Note 9 — Chapter XXVI · Congressional Legislation

We have several times in our reports called attention to the practical workings of that portion of the Act of Congress approved March 8, 1902, which provides for the refund of duties paid on articles exported from the Philippine Islands to the United States and consumed therein, and have as repeatedly recommended its repeal. It is a direct burden upon the people of the Philippine Islands, because it takes from the insular treasury export duties collected from the people and gives them to manufacturers of hemp products in the United States. These manufacturers were already prosperous before this bounty was given them and it seems hardly consistent with our expressions of purpose to build up and develop the Philippine Islands when we are thus enriching a few of our own people at their expense.9