Page 22, line 27, strike out the words "one million four hundred and eighty" and insert in lieu thereof the words "one million five hundred and seventy-four."

Page 28, line 15, insert the words "and five" after the words "two hundred."

Change the total to read “eighteen million one hundred and eight thousand ninety-three pesos."

The amendment recommended by the Committee of the Whole was adopted.

On motion by Commissioner Gilbert, unanimously carried,

The bill was considered urgent under the provisions of Rule XIV, Rules of the Commission, and read the third time by title only.

The question then being upon its passage, the roll was called and the bill was unanimously passed and the title read and approved.

SECOND READING OF BILLS.

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 hundred 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.

Commission Bill No. 71 was read the second time.

On motion by Commissioner Araneta, unanimously carried,

The bill was considered urgent under the provisions of Rule XIV, Rules of the Commission, and read the third time by title only.

The question then being upon its passage, the roll was called and the bill was unanimously passed and the title read and approved.

Commission Bill No. 74. An Act allotting internal revenue for the benefit of those parts of the Philippine Islands subject to the legislative jurisdiction of the Philippine Commission and repealing sections one hundred forty-eight, one hundred forty-nine and one hundred fifty of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and eighty-nine, so far as applicable thereto.

By unanimous consent, Commission Bill No. 74 was read the second time by title only and postponed.

Commission Bill No. 75. An Act allotting internal revenue and repealing sections one hundred forty-eight, one hundred forty-nine and one hundred fifty of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and eightynine.

By unanimous consent, Commission Bill No. 75 was read the second time by title only and postponed until the next session of the Legislature.

INTRODUCTION OF BILL.

Commissioners Worcester and Araneta introduced the following bill:

Commission Bill No. 77. An Act to amend paragraph eight of section one hundred and forty-four of Act Numbered Eleven hundred and eighty-nine, known as the Internal Revenue Law of Nineteen hundred and four, so as to prohibit the issue of internal revenue licenses to practice medicine, surgery and dentistry to persons not duly authorized by law, and for other purposes.

Commission Bill No. 77 was read the first and second times and ordered on file for third reading.

CONSIDERATION OF COMMISSION BILL NO. 67.

The Commission then proceeded to the consideration of the report of the Committee on Matters Pertaining to the Department of Finance and Justice on Commission Bill No. 67, entitled "An Act imposing an internal-revenue tax on polished rice manufactured in or imported into the Philippine Islands.

Commissioner Worcester made the following statement: The matter under discussion is one of such very great importance that I feel a full reply should be made to the arguments against the bill brought forward by the Committee on Matters Pertaining to the Department of Finance and Justice.

So far as concerns the amount of the tax, it is intended to be such as materially to penalize the use of polished rice.

The Act of Congress mentioned in the committee report refers to the customs or import duty on rice, whereas in

the proposed bill only an internal-revenue tax is contemplated. This is a thing entirely separate and apart from a customs duty. Furthermore, it is not proposed to have the Act go into effect until January 1, 1914, which would give ample time for people seasonably to adjust themselves to the new conditions.

It would seem that the committee is making the common error of mistaking the rice ordinarily known as "pinawa” for unpolished rice. The Director of Health on behalf of the Government has purchased very large quantities of rice and it is his experience that properly cleaned unpolished rice costs as much as does polished rice.

The report of the committee states that the great majority of the Filipinos eat polished rice and that the tax would therefore fall heavily upon the masses. If this statement be true, then the great majority of the people are eating a dangerous food and the necessity for remedying the existing condition is imperative. The object of the bill is to create conditions such that the great majority of the people will eat unpolished rice. If its object is achieved, this majority would then not pay a tax and there would be no burden on the masses whatever.

I must take issue on the committee report on the subject of the impracticability of the bringing about of the change by increasing the cost of the polished article.

Experience with the Philippine Scouts, of whom there are some 5,000, shows conclusively that after they have once used clean unpolished rice they eat it with the same readiness as polished rice and have no desire to return to the polished variety.

Similar experience has been had at the Culion leper colony. A few years ago a petition was received protesting against the use of unpolished rice. Later, when it became necessary to use polished rice temporarily, a petition was received from the lepers protesting against their being furnished with polished rice.

Practically all of the difficulty encountered up to the present time has been caused by the furnishing of im

properly cleaned and poorly hulled rice when unpolished rice was asked for. A rice mill can make a fairly clean white rice that is safe, and I believe that all Philippine mills would do it if encouraged by proper legislation.

Captain Vedder of the United States Army Medical Corps, a member of the United States Army Board on Tropical Diseases, who has had very extensive experience in connection with beriberi in the Philippine Islands and who has just completed a book on this subject, holds that rice as ordinarily polished in the Philippine Islands by home machinery is not cleaned with sufficient thoroughness to be detrimental to health and would not cause beriberi. The Director of Health confirms this opinion. While it would be theoretically possible to polish rice with the ordinary household machinery thoroughly enough to make it dangerous, the labor involved is so very great that it is believed that the danger from this source is negligible and that for this reason no attempt should be made to tax rice polished in the home.

A campaign of education in the Philippine Islands has been persistently conducted for a period of three years with very discouraging results. At present it is difficult for persons who wish to purchase in the market clean unpolished rice to do so. While the slow process of education is going on the unfortunate victims of this disease are dying by the thousands. The number of deaths directly caused annually by beriberi is certainly not less than 5,000. The additional number of people disabled temporarily or permanently by this disease is certainly not less than 50,000. There remains no reasonable doubt that the use of unpolished rice as a food by mothers is a factor in the shocking infant mortality which prevails in these Islands at this time. In my opinion it is a solemn duty of this Government to make unpolished rice available for the masses and I believe, this can be done without undue discrimination by the passage of the proposed bill.

There is little doubt that the people would readily accus. tom themselves to the change. Many Filipinos have in

formed the Director of Health that after using the unpolished rice for a short time they preferred it to the polished rice because it had a better flavor and seemed to satisfy hunger more fully.

The campaign of education, of course, should and will be prosecuted in any event but it should be supplemented by adequate legislation in order early to bring about the general use of rice of a quality which makes it safe for human consumption.

There would seem to me to be no need for the appointment of a committee to study the subject of beriberi. Any person interested in this subject can readily obtain very abundant evidence on which to base his conclusions. The reading of the report of Dr. Strong gives a false impression as to the importance of his experiments as compared with the observations of others. His work was unique inasmuch as it was conducted in such a way as very carefully to exclude the possibility of infection with any disease-breeding organisms through the medium of the rice used and to demonstrate that the reason that beriberi follows the use of polished rice was that such rice was deficient in a certain chemical constituent necessary for the well being of the human body. The fact that the use of polished rice led to outbreaks of beriberi was abundantly demonstrated before Dr. Strong's experiments were begun. The following tables sufficiently illustrate this: