In Defense of Puerto Rico (1928)

IN DEFENCE OF PUERTO RICO

EnglisK compilatíon of articlea published by DEMOCRACIA", a ne\^8paper edited in San Juan, Porto Rico, within the period of Februáry 17 to April 15, among -which appears the reply of the afpresaid ^ periodical tó the attachs made by « "The Baltimore Sun" against the Administration of Porto Rico.

The Allacks of "The Ballimore Sun" Edilorials from "La Democracia"

cfhe Attdcks of"^he Ballimore Sun" I

We learned the other day through a cable we recelved from oup Resident Commissíoner in Washington, Mr. Córdova Dávila, that "The Baltimore Sun", a paper whích is published In Baltimore, Md., had again written about our Island, strongly attacking its administration, especially our Insular Legislature, making It appear as unflt to deal wlth the probiem of a honest and efficlent government.

"The Baltimore Sun" Is carrying out Its sensatlonal campalgn based on Informatlon gathered hére by a repórter of that paper who visited Porto Rico fop two or three weeks.

'Last year this same paper sent to our island another repórter, who on returníng to Baltimore and upon the occaslon of the presence In Washington of a Commission of the Legislature which sought amendments to our Organic Act, started such an aggressive, heated and unjust campalgn against our country and against the leader of the majorlty party and President of the Senate, Mr. Antonio R. Barceid, that the latter feit himself obllged to write a letter for publlcatlon In said paper correcting the erroneous Informatlon, lest he should have to sue It for llbel. The paper, reallzing that It really had commltted a great Injustice, published Mr, Barceló's letter ¡n order to correct Its unjust accusatlons, whIch letter fllled two front page columns; and when we thought that our affair had ended wlth this, surprises us once more wlth another of Its reportera, at the very moment In which añother Commission of our Legislature Is preparing to go to Washington to sollcit from Gongress the approval of the law whIch grants us an electlve Governor, as well as other eopnpmlc reforma whIch wlll place us In a positlon of belng able to deal wlth

the sítuatfon in which the Insular Treasury Is placed, owing to the varying interpretatlons which are being glven to our Organlc Act on the matter of taxatlon.

We have already had occasfon to poínt out the evident host|jity which was belng fomented against our country and we even pointed out whence proceded the elementa for this conspfracy ín which, after a struggle of over twenty years, we were able to obtain from the Congress of the United States the passage of the Jones Bill, which conferred upon us American Citizenship, and the privilege of legislating upon our own affairs ín two elective legislative bodies, by which Congress merely returned to us in part that autonomy which Spaín had already granted us prior to the war with the United States.

It is therefore necessary that considering the great imiportance of this probiem to us, we treat it with the greatest care ín order that the question may be analized by all men of ciean conscience and right judgment shorn of that evil which reveajs, as we shali show, the unheard of conduct of the enemies of our iibertíes and rights.

We shall, therefore, have to prove by figures what Porto Rico was prior to the Jones Bill and what it is now from the political economical and social poínt of víew.

We shall be very calm, as is requíred when dealing with injustice. We feel rightiy overwhelmed when we think our wrongs can not now be righted, when the selfishness on all sídes joins forces gainst our unhappy island in a concerted move to snatch from it the right to líve a free and decent life.

We are therefore struggiing without hope of results, knowing that all ís lost; but we shall not cióse our campaign, perhaps the last, without first absolutely contradictíng, with convíncing argumenta, ali the hypocresy and falsehood with which we have been treated, unmasking ín our course the traítors, unworthy sons of thís ísland, who for a few pieces of siiver did not hesitate to furnish the dagger which our enemies were to plunge into the heart of their Fatherland.

All we need, therefore, is a littie patience.

Patience and strength; which, if we do not have them, we wíll know how to ask for them of God, or of whatever is above us, in order to hearten and direct our conscience and fortify our spírit.

And 80, untn tornorrpw.

FROM "LA DEMOCRACIA"

II

We said yesterday, among other things, commenting on the attacks of the Baltimore .$un, that:

"We have aíready had occasíon to poínt out the evident hostfllty which was being fomentéd ágainst our coüntry and we even pointed ouf whence proceeded the elements for this conspiracy In whIch, after a struggle of dver twenty years, we were able to obtain from the Congreás bf the United States the passage of the Jones' Bill, which conferred ujjon us Americán CItIzenshIp, and the prlvllege of legislating upon our own affairs In two electivo legislativo bodles, by which Congress merely returned to us In part that even autonomy which Spaín had already granted us prior to the war wlth the United States."

Really, were we to judge the articles that are beIng published In the Baltimore Sun by what themselves may mean, we would not even have paid ahy atténtlon to them, for In the last analysis and In synthesis such articles are nothlng but the product of so much information gathered In a short time, In a haphazard way, by a repórter who Is anxious for notoriety, who profits by sensatloiial writings and who seeks here and there for rumors and for superficial and contradictory Information which dees not reveal the least study of ínvestigatloñ ahd analysis, and Inmedlately linmasks the officlous and Ifttie edifylng purpose of a partisan tendency.

But If we observe and carefully study the editorial which a newspaper of the standinig and impbrtance of the Sun writes about those articles and connect ¡ts pervérted intentlon wlth the clrcunstances manifestly sorrounding the Information of Its repórter necessarily we must draw the terrible and painful conclusloh which we reached In our editorial of yesterday.

The editorial in the Baltimore Sun says the following:

"Those citizens who concern themselves wlth the duties of cltlzenshlp should read carefully the serles of articles on conditlons In Porto Rico which The Sun begins tbday to prlnt. They are the result of patlent and careful Investigatlons on the spot by Mr. Boyian, who was assigned to the duty after the reports of extravagance ahd irregularitles In administratlon had become so persistent that they demanded atténtlon.

"Years ago Theodore Roosevelt, returnlng from his African expé-

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE 8UN"

dítion, stopped In England to delív^r an address In which he toid the English that ¡n Egypt they should govern or get out. Making due allowance for the disregard of necessary qualiflcatlon that is inherent In an epigram, Rooseveit laid down a broad rule that cannot be ignored by natlons whIch undertake guardíanship of an ALIEN OR BACKWARD PEOPLE. Since we have acqulred Porto Rico we have a8< sumed GUARDIANSHIP. THE DEGREE TO WHICH THAT GUAROlANSHIP SHALL DENY THE PEOPLE OF THE ISLAND FREE GOVERNMENTAL MOVEMENT IS FOR US TO SAY WE MAY WIDEN OR CONTRACT THE DEGREE. IT 18 PREFERABLE THAT WE SHALL CONTRACT IT AS RAPIDLY AS POSSIBLE."

It was our purpose to refute today, wlth facts and figures, the assertions made by the Sun's repórter ¡n handiing facts and figures produced by hlmself, at hís wlll and for his own convenlence, but we have time for that, and wé shan proVé wlth abundant detalts and citatlons the manner In whIch the repórter omits In his article and In his data, all that which In connectlon thérewith he must have learned and whIch we know he did learn and purposely omitted that he might cloak his article as he wished.

The hrialn and absolutely necessary thing, however, Is to show forth, as a prologue, the perverted Intentlon of the newspaper to whích we are referrlng, as It Is nothlng but the result of an extreme and palpitating Idea whIch at least shines forth-through the Instrumentailty of the Sun, and whIch frankly expresses, wlthout frills or subterfuge, what It Is proposed to do wlth us by such persons who pretended to cali themselves tutors or guardians of a people whom they Judge to be INFERIOR and BACKWARD and ALIEN, notwlthstandíng the title of American citizenship granted us, not as an honor or as an act of justice, but for the purpose of holding us as somethlng easy of exploitatlpn and gain, thus affirming our own saying emphaslzed by us bn some other occaslon, that "PORTO RICO FOR THEM IS NOTHING BUT A CONQUERED TERRITORY AND A COLONY THAT MUST SUPPORT WILLINGLY OR BY FORCE THE HUMILIATION, OPPRESION AND SHAME QF BEING TREATÉD AS AN ENSLAVED PEOPLE, NOT ONLY POLITICALLY, BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST, WHAT PERHAPS MAY BE STILL WORSE, ÉCONOMICALLY AS WELL.

Upon thé promulgatlon of the Jones Act, whIch was somethlng Hke a deolaratlon of the good Intentions of the United States towards us, we feit a favorable reactlon In fs^vor qf the great natloh that always was. the standard

EDITORIALS FROM "LA DEMOCRACIA"

bearer of llberty and democracy, and all the natural preoccupation and prejudlce that we feit through the condition of slavery to which we were subjected for twenty years, began to dissipate, revlvlng the pleasant hope that by the grant of American citizenehip we had already been frankly placed on the road of dlgnlty, and that sooner or later we would be granted the self-government that we formerly "had and which by dint of struggles and of tremendous sacrlfices we at last seccured from our oíd mother country.

And by the warmth of these hopes, encouraged by the faith they carrled to our heart, we made ready to work so as to make possible and to strengthen our relatlons with the United States on a sincere and frank compenetration of ideáis ánd purposes that should make of the island something great and Important in Internationai life for the good of both peoples and for the good of that other policy which, smoothing asperities and prejudices among the races who people the North, South and Centrai Continent of América, will some day estabiish therein the bond of unión, solidarity and fraternity necessary for its peace, progress and welfare.

But we confess with pain, a prey to the most terribie disappointment that we ever suffered in our iife, that we have been mistaken; that that ter ribie conspiracy formed by the mayority of exotic elementa of this country to prevent the approval by Congress of the Organic Act which bears the ñame of the Jones Act, continued after its promulgation aiid was rather intensified, to such extent that since then there has not been one single law of our legislature favorable to the progress of• our country that has not been attacked by that conspiracy; and taxes, theretofore willingly paid and deemed to be fair and legal, whlmfully became illegal or unconstítutional, until at last they succeeded, through a series of protests and injunctions in creating a crisis in our treasury, and then the conspirators piead this very state of affairs created by them, as eyldence of our incapacity for self-government.

Merchañdise and articles which prior to the Jones Act were held at the post office and at the custom house for the payment of a tax of a general character levied upon the article, and which did not at all affect the custom's dues—^for It was equally levied on all articles whether foreign, American or Porto RIcan—^was alleged to affect interstate commerce of the United States. The Income Tax, which was left to us by Congress to levy \n accordance with our public needs, was aiso attacked and taken to he courts. o.n the plea that it was illegal or unconstitiitional and, through subterfuges has been laughed at and by such means one corporation alone has just depriyed our people of.

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

the sum of not less than one mlllfon two hundred thousands dollars; and all this notwithstanding the fact that ¡n order to avoíd conflicts and ¡n some way concíliate created interests, we applied that law by levying oniy onethird the amount of the tax which was levied under the same law upon citlzens of the United States.

And our pain, we repeat, is even greater when we see that these exotic elements which positively shoufd be called "alien" in our country, have been able to tie to their chariot a few Porto Ricans—^fortunately a few—whose interests it is aiso alleged suffer the consequences of the same taxes that are levied for the most peremptory needs of our country.

And because we act by levying taxes on parties favored by fortune/for the benefit of others less favored, and because we act by making the greatest possible efort to place ourselves on the level of the civilization that sorrounds US, these exotic people, instead of feeling proud of the progresa made here under the shelter of the United States, and the aforesaid natives, instead of feeling proud because of what it means in favor of their country, as the iniciative and the efforts represented thereby accrues to its credit, get together under one egotistiscal and bastard Interest and march together to prevent the granting to the poor colony of a more free and more decent governmeht by the Congress of the United States.

Now then, if this is the purpose of the advisers of the Sun by whom it ¡8 used as an instrument with which to kill our just aspirations and to prevent Congress from legislating, among other things, to prohibit the unrestricted controi of our lands which is being done in violation of our Organic Act which positively prohibits it; if the hour has arrived for us to be convinced that nothing is left for us to do but to fail by the side of the weak and the defenceless, and above all, by the side of justice, we sh^ll be there where demanded by our honor and our dignity as Porto Ricans, over and above ali other things. After all, for the magnates of conquest, we are nothing but inferior and backward beings in need of all the odious guardianship of absorbing capitalism which is a thousand times worse than the guardianship of aristocracy of blood and tradition, ^for at least the latter is cultured and at times generous, while the former is always usurious and ínsolent; if we are to be carried to such a degree of degradatlon; if we are to lose finally the last hope, then let the mándate of God be providentlally executed, In our Inability to do anything efse, in the solemn and grand spectacle conceived by one of our greats poeta In a moment of desperation:

"Rather

And ¡f this is not understood by the exotic people because it is too Latín, very possibíe the hlstory of peoples who perlshed because they dld not know how to make good use of the favors bestowed upon them by nature and fortune wül make them understand. Hlstory sooner or later repeats Itself and someone wlll take upon himself the task of punishing the guilty.

than be slaves in our own homes, fet us pray the Lord the sea may open and swailow us all."

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

III

The statement of the Sun's repórter concerning the Ronce Convention of Agriculturists shows that he prepare his campaign so as to use its natural and perfectly explalnable action as a parapet. Meetings or conventlons of this kind are held everywhere, and frequently in the United States proper, and at such meetings critícism is made and opínions are expressed, more or ¡688 correct or discret analyzing and studylng the questions under discussion.

Of course there was talk about the crisla of our Treasury whích someone called bankruptcy; it was saíd that the administratlon had made use of "trust funds"; that taxes had been protested by some people as ¡Ilegal or unconstitutíonal, and that ¡t would be necessary to reduce the expenses of the government If such evils not be remedled otherwlse. However, ¡t Is not true that protests were made against the legislature because It had authorized a loan for the promotíng of prívate enterprises of an Industrial nature such as, for Instance, that of the development of our waterpower, which Is the oniy one to which reference could have been made, but that was precisely a measure endorsed by that convention, because It permits the development of Indus tries so greatly needed In our country and for which cheap and eassily obtained motor power Is required. Motor power In this country can not be obtained from coal or petroleum which are not produced here.

And If there Is any work worthy of applause and of legitímate pride. in our country It is the Irrigatlon system for the southern coast of the Island, courageously undertaken by our legislature through a loan which Is being paid out of the proceeds of the Irrigatlon works and which, at the same time, per mits the derivatlon therefrom of large hydraullc power wíilch In turn Is used for the development of Industries and for lighting many towns at the lowest rate as compared wlth the price paid for the same lighting service by ^unlclpalltles usíng other means, all of which representa and wlll continué to represeht a positive Income for our treasury.

Where we to lay especial stress on each point reckiessiy enumerated by the repórter so as to show the bad falth of these assertions, we wouíd never fintsh this repiy.

However, It wlll suffice for us to show the scope of the other questions emphasízed In the said statement, namely, questions concerning the so-called bankruptcy of our treasury and the Improper use said to have been made of trust fundó for the purpose of meetlng the alleged déficit of flve mlllion

'4 dollars, therein mentioned, as a result of the difference existing between the Income and outgo.

vj

To be absolutely correct as regards the allegad déficit and as regards the explanation for its real cause, we are going to use the same words and the same figures copiad by the Sun and furnished to the reportar, as he claims, by members of the Association of Agriculturists and by Mr. Gallardo, Treasurer of Porto Rico.

Accordíng to this data, at the time of framing the budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1925, the Legislatura had before It an estímate of $10,600,000, notwithstanding which, pursuant to the satatement of the repórter, the legislature proceeded to pass a budget of $11,735,739, and further made other no fiscal year appropriations aggregating $2,650,695 or a total of $14,386,434.

From data gathered by us to check these figures we must admit that they are correct; but we should point out, with all the warmth that this deserves, that we are sure that Mr. Gallardo, and another man of the iLegislature who was approached by the repórter in search of information, toid him that the Legislature, In preparing the estímate and irí making the appropriations, had taken into account, in addltion to the estímate of $10,600,000 above mentioned, the new revenues that it had provided for the purpose of meeting any excess that might result over and above the authorized expenses, all of which was omitted by the repórter in his bad faith. Apd it is aiso proper to make known that In accordance with our Organic Act any no fiscal year appropriation in ¿xcess of the amount of revenues provided by the Legislature, has not the forcé of law if there are no funds avallable therefor.

Moreover, even In the case of budgetary expenses, the Organic Act proVides that these expenses be paid in specific amounts and further prescribes the order of preference of the different ítems In the budget passed by the Legislature, so that in no case may there be a déficit In the treasury, except through unexpected and malicious causes such as have occurred in this instance. Though the aggregáte of the taxes levied more than covered the total amount of the appropriation yet the large taxpayers, namely, the big corpora- f tlons, through a conspiracy seem to have arrive at an understanding so as to cause the failure of our adminlstration by refusing to pay their taxes, and under pretext of theIr alleged lllegality or unconstitutidnality, the corporations retained in their possession a sum larger than that represented by the déficit nereinabove mentioned.

ATTACKS OF "THÉ BALTIMORÉ SUN"

And ail thís without counting the amount of the excíse taxes levied by law on certain articles, the collection of which was enjcined, and which articles were soid without the Treasurer even belhg able to assess the tax which M should have been levied thereon.

To any person of average common sense, not to mention a financier of high standing, this situation would be perfectly olear and explainable; and any person who proves into the matter of the good intention of others and acta Justiy by passing upon questions on their own medita, far from finding cause for criticizing those who so acted In compliance with their duty in order to provide for the needa of their country in the oniy way in whch they could be provided for, namely, by the levying of auch taxea as might be neceaaary, would eulogize and encourage them for their high and noble purpoae. The curse should fall upon those really responsible for the situation, and who are pointed out by publlc opinlon and are well known to the repórter of the Sun because he met them and talk with them and could have* reached no other conclusión than that they alone were the guilty parties and the oniy ones deserving the censure of honest men Jealous of their prestige and of the prestige of the communíty In which they Uve.

If In the course of the events successively determined by the crisis In óur treasury, the Treasurer trusting to his abllity to collect the taxes, as he should have trusted, made use of certain amounts of 'trust funds'' so as to anticípate said taxes, and the amounts so used were not needed for the payment of obllgatíons under loans—in which case he could not have disposed of them—and oniy disposed of other sums Intended for the constructlon óf works not yet carried out, his action was perfectly right; he acted as he should have acted; he met the crisis; he saved the treasury and he did not gratlfy the wish that the conspirators and perhaps, of gladly wltnessing the suspensión or parallzatlon of our administrativo machinery, with it, the pro gresa of our country.

That Is the whole question. Henee the bad falth of the Sun's repórter and of all those who have acted with the sinister purpose pointed out by us and with the Machiavellc Intent of presenting later as our work, their own

satanic doings, to be taken to Washington as evidence of our Incapaclty for

self-government with the perverted purpose of having denled to us the llberties to which we are entitled.

What we have before us, therefor, Is a duel for LIFE OR DEATH and the dilema that we have to face Is elther DEATH OR LIFE.

The statement by the repórter of the Sun is drafted on the question of our finahces, and we shall take ¡t up again In our next issue until It Is fully exhausted and shall thereafter answer other things of líttie Importance which are made the subject of críticism therein.

IV

The Board of Directora of the Associatlon of Agriculturists propose to show that they had no part ni the furnlshlng of Information to the repórter of The Sun.

The country does not require that they shoutd make such showlng. We all know who are the persons who furníshed the information. Since the reading of that celebrated message at the Inaugural conventlon of the Assoclatlón, we have discovered between the Unes its authors and their purposes, and we have said about them What was to be sald. Time has confirmed our surmise.

Anythlng might have been expected from a man who, though residing tn this country for more than twenty years, yet alleges that he is not a resident thereof and that he is here oniy temporarlly and Is ready at any moment to return to his own country with all his belongings, which are not small, for he always had the benefit of official favor; from a man who slights and illitreats us and cynioally calis us "pollticlan", wlth a distorted accent on the pronunciatlon of the word for greater sarcasm,for the crime of having defend ed the liberty of our country and thereby proving a serlous barrier to its asplratlons for gains and dominatlon; and we should aiso expect anythlng from those who, sarcastlcally calling themselves our fellow-countrymen, are at all times by the side of our enemjes, alding them In their criminal efforts to nullify or destroy our personailty, for the purpose of making themselves deserving of the favors of our enemles or for the purpose of satisfying their own personal hatred or rancor.

The directors of the Associatlon need not trouble themselves. The coun try knows everythlng in all Its detalls and anxiously hopes to see those of them who are really good, very good agricuiturists again and very good defendants of everythlng concerníng their true mlsslon and their legitímate Interest which, after a|l is Porto Rican and very Jealous of protecting their country against the vlle and creeping snare of Its gratultous* enemles.

After this explanatlon, let us again take up the matter of the Baltimore Sun. Its repórter says that the Treasurer, Mr. Gallardo, toid hím that notwlthstandlng hís estímate of 610,160,000 for the fiscal year 1924-1925, thé recelpts were oniy #8,480,341.27, and that therefore the amount of the budget could not covered, ñor the Indebtedness of $2,000,000 which he had to borrow, at the end of the previous fiscal year, be paid, because upen the closing of that

year there was more than $3,000,000 pending collection, in litigation, and of course not covered ¡nto the Treasury; and, furiher, adds that the déficit at the end of the fiscal year 1925 was more than $5,000,000 for the same reason, namely, because litigation for that or a larger sum had been taken to the courts.

Under such conditions, what was there for us to do? An expert from the United States was called to study the situation in connection with our revenue laws, to see whether or not it was possible to provide for the lack of legal connection or the alleged unconstitutionality with the idea of making our legislation stronger and more stable. It was then, when under the new Income Tax Law its rates and terms were equal to the Federal Law, that the attacks against the legislature and its members became more bitter; and it Is now that there is more discussion and that more taxes are taken to the courts so as to further delay their payment and create a crisis in our government, precisely when our Income Tax Law is genuinely American and upheid by the courts of the United States.

This is not a question of simple allegations concerning a certain provisión of the law which perhaps could and should be reconsidered. The protest is against all the laws and against all the taxes under the plea of alleged waste attPibüted to the lack of capacity of the country to rule its own government. Where is that waste? And where is the alleged incapacity?

We shall foilow the repórter in the same .order in which he makes his attacks though it be painful to us to enter into such trivialities.

Th.e first personal víctim of the attacks of the Baltimore 8un ¡s Guillermo Esteves, Commissioner of the Interior, who, the repórter states was away from his department for nlne months: "seven months with the legislature, a perlod of time ín the Uníted States and on sick leave".

Judging from the way In which the absence of that officlal fs specifled, the intention of making a passíonate criticism for a definite purpose, Is shown.

Practically the absence of Mr. Estoves from his department, as one of Its officlals, because of illness, was two months leave of absence granted him in the last days of the month of October, according to the officlal report that we have before us, and It is positively the oniy leave of absence that this officlal has had during eighteen years of constant assiduous and intense work ih his department, of which he was the engineer in charge of Public Works before he became the head of the department.

The fact that Mr. Estoves during the legislature was in conference, advislng it with reference to the several bilis connected with bis department, would mean to any person of a mind less narrow than that of the repórter of the Sun, an effort and labor worthy of every commendation,for It is olear that Mr. Estoves has had to apportion his time between the department and the legislature so as to furnish the latter with the information that was the result of his study and of his experlence.

Many times this information was given by Mr. Esteves at committee meetings which were held during the night and the officious Informants of the Sun could have seen, and must have seen there, hoy many times the early hours of the morning found the láborious officlal glving the members of the committee profuse data requested of him on projected works.

The trip to Washington referred to by the Sun, was made by Mr. Esteves with the Governor and with the Attorney General, not during the last legis lature, but during the previous legislature, for the purpose of making the arrangements necessary with the Military Dept. of the United States for certain transfers of property from the Federal Govt. to the Insular Government and vice versa, and which transfers were absolutely necessary. Another purpose was to report on the necessity of constructing several Custom House Buildings In our Island, and of all of this, complete Information may be glven by the War Department and by the committee of Congress having sharge of this matter and before which the necessary hearings were held.

i

Mr. Esteves was therefore worklng as the head of his department and his stay there was for fifteen days oniy, the time necessary to furflll his missiórt, as his return was demandad by the wrok of his department, he Inmediately returned to Porto Rico and took charge of the works which can now be sean almost complete, all of them constituting the most glorlous monument that Porto Rico can exhibit for its own glory and for the glory of the United States under whose fíag they have been constructed as evidence of the spirit oT progress animating our people. «

Therefore the whole thing Is reduced to a mere leave of absence for two months now, In the last days of October of last year, as we have said, was granted to the said officlal because of illness.

From such Informatlon full light Is thrown upon the viclous purpose of that reportar and of those who made use of him here to discredit our country^ so as to present it to Congress and the Washington admlnístratlon at this time as Incapable to rule Its own affairs. But, If we analyze this charge of the Baltimore Sun ¡n connectlon wlth the statement of ex-Governor, E. Mont Relly, published by the said newspaper, and the charge made against Gover ñor Towner of having reappointed Mr. Esteves, placlng hIm at the head of this department after he had been wickedly ousted by the said Relly, we can come to the conclusión that the purpose of the Baltimore Sun is aiso to include our Governor In Its attacks; that It Is he purpose to give vent to rancorous and personal hatred and to serve mean Interests of those who desire to see our ¡sland transformed Into a colony of exploltatlon and gain, for which workmen of the helght and of the moral callber of Horace M. Towner will not lend themselves.

Ex-Governor Relly was precisely the first and maín cause of the present situatlon through which we are passing. He refused to put Into forcé an Act of the Legislature under which funds were provided for the municipallties to make their loans through the Insular Government, and for that reason our municipalltles had to make these loans by themselves alone Wlth all the natu ral loss that was caused them, among Which was that of having to pay a hlgher rate of ínterest than they would have had to pay had they availed themselves of the other means of issuing bonds.

Why was thís done by E. Mont Relly? It will be necessary to ask hIm as the explanatlon offered by the country Is so serlous that we do not wish to repeat It. If he did it to win the sympahy of certain municipalitles on the occasion that he was charged by the Grand Jury with defrauding publlc funds.

or ¡f he did so for the purpqse of aiding certain of his Kansas City friends and bankers, or other speculators, is something that he aiso should know. But what ís true, very true, is that such situatíon caused Porto Rico more than ten mlllíon dollars if account Is taken not oniy of the difference of the rate of interest bbtained In elther of the two ways, but aiso of the disorder and the administrative demorallzatlon caused thereby, the consequence of which we are stlll sufferíng, and among such consequences the loss of moral forcé of the Executive before the people and whIch Governor Towner and his cabinet are now tenaclously struggling to recover.

Furthermore It Is necessary to remember the manner ¡n whIch E. Mont Rellly secured control of such a situatlon. To do so he disregarded Insular publlc opinlon; he opposed the legislature; he removed the honest men of our government and put In their places his friends, those who had promised to ald hím In his polltlcs. And when the Senate of Porto Rico vallantly rejected the offlclals appointed by him, he dId not even wait flve minutes after the Executive session of the Senate was closed, to again appbint the same men, thus trampllng upon and vlolatlng our Organic Act wlth the Insolence and darlng of dolng so because the appointments were rejected by the Senate and by publlc opinlon.

Such Interventlon of the lurid ex-Governor of Porto Rico, such connectlon of the Baltimore Sun wlth E. Mont Rellly so evidently made olear for the purpose of alding the enemles of our country residing here, make olear the Idea we already had and whIch we now complete, of the sinister conspiracy organized against our country expressiy to prevent its progresa and to prevent Congress from dolng us justice.

Álrlght; alright; let It be done as the Baltimore Sun says In Its editorial, on whIch we have already.commented. 'Let our rights be restricted If so desired; let us be treated as a forelgn country and as an Inferior people; let Mr. Towner, the great friend of Porto Rico, the noble American who honors hfs nation and fulfills his duty, be substituted by another E. Mont Rellly to come here to follow a policy convenlent for mean and bastard colonial Interests. But let Congress be toid that together wlth those things It should divest us of Americah citizenship and leave us again converted Into the condltlon of parlahs whIch, In the end, would be more honorable for us if we realize that our destiny Is none other than that of praying the Lord for mlsterlous forcés, as we have no real forces, to free us some day from such igno-

my and such ¡ndignity. Let this be corageously done by the Sun and Its followers; let them remove their masks of fallacy and hypocracy and let them face us as irreconcilable enemles for, after all, this would be for them less undignified and fess shameful.

VI

Another victim of the attacks of the Baltimoie paper is Mr. Barcelo, Presídent of our Senate and a leader of the mayority party.

Mr. Barcelo could not be missed from among those selected by the famous repórter as a target for his ¡re and vengeance.

We stated how It was that, about a year ago, another repórter from the Sun who visited our island, attacked our country and especíally Mr. Barcelo, and went so far In his attacks as to be síanderous, and therefore the paper was compelled by the attorneys for Mr. Barcelo to publísh prominently ¡n tre paper a retraction of It slanderous statements, under threat of beíng taken to court for libel. The charges now made are aiso slanderous and llke the others are aiso personal and have as a basis, as before, a shameful and cynical lie.

It Is not proved that Mr. Barcelo recelves, as the repórter avers, nothlng less than the sum of $20,000 for the upkeep of an automoblle, which everybody knows Is simply an eight cylinder Packard car and has beein In use for four years, and the expense of whIch Is the cost of the gasoline consumed by the car and the salary of the chauffeur who runs ¡t.

We know that an officlal of the government who was asked about this car by the repórter, explalned In detall to him the use that was made of the $20,000 appropriated for miscellaneous and contingent expenses of the Senate and the House for the fisical year previous to 1924-1925, and that It was reduced for this last year to $10,000, a thing whIch Is expressiy omitted by the repórter for the Sun so as to emphazise his lll-Intentloned and slanderous criticism.

The officlal referred to has toid us that he explalned most clearly the manner of making payments from this Item for temporary employees and aiso extraordinary expenses during the session of the legislatura, and aiso for the payment of expenses Incurred In receptions and other acts of courtesy extended at varlous times by our govrenment to congressmen and other promlnent men from the United States visiting us. From that approplalon were paíd the expenses of the reception glven Governor Towner on his arrival In Porto Rico, and glven to the Secretarles of War and of the Navy, Week and Denby, when they vísited us, expenses whIch could no >be paid from the approplatlon for Incidentals or mlscellaneous expenses approplated In the budget of the Governor because ex-Governor Reílly, on leavfng Porto Rico,

had expended In six months ai! the funds which he had at hls dispositlon

^ for Incidental expenses of the Executive Mansión and for emergencies, amount' ing to more than forty-five thousand doliars, in addition to other sums that he had had transferred to the same Items from appropiations made for other departments. This is a detall whIch of course was not favorable to the pur^ poses of the Sun or Its informante because for It and for them whatever was done by E. Mont Relly and others was not of interest to them, and^ perharps they found no fault therewlth. They were Interested, however, In dsicredltlng our men and exhibiting them as dIsquaUfíed or Incapable for the government of this island.

The aforesaíd repórter aiso refers to the compensatlon whfch, as a per diem, Is received by the President of the Senate for each legislativo meetíng, and thereafter alleges that the Organic Act prohibits the payment of compen satlon to the legislators other than tha fixed by the Organic Act, namely, seven dollars. SEVEN DOLLARS! And we all know in Porto Rico what that means for the expenses of a representativo who leaves hls family and hls ¡nterests to devoto hls entire time to the work of legislating for hls counry. We do not caro to answer; we do not oven caro to mention the quallflcation that such a ridiculous and extravagant statement deserves, as what occurs to US Is somethIng more than an answer,—that whIch Is deserved by a person who stops so low as to have recourse to víle slanders oniy proper and approplate for a despicable ruffian.

What we say of the President of the Senate we aiso say about the Speaker of the House who Is In the same positlon. It Is not their fault that the legislature should want to have the presiding offícer of the two houses wlth at least the same prerogatives as Is enjoyed by the high and even the mlnor officlals of the government of Porto Rico that they may represent the Senate and the House with the high dignity and prestige required by their offices, and surely they would be wllling to do without any such prerogatives were ¡t not for the fact that the very criticism made of them by our enemles ^ brings up the question that the leglslature has no right to make such approprlatlons, and the leglslature Is not disposed to submit to the caprice of a few persons, and ¡t Is proper to have It known that It is ready to defend Its ^ powers resoluteiy, as demonstrated the last session in the discussion of this matter, on motlon of Mr. Barcelo, who has always been ready to walve such compensatlon.

In addition to the matter of the automoblles the Sun's repórter endeavors

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

to wound Mr. Barcelo, with a mean and perverted intention, by bringing up the ¡ncident of hís son ¡n the University and another lamentable incident whích occurred with Mr. Huyke and which everyone In Porto Rico knows had nothíng to do with that, but the introduction by the repórter of the Sun of this reference to a matter of such a personal nature as this, Is so vile and pettj^ that nelther do we wish to say about ít was It really deserves should be sald. After all, what is positively shameful is that there should have been anyone in Porto Rico who would tell the repórter of the Sun of these things, and that they should have tried to connect them with the reorganlzation of the University which was carriecT out with the University of Columbia long before the affair between Mr. Barcelo's son and Mr. Huyke

We are ready to publish the complete record with reference to the organizatlon of the University of Porto Rico by our Legislature, but it is not needed. the attempt to belíttie this educational work, plainly because we have levied a smaíl tax for It, Is miserable enough and falls of Its own weight. It Is already well known in the United States and in Porto Rico the noble sentíment whích animated our Legislature in trying to place pur University under the auspices of the University of Columbia, in order to carry out in it all those plans necessary for the consummation of an ideal, for a long time cherlshéd, of a Pan-American University to serve at this central point of the Caribbean Sea as a bond of unión for the youth of the North, South and Central American continente, and thereby attain some day, through cosmopolltan ideas infused into the human mind by the study of science and arts, the necessary compenetration of the two races inhabiting the American hemisphere, so to secure its peace and liberty, guaranteeing at the same time the peace and liberty of the worid. A glorious and great work of patriotism of which Porto Rico must derive the greatest benefits.

Suffice it to say, in answer to all the vile statements of the Sun, that the Board of Trustees of the University of Porto Rico consiste of a Chancelior,(á continental), thé Commissioher of Educatlon,(Mr. Huyke), the Speaker of the House of Representatives,the President of the Senate,and three other merñbérs áppointed by the Govérnor, représenting the Arts and Sclences and óther activities of our social and cultural Uves. Where, then, Is the control and doiriination of the University by Mr. Barcelo? The Sun's repórter couid very well have iearned from Mr. Huyke himself that the latter was the first man in indorsing the great work done because it made It possible for him to devoté his whole tlrhe tp the directipn of our schools, which Is an arduous

EDITORIALS FROlVI "LA DEMOCRACIA"

and difficult probiem and demanda his ful! and exclusive attentlon, which fact» however, does not preclude his attentlon to the University !n his capacíty as a prominént member of the said Board of Trastees.

It is true that $600,000 has been appropriated fór the maintenance of the University and for the creatíon of a fund permitting of the reconstructlon of buildíngs needed by ¡t and the plans for which have already been drawn. With the sum that we can devote to this, as we have been Informed by be., neficent Institutlons In the United States, we can count on their assitance In th'é same manríer as they assist other universitles on the continent, provided, however, that we show ourselves ready to make the gratest possible sacrifice for such work. Therefore there can be nothing more noble, more generous, more great and more Amerlcan, than this effort of ours for conducta ing and gulding our youth over the giorious road of a future that must be the object of pride for ourseives and aiso a satisfaction and pride for the men of the continent who join us in an enterprise of which the United States themselves wili some day feei proud.

The miserable accusation of the Sun cowers before majesty of this noble ahd high ideal and with it also cower those who In >orto Rico engaged In the ¡nlqultuos and nefarious work of opposing the noble and gallant pro grese carried forward by the peoplé of Porto Rico themselves.

The same thing has aiways been done the worid over by narrow-minded and selfish people.

VII

In our ¡ssue of yesterday we pubUshed a letter from Mr. Juan B. Huyke, Commissioner of Education, to El Tiempo, from which we extract the followIng precisely in connectlon wlth our sfatement:

'Mn no way have 1 said or intended tb imply that I was not In accord wlth the appropriatlon of 6600,000 for the Unlversity of Porto Rico. On the contrary I belleve that every possible effort should be made to make of this educationa! Institutlon In our country what was Intended at the time of Its foundatlon when drafting the law creating It and as was set forth In the act Itself; a real educatlonal institutlon where our youth may find near their homes and theIr familles that whIch even today they must look for far away from theIr dear ones—^the bread of knowledge.

"Nelther have I taiked about the unconstltutlonallty of the new law reorganizing the Ünlversity. 1 said that I was pleased at the fact that such a great responsiblilty as Is Implled by the directlon of the Unlversity, had been taken from^y hands, but I admitted further that I was not deprived of the exercise of the power granted by the Organic Act, as I was a member of the new Board of Trustees where I co^ld study all questions that might arise and elther approve or make oppositlon thereto."

Thís sincere statement of Mr. Huyke, whIch has the merlt of anticipating what We said on the same subject In our Issue of yesterday, places him very high before us and before the country.

Would that Mr. Huyke should always act In this way whIch we wish as heartily as that the day wlll come whIch wlll dissipate the shadows whIch darken our minds when we endeavor to see In hIm the Porto RIcan who, always and above everythlng else, sees his country before hIm and Is ready to accept the fate reserved to hIm by destiny, whatever It be In the course of his Ufe. This, wíthout prejudice to maintalning the noble and honest points of view that each should belleve It his duty to maintaín regarding the manner of contributing to the progrese and happiness of the country at present and to Its preparatlon for the future. Anythlng may be admitted as a noble expressíon of patrlotism whIch Is not an officious and unnecessary exageratlon demeaning our dígnity In accepting Impllcitly, and at times explicltly, the Inferlorlty of our people, (whIch we belleve Is already the case wlth some) who should be subjected to the guardianship of strangers, running the risk of having this sentiment take root In the consclence of the people.

¡n which case, in accordance with the wíse methods of pedagogy at a!l times, we would have educated the people for slavery instead of educating and preparing them for a life of llberty and for the noble and august defence of their rights.

God well knows all we did that the beautiful reality whIch we once contemplated In Mr. Huyke might have been some óther as clrcumstances have been such as to make of him and of no other man the person at the head of the education of our children, wlth the hlgh mission of forming their minds and preparing their hearts for the struggle, for the* happiness and weífare of their country.

On our part there is one thing from which we can appeal to the conscience of Mri Huyke himself, and that is that neither, Mr. Barcelo ñor any of the men who are with him in the AMiance Party, ever did anything in the legislature or out of the legislature, except to contribute by every means to the success of educatíonal without taking into account the unfortunate and lamentable incidents which occurred between them and Mr. Huyke for reasons that it is net necessary to mention and which for the good of all should already have been forgotten for the benefit of our people.

The necessary explanations having been made by way parenthesis, we phall again take up the reply to the unwarranted statements of the Baltimore Sun, glving way to the answer of Mr. Esteves to the several points raised by that paper in connection with his department, which answer has been received by our repórter, Mr. Cavila, and published on the first page of our paper.

We shall likewise publish all other reports that may be sent to us in their defence by all organizations In and out of the government as well as by persona who, dírectly or Indírectly, are alluded to by the repórter of the Sun, so as to afford them an opportunity to make olear their position before the country which is doubtiess preparing to demand due responsabilities from the persons concerned.

