Porto Rico (q.v.), Guam (q.v.) and the Philippine Islands (q.v.) were seized by the United States during the war with Spain, in augurated in 1898 for the purpose of compelling that government to terminate her oppression of the people of Cuba. At the close of that war, in which the United States was successful, the islands were transferred to the United States by. Spain, on the payment of $20,000,000 by the United States. While the treaty did not specify the precise purpose of the payment of the $20, 000,000, it was understood that Porto Rico and Guam were retained by the United States under the rules of war, and that the payment of the sum named was with reference to the Philip pines. Porto Rico has been made customs dis trict of the United States and the commerce be tween that island and the United States is not subject to any customs duties. It has grown from about $4,000,030 per annum, before the transfer, to about $22,000,000 in 1903 and $128, 913,436 in 1919, the merchandise sent to con tinental United States being chiefly sugar, to bacco and fruits. Merchandise from the Philip pines coming into the United States enters free of duty, and merchandise from the United States enters the Philippines duty free. The tariff of the Philippines differs from that of the United States; in the case of Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands the tariff of the United States applies to merchandise from for eign countries, but all merchandise between the islands and continental United States passes duty free in both directions, as does also mer chandise passing to and fro between Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands; while the Philippine Islands trade bears the same relation to that of Porto Rico, the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska as to continental United States. Porto Rico is. governed by officers appointed by the President and a legislature elected by the people. The Philippines were governed by a commission appointed by the President of the United States, the commission being made up in part from citizens of the island and a part from citizens of the United States, but in 1916 the commission was abolished and a legislature created to consist of a Senate of 24 members and a House of Representatives of 90 members. The trade between the Philippines and the United States amounted in 1919 to $151,461,636, the chief exports of the Philippines to the United States being cocoanut oil, copra, manila hemp, sugar and tobacco.
The island of Tutuila, one of the Samoan group in the south Pacific, passed under the control of the United States in 1899. The group had been for many years under a joint protectorate of the United States, Great Britain and Germany, but in that year the joint pro tectorate terminated, and the island of Tutuila, whose people had long ago expressed a desire for annexation to the United States, was annexed. The island is small, its chief import
ance being the possession of a fine harbor, the best'in the south Pacific. See SAMOAN ISLANDS.
Panama Canal The United States by a treaty with the republic of Panama in 190.1 obtained the privilege of constructing a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama and the control in perpetuity of a strip of land 10 miles wide for its construction, maintenance and oper ation. The sum paid for this privilege was $10,000,000, and in addition there was to be paid the further sum of $250,000 per annum as long as the occupancy shall continue. The United States did not acquire title to the ter ritory but merely a perpetual right of occupa tion, use and control. (See PANAMA CANAL). The area, however, is classed as a part of the non-contiguous territory of the United States in the United States Statistical Abstract, issued by the Department of Commerce.
Virgin Islands.—The islands of Saint Croix, Saint Thomas and Saint John, formerly known as the Danish West Indies, purchased by the United States from Denmark in 1917, for the sum of $25,000,000. They had been long a subject of negotiation between the Danish gov ernment and that of the United States at prices ranging from $5,000,000 to $15,000,000, but the several propositions failed to receive the neces sary legislative action for ratification. In 1916 war conditions rendered it advisable that the islands be promptly acquired in order that the United States government should be able to fortify and occupy as a naval base the harbor of Saint Thomas, known as the oGibraltar of the West and considered of especial importance in the protection of the Panama Canal. President Wilson negotiated a treaty of purchase, naming a price of $25,000,000, and recommended that Congress ratify it, which it did, and the $25,000,000 was promptly paid and the title to the islands passed to the United States on 31 March 1917. Domestic products of the islands enter the United States free of duty and United States products enter the is lands free of duty. A governor was appointed by the United States government to administer the laws in force in the islands pending legis lation by Congress for their permanent gov ernment. The trade between the United States and the islands amounted in 1919 to $3,192,132.