In
the Cagayan valley an immense plain is bordered by ranges of high
mountains to the east and the west. They seem to shut off both
monsoons to a considerable extent, and there very trying heat is by
no means unusual.
On September 1, 1901, the first day of the second year of actual
service of the commission, a complete central civil government was
established. Commissioner Wright was appointed secretary of commerce
and police; Commissioner Ide, secretary of finance and justice;
Commissioner Moses, secretary of public instruction, and I myself
secretary of the interior. The commission was strengthened by the
addition of three Filipino members: Senor Benito Legarda, Senor Jose
R. de Luzuriaga, and Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, all of whom were men
of exceptional ability and had rendered distinguished service in the
establishment of peace and order.
Except for the addition of one more Filipino on July 6, 1908, the
organization of the commission has remained unchanged up to the present
time, although there have been numerous changes in its personnel. The
task which lay before it was to enact a code of laws adapted to the
peculiar conditions existing in the Philippines, and this was indeed
a herculean undertaking. Its members laboured unremittingly.
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