nations of the Caribbean and Central America, currently under the pernicious influence of Estados Unidos, will impose itself as a universal necessity which sustains the balance between nations, and a rule of law between them in this hemisphere. -What do you believe is the destiny of Hispano America in the concert of great nations? -Our Iberian nations are the nations of the future. Europe and North America seek to secure in their bosom privileged positions with a view to future events. A harmonious understanding between the Ibero-American nations would immediately restore the international equilibrium destroyed by the Great War, which gave the North Americans the economic hegemony of the world, thus creating the most serious danger that humanity has encountered so far. These are in broad strokes some of the ideas expressed by Albizu Campos in the course of our long conversation. Naked and frank, they enclose between the lines grave and profound commentaries. We meditate… “MACFADDEN IS THE ONLY CONGRESSMAN WHO HAS PENETRATED THE CONSCIENCE OF THIS PEOPLE. WE ARE ANTI-AMERICANS BECAUSE WE HAVE TO FIGHT A GOVERNMENT THAT ONLY SERVES TO TEAR FROM OUR LAND ITS RICHES”: ALBIZU CAMPOS (From our Editor in Ponce, Mr. Maldonado) In the “Hotel Meliá” we greeted the Vice-President of the Nationalist Party, Lcdo. P. Albizu Campos. We formulated several questions of political actuality, to which he answered immediately: -What is your opinion, we interrogated him, about the declarations made by Representative MacFadden to President Coolidge, regarding Puerto Rico? “MacFadden has spoken the absolute truth. He is the only congressman who has penetrated the conscience of this people,” Lcdo. Albizu Campos answered us. “We Puerto Ricans are anti-Americans because we have to fight a government whose sole purpose in our land is to tear away its riches, destroy its culture, and reduce it to an amorphous, despicable mass of peons.” “A nation as strong as Estados Unidos, with all the means to make Puerto Rico happy, denies it the most elementary rights of life and liberty, presenting itself in the crude form of the old oppressive empires, which have merited the malediction of history.” -“What opinion have you formed about the cablegram addressed by Mr. Barceló to the Resident Commissioner, Mr. Córdova Dávila, asking him to confirm if MacFadden had really made the declarations imputed to him? “Sad message of disloyalty. We must be loyal even to our enemies. It is in the interest of Puerto Rico that the gentlemen of the colonial Legislature manifest themselves with more civility, so that they can inform the government of Estados Unidos of the manner of thinking and feeling of our people.” Terminating definitions are the only basis of permanent understandings between friends and between enemies. That message contributes to the disorientation of the North American people, to whom it is necessary to be told frankly that their policy in this land and in other parts of the world, has created profound hostility.” What scope do you give to the manifestations of Representative Mac Fadden regarding that “the North American government should adopt measures to prevent the pro-American sentiment from weakening in Puerto Rico”? “Puerto Rico has never been and will never be Yankee. Every measure that the government of Estados Unidos adopts to denaturalize our country, with the purpose of “Yankeeizing” it, assimilating it to definitively annex it, will be rejected by the Puerto Ricans, consciously or unconsciously, because there is an eternal conflict of race, of culture, of civilization, and of material interests between the people of Puerto Rico and the people of Estados Unidos, harmonizable only on the basis of the only understanding between defined nationalities, which is the mutual recognition of their independence, which postulates reciprocal treatment based on equality restored by the law of nations and by the principles that inform our Western civilization. “We Puerto Ricans will combat every executive, legislative, or judicial act of Estados Unidos in this land, because its only sanction is the force of Estados Unidos, and it is contrary to our will. North America has a duty to fulfill with us, and with the Ibero-American peoples, of which we form a part, and that is to recognize the full independence of Borinquen.” “And that duty will be imposed on it by the force of incontestable international facts that are approaching to reestablish the equilibrium disturbed by North American imperialism.” PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS It was at the door of “La Correspondencia de Puerto Rico,” where I found myself, without expecting it, with the dear friend Albizu Campos. We gave each other an embrace, and after the customary greetings he interrogated me thus: -And those Quixotes, how are they doing? Have they not yet been battered against some windmill? -No, nor will they be battered… -Because here there are no more mills than those of coffee and the others, which are not precisely of winds… -Which ones? Which ones are they? To which ones do you refer? -Those of the sugar centrals, which are more fearsome and more disastrous for the Puerto Rican, than what the blades of those others were for the Wandering Knight, that when attacking them, the Manchego Hidalgo would come out wounded and battered in body, but not in soul. And those mills of today, not only grind the body of the pale Boricua, but they crush even