not with profits derived from capital, but with the remainder of those capitals after their forced liquidation by virtue of the public auction of the goods to satisfy the contributive burden that falls only upon the natives of the country, as is proper in every regime of foreign intervention. That system respects not even the most humble home, and day after day we have to contemplate the effect of that silent war of public auction, which throws the entire Puerto Rican family to the side of the roads. No well-intentioned government would permit such a situation, because 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 its arms to watch the proletarian tide rise with the indifference, conspiracy, or cowardice proper to it. The social and cultural evils inflicted upon the Puerto Rican nation during the Yankee intervention are too clear to require more analysis. It is for that reason, and founded in the very tragic experience of our countrymen who do not militate in our ranks, that nationalism has arisen to give a definitive halt to the Yankee 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 Yankee regime, because it is founded on the nullity of the Treaty of Paris. On the date of its signing by the Motherland Spain, Puerto Rico had international personality, and no treaty of Spain could obligate us without the express consent of the Insular Parliament, and that indispensable requirement for its validity was not complied with. In other words, Puerto Rico was not a saleable thing and could not be subject to traffic, not only by virtue of the principles of natural law, but by mandate of the strictest positive law that informs the life of relations between civilized nations. We resort to peaceful means to effect the change of regime because it is a norm that must be respected in the contemporary age. Modern empires are obligated to respect the independence of intervened countries when the national will is shown to be unwavering. Empires consult their convenience, and this is never found in provoking the revolution that destroys their interests. The Nationalist Party was constituted ten years ago. It has resorted to the elections of the year 1924, in some ten municipalities and in 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 unanimously at the suggestions of the same governor. The purpose was to impede that any nationalist sentiment be manifested in the country. Currently, the Party has inscribed general candidacies by convention, but, according to the current interpretation, it has no representation on the Insular Elections Board, and in the colleges it will have only 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 official, in the most restrictive sense in what pertains to the vital interests of the Nationalist Party. We have been contemplating the electoral picture with patience awaiting this legislative assembly. The chief of the occupation, as befits the one who commands, has submitted to you the project 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 aware that if you do not accept the will already expressed by the Governor, the tacit will of the Yankee Congress is expected, which defines in advance who should triumph in the elections. You do not have legislative powers because you stumble upon the absolute veto or the annulment of your acts by the Yankee Congress. Yours, without limitations, is, however, the legislative initiative, and it is to be expected that, as Puerto Ricans, you accept only a law that guarantees the patriotic cause of nationalism, which does not dispute anything from you unless it be the sacrifice to constitute a free Homeland for all Puerto Ricans. In international life, nationalism is what is representative; internally, it is the spur that obligates the invader to cede the fruit that does not fall into our hands, but into the lap of the parties that represent the middle ground. Nationalism is the only thing that belongs to every Puerto Rican. It claims from you respect for your most sacred right: the independence of the Homeland. With all consideration, P. ALBIZU CAMPOS President, Nationalist Party A PROCLAMATION OF THE NATIONALIST PARTY REGARDING TOMORROW FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 On the 23rd of September of 1932, Puerto Rican nationality completes sixty-four years of baptism. On such a day of the unforgettable ‘68, the liberators of Lares baptized with their blood the marvelous body of the nation. Something of perfumed vesture runs through our recollections, resembling a clarion call of religious faith, exalted by the indissoluble ties of the concept of a free Homeland. As if from the amphitheater of immortality an effluvium of perfect joy softens our calvary and illuminates our decorum. It is that the liberators, in their capacity as immortals, sweeten the life of oppressed peoples, instituting themselves as guardians of the code of honor. There where the greatest number of illustrious dead rest lies the most vigorous national