of a public or quasi-public nature to be made by the executive council, a body composed entirely of Presidential appointees, with the approval of the governor, and requiring all such grants to be reported to Congress, which reserved the power to annul or modify the same. For the purpose of making this control more efficacious, a joint resolution. of Congress adopted May 1, 1900, and approved by the President (31 Stat. 715), provided:

"That all railroad, street railway, telegraph and telephone franchises, privileges or concessions granted under section thirty-two of the 'Foraker Act,' shall be approved by the President of the United States, and no such franchise, privilege, or concession shall be operative until it shall have been so approved."

Section 3 of the said joint resolution further regulated the grant of such franchises by requiring them to contain certain provisions with respect to the issue of stock or bonds, and otherwise regulated the exercise of such franchises. Thus, we find in the "Foraker Act" and in this joint resolution a complete legislative scheme with respect to the granting of franchises for Porto Rico, which renders entirely unnecessary the restrictions of the act of 1886, as it accomplishes the same purpose by a different method.

In this view of the statutes cited, it is not necessary to consider whether or not Porto Rico is "one of the territories of the United States" within the meaning of the act of July 30, 1886. I may, however, observe that the case of New York ex rel. Kopel v. Bingham (211 U. S. 468), cited by Mr. Brown, does not seem to me to sustain the proposition he contends for. In that case a warrant was issued by the governor of Porto Rico and honored by the governor of New York for the arrest of one Kopel, who had committed an offence against the laws of Porto Rico. On habeas corpus in the United States courts in New York, it was contended by Kopel that Porto Rico, not being a territory within the meaning of section 5278, Revised Statutes, the governor of the island had no lawful right to issue his requisition, and the governor of New York no right to issue his warrant under which Kopel was detained. The contention was repudiated by all the courts. It was not

adjudged that Porto Rico was a territory of the United States within the meaning of the act of 1886. The authority of the governor of Porto Rico to demand requisition is carefully put by all of them upon the provisions of sections 14 and 17 of the "Foraker Act."

Section 14 provides:

"That the statutory laws of the United States not. locally inapplicable * shall have the same force

* *

and effect in Porto Rico as in the United States."

Section 17 provides that the governor

"shall at all times faithfully execute the laws, and he shall in that behalf have all the powers of governors of the Territories of the United States that are not locally inapplicable."

Section 5278, Revised Statutes, authorizes the executive authority of any State or Territory to demand the arrest and delivery up of a fugitive from justice. The Supreme Court, by Chief Justice Fuller, said:

"We quite agree with Judge Hough that 'to allege that the only existing law under which a Porto Rican fugitive from justice can be returned thereto from the United States is 'locally inapplicable' would be to make a jest of justice.'"

It was this authority given by the statute law of the United States to governors of "Territories of the United States" which was expressly conferred upon the governor of Porto Rico by section 17 and not left to inference based upon the conclusion that Porto Rico was one of the "Territories of the United States." As a matter of practical interpretation of the organic act and joint resolution pertaining to Porto Rico above referred to, I am advised that while franchises, including the very franchise under consideration, have been granted conformably to the provisions of the organic act by the executive council, and have been approved by the Governor of Porto Rico and by the President, after examination by Attorneys-General of the United States, and have been submitted to Congress; no such franchise has been annulled by Congress, and no intimation from any source has been given that they were in contravention of the act of 1886. Moreover, as the 59515°-VOL 28-12-32

Attorney-General states, the action of the insular government has been in conformity with the views here expressed.

Second. While the question is not free from doubt, yet I concur with the Attorney-General of Porto Rico, in the opinion that the exemption granted by the act of the legislative assembly of Porto Rico is restricted to the railroad and property of the grantee at the date of the approval of the act, and that subsequently built or acquired by such original grantee. The Compañia de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico (The Porto Rico Railroad Company) was originally operated under a concession granted by the Spanish Government in 1888. After the United States occupation various negotiations were had between the company and our government. A franchise was granted. to the company in July, 1901, in which was a clause exempting the railroad and its property from taxation for twentyfive years. This franchise, under advice of the AttorneyGeneral of the United States (23 Op. 491), was disapproved by the President, principally on account of this exempting clause.

A new franchise was granted October 28, 1901, in which, section 5, it was stated:

"The said grantee shall be exempt from all insular and municipal or local taxation of every name and nature for a period of twenty-five years from the date of the acceptance by it of this grant: Provided, however, That said exemption shall not become effective or operative until the legislative assembly of Porto Rico shall by law duly authorize such exemption."

This franchise was approved by the President in the following language:

"The foregoing ordinance is approved, subject to the qualification that the approval shall not have the effect to exempt the franchise from taxation until such exemption shall have been authorized by the legislative assembly of Porto Rico, nor be understood as infringing upon the prerogative of the legislative assembly of Porto Rico to exercise its sovereign power in regard to taxation.

"THEODORE ROOSEVELT."

On February 4, 1902, the legislative assembly of Porto Rico passed the act, above quoted, granting exemption.

The act contains some very peculiar provisions. While the Porto Rican Railroad Company is the original grantee, it is declared in the thirteenth section of the grant:

"The term 'grantee' as herein used shall extend to and include the grantee, its successor and assigns, and in case of the transfer of its property by the grantee, either by its own act or by act of law, the purchaser or assignee shall be bound by all the terms and conditions hereof of every name and nature. It is expressly understood and agreed that all the property interests and rights of the grantee, including this franchise and all the benefits and advantages accruing thereunder, but excluding any charter or franchise granted by royal order or decree as hereinbefore mentioned, may be assigned, sold, transferred, and set over unto the railroad company, association, or corporation the organization of which under the laws of one of the States of the United States is now contemplated for the express purpose of taking this franchise and the property rights of the grantee.'

Mr. Brown states that this "evidently refers to the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico, which was organized subsequent to the granting of the franchise and which has taken over, under a peculiar sort of contract, all of the property in Porto Rico of the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico."

This contract was executed March 22, 1902. Mr. Brown says:

the arrangement between the two companies is in effect only one of lease whereby the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico is to use all of the property of the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico, operating the railroad already established, extending the lines, and purchasing new and additional equipment out of funds which it will raise and which are to be repaid to it by the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico, out of earnings of the railroad, in annual instalments running during the life of the contract, and the new equipment is to belong to the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico at the

expiration of the contract, when it will be fully paid for. There is no transfer of title to any property from the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico to the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico, and no assignment of property or franchise attempted. On the contrary, the property purchased by the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico is to pass to the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico."

On July 22, 1902, the executive council by ordinance. authorized the "Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico" to assign to Henry De Ford, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns and to the proposed organization to be known as the "American Railroad Company of Porto Rico, Central Aguirre, operator," the right to construct, maintain, and operate the railroad line from Ponce to Guayama authorized by the ordinance of the executive council of October 28, 1901, above mentioned. This ordinance of assignment was approved by the President in October, 1902.

On April 2, 1904, certain parties obtained a charter for the Ponce and Guayama Railroad Company under the laws of the State of New Jersey, and the executive council by ordinance authorized the transfer

66* ** to that company of the franchise rights and exemptions theretofore granted to the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Puerto Rico for the construction and maintenance of a railroad between Ponce and Guayama, and also the transfer and assignment of said franchise rights and exemptions from the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico, the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico, Central Aguirre, operator, and its shareholders and Henry De Ford, to the said Ponce and Gauyama Railroad Company."

Under these authorities a deed was executed

* * by the American Railroad Company, Central Aguirre, operator, and Henry De Ford, conveying all the rights, property, and interests of every kind, including franchise rights for the construction of the line of railway between Ponce and Guayama. The individual stockholders of the American Railroad Company of Porto Rico,