It will be seen from the foregoing that the supervision and control over municipal government by the insular government is logically distributed, according to the nature of the control to be exercised, among the three offices of the treasurer, the secretary and the governor. The treasurer is responsible for seeing that the municipalities keep their accounts in proper form and that the local treasurers and comptrollers perform their duties properly. The secretary exercises a general control over the legality and justice of the actions of the municipalities and acts as the authority to whom appeal can be made for the redress of specific grievances or for the prevention or correction of abuse of power. The governor is responsible for seeing that only honest and capable men are permitted to hold office.

While the government of Porto Rico has by the action which has been described evolved a thoroughly logical system of local government, it cannot be said that the general problem of local government on the island has been solved. There still remain various directions in which action is very desirable. Chief among these is that of providing for a simpler and less expensive system of government for the smaller municipalities, and when this is done, of returning their autonomy to the municipalities which were merged in others by the act of 1902. On the other hand, it is desirable that a somewhat more complete and independent government be given to the three or four cities proper of the island. It also is still a matter of uncertainty whether the system of local school boards and boards of road supervisors will give satisfactory

results, or whether the objects that are sought by their constitution cannot be better obtained in some other way. Changes can also be made with advantage in the system of local taxation especially with reference to that feature having to do with the levying of special business or license taxes. Finally a very great improvement would result from a consolidation into one harmonious municipal code of the provisions relating to the municipalities that are now scattered through a large number of laws.

CHAPTER VI

GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINES: INSULAR

GOVERNMENT

To any person desiring to make a careful study of the problem confronting the United States in the framing of a system of government and administration for the Philippine Islands, the fact that must first impress him is the complexity of the questions presented and the difficulties involved in their solution. Here, even more than in the case of Porto Rico, the devising of a form of government for the Philippines is not a single problem to be met merely by the enactment of an organic law. The passage of such a law constitutes merely the first and, in many respects, the simplest step. The Philippine Archipelago is inhabited by peoples and races representing almost every stage of development, from complete savagery to comparative civilization. The form of government that would be adapted to one would be totally unsuitable for another. The general problem of providing a government for the Philippine Islands thus presents almost every possible question relating to colonial government. To meet this situation it has consequently been necessary to elaborate, not one, but various, systems of government, each in a large degree constituting a distinct type of government and to

gether illustrating forms of government running all the way from that of direct and almost autocratic action by a military or civil governor, without the intervention of even an advisory council, to that where the people are given a large measure of local autonomy and participation in the management of their public affairs. In the study that follows, therefore, we shall be called upon to describe a number of distinct forms of government, those, namely, by which provision is made for the government of (1) the archipelago as a whole, (2) the provinces occupied by the more civilized tribes, (3) the provinces which are inhabited by less advanced tribes, (4) the districts occupied by non-Christian or savage tribes, (5) the municipal districts within each of these classes of provinces, and (6) the city of Manila, to which a special form of government has been given in order to meet the peculiar conditions that there prevail.

In the second place, the student must be equally struck with the fact that he is called upon to study a work that is not yet completed; that he must examine institutions that to a certain extent may be said to have a tentative character, or that at least are certain to undergo important modification in the early future as experience in their operation is acquired. In consequence of this he will at once realize that a bare description of the different forms of government as they exist at the present time will utterly fail to afford a proper or satisfactory account of real conditions. Such an account can only be secured after some idea has been obtained of the peculiar conditions that have had and still have to be met, of the character of the

country and people to be dealt with, and of the various steps that have been taken in establishing the system that now prevails. In this way only is it possible to appreciate both the provisions of law regarding the government of the islands, and the reasons that underlie and have dictated them. Our first effort, therefore, shall be to give an historical account of all that has been done by the United States since the first occupation of the islands down to the present time in regard to the administration of civil affairs. This done, we shall then be in a position to consider the character of this action and the motives dictating it.

At

Events Leading up to the Establishment of Civil Government. War with Spain was declared April 21, 1898, and the battle of Manila Bay, by which the Spanish fleet was destroyed, took place May 1 following. It was not, however, until August 13, 1898, when the city of Manila was occupied by the joint forces of the army and navy, that the problem of the administration of the civil affairs of the islands presented itself. that time, of course, all authority, civil as well as military, was vested in the hands of the commander of the United States forces, and the first government was therefore a military one, such as has been described in our introductory chapter. Owing to the condition of hostilities that existed with Spain and which later, on February 4, 1899, broke out with the Filipinos themselves, led by Aguinaldo, the work of civil administration by the United States had at first to be restricted within very narrow limits. Immediate steps, however, were taken for the government of Manila itself.