dignity, because peoples are sustained by the glory of their illustrious dead. Puerto Rico, the only country in America that has produced sanctity and unfortunately the only country in America that suffers the most degrading of esclavitudes, is sustained spiritually, thanks to the Olympic feat of Lares, which marked, for pride of future generations, the genesis of the most tender republic in America. And pure men and wise men were the patriarchs of ‘68; pure as the essence of supreme pain and wise as the beauty of the Almighty. They were inspired by God and produced infinite redeeming faith. Thus they lived and thus they taught to live a life of purest freedoms and wise fulgurations, abomining men diminished by treason and demanding purity and wisdom from those who would guard the sacred amalgam of Homeland independence. Sixty-four years of reactionary politics have passed, in which sacrilege, erected in the name of beatitudes, betrayed the sublime teaching of the liberators; sixty-four years of veiled hypocrisy in the market of dishonor. But the zeal of the illustrious dead arose in time. The birth of the nationalism of Puerto Rico vibrated in the sky of human redemptions, under whose flag, which is the flag of the Homeland, the sons of the liberators of ‘68 are sheltered; thus ensuring the precious custody of Puerto Rican liberties. The nationalism of Puerto Rico, depositary in America of the faith of the liberators, celebrates on the 23rd of September of 1932 the festival of patriotism in Lares, cradle of the first heroes of independence. To this festival of the spirit it invites all Puerto Ricans who have not pledged their souls to treason, wishing to contribute with the devotion of good believers in the religion of the Homeland to the homage that is paid to the fathers of 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 Secretary General THE NATIONALIST PARTY HELD GENERAL ASSEMBLY YESTERDAY AT THE MUNICIPAL THEATER OF SAN JUAN - ELECTORAL CANDIDACIES PROCLAIMED “In the name of the Almighty, creator and protector of nationalities, I declare constituted this extraordinary assembly of nationalism in Puerto Rico.” With these words pronounced by Licenciado Pedro Albizu Campos, the assembly of the Nationalist Party in the Municipal Theater of this city began its work yesterday at ten in the morning. The old coliseum appeared artistically decorated with the flags of the Hispano-American republics, with the mono-starred flag floating in the center, and the portraits of Simón Bolívar and José de Diego standing out on the proscenium. Standing, the assembly applauded at length Mrs. Amparo Díaz de Suárez, -mother of the young Manuel Suárez Díaz, who died tragically in the well-known event of the Insular Capitol-, upon being invited by Mr. Albizu Campos to occupy a seat next to him at the presidential table. Mr. Francisco Vincenty, Julio Medina González, Fernando Torregrosa, Luis F. Velázquez, J. Enamorado Cuesta, Dr. José G. Gardé, and Miss Julia Carmen Marchand were applauded upon entering the hall. “This is,” said Mr. Albizu Campos, addressing the assembly, “an extraordinary session of our party to deal exclusively with electoral matters. The lodged candidacies are divided into two groups: that of Resident Commissioner, represented by Don Julio Medina González, and that of Member of the Board of Review and Equalization represented by Don José Pascual Berríos, and those of representatives and senators by accumulation represented by Don Francisco Vincenty and by the one who speaks. The first two were candidacies approved at the last ordinary assembly of the party, and the other two approved by the National Board with a transitory character for the purposes of the registration of the party. The National Board agreed to place all the lodged candidacies at the disposal of the assembly, so that it may choose the candidates it deems necessary and convenient. The selected candidate must be a candidate on trial. We cannot stimulate the desire for representation because it would constitute our movement into one of corruption of character. The performances should be taken into consideration, as well as the ascendancy that the candidate has throughout the country. Until now, nationalism has maintained this criterion in an exemplary way; all nationalists are willing to accept the candidacy that the party imposes on them. There is no room here to renounce because there is no room for pretenses. That is the criterion of Nationalism in this liberating movement, even if it costs life.” (Applause). Mr. Albizu Campos said that the general candidacies did not include names of women even though they did appear in local candidacies. He stated that several women had been consulted to postulate them in candidacies and that all had refused. He alluded to the case of Dr. Margot Arce, who was nominated as a candidate for representative for Santurce at the last assembly, and saying that the Nationalist Party was the first collectivity