The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-15

most interesting and the boldest poll teal experiment made by the unit ed States in the effort to educate tn' | Filipinos in the task of self government There are those who say now that th' experiment has proved failure, Una | the Assembly has not justified It's exis tence. and that it should be abolished at once. But an examination of the re cord of the Assembly. and of the char acter of complaints made againsst I by adverse critics. does not warran such wholesale condemnation.
 The pron6se of the Assembly wal made by Congress in response to poll. tfcal pressure at home. It was part, necessity and 1t did its work of aiding the party to stay in power at Wash ington. When the. time came to pu the act of Congress into force wise men shook their heads in doubt. but there could be no turning back. The census was taken, the provinces di- vided into districts. the election held and eighty Filipinos were returned te compose the first Assembly. The As .Fembly corresponds to the lower House of a state legislature. while tthe func- tions of the upper House are, discharg- cd by the Philippines Commission which is also the executive branch oi the government.
 The Assembly has the full powers of coordinate branch of the legis- lature, and no positive action may be taken without its consent. The law provides, however, that if the Assemb- ly shall fail to pass the appropriation bills the appropriations of the previous year shall remain in force with the effect of law This provision will pre- vent the possibility of sush a dead lock as came about in Porto Rico.
 The Assembly, at the close of both its sessions. solemnly adopted resolu- tions demanding the immediate inde- pendence of the Philippine Islands The last session witnessed the passage of bill abolishing the Commission as a legislative body and substituting for it Senate of Filipino selection Naturally, such resolutions found their graves in the pigeon holes of the Commissioners desks. But on account of the character of these enactments they were given wide publicity and brought general condcmnation upon the assembly from American critics in the Islands.
 One hears in Manila on every hand that the Assembly wasted time, that many bills were introduced but few passed, that all the time was wasted
 
 prolonged until the necessary bills were passed at the close of the ses- sion with undue heste and without proper consideration, that the members played party politics and looked more to party advantage than to the wei fare of the country. and so on.
 No one adverse critic offered any argument to support his attack on the Assembly that Is not offered at the close of every state legislature, or al the close of every session of Congress by opponents of the party in power It was charged that the Assembly had permitted over 500 bills to be intro- duced and that only 30 per cent of them had passed. This was made the basis of public attack upon the Filip- ions by an American, who asserted that 1t proved the Filipinos unfit for even partial self-government A Fiji pino newspaper retorted with the re- cord of the last American Congress about 10000 bills introduced and 40C public laws passed. and asked 1t the Amerfcans were fit for self govern met
 As far as the immediate indepen- dence resolutions are concerned--they are pure buncombe. The members oi the legislature know the resolutions didn't amount to anything, but they felt the need of doing something to maintain their political strength in their districts. The resolution invit- ing the Commission to commit suicide and providing for a Filipino Senate was passed with about as much hope TOT It's success as the House of Rep resentatives at Washington has when It passes the usual resolution provjd- Ing for the submission of a constitu- tional amendment authorizing the elec- tion of senators by the people direct ly.
 The faults of the Filipino Assembly were many, no doubt, but they are Faults which differ neither in quality or quantity from the faults of other legislative bodies all over the world The critics of the Assembly appear to expect Filipinos, q semi civilized peo- pie with no training whatever in self government, and with no background or parliamentary usage, to produce g parliament which would have none ot the faults of common in Occidental states were parliamentary govern ment has been in vogue for centuries Acting Governor General Cameron Forbes and other members of the gov ernmene- praise the Assembly highly Despite the fact that the Assembly was overwhelmingly dominated by members elected on platforms pledg- ing them to work for immediate tn- dependence. there was no deadlockine or hllibustering. The government was enabled to have almost every i'm portant measure passed by the As sembly, and in almost every instance by a unanimous vote. There was not a single case in which the barty in i'm poses blocked legislation demanded by the government. Examine the history of the United States Congress in years when the House and Senate have been dominated by different political parties and see If the Filipino Assembly's re- cord does not shine by contrast.
 At the last session, 1t is true, the more important measures and the ap- propriation bills were postponed until the very last minute. There was an effort to force the Governor to call an extra session. When 1t was found that the Governor was firm in his de- clination to prolong the life of the leg islature. the bills were passed There was disagreement between the As- sembly and the Commission concerning the Bankrupt Act, something long de- manded by the business interests of the Islands. A joint committee met to discuss 1t. The Filipinos from the Assembly declared that they were not opposed to the Act, but that they would insist upon some amendments. The Commission committee was soon con- vinced that the amendments would improve the Act and accepted them and the next day the bill was passed
 According to Acting Governor Forbes the Assembly at all times showed disposition to aid the govern ment in every possible way in the