volume 2, pages 1293-1294).

"The educated class of Puerto Ricans are as well educated and accomplished as the educated men of any country. They have had the benefit of a liberal education, a few in the United States, a good many in France, and a great many in Madrid and Habana, where they have passed through the universities. The lawyers and doctors are all graduates of either the university in Habana or some university in Spain, with very few exceptions. The merchants are largely Spanish, many of whom will probably preserve their nationality under the provision of the Treaty of Paris which gives them that right. A few may adopt American citizenship, and ultimately possibly all will, but many of the merchants who conduct the largest part of the business of Puerto Rico will retain their Spanish citizenship. There are a number of merchants who are natives, a few Germans, and a few English. I do not remember any American merchant in business there before the occupation. The schools in Puerto Rico conducted under the Spanish system were few in number. The amount allotted for education by the insular budget was something like 300,000 pesos a year, as I now recall the figures. The teachers were officers of the government, holding life positions and receiving pensions when superannuated. They belong to a civil-service class which is not dependent upon any change of administration, only being removed for cause. The lawyers, or judges, rather, of the island, occupy a similar position."

_General George W. Davis, Testimony before Senate Committee. (56th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document. No. 147)._

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (October-October). The military government instituted by the United States.

"The government of the island, its various civil institutions, its codes and its courts, the systems of taxation, etc., have been modified in very important particulars since the American occupation began, October 18, 1898. It will be useful, perhaps, to indicate the more important changes. Under General John R. Brooke [in command of the Department, October 18 to December 5, 1898] orders were issued declaring

(1) That the political relations of Porto Rico with Spain were at an end; that provincial and municipal laws were in force in so far as not incompatible with the changed conditions, and that they would be enforced substantially as they were before.

(2) Abolishing the use of all stamped paper and stamps of every kind for documents, public and private.

(3) Exempting all conveyances and contracts from the payment of royal dues.

(4) Discontinuing the diputacion provincial, and distributing its duties among the secretaries or ministers.

(5) Directing that appeals should not be sent to the supreme court in Madrid, but should be heard by the superior court at San Juan.

(6) Abolishing the subdelegation of pharmacy which gave degrees to pharmacists.

(7) Making the fisheries free to all.

Appropriations for the support of the church ceased with American occupation, and the Government lottery was discontinued.

"Under the military government of General Guy V. Henry [December 6, 1898 to May 8, 1899], orders were issued:

(l) Appointing military commissions to try cases of arson and murder which had accumulated in the civil courts.

(2) Closing public offices on Sunday, as far as possible.

(3) Suspending the municipal tax on fresh beef for use of the Army.

(4) Making Christmas and New Year's holidays.

(5) Forbidding grants or concessions of public or corporate rights or franchises without the approval of the commanding general and the Secretary of War.

(6) Abolishing the municipal consumo tax on articles of food, fuel, and drink, and providing for additional assessments on the sale of liquors and tobacco.

(7) Separating the collection of customs duties from that of direct taxes.

(8) Establishing a new system of land taxation, by which agricultural lands should be taxed according to the several classes instituted, from 1 peso down to 25 centavos per cuerda, and levying 50 per cent additional on lands whose owners reside abroad.

(9) Providing for the free vaccination of the people of the island.

(10) Prohibiting the exhumation of bodies in the cemeteries, recognizing the right of priests to control burials in consecrated grounds, and requiring municipalities to keep cemeteries in repair.

(11) Reducing notarial fees from $1.88 to $1, from $4.50 to $1, from $11 to $1, and from $1 to 50 cents, according to class of document, and canceling others.

(12) Reorganizing the cabinet, so as to make all the secretaries directly responsible to the governor-general.

(13) Suspending the foreclosure of mortgages on agricultural property and machinery for one year.

(14) Appointing February 22 a holiday.

(15) Prohibiting the sale of liquor to children under 14 years of age.

(16) Modifying the civil marriage law.

(17) Declaring that eight hours shall constitute a day's work.

(18) Creating an insular police.

{413}

"Under the military government of General George W. Davis [May 8, 1899, to May 1, 1900], orders were issued

(1) Modifying the order of

General Henry concerning hours of labor, so as to allow agreements between employer and employee for longer or shorter hours.

(2) Naming May 30 as a holiday.

