Porto Rico

“ Spain has never given as much attention to Porto Rico as she has to her other colonies, and therefore the government, while practically of the same character, has not been so intolerable as in Cuba and the Philippines. ”

“ At no period of its history has Porto Rico enjoyed great prosperity. Besides the causes already indicated the evil character of many of the white settlers conspired to retard its development. In 1515 its European population may have been 400. Until 1782 the island was divided into the eastern district of Puerto Rico and the western one of San Germán. In 1513 the arrival of its first bishop, who later also exercised the function of general inquisitor, added one more to the discordant elements ruling the island. ”

“ Now that there is no doubt of the acquisition of Porto Rico by the United States, many of our people will be going there, and it is therefore of great interest to note how its general features will please and its climate be adapted to Americans.
The island is most eastern of the Greater Antilles, and it is the fourth in size and importance of all the islands of the West Indies. In fact, in point of density of population and general prosperity, it takes the first place. ”

“ The Porto Ricans are not seagoing people. The eastern part of the island offers less advantage to commerce than the western, being to the windward and affording less shelter to vessels.
Porto Rico has more than seventy towns and cities, of which Ponce is the most important. Ponce has 22,000 inhabitants, with a jurisdiction numbering 47,000. It is situated on the south coast of the island, on a plain, about 2 miles from the seaboard. It is the chief town of the judicial district of its name, and is 70 miles from San Juan. ”

“ Except at these times Porto Rico is a beautiful place; flowers bloom all the year and the fields are full of growing things. A great deal of coffee grows there on large plantations. You know that Porto Rico belongs now to the United States, and every afternoon at sunset in the large cities a band plays “The Star Spangled Banner.” While it is being played the flag is lowered and the men take off their hats. ”

“ The name—Porto Rico—was given it by the Spaniards, and means 'The Gateway of Wealth.' It was discovered by Columbus in 1493. It is about half as large as New Jersey. Through its center is a range of mountains called the Luquillo. The highest peak, Yunque, can be seen from a distance of sixty-eight miles. Porto Rico is a beautiful island. The higher parts of the hills are covered by forests; immense herds of cattle are pastured on the plains. The land is fertile [130] and they raise cotton, corn, rice and almost every kind of tropical fruit. ”

“ For administrative purposes the island and its dependencies were divided into nine districts: Porto Rico, Bayamon, Arecibo, Aquadilla, Mayaguez, Ponce, Humacoa, Guayama and Vieques.
The Spanish administration in Porto Rico, although not so bad as in other colonies, has, nevertheless, been one of cruelty and oppression. The Spaniards, as will be remembered, began by exterminating the native Indian population in less than a century. ”

“ Few Porto Ricans of the better class permit their women to go to confession, however strictly they keep up the other forms of religion. Out of church the priests are frankly men like other men, and seldom have any hesitancy in admitting it. One famous for his pulpit eloquence brazenly boasts himself “the most successful lover in Porto Rico.”
It is natural that there should be a certain political unrest in Porto Rico. The island does not know, for instance—nor does any one else, apparently—whether it is a colony or a possession of the United States, or whether it is an integral part of it. ”

“ William J. Morrisey, a prominent real estate dealer of Brooklyn, who spent some time in Porto Rico, the island is no place for an American to invest any money at present. He says that the place can be made to pay, provided the United States Government clears the entire island of Spaniards and fills the towns and cities with the American people. ”

“ Porto Rico has 264 persons to a square mile. This density of population is about the same as in Massachusetts, twice that in New York State, and thrice that in Ohio. It is more than seven times that of Cuba and not much less than twice that of Habana province. ... "The people of Porto Rico are, in the main, a rural community. There are no large cities in the island, the two largest being San Juan, which, regarding the entire municipal district as a city, had a population of 32,048, and Ponce, which with its port constituted practically one city, with a population of 27,952. ”

“ But with Porto Rico fully ours, and the discriminations enforced by past laws in favor of Spanish trade wiped out, there must be a change in the currents of her commerce. We shall expect to furnish the chief markets for her products, and on the other hand to send to the island more food products than ever, more machinery, textile fabrics, iron and steel. Her capabilities will be developed, perhaps notably in coffee cultivation. Her peaceful and industrious people will welcome American enterprise and capital, American progressive methods, and free institutions. ”

“ If there were any corresponding creative genius and executive ability in material affairs such a fertile and well-watered land as Puerto Rico would be the home of one of the richest communities on the globe. By her situation she is adapted to become the centre of a flourishing commerce whose goods might be carried down dozens of navigable rivers from the interior of the island. Under a good government, with enterprising colonists, the natural resources of the island, some of which have been scarcely touched, would bring comfort and wealth to a large population. ”

“ As in Cuba, there are but two seasons, the rainy and the dry, the former lasting from July to December, the latter from January to the close of June. The delightful, dry and salubrious atmosphere of midwinter and spring, with its general healthfulness, promises to bring this island into prominence both as a resort for invalids and for homes to those who would escape the rigors of northern winters.
Porto Rico is an ideal lazy man's country, and the overworked American will, undoubtedly, come to make it more and more his Mecca for rest and recuperation. ”

“ All the larger towns of the east are situated inland, or, at least, some distance from the coast. They are in the hilly portion of the island and surrounded by rich coffee plantations and grazing lands of large extent.
The inhabitants of Porto Rico are scattered all over the country, and the land is greatly subdivided. The Spanish authorities have made many efforts to collect the people into villages, but the people themselves have frequently resisted a change which they considered would not suit the conditions of their lives or tend to improve their finances. ”

