Show I Pe Re ReM Reports ReMt ReI ports On Our Colonial Rule Rue Rulef Ruei I t q i f in g Porto Rico Robert mobert obert E Pattison PaUlson in Chicago Amen AmerI AmerIcan can ORTO RICO a jewel in the 1 sea an Island comprehend comprehending ing within its ite small area a PORTO P diversity of climate e seen scenery scenery ery cry and resources greater than many nations on the earth is today p a wilderness of poverty misery heartburning and conflicting interest Its great resources resource are prostrate its largest Industries are at a standstill Its coffee and tobacco fields fiel s lie fallow and nd Its people the most patient docile Industrious people I know arc dy dying dying ing of hunger The United States cannot escape re responsibility for the condition Our stewardship has been a series of ex experiments experiments and a sequence of failures The apologists for tor the administration of Porto lortO RIcan affairs say the famine and the depression are due to the cy cyclone cyclone cyclone clone The cyclone occurred a year and two months ago a period long enough In a country of such fertility to have entirely eradicated the traces of disaster disaster ter They had cyclones In Porto Rico before American occupation was ever dreamed of yet even under the Ule halt halting halting halting I ing laggard lazy governments of Spain the country countr rose rOBe from its ruins ruin In less time and prospered prospere l again The land is as fertile as ever but the elements of recuperation have changed The only difference is that American misrule has been substituted for Span Spanish Spanish Spanish ish despotism and yet the people are dying by hundreds or being driven to neighboring islands e 0 What a commentary it Is on Ameri Amen American car can government that th t the people who came under our flag should have to seek sek asylum in turbulent primitive Santo Domingo They are emigrating as fast as they can find the means to togo togo tois go goThere There is even oven now an agent In Porto PortoRico PortoRico PortoRico Rico gathering laborers to work In the Hawaiian cane fields and he will I I have llave no difficulty in getting the full quota Only one Industry has survived in ha Porto Rico Sugar crop will be exceptionally exceptionally fine and there Is some measure of rt ri ef t f in that but the plantations that produced the best coffee in the world and the tobacco fields which real really really ly 13 gave gae Havana Its 11 fame lame are idle and In Inmany many nearly cases eases abandoned I SpIn took all aU the coffee Porto Rico could send end her Cuba bought her whole crop of fine tobacco and sent it on to the United States In Havana cigars Now Porto Rico Is a foreign country to both Spain and Cuba and the customs duties bar ber her products product from their old markets Ultimately it must be that we of the United States will vIll recognize the virtue of or Porto Rican coffee and will buy our ourT T cigars duty free from the land where the is grown There are fortunes to be made in Porto Rico when this comes about The island brings no small dowry to her union with lith our country Her wealth of or material resources natural and sa salubrious salubrious climate are enough to pay her herway herway herway way We can be no loser In admitting her hertt tc tt full partnership but part from and andal above aboe al mercenary considerations consid beyond be beyond yond jond the acquirement of ot the rich fields stupendous gorges beautiful cataracts and roaring rivers is the question of our duty to the people of ot this Island F of th m whom we took from the tiie darkness of medieval despotism and permitted to look from afar at the freest rt est and best government on earth spectators at the table of liberty but not partakers of the feast 0 The only argument against giving the people of Porto Rico such territorial rights as an are enjoyed by New Mexico Arizona and other states in embryo is the imputed Ignorance of the Inhabitants Inhabitants inhabitants tants of this island This Imputation is hi not justified as I can testify after with the professional men and merchants of San Juan and Ponce Poncet the t of cf Cayey the doctors end and a no business men of Coamo the store k pers o the school teacher and the o of Barranquitas the theT theJa T I Ja laish a ish priest and the planters in Ad juntos the municipal officers of ardo and a hundred others men of the cities and men of ot the towns far from the th coast and highway to which the only onlo access is by bridle paths The cry CO of or ignorance as a reason for withholding their rights from men mel is isas isas isas as old as tyranny itself Eighty years ago when discussing in congress the of recognizing the newly em emancipated emancipated South American republics Henry Clay said The fact Is not therefore true that the imputed Ignorance exists but if it dOt iloe I repeat I dispute the influence I It t is the doctrine that the honest man mani i j too ignorant to govern himself Their I artisans assert his Incapacity In ref ret reference erenee to all nations If they cannot command universal assent to the prop c siMon it is then demanded as to par nation and our pride and our ourI I r too tuo often make co c verts of uc u uI I 1 contend c that it is to r f ign the otT 00 o Providence i hImself to