PUERTO RICO'S CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE
Villard, Oswald Garrison
Puerto Rico's Case For Independence By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third of three articles by Mr. Villard on Puerto Rico. The earlier articles appeared in the Apr. 10 and...
...With these words Sen...
...How could it buy its $100,000,000 of necessities in the United States and keep its people alive if in addition to the loss of these great benefits, the American market should be closed to its sugar...
...Of The Problem That summarizes the fear of thoughtful Puerto Ricans and all friendly Americans...
...Here is plainly the crux of the independence problem...
...Everything is either black or white...
...Puerto Ricans either want statehood or independence, and nothing in between...
...He might have added that if we meant what we said in the first World War, that we were fighting for the right of small nations to their own way of life, we cannot possibly block the way to' Puerto Rican independence but should devote ourselves to helping to bring it about if a majority desires it...
...10 and Apr...
...No foreign flag vessel can stop in Puerto Rico to land or take on passengers or goods if...
...Bone spoke, Sen...
...San Juan "THERE is a terrifying finality about the views expressed in Puerto Rico...
...But could the Puerto Ricans govern themselves...
...Homer Bone, Washington Democrat, presented the attitude of the Puerto Ricans as he saw it and added that nothing in the bill for local...
...The island buys about 100 million dollars' worth of goods and food from the United States in normal years...
...But why are we so mean and so stupid as to put on any tariffs at all...
...Watched With Eagle Eyes How do the leaders of the independence movement answer these questions...
...Crux...
...Do we or do we not believe in liberty and self-government...
...In addition, according to the Puerto Rican Planning Board, the Washington Government donates $63,-500,000 a year, of which 14 millions are remitted excise and customs taxes—no internal revenue law applies to this island as all such revenues collected here go to the insular treasury...
...There are no neutral tints or neutral shades...
...Why should we not give Puerto Ricans the full government they desire and the economic ? guarantees they will need in order to stand alone...
...There are many grants for education, public works, roads, housing, conservation, and free commodity distribution, Army and Navy installations, etc., which total, the Planning Board thinks, $39,500,000...
...Robert Taft, Ohio Republican, who has also studied the Puerto Rican question on the spot, declared that he opposed giving independence to the Puerto Ricans because if we did "there would be the direct poverty and the most tragic collapse of their economic life," unless we accompanied independence "with some economic treaty...
...The only reason for it is our protective policy which makes us hated or feared everywhere, and is today admitted even by our Nation-al Association of Manufacturers to be in need of radical revision...
...self-government, which the Senate was considering when he spoke, would satisfy the islandws...
...That is a humiliating statement for an American to make after we have governed the island for 46 years...
...He declared that this island could not be compared with Hawaii, Alaska, or even the Philippines because "it is a nation of 2,000,000 people, which was subject to Spain, but which for many purposes had practical independence...
...They point out that if our tariffs in some respects aid the island, it also loses much by the exclusion of foreign goods...
...After 46 years in Puerto Rico we have neither made the Puerto Ricans love us, nor given them decent and intelligent government, nor set up a plan for their full development...
...17 issues...
...15, answered that...
...Taft, in the debate of Feb...
...The Puerto Rican independence advocates are right in saying that the other Caribbean island republics— or dictatorships—do go it alone, for better or for worse, and that, if we set Puerto Rico free and helped her to start off by herself instead of keeping her as a poor farm supported by charity, the spectacle of a happy and self-governing island would exercise most favorable good-neighbor influence...
...In the same debate in which Sen...
...They are just as able to govern themselves as are many other free nations...
...Well, a first step has been taken...
...If they desire to govern themselves subject to certain military qualifications, I do not think that in the end we can in any way refuse their desire...
...Yet it is only the fear of this which keeps talk of statehood alive here, outside of the possessing group and conservatives...
...bound to or coming from another American port...
...It is the one great stumbling block to independence, for our whole economic policy toward the island has been as if shaped to render it hopelessly indigent and unable to support itself...
...Senator Millard Tydings, Maryland Democrat, long ago introduced a bill granting the Puerto Ricans independence and fixing a period of 20 years during which the American tariffs shall be put on at the rate of five per cent a year...
...The other Latin-American countries watch everything that happens in Puerto Rico with eagle eyes...
...It has no other products of any size with which to purchase many goods 'abroad...
...I go further than the Senator for I am certain that, if there were no fear of an economic collapse after independence, 90 per cent of the native Puerto Ricans would be for independence today and almost no one would say one word about statehood...
...What, conservative Puerto Ricans ask, could the island possibly do without this aid...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 20
