part iv

, chapter i, also pp. 122-123) is an abstract of the Spanish system of government which, so far as the framework of that government is concerned, serves the purpose for one who can not readily consult the Spanish official sources from which it was drawn. [92] The major portion of this abstract is occupied by a translation and summary of the law reforming the Philippine local governments in 1893, commonly called the "Maura Law" after the Colonial Minister who promulgated it. [93] As put in force by Governor-General Blanco, however, it was somewhat altered and revised, and many of its more promising provisions for local autonomy had in most towns remained in reality dead letters up to the time when revolt broke out in the Tagálog provinces in 1896; elections under the new law were suspended, and martial law established. For this law in its original text and as promulgated by Blanco, with regulations and model forms for the municipalities, see Felix M. Roxas's Comentarios al reglamento provisional de las juntas provinciales (Manila, 1894). [94]

The administration in actual operation.--What most interests us is the actual working of this machine in Manila, the provinces and towns, and the works above cited will mostly provide for us only its skeleton on paper. To make it an effective machine, we must resort to personal testimony, occasional revelations thrown upon it by such of our writers as looked beyond mere routine, and perhaps most of all to the periodical literature of the times. [95] Few of the resident writers of the old régime thought it was quite patriotic, or would serve their personal interests, to discuss matters as frankly, for example, as did Sancianco y Goson. [96] Testimony before the Schurman Commission (vol. ii of its report) in 1899 brings out, here and there, revelations as to how the former government was actually administered. [97] Philippine government reports under American rule bring to light here and there revelations about the former administration, especially in fiscal and judicial matters. The customs collections benefited the treasury far less than they should have done; perhaps fully as much as was turned in was "absorbed" in one way and another. [98] Special surtaxes on the customs and port dues were collected at Manila for the improvement of its harbor from 1880 to 1898, amounting during the last five years alone to 3,500,000 pesos. Yet the work, when at last inaugurated, dragged along in desultory fashion and the value of the breakwater constructed and the equipment in hand in 1898 amounted to no more than $1,000,000 gold. [99]

Taxation.--No one of the works on administration just cited treats this subject in a comprehensive or satisfactory manner. The only special study of the subject that is known to the writer is Carl C. Plehn's Taxation in the Philippines (Political Science Quarterly, xvi, pp. 680-711, and xvii, pp. 125-148), and the author of this excellent survey had to drag his data forth from the official records and compilations. This survey gives all the most necessary information as to kinds of taxes, their incidence, and amounts; but for the most part there lie outside of its scope the questions one wishes to have answered as to methods of collection and the working of the fiscal administration in general, the actual receipts and expenditures for government purposes, and particularly the special local revenues so far as separate from general revenues. Sancianco y Goson again helps to fill the gap, as regards the system of taxation prevailing before the abolition of the tobacco monopoly and the reform of the tribute and the corvee in 1884. [100] Anyone who has had experience with Spanish fiscal tables need not be told that they do not always show what they appear to show. It is thus that the writers who have reproduced in English since 1898 Philippine budgets for various years [101] have unwittingly misled their readers as to the real cost of government under Spain. The figures shown in these budgets were the totals of net collections (and expenditures), for ordinary purposes, for the central government of the islands alone. They did not include the purely local licenses and other taxes, the surcharges on general taxes for local government (to be expended under supervision of the central authorities), the percentages that went to collectors, the other fees forming part or all of the compensation of some judicial and other officials, special surcharges for port works and other purposes not covered in the ordinary budget, etc. Naturally, no estimate was included of the value of the forced-labor levy. The products of "squeeze" and "pickings," in some cases so fully established as to be notorious, were of course not included; nevertheless, they represented part of the cost of government to the people. Finally, an ecclesiastical establishment, really a part of the government itself, drew support from the people in many ways beyond what would have been provided had not the power of government been behind it, under a system of voluntary contributions, for instance, apart from the communities which paid rent to the friars as landlords. [102]

The Spanish-Philippine debt of 40,000,000 pesos, incurred in 1897 in consequence of the insurrection, has not had sufficient notice as being originally the cause at Paris of the payment of $20,000,000 by the United States to Spain in connection with the clause of the treaty providing for the cession of the Philippines. Had the islands remained under Spanish sovereignty, they would have carried this their first public debt, expended wholly for war purposes, part of it being loaned for the payment of military operations in Cuba. [103]

Legal and judicial.--In the introduction to the List of the Library of Congress, under the heading Law, and on the pages of the List cited in that note will be found the formal bibliography of the subject. [104] Some references upon the actual conditions of the administration of justice in the Philippines have already been given. For this purpose, note also a comparison of the old criminal procedure with that introduced in 1899 in Military Governor on Civil Affairs (Rept. War Dept., 1900, i,