Part 1

Transcriber's Notes:

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=.

Blank pages have been eliminated.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original.

A few typographical errors have been corrected.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN PORTO RICO

BY FRED K. FLEAGLE DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF PORTO RICO

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY D. C. HEATH & CO. 1 E 7

FOREWORD

IT would seem presumptuous, even after ten years of residence in Porto Rico, to attempt to classify the social problems of the Island and offer suggestions as to their solution, were it not for the fact that this work does not claim to be a complete and final analysis of the situation, but is designed merely to gather up the material available, and present it in such form that it may be made the basis of class-room study. The absence of such a collection of data was a handicap to the author in his work in rural sociology in the University of Porto Rico, and this book represents, in a somewhat abbreviated form, the material covered. The fundamental principles of sociology are touched on but lightly, since there are already available many excellent books presenting this phase of the subject. It is expected that the instructor will supplement by references and discussions, using the facts presented here to bring out the general principles of theoretical sociology.

It is to be understood that the facts and data presented here are not to be taken as a criticism of Porto Rico or of the Porto Ricans. They are merely an exposition of the social situation as it exists, and do not differ greatly, either in quantity or character, from similar facts which could be gathered relating to any country. It is necessary, however, to know our troubles if they are to be corrected, and we deceive no one if we claim a state of human perfection which does not exist. Neither do we relieve ourselves of responsibility for our own mistakes by calling attention to the fact that other people have made greater ones than we have. A frank facing of the situation, the acknowledgment of whatever there may be that is unpleasant in a social situation, and a sincere desire and attempt to make corrections, is the only honest thing to do.

I have always been optimistic for the future of Porto Rico. It is an island endowed by Nature with more than the usual amount of beauty and brightness. My relations with the people of Porto Rico have been such as to convince me that they have absorbed much of the natural atmosphere of brightness and sunshine which is their heritage, and I believe them sons and daughters worthy of such a beautiful and pleasant island home as Porto Rico.

It will be noted that the emphasis in the following pages has been placed on rural problems. This does not mean that there are more social problems in the country than in the towns, but so little has been done regarding country problems, and the course for which this material was used as a basis being devoted to rural social problems, no attempt was made to take up a discussion of the many topics which might be found in the urban situations.

Special acknowledgment is made for the material used from the reports of Drs. Ashford and Gutierrez, and for the data from the reports of the Insular Bureau of Labor while under the direction of Mr. J. Clark Bills, Jr. Some of this material is quoted verbatim from the reports, and the author does not wish to claim it as his own.

FRED K. FLEAGLE, _University of Porto Rico_

CONTENTS

PAGE POPULATION 1

THE JÍBARO 6

OVERPOPULATION 19

THE FAMILY 28

RURAL HOUSING CONDITIONS 37

WOMAN AND CHILD LABOR 50

INDUSTRIES 56

THE LAND PROBLEM AND UNEMPLOYMENT 61

POVERTY 68

SICKNESS AND DISEASE 76

CRIME 84

INTEMPERANCE 93

JUVENILE DELINQUENTS 97

RURAL SCHOOLS 105

THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY 112

RELATION OF THE TEACHER TO THE COMMUNITY 119

PRESENT-DAY RURAL SCHOOL MOVEMENTS 125

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND LONGEVITY 130

SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN PORTO RICO

POPULATION

THE Island of Porto Rico, covering an area of about 3,500 square miles, had in 1910 a total population of 1,118,012. The population was divided between the towns and country as follows: Urban population 224,620, or 20.1 per cent of the total number, and rural population 893,392, or 79.9 per cent of the total number. From these figures it is evident that the greatest problems of Porto Rico--those which affect nearly 80 per cent of the population--are problems connected with rural life. Of course, many of the people classified as rural inhabitants do not fall strictly within this class, as by urban centers we mean towns with a population of 2,500 inhabitants or more, and thus many of the smaller towns, which really have the advantages of town life, are classified officially as rural centers.

The population of Porto Rico is 65.5 per cent, or nearly two thirds, white, 30 per cent mulatto, and 4.5 per cent black. It is 98.9 per cent native and 1.1 per cent foreign born. During the period from 1899 to 1910 there was an increase in the total population of the Island of 17.3 per cent, which covered an increase of 25 per cent for the native whites, a decrease of 14.5 per cent for the foreign born whites, a decrease of 15.4 per cent for the blacks, and an increase of 10.1 per cent for the mulattoes. The decrease in the number of foreign born whites is due to the fact that in the census of 1899 this group included persons born in the United States, while in 1910 these were classified as natives. The decrease in the number of blacks is doubtless due to intermarriage with other classes, and as a result we have the children of such marriages classified as mulattoes. If the number of such marriages were sufficiently great, the births of blacks would be insufficient to offset the deaths, and the number of blacks would, in that case, necessarily decrease. On this assumption we might very well prophesy that within a few generations the black population in Porto Rico will absolutely disappear, and that we shall have an increased number of mulattoes who, in their turn, will tend to disappear, as they mingle in marriage with people of less colored blood, and in time the black race will be practically absorbed by the whites.

