ABSTRACT
The thirty years of American occupation of the Philippine Islands fall naturally into two periods: the first of seventeen years (1899–1916), from the beginning of organised government under military control to the passing of the Jones Act by the US Congress; and the second, of thirteen years’ duration, from that date to the present. The first contact between Americans and Filipinos took place almost immediately after the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898. Up till 1902 all appointments to the Philippines had been made by the President of the United States by virtue of his office as Commander-in-Chief. The American Federation of Labour began to agitate for the application of the Asiatic exclusion clauses of the Emigration Law against the Filipino labourer who had for some years been coming into the country and working at low salaries on the West Coast, mainly in California.
