Vol. XV, No. 7 



WASHINGTON 



July, 1904 



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GOVERNING THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



■By Colonel Clarence R. Edwards, U. S. Army, 



Chief of Bureau of Insular Affairs 



ONE of the wisest provisions con- 

 tained in President McKinley's 

 instructions to the Taft Com- 

 mission, which has gained congressional 

 approval, was the provision that ap- 

 pointments should be made by the civil 

 governor, by and with the advice and 

 consent of the Philippine Commission. 

 Under this authority the Commission 

 has enacted civil - service legislation 

 which I believe is as practical and 

 effective a civil service as exists in 

 any country today. It is more com- 

 prehensive than the United States stat- 

 utes, and the result has been, since I 

 have been the chief of the Bureau, that 

 not one single instance can I recollect 

 where appointments have been made 

 contrary to law, contrary to the one 

 idea in view — merit and the best inter- 

 ests of the Philippine service and rights 

 of the Filipino. I hardly know the 

 politics of an employe in the Philippine 

 service except those of the Philippine 

 Commission, and I call to your atten- 

 tion the fact that the Senate has already 

 confirmed, to take effect the first clay of 



February, the nomination as civil gov- 

 ernor of the Philippines of the Hon. 

 L,uke E. Wright, a prominent Demo- 

 crat of Tennessee. The only appoint- 

 ments made by the President are the 

 civil governor, vice-governor, members 

 of the Commission, and supreme court 

 of the Philippines. 



This Bureau is charged with the labor 

 in the United States incident to the se- 

 lection of appointees upon the certifica- 

 tion of the United States Civil Service 

 Commission after examination, and the 

 arrangement for their transportation to 

 the Philippines, as well as matters re- 

 lating to appointment in the corps of 

 teachers, the judiciary, and positions 

 not subject to the requirements of the 

 civil-service law. 



The inauguration of complete civil gov- 

 ernment in the Philippines, occurring as 

 it didsimultaneously with the muster out 

 of the twenty-four volunteer regiments 

 of infantry serving in those islands, re- 

 sulted in a great number of the personnel 

 of such regiments being appointed to civil 

 positions, as those honorably discharged 



* Concluded from "The Work of the Bureau of Insular Affairs," by Colonel Edwards, 

 June, 1904. 