Of the foreign countries represented, Spain, with 56.3 per cent of the total foreign born, leads the list. Cuba and the other West Indies have 20.5 per cent to their credit, France 5.8 per cent, Italy 3.1 per cent, England 2.9 per cent, Germany 1.9 per cent, Denmark 1.6 per cent, while no other single country contributes so much as one per cent to the foreign born population.

The total number of foreign born in 1910 was 11,766. The rural population of 893,392 was divided among the races as follows: Whites 604,541, blacks 32,918, mulattoes 255,923. Thus we see that the great majority of the rural population is of the white race, due no doubt, to the fact that the colder climate of the highlands of the interior does not agree with the hereditary love which the colored race has for a warm climate.

The population of Porto Rico comprises a mixture of bloods and races that complicates the social problems of the Island. The French, Italian, and Spanish elements have tended to mix with the descendants of the Indians originally found here, and to this has been added in many cases a mixture of the blood of the colored race, introduced as slaves into the Island. In some cases the races from the north of Europe have also mingled, so that to-day it is inaccurate to speak of the Porto Ricans as a people of one blood, and the characteristics of the people might be called a composite of the various race elements which have entered into the formation of the native population.

The geographical and geological formation of the Island renders it chiefly agricultural. Little is found in the way of mineral deposits, and manufacturing on a large scale will never be carried on, due to the lack of fuel supply and water power. The climate is agreeable and has no doubt tended to render the people less active than would have been the case in a colder climate. The prevalence of anemia and malaria throughout the Island has also weakened the productive ability of the people and has caused the casual observer to classify the Porto Rican countryman as unambitious and lazy. The loss of vitality caused by the diseases just mentioned, together with others which have visited the Island from time to time, is almost impossible to determine, but there is no doubt but that the laziness with which the Porto Rican countryman is credited, disappears with great rapidity when his system has been freed from the effects of disease.

The Island imports a great part of its food supply, although food stuffs of a vegetable nature are easily produced and might be raised in sufficient quantity to maintain our present population. The Island is too small to provide grazing areas for large numbers of cattle.

The problems of the rural population have been practically untouched up to the present time, as the dominating element in the social and political life of Porto Rico has come from the towns. The rural people have consequently lacked stimulus for self-improvement, inasmuch as there was nothing done to make them dissatisfied with their condition and lead them to try to better it. A system of rural schools has been established by the Department of Education, but not in sufficient number to accommodate all of the children of the country. The solution of the rural situation depends upon proper schooling, a system of instruction which will fit the children for living better rural lives and which shall not be simply the graded system of the towns transplanted to the country. The special problems of the country should be taken into consideration in working out the course of study for the schools, and specially trained teachers should be provided,--teachers who will look upon their work in the rural school as their profession in life, and who will make every effort to adapt themselves to the needs of the community in which they may be located. A continuation of the work which the Government has already started to improve the sanitary and hygienic conditions under which the country people live, the abolishing of anemia and malaria through continuous effort, and instruction as to proper diet and care of the body, together with instruction as to how to secure the necessary kinds of food seems to be the only solution to the rural situation. Certain other problems which relate to the rural family will solve themselves as the educational and economic situation is bettered.

THE JÍBARO

THE rural population of Porto Rico may be roughly divided into the landowners, or planters, and the wage-earning countrymen. The planters are usually people who in many ways closely resemble the country gentleman or squire of England. They are people of considerable importance in their communities, frequently well educated and widely traveled, men who do not hesitate to spend their money freely for their comfort and that of their families when the crops are plentiful and the prices good. They exercise a sort of patronage over the country people who work for them, many of whom live in houses on land provided by the landlord. The laborers look to the landlord for guidance and for advice in practically all matters pertaining to their economic life, and the planter usually reciprocates by caring for the welfare of the countryman to the best of his ability.

