How the States Got Their Shapes Too_ The People Behind the Borderlines - Mark Stein [148]
Luis Ferré (1904-2003) (photo credit 42.1)
Spanish-American War: two future states?
With the signing of the peace treaty, the U.S. military governor of Puerto Rico called for a convention of representatives from the island’s various regions to draw up a list of concerns. The issues they raised pertained to trade with the United States, education, and voting rights. Those same issues have remained the underlying elements in Puerto Rico’s debate over statehood. They came to be joined, however, by an additional element: doubt among Puerto Ricans regarding U.S. awareness of problems in Puerto Rico and its commitment to fixing them.
The origins of these doubts can be found in statements made by the first two presidents to follow American acquisition of the island. William McKinley, in his 1899 State of the Union message, spoke of Puerto Rico’s future solely in terms of an improved postal service. Theodore Roosevelt, in his 1901 State of the Union, contentedly declared that Puerto Rico “is thriving as never before, and it is being administered efficiently and honestly. Its people are now enjoying liberty and order under the protection of the United States, and upon this fact we congratulate them and ourselves.”
Soon, however, Roosevelt was obliged to recognize that Puerto Rico’s economy was not, in fact, “thriving as never before.” Federal government policies aimed at thwarting exploitation of Puerto Rican workers turned out also to thwart U.S. business investments. “We cannot afford to put our people at a disadvantage,” Roosevelt declared in his 1905 State of the Union. “We have been paying all possible heed to the political and educational interests of the island but, important though these objects are, it is not less important that we should favor their industrial development.” Puerto Ricans were finding such statements difficult to decipher. One element, however, remained consistent in all of Roosevelt’s remarks on Puerto Rico: he repeatedly urged Congress to grant its residents U.S. citizenship.
It was into this Puerto Rico that Luis Ferré was born in 1904. His father, Antonio Ferré, had emigrated from Cuba in 1894 and founded the Puerto Rico Iron Works, which became highly profitable.2 Between the First and Second World Wars, Puerto Rico, like the United States, was affected by the aftershocks of the Russian Revolution, the rise of organized labor, and the Great Depression. Puerto Rico, however, was far more profoundly affected, because of its greater disparity between rich and poor. During this era, Luis Ferré earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from MIT. Returning to Puerto Rico to help run the family’s iron works, he witnessed social and political conflicts intensifying to the point of violence.
In October 1935 four people were killed and many more injured in a melee between police and members of the Nationalist Party, which sought independence from the United States. Four months later, members of the Nationalist Party assassinated the American in charge of the Puerto Rican police. The assassins were arrested and, during interrogation, shot dead. For the United States, Puerto Rico was becoming an unpleasant possession.
Two months after the assassination of the police chief and the assassination of his assassins, a bill to provide independence for Puerto Rico was unsuccessfully introduced in Congress. The New York Times noted in its coverage that “Luis Munoz Marin, leader of the Liberal Party in Puerto Rico, which has consistently advocated independence, has been in Washington for some time.” Muñoz Marín soon became Puerto Rico’s foremost politician. His foremost rival was Luis Ferré.
Luis Muñoz Marín (1898-1980) (photo credit 42.2)
The rivalry between