“ It is a pleasure to say that it is hardly more necessary to report as to Porto Rico than as to any State or Territory within our continental limits. The island is thriving as never before, and it is being administered efficiently and honestly. Its people are now enjoying liberty and order under the protection of the United States, and upon this fact we congratulate them and ourselves. Their material welfare must be as carefully and jealously considered as the welfare of any other portion of our country. ”

“ I am informed there is also much suffering in Porto Rico. I have had my yacht stocked with provisions and medical stores, and shall relieve honest distress wherever I find it, no matter under what flag."
"God bless you, Cousin Cleo. You will find plenty of it there. The Spaniards have tightened the mailed hand of late, and Porto Rico groans under the scourge. Soon freedom's blessings will be their heritage. Every man whose smallest act brings such a consummation to pass, should feel proud of the fact. Where is this boat of yours, cousin?"
"Entering Dublin bay this morning." ”

“ Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines, are ours, indeed, but not ours to do what we please with. Such territories, once regarded as mere possessions, are no longer to be selfishly exploited; they are part of the domain of public conscience and of serviceable and enlightened statesmanship. We must administer them for the people who live in them and with the same sense of responsibility to them as toward our own people in our domestic affairs. ”

“ If every one, high and low, rich and poor, Porto Rican and Spaniard, devotes himself strictly and exclusively to his own private or official business, eschewing politics and public affairs, for the next year, everybody will find at the end of that time that the island has been well governed and prosperous, and your American fellow citizens will proclaim you worthy of the good fortune which has united your destinies to those of the great Republic. ”

“ They are never out of sight of land, but sail along the shores of their loved island. Here is a little village of palm-thatched huts, there a grove of breadfruit or cocoanut trees; again one meets another sailing vessel with all its men busy shark-fishing. The skin of the ugly monster is valuable, as well as its fins and tail, which are prized as food by many of the people of Porto Rico. ”

“ As to the Philippines, I suppose no sane American thinks of taking them into the Union as States to help govern us. But look at Porto Rico. It has a population of 900,000 souls, about one-half of them colored people, about 140,000 natives of Spain and a little over 12,000 Frenchmen, Germans and Englishmen, with a few Americans, whose number may, indeed, be somewhat increased. If admitted as a State, Porto Rico would have two Senators and five Representatives in Congress, and seven votes in the Electoral College. ”

“ After the terrible havoc wrought by our navy at Manila and at Santiago de Cuba, attention was turned toward Porto Rico.
The feeling became widespread throughout the United States that the war would fail in its object if Spain were not driven from the possession of all her colonies in the West Indies. Even those who in the beginning thought that the war was unnecessary, gradually came round to this point of view. ”

“ Before North American people carry their boldness so far as to tread our sea-coasts it is necessary that we must be ready to receive them; that they may find in every Porto Rican an inexorable enemy, in every heart a rock, in each arm a weapon to drive them away; that that people feels that here it is detested intensely, and that Porto Rica's spirit is Spanish, and she will ever be so; therefore, inhabitants of Guayama, we invite you for a meeting at the Town House next Tuesday and offer our kind offices to the government, who will give us arms. ”

“ I firmly believe that the Porto Ricans are a docile, orderly and kindly people, well prepared for a better government than they have ever enjoyed, but you must lose no opportunity to impress upon the United States that you are tolerant and magnanimous as well. ”

“ According to the latest statistics, the entire population of the island of Porto Rico is estimated at 900,000. Of these about 140,000 are peninsulares, as the natives of Spain have been termed throughout her former colonies. From 12,000 to 14,000 are foreigners, mostly Frenchmen, Germans, Italians, Englishmen and Americans. Other nationalities have little or no representation. ”

“ Porto Ricans! the moment is rising when not a single man of this country gives a step backwards, as it is said commonly; the hour of organizing ourselves for defense is sounded. The Spanish lion has shaken his dishevelled mane, and our duties calls us around him. Our temper is to fight, and we shall fight. Our fate is to overpower, and we shall overpower. Honor imposes upon us the obligation of saving home, and we shall save it in this land of our loves. ”

“ The population of Porto Rico has nearly doubled since American occupation exchanged the old regime for the new. The barren deserts of the great Southwest are becoming fertile and populous regions because the people [Pg 99] who are possessing the land have a fair chance, and know that they will be assured a market for their produce and security for their lives and property. Given political security, monetary stability, market accessibility, and assurance of economic cooperation on the part of the government, there are no immediate limits to the population that Panama may support in comfort. ”

“ Porto Rico, the most beautiful island of the Antilles, which was ceded to the United States by the Spanish-American treaty at Paris, 1898, is situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, east of Haiti, from which it is separated by the Mona Passage. Haiti lies between it and Cuba. Porto Rico is 95 miles long and 35 broad, with an area of about 3,600 square miles, or nearly three-fourths the size of the State of Connecticut (4,990 square miles) , and considerably larger than that of the States of Delaware and Rhode Island, which aggregate 3,300 square miles. ”

“ It may be justly asserted that Porto Rico is a completely organized territory, although not a territory incorporated into the United States, and that there is no reason why Porto Rico should not be held to be such a territory as is comprised in § 5278. ”

“ In Porto Rico everything is taxed, and most articles are taxed in several different ways. There is an impost duty on flour of $4 a barrel. I think that will be knocked off at once. As you know, this island paid no direct money to the former government of Spain. Everything in the way of salaries, pensions, etc., is paid directly out of the Custom House. The commander of the military forces on the island is a lieutenant-general, sent here from Spain. He gets an enormous salary. Many Spanish pensioners of prominence and rank have been sent to the island, and these pensions are paid by the island. ”