Jones Law (Philippines)
Encyclopedia
The Jones Law or the Act of Congress of August 29, 1916, also known as the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916, replaced the Philippine Organic Act of 1902
Philippine Organic Act (1902)
The Philippine Organic Act, popularly known as the Philippine Bill of 1902 and sometimes known as the Cooper Act after its author Henry A. Cooper, was the first organic law for the Philippines enacted by the United States Congress during the American Colonial Period in the Philippines...

 that earlier served as a constitution for the Philippine Islands. The Philippines was ceded by Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1898 and a civil administration called the Insular Government was created in 1901. The Jones Law was a framework for a "more autonomous government" in preparation for the grant of independence by the United States. While the 1902 act provided for an appointed upper house, the Jones Law provided that both houses of the Philippine Legislature would be elected.

The Jones Law, enacted by the 64th
64th United States Congress
The Sixty-fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1915 to March 4, 1917, during the third and fourth...

 Congress of the United States on August 29, 1916, contained the first formal and official declaration of the United States commitment to grant independence to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. The law provides that the grant of independence would come only "as soon as a stable government can be established", which gave the United States Government the power to determine when this "stable government" has been achieved. It aimed at providing the Filipino people
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....

 (Filipinos) broader domestic autonomy, though it reserved certain privileges to the United States (Americans) to protect their sovereign rights and interests.

Evolution of the bill

In keeping with the idea that the ultimate goal for the Philippines was independence, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

 said as early as 1901, "We hope to do for them what has never been done for any people of the tropics—to make them fit for self-government after the fashion of really free nations." Because of the tendency of the American public to view America's presence in the Philippines as unremunerative and expensive, Roosevelt had concluded by 1907 that, "We shall have to be prepared for giving the islands independence of a more or less complete type much sooner than I think advisable."

During the election campaign for the 1912 elections which would make him U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

 said, "the Philippines are at present our frontier but I hope we presently are to deprive ourselves of that frontier." Even before the 1912 elections, Congressman William A. Jones
William Atkinson Jones
William Atkinson Jones was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1891 to 1918.Jones was born in Warsaw, Virginia, and graduated from the law department of the University of Virginia in 1870...

, chair of the U.S. House Committee on Insular Affairs, attempted to launch a bill which set a fixed date for Philippine independence. When Jones delayed, Manuel L. Quezon
Manuel L. Quezon
Manuel Luis Quezón y Molina served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944. He was the first Filipino to head a government of the Philippines...

, then one of the Philippines' two resident commissioner
Resident Commissioners from the Philippines
From 1907 until 1946, the Philippines sent Resident Commissioners to the United States House of Representatives to represent the island state, which was a U.S. territory from 13 August 1898...

s to the U.S. House of Representatives, drafted the first of what would eventually be two "Jones Bills". With Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 dominating the U.S. Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 and with William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...

 as President, the bill stood little chance of passage. After the election of Wilson as U.S. President and his appointment of Francis Harrison
Francis Burton Harrison
Francis Burton Harrison was an American statesman who served in the United States House of Representatives and appointed Governor-General of the Philippines by President of the United States Woodrow Wilson...

 as President of the Philippine Commission
Taft Commission
The Taft Commission, also known as Second Philippine Commission was established by United States President William McKinley on March 16, 1900. The Commission was the legislature of the Philippines, then known as the Philippine Islands under the sovereign control of the United States during the...

 and Governor General of the Philippines, Quezon drafted a second Jones Bill in early 1914. President Wilson had informed Quezon of his hostility to any fixed timetable for independence, and Quezon believed that this draft bill contained enough flexibility to suit Wilson.

Passage into law

Backed by Harrison, U.S. Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...

 Lindley Garrison and Wilson, the bill passed the U.S. House in October of 1913 and went to the Senate. After amendment by the Senate and further changes in a congressional conference committee
United States Congress Conference committee
A conference committee is a committee of the Congress appointed by the House of Representatives and Senate to resolve disagreements on a particular bill...

, a final version of the bill was signed into U.S. law by President Wilson on August 29, 1916.

Features

Among the salient provisions of the law was the creation of an all Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....

 legislature. It created the Philippine Senate to replace the Philippine Commission, which had served as the upper chamber of the legislature.

See also

  • Tydings-McDuffie Act
    Tydings-McDuffie Act
    The Tydings-McDuffie Act approved on March 24, 1934 was a United States federal law which provided for self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence after a period of ten years. It was authored by Maryland Senator Millard E...

     (1934)
  • Philippine Organic Act (1902)
    Philippine Organic Act (1902)
    The Philippine Organic Act, popularly known as the Philippine Bill of 1902 and sometimes known as the Cooper Act after its author Henry A. Cooper, was the first organic law for the Philippines enacted by the United States Congress during the American Colonial Period in the Philippines...

  • Treaty of Paris (1898)
    Treaty of Paris (1898)
    The Treaty of Paris of 1898 was signed on December 10, 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, and came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the ratifications were exchanged....

  • Philippine–American War, also known as the Philippine Insurrection
  • Philippine Declaration of Independence
    Philippine Declaration of Independence
    The Philippine Declaration of Independence occurred on June 12, 1898 in Cavite II el Viejo , Cavite, Philippines. With the public reading of the Act of the Declaration of Independence, Filipino revolutionary forces under General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the...

  • Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act
  • Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935
    Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935
    The Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935 established a repatriation program for Filipinos living in the United States where they were provided free passage back to the Philippines....

  • Treaty of Manila (1946)
    Treaty of Manila (1946)
    The Treaty of Manila is a treaty of general relations signed on July 4, 1946 in Manila, capital of the Philippines. Parties to the treaty were the governments of the United States and the Republic of the Philippines...

  • Commonwealth of the Philippines
    Commonwealth of the Philippines
    The Commonwealth of the Philippines was a designation of the Philippines from 1935 to 1946 when the country was a commonwealth of the United States. The Commonwealth was created by the Tydings-McDuffie Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1934. When Manuel L...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK