OUR PUERTO RICAN COLONY
SENIOR, CLARENCE
Our Puerto Rican Colony By Clarence Senior COLONIES CAW MO LONOER be Uken lor granted, as Britain, Holland and France are finding out the hard way. Our largest colony, the Philippines, has...
...Our largest colony, the Philippines, has been freed under rather unhappy circumstances, but by end large it is off our conscience...
...But, aside from occasional sensational stories about tho horrors of its slums, we read little about what is now our most populous possession...
...Furthermore, the Puerto Rican birth rate is one of the world's highest (48.8 per 1,000 ia 194?, compared with 16 in the United States), and the death rate is dropping sharply (it fell from 24 per 1,000 in 1910 to 12.5 in 1947...
...Perhaps the gentlemen in Washington feel there is no need for greater educational expenditures in Puerto Rico, as they now admit there is in tho poorer states of the continent...
...Any change had fo be an improvement...
...It is also important for other low-income areas of the country, since it provides federal aid to equalize educational opportunities throughout the national territory...
...Only 10 per cent of children of school age were in school at the turn of the century...
...Pen Points Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer was reasonable in Insisting that Increased Russian trade with the U. S. Was contingent upon her altering her ways...
...We had almost forgotten that Teddy Roosevelt and other imperialists of the past century ha.l Crabbed that outpost of the Panama Canal...
...In addition to the handicaps named, there are ethers usually faced by underprivileged, pre-iiidustrial areas throughout the world, especially competition with established industries operating on a mass-production basis...
...it is opposed by the U.S...
...The split between Syria and Lebanon on tome minor issues points to the disintegration of the synthetic Arab League...
...Puerto Rico did not ask to como under American rule...
...Only 4.5% of the Island's children of high school age attend high school...
...In 1898, when the U.S...
...An American offer to go on a ballet tour of Russia without cost to the Soviet merely proves how eager we are to cement friendly cultural nf** lations...
...MORE THAN INCREASED education is needed, however...
...It would therefore seem only just to allow Puerto Rico to participate in the distribution of federal educational funds on the same basis as will the states, if and when an aid-to-education bill is passed, and S. 246 should be so amended...
...No one can deny that we are on our toes to seize such opportunities...
...For example: Puerto Rico is allowed to refine only that small portion of its total sugar crop which it consume...
...But— There are now more children with. out schools than ihare wars 49 years ago: 288,000 In 1900...
...It could also grow .it least 20 per cent more sugar than it is allowed to grow und'?r our quota .ivrangements...
...took over Puerto Rico, 77 per cent of the people were illiterate: in 1940, only 31 peL cent were...
...Congress now has before it a bill which holds one of the most important keys to a brighter future for the Puerto R icons—S-246...
...t probably comes as a rude shock to many Americans who cluck their tonfjues at the situation in Indonesia to read that the Havana meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Colonies lias decided to take up the case of Puerto Rico...
...Everybody knows that trade depends upon bills and even small change...
...Half of all pupils quit during the first six years...
...Imagine further that almost all our industry were swept away, and that we had only about half an acre of arable land per person on which to {{row food, as Puerto Rico has, instead of the four acres that we do have...
...There are 1.006 rural one-room schools with an average teacher-load of CO...
...Over 40 per cent of Puerto Rico's people are under 15 years of age, compared with 25 per cent in the United States...
...The Senator Is trying to put him on the hot seat while Lilienthal is trying to turn the tables...
...Chamber of Commerce, standing almost alone...
...In spite of its poverty, Puerto Rico spend over four times as large a share of its income on education (6.5 per cent) as does the United States (15 per cent...
...and it was only one-sixth of the average income in New York State, $1,633...
...Satellites are supposed to follow mechanically and unswervingly a fixed course around the Red Star...
...The need to go to InterAmerican and other international conferences with clean hands should impel us to take that step, even if we don't ' believe in democracy firmly enough to do it because it is consistent with our professed beliefs...
...Territories and possessions" — our euphemisms for colonies—are to be treated differently from the states...
...Reports that tho movement to draft NYC's Mayer CDwyer to run again was engineered In the basement of City Hall should occasion no surprise...
...310,000 in 194S46...
...One way to imagine the situation on Puerto Rico, if you haven't been therp, is to think v/hat the continental United States would be like if it contained all the people In the world—2,300 million instead of its present 148 million...
...Maybe breaking bread together ultimately affords the only crumb of comfort...
...When thieves fall out, there is certain to be a rift in the loot somewhere...
...The world's outstanding bail-jumper landed not only a job in Germany, but was even elected to high office in the Soviet zoneT If the issues were not so serious, the battle between Sen...
...In that case, a few facts about Puerto Rico .should be pointed out...
...THE PES CAPITA INCOME of the Puerto Ricans in 1946, $256, was less than half that of our poorest state, Mississippi, which had $555...
...It has been crippled by rules and regulations made for the mainland but indiscriminately applied to it, as well as by manipulations of, pressure groups like the sugar refiner...
...Claraaco Senior, of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, was director of the Social Science Research Center of the University of Puerto Rico for two and a half years...
...The' growing^spirit of nationalism among lier t>assal states is making Russia redouble ejjorts to teach them an elementary lesson in astronomy...
...The bill provides for an expenditure of $300,000,000 per year to help states, particularly those in greatest need, vb supply education for all children and improve the quality as well as extend the coverage of school services...
...This means that there is an average of Yi of a child for each adult too support, contrasted" with \[\ for tho continental adult—* burcTea- twice as great...
...Until several of the New York dailies two years ago started whipping up hysteria about a "tidal wave of Puerto Rican migrants swampinf* the city," we had lost track of what was happening on the little island out between the Atlantic and the Caribbean...
...Puerto Ricau economics arc vitally affected by colonial practices which we continue, although our colonialism has proved far more enlightened than that of other empires...
...This means a far heavier load .on the school system than the United State* has ever been catted upon to meet...
...Congress may have Us own reason for permitting Hoover's proposals for reofgggtutlon to bog dowa...
...There Is little cause far rsjoiclng ever law Header pains that world peace hat recently made...
...Yugoslavia stands to lore much gold and Considerable ftPfe* property by Hungary's Comta/orm-insptred action ceasing reparations...
...The budget for public education lias been increased more than sixfold in the past eight years from $6,000,000 in 1941 to $36,000,003 in 1948...
...the rest has to be sent in a semi-processed state to be refined on the mainland...
...You can then begin to appreciate the job which the educational system of Puerto Rico has to face...
...Most drafts originate down below and circulate upwards and outwards...
...It also indicates that progress has been made...
...The funds are to be allocated to the states on the basis of their need, as indicated by the per capita income of the state and the number of children of school age...
...True, President Truman appointed a native governor in 1946, and Congress allowed the island to elect its own governor in 1948...
...Perhaps it batistes In leaving bad enough alone...
...last year, there were 47 per cent...
...The bill is endorsed by every legitimate educational organization in the country plus the AFL, CIO, Farmers Union, NAACP and many other groups...
...That r, what we would have if, instead of 48 people to the square mile, we had the same population density as the Island: 648...
...UNFORTUNATELY, it seems we are again going to forget the pressing heeds of Puerto Rico...
...If Puerto Rico were allowed to refine all its sugar, its income would be increased by around $25,000,000 annually...
...95% of those In rural elementary schools attend only three hours a day...
...Nine out of ten pupils who start rural first grade drop out before the seventh...
...locally...
...it has nevT been asked whether it wants to remain under our flag...
...Morris B. Chapman...
...They are to be allocated funds cn the basis of a ratio between their population and that of the United States as a whole, instead of on the basis of need, as in the case of the states...
...Hlckonlooper and David Lilienthal would enthrall us as a slapstick comedy...
...This fact demonstrates how much the people of the island want to improve their school system...
...That crack athletes earner many awards was proved again in the case of Gerhardt Bisler...
...This would bring in another $25,000,000 annually...
...In the long run, we must grant the island's unanimous demand for selfdetermination—and that doesn't mean in 24M0 AD...
...It seems to be a case of "Half • league, half a league, half a league letkwards...
...Despite wide political differences between the Big Four Powers, economic considerations are tending to create a .united Europe...
Vol. 32 • July 1949 • No. 30
