Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-03-07
LIVING WAGE FOR LANDLESS WORKERS
 PORTO RICAN NEED
Development of Industry on Large Scale Also Badly
 Needed


 large scale is needed to bansh the "most intolerable conditions under which the immense landless popula. tion of Porto Rico have labored fo, centuries, Joseph Marcus, special agent of the United States employ. ment service, declares in a report is- sued that lack of employment for a large part of the people, intermit. tancy of occupation and small wages have brought about critical situa- tion on the island.
 The Porto Rican laborer looks to the United States with it's enlight- enment and leadership in humanitar- ian ideals to rescue him, the Marcus report stated. Both the govern ment and the American Federation of Labor are being appealed to, it was explained.
 But before the industries can be expected to enter the Porto Rican field shipping facilities must be in- creased, with fast steamers in serv- ice; branch of the federal reserve bank must be instituted on the isl and, and there must be more inde- pendent, land-owning farmers, &C., cording to the report. Then, with a big export business, work may be provided for all at fair wages. Now when laborer is working he and his family share breakfast of only beans, rice and codfish, or codfish black coffee, luncheon of rice and and plaintains, and dinner the same as luncheon, it was stated.
 The Porto Rican is beginning to demand better living conditions, MT Marcus reported. Strikes, organ ized and supported by the Free Fed eration of Labor, which is affiliated with the American Federation of La- bor, take place frequently"
 In Aguadilla, one of Porto Rico's principal towns, characterized as the "strike breakers district" and the "poorest section of the island" in stances abound where families eat only once a day and have met but once in a year, the report said, ad- ding that about 30 per cent of the in the district have tuber- culosis. Hookworm and other tropical diseases abound throughout the entire country.
 Describing the ''jibaro" or noun tain dweller and principal factor'' in the labor problem of Porto Rico, since he constitutes nearly 80 per cent of the population, the Marcus report sums up the situation as fol- lows:
 '.This jibaro is still living in the same environment under which his ancestors lived one or two hundred years ago. He builds his little shack on land that does not belong to him, and he works, when work is to be had, on the nearest cane, coffee or tobacco plantation. His dress con- sists of pair of white trousers, a white shirt and straw hat. His wife and children are clad as poor ly as he is; and none of them wear shoes.
 'But work in Porto Rico is season. al, and it lasts seven months at the most; so that for five or six months he has to do the best he can for a living. Bananas and other tropical fruits are plentiful and in many in- stances the land owner for whom he works during the season permits him to eat his bananas gratis. Some receive with their little huts a patch of ground and raise some foodstuffs during the dull season, but such cases are not common. How he pulls through the slow season is a mystery.
 "The jibaro is exceeding courteous especially to Americans; good-natur- ed, ready to render favor at any time, and, though poor, accept no compensation; he is even cheerful and fond of music. But he is sick man. Uncinariasis (hookworm dis ease, anemia, etc., are very wide spread. During the fiscal year, 1917-18 20,590 hookworm patients were treated by the health authori- ties. These figures, however, must fall far short of the actual number of people afflicted, since the diffi- culties in getting to dispensary or a private physician are numerous,
 'The principal food consumed by the Porto Ricans is made up of rice, beans, codfish, coffee, and bread. Of these five articles of diet only coffee is not imported There are some mountain rice and beans raised on the island, but the bulk of the other three commodities and the entire consumption of cod fish are imported from other coun- tries, chiefly from the United States excepting codfish which is brought from Canada.
 "Undernourishment makes the la- borer an easy prey to disease and units him for hard manual labor; his endurance is undetermined and he cannot stand the strain of A10 or 12 hours work in the fields. This fact is not unknown to employers for some experiments in connection with properly feeding laborers have been made and splendid results ob- tained
 "The old system of the employer paying to the storekeeper the wages of his laborer and the storekeepel taking out the amount due him fol purchases made by such laborer is still in existence on the island. de- spite the fact that public opinion is against it. The laborer under such conditions is at the mercy ot the storekeeper, often an unscrupu. lous one, who at times takes ad. vantage of the illiterate customer to overcharge him or charge him for things he did not purchase IN ~ ~