The Insular Government of Porto Rico (), also known as the Insular Government of Puerto Rico, was an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States established in Puerto Rico under a civil government responsible for administering the archipelago and island by the authority of organic acts, namely the Foraker Act from 1900 to 1917 and the Jones–Shafroth Act from 1917 to 1952. Beginning with the end of the Military Government of Porto Rico under the Foraker Act on May 1, 1900 and ending with the start of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico under the Constitution of Puerto Rico on July 25, 1952, it was headed by a governor appointed by the U.S. President from 1900 to 1948 and an elected governor from 1948 to 1952. The governor was under the direct purview of the Chief of Insular Affairs and Secretary of War from 1900 to 1934 and the Director of Insular Affairs and Secretary of the Interior from 1934 to 1952.
Succeeding the Military Government of Porto Rico, which administered the archipelago and island as an unincorporated and unorganized U.S. insular area after its acquisition during the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Insular Government of Porto Rico operated as an unincorporated and organized U.S. insular area since an organic act granting government powers to the territory was in existence, and the U.S. Constitution applied selectively in the territory, per the Insular Cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court from 1901 to 1922."Insular Cases," Dictionary of American History, 2003.
From 1900 to 1917, it was authorized under the Foraker Act. The organic act established a civil government composed of a governor and an executive council appointed by the U.S. President, a House of Delegates with elected members, a judicial system with a Supreme Court, and a non-voting elected Resident Commissioner to the U.S. House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress. It also established Puerto Rican citizenship and extended American nationality to Puerto Ricans. The Act granted some measure of self-government to Puerto Rico, but the preponderant control of the local government was retained by the U.S. federal government.
From 1917 to 1952, it was expanded under the authority of the Jones–Shafroth Act. The organic act functioned as a de facto constitution, establishing a bill of rights based on the U.S. Bill of Rights and granting statutory birthright U.S. citizenship to anyone born in the archipelago and island on or after April 11, 1899. It created the executive departments of Justice, Education, Finance, Interior, Labor and Agriculture, and Health, with their appointed heads forming an executive council to the governor, established a Senate with elected members, and increased the membership and term length of the House of Delegates, which was renamed as the House of Representatives. It also increased the term length of the Resident Commissioner. The Act provided an advance in local self-government for Puerto Rico.
The Jones–Shafroth Act was amended by the Elective Governor Act of 1947 or the Crawford-Butler Act to grant the residents of Puerto Rico the right to elect a governor and by the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950 to grant Puerto Rico the right to constitutional autonomy within its borders. Created, ratified, and proclaimed in 1952, the Constitution of Puerto Rico provided full self-governance to the archipelago and island as an ongoing unincorporated and organized U.S. territory under the designation of commonwealth.
Background
After the ratification of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, Puerto Rico came under the colonial control of the United States of America. This brought about significant changes: the name of the island was changed to Porto Rico (it was changed back to Puerto Rico in 1932) and the currency was changed from the Puerto Rican peso to the United States dollar. Freedom of assembly, speech, press, and religion were decreed and an eight-hour day for government employees was established. A public school system was begun and the U.S. Postal service was extended to the island. The highway system was enlarged, and bridges over the more important rivers were constructed. The government lottery was abolished, cockfighting was forbidden (it was legalized again in 1933), and a centralized public health service established. Health conditions were poor at the time, with high rates of infant mortality and numerous endemic diseases.
The beginning of the military government also marked the creation of new political groups. The and the American Federal Party were created, led by José Celso Barbosa and Luis Muñoz Rivera, respectively. Both groups supported annexation by the United States as a solution to the colonial situation. The island's Creole sugar planters, who had suffered from declining prices, hoped that U.S. rule would help them gain access to the North American market.Emma Davila-Cox, "Puerto Rico in the Hispanic-Cuban-American War: Re-assessing 'the Picnic'", in The Crisis of 1898: Colonial Redistribution and Nationalist Mobilization (Macmillan Press: New York and London, 1999) Pg. 113
Disaster struck in August 1899, when two hurricanes ravaged the island: the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane on August 8, and an unnamed hurricane on August 22. Approximately 3,400 people died in the floods and thousands were left without shelter, food, or work. The effects on the economy were devastating: millions of dollars were lost due to the destruction of the majority of the sugar and coffee plantations. Afterwards, nearly 5000 Puerto Ricans migrated to Hawaii by 1910 to work in the sugar plantations of Hawaii.
