Evening star., 1934-10-11
j. 5. TERRITORIES
WELFARE SOUGHT
Chapman, in Radio Forum,
Tells of Plans to Make
Them Self Supporting.

tContinued From Tenth Page.)
years-win increasingly yield returns.
These returns will not be merely
financial. They will not be merely
corrective of the situation which was
deplored from the standpoint Of the
American taxpayer. They will also
increasingly return dividends in the
contentment, the self-respect, in the
material and economic and spiritual
welfare of the Virgin Islanders. The
poorhouse will become memory.
Civil Rule in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico has been under the
American flag for SO years. Politically
its history has been one of steadily
increasing autonomy. The military
government was replaced by civil gov
ernment in 1900. The Foraker act of
that year was amended by the organic
act of the Woodrow Wilson admins
tration in 1917. Today except for a
few officials appointed by the Presi-
dent of the United States, namely the
Governor, the Attorney General, the
Commissioner of Education and the
Justices of the Supreme Court-the
islanders govern themselves through
their own elected Legislature.
Economically the island has not
Jared so well. Many excellent roads,
numerous schools, public works, i'm
provements in sanitation, have come
to Puerto Rico. But much Of the con-
comitant economic development, par
ticularly the extension of the sugar
industry, while long yielding handsome
returns to the stockholders of corpo-
rations which increasingly acquired
lands on the island, benefited the
Puerto Rican people little. The culti-
vation of coffee, once a major crop,
and incidentally the finest coffee grown
anywhere on earth has gradually been
allowed to dwindle until its volume is
less than a fifth of what it was gen.
Grafton ago. Tropical hurricanes, for
which no adequate insurance has been
provided, contributed to its destruc-
ton. Similar has been the fate of a
once promising citrus fruit industry.
Puerto Rico today represents the pic
ture of a country gradually depleted
of its natural resources, of country
too densely populated in which stand
ards of living have gradually sunk
lower and lower.
1t has been characteristic of the
Roosevelt administration that it de-
sires to face realities and grapple with
them In Puerto Rico today million
people are afflicted with hookworm, a
disease which may be said to be eco
nomic in its origin. The disease Is
easily durable, but reinfection takes
place from parasites in the soil when
people who cannot afford to buy shoes
toll barefooted The mortality from
tuberculosis in Puerto Rico has at
tanned the staggering total of 461 per
100000 as contrasted with the NOR
tality of 10 per 100000 for the whole
population of the United States.
Thousands of Puerto Ricans likewise
suffer from malaria. Poverty-and
consequent malnutrition and made
quate housing-has impeded sciences
battle to eradicate these conquerable
diseases. Nor is this Puerto Rican
problem wholly confined to the island
itself. New York City contains sub
stantial colony of Puerto Ricans-
some o,000-forced to emigrate to the
mainland because of lack of economic
opportunity at home. The incidence
of disease is extremely high among
them. An unusually large proportion
of them are against their will forced
on to the public relief rolls. The
Roosevelt administration has deter
mined to attack this problem at its
source. 1t aims to make Puerto Rico
also self sustaining, with an economy
adapted to the welfare of its people.
Economic autonomy Is no less i'm
portant for them than political au-
tonomy.
Extensive Program.
The program, inevitably far larger
and more complex than in the smaller
Virgin Islands with their mere % ,o0C
inhabitants, includes also the forma-
ton of government corporation
functioning in behalf of the islanders
which will facilitate the development
Of new and better forms of agriculture
and the establishment of appropriate
industries. Puerto Rico will nc
longer be exposed to the risks of
dependency upon single crop
sugar. Under the Jones -Costigan
act, Puerto Ricos sugar quota has
been sharply reduced. To compen-
safe, marginal cane lands will be con-
verted to other crops. Puerto Rico,
with all its tropical abundance, has
for years been driven to the folly OF
importing the major share Of its food
supplies of these from outside
the United States, paying for them at
the higher price inevitably imposed
by the American protective tariff 1t
Is far sounder economy that these
staples-freSh vegetables, rice and
fish-be developed on the island. The
Caribbean waters that wash the
shores Of Puerto Rico abound with
fish. But no attempt has ever been
made to develop this industry. The
governments new Puerto Rico Co
proposes to launch it for the island
ers. The coffee industry is to be
restored, furnishing valuable cash cror
for the purchase of goods in CONT
mental United States that cannot be
produced on the island. Other
typical products, such as quinine, ol
which our present supply comes from
distant lands, are practical to culti-
vate. So, likewise, are there industries
which are natural to the island which
have never been seriously undertaken
Rare tropical woods, invaluable ir
many industries, await only proper
program of conservation and re-
forestation and the consequent en-
ployment of the people in furniture
making, toy making and in othel
related crafts.
In short, it is the administrators
desire to shift the Puerto Ricans from
the ravages of seasonal and meagerly