Governing the Philippine Islands 



83 



PURCHASE OF SUPPLIES FOR THE 

 PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT IN THE 

 UNITED STATES 



All supplies for the Philippine Gov- 

 ernment bought in the United States 

 are purchased by this Bureau. This 

 work is allotted to one of its divisions. 

 To this division is attached, as I have 

 stated before, a fully equipped purchas- 

 ing agency in New York, where arti- 

 cles of every kind and description are 

 purchased after fair competition, f. o. b. 

 ship's tackle, insured, and shipped to 

 the Philippine Islands. Payments for 

 the same are made by a duly appointed 

 disbursing officer of Philippine funds, 

 an official of this Bureau stationed in 

 Washington. All requisitions for sup- 

 plies, after approval by the civil governor 

 of the Philippines, are sent to the Bureau 

 and there carefully entered in ledgers, 

 and when the purchases are made the 

 vouchers are carefully audited and com- 

 pared as to rates, prices, and methods, 

 the check in payment drawn only after 

 order of the Chief of the Bureau, and 

 accounting made to the Auditor of the 

 Philippine Islands, who is the final au- 

 thority as to the propriety of the dis- 

 bursement. This disbursing officer paid 

 some 4,000 accounts during the past 

 year, amounting to some $8,000,000. 



STATISTICS, COMMERCE, AND IMMI- 

 GRATION 



One division of the Bureau is charged 

 with the tabulation of all commercial 

 statistics in the Philippine Islands, di- 

 rect reports being made to the Bureau by 

 all collectors of customs on prescribed 

 forms and blanks. These statistics are 

 published in monthly summaries of com- 

 merce showing all details of the import 

 and export trade. Such compilations 

 were made of Cuba and Porto Rico while 

 under the jurisdiction of the War De- 

 partment. They have been the only 

 official data for the information of Con- 

 gress on which were based the resultant 

 tariff laws and other legislation relating 

 to commerce and revenue. 



CAPTURED INSURGENT DOCUMENTS 



In one division of this Bureau there 

 are filed some 200,000 documents which 

 were captured at different times from 

 the insurgents in the Philippines. Few 

 of them are of value as military records, 

 but they contain the material for a his- 

 tory of the insurgent government both 

 during its open existence and during 

 the ensuing guerrilla warfare. They 

 include many of the orders and regula- 

 tions and much of the correspondence 

 of the insurgent officers, and throw 

 much light upon many important mat- 

 ters of which, from an American point of 

 view alone, but a partial understanding 

 can be obtained. These papers, since 

 their receipt in October, 1902, have been 

 carefully arranged, recorded, and filed, 

 and those of special interest indexed and 

 translated. It seems well worth while 

 to print the more important of these 

 documents with such explanatory notes 

 as can be furnished by officers who are 

 familiar with the transactions to which 

 they relate. 



The Secretary of War, agreeable to 

 my recommendation, has asked Con- 

 gress for the necessary appropriation to 

 print this insurgent history, which will 

 be comprised in about five volumes of 

 500 pages each, and will furnish an in- 

 teresting chapter of the first period of 

 our occupation of the Philippines. 



PHILIPPINE EXHIBIT AT LOUISIANA 

 PURCHASE EXPOSITION 



In the World's Fair grounds at St 

 Louis there are some forty-two acres of 

 ground reserved for the Philippine ex- 

 hibit. Today there are some fifteen 

 large buildings, typical of the Philip- 

 pine Islands, in process of completion. 

 It is the intention to bring over some 

 1,200 natives of the Philippine Islands 

 and about 10,000 tons of material. 



The Philippine Commission has al- 

 ready appropriated $500,000 and the 

 Exposition Company $200,000 for the 

 payment of the expenses of this exhibit. 

 It is believed that this will be the most 



