The Philippine Commission and the Constitution
A DISPATCH from Manila, August 5, says: “On September 1 the commission headed by Judge Taft will become the legislative body of the Philippines, with power to take and appropriate insular moneys, to establish judicial and educational systems, and to make and pass all laws.” And yet that commission is “the personal representative of the President of the United States,” who of right has no legislative power at all. How can the commission represent the President in making laws, when the President has no authority whatever to make any law?—It simply can not be done. Then, instead of representing the President, the commission merely represents the person who is President. And since the commission represents this person, who is not present, in things in which he would have no authority but his own personal will if he were present, the sum of it is that the commission represents merely its own will. And all this under the jurisdiction of the United States! Where in that is there any recognition of the Constitution?—It would be impossible to abandon the Constitution more completely than is done in this arrangement.