The cable of the Associated Press, received today, contains in its lines something of a fatal sentence which defeats all our efforts and all our sacrifices. Someone is responsible for this, and whoever is responsible should be pointed out by honest men of our country with the stigma of traitor, if he be a Porto Rican, and as a miserable being if he be a Continental.

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

This, then, ¡s the supremo hour of to be or no to be, and of beíng with God or with the devil, that ¡s, with Porto Rico or against Porto Rico. This is a final terrible dilema béfore which the guiity should tremble and In whose ears should sureiy sound the fatal DIES IRAE of the Prophet

VIII

We publísh today, as we published yesterday with the statement of Mr. Esteves, the emphatfc and categorical statements of the Theasure, Mr. Gallar do, showing the absolute solvency of our Insular Treasury and that are more than sufflclent funds to meet the oblígations of our Government without any trouble.

These declaratlons go to show how Insidlous and perverso is the information furnished the repórter of the Baltlmore paper by certain enemies of our llberty and progress in their eagerness to present us before the American people as an unprepared and spendthrift people unworthy of attalning and enjoying their legitímate aspirations.

We would have passed unnoticed all that accumulation of falsehoods and storles wereit not it offers us a most brilliant opportunity to make known all those things that have been done by our fellow-countryman in officlal posítions to place our small country on the level of the civilled countries of the earth.

In this íssue we are publlshing a report In connection wlth the meeting held Wednesday evening at the University relatlve to the tournament to be

held ín this capital, by students of the University of Arlzona and students of our own University. The repórter of The Baltimore Sun spitefully charges our leaders wlth having endeavored to reorgnaize our University for personal and political purposes.

The arrival at our Island of a group of students belonging to the Univer sity of Arizona marks In the life'of our main educational institution the first step forward towards a Ufe of more ampie horizons, thereby placing it in Intí mate and beneficial contact with the most important educational centers pf the continent. This proves that the mere fact of the announcement by pur leaders of the purposes of enlarging the scópe of our University, their interest In its preparation to march together with the intellectual advance of other educational centers of greater importance, and their desire to convert It some day into the the Pan-American University which shelter the studious young people of North, South and Central América, to the end that the aspi rations an ideáis of the two races inhabiting América may be welded here Into

an intímate communipn that wlll Insure the fraternity and the identlfication of both peoples. For that fact alone, university Institutlons of international renown have alreády begun to be Interested In our University and make haste

to come here to fraterniza wlth our youth and to cooperate wlth them In the work of aggrandizement that we have undertaken.

The news from the Associated Press that Dr. T. E. Benner is sollciting philanthroplc ald In the North for the University and creating for It Intímate relatlons wlth Important organizatlons of the Continent, Is extremely pleasing to us; but his efforts wlll nót produce the desired result If we do not contrlbute, to the development of the brilllant program mapped out by the reorganizers of the Unlversity.

W!t Is neccesary that students and professors realiza the Importance and magnitude of that torunament which wlll take place about the end of March wlth th'e students of the Unlversity of Arizona. This Is the first opportunlty offered us to prove that we can aspire to the conquest by our Unlversity of the positlon of honor whIch It desires an that If may well be placed on the high level attalned by other Institutions of llke character In tfie Continent.

It Is Indispensable for our unlversity youth, wlth the ald of their pro fessors, to prepare for that Important debate; let them go forth to meet the Arizona students wlthout thinking of the winning of a wreath for hteir foreheads, but of the conquest of a guerdon for theIr country; that the actlon of our Juvenlle students be a timbre of glory and pride for Porto Rico and that from that contest, perhaps unequal, they may obtain the beneficlal result of measuríng theIr Intelllgence wlth that of theIr Arizona contestants, leaving them wlth the Impression that here we have a youth prepared and ready to appear on the advance Une of Intellectuailty, not of this Island oniy, but of the whole continent, and that we are not the Incapable and backward people pfctured In the North by our gratuitous enemles.

That Is the work of progress undertaken through the reorganizatlon of our Unlversity. A work of patrlotism, full of abnegatlon and falth, whIch narrow-minded people or persons able to send theIr children to first class Unlversitles In the United States or Europe may not reallze, but whIch Is a mater of glory for Its Initlators, as It Is of beneflt for the poor youth asplring to secure an educatlon and make themselves worthy and who must do so under tl¡ie most bitter sufferings.

Welcome, then, to slander, attacks and calumnies! Our leaders are fulfllllng theIr dutles, struggling for the greater prestige of Porto Rico and for makíngt^ Porto Rico email wlthln Its territorial limita as said Mr. Barceid on Wednesday evening—a people great in actlons and Initlatives and stlll greater through their noble Ideáis and the justice of theIr aspiratlons.

Wlth this inteliecutal exchange between students of our island and students of the continent; wíth the aíd of the University of Columbla, cooperating In the selection of Professors and accepting under its auspices our ^ School of Tropical Medicine and with the campaign which it being waged by Doctor Benner to secure aid for it, our University ceases to be a school of a local character to become a penter of serious reputation outside the limits surrounding our coasts.

We do not think it Is necessary for us to point out to our University youth the degree of preparedness they should attaín to secure victory in this first intellectual tournament which is being prepared for them. They must understand the significance of this contest and, above ali, what the victory of our fellow-countrymen would mean for Porto Rico.

And we are so sure of the capacity and preparedness of our young people that we would like to see the infamous repórter of "The Sun" wltness the debate, feelíng certain that he would have a great poportunity to judge whether or not we are really an inferior and backward people and whether or not , our legislators were right in reorganizing our University, though for so doing they had to impose a saorifice upon the weaihty people of the Island as they do not do as the weaithy people of the North who, of their own wlll, freely glve their money for the educatlon of the people who make them rich with the products of their land.

IX

The campaign of discredit waged by "Thé Sun" of Baltímore has brought about, as was natural, the publlcatlon here of numerous opinions and crlticisms concernlng Its scope. In the majority of cases the campaign carried on by our press has a tendency to «refute the infamous statements published and to defend the prestige of our people and to establlsh the truth.

Nothlng has called our attentlon so strongly as the editorial In "El Mundo" of yesterday, Sunday, wherein the attentlon of the majority party Is called so that it may request a Congressional Investigation In view of the attacks made against the Insular administratlon. Senator Zeno expresses himself In the same víew In his statements published in "El Mundo" of to-day.

We say that this has called our attention very strongly because It Is necessary for us to say that we had already gone on record publlcly for the carrying out of such Congressional investigation, and when so doing we did not have In mind at all the campaign subsequently luanched by "The Baltí more Sun".

Due to a letter that Senátor Iglesias addressed to our Resident Commissloner, Mr. Odrdova Dávila, and in connectlon with a Resolution to that effect which the Soclalist leader wanted to introduce in Congress, we published an Editorial in the íssue of LA DEMOCRACIA of January 4th from which we extract the following:

"Of course, If the Resolution Is divested of all aggressiveness of a polltical nature, enunciated by the Republican-Socialist Commission that went to Washington immediately after the last elections to attack the Alliance Party and our Leglslature, our objectlons now to such Investigatlon are not of the same nature as were those that we then made, and If such Investigatlon Is for the purpose of studylng the economlc conditlons of the country and the evils created by certain abnormal conditions which COULD AND SHOULD BE REMEDIED, through powers to be conferred upon our Legislature for the purpose, we belleve not oniy that we should not make any oppositlon, but that we should cooperate in the carrying out thereof by a Congressional Con^mlttee of the most eminent and capable members that can be found In Congress.

Under such conditlons we should say somethlng else—and It Is so understood by our Resident Commissioner—we should avoid that our

people of Porto Rico should believe that we stand ¡h fear of any such Commíttee because we are accomplices of the situatlon sought to be investigated; and on the contrary, we are ready to face It wlth all its consequences and to show that we always did everything in our powers for the beneflt of our country, as the principal factor In its Ufe and progress."

In the paragraphs hereinabove transcribed, our position is decisively and clearly defined In a positivo way and prior to the attacks of "The Sun". We ackñowledge ip the aforesaid declarations that there are "EVILS CREATED UNDER CERTAIN ABNORMAL CONDITIONS THAT COULD AND SHOULD be REMEDY, provided the Legislature is invested with the indispensable powers to correct the evils and to overeóme the obstados that are always placed before it by "CREATED INTERESTS" In our Island. Therefore, it may be seen that we do not fear investigations. We welcome them. And if we show oürselves in favor of a Congressional investigation, it is not because we believe that the campalgn of "The Baltimore Sun", waged with the publicatlon of rumors and stories, on a basis of bad faith and Intrigue, deserves any such honor. It is because we know that there, in the North, these things are impressive, because they do not know our real situa tlon and the great difficulties that we have to overeóme, with so littie power in our hands and in the face of almost omnipotent corporations who are fighting desperately for the perpetuation here of the eternal condition of a degrading and shameful colony.

If we favor a Congressional investigation it is because we are sure that, Inmediately our country makes a move to secure greater freedom the enemles of our liberties will proceed to use all their activities for discrediting and slandering our men so as to weaken any campalgn that may mean the obtaining of one more crumb of liberty.

We are pleased with a Congressional investigation because it will bring out the truth and will leave exposed to public opinión of the Island a and of the continent, unmasked and in the open, the enemies of the country, now hiding in the dark so as to cause greater damage, and it will be found that those responsible for our troubles are the VERY INTERESTS attacking us who desire for their purposes of gain to keep a civilized people, such as ours is, in a unworthy condition of true backwardness and frightful mlsery.

We welcome any investigation. We do not fear it; we want IL The work

ATTACKS

pf progress and advancement of the country is our work, done by us through many years of struggles and suffermgs in our legislatura, supporting protests and cpmbatting the powerful Interests which have attacked us.

That work Is the shieid of defence wlth whIch we have to stop the blows of those who endeavor to wound us through defamatlon and discredit.

A clostfr examination of the attacks made against our Island by the Baltimore Sun brings up new questions which, though they seem to have no coris nection with the matíer are yet intímately related to the attitude displayed by that paper, ¡f one bears in mind that one of the persona mentioned by it in its report with particular emphasis, as if to lend credit to |t, Is the man of whom we are going to treat in this editorial.

That man is H. H, Scoviíle.

Mr, Scovilie is one of those who came to Porto Rico upon the heeis of the army of invasión, the same as the so-called carpet-baggers who went South and who should be well known to the Baltimore Sun. It was The Sun from which we learned the special history of that painful situation that was suffered even by the very peopie of Maryiand.

Our man spent the first years of his placid Colonial life In conquered territory as a government employee, earning a small salary, out of which he must have saved much money for he became the owner! of magnificent properties in a very short time and he is today an agriculturist and owner of a fruit business backed by a large capital. Mr. Scovilie, after residing for many years in Porto Rico, and after havingj so spiendidly established his position in life, had a suit in Court and argued, on a plea as to the jurisdiction of the court, that he was not a resident of Porto Rico, though he had lived here for such a long time, and that it vi^as his intention to continué with his residence in his own State of Tennessee, as he was in Porto Rico» oniy temporarlly and ready to leave at any time.

As at that time Mr. Scovilie had shown no pretensión other than thát of making money, the fact was not even commented upon by our papers inasmuch as what he was doing is generally done by ail those who come to Porto Rico under the same conditions.

But now the man comes forth into our political fieid and, officiating as a great champion, gains admission to the Convention of the Association of Agriculturists and speaks in a violent and intemperate manner agáinst the Administration and seeks to debase the prestige of our Legislators' for the crime of providing for the levying of the taxes necessary to cover the needs of their country, and, finally, however great/the effort to make it appear otherwise, the emphatic way in which he is mentioned by The Baltimore Sun, together with what we know he says everywhere, when referring to our le-

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIIVIORE SUN"

gíslators and statesmen—have convinced everybody that he, and others líke h¡m, aíded by him, were the persona who gave to the repórter for The Sun all that false, malícíous and slanderous ¡nformatíon whích is publiShed in the recent issues of the Baltimore paper.

Under these conditions the ñame of Mr. Scoville was sent to the Senate for appointment as a member of the Board of Review and Equalization, an office which he had been discharging and whose term had explred; and the Senate, after a ful! consíderatíon of the appointment decided, for the reasona hereinabove stated, not to approvet It.

The Governor, however, belleved that it was his duty and his right, to make a new recess appointment so as to afford an apportunity to the Senate to reconsider Its action, for the reason set forth in a statement given out yesterday at the Palace to one of our reportera, which we pubiish in the first page of thfs issue.

We wish to be fair With the Governor and will admit, because he is deserving of it, that his argumenta are perfectly reasonable in accordance with his point of view, as stated by him, an that. in honor of the truth he had to act that way so as to save his own responsibiüty and to avoid a wrong in^ terpretation of his action, considering the great difficulties that we know he has to meet in his daily struggle with, the many enémies that combat him.

Thérefore it is proper and right for the Governor to ask for a reconsideration of the action of the Senate. But we do believe, however, that such reconsideration would have been proper while the Senate wasi still in session when it would have had time to approve or disapprove the appointment in questfon, in which case the scruples of the Executive would have been remov^ ed, his responsibiüty wouid have ceased, and the matter finally settied. Ho^ wever, as the appointment was rejected by the Senate at the last moment, at the time of its adjourment, without affording the Governor time for anything else, we understand that the appointment has only the character of a motion to reconsider at the next session of the Senate, and that it has not and cannot have the effect of a recess appointment of a person who, it its known aiready, has not the approvai of the Senate. This is a legal question to be decided when the point is raised, shouid raise it.

Of course we offer not the slightest criticism of the action of the Gov ernor, In view of the circunstances surrounding the case. Those who know Mr. Towner intimately and have been able to appreciate the moral and fntellectuat worth of his character, know back of his actions there can

be nothlng signifying a purppse to belittie the power conferred by the Organlc Act and, much less, to wound or underestimate the representatives of our country. A man who has comported hímself as he has, always In our defence, and who has courageously backed our country in its petitions to Congress, cannot be supposed or thought even for a moment, to have had any ¡ntention other than that of doing what he thought was best In compiíance with his duty and for the good of our country. HIs words afflrm^ Ing that ''he has acted as a Porto Rico Governor, elected by the country, would have acted", glve the most complete and absolute Idea of his good faith and of his noble purpose.

It Is a great píty that from his great moral height he does not see, does not reallze that notwlthstanding all that, Intringue, insidlousness and conspiracy continué their undermiñing and that, as a compensation for his honest procedure, whlle he Is so acting, Mr. Scoville Is making preparatlons to go to the United States at any moment, backed by a mayorlty of contInentals and by some Porto RIcahs who act In the ñame of the Assoclatlon of Agricuiturlsts, to work for his nominatlon for Governor of Porto Rico In substitutlon of the man who is treating him and his countrymen so kindiy, And what we are affirming is not a whispered secret, It Is said everywhere and Is not denied by the promotors of that candidato. Ñor Is It denied— what a shame,^—by Porto RIcans who, under cover of the Assoclaa tion of Agricuiturlsts, not oniy have éndorsed hIm as a member of the Commísion which Is to represent the Assoclatlon In Washington, but as the IDEAL candidate for Governor of Porto Rico.

Thus our prognosticatlon Is at last fulfllled. Thus we painfully see at last how our enemles succed In theIr purposes, carrying wlth them the endorsment of our own countrymen to Injure thelr country wlth Impunlty, treacherously and gullefully.

And If this is to be consumated. If such Ignominy Is to become a dreadful reailty, we shall repeat, though to spme It may seem "extravagant and vulgar" that as unfortunately we cannot do anythln^ else, It would be preferable because In that way the waters would extinguish forever the slíhouette of an unfortunatp Island whIch fell a victlm of its own dishonor.

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

XI

In spite of all we miist agree that the defamatory campaing of the "Baltímore Sun" has been a healthy reactive to the energies of our people. We must proclalm wlth pride that wlth rare, very rare exceptions, which are today pofnted out by the trend of publlc opinlon, no Porto Rican volee has been raised ín support of the ínfampus attitude of this continental neyvspaper, while on the contrary many have expressed their frank and manly protest.

• Some believed that in the popular mind, as regards everything relativa to the explicit affirmation, there would reign, in the words of the poet."the profound calm of the dead" But, fortunateiy this has not been the case ín spite of the enervating struggle which still divides us It is here still, alive and burning, as alive in other times More alive than ever for the maintenance and defense of its rights, which cannot be forgotten.

It ¡s proper that we should mention, more over, that It Is not oniy the Porto Rícans who have protested; that noble Americans, our brothers, aiso support the protest wlth even more energy, If that be possible, than we ourselves. Tlheré Is the valiant letter which we published In our edition of Monday last, of the dighified and noble continental Walter McK.^Jones, whose souf and heart knew how to take root In our land and judge us wlth Justicé, defendíng our rights as a legitímate champlon bf Porto Rico. A voíce of firmness, sinceríty and truthfulness which he has raised in the countí^ where he has his interests, affectlons and his friends, a popularlty asiegítimate and meríted as many Porto Ricans would wish to enjoy.

And líke Walter McK. Jones, wé might cite such well known continentals as Dr. Ashford, Dr. Clines^ Attorney Dexter, Dr. Benner, Mr. Cochran, the popular banker and many other members in the professions, in isusiness áhd fndustry, and at the heád of insular organizations, showihg by the dally éxámplé of their Virtues and their aitruistic Ideáis hów the sentiment of the sóns of the cohtinent and the sons 6f the island can and shbuid be compatíb'ie. : . ; o

Newspapermen and eminent representatives such as Albert Shaw, Editor of the "Revíew of Reviews^jnd doctors, such as W. Darrach and A L. Goodman of the Unlversity of Columbia, and a constellation of prominent pedagogues Monroe, Lindsay, Wiison, and other

members of the SURV'EY of the said University who recently visited us; and finaíly and crowning this mountam of hearts, a statesman, an illustrioua Amerlcan,the present Governor of Porto Rico, Horace M. Towner whose acts, from the exalted pos¡t¡otywhic4) he holds through his altruism, bis uprightness and noble conduct, by the Interest shown by him in al! the problema affecting our isiand, by his truthfulness, by his unquestionable power which glves to al! his acts the seal of greatness and of justice, stands out so prominently that we can well say and should say of him that we h;ave never< had here, and It would be difficult for the Unites Gtatés to secure a representativo who couid have brought wlth more ¡ntensity to the conscience of our. people the convictlon that they may weü be happy and contented in iiving together perpetuaiiy with the great American ñation m spite of all opposing forces working in Porto Rico for contrary and pei^erse purposes. ''

Ai! these great and noble Americahs of high spirit and correct bearlng knew hów to-understand añd get to the bottom of.oür probiem and to encourage and support us in our great and noble aspirations for the high ideal of making here a Porto Rico worthy of them and of us, that ¡s,'Worthy of the United States ánd of Porto Rico. Xhey deserve well of their Nation and of Portó Rico wKich knows how to éstimate and appreciate them In all their worth and to render them, without any reservation, the sincere affectión of its profound recognition.

We would be unjust and forgetful, moreover, if after our article of yesterday we shóuid not státe abd make known for our own satisfactlon, the existehce óf that positive moral forcé which the assistance of our good friends and citizens of the North representa to us In the demand of óur liberty and our rights; and we say more than that, we say that withou it here would be no possible redemtion for our country on its road seeking a dignified and honorable position permitting It to live with the great nation which granted it its citizenship and which shelters it under the folds of its glorious flag. Without that help we would have had to rely entirely on our own efforts,- and combatted by thó sordid egolsm of the bad sons of the continente we would have seen our hopes disappear in a sea of dark realities whfch* would drive us tó desperation and wlth It to suicide:In a moment of sudden frenzy; - v. ^lis is-vyelljT then, to trate the parallel:betwéfen the cónduct of thóté and pf plibers? PP ólie slde those who rendel* a testimony of Ihruth tó the priVate

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

virtues of our people; on the other ihose who rídicule and slander us attributing to us víces and traits which we do not haye, and attemptlng in thís manner to bind the 'wi'lf of a Whole country to the feet of a group of adventurers and pHvileged persons anxious to become the arbiters of ¡ts destín íes.

