The Philippines: Past and Present | Page 5

Commission
without a day's break in my period of service.
The members of this latter body were William H. Taft of Ohio; Luke E.
Wright of Tennessee; Henry C. Ide of Vermont; Bernard Moses of
California, and myself. Briefly stated, the task before us was to

establish civil government in the Philippine Islands. After a period of
ninety days, to be spent in observation, the commission was to become
the legislative body, while executive power continued to be vested for a
time in the military.
This condition endured until the 4th of July, 1901, on which day Mr.
Taft was appointed civil governor. On September 1, 1901, each of the
remaining original members of the commission became an executive
officer as well. Mr. Wright was appointed secretary of commerce and
police; Mr. Ide, secretary of finance and justice; Mr. Moses, secretary
of public instruction, and I myself, Secretary of the Interior. On the
same day three Filipino members were added to the commission: Dr. T.
H. Pardo de Tavera, Sr. Benito Legarda and Sr. José R. de Luzuriaga.
Until the 16th of October, 1907, the Commission continued to serve as
the sole legislative body. It is at the present time the upper house of the
Philippine Legislature, the Philippine Assembly, composed of
eighty-one elective members, constituting the lower house.
I have therefore had a hand in the enactment of all legislation put in
force in the Philippine Islands since the American occupation, with the
exception of certain laws passed during my few and brief absences.
As secretary of the interior it fell to my lot to organize and direct the
operations of a Bureau of Health, a Bureau of Govermnent Laboratories,
a Bureau of Forestry, a Bureau of Public Lands, a Bureau of
Agriculture, a Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, a Mining Bureau and a
Weather Bureau. Ultimately, the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes and
the Mining Bureau were incorporated with the Bureau of Government
Laboratories to form the Bureau of Science, which continued under my
executive control. The Bureau of Agriculture was transferred to the
Department of Public Instruction in 1909.
I was at the outset given administrative control of all matters pertaining
to the non-Christian tribes, which constitute, roughly speaking, an
eighth of the population of the Philippines, and until my resignation
retained such control throughout the islands, except in the Moro
Province, which at an early day was put directly under the

governor-general.
I participated in the organization of civil government in the several
provinces of the archipelago, and myself drafted the Municipal Code
for the government of the towns inhabited by Filipinos, as well as the
Special Provincial Government Act and the Township Government Act
for that of the provinces and settlements inhabited chiefly by the
non-Christian tribes.
At the outset we did not so much as know with certainty the names of
the several wild and savage tribes inhabiting the more remote and
inaccessible portions of the archipelago. As I was unable to obtain
reliable information concerning them on which to base legislation for
their control and uplifting, I proceeded to get such information for
myself by visiting their territory, much of which was then quite
unexplored.
After this territory was organized into five so-called "Special
Government Provinces," some of my Filipino friends, I fear not moved
solely by anxiety for the public good, favoured and secured a
legislative enactment which made it my official duty to visit and
inspect these provinces at least once during each fiscal year. I shall
always feel indebted to them for giving me this opportunity to become
intimately acquainted with some of the most interesting, most
progressive, and potentially most important peoples of the Philippines.
When in 1901 I received the news that a central government was soon
to be established, I was in the Sub-province of Lepanto on my first trip
through the wilder and less-known portions of northern Luzon. During
each succeeding year I have spent from two to four months in travel
through the archipelago, familiarizing myself at first hand with local
conditions.
I have frequently taken with me on these inspection trips
representatives of the Bureaus of Forestry, Agriculture, Science and
Health to carry on practical investigations, and have made it my
business to visit and explore little known and unknown regions. There
are very few islands worthy of the name which it has not been my

privilege to visit.
The organization of an effective campaign against diseases like bubonic
plague, smallpox, Asiatic cholera and leprosy in a country where no
similar work had ever previously been undertaken, inhabited by people
profoundly ignorant of the benefits to be derived from modern methods
of sanitation, and superstitious to a degree, promptly brought me into
violent conflict with the beliefs and prejudices of a large portion of the
Filipino population.
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