Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1901-10-03

bTdLtft dulilbyicqulp INN AZ PSSHii"A
way for the solution OF the difficult
problems which our government is
called upon to meet in the establish
ment Of stable government in these
islands. He has the logical persuasive
powers Of John G. Carlisle combined
with the administrative powers OF
Grover Cleveland, whom he resem-
bles very much.
l take 1t that By far the most i'm
portant piece Of work that has been
done by the Commission is the crea-
tion OF the judicial system which is
now being inaugurated, The personnel
of this system is a Supreme Court of
seven judges, three Of whom are
Filipinos and a department Of Justice
consisting Of an Attorney-General
Solicitor-Seneral, Assistant Attorney
General, two Of whom are Filipinos
and seventeen Judges Of Courts of
First Instance, composed mainly Of
American lawyers and seventeen
Fiscals prosecuting Attorneys all
Filipinos The judiciary is non-parti-
san, q, 4 being as many Democrats
in the service as Republicans.
The legislation of the subject con-
sists OF what we call the organic act,
creating she courts, a code Of civilpro-
cedure, acrimlnal code, and code of
criminal procedure The civil code is
complication Of the rules of pleading
and evidence which are found main
ly in the code states and the equity
practice Of the United States. This
code does not attempt to change the
substantive law. The old Spanish law
which is based upon the civil law OF
Rome will be left intact, for the most
part, but the Spanish procedure which
was simply unbearable, will be swept
away entirely. This is novel expert
ment and how well 1t Is going to work
time alone can tell. l am Of the opin-
ion that before these American judges
finish their work they will inject more
than our rules of procedure into this
system, and in the end the whole body
OF the Law will be permeated, more OF
less with our ideas and our ideals.
General Wright isat work on a new
criminal code which will be out posi-
bly, in sixty days.
The question OF the official language
of the courts here attracted great at
tention. After deliberate considera'
tion, and after hearing much discus
sion, the Commission decided to make
Spanish the official language for five
years; after that English will be the
ofiicial language. 1t was argued BY
the American contingent here, witt
much plausibility that in view of the
fact that the system Of Spanish judges
had been swept away by the Commits
sion, that the rules Of civil procedure
had been swept away, together will
most of the political institutions o.
Spain, that it would not be radica
change to introduce the English
| language as the official Language
of the courts. 1t was als'
pointed out that the Spanish Language
was spok, a by a very small peTcentag
of the population and was necessaril,
a vanishing language. The Commis
Ision's reply was that in view of th
fact that nine-tenths of the inhabi
tants Of the Philippine Islands spok'
neither Spanish nor English, but va
rious native dialects, that the onl,
Iavenue through which this large bull
of the population could reach th'
courts at all was through the Span
| ish-speaklng Filipino lawyers, and th
ISpanish lawyers who could understan
their native dialect; hence simple just
ice demanded that the great bodyofth
people be not placed one remove fartf
er from the courts by requiring ther
to employ English-speaking lawyer
who knew neither Spanish nor thei
dialects, and who would have TO rel
upon interpreters tounderstand then
This argument, to my mind, was cor
elusive.
In addition to the above mentione
Codes of Procedure, the Commissio
has passed two other Important legii
lative acts. 1t has adopted law fC
the government of the municipalitit
of the islands which, ] would say, CO
respond to our counties in the state
This code reaches down to the barrie
which might be compared to OF
townships and wards.
They have also enacted what the
have called the Provincial GoFernmer
= Act for the province, which is
aggregation of municipalities and,
. carry out the comparison, might |
said 20 correspond to our states. I'll
provincial boundry lines Of the oil
regime have been retained, as we'll
the names of the provinces.
$ These two acts have been draw
with great care, and have been mo
a eled, as far as possible, upon o.
: ideas of government. They give Il
e natives franchise which, while n
4 universal, is very extensive for Il
purposes of municipalities. A prope
!. ty qualification of two hundred al
b fifty dollars has been imposed and Il
!. voter must also be familiar vii