain on the sub
ject of the political rights Of those who
have come under American jurisdiction
as the result of the recent war with
Spain. That decision declares in so
many words that the people of Porto
Rico who were subjects of Spain at
the close of that war are not now citi-
zens of the United States, but are
aliens, just as they were while subjects
Of Spain.
The supreme court decided in the
ether insular cases that the former
Spanish American islands were not
foreign territory within the meaning
Of the constitution and laws of the
United States. How man may be an
alien who is a native or resident of a
country which is authoritatively de-
clared not to be a foreign country, but
to be territory of the United States, or
how the decision of the lower court
can be reconciled with what is suppos-
ed to be the clear dictum Of the federal
appellate court, hardly anyone will
bother himself to consider.
The natives and residents of Porto
Rico were taken by the fortunes of
war from subsection to the Spanish
kingdom. They were deprived of their
political status. Their incorporation
into the population of the United States
left them political and national out
of the United States circuit court, and
affixes to them the badge of alienism.
The decision in effect, as we under
stand it, declares that a native of Porto
Rico at the time of the ratification of
the Spanish treaty, if he is still resi-
dent Of the island, is excluded from
American citizenship. Nor, so far as
we know, can he apply for American
citizenship while he remains a resident
of the island. Not being a native of
the United States or a naturalized cit
izen, he must under the constitution
be an alien, as the law is construed by
the circuit court. If he leaves Porto
Rico, and enters any state or recog-
he may apply for and secure naturali-
zation. Can he do so, while still res
fdent of Porto Rico, and after he
has complied with the naturalization
laws of the United States? Can he ap-
ply to the United States authorities in
Porto Rico for permission to declare
his intention to become citizen of the
United States, and possess himself of
the rights recognized as belonging to |
aliens so declaring? The answer to
these questions are not suggested by |
the published reports of the decision of
Judge Lacombe. On the theory that
the constitution does not follow the
flag into Porto Rico a negative answer
must be assumed.
How long will congress allow this
anomalous and discreditable condition
to exist? Must these people, in every
way as qualified for citizenship as the
in the jurisdiction of the United States
continue indefinitely to be made the
mere shuttlecocks of our new colonial |
ism? 1t is hard for any American cit |
izen bred in the faith that the Ameri-
can flag wherever it floated was the
symbol of political and social freedom
to find himself confronted by such
disgraceful state of things as has been
the inevitable and logical outcome of
the effort to graft anti-republican and
anti American principles on the eonsti-
tutional fabric of American liberty.