(3) Allowing the writ of habeas corpus to be issued.

(4) Constituting a board of prison control and pardon.

(5) Continuing the observance as a holiday of June 24.

(6) Creating a provisional court on the basis of circuit and district courts of the United States for the hearing of cases not falling within the jurisdiction of local insular courts.

(7) Creating a superior board of health for the island.

(8) Reorganizing the bureau of public instruction and the system of education.

(9) Relieving the judiciary from all control by the department of justice, discontinuing the office of secretary of justice, and appointing a solicitor-general.

(10) Abolishing the sale at auction of the privilege of slaughter of cattle, and making it free.

(11) Reorganizing the judicial system of the island, with a supreme court in San Juan and district courts in San Juan, Ponce, Mayaguez, Arecibo, and Humacao, and with modifications of civil and criminal procedure.

(12) Discontinuing the departments of state, treasury, and interior, and creating bureaus of state and municipal affairs, of internal revenue, and of agriculture, to be placed under the direction of a civil secretary, responsible to the governor-general, and continuing the bureaus of education and public works, with an insular board of nine members to advise the governor-general on matters of public interest referred to them.

"The reductions in the budget of expenditures have been extensive. That of 1898-99, adopted in June, 1898, amounted to $4,781,920, native money. The appropriations for 'general obligations,' which went to Madrid, $498,502, for the clergy, $197,945; for the army, $1,252,378; for the navy, $222,668, making a total of $2,171,493, ceased to be obligations, leaving $2,610,428 for the fiscal year. A new budget was adopted for the calendar year 1899, which still further reduces expenditures, calling only for $1,462,276. This budget, if carried out, would have involved a reduction from the proposed budget of 1898-99 of $3,319,644; but a new budget was formed, as already stated, for 1899-1900, which appears to call for an increase over this very moderate sum. The revenues were reduced by the abolition of stamped paper, personal passports, export duties, royal dues on conveyances, the lottery system, and other sources of income, amounting, all told, to less probably than a million of pesos."

_H. R. Carroll (Special Commissioner), Report on Porto Rico, October 6, 1899, pages 53-55._

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (August). Destructive cyclone.

"On the morning of the 7th of August, 1899, the United States Weather Bureau, through its branch establishment here, announced the approach of a cyclonic disturbance, and the danger signal was ordered to be hoisted at substations of the Bureau at Ponce and Mayaguez. At the same time I directed that the danger be reported to all commanding officers of posts throughout the island. There had been no serious or destructive storm in Puerto Rico since 1867, and the inhabitants had ceased to feel great concern on account of tropical tempests. Except at seaports, little heed was given to the caution, and in some cases the telegraph operators failed to receive or to promptly deliver the warning messages. The vortex of the cyclone appears to have traversed the island throughout its whole length, from about Humacao to Mayaguez, and its path was a scene of very great devastation. … The gale struck the island at Humacao about midnight of August 7, and furiously blew all the rest of that night and well into the next day, while at Mayaguez the violence was not great until 9 o'clock on the morning of the 8th. But as the latter town was under the lee of high mountains, it suffered much less than it would have done had it been higher or not thus protected. Most of the habitations in the track of the center of the cyclone were entirely smashed and the débris strewn all over the country. The full reports of the loss of life bring the number of deaths up to 2,700. The wind worked dreadful havoc with nearly everything useful to man. Besides the mortality, which was appalling, the material damage was almost beyond belief. But the greatest loss of life resulted, not from the wind, but from the terrible downfall of rain that immediately followed. … Added to the horror of the situation there came with the gale on the southern coast a tidal wave, which submerged large areas with sea water and swept away what the wind and rain had spared, in some places completing the destruction. Every river bed or bottom of a land depression was a roaring torrent. The wind uprooted myriads of trees, and the rain, entering and permeating the soil, loosened it, and on steep declivities resulted in avalanches of earth, mud, and water, covering wide areas and piling up the debris in the ravines and gorges. … The material loss to the coffee growers can as yet only be estimated, but the most conservative figures received place this year's crop at one-third of the normal. … Regard being had to the fact that five years must elapse before the coffee trees and their shade can be replanted and reach a normal bearing condition, the total loss can not be safely placed below 25,000,000 pesos for Puerto Rico on account of this hurricane."

_General George W. Davis, Report (Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,