In view of the rather primitive state of civilization of the people for whom we were legislating, a special act adapted to local conditions was passed providing for a provincial government and fixing a form of government for the several settlements.
On January 31, 1901, we passed an act for the organization of municipal governments in the Philippine Islands which, with various amendments, is still in effect and has been made applicable to all municipal corporations of the Philippines inhabited chiefly by Filipinos, except the city of Manila, the city of Baguio and a few small settlements in the so-called special government provinces.

[461] On February 6, 1901, we passed a general act for the organization of provincial governments in the Philippine Islands.

A special act was required to make it applicable to any given province.
Having thus prepared for the serious work of establishing civil government throughout the archipelago so fast and so far as conditions might seem to justify, we determined to visit the several provinces and to familiarize ourselves with conditions on the ground in each case before taking action.

We invariably sought the opinion of the military authorities as to the fitness of the provinces under consideration for civil rule, and never established it except with their approval.

Indeed, in several cases we yielded to their judgment and organized provinces which we ourselves thought might better wait for a time.
Our first trip was to the northward along the line of the Manila-Dagupan railway, and in the course of it we organized the provinces of Bulaean, Pampanga, Tarlac and Pangasinan.
On the 2d of March we crossed Manila Bay to Bataan and established a civil provincial government there.
The first provincial officers were necessarily appointed, not elected.