of which have reputed therapeutic value, and the determination of the properties of these minero-medicinal waters is another matter of importance.

Questions frequently arise in the custom-house which can be settled only by an expert chemist.

It is needless to discuss the necessity or the value of the work above outlined, but one or two practical illustrations of it may be given. These islands have just suffered from an epidemic of rinderpest, which in some provinces has destroyed more than 90 per cent of the cattle, reducing former cattle owners to poverty and preventing agriculturists from tilling the soil. In several provinces actual starvation has resulted, and the insular government has been compelled to inaugurate public works or to directly contribute food in order to succor the hungry. Meanwhile, the board of health has, in its inadequately equipped laboratory, worked out a method of using the bile of animals which have died from rinderpest to immunize those not yet attacked which has proved highly successful. Had it been elaborated and put into effect a little sooner the people of the country might have been saved the loss of millions of dollars' worth of property and the Government would have been spared the necessity of protecting itself and the more fortunate of its people against men driven to robbery and brigandage by sheer desperation.

Some time since the Manila board of health had under consideration a question involving the destruction of $50,000 worth of alcoholic drinks, alleged to contain very harmful impurities. A mistaken analysis might have resulted in the necessity of the board's paying very heavy damages.

It was not strange that laboratories began to spring up in the several bureaus and departments of the insular government, and as an inevitable consequence of their number they were in a fair way to be undermanned, improperly equipped with apparatus and chemicals, and without adequate library facilities.

With a view to providing against the perpetuation of the small and poorly equipped laboratories, which would have resulted in a needless expense, loss of space for laboratory installation, and duplication of instruments, apparatus, books, and even of investigations carried on and of experts to make such investigations, act No. 156 was passed by the commission. It provides for the establishment at Manila of a biological and chemical laboratory, to be suitably equipped for doing all the biological and chemical work necessary for the proper carrying on of the work of the several departments and bureaus, and to have adequate library facilities, so that the work of all the departments may be done to the best possible advantage. A temporary building has been rented until a suitable permanent structure can be erected, and important investigations are in progress.

When these laboratories are thoroughly equipped and suitably housed, it is purposed to afford opportunity each year for a few experts from the United States to come here and carry on investigations. The commission has definitely ascertained that several such men, of national reputation, would be glad to avail themselves of an opportunity for investigation here for a year or more if allowed their bare expenses. By securing their services in this way the insular government would be greatly benefited and at a minimum expense.

PHILIPPINES CONSTABULARY.

In its last report to the Secretary of War, the commission presented its views at some length upon the question whether native troops and native police should be used in establishing and maintaining order in the islands and whether they could with safety be largely substituted for American soldiers.

Among the reasons given for reaching an affirmative conclusion, the undesirability of maintaining a large army of Americans in the islands, both on the score of public policy and economy, was pointed out. Attention was called to the fact that such resistance to American authority, as then existed, was in no sense an organized war, but merely the resistance of guerrilla and ladrone bands, generally hiding in obscure mountain fastnesses and making desultory attacks on small bodies of our men, usually without effect, dispersing when hard pressed and assuming the rôle of inoffensive noncombatants.

It was further shown that a double rôle of this sort was possible with American soldiers, who found it difficult to distinguish one Filipino from another, were unacquainted with their language and habits, and had no means of acquiring an accurate knowledge of their movements, but that native troops and police would experience no such difficulty and could be readily enabled to put an end to such methods. The commission further directed attention to the fact that the masses of the people were anxious for peace and quiet and ready to accept American sovereignty, but as matters then stood they were terrorized and often forced into an attitude of hostility which they did not feel, and that organizing troops and police from their own people would inspire them with confidence and courage and convince them that they could best protect themselves by actively aiding the civil and military authorities. The objection made as to the loyalty and effectiveness of native troops and police was discussed and the conclusion reached that it was without foundation.

The commission has now had nearly a year within which to make further observations as to the characteristics, habits, and customs of the natives and as to the most effective methods to be pursued in reestablishing and maintaining order, and begs to say that subsequent investigation and reflection have confirmed the views originally

expressed. The military authorities have from time to time organized numerous companies of native scouts commanded by American officers, aggregating about 3,500 men. These organizations have uniformly performed faithful and effective service, and we are informed that there has not been a single instance of treachery or desertion. A fact so significant would seem to put at rest the only practical question which ever arose as to their availability.