his soul. Thus goes the body and the spirit of this people… Listen, listen, Albizu Campos said to me, interrupting me -I see you in a tragic mood. -How in a tragic mood? -I mean in an interviewing mood. And if that is what you plan to do, I warn you that you won’t catch me. You won’t do to me what you did to Ignacio Guasp. -And what was it that I did to him? -Almost nothing: An interview so disjointed that in good times I won’t forget it… -Ah, but… didn’t you like it? -That’s why I tell you that I won’t forget it in good times, because I liked it very much. I read it two or three times. How good that was! How much I laughed; you can’t imagine it. Those things that go beyond the vulgar, are what attract attention and make one have a good time. Nothing is more unbearable in life, than that donkey-like seriousness with which some gentlemen want to shade all the acts of their life. It is the only thing that distinguishes us from animals: laughter, and he who with his ingenuity manages to make us laugh and make us have a happy time, that is the man, even more: the hero. While I speak with Albizu Campos, I begin to observe him in detail. He is more tall than short; thin; his brown color characterizes him as a pure Creole; his eyes, like his gaze, have the expression of the gaze of a saint -this phrase is from Vasconcelos, who personally told me once that Albizu is one of the men of the greatest intellectual power in América; his conversation is clear, precise; his voice resonant; all his gestures are of modesty and in such a way he manifests them, that it becomes impossible to believe that in his interior can be housed, as it is housed, the spirit of a rebel, of a future conductor of men, of peoples, of races; his culture is vast; he is only concerned with one thing: the liberation of his little island, of his Puerto Rico, for whose liberty, he would offer his life at any moment. He does not conceive that in the midst of the 20th century there are masters who command and slaves who obey: Albizu Campos will be for Puerto Rico what the famous Mahatma Gandhi is for India. -Listen: were you born in Ponce?, and I ask you that in that tragic interviewing mood that you have just indicated to me. -But do you really intend to do an interview with me?, he asked me with terror. -Yes, yes, an interview; so tell me: where were you born? -I was born and raised in Ponce, as our peasants say, he answered me resigned. When? -Well, on September 12, 1891. So I have my 36 complete years. -Did you take primary instruction in Ponce? -Yes, I took the first and second education in Ponce. -And the university, where? -In Estados Unidos, at Harvard University, -Did you reside for a long time in the North? - What studies did you do there? -I passed the course of Chemical Engineer, Letters and Philosophy, Military Sciences under the French Military Mission in Estados Unidos and Law. -Then you also took on the trappings of the military? -Yes, and I was a volunteer in the world war. -With what degree? -With the degree of first lieutenant of Infantry. I offered my services personally to the Department of War in Washington, with the condition of being part of the Puerto Rican expeditionary troops destined for the European front. -Why did you stipulate that condition? -I stipulated that condition because I always believed and continue to believe, that our participation in the European War, would have been of great benefit to the people of Puerto Rico. The military organization of a people, is necessary for its defense and that is achieved only with the painful sacrifices imposed by a war. If from France 30 or 40 thousand Puerto Ricans had returned lame, one-eyed, or mutilated in any other form, there would be today in our land an organized rebellion that would impose respect on the North American empire. The European War offered us a splendid opportunity to organize our collective valor. For Puerto Rico the armistice was premature, and the recruitment contributed to the demoralization of the people. The only thing that has been achieved is the Federal Military insurance and certain pensions that attract a considerable group of Puerto Rican families towards the American flag. -And did you continue with the uniform? -Terminated the European War, I rejected an appointment of first lieutenant of the reserve that the Department of War issued. We Puerto Ricans should not be part of the military organizations both naval and land of Estados Unidos. We must reject the pretense of forming the cipayo army of Puerto Rico to attack our brothers of América. I have seen with great satisfaction that the Department of War has resolved to demobilize all the Puerto Rican military units because they do not inspire confidence in them. The Puerto Ricans do not lend themselves to the work of cowardice that the Yankee Marine Infantry carries out in lands of América. The government of Estados Unidos knows the resurgence of Puerto Rican Nationalism, which organizes our people to cooperate in the international opposition against the imperialism of North América. -Your profession as a lawyer, do you practice it? -Yes, I have practiced it since the year 1921. I have my office open in Ponce. -When did you enter the politics of the country? -When that Kansas City mule arrived in Puerto Rico, sealed with the letters Mont. Reily. With kicks he takes the mask off our politicians. He ended that prevailing duplicity of being Yankee before the Capitol and nationalist