PORTO RICO. 



T23 



The President of the Council, who had been in- 

 strumental in obtaining autonomy from Spain, 

 was disposed to arrogate to himself the author- 

 ity and control for which Gen. Henry was re- 

 sponsible, and in this he was supported by his 

 colleagues, who claimed that the Cabinet as rep- 

 resentative of the people, should exercise a re- 

 sponsible control over the internal policy and the 

 civil affairs of the island, and act as the dele- 

 gates of the people's will -in their dealings with 

 the Governor General. They declined to con- 

 tinue in office under the new arrangement longer 

 than the time necessary for the Governor Gen- 

 eral to choose the new heads of departments. 

 To do so would make them unpopular with the 

 Liberal party, to which they belonged, of which 

 Muiioz Rivera was the head, and which com- 

 prised the great majority of the people. Gen. 

 Henry reappointed Cayetano Coll y Toste, who 

 was in sympathy with the new system, Secretary 

 of Finance. Francisco Acuna was made Secre- 

 tary of State, Herminio Diaz Navarro Secretary 

 of Justice, and Federico Degetan y Gonzalez 

 Secretary of the Interior. The last belonged to 

 the Radical party, while the others were Liberals. 

 Thus the idea of party government was banished 

 from the administration, which under the new 

 system proceeded in a far more expeditious and 

 businesslike way than was possible under the 

 old system. Gen. Henry invited the people to 

 address him directly if they had complaints to 

 make regarding local abuses. He called a con- 

 vention of delegates from the Liberal, Radical, 

 and Independent parties, who agreed to sink their 

 past differences and work together for the good 

 of the island, without regard to party affilia- 

 tions. The party feeling was, however, so strong 

 that the Governor General arranged to give equal 

 representation to the . Liberals and Radicals in 

 the 70 municipal councils. For this purpose lists 

 of eligible persons were made out by the exist- 

 ing councils, the only qualification being the pay- 

 ment of municipal taxes. From these lists the 

 Department of State, which has charge of mu- 

 nicipal affairs, public order, health, and elections, 

 as well as of correspondence with Washington, 

 selected names, and the Governor General ap- 

 pointed the councilmen. Subsequently the power 

 of appointment was delegated to the Secretary 

 of State. The assumption of power over mu- 

 nicipal affairs was rendered necessary by the 

 maladministration of the Liberal party in all 

 parts of the island. The appointment of alcaldes 

 was also committed to the Secretary of State. 

 In the other departments of Government also 

 the secretaries were intrusted with the guidance 

 of affairs as soon as they learned the plan and 

 method that the Governor General wanted to 

 introduce; but he always acted when complaints 

 \\ ci (> made or exceptions taken to the decision 

 of a secretary, first communicating the complaint 

 to the latter and getting a written explanation 

 of his conduct. Subsequently the various govern- 

 mental departments became bureaus, each with 

 a United States army officer at its head. The 

 departments. under this system administered re- 

 spectively sanitary affairs, education, the treas- 

 ury, customs, the judiciary, and police. In order 

 that he might have a ready means of communica- 

 tion with native society and opinion, he created 

 the office of chief secretary, which was filled ac- 

 ceptably by Cayetano Coll'y Toste. 



Gen. Henry was succeeded as military governor 

 by Gen. George W. Davis in the beginning of 

 August. The new Governor General undertook 

 to pave the way for the establishment of terri- 

 torial government. All his reforms lay in the 



direction of the substitution of the civil power 

 for military rule. He restored the writ of habeas 

 corpus, created a board of prisons, instituted a 

 United States provisional court, introduced trial 

 by jury, and secured the recognition, with im- 

 provements, of the code of laws and judicial prac- 

 tice previously existing in the island'. 



The work of political and industrial reconstruc- 

 tion when it was beginning to show good results 

 was suddenly interrupted by a natural calamity 

 more disastrous than the war had been. A hur- 

 ricane of the most destructive kind swept over 

 the island on Aug. 8, blowing down towns and 

 houses, stripping off the mangoes, avocados, 

 breadfruit, bananas, and plantains, on which 

 half the people subsist, uprooting coffee trees, 

 breaking the cocoanut and other palms, and lay- 

 ing waste the gardens and plantations. About 

 3,000 people were killed by falling walls or 

 drowned in the floods that followed the storm, 

 and 200,000 were left houseless, penniless, and 

 famishing. The storm was most severe on the 

 southern side of the island. Few of the planters 

 and none of the peasants had money to rebuild, 

 restock, and replant. The authorities at Wash- 

 ington at once loaded a transport with food to 

 avert famine, and for many weeks rations were 

 served out to the people. Private contributions 

 were collected in the United States to aid the peo- 



S'e to rebuild their dwellings and make new crops, 

 ne fifth of all the dwelling houses on the island 

 were razed to the ground, and all the crops and 

 most of the trees were ruined. A great many 

 thousand cattle were drowned. Gen. Davis estab- 

 lished a central board of relief at San Juan, and 

 instituted boards all over the island to regulate 

 assistance and distribute supplies. Work on the 

 roads was extended to the utmost, so as to give 

 employment to as many as possible. The erec- 

 tion of new houses and repairing of those that 

 were partly ruined furnished work for a great 

 many more, money for this purpose having been 

 subscribed in the United States. The damage to 

 buildings and machinery and to warehouses and 

 stores of coffee, tobacco, and sugar, the loss of 

 the sugar, coffee, and fruit crop, loss of live 

 stock, damage to railroads and shipping, and in- 

 jury to plantations amounted to more than $30,- 

 000,000. All but the smallest of the coffee trees, 

 which take five years to mature, were destroyed. 

 Only the most sheltered banana groves escaped, 

 and where the sugar cane was left standing on 

 a few plantations the machinery was wrecked. 

 Most of the crops were mortgaged for advances 

 from banks and money lenders, and therefore but 

 few planters were in a position to give employ- 

 ment to the peons and renew the industrial and 

 commercial activity of the island. The rations 

 from the United States were in the beginning 

 given out freely and indiscriminately. After two 

 weeks, when the relief works were in full opera- 

 tion, only the old and infirm or young children 

 were fed gratuitously, while to all able-bodied 

 adults work was offered. 



The prompt and liberal assistance received from 

 the Government and citizens of the United States 

 went a long way toward effacing the lingering 

 jealousy, suspicion, and prejudice felt by the 

 Porto Ricans against the Americans, whom they 

 had generally welcomed on the hostile invasion 

 of the island by United States troops, because 

 they were eager to be delivered from the ca- 

 pricious favoritism and corrupt extortion of the 

 Spanish rulers, but latterly had distrusted and 

 disliked for the despotic and often unsympathetic 

 military administration, which ignored the ele- 

 ments of political liberty and self-government en- 



