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    "localId": "290019006",
    "label": "Report, United States Policy Toward Puerto Rico Since 1898, Division of Historical Policy Research, Department of State",
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    "id": "290019006",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, United States Policy Toward Puerto Rico Since 1898, Division of Historical Policy Research, Department of State",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/290019006",
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            "logicalDate": "1951-08-01",
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{
    "seq": 39,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750357/750357-26-039.tif",
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    "ocrText": "RESTRICTED\nRESTRICTED\nDECLASSIFIED\nAuthority\nE.O.\n10501\n-61-\n-60-\neventual Statehood for the island.\n1\nTo their conster-\nOwing to the indeterminate nature of the island's\nnation Secretary of War Stimson in 1911 and 1912\nand\nconstitutional status, Puerto Ricans of all classes\nPresident Taft in 1912 stated that citizenship and\nhave been wont to this day to refer to their condition,\nStatehood were unrelated problems.\n2\nwith obvious displeasure, as \"colonialism\", despite\nthe people's enjoyment of American citizenship and\nwide self-rule. In using this term, some spokesmen\nAfter considering this unexpected attitude on the\nhave referred to what they regard as the exploitation\npart of the Federal authorities, the leaders of the\nby the United States of the island!s resources and\nUnion Party reached the conclusion that American citi-\npeople, while others have meant the restrictions upon\nzenship unaecompanied by an assurance of eventual State-\ntheir self-government and the denial of their right\nhood would result in an undefined species of colonial\nto determine their own status. Almost all have agreed\nrule. 3 They therefore rejected American citizenship in\nthat the refusal of Congress to define the island's\nthe form in which it was proposed, eliminated from the\nconstitutional position has prevented long-range plan-\nparty's platform the plank advocating Statehood, and\nning, jeopardized economic development, and obstructed\nreplaced it by one demanding a form of independence.\neducational and cultural progress. There have not been\nLuis Muñoz Rivera, leader of the Union Party, told a\nlacking influential and prominent spokesmen who have\nattributed most of the island's ills to the \"obduracy\"\nCommittee of Congress in 1914: 4\nof Congress in the matter of status.\n\"The sentiments of the Porto Rican people could\nUntil about 1910 the two major parties in the\nbe condensed into declaring to this committee;\nisland, the Union Party and the Republican Party,\nassumed (1) that the island's constitutional status\nas defined in the Organic Act of 1900 was provisional,\nas is indeed stated in the act, 1 and (2) that the next\n1\nIn 1910, in addition to the party spokesmen, the\nrevision would result in incorporation and eventual\nPresident of the Porto Rican Bar Association pleaded\nStatehood. When, therefore, the problem of granting\nbefore a committee of Congress for a clarification of\nthe inhabitants American citizenship came up for\nthe island's political status, saying: 11 we\nao\nnot\ndiscussion before committees of Congress in. 1910 and\nknow what we are, and we regret that Congress has not\nthereafter, spokesmen for the dominant Union Party\nseen fit to say what we are to be, what is to become\nrequested that the Federal authorities as well as\nof us. of course that creates in every Porto Rican a\nCongress make declarations which would link the\nfeeling of regret, a great feeling of regret.\nWe\nproposed granting of American citizenship with\ndo not want to continue in this situation of uncertainty.\nHouse Committee on Insular Affairs, Hearings upon the Bill\nProposing to Amend the Present Organic Law of Ports Rico\n(1910), p. 222. Thirty-five years later, in 1945, another\n1, An Act Temporarily to provide revenues and a\nPresident of the Bar Association deplored the failure of\ncivil government for Porto Rico\". Note the word\nCongress to act on the question of status; see post, P. 76.\n\"Temporarily\"\n2war Department, Annual Report, 1911, I, 44; ibid.,\n1912, I, 42; and Congressional Record vol. 49, part 1,\nDec. 6, 1912, p. 208. See also ante, pp. 19-26,\n3Testimony of Cayetano Coll y Cuchi, spokesman for\nthe Union Party, on Feb, 7, 1916; Hearings\non S. 1217,\np. 55.\nHouse Committee on Insular Affairs, Hearings,\nSixty-third Congress, Second Session\non H.R. 13818\n(1914), p. 54.\nRESTRICTED"
}