A péopíe, so reduced to weakness and poverty as ours, cannot be íncfosed wíthín a sheep-fold of evíl reasons as If they were a flock, at the dísposítíon of bastard purposes and íntertests, because the times of the CONDOTTIERI, wherj such thíngs míght have been attempted, have passed. In countries suoh as oups, where there exist, even though wíthín modest límltatíóns, goverments of opiníon, and Uníted States, where public opinfon ís soverefgn and moulds publíc problems, It ¡s truly laughable that there are stlll persons who attempt to ímpose themselves because they so wfsh, because It sults th^em, on the ríghts and Interests of a social conglomeratlon whích counts Its citizens by thousands, wfth a personailty formed during the course of varíous centuríes and havíng its own traditlon and culture.

And all that is defended by Porto Rico unanfmously, wlthout dlstlnctlon of parties, because It Is thelrs, because It legitimately belong to them and has become rooted In the very sources of thelr Ufe and dlluted wlth the •blood from theffr Velns¿

For those good Americana, who are our friends, our arms are open and our hearts are warned In the fíame of deep brotherly affectlon.

For the bad Americana, who are gratultuous enemles of Porto Rico, for those, according to cases, an unalterable oppositlon or an absolute contempt.

And let It be understood that In using these quallfylng expressions of good ánd bad, we do so wíthín the Une of traditlon, of civlc cburage, of public ciistoms.

In puré Americanism, polltical forals Is not a theory, but is an Idea based an reailty and ís shown by a respect for the law, for the dictates of public opInlon foi¿ the right of al! peoples tu rule themselves for genuine democratice, practlces for Ideáis of justicé and for sentiments of llberty.

the detractors óf our people depart from this road élearly defined by the Idlosyñcrasy and the annals of thelr great country.

It Is necessary to show them, therefore, that they are not In a conciuered colony noi* In á servlle factoi^, biit In a communlty of honest and dlghlfled

cítízens who defend their honor and wellbeingi who place these requlrlments of their consciense, the very essence of their life, above everything, and who ín dofng so also labor automaticaliy for the prestige of the United States, as the elements constituting such a colony are completely negatlve to the tradition of its origin, and politically as well as economically, constitute a true moral leprosy for the territories beyond the seas placed under the protection of the flag of the United States.

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

XII

We would not have said anothep word about Mr. H. H. Scoville, with reference to the áttacká of The Baltimore Sun, but this gentleman makes some statements ¡n today-s El-Mundo whích requíre an answer.

Of course, as regards Mr. Scoville and others who are attemping to show that the Insular Administratlon ¡n Porto Rican hands is a failure, though we demostrate by figures and argumenta that the responsabllity for all the evil mentioned rests with those who combat us, they will continué dauntlessíy maintaining the contrary and asking that we offer in our defense figures and argumenta, instead of demostrating that those already offer ed by us are incorrect; that the déficit is not due to the failure to pay the taxes which are refused payment by those who extract from our land at their pleasure the product of our soil, and that the amount of these unpaid taxes is not correct ñor the means employed to avoid payment. However, they hold that it is very proper that these suma be taken from our Treasury, through subterfuges and artifices made use of by those who claims to have ridiculous contracta, under which they cut in one single slice millions of dollars from the receipts of this Island. Our figures have no weight with Mr, Scovilie, ñor our argumenta ñor those presented by the Treasurer, Mr Ga llardo, and by the Commissioner, Esteves, ñor even the data offered by the Governor in his report. All this is a lie, is obsolutely false. The oniy truth for Mr. Scovilie is what is said by The Sun without proof, or better said, with data which it presenta and arranges at pleasure, hinding or distorting the truth thereof. The oniy true thing, according to The Baltimore Sun and according to Mr. Scovilie, is that all of us here are stealing the money of the people; that the President of the Senate receives and appropiation of $20,000 under the pretense of expending in on the automobile which the Senate assigned for the use of that official, though it is clearly set forth in the budget that such appropriation is to be used for the inci dental and miscellaneous expenses of the Senate, and which by the way— and this was the maliciously left unsaid by The Baltimore Sun in its statements, was reduced in the present budget to $10,000; that ¡n pubUc works money was misspent and stolen; that the budget Is a Pulitica work (with the accent on the U to give it more emphasis) used for the support of unnecessary empfoyees, instead of using it for purposes of public utili-

ty; ahd alj this without specifying or proving anything of designating and particular case, as they shoúld honorably have done.

It Is true thst we could not have expected that the unauthorized member of the Board of Review and Equallzation would offer anything else in bis excuse, when we know from a reliabíe source'that it was he who took the repórter of The Sun to the office of the Secrétary bf the Association of Agriculturists in order that the latter might furnish the repórter with data to serve foi? his infamous campaign.

And if as Mr. Scoville says, it is a fact that the statements made by him in the Assembly against the member of the Legisíature were not re^ futed there by our countrymen, for some unknown reason, that does not alter the fact that such bitter and wounding statements were made for the express purpose of discrediting our men. We here have the misfortune to feel and think otherwise, and of kndwing how to face fallacy and hypocresy by telling the truth and unmaking them; if there have been among our men any who have taken advantage of thelr positions as members of the Legisíature, fo obtain personal benefits of privileges, the proper and decent thing is to denounce them publicly giving their ñames and proving the statement instead óf clouding their ñames in generalities, because if we think this way of all the men who hold public office in Porto Rico and who by their vote deOide questions affect!ng important interests, we might aiso well thing, if we reason as b'adly as Mr. Scoville, that when hq resolves by his vote as a member of the Board of Review and Equalization, a specific case relative to taxation, he may perhaps be thinking that by that action he is expressiy favoring some specific interest of his as a taxpayer, and we would have, norever, the right to think that the continentals who for twenty year in the Executive Council were at the same time legislators, heads of Department, and grantors of franchises, took advantage to their position to prosper and to utilize their own resolutlor.s in fr.vor of their prívate interests or of some other interest ^whích might perhaps prove remunerative.

When a man has the serious ré'spohsibilities of Mr. Scoville and wish^ es tb obtain public confidence, he should weigh well his wortis and his acts and should know, above all, that they can not be used with impunity in the belief that, after all this is done to an inferior and backward people, as said by the Baltimore Sun, and therefore, capable of supporting it.

We here, in this watch-tower of LA DEMOCRACIA fulflill the obligation

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE 8UN"

fmposed upon this publicatíon from the time it carne to light, pointing out the glorlous, though paínfuí road outiined by Its founder.

We might well wish that we would not have to officlate ín this positlon which fmposes upon us such a vexatious duty, but we must comply with the mándate of our people and with that wllled us by our ancestors in spite of aíl those who may be surrounding Mr. Scovílle, assisting him and supporting him in his acts, and even thinking that in spite of al! this, he should be the man to represent in Washington the Association of Agricuiturists, and even more, the capable and dignified man to reach that exalted position in our government of Porto Rico.

We have already said in our article of Wednesday: "On one side those who render a testimony of truth to the private virtues of our people; on the other those who ridiculo and slander us attributing to us vicos and traits which we do not have, and attempting in this manner to bind the wil! of a whole country to the feet of a group of adventurers and privileged persons anxious to become the arbitrera of its destinies'.

If on that side, unfortunately, we should remain alone, alone with our consciente, we would continué our duty until our energies exhausted and overeóme in the struggle, we fall into oblivion, but not without first cursing the unfortunate luck of a country which seems to abide by everything and to reward instead of punishing its own executioners.

•

Hereafter if we do not meet other thing to block our work we shal! continüe scrutinizing the statements of the repórter of the Sun with figures and with data which can and should be appreciated by honests men in and out of Porto Rico.

For the present.

O}

XIII

In spite of Mr. Scoville's statement ¡n "El Mundo" of yesterday, making himself solídary in a certafn way wlth The Sun's statements, and followmg these In the orden In which they are made, we have shown:

1.—^That the so much boasted déficit claimed^ to exist in our Insular Treasury, that is, the lack of cash receipts to cover disbursements, is due; as we have demonstrated with figures and data, to nonpayment of taxes levied upon the very people who, under a conspiracy to embarrase the Insular Administration, retain in their possession sums equal to the amount repre^ sented by the supposed déficit.

2. That the sums taken fromi the so-called "trust funds" are not from trust funds for the redemption of bonds issued or for indebtedness contracted by the people, but for works which have not been constructed or services which have not been performed and which can be postponed until the taxes are collected or until provisión is made in some other way so as to avoid the contracting of other loans with which to cover the said déficit, as was done recently by the city of Baltimore, the very City wherein "The Sun" is edited, when that City had to cover a déficit of five miüion dolíars at the ctose of Its fiscal year, by virtue of which the salaries of teachers were left unpaid, some thing which has never yet ocurred in Porto Rico..

3.—^That many of the works said to have been stopped, though contracted for, are completed, or about to be completed, and sufficient funds are availabíe for their completlon in accordance with the terms of each contract.

4-.—^That the Legislature, in passing the regular budgetary appropriations and in making other appropriations aiso provided such revenues as ¡t deem^d necessary, and if the revenues did not totally materialize, it was because of the "Injunctions" or "suits" brought against*our Treasurer and because of the ease and promptness with which the Injunctions were granted to prevent their collection, thus bringing about among the taxpayers the most terrible demora^,

^ iization that this country has ever contemplated in its economic life.

^

5.—That it is false, absoiutely false, that the Commissioner of the Inte^ rior was for nine months away from his office; on the contrary, he was always there performing his duty, and the truth is that he attended to his

4. Department, as far as possible, from his place of rest, even when on feave for two months granted him after eighteen years of continuous and assiduos work.

6.—^That the statement that the Legíslature placed at the disposal of the of "twenty thousand dollars'S exclusively for the automoblles they use with the consent óf the Insular Legislature, ís a gross and ¡nfamous slander, ^

7.—-That all that story about expenses and waste, of which The Sun's repórter speaks, Is nothlng but words based on rumors and information absolutely groundiess, as there Is no mentlon of a single concrete case, except that whIch Is alleged to have ocurred wlth the water work system of Manatí, heretofore satisfactorlly explalned by the Commiscloner of the Interior, Mr. Esteves.

For the purpose of refuting other affírmatlons made by the repórter we shall refer to the comparlsons established by him between our taxes, as well President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, respectively, the sum of Maryiand and Porto Rico taking as a basis the year 1925. the right parallel between San Juan and Baltimore, the' two principal citles as our expenses and our loans, wlth those of other States—and as It would be unnecessary to enumérate each case, we shall llmlt ourselves to establish San Juan Baltlnriore Populatlon 88,922 796,296 Assessment of property $71,863,014.00 $921,687,869.00 Per capíta 808.16 1,157.47 Indebtedness 4,762,673.00 92,120,661.00 Percapita 53.56 115.69 Budget 1,044,105.88 51,755,590.00 Percapita* ^ "'1.74 65.00 Rate of direct property tax 2.09 2.58 Proportion of Indebtedness to assessed valué of property 6 o|o o|o * In the State of Maryiand In additlon to the taxes levied by the Munlclpalltles, Countíes and the State, taxes were levied and collected In the year 1925 In the sum of $31,059,414.00, namely. Income Tax ...$26,110,611.00 Other federal taxes 5,948,803.00 As The Baltimo're Sun tells us that proportlons established on a basis of 'c» populatlon or per capita to ascertain the proportion of expenses of each clty or State are not such as should be established, as they are oniy, lllusory, we shall dispense wlth that great proportion,"percapita" (¡n whIch In accordance wlth the precedíhg táble, as regards, ther respective budgets, that-proportion is $65 for Baltimore against oniy $11.44 for San Juan), and shall llmlt ours»

elves to the proportíon existíng between the property tax and the fndebtedness contracted by each of the two citles.

As may be seen ¡i^the first case, the rate of the property tax ¡n Baltimore is $2.58 notwithstanding the enormous assessed valué of $921,687,869 as agalnts $2.09 on $71,863,014 whích ís the assessed valué of propertuy of. San Juan—and ¡t ¡s proper to state that the tax rate on property ¡n San Juan ¡s one of the highest In the ¡stand for'almost al! other municipalitles have a tax rate lower than that and there are some, such as that wherein Is situated the largest sugar central In our Island, whose rate Is $1.65 oniy, This Central ís precísely the one which wlth wlth Its assoclates Is holding, In vlolatlon of our Organíc Act (a law of the Congress of the Unted States) more than 30,000 acres of land under Its control and has sued the Insular Treasurer enjolning him from collecting $1,200,000.00 of ¡ts income taxes, having refused to pay such taxes and is still lltigating in the Courts after more than one year. The repórter from The Sun shouid have taken note of this, if for the only purpose of showing a llttie Impartiailty m hís reports.

There Is further Important data In the statement to whIch we refer, and that Is that whlle the Indebteness of the municipailty of San Juan only reaches six per cent on the assessed valué of Its property, that of Báltimore reaches ten per cent, and aiso, as stated In a foot nore, that In additlon to taxes properly belonging to the municipailty, the taxpayérs there must pay the iria come and other federal taxes, representing a tax higher than that of the munlclpallty.

Many are the concluslons that can be drawn from the foregoing and reserving the ^rivilege of taking up this question again some other day, when we take Into consideratlon our Insular budget, we are golng to stop here so as to gíve way to certain other consideratlons perhaps more Important, wich are also ¡ntimately connected wlth this campalgn of The Baltimore Sun. These consideratlons are suggested to us by the letter whIch we publish today from Mr. Antonio A. Rolg, a letter bodly accentuating whát we said In one of our previous editorlals concerning what Is represented In -Porto Rico by those trusts or corporatlons whIch, under protectlon of the terrible consplracy that we are denouncing, and encouraged by The Baltimore Sun, fall and prey upon our country, monopollzlng and absorblng everythlng they fTnd in their way, In an uncontrollable and frenzied actlon, based on the.lmpunlty WhIch they seemingly enjoy In everythlng they feel llke dping In this Island.

Let the Baltimore Sun read that letter, and especlally let It read the

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

transcription made by Mr. Roig therein, which ¡s the most tremendous and daring threat that has been made in Porto Rico against its peace and safety, and then we can speak about DICTATORSHIPS AND BOSSES. Those who so act are countrymen of The Sun and are from Baltimore, and every near to ¡t and must be well known to ít. And when they daré to so speak and to threaten In that way, we can believe, placing ourselves, as The Sun has done, on the road of suppositlons, that It would not be surprlslng It between that action of the Boltímore bankers and the campalgn of The Sun there Is some understandlng by whfch the victims should appear as viCa tlmízers so as to apply to them the final blow with greater impunity.

Did not the repórter for The Sun learn anything about that crime of íese .humanite perpetrated in the eastern section of our Island by the monopolizers of our lands and of our public service railroad, which for them is oniy a railroad for their own exclusively services and absolutcly negativo for all others who need to make use of it for the transportation of their pro ducto, fleeing from the terrible monopoly imposed by.the TRUSTS in all that section? Was nothing of this said to him by the Board of Diiectors of the Association of Agriculturists, wheréin officlate with great efficíency, for such purpose, a Secretary very "sharp" and very inteligent? Was nothing of this said to hIm by Mr. H. H. Scoville?

Now them It is proper that the "famous" repórter for The Sun should know that the Eastern Section of the Island is already wounded unto death by that terrible monopoly and that in order to finish once for all with the few Porto Ricans who biock their sinister and criminal purpgse, recourse is had, as may be seen now, to the proceduré denounced by a Porto Rican, Antonio Roig, who refused to sell to that man Waiker, representativo of thé Baltimore bankers, the stock of the Juncos Central that Mr. Roig held, the control of which stock together with that of other Centráis, was cornered by the said bankers.

That Is, therefore, the best evidence of the ominous work denounced by US. That is the crime, protected, as it seems, or at least igñored, by the re pórter for The Sun, and that is the situation by virtue of which our country must prepare to defénd Itself, if it does not wish to die in ignominy and dishonor.

It Is a question of Ufe or death!

Of death or Ufe!

XIV

On or about Christmas, we received the pleasant surppise of learning that Santiago iglesias, the Sociaiist leader, now in the North, had written a letter to Commissioner Córdova Dávilá in which he tendered the Commissicner his hearty cooperation and the unconditionai support of the labor organizations to which he beiongs for the purpose of furthering in Congress the legislation now pending on behalf of Porto Rico's interests.

This action of the labor leader was then praised by us with real enthusiasm. We went so far as to think that the radical agitator of our labor* masses had at last understood the best way in which- he could render a valuable service to those masses whom he claims to represent, contributing to their real liberation as, by cooperating In the securing of a more ampie government and, by having the control of our Insular affairs in our own hands, those masses would be saved with greater ease from any iniquitous exploita» tion to which they may be subjected by "created Interests".

And when we were most pieased, cheerful and satisfleid with the reasonable and logical stand taken by Mr. Iglesias, we now find, with real sorrow, that his position is changed and that he again places himself on a plañe of obstinacy as If he wanted to block the work of redemption and llberty of our people.

On our first page we reproduce today the letter addressed by Iglesias to Mr, Collazo, Editor of "La Gaceta Popular" wherein, pláying the Statesman and adopting a pose of apparent judicious calmess, he goes into a discusslon of the pretentions of our Island to elect its own Governor, and affírms that no Buch grant should be made unless coupled with such powers and authority as shalí permit the eradicatlon In the Island of the pressing situation in which the laboring masses fInd themselves struggling.

On adopting such intransigent position. Iglesias knows perfectly well that he is not dolng any good to the masses he is leading and that he Is not doing any good for the welfare and advancement of this unhappy people among which he has deveíoped his activities and has reached highiy representative offices that would have been most difficult for hinrv to reach In any other part of the worid.

The new stand taken by the labor leader coincides with the campalgn of discredlt Initlated by The Baltimore 8un, which fact compela us to think that his statements are of greater Importance under these circumstances.

THÉ ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

The above mentíoned paper charges our Government with being a spendthríft; with havíng Increased the taxes; with having constructed shool buildings to an excess; with having approved loans for road construction; with having forestad the agricultura! and industrial development of our Island In every respéct; with giving to our needy and poor youth a competent Uníversity permittlng them to secura their education without leaving the Island, and so many other public reforms tending to ralse the standard ol living of our proletaríat.

Iglesias knows oniy too well that the labor legislation that we have passed has been the main cause of that conspiracy which is fostered and malntaíned by powerful ínterest desirues to detain the work of labor redemption that has been the pride of our* legislatore and of our statesmen. On the other hand, he, whose lina of duty is to take the leadership against that wave of obstruction and protest, serves, perhaps unconsciouly—vje wish to admit— the anemias of all progress and advancement in our Island.

The comments made by Mr. Collazo on that letter are judiclous and cor. rect and they seem to us a proper answer to the statements of Iglesias; but It would be well for the Socialist leader to define himself once for all and to explain publicly whether his polícy and his purpbses are merely such as may maintain his personal positlon, preeminent and fruitful, or whether he ¡s ready to take the lead in defensa of the interest of labor and of Porto Rico, aven at the cost of the sacrifice of his own personaiity.

We confess frankiy, sincerely, that we should like to sea him on the last mentioned fleid, If it be that he is really actuated by purposes tending to the welfare óf the Porto Rican workingmán.

Stand up and be counted, Mr. Iglesias!

