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    "label": "Report, United States Policy Toward Puerto Rico Since 1898, Division of Historical Policy Research, Department of State",
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    "title": "Report, United States Policy Toward Puerto Rico Since 1898, Division of Historical Policy Research, Department of State",
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{
    "seq": 192,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "RESTRICTED\nRESTRICTS\n-357-\n-358-\ninto a natural asset.\nl\n\"However, our program hasn't been as successful\nas we have it up in the States; and that's the truth.\nGovernor Luis Muñoz Marín testified in July 1949\nWe've had to do it, I won't say exaggerate, but at\nthat it was the Puerto Rican Government!s aim to transfer\nleast you can always emphasize two parts of the picture\nthe enterprises it had itself established to private\nand we had to, otherwise no one would ever come down.\ninterests, and to avoid establishing new ones. \"The\nSo far we haven't been as successful in employing\ngovernment built industries itself just to break the ice\npeople as we wish we had.'\nand clear the road and show that it could be done\", he\nsaid. It was also the Government's distinct policy, he\nHe added that since 1943 the number of actual employees\nadded, not to encourage mainland industries to transfer\nengaged in the plants opened by mainland business interests\nto Puerto Rico on account of tax exemptions.\nincluded 3,793 shop workers and 3,440 home workers,\nnoting further that the island's labor force was increasing\nIt is worth noting that of the plants built and\nby 12,000-15,000 each year. 1\noperated by the company itself, only the cement factory\nproved a successful enterprise from the beginning. For\nThe subcommittee noted in its report that while the\nthe fiscal year ending June 30, 1949, the company's net\nindustrialization program was \"sound\", the efforts to date\nprofit was about $329,000. The investment of mainland\nhad made only \"a small dent\" in the unemployment problem;\ncapital in new establishments amounted to about $30 million\nthat despite the inducements and apparent advantages\nby June 1948.5 A spokesman for the company admitted in\noffered by the insular Government, some companies had\nNovember 1949 before a subcommittee of the House Committee\nsustained losses and suspended operations, and a few\non Education and Labor that accomplishments had lagged\npreferred, on closer examination, to forfeit substantial\nbehind expectations:\nbonds rather than carry out their initial plans. The\nsubcommittee concluded that the industrialization program\nwas 'the only practicable solution to the island's immediate\nl\nproblem of pressure of population against very meager\n11\nGovernor's Annual Report, 1947, p. 94.\nresources. However, it was recommended that caution be\nexercised to keep the program on a sound economic basis.\n112\n2 House Committee on Public Lands, Hearings\nEighty-\nfirst Congress on H. R. 7674 and S. 3336 (July 1949-\nThe need for industrialization is emphasized by the\nJune (1950), pp. 3, 5. See also his testimony of Mar.\nfollowing figures. The island's population increased by\n13, 1950, in Senate Committee on Interior and Insular\nAffairs, Hearing Eighty-first Congress, Second Session\n(Mar. 13, 1950), pp. 5-7. See also W. Arthur Lewis,\n1\nIndustrial Development in Puerto Rico\" Caribbean Economic\nHearings\nPursuant to H. Res. 75, pp. 6-7. See\nReview, vol. I, nos. 1 and 2 (Dec. 1949), p. 164.\nalso the articles cited above by Lewis (pp. 164-165) and\nDescartes (pp. 62-98, especially pp. 68-71, 81-88).\nHearings\nPursuant to H. Res. 75, p. 21. The\ncompany had indeed been trying to sell its plants to\n2 Report\nPursuant to H. Res. 75, pp. 9-11, 19. The\nprivate firms. Report\nPursuant to H. Res. 75, p. 8.\nindustrialization program is also discussed (pp. 5-8) in\n4\nReport to the Committee on Ways and Means from the Sub-\nPuerto Rico (report to the United Nations), 1949, p. 25.\nCommittee on Extension of Social Security to Puerto Rico\nand the Virgin Islands (Feb. 6, 1959, and Congressman Fred\n5 Supplementary Report (report to the United Nations\nL. Crawford's Report to the Public Lands Committee on Puerto\non Puerto Rico for 1948), p. 15.\nRico and the Virgin Islands (Apr. 19, 1950), pp. 15-18. For\nan over-all discussion, see Perloff, pp. 347-377. See also\nDescartes, article cited, pp. 63, 82, 90.\nRESTRICTED\nRESTRICTED"
}