oviding for its establishment was drawn by the Honourable
Luke E. Wright, at that time secretary of commerce and police and
later destined to become governor-general of the Philippines and
secretary of war of the United States.

It was intended that the constabulary should accomplish its ends by
force when necessary but by sympathetic supervision when possible,
suppressing brigandage and turning the people towards habits of
peace. The fact was clearly borne in mind that the abuses of the
_guardia civil_ had not been forgotten and the new force was designed
to meet existing conditions, to allay as rapidly as possible the
existing just rancour against the similar organization established
under the Spanish regime, and to avoid the evils which had contributed
so much toward causing the downfall of Spanish sovereignty. The law
was admirably framed to achieve these ends.

The officers of the constabulary were selected chiefly from American
volunteers recently mustered out and from honourably discharged
soldiers of the United States army. Some few Filipinos, whose loyalty
was above suspicion, were appointed to the lower grades. This number
has since been materially augumented, and some of the original Filipino
appointees have risen to the rank of captain.

It was inevitable that at the outset there should be abuses. The
organization was necessarily born at work; there was no time to
instruct, to formulate regulations, to wait until a satisfactory
state of discipline had been brought about. There were not barracks
for housing the soldiers; there were neither uniforms, nor arms,
nor ammunition. There was no system for rationing the men. All of
these things had to be provided, and they were provided through a
natural evolution of practical processes, crystallizing into form,
tested by the duties of the day. The organization which grew up was a
true survival of the fittest, both in personnel and in methods. The
wonder is not that some abuses occurred, but that they were so few;
not that there were occasional evidences of lack of efficiency,
but that efficiency was on the whole so high from the beginning.

The several provinces were made administrative units, the commanding
officer in each being designated as "senior inspector." The men who
were to serve in a given province were by preference recruited there,
and a departure was thus made from the usual foreign colonial practice.

In 1905 the total force was fixed at one hundr