Also, as part of the high policy to be followed, it must take into account, very seriously, despite the invading force that may support it, the opinion of the subjected nation, which cannot lose faith in the administration of justice.
We understand that it is difficult for a Puerto Rican to occupy a position in the judiciary if he meditates on the responsibility he assumes by accepting the position.
A terrible dilemma assails him; how to unconditionally support the regime and at the same time be loyal to his Homeland of origin.
Therefore, those compatriots who have not communed with the North American absorption plan and who have wished to see their country free from foreign interventions, have resigned from their judicial positions to dedicate themselves to defending the cause of Independence; likewise, many annexationists in the same situation have submitted their resignation before launching themselves to preach statehood, thus respecting the opinion of the country, which expects its citizens, that, given the difficulty of administering justice in an irresponsible regime, they should not create obstacles for the exercise of that ministry through the political propaganda of judges or officials judicial during the exercise of their positions.
This principle has been imposed and no transgressor has escaped public disapproval for his unconsidered action contrary to it. In general, the judiciary that this imperial regime has imposed on us has adhered to this principle of high ethics despite the grave official pressure that has been exerted on it.
We all owe it this public recognition, despite the absurd and unpatriotic actions of some judges and judicial officials.
We esteemed Mr. Emilio Del Toro as a man of sufficient equanimity and character, who, despite his annexationist ideas, would never be the person who would try to break with this severe norm.
But, to the general remonstrance for his unfortunate speech of July Fourth, he has responded with a challenge full of arrogance to the Puerto Rican nation.
Here are his words: “To expound my ideas, my judicial positions have not been and will not be obstacles.”
He fervently awaits “the complete freedom that we will enjoy on a not distant day, when the star of Borinquen shines resplendently in the American constellation as the symbol of one more state within the bosom of the union.”
It is impossible to surpass this song to annexation.
For better or for worse, it is admitted in his latest speech, rectifying his words of July Fourth that “the current freedom we enjoy is limited.”
Very limited indeed, Mr. del Toro. It is not freedom, it is imperial tolerance.
But immediately afterwards, he intends to justify, no less than the intention of the current regime, alleging that it must be magnificent because the writ of habeas corpus has been implemented here and schools are maintained.
Let us consider this statement with coldness. The school is established as much to build as to destroy. That is why there is a grave conflict between the different schools, historical and contemporary conflict. Empires in all times and in all places plant and sow schools to disorient, first, and then demolish the nationalities subject to its force. That is our case. The writ of habeas corpus, like any other recourse or provision of the will that prevails in this country, is revocable at any moment if the United States Congress so wishes, and can be suspended by the Governor of the colony or the President of the United States, without even consulting the people of Puerto Rico. What kind of collective guarantee does that constitute? Now, Mr. del Toro is disposed, judging by his own words and without the slightest concern to continue his annexationist propaganda from his judge’s chair. Nationalism takes up his challenge. It will not take a step without encountering the most serious opposition to his harmful path for the country. Where does Mr. del Toro intend to take the judiciary with his example? He owes an answer to the Homeland where he was born, although it, for now, is powerless to demand accountability.
FACING THE STRUGGLE. NATIONALISM IS IMMEDIATE ACTION
San Juan de Puerto Rico July 26, 1930
Lcdo. Luis Vergne Ortiz, San Juan de Puerto Rico.
My dear friend:
“An orientation!” the politicians of conventionalism cry. What is an orientation for? To succeed in the elections? That sole purpose is pursued. For the patriot there are no doubts or hesitations. The orientation? To Independence! Without compromising with the subjection. Without tolerating the negation of the Homeland. Nothing is more intolerant than the truth! Nothing is more intolerable than the negation of the Homeland’s personality. Its negation entails all its evils: collapse of its culture; foreign political tutelage and by force; economic exploitation and misery. Intransigence before the pretensions of an exotic power that stiffens us. Intransigence before the native henchmen who traffic with their own personality. They would accept slavery willingly if it kept them fat. You are one of the “crazy ones” for the Ideal of Independence! That decisive decision of character is required to redeem Puerto Rico. It entails the spirit of heroic sacrifice. We owe it to ourselves but also to posterity. Let us lift our people from that miserable condition of beggar to which its exploiters have reduced it. Facing the struggle: Nationalism is immediate action. It neither tolerates nor compromises with the domination of a foreign power.
