New-York tribune., 1921-05-29

they entertain royalty and are as conversant
with matters of Importance in Washington
Rome or London as the best drilled diplomats;
their daughters converse in English, trencn
or Spanish; they quote Kipling as glibly as
Ccrvantes or Calderon; they know their Puc-
cini as we'll as their Mozart or Beethoven
The mixing of these three races, Spanish,
Carb and African is one Of the most trying
experiences Of Porto Rican life. The strands
of heredity take on queer twists in San juan
Two sisters may be totally unlike, one of them
possessing the fairest of skins, China blue
eyes and golden hair, and the other the un-
mstakable characteristics of the negro.
The term "politics" in Porto Rico means
more than mere party. 1t sets forth the diff
ference between the old and the new-the op-
position Of the aristocracy to the Third Estate
1t Is to the old Conservative party that the
islanders look for their gradual development
and political bettermeAt
On February 10, 1904, after six years Of
American rule the Conservatives met in San
Juan and formally announced the formation
Of political party called the Unionista, or
Unionist party, declaring among its principles
'the securing of definite political status for
the island, based upon government deriving
it's power from the consent of the governed and
the acceptance Of any form of political organl-
zation whereby self-government may be Sc
cured, either as an autonomous country with
American citizenship, or as an independent
nation under the protectorate of the United
States" 1t was the Unonist party that petit
toned the United States "for the election Of
all members of both houses by direct vote of
the people, and obtained the right so to do.
The present Assembly is composed of two
houses, all the members of which have been
elected by the people"
In due course of time, with the gradual
disillusonment of the Republicans, the Con-
servatives or Unonists regained many of
their old members who had been lured away
by the too glittering promises of the opposing
faction. To-day the Unionsts number 81 per
cent of the total voting strength of the island
the Republicans are reduced to 43 per cent.
In the present Senate there are seventeen
Unonists, one Republican and one Socialist.
Four years ago affairs reached such an
acute stage that during the closing days of the
Legislature the people demanded, for the first
time in four hundred years, that their elective
legislative Assembly, known as the House of
Delegates, adjourn to the Municipal Theater,
the largest public meeting place in the capital
and there present the salient points of bill
in which the people were interested. Imme-
diately following the close of the session, the
Speaker of the House, Jose de Diego, made ar
electioneering tour through the adjacent isl
ands Of Cuba and Santo Domingo, with the
express object of forming an alliance of sistel
republics-a scheme that, during the next
twelvemonth was to have carried the propa
gandist as far afield as Argentina, Chile, PERI
and three or four other South American po
litical entities--all Of which were to have beer
brought into the "Confederated States" il
which the state of Porto Rico was to have helt
no second place.
Speaker de Diego was a Unionist, Muho