Chapter LXXX: Section IV (7)

"On the morning of the 7th of August, 1899, the United States
Weather Bureau, through its branch establishment here,
announced the approach of a cyclonic disturbance, and the
danger signal was ordered to be hoisted at substations of the
Bureau at Ponce and Mayaguez. At the same time I directed that
the danger be reported to all commanding officers of posts
throughout the island. There had been no serious or
destructive storm in Puerto Rico since 1867, and the
inhabitants had ceased to feel great concern on account of
tropical tempests. Except at seaports, little heed was given
to the caution, and in some cases the telegraph operators
failed to receive or to promptly deliver the warning messages.
The vortex of the cyclone appears to have traversed the island
throughout its whole length, from about Humacao to Mayaguez,
and its path was a scene of very great devastation. … The gale
struck the island at Humacao about midnight of August 7, and
furiously blew all the rest of that night and well into the
next day, while at Mayaguez the violence was not great until 9
o'clock on the morning of the 8th. But as the latter town was
under the lee of high mountains, it suffered much less than it
would have done had it been higher or not thus protected. Most
of the habitations in the track of the center of the cyclone
were entirely smashed and the débris strewn all over the
country. The full reports of the loss of life bring the number
of deaths up to 2,700. The wind worked dreadful havoc with nearly
everything useful to man. Besides the mortality, which was
appalling, the material damage was almost beyond belief. But
the greatest loss of life resulted, not from the wind, but
from the terrible downfall of rain that immediately followed.
… Added to the horror of the situation there came with the
gale on the southern coast a tidal wave, which submerged large
areas with sea water and swept away what the wind and rain had
spared, in some places completing the destruction. Every river
bed or bottom of a land depression was a roaring torrent. The
wind uprooted myriads of trees, and the rain, entering and
permeating the soil, loosened it, and on steep declivities
resulted in avalanches of earth, mud, and water, covering wide
areas and piling up the debris in the ravines and gorges. … The
material loss to the coffee growers can as yet only be
estimated, but the most conservative figures received place
this year's crop at one-third of the normal. … Regard being
had to the fact that five years must elapse before the coffee
trees and their shade can be replanted and reach a normal
bearing condition, the total loss can not be safely placed
below 25,000,000 pesos for Puerto Rico on account of this
hurricane."

_General George W. Davis,
Report (Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1343-1344)._

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (October).
Census of the Island taken under the direction of the
War Department of the United States.

"The population of Porto Rico shown by the schedules of the
present census taken with reference to the date of October 16,
1899, was 953,243. This was about nine-tenths of the
population of Maryland in 1890, the State whose population is
nearest to that of Porto Rico. … If the figures for … earlier
censuses may be accepted, it appears that the population of
Porto Rico has been growing through the last twelve years with
greater rapidity than before since 1860. Its present rate of
increase is about the same as that of Ohio, Tennessee, or the
Carolinas during the decade between 1880 and 1890. … It
appears that the average increase of population in the
interior has been more rapid than that on the coast. If the
figures for the coast cities of San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez
had been excluded, the difference would be yet more marked.
The depressed condition of sugar-cane growing in the West
Indies of recent years may have played an important part in
producing this difference, for the growing of sugar cane is
prevalent in the coast plains of Porto Rico.

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"The area of Porto Rico, including the adjacent and dependent
islands of Vieques, Culebra, Mona, and Muertos, has been
measured in connection with this census and found to be 3,606
square miles. But owing to the imperfect surveys on which all
maps of Porto Rico are based there must be a considerable and
indeterminate margin of possible error in any such
measurement. The island is about three times the size of Long
Island, which was in 1890 perhaps the largest insular division
of the United States. It is also slightly greater than the
eastern shore of Maryland (3,461 square miles). … Porto Rico
has 264 persons to a square mile. This density of population
is about the same as in Massachusetts, twice that in New York
State, and thrice that in Ohio. It is more than seven times
that of Cuba and not much less than twice that of Habana
province. …

"The people of Porto Rico are, in the main, a rural community.
There are no large cities in the island, the two largest being
San Juan, which, regarding the entire municipal district as a
city, had a population of 32,048, and Ponce, which with its
port constituted practically one city, with a population of
27,952. These are the only two cities exceeding 25,000
inhabitants. The next city of magnitude is Mayaguez, on the
west coast, with a population of 15,187. The only other city
exceeding 8,000 inhabitants is Arecibo, with a population of
8,008. The total urban population of the island contained in
cities exceeding 8,000 inhabitants each is 83,195, or only 8.7
per cent of the population of the island. This is a much
smaller proportion than in Cuba, where the corresponding
figures are 32.3 per cent, or in the United States, where the
corresponding proportion in 1890 was 29.2 per cent. There are
in Porto Rico 57 cities, each having a population of 1,000 or
more. The total urban population of the island, under this
definition, numbers 203,792, or 21.4 per cent of the total
number of inhabitants of the island. Similar figures for Cuba
show 47.1 per cent of the population of that island."