Yours in the Cause, P. ALBIZU CAMPOS
PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE
THE NEW NORTH AMERICAN TARIFF I To place its merchandise in Puerto Rico, the Department of Commerce of the United States maintains its own office in this capital. In each important city of that country, an office is maintained by the same Department, but with a entirely different purpose: it is to teach merchants and industrialists North Americans how to sell their merchandise in foreign nations. The office existing in San Juan has never been dedicated to illustrating our languishing commerce, already almost bankrupt due to North American competition, how it can intervene in the international competition in the placement of products from Puerto Rico. For the Department of Commerce of the United States, Puerto Rico is a foreign nation. This office provides the necessary data to North American commerce to destroy our own commerce and the international competition. Not long ago the head of this office declared publicly that 90 percent of Puerto Rico’s foreign trade was with the United States States and 10 percent with other foreign nations; and that this 10 percent had to be eliminated so that the foreign trade of Puerto Rico was exclusively with the United States. We all know the difficulties faced by the importer of merchandise not originating from the United States. The procedures are becoming more difficult each time. When it is not the Department of Agriculture or the of Health that renders the merchandise unusable, any requirement is demanded unexpected, but there is the consequent delay in delivery, to the serious detriment of the importer and, he, gradually has to resort to the North American market to supply the needs of the national demand. And all this despite the fact that the North American tariff prevails in Puerto Rico. But that 10 percent of foreign trade that it also wants
to absorb the United States, has not been able to be eliminated and now the new tariff has been approved that heavily taxes almost all foreign merchandise not of North American origin and necessary for our consumption.
The first effect of the new tariff law imposed on us has been to raise the price of those goods by the difference resulting between the types of the old and the new tariff.
Of course, with the import of non- North American origin, by this insurmountable barrier, and with all the customs administrative machine to contain any possible entry of non-Yankee origin, the desire of the United States will soon be satisfied to have absorbed 100 percent of our foreign trade.
This is the effect of free cabotage. Anyone would believe that Puerto Rico would derive some benefit. Quite the opposite happens.
The commerce and industry of the United States have an absolute absolute monopoly of the market of Puerto Rico. Monopoly that exists by virtue of the tariff law imposed on the country, and also, because the Puerto Rican nation lacks the powers to defend itself from it. The political power of the United States is used in our land to hoard our wealth, be it agrarian, industrial or commercial.
The result is as follows: the North American seller imposes a special price for Puerto Rico, which is almost always 10 percent, 15 percent and up to 20 percent at times, higher than that prevailing for the same merchandise in the United States, and even twice as high than that established for that merchandise destined for other nations. For that sole concept, Puerto Rico pays an annual tribute to the United States whose average does not fall below $10,000.00, without taking into account that the merchandise that is launched on the market of Puerto Rico is of second or third class, that is, junk.
A notable architect drew our attention to the fact that in Puerto Rico it was not possible to build a building without ordering the materials directly from the United States, because first-class merchandise did not come to our commerce from there. class. Puerto Rico is considered what is called in the North American commercial jargon junk marcket, that is, market of junk.
If we take into account that 50 percent of that merchandise would not be available in the United States or in any foreign market, and considering that our import rarely falls below $80,000,000, the fabulous profit and exploitation that the invading nation derives from our commerce can be clearly seen.
This is the high tribute we pay for its military occupation.
It has been spoken by those who do not know the tariff issues about the benefits that Puerto Rico can acquire by placing its own products in the North American market. And, let’s talk about sugar.
Four large North American sugar mills own more than half of the most fertile lands in the country. The benefits that from sugar could be derived are almost entirely for the capital North American. The money that this represents never reaches Puerto Rico.
The profits of these companies are extraordinary because in addition to the tariff bonus they enjoy, they have the privilege of paying to the treasury those amounts that suit them. The public power has never dared to intervene even to determine the real estate that they own, and those they declare are taxed at their pleasure, and they are charged the contributions they willingly want to pay because the Attorney General or the Treasurer of the Colony have never dared to compel them by way of auction in public auction. At this time nobody knows the millions and millions that these companies owe the treasury.
