ed companies with a
nominal strength of two officers and fifty men each. Under special
conditions this rule may be departed from, and the size of the
companies or the number of officers increased.

Each province is divided by the senior inspector into sections, and the
responsibility for patrol work and general policing rests on the senior
company officer in each station. The provinces are grouped into five
districts, each commanded by an assistant chief who exercises therein
the authority, and performs the duties appropriate to the chief for
the entire Philippines. The higher administrative positions have always
been filled by detailing regular officers of the United States army.

The constabulary soldiers are now neatly uniformed, armed with Krag
carbines and well disciplined. They show the effect of good and regular
food and of systematic exercise, their physical condition being vastly
superior to that of the average Filipino. They are given regular
instruction in their military duties. It is conducted in English.

The Philippine constabulary may be defined as a body of armed men
with a military organization, recruited from among the people of the
islands, officered in part by Americans and in part by Filipinos, and
employed primarily for police duty in connection with the establishment
and maintenance of public order.

Blount's chapters on the administrations of Taft, Wright and Smith
embody one prolonged plaint to the effect that the organization of
the constabulary was premature, and that after the war proper ended,
the last smouldering embers of armed and organized insurrection should
have been stamped out, and the brigandage which had existed in the
Philippines for centuries should have been dealt with, by the United
States army rather than by the constabulary.

Even if it were true that the army could have rendered more effective
service to this end than could have been expected at the outset from
a newly organized body of Filipino soldiers, the argument against the
organization and use of the constabulary would in my opinion have
been by no means conclusive. It is our declared policy to prepare
the Filipinos to establish and maintain a stable government of their
own. The proper exercise of police powers is obviously necessary to
such an end.

From the outset we have sacrificed efficiency in order that our wards
might gain practical experience, and might demonstrate their ability,
or lack of ability, to