Puerto Rico: Consulting the People

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In San Juan last week to help Puerto Rico celebrate the tenth anniversary of its Commonwealth status with the U.S., Vice President Lyndon Johnson handed Governor Luis Muñoz Marín a letter from President Kennedy. "I agree," wrote Kennedy, "that this is a proper time to consult the people of Puerto Rico so that they may express any other preference, including independence, if that should be their wish." In quick response, Muñoz called a plebiscite among the island's 2,350,000 inhabitants, which will probably be held late this year or early next, to determine whether Puerto Rico should 1) continue as a Commonwealth, "perfecting" its loose tie with the U.S. and making it "a permanent institution"; 2) petition the U.S. Congress for admission to the Union as the 51st state; or 3) ask the U.S. for complete independence.

The exchange clearly had been well-planned. Puerto Rico is not likely to ask for independence, nor is it liable to opt for statehood. Commonwealth status suits Governor Muñoz and the island well. Muñoz wants his people to ratify it both for their own protection and as an answer to the Castroites, who ridicule the island as a "perfumed colony" of the U.S. He himself is Commonwealth's most ardent champion: he and his pro-Commonwealth Popular Democratic Party have swept into power in four consecutive general elections, the last time in 1960 with an overwhelming 58% of the total vote. Since then, there has been little to change the voters' sentiments.

Rights Without Bites. Puerto Rico's Commonwealth arrangement has no parallel in U.S. territorial history. Granted by Congress in 1952, it gives the island many rights of statehood, but without the responsibilities. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, may travel to the mainland without restriction; they need no passports and come under no immigration quotas. At home, they elect their own local government. They are not entitled to vote in U.S. presidential elections, or to voting representation in Congress. But they do elect a "Resident Commissioner," who sits in the U.S. House and participates in debates involving Puerto Rico. U.S. armed forces guard the island and Puerto Rico is served, like any state, by a full panoply of federal agencies. To top it off, Puerto Rico receives $37 million a year in federal aid for roads, schools, hospitals and public welfare.

Yet Puerto Ricans pay no federal income tax and no corporation tax on money earned in Puerto Rico, an economic favor that has made possible Muñoz Marín's spectacular Operation Bootstrap. For half a century after the U.S. won the island from Spain in the Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico was a forgotten territory, existing mostly on what it could grow. Today, more than 800 companies have subsidiaries in Puerto Rico, turning out everything from bric-a-brac to electronic instruments, providing more than 60,000 jobs. The island's 1961 per capita income: $621, double what it was in 1951.