THE ‘RADIO CORPORATION OF PORTO RICO’ SUBSIDIARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE CO., REFUSES TO TRANSMIT POLITICAL SPEECHES
CENSORSHIP OVER THE PROPAGANDA OF NATIONALISM. STATEMENTS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PARTY DON PEDRO ALBIZU CAMPOS
“For some time now, influence has been exerted on the company “Radio Corporation of Porto Rico” subsidiary of the “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.” so that the radio transmission of Nationalist speeches would be suspended. It is absolutely certain that the North American government wanted to suppress our propaganda via the airwaves and it is also absolutely certain that the Yanqui-phile elements yearned for the same purpose. We must call attention to the fact that in the United States there does not exist freedom of speech via the airwaves. What has been called indirect censorship prevails there, which is a formal admission that there is no freedom of speech, nor of thought, in that country. In the Yanqui Congress, a bill is being considered to suppress those restrictions on thought and on right. Under a regime of force like the one that prevails in Puerto Rico, under this North American military occupation, no right exists and only a mere tolerance in the emission of thought, because the North American power trusts in its strength and in the dominion of the press. The propaganda by the wireless means produced national and international effects and has obliged the invader to unmask himself, imposing a censorship. The excuse that the “Radio Corporation of Porto Rico”, subsidiary of the “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.” gives is trivial. To allege that a transmission of thought so vital for Puerto Rico is suppressed, to dedicate its apparatuses to commercial advertisements and to news reports of the races of the Hippodrome, is to confess that they are acting under the coercion of the North American government and in intelligence with the oppressor policy of that government, especially when those radio transmissions represented a very substantial income for the company. They intend to besiege us by the airwaves since we are by sea and land.
Here the cables that do not harm the North American imperialist policy are published and the information agencies Associated Press and United Press transmit news that interests that government. The “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.” has incurred in a very serious responsibility by lending itself to this maneuver of the North American government and we must demand the corresponding responsibility. The same haste that the chief of the North American occupation, Colonel Roosevelt, has had to deny affirmations not made until the moment, about the interference of the North American government in this grave matter, confirms that interference. The country can raise a transmitting station if it so desires. And it must do it immediately, to end the monopoly that the foreign company “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.” enjoys.
It is certain that the permission to transmit is needed, which could be denied by the North American occupying power. It is worth the pain, however, to oblige the invader to completely remove the mask. If that permission were denied, it must be dispensed with. The Puerto Rican nation must not tolerate being besieged by the airwaves. The “Radio Corporation of Porto Rico”, subsidiary of the “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.” and denominated Station W.K.A.Q., has declared itself an enemy of our sacred rights. The entire nation has to demand responsibilities of this local corporation and of the “International Telegraph and Telephone Co.,” of which it is a subsidiary and that without a doubt has sanctioned that attack against our sovereignty.
LETTER TO MR. LUIS SANCHEZ MORALES
July 1, 1932.
Hon. Luis Sánchez Morales, President of the Senate and to the Gentlemen Senators.
Gentlemen: In our memorial filed before the legislature at the opening of the present extraordinary session, by virtue of a mandate of the National Board of the Nationalist party of Puerto Rico, we claim for our patriotic organization equality before the electoral law. The Press of today informs us that that body has approved in third reading the draft of electoral Law submitted to its consideration. To Nationalism it was not conceded the opportunity to be heard in spite of the terms of its memorial already cited. The draft has been approved unanimously although it does not take into consideration the situation of the Nationalist party. This action of the Senate is simultaneous with the letter of the Executive Secretary communicating to us the suspension of the inscription of the new candidacies that we have filed in his secretariat, pretexting the wait for a new opinion from the Attorney General that illustrates him about the right to inscribe candidacies by convention, when by right already recognized, the Nationalist party has filed general candidacies. We see in all this machinations of the intervening governor to impede that Nationalism can concur to the polls. What happened in the year 1924 is repeated. It is hard for us to believe that that body without distinction of parties has entered into an anti-patriotic intelligence with the North American power, to avoid that the nationalist will of the country manifests itself peacefully in the electoral contests. Before the gravity of the situation that that policy could bring if it is verified to be true, it is our duty to claim anew, the equality before the electoral law, and, to the effect, we solicit that we be conceded to be heard.
