The development of Philippine politics

PROGRESS TONARDS RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 399

terials. Similarly, a bill prepared and introduced by a
member of the legislature was often referred to the department most famliar with the matter covered by the bill.
For instance, a bill reforming the Code of Criminal Procedure was likely to be of interest to the Department of Justice; and a bill appropriating money for some agricultural
purposes would be referred to the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Of course, this did not appear
in the official record and was mostly done by the legislative
leader who was a member of the Council of State. The
Council of State could also suggest measures and have these
measures introduced in the legislature through a member
who was at the same time a member of the legislature or
through any other member; but it could not officially introduce measures.
The Committee System
The American Committee system was adopted with
slight modifications. The Senate had about twenty-four
committees and the House thirty-three. Some of the most
important committees were the committees on appropriations, rules, accounts, and external relations. Among the
other committees were the committee on elections, to take
charge of the contested seats of the house, and the committees on judiciary, public instruction, commerce and industry,
labor and immigration, agriculture, public lands, mines,
forests, and banks and banking. All bills and resolutions
on money questions, that is, those relative to taxation, expenditures, debts, accounting, and everything that touched
directly or indirectly the public purse, were referred to the
committee on appropriations. During the early days of the
Philippine Assembly, the appropriation committee was a
sort of committee of committees, because the chairmen of
other committees were including among its members.
Next to the appropriation committee, the committee on
rules was the most important. This committee had charge
of all matters affecting the rules of the house. It determined
what bills should be discussed first, for it could request the
house to take up any bill at once. This request was granted