. Advance in the Antilles; the new era in Cuba and Porto Rico . as well as to Cuba, but conditions werenot much bettered. Though the island had a pre-mier, house of representatives, and the other formsof republican government, it was still under theSpanish oligarchy. The yesterday of Porto Ricocame to an end when, on July 25, 1898, the islandbecame a part of the LTnited States, and the PortoRicans, without any voice in the matter, foundthemselves transferred from one master to Misrule. The Porto Rico of yesterdayhas a heavy bill of charges to lay against the Span-ish government
. Advance in the Antilles; the new era in Cuba and Porto Rico . as well as to Cuba, but conditions werenot much bettered. Though the island had a pre-mier, house of representatives, and the other formsof republican government, it was still under theSpanish oligarchy. The yesterday of Porto Ricocame to an end when, on July 25, 1898, the islandbecame a part of the LTnited States, and the PortoRicans, without any voice in the matter, foundthemselves transferred from one master to Misrule. The Porto Rico of yesterdayhas a heavy bill of charges to lay against the Span-ish government and the Roman Catholic Church—for it was Church and State combined in unholyalliance in Porto Rico, as in Cuba, with the heavierresponsibility resting upon the Church. Whilethere was a nominal government of fair form onpaper, in fact the rule was a feudal despotism inwhich the people had no effective part, precisely asin Cuba. From the day (March 2, 1510) that thecruel Ponce de Leon became first governor of PortoRico to October 18, 1898, when Manuel Macias. VILLAGE STREET IN THE INTERIORFARMING WITH STICK PLOW AND OXEN PAST AND PRESENT 147 left the governors chair, the record of the 117governors was far from creditable even to Spain. Causes of Former Evils. Four causes are mainlyresponsible for the evils of those old days. Theseare: (i) The tyranny of the Spanish rulers; (2)the economic oppression of the people; (3) thedegeneracy of the Church; and (4) the neglect ofeducation. jMerely to name these points is almostsufficient. It is true that the Porto Ricans sufferedless in many ways than the neighboring Cubans,but that was because there was less chance for cor-ruption and less room for large schemes of spolia-tion. Economic Possibilities. The economic possibili-ties of Porto Rico were stupendous. The islandhad no provincial debt. The Spanish rulers wereexploiting for their own gain the islands resourcesand laborers. All remunerative positions werefilled by them, but they di
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