_Census of Porto Rico, Bulletin No.1._

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900.
The question of the tariff treatment of its new Territory
by the United States Government.

Writing in "The Forum," November, 1899, Mr. H. K. Carroll, who
had investigated the conditions in Porto Rico as a Special
Commissioner of the United States government, described the
obligation which, in his view, they imposed on the latter as
follows: "The only free market the Puertorican has for his
products is the island market. All the rest of the world is
closed to him. He cannot even buy in a free market; everything
he buys as well as everything he sells being subject to
duties. This is the penalty of independence; but Puerto Rico
is not, and does not want to be, independent. She wants such
commercial relations with us as Alaska, New Mexico, and
Arizona have, and desires a territorial form of government. I
am of the opinion that we cannot refuse these reasonable
requests without doing great injustice to Puerto Rico. It must
be remembered that we sought Puerto Rico; for Puerto Rico did
not seek us. We wrested her from the sovereignty of Spain,
without asking her if she desired to change her allegiance. We
were of the opinion that she was not justly treated by Spain;
that she was governed in the interests of the mother country
solely; that she was oppressed and overtaxed and denied a
proper measure of home rule; and that in consequence we were
serving the cause of humanity in breaking the chains that
bound her. This was what the Puertoricans thought also. They
welcomed our troops and our control. They were glad to turn
their backs on the history of the past, and begin under the
glorious Republic of the North a new and more prosperous
career. They are disappointed, perhaps unreasonably, that
their new life has not already begun; they are eagerly
expectant. They look to the President to recommend, and to
Congress to adopt, a system of government which will make the
island a Territory, equal in rank and rights and privileges to
existing Territories. They ought not to be disappointed
without the best and strongest of reasons. Three reasons are
mentioned in opposition to the granting of territorial
government to Puerto Rico. First, admission as a Territory
implies ultimate admission to statehood; and statehood for
islands separated as Hawaii and Puerto Rico are by from 1,200
to 2,500 miles from the United States is not to be thought of
for a moment. Second, territorial organization involves the
relinquishment of customs duties; and the cane and tobacco
growers of our West India possession would have free access to
the markets of the United States, and thus come into injurious
competition with our own farmers. Third, the people of Puerto
Rico are not competent for the measure of self-government
which the territorial system provides."

This most reasonable and just view of the duty of the American
people to their new fellow citizens received strong
endorsement from higher official authority in the subsequent
annual report of the Secretary of War, who said: "It is plain
that it is essential to the prosperity of the island that she
should receive substantially the same treatment at our hands
as she received from Spain while a Spanish colony, and that
the markets of the United States should be opened to her as
were the markets of Spain and Cuba before the transfer of
allegiance. Congress has the legal right to regulate the
customs duties between the United States and Porto Rico as it
pleases; but the highest considerations of justice and good
faith demand that we should not disappoint the confident
expectation of sharing in our prosperity with which the people
of Porto Rico so gladly transferred their allegiance to the
United States, and that we should treat the interests of this
people as our own; and I wish most strongly to urge that the
customs duties between Porto Rico and the United States be
removed."

_Message and Documents:
Abridgment, 1899-1900, volume 2, page 757._

And, finally, the President of the United States, in his
Message to Congress, December 5, 1899, gave his high authority
to the declaration that this duty of his government to Porto
Rico was "plain": "It must be borne in mind," he said, "that
since the cession Porto Rico has been denied the principal
markets she had long enjoyed and our tariffs have been
continued against her products as when she was under Spanish
sovereignty. The markets of Spain are closed to her products
except upon terms to which the commerce of all nations is
subjected. The island of Cuba, which used to buy her cattle
and tobacco without customs duties, now imposes the same
duties upon these products as from any other country entering
her ports.
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She has therefore lost her free intercourse with Spain and
Cuba, without any compensating benefits in this market. Her
coffee was little known and not in use by our people, and
therefore there was no demand here for this, one of her chief
products. The markets of the United States should be opened up
to her products. Our plain duty is to abolish all customs
tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico and give her
products free access to our markets."

