Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-10
LABOR IN PORTO RICO
Subject Of Bulletin to Be Issued BY
Department Officials.
THE SEXES NEARLY EQUAL In NUMBER
Beneficent Effects Of Reorgani-
zation Under United States.
PERCENTAGE OF POVERTY

The United States department of labor is
about to issue bulletin on the subject of
Labor Conditions in Porto Rico pre-
pared, under the direction of Commissioner
Carroll D. Wright, by DR.. Azel Ames. The
bulletin, which will be very exhaustive.
will, among other matters of interest state
that Of the more than 100000 Inhabitants
of the island the female portion is in
excess only about nine-tenths of per cent
There are, however, Indications that the
proportion of females is slowly though
steadily increasing
OF the total population 81 per cent is I'M
der ten years of age, a higher proportion
than is found in any state of the Union or
in any other of the West Indian islands
A considerable number of children under
the age of ten, chiefly boys, earn the whole
or part Of a living for themselves, and
sometimes aid Others as street peddlers or
in the other vocations of outdoor life in
which child labor in the tropics can be
employed.
Only lis per cent of the population, it is
stated, exceed forty-five years of age. The
fact that the sexes are so nearly equal IN
number throughout the island is taken to
indicate presumably a people exempt from
any considerable immigration or emigra
ton. The latter, until recently was prac
tically unknown.
come within the designation of wage
workers, while relatively fewer in number
than in other parts of the United States,
have their lines Of demarcation much more
sharply drawn and their status more clearly
defined the spirit of class being far more
dominant with Latin people than with the
Anglo-Saxon. Outside these classes it is
regarded as safe to include the great mass
young and old, male and female, black and
white and mixed, in the list of those who,
except as they craftily or indolently evade
their responsibilities, "eat their bread in
the sweat of their brows.'
Hold Labor in Disdain.
Those possessed of means disdain both
labor and the laborer; the wealthy class.
notably the women, are emphatically the.
idle class, though the vicious, the wilfully
indolent. the beggar and the large number
Of the physically afflicted each contribute
large quota thereto. Poverty in various
degrees and the lower grades of toll, the
latter usually procuring bare subsistence
only, are the lot of the great mass of peo-
pie.
More potent the writer states, than any
other factor in fixing and holding the great
pody OF the wage workers of the island in
class of owest-conditioned servants of toll
Is the want of incentive, of stimulus and
Of opportunity. So long as a banana diet
and a palm shack in the country and the
cheapest of food and a single room in the
towns cover alike the needs and ambitions
existence can be obtained by the minimum
of labor, while the climate encourages in
dolence, and no incentive exists to greater
efforts or the overturning of long-rooted
tendencies. so long will the condition of the
great body of the laboring classes continue
very mnch as 1t is and the great percen-
tage OF toilers remain today in the
lowe grades of wage workers.
No more significant proof of the SUPER
abundance of labor. it is asserted. could
exist than the fact that not a few planters,
even those somewhat remote from the ship
ping ports and commercial centers and
sometimes situated at no great distance
from the belt railroad, or even from the
seacoast, find it cheaper to transport their
coHee, tobacco and other products on the
heads of poems to these ports and markets
than by railroad, bull carts, or even by
sea- Unhappiiy, this excess of labor over
the industrial demands of the island does
not materially stimulate personal activity
IN small agricultural other Industries
on the part of the unemployed. Their nat
ural Incidence and small necessities seem to
lead them to accept Indulgence and vagrancy
as no great evils. 1t is beyond question
that the condition Of the laboring classes
OF Porto Rico In general and of the peon
class In particular Is at the present time
and has long been, very deplorable-large
dne, doubtless, to insufficient employment.
One is. painfully impressed the report
goes on to state, whether in the streets of
city or town, or in the hill country, 10y the
number of human wrecks, the many beg
edio diiu tiie SuHheu-eyeu, palllQ, anaemfc
men, women and children. Extreme poverty,
hamilton and decrepitude are found and
though the island is one of great resources
and has good record for thrift there is
reason to believe that from the earliest
Gays OF the Spanish occupation this condi-
ton OF things as to the laboring classes
has been only too prevalent, and at times
worse In some respects than at present.
Exchange Of Currency.
The recent exchange of the insular COIN
age for United States currency has so far
done the wage worker some harm for
though the law Of supply and demand will
speedily regulate the market prices of
commodities, wages are always much
slower In adjusting themselves to changed
conditions. The price Of nearly every arti-
Gle of common consumption Is now in gold
what 1t formerly was in the debased sill
yer of the island, whose utmost value was
as 60 cents to the American dollar. But
in the change of governments the long
oppressed wage worker Of Porto Rico has
received a new and larger lease of life.
Never until now has the laboring man of
every grade known what 1t was to be
fl ee to think act, vote, travel and go as
he liked; to learn, plan, hope, strive, strug-
gle and thrive as he pleaSes, though he
still is under some of the repressions of
Spanish law, and he yet lacks knowledge,
courage and initiative. These last are on
the way to him and he to them, and time,
patience and Intelligent endeavor are
rapidly bringing them together
Government stimulus, object-lesscn train