As for the colonos, if the price of sugar is low, of course they are ruined; and if the price of sugar is high, they find that the amount of sucrose in the juice of the cane from their farms has decreased due to an unknown miracle.
To avoid this fraud against the colonos, the legislature of the colony came up with the idea of appointing a chemist without assistants to inspect all the laboratories of these octopuses! We already know what this poor man will do! There are some native and non-North American nationality interests who own assets dedicated to the cultivation of cane and factories for the elaboration of sugar. These benefit from free cabotage. They constitute, however, a small minority constantly attacked by the treasury and besieged by the North American sugar or banking companies that struggle to keep their farms. The fight, evidently, is very unequal. It is unnecessary to speak of its consequences.
But this group represents the native and non- North American interests most disoriented as to the goodness of free cabotage. They tenaciously oppose a change of political situation, be it to the constitution of the Republic or the conversion of Puerto Rico into a North American province, “state”, because any of these political solutions would end the irresponsible regime prevailing, and they join the invading interests, under attractive banners such as autonomy to maintain the status quo.
Those are the interests that dominate all the political parties of Puerto Rico, with the exception of the Nationalist Party.
As for tobacco, everyone knows that most of the capital invested in that wealth is North American. There remain some native landowners, but North American buyers maintain a perpetual conspiracy against them to fix the price of their product. Thus the value of a quintal of tobacco in the hands of a Puerto Rican producer is less than the amount that quintal pays to the customs for import duty. That is to say, that the product in our hands is worth nothing.
And if we add to this that our tobacco growers and other native landowners have fallen into the clutches of the Federal Agricultural Bank that today threatens to execute their farms immediately because they cannot pay the interest and amortization capital due to the crisis created by this system of exploitation for thirty years,
the country will clearly see that the native interests will have to submit unconditionally to the conditions imposed by the Yankee buyer. The fruit industry is in similar conditions. 60 percent of the capital invested is North American: the invaders are the ones who benefit from the tariff. The most important industry in the country after sugar is currently the work of fabrics and handmade seams. The capital, for the most part, is also North American, the only beneficiary of free cabotage. It is our women who are exploited by that industry. In honor of the Colonial Legislature it must be said that it approved a minimum wage law, that benefited, directly, all workers, men and women, but the Supreme Court of the United States declared it null because being unconstitutional. Our working women, like men, are subject to the same vile exploitation of this invading capital, without any political power to counteract that exploitation. That is to say, that, not even by concept of salary, does Puerto Rico derive any benefit from free cabotage. Our working mass is another great mine that the Yankee has found in its path. The so-called Socialist Party of the country has never dealt with this problem, whose solution depends on the political status, but instead of defending the working masses, it has openly made common cause with the colonial regime, preaching and defending the “permanent solidarity” between Puerto Rico and the United States. As this needle industry has not been able to concentrate in a few hands yet, some Puerto Ricans benefit from free cabotage. How to annul them?, is the question that the Government of the colony has formulated. With the apparently laudable purpose of fixing the identification of Puerto Rican products in the United States, the colonial government has approved a factory mark law. Every native product will have to bear the mark designated by the government so that its origin is not can be put in doubt, and that origin is established only by that mark. Here we see the centralization of this industry in Yankee hands. This measure in the hands of a government of good faith would serve to lift our industry, but in the hands of a government of bad faith like the one that exists in Puerto Rico, official guarantee will be denied to whoever is not graceful to that government or to the interests that that government wants to impose in our country. It is clear that, when the United States absorbs all our foreign commerce, the imports from other foreign nations will cease and the customs revenues that today amount to the respectable sum of almost three million dollars. To the autonomists of good faith we draw attention to this consequence of free cabotage between the United States and Puerto Rico, which would bring, as a consequence, the loss of fiscal revenues important, as it would result if Puerto Rico were annexed as
North American province, “state”, thus suffering all the damages of that political status, without any of the benefits that, constitutionally accompany it. In our next article we will analyze the purposes that inform the law creating the Bureau of Industry and Commerce. In summary, with free cabotage, and a tariff that excludes all foreign competition, our agrarian, industrial and commercial wealth is at the mercy of the strongest economic power in the world, which, in addition to its intrinsic financial strength, has retained in its hands all political powers in our country, which will remain powerless to this invasion unless there is a reaction of intense nationalism that can restrain it.
