156 



CONGRESS. (THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.) 



very high, especially the duties upon the neces- 

 saries of life. The commission went to work al- 

 most immediately to gather information, to 

 amend the old Spanish tariff code, and to make 

 it more suitable to American ideas, American 

 possession, and American government. 



" A great deal of care was exercised by this 

 commission in fixing these rates. In the first 

 place, they made what they called a tentative 

 bill, which was published and widely distributed 

 in the Philippine Islands and criticisms invited. 

 Then this bill was amended, due regard being 

 given to the criticisms which were offered. Then 

 the bill came here and was published by the War 

 Department in several hundred trade journals 

 throughout the United States, criticisms being 

 invited and received. The War Department rec- 

 ommended some amendments, and sent all these 

 criticisms and all the other information obtained 

 to the commission. After the bill had been con- 

 sidered, back and forth, with such light as was 

 thrown upon it in this public way, for more than 

 a year, the commission finally enacted their 

 tariff. 



" Now, this tariff is not only a duty upon im- 

 ports into the Philippine Islands, but embraces 

 also a small duty upon some exports from the 

 Philippine Islands, such as hemp, sugar, tobacco, 

 and so forth a continuation of the Spanish 

 method of taxation. The entire sum realized 

 from these export duties since the occupation 

 of the islands by the United States is $1,700,000, 

 while the total tariff receipts for the whole pe- 

 riod of occupation down to June 30 last amounts 

 to $15,525,000. So that the export tax was not 

 comparatively large, and the export tax is nearly 

 the only direct tax that is collected in the Philip- 

 pine Islands. 



" Mr. Chairman, in addition to this we found 

 that by the decision of the court and the ruling 

 of the Treasury the ports of Porto Rico as well 

 as the ports of the Philippine Islands and the 

 ports of the United States were in such relation 

 that the coastwise laws applied, and that under 

 the law no vessel carrying a foreign flag could 

 bring goods from the Philippine Islands to any 

 port in the United States. We take care of that 

 in this bill ; but we hope the time will soon come, 

 and we are assured that it will soon come, when 

 American citizens will furnish American vessels, 

 to be sailed under the American flag, fully equal 

 to the demand, to carry all the commerce com- 

 ing from the Philippine Islands to ports of the 

 United States. When that time comes, this side 

 of the House will see to it that these coastwise 

 laws are extended to the ports of the Philippine 

 Islands, as well as to all other ports that are 

 under the flag of the United States. 



" Mr. Chairman, in addition to this, in the 

 last section of the bill we have endeavored to 

 apply the drawback laws, providing for draw- 

 backs in duties and in internal-revenue collec- 

 tions, and also to apply the exemption laws for 

 goods manufactured in bonded warehouses, to 

 the shipment of goods from United States ports 

 to the ports of the Philippine Islands. 



"Then we have provided, as in the Porto 

 Rican bill, that all these taxes collected in the 

 Philippine Islands, and all duties collected in the 

 United States upon goods brought from the Phil- 

 ippine Islands into the United States, shall not 

 be covered into the general fund of the Treasury, 

 but be paid into the treasury of the Philippine 

 Islands for the use and benefit of the Philippine 

 Islands." 



Mr. Payne did not accept the commission tariff 

 as an ideal one; but he defended it as a -good 



working measure, to meet an emergency, and he- 

 went on to describe in detail the work carried 

 on and to be carried on under American rule in 

 the Philippines, for which ample revenue is 

 needed. 



Mr. Swanson, of Virginia, led the discussion in 

 opposition to the measure. He said: 



" Mr. Chairman, the Republican party of this 

 country has definitely determined to enter into 

 a system of colonial conquest and government. 

 When this question was last up for debate in this 

 House we of the opposition contended that such 

 a policy was not only unwise and dangerous to 

 the continued liberty and prosperity* of our peo- 

 ple, but also not permissible under the plain pro- 

 visions of our Federal Constitution. Recently 

 the Supreme Court of the United States, by a 

 decision reversing former decisions, has seen 

 proper to amend the Federal Constitution and 

 declare that Congress can govern acquired terri- 

 tory outside the prohibitions and requirements 

 of the Constitution. It has specifically decided 

 that that clause in the Constitution which de- 

 clares that ' all duties, imposts, and excises 

 shall be uniform throughout the United States r 

 applies to the States only and not to the Terri- 

 tories and other possessions. 



" By this decision it declares that Congress has 

 power to impose duties upon goods coming from 

 the Territories into the States and also from the 

 States into the Territories. It confers upon Con- 

 gress absolute power of taxation in the Terri- 

 tories, unrestrained by any provision in the Fed- 

 eral Constitution. By a more recent decision 

 the court has declared that the Philippine Is- 

 lands and other possessions are not foreign but 

 domestic territory, and, as the Dingley bill, by 

 its terms, limits its collection of duties to im- 

 portations from foreign countries, it does not 

 apply to the Philippines; hence no duty can be 

 collected on importations from those islands until 

 Congress shall so direct. Ever since we have had 

 control of these islands, until this decision, the 

 duties imposed by the Dingley bill have been 

 collected on all goods brought into this country 

 from them. This bill proposes to continue the 

 rates of the Dingley bill upon all importation* 

 into this country from the Philippine Islands. 



" In this respect it proposes to treat those 

 islands and their inhabitants absolutely as for- 

 eigners. Their commerce, their trade, and their 

 importations are to be subjected to the same 

 heavy exactions, the same rigorous restrictions, 

 that are applied to strangers. Another provision 

 of this bill fixes absolutely ajl customs duties to 

 be collected on importations into the Philippines, 

 and, in addition, an export duty on certain good* 

 when shipped from there. This feature of the 

 bill treats the inhabitants of the Philippine Is- 

 lands as subjects of this country, to be governed 

 absolutely by the will of Congress. Thus, by 

 this bill, when concessions and trade benefits are 

 needed by the unfortunate inhabitants of the 

 Philippine Islands, they are treated as stran^'r- 

 and foreigners, but when exactions and taxation* 

 are to be imposed, they are treated as subjects. 

 This irreconcilable, dual position of subject ;nnl 

 stranger is created by this bill and illustrates the 

 policy of the Republican party in the formula- 

 tion of its colonial system. The principles upon 

 which such a bill is founded are repugnant to 

 every principle of justice and right and antago- 

 nistic to all our traditions and institutions. 



" By this bill Congress assumes the right and 

 does exercise the power, to fix the rates and the 

 conditions upon which the goods of the Philip- 

 pines can be sold in the markets of the United 



