PUBLIC WORKS.-Continued. Page. 82. To provide for the repair of the Street in front of 183 83.-To appropriate a sum for sprinkling with coal oil that Approved March 12, 1908. 184 84. To appropriate a sum of money out of any funds in the Treasuay of Porto Rico to meet the expenses of the study of methods of irrigation in the Southern District. 184. Approved February 29, 1908. REFORM SCHOOL. 85. To amend Section 7 of an Act entitled "An Act to REGISTRARS. 86. To amend Section 2, of an Act, entitled: "An Act as- Approved March 12, 1908. REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS. 87.—To reenact for the term of one year the Act approved Approved March 12, 1908. 185 186 REVENUE. 88. To amend Section 1 of An Act entitled "An Act to amend Chapter II, Title IX, of the Political Code, REVENUE STAMPS. 89.-Joint Resolution authorizing the destruction of certain Internal Revenue Stamps... Approved March 12, 1908. 188 ROADS, POLIcing of. SUBSTITUTES ON BOARDS. 91.-Joint Resolution authorizing the President of the Exe- Approved March 12, 1908. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS. 92. To repeal an Act entitled "An Act authorizing the TUBERCULOSIS. Approved March 12, 1908. 93. To authorize the Director of Health, Charities and WAREHOUSES. Page. 189 190 191 194 94.-Joint Resolution to declare the warehouse buildings which Mr. José T. Silva proposes to construct in the Marina of San Juan to be a bonded warehouse...... 195 Approved March 12, 1908. ORGANIC ACT. AN ACT TEMPORARILY TO PROVIDE REVENUES AND A CIVIL GOVERNMENT FOR PORTO RICO, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That the provisions of this Act shall apply to the island of Porto Rico and to the adjacent islands and waters of the islands lying east of the seventy-fourth meridian of longitude west of Greenwich, which were ceded to the United States by the Government of Spain by treaty entered into on the tenth day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight; and the name Porto Rico, as used in this Act, shall be held to include: not only the island of that name, but all the adjacent islands as aforesaid. Section 2.-That on and after the passage of this Act the same tariffs, customs, and duties shall be levied, collected, and paid upon all articles imported into Porto Rico from ports other than those of the United States which are required by law to be collected upon articles imported into the United States from foreign countries: Provided, That on all coffee in the bean or ground imported into Porto Rico there shall be levied and collected a duty of five cents per pound, any law or part of law to the contrary notwithstanding: And provided further, That all Spanish scientific, literary, and artistic works, not subversive of public order in Porto Rico, shall be admitted free of duty into Porto Rico, for a period of ten years, reckoning from the eleventh day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, as provided in said treaty of peace between the United States and Spain: And Provided further, That all books and pamphlets printed in the English language shall be admitted into Porto Rico free of duty when imported from the United States. Section 3.-That on and after the passage of this Act all merchandise coming into the United States from Porto Rico and coming into Porto Rico from the United States shall be entered at the several ports of entry upon payment of fifteen per centum of the duties which are required to be levied, collected, and paid upon like articles of merchandise imported from foreign countries; and in addition thereto upon articles of merchandise of Porto Rican manufacture coming into the United States and withdrawn for consumption or sale upon payment of a tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in the United States upon the like articles of merchandise of domestic manufacture; such tax to be paid by internal-revenue stamp or stamps to be purchased and provided by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and to be procured from the collector of internal-revenue at or most convenient to the port of entry of said merchandise in the United States, and to be affixed under such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall prescribe; and on all articles of merchandise of United States manufacture coming into Porto Rico in addition to the duty above provided upon payment of a tax equal in rate and amount to the internal-revenue tax imposed in Porto Rico upon the like articles of Porto Rican manufacture: Provided, That on and after the date when this Act shall take effect, all merchandise and articles, except coffee, not dutiable under the tariff laws of the United States, and all merchandise and articles entered into Porto Rico free of duty under orders heretofore made by the Secretary of War, shall be admitted into the several ports thereof, when imported from the United States, free of duty, all laws or parts of laws to the contrary notwithstanding; and whenever the legislative assembly of Porto Rico shall have enacted and put into operation a system of local taxation to meet the necessities of the government of Porto Rico, by this Act established, and shall by resolution duly passed so notify the President, he shall make proclamation thereof, and thereupon all tariff duties on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from the United States or coming into the United States from Porto Rico shall cease, and from and after such date all such merchandise and articles shall be entered at the several ports of entry free of duty; and in no event shall any duties be collected after the first day of March, nineteen hundred and two, on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from the United States or coming into the United States from Porto Rico. Section 4.-That the duties and taxes collected in Porto Rico in pursuance of this Act, less the cost of collecting the same, and the gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the United States upon articles of merchandise coming from Porto Rico, shall not be covered into the general fund of the Treasury, but shall be held as a separate fund, and shall be placed at the disposal of the President to be used for the government and benefit of Porto Rico until the government of Porto Rico herein provided for shall have been organized, when all moneys theretofore collected under the provisions hereof, |