CHAPTER V AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION IN PORTO RICO WHEN under the terms of the peace protocol of August 12, 1898, Spain agreed to cede the island of Porto Rico to the United States, an anomalous administrative condition was created. The experience of the United States government in administering dependent territories had been limited. to lands inhabited largely by American citizens, speaking the English language, and accustomed to Anglo-Saxon ideals of law and politics. Such territories received representative governments possessing a large share of local independence based upon well-nigh universal manhood suffrage; and both the national government and the inhabitants of the territory looked forward to the early admission of the dependent district into the Union as a State upon a plane of equality with all the existing States. But the facts of government and of population in Porto Rico conformed to none of the principles of American territorial government which a century's experience had served to formulate. The population of the island was much greater than that of any previous acquisition, and so densely settled that a speedy Americanization of the island by immigration was impossible; the language, laws, customs, and church organization differed from those of the United States; the people were less developed industrially and intellectually than the American people; and they possessed none of that racial self-control or experience in self-government which the American system of territorial administration presupposes. Social and political power under Spanish rule always flowed from above downward, never in the opposite more democratic direction. Even the municipalities, supposed to be organized on the elective principle, were based upon such a narrow suffrage and were so controlled by the higher insular authorities that local self-government was unknown. Consequently, the establishment of a successful government in Porto Rico could be attained only by a divergence from the past experience of the American government in ruling dependencies. This divergence might not be so great as that demanded in the Philippines, but it would be much wider than in Hawaii, where the English language was used, and Americans controlled the government and industries of the islands. Porto Rican illiteracy and political inexperience demanded from the American nation intelligent, sympathetic direction and supervision of all social processes until the time, when, under such education, its people should become ready for self-government. The American statesmen who realized this necessity, also understood the wisdom, both from an American and a Porto Rican standpoint, of limiting arbitrary power to a narrow compass, and of granting to the inhabitants of the island at an early date a share in their own government. Hence, while the American military government lasted over a year and a half, yet during that time measures were taken toward the establishment of local self-government; and on May 1, 1900, civil government, divided between Porto Rican representatives and American administrators, was inaugurated. Military government in Porto Rico was at first based upon the absolute power of a conquering army during the progress of actual military operations. But as soon as territory was conquered and hostile opposition therein was overcome, the power of the commanding officers became limited by the accepted customs of nations in such circumThese rules of international law, summarized by the United States government in 1863 in General Orders, |