to postulate a lady for a representative position. He added that Miss Arce sent him a letter thanking him for the honor conferred but declining it because she held the criterion that women could cooperate in a broader field than in the legislature. He read a letter from La Hija del Caribe also renouncing a general candidacy, arguing that she has always shunned everything related to politics and also stating reasons of a personal nature that prevent her from accepting a nomination. Mr. Albizu Campos said that the assembly should be very conservative when dealing with municipal and district candidacies already registered. ALBIZU CAMPOS SPEAKS At a quarter past ten in the morning, Don Pedro Albizu Campos again took the floor, who, upon announcing the electoral situation, was greeted by the assembly standing with a warm ovation and enthusiastic cheers that lasted for five minutes. “I am infinitely grateful for this greeting,” he said, “and I invite you to enter this assembly full of serenity. The nationalist movement, contrary to what its gratuitous detractors say, is the only serene one in Puerto Rico, because although it is a courageous and determined movement to do everything to defend the cause of which it is the depositary in this land, it sustains it without treachery. The clashes we have against brothers hurt nationalism the most for one reason, because the invader lives, is sustained by the divisions among ourselves. If we nationalists are going to deepen these divisions, we would be one more instrument of the invader to impose his policy of penetration in Puerto Rico. Facing us is placed the Yankee power and its instruments that are our brothers, those who constitute a government party, 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 courts of the United States. That political division is divided into 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 because of its program, because of the declarations of its directors, and because of its actions. It celebrates an assembly in this same theater and approves a resolution to inform the Yankee Governor of its actions; it appoints a commission of the most distinguished elements of its midst, presided over by Mr. Fernández García, the man who holds the highest representation of his party on the electoral ticket, to render accounts to the resident of Fortaleza and offer him all kinds of homage and cooperation to his work of government. Let’s not talk about the head of the Party, who has been a government supporter since the times of Spain. He believes it is very important to be President of what he calls the Senate of Puerto Rico. This illusion borders on madness. Because of it, he does not look at what he does nor does he worry about what he does. It is a madness that has done him serious harm and causes enormous damage to his country. The candidate for Commissioner in Washington of the Liberal party is a declared enemy of independence. From this very site he declared in the penultimate assembly of his collectivity that Puerto Rico is not prepared to be free. The Liberal party, therefore, in its government-supporting tendency, does not divorce itself in anything from the Republican Union, which goes to Independence if statehood is denied to it by the Congress. The Socialist party remains silent regarding independence. Moreover, men hostile to the ideal we sustain militate in the Liberal party. Mr. Travieso, whom I admire because he does not carry duplicity on his lips and is sincere in his convictions, is a declared enemy of independence and occupies, however, the honorary presidency of the aforementioned collectivity. This is a party that radiates the elements that may disturb the accommodating politics with the government and seek elements akin to its budgetary games. It postulates for the Senate Don Enrique Landrón and Don Mateo Fajardo, very respectable people but republicans all their lives. It also postulates for a senatorship by accumulation Mr. Mercado Jr., of Yankee-philic ideas. It does not have, therefore, 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 dear brothers in that faction but postponed before the excessive ambition for the fictitious power of the colony. What is the value of the Liberal party dreaming of independence if it does not find a man willing to risk his life for that cause? Nationalism does not encourage anyone to join its ranks. When someone comes to our side, we tell him that our table is a clean slate, that it is empty, that not a single plate of the budget is placed on it, that he needs to be strong, healthy, vigorous, because peoples need physical strength to redeem themselves, that he has to be serene and above all possess great personal courage, not the courage of violence, but cold, that he does not think of his estate, of his wife, of his children, the day he is called for a mission that may cost him his life. That he has to bring all the material resources he possesses to offer them on behalf of the freedom