Evening star., 1939-01-29


! gaining, a modern, intelligent process
which has brought about substantial in
| creases for many thousands of our work.
ers in the last few years. Our labor dis
| putes, for the most part, are settled
| quickly and peacefully, with the aid of
mediation and arbitration, when neces-
sary. Even the protracted fve-week
shipping strike of January, 1888, was
conducted throughout with an almost
unprecedented lack of violence and dis
order.
Faced, because of our dense population
and growing unemployment, with the
necessity for spreading the work among
maximum number of employees, Puerto
Rico several years ago adopted an eight
| hour day, which again applies to agri-
| cultural labor as we'll as to every in
| dustrial occupation. Our island, in fact,
is the only sugar producing area in the
world with compulsory eight-hour day.
| 1t may be necessary, in view of restric-
tions placed on our major industries. to
| further reduce the length of the working
| day. One step in that direction already
has been taken by placing Puerto Rico
under the terms of the Federal Wage
and Hour Act. Although certain of our
industries, based on the processing of
| agricultural products, may be exempted
from the terms of this legislation and
Congress may see fit to change the pro-
visions of the act with respect to Puerto
Rico because of the peculiar conditions
there the fair labor standards legislation
undoubtedly will intensity unemploy-
ment. Thus, we shall be forced to
exercise still greater ingenuity to find
some means of livelihood for the in
dividuals who may become unemployed
in our needlework industry and other
smaller businesses.
Wages in Puerto Rico have been rela-
lively low compared to mainland stand
ards and yet are considerably higher
than they were in 1885, when the island
first became part of the United States,
and substantially higher than in most
of the other tropical areas of Latin
America. Our party has worked un-
ceasingly for a higher wage structure
and will continue to do so, bearing in
mind that too drastic increases in a
short period of time might handicap
our program instead of furthering it.
Health and Education Advanced.
The visiting students and other OBJ
servers from the good neighbor countries
also will find that Puerto Rico has pro-
vided its laboring classes with an educa-
tional system and a public health pro-
gram which are not equaled elsewhere
in the tropical world. They will be i'm
| pressed by the low rate of illiteracy, the
| percentage of illiterates among our work.
ing people having been cut almost in
half during the last 40 years.
Living standards among our laboring
people also will be found higher than in
most other tropical places. Though the
workers homes for the most part are
simple and often crude, the people COL
lectlvely enjoy far more of the everyday
necessities of life than the residents of
neighboring countries Electric lights,
for example, are found in homes in all
corners of the island and many families
now have radios.
These advantages are the result of the
friendly aid of the Federal Government
and OF the resourcefulness of our own
people. Since becoming a part of the
economic life of the United States, our
food supply has been increased greatly,
SO that the typical worker enjoys a more
ample and more nutritious diet than he
formerly did. We are able to buy more
than 500,000,000 pounds of nom tropical
foods each year from the farms of the
United States mainland and nearly $4,-
000,0O0 worth of clothing, together with
$6,OOO0O0 worth of building materials,
in one years time. Shoes are worn more
generally in Puerto Rico than in other
nelghboring countries, the islands peo-
pie buying nearly 5000, 900 pairs from our
mainland manufacturers each year, more
than the United States sells to all foreign
countries combined
The University of Puerto Rico, our
school OF tropical medicine, and our
many civic and social organizations
modelled on those existing in continental
United States will accomplish much to-
ward the development and improvement
OF cultural relations between the Amer
icas. Moreover, the widespread use
of mainland goods in Puerto Rico will
| thoroughly acquaint our Latin American
visitors with the products of mainland
| farmers and factories, thus helping to
stimulate inter- American trade.
Island Buys American.
More than half the food supply of
Puerto Rico, all of our clothing, all of
our machinery and most of our manu-
factured goods come from the States.
Nearly 95 per cent of everything Puerto
Rico buys from the outside is purchased
from business men in the States. Thus,
in effect, we present great permanent
exhibition OF American goods such as
can be found nowhere else in Latin
America.
In addition, our Latin American neigh
bors will find peaceful, orderly and
loyal community such as cannot always
be observed in our part Of the world.
We have occasional disorder, to be sure,