CHAPTER XI.

SOME CONSTRUCTIVE LEGISLATION.

STARTING with the surprisingly varied and uniformly excellent provisions made by the army for new courts, the collecting and disbursement of public funds, the establishment of sanitary conditions, the opening of a system of free schools, and a list of other needed provisions too long to be enumerated here, the Civil Commission has drafted and put into force over one thousand laws. They have followed the Anglo-Saxon rather than the French method of providing government and legislative machinery for new conditions, conserving and using existing legislative and governmental provisions which were worthy, and creating new laws and new provisions only when such were demanded by new conditions. And while some of this legislation has proved a misfit, because too theoretical, and perhaps utopian, it has all been of a more practical character because it was framed in view of what seemed pressing necessities. So urgent has been the demand for new laws, and the drastic amendment of those in force for generations, that the Commission has been forced to adopt the maxim of that son of Erin who declared that he "never did to-day what could be put off until to-morrow." They have been literally forced to hold over everything that could wait, while all their thought and time which could be spared from executive duties were given to

drafting and passing laws touching phases of Philippine life which demanded instant amelioration.

Out of this bewildering mass of legislation I can name and outline but a few Acts of many which are worthy of designation as "constructive legislation." I shall reserve the School Act for a special chapter.

Governor Taft jotted down for me the following partial list of Acts of the Civil Commission which he regarded fundamental to the creation of right conditions of government and society in the Philippines:

The Municipal Code, the Provincial Act, the School Act, the Organization of Courts, the Act Creating the Civil Service Board, the Civil Procedure Act, the Philippine Constabulary Act, the Land Act, the Land Registration Act, the Penal Code, and various Acts as to Public Health.

Some of these are very intricate acts. All have called for legislative ability of a high order. In a sense the Commission had an open field. The slate was clean. They were to judge what to conserve, and how and what to build anew. It was a great opportunity, and, on the whole, has been worthily met. Certain it is that no body of men laboring for the welfare of those over whom the flag of our Republic waves have put in longer hours, or given themselves more unsparingly to their high duties than this body, of whom Governor Taft was not only governor, but the commanding spirit and legislative genius. They have "toiled terribly." I know whereof I speak, for I have been a constant and interested witness. I knew that these men were making history-history which would not only be read with unfailing interest as a contribution to the literature of colonial administration, but which, as it was made, and afterwards, would tell tremendously in awakening the leth

argic and immobile East, and hastening the day when the vast populations of insular and Continental Asia should come to their own.

The Municipal Code was enacted into law January 31, 1901. It was one of the first, as it was one of the most fundamental, of the constructive acts of the Commission. It called in being municipalities practically autonomous, with a limited electorate, having their operations subject to the scrutiny and criticism of a provincial government in which the controlling element must be American, and directly responsible to the insular government. In this way it was hoped by the Commission that a nucleus of patriotic Filipinos might be brought into such practical familiarity with the workings of government as to secure correct views of the duties belonging to public officers. For the Commission well says:

"It is necessary by practical lessons and actual experience to eliminate from the minds of the more intelligent part of the community who form the electorate those ideas of absolutism in government, and to impress the conception of a limitation upon power, which it is now so difficult for them to understand. In addition to the defect spoken of, there is another. There is an absolute lack of any sense of responsibility on the part of a public officer to the public at large. Office has always been regarded as a source of private profit, and as a means of gratifying private desires, either hate or friendship."

Some of the salient features of the Municipal Code -the germ of the government to be established in these Islands are given in the somewhat extensive quotations below. They will speak for themselves:

"Section I. (a) The pueblos of the Philippine Islands shall be recognized as municipal corporations, with the *Report, Vol. I, p. 20.

same boundaries as now existing de jure or de facto, upon organization under the provisions of this Act.

"(b) This Act shall not apply to the city of Manila, for which special legislation shall be enacted.

"(c) This Act shall not apply to the settlements of non-Christian tribes, for which special legislation shall be enacted.

"Sec. 2. (a) Pueblos incorporated under this Act shall be designated as municipalities (municipios), and shall be known respectively by the names heretofore adopted. Under such names they may sue and be sued, contract and be contracted with, acquire and hold real and personal property for the general interests of the municipality, and exercise all the powers hereinafter conferred upon them.

"(b) All property and property rights vested in any pueblo under its former organization shall continue to be vested in the same municipality after its corporation under this Act.

"Sec. 3. The government of each municipality established under this Act is hereby vested in a president, a vice-president, and a Municipal Council. The president and the councilors, together with the vice-president, shall be chosen at large by the qualified electors of the municipality, and their term of office shall be for two years from and after the first Monday in January next after their election and until their successors are duly chosen and qualified; Provided, that the, president and vice-president elected in 1901 shall hold office until the first Monday in January, 1903, or until their successors are duly chosen and qualified, and that the councilors elected in 1901 shall divide themselves by lot into two classes; the seats of those of the first class shall be vacated on the first Monday of January, 1902, and those of the second class one year thereafter, or when their successors are duly chosen and qualified, so that one-half of the Municipal Council shall be chosen annually.

"Sec. 4. (a) Incorporated municipalities shall be of four classes according to the number of inhabitants. Municipalities of the first class shall be those which contain

not less than 25,000 inhabitants, and shall have eighteen councilors; of the second class, those containing 18,000 and less than 25,000 inhabitants, and shall have fourteen councilors; of the third class, those containing 10,000 and less than 18,000 inhabitants, and shall have ten councilors; of the fourth class, those containing less than 10,000 inhabitants, and shall have eight councilors.

"CHAPTER II.

"QUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS—ELECTIONS.

"Sec. 6. (a) The electors charged with the duty of choosing elective municipal officers shall be male persons, twenty-three years of age or over, who have had a legal residence in the municipality in which they exercise the suffrage for a period of six months immediately preceding the election, and who are citizens or subjects of the following three classes:

"(b) Those who, prior to the 13th of August 1898, held the office of municipal captain, gobernadorcillo, alcalde, lieutenant, caboza de barangay, or member of any Ayuntamiento.

"(c) Those who own real property to the value of 500 pesos, or who annually pay thirty pesos or more of the established taxes.

"(d) Those who speak, read, and write English or Spanish."

Persons so qualified take oath to be loyal to the government of the United States, and proceed on designated dates to choose their municipal officials "by secret ballot." The election must be held in the public municipal office, and is presided over by a Board of Election judges, consisting of three qualified electors who are not candidates at the election being held. Votes cast for a member of this Board are declared void. The hours of voting are fixed fom 8 A. M. to 4 P. M. Ample