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nity to manage their own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they are capable, and subject to the least degree of supervision and control which a careful study of their capacities and observation of the workings of native control show to be consistent with the maintenance of law, order, and loyalty."

In pursuance of this instruction the commission, on the 31st of January, 1901, passed "a general act for the organization of municipal governments in the Philippine Islands." This is act No. 82, known as the "municipal code." Under this act a town when organized becomes a municipal corporation having the customary corporate powers. The municipal authority is to be exercised by a president, vicepresident, and municipal council elected for a term of two years by the qualified electors of the municipality. Provision is made for a municipal secretary and a municipal treasurer, who are to be appointed by the president with the consent of the council. The qualified electors include all persons who prior to the capture of Manila had held certain municipal offices, and all persons who own real property to the value of 500 pesos, or pay an annual tax of 30 pesos or more, and all those who speak, read, and write either English or Spanish. (Persons guilty of crime, or of certain specific acts of disloyalty, and tax delinquents are disqualified.)

The powers of government conferred upon the municipalities are similar in character and extent to those ordinarily exercised by municipalities in the United States, and include, in general, authority to fix salaries; fill vacancies in office; provide fire, police, and health regulations; make appropriations of money for municipal purposes; manage the property of the town; regulate the construction, repair, and use of streets, wharves, and piers; establish, regulate, and maintain a police force; preserve the public peace and suppress vice; establish and maintain schools; assess property for taxation; levy taxes for municipal purposes, within the limitations prescribed by law; license the sale of intoxicating liquors; fix penalties for violation of ordinances, etc.

For the accomplishment of the purposes indicated the municipal council is empowered to make such ordinances and regulations, not repugnant to law, as may be necessary to carry into effect and discharge the powers and duties conferred by the municipal code, and such as shall seem necessary and proper to provide for the health and safety, promote the prosperity, improve the morals, peace, good order,

comfort, and convenience of the municipality and the inhabitants thereof, and for the protection of property therein, and enforce obedience thereto with lawful fines or penalties.

In proceedings relative to assessment of property for taxation and the levy and collection of taxes, the municipal authorities act in con junction with the provincial authorities of the province in which the municipality is situated; and the revenues derived from the tax levies are ratably distributed between the province and the municipalities therein.

Under this code municipal governments have been organized and are maintained in 765 towns.

Provincial governments.-A further instruction contained in the instrument of April 7, 1900, was as follows:

The next subject in order of importance should be the organization of government in the larger administrative divisions, corresponding to counties, departments, or provinces, in which the common interests of many or several municipalities falling within the same tribal lines or the same natural geographical limits may best be subserved by a common administration.

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Under this direction the commission, on the 6th of February, 1901, passed “a general act for the organization of provincial governments in the Philippine Islands," being act No. 83, and since amended in various details by act No. 133 and act No. 223. Under this act a provincial government upon organization becomes a body corporate, with customary corporate powers. The officials of the provincial government are a provincial governor, secretary, treasurer, supervisor, and fiscal. The governing body is the provincial board, composed of the governor, treasurer, and supervisor. The governor is to be chosen by the councilors of the municipalities in the province. The other officers are to be appointed by the commission, and, with the exception of the fiscal, are to be appointed under the provisions of the civilservice act.

The provincial government has jurisdiction over roads, bridges, and ferries not within the inhabited pueblos or barrios; over the administration of criminal law in the province; the protection and entertainment of the courts; the assessment and collection of taxes conjointly with the municipal officers; extensive visitorial and supervisory powers over municipal officers, and over the local constabulary or police. Under this statute the commission has from time to time organized thirty-five of the provinces in the archipelago. Three of these-Cebu,

Bohol, and Batangas-proved to be prematurely organized, and have been turned back to the control of the military officers. The governments of the remaining thirty-two are in full operation. The organization of these municipalities and provinces was necessarily a long and painstaking proceeding, and to accomplish it the commissioners have journeyed through the islands, familiarizing themselves with the conditions, meeting the inhabitants, and consulting with the principal men. The first provincial governors were necessarily selected by the commission, but in every case they were selected upon consultation with the citizens, and with due regard to their informally expressed wishes.

The city of Manila has been placed under a special government quite similar to that of Washington, provided by act No. 183, entitled "An act to incorporate the city of Manila," passed July 31, 1901.

Judicial establishment.-A third duty specifically imposed upon the commission was to provide for the organization and establishment of courts. In performance of this duty the commission has established a judicial system, provided for by act No. 136, entitled "An act to provide for the organization of courts in the Philippine Islands." The judicial power of the government of the islands is vested in a supreme court, consisting of a chief justice and six associate justices, sitting in Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu, and a court of first instance in each of fourteen judicial districts, which include the entire archipelago, both of these being courts of record, and a justice's court in each municipality. The judges are to be appointed by the commission. The supreme court has appellate jurisdiction to review the decisions of courts of first instance, and original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, habeas corpus, and quo warranto, and to issue writs of certiorari and such other auxiliary writs and process as may be necessary to the complete exercise of its original or appellate jurisdiction.