TARIFF AUTONOMY 1 The dominant interests, mostly North American, are opposed to the definition of the political status of the country and defend by all the means the irresponsible system of government that prevails, alleging several pretexts, but at bottom the opposition of this invisible power is reduced to reasons of an economic nature. If the country is merged into a North American province, “state”, the absolute dominion that they have today of the organisms and officials ceases colonials. The North American province “state”, would have legal power, in abstract legal theory to suppress absenteeism and latifundism, and could end the abuse of imposing the fiscal burden on natives and small landowners, to force them to sell their farms or cede their businesses to invading North American interests, which enjoy the privilege of paying to the treasury what suits them and when it suits them. We assume that that power is abstract because we know the force of the North American plutocracy and how it exploits its own fellow citizens on the continent. Whoever wants to see pictures of misery move to New York, to Boston or to any other city North American. Our working class can expect nothing from the “state”, that is not the continuation of the present exploitation. The political difficulties to extinguish Puerto Rico in a province North American “state”, are insurmountable, both from the point of North American point of view as from ours. We are not interested in what North Americans think about the “state” solution. “state”. It is their privilege to determine who can be part of the Yankee family. As for us, suffice it to say that the Puerto Ricans are not willing to renounce our inalienable right to constitute ourselves in a free Homeland, at no time or for any reason. To merge our nationality into the North American unit, be it this the latter, good or bad, is not something that can be seriously considered by those who have a clear concept of what nationality is. Its existence defines our spiritual life oriented spontaneously towards the superior civilization to which we belong, and is the only guarantee of the material well-being of our people. Only our Republic can feel the Homeland’s needs, and remedy them with the superior interest of making itself worthy of occupying a position of vanguard in contemporary civilization. These interests know well the impossibility of the conversion of our Homeland into a North American province, “state”. They oppose the propaganda that leads to that anticipating the possible evil of losing the
monopoly of the reigning political and material power, because all discussion of the political status necessarily leads to exposing the existing privileges and outrages, and that is taking away sleep from those who enrich themselves based on the systematic exploitation of our natural and human resources. By more conceited than a monopoly feels, even if it is supported by the North American force that currently guarantees the exploitation of our Homeland, it loses all tranquility upon receiving the internazo of analytical criticism, especially when the system that protects it has almost put it in possession of all the Puerto Rican wealth.
And that analysis is inevitable when discussing the political status. It is significant that the directors of the pro-North American province movement, “state”, have launched to discredit their own program, propagating the false claim that the province “state”, could not be sustained economically, appealing to the sordidness of those who have something to lose. Of course, nationalism repudiates this political solution that it considers suicidal, but always sheltered in the truth, it cannot stop rejecting an argument without any basis, and that serves only to increase the disorientation that disables the country from leaving the irresponsible colonialism, which is the true purpose pursued by those who launch such species. It is to be expected that those dominant interests will combat the National Independence. In this case the intention of maintaining the colonialism becomes absolutely manifest. The country from which they extract enormous wealth annually is presented poor and worthy of North American charity, which, by the way, has never disembarked in our land. It appears embroiled without possibility of redeeming itself. It is intended to make it depend economically exclusively on the North American market, and as a corollary, they point out that free cabotage would cease by imposing own tariffs thus provoking North American reciprocity, which would determine the ruin of the country. We have accused the government of the colony of tolerating the concealment of assets in the possession of large North American companies, of taxing their assets at low rates, and of allowing them to pay the contributions they want and when it is convenient to their interests.
The proportion between the volume of trade of a country and the value total of its property varies very little from nation to nation. The total foreign trade of the United States, exports and imports, amounts to the global sum of ten billion dollars and the total property amounts to three hundred and eighty billion dollars. The proportion is one to thirty-eight (1:38). The foreign trade of Puerto Rico gives a total of one hundred and seventy-five five million and the taxation of the property rises only to about three hundred and fifty million. The proportion of one to two (1:2) And sometimes it has risen from two to three!