REPORT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. 149 vest in the executive council; that the governor shall have the power to veto the legislation of the two chambers unless the same shall be again passed by a two-thirds vote of both houses; that Congress shall have full power to abrogate all legislation, and that by a joint vote of the popular assembly and the executive council two delegates, who shall be residents of the islands, shall be elected to represent the interests of these islands and the Filipino people before Congress and the Executive at Washington, their expenses and salaries to be paid from the insular treasury. 3. That the commission be authorized to issue bonds of the insular government with which to buy up the agricultural holdings and other property of the religious orders, to purchase the same, and to sell lands thus acquired, preferably to the present tenants on easy payments, and be required to use the proceeds of the sales as a sinking fund with which to meet the bonds issued. 4. That an appeal be granted from the supreme court of the islands to the Supreme Court of the United States in the San José College case, and in all cases between the insular government and the Catholic Church or any of its dependencies in respect to the ownership or administration of trust or other property in the Philippine Islands. 5. That the new tariff act put in force on the 15th of November be expressly confirmed by Congressional act, and that Congress reduce by at least 50 per cent the United States duty on tobacco, hemp, and other merchandise coming from the Philippine Islands into the United States. 6. That the commission be given power to itself issue bonds for the city of Manila, or to authorize the municipal board to do so in an amount not exceeding $4,000,000, sufficient to make needed improvements in the water supply and the sewerage and drainage system. 7. That the commission be given power to grant street railway, electric light, telephone, and other municipal franchises in the towns of the islands, subject to the confirmation of the President. 8. That the commission be given authority to pass a general publicland law, making provision for the acquisition of homestead rights, the perfecting of titles of those who have in good faith settled upon public lands and improved the same, and public auction sales of the public lands at a fixed minimum price per acre in tracts of comparatively large extent, and upon such other conditions as the commission. may impose; and that this authority shall include the right of the commission to grant to the pueblos commons from the public lands. 9. That the commission be authorized to continue the present regulations of the cutting of timber, with such modifications as experience may show to be wise. 10. That the commission be authorized to pass a mining law having a general resemblance to the United States mining laws, with such modifications as the local conditions require. 150 REPORT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. 11. That the commission be given power to pass a general incorporation law for the conducting of legitimate businesses by corporations. 12. That the commission be given special authority to issue charters to commercial railroads, with power to make donations of lands, or guarantee the interest on the investments, or both; such grants to be subject to the approval of the President of the United States. 13. That Congress enact a general coinage law providing for the establishment of a gold standard, with local silver currency, and shall confer power upon the commission, by a gold reserve and otherwise, to maintain the parity between the gold standard and the local currency, as indicated in the body of the report. 14. That Congress shall enact a general banking law for the islands, providing for the establishment of national banks in the islands, with branches in various parts of the islands and in the United States, for the establishment of branches in these islands of national banks located in the United States, for the carrying on and supervision of other banks not national, and for the establishment of mortgage land banks; all as outlined in the body of this report. 15. That Congress shall enact a law authorizing the commission to appropriate the Spanish and insurrectionary seized funds now in the treasury of the islands to the making of a school fund, or for the use of the provinces in which such funds were captured. 16. That Congress shall provide a sum sufficient to reimburse the insular government for the actual value of the property purchased out of the funds of the insular treasury and turned over to the Army under General Order No. 65, Headquarters Division of the Philippines, 1901, and General Order No. 38, Office of the Military Governor, issued May 11, 1901. 17. That Congress shall enact a law appropriating a sum sufficient to reimburse the insular treasury for the amount expended in the purchase and fitting of certain Spanish gunboats turned over to the Navy and now used by that Department. WM. H. TAFT. DEAN C. WORCESTER. NOTE. The three Filipino commissioners were not installed in office until the 1st of September, 1901, and as the period covered by this report is from the 1st of December, 1900, until the 1st of October, 1901, it was agreed between the commissioners that it would be more just to make this report as the report of the original commission rather than that of the commission as at present constituted. The three Filipino commissioners, however, having read this report, agreed in the recommendations as to the form of a permanent central civil government to be established. LETTER TRANSMITTING DRAFT OF A MINING LAW FOR THE PHILIPPINES. MANILA, November 6, 1901. SIR: The commission begs to transmit to you herewith a draft of the mining law which it recommends for the Philippine Islands. It should accompany the report of the commission, already forwarded, as an exhibit. As was stated in the report, it was deemed advisable to use the draft of the mining code prepared by the chief of the mining bureau as a basis of public discussion, in order to draw out the views of those persons who are at present most vitally interested in the development of the mineral wealth of this archipelago, so that, before making final recommendation, the commission might have the benefit of their opinions. With very few exceptions, the miners and prospectors at present in these islands are American citizens, and with hardly a dissenting voice their representatives urged that the mining laws of the United States be put in force here, in so far as they are applicable. The arguments brought forward by them have convinced the commission that this should be done. As the mining laws of Congress are embodied in numerous acts, a considerable number of the provisions of the Revised Statutes are necessarily inapplicable here; and as others require modification in the names of the officers designated to perform certain duties, in dates, or in other minor details, it seemed desirable that a draft combining all of the essential provisions of the United States statutes, with the minor modifications deemed necessary, should be prepared, rather than that the commission should make a general recommendation to the effect that the United States laws be put in force here so far as they are applicable. Those prospectors who had located claims in accordance with the provisions of the United States laws were at first strongly inclined to urge the insertion of a section providing for the recognition of their claims. This would, however, in the opinion of the commission, necessarily open the question as to the validity of claims attempted to be located subsequently to April 11, 1899, in accordance with the provisions of Spanish law, and would, it is believed, lead to endless litigation which would tie up for an indefinite period considerable tracts of mineral land, and which would greatly retard the development of the mining industry. It is believed that little, if any, hardship will be worked upon persons who have made bona fide discoveries, if all claims of whatsoever sort attempted to be located subsequently to April 11, 1899, and prior to the date of such Congressional action as may be taken, are ignored. If it is generally known here that Congress is likely to act, bona fide discoverers of mineral are almost certain to be in possession of their claims at the proper time, and will, therefore, be able to follow out the necessary procedure to obtain patents therefor. 