CONGRESS. (THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.) 



163 



upon the single silver standard, with the free 

 coiiuige of Mexican dollars as the unit of value 

 and the current coin of the islands. We make no 

 change in the standard. We simply substitute 

 for the Mexican dollar an American Filipino dol- 

 lar, to be coined at the mint of Manila and at 

 the mints in the United States, following in that 

 reject the example of Great Britain in Hong- 

 Kong, Singapore, and the Straits Settlements, for 

 \vhich she has coined what is known as the Bom- 

 bay dollar, which has been of very great advan- 

 tage to her and to her trade in the commerce of 

 the East. I shall not go further into this ques- 

 tion. The sections were prepared by the Senator 

 from Iowa, and I shall leave him, abler and 

 more skilled than any other man in public life 

 to deal with such a question as this, to explain 

 these provisions fully and in detail to the Senate. 



" The remainder of the bill occupies 19 pages. 

 We begin by continuing the present Philippine 

 Commission. The only change we make in the 

 (. \isting conditions is to require that the com- 

 missioners shall be appointed by the President 

 and confirmed by the Senate, and we apply the 

 confirmation of the Senate also to the judges of 

 the supreme court. That, Mr. President, is neces- 

 sarily a temporary and tentative arrangement. 

 It is designed to leave the government of the 

 islands in the hands of the present commission 

 until the provisions of the succeeding sections 

 may be carried into effect. Those sections pro- 

 vide for taking a census of the islands, which 

 shall give not only the numbers of the people, 

 but all the information that can possibly be de- 

 sired, in order to enable us to establish there 

 ' permanent, popular, representative government.' 



" It will require, in the nature of things, some 

 time to take such a census, and it is impossible, 

 as it seemed to the committee, to enter suddenly 

 upon the establishment of representative govern- 

 ment until we know the numbers of the people, 

 until we have differentiated the wild tribes, who 

 are said to number nearly a million, from the 

 Christianized Filipinos, and also to determine our 

 relations with the Mohammedan tribes of the 

 south. The object of the census sections is to 

 enable Congress to legislate intelligently with a 

 view to giving those people a " popular repre- 

 sentative government " ; in the meantime, while 

 we take the census to which I refer, the bill in- 

 structs the commission to continue, and to ex- 

 tend as far as possible the municipal and pro- 

 vincial governments, to be chosen by the people, 

 witli the suffrage to be enlarged as rapidly as 

 they \hink it safe; and to continue to build up 

 in that way the self-government of the people 

 of the islands. 



" We provide also for the public lands. That, 

 again, is a temporary provision. There is a vast 

 body of public land in the Philippine Islands. 

 The total area of the islands is estimated at 

 7.!. 000,000 acres, and it is believed that not more 

 than 5,000,000 of those 72,000,000 acres are now 

 in private ownership. That leaves in the hands 

 of the United States, as the heir of Spain, some 

 07,000,000 acres of public land. The committee 

 felt that it was necessary to have a proper land 

 law one adapted to the conditions of the islands. 

 It has been left to the commission to prepare 

 "Ueli a law, to be transmitted to Congress for its 

 consideration and approval. Until that land law 

 i> enacted, we give to the commission power 

 only to make leases of the public lands. 



" We also provide that they shall give good 

 titles to the occupiers of public lands, of whom 

 there are a great many among the natives, who 

 have never been able to secure from Spain any 



title to the little homesteads or farms which 

 they live on and cultivate, and which, in many 

 cases, they have lived on and cultivated -for gen- 

 erations. I think that that is one of the most 

 necessary and beneficent provisions of the bill. 



" There are also sections which provide and 

 give authority for the issuance of municipal 

 loans, intended for municipal improvements, 

 which are greatly needed, especially in the eitv 

 of Manila. 



" We also have provisions in the bill in regard 

 to timber lands, and we have followed the same 

 careful policy in regard to those lands that we 

 have pursued in regard to the public lands gen- 

 erally. We permit the commission only to issue 

 licenses to cut timber, and not to sell any more 

 land than is necessary for the establishment of 

 a sawmill or the opening of a road to give ac- 

 cess to the forests. 



" We have also made provision for the pur- 

 chase of the friars' lands, as they are called. 

 That is a difficult and unusual question. We 

 authorize the commission to buy the lands of the 

 friars for the purpose of selling them immedi- 

 ately to the people who now occupy them. How- 

 ever witnesses or experts may differ in regard to 

 the affairs in the Philippine Islands, there is but 

 one opinion as to the necessity of taking these 

 friars' lands and giving them over to the people 

 who actually live upon them and cultivate them. 

 The possession of the lands by the friars was one 

 of the bitterest grievances of the Filipino people 

 against Spain. The testimony is universal as 

 to their desire to have those lands restored to 

 them. The sections in regard to these lands, of 

 course, in the nature of things, give a large power 

 to the commission, but there is no other way 

 that I have seen suggested to get those lands 

 out of the hands of these religious corporations 

 and back into the hands of the people who culti- 

 vate them. 



" We have also clauses in the bill providing 

 for franchises. They are guarded with the ut- 

 most care. I can not now undertake to read, 

 and I shall not detain the Senate by reading, 

 those franchise clauses, but I invite Senators to 

 examine them with the utmost care. They are 

 guarded in every possible way compatible with 

 giving any reasonable opening to capital to enter 

 into the islands with the hope of profitable in- 

 vestment. 



"The main object of the bill, Mr. President, is, 

 in a word, to replace military by civil govern- 

 ment to advance self-government; and yet it is 

 delayed in this chamber and opposed by those 

 who proclaim themselves the especial foes of 

 military rule. 



"The second object of the bill is to help the 

 development of the islands, and yet, as the com- 

 mittee felt, to help that development only by 

 taking the utmost pains that there should be no 

 opportunity given for undue or selfi>h exploita- 

 tion. The opponents of this legislation have 

 dwelt almost continuously, when they have 

 spoken on this bill, on the point that it is in- 

 tended to open the islands to exploiters, to syn- 

 dicates, and to carpetbaggers. Why, Mr. Piv-i 

 dent, if we go on the proposition that it is a 

 crime for an American to make money, undoubt- 

 edly there is opportunity in this bill for men or 

 associations of men to enter into the islands and 

 to make money in a legitimate way. I am 

 aware, after many years of experience, of the 

 hostility of the Democratic party to any man 

 who has made money or to any man making 

 money, and it was that one of their principles, 

 the o'nly one, I think, which was carried out 