before our people. He threw the Unionist Party out of power, because the very stupid man believed it as a party of true opposition. That confusion was brought to it by the Fifth Base of its program that consigned as a final solution the independence of Puerto Rico. The Unionist Party, however, was frankly governmental and Reily demanded from its constituents, one hundred percent of Yankeeism. As you will remember, a great uproar was armed. Reily violently dismissed all those unionists who held public office and who were known as separatists. -Then you believe that a frank opposition. . . -I have always believed in an open opposition to the colonial government and as none of the political parties, until 1921, followed a tactic of non-cooperation, I abstained from taking part in any partisan activity. Reily, provoked a general rebellion in the country, by depriving the unionists of their positions in the government. I believed possible then the organization of a group that would be willing to openly combat the colonial regime. In a memorable night, when the Central Board of the Unionist Party, was peregrinating seeking the support of every good Puerto Rican against the attacks of Governor Reily and of the traitors of the Party, and when this collectivity could not have a single public position, I made my entry into its ranks to reinforce its rebellion. No one in Puerto Rico followed my example. - Why? -Because there prevailed a general insomnia before the prospect of the total loss of governmental influences. -Then, when did you abandon the Unionist Party? - When the Directorate of the Party, shortly after my entry, resolved to abide by the will of the North American Government, so that no more separatist campaign would be made in Puerto Rico, I withdrew immediately and contributed to the formation of the Nationalist Party, integrated by the detachments of the few patriots that there were in the unionist ranks. -Tell me, and the current politics of Puerto Rico, how do you see it? -The Nationalist ideology dominates the country. No one dares to combat it. The old politicians do not dare to accept it openly because they do not want to lose their influence in the government of the colony. They find themselves between two fires: Washington does not attend to any of their requests or supplications despite the reiterated genuflections. They can offer nothing to the electorate that constitutes a true reform of the current irresponsible regime and that destroys our people. On the other hand, the nationalists and the independent Press that has recently emerged, have destroyed the public confidence deposited in these “illustrious” gentlemen until recently. -So the amended electoral law is another defensive resource, isn’t it? -The last amendment to the Electoral Law, synthesizes the defensive plan adopted by those who resist renouncing the benefits. Barceló, supreme head of the Alliance, and Santiago Iglesias Pantín, owner and lord of the Republic-Socialist Coalition have reached a harmonious agreement to divide the loot. There will be no elections in 1928, as there were none in 1924. The chiefs will distribute the votes in accordance with what was forged beforehand. It will not be possible to organize new parties, before the disposition of the Law, which requires for its constitution the inscription of a candidacy subscribed and sworn by ten percent of the voters of each electoral precinct. For some time now there has been no suffrage in Puerto Rico. -And where does that kind of politics lead the people? -This politics leads our people, irremissibly, to the organization of rebellious movements that advise the electorate not to resort to the polls, and that instead of doing that, constitute a formidable civic organization that restores respect for our right to constitute ourselves into a free people. The supreme definition is on the table: Yankees or Puerto Ricans. Let the traitors form their desolating legion under the fringes suggestive of the imprisonment in which they live; let the patriots enter the redeeming Nationalism. -And regarding the problematic elective governor, what can you tell me? -That it is a Barcelonian dream, extinguishable every time the Sun comes out. -And to what do you attribute that support that at the last hour they gave to Governor Towner? -It is completely insincere. Between the governor and the parties that have recommended him, there has existed and exists a silent war. I attribute it to the distrust that the Alliance has of Mr. Córdova Dávila, notwithstanding the hypocritical endorsement that the Directorate made of the policy of the Resident Commissioner. If this gentleman deserved that vote of confidence, the recent trip of the Legislative Commission to Washington was superfluous, which has served to disavow the Commissioner. -And Córdova Dávila, what do you think of him? -Córdova Dávila has become fully acquainted with North American politics. The Yankee government has full confidence in him. He had no scruples to represent it in the Pan-American Congress of the Press, before which he had the audacity to justify the shameful and tyrannical regime that prevails in our land. The Ibero-American delegates could not understand how “that Yankee of the latest mint” could have emerged. -Well, but will the elective governor come or not? -To evade the commitment of the elective governor, Coolidge has declared that he will appoint a resident to the governorship of the Island, without