The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-15
A EL4G. RETERSEH.


The published reports of the conviction
of the president of the Federation Of
Labor of Porto Rico and certain of~his
associates of conspiracy to raise the
price of labor on the island present to
nary person. additional reason to wonder
what stlle real political status of that ISL
and is with reference to the United
States. r.
The alleged crime for which Mr.
Iglesias has been ordered imprisoned. for
upward of three years seems to have
consisted in uniting with the other mem
bers of his organization in securing an in
crease in wages. The occasion of taking
the steps whatever they were in that
behalf seems to have been when the cur
rency of the island was being changed,
from a basis of the pesos to that of the
dollar as dictated by our constitution and
laws According to the report these men
did nothing more than any other dealers
in a commercial commodity; they took
steps to get the largest possible equiva
lent in dollars for the commodity they
had to market, such equivalent being es-
timated in. dollars rather than in tie
pesos as before. They We're convicted
and sentenced to Imprisonment for the
commission of this offense.
The explanation is offered of the con
viction of these men that it was accom-
plished under the operation of Spanish
laws; and Mr.. Gompers is represented
as inveighing very bitterly against the
Spanish code because it could have EN-
bodied any such provision. Mr.. Gompers
is quite right in his animadversion on
the Spanish code; but he seems to miss
the point American authority has pre-
vailed on the island of Porto Rico for a
considerable period of time. The inhab-
itants of the island look to the United
| States for protection in their rights and
| privileges. It must, indeed, be regarded
as an extraordinary circumstance that
after such a lapse of time standards of
measuring the social and personal rights
| of the people of Porto Rico
represented by this barbarous jul
dicial decision should still pre-
/ vail, and that such state of society
Should be tolerated by American author
| ity that the men now convicted could
| have been shot at and otherwise mall
| treated for their efforts on behalf of their
| fellow laborers in the direction of i'm
proving their material condition.
1t is not many months since num-
Der of representatives of organized labor
down in Florida were maltreated in an
| utterly barbarous manner because they
! sought the advancement of their own In
| terests, doubtless after the fashion OF
these men in San Juan. Whatever their
4 methods in so doing may have been those
| adopted by the class which resented
those efforts were utterly inde-
feasible under any state of society what
ever; while nothing was ever made public
/ to show that the cigarmakers of Tampa
were not acting strictly within their legal
rights.
1t IS shame and a wrong that code
of laws should be in operation at this
time in Porto Rico as to render such i'll
treatment of any class. of the residents
of the island possible. 1t is very plain
! that not Iglesias and his companions, but
those who are instrumental in bringing
about their conviction, would now be, in
! jail in San Juan if the American flag
were not there and elsewhere being made