The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-02-18

4 uSi W 1tiSO AZ
modern times
has been oppos. hea'n
| ed and c~riticiz-
ed by substantial local groups
But no other, ~deservedly or not,
has aroused the bitter enmities
which center around the person
able, idealistic Governor Tug
we'll, the Presidents friend and
once the Number Two brain
truster.
Leading men in the business
and social communities here
claim that Governor Tugwell
consistently refuses to see them
about matters of public interest;
that when they do get together
he is overbearing and arrogant,
that when they leave confer
ences with one understanding Of
its conclusions, the governor de-
liberately or carelessly distorts
the terms of the agreement by
word or action.
To each CT these Tugwell's
friends offer rebuttal. But true
or not, the charges rankle in the
breasts of the most important,
most vocal Puerto Ricans, and
explain one reason why they
contend that they al work with
him less than with any Of his
predecessors.
DON'T QUOTE TUGWELL
Tugwell is described by crit
les as supercilious, snobbish, ar
bitrary, uncooperative. class
conscious and intolerant.
I spent some time with him
discussing Puerto Rico and its
problems, in the huge second
floor office in lovely old La For
taleza. / did mot find any of the
adjectives above to be applicable
to his reaction to our converse
ton. That does not prove them
erroneous, but it does lend sup
port to this statement OF his
friends that he is essentially
Sly, temperamentally school,
m~asterish, but by preference
friendly and frank. A principal
trouble in presenting Governor
Tugwell's side adequately is the
binding agreement, required by
John Lear, Co-ordinator of In
formation, repeatedly by the
governors order, that such in
terviews shall not result either
in quotations from the governor
or in attributions to him.
Governor Tugwell gave me
explanations of some charges
against his personality and tenn
permanent, but / am forbidden to
report them. l can only give
here the conclusions to which I
came after weighing information
from many sources, including
the governor, about some of the
charges against him.
We can start with the fact that
Puerto Rico Is, on the whole, the
most poverty-ridden area under
the Stars and Stripes. The living
standards of the mass of its pop
ulation are almost indescribably
low. What pass for disgraceful
slums in the larger continental
American cities would be passa-
BILE residential sections down
here. What are called slums
here would be dynamited as an
emergency health measure any
where in the States.
On an average income of
around 81 a week the typical
Puerto Rican supports a family
that averages about five per-
sons on little more than that.
This is not because food and
clothing are cheaper here. The
important foodstuffs have to be
imported, and cost rather more
than in the States For So a week,
continental American could buy
more for his family than a Puer-
to Rican can buy. Clothing ap-
pears to cost about the same.
You can imagine, then, the
background Of squalor against
which the economic program
down here must be judged.
FEW NATURAL RESOURCES
There are two million persons
on two million acres, of which
only q third Is suitable for USE
full cultivation. There are so few
natural resources, and those SO
limited, that the island cannot
establish an industrial economy
with which to earn the money
to pay for food, clothing and bet
ter housing.
There is now under way a
program sometimes called the
Little New Deal but generally
known as "Tugwell's Program"
to do something for the Puerto
Ricans.
This program Is the basic rea-
son why Governor Tugwell il
being belabored both here and
in Warrington Is none of his
predecessors ever was-not for
forgetting Governor Winship,