specifying whether this should be a Puerto Rican or a Yankee. Of course, any governor, within the current regime, will continue to be the personal representative of the president of Estados Unidos and his actions subject to the terminating instructions that his principal receives. But good politics advises the President to appoint an unconditional Puerto Rican, and Córdova Dávila is an ideal candidate for the purposes of Washington. Having the distribution of the budget in his hands, Córdova Dávila, would automatically displace Barceló and all his lieutenants. The chief of the Alliance would be left alone because the men who surround him only seek to participate in the benefits of public influence and that today it is Barceló who distributes them. The lackeys would go with whoever handles the cotarro. That is why that apparently unconditional and inexplicable support of Governor Towner. -How do you judge the attitude of President Coolidge before the Puerto Rican Legislative Commission that visited him recently? -Coolidge is a despot and a boor. Although that Commission deserves physical punishment in our hands, we Puerto Ricans must not tolerate the insolence of any President, he answers with energy. -Do you believe that in the high public spheres of Washington they take seriously the frequent visits that our legislative commissions make to them? -In Washington they have all the necessary information to know in depth the situation of Puerto Rico and they do not require at all the presence of informative commissions. As long as Puerto Rico is a source of income for Estados Unidos, no commission in Washington will be heeded. The complaints of the commissioners will confirm the fact that the systematic imperial plan works to perfection. -And, what is it that Puerto Rico must do then? -Puerto Rico has to present a serious crisis to the colonial administration in order to be attended to in its demand. Until now the colonist has formulated requests for things of little importance. In Washington they have ignored their commissioners and they have resigned themselves to return to make another genuflection. A nation like the North American, with enormous national and international problems, does not have time to attend to submissive and servile men. The formation of a rebellious organization is required that encompasses all the people of Puerto Rico and that breaks definitively with the regime of the colony, and requests from the free nations the recognition of our independence in order to achieve the reconcentration of the North American mind on our situation. -Another thing: I have heard something about a political crusade that you plan to undertake shortly through the Antilles, Central and South América. What is certain? -Our painful situation under the empire of Estados Unidos is the situation that North América intends to impose on all our brother peoples of the Continent. Our cause is the continental cause. The Ibero-American thinkers see clearly the joint problem of Iberian América against Yankee imperialism. If the North American absorption triumphs in our land, the spirit of Yankee conquest will have no brake. The North American liberals wield an effective argument against the expansion of their country: the impossibility of assimilating peoples of a race and a civilization different, and superior to the North Americans in many aspects of human culture. Puerto Rico is the most homogeneous people of América and of greater population density with more than 350 inhabitants per square kilometer, of Hispanic culture and civilization. If the empire triumphs in our environment it would be a strong blow for the Ibero-American race. Its prestige would be seriously injured and it would attract a Yankee invasion, without measure and without quarter. We must repeat Foch’s phrase in the face of the last German invasion: “We must stop them where they are and dislodge them from the positions they occupy.” -Then, in your way of seeing, what is the Ibero-American concern? -The Ibero-American concern is not to defend Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela or other republics of our blood. The continental concern is to tear the Yankee boot from all the positions it occupies in the Caribbean. -Do you believe that the Antilles constitute a containment wall to Yankee ambition or a battlefield for its colonial essays? -Puerto Rico and the other Antilles constitute the battlefield between Yankee imperialism and Ibero-Americanism. Ibero-American solidarity demands that all Yankee interference in this Archipelago cease in order to restore the continental equilibrium and ensure the independence of all the Colombian nations. Within that supreme necessity our independence is indispensable. That is in synthesis what I have to expose in my mission to the Ibero-American nations. –Who accompanies you on that crusade? -No one, I go alone, he answers me with decision. -What is the first country you are going to visit? -The heroic and indomitable Dominican Republic, in saying this, I notice that in his eyes shines a ray of light and sympathy towards the noble Dominican Republic. -Do you estimate that a practical result for Puerto Rican nationalism will derive from that campaign? -There is no doubt, he responds with enthusiasm. -Do you count on the support of the intellectuals of the countries you visit? -We count on the loyal and sincere cooperation of all the liberal nuclei of the Continent. -Tell me, what