suppose ppe that tat He has created beings in or governing themselves and to le lop trampled on by kings J nt of man and for proof I refer to tf tho t a bo rimes of our own wn land Were I to peculate s in big h to human liberty my specula tiu should be founded rather upon the th vices ices refinements r or density of pop 1 I w would Invoke the spirits of our de parted d fathers Was it for yourself n ny YOU jou JO so nobly bly fought No 10 no It Its s the th chains that were vere forging for forUr i T Pur mr Ur posterity that made you Jou fly to arms and scatter these chains to the wind You transmitted to us the rich I inheritance of liberty S 0 S 0 s shat What hat Henry Clay said i iY Years Y ars ago about the South American must be said about Porto fI today There Is only one school ft of and It Is 15 the school of They can only learn to v rn themselves by b trying tr ring as we Wc tried and if they stumble on the way it i b be born by them and they will I CP the benefit benen of or if the experience iho rh people of Porto Rico want ter ri r i ial lal government such government hs V Nw U w Mexico and Oklahoma enjoy n may be H te e differences of 1 l it politics among them they are a unit on this subject and they ought to have it itI iL itI I r reached ached If this conclusion after a close ft o the ti people during a J urney which Included the coast cit I s the interior towns and villages and yn at a few of the isolated huts on the I had an opportunity to gather the vI r w 8 S of the American military and civil cuil authorities the mayors of ot the cit if Is rV the keepers keep of the th cross troll u l gro cery cey ry stores the professional men the farmers rs and the farm boys along the roads r ds and trans trails tra Without exception they pleaded for an opportunity to exhibit their capacity for lor have hae and they ought to It under ulder the best and freest forms our Jur uL can give Eive and that is a ter government such as was v v vouchsafed the other states that com corn Prise e OUr country during their period of or Pf eff The P people of Porto Rico show the theT effects or of a cruel Despotism of T years That Anat Is the tae manifest on every overy hand but material for good citizens is there 00 S S 3 it T is b pathetic to t observe with what eagerness they cherish the hope bope of citi citizenship enship z in the United States They re realize realize realize alize that tt th t they are not American Spanish Spa or Porto RIcan they have a iX I I government g which Is an unblended mix mixture mixture mixture ture of old Spanish law military or orders orders ders and Foraker bill bUl The ablest a lest legal mind II is unable to give sive an opinion Amid this confusion every man there the re knows his wrongs but no man knows I his rights Mr Mi Lincoln once said The United I States cannot canot exist half slave and half free It Is equally true that Porto Rico can I have no well being Spanish tradition military despotism and Foraker compromise Whatever relief is to be given this Island congress should give it at once Charles Sumner in hi the senate In 1863 speaking on Emancipation Immedi Immediate ate said The question is open between immediate emancipation and prospective emancipation or in other words between doing right at once and doing right at some future futuro d day y Every consideration of humanity re religion ligion l reason common sense and his history history history tory all demanded the instant cessa cessation cessation tion of an Intolerable wrong wron g without procrastination or delay Mr appeal for the Immedi Immediate immediate ate fre treeing freeing of the slave applies even eyen more strongly to striking off the po political political fetters of the inhabitants of i Porto Rico There The Is no question whether wh Jus Justice justice justice I tice or Ir b be immediate x Or r gradual said Sumner Sum 1 er ert t 0 0 0 The president in his proclamation raised the hopes of these people Eople by de declaring declarIng claring daring Our plain duty Is to abolish all cus toms tariffs between tween the United Stats States Stat s sand and Porto Rico and give her products free access to our markets These hopes were answered by the enactment of the Foraker bill with Its 15 per cent tariff a makeshift measure dependent on future congressional action and therefore unstable uncertain and hard ly less ruinous ru than either the penin peninsular peninsular peninsular sular tyranny or the exigent military measures that preceded the law This bill among other iniquities pro provides provides provides vides for the collection of the revenues of the Island Including tariff duties and for the manner of their disburse disbursement disbursement disbursement ment An at empt Is made to still stin the indignant clamor over oer this by representing representing representing that it Is for tor the islands ben benefit eft t The revolutionary patriot Stephen Hopkins In an address ad re s delivered in 1764 in the early agitation for American lib liberty liberty liberty erty made this deduction But it will be said that the moneys drawn from the colonies by duties and by taxes will be laid up and set apart to be used for their future defenses This will not at all alleviate the hard hardships hardships hardships ships but bu serve only the more strongly