Schurman Commission

The Schurman Commission also known as the First Philippine Commission was the legislature of the Philippines, then known as the Philippine Islands under the sovereign control of the United States during the Philippine-American War. It was established by United States President William Mckinley on January 30, 1899.

1 Background
2 Sessions
3 Leadership
4 Members
5 See also
6 External links
7 References
8 Further reading

[edit] Background

On January 20, 1899, President McKinley appointed the First Philippine Commission (the Schurman Commission), a five-person group headed by Dr. Jacob Schurman, president of Cornell University, to investigate conditions in the islands and make recommendations. In the report that they issued to the president the following year, the commissioners acknowledged Filipino aspirations for independence; they declared, however, that the Philippines was not ready for it.^[1] Specific recommendations included the establishment of civilian government as rapidly as possible (the American chief executive in the islands at that time was the military governor), including establishment of a bicameral legislature, autonomous governments on the provincial and municipal levels, and a system of free public elementary schools.^[2]

[edit] Sessions

Sessions: March 4, 1899 – March 16, 1900
- Session with William Mckinley: January 31, 1900
- Session with the United States Congress: February 2, 1900

[edit] Leadership

President:

Jacob Gould Schurman

[edit] Members

Members:

Member	Appointed	Administrative office
George Dewey	1899
Charles H. Denby	1899
Elwell S. Otis	1899	Military Governor
Jacob G. Schurman	1899	Head of the Commission
Dean C. Worcester	1899

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

List of Senators. Senate of the Philippines. Retrieved on 2006-09-16.
The LAWPHi'L Project - Philippine Laws and Jurispudance Databank. Arellano Law Foundation. Retrieved on 2006-09-16.

[edit] References

^ Chapter XI: The First Philippine Commission, in Worcester, Dean Conant (1914), The Philippines: Past and Present (vol. 1 of 2), Macmillan, <http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12077>. Retrieved on 21 January 2008

On November 2, 1900, Dr. Schurman signed the following statement: [456]—

"Should our power by any fatality be withdrawn, the commission believe that the government of the Philippines would speedily lapse into anarchy, which would excuse, if it did not necessitate, the intervention of other powers and the eventual division of the islands among them. Only through American occupation, therefore, is the idea of a free, self-governing, and united Philippine commonwealth at all conceivable. And the indispensable need from the Filipino point of view of maintaining American sovereignty over the archipelago is recognized by all intelligent Filipinos and even by those insurgents who desire an American protectorate. The latter, it is true, would take the revenues and leave us the responsibilities. Nevertheless, they recognize the indubitable fact that the Filipinos cannot stand alone. Thus the welfare of the Filipinos coincides with the dictates of national honour in forbidding our abandonment of the archipelago. We cannot from any point of view escape the responsibilities of government which our sovereignty entails; and the commission is strongly persuaded that the performance of our national duty will prove the greatest blessing to the peoples of the Philippine Islands."
[...]
[456] Report Philippine Commission, Vol. I, p. 183.
^ Ronald E. Dolan, ed. (1991), “United States Rule”, Philippines: A Country Study, Washington, D.C.: GPO for the Library of Congress, <http://countrystudies.us/philippines/16.htm>. Retrieved on 5 January 2008

[edit] Further reading

Philippine House of Representatives Congressional Library
The Presidents of the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines. ISBN 971-8832-24-6.
Pobre, Cesar P.. Philippine Legislature 100 Years. ISBN 971-92245-0-9.