SUFFRAGE IN INSULAR POSSESSIONS OF UNITED STATES
The suffrage qualifications in the insular possessions of the United States are particularly significant in that they tend to show the present attitude of Congress toward the elective franchise. The Act of April 30, 1900, providing a government for the Territory of Hawaii, restricts suffrage to those who can speak, read, and write the English or Hawaiian language—a strict educational test. In the Philippines to be an elector one must be a native of the Philippines, twenty-three years of age or over, and must have paid an annual tax of fifteen dollars, or be the owner of property assessed at two hundred and fifty dollars, or be able to speak, read, and write English or Spanish, or have held substantial office under the Spanish régime. It will be noticed that the tax payment, educational, property, and office-holding tests are alternatives, so the satisfaction of any one of the four is sufficient. Manhood suffrage, as provided by the “Foraker Act”[[723]] of 1900, is still in force in Porto Rico. But this seems destined soon to give way to a restricted suffrage. Secretary of War Dickinson has recently issued a report on the conditions in Porto Rico in which he suggests an amendment of the suffrage laws to the effect that, after the general election of 1910, the qualified voters for any election shall consist only of citizens of the United States, who, with such other qualifications as are required by the laws of Porto Rico, “are able to read and write; or on the day of registration shall own taxable real estate in their own right and name; or who are on said day bona fide members of a firm or corporation which shall own taxable real estate in the name of such firm or corporation; or on the day of registration shall possess and produce to the Board of Registration tax receipts showing the payment of any kind of taxes for the last six months of the year in which the election is held.” President Taft, in transmitting the report to Congress, indorsed Secretary Dickinson’s suggestions, saying[[723]]: “It is much better in the interests of the people of the island that the suffrage should be limited by an educational and property qualification.” The above suffrage qualifications for the insular possessions of the United States is evidence that the attitude of Congress toward universal suffrage has been considerably modified within recent years.