Show I TARIFF FOR PORTO RICO I SAN JUAN MERCHANTS PETITION PETI-TION FOR PROMPT ACTION j I I I Meeting to bo Held Monday to Consider Con-sider the Matter Starving Women Plead for Food I San Juan Porto Rico March nAt a special meeting of the Chamber of Commerce today It was decIded lo clo call c-all business houses on Monday to enable en-able the merchants to attend an open air meeting on the plaza with the object ob-ject of drawing up a petition to GOY Gen Davis demanding Immediate Con cresslonal decision on the tariff one way or the other The agreements were sent to all towns throughout Porto Por-to Rico requesting like demonstrations Tho fooling of uncertainty regarding the tariff holds buyliKss practically at a standstill the merchants being afraid to order goods or to advance funds J on the planters accounts The meeting today was conducted In a calm and businesslike mannei Tho merchants will be satlstled to accept any decision of Congress either free rade I the 25 or J5 I per cent tariff but they ask for a settlement of the quen Lion so that business activity may be resumed They decided to take this unparalleled un-paralleled step only after mature deliberation de-liberation I Sixty country women marched from Narainjlto arriving last evening and petitioned Gen Davis to nave them from starvation and to pro Ide work and food The women presented a most pitiable sight They were barefooted bare-footed and ragged halfnaked dust covered and weary from their Journey Some of them were lame and all of them discouraged The petition which they presented to the GovernorGeneral tells the story of i the depressing times no work and the price of rice beans and bread beyond reach fruits destroyed and the relief supplies discontinued bringing them and others where they came from almost al-most to starvation Gen Davis promised relief to the par Iv and requested the Mayor to provide pro-vide them transportation Ills reply was that there was not a peso in the treasury and that the police were yet unpaid for their last two months work The party of women dispersed qulttly some retracing their steps afoot others begging easier conveyance to their home which Is twenty miles from San Juan a portion of the road being almost al-most Impassible Similar parties are expected from other towns |