The Harrison times., 1917-06-09
THE LAND OF MoNANA.
Where Soft VoweIs Make a Soft
Answer and Turn Away Tasks Unto
the Morrow. American and Spanish
Temperament Which Cannot Mix.
NO.. 2.

| way 10 the Danish west indies or VIZ
gin Islands as they are now called
the United States has deferred grant
ing citizenship to the Porto Ricans
until this year. Therefore, with the
purchase of the Danish West Indies,
and the grant of citizenship to Porto
Rico we have gained in the neighbor-
hood of a million and a half citizens
at the same time.
Porto Rico is SO densely populated
that We feel safe in saying that we
/ have gained more citizens to the
square mile than in any other part of
the country. And what are these cit.
liens?
A Mixed Race.
Ask them and they will inform you
that they are Porto Ricanians, that is,
if you can talk Spanish. Look at them
and you will guess them all the way
from Brown LeghOrns up to White
Wyandottes. They run the list of col
ors from light to dark with all the in
tervening shades. But when you get
down to cases you will find as many
degrees of caste as there are shades.
All dark persons are not Africans, and
by the same token all light persons
are not Caucasians. Four hundred
years of time in which the currents
and cross currents of humanity have
ebbed and flowed across the island
has naturally produced much mixed
race, in which the Spanish and Indian
predominant. In the interior the bulk
of me people are of pure Spanish
descent Near the coast and in the
larger cities there are a great num-
Der of negroes. To the casual observer
there seems to be no color line, but in
social life there is but little mingling.
There are many pure Spanish, and
the merchants and many of the larger
planters belong to this class. They are
keen business men and to their thrift
and foresight much of the success of
the island may be attributed. The
Porto Rican of the poorer class is not
Overburdened with energy. Tomorrow
will do as we'll as today. He is salts
fled with existence and takes the ups
and downs of life-mostly downs
with calm philosophy. He will work
if necessary, but he prefers not to.
He is the thorn in the side of the plan
ter, who must depend on him to har-
vest the crop. Labor problems pro-
duce more gray hairs than any other
cause.
A Question of temperament
They will never understand the
American with his push and sweat and
worry, nor will the American ever un-
derstand the Porto Rican with his las
situde, inepitude, and procrastination
The Porto Rican has watched the
American invasion. He has stood still
while sixty per cent of the wealth of
the island has been absorbed by Amer.
leans. He has watched values 60 up
and up and up, and still he dreams on.
He has seen land go from a few pen
nies to as many dollars an acre and
he has failed to get on and ride up
with the procession. He has seen the
jungles give place to rich orchards of
grape fruit; the barren lands spring
to life with rich irrigated cane fields;
the acreage of tobacco and coffee mul-
tiplied almost as by magic, but it has
mattered not. He has seen filth and
disease give way to cleanliness and
sanitation he has seen the roads grad.
ually fill with snorting automobiles,
crowding the slow OK teams to the
side, and introducing rapid transit all
over the island, and still he has not
awakened from his four hundred year
nap. He has seen school houses
spring up all over the island, colleges
planted here and there, swift sailing
steam vessels plying to and from his
ports, but it has changed him not. To
be suddenly awakened and showed
four hundred years ahead in a single
day is too much to expect of frail hu-
man nature especially when leavened
by the yellow rays of the tropics. And
so the Porto Rican finds himself a bad
third in the race for fame, the finish
being Americans first, Spanish second
and the Porto Rican way back down
/ the stretch.
Will they awake? That is the ques.
ton every humanitarian is asking who
/ is interested in the problem. The de.
q partment of education, the army, the
clergy, are all working on the problem,
They see improvement, but it is dread.
fully slow, The hope is in the coming
generation. The schools are indus.
triously teaching English, the official
! language" Results so far are scarce
ly perceptible. The children take read.