Many of the planters, especially such as are located in the coffee districts, have been badly handicapped by the partial destruction of their coffee plantations through cyclones, and by the low price for their product, since they have had to compete with South American coffee in the European and American markets. In addition to this economic disadvantage, the planters are also handicapped by the infirmity of their laborers, most of whom are sufferers from anemia, and few of whom are able to work without the immediate direction of a foreman. The economic and social condition of the planters is not a matter of particular interest to us in this connection, inasmuch as they are so situated that they enjoy all of the advantages of an advanced stage of civilization. The problem that confronts the progress of Porto Rico is to be found in the day laborer of the country districts. The following is taken from the book on _Uncinariasis in Porto Rico_, by Doctors Ashford and Gutierrez:

"Our patient has been in times past the _jíbaro_ and will be in time to come. As we have seen already, while all country districts furnish an incredible number of sick, the great breeding places of _necator americanus_ are the coffee plantations, and this is the home of _el palido_ (the pale man) of Porto Rico.

"The _jíbaro_ is a type to be well studied before we essay to interest him in bettering his own condition. Many have written of his virtues, many of his defects, but few, even in Porto Rico, have seen through the mist of a pandemic the real man beyond.

"Coll y Toste says that the origin of the word _jíbaro_ proceeds from a port in Cuba (Jibara), and that it is composed of two words of Indian origin, _jiba_, meaning mountain, and _ero_, man. We cannot see the necessity of invoking this port of Cuba with the excellently applicable philology he gives us.

"Brau says that the term is applied to-day to a laborer, but that its true significance is 'a mountain dweller.'

"Our understanding of the term, as it is applied to-day, is a peasant, a tiller of the soil, a man whose life is not that of the town, and who lacks its culture. And when we say that a man is a _jíbaro_, we put him in a separate and distinct class, a class of country laborers. These people 'live now as they lived 100 or 200 years ago, close to the soil.' The _jíbaro_ is a squatter and does not own the land upon which he builds his modest house, nor does that house cost him anything save the trouble of building it. It is a framework of poles, with walls of the bark of the royal palm (the _yagua_), with roof of the same material or of a tough grass which is used for thatching, and with a floor of palm boards. Generally the floor is well raised from the ground on posts, and the family is truly a poor and miserable one which is content to have an earthen floor. As a rule, there is but one room for a family, which rarely goes below five, and whose upper limit is measured by the accommodation afforded for sleeping. The cooking is done under a shed on a pile of stones. Weyl says that the house should be valued at about $20.

"The food of the _jíbaro_ is poor in fats and the proteids are of difficult assimilation, being of vegetable origin, as a rule.

"He arises at dawn and takes a cocoanut dipperful of _café puya_ (coffee without sugar). Naturally, he never uses milk. With this black coffee he works till about twelve o'clock, when his wife brings him his breakfast, corresponding to our lunch. This is composed of boiled salt codfish, with oil, and has one of the following vegetables of the island to furnish the carbohydrate element: banana, platano, ñame, batata or yautia.

"At three in the afternoon he takes another dipperful of coffee, as he began the day. At dusk he returns to his house and has one single dish, a sort of stew, made of the current vegetables of the island, with rice and codfish. At rare intervals he treats himself to pork, of which he is inordinately fond, and on still rarer occasions he visits the town and eats quantities of bread, without butter, of course.

"Of all this list of country food there are only three elements that are bought--rice, codfish, and condiments. Rice is imported from the United States and codfish from Nova Scotia. The bread he eats on his visits to town is made of American flour.

"This is a normal _jíbaro_ diet. With the wage paid him he can get no better, but aside from this he is wedded to cheap bulky foods, chiefly for reasons to be stated, and is completely ignorant of the importance of certain foods which any hygienist would like to add to his bill of fare. If the normal food of the _jíbaro_, as stated, were his usual food, it would not be so serious a matter, nor would the _jíbaro_ complain so bitterly of his wretched ration, but the fact is he does not get the menu detailed above save when he can be said to be prosperous. Only a few cents difference in wages will cut out the small proportion of animal proteids he obtains, the codfish, and a cyclone will drive him in sheer desperation to the town.

"Aside from all this, if wages were better, it is said, he would leave his ration as it now is and spend his surplus otherwise. This has not been given, however, a very earnest trial. He takes also more rum than he is given credit for by those who have accepted the formula that the _jíbaro_ does not drink, but it is true that he is not usually intemperate in this sense. One of his vices is _la mascaura_ (the wad of tobacco), and he believes the juice of the tobacco to be beneficial in warding off tetanus.