XV

The Baltimore Sun, ¡n its editorial of February 25, answering the protest sent it by some Porto Ricans residing in the United States because of íts attacks on Porto Rico, endeavors to explain the terms of its editorial in which it calied us foreigners and a backward people and denied us the right to pass upon matters concerning self-government.

The Baltimore Sun explains that there has been a certain confusión on our part in interpreting one of the paragraphs of its editorial in the sense that it was its purpose to state that the powers heretofore granted to Porto Rico should be restricted rather than enlarge.

Anyhow, although this paper in its rectification says (doubtiessiy for the making it less embarrassing) that in referring to the letters of protest which it is receiving against its editorials, it dees so oniy because of the comments made in some of the letters received, such as that from our fellow-countryman, Mr. Jaime Ferrer, and not because of such other letters as were received from highiy political persons; nevertheless we are pleased to publish the said rectification with the assurance that there would be many others with the same or like excuses, required by the imperative mándate of truth and justice.

Finally» whether this is or is not the opinión of highiy political persons, It is plainly a downright absurdity on the part of the Baltimore Sun not worthy of comment.

But even though it treats of absurdities, we should not for that reasoh allow the unjust and malicious statements of The Sun to stand, because it is. true that we are not in the least concerned about The Sun, it is our duty to prevent it from influencing Congress to the prejudice of our country.

In our issue of Saturday last, we show how the city of Can Juan pays less property tax than city of Baltimore and aiso the proportion of one to the other with relation to the budget and the indebtedness. By it we have been able to see how untrue were the interpretations given to this by the said Baltimore Sun in stating that property in Porto Rico was very heavily taxed.

But it is not sufficient to have proven this. We will now show that the city of San Juan notwithstanding that it levies less taxes and has a propor. tionally lower indebtedness and lower budget than the city of Baltimore, nevertheless appropriates practically as much as Baltimore for purposes of education.

In accordance with the last census of 1920, the city of Baltimore had a

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

population of seven hundred and forty eight thousand and sixty (748,060) in¡nstruction of 3,506 teachers; the expenses for püblic educatíon being $7,330,habítants with 171,751 children of school age in the public schools, under the 603. The number of children enrolled in the schools representa 18 o|o of the total population. The cost of instruction of each enrolled pupil averages $62.00.

/

The population of San Juan, according to the 1920 censúe, was 70,707. The pupiis enrolled amounted to 13,160, 18 ojo aiso of the total population. The current expenses for education in the clty of San Juan for the year just passed were about $450,000, an average expense for each pupll of $35.00.

With regard to this, let us see what the "Russell Sage Foundation" says in a book which it has just published, comparing the various school systeme of the United States, and in which it devotes several pages to the system in Porto Rico.

The Russell Sage Foundation is an American fnstitution devoted to the study of important social questions. Its offices are at 130 East 22nd Street, New York Clty, and it has a department of public education dedicated to the study of these important subjeots.

The statement to which we refer does honor to all those who have taken part in the educatlonal work of Porto Rico and to the legislatura of the country which did su much for education. Here is what the said book says:

"The data on Porto Rico are worthy of mentlon. The school system of Porto Rico ranks higher than in ten of the states. This Is more significant when the difficulties encountered by that small Island are considerad, The per capita wealth of! the Island is far below that of the poorest American State. As per the latest census figures the per capita wealth In the United States was $2,000 in 1912. That of the state ¡n worst conditions was $800 and that of the best $5,000.

In contrast with these figures, the per capita wealth In Porto Rico was $200 in 1919. These figure,s may be accepted as reasonable for comparativo purposes. Théy show that the wealth of any American State Is ten times the wealth of Porto Rico, and that the poorest State In the Unión has a per capita wealth four times as big. In spite of these circumstances, Porto Rico keeps its public schools open a largar number of days In every year.. In 1918 there were 11 American states with a longer school year. Furthermore, during the school year 1917o18 the Island teachers were paid better salaries

than those in 13 of the American states, including al! of the southern states and 2 of New Engiand. The school system of Porto Rico Is entirely supported out of the Insular revenues, wlthout any pecunlary ald from the Federal Government. It has not so far received financial support of any kind although the Federal Government permits of the use of Custom revenues on Imports coming from forelgn countrles.

AII of the above would seem to Indícate that the educatlonal efforts ¡n any State are dependent upon the Ideáis and Inspiratlon thereof rather than on material resources".

THE ATTACK$ OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

XVI

We aliowed an ínterruptíon in our reply to The Baltimore Sun ¡rv order that we might secura the necessary data wlth which to resume our statement of facts with a graphic demonstration by figures showing the unjust and ma* lícious oampaign whIch the said newspaper is makfng.

During thís interval we have seen here In the columns of some of the newspapers, the offícious attacks of some who to share the oplnion of the, repórter of The Baltimore Sun and its advisors in the unenviable act of belita tlíng our men in their representativa capacity aven descending to those personalitíes of which they claim the others to be guilty; they can not and should not qualify as personalities, crfticfsm, however pointed or biting it may be, when concrete facts and policías of a public natura are exposed which it is' necessary to submit to public opinión in order that the country may avoid the evil which might resuit from that which, through hypocrjesy or poorly dissimulated fallacy, tries to appear true and veracious in order to wound to the quíck institutions and reputations affecting the honor and dignity of the people.

We have accused, without circumiocution or ambiguities, the association of Agriculturits, whose principal members we have known for many years and for whom we have offered in this papar honorable excuses which they have not known how to appreciate ñor how to nobly reciprócate.

Fortunately, the charges which we have made are confirmad day after day in these very articles which they are publishing.

The insolent attítude of the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Association, and what was published yest^rday in "El Tiempo" by the PuroSocialist Leader, Mr. Manuel F. Rossy, accomodating it to his purposes enphasizes the aggresssive tendency of the celebrated manifestó of the in^ naugural session of the Association of Agriculturists and of the proposition made by the said leader at the Ronce Convention.

We are not going to argüe with Mr. Rossy, who has finally shown himself, unfortunately for him, as he has been showing himself for some time, to bé in accord with its unpatriotic and disconcerted policy; and much less are we going to contend with one who so undeservedly holds the títie of Secre tary of the Honorable Association and who can hardly raise his poi-sonous sting above the ground.

The Porto Rícan Alliance knows where all that leads to and prepares,

not for Its defense, but fhe defense of the country which, ¡n spite of its

^ gratultuous enemies and its officious detractors, wlll be saved through the patrlotism of its men, among whom the immense majority are these same agricuiturists who are so pooriy represented.

One thing oniy we wish to rectify which has anisen from the depths of ali that perverso intrigue, and,that is the phrase which they put in the mouth of the President of the Senate, attributing to him the statement that he was no longer an advócate of the Independence of his country because by independence we would iose the protection of our sugar. Those who know Mr. Barceid aiso know that he is incapable o such a coarse blasphemy. That oniy exists in the dense brain of the Sun's repórter and in the brain of the flagrant and sharp secretary of the Association of Agricuiturists, who perhaps waj the one who told him, as he certainiy toid him other things, which have served in Washington for an attempt to wound there the dignity of our men and the prestige of our country.

We said in one of our previous editoriais that we wouid ieave for the end these mean triviaiities of the bar.room and coffee-house, with the object of discussing them, should we so decide, in one soie articie; but the work of these feebie instruments of evil has reached such a stage as to attempt to interfere with us in the noble mission which we have undertaken of explaining the points which have been so maliciousl/ raised through their efforts outside of Porto Rico.

And what are we going to do? We have aireády painfuiiy said at the beginning, and the Baitimore Sun seemed to be pieasently affected by it and calis the special attention to it in one of its recent editoriais:

And our pain, we repeat, Is even greater when we note that those exotic ¡nterests, those who certainiy should be called FOREIGNERS in our country, have succeeded in binding to their destructive chariot bad and traitorous Porto Rícans, but fortunately very few,( who have not faltered at the crime of handing to their enemies the poinard with which to stab their country full p ^ to the heart, from the back and with impunity."

In order to publish this we have withdrawn the editorial prepared for today. We wiii publish it to-morrow with the resuit not to again turn our face tp pee who may bp barking at us.

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

XVII

We have shown ¡n our editorial of Saturday the real meaning of the effort made in San Juan by the Insular and Municipal administrations in* favor of education. The fact that San Juan, with less resources, is on the same planee as the city of Baltimore in that respect, leaves the statements of The Sun on the place to which they belong, that is as partisan and lacking in truth, especially when the conclusión is reached that neither the property tax levíed not its indebtedness, ñor the amount of its budget, approach the proportions that they have in Baltimore, in accordance with the assessment of its wealth.

If we cannot say the same thing about the other municipalities of the Island, it is precisely because it is there that the sugar corporatlons bring the enormous weight of their great influences to bear, which Is the principal drawback of the progresa of our country.

We have already pointed out the undenlable fact that it is in one of those municipalities, where the largest central of the island is situated which has under its control more than 30,000 acres of land, where the property tax Is lowest. and it is that very same central which, after apeying so littie as a di^ rect tax, aiso fails to pay the Income tax as we have heretofore stated ano* shown.

The result is that we have not yet solved the pobiem of our llllteracy, and the persons responsible for it charge us, on that ground, with being Incapable for the exercise of self-government.

However, the efficlency represented by our efforts is such, that out of the 209,220 children of schnol age, between 8 and 14 years, we had, according tó the census of 1920, 169,195 in school, which is 80 8 per cent; and last year, according to data obtained at the Department of Education, oniy 15,000 chiídreh In the whole year were left without school, which reduces llllteracy to less than 8 o|o among children of school age.

It Is true^that by adding to thls the adult illitérate populatlon, which has been thé samé for twenty-flve years, the percentage of our llllteracy reaches approximately 45 o|o, but thís is a prbbiem that time múst solve as Well as tlié schools that we now have for adults which, thóugh not well attended, nevePa theless represent a very important part of our effort.

Furthermore, It Is aiso proper for the Baltimore paper to know that education In Porto Rico Is béing carried out in two ianguages, Spanish and

Engifsh, and that the latter represents a double expense and requíres double time for the transmission of learníng. Por teachers teaching English, and teaching ¡n Engiishi we have to appropríate in our*budget approximately the sum of THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS for payment of their sa larles and travelling expenses every year from their places of residence in the United States to Porto Rico and return, without counting other inconveniences and difficuities that It is not necessary to mention at this time.

Is there a waste of money in the expenses for education? Is more attention given to high schoois than to rural schools? Surely^ the repórter of the Sun is not prepared to answer for himself these questions In the same manner as persons criticizing these things are not prepared to do so; but it is well for the Baltimore paper to know that the system of education or "curriculum" of Porto Rico lies within the exclusive power of the CommiSa síoner of Education in accordance with our Organic Act, and that his appointment is made by the President of the United States, and that our Legislature only has the power to make the necessary appropriations for the expenses thereof; and it is aiso well that the repórter should know that our Legislature, in order to ascertain that truth there might be in such criticism, only recently invited the International College of Teachers of the University of Columbia, which makes investigations concerning methods and systems of education in the worid and especially in América, to come to Porto Rico and point out to the peopie of Porto Rico such defects as might be found In our system. The committee came to Porto Rico with such men as Monroe, Wiison, Lindsay and others, and is now preparing a proper report, After this, it occurs to us to ask the Baltimore Sun^ and Its advisors; If as a resuít of that report, changes or reforms may be made resulting In economy ¡n the expenses of our education, it is fair that we apply such economy to reduce our budget instead of appiying It to a further extensión of our rural schools with the idea of eliminating iliiteracy once for all, and for creating industrial and agricultural school which are beind demanded by our country for a more prompt and efficient development of its economical and social life?

And iet the Baltimore Sun pay attention to this very important data that we are going to give a as complement to this defence that we are maklng in the face of its intrigues and insidiousness. Avaiiing ourselves of that same criticism we are going to estabüsh, because the new Organic Act enacted by the Congreso, the Executive Councll

THE ATTACKS O^F "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

then acting in Porto Rico wlth executive and legislative powers and acting as the upper house of the Leglslature ceased to exist, the Insular budget amóunted to a total of $4|230,648.00 oniy. And that same budget, furing the following years when the two houses elected by the people were acting under that very same new Organic Act, was increased progressively, year by year, until in the fiscal year 1924-25, it reached the sum of $11,735,139.00.

Why has our budget reached those figures? That is a question that we are going to answer, as we have said, especiaily for the benefit of the Baitimore Sun and the critics advising it.

The first item that we have at hand to answer this question Is the Item for public education in that budget, an item which amounts to the sum of $4,580,516.25, that is, a sum iarger than the total amount of the budget for the year 1916-17 when the Executive Council of Porto Rico closed Its QLORIOUS administration.

This is the Porto Rican work; the work of incapables; the work of an inferior and backward peopie which fulfills its duty and which in order to do so has to ievy the proper taxes on those who become rich from the product of our lánd.

And that, and nothing eise, it the moving torce of aii the enmity against un and which it is our duty now to make manifest, not with words, but with figures, so that the men of the Baitimore Sun and its officious advisors may say who are those who are working here for the glory and pride of-Porto Rico and the United States, and who are those who are working to the detriment of their ñames and prestige.

And as we shouid aiso explain in detail and specifically the nature of aii thé other ítems in the budget, so much censured and anathematized we shall continué in our next edition with data and figures as we are expected to do by those who are still charging us with not making due answer to their unjust and boid statements.

It is a matter of caimness and time.

xvm

Yesterday LA DEMOCRACIA published a cablegram recelved from our Resident Commissioner, Honorable Félix Cdrdova DáviJa, as follows: "Barceld, San Juan.

The Associated Press has received a dispatch from San Juan stating that a circular has been distributed there calling on Porto Ricans to cease paying taxes as a means of resisting the dominating yankee government, and advising government employees to resign. Said circul-ar aiso advises the caliing of a constitucional convention for the purpose of organizing a republic. Cable me the ñame of the person signing such circular."

With great difficuity did we obtain a copy of the circular mentioned in the cablegram quoted above. We knew of other circulars frequently distribut ed by a number of inexperienced youths who, in the heat of mistaken patriotism sometimos act inconveniently and unnecessarily in freely manifesting the beautiful ideal of a free country belonging absolutely to them and owing> nothing to any one but itself, a country which should struggle for its independence and for nothing but its independence. They disregard other considerations absolutely indispensable in our life of relations with the great people to which our destinies are already joined, with which people, our country needs to live in decorous and noble harmony, with the greatest understandíg and the utmost affinity.

But the circular in question, the chief motive of which was so hurriedly cabied to the Associated Press by their agent in Porto Rico, is not of that kind. The paper in question has neither the tone ñor the character of thOse to which we referred, and back of which may be seen soiely the manifestation of a iogicai and natural sectional féeling arising in the heart of our youth, especiálly if we consider a situation where we ourselves, already oíd and reflexive, sometimos fail clearly to see into the futuro of our country.

Such circulars, far from producing a protest in the spirit of the oniy enes against whom they are addressed, among whom we ourselves are almost always counted, rather produce certain satisfaction, because fundamentally they finally reveal a sentiment feit by all, including the very Americana so unjustiy deait with in said circulars at times.

The circular in question is very well written though very poorly printed (as all clandestino circulars) and is not suscribed, as the others by the Ju-

I

the ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

ventud Nacionalista o Independentista, but is anonymous and bears no printer's mark. Neither has it been seen in circulation and to obtain the copy we have before us we were obliged to resort to the offlcial centers for which it seems to have been exclusively written with such intention as may be easily deduced, at a glance, especialíy after the emphasis given to its chief motive by the Associated Press agent, at whom, as we know, never transmita a dispatch announcing many of the things which take place in Porto Rico re, vealing great and noble achievements, because to him,' we may Judge, nothing is important except such things as may harm our country.

The circumstance that Mr. Barceló is not attacked in said circular as in the others which we have mentioned, on account of hiá ever ready statements against the possibility of an absolutely independent government, but rather that he is maliciously and falsely presented as having made statements of which the misterious author of the circular makes capital to his own endSy the fact that Porto Rican advocates of independence are presented as having adopted the ridiculous determination (because they know It Is impracticable) of advising the non payment of taxes and the non acceptance of government office as the oniy means of acquiring independence; and the purpose of me, etíng in convention simply to proclaim, without further addieu, the Republlc of Porto Rico, are clearly exposing the origin of the circular and Its purpose, which js none other than to blame the poor and inoffensive adVocates of independence in Porto Rico for the non payment of the taxes and for pro, moting and causing the crisis in the Treasury.

Now then, those who know who it is that here in Porto Rico plot against the- administration and who are the true revolutioneers against peace and order; those who know that it is not preciseiy the small taxpayers who fall to pay their taxes because when they do it on account of inhability they can not go to court and are bound to lose their property because of attachment 'and sale; those of us who clearly see the source of thé circúlar in question and the sinister scope of the same,can nót fail to feel, not fear alone, but also alarmed when we see how far boidness and evilness wlll go In their efforts vilely to subject a weak and defenseless people to the most disgraceful slavery. And what is stlll worse, we have tha sarcasm of the victimizers pretending to be the victims In a stluation which they themselves have created.

Convinced óf all this, Mr.. Barceló cable our Resident Commfssloner as follows:

"Honorable Félix Cérdova Dávlla, Washington, D. C.

The circular Is unsigned and bears no printer's mark. We could obstain a copy from a government officlal oniy to whom It seems to have been addreSs sed. Because of the ridiculous motive atttributed to the so-called advocates of Independence, the sinister Machiavellsm of such circular and Its source are ciearly deduced. The haste of the Assoclated Press Agent here giving credlt to the raw, ridiculoüs farse, while he falls to publish constant facts and achievements of great merlt, and which greatly honor Porto Rico and prestige the Ünited States, Is markedly commented on. There Is doutbiess a plot against our country to prevent Its obtaining amendment of the Organíc Act at this session of Congress. I am writing you.

Tomorrow we shall deal further wlth this important question.

Barceló"

XIX

Our inmedidle dulg

In our editorial of yesterday entitled "A Clandestine Circular", we clearly cxposed the Machiavelic plot in which it is sought to ensnare our poor unfortunate country, with the purpose of obstructing an expression of its rights.

Referring to those youths who uphold here the ideal of absoluto indepen^ dence, we repeat today some of the concepts stated by us yesterday in connection with the aforesaid clandestine circular. The ill-intentioned sheet was not written by them. To attribute that sinuous and tortuous work to them, would be to unfairly ignore the sincerity and frankness of their Irreflexivo enthusiasm. The very few times that either by written or spoken they have publicly expressed their ideal, they have done so without reserve, without concealment and personally maintaining their attitude. Moreover, that is the form in which youth always proceeds when it plans a Une of conduct to show its convictions, and the reason for th\s will be found in the demands of their young, ardent blood, the Impetus of their age, and the impulse of that you^ thful courage which goes directly to the end pursued without the reserve imposed by experience.

Since we are referring to those youths, we wish to address them, we must address them now, in full candidness as a pledge of our good intentions. And it is simply to advíse them to wait and labor trustfully for the spiendid futuro of the land of our birth; to act by such means as are peculiar to the mind and to the heart, though within the circumstances created by the law of our destiny, so that they may progressively follow the course of such thoughts and feelings to such point as we must reach in time and in history.