_Message and Documents: Abridgment,
volume 1, page 53._

Notwithstanding all which high official acknowledgments and
declarations of obligation and duty, on the part of the
Republic of the United States to the people of the island
which it had wrested from Spain, certain interests in the
former that objected to competition from the latter were able
to secure legislation which deferred the performance of the
"plain duty" required. An Act of Congress which the President
approved on the 12th of April, 1900, "temporarily to provide
revenues and a civil government for Porto Rico and for other
purposes," enacted as follows:

"SECTION 3.
That on and after the passage of this Act all merchandise
coming into the United States from Porto Rico and coming into
Porto Rico from the United States shall be entered at the
several ports of entry upon payment of fifteen per centum of
the duties which are required to be levied, collected, and
paid upon like articles of merchandise imported from foreign
countries; and in addition thereto upon articles of
merchandise of Porto Rican manufacture coming into the United
States and withdrawn for consumption or sale upon payment of a
tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in the United
States upon the like articles of merchandise of domestic
manufacture; such tax to be paid by internal-revenue stamp or
stamps to be purchased and provided by the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue and to be procured from the collector of
internal revenue at or most convenient to the port of entry of
said merchandise in the United States, and to be affixed under
such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with
the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall
prescribe; and on all articles of merchandise of United States
manufacture coming into Porto Rico in addition to the duty
above provided upon payment of a tax equal in rate and amount
to the internal-revenue tax imposed in Porto Rico upon the
like articles of Porto Rican manufacture: Provided, That on
and after the date when this Act shall take effect, all
merchandise and articles, except coffee, not dutiable under
the tariff laws of the United States, and all merchandise and
articles entered in Porto Rico free of duty under' orders
heretofore made by the Secretary of War, shall be admitted
into the several ports thereof, when imported from the United
States, free of duty, all laws or parts of laws to the
contrary notwithstanding; and whenever the legislative
assembly of Porto Rico shall have enacted and put into
operation a system of local taxation to meet the necessities
of the government of Porto Rico, by this Act established, and
shall by resolution duly passed so notify the President, he
shall make proclamation thereof, and thereupon all tariff
duties on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from
the United States or coming into the United States from Porto
Rico shall cease, and from and after such date all such
merchandise and articles shall be entered at the several ports
of entry free of duty; and in no event shall any duties be
collected after the first day of March, nineteen hundred and
two, on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from
the United States or coming into the United States from Porto
Rico.

"SECTION 4.
That the duties and taxes collected in Porto Rico in pursuance
of this Act, less the cost of collecting the same, and the
gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the
United States upon articles of merchandise coming from Porto
Rico, shall not be covered into the general fund of the
Treasury, but shall be held as a separate fund, and shall be
placed at the disposal of the President to be used for the
government and benefit of Porto Rico until the government of
Porto Rico herein provided for shall have been organized, when
all moneys theretofore collected under the provisions hereof,
then unexpended, shall be transferred to the local treasury of
Porto Rico, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate
the several ports and sub-ports of entry in Porto Rico, and
shall make such rules and regulations and appoint such agents
as may be necessary to collect the duties and taxes authorized
to be levied, collected, and paid in Porto Rico by the
provisions of this Act, and he shall fix the compensation and
provide for the payment thereof of all such officers, agents,
and assistants as he may find it necessary to employ to carry
out the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That as soon as
a civil government for Porto Rico shall have been organized in
accordance with the provisions of this Act and notice thereof
shall have been given to the President he shall make
proclamation thereof, and thereafter all collections of duties
and taxes in Porto Rico under the provisions of this Act shall
be paid into the treasury of Porto Rico, to be expended as
required by law for the government and benefit thereof instead
of being paid into the Treasury of the United States."

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (April).
Act to provide temporarily for the civil government
of the Island.

The fundamental provisions of the act of the Congress of the
United States to provide temporarily for the civil government
of Porto Rico, which the President approved April 12, 1900,
are the following:

"SECTION 6.
That the capital of Porto Rico shall be at the city of San
Juan and the seat of government shall be maintained there.

"SECTION 7.
That all inhabitants continuing to reside therein who were
Spanish subjects on the eleventh day of April, eighteen
hundred and ninety-nine, and then resided in Porto Rico, and
their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and
held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the
protection of the United States, except such as shall have
elected to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on
or before the eleventh day of April, nineteen hundred, in
accordance with the provisions of the treaty of peace between
the United States and Spain entered into on the eleventh day
of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine; and they, together
with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto
Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of The
People of Porto Rico, with governmental powers as hereinafter
conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such.