of his Homeland. There are those who prefer to risk their lives rather than sacrifice a peseta. In this terrain we have to walk a lot, we have to place ourselves at the height in which all the liberating men of the world have placed themselves. (Applause). Thus were the men of ‘68 in Lares, thus was Doctor Betances and Rius Rivera, who represent the ideology and action of nationalism. “With whom is the Liberal party liberal? Is there anyone who wants to say?” Voices emerge from the assembly that say: “With the Yankees.” Mr. Albizu continues speaking. “The word liberal is holy. It is close to the word independence, but the Liberal party has preferred to play with everything and is burning itself. “Nationalism renounces the budget because we do not want to be the executioners of our Homeland, paid with money from our Homeland, under instructions from the enemies of our Homeland. We are the most selfish men in the Homeland. We want the last piece of our land to belong to Puerto Ricans, that commerce and industry be of the Puerto Ricans, that we be the only arbiters of our own destinies. That is the good of the individual and it is the good of the nationality. We are men of dignity. Right now the force of the United States can present itself to dissolve this act and no one is going to run here. (Applause). It is not that we have the sense of useless sacrifice. We do not ask the people to be suicidal. We do not lead them to sterile struggles but to the only effective and dignified one that can be conceived: the independence of our Homeland. It is not that we are bloodthirsty, but we are engaged in something very sacred: in the restitution of peace in Puerto Rico. The state of peace is the perfect state of individual consciousness, of national consciousness, and of international consciousness. The state of peace is the perfect state of law and the absence of aggression. There can be no peace when the rights of one’s neighbor are not respected. We are in a state of perpetual war with the only difference that we do not defend ourselves from the attacks of the enemy. When a people is unconscious of the attack it receives, it is the most serious crime that is committed against that people. We are receiving the shots alone, until Nationalism arises and says: stop there, if you advance we will shoot you, whatever the cost! As Christian and civilized men, we want the internal peace of law that is reflected in the relations of power to power and of equal to equal in international life. (Applause). Those who offer their cooperation to the government in this war against interests are the liberals, the socialists and those of the Republican Union. The United States does not spend a peseta to sustain this servitude, but on the contrary it uses our own money to perpetuate our enslavement even though that money is extracted from the bodies and souls of our compatriots.” Mr. Albizu Campos was in the use of the word for three and a half hours. He made a history of the origin of the Nationalist Party with its current organization. He alluded to Governor Reily, saying that Mr. Barceló “surrendered the flag of independence in exchange for the budget.” He then referred to the formation of the Alliance “with its political formula of sovereignty within sovereignty to deceive this people.” He said that the Electoral Law of 1924 had been “a conspiracy of the Alliance to prevent Nationalism from manifesting itself in the polls.” He stated that “the Yankee power had raised the Republican Party against the Federal Party even though both had the same program, with Muñoz Rivera and Barbosa, two annexationists, at the head of those parties, and that when republicanism, which was useless for imperial purposes, was divided, unionism arose with its school of duplicity.” “Hate,” he said, “deepened, and these hates engendered the Socialist party, which gave an opportunity for a foreigner to be the instrument to deliver the working class into the hands of the intervening power.” “I don’t know,” he said, “why Barceló denies Tous Soto so much. I have not seen anyone who divorces, marries, and divorces again with more ease than Barceló in politics. He suffers from a hallucination. It is a madness that is costing him his life and that of his Homeland.” The speaker began to relate all the incidents and details of the struggle that the Nationalist party sustained to obtain recognition of its right to registration by convention. He said that Mr. Ortiz Toro rendered an opinion recognizing that right but that it was subsequently revoked by Attorney General Winter. He then spoke of the steps taken near the legislature “to achieve amendments to the Electoral Law that would guarantee protection to the Nationalist party” and stated that “Barceló and Iglesias with Mr. Terry, under instructions from Governor Beverley, had managed to defeat a project that had been presented to the legislature for that purpose.” When referring to the well-known incident of the Capitol, the