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The Green Bag
resists arrest he is likely to be killed and his head brought in as an evidence of duty done. This general condition results from the fact that we have dis approved of the Moro laws and have tried to substitute for them laws which we think more humane and reasonable but which have no meaning to the Moras because they do not com prehend the theory upon which they rest. It may be said, by way of summariz ing what has been done, that the Mora Province was divided into districts, each under an American officer as governor, and the districts redivided into tribal wards. The local datu were chosen headmen of each ward, and their lesser chiefs made deputies. Thus, the poli tical elements already existing were utilized. The actual power of the datu was probably increased, for his author ity was upheld by the strong arm of the American government, but he was required to rule his ward according to
law. The pandiia were appointed tribal ward justices with power to decide petty disputes, subject to appeal to the Ameri can district governors. Thus, in out ward semblance, at least, the native rulers were left in authority, and the customs of the people respected. General Bliss has further recommended that a native court, or board of arbitra tion, be established in each district with power to decide according to the native customs all disputes between Moras involving property and family relations, if no crime of violence is in volved, and giving to the losing party a right of appeal. In making this con cession involving the great mass of cases, and in which the government as such has no interest, it would be ex pected that when the people realize that the American system has, in part at least, become their own, their unwilling ness to assist the government in enforc ing the laws relating to graver crimes would disappear.
Chicago, Illinois.
Laws that Work Injustice to Women and Children By Judge McKenzie Cleland
THE order of the captain of the steamship Republic, when the transfer to the Baltic was about to be made, "the women and children first," was merely the practical expression of American chivalry towards those always under its protection. Thirty days in the workhouse, in com parative comfort, for the brutal hus band, while the already wronged wife
and children are deprived of their only means of support, is merely the unprac tical and mistaken expression of the same sentiment. It is about time for our inland chivalry to give way to the salt-water variety, and if anybody is to be fed, clothed and housed out of the public treasury, let it be "the women and children first," for there can be no doubt that as between