opinion do you have of the current Puerto Rican youth? -Despite the Yankeeism of the schools and the seduction of the colonial budget, a powerful youth emerges inspired by the apostolate of Hostos, of Betances, of De Diego, of Duarte, of Martí, and of the great leaders of Iberoamérica among whom stands out the egregious continental figure of Bolívar. -Are you a nationalist by a natural feeling of patriotic pride or because you believe that such a solution is practically beneficial for Puerto Rico? -For both things. It is a sacred duty to defend and die for the cause of Homeland independence even if personally we only have the glory of the sacrifice because this will ensure the spiritual and material well-being of our nationality. -What concept have you formed of José Vasconcelos as a political man, as an educationist and as a thinker? - Vasconcelos, broke our isolation. He directed the Puerto Rican mind with his privileged word towards the center of our culture and our civilization. He personifies the Ibero-American union, which has instilled respect and love in all the ethnic elements of his own Homeland, raising the postponed Indian to the level of civilization that by right corresponded to him, an exemplary work that will undoubtedly extend throughout the Continent so that the civilizing effort of the missionaries of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and detained by the caciquismo of the absorbing Republic, be undertaken again by all the Iberian nations, not out of charity towards supposed inferior races, but out of a just and real appreciation of the strength, power and intelligence that they represent. -Tell me something about the dictatorships. -In the great crises it is intended to justify the dictatorships, but they always remain on the defensive, because they represent a principle that is harmful to the free exercise of suffrage, and a hard affirmation of a group that arrogates the privilege of directing against the will of a people, the destinies of the Homeland, always with the laudable excuse of saving it from grave danger, but that in general ends in tyranny. We nationalists combat dictatorship in principle and that is why we confront against the irresponsible regime that Estados Unidos maintains by force in Puerto Rico. -All liberal men must prepare to combat dictatorships. Dictatorships, (civil or military), represent a step backwards; they are the remora of peoples, the shame of the 20th century; it is the most cruel denial that could be given to the human slaughter carried out in the last world conflagration to save, (according to what some naive people believed), the Democracy and the Liberty of the world. And Democracy, it has already been seen: was violated and Liberty, trampled, outraged, violated without scruple of any kind. It is no longer a question of small and defenseless peoples absorbed by certain foreign powers, who to deceive the world preached “free determination and non-support for improvised governments and children of armed force”, but it is a question of peoples who discovered and civilized half the world and instead today have to bear, resigned, on their shoulders, the heavy burden that represents a government of uniformed thieves. BERNAL DIAZ DEL CANEY PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS 192/ “THE GREAT MAJORITY OF PUERTO RICO FEELS REPULSION AND REBELLION AGAINST YANKEE COLONIALISM” THUS ALBIZU CAMPOS EXPRESSES HIMSELF IN AN INTERVIEW GRANTED TO THE DOMINICAN PRESS Lcdo. Pedro Albizu Campos was interviewed by the journalist J.B. Lamarche upon his arrival in Santo
Sunday. The text of the held interview, which we reproduce today, appeared in one of the last editions of “Listín Diario”.- -“Dr. Albizu Campos is a man of little accessibility, despite his exquisite culture. Little accessibility because, journalist of pure stock, he hates interviews, or, as he calls them, “interview factories.” He is reluctant to make declarations, which, many times, reproduce, twisting and mystifying, the thought of the declarant, and which, in other cases, only serve as a pretext for the journalist to put in another’s mouth everything that occurs to him. The illustrious Puerto Rican nationalist knows the craft thoroughly. And, therefore, he evades the occasions that present themselves to externalize himself by this means. We, who divine his scruples, reassure him, channeling his attention towards suggestive topics, and we manage to break his vow of silence.” -What plans, Dr. Albizu Campos, do you bring to Santo Domingo? -“My work must be mostly of organization. I am trying to unify Dominican sentiment in favor of the independence of Puerto Rico. I have been able to note that here that sentiment is unanimous. This means that the ground is already fertilized by itself. This is already a great advantage. I see in this country one of the most civic nations with the most character in América. That is why I wanted to come and learn in this school.” -How do you propose to develop your propaganda work? -“I will interview the representative elements of all sectors of opinion in the República, I will get in contact with them; I will give some conferences, if necessary; but this as a last resort, because I am resolved to speak as little as possible. It is not my object to pronounce beautiful speeches to reap ephemeral applause. I desire something more intense and enduring. I want to leave here, when I leave, a living and permanent organism that is in