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Show President's Views as to Porto Rico PRESIDENT COOLIDGE entertains enter-tains some decided views respecting respect-ing the insular possession of Porto Por-to Rico, It was made known at the White House. A bill now before congress that would give to the people of Porto Rico the power to elect their governor, it is said, has the approval of the President. A delegation recently called upon the President to urge a change in the manner man-ner of naming the governor of Porto Rico. The President, it is understood, told the Porto Ricans at that time that in his judgment the fundamental Question Ques-tion involved in the government of Porto Rico is the difficulty of having an elective legislature and a governor .vho serves by reason of appointment hy the President. Mr. Coolidge, It Is -aid, takes the view that an arrangement arrange-ment of that kind, even when all par-'ies par-'ies proceed with the greatest possible tact, has in it necessarily elements that are quite likely to lead to some kind of conflict between the governor on the one hand and the local legislature on the other. At this particular time it appears that affairs are in good shape politically political-ly in the island, but the President believes be-lieves that some means should be provided pro-vided whereby a governor is elected by the people rather than appointed by the President. Mr. Coolidge, it is said, believes that a fundamental change of this kind would help largely to remove the political difficulties that arise from time to time in Porto Rico. Governor Towner of Porto Rico, in his first message to the legislature, estimated es-timated the income for the coming year at between $11,000,000 and $12,-000,000, $12,-000,000, and he said he did not deem It wise to make drastic revenue laws for providing increased revenues. With an assessed property valuation of more than $300,000,000, the governor gover-nor pointed out that the bonded indebtedness indebt-edness of the island is limited to $30,-000,000 $30,-000,000 and that the present indebtedness indebted-ness is only $11,000,000. He suggested the authorization of an additional issue is-sue of $5,000,000 in bonds, the refunding refund-ing and interest charges for which can be adequately cared for Among the projects proposed, and to be paid for by the bond sale, are the completion of the capital building ; the building of a new insane asylum, a new penitentiary, and a school for the blind ; the development of community centers through the co-operation of the departments of education and agriculture agricul-ture by building in designated districts model consolidated rural schools near model farms, and the strengthening of the University of Porto Rico by means of more buildings, equipment and faculty. |