Special Message

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

Circumstances have placed under the control of this Government the Philippine Archipelago. The islands of that group present as many interesting and novel questions with respect to their ethnology, their fauna and flora, and their geology and mineral resources as any region of the world. At my request the National Academy of Sciences appointed a committee to consider and report upon the desirability of instituting scientific explorations of the Philippine Islands. The report of this committee, together with the report of the Board of Scientific Surveys of the Philippine Islands, including draft of a bill providing for surveys of the Philippine Islands, which board was appointed by me, after receiving the report of the committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, with instructions to prepare such estimates and make such suggestions as might appear to it pertinent in the circumstances, accompanies this message.

The scientific surveys which should be undertaken go far beyond any surveys or explorations which the government of the Philippine Islands, however completely self-supporting, could be expected to make. The surveys, while of course beneficial to the people of the Philippine Islands, should be undertaken as a national work for the information not merely of the people of the Philippine Islands, but of the people of this country and of the world. Only preliminary explorations have yet been made in the archipelago, and it should be a matter of pride to the Government of the United States fully to investigate and to describe the entire region. So far as may be convenient and practical, the work of this survey should be conducted in harmony with that of the proper bureaus of the government of the Philippines; but it should not be under the control of the authorities of the Philippine Islands, for it should be undertaken as a national work and subject to a board to be appointed by Congress or the President. The plan transmitted recommends simultaneous surveys in different branches of research, organized on a co-operative system. This would tend to completeness, avoid duplication, and render the work more economical than if the exploration were undertaken piecemeal. No such organized surveys have ever yet been attempted anywhere; but the idea is in harmony with modern, scientific, and industrial methods.

I recommend, therefore, that provision be made for the appointment of a board of surveys to superintend the national surveys and explorations to be made in the Philippine Islands, and that appropriations be made from time to time to meet the necessary expenses of such investigation. It is not probable that the survey would be completed in a less period than that of eight or ten years, but it is well that it should be begun in the near future. The Philippine Commission, and those responsible for the Philippine government, are properly anxious that this survey should not be considered as an expense of that government, but should be carried on and treated as a national duty in the interests of science.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.