In lieu of better quarters the first
classes were held in an old Spanish government building which was
altered and added to until it answered the purpose reasonably well.
The preparation of the act which provided for the establishment of
this college was intrusted to me. I called for the assistance of a
committee of technical experts and asked that they submit a draft
for my consideration, which they did. It contained a provision to the
effect that the college should be under the administrative control of
the secretary of the interior. I struck out the words "secretary of the
interior" and inserted in lieu thereof the words "secretary of public
instruction" for two reasons. First, the school theoretically belongs
under that official, in spite of its necessarily close relationship
with the Bureau of Science and the Bureau of Health. Second, I wanted
the support of the secretary of public instruction for the measure,
as it involved considerable expenditure and I was not sure how the
bill might fare in the commission. It happened that the incumbent
of that position was very much inclined to take a liberal view of
bills which extended his jurisdiction. Mr. Taft, when he visited
the Philippines in 1909, reached the conclusion that I was guilty
of an error of judgment in doing this, and a little later expressed
the view that the Medical College ought to be under the control of
the secretary of the interior, because of its intimate relationship
with the bureaus above mentioned.
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