BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1905-08-15
EDITORIAL


tance which those refugees secure here
And does our colleague know the
aspirations and ambitions of that
meSocratic cong rega1ion driven out of
| it's own country By necessity and
projected by President Roosevelt at
our expense3
Their pretensions are deep insult
to US, their presumptuous vanity is ano-
ther cause of complaint, their 1nsolen-
ces, aggressions which the colony is
forced to repudiatc.
Those benefciaries that Mr.. RooSe-
velt, the giver, dumps upon the colony,
aspire to restore what has been
take from US BY violence and which
they dispute, redeeming as and civil
lizins us!. ...i
| 1t is brszen assurance without pre-
cedent. 1t might be borne had they
come to take their positions from tine
natives, to deprive the portorrican
families of their resources; the i'm
migrat tion of those men who are
unable to live in the mother country
might be tolerated, we might even
permit the haughtiness and superior
ity with which they conduct thems-
elves, believing that because they are
the tavorites of the president and
relatives OF the invaders they can
boldly perpetTate their despoiliation
with the title of equals; that would be
brutal but it would be frank. des-
poiliation without secrecy, with rud-
eness, which if not commendable,
would at least be free from perfdy
and treachery.
That which is unheard o., unquali-
fable and inadnnissable, is that those
men, those occupants Of places which
are not theirs, should attempt to ex-
cuse their contumacious invasion, by
calling themselves redemptionists and
speaking of our civilization and re-
demption as if it were in their
I charge.
No; that is too much. The New
York colleague which appreciated SO
clearly the right and justice of the
complaints of the island from an eco
nomic standpoint should understand
and should say, also, as it has saidof the
other, that the coming Of those tune
tionaries who can teach nothing-bec-
ause they know nothing-to Porto Rico,
is an insult, an affront and an oppres-
sion to the people of the colony; CO.
terie of men belonging } the least cul-
tured class in the United States, who
are ignorant and presumptuous, who
no sooner put their feet on our docks
than they proceed to express their
views regarding US in the papers of
the colony.
And this kind of inSolence IS the
determinate cause of the country's
being obliged to ask for autonomy,
which our colleague thinks natural
and which it qualities as just.
But it is rot only just. it is newt
able. Because the outrageous conduct
of the congregation has reached the ex.
treme limit of endurance, which is
shown in the outburst general protest.
There is in this matter feeling Of
offended dignity on the part of cul-
tured people who have been treated
with so much injustice, with a brus-
queness and utter lack of considerat
ion and delicacy by that magnani
nous pontiff of imperialism who has
in his charge the naming OF preben-
daries for expectation, and who selects
for his compassion and pity those who
are the most useless and ignorant.
Bat i. is clear that the charity, this
altruistic generosity of the President.
exercised at our expense, moral and
material, is neither bene fetal nor
pleasing for Ms, nor is it one that we
can follow.
Matters have reached crisis; the
abuses have been so glaripg. hunili-
ations SO clear and evident, that par
tial restotution will not be acceptable;
revision Of the tariff is little enough
in the way OF indemnifcation.
1t is not only a question of saving
the economic life of the colony. 1t is
also necessary to save honor from .he
catastrophe shipwreck.