Evening star., 1921-09-16
BARCE[0 Explains
PORTO R|cAN ISSUE
President of Island Senate
Points to Long Record Of
His Party.
To the Editor Of The Star:

To the Editor Of The Star:
Since nv arrival in Washington have
read the articles appearing in your pa
Der regarding recent occurrences In
Porto Rico, in which Gov. Reilly and my
self were mentioned.
am the president Of the Porto Rican
Senate and have just come TO Vtasnans
ton from Porto Rico by way OF Cnoa Ioi
the purpose of dealing with the mattefs
discussed in those articles. I nave 9us!
had q long conference with President
Harding. at which were also present the
Secretary of War, the resident commls-
sioner from Porto Rico and Gen. Franz
Mcintyre. chief of the bureau OF nsolai
Affairs. There is to be another confef-
ence. within a few days, with a view OF
arriving at a solution Of the tfpubieo
affairs Of Porto Rico.
have no means of justifying myseai
other than to say that the poliNca'
torious in all of the elections since tQf
year 1904, when it was founded. For
seventeen years it has held a great ma =
jority over all other political parties IN
Porto Rico. and during the last election
it elected fifteen out of nineteen sena-
tors and twenty-seven representatives
out of a possible thirty-nine in the
lower house: so there were lett oniy
four senators and twelve representa-
tiyes for the minority parties: That is
backs the president of the senate OF
Porto Rico.
Wants to Elect Governor.
What my party demands is a regime
Of self-government, which includes
the election of the governor by the
vote Of the people, and never, never
have we asked anything else;
been sent to Washington and have
been granted hearings by the, COM
mittee on insular affairs have never
asked for more than this.
At home some of our men limit
their aspirations to this. but others
believe that If in the future aftet
having demonstrated our capacity FOR
self-government, our island for any
reason should not be Incorporated into
the Union as a state, then We should
be granted independence by Congress
under the projections of the United
States, as was done in the case OF
Cuba.
If your paper should publish this to
the American people as the prevailing
sentiment of our island, I am certain
that they will applaud this noble and
loyal sentiment of our people and
will feel proud to call US their fellow
citizens.
No Hostility to Flag.
Porto Rico has never been re-
bellious and has never shown hostility
toward the United States or it's flag,
and such an accusation is ridiculous
Every one knows that, even if We
should SO desire, We could never, in
fact, separate ourselves from the
United States against it's will.
The motive that has prompted Gov.
Reilly can be deduced from his own
words in his letter. when he mentions
the fact that l worked in favor of
Gov. Yager's reappoinement and that
! opposed Mr. Reily's appointment to
the governOrShip.
1t is true that I came to Washing
ton as member of committee soon
after President Harding was elected,
and before 1 knew anything about
Gov. Reily's aspiration for the nomi-
Gov. Yager be allowed to continue
among us while longer, and when
he should resign that a Porto Rican
be named as his successor.
We did this out of appreciation that
we felt for governor who was very
2 debt of gratitude. We also asked
the goverI1orshfp san y emattsr of
principle.
Says Enemies Used influence.
Without a clear, understanding of
the motives that had prompted us,
and Influenced by our political en-
CtuACS, "ho loSl uo OPpOI pc.
fore and after his arrival, to misrep-
resent the situation, the governor
formulated his policy accordingly. He
seized upon Independence and "the
fiag' to displace the majority party
from power under the erroneous as
sumption that the members Of our
party are disloyal to the nation.
The flag question is somewhat SIM
liar to the issue of independence,
which has been explained above.