History
Foraker Act of 1900
The military government in Puerto Rico was short lived; it was disbanded on April 2, 1900, when the U.S. Congress enacted the Foraker Act (also known as the Organic Act of 1900), sponsored by Senator Joseph B. Foraker. This act established a civil government and free commerce between the island and the United States. The structure of the insular government included a governor appointed by the President of the United States, an executive council (the equivalent of a senate), and a legislature with 35 members, though the executive veto required a two-thirds vote to override. The first appointed civil governor, Charles Herbert Allen, was inaugurated on May 1, 1900. On June 5, President William McKinley appointed an Executive Council which included five Puerto Rican members and six U.S. members.The Puerto Rican members were José Celso Barbosa, Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón, José de Diego, Manuel Camuñas and Andrés Crosas. The U.S. members were William H. Hunt, Secretary; Jacob Hollander, Treasurer; J. R. Garrison, Auditor; W. B. Eliot, Interior; James S. Harlan, Attorney General; and Dr. Martin G. Brumbaugh, Secretary of Education. The act also established the creation of a judicial system headed by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and allowed Puerto Rico to send a Resident Commissioner as a representative to Congress. The Puerto Rico Department of Education was subsequently formed, headed by Martin Grove Brumbaugh (later governor of Pennsylvania). Teaching was conducted entirely in English with Spanish treated as a special subject. Both languages, however, were official on the island. On November 6, the first elections under the Foraker Act were held and on December 3, the first Legislative Assembly took office. On March 14, 1901, Federico Degetau took office as the first Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico in Washington.
Immediate economic changes
The island's social and economic structure modernized after 1898, with new infrastructure such as roads, ports, railroads and telegraph lines, new public health measures, hospitals, and programs to develop agriculture. The high infant mortality death rate of the late 19th century declined steadily, thanks in large measure to basic public health programs.
Following the takeover of rich lands by the United States in 1899, Puerto Rico shifted towards a capitalist mode of production. The Hollander Act was enacted in 1901, leading to a 2% tax on rural property. The tax was reduced to 1% following widespread protests, but landowners were still forced to sell their land as a result.
Sugar mill owners between the period of 1898 and 1945 turned their sugar mills into monocultural plantations in response to the economy of the 20th century. The sugar mills and tobacco, cigar, and cigarette factories gained the United States' attention due to their fast productions and large amount of produce. Women and children were the primary workers within these industries. Puerto Rican trades went to the United States 95% of the time. By 1914, the coffee production that once was steady failed.
The sugar industry rose along with the economy. Puerto Rican mill owners and French and Spanish residents took the United States' corporate capital. Four United States operations were part of the United sugar refineries that were owned by Cuba and the Dominican Republic. In 1870, Congress made the tariff wall in order to protect domestic producers of sugar. Puerto Rico's sugar industry suffered as a result, but the acquisition of Puerto Rico by the United States brought free trade between the two. Capital flowed into Puerto Rico with the effect of modernizing its sugar processing mills due to the United States' influence.
Puerto Rico's agricultural economy was transformed into a sugar monoculture economy, supplemented by gardens for local consumption. American sugar companies had an advantage over the local sugar plantation owners, who could only finance their operations at local banks, which offered high interest rates compared to the low rates that American companies received from the commercial banks in Wall Street. This factor, plus the tariffs imposed, forced many of the local sugar plantation owners to go bankrupt or to sell their holdings to the more powerful sugar companies. Sugar was considered one of the few strategic commodities in which the United States was not fully self-sufficient."Strategy as Politics'; by: Jorge Rodriguez Beruff; Publisher: La Editorial; Universidad de Puerto Rico; page 27; In 1950, Puerto Rico had a record sugar crop.
While the sugar industry suffered in the late 1800s, the coffee industry flourished. By the end of the 19th century, the island was the world's seventh largest producer of coffee. This changed after 1898, when export production replaced farming. People lost their land and properties, the amount of land disposal shrank, and the people hoped that Europe would take part in the trade of coffee, but they did not. Coffee makers were not happy with them being controlled by the United States. In 1933, most of the people worked as families instead of individuals most likely due to 90 percent of them being poor.
The United States had formed a Tobacco Trust that had basis rules for cigarettes, but Puerto Ricans had issues when it came to brand and local marketing. The Tobacco Trust controlled cigarettes and cigar production as well as the tobacco leaf. There was a fall of the industry due to the exports.
Social and educational changes
Cockfighting was originally banned following the American takeover. However, in 1933, cockfighting was legalized again and became a booming industry.