The commanding general, Division of the Philippines, has announced it to be his purpose gradually to withdraw the numerous small detachments of regular troops stationed in nearly all the towns in the pacified provinces in the archipelago and concentrate them in larger garrisons, and to use them only when called on to suppress general insurrection or brigandage too formidable to be dealt with by the civil authorities, a course which we think eminently wise. The duty of preserving peace and order in all provinces in which civil government has been or may hereafter be established, as against ladrones and ordinary lawbreakers, has thus been remitted to the civil government.

Although there is no armed opposition to American supremacy in any of the pacified provinces, there has naturally followed from five years of revolution and unrest much of brigandage and general lawlessness, which bears heavily on the masses of the people who are peaceably inclined and only desire to till their fields and pursue their usual vocations.

The obvious and indeed the only adequate remedy is to be found in the establishment of an effective police force. Under the provisions of the municipal code enacted by the commission, the local authorities were empowered to organize and maintain a local police force for the respective municipalities. The presidentes and councilors of the towns, however, are all Filipinos, many of them ex-insurrectos, and it was not believed that a purely native force, controlled by them, could or would be uniformly efficient. In addition to this many of the municipalities, as a result of the ravages of war and from other causes, were too poor to support the burden thus incurred.

Furthermore, the municipalities in these islands are not, as a rule, composed of small areas of territory densely populated, as in the United States, but are of considerable extent, in many instances almost as large as an ordinary county in the United States, and, finally, there is quite a considerable territory, generally remote and in the mountains, which is not included in any municipality and in which lawless men readily find refuge and a base of operation.

In order to meet these conditions and to establish an effective and mobile force under competent and reliable direction, adequate at all times to meet any emergency that might arise, the commission has enacted a law establishing the Philippine constabulary. The general

as to their equipment, efficiency, and g regards peace, law, and order which pr ties. The provincial inspectors are al and, after hearing, to remove a munic dishonesty, or disloyalty.

The commission has asked for and obt T. Allen, Sixth Cavalry, U. S. A., as c Twelfth Infantry, U. S. A., as first ass are skilled and experienced officers, wit which demonstrate their fitness. The provincial inspectors, as a rule, have be soldiers of the Regular and Volunteer a Islands, though a number of Filipinos o been appointed inspectors. The person already selected is unusually good and several weeks past engaged in three pr of the force. The work is being cond judgment, and it is believed will result body of native constabulary. About enlisted.

Although the organization of the con pleted, they have already done some ve up bands of ladrones and arresting noto time the organization is being perfecte

be adequate to meet the requirements of the situation in furnishing full protection and security to the lawabiding and arrest and punishment for criminals.

The report of the chief of the Philippines constabulary is herewith filed, marked “Appendix N."

RAILROADS.

The commission has been directed by you to make recommendations as to what, in its judgment, would be a satisfactory railroad law for the Philippine Islands. The consideration of this matter presents some features of embarrassment and difficulty. It would be easy to prepare a general law authorizing and prescribing a formula for the creation of railroad corporations, giving them the usual rights to locate their routes, condemn private property, and thereafter to operate their roads when constructed; but the initial and fundamental question which presents itself is whether it is desirable, in view of all the conditions existing here, to enact such a law, or whether franchises should be granted to specific corporations; and, if the latter policy is to be pursued, whether any or what aid should be extended to them, either in donations of public land, guaranty of interest on their investment, or other assistance. The great importance, and, in truth, the vital necessity, of railroads as a means to the rapid growth and development of the islands in all directions, and, indeed, to the civilization of the people, is so obvious that it needs only to be stated and does not require elaboration. The practical question is, What is the speediest and most economical method of bringing about their construction?

At an early stage in the era of railroad building in the United States, when our population was comparatively small and widely separated, when capital was less plentiful, when the cost of construction and operations of railroads was much greater, and the return upon the investment was more problematic than in more recent times, it was the usual and almost invariable course for the State or National governments to grant special charters to railroad corporations, containing exemptions from taxation and other valuable concessions, and, in addition, to assist them by subscriptions to their capital stock, donations of public land, and loans of bonds, varying in extent with the different circumstances and situations. Undoubtedly in many instances the franchises and subsidies thus given were improvident and unwise and resulted in heavy losses to all concerned. It may be fairly concluded, however, that, as a whole, the policy was wise at the time, and has been a potent factor in the unexampled growth and progress of the American people. It is a fact, however, that for many years there has been in the United States a strong and increasing opposition to the granting of public aid in any form to corporate enterprises of this or any other