"The _jíbaro_, mountain bred, avoids the town whenever possible, avoids the genteel life of a civilization higher than that of his own. He instinctively tucks his little hut away in the most inaccessible spots; he shrinks from the stranger and lapses into stolid silence when brought face to face with things that are foreign to his life. He does this because he has been made to feel that he must do all that he is told to do by established authority, and he knows that this authority never takes the trouble to look for him unless it expects to get something out of him; because he is suspicious of outsiders, having been too often led astray by false prophets and disappointed by broken promises; because he realizes that he is not a free agent anywhere save in the mountain fastnesses. In other words, he seeks liberty in his home, freedom from the constant repression of those he recognizes as his superiors, and exemption from a repetition of deceptions that have been so often practiced upon him. He has always been made to stay strictly in his class, in the _jíbaro_ class. Frequently when he tries to express himself he is laughed down, frowned down, or growled down. '_Tu eres un jíbaro_' is not a term of reproach exactly, but it means 'You are not in a position to express yourself, for you are only a mountaineer. You know nothing of our world; you are still a child. Your place is under the shade of the coffee tree; the mark you bear is clear to everyone; you are a _jíbaro_.' Thus there is a great difference between the _jíbaro_ and those who are not _jíbaros_, _i.e._, those who live in towns or those who command in the country. This distinction is neither made unkindly nor roughly. All the Porto Rican people are kindly and they love their _jíbaros_, but nevertheless they treat them as though they were children. And the _jíbaro_ loyally follows his educated, emancipated fellow citizen, perfectly satisfied to be guided as the latter sees fit.

"Much of this guidance is excellent, and it is not our mission to seek to break down barriers which to-day, may be needful. The _jíbaro_ is respectful and obedient, fearful of the law and never defiant of his superiors; he is generous to a fault, sharing with any wayfarer his last plantain; he is devoted to his family and to his friends. Had he been ill treated by the educated and controlling class in the island he would be sullen and savage, but this has not been the case. If it is true that the _jíbaro_ is in many ways differentiated from the upper classes, it is equally true that there is no masonry so strong as that existing among the _jíbaros_ of Porto Rico. Bound to each other by the most intricate ties of relationship and by a still more potent one, the eternal bond conferred by the title _compadre_ or godfather, they share their troubles and shield each other as though they belonged to one great family. It is really wonderful to see how quickly and with what complete self-abnegation an orphaned child or widowed mother is gathered into some poor neighbor's hut and there cared for. For these very same reasons search for a miscreant in the mountains is a formidable undertaking. On inquiry no one knows him, never saw him, never even heard of him, and the closest scrutiny of their faces will not detect the faintest trace of interest or even of intelligence.

"Care must be taken in deducing facts from questioning a group of _jíbaros_ even in the most unimportant matters. They are tremendously suspicious and generally let someone among them who is _leido_ (one who has established a local reputation for worldly wisdom) speak for them. One can be pretty sure that the rest will say 'amen' to all of his remarks. It is said that this deep suspicion of a strange investigator proceeds from the methods employed by the Spanish _guardia civil_ or rural guard, to run down those suspected of unfaithfulness to the administration, petty infringement of the law, etc.

"The _jíbaro_ is equally superstitious and very quickly impressed by a supernatural explanation of any phenomena he cannot understand. The more outlandish the explanation of a disease the better he likes it, and for this reason the _curandero_ or local charlatan is so popular and powerful in the mountains. We very much fear that our abrupt tumbling in the dust of an ancient explanation of his for anemia, our assertion that it was due to 'worms' and our administration of 'strong medicine' which practically put him _hors de combat_ for the day, accounts for part of our early success. In spite of this lack of knowledge of the world above him he has one quality which is his ever ready defense, his astuteness. There is one phrase much used in describing the _jíbaro's_ acuteness of observation. Referring to a trade it is said: '_Para un jíbaro, otro, y para los dos, el demonio_,' which means, 'To get the best of a jíbaro, employ another, and to catch both, Satan himself must take charge of them.'

"This astuteness, despite all of the great obstacles in the path of our work among them, was what chiefly led to success in bringing these people under treatment. They soon saw that we got results, and with a fact capable of sensational proof in our hands, the _jíbaro_ accepted us and we joined the 'order' to which we have made reference. From that time he has been our friend, and better friends no man ever had, for his entire support is given us; he preaches our 'new medicine' and wherever we have expounded these things to him by word of mouth and by virtue of proof he takes pride in explaining, better than any representative of the upper classes, how the disease is acquired and how it may be prevented.

"The prime fact, however, is that he has, until recently, been much neglected, neglected by those who are not of his class, neglected by the authorities. There are municipalities whose town forms but a tenth of the population of the outlying country, whose taxes are collected to support it, yet which seem to forget the submerged mass in the mountains. This being so for the towns which are surrounded by these people, how attenuated the interest becomes in the capital and larger cities of the island, and how extremely diluted that of the continental American who neither knows his needs nor even what _jíbaro_ means.