151 152 REPORT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. It has been the intention of the commission to avoid modifying the United States statutes except in the particulars above mentioned and in the following instances: The provisions of section 2324 of the Revised Statutes authorizing the miners of each mining district to make regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States or with the laws of the State or Territory in which the district is situated, governing the location, manner of recording, and the amount of work necessary to hold possession of a mining claim subject to certain requirements of law, have been modified by providing that the commission, or its succesors, shall have this power, subject to similar limitations. It is believed that no necessity will exist for the making of such regulations in the Philippines by miners, and that the commission can examine the regulations in force in the several States, make such modifications therein as special conditions here may require, and publish regulations at the time the mining law is promulgated here which can be put in force throughout the entire archipelago. It will be noted that the references in the United States statutes to homestead rights are retained in the draft herewith submitted. This is done in the hope that Congress will either pass a homestead law for the Philippines or authorize the commission to do so. The provisions of sections 2330 and 2331 of the Revised Statutes, as to the size of placer claims that may be located by individuals, are in seeming contradiction, and it has therefore been deemed best to revise these sections in accordance with the rulings that have been made under them rather than to leave the text unchanged. A somewhat difficult question is raised by the Spanish concessions, complete and incomplete. The number and nature of these concessions have been given in the first report of the commission. As regards the completed concessions, the commission considers that the United States is bound to recognize them, and that their owners should be allowed to continue to exercise with reference to them the rights conferred by the provisions of Spanish law. Where proceedings are to be had for the cancellation of such concessions, however, it seems to the commission that they should be in the courts rather than before the chief of the mining bureau, as the Spanish law provides. It is difficult to foresee how much litigation will result in connection with these completed claims. Should it be considerable in amount, the creation of a special court to deal with it might be desirable. It will be noted that the commission has inserted a provision compelling owners of completed Spanish concessions to mark the corners of their boundaries with permanent monuments within ninety days after the promulgation of the proposed act in the Philippine Islands. It is believed that this provision will work no injustice and that it should be adopted in the interest of honest American prospectors, who would gladly keep off the territory covered by these concessions if it were marked in such a way that they could do so. At present there is nothing on the ground to show the location of these concessions, but the holders of them, while refusing to mark their boundaries, make frequent complaints that they are being trespassed upon, although such complaints are often delayed until the alleged trespassers have struck mineral in place. As to the incomplete Spanish concessions, it seems to the commission that no property rights are involved, and that they may therefore be left out of account. If this is done, it will greatly simplify matters REPORT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. 153 here and will prevent a serious clog upon the development of the mining industry. During the last days of Spanish sovereignty proceedings were begun looking toward the securing of concessions covering a large part of the known mineral lands of the Philippines. While the proceedings had were, in many instances, illegal or fraudulent, and while few, if any, of the persons interested in such claims have fulfilled the requirements of Spanish law so as to establish any legal rights with reference to them, still if these claims were recognized in any way they would constitute a certain source of endless litigation. Very respectfully, The SECRETARY OF WAR, Washington, D. C. WM. H. TAFT. DEAN C. WORCESTER. BERNARD MOSES. AN ACT to promote the development of the mineral resources of the Philippine Islands. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that: SECTION 1. Mineral lands reserved.-In all cases public lands in the Philippine Islands valuable for minerals shall be reserved from sale, except as otherwise expressly directed by law. SEC. 2. Mineral lands open to purchase, under certain conditions as to citizenship.-All valuable mineral deposits in public lands in the Philippine Islands, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the land in which they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the United States, natives of the Philippine Islands, and persons who have, under and by virtue of the treaty of Paris, acquired the political rights of natives of the Philippine Islands. SEC. 3. Length of mining claims upon veins or lodes.-Mining claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposits, located after the passage of this act, whether located by one or more persons, may equal but shall not exceed one thousand five hundred feet in length along the vein or lode; but no location of a mining claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located. No claim shall extend more than three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, nor shall any claim be limited by any mining regulation to less than twenty-five feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, except where adverse rights existing on the date of the passage of this act render such limitation necessary. The end lines of each claim shall be parallel to each other. SEC. 4. Proof of citizenship.-Proof of citizenship under this act may consist, in the case of an individual, of his own affidavit thereof; in the case of an association of persons unincorporated, of the affidavit of their authorized agent, made on his own knowledge or upon information and belief; and in the case of a corporation organized under the laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory thereof, or of the Philippine Islands, by the filing of a certified copy of their charter or certificate of incorporation. SEC. 5. Locutor's right of possession and enjoyment.—The locators of all mining locations heretofore made or which shall hereafter be made on any mineral vein, lode, or ledge situated on the public domain, their heirs and assigns, where no adverse claim exists at the date of the passage of this act, so long as they comply with the laws of the United States, and with the laws and local regulations of the Philippine Islands not in conflict with the laws of the United States governing their possessory title, shall have the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all the surface included within the lines of their locations, and of all veins, lodes, or ledges throughout their entire depth the top or apex of which lies inside of such surface lines extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their course downward as to extend outside the vertical side lines of such surface locations. But their right of possession to such outside parts of such veins or ledges shall be confined to such portions thereof as lie |