to mark the servile state of f the people Free people have ever thought and will think that the money necessary for their defenses lies safest in their own hands until it Is wanted immediately for their purpose Why should not Porto Porte Rico be per permitted permitted permitted to raise and disburse her own revenues in ha the manner that seems to her best She would not engage a government more expensive than that of an Amer ican lean state of corresponding population as she has now and she would be bound to raise revenue enough to pay i her expenses without recourse to a tar I itt iff which is against the constitution and every precedent in the history of the United States On this very point a merchant of San Juan said to me Under Spanish rule though we had to pay army and navy n ny expenses and the huge annual pension to the de descendants descendants descendants of Christopher Columbus our budget always showed a surplus While under the American system we have already a million dollars deficit Without the consent of the people this bill has imposed excessive bur bun dens de These are Just a few of them provided by the Foraker bill The salaries of all officers and all i expenses of the offices of the various officials of Porto Rico appointed as herein provided by the president in including includIng eluding deputies assistants and other help shall shaH also be paid out of the rev revenues revenues revenues of Porto Rico on the warrant of the auditor countersigned by the gov o S 0 S The annual salaries of the officials ap pointed by the president and so to be paid shall be as follows The Tile governor in addition thereto he shall be entitled to the oc occupancy occupancy occupancy of the buildings heretofore used by the chief executive of Porto Rico with the furniture and effects there free of rental The secretary The attorney general The treasurer The auditor The commissioner of interior The commissioner of education The chief justice of the supreme court The associate justices of the supreme court each The marshal of the supreme court The United States district inflow in p The United States district attorney The United States district marshal These officers and their expenses make a total equal to the co t of gov government government government of many of the largest and most prosperous pr states of the United States One of ot the chief grievances of the American colonies against England In 1776 was this very vey ve y sending of officers from the mother country to govern them Is It any wonder that a century and a quarter later the people of Porto Rico are Impatient and complaining when they are made the subject of the same Injustice What American state would endure having nil all its chief officers sent from some other state It Is as unnecessary as it Is unjust There are hundreds of bright men In Porto Rico educated In the United States many of them amply competent to fill the posts of govern government government government ment mentI I would not have one American sent to occupy an office in Porto Rico that thata a native of the island could adminis ter They are accustomed to a greater measure of than the Foraker bill gives them Even tyrannical Spain whose yoke we lifted from the necks of these peo people pIe did better by them theta than we wethe the deliverers The islanders satirically quote Gen General oral eral Miles proclamation to you when you speak to them on the relations we bear to them They the people of the United States came bearing the banner of freedom said General Miles Inspired by a noble purpose to seek the enemies of our country and yours They bring you rou the fostering arm of a nation of free people whose greatest power is in its justice and humanity to all those living within its fold We Ve have come cometo cometo cometo to bring you protection not only to yourselves but to your property to promote your Jour prosperity and bestow up upon UPon upon on you the immunities and blessings of ot the liberal Institutions of our govern government government ment When our commanding general pro promulgated promUlgated promulgated his message of Porto Ports Rico was entitled to n three senators and sixteen representatives to the Spanish congress now she is en an entitled entitled titled to one delegate fn in Washington i without a vote They had a native council of secre seere secretaries secretarIes arles t whose resolutions were always sanctioned s by the governor Under Und r the Foraker bill they have an executive x cutie council of which the officers appointed by the president resident P will wi 11 always alwa ys constitute a majority and a house Of delegates or legislative l assembly whose acts are subject to the governor and congress ss S S Sit it Is not surprising under these cir circumstances circumstances circumstances that the promise of ot Gen General General General eral Miles strikes the natives of this isle as a sardonic lest jest Besides the representation of course Porto Rico had free trade with the mother country instead of being ham hampered hampered hampered with customs impositions as she is as today When I reached Porto Rico a customs officer who understood no word of Eng lish overhauled my baggage lest I should smuggle into this port of my myown myown own country some dutiable articles More than |