This Is not a phrase devoid of sense, but full of meaning and deeply ro^ oted in the reality of our environment. The material condition of our country prohibits a waste of energy in efforts as unfortunate as they are useless. Our moral condition points to a defined and oniy trail, a trail oponed and beateh long ago by the noble men who preceded us in the patriotic task of struggling for the liberties to which our people are entitled. This course is a slow but sure advance, without collision or convulsión, and without bloody sacrifice, towards a greater expansión of the political personality of Porto Ri co. Let US now seek complete self-government, Such is our immediate duty

at this time. We must prepare solidly for such contingencies as the future may have ¡n reserve for us, and leave the final solutlon of the probiem to the generations succeedmg us in the arduous task. This dees not signify by any means that we must reject ai! work and al! responsibíüty as regards the fu., ture, for no man, no people, fundamentally, labors for him or fts self, but for the multitude which must follow ¡n the environment created by their acts. In seeking a fulfer economical development of Porto Rican Interests; to ímprove and extend our educatíonal system, and to obtain greater power in the government of our country, all who take part In the rude task must pledge theIr entire faculties while the foundation of the bullding Is laid, which In time must be completely erected. And wlth out such foundation, nothlng coulc* be done by our children and the sons of our children.

We can afford to wait, youthful friends, but on condition thát our attitude sHall be active and honest. Active, so that we shall not be consumad by Inactlon. Honest, In order not to betray the confidence of Porto Rico which de^ mands of us reasonable solutlons harmonlously and worthlly compatible wlth the positlon nature has assigned our country in the worid's polltical concert. We are In contact and under the protectlon of the most dynamic and progressive democracy In the worid, the most dynamic and prossive democracy of all times. If It Is our destiny some day to enjoy full sovereignty ¡n any of the forms maintalned by the respective platforms of the two hlstorlcal parties constituting the Alllance, we shall reach that goal wlth the ge-s nerous ald of the United States, which, born of an evangellcal traditlon of llberty, can never deny that traditlon. And we shall reach that goal because the unavoldable exigencles of the mission of the Unión and of theIr prestige In the eyes of other peoples, and perhaps the exigencles of theIr own Internatlonal convenlence, must lead them, In the course of years, to glve Porto Rico the political characteristics of a soverelgn and Independent entlty, once the possiblilty of making us one of theIr soverelgn States had been discarded. But, whatever the solutlon reserved for us by the future may be, let us always advance arm In arm, In unfalling fraternity, tied to the natlonal home by bonds so tight and affectionate that both of us shall have, fundamentally, one same and common destiny ¡n the high and noble mission of making harmony and understanding possible between the world's two principal races which at this supreme hour, after the painful and bloody struggle of the great war, are convinced of the fact that the oniy possible solutlon of theIr peace and llberty is the assertion of high cosmopolltan Ideas of an international

THE ÁTTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN*'

order, placed over and above the narrow and exclusive ideas of nationalism. This without prejudice te, and precisely as a guarentee of the developments.

We hold (and are pleased to acknowledge the fact) that the loyal and ^ cordial friendship of the greater number of continental Americana residing here who feel affection for, and have created interests in, our land, and who show the most sincere intention as regards our progresa and welfare, is an earnest of the affection first mentioned. And we hold this not oniy becaust of their residence here, but aiso because the feeling has spontanously rooted in their hearts, which are the puré product of a genuinely democratic com^ munity educated to respect liberty and the rights of all citizens.

Ts to such continental American as cunningly proced in Porto Rico, they are but a few, so few and so discordant morally and politically, as relates to their countrymen established here, that in reality they do not count. And if we have referred to them previously it was to compare them with those noble Americana who are good friends of ours, and to evidence the dullness and narrowness of their stand.

We must first be just, and "to Caesar that which is Caesar's,"

The Interuniuersilg Debate

A debate wül soon be held ín this city between the University of Arizona and the Uniyersity of Porto Rico, In regard to which we have aiready spoken in these columns.

When we flrst heard of the significant event we Immedlately appreciated Its importance, as well as the great advantage to be derived therefrom by the students of our universlty and the great good such debate meant to Porto Rico. This good arises from the fact that our sudious añd enthuslastic youths wlll have a chance to undergo a test in this first battie of thought with the youths of other continental universities. And it was thus that, full of intense satisfaction and optimism, from these very columns we exhorted the University students fully to realize the importance of this debate so that they might give their country's ñame its proper standing.

Rumors have reached us to the effect that at our Universlty, there is among the students some pesimism, and that there are those who think, success is impossible because it is difficult for them to prepare adequately.

This is an evil which must disappear. It is true that the contestante from Arizona are formidable in the debate and versed in these matters; that they have been trained by special teachers on the subject and that they havei availed themselves of the necesary material such as librarles, texts, reports and re.ference books, in solidly preparing themselves on the subjects with which they are to deal. But this circumstance can not be and should not be a reason for discouragement. It should serve as a stimulous as a goad to our youth, in preparing themselves In such manner as to enable them success fully to contend with the young people from Arizona.

Our students should know that the subjects to be deait with are of ampie visión and of International interests, and that they should handie these questions after consulting the best authorities, and by plentiful citatlons. FIfghts of mind should never sacrifice solid and Irrefutable argument to give pl^ce to flowery words and beautiful phrases, for in such debates the weight of argurnent Is much greater than the beauty of Images. Our youth shoujd know that they must not enter the contest with prejudtce, unenthusiastically and

faíthlessiy, but on the contrary, trusting ¡n theír preparation and anxíous for triumph and glory so that theír very faíth in vlctory may serve as encouragement in battie.

Defeat is unthinkable. (?) The fact Itseíf of the celebratlon of this contest is for our university students the most resonant of their successes, and from the very moment when José Sosa Fernández, José López Barait, Rafael Torres Córdova and Rodulfo O. Rivera are pitted against the Arizona students, the whole of Porto Rico wiil quiver with pride and will feel the satisfaction of Seeing her sons assume the responsibility of prestiging and aggrandizing the ñame of their country although for this purpose they must make ail sacrifices even under disadvantageous conditions.

To Dr. Thomas E. Benner, Chancelior of the University, in his anxiety to elévate the cultural standard of our University, is due the realization of this debate, and he trusts and is sure that his work will not be in vatn, since before endangering the good ñame of the University over which he presides, (which is equivalent to endangering his own prestige as an educator and pedagogue) he was bound to measure the merits and temperament of our youths. Henee, the conclusión that the fiag of. the University and the prestige of Porto Rico could be placed in their hands.

The ioyal and courageous conduct of the small group above mentioned has shown that the Chancelior of our University was right. Day after day, night after night, calmy but with great, firm, and aggressive determination these four Pre-«Legal course students have been preparing for the debateij reading thousands of pages, taking notes and discussing or writing so as to prepare themselves in Engllsh as well as in Spanish. They have been forced to deprive themselves of social diversions, and in a climate and at a season inviting one to the outdoors, they have passed the most agreeable hours of . the day closed in a class room swamped in books and papers. Their work has been truly hard and painful and their sacrifices great; but the purpuse pursued by them has been their manstay. Such purpose is to place at its proper level the culture of their Alma Mater and of their country.

it is regrettable that a larger number of students will not be able to particípate in the debate, since there are many more, with talent and inteligence wño might have aided in reaching success. Work on the year-book entrusted to them has prevented their acceptance of the responsibilities; but general interest among the students in the victory of their classmates is

undeniable. They will ai! share allke ¡n the satísfaction of triumph if victory, as must be expected, crowns their efforts.

LA DEMOCRACIA encourages our students to persevere ¡n their study; to show tenacity In tralning; and intelllgence in the selectlon of material; to be careful and orderly In the preparatlon of their arguments and consclous of the Importance of the subjects under debate; so that they may place themselves on the level of the themes under discussíon. In this way they wlll not commit the fault of circumscribing themselves to question of a local character» for this may be done when during the course of the argument circumstances so require and opportunlty offers.

To Porto Rico, we hold, the celebratlon Itself of this debate Is a glory and a source of pride. And so Is the fact that our students wlll decidedly and enthuslastically undertake the difficult task of measuring their forces and their Intelllgence wlth such well prepared adversarles. This Is prove. of our country and of our preparatlon and It Is worthy of general applause.

Vlctory or defeat, under this circumstances, Is secundary. The Important and main point Is to know that we have not réfused the combat and that we shall enter the battie futí of enthuslasm and apurred by the justifled wish of waging one more fight for the good ñame of our beloved Island.

It wlll be a satísfaction for those who defend us.

It wlll be a source of shame for those who Insult us.

XXI

Mr. Acostd Uekrde s Lefter

We publish the following letter notwíthstandíng its unfaír and unadvisable assertions against us and notwíthstandíng íts havíng been pubííshed yesterday by El Imparcíal, because ¡n oup opíníon the best repíy we can.make to Mr. Acosta Velarde ís hís own letter.

In thís letter he hímself admíts that he pubííshed the circular to whích the letter refers. Such circular was not sígned and bore no prínter's mark and was therefore pubííshed as an anonymous or clandestíne sheet, no ment'íoti havíng been made even óf the newspaper from whích It ís saíd the mata terwastaken.

Thís alone justífies us ín any apprecíatíon we may have made as regards the orígín and purpose of the circular, and, therefore, the assertíons made by Mr. Acosta are out of place sínce he míght from the fírst have made hímself responsíble for the circular, thus preventíng the error ínto whích we have fall, for the last thíng we would have imagine ís that a man of hís ínteílígence and understandíng ís capable at the present time of endangeríng the walfare of hís country by pueril acts and by doíng ít the great harm of servIng, although unconscíentítíously, as the ínstrument of the enemíes of the very líberty whose fírst champíon he cíaíms and procíaíms hímself to be.

To correct the error íntd whích Mr. Acosta Velarde led us, Mr. Barceid addressed the following cabíegram to Mr. Cdrdova Dávíla. Hon. Cdrdova Dávíla. Resídent Commíssíoner for Porto Rico, Washington, D. C. Federico Acosta Velarde, Presídent Natíonalíst Party, has pubíícly admít^ ted responsíbilíty for contents and círculatíon of circular mentíoned by Assocíated Press. I assure you the act has not the approval of the country, though press and all legítímately representatíve bodíes energetícaliy protest as one man against talse and ínjuríous charges and censures Baltímore Sun.

Barceid

As to the rest of Mr. Acosta Velarde's assertíons ín. regard to LA DE MOCRACIA and íts Editor, we shaíl make no repiy. Hís statements shall

stand before the country which will Judge us al! In due time, If it has not already juged us.

Here ¡s the letter. San Juan, Porto Rico, March 1926. The Editor of LA DEMOCRACIA, San Juan, P. R.

Sir: • I hasten to lead you out of the childish error into which you have fall in writing your Editorial of yesterday where you make it understood that a NATIONALIST CIRCULAR recently distributed in San Juan, has its orla gin in a new "plot against our country to prevent the obtainment at this session of Congress of our Organic Act." Praise it be Godl In the deep con fusión wilh which for some years that daily has deait with the most important questions relating to our island, LA DEMOCRACIA seems to see plots and conspiracies against the much desired REFORMS to the Organic Act. And this is so even in case of the purest, frankest, most sincere and cleara est expressions of the ideal of independence for Porto Rico which so much worries LA DEMOCRACIA today. And it is so on this occasion when LA DEMOCRACIA has found "a sinister scope" against such REFORMS in a "poor" and "inoffensive" circular which we distributed in our anxiety to sow the seed of nationalism.

No, Mr. Editor. There is no such thing. We are not worrying over RE FORMS which we will never see while this people continúes subjective by the Yankee whether or not we get the elective Governor so much desired by you. The clandestine circular in question, which has unbalanced even the imperturbable Hon. Félix Cdrdova Dávila, was taken from El Nacionalis ta de Ponce, a newspaper edited in that city by my colleague and fellow^ partisan Attorney Pedro Alvizu Campos. To his brilliant and courageous pen is the work due, said work having been published for the first time as and editorial in the February 27 number of our weekiy. Before the article was published in El Nacionalista de Ponce, I personally took it, signed by Mr. Albizu Campos himself, to the Editor of El Imparcial, where we have always found cordial hospitality In freely expróssing our views. El Impar cial did not published it. We know not the reason. We regret the fact but did not complain for If we failed to find a daily wllling to publish the article, we stili could resort to a circular which Is a more effective means ancf a means of more palpable results.

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

Said and done. From Ponce I received six hundred of copies of the circular bearing this already "historie" editorial, and contented and happy, as a nationaíist and Assistant Director of El Nacionalista de Ponce, I caused the distribution of the circular, not to public officials (what for?), but to the peopíe who live deceived by the histórica! political parties. It is with great pleasure that I thanck you herewith a copy of the circular, not doubting that you desire to preserve the same in your files, as part of a gospel for» gotten by you.

No one more than myself has regretted the fact that the circular bore no signature or printer's mark, thereby unfairiy losing merit in the eyes of its readers because it appear as an anonymous and clandestine sheet. Such was not the intention of its author ñor my intention (and í distribut. ed it in San Juan), but in ^he alternativo of having the people ignore the timeíy, proper and "very well written" statements as you yourself acknowledge, and of having the cicular held to be "anonymous" and "clandestine", we chose the second cause, since there would always be time enough to disclose the ñame of the "místerious author" if circunstances so require. We have no reason for concealment when we defend as we do a just aspiration of the sanest part of the Porto Rican people, provided this is done by legití mate and lawful means. I am glad indeed, Mr. Editor, over the opportunity given me by you to raise the veil which seemed to envelope the "clandes^ tine sheet" and to disclose it such as it was conceived; Puré and clean under the clearest light and receiving the impulse of a sentiment which to you appears childish, but which to us seems quite proper of men; the absolute independence of our country.

My purpose of informing you fully as to the origin of the circular in question having been accomplished, thus returning the circular to the place of honor in which in justice it merits and preventing/ its being called clan^ destine and the atribution there to of unworthy ends which have never been in our minds, it is my duty to inform you that Mr. Albizu Campos, as the author of the article, will certainly answer your unfprtunate comment on his statements.

After the foregoing, there remains but to thank you most sincerely for calling the advocates of independence, such as we are "poor and inoffensive"... in these times of cunning and sudacity when our political fauna abounds In beast of prey, believe me, Mr. Editor, that it is better for us to be considered "poor and ¡noffensive", because that is evidence of a clean

record and an unflinching loyalty and fideüty to an ideal. But notwithstanding, Sir, our poverty and humbleness, a circular published by us has caused such alarm among you that evén the submarine cables have been put inte play.

Your obedient servant and frlend, Federico Acosta Velarde.

Assistant Editor of El Nacionalista de Ponce

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN" XXII

Today we resume our editoñals answering the Baltimore Sun, which we had interrupted ¡n orden to refer to other matters relative with this campaígn, as such matters came up, since we were torced to dea! with them with preference to anything else.

We were analizing the much discussed budget for 1924-25 as compared with the budget of 1916-17 which is the basis of comparison of our detractors intending to demostrate that it was precisely from that last date, that is from the time the Jones Act abolished the Executive Council and legisiation was placed on our hands, that the alleged evils commenced and with them the waste which it is said has finally brought on our treasury crisis.

We have already shown, as regards public education, that the appropriation for this important branch of the administration as made in the budget for 1924-25 is greater than the appropriation for 1916-17, while we have not yet been able to soíve the probiem of our iiliteracy. This Is the pretext of our enemies in refusíng to asknowledge in us the capacity required for the self-government we are seeking from Congress.

If out of the aforesaid appropriation we previously said, something may be saved by a change of system, we are cértain our Legislature will willingly do so, ndt to reduce the budget, but to increase the number of rural schools and to create such industrial and agrícultural schools as are so badly needed in our development, out of such funds as may be thus economized.

After this, let us see what we find in other departments of our government.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ROAOS

In the year 1915-16 we maintained 1126.90 kilometers, as against 1509.90 in the year 1924-25, or a difference of 383 kilometers.

The difference in the average cost of maíntenance between these two years, per kiíometer, is $264.19 for the first year as against $819.32 for the second year, or $555.13, which representa as regards the total mileage a respective dístance for each yeaV as follows: 15G9c90 kilometers in 1924-25 at $555.13..... $1,237,091.00

1126.90 kllometers in 1916-16 at $264.19 297,715.00

DIFERENCE $939,376.00

What ¡s the cause of this marease? It is easüy discovered ¡mmedlately ¡f we bear ¡n mírid the increase of 383 kllometers constructed during the last years and if we consider that from 1916 to 1925 wages paid to workmen were Increased from forty or fifty cents ¡n the first mentloned year to one dollar as a mínimum; our Legislature fixed this rate of wages and besides another statute límited the hours of labor on Insular and municipal publlc work to eíght hours. The cost of stone and other materlals, Including machinery, was more than double over the pre-war cost. We might publish a specific schedule year by year, of the constant Increase In cost of all valúes, Including wages and salarles of personnel In charge of publlc works, but this would be too extensivo to be handied In editorlals. Besides, It Is unnecessary because any citizen may obtain then uppon appllcatlon to the Department of the Interior.

We have, therefore, that the appropriatlon for educatlon and the Item alone for maintenance of roads amounts to approximately $6,000,000, there remalning for all other services specifled In the budget, Including the rest of the Department of the Interior, approximately another $6,000,000 which we purpose to analyze. Item by Item to show finally that the budget of Porto Rico can not be less than $12,000,000 If we are to render the services at present required by our publlc needs. This Is so at least If we are to render such services to the same extent as we havé done heretofore. We must confess that there stlll Is a great deal to be done and that If any savlng can be made In personnel or material, whIch Is feasible, according to how we look at the needs and efficlencles of each department, such savings should be used to Increase services llke educatlon, health and charitles whIch are far from fulfllling their purpose, speclally In the rural districts, where our country folks certainíy stlll Uve In great neglect.

We are therefore ready publlcly to discuss all matters connected wlth this Important question of the expenditures necessáry for our Insular progress, and even to admit the posslblllty of deductlon In appropriatlons contalned In the budget, whether for material or personnel provided they are shown to be unnecessary and we are shown that they should and can be made wlthout prejudice to government efficlency. Thís V^e are ready to do provided such savings are used In other service whIch we are ready to show must be

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

extended, not only as a necessary measure of government, but as a highiy humane measure.

Let the great economísts come forward! Problems thus deait with ín he light'of publíc conscíence places each ene of us In our proper position, or, In other words, In the sérvlce of Justice and truth. And, If after such discussfon It fs argued that It ís Impossible to obtain sources of income necessary to cover such needs because profits In Porto Rico are not sufficlent to compénsate the capital Irívested In accordance wlth the latter's ambitlon, we shall then bow our heads and allow things to take such course as they please. For In some manner social balance must be established some day at the supreme hour when the despised of fortune who support the burden of labor and suffer because of the tariff servíng as a protectlon and ald to others a Ufe whích Is unsupportable, they, these unfortunates, wlll demand strict account of whom It may be proper for the lll-use made of the privlleges granted to them by the whims of fortune.

And that at that supreme hour It would be well to establish wlth certainty such responsibllltles as may be proper.

XXIIl

The Matter of Ihe Circular. The Porlo Rican "Bill has nol been poslponed iti Congress

By the last malí we receíved a letter from our Resídent Commissioner, Mr. Córdova Dávila, ¡n connection with the.cablegram sent to the United States by the Associated Press agent here, reporting certain revolutíonary purposes ennuncíated ín said circular tending to make Porto Rico an Independent republlc.

At the time of Mr. Cordova's writing he had not yet received Mr. Barceló's answer to his cablegram requesting Information as to the contents and signature of said circular, and It Is, therefore, a great satisfactlon to us to know how we coincide in our appreclatlon of the matter, as may be seen by the statements transcribed below made by Mr. Córdova ¡n Congress wherein, wlth subtile Irony, he ridicules the Associated Press agent who so gave sucb Importance to a circular bearing nelther signature ñor printer's mark.

