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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": 93,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "RESTRICTED\nDECLASSIFIED\nRESTRICTED\nAuthority E.O. 10501\n-168-\n-169-\n\"Our pro-independence congress was mainly formed\nby popularists\", declared a leading spokesman, Dr. Sergio\n\"The political situation in Porto Rico has\nS. Peña, in November 1943, adding that \"80 percent of the\nbeen further complicated by the development in\nPopular Party are standard advocates of independence, and\nthe last few years of a demand for independence\nhave been so for many, many years. 1 The vice president of\nof the island under some form of protection or\nthe congress said that If 95 percent of all the members of\ntutelage of the United States. This demand re-\nthe Popular Party have the independence feeling. \"2 There\npresents the idea of but a few people. I believe\nit is idle to consider or to discuss any future\nwere other testimonies in the same sense, 3 Although, as\nfor the people of Porto Rico as separated from\nhas been noted, the Popular Democratic Party as such has\nthe United States. If\nrefused steadfastly to take a position on any specific\nform of independence, many of its followers are without\nGovernor Arthur Yager, testifying in 1914, referred\nSenators out of 19 and 22 Representatives out of 39 as\ndoubt sympathetic to independence. Moreover, in 1945, 11\nto independence for Puerto Rico as a dream, adding:\n\"Every people, I suprose, under the sun, dreams that of inde- the\nof well the as 35 Puerto Rican mayors signed a petition in fayor\npendence. 11 Two years later he again declared of\nindependence bill sponsored by Senator Tydings.\nindependence movement \"was built upon the foundation of\nrather a sentimental attitude, caused by the denial\n4. Attitude of Federal Authorities\ncitizenship\", a view in which the vice president of the\nUnion Party concurred. 2\nscant attention to independence either as a positive idea,\nFederal authorities have with few exceptions paid\nGovernor H. M. Towner testified in 1924:\nmovement. as a prospective solution, or. as the goal of an organized\n\"There is no feeling except among a very limit- few\nutive No one in a responsible position in the Exec-\nradicals and extremists, who are exceedingly\nself in branch of the Federal Government has expressed him-\ned in number--there is no feeling of asking for\nwas fevor of independence. On the other hand, there\nindependence in Porto Rico, They feel that they are\nlittle interference even with the activities of the\nso closely united, commercially and every other is way\nNationalists until they resorted to violence,\nwith the United States, and the unwisdom of it down\nL. M. Garrison took cognizance of the nascent indecendence\nIn his annual report for 1913 Secretary of War\nso there now asking for independence or tending toward\nmanifest that there is no political party\nit,\nproposed by the Union Party, He wrote:5\nmovement, noting in particular the \"protectorate\" scheme\nElsewhere in his testimony he emphasized that in\nisland \"the whole trend of sentiment is toward the\nUnited the States\", while \"those who have the contrary opin-\nwould call exceptional and not representative persons. 13\nion are units, and they are almost entirely what you\nHearings\non S. 1407, pp. 152 and 175.\n1\n2\nHearings\non H.R. 13818, p. 11.\nIbid. P. 198.\n2\non H.R. 8501, p. 9; Hearings\non\n3\nHearings\nHearings\n4\non S. 227, pp. 41, 51, and 96.\nH.R.\n13818, p. 73.\n3\nHearings\non S. 2448 (and other bills), pp. 3-4,\nIbid., pp. 81-82 and 504-28.\n5\n24.\nWar Department, Annual Reports, 1913, vol. I, p. 41.\nRESTRICTED\nRESTRICTED"
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