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5
A Conditional Acceptance.
The Cuban Convention has by a vote of
fifteen to fourteen accepted the Piatt amend
ment, but in doing so it took occasion to add
what the members of the convention under
stood to bo the construction placed upon the
amendment by the administration. When the
Cuban Commission visited Washington it con
sulted Secretary Root and was assured that the
Piatt amendment was a very innocent and
harmless document, and it was not only natural
but proper that the convention should place on
record its understanding of the amendment as
explained by the authoiities at Washington.
This construction, which may bo described as
an amendment to the amendment, reads as fol
lows: "Clause 3, relating to intervention, does not, it
is stated, imply intermeddling and interference in
matters of Cuban government, and will last only
long enough to restore normal conditions. Formal
diplomatic action will be exercised, first, to pre
serve the independence of Cuba when menaced by
an exterior act; second, to establish, according to
the Cuban constitution, a go eminent adequate to
discharge internal and international obligations;
third, in case there exists a state of anarchy.
"The convention understands clause 3 on the
extension of the Monroe doctrine to mean that the
United States has no more rights than in the re
cent intervention, and exercises no protectorate
or suzerainty over Cuba, which will make its own
treaties with foreign powers without the interven
tion of the United States.
"Although the Isle of Pines is included in the
limits of Cuba, and is regulated by the same gov
ernment and administration, the two governments
in future will adjust the title by special treaty,
without prejudice to any rights which Cuba now
has over the same.
"The future-Cuban government is empowered
to negotiate with the United States a treaty which
may concede sites for coaling stations upon terms
to be mutually agreed upon. These stations, if es
tablished, will be used solely to defend America
upon the seas, to preserve the independence of Cu
ba in case of exterior aggression, and for the de
fense of the United States."
Strange to say, the administration seems in
clined to deny the right of the Cubans to vary
the terms of the Piatt Amendment by parole
testimony. It may become necessary for the
administration, in dealing with "subject races,"
to insert a clause like that found in subscrip
tion blanks declaring that verbal changes in the
contraot are not binding.
A Revolutionary Decision.
With respect to territories of the United States
the supreme court holds substantially as follows:
First, the president, as civil chief magistrate
in dealing with territory acquired by treaty, is
bound to apply not only the constitution, but the
laws to such territory as far as they are applicable
from the moment the treaty is ratified and pro
claimed until congress makes provision for its gov
ernment. Second, ' congress can make such provision as
it pleases for the government of such territory,
and its power to do so is wholly independent of
and superior to the constitution.
In other words, our government is one of lim
ited powers so far as the executive is concerned,
but one of unlimited and arbitrary powers so far
as the legislative branch is concerned.
It Is true that in the opinion of the court Jus
tice Brown intimates that the personal right3 of
the people of a territory may be protected by the
The Commoner.
provisions of the constitution. But this is In
reality no part of the decision. The thing which
is really decided is that "the constitution is ap
plicable to territories acquired by purchase or con
sent only when and so far as congress shall so
direct," and that the power to acquire territory Im
plies not only the powor to govorn it, "but to pre
scribe upon what terms the United States will re
ceive its inhabitants, and what their status shall
be in what Chief Justice Marshall termed tho
'American empire.' "
These are the points really decided, and they
completely negative the suggestion that tho peoplo
of such territories have any rights under tho con
stitution. They can have no rights under an in
strument which is applicable to them "only when
and so far as congress shall so direct." The court
emphasizes its assertion that the power of con
gress is unlimited when it seeks to allay fears "lest
an unrestrained possession of power on the part of
congress may lead to unjust and oppressive legis
lation." This doctrine of unlimited power in congress
is in violent conflict with the doctrine which has
always been held by the court down to tho present
time that our government in all its branches not
the executive branch is one of powers strictly lim
ited by tho constitution. It negatives the distinc
tively American doctrine that sovereignty resides
in the political people, and that the government is
merely tho agent of the soveroign. It sets up in
place of that tho doctrine of absolutism and divine
right, that the government is sovereign and tho
people subject. Chicago Chronicle.
Constitution Confined toStates.
In the most important of the insular cases de
cided yesterday and tho most momentous opinion
rendered since the foundation of the government
the United States supreme court by a bare major
ity of one holds that the constitution is supremo
only in the s'tates, and that a million square miles,
or one-fourth of the national domain, and ten mil
lion peoplo are subject to no law but the will of
congress. This is the broad sweep of the decision in tho
Downes case, against which Chief Justice Fuller
and Justices Harlan, Brewer and Peckham dis
sented, While the majority justices themselves,
though coinciding in the conclusion, do not agree
in the reasoning by which it was reached.