Mr. Córdova aiso tells us In his letter that probaWy the session of Congress wlll cióse at the end of May and that It Is advisable to have the Commission advance Its trlp North so that It may attend the hearings to be held. As we already know the commission from our Legislature wlll salí April 15 and may remain In Washington to the end of May. All our Informa tion states that the majorlty In Congress Is In favor of our Bill, and that although some circumstance or some unforeseen matter may prevent deflnltlve approval, at its next short session In December, which Is a cóntlnuatlon of the present session, Congress wlll again take up the Bill ¡n the status In whIch it Is left and wlll pass It without trouble.

There Is, therefore, no present Intentlon, as has been said, of postponing

our Bill.

The following are the statements of Mr. Córdova Dávila In Congress: "The press of the country published last Friday the following cable dispatch from San Juan, Porto Rico:

"A handblll was circulated on the streets today calling upen Porto Rlcans to cease paying taxes as a means of passive resistance to the

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

'Yankee-dominated government.' It aiso advised Porto Rican offlceholders to resign and cail a constitutíonal convention for the purpose of organízing a republic. 'The Yankees belíeve themselves the superior off all races. The Yankees most go,' said the handblll."

"It Is unnecessary to say that this terrifying and sensatlonal news has produced a great alarm In the Unlted States and probably all over the worid. The press agent who did not hesitate to use the cable for the transmission of this anonymous report has rendered an Invaluable service to the natlon. Thanks to his dlllgence It Is known by the worid that we Porto RIcans are starting a revolutíon by refusing to pay taxes and advising the office holders of our country to resign their positlons, cali a convention and organizo a republic. The unknown author of this handbill amazed at the publlclty glven to hís sensatlonal words Is undoubtedly preparing another statement of slmU lar character wíth the hope that It wlll be transmitted by cable to the press of the worid. He has accomplished his purpose by playing an unfortunate joke on the Porto RIcan people and by Impressing the press agent wlth the seríousness of the situatlon.

"Of course, my fellow citizens of Porto Rico regret and condemn the circulatíon of this surreptitlous sheet of paper. However, this matter seems too trivial to them to deserve any serlous consideratlon. In Porto Rico nobody pays any attentlbn to the Irresponsible statements of an anonymous writer. But ¡t Is dlfferent wlth this active press agent in Porto Rico. He Is a patrlot and perhaps a prospective hero and wlll not pass unnoticed an act of rebelllon belíeving It his duty to warm the natlon of the dangers and periis of the situatlon. I approve and endorse his patrlotic, unablased and Impartial attitude. It Is for this reason that unllke my fellow citizens of Porto Rico I am golng to glve this matter most serlous consideratlon, avalling myself of this opportunity to express In a few words the positlon of our people.

"We are not asking for Independence. We have not lost our falth In the Unlted States of América and It Is our honest opinlon that the assoclatlon of Porto Rico wlth this country would not oniy secure freedom to our people but aiso that happiness which is the main objetive of human actlvltles In the strugglé of Ufe. Our paramount purpose Is to make our people happy and any solution whIch wlll mean the parallzatlon of this Idea wlll be favored by us.

"But It le oniy fair that the Representative of Porto Rico wlll state once more on the floor fo this House that my country wlll not be happy and satis-

fíed with anything that will mean ¡nferlorlty In the soiution of our permanent status. We come to you on a basis of équallty, always ready to share the National responsibilitíes and to do our duty in the supreme hour of sacrifice but claiming the same privileges, rlghts and liberties that are enjoyed by Amerícan citízens ¡n the Continental United States. We are asking for nothing more. We wlií be satisfíed with nothing less. Equality, not inferiority, that is our position, that is our creed. Of course, if the granting of Statehood is an imposibiiity as has been held by prominent American statesmen and if the right to compiete home rule with the election of the Executive is denied to the Island of Porto Rico, then we would be justified in asking for the absolute independence of our country. But it is our belief that the Islqnd of Porto Rico can secure her happiness under the guidance of theAmerican institutions. We have entire confidence in the American people and your sense of justice and our faith in the Almighty God incline us to believe that Congress will not unduly delay the recognition o our right to enjoy complete home rule with the Executive elected by the people. What we need is a sincere and frank understanding, piutual confidence and mutual respect. Most of the evils and frictions in life are due to misunderstandings. Have faith in the Porto Ricans, believe them, trust them. They are good and lovable people. They are true to this country. It was proved beyond any doubt during the crisis of the Worid War. But if you want to apply once more the acid test to the loyalty pf the people of Porto Rico, wait till the arrival of a notional crisis (God grant it will never come) and pronounce oniy one word: sacrifice."

XXIV

Let Us IPdit

Commissions, telegrams and tetephone messages continué i y come in from the island, all of them manlfestlng the natural alarm produced in the spirit of the country by the Resolution introduced in Congress by the Chalrman of the Commíttee on Insular Aftairs, Mr. Kless.

We do not care to publish any of these statements because they expresa a protest such as might not be advisably exterlorized at the present time. Neither do we care to mutilate them by stinting the natural and legitímate sentiment by which they are inspired.

Let US, therefore, wait a littie before publishing them. Perhaps we may receive more encouraging news at any moment which will again lead us to the coufse laid out by the faith we always harbored in our search for peaceful and harmonious solutlons compatible with the decorum and dignity of a people who desire to Uve their own Ufe withln circle of the liberty and democracy informed by the high principies which were the génesis of the great Nation to which the destiny of such people is boünd, and with which Nation we need and desire to live, for ¡ts own good and ours.

A committee of enthusiastic youths, In responso to the natural impulse of their age, came to us request the publication in a hand bilí of the item in LA DEMOCRACIA containing the cablegram addressed by Mr. Barceló to the Resident Commissioner, Mr. Cordova Dávila. We did not care to do this either, and expressed to them such reasons as prudence and patience prompted.

The Kiess Resolution is in truth an attack on the rights and dignity of our people, and it is an attack of such nature that we fail to see how it can have been sponsored by men of such standing, who more than once have

shown their friendiiness towards us.

Section twenty of the Jones Act now authorizes the Auditor to intervene

in all m.atters conected with the receipts and expend¡tures of the Treasury, just as happens in the case of all state Auditors, that is, to forestan or correct and prevent any ¡Ilegal act of any insular or municipal officer, and

to prevent any extravagance or dllapidation of funds to the pr^judice of the Treasury or contrary to law.

The amendment in question authorlzes the Auditor to rectlfy . the acts of the Legislature Itself, by Interpreting, appiying or adjustlng them. It alto finaliy decides clalms for or agáinst the people of Porto Rico, whlle the Auditor's decisión, if confírmed by the Governor will be final. Otherwise, the Auditor may appeal from the Governor's decisión to the Comptróller of the United States. In this manner the will and the decisions of the Auditor will always be over and above the will of the country and all its governing bodies, even in matters of taxation. Any citizen who for any reason has a claim against the People of Porto Rico must accept as final such decisión as the Auditor may render, provided it is approved by the Governor, and such citizen is not even granted the right to appeal to the courts in demand of his rights.

In truth, nothing more unjust could have been conceived, ñor anything more destructive of the librety of a people, than the powers implied by the terms of the Kiess resolution.

Practically, the Auditor of Porto Rico become a referee in bankruptcy, without judicial Interventlon, as Mr. Barcelo very well put it his cablegram to Córdova Dávila, and as the Filipino representativo, Mr. Guevara, very well said in Congress according to Associated Press dispatches.

'Let US wait, however, for such events as must arise by reason of the protest which our Resident Commissioner must surely have already made In Congress, and let us still hope in the Justice of the great Artierlcan people. ímposes other measures.

In turn, our island may rest assured that we shall not hesitate when duty

Let US waltl

XXV

We had suspended our articles in answer to the attacks of the Baltímore Sun under the necessity of taking up other matters that demanded our great est attention and to which we should give due preference.

The incident of the pamphiet, unsigned and without the printer's ñame, and which ocassionedi the cablegram transmítted by the agent of the Associated Press, with the non^sanotus intentíon of oircuiating everythere the news of a revolutionary outbreak in Porto Rico The arrival of the students of the University of Arizona to meet in debate with the students of the University of Porto Rico, a subject to wich we gave, for our island, all the atten tion that it deserved and other questions that constantly arise in our daiiy tasks and require our inmediato consideration, compeiled us to postpone for a few days the campaign that we had been waging in defense of our country.

However the moment arrive¿® for the legislative commission to sail for the United States and it is necessary for us to finish these articles as briefiy and specificaliy as may be possible for us to do, though in the course of our statement we simplify comments, at times indispensable, for the sake of a better understanding of the question.

We had stopped at the point at which we were comparjng the budget for 1924^25 with that of 1916-17 which has been the object of so much discussion and criticism. We showed how it was that the appropriation for education in that budget, by ¡tself alone is largor than the total amount of the budget for the year in which the Executive Council completed 20 years of its administration under the Foraker Act. We aiso showed that the appropriation for maintenance of roads had increased considerably in- consequence of the in^ creased number of kilometers of road constructed over and above the roads existing in the year 1916 and, further, in consequence of the increased wages paid in 1925 (which are aiso paid to-day) to laborers and because of the reductión of working hours, the increased cost of stone and of all other materials used for that service.

In our purpose of abbreviating, we are not going to continué, as we have announced, comparing each Item in the budgets so as to make manifest the increased cost. It is argued that we have increased the number of employees and their salaries. Of course as the service increased it was logicai aiso to

increase the number of employees, and it is a questíon for discussion whether services may be organized in a more economícal manner without detriment to efficiency, as regards which we are open to convrction and to which surely our leglslature will give its entine attention. But the fact Is that it is proven in a reasonable and conclusive way, throwing aside prejudices and passionate criticisms clearly revealing the purpose of wounding and lowering the repu^ tation of our people. We say the same thing as regards salaries. This question has been raised more than once in the House and in the Senate and has been much discussed. On a certain occasion our Leglslature being unable to reach an agreement on this subject, authorized the Economy Commission— appointed by it from among its own members to make a study of this ques tion— and the said commission, in accordance wlth a scale, adopted by It effected a reduction amounting to nearly $1,000,000.00; but the Leglslature at its next session, again fixed salaries as they were before as it was convinced of the fact that, far from diminishing salarles, It should Increase them in view of the higher cost of living. and the increased cost of all things, speciallyr after the war. During that period of time the People of Porto Rico lost their best officials In the government who left to secure positlons and salaries offered to them by Industrial and commerclal corporatlons which were paying two and three times larger salarles.

Living Is almost as expensive in Porto Rico as it is In the Ünited States; we are living under the same tariff and the greater valué acquired by property and the products of the solí from day to day, demands the same or equivalent increase of salaries, not oniy of the employees but of the laborer as well. This is an absolutely rudimentary question in polltical economy. The greater the needs, the larger the Income required unless an ynstable condition In social life'shall arise which In some manner must be settied by those who have charge of studying the condltlons of the country which desires to Uve In peace duly commensúrate wlth its efforts and sacrifices

We do not pretend that the administrative organization of Porto Rico Is the best therefore that It should be free from all criticism. On the contrary we admit that, llke all other human efforts, there is much to correct, specially when, as it is in our case, it is a new work. Reoples and nations, grown oíd in these problema, have not yet found a remedy for this evil of crises that always occur, fatally, as a result of this constant unetablilty of valúes and of the actlon of human seifishness more inconsiderate from day to day.

We do not aspire to be perfect but at least we should be glven credlt for Gur good will ín fulflíling the duty imposed upon us by our patriotfsm.

Having made these comments, we sha!! now continué our study of the budget of 1924-25 comparing It wlth that of 1915-17 to which we have been referring: The difference between the two ¡s nothlng less than $7,504,49100 The question has been presented by our detractors as evidence of what the administratlon of the country has become since, according to them, it passed into Porto Rícan hands, that is since 1916, in which the Jones Act was promulgated, and what the same administration meant under the Executive Councii during the twenty years of the Foraker Act. ^

Let US compare, therefore, the figures in the two budgets by groups of departments or bureaus so as not to be too particular:

Budget of Budget of 1916-17 1924-25

Executive Mansión and Office of the Governor $ 46,510.00 $ 74,150.00

Executive Council and Committee on Franchises and Elections 34,100.00

Executive Council, Bureau of Translations Pubiic Service Commission and Insular Board of Elections 28,730.00 64,415.00

House of Representatives. 155,701.00 Department of Pubiic Education, University of Porto Rico and the Agri cultura! Coilege of Mayaguez 1,440,445.00 4,730,516.00

Department of the Interior and Pubiic Works 728,144.00 1,852,587.00

Executive Secretary 50,540.00

Office of the Executive Secretary with Its Bureau of eights and Measures, and Supplies, Prínting and Transportation 145,204.20

Office of the Attorney General 36,800.00 92,500.50 «

Supreme Court 61,690.00 95,890.00 '

District Courts 241,130.00 292,593.00 ^ Municipal Courts 115,746.00 181,460.00

Penal Institutions. 214,045.00 327,249.00| Insular Poíice 432,342.00 865,414.00 ^

Registries of Property.. 53,830.00 102,107.50

Office of the Auditor 61,775.00 137,151.00

Department of FInance 212,236.00 533,868.00 Health and Charlty Service 353,104.00

Board of Agricultura Commissíoner.... 28,860.00

Department of Agriculture 497,807.00 Department of Health and Charity 1,258,539.00 Insular Libray 13,220.00 21,652.00 School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 14,500.00 30,548.00 National Guard of Porto Rico 65,000.00 Homestead Commission 20,520.00 pivil Service Commission 6,920.00 17,460.00 Interest on the Publid Debt 150,510.00

From this table of comparisons we have omitted such Items of a con.tingent nature of no importance in the budget and which are comprised in other ítems of the same nature, and llmlt ourselves to items positively representing the amount of the budget and which may be the subject of analysis and study making comparisons.

The real importance of the budget, as may be seen, lies In the appropriations for education, public worKp, health and charities, agriculture, the depart ment of finance, the courts, penal institutions, insular pólice, registries of property, or others, the increase of which it is almoat unnecessary to explain, if account is atken of the greater services that must be paid for out of our Treasury in relation to the progress of the island. In public education, for instance, we had In the year 1916-17, 2,648 teachers, with an appropriation for salaries* of $1,257,985.00; the number of these teachers In the year 1924-25 was 4,258, with an appropriation of $3,806,050.00, including $300,000.00 additlonal for salaries of not less than 200 additional teachers who should come from the United States for the teaching of English. To the rural teacher, for example, to whom In the year 1916, $40.00 per month was paid, for nine months oniy, a salary of $702.00 a year for ten months was paid In 1928, and so on succpsslvely.

While ¡n the year 1916 an appropriation of $69,500 was made for text books and school supplies, the sum of $205,000.00 was appropriated In 1925, and the distribution gratis of such books and supplies was llmited to graded and rural schools. It Is not necessary to demónstrate the increase resulting as a consequence of this to all other Items connected with this important service.

To those who argüe that we spend too much money for high schools.

we shall say that the amount applied to higher education in the year 1916-17 was $58,845.00 and the appropriation made ¡n 1924-25 was $255,000.00.

In like manner we may analyze health and charities with the great service of dispensarles, phisicians, inspectors, charity Institutlons, insane asylums, lepen asylum, bllnd asylum, antituberculosis sanatorium, services fon the extinction of malaria, uncinariasis, tuberculosis and other diseases decimating Porto Rico because of the many causes prevailing for such a condition of things, which causes are well known the worid oven, and among them the great excess of population and the manner of living of our working dasses. •

In the Department of Agriculture and Labor, by a mere perusal of Its budget, notice can be taken of the development made in the study of our agriculture, with its experiment stations, agricultural farms and inspectors who transmit to the farmers the result of the study and Investigations which serve to improve their methods in the adoption of new cultivatlons and In the selection of seeds so as to secure better products.

The ¡ncrease in the appropriation for the Insular Pólice and other services may be shown with the example ^hat while in 1916 there were oniy 577 guards, earning $465 a year, in 1925 the forcé was increased to 650 with a salary of $850 a year wach, without counting the increased number of officers and their salaries

Was it not a shame for our country that a poor policeman who has to eat, dress, buy shoes and buy his uniform and maintain his family, should only earn $38.00 a month? It is not true that even now the salary of $54.J6 fixed for them in 1924 still does not compénsate them for the great sacrifices which that service represente, in their hard and noble mission of maintaining the public peace and safety, on many occasions resulting in the loss of his life.

Subsistence of prisoners and inmates of the several penal and charity institutlons aiso represent an enormous increase in the year 1924-25, over the appropriation of 1916-17, a thing which we do not have to prove, as the increased cost of all articles of food and clothing during and after the war is well known to all.

It is therefore easy to check in that way both budgets and to draw the conclusión that all of it was absolutely necessary, and answered the needs of having a service in consonance with the strong demand that we have had and wlll continué to have in all the aspects of our economical and social progress.

Thís has been, therefore, our labor, wlth the best of intentlons and Impelled by our great interest for the welfare of Porto Rico, to whose people we promlsed a fair budget In our election campalgn, facing our opponents who criticized us for not having done so sooner and who are still attacking us for falling to make an even more liberal budget.

We have maintafned and still maintain that, though those figures may be modified so as to effectuate such economy as our sítuation requires, no such modification will be made without greatly harming the progresa which we have attained impelled thereto by public needs and pubiic demanda and without detríment to the most indispensable services, such as that of public education and others intimately connected with the new method of living of our people.

The current budget, that is, the budget recently adopted by our Legislature, has already been reduced to approximatly the sum of $10,000.00 to the detríment of certain important services.

It Is argued by some people that it is necessary to reduce It still more, and unfortunately we must confess that it our income continúes to decline as heretofore, »perhaps we shall have no other road to follow, however painful..

The so-called Commission of Economic Conference appointed a committee to take charge of carrying out a study of a budget more in consonance with present circumstáhces.

'It would be a work of patriotism that we would have to applaud sincerely, especiaily if it be done preserving those services that are demandad by recent progress and the welfare of our island, anxiously hoped for.

Our hands are already In position to render to that committee the "triple battery" of our applauses, assuring them of our most firm and decided cooperation.

That, and no other, must be the best and most reasonable argument we may be called upon to meet.

We wait for It.

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE 8UN"

XXVI c

Some one ¡nterested in offering an excuse for himself and for the repórter of THE SUN, has said that al! the reports given him, rest on facts or official data, and that it ¡s In order to show that such facts or data are not true.

We have understood perfectly the difficult posítion of the person who thus excuses himself and attempts to excuse his accompMce. It Is clear that facts such as those referrlng to the déficit in our Treasury, to the loans made, to the amount of the budgets and other appropriations voted by our Legislature, and to the works carried out by the Insular Administration are true and that they appear in offfcial data and reports. No one denies it. What is untrue is the conclusión arrived at by the said repórter and his informants, from such facts or data, and the unjust, passionate and false criticism, on mere cpnjecture of excessive expenditures and dishonest propositions on the part of our men, representing them as Inefficient and unscrupulous in the management of the public interests.

When a newspaper of the standing attributed to the BALTIMORE SUN files against a community or against a people charges of this nature, either It proves them by the necessary evidence, or accepts such qualification as It merits or deserves, however severe it may be, for its ¡mproijer conduct.

AII those who had an opportunity of hearing the repórter of the SUN and comprehending the bsychology of his mental make^up, with the conceited gesture he made, entering and leaving offices, without permission, and Lwirl¡ng a cañe in his fingers like a court jester, can understand that he came to Porto Rico with the preconceived purpose of attacking resolutely, at any risk, the Insular Administration, overeóme with a spírit of reprisal, and converted Into an instrument of hate of the low and mean passions of the enemie's of our country. This was the impressíon that he left everywhere. HIs questions were always the same, AII in a abrupt manner, without the slightest dellcacy or most elemental culture, either in phrase or gesture, and showing a sinister

and evil Intention.

