OPIUM IN THE PHILIPPINES TO BE PROHIBITED BY CONGRESS AFTER 1908.
[From the Associated Prohibition Press.] WASHINGTON, March 16.—This week brings a favorable settlement of the opium tangle which so disturbed the people of the United States and the Philippine Islands nearly three years ago. The Philippine Commission has just passed a bill making the traffic in opium a government monopoly for two years, after which absolute prohibition of the importation and sale is to be the law, except for medicinal purposes. During the pending of the monopoly, the stuff is to be sold to licensed smokers only who have become habitues and who are disfranchised and disqualified from holding office during the time they hold such license. The law is almost precisely the law which the Japanese Government adopted for Formosa after the Japanese acquired that island from China. Yielding to Public Sentiment.
Early in 1907, the Philippine Commission proposed, and was about to pass, a law providing for farming out the opium traffic so far as the sale to Chinamen was concerned. The bill was along the same lines as the notorious British policy in India which has been a scandal of half a century standing upon the British Government, the modifying of which was one of the proposals on which the new ministry has recently assumed power. The people of the Philippines revolted against the proposed infamy, the revolt being led by the Chinese themselves. The agitation against the proposed law was led by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Manila. The discussion became so warm that the Philippine Commission held up its bill and sent a committee to visit the opium countries and make a report. This committee reported adversely to the Commission's bill. Thereupon the Commission drafted a new bill embodying most of the recommendations of the committee, which has just become a law. After March 1, 1908, absolute prohibition of the importation and sale will prevail, except for legitimate purposes. Extract of Secretary Taft's Letter to the President.
The following is the letter of Secretary Taft transmitting the report of the Committee to Congress: Washington, D. C., March 9, 1906. MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I have the honor to enclose herewith, for transmission to Congress, the report of the committee appointed by the Philippine Commission to investigate the use of opium and the traffic therein, and the rules, ordinances, and laws regulating such use and traffic in Japan, Formosa, Shanghai, Hongkong, Saigon, Singapore, Burmah, Java, and the Philippine Islands. The law in force in the Philippine Islands under the government of Spain made it unlawful for any Filipino to smoke, or use opium in any way. It permitted, however, a license to issue for the maintenance of opium-smoking resorts, to be patronized only by the Chinese, and police supervision was exercised over these resorts, and any Filipino found there was arrested and punished. The owner of the resort was also punished for conniving at the Filipino's violation of the law. Americans Annul Prohibition with Bad Results.
"It is generally thought that the law was fairly well enforced, and that the spread of the use of the drug among the Filipinos was much retarded by its enforcement. The right to sell opium for smoking and other purposes was farmed out in the various provinces to a wholesale dealer, who purchased the privilege at public auction. When the American troops entered Manila and took possession of the islands, the Spanish opium law was not continued in force. "A duty was imposed on opium, and towns were enjoined to pass ordinances forbidding the establishment of opium dives. Such information as the commission could obtain indicated that the suspension of the Spanish law had led to an increase of the use of the drug among the Filipinos. "Early in 1903 there was introduced in the Philippine Commission for enactment into a law a bill following in some respects the Spanish law, especially in the main feature, that the sale of opium to Filipinos and its use by them was absolutely prohibited and made a penal offense. It abolished licensed opium-smoking resorts, and provided that no opium could be sold to any one to be smoked upon the premises. It contained the feature of farming out the right to sell opium to Chinese persons twenty-one years of age. The bill was advertised for three months, and when it came before the commission in open session it was discussed by members of the public with great vigor. It was very vigorously opposed by the clergymen of the city of Manila. Indeed, so strong was their opposition that it led the commission to table the bill and to appoint a committee, consisting of Major E. C. Carter, surgeon United States Army, chief sanitary officer of the Islands; Dr. Jose Albert, a prominent Filipino physician of Manila, and the Rt. Rev. Charles H. Brent, Episcopal Bishop of the Philippines, who were authorized to visit the various Oriental countries to investigate the measures taken by the different governments for the purpose of suppressing the use of opium. This committee made its report to the Philippine Commission in June, 1904. The report was not transmitted by the Philippine Commission to this department until last August." There has since been passed by the Philippine Commission a law providing for the suppression of opium smoking, which penalizes the sale of opium to Filipinos or its use by them; secondly, it prohibits the sale of opium to any Chinaman unless he is an habitual user of the drug. License taxes are imposed on wholesale and retail dealers who are subject to close regulation and scrutiny. This law will cease to have effect in April, 1908, and at that time all importations of opium into the islands will cease, except for medicinal purposes, and the importation for that purpose will be made by the government only.