The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-01-04
III Bt A ItHRIIURI


WASHINGTON. u. Co. December 20
Secretary Root and Representative
Cooper of Wisconsin, chairman of the
House committee ON insular affairs,
were i'm conference today. and as "a rec
suit of this and further conferences to
De held during the holidays. an import
ant legislative measure is To be drafted
for a complete civil government for the
Philippines. Already the measure is
framed i'm the rough, and the perfected
bill will be ready for Introduction in the
House soon after the recess. by which
time Judge Taft will have arrived from
the Philippines to give such advice as
Congress may desire on the various
features involved.
The bill, in the rough draft. covers
the questions of mining and forestry
with a view to developing the Industries
at the same time regulating the acqui-
sition of mining and timber lands, the
disposition of the lands Of the friars, the
regulation of franchises, the establish
ment of banking facilities the enact
meut of coinage and the currency pro-
visions requisite for the peculiar con-
dtttOns there existing. The regulation
of ranches is considered of prime inn
portance, the idea being to SO frame
this branch Of legislation as to encour-
age the investment of capital i'm the
Philippines, giving the Filipinos oppor-
tunities to work and thus allaying their
discomfort
1t is stated that the general purpose
of the measure is to bring about self
government among the natives at the
earliest practical dG--, and this is to be
accomplished largely by giving stability
and systematization to the cividzing
agencies of commerce, banking. ex-
change, education, telegraph, etc. Those
taking part i'm the framing Of the mea-
sure find that it is a task of unusual
proportions, far greater than that of
framing the Porto Rico civil govern
ment bill, owing to the conditions in
the Philippines, the continued presence
of the military branch and the transit
tional stage of the natives toward self
government.
CHICAGO, December 2O.-The report
of the Philippine commission deals with
conditions which are so anomalous that
a debate could be raised upon its every
detail. But a natural American repug-
nance is shown to an arbitrary govern
ment by commission in the suggestion
that the present arrangement as re-
CARDS civil rule should not last beyond
two years. 1t is reCOmme nded that at
the end of that period a representative
government should be fIlmed to con-
sist of governor, a le isiative council
and a popular ASSEMBLY. and that the
islands should be Te.mitted to sent two
delegates to Congress.
This plan was devised not from the
history of colonizing powers but out Of
American experience, and whatever the
Supreme Court has said Congress may
do, and however friendly some of the
justices may have been to a SCENE of
arbitrary power it is certain that if the
Philippines remain American territory
the American people will demand that
they be given a territorial government.
1t is revolving to their sense of right
and to their political theories and prac-
tees that there should be no legisla-
ture in a population of ten millions,
that the federal laws uniform elsewhere.
should not extend to that population,
and that it should be ruled through the
DEGREES of five men acting under presi-
Dental or congressional authority.