Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-11-05


lean countries, as everywhere else
for that matter, blind national
ism not only plays directly into
the hands of the Reds, but is one
of their chief instruments for Gre
ating confusion and chaos. Also
that Uncle Sam is the favorite
whipping boy and bogeyman OF
both the rabid Nationalist and
Communists in the other nations
of this hemisphere.
Puerto Rican authorities are
doubtless correct in saying that so
far Pedro Albizu Campos, head OF
the Nationalist movement both in
the island and among Puerto
Ricans in this country. has been
able to muster at most only a few
hundred followers for his desperate
adventures, and that there are
probably not more, than $500 to
1000 Nationalist. and Commu-
nists combined in a total popula-
ton of 100000.
Other Minorities Took Power
But Hitler started out with a
nondescript mob in Munich beer
hall and eventually gained control
of the lives of 100000 Germans.
Even at it's peak the Nazi Party
contained only a minority of the
German people. Today the Com
munist Party in Russia, according
to Moscow itself. consists of less
than IS million out of nearly 200
million Russians.
| Except in two or three OF the
smaller countries most of the
governments in Latin America
including Brazil, Chile, Colombia
and others, have done a pretty
thorough job of breaking up out
lawry and failing or deportlng
the ringleaders of Communist
Parties, and throwing avowed
Reds out of control of key labor
unions and civic organizations
But many of the lesser fry and
especially the propagandiStS OF
these groups and parties have
either gone underground or in
filtrated other organizations and
are using every crackpot group OF
malcontents as fronts for then
various schemes. The Nationalist
movements everywhere are per-
feet mediums through which tc
carry out their missions.
It was the extreme Nationalist
who turned the city of Bogota
Colombia, into a blazing inferno
of death and destruction during
the ninth International Confer
ence of American States in 1948
Responsible Colombians and the
Secret Service of this country
know it was the Communists who
if they were not actually the
instigators of the outbreak itself
took over and directed the car.
nival of arson and murder after
ward.
In Panama about that time Ma
tionalists raised the mad how
against Yankee imperialism tina
forced the local Congress to de
mand that we get out of strategic
military bases on the isthmus
bases then indispensable for thu
proper protection of the vita
Panama Canal. But our officials
know it was the small Partido de
Pueblo, the local Communist Party
recently outlawed, that spanked the
flame of protest against us
Albizu Campos and his firebrands
in Puerto Rico have been aided
and Allotted by the Reds as well as
Nationalist groups throughout the
Caribbean and South America, in
Guiding several strong armed Ma
tionalist governments. Delegates
from countries in which Commu-
nists were then influential in pol
itics, such as Guatemala, Vene-
zuela and Cuba, joined representa-
tives of the extreme Nationalist
government of Argentina then
whooping it up against the "op-
pressers of Wall Street" in forcing
a resolution through the Bogots
conference calling upon the Euro
pean countries and the United
States to set their colonial pos
sessions and island territories free
Puerto Rican Nationalist were
among the chief lobbyists at the
conference.
We cannot deny that there are
causes for dissatisfaction and dis
content upon the part of many
Puerto Ricans at home and es-
pecially among the more than
300. 900 in this country. The vast
majority of those in the United
States are in New York City, most
of them damned into some of the
very worst slums. Many of them
are chronically unemployed. The
majority do not even speak the
language of the United States, but
only Spanish. The deplorable
plight of these people. our own
citizens here in our very house
hold, makes them apt pupils of
any extremist philosophy.
Discomfort Understandable
The island of Puerto Rico itself
physically presents one of the
most unpromising aspects of the
entire Caribbean. It is made up
principally of rugged mountains
with only few fertile valleys. It
is the most crowded piece of ter
ritory in the world with 544 hui
man beings to every square mile.
There are practically no natural
resources except a bountiful sup
ply of cheap and unskilled, at
least unframed, labor.
In spite of these seemingly in
surmountable handicaps no other
island possession in this hemi-
sphere and very few of the indie
pendent nations of the Caribbean
area enjoy a greater measure of
liberty and self -pnverrnoepf tt,