It cannot be hoped that the passage of this bill would have the effect of causing many persons who now eat polished rice to thereafter eat unpolished rice. Without this proposed tax there is a slight difference in price between polished and unpolished rice, and yet, according to the best information of your committee, even the poorer people who do their own cooking use, as a general rule, polished rice, the unpolished article being used only in certain cases where a patron furnishes meals to a large number of laborers. If this bill is passed, those persons who can afford to eat polished rice will continue to eat it, and persons not so well-to-do will purchase the unpolished article and have the same polished at home by means of household apparatus and processes now in use for that purpose. The tax would be in this way evaded, as there is no provision for taxing rice polished in this manner, and the purpose of the law would fail. Your committee does not believe it desirable to go to the extreme of imposing a tax on rice polished at home. Aside from the fact that such a law would be very harsh, its enforcement would be extremely difficult and would necessitate the employment of an army of internal revenue agents. The effect of this Act would be that those persons who could afford a diet having the substances necessary for the normal physiological processes of the body, and to whom, therefore, no harm would come from eating polished rice, would continue to use it, while suffering the hardship of an excessive tax not paid by those who use bread instead of rice. Other persons not so well-to-do, but accustomed to eat polished rice, would not use the unpolished article, but would probably economize in their food, their diet thus becoming inadequate to prevent beriberi, with rice constituting their principal article of food. The injustice would be done of causing these people to pay a tax which, far from preventing the disease, would be a contributing cause of beriberi. And finally, the poorer people would resort to polishing rice in their own homes. The bill, in the opinion of your committee, would prove unjust and ineffective. Your committee believes that a campaign of education through the public schools, the Insular, provincial, and municipal officials, and particularly the employees of the Bureau of Health, would be far more efficacious than the proposed law. The coöperation of Filipino physicians in such a campaign would be of great assistance, but they must needs first be convinced of the truth of the theory regarding the etiology of beriberi accepted by Commissioner Worcester and which moved him to introduce this bill. According to all the information your committee can gather, this theory is not yet accepted by Filipino physicians. In the opinion of your committee, the first step to be taken is to convince Filipino physicians of the truth of this theory in order to enlist them in the campaign. This could be accomplished by the appointment by the Governor-General of a committee composed partly of Filipino physicians for the purpose of studying the etiology of beriberi, to which committee should be submitted all experiments heretofore made by the Bureau of Science in this matter. The object sought cannot be accomplished by the imposition of a tax. People will judge only by appearances. They will feel the weight of the tax, and as few will note the result, they will naturally think that the only purpose is the imposition of another tax which to their eyes is wholly unjustified. Respectfully submitted. To the Honorable, GREGORIO ARANETA, Committee on Matters Pertaining to the the PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. On motion by Commissioner Worcester, Consideration of the report was postponed. [Committee Report No. 120.] MR. PRESIDENT: Your Committee on Matters Pertaining to the Department of Public Instruction, to which was referred on January 28, 1913, Assembly Bill No. 262, entitled "An Act amending subsection (c) of section six of Act Numbered Seventeen hundred and sixty, entitled 'An Act to prevent the introduction into the Philippine Islands of dangerous communicable animal diseases, to prevent the spread of such diseases in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes' " has examined the same and has the honor to report it back to the Commission with the following recommendation, viz: That this bill be laid on the table. The reasons for this recommendation are so obvious that comment is deemed unnecessary. Respectfully submitted. To the Honorable, NEWTON W. GILBERT, Committee on Matters Pertaining to the the PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. The report was adopted. INTRODUCTION OF BILL. Commissioner Araneta introduced the following bill: Commission Bill No. 71. An Act amending section fifty-one of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and eighty-nine, known as the Internal Revenue Law of Nineteen hundrd and four, and section one of Act Numbered Three hundred and fifty-seven, entitled “An Act making certain permanent annual