TERRITORIES: Sedition & Students

The political situation in Puerto Rico had last week reached such a boiling point that Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes, who carries this U. S. insular possession in his portfolio, was forced to take official notice. In Washington he issued a manifesto :

“The people of Puerto Rico have a perfect right within the limits of the Constitution to seek whatever form of government they deem best for themselves. . . .

“It is obvious, however, that the civil rights and liberties guaranteed by our Constitution will be maintained on the Island of Puerto Rico. . . . The Government of the United States will not tolerate terrorism and murder. The assassination of Col. E. Francis Riggs [TIME, March 2] is evidence of folly and criminality which is abhorrent to all right-thinking people whether in Puerto Rico or in the continental United States. . . . This Administration is resolved to protect [Puerto Ricans] in their lives and in their daily pursuits.”

To many a citizen in the U. S. this declaration suggested that his insular fellow-citizens were about to let their political passions spill over in typical Latin-American fashion, with blood and bullets. But such continental observers did not know:

1) That Puerto Rico has a record of far less political bloodshed than the U. S. itself. During four centuries it was the only one of Spain’s colonies that never undertook an armed revolt.

2) That although one of the chief issues of Puerto Rican politics is independence, the Liberal (independence) Party is just as peaceful and polite as the Republican (Statehood) Party.

3) Pedro Albizu Campos.

Born about 40 years ago to a Negro mother and a Spanish father, Pedro Albizu Campos was sent to Harvard where he proved himself a brilliant scholar. When the War came, he enlisted in the U. S. Army. His pride of Spanish race was deeply shocked when he was made a lieutenant in a Negro company. Back in Puerto Rico, he dabbled with the Liberal Party, later joined the Nationalists, a political group about as influential in Puerto Rico as the Prohibition Party was in the U. S.

Chief tenet of the Nationalists is that because a 24-hour Republic was set up in Puerto Rico in 1868, Spain could not cede the island to the U. S. in 1898 because it was still an independent nation. In 1930 Albizu Campos became head of the Nationalist Party and “President of the Republic of Puerto Rico.” The election of 1932 was a test of strength. The Liberal Party, which had been in power for years polled 170,000 votes and was ousted by a coalition of Republicans and Socialists who together polled 202,000. Nationalists polled 5,000 votes. With this mandate from the people, “President” Albizu Campos picked a Cabinet from among his followers and continued to make fiery speeches declaring that no good Puerto Rican would deign to ask the U.S. for independence since Puerto Rico was already independent. His converts were chiefly high-school students.

The times were bad for Nationalism.

The New Deal began showering Puerto Rico with favors. Puerto Rican friendship for the U.S. grew warmer & warmer. Politics in the island grew bitter, but only over whether the Liberals or the Coalition should control some $43,000,000 of relief money from Washington.

Last October Senor Albizu Campos made a speech over the radio in which he denounced President Roosevelt, Governor Winship, the Republicans, the Socialists, the Liberals and finally, for good measure, the University of Puerto Rico. His invective failed to make an impression until he called the University students effeminate —a prime insult to Latin-American males. A mass meeting was called at the University to pass a resolution of censure on Albizu Campos. He announced that no such resolution must be adopted. Shortly before the mass meeting was to be held, five young Nationalists drove to the campus in Rio Piedras outside San Juan, were hailed by police who recognized them. When directed to drive around peaceably to the police station, the Nationalists opened fire. The surprised police returned the fire, killed four of the five youths. Afterwards bombs were found in the car, presumably to be used to disrupt the University mass meeting.

Aghast was the public that such an unheard-of crime had been planned. Enraged was Albizu Campos at the “massacre” of his followers. In a funeral oration he described them as martyrs to the cause. Presently he ordered the U. S. out of the island, threatened to resort to arms, began to organize “the Cadets of the Republic,” supplied them with black shirts, white trousers, wooden guns. Occasionally he drilled them himself. In January when voters were registering for next autumn’s election, Albizu Campos opened a recruiting station in San Juan, hung out the one-starred “flag of Puerto Rico,” solicited volunteers and cash contributions.

Pedro Albizu Campos said himself that Col. E. Francis Riggs, chief of the insular police, was a most dangerous representative of U. S. imperialism because he was one of the most popular U. S. officials ever stationed in Puerto Rico. As Colonel Riggs, who never went armed, was driving home from mass one Sunday morning last month, a murderous young Nationalist killed him with three well-aimed shots. Public grief at his assassination knew no bounds.

The police carelessly took the assassin and his assistant into a room in the police station where a rack of guns hung exposed on the wall. When the two prisoners leaped to seize the guns, the police, so they said afterward, shot them down in line of duty. That gave Senor Albizu Campos the opportunity to deliver another funeral oration in which he declared that the killers had fulfilled Nationalist ideals, that “a tyrant has fallen.”

Last fortnight Albizu Campos walked into the office of the Federal District Attorney, said that he heard he was to be arrested, offered to surrender. His offer was declined. Next day the U. S. struck. Senor Albizu Campos was at court preparing to defend the sole survivor of last autumn’s bombing expedition to the University, when he was asked to go over and be arrested. Six of his followers, including his personal secretary, the party secretary and two poets, were also arrested. While the Puerto Rican National Guard was held under arms in its armories, ready for any emergency, Nationalist headquarters throughout the island were raided. The police found one loaded Springfield, one bomb, 50 wooden guns, and a batch of “Army of Liberation” enlistment cards. Charged with sedition and conspiracy to overthrow the Federal Government, Albizu Campos was indignant because the U. S. would not release him and his friends on $1 bail. Instead bail was given at $10,000 each and Albizu Campos went back to court. Since there is no such crime as sedition under Puerto Rican law, many peaceable advocates of independence were enraged at this imperialistic intrusion of U. S. law on their island. Liberals denounced it as a brutal attack on a man who is not a “vulgar criminal.”

Last week the Federation of High-School Students met, voted:

1) A one-day high-school strike when Nationalist Albizu Campos & friends are arraigned this week in Federal court.

2) A permanent high-school strike if they are convicted.

3) A demand that the U. S. get out of Puerto Rico or fight.

Next day Secretary Ickes, alarmed, issued his manifesto. To him Pedro Albizu Campos was “a dangerous person.”