The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-13
MORE ABOUT PORTO RICO.
tContlnuea From ronrth page.

tContinued From Fourth Page)
 and has not the facilities afforded him for learning to do so; and knows our country only by the dried fish and rice it sends him for his consumption. His bete noir is the Soanish civil guard,
 who patrol the country in mounted pairs, and whose boast is that they never bring in prisoner alive. He pays direct tax to the government in the form of impuesto territorial, or as- sessment on the value of his farm, and the cedula, or internal passport; and it has been stated that these taxes amount to about sixes per cent. of his net income. But he is ready for eman- cipation, and, when educated, will
 prove a valuable and laW-abiding citi-
 zen. ..
 The internal administration of the is-
 land disposes of budget of about SS,-
 100000, and is Woful example of cor rupt officialism. Of this sum only
 about 650000 is expended in the island,
 the remainder being applied to pay
 ment of interest on public debt, sala- aies of Spanish officials, array, navy
 and other extra-insular expenditure.
 But the whole of the revenue is collect-
 ed in the island. This is indeed absen-
 tee landlordism with vengeance. As
 an example of an oppressive system of
 taxation, nothing can beat the levy
 made on the transfer of real estate,
 which is two per cent on the assessed
 value of the property, and an equal
 amount on mortgages to afford the privilege of inscription and record on the civil register. The press is noni-
 nally free, but articles attacking any
 branch of the public service are not tolerated, as being subyersive of order and good citizenship. Questions of general policy are discussed, but with in certain limitations well understood by the editors, who have to assume re- sponsibility for all unsigned communi- cations, and frequently pay the penal ty for publishing news distasteful to the government by Imprisonment and suspension of their periodicals. Such censorship, however, has never been quietly submitted to, and it speaks well for the press of the island that hardly a day passes but what some editor is fined or imprisoned. The courts of jus tice presided over by Spanish judges are so only in name, and for two rea- sons. The first is that the judiciary is not independent of the administration, and judges can be removed or trans ferred at the will of the executive. The second reason owes it's being to the fic- tion that the island is province of Spain, and therefore the court of last appeal is situated in the peninsula, | where venal Spanish judges and pre1u- diced Spanish jliries are hardly likely to i do justice to the hated and down-trod- den colonials.
 With the removal of the cancerous growth of absolute tyranny, and the implantation of republican institutions,
 a bright future awaits the unfortunate isle. Whatever form of government it l be accorded, territorial, autonomous or l colonial, the inalienable right of man. | kind to free speech, free press and free education cannot bt, being practiced, bear fruit and add one more stone to 1 the temple of liberty which this nation | is building with materials gathered from the four corners of the globe.-Al-
 fred Solomon of the Porto Rican As-
 sembly in the Independent.