88 Presidential Addresses 



one can turn to an experience for the purpose of 

 learning what to follow ; and the last is true of our 

 experience in Porto Rico. So excellent has been 

 the administration of the island, so excellent the 

 effect of the legislation concerning it, that their 

 very excellence has caused most of us to forget all 

 about it. There is no opportunity for headlines 

 about Porto Rico. You don't need to use large let 

 ters in order to say that Porto Rico continues quiet 

 and prosperous. There is hardly a ripple of failure 

 upon the stream of our success there ; and as we don't 

 have to think of remedies, we follow our usual cus 

 tom in these matters, and don't think of it at all. 

 How have we brought that about? First and 

 foremost, in Porto Rico we have consistently striven 

 to get the very best men to administer the affairs 

 of the island. It is desirable throughout our public 

 service to secure a high standard of efficiency and 

 integrity. But after all, here at home we ourselves 

 always have in our own hands the remedy whereby 

 to supply any deficiency in integrity or capacity 

 among those that govern us. That is a fact that 

 seems to have been forgotten, but it is a fact. In 

 a far-off island things are different. There wrong 

 doing is more easy and those that suffer from it 

 are more helpless; while there is less efficient check 

 in the way of that public opinion to which public 

 men are sensitive. In consequence, the administra 

 tion of those islands is beyond all other kinds of 

 administration under our government the one in 

 which the highest standard must be demanded. In 



