BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1904-12-17
EDITORIAL

behind the throne has forseen the
storm of public indignation which
must inc Vitable result from a con-
tlnuance of such wholly unreliable
information, or is it because the gov
ernment organ has itself been conv-
inced that iti knows twice as much as
nothing at all about this theme3 The
News has most certainly taken time
by the forelock in leaving off with
it's fifth article. There is no telling
what inordinately foolish scheme
might not have been presented next
for the relief q of our coffee growers.
It goes without saying that nobody
with the slightest insight into the
true condition has taken any notice
whatever of these FIVE splurges, and
a tolerant public has withheld its
judgment about as long as possible in
the hope that what has happened
would come to pass the ceasing of
the series.
When the first article of this series
appeard in the "News" we had hoped
that it was the intention of the gov
ernment organ to make an effort to
meet the arguments presented by us
in our campaign for the recognition
of our rights in regard to our coffee.
We had thought that at last they had
made up their minds to attemp to
answer the charges we had made and
to refute our logic.
Nothing like this was ATTEMPTED,
however, and now we certainly do
regret that the News has decided to
no longer discuss the coffee question,
evidently in order to escape a debate
with the BOLETIN in which we must
logically have come out with fresh
laurels added to those we have already
earned in our campaign in behalf of
our coffee planters. No answer have
we as yet to received to our question
which was but in this form:
why are we compelled, trough the
medium of the right Of free trade, to
contribute two dollars per capita to
the United States if there are those
who consider as wholly unreasonab BILE
our demand that :he inha bitants of the
United States should pay to us seventy
five oents per capita per annum? Is
not that an injustice? Is it not almost
a robbery? 1t most certainly is; and
even the News cannot fail to have
come to the same conclusion, obtuse
as it is in all affairs except those facts
which all people know bind it to the
government. In spite of having recog-
nized the imposition this "Fregoli' Of
the Porto Rican press has not been
able up to the present time, to give us
An answer.
We propose to go into the argument
right here, because We feel that it iSsa
good one and we do not care to have
the friends Of bount of so much per
cuerda of coffee cultivated come back
at us afterward with the assertion that
we are colonists under the charge Of
the United States compelled to accept
an aims in order to sustain life, owing
to the fact that we cannot produce
enough to keep body and soul together.
We do not want them to come at us
whith the cry of over population,
There was time when we sustained
our population when everybody had
enough to eat and could extend the
hand of hospitality to his friends and
vinltors, and there is no reason why,
if we are treated with the Justice which
we deserve, that we should not again
return to our former condition of plen-
ty and health.
We ask no favors, and we want no
aims. Do justice by us. We demand
Our sacred rights, nothing more, and
it most certainly is the duty on the
Congress of the United States to see
that we are accorded all that rightfully
should be ours. We do not propose
to. make comparison of numbers,
neither do we propose to suggest that
we measure our strength with theirs.
We are infinitely weak by compari-
son with such an immense body. yet
we maintain that small as we are,
we have just as much right to live
and to enjoy prosperity as the great
continent of North America, with it's
hosts of inhabitants.
In order that we may thus live and
be prosperous we again assert that all
that is necessary is to give us the
assistance which we need through the
medium of duty upon coffee lmpor-
ted into the United States from other
countries. We ask no more. Protect
our coffe and you have given us eco-
oo,,oic life 11nho11uded We aSk No |