CONGRESS. (TiiE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



153 



vorable. Our forces have successfully controlled 

 the greater part of the islands, overcoming the 

 organized forces of the insurgents and carrying 

 order and administrative regularity to all quar- 

 ters. What opposition remains is for the most part 

 scattered, obeying no concerted plan of strategic 

 action, operating only by the methods common 

 to the traditions of guerrilla warfare, which, 

 while ineffective to alter the general control now 

 established, are still sufficient to beget insecurity 

 among the populations that have felt the good 

 results of our control and thus delay the confer- 

 ment upon them of the fuller measures of local 

 self-government, of education, and of industrial 

 and agricultural development which we stand 

 ready to give to them. 



By the spring of this year the effective opposi- 

 tion of the dissatisfied Tagals to the authority of 

 the United States was virtually ended, thus open- 

 ing the door for the extension of a stable admin- 

 istration over much of the territory of the archi- 

 pelago. Desiring to bring this about, I appointed 

 in March last a civil commission composed of the 

 Hon. William H. Taft, of Ohio; Prof. Dean C. 

 Worcester, of Michigan ; the Hon. Luke I. Wright, 

 of Tennessee ; the Hon. Henry C. Ide, of Vermont ; 

 and Prof. Bernard Moses, of California. The aims 

 of their mission and the scope of their authority 

 are clearly set forth in my instructions of April 

 7, 1900, addressed to the Secretary of War to be 

 transmitted to them: 



" In the message transmitted to the Congress 

 on the 5th of December, 1899, I said, speaking of 

 the Philippine Islands : ' As long as the insurrec- 

 tion continues the military arm must necessarily 

 be supreme. But there is no reason why steps 

 should not be taken from time to time to inaugu- 

 rate governments essentially popular in their form 

 as fast as territory is held and controlled by our 

 troops. To this end I am considering the advisa- 

 bility of the return of the commission, or such of 

 the members thereof as can be secured, to aid the 

 existing authorities and facilitate this work 

 throughout the islands.' 



" To give effect to the intention thus expressed, 

 I have appointed Hon. William H. Taft, of Ohio; 

 Prof. Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan ; Hon. Luke 

 I. Wright, of Tennessee; Hon. Henry C. Ide, of 

 Vermont; and Prof. Bernard Moses, of California, 

 commissioners to the Philippine Islands to con- 

 tinue and perfect the work of organizing and es- 

 tablishing civil government already commenced 

 by the military authorities, subject in all respects 

 to any laws which the Congress may hereafter 

 enact. 



" The commissioners named will meet and act as 

 a board, and the Hon. William H. Taft is desig- 

 nated as president of the board. It is probable 

 that the transfer of authority from military com- 

 manders to civil officers will be gradual and will 

 occupy a considerable period. Its successful ac- 

 complishment and the maintenance of peace and 

 order in the meantime will require the most per- 

 fect cooperation between the civil and military 

 authorities in the island, and both should be di- 

 rected during the transition period by the same 

 executive department. The commission will there- 

 fore report to the Secretary of War, and all their 

 action will be subject to your approval and control. 



" You will instruct the commission to proceed 

 to the city of Manila, where they will make their 

 principal office, and to communicate with the mili- 

 tary governor of the Philippine Islands, whom you 

 will at the same time direct to render to them every 

 assistance within his power in the performance of 

 their duties. Without hampering them by too 

 specific instructions, they should in general be 



enjoined, after making themseh < - f.miiliar with 

 the conditions and needs of the fount ry, to devote 

 their attention in the first instanc<: l/i the estab- 

 lishment of municipal government-, in ,<,hieh the 



uncpa government- 

 islands, both in the ci 



th 



natives of the isans, ot n the cities and 

 rural communities, shall be afforded the 

 tunity to manage their own loc;il affair- 

 fullest extent of which they are capable ;u,d sul 

 ject to the least degree of supervision and cont.n 

 which a careful study of their capacities and ol 

 servation of the workings of native control sho 

 to be consistent with the maintenance of law, 

 order, and loyalty. 



" 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. Whenever the commis- 

 sion is of the opinion that the condition of affairs 

 in the islands is such that the central administra- 

 tion may safely be transferred from military to 

 civil control they will report that conclusion to 

 you, with their recommendations as to the form 

 of central government to be established for the pur- 

 pose of taking over the control. 



" Beginning with the 1st day of September, 1900, 

 the authority to exercise, subject to my approval, 

 through the Secretary of War, that part of the 

 power of government in the Philippine Islands 

 which is of a legislative nature is to be transferred 

 from the military governor of the islands to this 

 commission, to be thereafter exercised by them in 

 the place and stead of the military governor, under 

 such rules and regulations as you shall prescribe, 

 until the establishment of the civil central govern- 

 ment for the islands contemplated in the last fore- 

 going paragraph, or until Congress shall otherwise 



Erovide. Exercise of this legislative authority will 

 iclude the making of rules and orders, having the 

 effect of law, for the raising of revenue by taxes, 

 customs duties, and imposts; the appropriation 

 and expenditure of public funds of the islands; 

 the establishment of an educational system 

 throughout the islands; the establishment of a 

 system to secure an efficient civil service; the or- 

 ganization and establishment of courts ; the organ- 

 ization and establishment of municipal and depart- 

 mental governments, and all other matters of a 

 civil nature for which the military governor is now 

 competent to provide by rules or orders of a legis- 

 lative character. 



"The commission will also have power during 

 the same period to appoint to office such officers 

 under the judicial, educational, and civil service 

 systems and in the municipal and departmental 

 governments as shall be provided for. Until the 

 complete transfer of control the military governor 

 will remain th*e chief executive head of the govern- 

 ment of the islands, and will exercise the executive 

 authority now possessed by him and not herein 

 expressly assigned to the commission, subject, how- 

 ever to the rules and orders enacted by the com- 

 mission in the exercise of the legislative powers 

 conferred upon them. In the meantime the 

 municipal and departmental governments will con- 

 tinue to report to the military governor and be 

 subject to his administrative supervision and con- 

 trol, under your direction, but that supervision 

 and control will be confined within the narrowest 

 limits consistent with the requirement that the 

 powers of government in the municipalities and 

 departments shall be honestly and effectively ex- 

 ercised and that law and order and individual 

 freedom shall be maintained. 