assembly applauded Mrs. Amparo Díaz de Suárez. Mr. Albizu Campos said: “You have applauded the first woman martyr of this generation, when the inclite Suárez fell in defense of the flag that today profanatory hands want to wrap themselves in, I constituted myself trembling and worried in the home of this illustrious lady. I felt fear for the first time in my life when I found myself in front of the mother, fearful that she would reproach me about the death of her son. And this mother embraced me over the body of her son saying these words worthy of the Divine Teacher: “Don Pedro, may no vengeance be raised over the corpse of my son.” Many lives then depended on a word from my lips. When certain men wanted to speculate with the death of that patriot, we kept silent and felt compassion.” Mr. Albizu Campos continued making history of “the sacrifices that nationalism had undergone for its registration by petition,” and referred to the challenge by Mr. Barceló of said registration, as well as of the party’s insignia. He said that “his allegations lacked legal foundation.” That the liberal star, successor of the star of the Federal party, represents the annexationist idea. “Barceló,” he added, “is playing with fire. We will prepare ourselves for any emergency.” (Applause). “We picked it up when it was trampled by McClure in the plaza of San Juan. No one came to defend it. We want to know who is the one who dares to trample it now. We are not going to allow anyone to play with the flag of the Homeland. A dangerous card is being played with our patience.” (Applause). In the course of his peroration he exalted “the political and moral merits of Don Julio Medina González and Don José Pascual Berrios.” He stated that he was making those statements for the knowledge of youth, saying “that youth is worth nothing if it does not know how to value senectitude.” “The entrance to the tomb is more difficult than the entrance to life. The most precious award to which a man can aspire is to be able to say, as Don Francisco Vincenty said, of whom I am not going to speak, because he is well known to youth, that he submits his life to the most demanding crucible. It is said that nationalism is a movement of young people. It is true. But we have those of eighty, seventy and sixty years. Nationalism is young because freedom is not the heritage of any age. Don Julio Medina González was a delegate to the Chamber for the Unionist party in 1905 and then presented a bill requesting the United States to recognize the independence of Puerto Rico. He remained alone on that occasion. There was no one to second his project. If that is one of the most brilliant pages in the history of Puerto Rico, it is also one of its darkest pages. Brilliant for the gesture of Don Julio, dark and sad for the attitude of the men who accompanied him in the Chamber. They did not see the transcendence of that step. They became cowards and plotted against him for his expulsion and he had to fight for his right to his seat.” He then related episodes
of the political life of don Julio Medina González, who was prosecuted accused of violating postal laws and sentenced to two years in prison, having served a sentence during which he contracted an illness that physically disabled him for his entire life”. “Today he is,” he said, “almost crippled in his legs, suffering the same pains as José de Diego. So that you may see the painful and cruel tragedy of the Homeland, there you have two candidates facing don Julio Medina González: one, the most decisive and unconditional servant of Yankee intervention in Puerto Rico, a foreigner who has made a pedestal on the living corpses of the workers of Puerto Rico; the other, Mr. Benigno Fernández García, a man who has only served to justify the duplicitous policy of the party to which he belongs. We know of no patriotic action by this candidate. From his statements we know that he is an enemy of the country’s freedom, because from him the Homeland has received the gravest insult that can be written by saying that we are not prepared either economically or culturally to be free.” He then had phrases of high recognition for don Ramón Mayoral Barnés, of whom he said was one of the living heroes of nationalism. He extolled the political merits of don Antonio Vélez Alvarado, don Dionisio González, don Alejandro López, and other representatives of nationalism in Puerto Rico. Mr. Albizu Campos ended thus: “Never offend our people, who are the most beloved to us. When you see a humble home in whose door there is a woman, no matter if she is black, poor, modest, ragged, imagine that she is the empress of India. Before the pain of that woman who represents the tearing away of an entire life and the tearing away of the Homeland, make displays of your best eloquence”. (Applause). “Let us be noble, attentive, chivalrous and refined at all times, as hard, strong and courageous at all times as well. The nationalist platform is more sacred than