appropriations," so as to authorize the Collector of Internal Revenue to redeem internal-revenue stamps under certain circumstances, and making a permanent annual appropriation for that purpose. By unanimous consent, Commission Bill No. 71 was read the first time by title only and referred to Commissioner Palma as a select committee for report and recommendation. MESSAGE FROM THE ASSEMBLY. JANUARY 23, 1913. MR. PRESIDENT: I have been directed to inform your honorable body that the Assembly on January 23, 1913, passed the following Assembly Bill No. 199, in which it requests the concurrence of the Commission: An Act appropriating the sum of fifty thousand pesos out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the construction of a schoolhouse to be denominated "Jose Rizal's School Building," in the municipality of Calamba, Laguna. Very respectfully, To the Honorable, TEODORO M. Kalaw, Secretary, Philippine Assembly. the PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. By unanimous consent, Assembly Bill No. 199 was read the first time by title only and referred to the Committee on Matters Pertaining to the Department of Public Instruction for report and recommendation. EXECUTIVE SESSION. The Commission then proceeded to the consideration of executive business. After the consideration of executive business, the Commission returned to regular session. ADJOURNMENT. Thereupon, at 12 o'clock and 5 minutes postmeridian, The Commission adjourned to meet at 10 o'clock and 30 minutes antemeridian on Thursday, January 30, 1913. Attest: GEO. C. SCHWEICKERT, Secretary. Third Philippine Legislature. First Session. JOURNAL OF THE COMMISSION. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1913. The Commission met pursuant to adjournment. Present: Commissioners Gilbert, Worcester, Luzuriaga, Araneta, Palma, Sumulong, Branagan, and the President. READING OF JOURNAL. The Journal for Wednesday, January 29, 1913, was read and approved. MESSAGE FROM THE ASSEMBLY. JANUARY 28, 1913. MR. PRESIDENT: I have been directed to inform your honorable body that the Assembly on January 28, 1913, laid on the table the following Commission Bill No. 20, entitled "An Act to amend Act Numbered Eleven hundred and twenty-four, as amended by Act Numbered Nineteen hundred and twenty-five, by authorizing the payment of certain expenses incurred by authority of the GovernorGeneral in the case of sick officers or employees under certain circumstances." The Secretary read a resolution of the convention of municipal presidents of Batangas soliciting from the Philippine Legislature the prolongation of Spanish as the official language in all branches of public administration. Ordered filed. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. [Committee Report No. 121.] MR. PRESIDENT: Your Committee on Matters Pertaining to the Department of Finance and Justice, to which was referred on January 28, 1913, resolution No. 13 of the municipal council of Dao, Capiz, passed on January 20, 1913, praying that the Philippine Legislature enact a law exempting municipalities from the payment of justice of the peace fees in criminal cases, has examined the same, and has the honor to report it back to the Commission with the following recommendation, viz: That the resolution be laid on the table. A similar request was made by the convention of municipal presidents of Antique, praying for the passage of a law relieving municipalities from the payment of fees in civil and criminal cases, and your committee, to whom the matter was referred, recommended that the same be laid on the table. This report of your committee was adopted by the Commission on October 23, 1912. The reasons advanced in the above-mentioned report apply with equal force to this resolution of the municipal council of Dao, Capiz. Respectfully submitted. To the Honorable, GREGORIO ARANETA, Committee on Matters Pertaining to the the PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. The report was adopted. [Committee Report No. 122.] MR. PRESIDENT: The Committee on Municipal and Provincial Governments, to which was referred on December 12, 1912, resolution No. 132 of the municipal council of Tayug, Pangasinan, petitioning the Philippine Legislature for an Act directing the municipalities and provinces of the Philippine Archipelago to use a special brand on estrays sold at public auction, has examined the same and has the honor to report it back to the Commission with the following recommendation, viz: That said resolution be laid on the table. The petition of the municipal council of Tayug, contained in the present résolution, can not in any manner be recommended for favorable consideration inasmuch as the bill of sale or certificate of ownership issued by the municipality after the sale at public auction of the estray or confiscated animal is, in the judgment of your committee, sufficient for the identification of any animal which its legitimate owner endeavors to recover by criminal or civil action. Act No. 1147, relative to the registration, branding, conveyance, and |