BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-06-05

population the poverty Of the great
bulk of the people and the almost en- (
tire want Of the spirit of industrial as
sociation. In the United States the
abundant wealth is due to the predo- !
rnnence of the industrial and CONNER
cial spirit and the irresistible tendency
of the inhabitants to combine for the
conduct of business.
The laws of the Spanish Republics
provide for universal suffrage, but the
bulk of the population do not make use
of the privilege; they are overwhelmed
by that indoleht poverty which prevails
in the lropics; they are nominally free
but their Incidence and the prejudice
under which they live prevent them
from using any political rights
Political Economy.
The economic affairs of the two
races also present striking contrast
and very different influences are there
bv brought to bear upon their political
development. This contrast is the result
Of the difference in the fundamental
ideas on which the two societies were
organized. Society in tie United States
was founded On the basis of industry
and that of the Spanish American Re
publics was organized on an ecclesias-
teal basis. Had the millions which.
carly in the history of Spanish America
went into its ecclesiastical foundations
been so invested as to have brought the
ordinary returns of capital, they would
have become the richest nations in the
world. From an economic point of
view it was piece of good fortune for
the United States that the people in
their early history were satisfied with
the plain. wooden meeting-house and
put their surplus gains where they
would add to the aggregate wealth of
the community,
LABOR.
The climate and the characteristics
of the several classes of the inhabitants
are other factors. Wherever slave-labor
or the labor of despised class exist
there is far less incentive to improve
the instruments of production, than
where laborers are free and labor is
held in esteem in the North labor has
never been under the ban OF a social
prejudice and to this is due the rapid
advancement in the development of
means for facilitating agricultural and
industrial production.
The absence of conspicuous lines Of
class distinction in the States permits
the negro to take his standard of life
from his white fellow citizen, but the
rigid caste-lake organization Of Spanish
American Society prevents the idea
from arising in the Indians mind, that
he should live according to any other
standard but his own generation after
generation his life is the same and
thus, without increasing wants, there is
no increase of efforts, consequently no
progress "for wants and increasing
wants constitute the main force by
which class or a nation is induced to
advance"
The condition of primary Importance
therefore for the elevation and progress
of the Indian part of the population in
the Latin Republics is that they be
brought into such relations with the
other classes as will cause them to feel
the necessity of adopting a higher
standard of living, with the multitude
of new wants which this involves. This
is precisely the position into which
many of the negroes of the United
States have been brought by contact
with people of European descent, and
that, under favorable circumstances, the
Spanish American Indian may not only
rise to the position of honest, Industrious
"citizens," but display talents of high
order, there are illustrious examples to
prove. Juarez was an Indian without
foreign taint and consumate states
nan.
AS at present constituted the Spanish
American Republics are States in which
the complex political activities of a |
civilized community are carried on but
where the bulk of the population lacks
the enlightenment necessary to under
stand this activity and the institutions
through which it operates. In the
United States every citizen understands
the working of the governmental mach
inc and judges the acts of the admins
tration with more or less accurate
knowledge of their purpose.
San Juan, June ?, 1902.