ple of the provinces in which civil government has been organized desired to gratify a feeling of treacherous hostility toward the American troops by such attacks, many posts all over the islands would have afforded opportunities long before this. It will be a sad injustice if the Samar disaster shall induce on one side a rigor in the treatment of all Filipinos and on their part a consequent revulsion in those feelings of friendship toward the Americans which have been growing stronger each day with the spread and development of civil government. THE WORK OF THE COMMISSION. The work of the commission since it began to legislate in September, 1900, has been constant. The body has not been able to accomplish one-half of what ought to be done at once, and it has been possible only to make a selection and postpone those matters in which delay would cause least embarrassment. The commission has had in addition to its legislative work much executive labor which could not be put off, the chief of which has been the making of important appointments, including the members of the judiciary. Copies of the laws of the commission for one year accompany this report. (Appendix B.) Specific reference to the more important laws will be made later. Attention need now be called only to the fact that we have passed since our last report, in addition to numerous appropriation bills, a municipal code, a provincial law, a school law, a law prescribing an accounting system, acts organizing the various bureaus of the central government, acts organizing the courts, an act to incorporate the city of Manila, a code of civil procedure for the islands, and a new tariff act. Printing facilities have been so poor as greatly to delay the work of legislation. Four months of our time have been taken up in the establishment of provincial governments throughout the archipelago. THE ORGANIZATION OF PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS. The general provincial law provides for a provincial government of five officers-the governor, the treasurer, the supervisor, the secretary, and the fiscal, or prosecuting attorney. The governing board is called the provincial board, and includes as members the governor, the treasurer, and the supervisor. The prosecuting attorney is the legal adviser of the board and the secretary of the province is its secretary. The first function of the provincial government is to collect, through the provincial treasurer, all the taxes, with few exceptions, belonging to the towns or the province. Its second and most important function is the construction of highways and bridges and public buildings. Its third function is the supervision, through the governor and the provincial treasurer, of the municipal officers in the discharge of their duties. Within certain limitations, the provincial board fixes the rate of levy for provincial taxation. The governor has the power to suspend any municipal officer found failing in his duty, and is obliged to visit the towns of the province twice in a year and hear complaints against the municipal officers. The provincial treasurer collects all the taxes, turns over those due to the town to the municipal treasurer, and examines the accounts of that officer. The supervisor must be a civil engineer, and carries on the work required to be done by the provincial board. The fiscal, or prosecuting attorney, is the legal adviser of the provincial board and of every municipality in the province. He also conducts all criminal prosecutions in courts of first instance for the province. Under the act the offices are all to be filled at first by appointment of the commission. The governor holds his office until February, 1902, when his successor is to be elected in a mass convention of the municipal councilors of the towns of the province. The secretary, treasurer, and supervisor after February next are brought under the civil-service act, and all vacancies thereafter arising are to be filled in accordance with the terms of that act. The fiscal is appointed for an indeterminate period, and is not subject to the civil-service law. The general provincial act did not, by its terms, apply to any particular province, but left the application to particular provinces to be made by special acts. The commission reached the conclusion that it would aid in the pacification of the country; would make the members of that body very much better acquainted with the country, with the people, and with the local conditions, and would help to educate the people in American methods, if the commission went to the capital of each province and there passed the special act necessary to create the provincial government and made the appointments at that time. Accordingly, the commission visited thirty-three provinces. The first province was Pampanga, which it visited on the 13th of February, 1901, and then followed the visits to the other provinces in accordance with the following list: |