With all consideration P. ALBIZU CAMPOS President of the Nationalist Party
Albizu Campos is acclaimed upon making his entrance to the theater of the town of Lares on September 23, 1931.
NATIONALISM AND THE ELECTORAL SITUATION
Gentlemen D. Luis Sánchez Morales and D. Manuel F. Rossy, presidents of the Senate and the Chamber respectively.
Gentlemen:
In fulfillment of the mandate that has been imposed on me by resolution the National Board of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, I have the honor of addressing to you this communication to claim equality before the electoral law to which our patriotic organization has a right.
Nationalism has systematically abstained from entering in the bitter controversy about the electoral law because that fratricidal struggle benefits exclusively the North American intervener that contemplates it smiling and with approval. Nationalism will always compromise with its Puerto Rican countrymen before favoring in some form, the policy of the Yanqui foreign intervention that pretends to annihilate Puerto Rico.
We do not believe in the tactics of the parties with which painfully we have to face, because those tactics are condemned by the very experience of those same groupings, that have exhausted their patience in a sterile diplomacy so that the Government of the United States respects our sovereignty.
Our country is in ruins. It has lost in thirty-two years more than seventy percent of its wealth that has passed to the Yanqui interests by virtue of the monopoly that they have of our market, that obliges us to buy from them what is theirs in the conditions that they want to impose on us. And to sell them what is ours in the terms that are pleasing to them.
We call attention to the fact that the high acquisitive power that Puerto Rico accuses and that permits it to occupy the place of the fifth market for the United States in the world, and the first in Latin America, is not founded on real entries, but in the displacement of our agriculturalists, industrialists and merchants, that are buying
not with gains derived from capitals, but with the remainder of those capitals after their forced liquidation by virtue of the public auction of the goods to satisfy the contributive load that falls only on the natives of the country, as is proper in all regimes of foreign intervention.
That system does not respect even the most humble home, and day after day we have to contemplate the effect of that deaf war of the public auction, that throws to the side of the highways all the Puerto Rican family. No well-intentioned government would permit such a situation, because the contributive power can never be exercised for the extermination of the ancestral home, as happens in Puerto Rico; the exercise of that power for the fostering of the economic independence of the home is permissible.
No people can cross their arms to see rise the proletarian tide that ascends with indifference, conspiracy or proper cowardice.
The social and cultural evils inflicted on the Puerto Rican nation during the Yanqui intervention are too clear so that they require more analysis.
It is for that, and founded on the very tragic experience of our countrymen that do not militate in our ranks, that Nationalism has arisen to give a definitive halt to the Yanqui government that sucks the blood of the Homeland. Our program is clear as soon as we receive the suffrage of the Puerto Rican majorities the celebration of the Constituent Convention of the Republic will be immediately declared.
We do not recognize the validity of the Yanqui regime, because it is founded on the nullity of the Treaty of Paris. On the date of its signature by the Mother Homeland Spain, Puerto Rico had international personality, and no treaty of Spain could oblige us without the express consent of the Insular Parliament, and that indispensable requisite for its validity was not followed. In other words, Puerto Rico was not a tradable thing and could not be the object of traffic, not already by virtue of the principles of the natural right, but by mandate of the strictest positive right that informs the life of relationship between the civilized nations.