our home, to ascend to it requires wisdom. We have no boastful tribunes or writers. If we had them we would be the prostitutes of our youth and to prostitute our youth there are mentors in Puerto Rico who are not in our party”. (Applause). THE PROFESSORS FROM COLOMBIA ARRIVE As the Colombian professors Pedro Sarmiento Pérez and Rafael Barríos entered, the assembly, standing, acclaimed them with a prolonged ovation. Mr. Albizu Campos then took the floor to greet the visitors. “This presidency,” he said, “has the highest honor of greeting the great Republic of Colombia represented at this moment by professors don Rafael Barrios and don Pedro Sarmiento Pérez. We have learned through the Press that you have arrived in Puerto Rico on a pedagogical mission, but I am very sad to inform you that Puerto Rico is one of the countries in which pedagogy does not exist. Here there are many schools and many schoolchildren but there is very little pedagogy. I begin by telling you that teaching in Puerto Rico begins with destroying the vernacular language, which is the vehicle for the expression of the soul of peoples. Vasconcelos was surprised when he visited our country that a people tolerated the imposition of a foreign language. School texts are written by North American writers and in them the values of our race are demeaned. You are in the most infectious cultural environment in America and be careful not to carry that contagion to your great republic. Nationalism has been fighting since its foundation against that school which represents the imperial aims of the United States in the educational order. “You are in the presence of the Hispano-American flags and here is also your glorious pavilion. (Applause). “Nationalism, like all nationalist movements, is the organization of the Homeland against foreign intervention”. The speaker stated that nationalism represented in Puerto Rico “the faith of the liberators of America and that is why the portrait of Simón Bolivar, genius of liberty, was placed in that assembly”. “Puerto Rico” - he concluded saying - “represents in America, with Santo Domingo, Haití and Cuba, a cultural vanguard and its struggle is to stop the advance of North American penetration in America. We are here so that they shall not pass. We, within the foreign intervention, are free and we will not cease in our struggle until we achieve independence for Puerto Rico”. He reiterated his greeting to the visitors. General Assembly of the Nationalist Party, 1932. A MANIFESTO OF THE NATIONALIST PARTY ON THE OCCASION OF THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS TO THE NATION Two political parties go to the polls: the government party and nationalism. The government party embodies the principle of the legitimacy of the interventionist regime that exploits us, and generously offers its most decisive cooperation to the North American interventionist policy. Rivalries engendered by public posts and the blessings of the budget, keep the government party divided into three factions that are called Republican Union, socialists and liberals. The struggle between these factions is bitter and ruthless. Their directors have stirred up passions in the popular masses, producing dangerous divisions in the unity of the Homeland. That work strengthens, as long as it is effective, the imperialism that crushes us. There is no right to ignite hatred among the members of the same family. The father who did that to his own would be branded as foolish. In the political order, the directors of the multitudes have greater responsibility than a father of a family. It is imperative to brand as foolish a policy that throws Puerto Ricans against Puerto Ricans. Nationalism invites all to follow norms of high Puerto Rican concord, to maintain firm opposition to North American intervention. The program of nationalist action goes only to that end to eliminate foreign interference that sucks the life out of us. Here in synthesis is its content. “The Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico solemnly declares: That the immediate suppression of the intervention of the United States of North America is unavoidable and commits itself to hold the constituent convention that establishes in Puerto Rico the government of a free, sovereign and independent republic, as soon as it receives the suffrage of the majorities. The citizens of Puerto Rico who, worthy of their origin, fight for a Homeland independent of all tutelage, must join the Nationalist party to immediately present a united front to the invader. Their adherence to other political parties contributes to Puerto Rican disorientation, weakens national resistance, all for the sole benefit of the North American imperial invasion skillfully and systematically directed from Washington to reduce our people to impotence so that we are pariahs in our own Homeland, to be exterminated in the short term, as has been proven. It will treat without pity the natives or foreigners