164 



CONGRESS. (THE PORTO Rico MEASURES.) 



The Porto Rico Measures. Though of far 

 less intrinsic importance than the financial meas- 

 ure, the bill " temporarily to provide revenue* and 

 a civil government for Porto Rico, and for other 

 purposes," took up even more time for discussion, 

 as it involved a constitutional issue as to the 

 standing of our new possessions. Legislation be- 

 gan with a bill, introduced Jan. 19, 1900, by Mr. 

 Payne, of New York, " to extend the laws relating 

 to customs and internal revenue over the island 

 of Porto Rico, ceded to the United States." The 

 measure was referred to the Committee on Ways 

 and Means, and, Feb. 8, Mr. Payne reported a 

 substitute from that committee, recommending its 

 passage. The purpose of the substitute was to 

 prevent the policy of the original measure. It 

 established the tariff of the United States in Porto 

 Rico, so far as imports from foreign countries were 

 concerned, but also provided for a duty of 25 per 

 cent, of our regular tariff rates on trade between 

 that island and the United States, and an addi- 

 tional duty on certain articles equal to the amount 

 levied on them for internal revenue. The fund 

 that should be raised in this way was to be kept 

 separate, and put in the hands of the President, 

 to be used for the government and the benefit of 

 Porto Rico. 



In supporting the bill, Mr. Payne made a state- 

 ment as to the acquisition of the island, and gave 

 statistics as to its inhabitants and their industries, 

 and then put clearly the hardships that followed 

 the political changes wrought by the recent war. 

 He said: 



" Spain collected in taxes from these people over 

 5,000,000 pesos annually. A peso is a Spanish or. 

 Porto Rican silver dollar, containing about 93J 

 per cent, as much silver as an American silver 

 dollar. It is worth now in the market 41 cents; 

 but by an Executive order it was made exchange- 

 able in United States money at the rate of 60 cents 

 for a peso. So it was worth 60 cents of our money. 

 Spain collected these 5,000,000 pesos from these 

 people. But instead of building schoolhouses or 

 providing a school system, they took about half of 

 this money to support the Spanish army and navy 

 and to help out poor Spain from year to year. 



" The exports of the island were about 17,000,000 

 pesos and the imports about the same amount. 

 The three principal items of export were coffee, 

 sugar, and tobacco, in the order named. About 60 

 per cent, of the total exports was coffee, about 20 

 per cent, sugar, and about 5 per cent, tobacco. 

 The market for the coffee was found principally 

 in Spain, and also in Cuba. That which went to 

 Spain found its way to France and Germany, and 

 some of it to the United States, where it is sold 

 for the best Mocha and the best Java, and I am 

 told by competent experts that the best grades of 

 it are fully equal if not superior to any Mocha or 

 Java coffee that can be bought anywhere in the 

 world. 



" When Hie war was over Spain put a prohibitive 

 duty on coffee, as she did upon tobacco, and a 

 corresponding duty upon sugar. Cuba, which we 

 hold in trust, demanded of the United States that 

 we put a duty upon Porto Rican coffee and Porto 

 l.'iean tobacco. A large portion of the tobacco crop 

 was brought to Cuba in the years gone by free of 

 duty, and there it was made up into cigars, some- 

 times mixed with Havana tobacco and sometimes 

 not, but most of it came to the United States in 

 t he shape of the best Havana tobacco. The better 

 qualities of this were exported. There were some 

 minor grades that went to Europe, principally to 

 Germany, selling at 5 or 10 cents a pound. 



"The export of tobacco was 4,000.000 pounds 

 annually. One year it went up to 6,000,000 pounds, 



but the normal average exports were 4,000,000 

 pounds. They raise a million or two pounds more, 

 which are consumed in the island. These were 

 made into cigars and cigarettes by the natives and 

 sold there. 



" Of sugar about three fifths came to the United 

 States and two fifths went to Spain. That is about 

 the proportion that has been exported to the two 

 countries for the last ten years. Some of the time 

 perhaps we got two thirds of it. So that a part of 

 the sugar market was in Spain and the rest in the 

 United States. Spain cut off the market for sugar. 

 cut off the market for coffee, cut off the market 

 for tobacco, which was 85 per cent, of their exports, 

 and left the people without a market for these 

 commodities, save that they had in the United 

 States. 



" In addition to that, Cuba demanded of the 

 Government not only a duty on coffee which was 

 prohibitory, but a duty of $5 a pound on tobacco, 

 which was also prohibitory, and under which not a 

 pound could be exported to Cuba. 



" Well, these Porto Ricans began to feel as 

 though they had been made the victims of mis- 

 placed confidence. When they saw the flag go 

 up and knew that ' prosperity followed the Ihig,' 

 as a matter of course they expected to get a little 

 of that prosperity themselves. Instead of that, 

 the first result was to cut off these markets. More 

 than that, on the 8th of August last there occurred 

 there a storm, or hurricane, which swept that 

 island from end to end; such a storm as had not 

 been known there since 1867. This occurred at 

 a time when they were just getting ready to 

 harvest the crop of coffee, which then bade fail- 

 to be a great crop. 



" One man, an extensive coffee planter, estimated 

 that the entire output of coffee would exceed that 

 of any previous year by 7,000,000 pesos in value. 

 The normal crop is somewhere about 8,000,000 or 

 10,000,000 pesos. This crop, which was expected 

 to be a double crop, was by the storm wiped out 

 of existence, because the winds swept the berri 

 from off the bushes, and then the rain descended, 

 so that when the sun came out there was nothing 

 left but the dry and shriveled part, of no use 

 whatever. Not 10 per cent, of the ordinary crop 

 was harvested in consequence of the effect of that 

 storm. And that was not the worst of it. The 

 market had been tied up for a year by these ad 

 verse tariff rates in Cuba and Spain; the coffee 

 crop of the year before was sheltered in their little 

 huts and in crudely constructed buildings all over 

 the land. The wind razed those huts to the 

 ground, destroying the greater portion of the crop 

 of the previous year. So a double calamity cam 

 upon these people. 



" The winds did great damage and created great 

 desolation. In addition to the damage to the sugar 

 crop and the tobacco crop, more than 2.000 people 

 perished in the storm, while hundreds of thousands 

 were turned out of their rude homes, shelterless 

 to the blasts that beat upon them. 



" This was the condition in August last. And 

 these people, who had begun to despair under what 

 had come to them from the loss of the markets, 

 had still more reason to despair because of tin- 

 devastation by this terrible storm. 



" Mr. Chairman, after I had heard these repre- 

 sentations from the gentlemen who appeared In- 

 fore the Committee on Insular Affairs, particularly 

 the report of that honorable, able, and competent 

 official, Urig.-Gen. Davis, who is now the military 

 commander, it seems to me that Congress ought to 

 afford some relief as quickly as possible to tin- 

 people of these islands. The President had recom- 

 mended that we give them free trade with the 



