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The Art of the Possible: Luis Muñoz Rivera and the Puerto Rican Jones Bill
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
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The admission of Alaska and Hawaii into the Union as states has once again raised the question of Puerto Rico's constitutional status. Many islanders see the present commonwealth, very nearly the personal creation of Governor Luis Muñoz Marín, as a way station on the road to full membership in the American federal system. Independence sentiment, barring economic catastrophe, seems safely relegated to the realm of polemical fantasy. Thus the island's only tangible constitutional problem is its relation to the United States: should it be associated with, or an integral part of the mainland. No event in Puerto Rican history has been more important in shaping the course of the island's development than the grant of collective United States citizenship in the Jones Act of 1917. And no Puerto Rican politician of the era was more influential than Luis Muñoz Rivera, who embodied the dominant Unionista party in the same way that his son embodies the now dominant Popular party. Muñoz Rivera's role in the politics of the Jones Bill affords a revealing view of the difficulties of working within the framework of colonialism, and of being forced to reconcile aspirations with political realities.
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References
1 There is no adequate biography of Muñoz Rivera. Among the available titles see Canet, Sebastián Dalmau, Luis Muñoz Rivera … (San Juan, 1917)Google Scholar; Ginorio, José González, Luis Muñoz Rivera … (New York, 1919)Google Scholar; and Acosta, C. Martínez, Luis Muñoz Rivera … (San Juan, 1948).Google Scholar It is to be hoped that the celebration in 1959 of the Muñoz Rivera centennial will bring the addition of some scholarly titles to his bibliography.
2 For one protest see Cay [etano] Coll, y Cuchí, , La Ley Foraker … (San Juan, 1904).Google Scholar
3 The bill called for a) collective U. S. citizenship for all Puerto Ricans, b) previously universal manhood suffrage to be restricted to literate persons, or those who owned taxable property, c) a popularly elected senate, and d) absolute veto power for the governor. Provisions and a defense of the bill by a Congressional supporter may be found in Report of the 28th Annual …Lake Mohonk Conference … (n.p., 1910), pp. 134–140.
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7 Muñoz Rivera to Giorgetti, Dec. 23, 1910, ibid., III, 112.
8 Muñoz Rivera to Giorgetti, Nov. 25, 1910, ibid., III, 109. Republicanos José C. Barbosa and Federico Degetau had both spent several years in the United States.
9 The Unionist party at the time of its founding in 1904 had called for complete autonomy for Puerto Rico, to be accomplished either through admission to the Union as a state, or through independence. See Gautier Dapena, José A., “Génesis, Fundación y Triunfo de la Unión de Puerto Rico,” Historia (Río Piedras, P.R.), 6, No. 1 (Apr., 1956), 3–34.Google Scholar
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37 Under the treaty of Paris of 1898, Puerto Ricans were declared to be “citizens of Porto Rico,” a meaningless term since sovereignty over the island passed into American hands.
38 Resolutions signed by de Diego, Mar. 12, 1914, WD/BIA, File 1286/131.
39 Cong. Record, 63 Cong., 2nd Sess., p. 4065.
40 Later in the session (June 13) Senator Saulsbury of Delaware introduced a Puerto Rican bill that called for territorial government and looked toward eventual statehood. It was never reported. Cong. Record, 63 Cong., 2nd Sess., p. 10378; New York Times, June 14, 1914.
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42 Yager to McIntyre, Mar. 25, 1914, WD/BIA, File 3377/182.
43 Muñoz Rivera to Wilson, Apr. 13, 1914, WD/BIA, File 1286/131. De Diego scored collective U. S. citizenship as a “ chain which will tie us forever to a perpetual colony ”; Santiago Iglesias, the Spanish-born Puerto Rican labor leader retorted that such citizen-ship would “ consolidate for all time the peaceful revolution brought about in 1898 ”; de Diego to Samuel Gompers, Apr. 8, 1914; Iglesias to Gompers, 29 Apr. 1914, copies in Iglesias Papers (in private possession).
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49 During a conference wtih McIntyre, Muñoz Rivera was reminded that during Governor Colton's administration is was tacitly understood that the gubernatorial veto was to be the price for an elective senate. To this he responded lamely that times had changed. McIntyre, Memorandum, May 22, 1914, WD/BIA, File 3377/200.
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63 [Muñoz Rivera] to McIntyre, Oct. 30, 1915 (cable), WD/BIA, File 719/39.
64 One Unionist recalls that Muñoz Rivera told him at Miramar: “ Desengáñese, amigo Lebrón. Nosotros seremos eternamente americanos.” Rodríguez, Ramón Lebrón, La Vida del Prócer (San Juan, 1954), p. 47.Google Scholar
65 At Muñoz Rivera’s insistence the election of the party president was by vote of local committees, and not by the convention delegates, as was customary. Travieso to Yager, Nov. 16, 1915 (carbon copy), Travieso Papers.
66 Travieso to McIntyre, Nov. 17, 1915, WD/BIA, File 719/46.
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71 Sweet had served in the House as a Republican Representative from Idaho. He went to Puerto Rico as Attorney General in 1903, and later became editor of the English section of El Tiempo.
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76 Sweet to Barbosa, Mar. 1, and 9, 1916, Barbosa Papers.
77 McIntyre to Yager, Feb. 18, and 25, 1916 (carbon copies), WD/BIA, File 3377/247 and 250. The year before Muñoz Rivera had warned against sending any commissions to Washington, La Demoracia, quoted in Rivera, Muñoz, Campañas, 2, 274–277 Google Scholar.
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82 Cong. Record, 64 Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 7483–7484, and Appendix, pp. 1036–1037.
83 Ibid., pp. 8461–8462.
84 Ibid., pp. 8510–8511.
85 La Democracia, June 16, 1916.
86 McIntyre to Yager, Sept. 7, 1916 (carbon copy), WD/BIA, File 3377/293.
87 La Democracia, Sept. 9, and 12, 1916.
88 McIntyre to Muñoz Rivera, Sept. 15, 1916 (carbon copy), WD/BIA, File 1028/45.
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91 La Democracia, Sept. 20, 1916.
92 Ibid., Sept. 21, and Oct. 4, 1916; from then on the paper carried a daily report on Muñoz Rivera’s condition.
93 He was suffering from a liver infection. Travieso to McIntyre, Nov. 15, 1916, WD/BIA, Personal File—Luis Muñoz Rivera.
94 La Democracia, Nov. 11, 1916; Travieso to Yager, Nov. 15, 1916 (carbon copy), Travieso Papers.
95 Travieso to Barceló (carbon), Nov. 20, 1916, Travieso Papers. Writing in his father’s paper, eighteen-year old José Luis Muñoz Marín promised: “¡Borinquen! … Si algún día necesitas mi sangre, cuenta con ella; es sangre roja; la misma que corría por sus venas.” La Democracia, Dec. 2, 1916.
96 Yager to McIntyre, Dec. 6, 1916, WD/BIA, File 3377/305; Barceló quoted him as saying: “ El Bill Jones es la primera base de nuestra evolución.” La Democracia. Jan. 5, 1917.
97 McIntyre to Yager, Mar. 2, 1917 (carbon copy), WD/BIA, File 3377/335.
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