or resolutions of any public authority therein, required or permitted to be given with one surety or with two or more sureties, the execution of the same or the guaranteeing of the performance of the condition thereof shall be sufficient when executed or guaranteed solely by a corporation incorporated under the laws of the United States or of any State thereof having power to guarantee the fidelity of persons holding positions of public or private trust, and to execute and guarantee bonds and undertakings in judicial proceedings, and to agree to the faithful performance of any contract or undertaking made with any public authority: Provided, That such recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking be approved by the head of Department, court, judge, officer, board, or body executive, legislative, or judicial required to approve or accept the same. But no officer or person having the approval of any recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking shall exact that it shall be furnished by a guarantee company, or by any particular guarantee company: Provided further, That no head of Department, Bureau, court, judge, officer, board, or body executive, legislative, or judicial shall approve or accept any corporation as surety on any recognizance, stipulation, bond, contract, or undertaking, unless such corporation has been authorized to do business in the Philippine Islands in the manner provided by the subsequent sections of this Act, nor unless such corporation has by contract with the Government of the Philippine Islands been authorized to become a surety upon official recognizances, stipulations, bonds, and undertakings. SEC. 2. No such company shall do business under the provisions of this Act within the Philippine Islands until it shall by a written power of attorney appoint some person residing at the city of Manila, Island of Luzon, upon whom may be served all lawful process against such company, and who shall be authorized to enter an appearance in its behalf. A copy of such power of attorney, duly certified and authenticated, shall be filed with the clerk of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands, which copy, or a certified copy thereof, shall be legal evidence in all controversies arising under this Act. If any such agent shall be removed, resign, or die, become insane, or otherwise incapable of acting, it shall be the duty of such company to appoint another agent in his place as herein before prescribed, and until such appointment shall have been made, or during the absence of any agent of such company from said city of Manila, service of process may be upon the clerk of said Supreme Court, with like effect as upon such agent appointed by the company. The officer executing such process upon such clerk shall immediately transmit a copy thereof by mail to the company and state such fact in his return. A judgment, decree, or order of the court entered or made after service of process as aforesaid shall be as valid and binding on such company as if such company's said agent had been personally served with process in said city. The provisions of this section shall also be applicable to all actions brought upon any official undertaking and obligations made by such corporation in the Philippine Islands. SEC. 3. Every company before transacting any business under this Act shall deposit with the Attorney-General of the Philippine Islands a copy of its charter or articles of incorporation, and a statement signed and sworn to by its president and secretary showing its assets and liabilities. If the said Attorney-General shall be satisfied that such company has authority under its charter to do the business pro vided for in this Act, and that it has a paid-up capital of not less than five hundred thousand dollars, in cash or its equivalent, and is able to keep and perform its contracts, he shall grant authority in writing to such company to do business under this Act. SEC. 4. Every such company shall, in the months of January, April, July, and October of each year, file with the said Attorney-General a statement, signed and sworn to by its president and secretary, showing its assets and liabilities, as is required by section three of this Act. And the said Attorney-General shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, to revoke the authority of any such company to transact any new business under this Act whenever in his judgment such company is not solvent or is conducting its business in violation of this Act. He may institute inquiry at any time into the solvency of said company and may require that additional surety be given at any time by any principal when he deems such company no longer sufficient security. SEC. 5. Any surety company doing business under the provisions of this Act may be sued in respect thereof in any court of the Philippine Islands which has now or hereafter may have jurisdiction of actions or suits upon such recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking, in the judicial district in which such recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking in the judicial district in which such recognizance, stipu lation, bond, or undertaking was made or guaranteed. And for the purposes of this Act such recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking shall be treated as made or guaranteed in the judicial district in which the office is located to which it is returnable, or in which it is filed, or in the judicial district in which the principal in such recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking resided when it was made or guaranteed. SEC. 6. If any such company shall neglect or refuse to pay any final judgment or decree rendered against it upon any such recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking made or guaranteed by it under the provisions of this Act, from which no appeal, writ of error, or supersedeas has been taken for thirty days after the rendition of such judgment or decree, it shall forfeit all right to do business under this Act. SEC. 7. Any company which shall execute or guarantee any recognizance, stipulation, bond, or undertaking under the provisions of this Act shall be estopped in any proceeding to enforce the liability which it shall have assumed to incur, to deny its corporate power to execute or guarantee such instrument or assume such liability. SEC. 8. Any company doing business under the provisions of this Act which shall fail to comply with any of its provisions shall forfeit to the Government of the Philippine Islands, for every such failure, not less than five hundred dollars nor more than five thousand dollars, to be recovered by suit in the name of the United States in the same courts in which suit may be brought against such company under the provisions of this Act, and such failure shall not affect the validity of any contract entered into by such company. In actions to enforce the forfeiture in this section provided, service upon the attorney or agent specified in the second section, or, in lieu thereof, upon the clerk of the Supreme Court in the manner provided in said section, shall be sufficient service to bind the company. SEC. 9. The sums of money mentioned in this act are in United States currency. SEC. 10. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 11. This act shall take effect on its passage. Enacted, November 25, 1902. [No. 537.] AN ACT repealing section two of Act Numbered Four hundred and thirty and section two of Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety, and providing for disbursement of local currency appropriated for obligations expressed in United States currency. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. Section two of Act Numbered Four hundred and thirty and section two of Act Numbered Four hundred and ninety are hereby repealed, and in lieu thereof the following substituted in each instance: "SEC. 2. The appropriations herein made shall be withdrawn from the Treasury in local currency at the ratio authorized at the time of the withdrawal; and payments in local currency of all obligations of the Insular Government and of the city of Manila properly expressed in United States currency shall be at the ratio in force at the time of payment, except salaries, which shall be paid at the ratio existing on the next to the last day of the month for which they are paid; and in any case where a deficiency thereby arises in an appropriation for salaries, the appropriation of such further sums as may be necessary to meet the authorized salary payments in such branch of the Insular Government or the city of Manila is hereby made." SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect on its passage. [No. 538.] AN ACT to amend Act Numbered Five hundred and thirty-six relating to recognizances, stipulations, bonds, and undertakings, and to allow certain corporations to be accepted as surety thereon. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. Section three of Act Numbered Five hundred and thirtysix, entitled "An Act relative to recognizances, stipulations, bonds, and undertakings, and to allow certain corporations to be accepted as surety thereon," is hereby amended by striking out the words "five hundred thousand dollars" in the second sentence thereof after the words "less than" and inserting in lieu thereof the words "two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. SEC. 2. Section eleven of said Act Numbered Five hundred and thirty-six is hereby amended so as to read as follows: "SEC. 11. This Act shall take effect on January first, I ineteen hundred and three." SEC. 3. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 4. This act shall take effect on its passage. [No. 539.] AN ACT to amend Act Numbered Four hundred and sixty-seven, entitled "An act to provide for taking a census of the Philippine Islands," as amended by Acts Numbered Four hundred and eighty-six and Five hundred and seven. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. Act Numbered Four hundred and sixty-seven, entitled "An Act to provide for taking a census of the Philippine Islands," as amended by Acts Numbered Four hundred and eighty-six and Five hundred and seven, is hereby further amended by changing sections twenty-four and twenty-five to read twenty-five and twenty-six, respectively, and by inserting a new section, numbered section twentyfour, which shall read as follows: "SEC. 24. The city of Manila shall be one supervisor's district. If the supervisor of Manila when appointed shall fill another civil office, then his compensation shall be the same as that of the other supervisors appointed under this Act. If, however, he shall not hold any civil office, then his compensation shall be three hundred dollars per month, such sum to be in full compensation for all services rendered and expenses incurred by him: Provided, however, That in the discretion of the Director of the Census he may be allowed a reasonable sum for the rent of his necessary offices and for the actual cost of transportation needed in the discharge of his duties in the city of Manila. He shall also be entitled to one clerk at a salary of one hundred dollars per month, and one messenger at a salary of thirty dollars per month; and the proviso that one-half of the salary due each supervisor shall be withheld and not paid him until after the schedules or other returns and reports required of him shall have been duly rendered to the Director of the Census, shall be applicable to the supervisor of Manila. Members of the civil service, whether of the Insular Government or of the city government of Manila, shall be eligible for appointment as supervisor of the city of Manila, and shall be entitled to receive, in addition to their regular salary as such civil officers, the amount provided as compensation for supervisors of the census." SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect on its Enacted, November 28, 1902. [No. 540.] passage. AN ACT authorizing the provincial board of Leyte to rent and maintain a jail at Maasin, in that province. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: Whereas, by Act Numbered Four hundred and thirteen, the various provincial governments are authorized to establish and maintain jails only at the provincial capitals; and Whereas, in the Province of Leyte, sessions of the Court of First Instance are held at Maasin, in addition to those held at the provincial capital, and great delay and expense would be incurred in transporting prisoners from Maasin to the provincial jail: SECTION 1. The provincial board of the Province of Leyte is hereby authorized to rent a jail and maintain the same at Maasin, that province, and to appoint a jailor and other necessary employees to care for the prisoners in such jail. The expense of establishing and keeping said jail and of maintaining the prisoners therein shall be borne by the province. SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect on its [No. 541.] passage. AN ACT authorizing a loan of two thousand dollars, in money of the United States, or its equivalent in local currency at the authorized ratio, to the Province of Abra. By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission, that: SECTION 1. The Treasurer of the Philippine Archipelago is hereby authorized to loan, out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of two thousand dollars, money of the United States, or its equivalent in local currency at the authorized ratio, to the Province of Abra, the money so appropriated to be expended by the provincial board of such province for the general purposes of the provincial government, in accordance with the provisions of "The Provincial Government Act." The money so loaned is to be returned to the Insular Treasurer on or before the thirtyfirst day of December, nineteen hundred and four, and shall be without interest. |