And the fact that all the statements made by the said repórter, and made to him by those who brought him here that he should serve as an instrument

for their Interests and personal troubles, are untrue, Is proven by the evfdentfy false statements, known to be such, which were made against the President of the Senate and against the Qpmmissípner pf the Interior, targets of the

'

hate of the magnates who cannot see wíth pleasure that there are Porto Rícans who, complying with their duty, ^strive for the progress of their country as they are doing; one, laboríng ¡n the legislature on necessary legislatíon fpr the development of the many needs of the country, and the other carrying out with admirable activity a precisión and intelligence the work of his office. ®

The laughable account of the dictatorship and undue Influence attributed to Mr. Barceló is all "hot air" or foolishness, as we say in Porto Rico, the same as the false statement with reference to the $2Q,000 which was appropriated for an automobile. And aiso like the statement made by the said repórter regarding the prolonged and repeated absences of Mr. Esteves, from his.office, when as everyone knows in Porto Rico he is one of the officials who pays the most attention to his department, obligated as he is by the great work which his department has been carrying out In recent years.

And not this alone. The opinion formed by the said repórter of our UnL versity just at a time when it was carrying put a most Important and patrlotic work, is truly Inconcelvable In a newspaper which clalms to be serlous and truthful and which compiles with its duty of furnlshlng to ¡ts readers and conveying to the public true and positiva Information, for which the public ¡á charged far more than what it is worth.

The repórter of the Sun, Mr. Boyian, could very easlly have callad upon Mr.-Thomas E. Benner the Chancellor of the Unlversity, the Board of Trustees, or President Butler of the University of Columbla, Dr. Ashford, Dr. Robert A. Lambert, and other intellectual continentals, if the Porto RIcans could not he believed, and they could have Informad him of the great work which is being carried out in our Island, with the assistance of the University of Columbia, for the creation in Porto Rico of an Intellectual or academic centre that will make possible a good and healthy understanding among the nations or peopies inhabltlng the western hemisphere; or he could ^ even have read the opinion formed of thia project by the dally papers and magazines of most Importance In the United States which have paid and y continua to pay us their praise because they know how to appreclate, as good Americans, what this note of prestige and high honor meahs to their country.

The said reportar could aiso have taken the trduble to Investígate the purpose to which the handsome building, constructed on the main road at the entrance to the city of San Juan, was to be applled, securing his Information

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

from Americans and Porto Rícans, as to what is, ¡n connection with our Univ- I ersity, by that school or instituto for the study of tropical medicine. How- ^ ever, nothing of that sort was advisable for the scandalous information that the Baltímore Sun needed for publication in its paper. Al! of that, although it might have meant something for the prestige of Its own nation, yet was not advisable for the specíal purposes impelling the Sun to publish certain in^ formation in which nothing was to be said about the work of the Porto Ricans in their own country under the protection of the glorious flag under whose folds aíl such activitíes and al! such progresa are being developed.

The information furnished by Mr. Boyian as regards the Commissioner of Education, in connection with the University of Porto Rico, is faise. Mr. Huyke certainly is not the Chancellor of tht University, because the Commis sioner himself does not want to be and cannot be such Chancellor. That institution requieres a Chancellor who Is Intímate with the professors and studénts, and who shall direct and govern the institution with the Board of Trusteees of the University and have intervention in its decisions; and he is not the President because he did not wish to be, for the reasons hereinabóve stated, though he was nominated for that office by Mr, Barceló, and if the latter is today the President of the Board of Trustees, he is such because he was nominated by Mr. Huyke himself and the other members of the Board of Trustees unanimously Insisted on his acceptance.

We should say the same thing of the opinión that he formed, or was made to form, as regards the Workmens Settiement constructed near San Juan. It it not conceivable that such poor critícism, so greatly lacking In logic and truth, should have been made of this patrlotic work. Not doubt the Sun re» porter has not read our Homestead Law, the most altrulstic and humane law »of all laws that have been enacted In the worid, to furnish workingmen with a confortable, sanitary and modest home which, through a small rental, shall finally become their property wlthln a short time.

Thís ¡s the fTrst time that criticism has been made of such a beautlful

Institution. The honor of making such crltlcIsm had to be reserved for the

Bajtimore Sun and for those who In Porto Rico have for their oniy guide In Ufe their own Interests «nd have no other horizon or perspective than the horizon limited by netties and brambles.

We could continué referring tp ptfipr príticisms of the same calibre

EDITORIALS FROM "LA DEMOCRACIA" 89

^ abundant in the artfcles mercifully directed at us by the Baitimore paper, but ^ we prefer to stop and to take up the consideratioh^ of higher things. We shall continué tomorrow.

THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

XXVII

We shall now refer to the repqrts of the Baltimore Sun on the conditlon of our country folks or laborera, whom It judges as of no weight or valué because they lack education and proper trainíng to form opinión as to theír country's problema, and therefore, as a multitude bereft of wlll or purpose, controlled by the majorlty party which, accordíng to said journal, makes the elections and with the ald of the vote of these people takes over the government and controla the administratlon In all ¡ta aapecta.

The foregoing opfnion, we belleve, la not the product of the braín of the Baltimore Sun'a repórter who hardiy left San Juan and therefore, had no opportunlty to vlait our countryalde and observe for hímself the altuatlon he so boldly exposes in his ¡gnorance thereof.

Truly, many of our country laborera lack proper education since they did not receive it in thefr chíldhood; but they lead a Christián life, all speak the same language, and in their poverty and according to their means they all do as, in a higher sphere, ís done by those more fortúnate In the struggle for existence. They are extremely suffered and laborious to a hight degree, and this is true to such an extent, that no other laborer in the worid can

equal them in the rude work they perform in the cultivation of the land, beneath our tropical sun, and resígnedly submiting to the duty imposed on them by their painful situation.

Those who visit our countryside always receive their hospitalíty and aid. They never charge for their favors, but to them generously out of an instinct of chivalry peculiar to them, inherited from their forefathers. They respect the law and stoicaily submit to the judgments of the courts of justice with great abnegatíon. Theír sin, therefore, ís humbleness and kindness, and oniy when injustice ór persecution provokes them to extremes do the natural sentíments of rebelión, hate and vengeance agítate their spirit. They love their country with idolatry, that and no other being the reason they follow those countrymen of their who defend the right of these people to a life of greater

liberty and greater mgnity

To many, civilization consiste in the material progress determined by

large buildings, great engineering feats, the millionalre's opulence and the

superflous and dissipating Ufe that casts Insolent sarcasm against the unhappy fate of others. Such persone cannot conceive that in the poor and humble life of a cabin or hut there can exfst that degree of civilization based on a

[

moral life of leve and peace which converts mén Inte peaceful, loyai and ^ Chrlstlan citízens who wlll stand any test.

We remember once when accompanied by other Porto Ricans and continentals who were follow students of ours, that we were strofling through the suburbs of a great city in the United States. We crossed to the other side of a great river separatíng the city from the contiguous state and came to a small town of laborers a llttie over half an hour's trip from the great city, These laborers llved ¡n humble dweilings. As it was church time on Sunday we saw the greater part of the inhabitants of the town in church, in In intimate fraternity. They were poorly but decentiy dressed though not up to the latest styies, but rather compietely outside of modern fashion. The wife accompanied her husband while both ied the children by the hand. And as ever, fresh smiling youths wore the mark of the enjoyment of life on their faces.

We spoke of their quiet peaceful life of that town, of the morality of its inhabitants, of their religious fervor, and, as customary» their dress, walk, demeanor, manners and gestures all of which betrayed the rudeness of a peopi ewithout sociai luster, were severely critized.

One of our number, summarizing the criticism, added in one phrase: 'Mt seems unbelievable that so cióse to that spiendid civiiization" as he pointed to the city,—"we should find people so backward!"

"And do yo beiieve", we replied, "that civilization exists in the great cities of tail buiicfings and enormous enterprises where style and luxury and sociai refinement are the standard of the iife of the citizenry? Do not these moráis, this puré Christian sentiment, this humble life, which undoubtedly constitute the happiness of these people mean anything to you? Are they not, on the contrary, the best exponents of true civilization?"

But let US return to the Baltimore Sun.

Our country folks do not pay taxes! The majority of our peopie are not property owners! The last of these statements is painfully true. The monopolizers of public weaith bought their lands for almost nothing, after 0 takin them by surprise in their quiet life and deceiving them by offers of welfare. And there they are, the toys of fate or of fatality, not oniy they ^ the poor laborers, but also those who having more education and better means for the struggle, found no way but to succumb to the overwhelming advance of the foreign forces which so tighly cióse their circle of action that at last convert these people also miserable slave of waged labor.

That the poor laborlng classes and míddie class pay no taxes, taxpayera

in Porto Rico being very few, and few bear the burden of expenses, asserta ^ the Baltimore Sun. We shall show the tremendous error of the Baltimore Paper and of its Informants. We have before us statistics of fmports and exports between the United States and Porto Rico, and takíng the figures for the last flve years, we find the following:

Years Imports Expórts

1921

.....$97,074,399 103,388,227 1922 57,400,028 66,229,771 1923 64,743,462 77,007,257 1924 80,590,021 80,754,975 1925 79,349,618 84,411,792

TOTAL 879,157,528 411,792,022

We have, therefore, that In these flve years the average difference between our exports and Imports from and to the United otates Is $6,526,898.00. This ¡s the proflt we apparentíy make In our trade. It this a posítive truth? We emphaticalíy affírm that It Is not, and that on the contrary our ¡sland suffers a difficit which it would not be exaggerated to estímate at least twíce the amount of the seeming surplus above stated, provided we consider that a great part of the money represented by the said exports, leaves our island In the forms of dividends and ¡ncome to be spent elsewhere thus contributing to the progress of other countries and not to that of Gurs.

And if we aiso consider that of our sugar milis the one exporting most sugar manufactures it from raw material Imported from aboard, whIch raw material Is nelther cultivated ñor harvested by our laborers, the sugar later beIng exposed as an original product of our solí thus obtain the advantage of the protective tariff.enjoyed by our sugar whIch precisely burdens the Ufe

of our country people and of all the people of Porto Rico ¡n general, except of those who live outside of our country where they do not spend a single penny of thelr money.

The pícture drawn from these forced consideratlons Is truly discouraging when we reach the conclusión that the protective tariff so spiendidly advan-

tageous to absent capital, Is paid entirely by the porto Rícan consumen at the cost of bis blood and Ufe.

If we but look at the custom's tariff of the United States we find that rice, one of the chief staples of our laboring classes Is burdened by a duty of 2cts. On 1,600,000 pockets imported yeariy by Porto Rico, on an average, the tax is $32,000.00. And if we continué to analyze other figures of the schedule we will successively find that ali articies of great consumption Imported into our island are equaliy burdened by similar rates, and that clothing and other articies aiso necessary here, are burdened by 36, 60 and even 80 per cent, according to the article, and according to the advisability of protecting the continental producen, by means of the said tariff. This being so we again ask: In Porto IRco, who pays the duty as compensation established by the tariff in favor of the sugar enriching outside capital? We may well assert that it Is paid, In its greater part, by the poor consuming people, that Is, the unhappy country folks, those people who have no property and who work sblely to eat and maintain Ufe, and who not always makes enough to provide fon his needs, since In the end the owner of producing wealth who Uves abroad oniy pays on the capital invested by him and on his profits at a rate of taxation that does not affect the prime necessitles of his Ufe, as In the case of the country people.

All this, which is terrible to the consuming people, Is even more so to the unhappy countrymen who Uve In the mountains subject to that enormous Indirect tribute who has not received and who does not receive wages even mediumiy reasonable fon his labor. Por coffee, the almost exclusive producl;. of the mountains, Is not protected by the tariff and fon years and years has obtalned prices so low that It Is horrible to think of the.penury In whIch because of this injustice, have llved, not oniy the unhappy laborers who represent almost 70 per cent of the populatlon of our Island and who Uve and die In despair and misery up there on the mountain sides, but aiso the owtier of the product who has been forced to lead a miserable Ufe under the weight of the mortgages that have enslaved hIm to speculatlon and usury.

We would not desire further to color this somber picture, but we cannot wait for counterarguments to the effect that coffee now Is soid for good prfces because of the excellent conditlons of forelgn markets for the bean, and that the evil, therefore, commences to disappear, and that wlth the ald yfv of the loans made by the Federal Reserve Bank ruinous mortgages are beIng paid off and converted Into long term loans at a modest rate of Interest thus

t

elimínating usury aiso. All that is true, we acknowledge, and we applaud those who, compassíonate of our fate, finally decided to help us somewhat to lessen the injustice. But this condition which may be transitory, at least as far as prices are concerned may returo tn what it previously was, whüe the difficult situatlon which in spite of all this stlll exlsts, may aiso come back, for our mountain farmers are now doing nothing but replanting and renewing their neglected crops, while they devote the greater part of the valué of their product to paying off the enormoüs debt into which they had been forced as a result of their recent situatlon.

There is, therefore, one truth with which to answer the argumente of the Baltimore Sun. The certain and positive truth it that here in Porto Rico taxes are positively though indirectly paid by those people whom the Sun ridicules and dispises becauhe it considere them as an inferior people incapable of feeling even the noble impulse of love for their native land and Incapable of the virtue of deciding between those who, aposties of patriotism and defenderá of the rights of their laind, cali upen the hearts of the people to induce them to do their duty, and those who, living in foreign lands neither realiza our pain ñor are capable of feeling the hearts of a people aspiring to Uve a free poTitical and financial Ufe.

So muchs for two day's article. To-morrow wé shall deal with another question relatad to this. The question of the menopoly of lands.

XXVIII

We offered to deal to-day with the probiem of the monopoiy of our lands by foreign corporations.

We have given ful! attention to the díscussion in our press these Tast few days, specíaliy in <La Correspondencia, as regards thls Important matter.

We shall not analyze one by one the argumenta offered. We shall not answer the thousand conjectures made in the matter ñor the different conclusions reached by many. That would be an arduos and difficult task which It ís unnecessary to undertake.

But among the different opfnions glven there Is one in the Agriculturists Association's Review, whIch, without naming Its author, impressed un very paínfully. It is opinión that ¡f corporatión had not come to Porto Rico to buíld centrales and to produce sugar in abundance, our island would still be in the disastrous condition, according to him, of times prior to the change of sovereignty.

What was in the mind of our good fellow-contryman when he reached a conclusión so unfortunate, so far from the truth, so littie edifying for his country? Foreign corporations came to Porto Rico naturally coaxed by the price insured for sugar by the protective tariff in virtue of which such capital as might be invested in the industry would obtain higher profits than obtained in other industries eisewhere. That and no other was the cause of the coming here of said corporations, bringing with them soma capital, though not as much as our "innominate" friend believes, since we now know how the nominal capital represented by the first shares of stock is raised; how puré, crystaline water completes their valué, and how, finaüy, loans secured by the productive busines in prospect, solidly establish the stand of the enterprise.

But where did the capital of the sugar centráis of the north and west coasts of the island, and of some of the south and east coasts, come from,? Was not that capital absolutely raised here in the island, entirely the product of the industry of our soü?

In referring to native and foreign capital we are using the exact terms of the Federal Income Tax Act. We make no exception as to the nationality of "individuáis. In the concept "native or resident capital" we include all those who positevely reside here, who in Porto Rico develop their personal activities, and who with us not oniy contribute towards the burdens of the

Treasury, but also. to other which we are obligad to contrlbute to by environ-

ment. We refer therefore, to those who spend their money here, who form their familles here and whose chlldren form here, love and defend with us tñg land of their birth and with us toii and labor for its happiness and welfare.

By native capital then, in this ampie sense of the phrase, we mean such capital as is in the hands of native born Porto Ricans, as well as in the hands of those who are Porto Ricans by residence, whether they are continental Americans, Spaniards, French or British.

The evil is not in the fact that such corporations are Amerlcan, Porto Rican, French of English. The evil lies in the non-residence here of the directors or principal share-holders of such corporations, and in the fact that most of their profits leave our country for the benefit of other lands, while said directors, mereover, are absent from here and indifferent to our problems, though not withstanding, they try to intervene in such problems and even to Impose their omnipotent will, as already is the case. And this occurs or may happen in the case of any corporatlon be Porto Rican or resident, because of the ease with which its stocks may be controlled at any moment.

It is, therefore, the evil of absenteeism that we must needs prevent, by limiting, as much as necessary, the number of acres of land in the hands of these corporations, or by levying a progressive tax on such lands as they posssess, or by obliging them to organizo as public service corporations with the establishment of uniform schedules of ratos for the purchase of raw material, thus preventlng them from imposing onerous conditlons on the small farmer, later to deprive him of his land as has fatally been the case for some time past.

Those non-resident corporations are heartless and soulles. Our lífe and our fate are Indifferent to them. In their minds there is nothing but the business transacted at any prlce and the constant monppoly not only of our agricultural wealth, but also our commercial wealth, for there are some of these corporations which import dlrectly from the Unlted States such provislons and even such merchandise as their laborers consume, later to sell them to such laborers at dlfferent stores established throughout the jurisdiction and withhold the valué thereof from their wages. Thus do they kill local business, stop the circulation of money and enslave their iron wlll the entire Ufe of the cltlzenry.

The procedure at present employed In Porto Rico under that system of

absorption and monopohy, is truly an attack on the liberty of cítizens and a provocation to the peace and tranquility of the people.

How shali we biock thís evii? Is it possible that some of our fellowcountrymen can prefer to save the centrales because they represent, according to them, the oniy means productíon in Porto Rico, while our farmers, our commerce and our industries succumb in the iron tentacles of the great octopus?

It is true that we are al! to blame for the excessive toleration of having permitted things to reach such a stage in Porto Rico.

It is true that we did so under the weight of those argumente which even to-day are offered by those who, in the zones where competition between Centrales is still possible, get either a good price for tijeir products or high renta! for their lands. But such is not the case elsewhere in the island. The biessing of the centrales heralded by Celedonio Carbonell and Juan N. Matos, becaus^ the former soid his lands at a good pricé^ and because the latter leased his also at a high renta!, after availing themselves of the competition arising from the aforesaid very wild monopoly, is not the cry of anguish and despair which escajies from the farmers of the East coast. For the latter, being unable to avail himself of such competition as favors our countrymen in the west, is finally forced to sel! his land for any price in order to prevent ruin, and to accept contracta of advances for agricultura! purposes forced upon him by hís precarious situation. If not, he must lease for a mínimum mental which hardly covers, after paying his taxes, the most peremptory needs of life. Ñor is it the curse which will be heard to-morrow on the'lips of his children who, having lost interest in the soil which they now neither possess ñor cultívate, will uselessly spend their heritage finally to become unfortunate pariahs forced to migrate from their country or to Uve on wages.

We know that the argument will be set forth that it is unconstitutional to enact a law coercive on corporations and not on other association or individuáis. But we answer that that has already been done by Congress and that our Organic Act, letter and spirit, so provides.

All we need to do is to develop the purpose and to make the provisión efectiva by imposing a penalty the form of which is in our hands^ to prescribe and extend such restrictions or penalties to non-resident companies, partnerships or individuáis and to determine clearly and specifically the concept of non-residents, thus to prevent combinations to evade the scope of the law.

We fail not to recognize that the struggle with interests already created

9S / THE ATTACKS OF "THE BALTIMORE SUN"

under protection of our tolerance will be hard and terrible, and that to make effective any íegisíation whatever puttíng an end to the evN, our Legislature will meet with great obstacles.

^ But that and no other, in our opinión, is the oniy remedy.

And we must either do this or resign ourselves to the worst of colonial systems.—To that system which subjects us financially to the worst of slavery.

It is a question as we have already said, OF LIFE OR DEATH, DEATH OR LIFE,