Colonial Law from the 'local laws' would have prevented the proper function of
government."13

 That Luther Evans was correct in his interpretation was later to be made clear
by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit which held in 1920 all local
laws still to be in force.14 An opinion in 1926 of the United States Attorney General,
moreover, declared that the Colonial Law of 1906 "was continued in force by the Act of
Congress of March 3, 1917."15

 The above quoted provision also permitted the respective councils to repeal,
alter, or amend "any of said laws," with the approval of the President, or under rules
and regulations prescribed by him. Actually this meant that the ordinary legislative
bodies of the Islands, with the approval of the President, could amend the law of their
creation. It seemed that Congress anticipated that the President would exercise his
conferred power of approval and veto in regard to such municipal legislation. This
provision was the most democratic in the Act. But Luther Evans, referring to it,
observed that "had the former McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence" (i.e., President
Woodrow Wilson) "realized what he was doing when he approved this Act of Congress
he no doubt would have been greatly pained."16

 Section 2 also extended the jurisdiction of the local courts to all cases in the
 Islands to which the United States "or any citizen thereof" may be a party. Had
 Congress intended to exclude Virgin Islanders from this category of "citizen" few cases
 would have arisen in the local courts. But as we have noted, the State Department
 later ruled that neither the Treaty nor the Act of 1917 conferred citizenship on Virgin
 Islanders.17

 Section 3, providing for customs duties collectible on goods entering the United
 States from the Islands, read in part:

 That until Congress shall otherwise provide all
 laws now imposing taxes in the said Islands,
 including the customs laws and regulations, shall,
 in so far as compatible with the changed
 sovereignty and not otherwise herein provided,
 continue in force and effect.

 It was then provided in section 4 that articles from the United States should be
 admitted duty free and that the ad valorem export duty on sugar then in effect should
 be supplanted by a levy of $8 per ton.18 According to section 5, the duties and taxes
 collected in pursuance of the Act were to "be used and expended for the government
 and benefit of said islands under such rules and regulation as the President may
 prescribe," and they were not to be paid into the Treasury of the United States.