We recur to the pacific means to effect the change of regime because it is a norm that must be respected in the contemporary age. The modern empires see themselves obliged to respect the independence of the intervened countries when the national will shows itself immovable. The empires consult their convenience, and this never finds itself in provoking the revolution that gives to the traste with their interests. It has been ten years since the Nationalist Party was constituted. It has recurred to the elections of the year 1924, in some ten municipalities and the year 1928 only in Caguas, under the present current electoral law, made under the direction of the chief of the intervention in the year 1924, Mr. Towner, and approved by unanimity at suggestions of the same governor. The purpose was to impede that any Nationalist sentiment manifest itself in the country. Currently the Party has inscribed general candidacies by convention, but, according to the current interpretation, it does not have representation in the Insular Board of Elections, and in the polling places it will only have an observer with voice but without vote, if the current law is respected, which is being interpreted by the Superintendent of Elections, Mr. Terry, as is natural in a North American functionary, in the most restrictive sense in what concerns the vital interests of the Nationalist Party. We have been contemplating the electoral picture with patience in expectation of this legislative assembly. The chief of the occupation, as suits he who commands, has submitted to you the draft of “law” that does not take into consideration, ex-professo, as was to be expected the position of party by convention to which Nationalism has arrived. We are conscious that if you do not accept the will already expressed by the Governor, the tacit will of the Yanqui Congress is awaited that defines beforehand who must triumph in the elections. You do not have legislative powers because you stumble with the absolute veto or with the annulment of your acts by the Yanqui Congress. It is yours, without limitations, however, the legislative initiative, and it is to be expected that, as Puerto Ricans, you only accept a law that guarantees to the patriotic cause of Nationalism that does not dispute anything to you unless it be the sacrifice to constitute a free Homeland for all the Puerto Ricans. In international life, Nationalism is what is representative; internally, it is the spur that obliges the invader to cede the fruit that does not fall in our hands, but in the skirt of the parties that represent the middle way. Nationalism is the only thing that is of all Puerto Rican. It claims from you the respect to your most sacred right: the independence of the Homeland. With all consideration,
P. ALBIZU CAMPOS President, Nationalist Party
A PROCLAMATION OF THE NATIONALIST PARTY AROUND THE DATE OF TOMORROW FRIDAY 23 OF SEPTEMBER
The Puerto Rican nationality, sixty-four years of baptism, is fulfilled on the day of September 23, 1932. On such a day of the unforgettable ‘68, the liberators of Lares baptized with their blood the marvelous body of the nation. An something of perfumed vestment traverses our remembrances similar to a bugle call of religious faith, exalted by the indissoluble ties of the concept of free Homeland. As that from the amphitheater of immortality an effluvium of perfect joy softens the calvary for us and illustrates the decorum for us.
It is that the liberators, under the title of immortals, sweeten the life of the oppressed peoples instituting themselves as guardians of the code of honor. There where rests the greater number of illustrious dead resides the most vigorous national dignity, because the peoples sustain themselves on the glory of their illustrious dead. Puerto Rico, the only country of America that has produced sanctity and by misfortune the only country of America that suffers the most degrading of the slaveries, sustains itself spiritually, thanks to the Olympic feat of Lares, that marked, for pride of the coming generations, the genesis of the most tender republic of America.
And pure men and wise men were the patriarchs of ‘68; pure as the essence of the supreme pain and wise as the beauty of the Almighty. They inspired themselves in God and produced infinite redemptive faith.
Thus they lived and thus they taught to live a life of purest freedoms and of wise fulgurations, abominating the men belittled by the betrayal and demanding purity and wisdom of those that guarded the sacred amalgamation of the patriotic independence.
Sixty-four years of reactionary politics have passed, in which the sacrilege, erected in the name of beatitudes, betrayed the sublime teaching of the liberators; sixty-four years of concealed hypocrisy in the market of dishonor.
