El Imparcial. (San Juan, P.R.) 1918-197?, 1919-02-25
EDITORIAL VIEWS
You won't know your
country when you see it, after
being so many years away
they used to tell us on the
ARE WE GOING
BACKWARDS?

little New York IN itself Barring saloons and other
drinking places, Manhattan Island has nothing to show
better than the isle we are bound for The sugar mils
Why nan; some of them with their railway systems,
electric light plants steamers loading close to the Whar
YES of the company till you see them; wait till you
see Them We looked listened in wonder; we were
stupefed that mformants, taking advantage, kept
on pounding Why, we have place called Ell C0nddd0
that soon will make Riverside Drive look like ten cent
piece Automobiles? Enough to tell you that the
sElndryman calls for your dirty clothes in auto every
body's got one. Money? Gee whiz Imagine we got
man down there rich, that he paid four thousand
dollars for the few pounds of wool shorn off the sheep
of the White House, American millionaire could beat
him. Yes, Sir; the Porto Rico you left died and was
hurried long ago. Progress is everywhere till
YOU see it,
& We regret very much to say that while part Of the in
formation given to is correct, our informants
very much mistaken the main point, and
any of those friends shall tell him exactly
where his information failed. Indeed, San Juan is
wonderful little place. just like New York in many things,
including noise; the big cenTas regular empires in
themselves and such we think they must have their
emperor and independent government; the arstocrac
Cosd0do seems to hold many sl1bs Riverside
Newport; the popular Ford regular Institution down
here and any iceciddO is able to have one totally
parciay paid for and as far mOnares is concern
ed doubt have may be dozen people here whose
money is computed by the seven figures BUT all that
has got nothing at all to do with real progress To be
frank with you reader opinion is that in that respect
we seem to have gone back Yes have gone back. We
may have schools and better roads now and these
on the other hand we have remained stationary in
things while gone forward in Others and that that
we have gone backwards, for you must on, pro-
gress stay behind Furthermore in certain respects,
1--WE have positively gone back, as we can easily show.
the old times, say twenty years ago, land was better
distributed than at the present day, when 1t is in the
hands Of just few individuals corporations the old,
small landowners their successors to-day in the
majority of the cases. working for the present
tile soil Ihe who somehow another manages TO
be his own boss and then decides up his business
in order to 90 to work for somebody else, goes back no
matter what the niucement Isl but if that knows
how to till the soil he owns and he sells IN order TO 60
to work for some else for fifty, sixty seventy five
cents per day. leave to decide whether or
not that man passed from freedom to slavery
Industrislly speaking, we have also gone back; no
doubt about it, 1t true that there powerful
corporations in the country manufacturing sugar and
tobacco but the benefit derived by the country in the
Of salaries to the poor wreches that work for these
companies indeed very scanty The real profits go
of the country pay dividends for the owners and LII
the slaves want improve their condition. they have
got to strike. M
N On the other hand so much attention is given in
the country the production Of staples like sugar and
tobacco that very important branches OF our agr
culture and industry Abandoned to the great detri
ent Of the country at large. The high prices have
to pay for everything eat due to scarcity, and
scarcity is due the fact that the good land is used for
cane and tobacco cultivation We produce grains, no
vegetables no meat mk to speak of all those things
have to be imported Still they say Porto Rico is an
agricultural country 1T is fact that il land is more
suitable for the raising OF cane and tobacco than
for the cultivation of articles of food accordance to
sound economy the former two products should be rails
ed and exchangedn foreign countries for the articles
of food which be produced there better and cheaper
than here but that would be we'll if the country at
large were to profit by the exchange which is not the
case under the present conditions when distribution Of
the profits in the country is unknown thing.
Years ago, we produced chocolate candy guava jelly
or paste sweets etc., all having sugar and other native
materials into their composition; we have to import
all that today paying several times the former prices