BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-09-05
SArlJUAN, SEPTEMBER5 5
President Roosevelt And
The Administration Of
Affairs In Porto Rico.

i IN 4 Ilo ~ ~ IAOiA
Affairs In Porto Rico.
President Roosevelts Hartford speech
an extract from which was published
last night in the BoLETIN, is the most
splendid vindication which the insular
officials of this island have yet received.
There came from the President plain
statement, without word pictures or
fancy rhetoric that the government OF
Porto Rico, was all that it could be,
that the people of the United States
believed it to be such, and that the in
su1ar officials who were responsible for
it represented that class of American
citizenship which could be depended
upon to aid in the administration of
affairs in the colonies, even when the
watchful eyes of the Washington De
partmental heads were not upon them.
It should most certainly be cause
of great satisfaction to the insular Off
Gals 10 know that their work is being
appreciated at home. That despite the
tongue and the pen of the embittered
and the disappointed the supreme ma
gistrate Of the land kno VS. what they are
ding, and believes in their desire to
do it right.
Coming from Theodore Roosevelt,
this praise for the administration of at
fairs here, should have tenfold weight
Theodore Roosevelt never says anyth-
ing that he does not mean, he never
says anything that he does not believe
to be true, end he never whitewashes
anyone, unless th ere is powerful good
reason for it.
If William H. Hunt and the officials
who are associated with him in the adj
ministration of affairs here, were un-
equal to the tasks i'm posed upon them
Theodore Roosevelt would not hesitate
for one second to tell them SO. ]" Mr..
Hunt you don't know your job, and
must pet out, woald come from Theo
dore Roosevelt, if he believed it were
so, just as quickly as praise would
come for work well done.
And all this bowling, screaming and
distracted pulling out of hair. All this
tyranny, injustice and everything else
that has been cried aloud in the
streets. Theodore Roosevelt does not
believe one word of it. He seems to
know his fellow couptrymen better than
those that complain of them. # you
went to the President and told him that
the island was being ruled tyrannically
he would not believe a word you said,
because be kt1o3s better, and will not
permit anyone to fool him, with ulterior
in lviev
Nhen the San Juan News publishes
pw after yellow especially on the
when the boats sail for the states
anyb ody here in Porto Rico be-
e for an 1ns.ant that the stories are
ally given credit anywhere in the
Lates. II any Of those papers happf n
b fnd their way 10 Washington
Through being addressed there by the
Ecditor the artlcles are read, and the
hthor of them is placed in the ranks
of that great mass Of antiadninistra-
ton, anti-inpe perialism crank, who has
lost a contract in the colonies, or who
cannot obtain one. He is placed On
the same file with the Aguinaldo cole.
rie which makes is headquarters at
Boston, and libels and ISLANDERS the sol
diers Of the nation from its seat of bat
tile on Boston Common.
People in Porto Rico must not think
that all the people who are attacking the
government are confined solely to Porto
Rico. The administration in the States
has been stbjecFed to the same sort
attacks. But the grand mass Of
the American people has so over
shadoWed this group Of obstructionists
that it is with difficulty they are found
They would in fact never be discovered.
were it not for the now and then vitu-
perative attacks upon the President the
soldiers Of the republic, or the go1ern-
ment officials.
The views Of the American people
and their stand on this colonial bllsi-
ness is best learned from their attitude
towards President Roosevelt during the
just flushed tour of New England.
Everywhere, his defense of the solder
and the administration plan, has ms5
with vigorous and enthusiastic support.
Ia all the state conventions which have
been recently held, the President has
been sustained, even in cases where
home representatives were allowed 10
tall, through their opposition to his
plans
Despite obstruetionist, anti-imperialist |
and aatieverythiDg, also despite thar +
class OF gentlemen who are sill fighting /
the Spanish American war, there does
not seem to be any real cause for worry. i
The plan Of the administration should
be to stand pacifcai y on the side and
just y z ch these Kslskenny cats have
their battles out Cool, sober men have
more important work on their hands.