the records of the post-office relating to the period of Spanish dominion will be transferred to the archives. There are still lacking here the records of the custom-house, although orders for the transfer of these documents to the central archives were issued by General MacArthur, late military governor of the Philippines. In the archives are found also large collections of laws, royal decrees, regulations, and other acts of the Spanish Government, gathered in the Gazette and many other printed volumes, which are constantly consulted, for the reason that they contain many laws which will continue to be in force until others as substitutes for them shall have been enacted by the existing government.

Besides the public records kept in Manila, the provincial capitals and many of the other towns formerly contained important documents; but an investigation recently made shows that they have nearly all disappeared, destroyed by order of Spanish officials, by the insurgents, or as an unavoidable consequence of war. A brief statement of the results of this investigation is presented in Appendix AA.

PUBLIC PRINTING.

The absence of normal competition in the business of printing in Manila and the consequent exorbitant prices which the Government has paid for work done provoked inquiries as to the possibility of securing more economical and more efficient means for providing the printing needed in connection with the office of the civil government. It was found, by an examination of the accounts in the auditor's office, that the annual cost of public printing was about $225,000 in money of the United States, and that with the extension of civil government the amount of printing required will probably be somewhat increased. With this prospect in view the commission requested the purchase in the United States of adequate machinery and supplies for a printing plant to be erected in the city of Manila. This plant has been purchased under the direction of the chief of the Division of Insular Affairs and will arrive in Manila about the 15th of November.

It is proposed to make use of the facilities presented in the public printing office to supplement the work of the trade school in training Filipinos so that they may be profitably employed in cooperating with American workmen in the different departments under the supervision of the public printer, since the business of printing is an occupation for which the Filipinos, by reason of their mechanical aptitude and artistic sense, appear to be well fitted.

BUREAU OF ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION.

Through neglect and the necessary destruction of a period of war, the public buildings in many of the cities have become unfit for occupancy or been completely destroyed. There is thus imposed upon the Govern

ment a large amount of work of reconstruction. New buildings have become necessary by the extension of some of the functions of the civil government, particularly in the department of public instruction. In order to provide that the work here involved may be properly done, the civil government has engaged Mr. Edgar K. Bourne to be the chief of a bureau of architecture and construction of public buildings. The various schoolhouses and other public buildings which it becomes necessary to construct from time to time will be built under his supervision.

ORGANIZATION OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

Prior to the date of the commission's last preceding report, the work done in establishing and carrying on public schools was without systematic organization. The first important step forward was the enactment of a law (No. 74) establishing a department or bureau of public instruction, which should have jurisdiction over all public schools in the archipelago. This law, with its amendments, provides for 1 general superintendent of public instruction, 18 division superintendents, and such a number of deputy division superintendents as the secretary of public instruction may consider desirable, but the number shall not exceed in any division the number of provinces in that division.

It was proposed by law to establish for the schools a centralized organization, and in keeping with this design the general superintendent was given extensive powers. He was authorized to establish schools; to appoint division superintendents, teachers, and clerks authorized by law, and prescribe the duties of such teachers and clerks; to fix salaries within the limits established by law; to establish curricula for primary, secondary, and other public schools; to divide the islands into school divisions; to fix the relation between the principal teacher and other teachers, and to perform certain other functions essential to the effective administration and control of the schools. The law establishing the system of public instruction provided, also, that as soon as practicable the English language would be made the basis of all public instruction, and the general superintendent was authorized to obtain from the United States 1,000 trained teachers at monthly salaries of not less than $75 and not more than $125, the exact salary of each teacher to be fixed by the general superintendent. A superior advisory board was created, to be composed of the general superintendent and 4 members to be appointed, in accordance with the terms of the law, by the commission, but by the civil governor after his inauguration, and in each municipality a local school board consisting of 4 or 6 members, as the division superintendent might determine, in addition to the presidente or alcalde of the municipality, who should be a member ex officio. Each pueblo was made a school district, and it was made the duty of the municipal council to make as ample provi

sion as possible by local taxation for the support of the schools established within its jurisdiction. This act of organization, furthermore, established a trade school and a normal school in Manila and an agricultural school in the island of Negros. The attitude which the schools should assume toward the teaching of religion was fixed by the adoption of the so-called Faribault plan. This was set forth in section 16, in the following language:

No teacher or other person shall teach or criticise the doctrines of any church, religious sect or denomination, or shall attempt to influence the pupils for or against any church or religious sect în any public school established under this act. If any teacher shall intentionally violate this section, he or she shall, after due hearing, be dismissed from public service.

Provided, however, that it shall be lawful for the priest or minister of any church established in the pueblo where a public school is situated, either in person or by a designated teacher of religion, to teach religion for one-half an hour three times a week in the school buildings to those public-school pupils whose parents or guardians desire it and express their desire therefor in writing filed with the principal teacher of the school, to be forwarded to the division superintendent, who shall fix the hours and rooms for such teaching. But no publicschool teacher shall either conduct religious exercises, or teach religion, or act as a designated religious teacher in the school building under the foregoing authority, and no pupil shall be required by any publicschool teacher to attend and receive religious instruction herein permitted. Should the opportunity thus given to teach religion be used by the priest, minister, or religious teacher for the purpose of arousing disloyalty to the United States, or of discouraging the attendance of pupils at such public school, of creating a disturbance of public order, or of interfering with the discipline of the school, the division superintendent, subject to the approval of the general superintendent of public instruction, may, after due investigation and hearing, forbid such offending priest, minister, or religious teacher from entering the public-school building thereafter.

Down to the present time no priest or other religious teacher has asked for the use of any schoolhouse for the purpose of teaching religion in accordance with the terms of this section.

The extent and natural distribution of the territory of the archipelago made it expedient to provide for a more immediate supervision than could be rendered by the general superintendent. To this end the territory has been divided into eighteen divisions, over each of which is appointed a division superintendent, exercising such powers as are prescribed by section 9 of act No. 74.

TRANSPORTATION, RECEPTION, AND ASSIGNMENT OF TEACHERS.

The transportation, reception, and distribution of the teachers who left San Francisco in small companies in the early part of the year presented no difficulties and called for no extraordinary action on the part of the authorities in Manila. Each transport brought a few and