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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",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1951
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{
    "seq": 98,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750357/750357-26-098.tif",
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    "ocrText": "RESTRICTED\nRESTRICTED\n-180-\n-181-\n\"It is my own view that economic and social\nno noisy faction outht to force it on the people\nconditions which have developed under American\nof Puerto Rico or to fool others into regarding\ngovernment have made independence a cruel and\nthem as representative.\nIf\ndelusive ideal. The thin margin between malnu-\ntrition and starvation would immediately be moved\nIt will be recalled that Governor Tugwell vetoed\nupward by separation. And a million or more\nthe bill of the Legislature providing for a plebiscite\nPuerto Ricans (who are now citizens of the United\non the status question, suspecting that it represented\nStates) would starve. There are sentimentalists\nan unfair maneuver by the promoters of independence.\nwho can contemplate this with equanimity. Freedom,\nIn a later work he referred to them as \"true political\nthey say, is worth it. This seems to me an irre-\nreactionaries\" averring that many of them were more\nsponsible attitude.\nIf the policy is to look\ninterested in independence as such than in the people's\ntoward independence, the United States has the\nwelfare. 1\n--year-old obligation, of which I have already\nspoken, to create the conditions for its success.\nC. Dominion or Commonwealth Status\nThis would mean building up local enterprises of\nall kinds, making for greater self-sufficiency,\na policy which is the exact reverse of the old\nUntil the term \"dominion status\" was incorporated\nclassic colonialism.\"\nin Senator Tydings' bill of May 1945 alongside Statehood\nand independence as one of the proposed alternatives, it\nSecretary Ickes spoke similarly in November 1943\nwas used interchangeably with \"autonomy\", \"self-rovernment\",\n'I would go so far as to say if they want independence\nand \"commonwealth status\" All who employed the term\nwe ought to give them independence, but if I were a\nmeant 3 mutually advantageous arrangement by which the\nPuerto Rican I would not want independence unless I..had\nisland would possess a maximum of self-rovernment, to-\nsome economic assurance. because I think the island would\ngether with economic benefits, and in return for these\nstarve in short order. \"1 He added: \"I question in my own\nconcessions United States security needs would be assured.\nmind how much actual sentiment there is in Puerto Rico\nfor independence. =\nIt has been noted that President Taft and Secretary\nof War Stimson in 1911 and 1912 proposed that the rela-\nGovernor Tugwell alluded to the question again in\ntionship between the island and the mainland should be\nhis message to the Legislature in 1945:2\nsimilar to those obtaining between Great Britain, on\nthe one hand, and Canada and Australia on the other.\n\"If Puerto Rico wants to separate herself.\nSuch a relationship was apparently envisaged by Muñoz\nfrom the United States, I see no reason-except\nRivera when the Union Party's platform of 1913 spoke of\ndanger to her own people--wh she should not be\na \"republic with the protection and friendship of\nallowed to do it. Secretary Ickes has said re-\nthe United States\". It has also been noted that Congress-\ncently that he feels the same way. So much in\nman (later Governor H. M. Towner proposed in 1916 a\nAmerican character is this feeling that I am sure\nrelationship similar to that proposed by President Taft\nPuerto Ricans have only to ask for Independence,\nand Secretary Stimson: that Resident Commissioner Cordova\nclearly, generally and freely, to get it. But\nDavila, in February 1919, spoke of a status which he\ntermed \"self-government\" as distinct from Statehood and\nl\nHearings\non S. 1407, pp. 14-15.\nl\n2\nRexford Guy Tugwell, The Stricken Land (Garden City,\nTugwell, Puerto Rican Public Papers, pp. 263-64.\nN. Doubleday and Co., 1947), pp. 508 and 567-68.\nRESTRICTED\nRESTRICTED"
}