charge of reproducing the palpitations of Puerto Rican nationalism outside the Homeland, counting, of course, for this, on the cooperation of all the elements of the colony of my country established, which I suppose will lend themselves to it, since it is an inescapable duty.” -What policy, in its general lines, does Puerto Rican nationalism follow? -“Nationalism, after the death of De Diego, has evolved a lot in its tactics. It is more intransigent; it sustains absolute non-cooperation with the United States in Puerto Rico. And this is due to the experience it has had in the propaganda of the Apostle. At the last hour he became convinced that it was necessary to stand up to the Yankee in a decisive manner. And this has been the key to the new nationalist policy. We are sworn enemies of all colonial systems,” -Do you have a political platform? -“Yes, sir. Our Program, in general thesis, tends to return the Puerto Rican people to the moral situation in which they found themselves in the year ‘68, when Betances, Hostos, etc. They preached the revolutionary creed. We translate it into every form of resistance that can be used against foreign colonialism.” -Do you have faith in the triumph of your ideals? -“Absolute. It may, of course, be the work of seven years or seven centuries, let us say. But it cannot be denied that nationalist ideology dominates in Puerto Rico. The people, en masse, are with us. It can be affirmed that the great majority of Puerto Rico feels repulsion and rebellion against Yankee colonialism. This attitude will be the one that consolidates the nationalist movement there.” -Is nationalism constituted in a political grouping, in accordance with the laws of the country? -“Yes, sir. In 1924 we went to the electoral struggle in thirteen of the main municipalities, including the capital and Ponce. We resorted to the polls sure of suffering an absolute defeat, because in Puerto Rico suffrage does not exist.” -Explain that to us, Dr. Albizu. -“I will give you a little history, so that you can get an exact idea of the problem. Transactionalism led the party of the majority, that is, the Unionist, to the renunciation of the idea of independence and to the resignation of submitting to American colonialism, for reasons very easy to explain; first, for a feeling of impotence in the face of the force of the United States; second, for the immoderate desire to continue participating in the colonial budget. Thus an alliance was forged with the unconditional party of Puerto Rico, wrongly called Republican. From this a part left with the alliance and another constituted the so-called coalition, with a political party that bore the name of socialist, presided over by Santiago Iglesias Pantín, Spanish Secretary of the “Pan American Federation of Labor”, which is an important collective defender of colonialism in Puerto Rico. The elector was placed in the dilemma of choosing between two unconditional, servile groupings, and decisive instruments of the Yankeeization of my country. Then, by amendments introduced to the Electoral Law, with the purpose of definitively suppressing separatist propaganda, the constitution of new parties was prohibited. To postulate a candidacy in any electoral precinct it is required and I speak of the present, because that is the law in force to present a number of requests sworn by the electors, individually, whose number must not be less than ten percent of the total number of electors of the precinct. Now, those sworn requests take the elector before a magistrate, Municipal Judge of the Colonia, who administers administrative justice, that is to say, he is an instrument of the will of the Governor of the Colonia, a Yankee. In this way, when he does not object to the admission of the requests -which as it is a technical document can be declared null for any circumstances-, he gets sick or disappears, obeying the specific instructions of his principal.” -“As you can see, consequently, it is a mockery, a mockery, of the electoral right such a procedure.” -“Upon the arrival of the elections of 1924, notwithstanding the situation created by the Government, with the premeditated purpose that separatists should not appear in the ballot boxes of Puerto Rico, the Nationalist Party, waving the insignia of De Diego, went to the electoral struggle, in the Municipalities already cited, with the sole purpose of avoiding the opprobrium and shame that the flag of the Patria should not appear in the elections of Puerto Rico, which none of the other parties dared to wave during the election period, obeying the mandate of the Government of Washington.” –“Recently -continues our interviewee- the situation has been worsened. In 1924 there was a struggle among the servile contending factions for public posts, despite their understanding to suffocate the nationalist movement. Recently the Electoral Law has been amended, to avoid the reorganization of the Parties, giving them “status” jurídico that the two conjunctions denominated Alianza and Coalición-Repúblico-Socialista did not have. Thus suffrage is violated and the country is brought to the necessity of resorting to adequate means to make the will of the people, which is separatist, absolutely, be respected. -“Nobody knows -ends Dr. Albizu Campos- how far a people can go when it is harassed, exploited, and vilified without measure or quarter. And that people must be prepared for all contingencies that honor imposes on it.”
J.B. LAMARCHE