The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-09-08

big thing in Porto Rico, exceeding the
sugar crop six times, and in 1896 being
valued at more than four times the.
entire amount of sugar produced in
that year Much of the best class of
the island population in the Spanish
time was interested in coffee culture
and export. All these people have suf-
fered heavy losses, labor with capital.
1t is natural perhaps, but unreason-
able, to associate the cyclone of 1899
which destroyed two-thirds of the cof-
fee trees, with the American occupa-
ton. juster contention is, of course
the great drop in prices directly attrib-
utable to the change in government.
Brazilian coffee controls the American
market, where the Porto Rican product
at a higher price has not been properly
appreciated, and much of the foreign
market. formerly certain, has been
lost But even at the present low
prices there is plenty Of money in cof-
fee. Redemption of abandoned lands
and new planting have been, and are,
going forward rapidly, and, according
to estimates in the Department of the
Interior, the coffee crop for this year
will be fully up to the normal again.
Moreover, we learn from the recent
statistics already alluded to, which are
now common property, that the value
of the coffee exported to this country
has increased from $4,000 last year to
$500, 900 for the present year, 1929
Such material evidences of change as
trolley-cars, telegraph, telephone, and
other electrical appliances, equipages
on the roads, and the great transforma-
ton evident in agriculture, significant
in themselves as they at first seem,
might not be any true indication OF
popular sentiment. Porto Ricans;
might welcome the wealth. producing
or convenient reforms of the Ameri-
canos, with hate in their hearts all the
time for the foreign invaders. Effect
i've Americanization must go deeper.
Three years is a short time in which
to work visible changes in the life of
people, but that changes have taken
place during that time in the dress
manners, and customs Of the Porto
Rican people cannot be questioned 1t
is a hazardous venture, from the ac-
tons of the people, to reach conclusions
as to their states of mind, Hnless those
actions be so often repeated as to make
it highly probable that they are nat
ural manifestations of sincerity or
habit. Single instances here and there
would be inconclusive, but in the multi
plication of instances is apt to lie ia
dsctively, the truth.
noticed a ragged little boy in San
Juan throwing a baseball with the Ran
ner and instructive grace of an Amer
lean street Arab. l have seen hun
dreds of other youngsters in the cap
ital as we'll as in Ponce. Caye<, Maya
guez Yauco, amusing themselves in
ths same way and with the same knack
In the yard of the charity school at
Santurce I saw five or six gamer Of
baseball in progress; little fellows in
/ their khaki uniforms scampsrins
| around the bases to an accompaniment
of shrill English and Spanish coacs-
ing. And they We're playing the game,
not playing at it, as a moments obEer-
walton proved. Four years ago Porto
Ricans had never heard Of baseball:
it is now becoming the insular game.
A league has been established a San
Juan, and the regular Wednesday and
Saturday games between the tOur
teams composing it attract laSge
crowds to the grounds near Fort Girls
tobaI. Enthusiasm among the specta-
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