Scientific Explorations of the Philippine Islands

The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Scientific Explorations of the Philippine Islands, 1902.

Near the close of the year 1902, President Roosevelt sent the following letter to Professor Alexander Agassiz. [Rep. Nat. Acad. Sci. for 1904, p. 22]

Professor Agassiz was absent in Europe when this letter reached Cambridge and it was placed in the hands of the Vice-President, Asaph Hall, who, after consulting with members of the council residing in Baltimore and Washington, appointed the following committee to formulate a plan of explorations in accordance with the President’s wishes: William H. Brewer (chairman), George F. Becker, C. Hart Merriam, F. W. Putman, and R.S. Woodward. The committee completed and adopted its report on February 7, 1903. The plan proposed covered the following subjects which the committee recommended should receive attention in the order here given provided they could not all be taken up at the same time: Coast and geodetic surveying and marine hydrography, land topography, including surveys and classification of public lands, geology and mineral resources, botany, systematic forestry (or forestry problems), zoology, anthropology.

In order to properly coordinate the work, the committee proposed that it should be in charge of a board of scientific experts, to be selected from the various scientific bureaus of the Government. The board was to be assisted by a scientific council, to consist of the chief field officers of the several bureaus engaged in the work and presided over by a member of the Philippine Commission. The council was to have an officer of the Engineer Corps of the Army and a naval officer associated with it.

On March 9, 1903, about a month after the committee of the Academy had presented its report, President Roosevelt appointed a board, called the Board of Scientific Surveys of the Philippine Islands, for the purpose of developing the plans outlined by the Academy.

“My Dear Sir: At my request, the National Academy of Sciences has outlined a comprehensive plan for scientific explorations of the Philippine Islands in a report, a copy of which I transmit herewith for your information.

“A plan of exploration so broad and systematic has never hitherto been prepared for any region, and if it can be carried into effect, it will add to human knowledge a contribution of great importance, highly commendable to the United States.

“Before taking any further steps in this matter, I desire to have estimates of the cost of such explorations prepared, assuming that the work is to be completed in ten years, and that the various branches of the scientific surveys cooperate with one another systematically and heartily.

“I therefore appoint the following Board of Scientific Surveys to prepare such estimates and to make such suggestions as may appear to it pertinent in the circumstances, viz:

The board held five meetings in March, May and June, 1903, appointed a committee on plans and organization, prepared estimates of expenditures, drafted a bill for the consideration of Congress, drew up various memoranda, and transacted other business. After that the matter was held in abeyance for two years, but on February 7, 1905, President Roosevelt sent the report of the committee of the Academy to Congress, with the following message:

“To the Senate and House of Representatives:

“Circumstances have placed under the control of this Government the Philippine Archipelago. The islands of that group present as many interesting and novel questions with respect to their ethnology, their fauna and flora, and their geology and mineral resources as any region of the world. At my request the National Academy of Sciences appointed a committee to consider and report upon the desirability of instituting scientific explorations of the Philippines Islands. The report of this committee, together with the report of the Board of Scientific Surveys of the Philippine Islands, including draft of a bill providing for surveys of the Philippine Islands, which board was appointed by me, after receiving the report of the committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, with instructions to prepare such estimates and make such suggestions as might appear to it pertinent in the circumstances, accompanies this message.

“The scientific surveys which should be undertaken go far beyond any surveys or explorations which the government of the Philippine Islands, however completely self-supporting, could be expected to make. The surveys, while of course beneficial to the people of the Philippine Islands, should be undertaken as a national work for the information not merely of the people of the Philippine Islands, but of the people of this country and of the world. Only preliminary explorations have yet been made in the archipelago, and it should be a matter of pride to the Government of the United States fully to investigate and to describe the entire region. So far as may be convenient and practical, the work of this survey should be conducted in harmony with that of the proper bureaus of the government of the Philippines; but it should not be under the control of the authorities of the Philippine Islands, for it should be undertaken as a national work and subject to a board appointed by Congress or the President. The plan transmitted recommends simultaneous surveys in different branches of research, organized in a co-operative system. This would tend to completeness, avoid duplication, and render work more economical than if the exploration were undertaken piecemeal. No such organized surveys have ever yet been attempted anywhere; but the idea is in harmony with modern, scientific, and industrial methods.

“I recommend, therefore, that provision be made for the appointment of a board of surveys to superintend the national surveys and explorations to be made in the Philippine Islands, and that appropriations be made from time to time to meet the necessary expenses of such investigation. It is not probable that the survey would be completed in a less period than that of eight or ten years, but it is well that it should be begun in the near future. The Philippine Commission, and those responsible for the Philippine government are properly anxious that this survey should not be considered as an expense of that government, but should be carried on and treated as a national duty in the interests of science.

The papers of the President’s board were transmitted to Congress with the report of the committee of the Academy, and printed in the same document. The plan proposed by the board conforms in all its essential features to that recommended by the Academy, except that no provision is made for an advisory council consisting of the heads, or chief field agents, of various surveys.

The message, with the accompanying documents, was referred to the Committee on the Philippines and ordered to be printed [It forms Sen. Doc. no. 145, 58^th Congress, 3^rd Session, February 7, 1905.], but was not reported back, and the projected surveys were, therefore, never undertaken. They appear to have failed to obtain support mainly on account of the opposition of the late Dr. Paul C. Freer, who thought that they would interfere with the scientific work in the Philippines which was under his jurisdiction as head of the Government laboratories in Manila. Senator Lodge gave notice on February 10, 1905, of an amendment which he intended to propose to the Sundry Civil bill for the fiscal year 1906, consisting of an item for the expenses of the board (58^th Congress, 3d session), but on March 2 he wrote: “I went before the Committee on Appropriations in regard to the amendment and said all I could for it, but, I am sorry to say, they refused to put it in.”

Scientific explorations and investigations were, however, carried on under the Philippine Commission. Nearly three years before President Roosevelt addressed his letter to the Academy, the Philippine Commission had already begun to establish scientific bureaus to investigate the natural resources of the islands, and for other similar purposes. A Bureau of Forestry and a Bureau of Mines were established in 1900. The following year a Health Bureau, an Agricultural Bureau, a Bureau of Government Laboratories, an Ethnological Survey (first called a bureau of Non-Christian Tribes), a Weather Bureau, and a Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Surveys were established. These have all continued to the present time, but in 1906 the Bureau of Government Laboratories and the Bureau of Mines were combined under the designation of the Bureau of Sciences, while the Ethnological Survey was incorporated in the Bureau of Education in 1905, and also the Agriculture Bureau in 1910. The Bureau of Education had in the meantime become the Department of Public Instruction. The coast survey and geodetic work has been carried out jointly by the Philippine government and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. All these organizations have issued numerous reports, scientific papers and other publications relating to the Islands.