The Madison Daily Leader

Congressman Geo. H. Ray, chairman of the house committee on judiciary, who was one of the leaders in the fight for the Porto Rico tariff bill, being asked the other day in New York what the effect of the present test case in the United States supreme court on the constitutionality of that tariff would be if the court decided that it was unconstitutional and that Porto Rico is a part of the United States, replied: "If such should be the decision of the court, it might necessitate our having to give up the Philippines. We are bound to keep the open door in the Philippines. That means that the products of all nations can come into the Philippines on the same basis as our own. If we cannot raise a tariff against Philippine products coming into the United States, then our labor would be brought into competition with the cheap labor of the orient. If that condition should come about we might feel that our interests would demand our withdrawal from the Philippines."