But arose in time the zeal of the illustrious dead. Vibrated in the sky of the human redemptions the birth of the Nationalism of Puerto Rico under whose flag, that is the flag of the Homeland, the children of the liberators of ‘68 take shelter; assuring thus the precious custody of the Puerto Rican freedoms. The Nationalism of Puerto Rico, depository in America of the faith of the liberators, celebrates on the day of September 23, 1932 the festivity of patriotism in Lares, cradle of the first heroes of the independence. To this festivity of the spirit invites all the Puerto Ricans that have not pledged their souls to the betrayal, desiring to contribute with the devotion of the good believers in the religion of the Homeland to the homage that is paid to the fathers of the national history. Given in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on the twenty-first day of the month of September, sixty-fourth year of the proclamation of the republic.
P. ALBIZU CAMPOS President of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico
Rafael Rivera Matos General Secretary
THE NATIONALIST PARTY CELEBRATED YESTERDAY GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN THE MUNICIPAL THEATER OF SAN JUAN - ELECTORAL CANDIDACIES PROCLAIMED
“In the name of the Almighty, creator and protector of the nationalities, I declare constituted this extraordinary assembly of Nationalism in Puerto Rico”. With these words pronounced by the licensed Pedro Albizu Campos, initiated yesterday, at ten in the morning, its works the assembly of the Nationalist Party in the Municipal Theater of this city. The old coliseum appeared artistically decorated with the flags of the Hispano-American republics, floating in the center the single-starred flag, and highlighting on the proscenium the portraits of Simón Bolívar and of José de Diego. Standing, the assembly cheered at length Mrs. Amparo Díaz de Suárez, mother of the young Manuel Suárez Díaz, who died tragically in the known event of the Insular Capitol-, upon being invited by Mr. Albizu Campos to occupy a seat next to him in the presidential table. Were cheered upon entering the hall Mr. Francisco Vincenty, Julio Medina González, Fernando Torregrosa, Luis F. Velázquez, J. Enamorado Cuesta, the Dr. José G. Gardé and Miss Julia Carmen Marchand. “It is about”, said Mr. Albizu Campos upon addressing the assembly, “of an extraordinary session of our party to treat exclusively electoral matters. The filed candidacies are divided in two groups: that of Resident Commissioner, represented by don Julio Medina González, and that of Member of the Board of Revision and Equalization represented by don José Pascual Berríos and those of representatives and senators by accumulation represented by don Francisco Vincenty and by he who speaks. The first two were candidacies approved in the last ordinary assembly of the party, and the other two approved by the National Board with transitory character for the purposes of the inscription of the party. The National Board agreed to put at the disposition of the assembly all the filed candidacies, in such a way that this chooses the candidates that it estimates necessary and convenient. The selected candidate must be a candidate on probation. We cannot stimulate the desire of representation because our movement would be constituted in one of corruption of the character. The executions must be had in consideration, as well as the ascendancy that the candidate has in the entire country. Until now Nationalism has maintained that criterion in exemplary form all the nationalists are disposed to accept the candidacy that the party imposes on them. Here it does not fit to renounce because pretensions do not fit. That is the criterion of Nationalism in this liberating movement although it costs the life”. (Ovation).
Mr. Albizu Campos said that in the general candidacies did not figure names of woman even when they did figure in local candidacies. He manifested that various women had been consulted to postulate them in candidacies and that all refused. He alluded the case of the doctor Margot Arce, that was nominated candidate to representative by Santurce in the last assembly, and saying that it was the Nationalist Party the first collectivity in postulating a lady for a representative charge. He added that Miss Arce addressed him a letter thanking the honor that was conferred to her but declining it because she ostentated the criterion that the woman could cooperate in a wider field than in the legislature. He gave reading to a letter of La Hija del Caribe also renouncing a general candidacy, sustaining that she has always shunned all that is related with politics and exposing besides motives of personal nature that impede her from accepting a nomination. Mr. Albizu Campos said that the assembly should be very conservative upon treating the municipal and district candidacies already inscribed.
