ertain police authority for the maintenance of order.
If the local headman could not handle the situation, the local
constabulary was called in. If they in turn were not sufficient, then
the troops were sent into the area.

A free man's life was worth fifty-two dollars and a half in gold; a
male slave one-half this amount; a free woman was worth as much as a
male slave; a female slave half as much as a male slave, and a modern
rifle about two hundred dollars in gold.

As the simple processes of law came to be better understood natives
were encouraged to appeal from the tribal to the district court,
consisting of the district governor and the local priests or headmen,
who advised the former upon tribal {193} customs and scales of
punishment, in order that no injustice should be done to any one.

Gradually appeals were taken from the district courts to the regular
insular courts, which were represented by itinerant judges of the
first instance. The latter belonged to the regular Philippine
judiciary and were at this time all Americans. Women were given equal
status before the law and the rights of property were safeguarded.

After the first hard fighting the need for the use of troops gradually
diminished and more and more of the policing work was done by the
native constabulary. The wildest regions became practically safe.

After the districts were in working order municipalities and townships
were established and the framework of civic organization begun. The
Mohammedan religion was left undisturbed. Religious freedom was
guaranteed to both Mohammedans and Christians. In addition to the
Catholic missionaries who had been working there for hundreds of
years, missionaries of other denominations commenced to take active
interest in the situation. The revenue was sufficient to maintain
{194} the province in good shape and there was a considerable amount
of money in reserve.

Thus in three years, with the knowledge he had acquired in Cuba
supplemented by his visits and study amongst the colonies of other
nations where similar problems existed, with his extraordinary energy
and capacity for working through innumerable subordinates, Leonard
Wood again built up a community out of nothing but land and human
beings. But in the Philippine instance he built up a community largely
governing itself upon a system of laws still in force--though three
governors have succeeded him--from a hopeless mass of Christian
Filipinos, Chin