The courts of first instance have original jurisdiction in all civil actions except those upon a money demand of less than $100; in all criminal cases in which the penalty may exceed $100 fine or six months' imprisonment; in admiralty and probate cases, and to issue writs of injunction, mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, quo warranto, and habeas corpus. They have appellate jurisdiction over all cases arising in the justices courts. The justices courts have jurisdiction of cases involving less than $100 and petty offenses. Under the provisions

of this law justices courts have been organized in the 765 established municipalities, courts of first instance in the 14 judicial districts, and a supreme court. with the Hon. Cayetano Arellano, the most distinguished lawyer of the Philippines, as chief justice and Florentino Torres, of Manila, Joseph F. Cooper, late of Texas, James F. Smith, late of California, Charles A. Willard, late of Minnesota, Victorino Mapa, of Manila, and Fletcher Ladd, late of New Hampshire, as associate judges.

On the 12th of June, 1901, an act (No. 140) was passed defining the judicial districts, and fixing the times and places where the courts of first instance should be held.

On the 7th of August, 1901, the commission regulated the practice and procedure of these courts by their act No. 190, entitled "An act to provide a code of procedure in civil actions and special proceedings in the Philippine Islands."

Civil executive organization. In the month of June of the present year affairs in the islands were in a condition to justify a further step in the progressive narrowing of military administration by a division of the executive authority, and conferring that authority, so far as the pacified provinces were concerned, upon civil agents, leaving the executive power as to the remainder of the islands still in the hands of military officers.

The following order, by authority of the President, was made on the 21st of June:

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, June 21, 1901.

On and after the 4th day of July, 1901, until it shall be otherwise ordered, the president of the Philippine Commission will exercise the executive authority in all civil affairs in the government of the Philippine Islands heretofore exercised in such affairs by the military governor of the Philippines, and to that end the Hon. William H. Taft, president of the said commission, is hereby appointed civil governor of the Philippine Islands. Such executive authority will be exercised under and in conformity to the instructions to the Philippine Commissioners dated April 7, 1900, and subject to the approval and control of the Secretary of War of the United States. The municipal and provincial civil governments which have been or shall hereafter be established in said islands, and all persons performing duties appertaining to the offices of civil government in said islands, will in respect of such duties report to the said civil governor.

The power to appoint civil officers, heretofore vested in the Philippine Commission or in the military governor, will be exercised by the civil governor with the advice and consent of the commission.

The military governor of the Philippines is hereby relieved from the performance,

on and after the said 4th day of July, of the civil duties hereinbefore described, but his authority will continue to be exercised as heretofore in those districts in which insurrection against the authority of the United States continues to exist or in which public order is not sufficiently restored to enable provincial civil governments to be established under the instructions to the commission dated April 7, 1900.

By the President:

ELIHU ROOT, Secretary of War.

On the 4th of July Judge Taft was inaugurated, at Manila, as civil governor under this order, and entered upon the performance of his duties. At the same time Major-General MacArthur, after an able and successful administration of both military and civil affairs, transferred the command of the military division and the authority of military governor to Maj. Gen. Adna R. Chaffee, who had recently completed his service as American commander in the China relief expedition.

On the 1st of September a further step toward civil executive organization was made by the establishment of separate executive departments, to which members of the commission were assigned as follows: Department of the interior, Dean C. Worcester; department of commerce and police, Luke E. Wright; department of finance and justice, Henry C. Ide; department of public instruction, Bernard Moses.

The administrative affairs of the government are apportioned among these several departments as follows:

The department of the interior has under its executive control a bureau of health, the quarantine service of the marine-hospital corps, a bureau of forestry, a bureau of mining, a bureau of agriculture, a bureau of fisheries, a weather bureau, a bureau of Pagan and Mohammedan tribes, a bureau of public lands, a bureau of government laboratories, and a bureau of patents and copyrights.

The department of commerce and police has under its executive control a bureau of island and interisland transportation, a bureau of postoffices, a bureau of telegraphs, a bureau of coast and geodetic survey, a bureau of engineering and construction of public works other than public buildings, a bureau of insular constabulary, a bureau of prisons, a bureau of light-houses, a bureau of commercial and street-railroad corporations, and all corporations except banking.

The department of finance and justice embraces the bureau of the insular treasury, the bureau of the insular auditor, a bureau of customs and immigration, a bureau of internal revenue, the insular cold

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