The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-02-26

WASHINGTON. February l4-Gov-
crnor Taft of the Philippine Commits
sion today continued his statement be-
fore the Senate Committee ON the Phil
tppincs concerning conditions i'm that
archipelago, with the intention of disc
Oussiug the degree of tranquility i'm the
pacitcd provinces, which, he said, in
clude all the provinces except Tabayas,
Samar and Batangas.
Senator Lodge asked as to the means
for maintaining tranquility. Iue repIy
involved a review of the legal system
of the islands at present as under the
military government and also under the
Spanish rule. Governor Taft said that
i'm June of last year the Commission
had passed an act organizing a system
of judiciary for the entire archipelago,
creating "a Supreme Court and seven
Justices and creating fourteen districts.
on the Supreme Court bench there are,
he said, three natives and four Ameri-
cans, and he believed that any state
would be satifed with such bench.
or the courts of first instance i'm the
districts six are presided over by ma
tive Filipinos and the others by Ameri-
cans.
Governor Taft said that Judge Ide Of
the Commission had prepared the code
of laws of the islands, and that the
labor had been so severe that Ii mate
rally damaged his health This code
included the treason act. There is no
PROVISION for jury, as 80 per cent of
the people are too ignorant to sit on
a jury 81 am bound to add he went
on, that the difficulty of selecting
Judges who are above reproach makes
it certain that the selection of jurors
would lead to nothing but corruption
and injustice We are trying to lead
up to the jury system, but the Filipino
mind is such as to render the average
Filipino incapable Of looking impair
TALLY upon a question involving the
rights of two persons. There was no
jury system under Spanish rule
Senator CulbersOn questioned the
witness as to the necessity of keeping
as many as 10000 American troops in
the islands, and the latter replied that
Captain Allen estimated that with all
the provinces pacifed $1,000 American
troops would be sufficient. For him
self, he thought it would be desirable
to continue small detachmtnts of
troops at convenient points all over the
islands for the purpose of preventing
disorder and violence and serving as a
moral restraint. In this connection,
Senator Lodge stated that the Secre-
tary of War had informed him that
when the present orders are carried
into effect there will be left i'm the ISL
and 1925 officers and 26,254 enlisted
men.
Speaking of the general condition of
the pacified provinces, Governor Taft
said that i'm all these provinces the
people are going about their usual avo-
cations In one province not hostile
shot had been fired in two years
Senator CulbersOn-Is il true that
under existing law they are not at lib
erty to advocate an independent or a
separate form of government?
Governor Taft-No; they are not
Senator Patterson asked how the
people had been made peaceful i'm the
first place-whether this result had not
been accomplished by first battering
them with the military and then de
monstrating to them by the acts of
the Commission the benefits of Ameri-
can methods. The reply was that not
only the civil government, but the
military forces, had sought to impress
the advantage of American rule. Peace
had been secured by crushing out the
guerrilla warfare, which had had the
effect of establishing a system of ter
rorizing with which the people in gem
eTal did not sympathize. That how
ever, the people generally at least in
some provinces, did not sympathize
with the instruction he would not at
tempt to say.