who, by fair means or foul, try to secure the foreign occupation in any form that it presents itself to the country. It will put an end to the illusion of converting our Homeland into a North American province, (sic, state) because that represents the voluntary and ignominious suppression of our international personality. It will abolish by all means within its reach the compulsory system of teaching in the language of the invader, which disorients and brutalizes our youth, to the serious detriment of our cultural personality. It will seek to maintain close international, cultural and political relations, especially with the nations of our origin. Under the hard yoke of the North American occupation, from a nation of proprietors we have become a mass of day laborers, a rich economic mine for the exploitation of invasive capital. We will immediately liberate the worker from the caudillaje of the misguided workerism of Yankee origin, which, under the suggestive denomination of socialist, but without any political definition, and, therefore, the most skillful and effective defenders of North American intervention, have made him bearer of the North American flag, under whose shadow this foreign regime prevails that has turned us into slaves of the North American corporations and companies”. The Nationalist party will develop the following economic program: 1.- It will organize the workers so that they can demand from the invading foreign interests the participation in the profits to which they are entitled, assuming their immediate direction, putting men of stature, responsibility and patriotism to direct them. 2. It will seek by all means to ensure that the fiscal burden falls on non-residents, to destroy large estates and absenteeism and to divide real estate among the largest number of landowners. 3. It must by all means within its reach destroy the effect of the apparent free exchange between the United States and Puerto Rico, because in reality what exists is the monopoly that the North American invader has in our market, both of purchase and sale, imposing the conditions of sale for their products and of purchase to our products. 4. It will exclusively favor native commerce where it exists and will promote it where it has disappeared. 5. It will exclusively favor the consumption of the fruits of the land and Puerto Rican industry, seeking by all means to satisfy the needs of the Homeland. 6.- It will promote the export and the establishment of industry and maritime transportation. 7.- It will exclusively favor native banks and where there are none it will seek to organize them. 8.- It will seek to organize finances in such a form of native banking respectability that national deposits are made only in its banks, and will seek to free the country from foreign loans, public or private, so that agriculture, commerce and industry in Puerto Rican hands can resurge powerfully. “Finally, the Nationalist Party declares that it will limit itself to the acceptance of elective posts and that as a means to destroy foreign intervention”. Nationalism repudiates alliances, understandings, pacts, etc., with the government factions because the union between separatism, which strives for the immediate constitution of the republic, and organized abdication, which supports the present irresponsible government, postponing with subterfuges the proclamation of independence, constitutes a moral impossibility. Our program is clear, and a solemn oath imposes its fulfillment. It was not made to deceive the people. The nation knows what it implies to vote under the flag of the Homeland. It is imperative that it will impose the celebration of the constituent convention of the republic upon receiving the suffrage of the majorities. Nationalism is aware of the historical reality that surrounds us. It is true that, in general, the recognition of the independence of nations has been the precious fruit of a war. The independence of our enemies, the United States of North America, was imposed by the fleets and armies of France and Spain. The independence of the Latin American nations was the creation of the liberating geniuses, of Bolívar, Petión, San Martín, and their eminent lieutenants seconded by the national action that repudiated the tutelage of the mother Homeland itself. The independence of the European nations is the work of the equilibrium that the sword fixes. The respect for the Asian nations is due in large part to the Japanese cannons. The suppression of foreign interference has not been more painful than the radical changes of constitutional regimes: from republic to monarchy or vice versa; from plutocracy to socialism or vice versa. While it is true that that struggle in the contemporary age has become more terrible with the deadly power of modern armaments, it is also true that the fear of greater evils has imposed the recognition of intervened nations or the transformation of constitutional regimes. Thus we see in the century