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"SECTION 8.
That the laws and ordinances of Porto Rico now in force shall
continue in full force and effect, except as altered, amended,
or modified hereinafter, or as altered or modified by military
orders and decrees in force when this Act shall take effect,
and so far as the same are not inconsistent or in conflict
with the statutory laws of the United States not locally
inapplicable, or the provisions hereof, until altered,
amended, or repealed by the legislative authority hereinafter
provided for Porto Rico or by Act of Congress of the United
States: Provided, That so much of the law which was in force
at the time of cession, April eleventh, eighteen hundred and
ninety-nine, forbidding the marriage of priests, ministers, or
followers of any faith because of vows they may have taken,
being paragraph four, article eighty-three, chapter three,
civil code, and which was continued by the order of the
secretary of justice of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth,
eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and promulgated by
Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States Volunteers, is
hereby repealed and annulled, and all persons lawfully married
in Porto Rico shall have all the rights and remedies conferred
by law upon parties to either civil or religious marriages:
And provided further, That paragraph one, article one hundred
and five, section four, divorce, civil code, and paragraph
two, section nineteen, of the order of the minister of justice
of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-nine, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry,
United States Volunteers, be, and the same hereby are, so
amended as to read: 'Adultery on the part of either the
husband or the wife.' …

"SECTION 14.
That the statutory laws of the United States not locally
inapplicable, except as hereinbefore or hereinafter otherwise
provided, shall have the same force and effect in Porto Rico
as in the United States, except the internal-revenue laws,
which, in view of the provisions of section three, shall not
have force and effect in Porto Rico.

"SECTION 15.
That the legislative authority hereinafter provided shall have
power by due enactment to amend, alter, modify, or repeal any
law or ordinance, civil or criminal, continued in force by
this Act, as it may from time to time see fit.

"SECTION 16.
That all judicial process shall run in the name of 'United
States of America, ss: the President of the United States,'
and all criminal or penal prosecutions in the local courts
shall be conducted in the name and by the authority of 'The
People of Porto Rico'; and all officials authorized by this
Act shall before entering upon the duties of their respective
offices take an oath to support the Constitution of the United
States and the laws of Porto Rico.

"SECTION 17.
That the official title of the chief executive officer shall
be 'The Governor of Porto Rico.' He shall be appointed by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate;
he shall hold his office for a term of four years and until
his successor is chosen and qualified unless sooner removed by
the President; he shall reside in Porto Rico during his
official incumbency, and shall maintain his office at the seat
of government; he may grant pardons and reprieves, and remit
fines and forfeitures for offenses against the laws of Porto
Rico, and respites for offenses against the laws of the United
States, until the decision of the President can be
ascertained; he shall commission all officers that he may be
authorized to appoint, and may veto any legislation enacted,
as hereinafter provided; he shall be the commander in chief of
the militia, and shall at all times faithfully execute the
laws, and he shall in that behalf have all the powers of
governors of the Territories of the United States that are not
locally inapplicable; and he shall annually, and at such other
times as he may be required, make official report of the
transactions of the government in Porto Rico, through the
Secretary of State, to the President of the United States:
Provided, That the President may, in his discretion, delegate
and assign to him such executive duties and functions as may
in pursuance with law be so delegated and assigned.

"SECTION 18.
That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, for the period of four
years, unless sooner removed by the President, a secretary, an
attorney-general, a treasurer, an auditor, a commissioner of
the interior, and a commissioner of education, each of whom
shall reside in Porto Rico during his official incumbency and
have the powers and duties hereinafter provided for them,
respectively, and who, together with five other persons of
good repute, to be also appointed by the President for a like
term of four years, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, shall constitute an executive council, at least five
of whom shall be native inhabitants of Porto Rico, and, in
addition to the legislative duties hereinafter imposed upon
them as a body, shall exercise such powers and perform such
duties as are hereinafter provided for them, respectively, and
who shall have power to employ all necessary deputies and
assistants for the proper discharge of their duties as such
officials and as such executive council. …

"SECTION 27.
That all local legislative powers hereby granted shall be
vested in a legislative assembly which shall consist of two
houses; one the executive council, as hereinbefore
constituted, and the other a house of delegates, to consist of
thirty-five members elected biennially by the qualified voters
as hereinafter provided; and the two houses thus constituted
shall be designated 'The legislative assembly of Porto Rico.'

"SECTION 28.
That for the purposes of such elections Porto Rico shall be
divided by the executive council into seven districts,
composed of contiguous territory and as nearly equal as may be
in population, and each district shall be entitled to five
members of the house of delegates.