The court first held in the De Lima case that
with its cession to the United States Porto Rico
ceased to be a foreign country and became an Am
erican territory. For that reason no duties could
be lawfully levied upon it under tho Dingley tariff
law. Then In tho Downes case the majority sus
tained the constitutionality of the Foraker act
imposing duties, which brought from one of the
dissenting justices the comment that the court had
reversed itself by holding that "after the Foraker
act Porto Rico ceased to be a part of the United
States as it had been before the enactment of that
law."
The majority opinion is based on the theory
that the uniform tarjff clause of the constitution,
which Marshall declared "extends to all places over
which the government extends," applies only to
the states and does not limit the power of congress
elsewhere. Consequently that body is free to im
pose such duties upon or make such tariff dis
crimination against Porto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska or
the Philippines as it may see fit.
The decision goes further and asserts tho
broad principle that the constitution does not fol
low the flag to newly acquired possessions or apply
to American territory until expressly extended by
congress.
It can hardly be said that either the court or
the country Is to be congratulated on a. decision
which four of its members say "overthrows tho
basis of our constitutional law and asserts that the
states, and not the people, created the govern
ment." As Chief Justice Fuller declares in the dis
senting opinion of the minority, "The source of na-;
tional power in this country is the constitution of
the United States, and the government as to our
intornal affairs possesses no inherent sovoroign
powor not derived from that instrument and In
consistent with its letter and spirit." That was
tho view of Marshall, tho greatest expounder of tho
constitution, and it must bo tho view of all those
who believe that tho constitution was intended by
its framors to bo supreme and govorn president and
congress whorevor tho flag floats and tho sover
eignty of tho United States extends. New York
Herald. . .
Justice Brown's Great Day.
Monday was a great day for Mr. Justice Brown
of tho suprome court. Speaking in theatrical par
lance, he had tho center of tho stage during a long
act, and his performance was the talk of the coun
try tho next day, and, in fact, has been talked
about ever since. But wo doubt whether there
are many wiso lawyers in tho country who aro
envious of tho estimation in which he will be held
after tho novelty and excitemont of the present
moment have ceased to affect men's minds. If ho
had formulated cither tho Do Lima judgment or
tho Downes judgment, and not tho other, he would
havo stood much bettor; although tho opinion in
tho Downes case would hardly have made him seem
great, in view of tho fact that those who agreed
with him In his conclusion thought It necessary to
their credit to disavow and repudiate tho argu
ment by which ho reached it. Wo cannot say that
Justice Brown's reputation as a jurist Is enhanced,
though ho is sure of a unique distinction. Boston
Herald.
Only an Abuse of Privileges.
William E. Curtis, who explains things lot
this administration, says that the frauds In Manila
were much exaggerated in the newspaper dis
patches and seem to have been nothing more than
an abuse of the privilege allowed the officers and
enlistod men of purchasing luxuries from tho com
missary stores. The prices at which flour, coTeo,
canned goods, hams and bacon and other groceries
are furnished them aro less than half those charged
by tho regular dealers because tho commissaries
buy by contract and pay neither duty nor trans
portation. There was therefore a great temptation,
he says, for private citizens, hotel keepers and oth
ers to secure the privilege through friendly offi
cers and men and some of them have been paying
for that privilege. According to Mr. Curtis, thenr
tho duties and cost of transportation of provision
for the benefit of bribe-giving merchants and hotel
keepers Is merely an "abuse of privileges." Guile
less Mr. Curtis. Jacksonville (111.) Courier.
He Got His Papers.
An applicant for naturalization was asked by
Judge Savidge of Northumberland county, to name
tho president of the United States. He promptly
answered "Mark Hanna." The court was at first
disposed to deny the application, but when tho
ingenuous foreigner produced a newspaper and
quoted from' its columns a statement to tho effect
that in spite of outward semblance it was Hanna
who after all was the real thing, the presiding
judge concluded that the man's perceptive faculties
were sufficiently keen to entitle him to citizenship,
and the papers were granted.
This incident may strike most reader as
humorous, and the natural comment from .such a
viewpoint would be that tho conferring of the right
of franchise upon so clever an alien was in tha
nature of just reward. As a matter of fact, th
answer of the would-be citizen simply Illustrates
a condition of mind into which a largo jart of the
pppulatlon of the country has been brought by the
existing order of things in the federal aiminlstra
tion. The overshadowing figure of Mr. Hanna
in dictating the policy of the government and
shaping the course of presidential action has im
pressed millions of well-informed citizens who
keep in touch with the trend of public events.
In view of this, the reply of the applicant for
"citizen papers" to the query of tho Northumber
land judge must be regarded as entirely logical.
He answered according to his light, and the il
lumination was furnished by the radiance of Han
na, the high priest of the party of the trusts.
Philadelphia Times.
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