ALBIZU CAMPOS SPEAKS
At ten and a quarter in the morning Mr. Pedro Albizu Campos again made use of the word, who upon announcing the electoral situation was greeted by the assembly standing with a warm ovation and enthusiastic cheers that lasted during five minutes. “I thank”, he said, “infinitely this greeting and I invite you to enter in this assembly full of serenity. The Nationalist movement, contrary to what its gratuitous detractors say, is the only serene one in Puerto Rico, since although it is a courageous movement and decided to everything to defend the cause of which it is a depository in this land, it sustains it without treacheries. The clashes that we have against brothers to whom it hurts the most is to Nationalism for a reason, because the invader lives, sustains itself of the divisions between ourselves. If we the nationalists are going to deepen in these divisions we would be one more instrument of the invader to impose its policy of penetration in Puerto Rico. In front of us is placed the Yanqui power and its instruments that are our brothers, those that constitute a party of government, of what government?, of the only one in Puerto Rico: of the North American government that exists by the will of the Congress and of the tribunals of the United States. That political division is divided in three factions; liberals, socialists and Union-Republicans. Fundamentally, from the point of view of opposition to the regime of Puerto Rico, there are no differences between them. The three are governmental factions of the colonial government. The only faction that could discuss this is the Liberal party but it is in question by its program, by the declarations of its directors and by its actions. It celebrates an assembly in this same theater and approves a resolution to inform of its acts the Yanqui Governor; it names a commission of the most distinguished elements of its bosom presided over by Mr. Fernández García, the man that ostentates the highest representation of his party in the electoral ticket, so that he renders accounts to the resident of Fortaleza and offer him all class of pieties and cooperation to his work of government. Let us not speak of the chief of the Party that is a governing since times of Spain, He believes very important to be President of what he calls Senate of Puerto Rico. This illusion borders on madness. For it he does not look at what he does nor worries about what he does. It is a madness that has done him a grave damage and occasions enormous prejudices to his country. The candidate to Commissioner to Washington of the Liberal party is a declared enemy of the independence. From this same site he declared in the antepenultimate assembly of his collectivity, that Puerto Rico is not prepared to be free. The Liberal party then in its governing tendency does not divorce in anything of the Republican Union that goes to the Independence if the statehood is denied to it by the Congress. The Socialist party keeps silence as to the independence. Militate, besides, in the Liberal party men hostile to the ideal that we sustain. Mr. Travieso, whom I admire because he does not carry the duplicity in his lips and is sincere in his convictions, is a declared enemy of the independence and occupies however, the honorary presidency of the referred collectivity. It is this a party that radiates to the elements that can perturb the accommodative politics with the government and look for elements akin to its budgetary games. It postulates for the Senate don Enrique Landrón and don Mateo Fajardo, very respectable persons but republicans of all the life. It postulates besides for a senatorship by accumulation Mr. Mercado son, of Yanqui-phile ideas. It does not have, then in its ticket, a single representative value capable of raising the problem of the independence of Puerto Rico. The new elements have been annulled. There are very beloved brothers in said faction but postponed before the inordinate ambition for the fictitious power of the colony. Of what worth is that the Liberal party dreams with the independence if it does not find a man disposed to risk his life for that cause? Nationalism does not encourage anyone to enter in its ranks. When someone comes to our side we tell him that our table is a clean slate, that it is empty, that not even a single dish of the budget is put on it, that he needs to be strong, healthy, vigorous, because the peoples to redeem themselves need the physical strength, that he has to be serene and above all possess a great personal courage, not the courage of the violence, but cold, that he does not think in his estate, in his woman, in his children, the day that he is called for a mission that can cost him the life. That he has to bring all the material resources that he possesses to offer them in aras of the freedom of his Homeland. There is who prefers to risk his life to sacrifice a peseta. In this terrain we have to walk much, we have to place ourselves at the height in which all the liberating men of the world have placed themselves. (Ovation). Thus were the men of ‘68 in Lares, thus was the doctor Betances and it was Rius Rivera, that represent the ideology and the action of Nationalism.